Salvinorin A. Journeys

These are Trip Reports published in the Entheogen Review the late 1990s.

At that time, I was Bioassaying various compounds and plant entheogens.... for various publications.

I have reference points on the progress of my psychedelic experiences. This article was from my fourth period of deep explorations. I am thankful for such people as Trout, the Erowids, Dale & Laura Pendell, Jon Hanna, Sylvia Thyssen among others who encouraged me at this time to write up these experiences. I also want to thank the Shulgins, for their love, and caring for the greater community. One cannot leave out Mike Crowley, Melanie, and all of the most beautiful beings. Here is to you all. Thank you for the Love.

Salvia Divinorum is a wonderful plant. She should not be taken lightly. I caution you that if you venture into her realms, to treat her with respect and if possible, to use the traditional methods of ingestion. I suggest a sitter when using this plant. I can answer questions etc.

Thank you for reading this missive and may you all be blessed.

G

SALVINORIN A. JOURNEYS

~1.00–1.25 mg Salvinorin A. 

Ingested with tin foil/straw/ lighter method. Immediate and strong
effects. Mouth quickly dries, I have never had this experience with Salvinorin A before.

The taste is very apparent, and seems to permeatemy whole system. I know I am in for it for sure—I turn off the light and lie down in bed.

Listening to STEVE ROACH’S “The Magnificent Void.” The music has strong tidal effect on the direction that the experience flows towards, and can be seen as an overriding factor in the early part of the experiment.

There is a subtle interplay within sound structures and I observe that one of the most telling of conditions for Salvinorin A is sonic.

Sounds absolutely shape the experience for good or for distraction. If the sound structure impedes the flow, go without it.

Nevertheless, a skilled guide could lead one deeply into trance with the correct vocalizations.

Sinking into revelry, my thoughts take on hues of purple and blues that border into green. Thoughts appear as a latticework, discreetly patterned as if they were the finest
hand worked lace.

Moving forward through the patterns, the loss of ego deepens but body sensation heightens, so there is no loss of somatic awareness.

Calm, warm detachment—thoughts flow with incredible beauty and beingness.

Walking through cool undergrowth, pushing through various plant forms—purple, blue, and green, with myriads of eyes within leaves.

All aware of presence—plant “beings” flow and merge through shared thought fields and dissolve.

Everything is tidal now—that which is aware, that which perceives and is perceived—all partaking of the essence of the eternal now.

Joy and subtle pleasure is taken in each thought that is shared across the vastness of this hall of beings.

Faces, faces everywhere, oscillating into a kaleidoscope of personages that flow and morph in and out of thought shapes into mandala friezes; they dissolve into
themselves again, regenerating over and over until passed through into the singing light.

Then the universe arches over, redolent with the smell of plant and animal life, vibrant with beauty and being.

Experiences flow in infinite directions—twisting, turning, with the patina of consciousness etched into everything with infinite detail and depth.

Everything, every being, held in consummate beauty; the essence of deity flowing through all simultaneously. Every thought is transparent and filled with bliss.

Slowly, across eons of time and bliss, the self reasserts itself surfacing after an hour and a half, a trailing wisp of the various thought forms it had been submerged in.

Great peace and warmth pervades the systems of being. Sleep slowly rises up and recaptures the self, again to submerge it into the Salvinorin A flow that moves steadily
through the depths of the soul and subconscious.

The night is filled with various dream shapes. Morning comes as a pleasant surprise.
In hindsight one finds that you can get up out of bed, attend to any business with high clarity and return into the revelry of the salvinorin A space by laying down again and turning inward with the ally.

While I have heard about these phenomena when using the leaves, this contradicts much that I have read regarding Salvinorin A.

Maybe at a higher dose immobility strikes. Also, as mentioned before, sounds have a big influence on this experience.

There is an interesting side to this: during the duration of the various experiences there has begun to be inexplicable knocking going on in our house. I actually got up to investigate, and walked through the house trying to find the locus of the noise. It is as if someone or something is vying for attention.

There are other sounds also occurring that are yet indescribable but reoccur again and again. This is a phenomenon that no one has reported in my knowledge, it is as if one was opening up to presences that surround us which we normally don’t recognize.

I am beginning to feel that they anticipate and are eager for these forays, for some acknowledgment and communication. As the familiarity with the territory grows, so does the ways I can express it. The psychic phenomena are interesting.

I realized that I had been hearing these noises pretty much all along with the salvinorin A and occasionally with Salvia Divinorum leaves. What can this portend? I will be moving up to 1.5 mg next.

I am beginning to get the sensation of mapping out this realm. For a while I didn’t seem to get much past certain areas, and now these walls are crumbling.

The “psychedelic nature” of this substance is phenomenally different than any of the other hosts that I have tried. It is noisy like the Lysergamides, but in a bantering, gabby way instead of issuing large, almost solemn, profundities.

The beginning is almost always hilarious, shapes, noises, bells, whistles—a veritable ‘toontown of characters jumping out of the woodwork.

Very irreverent! Then it moves on of course, but not before the entity amuses itself at your expense.
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1.25–1.50 mg of Salvinorin A.

Very apparent taste immediately. Unlike previous Salvinorin A experiments, this one
seizes me before I can get the light off and my eyes covered with blindfold (new addition).

My being is quickly hived into infinite parts, flailing all over the place in what appears to be a very bizarre 1950s scenario filled with textures, smells, visuals of that time
predominated by a female presence. The presence bears the most striking resemblance to DONNA REED or the archetypal “American Mother”
and a myriad of other female expressions of that era. In fact there is infinite variations on this theme occurring in a fractualizing frenzy. This manifestation is very loquacious, wagging her finger into my infinite faces and making cryptically
rude remarks!

This strikes me as very hilarious, my whole being lights up with laughter.

This quickly dissipates into another cascade of cartoon-like thoughts and emerging patterns. There seems to be very little of the usual cavern/tunnel
effect, more of a restless roving over fields of thought
and consciousness.

Feelings shift and change. This experience is incredibly strong.
A mild panic rears its pointed little head in greeting, and then disappears when I relax more into it and allow the salvinorin A to take me where it wants.

Then the salvinorin A state takes off at a gallop, it seems
to be the most intense cartoonish psychedelic experience…
feelings magnify into absolute grotesque parodies and
psychic pratfalls.

Constant, rapid shifting is going on, too quick to grasp.
The flailing finally dissipates about 15 minutes into
the experience and my thoughts become more focused.
It seems very playful at this time, taunting and teasing me
deeper into its web, yet for some odd reason the loss of
self is not so pronounced.

There is a strong twisting sensation to the right,
accompanied by a prickly sensation through my system.

I take off the blindfold as it seems to be sinking deeply
into my skull, my skin is literally swimming in warmth
except for my feet, which are taking on an arctic feeling.
I become aware of my flesh as being an entity unto
itself, conscious unto its own being, holding its own
wisdoms and somatic dreams.

Visions of beauty and sensation roll over it. Every cell
seems to have an eye, peering out and at itself replicated
into infinity. Undulating currents of desire wash over it and through
it, a deep hunger for sensation and interplay.

Slowly, the cavern appears, but instead of going into it, it
plays to my being as if it is an audience. Warm ambers, browns and traces of green predominate Faces appear and reappear, twisting into wondrous shapes that have sparkling eyes of red and gold that flick away in an instance.

Over great lengths of time, the self reasserts itself. Feelings are very relaxed, tensions are gone.

No great insights, it was too rapid for that, but a truly
unique experience.

As quickly as it came on, it is slower to leave. After an hour, I move about, with haloes of color encrusting every object and space throughout the house. The experience rides on me, I feel it still coursing through out my being as I head off for sleep.

I am amazed at the gifts this plant’s substance offers up. Of all the plant entheogens, it is the most playful—almost, should I say, dryadic in nature? Something profound moves under her surface humor. A lustrous joy and knowledge is revealing itself as I
venture further in her company.
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~ 1.5 mg–1.75 mg Salvinorin A. 

Slight feeling of trepidation. This is a hallmark feeling for me, carrying meanings and
thought that are complex, redundant of fear and discovery. Fear, as the dose level is working upward, discovery as something is about to be revealed. Music playing,
LOREENA MCKENNITT’S “Dantes’ Prayer,” just so appropriate at this nexus…

Ingested the Salvinorin A with slight modification, used a straw that was longer this time, about 3.5 inches instead of 2 inches. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Watching the crystals melt and the Salvinorin A slithers up the straw—even before I can taste it, everything slowwwsss down.

This is strange, stronger than before, it has grabbed me before I am ready. Why am I so surprised? I reach over to turn the light off and my hand stretches like rubber.

Warmth envelops me in a crescendo of light-blue and cream streams of luminous ribbon of light. After what seems a decade, my head feels the pillow reaching up and taking it gently. As my head settles down, the top part divides and hives, again and again, it is hydra-like, whipping back and forth in a gale force wind of consciousness, until it is medusa-like, every part of the head now snake-like, writhing with faster
and faster force.

Everything is cream and light-blue, cartoonish and gibberish as each head sends back images and sensations into the central part of the being. It is a form of collective consciousness. I’m aware of myself and the room with my love lying beside me.
At the same time it’s a maelstrom —a hydra, a thousand upon thousand headed serpent-being under a huge dome of sky, writhing in an ever quickening and slowing dance on a plane that stretches into infinity.

The music calls out, a familiarity to hold to. I wanted to let entirely go but it calls with such infinite sadness. My love’s breathing echoes and resounds, voluminous
and full of beauty. Pinioned between these two sonic anchors, the serpent
heads slowly morph into each other until singularity occurs. Then, for a moment—utter peace.

All of a sudden, an entity rockets into consciousness from behind, pulling all along with it and into it from the right side as it streaks past. All thoughts and self runs into it like mercury pooling, silvery and voluptuous with movement. Beingness flowed out as the observer self watched with detachment… This being that has appeared takes on the appearance of a man in middle-age, bent on going somewhere quick.

Had the beingness that moments before been hydra-like now attached to an astral traveler passing through a shared zone, a place where all of this plays out? Then, as quickly as it had come, the being looks back into me with deep detachment and departs, streaking away leaving trails of our shared momentary consciousness bubbling, to coalesce into moving pools of light.

The mind moves from thought to thought, like a sailing craft on a sea, tacking back and forth, into whirlpools and out again. All flows with such ease and warmth, in and out of different beings and states of consciousness.

The universe is liquid and malleable, all life flows with a harmonious ringing—how would it be best expressed? A sloshing sound? Liquid sounds take form everywhere
and whip and pull consciousness into pools and depths, blending away personality and recreating beingness into myriad creatures and situations all going on
simultaneously.

All moves and reshapes into new and unique beings, momentary expressions of life form for beauty’s sake and then submerge back into the oceans of consciousness.
Evolution is played out over and over—not as predator and prey, but as co-players in a dance of delight and shared mutual joy and recognition.

Awareness flickers off and on, beingness strobes on and off. Day into night, into infinite play and dance. Consciousness winks out, then refocuses back over and over.

Within the strobing, the Salvinorin A exposing itself as it opens up and I see within it a flow, a river of Salvia -consciousness, and how it has established a strata within
my being that is now ever present. It is a flowing universe, river and sky-like, both liquid and cloud. As if I’ve opened up a trap door, just below everyday thoughts.

Ever-present, exalting consciousness: teaching, playing and guiding. It is a love that flows into my being whether I allow it to or not.

Her face is revealed, glowing, entrancing, singular. I cannot recall how it all ended. I drifted into sleep during the night, but as I write this now today I feel the flow still.

I think it has always been a part of me. Now I know that entheogenic flow we all become aware of—it has been with me most of my life. But this has distinct elements of something new. A different creature all together.

It is present in the trees, in the land, in the sky, but also as part of shared awareness. It envelops and comes whispering up through consciousness like smoke. An is-ness, ever-present, an Acadian stream, behind thought seen in faces, shared since the beginning.

It is the river within the soul—intertwined with all thought, conscious, loving and completely enveloping.

A capricious being, who is only too happy to come along with you—as the guide, as a light, as the teacher to creatures of thought and desire.

Blessings,

Gwyllm

Salvia Dream - This painting was produced by coming out of the trance and painting a bit at a time. Each tendril of leaves represents one voyage into Salvia Space. It resides on our wall as a reminder of the lessons learned with this teacher plant.