How I did it: A few friends of mine shared their salvia experiences with me, and I became very tempted to give it a try. As salvia divinorum is legal in Canada and can be purchased in most corner stores and head shops, getting my hands on it was not difficult.

After thoroughly researching the effects and safety guidelines for using salvia, my best friend and I purchased a glass pipe and 1 gram of 20x at a local head shop downtown. We waited a few days and then got together at my house to try it.

In order to make sure that nothing dangerous would happen, we used an empty bedroom upstairs and removed all potentially hazardous items. We created a mellow setting by dimming the lights, covering sharp furniture with blankets, and putting on some soft music in the background.

I volunteered to go first. I sat down on the floor and had my friend sit down beside me to make sure I would not drop the lighter or burn myself.

I was told that I would feel an immediate high upon inhaling salvia smoke, but this didn't happen. I took several long hits before I felt the effects, but when I did, they came fast and hard.

My eyes rolled back and I felt myself tilting backwards, as though I was being pulled, gently but firmly, by an invisible pair of arms. My friend reached out to take the lighter and pipe from me, but I was slipping further and further away from him, falling down the mouth of a rabbit hole. It almost seemed as though the salvia was a bodiless entity telling me that it was "time to go home."

I flew away. Suddenly, I found myself in a strange forest wooded with two-dimensional plastic pine trees and little brown mountains and valleys. My legs became a river. It felt like "home," and I didn't want to leave.

Then, another strange thing happened. It was almost as though another person had stepped inside my body and taken control of it, like an alter ego or a spirit. I felt a strong female presence both inside and outside of myself, but it was not me. There were two of us, and I began to speak to my friend as this other woman, telling him that I had come to visit him. It was as though I had become a nonphysical part of myself, no longer able to control my body or my mind, but present in an almost ethereal sense.

I felt very connected with this woman and didn't want to let her go, but slowly, she began to leave my body, and I began to see the bedroom again. I was in two places at once. I was sitting on the floor and I was sitting at the shore of a beach with my friend. The beach faded in and out my vision until it disappeared altogether.

I was giggly and dizzy and slighly irritable for the next twenty minutes or so, but after that I was back to normal. Overall, it was a very refreshing and pleasant experience.

Lessons & tips:

• Do your research beforehand
  
• Always have a sitter present
• Salvia is not a party drug, and should be smoked in a calm, quiet, low-lit environment
• Soothing music may or may not enhance the effects of your experience
• Stay clear of fire, balconies, staircases, and sharp or otherwise hazardous objects
• Do not take salvia while driving or while inside of a moving vehicle
• If someone asks you to be their sitter and ends up having a bad trip, don't make any sudden attempts to grab them or any sudden motions that may scare them; speak calmly and remind them that they are just having a salvia experience
• Don't worry about hangovers; a salvia high only lasts between five to twenty minutes
• Salvia is best smoked in a pipe or bong
• Using a torch lighter is recommended, but I found that a regular lighter works fine
• Make sure to inhale immediately upon lighting the salvia, and hold the smoke in for as long as possible

Resources: If you live in Canada, you can purchase salvia in most head shops and corner stores.

All information regarding salvia basics, methods of use, effects, safety, sitter responsibilities, and plant care can be found on this web page:

http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html

Mar 26, 10:32PM PDT | 0 comments