Salvia: not your ordinary party drug
By Paul Breschuk
Features Editor
March 24, 2010
 A YouTube video titled, “Gardening on Salvia,” begins with a young man sitting in a backyard garden during a beautiful spring day. Among his tools are a small shovel, a bag of soil, and a bong.
After stating a detailed list of instructions for setting a curry plant in the garden, he then leans over the bong for a quick hit of Salvia smoke. With his voice strained by the smoke still thick in his stretched lungs, he says, “Now, you want to hold that in until your vision begins to vibrate. And then we are going to dig our hole.”
As the drug takes effect, he begins to move his hand in the air with the shovel hovering aimlessly near the garden.
“I found a nice spot right here that I think I am going to dig into,” explains the increasingly confused gardener, “and, uh, we are just going to see how that goes.”
There is a slight pause.
“So, I guess..,” he trails off, mere seconds after the hit of Salvia, staring silently into the horizon. Soon after, as if surrendering to an overwhelming invisible force and forgetting about his intentions to garden, the young psychonaut falls flat on his back. And with an audible sigh he begins his trip, voyaging into the depths of an alternate cosmic reality.
He lies this way for several minutes, legs and fingers twitching gently. Meanwhile, the sounds of nature take over with several birds singing peacefully in the absence of both his voice and bodily consciousness.
This is just one of over 5,000 amateur videos on YouTube depicting, and celebrating, various Salvia trips. To serious supporters of the drug, however, such growth in popularity is cause for concern. With Salvia’s higher public profile, spreading from the internet to the desks of both news anchors and politicians, the risk of its criminalization increases steadily.
It is anomalous that such a strong drug has remained legal throughout most of the world. Besides Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and some US states, Salvia is an uncontrolled substance. In Canada, where it cannot be sold to minors, there are no foreseeable plans to ban the drug.
Martin W. Ball, Ph.D., a scholar of religion and religious experience as well as a psychoactive drugs enthusiast, has authored several books on personal liberation and awakening through entheogenic drugs such as DMT, Ayahuasca, and Salvia. He believes that while keeping Salvia out of the political spotlight is important, there should still be room for a proper educational discourse.
“These [drugs] are precious tools and keeping them secret and underground only serves a minority,” explains Dr. Ball, “If we want to transform human consciousness and society on a mass scale, and I for one do, then we need to educate and provide models of practice and being that are worthy of emulation – not the parade of fools on YouTube.”
Salvia, known by its Latin name as Salvia Divinorum, is from the sage family of plants. Originally from Mexico, Salvia was used by Mazatec shamans for its dissociative effects which enabled ritualistic spirit quests. It also has a long tradition of being a sacred healing agent.
While the Mazatec shamans consumed Salvia by chewing its leaves, or making tea from them, the current practice involves smoking the dried leaves from a pipe. Mere seconds after an inhalation, the effects of Salvia are noticeable. And while the experience is remarkably brief, returning the subject back to relative normalcy after roughly 10 minutes, the sensations are often extremely intense.
“People might describe themselves as being cosmically stretched out or flattened,” says Dr. Ball. “Physically, people sometimes literally seem to be pushed over by Salvia as someone sitting might fall over to one side as they feel themselves being stretched out across the dimensions.”
Spectacular visualizations are also said to be part of the Salvia experience: “Energy appears to flow in fractal conveyor belts or it can almost literally look like fractal zippers that quite distinctly unzip and turn inside out. It can be quite enjoyable when you surrender to it,” explains Dr. Ball.
Users have also reported having vivid flashbacks to early childhood memories, out of body sensations, completely losing a sense of self, and believing that they have become random objects such as walls, sofas, or the gears of a clock.
While it is impossible to overdose on Salvia, the danger comes with its exposure to unprepared or immature minds. For some ill-suited first time users, its effects have occasionally lead to disturbing, even terrifying experiences.
On Internet forums where users discuss their Salvia trips, such as www.erowid.org, the following titles have been used to describe their experiences: “Mind-destroying Terror,” “Reliving My Death Over and Over Again,” “A Door That Was Never Meant To Be Opened,” “Being Ripped Into Death,” “Creepy and Terrifying,” and “Nightmarish Torture.”
Clearly, Salvia is not a party drug.
Its vendors encourage first time users to begin with a small dose in a safe and calm environment, all under the supervision of a “sitter” (a trusted sober friend who will act as monitor, ensuring the user is physically safe.) Because the more intense trips from Salvia cause one to forget about his or her body, users often move around erratically as if sleepwalking. This can be very dangerous when acted out alone, especially near stairways, open fires, or with access to automobiles.
Also, with a lack of scientific research come uncertainties regarding the short and long term health risks associated with Salvia use. So far, the only obvious threat comes in the form of lung damage or cancer as a result of smoke inhalation. Still, it is Salvia’s mental effects which are most commonly discussed with users claiming to have both positive and negative changes to their overall mood.
Dr. Ball, while acknowledging that proper steps must be taken to avoid difficulties, believes Salvia use is worth the risk.
“It is important to understand that any experience with any entheogen is just a mirror of one’s own self and mind,” explains Dr. Ball. “In general, there is a lot of potential for people to confuse themselves. But there is also a great potential for people to liberate themselves and transcend their egos.”
Ross Heaven, psychologist and author of Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny 2006), defends Salvia and other entheogenic drugs by explaining that more people die each year from prescription medicines than herbal or plant medicines. This, he says, makes out to be “by a factor of about 1000% according to the British Medical Journal.”
Instead of being abused as recreational drugs, Heaven contends that entheogens such as Salvia should be used purely for spiritual reasons which aid in self discovery and the gaining of universal insight. Evidence to this is the surprising confession of Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick, claiming to have discovered the double-helix structure of DNA while under the helpful influence of LSD.
Heaven insists that there are helpful qualities in natural agents that cannot be found in the other overly-processed, synthetic drugs. Entheogens such as Salvia are considered by Heaven to be plant teachers.
“The difference between a ‘drug’ and a plant teacher is context. Plant teachers should be treated with respect and taken in special circumstances with a ceremonial guide and in a safe setting,” said Heaven. “Like all plant teachers Salvia produces visions and within those visions there is information about your life, your place in the universe, your destiny and the future, and what it means to be human.”
Guidelines for Using
Salvia Safely
(from www.sagewisdom.org)
- Never use Salvia if guns, knives, or other dangerous objects are within easy reach
- Never drive when taking Salvia
- Give careful thought to how much you will take, and how you take it
-Have a sitter (this is especially important if you are new to Salvia, taking a high dose, smoking a strong extract, or using a very strong delivery system such as vaporization)
-After all smoking material is safely out, lie down in bed, on a couch, or on a carpet, you are much safer lying down than you would be stumbling around
-Mixing Salvia with other drugs or large amounts of alcohol may cause out-of-control behavior or terrifying experiences
- If you have mental health problems, do not take Salvia without first discussing it with your therapist or doctor |
