I thought I would articulate my first ever salvia experience after a recent incident with a friend who smoked plain leaf and got thrown by it because she didn't expect it to be so strong and actually ended up hurting herself, although not badly and she's totally fine now. I really wish she had approached me and told me she wanted to explore salvia space and I could have been a sitter and she said that if she had heard my first experience she said she would have been more careful. This is slightly embarrassing to have to type out because of how many things I did wrong and how naive I was but I really think it's an important message to get out there.
This all happened 5 years ago on a sunny Friday mid-afternoon out on boat(yes....a boat
) in the middle of a lagoon with some close friends for a night of fishing. I had a friend gift me with some plain leaf and I had just assumed that because I had seen people smoking heavy extracts (x40,x60,x80) I thought that plain leaf would be a much mellower experience and something that I would be totally comfortable with. My friends were smoking some weed and I thought that I would smoke some of this plain salvia instead. I didn't tell them I was doing this (second big mistake!). I smoked two bowls of the leaf back to back and blew the smoke out..this is when it got intense.
As she came on I get this sense of uh-oh..my vision brightens and I feel as if I am at my friends place while simultaneously being on the water, then I felt like I was in my bedroom then another nice room in my house I often journey in and finally out in nature near my house. With all of these scenes I felt a very strong message of 'This would have been more appropriate', something I immediately agreed whole-heartedly with
My friend apparently saw a group of sea-gulls over in the next bay and so started the boat and started driving over there. I saw a vine-ish structure made of a strong yellow light break through the sky and start weaving about with red and green hues emitting from it and started panicing..big time. It was rather rough on this day and the boat was apparently banging about over the water. Not for me, for me I was flying up into the air and then back down into the water having the very strong sensation of being drenched.
I held on tight to my chair trying to ground myself but there was no use. Up and down and through and in I went, feeling each atom as I passed through it. My skin felt bare, like my skin is normally a protection and it was totally exposed, a feeling I often experience with quidded salvia. I remember looking over to my friend who was driving, completely oblivious to my predicament he morphed into Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Carribean and I yelled some unintelligable phrase at him which made him stop.
As the boat stopped I started to come back, still tightly gripping my chair I feel the panic reside but still very fearful. Very shaken I slowly relate to my friends that I had smoked salvia and they burst out laughing..not the response I needed. I spent the rest of my night feeling so out of it. It got to about 2 in the morning and I decided to smoke some weed to try calm myself down and sleep. It knocked me out straight away and then something very interesting happened.
I found myself in a dreamy realm, in pitch blackness except for these lights that were moving about in organic like shapes. Then this figure emerged out of the lights and said that they were sorry and that I made them do that, I needed to treat the plant with much more respect. I felt forgiven and the lights slowly morphed into animal looking things and got realer and realer as time went on, eventually I felt as though I was at the bottom of the water and had a sting-ray approach me and swim suddenly across my vision and I woke up suddenly.
I woke up to my friend being hooked onto a big fish, "Oh I've got a jew fish for sure" I remember him saying rather excitedly. I sat there reeling it in and instead of a jew fish he pulled up a stingray!! My mind was totally blown and I now know why it is known as the diviners sage. I fell asleep again after this into a deep sleep and woke up in the morning feeling well-rested but still a bit shaken.
Salvia is a magical plant who I've since journeyed with a lot with the quid method but refuse to smoke her again. The things I want to be taken from this are, 1) Plain leaf can be much more potent than you think it will be!!!!, 2) Never, ever, ever, ever do salvia, or any other plant medicine for that matter, on a boat or in any sort of vehicle. I feel incredibly lucky that I didn't stand up and move around or things could have ended much worse, 3) If you are going to journey with a plant medicine always tell those around you.
I'm a little bit resistant to hit the post button with this post as it is entirely cringe-worthy, almost as bad as some of those youtube videos..atleast I wasn't dumb enough to film it I suppose. I just don't want others to under-estimate plain leaf or make the wide range of mistakes I did on my first journey with her.
With reluctance
A.