The trips here happened as far back as 9 years ago, some has been forgotten. I tell this now due to the strange nature and to compare experiences.
I will start with some backstory. Salvia divinorum use to be legal in Ontario Canada, and I got into it in my high school years. My first few attempts were with Salvi-lotus, which was a salvia blue lotus blend, and they were unsuccessful every time. Even with a torch lighter and a bong, it could be 20 x, or 60 x. Then I found Laughing Buddha brand Salvia (20 x no lotus mix) at a head shop. It was an intense trip every time even with a normal lighter, and still had noticeable effects with a pipe. My first many trips were horrible, but my friend who I smoked with always had good trips which I wanted to experience eventually so I persisted. Sometimes my trips were sketchy but more neutral. I didn't feel horrible, I felt strange and confused after. Then I started to have wonderful trips most times. Ones where I was in fractal like dimensions or flashing back to places in my past that were distorted, at one point I tripped in an old toy room of my sister and mine and recall something of a fun toy land. At another point I tripped on 60x under the stars and during my comedown, saw what looked like a vivid laser light show of stars moving with different shapes, and a carnival carousal full of teddy bears made up of light constellations.
One day some of my friends wanted to trip on Salvia Divinorum at my aunts condo we use to use the odd time for getaways. I had ran out of my Laughing Buddha brand stuff and the nearest head-shop to carry it was 2 hours drive away, so we tried some of the old Salvi-lotus again to which I was skeptical. I forget if my friends got 20x, 40x, or 60x. I want to say 20x, but it may well have been 40x. We each got a packet and a long bong. I think we did use one of those larger torch lighters, but it may have been a normal bic. My friend did some 1st and laughed hysterically, but didn't seem to recall it much. That friend then cooked my package it into the bong for me, pulling so slowly and filling the capacity of the bong for me until it was pure white (clear glass bong). He cooked the entire 1 gram packet into it for me. I inhaled as much as I could and held as long as I could. When I exhaled I felt some drool land beside my mouth and may had drooled down the bong. I heard disgust but recalled a friend saying "well, it's his place, he can drool if he wants to". Then I was no longer "there".
From what I remember of the trip, different people came and went to the condo we were in. I experience severe time dilation. I thought I went down a bad life path full of hard drugs and was being partly disowned by everyone while also having somewhat of an intervention. I recall looking at my own methed out face, feeling isolated from everyone in my life, and feeling like I had lost time with everyone and wasted much of my life. I had came to the conclusion that things went bad at one point, and figured it was the night I did Salvia at the condo. I wished so hard that I could go back to that night, then I did.
A normal salvia trip lasts a few minutes to around 15-20 minutes, but can feel like a few hours when by. In some cases longer. By what my friends had said from watching me, I tripped hard for about a full hour, with a long comedown. It felt like moths to potentially years went by, but time was an unclear concept. I had memory of "past days" and experienced allot of time, but not full days, just what seemed like many days.
When I went back to the condo to the night I did salvia in my trip, I could tell something was very off. We had around 5-7 people there at the time, but it sounded allot louder, like a huge party, or loud public place. At one point I shouted about how loud it was when the room was apparently quite quiet. I then realized that many of the voices were coming from inside my head. They sound like familiar voices. They ridiculed my for everything I did can could see through my eyes. At one point I went to the washroom which was quite uncomfortable as they ridiculed my every move and body shamed me. After I was done in the bathroom I asked my friend if I had taken anything that night, as I had completely forgot at that point and was starting to think this was normal/sobriety. He at the start sarcastically said no which freaked me out as I took what he said legitimately. I asked a few more people and got the answer Salvia, which was a huge relief. Being that it was such a bad experience I then said I was going to try and sleep it off. I climbed into a bed, but could not sleep at all due to hearing loud voices. Every fold on the blankets which covered me shape shifted into arms from different directions grabbing and engulfing me. When I stared at the walls I saw 3d silhouettes of faces pushing through. One friend came in to check on me. Apparently I said "There are people in here with me". He responded with "Okay, D@%" (name censored). Afterwards, when I gave up on sleeping, I came out and mentioned how I wished the voices would go away. I then went on to say how it has been too long of a trip, and that if it doesn't get better, and the voices don't go away in 2 weeks, that I may kill myself. Another friend overheard that and interjected with "No one is killing themselves". Over the course of the night I gradually got better and the voices quieted down.
The voices never came back and it was a very concerning, scary experience. I considered going to the hospital given enough time but was always concerned about being labeled mentally ill, crazy, or schizophrenic as I hear it is near impossible to get that off your medical record and that it could make certain things like security checks for certain jobs or tasks (gun ownership, pilot, some science jobs, military) very hard. At the time I did not know that Salvia Divinorum (salvia genus) was a type of sage, and my parents did not use it much or at all when cooking. My step mom did and when ever I smelt it from her or other people cooking, I would get concerned that I was going back to the night that I smoked Salvia in the condo. Like every thing I did past that point didn't happen. After disappointing life moments or sad moments, I welcomed the thought, but after accomplishments and successes I felt bummed that I would have to do it again, but that it may at least be easier the 2nd time around. I thought this was happening because I could smell and taste sage a little bit when smoking diviners sage (S. Divinorum). Once I figured out it was a type of sage, those concerns went away. Smelling it could sometimes make me reminisce of some trips though.
I think I may have experienced a temporary type of psychosis. I am fine to this day but right after/doing the trip I did hear voices in a manner of what I hear schizophrenics experience (unfriendly familiar voices ridiculing me and seeing through my eyes) and felt kindof distant from reality with the thoughts I may go back to the night of tripping, although that part was likely due to just not knowing its relation to sage and smelling it a lot. Has anyone else had similar experiences, bizarre salvia trips, or had a trip last wayyy longer than it should have or lead to anything other than a comedown and sobriety? Frankly I do miss salvia, and would probably do it again but it is almost a decade later. I realize now that taking an entire gram at one was probably very stupid, far too much, and pretty much was ignoring all the instructions on the packages.
My family history of mental illness would be a half aunt/uncle with schizophrenia, a cousin with anorexia and depression, a sibling with an underdeveloped frontal lobe and anxiety, and social anxiety disorder myself but I have overcome this. My use of hallucinogens up to the point was a few mushroom trips and a bunch of salvia trips. I am practically past the age that the bulk of mental disorders present themselves so I think i am in the clear, although for a long period of my life I use to smoke weed everyday for a number of years and enjoy a few psychedelic trips a year even now and weed on my weekends sometimes.
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