Salvia Divinorum | What’s My Subjective Experience?
From Low Doses to Breakthroughs into “Sally Space”
Salvia Divinorum is a kappa-opioid agonist from the mint family. It’s a plant that’s native to the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it’s used by the Mazatec tribe to facilitate visionary states in the context of healing or finding divination through Shamanism. For thousands of years, the Mazatec’s have used Salvia sublingually by making quids which are held under the tongue until the active compound reaches the blood stream. This route of administration produces an experience which lasts roughly two hours. In recent years, the active compound salvinorin-a, which is the most potent psychedelic found in nature with 700μg being enough to shatter someone’s perception of reality, is extracted producing highly concentrated leaf matter for smoking. Smoking concentrated salvinorin-a extracts cause a 5-10 minute long experience which is far more intense, rigid, and horrifying. It’s far more likely to experience astral projection where you leave your body and visit what’s commonly referred to as “Sally Space.”
It’s important to realize, though the experience lasts 5-10 minutes, the substance alters your perception of time. Because Salvia changes the way time is processed, it doesn’t feel like 5-10 minutes. In fact, it can feel like a lifetime from having a sense of eternity to the experience. “Sally Space” replaces the reality we’ve known our whole lives with a new one that is far more convincing, real, and brutal.
Astral projection can be very traumatizing to an individual, and this substance shouldn’t isn’t benign. It has a low potential for addiction. In fact, most people will only use it once in their life and wish they never did. There aren’t deaths directly correlated with Salvia Divinorum overdose, however, not having a trip sitter (someone watching you) means under the influence of Salvia a person could easily harm themselves by moving around without seeing what’s in front of them. Latent mental disorders can be exaggerated, hallucinatory persistent perceptual disorder (HPPD) can prolonged residual effects, the trauma of the experience alone can cause post-traumatic stress disorder, there are also instances of dissociative disorders like depersonalization which can last years from one Salvia experience.
Philip Markoff (Associate of Science) is an online influencer and thought leader on addiction education; he is known as his alias “CG Kid” who’s obtained a large audience primarily on YouTube as a vlogger and journalist. His current sobriety date from polysubstance chemical dependency is June 9th, 2013.