Intense psychedelic experiences

Salvinorin A is the primary psychoactive component of Salvia divinorum. a member of the sage family found in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Salvinorin A is the most potent naturally occurring psychedelic known, and in many ways the most enigmatic. Those using salvinorin A find it frequently induces experiences of an intensity level which is an order of magnitude beyond those experienced with any other psychedelic, even DMT. The dimensions visited under the influence of salvinorin A are described as extremely bizarre and varied, with several aspects not common to other psychedelic experiences. "... 

Customarily, consciousness acts as a reducing valve on the amount of information permitted into awareness, but the drug disturbs this function, and the subject s thought processes are swamped with an "information overload." Ideation becomes so rapid and extended as to be more aptly described as intuition. What would normally be regarded as overinclusiveness of concepts becomes in the psychedelic experience the basis for remarkably speeded, enriched, and extended modes of ideation. In psychotomimetic reactions, however, the overgeneralization disrupts thought processes and produces intense confusion and bewilderment. 

Pure salvinorin A is desirable because it permits one to experience intense psychedelic effects which are often elusive when using the whole plant material. In particular, when smoking dried Salvia divinorum leaf, many people fail to achieve more than a mild effect, although a few find this method quite satisfactory. 

Now that the background has been constructed, it is with pleasure and relief that I launch my theory of psychedelic experience into certainly turbulent waters, if it be based on delusion and self-deception the sinking will be so rapid as to be unnoticed, saving me intense embarrassment if there is a glimmer of truth therein, the violence of the storm in which it must survive might sink it as quickly. I can only grease the ways well and hope I have not left any gaping holes in its structure ... 

At an hour and a half, I was down enough that I tried smoking the remainder of the bowl without much additional effect. A typical psychedelic afterglow and in the morning ate a big breakfast and felt essentially normal. In summary, I took too little, I was in a bad mood, and felt myself to be in a rushed environment. The experience seemed to me like a hybrid between CZ-74 and 5-MeO-DMT the trippiness of the former and the rush (although not as intense) of the latter."... 

Beyond the perception of the body itself, the enhanced sensory experience has called attention to the pleasures and insights that can be obtained directly from sensory experience. Light shows and modern rock music reflect some of the visual and auditory experiences produced by psychedelics. Aldous Huxley (1956) has pointed out the luminous intensity of colors found in "the antipodes of the mind," and this is mimicked by Day-Glo paints and the eerie glow of... 

The four of us, heading out to the desert to get high together, had little more in mind than a feeling that we d enjoy sharing an intense experience. Ed had picked up some Yage a few days before from a man of diverse interests. I don t think any of us knew much about this, other than that it was from an exotic plant—possibly even a bark or a vine—from somewhere in South America, and that it had psychedelic properties. Each of us had had experience with psychedelics and was... 

There are currently a number of people in the psychedelic community experimenting with different methods of ingesting Salvia divinorum, including the oral administration of a crude extract. It is likely that a reliable method will soon be developed which allows one to experience fuller effects than can be easily obtained through chewing the whole leaves, but without the intensity and sudden onset of smoked salvinorin A. ... 

Long available from chemical supply houses, 5-methoxy-DMT is about five times as strong as DMT when smoked and the shortest-acting of all these compounds. The experience is characterized by a "rush similar to that from amyl nitrate. There is little in the way of visuals, but intense thoughts and perhaps bodily sensations last for five to ten minutes. Many people don t like it in his Psychedelic Chemistry, Michael Valentine Smith compares its effects to having an elephant sit on one s head. 

In this system (Figure 17-2) the highest states are mystical experiences, often experienced in conjunction with psychedelic-drug-induced states of meditative states. Creative states and marijuana intoxication are next in value, and some of the experiences of the higher states can be achieved in them, albeit at reduced intensity. 

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