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Like Shuffling a Deck of Cards
Salvia divinorum (extract)
Citation:   Jon P. "Like Shuffling a Deck of Cards: An Experience with Salvia divinorum (extract) (exp53816)". Erowid.org. Nov 11, 2008. erowid.org/exp/53816

 
DOSE:
1 hit smoked Salvia divinorum (extract)
BODY WEIGHT: 210 lb
I had not even heard of the substance salvia until around an hour before my first experience with it. I was at the beach with some friends and had been hanging out all week with some guys from a different state. We had been drinking and smoking pot together all week, so when they decided to go buy some salvia they said I could try some if I would let them use my bowl to smoke out of. I had only tried pot and alcohol before hand but I had been wanting to try mushrooms. They told me that salvia would make you 'trip' like mushrooms so I was intrigued. I don’t know the specific extract the salvia was but they said it was about as strong as you could get.

A friend from home decided to give it a try so I finally decided as well to take part in the action, so I go get my bowl and rejoin the other people in their hotel room. The setting was odd for me which might have contributed to my bad trip, there was only one person in the room that I had known for more than a few days, the rest were strangers I had been living beside for about a week. Anyway they pack the first bowl and spark it up and the guy that takes the first hit zones out and just starts staring, as we talk to him he laughs and answers but his answers aren’t really that intuitive. We asked him to describe how it was and he could only say that it was weird or cool no exact descriptions. He passed the bowl on around until it was empty, however as we learned later the only people that experienced the effects of the drug were the ones that got the first hit out of the bowl. By the time the first bowl had ran out it was my turn.

So we repacked the bowl and I took in two massive hits, being that it was my bowl I knew how to hit it perfect and was filled with his substance. The effects came on quickly within a few seconds. I was sitting awkwardly on a tv stand as the room was packed and there was not a lot of room to stand/sit. The effects of this substance were baffling to me. I suddenly became unaware that I had taken the substance and as weird things started to happen I became frightened. Being that I am a large man who plays contact sports on a collegete level this is not an emotion I often feel. However I quickly became terrified.

The sensations were out of this world, I thought that somehow my body had been sliced vertically into hundreds of different layers and suddenly I felt as if they were all laying to one side and then being put back together. Such as some one holding up a deck of cards and running your finger across the top of it to make the cards one by one shuffle back onto the next card. This could be because we had played drinking games all week and I was always the dealer, treating the cards as I thought my body was being treated. As I had this sensation I remember either counting to myself or thinking that the other people in the room were counting as the layers of 'me' came back together. I also remember thinking that the other people in the room were laughing at me and talking about how I had just finally realized that this was the 'real' reality. As this was happening I thought that this was my new reality and I had just previously been confused as to what reality really was, such that there was a bigger me of sorts and I was just one layer that made myself up.

Throughout all of this I later found out that I was merely sitting staring forward and every time someone would ask me something all I could say was 'Do what?' A common phrase I use when I do not understand what someone has said. Appearently I said do what around 6 times before I finally started coming down.

After the 'layers' of me finally reformed I started noticing the other people in the room but the room was still kinda warping and swirling around. I could kinda understand what they were asking me but communicating was a very hard thing for me to do, at least I thought so internally as I appearently was making sense to them. Once my reality came back to normal I found myself hot and sweating and all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep off the feeling of confusion. However the weirdness slowly went away and I returned to my normal activities however my mind didn’t return to normal until the next morning. The 'trip' I experienced only lasted about 2 minutes if that much but it seemed like a lifetime in my mind.

Once I came back to semi normal the other people continued smoking as I only told them it was a weird trip. I felt self conscious at the time about telling strangers all the weird thoughts I had just had. Anyway the next guy packed a new bowl smoked up and had a bad trip as well. He started babbling incoheriently and drooling on himself, he went from sitting up on a bed to laying on it and then rolling around. Once he came back to normal which was only a few minutes he was more vocal about his dislike stating that it was weird and he never wanted to do that again. 4 people ended up tripping from it, the only 4 that got 1st hits from newly packed bowls, the other people reported that they didn’t feel much or that it felt merely like taking a hit of pot. All the trips were not bad however the first guy had fun with his and laughed, me and one other guy had bad experiences, and the last one like the first had a good time.

Overall I think this could be a fun drug if the situation was right and the surrounds were better, however my personal experience was not a good one. I'm not sure if I did too much for my first time or if it was just because I was not in a comfortable place with people I know or what, but I was not happy about the experience I had just went through. As of now I have no urge to try it again but I would not totally rule it out because I can imagine if I had a good trip that it would be a wonderful experience. However the fear I felt from my bad one keeps me from taking that chance again just yet.

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 53816
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 11, 2008Views: 6,419
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Salvia divinorum (44) : General (1), First Times (2), Difficult Experiences (5), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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