Salvia Divinorum - "layers"

[Fornax55]

Hey y'all.\\\
Amongst some reading I was doing tonight, I came across a few reports of experiences smoking salvia divinorum which reminded me of something curious I (and numerous others, I'd imagine) had come to experience and think on, and that is:

once having smoke salvia, there have been tons of subjective reports of reality, and all that it encompasses -sight, sound, smell, but primarily vision and touch- being split, divided, stacked, multiplied, "unzipped" otherwise separated into "layers," "stacks," "levels," "strips," or any other scenario in which multiple visions of reality in its entirety seemed to stack on top of/side by side/in front of each other. My own experience years ago, for relevance, took place behind one of these strips - I would blow out the smoke, and reality would freezeframe as if someone had just taken a screenshot.
\|I would then zoom out but no longer from my own perspective as i would see myself staring blindly as everything I knew, including myself, began to shrink and multiply. Suddenly, I could see seven or eight instances of everything that I could see and feel stacked on top of each other, rotating like an old film at the cinema. The trip, for all intenive purposes, started with this view of reality being segmented and stacked and my subsequent journey in through one of these different (though seemingly identical) "planes" and would finish with me being sent back out and into my own reality plane.

now, obviously, since this is such an unfamiliar phenomenon, not everyone could describe it identically - and I doubt that two different[pillow] people would share the same experience entirely[/piillow[/] but the striking similarities between different trips leads me to believe that there is some sort of familiar absurdity at work here. I would wonder if any agonists of the kappa opioid receptor sites that deliver similar effects? I haven't read too too many DXM trip reports but perhaps people have noticed similar "layering" effects during their experiences with DXM. Any thoughts or, better yet, similar experiences (because now here comes the flood of people who haven't experienced nor have ever read a report about such 'layering' to make me look like a madman) would be great!

 

[Fornax55]

hah, just an addendum - after typing this up, I still had two or three tabs open with unread salvia divinorum experience reports. A quick read through showed me that all three shared a crucial point that involved layers, the "universe tacked on top of itself," a repeating "spiral of realities"... really interesting and really relieving to know that you're not the only one to experience this terrir... but now I almost don't want ot go out to see emile.... for fear of the cat endp down there.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

yes....same thing happened to me aon salvia. It was as if 3D reality was represented by a thick phone book....and the pages just started being flipped through or flying off the top of the book and I was getting caught up in each layer and flying away with it.

 

[Fornax55]

sooo strange I was really hoping to get a lot of feedback into this. everyone describes it somewhat differently but a lot of the time it boils down to the same concept - multiple versions of reality layered on top of or next to eachother.
c'mon folks - anyone feel this on DMT or any other kappa agonists?

 

[SONN]

I have had numerous trips on salvia like the ones you're describing.

extremely high dose LSD has a similar feel, like you're falling down a spiral and bouncing through different realities/timelines along the way.

my guess is that when you're reading a book somehow you're stimulating your kappa opoid receptors so overstimulating them makes you feel like the pages of the universe are turning

edit: after thinking about it a little more, it could be stimulating a certain expression of DNA and all the different layers/realities are different possible ways it could be expressed. And as each different gene or RNA gets factored into the structure of the protein you perceive yourself in a new reality?

 

[Kaleida]

Yes, the similarities between salvia trips are fascinating. I have been interested in this subject for many years. Personally, for me one of the most common representations is the unzipping. I also get the spiral, and agreed that LSD also has this feeling. Also, I haven't gotten the turning pages effect on salvia, but I have on LSD. In general I find salvia to be similar to LSD in many ways, and to DMT in very few ways. I have experienced a very noticeable visual stacking effect on DMT, but it was not similar to anything I would see on salvia.

As for other hallucinogenic kappa-opioid agonists, you're going to have a pretty tough time finding people who have experience with them. People who have used ibogaine would probably be the best bet, but there's more to its activity than just that as well. DXM probably does not have considerable enough activity in this way relative to other mechanisms to really matter.

 

[Behappystayhappy]

smoked 60x one time
had a very similar perspective

saw five versions of myself and I was viewing it from behind me. it was spooky.

everyone thinks of salvia as some "stupid scary drug that fucks your brain"
but I think the high is incredible.

I don't think its fun or euphoric like every other drug, but what it does to my brain is so peculiar. I wish more studies were done on it

 

[Kaleida]

There have actually been tons of studies done on salvia in the last few years, both on a pharmacological level and in terms of giving it to human volunteers. I personally think one of the most fascinating things about it is the high frequency of people describing experiences of returning to their childhood, experiencing someone else's childhood, or just generally feeling abstract feelings that take one back in time to that mindset. This theme appears extremely often in trip reports and scientific studies alike, with one I recall reading a while back having at least 50% of the subjects reporting it.

 

[ChipTrippyFox]

I had a trip once that might fit this description though I hadn't thought of it that way until I read this.

After i took my hit I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes and started a song. For the first 30 seconds of the intro I felt like I was hanging over a gargantuan whirlpool of energy, when the song picked up, I was dropped into this pool and I felt like I was split into infinite parts, traveling down a track or road at an intense speed. All the while I felt like I was standing on some sort of disc that was carrying me through this space, with other disks in front and behind me. I want to say that these discs represented energy within a time line.

It was my best salvia trip.