Pre-existing psychedelic experience influencing new drugs subjective effects.

[elucidator]

Hi everyone,
I have a question to put out there. Do you think that having a more than average amount of experience in some forms of psychedelic drugs would somehow alter the effects, (or interpretation of effects), of another drugs experience.

I ask this as I have just started dipping into the realms of salvia divinorum and I find it completely different, yet slightly similar, to the trip reports I have read on the net.

A bit of background info - I am a male in my mid 20s and I have used psychedelics for a bit over 8 years now, and I have smoked weed for over 12
I found DXM at 16 and thoroughly enjoyed it, using it weekly for far too long. Got a bit carried away with DXM and I am still working through some dp;dr stuff that arose. Got into XTC a little bit after and loved it till I double dropped an inconsistently mixed batch and chewed holes in my cheek and tongue from my teeth uncontrollably chattering. Good time tho.
I finally found LSD at 19 and to date it is my favourite compound, with Mescaline in very close 2nd.

I am not half as experienced as some of you awesome people here, though I do have several hundered trips under my belt and I have experimented with psychedelics such as LSD, LSA, DXM, DMT/changa, 25i-nbome, Syrian rue, Mescaline, Psilocybin, Salvia, Amanita, NOS and others. I also have some Ayahuasca and a Belladonna leaf for sometime soon.

Anyway, the point I was getting to was that the effects from the salvia is vastly different from what I have been led to believe. A large proportion of the reports I've read have described the user becoming completely detached from reality for a while and then sort of "coming to" after the bulk of the peak is over. My experiences with salvia (5 so far, the first 2 were underwhelming) have been incredibly interesting to say the least, yet I have had an almost opposite effect.

After exhaling I felt like I was more and more attached and more "in" reality as I felt these strange layers being dragged back. I felt no fear, only curiosity as to how.
I closed my eyes to see if I could notice any CEVs and after a bit more than a few seconds I slowly realized what I was actually seeing. It was far deeper and far more sinister than any psychedelic visual I had ever seen or felt before.
I think during the entire thing I could have gotten up and been relatively functional, and it was just the relaxing into it that made it go deeper.

I didn't have a clue what on earth (or otherwise) I had just experienced and I was drenched in sweat, and fairly exhilarated.
So I had a shower, waited 20 mins, and did it again.

I have a strange feeling that my previous experiences on various drugs have either altered the way my brain reacts to things, or has altered the way I perceive the subjective reality I am experiencing.

This is across a lot of drugs and not restricted to just salvia.

If any of you have noticed some form of connection between psychedelic knowledge and how it may somehow influence the feel of any drug experience, please do not hesitate to share.

Thanks for reading,
elucidator

 

[justinsayno]

I was expecting your post to say the exact opposite of what it did.

I do find a trip will broaden the variety of effects I get from weed for a month or two afterwards.
Salvia has had a more lasting effect, but i suspect thats because the room where i do most of my weed smoking is also the room i was in when i brokethrough on salvia.

I dont think your previous experience could effect what salvia does as when you breakthrough its so complete.

It sounds to me that you havent brokenthrough yet. ( if you're not already try a bong without water or a similar homemade large chambered pipe )

During a salvia breakthrough you wont close your eyes and get CEVs, because you wont have eyes, you will be a waterfall or will be busy spinning or whatever.

IMO its just a sudden and extreme hypnagogic state so everyone will have a different experience but broadly similar.

PS - you didnt mention a sitter, its obvious HR but personally id recommend having one. When i brokethrough i 'came to' on my feet, wearing less clothes than i started with and i'd done various random things [ turned off the music, moved things on a shelf ]

So yeah obvious risks there

 

[elucidator]

Thanks for your concern but I think that it was easily manageable at this strength (20x). Last weekend a friend of mine smoked more than double what I had tonight, from the same bag, and he told me that he felt relatively sober throughout and I will be fine with going up and over the amount he had. From the description of what he saw it seemed very vague and confusing.

I recommend using a trip sitter in any situation where you think you really need it, (huge dose/untried dangerous combo/unpredictable compound) yet I think they are not entirely necessary if you are confident with taking care of yourself and/or have relatively level headed friends to trip with. I can't stand tripping around sober people, so when I trip I do it with other trippers or I trip alone.

How would you describe the change in variety of effects of weed? I have also noticed some small subtle changes in how I reacted to getting stoned after varying levels of tripping.
Also, what do you mean by, salvia has has a more lasting effect?

 

[justinsayno]

^ strange, IME anything over 15X with a large chambered pipe and large pinch of extract has been enough for me and others to fully breakthrough...but anyway

As for your question, i'd actually find it hard to describe.
After a trip if i have a proper session [ ie if ive got company and stay up late smoking weed with no beer to take the edge off ] i will occasionally have little 'moments' a little headspace or sensation that will specifically remind me of a particular substance or moment during a trip.
I only trip 3 or 4 times a year now so i guess its easy for me to distinguish these things.
They're not usually visual [ but it was slightly after a period of experimenting with MXE ]and they arent overwhelming and they are only fleeting and if i'm distracted by something the moment is gone.

As i say these happen for maybe a month after a trip.

However, its been over a year since i broke through on salvia but every now n then I get a falling or sinking sensation that reminds me of Salvia, I think its usually if i smoke a sativa dominant strain i'm not used to.
Its mild but i'm very aware of it, its mild enough that i will usually just carry on talking and not even mention it to the people around me and i doubt they'd be able to tell something was happening.

These moments only last a few seconds and i enjoy it at the time.

I think i'm waffling now so, in a nutshell, it sounds like you've already experienced the kinda thing i'm trying to describe, just that because a full breakthrough is so intense and vivid the reverb effect will hang around longer, maybe even permanently ?
Its not traumatic flashbacks just little moments of wierdness.
I see it as a positive thing, like giving my brain a wider emotional vocabulary

 

[elucidator]

Yes, I see these things as being positive as well. I love noticing bits of psychedelia in my day to day life, and I am getting quite fond of most of my HPPD symptoms.

Another reason why I closed my eyes, was that what I was seeing in front of me, (candle, shed floor, pile of blankets) was very rapidly losing any kind of sense. It was beginning to lose all definition of form. I could see the pile of blankets, yet I was rapidly losing any knowledge of what a pile of blankets really is. I quite enjoyed that.

Yes, I have a 500ml bong with a large cone piece, jet lighter, and followed the methods I have seen here. Who knows? Seems like lots of people need different amounts to breakthrough.

Sometimes I get similar such moments when smoking weed, the most recent one was a stunning similarity to the come up jitters I had when on mushrooms 2 weeks ago.

I think one hypothesis on this would be that the result of so many years of nearly continuous mind expansion, is that when a potent compound is introduced, the mind is already 'expanded' enough to make the interpretation of effects less obliterating than a mind that has undergone less 'expansion'.

 

[sekio]

The amount of salvinorin in a 20x extract can be variable, because salvia plants don't always contain the same amount of salvinorin to begin with. Different people have different sensitivities to it, and of course it will effect everyone differently. Perhaps you are just not smoking enough material.

I didn't have a clue what on earth (or otherwise) I had just experienced and I was drenched in sweat, and fairly exhilarated.

Sounds like fairly typical effects