Solipsys said:
Now I've had some pretty wild psychedelic experiences but I pride myself on having developed to be very stable and equanimous. These are hard questions but: can you just try this without it affecting you too much? What would be a reason for you that have tried it, in retrospect, to just leave it?
There's really no build up in tolerance, so you can approach the higher levels of the experience in a stepwise fashion. Just increase the weight of your dose by maybe 20% each time you grow comfortable with a lesser weight. This should allow you get a solid experience of, for instance, level 4, while giving you just a few non-committal seconds in level 5. In fact, this is not only the safest way to approach salvia, but probably the most insight-bearing way as well.
That said, back in high school I gave salvia to a "mall rat" kid, whose trite attitude toward life annoyed me, hoping salvia would be such an eye-opening experience for him that he could never go back to his old perceptions (which I thought would be good). He had done acid and mushrooms before and clearly believed a legal herb like salvia couldn't hold a candle despite everything we told him. After he came out of it he was deeply disturbed. I'm told even now, many years later, that he still brings his experience up at inappropriate times, as though he is still struggling to integrate it. I think it helps to have faith that just because the reality salvia presents you with is utterly convincing at the time, that this is more likely due to a dampening effect salvia is having on your judgment rather than indicative of any revealed truth. The scope of possible human experience is immense beyond imagination, that is the lesson, but nothing about any revealed final truth. If you acculturate yourself to the effects slowly rather than jumping right in, you should have a better understanding of how it effects your psychology, know what to expect, and be better able to avoid any possible traumatic effects.
Even considering the unlikely psychological danger, I do believe anyone who is psychologically healthy, knows about salvia, and truly believes that gaining a wider perspective on life is important, is obligated to
try, to the honest limits of their courage, to reach the highest levels of the salvia experience, as there is nothing that can take you farther from simple familiarity.
