Patrick Smith – Salvia divinorum and "The Wheel": What Can We Learn From This Persistent Phenomenon?
Salvinorin A, the prime psychoactive compound in the Salvia divinorum plant, is the most potent naturally-occurring hallucinogen we know of. It has been an important part of Mazatec culture for generations, but has only just entered the gaze of western materialist science within the past few decades. One property of Salvia that has enthralled researchers is its ability to produce highly conserved psychological effects. Most strikingly, user accounts of the Salvia experience almost without fail mention the sensation of a distinctive rotating movement; often described as a conveyer belt, carousel, wheel, or turning pages.
In this talk, we will run through what we now know about the neuropharmacology of Salvinorin A, and to what extent these discoveries can begin to explain the unique subjective effects people experience upon ingesting the plant. We will then draw parallels between the Salvia journey and various religious symbols and myths that describe similar themes. We will also look at some startling appearances of Salvia-like phenomena in sober states such as near-death and spiritual experiences. The aim of this talk is to suggest both materialist and mystical explanations for the unique subjective effects of Salvia divinorum, and consider the possibility of a non-dual ontology that combines these two modes of thinking.
Patrick is a biologist and science writer who has been covering psychedelic issues for the past five years. He currently writes for EntheoNation, but has previously contributed to The Third Wave, Psymposia, Volteface, Chacruna, Kahpi and more. He has degrees in both Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, and is interested in merging the worlds of materialist science and non-dual psychedelic wisdom.
Filmed at Breaking Convention 2019
Salvinorin A, the prime psychoactive compound in the Salvia divinorum plant, is the most potent naturally-occurring hallucinogen we know of. It has been an important part of Mazatec culture for generations, but has only just entered the gaze of western materialist science within the past few decades. One property of Salvia that has enthralled researchers is its ability to produce highly conserved psychological effects. Most strikingly, user accounts of the Salvia experience almost without fail mention the sensation of a distinctive rotating movement; often described as a conveyer belt, carousel, wheel, or turning pages.
In this talk, we will run through what we now know about the neuropharmacology of Salvinorin A, and to what extent these discoveries can begin to explain the unique subjective effects people experience upon ingesting the plant. We will then draw parallels between the Salvia journey and various religious symbols and myths that describe similar themes. We will also look at some startling appearances of Salvia-like phenomena in sober states such as near-death and spiritual experiences. The aim of this talk is to suggest both materialist and mystical explanations for the unique subjective effects of Salvia divinorum, and consider the possibility of a non-dual ontology that combines these two modes of thinking.
Patrick is a biologist and science writer who has been covering psychedelic issues for the past five years. He currently writes for EntheoNation, but has previously contributed to The Third Wave, Psymposia, Volteface, Chacruna, Kahpi and more. He has degrees in both Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, and is interested in merging the worlds of materialist science and non-dual psychedelic wisdom.
Filmed at Breaking Convention 2019
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8:42 false it doesnt bind that strongly to Kappa opoid receptors, other molecules like descholroketamine knocks salvinorin from the receptors resulting in only ketamine effects, but regular ketamine or 2fdck has weaker affinity for the receptor and make salvia effects stronger.
Time travel to an empty past is a major theme in my salvia experiences. I travel to a specific place in the past and there's no one there. My childhood bedroom is a common place I visit. The first time was also the first and only time I had a trip with product placement. It was my old bedroom, but festooned with Coca Cola branded items that I did not have when I was a kid. I prefer Pepsi.
When I time travel on Salvia I am the only being that exists in these spaces. The places may be familiar or just a place I once passed through. Usually I exist as something made of paper in these places. I have been a book on many occasions, my pages flipping in an invisible wind. The shape of a book with flipping pages is sort of like a semi-wheel I suppose. What I call the Salvia Rolodex is another object I have become. Spinning and flipping pieces of yardstick, driven by a disembodies, but seemingly conscious wind.
In one particularly strange experience I became a wrinkled sheet of translucent glassine paper, laying on a road, beneath an underpass somewhere in Los Angelas. I believe it was an underpass near a place I briefly lived in Santa Monica. I had the knowledge that I was alone in this city. Every other creature had abandoned it for a future version, as they do everywhere, every nanosecond. I just lay on this road, being fluttered and held down by a wind blowing through the underpass.
There's always a feeling of being pushed and pulled in a curving direction. Or of being compressed and squeezed through rollers into. sheet of strange paper. Even when my consciousness has become enmeshed with a nearby piece of furniture I feel this effect. It even happens when I am seeing the room from the perspective of a painting on the wall and I'm mixed with the consciousness of the painting itself.
What a strange drug. I've only used it at breakthrough doses 40 or 50 times. By itself it is physically unpleasant and can be disorienting. I especially dislike the after effects. I usually feel prickly and physically yucky for the rest of the day. Sort of wired. I wish I could use it more. It has helped me with physical issues and even with psychological issues. It's definitely a drug you need to learn to use before you get anything out of it. The reverse tolerance is helpful in this regard. Plain leaf will eventually become as strong as an extract if you use it enough.
I find salvia is more interesting when used in lower doses (a cigarette of plain leaf smoked) as the base for a dmt trip, or as an admixture in a changa blend. When used with dmt, I reliably enter a circus/carnival themed world. Very distinct from Salvia or DMT.
My personal Western Salvia experience is on my YT channel.
It was too much.
I was flipping through the earth at my hips.
It felt like everyone was waiting for me to wake up to this plane of existence that I was missing.
wheel image he shows looks like a wheel of life
It had been quite some time since I had last experimented with psychedelics, my first being LSD seven years ago, followed by mushrooms. After hearing about salvia online, I decided to delve into some research. Being from Mexico, it was incredibly easy to obtain, as here in Mexico is legal costing me less than $20 with shipping included. With my bong pipe in hand, I cautiously took a hit.
Almost instantly, I felt overwhelming happiness wash over me, causing me to burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was as if an invisible force was pulling me downwards, guiding me to lay on my bed. The sheer euphoria flowing through my veins made it nearly impossible to stop laughing. But after a mere minute or two, the intense laughter subsided, and I decided to take another hit.
And that's where things took a mind-boggling turn.
In an instant, it felt as though I was transcending this reality, leaving everything familiar behind. My surroundings transformed into a colossal wheel, embellished with vibrant patterns reminiscent of an Alex Grey painting. I was not merely an observer, but an integral part of this mesmerizing wheel. As if guided by some invisible hand, the top of my bedroom wall started to open, just like the unzipping of a jacket. Through this opening, I could catch glimpses of the intricate wheel universe in which I found myself.
My room, no longer confined by its physical boundaries, became part of this immense, cosmic wheel. It stretched onward into infinity, defying any sense of restriction or normalcy. As I continued to explorethis wheel reminded me to , a to the movie "Inception" but with alex grey textures it began to wash over me, as if reality itself was unraveling, revealing layers upon layers of existence. Doubts began to creep in, and I turned to my brother, desperately seeking confirmation of reality. "Are you real?" I implored, my voice filled with a mixture of awe and uncertainty. Yet, he remained silent, his response lost within the infinite folds of the mesmerizing wheel that enveloped us. Unfazed, I decided to stand up and explore this vibrant and ever-unfolding realm.
Eventually, I returned to my physical form, though left with an indescribably strange sensation. Salvia had granted me an opportunity to delve into a world so radically different from anything I had ever experienced before. It was a journey that blazed a trail through the fabric of reality, leaving me with a newfound sense of wonder and craving for further exploration.
I only done it once. And only a supposed 60x extract. I remember seeing a sort of barrier in my peripheral vision that I was so transfixed by it that I went in to a loop, just saying over and over again to my brother, "hold on rich, hold on rich, hold on rich". Didn't last long thankfully
I smoked salvia about 12 times, and although they were each very unique experiences, they all had the common theme of spinning, relentless vortex, pinwheel, roulette wheel, etc with riotous colors, circus tent pattern. I could probably paint or draw each individual experience. I don't know if I'm traumatized by these experiences, but sometimes I remember them and I stop everything I'm doing and zone out for a little bit and remember the visions and almost feel it again, I have to snap myself back out of it. There's something I crave about destroying my ego, I'm always at odds with it, there is something both satisfying and terrifying about losing your ego. And no other substance does it like salvia. Would like to try DMT.
that salvia droid image ,,is exactly what i saw during my trip ,,,that figure was in my trip ,,,the jestiure what ah trip
I’ve seen many of these things and I’ve never tried a psychedelic/hallucinogenic… and was not having a NDE.. I’m convinced that these things are very real.
When I was going though some kind of “awakening” experience I guess you could call it, I kept having this comforting but terrifying scene of a water wheel come into my head, there was nothing else there just a field and some water and the wheel, but it was so familiar
I’ve seen that wheel as well it was winding a thread made out all of most beautiful feelings on earth, and it turns it into what is a building material of the dimension we’re all coming from and going to after our journey here is over.
I can sort of "access" the wheel in my meditations with minimal effort. I work with the sage mother and don't need salvia to learn what she has to teach us
For me the wheel was more like a clock with hands encompassing the whole universe and with every tick part of the universe was disappearing. Pretty scary in the beginning, but then replaced by acceptance.
I think the motion comes from your body moving in a certain direction. Usually you lay down or pass out, and this motion then gets intensified and lingers for a while in the brain.
Pretty much any experience that causes dissociation of the brain from the body, including blood loss to the brain, and certain anesthesia can cause a similar experience. I expect that a strong dose of salvia is knocking out the reception of messages from the body.
"The Great Wheel" is plainly seen in the spinning wheel of Zodiac constellations. We travel around it clockwise, but it is like the hands of a clock: As the hour hand passes through one age the minute hand goes around the whole thing, and as the minute hand goes through one age the second hand goes around the whole wheel. And the parts of the wheel are also found in the parts of the head which the blood circulates around, then the head is also found in the parts of the body…
I think when people have nde it's actually a DMT trip since I read somewhere that the brain releases a lot of DMT when we die
Really glad to catch this discussion. I had a loving, peaceful experience when I consumed salvia. It involved being sat in a distinct 'pilot seat' within a huge wheel, (that was 'time and matter' itself).
The 'flipping of pages', description, in my mind, manifested as observation of copper/bronze piano keys on the inner side of the wheel moving in a wave, turning over and clicking audibly into place …like it was the 'wheel/ships' ignition ..we were 'ready to go'!! Lol
I was aware there was more …and that there were beings who wanted to talk to me, behind the black, star filled universe…. Which is when I chose to return….by my will.
And I did. ..although I know I could have gone further xxxx