Medium to high resolution .jpeg images of crystalline salvinorin. A collection of my favorite photographs of salvinorin crystals selected out of over 1000 taken from 2002 to 2007. Once this page is opened click on each photo to see a larger picture. Look for the "original" link under the photo if you want to see the photo in its highest resolution. Also, at the bottom of the page are a few .pdf articles I wrote about extracting Salvia divinorum leaf. All photographs and documents copyright owned but feel free to make them available on pro-entheogen forums and web sites, others must ask permission to use them.
Regarding the extraction techs which can be viewed at the bottom of the page:
I am not a chemist or a professional in botany but have worked many hundreds of hours to find and hone simple methods for extracting and refining salvinorin without the need for special equipment and have placed everything I have learned over the years here. These methods were worked out in a place and time where and when legal to do so. Please observe all local laws.
Disclaimer, use this information at your own risk, I will not be responsible for either the proper or improper use of the information provided. Also, these documents were written to share what I have learned and not meant to be viewed as completely accurate and or safe, they are only a documentation of my own experience and views on the subject and use of Salvia divinorum and its active principal salvinorin, however flawed. See further disclaimers in the documents. Salvia divinorum should only be used by adults who are of sound mind and clear intent... along with some common sense!
What Salvia divinorum is not:
Not a substance to play with just to see pretty colors. If that is all you want from Salvia go see a movie, this isn't a toy to be used for amusement purposes. Respect this substance, it is far too powerful for anything but serious uses.
Not something to extract and refine into the pure form of its active principle of salvinorin-A for use as a drug (or even anywhere near pure). The average amount of salvinorin-A naturally found in Salvia divinorum leaf is approximately 2.5 milligrams per gram of dried leaf as it comes off the vine. That's 2.5 thousandths of a gram of the active principal per gram of dried raw leaf. Due to the extremely small amount of this material required for psychotropic effect, as small as one quarter of a milligram or less for individuals who are extremely sensitive to salvinorin, 2.5 mg of this substance would be far more principal than most individuals would want or should every try to endure. Salvia divinorum is not something to use in public places or prior to going to one. When using any psychotropic substance of any kind which can have strong side effects to either consciousness or your body you should never use them while out or prior to going to a public place, doing so is a sure way to invite trouble for yourself and others.
Mostly, my advice is that Salvia divinorum should never be used as a toy, if at all. Salvia is not right for most individuals but some find its use to be very rewarding to their understanding of self. Salvia divinorum can be used as a philosophers stone for introspective journeys within one self which can be very spiritual but from my experience nothing more profound than what is potentially within ones self to begin with. On the more practical side Salvia can sometimes help bring long forgotten memories and even dreams from years before back to the surface of ones consciousness and has been used by some to increase the peak of sexual orgasm ten fold plus when used in small amounts just below a vision producing psychotropic dose. That last reference to the use of this plant for sexual pleasures is upsetting to some individuals in the entheogen community because they believe Salvia divinorum is a sacred shamanic plant which should never be used for such purpose as to increase the peak intensity of an orgasm. My opinion is that all things in heaven and earth are sacred on some level, even the things which many of us might dislike have a larger function in the overall scheme of reality but as human beings we each decide what is wrong or right and this is how it should be, freedom of choice is more important than the choices we make, right or wrong for one or the other. We all pay for wrong choices but sadly, all too often it's the innocent who pay a terrible price for our freedom to be able to make choices which affect one another in sometimes terrible ways... something I hope to better understand someday (soap box is being put away now).
The spiritual use of Salvia? Some individuals become so enthused by its psychotropic effects to consciousness they have grouped together on the internet to discuss its effects. A few of these individuals have formed a kind of metaphysical-shamanic religion around its use which has its own Goddess, a feminine figure which has been reported by many individuals to have appeared in their visions. Most visions of such things (which although brief lasting and usually quickly dissipating once opening your eyes) seem to be a real inner reality, as if another place somehow exists inside us. Because of this some psychedelic users believe they are being contacted by something outside of themselves while under the influence of this plants active principal; salvinorin-A. As a human being there is no doubt that we individually are a universe of our own reality, through the reflections of what we have learned and sensed from the world literally creating our own world of dreams and because of this any vision we can possibly imagine can exist within our thoughts and indeed, sometimes new horizons can open up which appear to be far beyond our individual abilities, drug or no drug, but which is it? This question is a difficult one for me to speculate upon, can a psychedelic drug somehow unlock consciousness in some way which can allow us to perceive things which are normally beyond the capacity of our brains gray matter alone? I dearly hope we can someday advance far enough to know the answer to this question, which ever it is I do not believe the value of such experiences would be lost.
If there is more to the visions these substances can sometimes produce, other than psychotropic effects alone, I hope science will someday develop more effective molecular keys to open new doorways to consciousness without the body load some of these substances currently have and that we continue to have the freedom to seek cognitive experiences which are far beyond ordinary day to day consciousness, beyond our current hopes and dreams as the technology of vision producing psychedelics continues to advance, less the pitfalls of intolerance for these freedoms which like in any situation always has its roots in fear and ignorance. Unfortunately there are many individuals who are now desperately trying to make the use of all natural psychedelics currently legal a criminal act with threat of personal loss of freedom, AKA imprisonment. To stand tall on my soap box again, when did we pass the line where the citizens of this country began to believe any restriction of personal freedom which does not harm another individual done within ones own home will leave the rest of "freedom" intact? When it comes to issues like this I believe freedom can never be what it claims to be when it is divided because true or real freedom is and will always be indivisible. If we are not going to be truly free in this country and desire to allow societies general ignorance about psychedelics to choose what they see as security over freedom, then lets call it what it is and stop saying we live in a free country when we don't, only free in broad terms, not full reality.
Although I am reserving complete judgment one way or another about psychedelics I tend to lean towards the side that such dream-worlds are usually just made from our own thoughts which are a combination of both our subconscious and conscious minds, I say usually.... use that word because I have myself have experienced things through the use of this plant which appears to be more than from my own consciousness, even though I also believe the experiences from salvinorin-A are likely drug induced I sometimes wonder if there isn't more to these experiences than the affects of the drug alone. Reading many of the online blogs on the subject of Salvia divinorum it is clear many individuals have come to believe the use of Salvia divinorum will allow contact with one another on an astral-like spiritual plane sometimes referred to as Salvia Space or that it can allow remote viewing of others either in the past, present or future. Possible? All I can remark on that subject is that the older I get the more I know truth is certainly far stranger than fiction. However, no one can disagree the active principal of Salvia divinorum is first and foremost an effective psychedelic hallucinogen which for some individuals can unlock the chemical blocks in their brains which normally inhibit the rise of internal visions (AKA hallucinations) from occurring. This, as it should be, after all, for our survival as human beings in a world where you could be eaten by a bear or tiger you need to know the difference between your imagination and a real threat looking for its dinner.
No doubt about it, Salvinorin-A does act as a psychedelic which for a few short minutes will allow the brain run on a kind of closed loop back upon itself through your visual center sometimes creating a vivid and awesomely beautiful world upon the mirror of your minds eye. Visions which doubtless contain who we are and what we have experienced together which through the use of this substance can synthesize a new kind of mind-reality. However, the inspiring beauty of some of these visions leads me to beli... |
