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Sacred Weeds – Salvia Divinorum

Salvia Divinorum, also known as Diviner’s Sage, Magic Mint, ska María Pastora, Sally D, Sage of the Seers, or simply Salvia (although the genus name is shared among many plants), is a powerful psychoactive plant, a member of the sage genus and the Lamiaceae (mint) family. It has long been used as an entheogen by the indigenous Mazatec shamans for healing during spirit journeys. The plant is found in isolated, shaded and moist plots in Oaxaca, Mexico. It is thought to be a cultigen.

The Latin name Salvia divinorum literally translates to “Sage of the seers”. The genus name Salvia is derived from the Latin salvare, meaning “to heal” or “to save”. The primary psychoactive constituent is a diterpenoid known as salvinorin A.

The history of the plant is not known, but there are three possibilities as to its origin. Since it is found in one small area and only one indigenous group uses it, it is either native to this area, is a cultigen of the Mazatecs, or is a cultigen of another indigenous group.

Wasson theorized that this plant was the mythological pipilzintzintli, the “Noble Prince” of the Aztec codices. However, this theory is not without dispute. The Aztecs were extremely knowledgeable in plant identification, and their records report that pipilzintzintli has both male and female varieties.

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  1. Yep yep 🙂 great doco, its neat & simple; it presents an experienced & a non-experienced subject, it presents a skeptical reductionist & an open-minded analyst, a clinical day & a natural night setting, ingestion through smoke & an ingestion through mastication … Its dialectical, the bread & butter of inquiry.

    I, as a timid yet worn psychonaut agree with Xperiment, in that the objective reductionist dude has no EXPERIENCE (not belief, but EXPERIENCE) of “gnosis” – or internal & integrating understanding, & therefore it is unsurprising that he rejects the possibility for this to occur. Given Mr Reductionist, & for that matter Mr Open-Minded, lack any experience & thusly wisdom on the matter of internal relevatory cognition, his “analysis” is much weaker than it would be coming from a shaman who suggests a reductionist conclusion.

    However, we would all be amiss in my opinion if shaman/gnostics left reductionist sober-ians behind in our pursuit to understand these hallucinogen-trances. For me, we need to carry countering perspectives  all the way into the epicentre of scrutiny 🙂
    I have never experienced Salvia, & im not sure I want to, my wish for HPPD (‘Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder’, or commonly called ‘enlightenment’ 0_O) is on time & under budget :p so i don’t play with fire much anymore

    But, alas, I would like to submit this idea before y’all:
    The “hallucinations” are “real”, though obviously immaterial & subjective, because
    A) Hallucination almost always bears personal relevance & ultimately therapeutic value for the trancee, & the trancee is “real”, & thus there is a “real” dimension to the experience.
    B) the hallucination is induced by a terrestrial organism, & therefore bears relevance (to varying degree) to mankinds “real world” affairs, given the intoxication comes from a “real plant grown from the world” 🙂

    Much luv, Ben

  2. Yep yep 🙂 great doco, its neat & simple; it presents an experienced & a non-experienced subject, it presents a skeptical reductionist & an open-minded analyst, a clinical day & a natural night setting, ingestion through smoke & an ingestion through mastication … Its dialectical, the bread & butter of inquiry.

    I, as a timid yet worn psychonaut agree with Xperiment, in that the objective reductionist dude has no EXPERIENCE (not belief, but EXPERIENCE) of “gnosis” – or internal & integrating understanding, & therefore it is unsurprising that he rejects the possibility for this to occur. Given Mr Reductionist, & for that matter Mr Open-Minded, lack any experience & thusly wisdom on the matter of internal relevatory cognition, his “analysis” is much weaker than it would be coming from a shaman who suggests a reductionist conclusion.

    However, we would all be amiss in my opinion if shaman/gnostics left reductionist sober-ians behind in our pursuit to understand these hallucinogen-trances. For me, we need to carry countering perspectives  all the way into the epicentre of scrutiny 🙂
    I have never experienced Salvia, & im not sure I want to, my wish for HPPD (‘Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder’, or commonly called ‘enlightenment’ 0_O) is on time & under budget :p so i don’t play with fire much anymore

    But, alas, I would like to submit this idea before y’all:
    The “hallucinations” are “real”, though obviously immaterial & subjective, because
    A) Hallucination almost always bears personal relevance & ultimately therapeutic value for the trancee, & the trancee is “real”, & thus there is a “real” dimension to the experience.
    B) the hallucination is induced by a terrestrial organism, & therefore bears relevance (to varying degree) to mankinds “real world” affairs, given the intoxication comes from a “real plant grown from the world” 🙂

    Much luv, Ben

  3. Yep yep 🙂 great doco, its neat & simple; it presents an experienced & a non-experienced subject, it presents a skeptical reductionist & an open-minded analyst, a clinical day & a natural night setting, ingestion through smoke & an ingestion through mastication … Its dialectical, the bread & butter of inquiry.

    I, as a timid yet worn psychonaut agree with Xperiment, in that the objective reductionist dude has no EXPERIENCE (not belief, but EXPERIENCE) of “gnosis” – or internal & integrating understanding, & therefore it is unsurprising that he rejects the possibility for this to occur. Given Mr Reductionist, & for that matter Mr Open-Minded, lack any experience & thusly wisdom on the matter of internal relevatory cognition, his “analysis” is much weaker than it would be coming from a shaman who suggests a reductionist conclusion.

    However, we would all be amiss in my opinion if shaman/gnostics left reductionist sober-ians behind in our pursuit to understand these hallucinogen-trances. For me, we need to carry countering perspectives  all the way into the epicentre of scrutiny 🙂
    I have never experienced Salvia, & im not sure I want to, my wish for HPPD (‘Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder’, or commonly called ‘enlightenment’ 0_O) is on time & under budget :p so i don’t play with fire much anymore

    But, alas, I would like to submit this idea before y’all:
    The “hallucinations” are “real”, though obviously immaterial & subjective, because
    A) Hallucination almost always bears personal relevance & ultimately therapeutic value for the trancee, & the trancee is “real”, & thus there is a “real” dimension to the experience.
    B) the hallucination is induced by a terrestrial organism, & therefore bears relevance (to varying degree) to mankinds “real world” affairs, given the intoxication comes from a “real plant grown from the world” 🙂

    Much luv, Ben

  4. This reductionist scientist needs to experiment himself before he speaks; he doesn’t understand the actual concept of hidden knowledge, I felt like giving him some leaves to choke-on, just kidding… but anyway… an okay documentary. Oh, this certain special laughter… it truly ‘is’ pretty special, I’ve experienced this only once while on shrooms, and nothing else has given me this effect. 

  5. An interesting look into Salvia Divinorum for those that dont know much about it