I had a really, really fucking weird dream last night. Here goes:
I had a dream that my girlfriend and I were in some sort of middle ages town, and we were in a wooden hall where the king was holding some kind of festival that involved games. The games involved throwing balls at moving objects/monsters while avoiding being hit. The one in the middle involved sword fighting with a guy in a dragon suit while the ones on the left and right were the same. I decided to enter to win for my girlfriend. And when I entered I realized the game was really made using all green screens like those old kids TV game shows on Nickelodeon. A girl I knew from High School was there as well and she was the only person I recognized. So I entered, but first I went into the back where there was a CVS and I bought a two piece Reeces peanut butter cup and a gallon of Arizona Iced Tea in preparation for my epic battle. I sold one of the peanut butter cups to this other kid for a dollar to make a profit. I was wearing my scrubs from work, and a medical face mask as well which I believed was for protection in the dream. The woman at the counter said it was obvious I came from the "medical wing" of the facility. Then I woke up.
NOTE: The medieval atmosphere was probably bc of playing Star Ocean before I went to bed, the girl from high school being there was because I saw her in the bar two nights ago and the medieval hall was sort of like a tavern hall - but the rest of it, noooo idea.
What's amusing to me is that while it's illegal, DMT is also naturally produced in every living thing that has a conscious and an unconscious state. It is literally the stuff dreams are made of. The fact that it's used as a drug sounds like an activity straight out of a science fiction novel, but no, it's very real.
There have been reports of seeing lightning bolts coming out of peoples eyes and really intense stuff like that.
Yes, that is one of my many irritations with modern drug law. An even bigger irritation is that this law prevents certain native american groups from practicing their religion in its traditional state in this country - which seems hugely unconstitional to me.
I should point out though that the hypothesis that DMT regulates dreaming is far from proven, and probably won't be for a long time since the state of the drug laws makes research into it very difficult. But if I were to put my money on it I would say it does. But the fact that it exists in every animal on the planet, and since many species across the animal kingdom have been observed to enter REM sleep, and it exists almost always in the pineal gland in the animals that have it which is associated with melatonin production, strongly suggests to me that it regulates dreaming and/or some base animalistic brain functions.
I had a few very vivid experiences with salvia divinorum, and while most of my friends were either terrified or temporarily felt what is immediately described as "permanently changed" and I will note the irony in that the feeling goes away rather quickly, just like the drug's effects. I experienced the same thing almost every time I tried it, which is why I found it annoying. I'd be in a sitting position, then suddenly, my couch or chair would spin backwards and I'd be rotated on an axis like the whole couch is a revolving door turned sideways, and every time I made it 90 degrees I was in a different dimension, where everything was there, but felt like all new actors playing the same old characters. It made me feel unsettled, but the feeling would always go away.
I highlighted the two parts which are the hallmarks of a
Salvia divinorum experience. Feeling as if you are no longer yourself and are living life as another, and feeling as if you are traversing dimensions, are very common sensations. It is puzzling to me that an individual feels this way, when conscious logical thought is almost completely eradicated during the experience. The sensation of entering another dimension feels like it is coming from deep in your soul. I'd say from your two descriptions you were a couple levels down from the maximum experience intensity that Salvia can produce. Another step up and you would have had an out of body experience, ego-death, a sensation of multiple reincarnations, a sensation of being outside of the entire universe, and a sensation of perceiving eternity. A 15 minute trip feels like it lasts days at that point. Very strange indeed. When you return, you feel as if the "real" world is an alien one, and you don't belong there because the Salvia world was so much more real.
It is very trying on the psyche, but I believe that anyone interested in entheogens should experience at least ego-death at some point in their lives, and Salvia offers an easy and safe (but powerful) medium for accomplishing that goal.
