This is A WORLD OUT OF MIND, my Online Journal where I explore Consciousness and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by the intentional alteration of my own belief structures, using Salvia Divinorum and additional self-altering meditational techniques drawn from Western Ceremonial Magic.

I always attempt to adhere to the scientific method as much as possible in my explorations, and while I often speak of these experiences as if I knew they were Truth, I always consider the alternative, that it is merely self-deception on my part, and think accordingly. Thus I maintain two parallel world views at once, one aspirational and one a safe fallback into standard materialism.

The more I journey into salviaspace, the more I think the former worldview is the correct one, but there is no objective way to prove that to the world, so I'll let you, the reader, decide for yourselves.

-Saint Brian the Godless

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Salvia Divinorum: Key to the Multiverse?

One of the most commonly occurring phenomena that I experience while in Salvia Space, is variations on multiple images of reality, of the room I am meditating in. (I have become able to experience eyes-open visions that interact with actual reality after a lot of practice resisting the very powerful "pull" of the drug as it is taking effect.) I've seen multiple images of the room "displayed" as a giant rolling "rolodex" of images. Imagine a very thick book, each page showing a view of the room as seen from my eyes, with the ends (first and last pages) bent around to touch each other, forming a wheel of multiple views, turning slowly on it's horizontal axis or "spine." This I have perceived as both external and internal, with me looking at it passively, and also at another point involved in the vision as a part of the wheel, or rather, a "floating viewpoint" that proceeds around the circumference of the wheel, able to view a segment of it at a time as I proceed around it. I have also seen multiple images of my surroundings encircling my head completely, like the seeds of a dandelion if you will; in that scenario I managed to control the vision and reduce the number of views until there were only two, one above the other. I focused on the two views of the (real, actual) room in front of me, and noted to myself that it was not as if I was experiencing "double-vision," but instead it was as if I was seeing two rooms at the same time, *through two pairs of my eyes,* but perceiving both with just my one mind. Other variations of this happen frequently, the common theme being multiple images of my surroundings. At first this was very confusing; hard to think when you can't see just one set of surroundings... At times it even seems that my mind itself is bifurcated into two or more minds viewing two or more rooms. This of course can be merely a form of hallucination, however it seems "realer-than-real," as do all Salvia Divinorum visions. What seems to be happening, is that at that moment, I am viewing two or more "universes" with my one mind. It also "feels" as if other versions of me are involved here; as if all the versions of me that are taking the Salvia Divinorum at that moment, are "fused" or "merged" somehow and can perceive the different views as seen from many pairs of "my" eyes at once. Salvia Divinorum visions are hard to describe since human languages lack the terminology for such radical, otherworldly experiences. One of the reasons for that, I think, is that we are seeing more than one plane of existence at the same time. Also, not only do we see visions on Salvia Divinorum, we also "feel" them, as if the visions were extensions of our physical body somehow. Therefore we can view a complex undulating shape and instantly know its workings, inside and out, because we also feel it in its entirety. Words fail miserably in describing the sheer wonder of the experience.

2 comments:

  1. I hope to take up art again in a way that can convey this experience. You have done a beautiful job of explaining in words friend. I felt for years like I was stuck in a different plane after a very similar experience. Recently I had an experience with different compounds where I felt like I was ascending and being lifted out of that dimension.

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