New Zealanders Share Stories of Tripping Balls on Salvia

Hamilton Morris is fascinated by drugs. Join him on an incredible journey as he investigates the history, chemistry, and social impact of the world's most extraordinary mind-altering substances in HAMILTON'S PHARMACOPEIA. Find out more every Thursday at 8:30pm on VICELAND, SKY Channel 13.

The National Government is not into recreational weed at all, but until 2013, we used to have a fairly relaxed stance on psychoactive drugs. The new breed of synthetic "legal highs" snuck in around the year 2000 and it was a free-for-all on BZP and synthetic cannabis, until lawmakers decided it wasn't a good idea to be able to grab mind-bending drugs from the dairy unless they'd gone through some clinical testing first. So we got the Psychoactive Substances Act of 2013.

While the Act was aimed at designer drugs produced in a lab, it stopped stores from selling salvia too—temporarily. Dealers were quick to realize that they could repackage this special sage and legally sell it as a "medicinal herbal supplement" through a loophole in the new law. his potent psychoactive plant has long been used by Mazatec Shamans to reach visionary states of consciousness. Salvia flew right under the radar when politicians were panicking about the effects of synthetic drugs, even though the internet is full of videos of terrified users falling through windows while trying to hide from invisible horrors. Trippers accounts online liken a good hit of salvia to five doses of acid. But what are the trips like exactly? It wasn't too hard to find New Zealanders who had used it, and had some stories to tell.

"I was at small party in high school. I took a hit while sitting on the couch. This guy who I didn't really trust was filming me in hopes of creating a new viral trip video. After a decent lungful, these huge trains came at me and rammed themselves down my throat pushing out everything inside. I was pissing, shitting and vomiting everywhere. I quietly told my friend that I was super embarrassed and needed everyone to leave the room. People were confused but followed my request. I was also convinced that I should now kill myself since the video was going to be played at my school assembly. My friend assured me that I hadn't embarrassed myself in any other way but asking everyone to leave the room. I went to the bathroom and it turned out I was completely fine. Nothing had happened! It took a while to calm down and be reassured that I was okay and that staying alive was worth it.

"A year later I tried salvia again at the beach. The exact same thing happened, but this time I was aware of what was going on. I just had to hold on, trust that I was okay and ride it out. I'm never trying it again."

"One weekend I was hanging out at my place with two close friends. I took a hit and completely zoned out. As I came to I was floating over myself in third person like Grand Theft Auto. The thing was that upon leaving my body I had left my personality behind too. I didn't feel like I was Jamal anymore. "Being apart from my body was cold and depressing. My place had this retro patterned carpet which slowly began to shift colours and move around my body like a whirlpool. I felt powerless as it pulled me around the room. I was terrified. It started to become too much to handle and blacked out. When I regained consciousness, I was in the closet still feeling distant from my personality, yet thankfully back in first person. Luckily after we smoked a few joints, the feeling went away. There was no way I'd do salvia again, so I swapped the rest of my salvia for a pack of bacon. Everything was alright."

"My boyfriend and I smoked some in a hotel room. It didn't seem to do anything at all apart from making me feel insanely cold. I thought I'd die if I didn't warm up, so I put all my clothes on and got into bed covered in every blanket I could find. It wasn't enough; I still felt like I was freezing. My boyfriend felt my head and said I was burning up–urging me to get out of bed. I just couldn't. It felt like I was going to die of hypothermia if I didn't stay bundled up. He was really worried that I was getting too hot and kept nervously checking on me. I had heard that salvia lasts around 10-15 minutes but this intense cold went on for much longer. It completely ruined our night."

"I was with my boyfriend in our apartment. As soon as I took a hit, I immediately existed in a 2D black and white world surrounded by circles and squares. I was a square myself.  Since I had no recollection of my life as a human, I simply "was" a square. Nothing moved in this reality, yet that was fine–there was no other way to exist. After a while, a 3D hand entered my world which was completely incomprehensible and terrifying. I started to remember what living in three dimensions was like and then realised that I'm Olivia, not a square. The whole experience was completely ridiculous. I think I'd do it again in the right setting, but there's no way I'd go out of my way to get some more."

"I was staying at a B&B while working away from home. One of my workmates told me how he enjoyed acting as a shaman to help people get the most from psychedelic drugs. I was interested so he asked if I would like to try some salvia. His recipe for the best trip was to smoke in the dark with only a candle.

"I took a few hits and layed down on my bed. I left my body in third person before my focus expanded from the room itself. I became the universe. I was God and everyone and everything was God. I still had all my senses which now felt completely connected, but I breathed as the universe, heard as the universe, and felt as the universe. I was spinning inside the universe while being the universe at the same time. I know that doesn't make any sense, but there's no other way to describe it.

"This spinning sensation finally slowed and I began to see complex geometric patterns as I returned to my body. When I fully returned, it felt like my entire life was a dream. The realisation wasn't positive or negative, it just "was." Then my workmate touched my hand and said my name; I snapped back into normality and felt good.

"I wouldn't call my journey spiritual–it was just intense like taking the biggest rollercoaster ride anyone could ever imagine. I could see how it could be negative if I tried to fight the experience because then it would have been terrifying from the very start. It's important to stay calm and roll with whatever the trip throws at you. I have far greater respect for how complex and mysterious our brain chemistry is. I really want my story to be heard because people often take this drug so stupidly and then assume that salvia itself is terrifying. I have done it several times since and haven't had a bad trip since I always created the best environment beforehand."

Hamilton Morris is fascinated by drugs. Join him on an incredible journey as he investigates the history, chemistry, and social impact of the world's most extraordinary mind-altering substances in HAMILTON'S PHARMACOPEIA. Find out more every Thursday at 8:30pm on VICELAND, SKY Channel 13.