Category: Don’t Be Dumb

Salvia Divinorum for Dummies

Update: Make sure to read the update at the bottom of this post for important info…

Salvia Divinorum

Salvia Divinorum is a plant that can be smoked that is from the sage plant. In the summer of 2004 I had the very weird opportunity of smoking some Salvia Divinorum with my parents who had purchased some from an online store. I’d like to repeat that this was a very weird experience. If you are thinking of buying or smoking some Salvia Divinorum or having some Salvia Divinorum Extract in the near future, then you are going to want to read this whole thing through at least once. It is really not like anything you have ever tried.

Salvia DivinorumLet me start with the basics:

Salvia Divinorum is legal. I won’t say completely legal, because it probably isn’t something you would want to smoke in the car while driving around. Salvia is legal in that gray area that makes glass pipes somewhat legal. It can also usually be found in the same places that sell glass pipes and hookahs and bongs. If you have Salvia Divinorum on you, you will probably be arrested, but would get off when it came to court. My point is, be careful when you have this on you and treat it like a controlled substance.

How You Ingest Salvia Divinorum:

There are two ways that I know of to ingest Salvia Divinorum. I have tried them both. They are…

1. Drink a Salvia Divinorum Extract…

With this method, you actually take what would be considered a tincher of Salvia. This is a highly concentrated and very alcoholic dose of the Salvia Divinorum plant that has to be held in your mouth to be absorbed by your tongue and mouth and then swallowed. The good part of this method is that you can make sure to get exactly the amount you want, and your “high” comes on more slowly. The BAD part of the Salvia Divinorum extract method is that there is so much alcohol in it and you have to hold it in your mouth so long that it will burn the shit out of your mouth. We are talking about skin peeling off of the roof of your mouth and your tongue hurting like never before. The extract is also QUITE expensive and doesn’t do as much (in my humble opinion).

2. Smoke The Salvia Divinorum…

This is my preferred method. You are going to smoke the Salvia Divinorum just like you would smoke weed. You can use your same pipe for the salvia, or if you have a hookah lying around or a water pipe, then that is even better. Very simple stuff.

A Bit about 2x Salvia, 5x Salvia, 10x Salvia, and up…

The people who sell Salvia have thought up lots of new ways to get you blasted (and to make a buck or two more). They now offer higher powered Salvia that is basically more potent. The same thing that hash is to weed. In my experience, the more potent Salvia TRULY does make a big difference if you want to have an out-of-body experience. If you are looking for an experience that is less drastic, then you can buy the cheaper stuff.

What to Expect When You Do Salvia Divinorum:

When you smoke salvia, you are going to have one of two experiences. You are either going to have an out-of-body, more trippy than LSD, forget who you are and that the world exists kind of experience, or you are going to have a lighter feeling more like being high. I’m going to describe the out-of-body feeling first.

Out of Body Experience from Salvia Divinorum:

The first time I tried Salvia, it went like this… I watched my girlfriend take some extract and then trip a bit and think I was a tree and talk to me like I was a tree and then a crayon. It got me pretty psyched. I started out my experience by taking a bit of 25x Salvia Extract which got me ‚Äúto the door‚Äù and I remember ‚Äúfeeling something‚Äù. Since I was still conscious, my guides (my parents) put some 20x salvia into a bong and let me hit it. What happened from there I can only tell you from what I heard afterwards from my girlfriend and parents. I took the hit and held it for a moment then blew it out and would have dropped the bong if someone didn’t grab it from me. I laid back on my back and babbled and then tried to stand up repeatedly for about 10 minutes… then I kept saying ‚ÄúWho are you?‚Äù to the people around for about 30 minutes more. Not too interesting from a spectators point of view, but let me tell you what happened inside my head….

After taking the hit of 20x Salvia Divinorum, I immediately felt my perception of time stop. Time seemed to stop. Completely. I saw the inner workings of what seemed to be a universe of gears with billions of universes inside, each with lives and lives and lives all the way down. I saw the faces of people I had known in this life inside the gears and they seemed more insignificant than an ant. This seemed to continue for what would be days in our normal world until the effects began to wane. “Coming back” is relearning what makes up this world. You relearn that you know the people around you. You relearn that you are human. You relearn that you can walk. It took me about one week to get back to my state of mind before the experience. I must truly say that I have done many, many drugs and this one is absolutely the one that takes you further than any other. I have heard that Salvia Divinorum in these quantities is on par with 5 Meo Dmt.

Smoking Salvia Divinorum in a Joint

All of the Subsequent times that I have smoked Salvia Divinorum have been just regular Salvia smoked in what would be a joint if it were made with weed. Pretty much what happens when you smoke this is you begin to be more conscious or each thing you are doing. For instance, if you are on the computer talking to people, writing an email, and listening to music, you begin to get overwhelmed with how many things you are doing at once and you find yourself sitting and marveling at how much you can do at once.

I have heard many people say that they don’t feel anything when they only smoke a little bit of Salvia Divinorum. If you don’t know what to expect, and therefor what to feel for, you need to smoke a lot to get the feeling in your mind so you can recognize it.

Conclusion

If you have a stable mindset and think you can handle being out of control of your body, then you should try some Salvia Divinorum. It is cheap and mostly legal, so there really is no downside. Just make sure that you have someone with you to watch over you. Salvia Divinorum is not really a “fun” high, and it is completely non-addictive. So, go out to your local head shop and pick some up!

Update: After doing a bit of research, it has come to my attention that smoking Salvia Divinorum CAN be a cause to schizophrenia. If you have any known mental health issues or are on medication don’t fuck with your body chemistry. Do not smoke this. Do not touch this. You really shouldn’t do any drugs.

Why Is My Hookah Harsh?

Lately I Have been asked quite often, Why is My Hookah Harsh? If your hookah isn’t as smooth as you like it, you’ll find yourself smoking less and less (and we can’t have that now, can we?). So, lets try to figure out your problem…

1. First off, take a look at this list of Hookah Tips to see if any of these will help your experience…

2. If those Tips don’t help, make sure that you are setting up the hookah correctly. I know, I know, you’ve done it a million times. Just brush up and make sure you are doing it right… you might have forgotten a step in your years of smoking.

3. Many times you will find that your hookah is smoking a bit too harsh if your shisha hasn’t been taken care of well and it is too dry and burning too quickly. I’d suggest reading these two little diddies ( Shisha Info 1, Shisha Info 2) and make sure that your shisha isn’t having any problems.

4. Lastly, I’ve found that usually your hookah is a bit too harsh if the coal gets to burning the sheesha too much. When it gets harsh, back that coal off a little bit and let the shisha get back to a reasonable temperature. Remember to take your time and treat the hookah like a part of the party and usually the hookah will give back some love too.

How To: Hookah Lounges

As prevalent in parts of the Middle East and India as delis or Starbucks are in the United States, with one on every corner, hookah lounges and hookah bars, once quite rare in the West, have lately been seeing a rise in popularity here. From the friendly ambience of many of these establishments to the uniquely relaxed mood of hookah smoking and the kid-in-a-candy store variety of flavorful tobaccos available, hookah lounges and bars have a lot on offer.

Much of this upsurge in popularity is due to college and university populations, who find hookah lounges an attractive way to spend quality time with friends in a sober, but socially easy, environment. Hookah lounges are big with sororities and fraternities, but there are older sets of patrons on the scene as well, and a multiplicity of ethnicities and people from all walks of life can be found in various hookah lounges.

Different hookah bars and lounges offer different things to go with the smoking experience. At some lounges, an older clientele comes to play cards, backgammon, or chess, while pool tables, video games, and big screen TVs are on offer for the younger crowd. Many lounges serve food and drink, from Turkish coffee, spicy chai, and honey-drenched bamieh fritters to foie gras and Moroccan spiced lamb, while hookah bars offer everything from wine and cocktails to package deals–including private booth or lounge, hookah, drinks, and appetizers–which run about $125 for four. Rental prices for hookahs in lounges generally run from $5 to $20 an hour, with tobacco prices from $4 to $9 per bowl. Whatever’s on offer, people feel comfortable enough to linger, gathered round the hookah pipe. You can find directories of hookah lounges in the U.S., Canada, and Europe at www.hookahforum.com or www.hookahculture.com, and other sites online.

Someone on staff–often the proprietor–is always happy to help those new to the experience of hookah smoking and guide them through it. Pipes are generally prepared for the patrons with whatever exotic flavor of tobacco they choose. There’s usually a hookah coal carrier, circulating through the lounge with coals and tongs to replenish any waning hookah coals.

Music ranges from jazz to hip hop to tablah-backed Middle Eastern pop music, d?©cor from re-interpretations of a Cairo caf?© to tiki hut to sophisticated bar. Whether the people come to play games, drink cardamom-infused coffee, sip cocktails, or just kick back and relax, hookah lounges and bars offer a unique multicultural take on an age-old tradition.

Hookahs are for College Students

For centuries, Eastern cultures have embraced this simple, yet curious device known as the hookah. Though the designs and materials have changed through the years, the hookah’s social function is still intact. Too few things exist that are able to bring people – sometimes complete strangers – together in such an intimate fashion. Struggling for a place in the United States and European countries, the hookah has found its place in college and university towns.

Hookahs have seemingly always had a place in Eastern cultures. The hookah has, however, only recently begun to grab footing in the United States and European countries. Less than 10 years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a hookah bar or cafe outside of the cultural areas of larger cities. These days, if you survey the land around large university campuses, you will find a strange, new type of business cropping up. Though some offer exotic coffees and others offer alcoholic beverages, hookah cafes and bars are giving today’s college students a much-needed place to unwind after a day full of studies. Drawn by curiosity, students find themselves in a world of sheer imagination that is truly unique among the countless hangouts that abound around colleges and universities.

Hookahs were created to solve a problem among tobacco smokers. When heated, tobacco creates a smoke that, without cooling, is harsh and nearly unbearable. The hookah introduced a simple, yet novel way to cool the hot, harsh smoke. When a smoker inhales, the smoke first travels through water and is cooled before it ever reaches the smoker’s mouth. This smooth experience is quite different from smoking cigarettes or cigars and is almost always commented upon by first-time hookah smokers.

In addition to being a cooler smoke, the tobaccos used in hookahs are generally flavored. These flavors range from fruits like apples and oranges, to modern-day flavors like bubble gum and cola. It’s this flavored smoke that has really made hookahs the preferred smoke among college students.

Look around a hookah bar or cafe and you will see tightly-huddled masses sitting around a dozen or so hookahs, talking about everything from this week’s exams to next year’s newest cars. This simple device has an extraordinary power to bring together people of all backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. It knows no boundaries and performs its social function with relative ease.

Business owners recognize the power of college towns. They provide businesses with a constant flow of fresh customers from semester to semester. New students arrive and seasoned students bring the new students to the cafes and bars. It’s a process that repeats itself over and over again.

So, if you’re looking for a new, fresh place to meet new friends, go on a hunt for your local hookah establishment. You’ll be glad you did!