Salvia divinorum Stats & Data
Subjective Effects
Physical
- Gravity alterations: This is consistently the most obvious and noticeable subjective physical experience during the onset of a moderate to high dosage salvia trip. It creates the sensation of an extremely powerful, irresistible and extradimensional force pulling the body and head in a specific direction, usually to the left or right.
- Changes in felt bodily form: This effect often accompanies the onset of powerful salvinorin A gravity and can be described as non-painful sensations of being stretched horizontally or vertically into infinity, splitting into two halves and a variety of other sudden changes.
- Spontaneous tactile sensations: For some unlucky people this is sometimes accompanied by the sensation of intense, sharp and cold pins and needles all over a person's skin, which can quickly become very uncomfortable. Most people however will never experience this feeling.
Cognitive
The general head space of salvia is described by many as one of extreme cognitive suppression and strong feelings of confusion. This substance is best described as a drug that does not create profound personal insights, just profound and interesting experiences.
- Extreme laughter: The average first time salvia user generally experiences a mixture of extreme gigglyness and confusion.
- Ego suppression, loss and death: This substance is particularly intense in its cognitive effects due to the near instant transition from sobriety into ego death which can occur very suddenly at moderate to high dosages.
- Thought deceleration
- Information processing suppression
- Language suppression
- Anxiety: General paranoia, anxiety and panic are very common for the unprepared.
- Unity and interconnectedness
- Amnesia
Sensory
When a user keeps their eyes open throughout the duration of a moderate to strong trip, a number of open eye distortions are usually present. These are significantly more simplistic than distortions found with other classes of hallucinogens.
- Depth perception distortions: This effect is usually characterized by a total loss of depth perception and a complete flattening of the visual field into a 2-dimensional image. It can also make objects seem further away or closer in distance than they actually are.
- Size distortions: This effect can be described as specific objects within the external environment or the surroundings as a whole changing in physical size and becoming impossibly huge or small in size.
Salvia produces a full range of high level hallucinatory states in a fashion that is just as consistent as that of classical psychedelics.
- External hallucinations: In comparison to psychedelics, the transformations found within salvinorin A are significantly more solid, believable and realistic in appearance. They are commonly manifested as objects within the external environment coming alive or changing in some way and can only occur when the eyes are kept open.
- Internal hallucinations: (Autonomous entities; settings, sceneries, and landscapes; alterations in perspective and scenarios and plots)
- Machinescapes: At high dosages with darkness or closed eyes, once the user has become disconnected from their body, vast and complex landscapes comprised of ever-changing and interlocking mechanical parts manifest. These are comprised from an infinite variety of potential materials and parts which often comprise impossible arrays of cogs, gears, pulleys, conveyor belts, levers, panels, hydraulics and incomprehensible moving parts. There is an extremely prominent sense that you have become the perceivable machinescape.
- Distortions
- Hallucinations
Forked from Subjective Effect Documentation by Josie Kins, March 2012. Via dose.wiki (CC0).
Effect Profile
Curated + 2,032 ReportsStrong visuals and auditory effects with moderate headspace, low body load
Duration Timeline
BluelightEmpirical Duration
Erowid ReportsMedian times after the dose that Erowid reports state. A curve is drawn only when reports state all four points (onset, peak begins, comedown begins, back to baseline) and the medians fall in that order. No point is estimated from another.
No curve: the stated times run backwards. Reports put the start of the peak (T+10min, 40 reports) before the onset (T+20min, 12 reports). Reports put the start of the comedown (T+15min, 59 reports) before the onset (T+20min, 12 reports). Reports put the return to baseline (T+15min, 81 reports) before the onset (T+20min, 12 reports). Each time is the median of a different set of reports, so they are shown as stated, not rearranged.
Community Effects
TripSitDemographics
Gender Distribution
Age Distribution
Reports Over Time
Effect Analysis
Erowid + BluelightEffects aggregated from 1,710 experience reports (1,660 single-substance Erowid + 372 Bluelight)
Effect Sentiment Distribution
Confidence Distribution
Each bar is the share of reports mentioning the effect; its whisker, and the band on the rows below, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind.
Positive Effects 48
Adverse Effects 62
Show 40 more adverse effects
Show 30 neutral or unclassified mentions
Also reported in combinations. In the 543 Salvia divinorum reports where another drug was taken too, 22 (4.1%) mention hospital, emergency services or an overdose, 6 (1.1%) a seizure and 25 (4.6%) psychosis. In the 1,660 single-substance reports: 2.7%, 0.5% and 3.0%. One or more of the three comes up more often in the combination reports (8.7% against 5.8%), by more than chance would explain; that does not show the combination caused it. These are not in the figures above: they cannot be put down to Salvia divinorum alone, and a mention is not always something that happened to the writer.
Dose-Response Correlation
How effect frequency changes across dose levels. Whiskers, and the numbers' hover text, give each figure's 95% interval.
View data table
| Effect | Threshold (n=292) |
|---|---|
| Anxiety | 61.3% (95% interval 56 to 67 percent) |
| Visual Distortions | 48.6% (95% interval 43 to 54 percent) |
| Confusion | 43.5% (95% interval 38 to 49 percent) |
| Color Enhancement | 31.8% (95% interval 27 to 37 percent) |
| Music Enhancement | 26.4% (95% interval 22 to 32 percent) |
| Closed-Eye Visuals | 23.3% (95% interval 19 to 28 percent) |
| Auditory Effects | 23.3% (95% interval 19 to 28 percent) |
| Empathy | 23.3% (95% interval 19 to 28 percent) |
| Dissociation | 22.9% (95% interval 18 to 28 percent) |
| Euphoria | 19.5% (95% interval 15 to 24 percent) |
| Introspection | 18.2% (95% interval 14 to 23 percent) |
| Stimulation | 17.8% (95% interval 14 to 23 percent) |
| Memory Suppression | 17.1% (95% interval 13 to 22 percent) |
| Tactile Enhancement | 15.8% (95% interval 12 to 20 percent) |
| Time Distortion | 11.6% (95% interval 8 to 16 percent) |
Subjective Effect Ontology
Experience ReportsStructured effect tags extracted from 2,247 Erowid & Bluelight experience reports using a controlled vocabulary of 220+ canonical effects across 15 domains.
Auditory
Cognitive
Emotional
Motor
Selfhood
Somatic
Tactile
Temporal
Visual
Dose–Effect Mapping
Experience ReportsHow reported effects shift across dose tiers, based on 1660 single-substance experience reports. The shaded band on each bar is its 95% interval. An arrow (↑ ↓) marks a change between the lowest and highest tier that count an effect only when the gap is bigger than chance would explain; ~ means no clear change. How changes are called
Limited tier coverage — most reports fall within the Threshold range. Effects at other dose levels may not be represented.
| Effect | Threshold (n=292) | Change with dose |
|---|---|---|
| anxiety | ||
| visual distortions | ||
| confusion | ||
| color enhancement | ||
| music enhancement | ||
| closed-eye visuals | ||
| auditory effects | ||
| empathy | ||
| dissociation | ||
| euphoria | ||
| introspection | ||
| stimulation | ||
| memory suppression | ||
| tactile enhancement | ||
| time distortion | ||
| sweating | ||
| body high | ||
| open-eye visuals | ||
| motor impairment | ||
| focus enhancement |
Showing top 20 of 32 effects
Dosage Distribution
Dose distribution from experience reports, one dose per report (the first listed). Doses above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out of the median and range and listed under each route: most are real heavy doses or overdoses, not mistakes.
13 reports gave a dose above the typical range (1,750–7,000 mg), so they are not in the figures above. Listing a dose here does not mean it is safe.
Real-World Dose Distribution
ErowidFrom 569 of 2294 recorded dose entries: those that state a weight (mg, g or µg), in routes with at least five of them. Values above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out; they can include real heavy doses and overdoses, not only mistakes.
Sublingual (n=39)
Smoked (n=501)
Oral (n=7)
Common Combinations
Most co-occurring substances, as a share of all 2,203 reports filed under Salvia divinorum; whiskers are 95% intervals
Form / Preparation
Most common forms and preparations, as a share of the 1,997 reports that give one; whiskers are 95% intervals
Body-Weight Dosing
Dose per kg of body weight, one dose per report (the first listed), from reports giving a weight of 30–250 kg. Doses above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out of the median and range and listed under each route.
Smoked
17 reports gave a dose above the typical range (18.382–84.746 mg/kg), so they are not in the figures above. Listing a dose here does not mean it is safe.
Show the reports
- 84.746 mg/kg · another drug taken too
- 77.178 mg/kg
- 55.118 mg/kg · another drug taken too
- 49.02 mg/kg
- 44.118 mg/kg
- 35.757 mg/kg
- 32.544 mg/kg
- 30.637 mg/kg
- 29.508 mg/kg
- 29.412 mg/kg
- 27.548 mg/kg
- 27.273 mg/kg
- 22.624 mg/kg
- 21.429 mg/kg
- 20.79 mg/kg · another drug taken too
- 18.382 mg/kg
- 18.382 mg/kg
Unknown
1 report gave a dose above the typical range (682.667 mg/kg), so it is not in the figures above. Listing a dose here does not mean it is safe.
Show the report
Sublingual
Oral
Redose Patterns
Redosing behavior across 2032 reports