Salvia Divinorum, a hallucinogenic plant of the Mint family, is illegal in most Western countries.
      Like most plants used over thousands of years for divination and therapeutic practices, Salvia Divinorum is deemed too dangerous for the general populace. While the occasional death has arisen from Salvia use, it remains a misunderstood hallucinogen, with little or no research on its make up and effects.
      In his new book, J.D. Arthur dispels some of the myths and dangers surrounding this plant. He recounts his own history and insights made while experimenting with this plant.
      Arthur begins the book with a disclaimer, warning of the dangers of Salvia’s use to those under 18, and to those without prior experience with hallucinogens. All hallucinogens can seriously impact developing brains and of course there’s always the possibility your conception of reality will be obliterated.
      For almost the entirety of the book, Arthur recounts his experiences in detail. Good trips, bad trips, recurring themes and the like.
      The meticulous detail he kept in his journals would make any hardened pothead blush, as he discovers and dissects the worlds he is drawn into with almost every Salvia trip.
      Salvia was primarily used in Central and South America by shamans to induce altered states of mind. They would cross into the spirit world to seek advice from their ancestors.
      Arthur seems to have taken its history to heart, as he constantly refers to meeting people who appear to be Mexican, South American or Caribbean in appearance. One might argue this is the result of prior ideas formulating present experience, but in reality this happens all day every day, even when you are sober.
      Later in the book, Arthur attempts to clear this way of thinking up with the idea that reality is purely subjective, and we cannot help but build our world based on ideas and experiences we have already come across.
      Think dear reader, about being made aware of something completely new, something outside your sphere of experience. Under the influence of a drug like Salvia, you might never be the same again.
      Interestingly, the author starts to believe he is being pulled into the world of the dead with every smoke of the Salvia laden pipe. These spirits, he claims, do not communicate with words, but have their own language more related to body language, psychic power and observable intent.
      More than once, Arthur recounts how the spirits know he is not dead and that he is merely visiting their realm, with some spirit children memorably calling him ‘The Meat in the Chair’, given he always takes his trip while sitting in a comfy old chair in a work shed at the back of his rural property.
      One of the biggest no-no’s Arthur commits is that he does not have a sober sitter present to keep an eye on his physical body while his consciousness is dragged to other dimensions.
      Even the spirits advise him against this, but he ends up paying little heed and barrels on all by his lonesome. Not the best idea when experimenting with hallucinogens.
      His explanation of the affects of Salvia are second to none, and prepare the reader quite well if they choose to experiment with this hallucinogen.
      The book is a quick read, as most of its pages are journal entries of his trips. In the final chapters, Arthur attempts to explain his experiences with ideas on subjective reality and how Salvia breaks down forms, language, and the conditioning of our worldviews.
      However, if you want true meat on the ideas of the perceived and the perceiver, go to Krishnamurti, Timothy Leary or Robert Anton Wilson. As for plant based consciousness expansion, read Carlos Castaneda.
      Arthur’s book walks the razor’s edge of being relatable and outlandish. Everyone’s trips are different, and as any hallucinogen experimenter knows, if you cannot tell your stories right, you lose your audience and muddle them up in your own head.
      Salvia Divinorum: Doorway to Thought-Free Awareness is insightful and readable. More on the history of the plant would have been welcome, and do not expect it to be any kind of substitute for your own experiences. At best, let it be a guide, a doorway in itself, to bigger and better things.