Hello there, fellow Steemers, this is my first post, so I'll try to keep my excitement at bay.
My name is Guillermo, but if you find it hard to pronounce, think of me as MeTortilla
I have two big passions in life: languages and plants.
My mind belongs to languages, but my heart to plants; and plants is what moves me to write this here as my first post, wondering what it is that I would like to share the most with this new community of what seems to be super-cool, avant-garde people.
The relationship between humans and plants, and the inexplicably profound effects that a plant can have on the human psyche, health and awareness, have kept me fascinated on the subject for the last 12 years.
It all started when one day, I found a bag of an extract of a plant called Salvia Divinorum, "the diviner's Sage". After careful due-diligence, I unknowingly set out to experience the most powerful and unexplainable experience of my life.
I loaded a pipe and told my girlfriend that everything would be fine, no matter what happened to me for the next few minutes. "Don't worry" I told her, "this is a very short-acting plant, I will be back in 5 minutes as if nothing happened".
So in the smoke goes - a long, deep inhalation - and the smoke tasted like dark green bitterness, though it was easy to hold it in for looong...
Must have been 20 or 30 seconds after holding my breath, that I saw my livingroom starting to swirl (for some reason, the fact that it was spinning in a clock-wise direction felt really important at the moment) and suddenly... Nothing.
Ceased material existance in an utterly bizarre way, I was, but I wasn't. I had no recollection of me, of my name, of even being a human being living on earth, just pitch-black awareness.
Suddenly, the presence. There came the overwhelming realization of this being of intimidating intensity watching me. And she knew I was there.
I say she because her presence felt undoubtedly female. I am tempted to write that I "saw" and "heard" her, because that's what it felt like, but the truth is that our interaction was fully in the midst of this black space filled with awareness but devoid of any sound or sight that I'm having so much trouble to describe.
So thereshe was, and she was welcoming: she WAS the realm where I was immersed in, and this realm was emanating a vibrant wave of energy that I interpreted as intense love.
It wasn't sweet, soft, caressing love. It's the kind of love that terrifies you with its intensity and its sharpness, and me, I was in the middle of it puzzled and confused, desperate to find out what in the world could be going on.
A familiar sensation, and then, it all comes back: "this is me! I'm human! I smoked some Salvia and I'm laying on my couch safely at home!".
As I start realizing this, I start slipping away from this realm, just as a torrent of questions start racing in my mind, "who are you?", "where are we?", "who am I?!"... But now it's too late, her presence is gone.
I remember I opened my eyes in total disbelief, and I tried to tell my girlfriend what just happened, but I found myself unable to speak, and I exploded in laughter, a sort of gut-shaking unstoppable laughter unlike any other that I've ever experienced. Later I found out that Salvia aficionados call this the "Cosmic Laughter".
Finally, I was back. Not completely, intense feelings and sensations came and went in waves, but after what I had just gone through, this felt as sober and normal as I could ever be.
My girlfriend... She was scared. She told me that I was out of it for 7 minutes, mumbling nonsense, moving weird, and unable to answer any of her questions. She trusted me, so she tried to keep calm, but it was tough for her to see me acting in a way she'd never seen anyone act before, but as of me, I have absolutely no memory of what my physical body was doing while I was in the presence of this Salvia Divinorum lady.
It is hard to explain what it feels like living an experience that felt like a lifetime - in a place where time doesn't exist, but yet every second feels like an eternity - to find out later that it was only 7 minutes in the real world, but it gave me first-hand insight into the relativity of time.
Salvia taught me to let go of my fear of death, and to become healthily unattached to the material (while still appreciating and enjoying its beauty) because, after all, I was left with the certainty that there is something out there, just barely out of reach by our senses, and whatever this thing, being, or mental construction is... it feels like real love.
Since then, I've had some life transforming experiences with ally-plants like ayahuasca, peyote, San Pedro, iboga and some more, but that, friends, is another story; first I've got to find out if this type of content is allowed and adequate here 😅
If you're reading this, my heart thanks you for going all the way, and I wish you joy, health, and happy Steeming.