These are visions induced by smoking or brewing a tea from a leaf called Salvia. Historicly Salvia was used by the shamans and sages of central and south america. I used this several times this week, it is very very dream like. You start to feel the efects on your body and then it just takes your mind into another place, into your unconscious. I am from a smalltown in Newyork I have no religious afiliation, but i am the son of a Pastor. I started useing this substance Salvia for recreation, but after useing several times i reconized abd senced some sort of greater value and purpose to it. I recently returned from a 6 monthtrip into west africa andi would describe myself as being very displaced i started useing this substance in hopes to decepher the symbols and learn more about my self and the direction i must go. Any comments or thoughts you have on this matter i would greatly appreciate.

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hey Jo, I smoked salvia a few times a couple years ago. For some reason I only felt a wonderful physical sensation, but my friend was taken completely by it as most are so far as I can tell from watching salvia youtube clips. It is a compelling experience, no doubt a clean break from the banality of the all to well ordered world. I couldn't help notice a lagging headache that went with it though. As far as I can tell your snakes are simply a great image of the life force. They are possibly associated with powerful instinctual forces that are always tripping the development of the soul, or compensating for its artificial inflatioin. As jung said, frued presented the unconscious to the world as nothing but refuse and slag. and it seems that's what the first many layers of the unconscious are. the upheaval of personal sexuality and power, just a spectacle to the modern conscience. modern man now reckons with those horns inside himself instead of finding a devilish scapegoat. and then there is the spiritual instinct. I didn't know anything, so I read Jung.

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JO,
Transformations of a different kind. When you mentioned sage in your original post I assumed it was also the sage of a different kind, a wise mentor. Of course as the old saying goes, when one assumes one makes an ass of you and me {ass u me}.

I have no experience with this hallucinate so I can't speak to its affect. From what you state about its affects and from what Sam says of his experience, it sounds much like the effects a person gets from a first experience smoking pot {something a great many baby boomers have lots of experience}. In Sam's case it sounds something like smoking some really bad weed, the prolonged headaches. In either case there is an alteration of the mental senses {much like marijuana} which is caused by chemical changes within the brain. Experimenting with drugs {mine was limited to pot so I can only speak to that} often depends on the individual. But your experience probably follows the path of known symptoms so you may learn more by asking others who have used the drug.

As for the images that you witnessed while under the influence, a good possibility the chemical changes caused the brain to tap into a region where 'archetypal' images are stored. Science has provided insights to how the brain functions and what areas of the brain certain experiences stem from. We now know that the region of the brain that stimulates dreams is the same region where emotions are formed. Depending on personal experience, the path your life is taking, the reaction on the brain could cause experiences, and images, that fit with your deepest being. Being in India, your experiences would undoubtedly have contact with snakes since in their culture the snake is such a revered animal. Old men in robes would be another common experience and those impressions would also be common images that could come about in dreams. Whereas 'dream' images would, in one sense, have associations to a person's waking life, an altered sense of waking images may tap into much the same associations but with the 'distorted' senses having some relationship to the waking life and others more of an induced euphoria caused by the drug. In other words, whatever is going on in your life gets a deeper focus when you dream because those are the 'unconscious controlling agents of who you really. But what would otherwise, at least in dreams, would be expressions of your true self, could have been altered by the drug. Pot usually causes a sense of euphoria, a over excited condition, and your salva may be doing the same. In one sense the vision images, like dream images, are addressing issues of your true self but at the same time they are distorted by the drug.

But that doesn't dispel the possible links to your true self {the primary focus of our dreams}. Being in a distant land and culture, and being the son of a pastor {which would have associations to Christianity} your experiences are most likely very transforming. The impressions of the waking life are often the stimulus for our dreams and the same can be said of 'vision's. These current day experiences will leave an imprintation on your psyche for years to come {if not the rest of your life}. Later life choices will may be greatly influenced by these present day experiences {beyond the drug use}. Whether they are positive or negative depends on the path you choose. I can say any prolonged drug use beyond recreational use will be negative. Reality is being in the moment and escapism is often the result of prolonged drug use. Experimenting is one thing, prolonged use of drugs is not the path you want to take. Altered reality is already a state of mind most humans are living and we can see by the conditions of the world what that has brought about.

To get a better understanding of dream images I suggest you explore the pages at Myths-Dreams-Symbols. You will likely begin to see how your vision images are in many ways like dream images, expressions of the deeper self. No matter the stimulus, drug or natural, the brain has a function where it can go deep into the unconscious and bring up associations {in symbolic images} to your true self. Discovering that true self is the ultimate hero adventure. Not many people take choose that path, they instead live life controlled by materialism and ego induced fantasy.

Jerry