Salvia divinorum is an exceedingly interesting plant misplaced with the traditionnal "hallucinogenic" plants.
In fact, salvia divinorum is NOT a hallucinogenic plant but an oneirogenic plant.
The main property of salvia divinorum is to induce flashes of REM activity during waking but without concomittant blockade of motor efferents.
This leads to non-voluntary experiences of conscious dreaming or pre-conscious dreaming.
The effects of salvia divinorum are prominent if a person ingests it while laying in darkness and in silence, slowly breathing and not moving.
This reminds the exercices which are necessary in order to learn to enter, consciously, into the realm of dreams.
Salvia divinorum thus seems to activate neuronal systems which are triggered when one enters the REM phase of sleep.
This is of the utmost scientific interest.
Aside salvia divinorum another mexican plant has been reported to induce short flashes of conscious dreams together with light sleep. This plant is calea zacatechichi.
The active constituent of salvia divinorum is salvinorin A. The active constituent(s) of calea zacatechchi are unknown.
Calea and salvia seem to possess some psychotropic similarities. The combination of salvia and calea might potentiate the observed psychotropicity of these plants.
Salvia divinorum offers a unique tool for non-experienced conscious dreamers to see, by themselves, what a conscious dream can be like, without the burden of a long work with pre-sleep breathing and concentration exercices.
Calea zacatechichi seems to have a similar utility.
Both plants challenge researchers involved in sleep and pre-sleep phenomena, like hypnagogic imagery.
They are also a challenge for researchers involved in psychopathologies.
These plants seem also to represent interesting tools of research for physical scientists, not involved in the study of consciousness and their own self, as they could open for them new vistas of knowledge and discovery.
Claude
Note: salvia divinorum can be purchased at: hoti@ilhawaii.net