In this episode — Somatic Salvia guide Christopher Solomon, from Willits in Richard’s own Mendocino County, teaches Salvia divinorum from the ground up: what the plant is (a sage from the Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca), its legal status (federally unscheduled and legal in California; banned in some states), how it is grown from cuttings, and the three ways it is taken — the Mazatec quid, the dried leaf, and a standardized extract in the five-bowl pipe Christopher invented. He explains how the gas-station “60x” extracts of the late nineties gave salvia its bad rap, why he built his practice around the smallest dose that does anything (“titrating and pendulating”), what the 2020 Johns Hopkins fMRI study he took part in found about the default mode network, a light dose as a door into meditation, and what he calls “the witness of an other.” For Richard’s book on adverse effects, they cover the ugly as well as the good: no addiction, no hangover, no measured rise in blood pressure or heart rate in the Hopkins safety work, and the one real danger at high dose, a dissociated person getting up and running, answered by a mature sitter and working in slowly. Guest: Christopher Solomon — somatic Salvia guide and teacher; B.A. Psychology (UT Dallas); two-year somatic psychotherapy certification, Hakomi Institute of California; Body-Mind Centering training; inventor of the five-bowl Salvia pipe; founder of the Somatic Salvia Network. Participant in the Johns Hopkins salvinorin A fMRI study (2020). salviahealings.com · About · His Johns Hopkins experience report Legal status of Salvia divinorum varies by state. Nothing in this conversation is medical advice. Chapters 00:00 — Cold open: the perfect plant for beginners and seasoned psychonauts 00:46 — Welcome: community is the antidote to isolation 02:05 — A guest from Willits, Mendocino County 02:34 — The magic wand: education and pragmatic advice 04:20 — What is Salvia divinorum? A sage from the Sierra Mazateca 05:35 — Is it legal? Federal law vs. state law 06:50 — How to grow it: clones, shade, and nitrogen 09:07 — Harvest and the quid: how the curanderos use it 10:51 — Gas-station extracts and salvia’s bad rap 13:10 — Three ways in: the quid, the dried leaf, the standardized extract 14:37 — Reverse tolerance and the five-bowl pipe 18:37 — How long it lasts: stair-stepping and pendulating 20:33 — Therapeutic benefits: Johns Hopkins, the claustrum, and the default mode network 23:25 — A light dose: quieting the mind, dropping the story 26:02 — Enhancing the witness: “something else being there with you” 27:49 — The good, the bad, and the ugly: adverse effects 29:34 — Opioid withdrawal and the kappa opioid receptor 30:28 — The main risk: dissociation, and getting up to run 31:37 — A mature sitter 32:40 — No hangover, no fatigue 33:40 — How to reach Christopher: salviahealings.com 34:33 — Blood pressure, heart rate, and medications 37:16 — The break: the open-source archive and Richard’s books 40:10 — Closing: beginners and psychonauts, the Somatic Salvia Network, a sustainable plant 42:47 — Close: “I’m gonna do it myself” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/subscribe
