Growing tall along stream banks of black soil in the cloud forests of the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, the fresh leaves of Salvia divinorum, aka “Diviner’s Sage,” from the mint family Lamiaceae, are harvested for their healing properties. At the time of year when the nights grow longer, this plant produces violet petals with puffy white corolla and large leaves that contain Salvia diviorum’s psychoactive compound, Salvinorin A (SA). Known for their potency, in smaller doses the leaves are also used as a reliable remedy for things like diarrhea and headache.
Here in North America, this plant is known as “salvia,” “sally-d,” or “magic mint,” a potent and selective agonist that can bring on vivid hallucinations and altered perceptions. SA can come on quickly, especially if it’s inhaled and travels directly from the lungs into the bloodstream. This onset is much faster compared to ingesting it. In either case, the trip is usually over within fifteen minutes. (Side note: Homer Simpson’s accidental do-si-do with Guatemalen insanity peppers shows what it might be like to be overwhelmed by dosing.)
As is pointed out in the book The Psychedelic Experience, a psychedelic compound like SA is of much more value to someone who has prepared with a true spiritual teacher or trusted friend who can help them to incorporate what they learned on their journey.
For the Mazatec people in Oaxaca, though, Salvia divionorum is used with reverence. It opens a portal to the spirit world, and in their plant rituals, a curandero (or healer) is there to guide people and to help interpret their visions. During the Dia de Los Muertos and All Saint’s Day ancestor ceremonies, the Mazatec blend in a sprinkle of Catholicism and make syncretic invocations to the Virgin Mary, “La Maria.” Like many other Mesoamericans before them, including the Aztecs, the Mazatec have a sense of kinship with sacred plants.
To prepare for after-dark ceremonies when it’s easier to hear the plant speaking, the curandero makes offerings of food, flowers, candles, and incense to the elements. They ask the spirits for protection and guidance with prayers and chants. Casting a protective circle is crucial for the well-being of the participants to protect the gates of the subconscious. Too much, too soon could be overwhelming. The curandero may sing icaros (healing chants) to help purify or release unwelcome or harmful influences. Meanwhile, a participant will roll up to about thirteen salvia leaves into a ball, chew slowly, and hold the juice in their mouth for up to half an hour, absorbing the SA psychoactive compound through their mucous membranes. Offerings to the spirits are made again as the ritual comes to a close.
Foreigners have had a fascination for such rituals since as early as the 1930s (if not earlier), when Jean Bassett Johnson, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate in anthropology studying Mazatec shamanism, documented salvia rituals. In 1962, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (famously the first to synthesize LSD), along with ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson made their first expedition to Mexico, when they brought back salvia, but were unable to isolate the SA compound. In the 1970s, with Richard Evans Schultes and Christian Rätsch, Hofmann co-authored such findings in the ethnobotanical cornerstone Plants of the Gods.
In 1973 The Secret Life of Plants, authored by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird was popular among North Americans. One of the book’s most famous experiments introduced readers to Cleve Backster, a polygraph expert, who used lie detector sensors to experiment with plants and the natural bioelectric processes that cause an electrical current.
This case study inspired Tarun Nayar, who goes by the artist name Modern Biology. Nayar uses device that collects and converts bioelectric current from plants and mushrooms. The signals become a sound source on a modular synthesizer. At the time of its publishing, The Secret Life of Plants was largely dismissed as pseudoscientific. For a book that has offered ideas to future generations, the word “psuedoscience” seems an abrupt dismissal.
In the 1995 book Pharmako/Poeia, author Dale Pendell wedged open the doors of perception (and possibly to criticism) by suggesting that neither people nor animals have consciousness unless they ingest plants: “It is really very simple,” he wrote. “It is plants that have consciousness: Animals get consciousness by eating plants.” An unprovable claim, but still compelling to think about.
Here in North America, in the absence of entheogenic tradition, gathering data is the dominant way to seek understanding. In this way, Johns Hopkins Medicine Research has made major contributions by studying the neuroreceptors activated by different chemicals. Comparing SA with other psychedelics like psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD, SA was found to stimulate the kappa-opioid receptors, while the latter work at 5-HT2A neuroreceptors. Most interestingly in this context, K-opiod receptors also affect the Default Mode Network (DMN), an area of the brain that modulates attention and self-referential thought, an area that is most active when the mind is wandering and unfocused.
Findings show that disrupting the DMN can help to elevate consciousness. In fMRI studies on the DMN in 2020, Johns Hopkins researchers found that the brain’s electrical signals became more random and unpredictable when the SA compound stimulated the K-opiod receptor. The report on this study in the journal Nature mentions evidence that a side effect of SA is a rapid decrease in both the DMN activity and depression symptoms. Other side effects of decreased activity in the DMN include increased present-moment awareness and mindfulness; enhanced cognitive flexibility and creativity; emotional processing, potentially aiding in treating mental health issues; greater empathy and a sense of connection to others.
Deep meditation has the same effect, according to brain imaging. The Center for Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin-Madison also used fMRI to explore the effects of meditation. The fMRI images of Tibetan monks with many years of deep meditation (dhyäna), showed their brains had reduced DMN activity, while areas related to empathy and compassion had heightened activity. Correlation is not causation. Still, the studies offer insight into the neurobiology behind higher states of consciousness.
Perhaps this mini-glimpse into salvinoran A only confirms what we already know— that the study of consciousness has many paths. One path is found by imaging our neurophysiology. Another path is through plant ritual and the guidance of a curandero. Both practices seek out the mystery behind an unfurling sense of connection with ancient memory. How exciting that both meditation and psychedelic chemicals can re-open this forgotten realm of awareness!