S2 | E10 Christopher Solomon

I'll be honest — Salvia was a plant I'd never tried and mostly knew through the lens of chaotic internet videos. So this conversation with Christopher Solomon cracked something wide open for me. Christopher came to the States from Johannesburg at fourteen, studied psychology and finance, and spent years in a database job he found soul-crushing before finally following the thread that had been tugging at him since high school: a deep, ongoing relationship with Salvia divinorum.
We trace his whole arc in this episode — the bizarre early experiences, the moment an "intrusive" inner voice told him to meditate first and changed everything, the female salvia entity who told him she'd always been there, and the day a small dose seemed to dissolve a physical lymph node that had stumped his doctors. From there we get into the real heart of his work: low, titrated doses, somatic awareness, and treating the plant as something that demands silence, stillness, and respect.
Christopher shares how Salvia affects the default mode network more than any classic psychedelic, why it pairs so well with meditation and somatic therapy, and how he guides clients through Zoom sessions for everything from crippling anxiety and depression to inflammation, arthritis, GI issues, and insomnia. We also talk honestly about the contrast with ketamine — reverse tolerance versus addiction, "diminishing returns," and the importance of listening when a medicine tells you to back off. Whether you're a curious psychonaut or someone exploring gentler tools for healing, I think you'll come away seeing this plant in a completely new light.

Christopher Solomon is a somatic Salvia guide, teacher, and inventor of a pipe that aids in the mindful exploration of Salvia Divinorum. Incorporating lessons learned directly from Salvia and as a student of somatic psychotherapy, Christopher is pioneering techniques to use Salvia as a therapeutic tool for guided self-healing, meditation, and introspection. Christopher lectures about the proper, intentional, and therapeutic use of Salvia, offering a blend of scientific, esoteric, and therapeutic perspectives. He also cultivates a medicinal Salvia garden for use in his therapeutic practice with clients. His main goal is to teach people how to use Salvia for themselves in a manner that is supportive, informative, and empowering. He has a B.A in Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and received his training in somatic psychotherapy from the Hakomi Institute of California.

You can find Christopher at salviahealings.com and through his community, the Somatic Salvia Network, at somaticsalvianetwork.com.