A friend of mine; Neil, had an experience the other day while smoking some Salvia divinornum, he spoke of visiting a black shiny place.

He described being able to move around but it was restricted movement, and felt that he was contained in some way. He was in actual fact passed out on the sofa when this happend!

Since his experience I have been intriugued by this black shiny place he visited, most notably because I was smoking the same stuff but it didn't happen to me!

Coincidentally I have come across something that sounds very similar in Carlos Castaneda's philosophy. I have been reading The Active Side of Infinity and it talks of a dark sea of awareness, that you can find yourself in when you are able to shift your assemblage point.

A dark sea with the moon glinting of the waves could well describe Neils place. Carlos says "Infinity is everything that surrounds us: the spirit, the dark sea of awareness. It is something that exists out there and rules our lives"

Did Neil go to the infinite?

Did he see Carlos's Dark Sea?

The way Carlos talks about the Dark Sea conjours up a memory I have of reading a 2000AD comic as a kid. In one issue there was a Nemesis the Warlock story where all these people where throwing themselves into the sea and melting into it to become less human and more at one with the sea. I have tracked down the story that this image comes from; Torquemurder, and i am attempting to get a copy.

When i do I will post it here to see if it meets with Carlos's descriptions of the dark sea of awareness. I'm quietly confident that it will provide a good visualisation of where Neil went!