Memory, identity & consciousness
The Epistemology of the Salvia divinorum Altered State
Forgetting, remembering, and the return of the sense of being someone.
What happens when you forget your life—and then remember that it is yours?
Some Salvia accounts describe losing access to the background of an ordinary life: who you are, where you are, and how you came to be there. As that background returns, remembering can feel like recovering a whole world.
I am interested in that transition, and in another recurring recognition: I have been here before. What can these experiences tell us about memory, identity, and awareness?
What can an altered state tell us?
Ordinarily, memory, bodily familiarity, and a sense of belonging work together so readily that their contributions are easy to overlook. Reports of their disruption let us ask how they support the experience of being a particular person.
The manuscript brings first-person accounts into conversation with memory research, self-model theory, Analytic Idealism, Jung, and contemplative traditions. It asks what each can explain, where they disagree, and where the evidence leaves the question open.
Throughout, I distinguish the experience as remembered, the processes that may explain it, and the philosophical conclusions drawn from it. The aim is to understand what the reports give us reason to think.