If you are a scientist interested in the effect on hallucinogenic substances on the human brain, then you’re probably interested in the research that is going on over the world relating to the naturally occurring – and completely legal – hallucinogenic plant Salvia Divinorum. Salvia – or Sally D or Magic Mint as it is also known – is a plant that grows in Mexico. It has been used by the Mazatec Mexican shamans to help with the expansion of their spirituality for many many years.

If it can help to expand the spirituality of the Mexican Shamans, then what else can it do for us? This is the question that scientists really are desperate to know the answer to. The way that Salvia effects the brain is unique, you see, and there really is so very little known about it that the world has no idea as to the short or long term effects of Salvia usage.

In some ways this lack of knowledge could be one to cause alarm, in others it is a world of rich opportunities: some scientists, for instance, have discovered that the way Salvia causes the brain to react can be used to help find out just what is going on in there when a patient suffers from a degenerative mental illness like Alzheimer’s or other mental problems.