Mystical respect.
awesome.
I first tried salvia, years ago before I ever saw it mentioned on the internet or elsewhere. I was in Burlington, Vermont; probably the single coolest town in this country, and the friend I was visiting mentioned that they sell this herb down at one of the head shops that makes you trip really hard for five minutes. Of course I didn't believe him, so we went and bought some. This was after I had done every other drug under the sun.
Salvia is fun to try, but I can't say I had a breakthrough after about 10 experiences
I was impressed by it, but I don't see salvia as a "teacher plant", if you will. It's fun to fuck around with, but salvia is never going to give me any deep insights or life changing revelations. It's like a toy, a novelty thing. I think it's crazy that the shit is still legal over here, I like that fact, but I'm not going out and buying any. I have a bunch of free samples from IamShaman, but the only thing I do with it is give it out to friends. I think it's 100x more fun to watch someone else do it. I don't like the way it makes me all sweaty either.
I think it would be fine for a first trip, as long as you had someone to watch you. As L.T. said, a low dose of shroomies would make for a good first experience as well.