My friend tried Salvia a couple months ago and had a life altering experience.  It is most likely very symbolic in nature, and he would like some feedback and interpretations. 

Within moments of inhaling the herb, he felt himself merging with the carpet.  Suddenly he lost his former identity and became the carpet.  There were people holding him, as the carpet, up over their head, a person for each part of his body.  They were having a conversation about how it was silly that my friend thought that he existed, because in reality he did not.  They asked him why he continued to play this game of reality, why he continued to fool himself.  He began to panic.  Then the people started to split up and leave, all these aspects of my friend were separating, and this disturbed him greatly.  Soon after the experience ended.

His recent Salvia experience was almost identical.  He entered the same state of being, where he was the carpet and the people were telling him that reality was just a game and he did not exist.  This time he resisted when they started to split up, however.

I told him my interpretation, but maybe others can see this experience in a different way and give him further insight.  Thanks!

I don't have any great insights into this partly because what it means arises from who/what your friend is, and I don't know that. But it is an interesting question!

What does it mean for something to be symbolic? The parallel question is, what does it mean for something to be literal? I think on some level, the experience was literally true. But this is a deep issue, not to be answered lightly.

Has your friend read that book about the disappearance of the universe? (One wonders if he had this experience out of the blue or if some prior exposure to some alternative ideas affected his thinking). I'm not a Gary Renard fan, but he does discuss in an easily-understandable format, some very esoteric ideas. On some level, perhaps we do make the whole thing up. What does "literal" mean then?

It seems to me that there are many layers, and I don't know if the question would mean the same on all the different layers.

So what does he think it means? (maybe for him, just keep the heck away from salvia!).

I don't believe that any of us are actually the people we pretend to be while we live in this World. What we go through is just a temporary learning experience to gather information that we can use later on without being caught up in what we learn.

Perhaps your friend was being told that he doesn't have to be like a carpet on a floor. He should elevate himself and be like a magic carpet. The people that held your friend up represent the knowledge his higher self accumulated through past incarnations and other means. He is more than the person he believes himself to be.