You're welcome!

I would say my experiences with Salvia were somewhat scary and disorienting, but not problematically so. I'm not quite sure how to describe what I mean here, but "scary" should be a very minor part of the description. I certainly felt no need to do anything about it at the time, or surprise that I didn't need to after the fact. Think scary as in "I go rock climbing, and looking down makes me a bit nervous". Except without the adrenaline, and otherwise in a completely different emotional context. I hope that puts it in perspective. Anyway, personally, I would not recommend starting with salvia, though I know a couple people that did exactly that and had good things to say about it.

I would say that drugs can help with what you're asking about, but that it isn't guaranteed. Of course, I didn't go into it hoping for such results at all, so it's probably far more likely that you'll get what you're looking for than not, imho. Set and setting matter a lot. On a related note, if you go into your experience expecting it to be scary, well, you'll probably get what you wished for. Basically, I think you should do this because you're expecting to enjoy the experience, and I think that's an entirely reasonable expectation. I'd also add that my description of salvia as being slightly scary does not apply to any other substance I've taken.

For starters on reading, I would suggest Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved (aka PiHKAL) by Alexander Shulgin, and its sequel TiHKAL (Tryptamines ...). Alexander Shulgin is a scientist and basically rational thinker, with a strong interest in the human mind. He's a synthetic organic chemist, and personally invented, synthesized, and took what might literally be a majority of the synthetic psychedelics known.