​Haha your friend sounds like me. Yes and no, your experience sounded like a mild Salvia trip [i think it comes in strengths, x20, x40 etc]. I was told that salvia is close in experience to DMT but salvia is a darker and more disturbing trip. I guess that's possible with all psychedelics but from all the stories I've been told about salvia I am yet to hear a very positive one.
"I always heard the whole "cannon blast" and feeling of not being "alive" like as a human anymore" - yeah that's pretty much how I experienced it. I remember walking around the gardens afterwards and seeing the beauty of nature and the world in a new light. A view that wasn't distorted by the human ego. I'm not the best at putting feelings into words but it was an out of this world feeling/experience.