cyberia2012
05-25-2008, 07:56 PM
Here are some thoughts and experiences I would like to share. Recently, I've been experimenting with Calea Zacatechichi otherwise known as Dream Herb or Bitter Grass amongst other names.
The traditional use of the herb is to enable the user to awaken within a dream, and grants them the ability to control dreams as they see fit. More importantly, is the possibility of moving into the realm of the non-conscious mind, and observing the symbols and currency of that non-verbal part of ourselves.
I was intrigued by this idea. The coolness factor alone, of being able to design and pilot the limitless shifting landscape of the mind would be reason enough to buy and smoke some of this stuff. The fact that it could also serve as a gateway to something more spiritual self-reflection and introspection sealed the deal for me. I was going to buy some.
There are a few ways to ingest this herb. You can brew a tea, smoke it, or reduce a brewed tea to a gel substance and swallow the gel in raw, or in capsule form.
Tea is rancid. This herb is not called Bitter Grass for no reason. Unfortunately, bitter doesn't come close to describing it. It's even worse than Poppy Tea or Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds. This option is masochism. If you are considering tea, use 2-3 grams.
Smoking is my current method of ingestion. Smoking a substance creates a faster onset of more of the herb, and ultimately a faster metabolisation. Therefore the active effects appear stronger, but over a far shorter duration. Every ingestion method of all substances have plus and minus sides. 1-2 grams of the herb should be smoked.
Smoking 1-2 grams of anything takes a little time. But, keep puffin :) I would use a vaporizer if possible, to reduce the carcinogenic impact of the smoke of burning anything. Otherwise, get some vegetable cellulose rolling papers instead of paper.
Avoid cannabis :( Cannabis suppresses dreams. This is probably because of the inhibitory action that cannabis has on the hippocampus .
One of the nice effects of Calea is the mild euphoria and relaxing effect it has. As always though, people with anxiety which relates to the body (panic disorder, etc.) should start in small doses of Calea to avoid any panic.
I had been using this herb for a few weeks up until the point at which I will now describe. I went to bed to chill at around 1 am, straight after reaching the end of my 2 gram smoke-a-thon, and completed a grounding exercise to tie my energy to the earth. Sleep came soon after I laid down.
I remember perceiving some dreams...passing through the stages of sleep...moving through the timelessness of it all...my first experience of Calea I learned afterwards, was around 3-3:30 am.
I had woken up. I was looking up at the ceiling in the very dim quite northern, northern hemisphere summer light that was oozing slowly through the blinds hanging up over the window. There were 3 soft knocks at my bedroom door. There could be nobody there. I knew this. I also was not alarmed. Rising from bed was just like rising out of bed, the duvet moved against my bare legs as they slid out and my left arm moved in an arc to shift the duvet off my body. I was up and walking to the door.
I remember noticing that my vision was very blurred around the periphery. I could see and focus on things, but my full scope of vision was not present. There was more light in the room. Again, I didn't question this.
I reached for the door handle with my right hand and my hand moved straight through the door handle. I heard a voice from behind the door which told me that I couldn't use my hand on the door. I understood, but also questioned myself as to how I could open the door. The voice came through the door as I was wondering this and now was on my side of the door. The voice could be felt as if it was there, but not there. I guess it was what a magnetic force would be like. Non-visible, but with a force of movement. The voice was also more like intention. It felt like it was inside me, but it was outside at the same time. Like an idea to do something, but which was projected into me from outside.
A long time ago, I suffered from insomnia. My college exams were coming up, and I really needed to sleep and get my sleep pattern into something like a pattern and less like random bouts of unconsciousness. My Doc gave me some stuff called Zolpidem, which I discovered had an interesting effect in increasing my ability to visualize with my eyes closed. One of my experiences with Zolpidem, was to feel myself falling into a vast dimly lit flesh tunnel, and observe as faces emerged from the walls of the tunnel. After falling for a while, I hovered in the air, to watch as a face came right out of the wall of the tunnel to inspect me closely, before moving back into the wall. I came to the realization a few days later, that this was my subconscious and as I was falling, it was rising, like trading places.
Anyway, as me and the voice were close to each other after it had moved through the door, faces began to press their way through the structure of my bedroom in a similar way that I had seen with the Zolpidem. I was also aware that there were two cold metal rods in each of my hands, and that my hands were closed around them.
The voice intuited to me that I could go further with it by relaxing my hands, and I could pull myself further back to where I was by tightening my grip on the metal rods. This was clearly the metaphor for anchoring, and it was also a sign that I had control.
As I began to relax, the structure of the room began to morph into a far more organic and biological system. There was a fast sense of movement, like falling, but the feeling was forward and not down. The rush was very intense, and I was tightening my grip on the metal rods because I could feel the dissolution of 'me' and my reality and it was all too fast. Having experienced LSD and Psilocybin, I was more accustomed to the gradually intensifying build of the cacophonous dissolving of the nature of self. In my dream this was in the space of a few heartbeats, which I guess is like a hit of DMT.
I had obviously tightened my grip way too much. I was falling softly and slowly back into myself. The view of the ceiling above my bed was melting into focus again, as the unreality of the voice world was melting out. Still I slowly drifted downwards into myself. And there I lay. Staring up at the ceiling. Still feeling as awake as I had been a moment ago, and very much aware that I had not opened my eyes at all, that they were still as open as they were in the voice world.
This is the description of what happened. Later I will post what I think this experience was, or at least, what it was to me.
The traditional use of the herb is to enable the user to awaken within a dream, and grants them the ability to control dreams as they see fit. More importantly, is the possibility of moving into the realm of the non-conscious mind, and observing the symbols and currency of that non-verbal part of ourselves.
I was intrigued by this idea. The coolness factor alone, of being able to design and pilot the limitless shifting landscape of the mind would be reason enough to buy and smoke some of this stuff. The fact that it could also serve as a gateway to something more spiritual self-reflection and introspection sealed the deal for me. I was going to buy some.
There are a few ways to ingest this herb. You can brew a tea, smoke it, or reduce a brewed tea to a gel substance and swallow the gel in raw, or in capsule form.
Tea is rancid. This herb is not called Bitter Grass for no reason. Unfortunately, bitter doesn't come close to describing it. It's even worse than Poppy Tea or Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds. This option is masochism. If you are considering tea, use 2-3 grams.
Smoking is my current method of ingestion. Smoking a substance creates a faster onset of more of the herb, and ultimately a faster metabolisation. Therefore the active effects appear stronger, but over a far shorter duration. Every ingestion method of all substances have plus and minus sides. 1-2 grams of the herb should be smoked.
Smoking 1-2 grams of anything takes a little time. But, keep puffin :) I would use a vaporizer if possible, to reduce the carcinogenic impact of the smoke of burning anything. Otherwise, get some vegetable cellulose rolling papers instead of paper.
Avoid cannabis :( Cannabis suppresses dreams. This is probably because of the inhibitory action that cannabis has on the hippocampus .
One of the nice effects of Calea is the mild euphoria and relaxing effect it has. As always though, people with anxiety which relates to the body (panic disorder, etc.) should start in small doses of Calea to avoid any panic.
I had been using this herb for a few weeks up until the point at which I will now describe. I went to bed to chill at around 1 am, straight after reaching the end of my 2 gram smoke-a-thon, and completed a grounding exercise to tie my energy to the earth. Sleep came soon after I laid down.
I remember perceiving some dreams...passing through the stages of sleep...moving through the timelessness of it all...my first experience of Calea I learned afterwards, was around 3-3:30 am.
I had woken up. I was looking up at the ceiling in the very dim quite northern, northern hemisphere summer light that was oozing slowly through the blinds hanging up over the window. There were 3 soft knocks at my bedroom door. There could be nobody there. I knew this. I also was not alarmed. Rising from bed was just like rising out of bed, the duvet moved against my bare legs as they slid out and my left arm moved in an arc to shift the duvet off my body. I was up and walking to the door.
I remember noticing that my vision was very blurred around the periphery. I could see and focus on things, but my full scope of vision was not present. There was more light in the room. Again, I didn't question this.
I reached for the door handle with my right hand and my hand moved straight through the door handle. I heard a voice from behind the door which told me that I couldn't use my hand on the door. I understood, but also questioned myself as to how I could open the door. The voice came through the door as I was wondering this and now was on my side of the door. The voice could be felt as if it was there, but not there. I guess it was what a magnetic force would be like. Non-visible, but with a force of movement. The voice was also more like intention. It felt like it was inside me, but it was outside at the same time. Like an idea to do something, but which was projected into me from outside.
A long time ago, I suffered from insomnia. My college exams were coming up, and I really needed to sleep and get my sleep pattern into something like a pattern and less like random bouts of unconsciousness. My Doc gave me some stuff called Zolpidem, which I discovered had an interesting effect in increasing my ability to visualize with my eyes closed. One of my experiences with Zolpidem, was to feel myself falling into a vast dimly lit flesh tunnel, and observe as faces emerged from the walls of the tunnel. After falling for a while, I hovered in the air, to watch as a face came right out of the wall of the tunnel to inspect me closely, before moving back into the wall. I came to the realization a few days later, that this was my subconscious and as I was falling, it was rising, like trading places.
Anyway, as me and the voice were close to each other after it had moved through the door, faces began to press their way through the structure of my bedroom in a similar way that I had seen with the Zolpidem. I was also aware that there were two cold metal rods in each of my hands, and that my hands were closed around them.
The voice intuited to me that I could go further with it by relaxing my hands, and I could pull myself further back to where I was by tightening my grip on the metal rods. This was clearly the metaphor for anchoring, and it was also a sign that I had control.
As I began to relax, the structure of the room began to morph into a far more organic and biological system. There was a fast sense of movement, like falling, but the feeling was forward and not down. The rush was very intense, and I was tightening my grip on the metal rods because I could feel the dissolution of 'me' and my reality and it was all too fast. Having experienced LSD and Psilocybin, I was more accustomed to the gradually intensifying build of the cacophonous dissolving of the nature of self. In my dream this was in the space of a few heartbeats, which I guess is like a hit of DMT.
I had obviously tightened my grip way too much. I was falling softly and slowly back into myself. The view of the ceiling above my bed was melting into focus again, as the unreality of the voice world was melting out. Still I slowly drifted downwards into myself. And there I lay. Staring up at the ceiling. Still feeling as awake as I had been a moment ago, and very much aware that I had not opened my eyes at all, that they were still as open as they were in the voice world.
This is the description of what happened. Later I will post what I think this experience was, or at least, what it was to me.