The few who know Calea zacatechichi, also known as Calea terniflora, aka dream herb, are generally people interested in exploring the theme of lucid dreams .

It is in fact in the matter of lucid dreams that Calea zacatechichi has made a reputation over time.

It is a plant of Mexican origin, used since time immemorial as a herbal remedy, especially for disorders such as dysentery, fever, diarrhea, asthma, stomach pains.

At the same time it has always been used for divinatory rituals and shamanic practices linked to the awareness of dreams, in fact it is smoked, drunk as an infusion or placed under the pillow to enhance the dream activity and the latent capacity to consciously navigate dreams.

From the Calea zacatechichi several interesting flavones have been extracted and isolated, including in particular two sesquiterpenes known as caleicin and caleocromene, indicated as potentially active during sleep and with peculiar effects generally considered collateral, including hallucinations.

Hallucinations and dreams induced by Calea Zacatechichi

Defining a precise boundary between dream and hallucination is in fact arduous, arbitrary and ultimately useless in terms of understanding psychic processes.

While more orthodox science explains hallucinations as perceptions of something that does not really exist, therefore a more avant-garde false perception and falsehood, philosophers, thinkers and more avant-garde researchers have posed profound questions about it, and sometimes have attributed the name of hallucination also to brief intuitive or revelatory visions of inner or subtle realities that are precluded to surface consciousness so absorbed in matter .

Sleeping and dreaming, the surface consciousness calms down and these perceptions, which are perhaps too hastily called unreal, rise to the surface with their own language. Perhaps, as someone said, hallucinations are the reflection in the mind and in the senses of reality that transcend the mind and the senses and therefore normally ignored and not perceived.

Effects of Calea Zacatechichi

Researchers in this field, such as the oneironauts and the psychotropists, have begun to learn about and appreciate Calea zacatechichi so much that it is found online in the form of legally purchased dried leaves .

What the experimenters have recorded is a noticeable increase in dream memory, in the intensity of dreams and finally in the intensity of the hypnagogic phase, or those intense perceptions that involve all the senses and that occur during entry into sleep, often in a way very intense and engaging.

The quality of dreams increases very satisfactorily and increases the effect of the various exercises that are part of the routine discipline of those trying to experience lucid dreams.

One of the substantial differences between a common dream and a lucid dream or dream-experience is the ability to transform a person, as happens for intense waking experiences.

We talk about waking up without being the same but a more complete and mature version of oneself . In practice what happens is that the REM phase seems to lengthen, there are no sensitive side effects that extend into wakefulness.

Practical details on the Calea Zacatechichi

On line you can buy dried leaves, as already mentioned, both for infusions and for smoking, but also for extracts, capsules and dyes .

Without doubt it is the most famous plant among dream enhancers, due to the various practical benefits and very few side effects .

Not for nothing is one of the few plants with effects on the conscience to be legal everywhere .

Speaking of collateral or rather undesirable effects, there may be cases of nausea or vomiting, especially in too high doses, irritations due to forms of intolerance ( always try a small dose first to see how the body reacts ), and feelings of being trapped between the dream and the waking that, although for some are exactly the purpose of the assumption and the desired experience, for people who are not ready and too psychically weak, can be a negatively intense experience.

The taste of Calea zacatechichi tea is not pleasant, but can be improved by adding honey, soy milk, mint, coconut milk or agave nectar.

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