Calea Zacatechichi: Smoking, Drinking, and Encapsulating the Dream Herb
More Dreaming Herbs at I Am Shaman
Experience report by Ben. Feb 2008.
Calea Zacatechichi gets quite a bit of attention from lucid dreamers.
For good reason too: rumor has it that by smoking or drinking tea made from its leaves, you can experience extremely vivid dreams and hopefully – especially – have lucid dreams.
Here’s a good definition lifted from the Wikipedia entry for dream herb:
“Calea zacatechichi, also known as Dream Herb, Cheech, and Bitter Grass, is a plant used by the indigenous Oaxaca Chontal of the Mexican state of Oaxaca for oneiromancy (a form of divination based on dreams.) It has been scientifically demonstrated that extracts of this plant increase reaction times and the frequency and/or recollection of dreams versus placebo and diazepam.”
I’m not the only one who finds this description enticing. Every few months on DreamViews someone starts a well-intentioned thread asking about this plant. Much of the ensuing conversation dwells on how bitter the taste of Calea Zacatechichi tea is, which then leads to sharing tips on how to mask it so you can get the whole god-awful tea down your throat without retching.
On this point, I concur; it tastes horrible. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
About 5 years ago I ordered this plant online and was really excited about its potential. But the reality was I had little success using it for dream-work. Later, I’d always wondered if this was due to user error or the plant itself. It may sound incredulous, but I didn’t really know how to make tea back then. I had never drank tea in my life. So maybe I just didn’t brew it right?
With this doubtful memory in mind, the more I read about it online the more I wanted to give it another shot. Particularly after reading about one persons experience with it where they describe that after smoking some and going to sleep, they simply emerged fully conscious, immediately, in the dream world. It was as if the consciousness transition into their dreams was as easy as diving into a pool.
That was it – I decided to buy some more.
The Experiments Begin….
Part One: Smoking Calea Zacatechichi
I’m happy to say I enjoy smoking Calea Zacatechichi.There is a subtle but real effect of relaxation and lightheadedness that accompany a few bowls of the dream herb. It’s nothing major – taking bong hits of Calea Zacatechichi to get stoned would be quite a misguided adventure – but still, a subtle but relaxing effect is there. (Don’t expect anyone to kiss you though – I’ve heard a few complaints about a lingering aftertaste in my mouth.)
The first night I smoked maybe half a gram, just one bowl after another. I was reading about it online at the same time and by the time I went asleep I was quite excited about what lay waiting for me in my dreams.
Sadly, upon waking I realized the expectation was much more exciting than reality.
Either I had few dreams or my dream recall was poor. The only cool thing about smoking Calea Zacatechichi that night was that it enhanced the visuals of the Sirius Sound and Light Machine session that I often use to help me fall asleep.
The next few nights weren’t too spectacularly either.
That is, all except for one.
I was making an effort to really inhale and hold in the smoke. I even remember thinking to myself that tonight something will be different! I could feel it!
Right on queue, that night I had a lucid dream!
In my dream, I stood in a doorway of an office and instantly realized it was a dream. My lucidity continued for a few minutes while I – admittedly, rather obnoxiously – roamed around the office knocking things down and wreaking havoc for no good reason other than I could. In the usual unpredictable fashion of dream characters, no one seemed to really care what I was doing.
And then suddenly, without any notice, it turned into a “normal” dream again and continued on without my conscious awareness.
The next morning I was able to remember both the lucid dream and the long, strange dream preceeding it.
Can we attribute these experiences to Calea Zacatechichi? I’d like to but I\it’s so hit or miss that it’s hard to say one way or the other if it had any effect.
Part Two: Drinking Calea Zacatechichi Tea
Despite my one good experience with the dream herb, I became frustrated after several nights of mediocre to no discernable effect.
I also realized that I was only smoking maybe a gram, which is far less than the 5 gram dose that had been suggested to me through various online articles and stories of personal experiences.
There was only one way to make this work – I had to make the tea!
5 years had passed since I made that tea.
And let me tell you – 5 years is enough time to talk yourself out of remembering just how horrible it was! I was convinced it wouldn’t be so bad – I mean, really, how bad could it be? It’s just a cup of tea, right?!
I measured out and brewed 5 grams for about 15 minutes on my stove. Since before I was smoking just a gram, I was hoping that this tea would really blow my mind. I also threw two mint teas into the mix to help mask the taste of Calea Zacatechichi.
After 15 minutes, it was too hot so I plucked out a spoonful and dipped my tongue into to get a tiny taste. The bitterness spread throughout my entire mouth like wildfire consuming a forest. Really, I could not fucking believe how bitter this taste was. No one reading this can understand this bitter taste unless they’ve experienced it themselves.
My gesture with the mint tea now seemed little more than pathetic ignorance at what I was dealing with here. I ended up dumping tons of Agave Nectar (similar to honey) and soy milk into the tea to cover things up. This did help a little but it was still nasty.
I managed to drink it down in about 30 minutes. I gagged once or twice, but then it was over, and within the hour, I fell asleep.
The results?
I had two vivid dreams that night. And yes, vivid dreams are cool to have but this was far from spectacular as I have vivid dreams frequently without drinking any nasty tea.
Again, did the Calea Zacatechichi actually do anything?
Part Three: Making Calea Zacatechichi Capsules!
“”I think if the Chantal indians knew what capsules were, they wouldn’t have been drinking that awful tea.”
–
DreamViews forum, September 2006
After smoking and drinking it, two things became clear to me.
One, I’d rather die than drink the tea again.
And two, smoking a proper dosage was just too much for the lungs.
So I used up my last option short of injecting it straight into my veins:
Capsules!
I’d read about others making capsules themselves so I decided I could to.
I painstakingly ground up the Calea Zacatechichi, placed it into empty vegetarian capsules, then weighed each one with the one before it until I had reached 10 grams.
It brought back some funny memories of enthusiastic DIY drug use but it was a lot more work that I expected. Granted, I was using only a fork and a chopstick to shove everything in the capsule and I was grinding them with my fingers and the bottom of a pill bottle – not the most professional tools for the job!
But after 2 hours I had placed 10 grams into 25 capsules.
I was really concerned that in about 5 hours I’d wake up grimacing in pain if I took all 10 grams at once, straight to the stomach, so I decided to take half. Still, looking at all the 12 big pills I had to swallow to get 5 grams was a bit intimidating.
Setting this concern aside, I took all 12 capsules with a glass of water and a smile on my face.
For the next hour I had a sort of light body buzz. Laying in bed I did see some breed of throbbing visuals on my eyelids. Nothing intense, but it was definitely there. (Regrettably I was too tired to bother enhancing this with the Sirius Sound and Light Machine.)
The next morning I was shocked and disappointed that the night passed with hardly even a dream.
What the hell!
The next night I took the remaining half of the pills, another 5 grams worth… and the same thing.
NOTHING.
It’s as if Calea Zacatechichi was playing tricks on me!
Usually I have some or even lots of dreams and these two nights I had very poor dream recall.
So very very anti-climatic.
Conclusions: I think I need the 10X Pills
And so for now this is how this story ends.
I so wish I was sharing my amazing journey into the dream world instead of this long story of a letdown.
To that end, I’ll be getting my hands on some of the 10x pills soon and will be happily sharing the results.
In the meantime though, what do you think of all this?
Is Calea Zacatechichi.worthless?
Honestly, I really don’t think so, but then….
Does that mean it only works with certain people?
Did I not take enough?
Does it have to build in the body incrementally for weeks?
Did I try too hard and psyche myself out?
Am I doing something wrong?
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
hello
may be it is the dry plants material that you are using
have you thought of growing your own plant?
this is the surest way to know what you are taking
have a great day
September 15th, 2008 at 1:17 am
The first time i tried calea, i had a dream where i was a man of importance in sth america. i had a ‘totem’ of some sort that i mis-used. I wasn’t using the ‘totem’ for evil or malicious purposes, but i was using it in a way that wasn’t meant for its purpose or accepted by my ancient predecesors.
After reflecting on the dream, this is my interpretation…
The ‘totem’ being refered to in the dream was calea. My way of ingestion was a 3gram tea drunk really quickly because of the bitterness. After reading more on the subject i found out that the tea is supposed to be drunk *slowly*. So i had ‘mis-used’ the calea (totem). My intentions weren’t ‘evil or malicious’, they were to experience what the calea had to show me.
What i’m getting at is, investigate your intention/s before/during/after using this (any) substance. Examine your dreams and try and interpret what they are trying to tell you.
Maybe start with your office dream where you – “admittedly, rather obnoxiously – roamed around the office knocking things down and wreaking havoc for no good reason other than I could”.
Hope this helps.
June 4th, 2011 at 3:56 am
This is the 1st time trying this. I just brewed some tea and rolled a joint of it…. i cannot tell you how bad the taste is, even the smoke is bitter. I dont think there is anything you can do to make it taste better. I do feel a little buzz but im hopeing the real effect is in the dreams…
July 11th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
i bought about 40g’s of the gods leaf, and havent had any dreams that were worth the while. i tried smoking it, and managed to take in about 5 grams, but when i made the tea i couldnt finish it because of its awful taste. im in the process of making a mixture for the tea that givves lucid dreaming and has a tolerable taste. no such luck yet…will let you know when i find something.
keep trying to unlock the inner workings of your minds, and find your inner peace.
September 10th, 2011 at 10:30 pm
First time i took it i made tea.. but i didn’t get it hot enough of a long enough time, i know becouse the taste was hardly bitter and this is not what i had heard about it.. so the next day i made a good pot of hot tea let about 3-5 grams soak for about 30-40 min and drank it.. but i went to sleap almost after drinking it… and yes the taste was horrible beyond imagination so i knew it was good
.. but i read later that you have to give your body time to procces it and get it into your system.. so that’s what i did the next day and i also added a couple scoops of honey that worked quite well i must say.
The dreams i had that night were very lucid.. yet short.. i think i had about 4 dreams that night but all very short… and i rather have em long and not making any sense then short stories.
i used up the bag and there were 2 portions left i used those in the following month they were also very lucid but again… quite short.
But i would use it again becouse it was a fun experience afterall.