methods of dream recollection

[zenbooster]

Recently I also experimented with consuming marijuana, and also found additional relief from: arthritis, digestive issues, inflammatory conditions and diabetes.   Thus, I cannot support complete, indefinite abstinence from either fermented beverages, or marijuana. 

How often do you think you can smoke marijuana without harming your meditation practice?

[Jhanananda]

Recently I also experimented with consuming marijuana, and also found additional relief from: arthritis, digestive issues, inflammatory conditions and diabetes.   Thus, I cannot support complete, indefinite abstinence from either fermented beverages, or marijuana. 

How often do you think you can smoke marijuana without harming your meditation practice?

Good to hear from you zenbooster, and thank you for posing your question. When I began the daily practice of meditation I had severe PTSD from terrible child abuse, so I was medicating heavily mostly with marijuana, and weekly psychedelic experiences. So, I was smoking an once of the best pot I could buy every day.  Consequently I could not motivate myself to do anything but meditate. After 6 months of daily meditation practice I found no need for drugs or alcohol. Now 50 years later I smoke a few puffs before bed, and sleep well with rich OOBEs. I don't find that little effects my life for the worse. So, I don't think marijuana harms the quality of meditation practice, but reduces motivation.

[zenbooster]

Good to hear from you zenbooster, and thank you for posing your question. When I began the daily practice of meditation I had severe PTSD from terrible child abuse, so I was medicating heavily mostly with marijuana, and weekly psychedelic experiences. So, I was smoking an once of the best pot I could buy every day.  Consequently I could not motivate myself to do anything but meditate. After 6 months of daily meditation practice I found no need for drugs or alcohol. Now 50 years later I smoke a few puffs before bed, and sleep well with rich OOBEs. I don't find that little effects my life for the worse. So, I don't think marijuana harms the quality of meditation practice, but reduces motivation.

Perhaps this is the case from the level of your heights I noticed that after smoking, it becomes more difficult to keep attention on the object of meditation. The mind, like a mad monkey, constantly strives to be distracted by some thought. At first, everything seems to be fine, but after a couple of minutes or less, I’m already distracted by something ... And charisma is felt either less or not at all. So, in order to afford this, one must probably already have some of the fruits of a contemplative life...

I don’t know, thanks to meditation alone, or to all my efforts in general, but if before I had from 1 lucid dream every few years to a couple of LDs per year, now, starting from mid-2022, they began to happen to me from time to time in two months, up to 2 times a month Although, from time to time I have difficulty remembering, but then I seem to be able to accelerate. So, thank you for the information you've collected here and shared with others. Sorry if I've gone off topic...

[Alexander]

Although, from time to time I have difficulty remembering, but then I seem to be able to accelerate. So, thank you for the information you've collected here and shared with others. Sorry if I've gone off topic...

See if you can keep a dream journal, and try to write them immediately on waking. The ancient Greeks called it the "Lethe," the river of forgetfulness. (I wish I could remember what it was )

[zenbooster]

See if you can keep a dream journal, and try to write them immediately on waking. The ancient Greeks called it the "Lethe," the river of forgetfulness. (I wish I could remember what it was )

I have a dream diary. Since 2007, I have been recording dreams, with a break of several years and subsequent resumption. Most likely it's all about the short duration of sleep. I sleep for 4-5 hours on weekdays, and it is very problematic to do something with this ... Circumstances)

Sometimes, when I didn’t remember anything at all for months, I drank a course of calea zacatechichi. For a week, I brewed a couple of tablespoons of leaves before going to bed, and drank the resulting tea. If you do this every day, then after about a week, vivid and fantastic dreams begin. If you continue to drink tea next week, the dreams became more and more gloomy, an element of danger appeared, but I liked that too ...)

[Alexander]

I drank a course of calea zacatechichi.

Interesting. I'll look into it. Never heard of it before

Wikipedia says it may have some toxicity to the kidneys but it's unregulated overall

[Jhanananda]

I have a dream diary. Since 2007, I have been recording dreams, with a break of several years and subsequent resumption. Most likely it's all about the short duration of sleep. I sleep for 4-5 hours on weekdays, and it is very problematic to do something with this ... Circumstances)

Sometimes, when I didn’t remember anything at all for months, I drank a course of calea zacatechichi. For a week, I brewed a couple of tablespoons of leaves before going to bed, and drank the resulting tea. If you do this every day, then after about a week, vivid and fantastic dreams begin. If you continue to drink tea next week, the dreams became more and more gloomy, an element of danger appeared, but I liked that too ...)

I have never heard or calea zacatechichi before. With a 5 decade interest in ethnobotony I am always happy to learn of a new to me herb.

calea zacatechichi
Calea ternifolia (syn. Calea zacatechichi)[1] is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is native to Mexico and Central America.[1] Its English language common names include bitter-grass, Mexican calea,[1] and dream herb.[2]

It is used in traditional medicine and ritual in its native range.[3]

Uses
In Mexico the plant is used as an herbal remedy for dysentery and fever.[3] The Zoque Popoluca people call the plant tam huñi ("bitter gum") and use it to treat diarrhea and asthma, and the Mixe people know it as poop taam ujts ("white bitter herb") and use it for stomachache and fever.[4]

The Chontal people of Oaxaca reportedly use the plant, known locally as thle-pela-kano, during divination. Isolated reports describe rituals that involve smoking a plant believed to be this species, drinking it as a tea, and placing it under a pillow to induce divinatory or lucid dreams due to its properties as an oneirogen.[5] Zacatechichi, the former species name, is a Hispanicized form of the Nahuatl word "zacatl chichic" meaning "bitter grass".[6] Users take the plant to help them remember their dreams;[2] known side effects include nausea and vomiting related to the taste and mild-to-severe allergic reaction.

While quite bitter if brewed in hot water, the bitterness can be considerably masked by brewing with Osmanthus flowers, which have a compatible scent profile.

Chemical composition
Chemical compounds isolated from this species include flavones[7] such as acacetin[8] and sesquiterpene lactones such as germacranolides.[9] The sesquiterpenes known as caleicines and caleochromenes may be active in its effects on sleep.[2]

See if you can keep a dream journal, and try to write them immediately on waking. The ancient Greeks called it the "Lethe," the river of forgetfulness. (I wish I could remember what it was )

I am with Alexander on keeping a dream journal. It was a primary practice including daily meditation that got me to the place of experiencing lucid dreaming and the OOBE every night, so good to know that you, zenbooster, have been keeping a dream journal.

[zenbooster]

I am with Alexander on keeping a dream journal. It was a primary practice including daily meditation that got me to the place of experiencing lucid dreaming and the OOBE every night, so good to know that you, zenbooster, have been keeping a dream journal.

I once read a technique suggested by a group of "dream hackers". It's called dream mapping. The bottom line is that when remembering and writing down dreams, focus on where the plot unfolded. For each dream, if possible, it was proposed to draw a map, a plan of the area where it happened. When a lot of material accumulated, it was proposed to compile one common map from disparate maps. The hackers claimed that this should lead to insight, an avalanche-like recollection of many forgotten dreams. Apparently, I do not have enough material, although some forgotten dreams were recalled against the background of mapping, and this activity in itself is simply interesting. Now I keep a diary in the Obsidian program (https://obsidian.md/), and instead of dream-mapping in its original form, I supply dreams with tags. Tags refer to places, people, certain objects, and so on. This is at least convenient. Although the map of connections between dreams and tags is overloaded, you can use the search by tags.

Wikipedia says it may have some toxicity to the kidneys but it's unregulated overall

I also read about nephrotoxicity. At least after using it, I did not notice any negative effects.

I have never heard or calea zacatechichi before. With a 5 decade interest in ethnobotony I am always happy to learn of a new to me herb.

Regarding what they write on Wikipedia, I can say that I have never experienced nausea or vomiting from this plant. The tea is bitter, much like coffee without sugar. Compared to the most bitter thing I have ever tried, a tablet of levomycetin (chloramphenicol), the drink turns out to be quite tolerable. If you drink a very strong tea, or smoke a hookah, either luminous dots appear before your open eyes, as in the dark, or some kind of small static waviness, some subtle change in the image that is difficult to describe. At one time I grew a plant on a windowsill, in the middle zone of the European part of Russia, and regarding an allergic reaction, I can say that it could occur if the crown of the plant was disturbed. There has never been an allergy to dried leaves. At the same time, it never bloomed for me, but it worked like a oneirogen.

The sesquiterpenes known as caleicines and caleochromenes may be active in its effects on sleep.

I wonder what kind of compound affects dreams ... Someone on the network suggested that one of the substances that make up the plant must be a cholinomimetic, and by the end of the weekly course, dreams become brighter against the background of increased levels of acetylcholine in the brain, but Apparently the mechanism is more complicated. Today I again felt the characteristic "mood of zakatechichi" from a dream, although I did not remember the dream itself, just miserable fragments. This mood is a certain feeling of gloom, inevitability, even irreparability of what is happening. This did not happen from cholinomimetics ... There is also information that dry extracts that are on sale do not work as a oneirogen. I don’t know what solvent was used there, but apparently the key compound does not dissolve in all solvents.

P.S.:
They also wrote that it should not be mixed with citrus fruits. I do not know why...

[Michael Hawkins]

Now I keep a diary in the Obsidian program (https://obsidian.md/), and instead of dream-mapping in its original form, I supply dreams with tags. Tags refer to places, people, certain objects, and so on. This is at least convenient. Although the map of connections between dreams and tags is overloaded, you can use the search by tags.

Just a quick thank you, zenbooster, for mentioning this note-taking program.  I've never caught on with note-taking apps, but I may give this one a try, as the tutorials I've been watching (like this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbLb6QCK88) show how valuable it is to link our thoughts together.  I can see why this would be especially powerful when documenting dreams.

[Jhanananda]

Well, we have strayed far from the subject of "Recovery from Sexual addiction" to dream recovery, so I split it off and moved it to OOBE

But, I agree with Michael Hawkins, the exercise of dream mapping sounds interesting, but seems too cognitive to me. I think it would be interesting if it was in a large collective database where it could be found whole communities of people have shared dreams. So, I look forward to reading what others find.

As for the herb that stimulates dream recovery, it really is not my focus on this forum to suggest people take drugs. My interest is inspiring people to meditate daily and deeply.

[KriyaYogi]

I've been experimenting with lucid dreaming a bit the last few months as well.  I lay on my bed, chant a minute or so of Kali mantras to create a lucid dream and close my eyes.  I seem to go right into some kind of light REM sleep within 30 seconds from the surge of Kali Shaki for a few minutes because I am awake and yet dreaming.  I get very interesting elaborate scenarios in my dreams.  It is not too much unlike the mirror gazing training I used to perform.

  Do you guys think lucid dreaming is helpful to spiritual purification?

 -David

[Jhanananda]

  Do you guys think lucid dreaming is helpful to spiritual purification?

 -David

For me doing the basic lucid dreaming exercise of meditating deeply immediately before sleep, and dream journaling and meditating while lying down waiting for sleep to happen, gave me the basic enhancement of consciousness to begin having controlled OOBEs since. Whereas, I found taking drugs or chanting or any cognitive mental exercise did not produce results.

[KriyaYogi]

>>>
Jeff: I found taking drugs or chanting or any cognitive mental exercise did not produce results.
>>>
  I can understand that.  It took years of training before I could use Kali Shakti to effect my state of consciousness.   Also yes certain substances I don't find too conducive to meditation as well.  For me a moderate amount of coffee or cacao(mocha) before meditation is the best 'drug'.  It seems to keep me alert and centered.  -David