DOSE: T+ 0:00		oral	Calea zacatechichi	(tea)
T+ 1:30	2 bowls	smoked	Calea zacatechichi	(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

64 kg

I read something about thle-pelakano in the Internet. Since the very beginning I was curious about it for several reasons. One of them is that I have always been interested in the effects dreams have in our lives [as well as the effects our lives have on dreams]. Another aspect is that the herb is originary from Mexico and Costa Rica, and since I grew up in Costa Rica and am half costarican it seemed interesting to me to try something that is native from my native region.

I made two experiments on two consecutive nights. The first night I used one cup of water and boiled it in a normal pot. Once it was really boiling hard, I put the plant material (hard to say how much exactly, but it was a generous amount) in it for about tens minutes or a little bit more. It smelled great in its very particular way and the water was dark-greenisch-colored. I put a lot of sugar in it, because it tastes more than bitter.

It is also important to mention my current mindset that night: I was feeling really frustrated, alone and somewhat depressed. I have read some Freud works on the dreaming matter. His opinion is that the subconscient part of your mind is able to communicate or express the most relevant or shocking experiences [or even thoughts] using dreams. Quite often we dream about things that happened during the day, which must not necesarily be so shocking or interesting, but in some manner impressive for our mind. Not only we dream about things that happened or were thought during the day, but of situations of our past, and sometimes situations that we trend to refer to the future. Freud means that futuristic dreaming can just as well be analysed the same way that 'normal' dreaming is, since we cannot predict the future, but subconsciounsly speculate about what could happen.

The most important freudian aspect I want to make clear, is that dreams are a way for our deepest and maybe forgotten but important feelings and impressions, that we could not release in normal ways and remain in the deepest parts of our minds. Thus dreams can be interpretated [Freud], i.e. the different apparently incoherent parts of a dream can be conactenated a lead to some enlightment about what we really feel. That is the psychological importance of dreams. One can of course argue some things of what Freud writes [he usually tends to related to many things with sex] but generally speaking one could agree that at least some dreams have the caracteristics described above. Take for instance dreaming that you will fail a test, precisely the night before that test. That must not necesarily be a future prediction but the representation of your fears, which could only be somewhat realeased and/or relieved during the day [or during your life until then, for that matter].

Anyway that is the reason why I made my first experiment while I was not feeling well: to let everything come out, and try to feel better by analysing the result. It was a sort of self-psychoanalysis based on dreams. I drank the tea slowly, it was really bad-tasting and I almost had to throw up sometimes. I had drank some alcohol that night, which will have some important consecuenses later. I tried to relax while I drank the tea and put some nice music. It was not a shamanistic ritual but more sort of a preparation to try to discover more about what was making me feel bad. I started to feel some kind of light buzz, and of course was sleepy. About thirty minutes later I had the [almost surely placebo] impression of seeing the red color on a poster I have more brightly. I turned down th lights and went to sleep.

That night I noticed some of the caracteristics of the thle-pelakano 'ride'. There was a more or less clear plot in the dreams. I could not say that it was like a story all the time, but more like always having the impression that what was happening was a realtively direct and somewhat logical consecuence of the things that happened before in the dream. Some people report having dreamed in 'real time', which for that night was the main difference for me. I think that has to do with the fact that I actually dream longer under the effects of this herb [see some scientifical reports about the longer REM phase you have when on thle-pelakano] and thus the actions that happen then seem timely more realistic.

An interesting caracteristic which I did not notice that night was the brighter colors while dreaming. I normally dream in color, but that particular day everything was like B&W. This special caracteristic I think had to do with my emotional mindset. The dream itself was relatively pleasant, with some strange parts. Another very interesting thing that happened to me was that in the beginning of the dream I was drinking some strange strong alcoholic beverage. I also tried cocaine [in the dream, NOT in reality] so that I was feeling high whilst on the dream and somewhat drunk. I think that had also to do with the mentioned fact that I had drunk alcohol that night.

I woke up late, feeling relaxed and almost sleepy. Analysing the dream and my personal situation helped me feel much better even though I do not want to attribute this to the herb. My personal experience is that I feel normally better the morning after some hard day, especially if I had dreamed intensely. That has to do with the freudian theories I explained above, as well as with the relaxation 'ritual' I had before going to sleep. Then again, using the dreaming experience as a help for you to psychoanalise yourself is the cause of feeling better, not the herb itself. I consider of course that using this plant to help you understand youself through dreams is very positive and if you take psychology seriously it will definitely be an interesting --and maybe helpful-- experience.

The second night was very different because my mindset was completely different. Having had the opportunity to look at things from another perspective I had a much better day and when I was preparing the Calea-tea I was feeling really well. That night I prepared the tea in exactly the same way as the day before, the only difference was that I ingested the tea one and a half hours before going to sleep. And I smoked thle-pelakano [about two 'pipes'] right before going to sleep.

This time the dreaming experience included brighter colors in general. I had also drunk alcohol that night before. There was one part were the colors were great: when I dreamed that I had consumed Shrooms [which I have never done in reality and thus this is interesting]. Again I had the feeling of being high in the dream and had [in the dream] hallutinations like feeling that I was under water [even though I was in a normal house] and seeing myself colored with bright colors like red, green, blue. That was interesting because I could see my arm for instance perfectly just the colors spots were hallucinated. I was aware [in the dream] that I was hallucinating which was also a very realistic experience.

The rest of the caracteristics I described were present this time also except for the brighter colors that were predominant this time. I woke up several times during the night, feeling dizziness and having kind of auditory hallucinations. I live in a big city (Munich) so that it is never quiet during the night, a fact that of course helped this slight hallucinations to develop. The last part of my dream consisted of a personal casual encounter with Bob Marley [whom I admire and have a valuable collection of his shows and rehearsals] which was the most amazing part of the entire dream. He came to me and asked me which song I would sing if I was feeling down [he noticed that I was feeling that way!] and I started to sing the alternate version of 'Soul Rebel'. I sang the lead vocals and he would do the backing vocals, believe me it sounded great!

The most impressive part came when I forgot some part of the lyrics [note: I do not know the lyrics of that song counscously, but I sang it in the dream!] and he would sing lead to replace the part which I did not know. Then we both laughed. Someone wrote a report here where he/she stated that the spirit of this plant is male [not like salvia divinorum or cannabis]. I think this experience could also demonstrate this.

As you see I give dreams an important role in my live. They directly affect my day-after [e.g. when I dream I kissed some girl I know and the day after I really feel like I am in love with her]. Today the main consecuence was listening to Bob Marley, like I do every day, but with far more feeling than normal. That what happened was all real [that is another discussion of course] as of Hofmann's definition of reality: the message sent by the outer world that is received by our brain. It can change if the receptor [brain] changes. So whatever you see in dreams, or experience while on some drugs IS reality. With thle-pelakano I found a way to potentiate something that was always present [dreams] and that one should learn to interpretate [in some way, must not be the most deep way] to understand oneself better and thus have a better relationship with your subconsciouns part of the mind. If you want to want to use it like I described you will certainly not be disapointed by this magical plant.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 13271
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 16, 2003	Views: 21,433
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