Dream Inducers

Okay, tonight will be my fifth night taking the tea, and so far the vividness has increased noticeably! "Physical" contact within the dream is the most notable; if I'm standing next to someone or coming in contact with them (e.g. a hug in one dream) I can feel them somehow. Really weird upon waking, as it is not usual for me.

Thats very interesting.

I am seeing some different results which seem to indicate that:

a) Tiredness (ie lack of sleep) inhibits dream intensity and/or recall
b) Female monthly cycle is VERY important, the week before menstruation shows intense dream activity
c) High blood pressure inhibits dream intensity and/or recall.
d) cheese before bedtime does not always guarrantee a vivid dream.

Hey Tarot-dudes
I'll be in on this thread tomorrow - just had a couple of 'life' things to deal with recently. I'm just waiting for another reply back from Milfoil and I'll know where I'm going with this.
See ya soon
sss

I have not noticed any sort of consistent increase in intensity or vividness of my dreams since the start date. It has all been rather random as far as the effects of gingko go. At this point I would say ginkgo does not affect my dreams at a standerized dose of 120mg.

I am curious if anyone has any personal theories as to why we dream and why certain foods/chemicals would effect our dreams?

My pet theory is pretty mainstream. Memory consolidation, along with the creation of non-declarative memory to keep us sane. If we did not lose the effect of qualia and emotion we would quickly become overwhelmed with emotions and time would not cure a broken heart .

First I believe in multiple unconscious systems of perception and these things must be sorted some how. We need to sort old data before hitting the hippocampus with more data, we eventually hit overload in our short term memory. I feel when we sleep the days memories are sorted, reinforced, and tied to previous learning basically in a mental comparing of notes between the neocortex and hippocampus. In sleep we distill, intergate, organize, reject a days worth of experiences, keeping what is useful, and stripping everything down to its core seed. Dreams are us peeking through the the door of unconsciousness with our conscious minds as we sleep. It is beautiful to me that the symbols of dreams are individual and the interpretations personal, yet at the same time so universal as they are tied to our shared cultural evolutionary minds, our collective consciousness, a unique human trait..

Milfoil said:

Thats very interesting.

I am seeing some different results which seem to indicate that:

a) Tiredness (ie lack of sleep) inhibits dream intensity and/or recall
b) Female monthly cycle is VERY important, the week before menstruation shows intense dream activity
c) High blood pressure inhibits dream intensity and/or recall.
d) cheese before bedtime does not always guarrantee a vivid dream.

Click to expand...

I found this interesting!

A.) I agree. Also being a bit insomniac, because you sleep deeply, but only for short periods, wake and remember your dreams.

B.) Absolutely. Also whenever I am sick with anything. A cold, bug, etc. Perhaps something to do with exhaustion, as well as anxiety?

C.) N/A as I have low blood pressure!

D.) Cheese a few hours beforehand still works very well for me. But it seems to have to be a slice of American cheese, rather than a cheesy tasting snack or crunchy material. Odd...

The crowned one said:

...If we did not lose the effect of qualia and emotion we would quickly become overwhelmed with emotions and time would not cure a broken heart

Click to expand...

I completely agree with you, TCO; you put it very eloquently.

As far as why certain foods & chemicals would affect us, I think any and all chemicals (even the condition of the air we breathe) can affect us physiologically. As much as I agree in the idea of a collective unconscious, we can't escape the fact that we are all slaves to the human condition, and this includes being affected by chemicals present in food and herbs. We can prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for lucid dreaming, but the chemical reaction delivered is something we've lost control over the second we ingest it.

On another note, just on a psychosomatic level, we might be feeling like we need something in order to gain control over our dreamscapes. Time spent on self-hypnosis and other techniques might prove a better investment than the instant gratification given from a dose of absinthe/chocolate/cheese, what have you.

Can I join?

I had a little pm - ping-pong with milfoil. I'm gonna put all this on a spreadsheet, somehow. Any posts that contain information - I will log on my spreadsheet.
The headings I have at the moment are:

User
Location
Gender
Age (decade ranges ie. 11-20, 21-30, 31-40...)
Substance
Substance Quality and/or Type
Quantity / Dose
Days/Nights experiment was carried out
Any Observations or Recollections

Some information I had to guess and will repair if any futher information is posted on this thread. My spreadsheet can cope with one or two substances on any night.

So I'm gonna pick on milfoil here, the night you tried Absynth... did you do the chocolate as well??? I'm missing a lot of accurate doseages, I'm missing the number of days per week ppl are testing on - dates or days will work well.

Now if you don't want to provide any of the information - then keep it private, just like you normally would.

You can chop and change your substance and dose, do what ever you want because you are breaking, maybe new, or maybe long forgotten boundaries with this experiment.

I'll be going through all the posts and collating the information, so as much detail or as little detail as you like

sss

Thanks Snake

I confess that the last few days I have not been trying anything due to be over tired from a weekend of racing.

Yes, I had two shots of Absinth with a few squares of very dark chocolate (79% cocoa).

I know that people may not believe this but I find that the few days up to and over a full moon make dreams a bit disjointed for me, rather like interferance or static on a tv.

I have seen there is a difference with the amount of cheese had before bed.

I find that a couple pinches of grated mozzarella before bed gives me more dreams than a bigger amount does. They may not be particularly vivid...they mostly are not, but I have been dreaming more frequently since I've started this, and I remember bits and pieces more than I have in a long time. I have only had 2 very vivid dreams where I almost remembered them entirely.