Silene Capensis (african dream herb)

[wombing]

did a search, and found no hits on this... anyone heard of, or utilized this plant/root? supposedly it is superior to calea z as far as enhancing dreams, and increasing the likelihood of lucidity...as well, some claim it is the best dream aid in terms of working with dream guides, but this seems to be an inconsistent, (obviously) subjective claim. personally, i have had moderate to good success with calea, and so i ordered another 4 ounces today as i am almost out...on a whim i also ordered 1 ounce of silene capensis after a little research (first time i'd come across it). pretty damn pricey, but i came into a little unexpected money today (just enough to pay the 50$ for the one ounce ), and one only needs to use half a teaspoon daily for full effects. from iamshaman: Known as African Dream Root or Ubulawu, this Silene Capensis plant is reportedly more effective than the better known Calea zacatechichi, often referred to as THE Dream Herb. It has been used for countless years by a culture who believes ancestors are contacted through dreams, so they cultivate and seek out plants that enhance dreaming. This African Dream Root is one of the best-known in Africa, and we are thrilled to offer it to our customers. Normally only the seeds are available but we have finally managed to locate a supply of the actual root which is used by African shamans for accessing the dream state. This sacred plant which shamans of the verdant river valleys of the eastern cape province of South Africa has the ability to induce remarkably vivid dreams. A website describes this plant: "This obscure flowering species is regarded by shamans of the South African region as a type of "Ubulawu" or medicinal root that they call "Undela Ziimhlophe," which translates literally as "white paths" or white ways." It is suspected that this sacred plant's oneirongenic, or dream-inducing activity is likely due to triterpenoid saponins contained within its roots. Relatively small amounts of root (250 mg range) are reported to be active. The plant exerts only minimal alterations in waking consciousness, yet the effects upon the dream state can be profound. How to prepare Silene capensis Method 1: Half a teaspoon is mixed with half a cup of water. This is drunk early in the morning upon waking, while the stomach is empty. When you feel hungry it is safe to have breakfast. Method 2: A heaped tablespoon is mixed with 2 cups (1/2 liter) of water, and the water is blended until a froth is formed. Keep sucking the froth off the container until you feel "bloated" with froth, and then go to bed. Then, reportedly, while sleeping, your dreams will be exceptionally colorful, and will be remembered upon awakening. (A good idea is to keep a notebook handy for writing down the results.) Ubulawu is traditionally used to access dream-time and to communicate with one's ancestors. Precautions: Use the recommended amounts only; the root is active in these doses. Larger amounts will have a purgative action, however there are no fatalities or harmful side effects reported, only a good vomiting and cleansing out of the stomach. Small doses over several days will affect even the most insensitive person, so there is no need to take a large amount. Drink the decoction on an empty stomach, and then when you feel hungry, you can eat. This will give the alkaloids time to travel through your system. The effects will be felt that night. The alkaloids travel quite slowly through the blood system, so it won't get excreted out during the day. Before going to sleep, focus on a question you want answered by the ancestors. It is reported that, as a result, that one of the ancestors will appear in your dream with the answer, which not only makes this a plant that has been used to enhancedreaming, but as a divination tool as well. As with many herbal products, it may take a few days to "build-up" in your system, so don't get discouraged if you do not meet with success upon your first try working with this extraordinary plant. i'll let y'all know how it goes...i plan to use only the african dream herb until definite effects are gained (suposed to take a few days), and then 3 additional days... followed by a week's break, then an equal number of days using calea as those in which i've used silene. should prove to be interesting at the very least... namaste

[odds]

Can't wait to see how it works out for you. Have you felt any differences, yet?

[Jess]

I've got some of this but forgot all about it. Problem is I got unpowdered root is which practically impossible to grind up, so I gave up on it. Anyone buying it, be sure to buy powdered root! I'd also be interested to know how you get on with it.

[wombing]

it hasn't arrived yet odds...it shipped on friday, so i should have it sometime this week. and jess, i ordered the "shredded" root, which i'm hoping is workable enough...i've heard that it is incredibly hard and compact, so if i find a way to easily powderize it, i'll let you know.

[Auxin]

I dont have this plant in my collection yet But in that the active constituents are beleived to be in the saponin fraction if you have non-powdered root and have trouble powdering it I'd suggest trying a decoction. Cut/mash the root up as much as possible and lightly simmer in water, when the foaming becomes significant reduce heat to a sub-boiling temp and extract a while longer, then just filter out the solid bits... they could be re-extracted the same way to get more. Should work.

[Jess]

Thanks Auxin, I'll give that a go at some point. Have you tried it yet wombing? What effect did it have on you? I found this interesting story here: The "River" MythpadThe following is an excerpt of an article published in Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants & Compounds, Vol. 4 2000, entitled Root, Dream & Myth: The Use of the Oneirongenic Plant Silene capensis among the Xhosa of South Africa. The article was written by Manton Hirst. The candidate diviner strips on the river bank and plunges into the water. Significantly, although the novice is “out of his (her) mind”, he (she) is not a potential suicide or accident victim about to drown, but goes into the river “as if by magic”, undressing as though he (she) is “going to swim”. Under the river, the novice encounters a snake, guarding the entrance to a subterranean enclosure. The snake is coiled beside wet, white clay (ifutha), resting on a grinding stone. In another version, the snake is coiled round solid white clay (HAMMOND-TOOKE 1962). If the novice “belongs to the river”, then he (she) smears the white clay on his (her) face and body and passes the snake, which does not harm the novice. However, the snake is also the “Messenger of Death.” It kills people who try to enter but do not belong there or have a complaint against them at home. The snake bites its victim’s eyes, ears and genitals. Having passed the snake, the novice goes through the hole in the ground and enters the enclosure beyond, which is not only like the interior of a thatched Xhosa hut, but also bears a remarkable resemblance to the interior of the diviner’s medicine-hut. On the floor, medicines are spread out on rushes (imizi) - barks and roots, including ubulawu. There is also an old woman, with very long, black hair, who is reputedly half human and half fish. She is “ a fish below the waist” which is a euphemism of respect (intlonipho) for the diviner’s girdle of wild animal pelts. Traditionally, the Xhosa did not each fish, which were classified with snakes (THEAL 1882:16). Likewise, Xhosa diviners abstain (ukuzila) from eating the highly desirable and socially acceptable meat of various antelopes and chacma baboon, for examples, the skins of which are worn in the regalia. The old female diviner is the representative of the ancestors of the agnatic group who initiates diviners under the river. She tells the novice that he (she) has been called by the ancestors to be a diviner. “Go home now”, she says, “heal your people and other people.” Like someone being physically reborn, the novice passes out through the hole in the river bed and returns to the surface of the river. The novice stays there a moment and then sinks down, and this continues for three days. On the third day, when the fermented sorghum beer (utywala) is ready at home, siblings and relatives find the novice, who is covered from head to foot in white clay and to this extent resembles a disinterred corpse (izithunzela). The candidate diviner is accompanied home, where people are already dancing, and placed in a separate shelter, which is called intondo (medicine-hut), containing a tin beaker of frothy white ubulawu. The diviner instructs the novice to drink from the beaker. Afterwards, the novice relates his (her) experiences “under the river” to the diviner. The myth is a parable of the whole process of becoming a diviner. It contains many references to cultural details already described and referred to in the preceding sections of this paper, from the initial predisposing “trouble” or affliction, i.e. submersion in a river, to the ensuing ritual consequences - the intondo in which the novice is placed at the end of the myth is, in fact, a makeshift grass shelter in which the novice is actually secluded in the intlwayelelo ritual. Although considerably masked by metaphorical language, the myth also contains quite explicit details pertaining to the use of the entheogen and the ensuing experiential effects. The novice in the myth is also the analogue of the entheogen, namely Silene capensis root, which is stripped of its hairy stem and leaves before use, i.e. before “going for a swim” in the water in which the root is churned up. An analysis of a collection of Xhosa traditional nursery tales (iintsomi) reveals that the river, another analogue of the novice, always strips the hero of his apparel, weapons and other belongings and carries them off (THEAL 1882). Not only is the medicine mixing-stick (ixhayi) forked like the bifurcated tongue of a snake, but under the river the novice encounters a coiled snake that resembles the twisted root when dry. The hole or entrance the snake guards, in the myth, is, of course, the hole in the ground from which the root of the plant was removed by the foraging diviner. Remember how Nontando called upon her ancestors by name before removing the root from the ground and then, before covering the hole, sprinkled a few white beads into it. Thus, in the myth, after passing through the hole or entrance, the novice encounters the old woman and all the professional trappings of the diviner, such as the regalia and intondo, in the enclosure beyond. That is the “other world” of the spirits, of death as well as of dreams, which, having visionary import for the dreamer and events in the dreamer’s life, typically occur, during sleep, in the unconscious (FREUD 1913) and are vividly manifested to the novice following ingestion of the root (i.e. “passing the snake” into the enclosure in which the spirit of the old female diviner is secreted). The river, separated and enclosed (like circumcision initiates abakhwetha secluded in the bush, the novice diviner secluded in the intondo in the intlwayelelo ritual or the frothy white ubulawu foam in the tin beaker), is the symbol of the limen or boundary between the worlds - of life and death, of reality and dreams - through which the novice must pass, with the aid of the root-snake, into the world of the spirits and the unconscious beyond (cf. DUERR 1985). The root is mixed with water, the novice ingests the white foam and, in turn, is swallowed by the river of dreams and metaphors that eventually regurgitates the novice back to the surface in much the same way as the novice ingests the foam until he (she) regurgitates some of it. The returning novice, who is found in the water by the river by siblings and relatives in the myth, all white as clay or foam. the “rising and sinking” episode of the regurgitated novice that takes place at the surface of the river in the myth, is an allusion to the ubulawu drinking sessions of novice diviners that typically take place during three consecutive days at full-moon. CONCLUSION Myth, like the sacred root itself, is an effect operating from outside the individual to induce a mind-altering experience within resulting in self-insight and enlightenment. Dreams take place spontaneously in an intuitive world separated from routine reality and enclosed in the individual unconscious. However, dreams like myths and story-tales in general, by and through their narration inter-subjectively come to have significance for people and events in the real world. The root (undlela ziimhlphe; silene capensis) straddles the boundary between the worlds and bridges them through imagery. Not only does ingestion of the root induce dream imagery in the novice diviner, but that is also one of the important topics embedded in the imagery of the “river” myth. Relating images to social facts is the work of the myth, the diviner in divination and ritual addressed to the ancestors. Notably, the plant has a white flower, a rather obvious analogue of the diviner or novice who is closely associated with the ancestral spirits, the river and the liminal colour white, as much as the myth is the analogue of the use of the root and its experiential effects.