Mugwort Revisited: Making it Make Sense

Mugwort has irked me a bit because it really doesn't work that well (or does it????) and it's often mentioned as a dream enhancer. People talk about putting it under their pillows and having vivid dreams. Since this sounds like woo-woo to me, and because I've tried putting mugwort under my pillow, to absolutely no avail, and also drinking disgusting teas brewed out of the stuff (also crap), I basically wrote it off as strictly a placebo (nothing wrong with that, but I want something a little more reliable).

Enter Charlie Morley. I happened to stumble across a line in his newer book discussing burning mugwort on WBTB or in the room before bed. So I did it. I burned a whole lot of it. It smells worse burned than it does fresh, but the effects were incredibly powerful--very vivid dreams, and early in the night.

My thoughts on this: either one, burning releases whatever oneirogen is actually in the plant, and makes it accessible to the body. Fryingman mentioned somewhere the wormwood needs to be broken down in alcohol before it can be used (so I assume the same for mugwort, if thujone is what messes with dreaming). Fire could be the agent needed to have good mugwort times (or you could smoke it, I guess).

Or, it has nothing to do with what is burned, and awareness is raised simply by smoke being in the room. Something in the lizard brain that says, "Oh shit, there's a fire! We'd better dream vividly!"

If it is the second (which is my favorite, actually) then one could expect to see results diminish over time (if used very often). Once in a while, though, might provide a good boost to dreaming.

If you're going to be burning mugwort on a continual basis, please update your further experiences here. I think the "Hey, this is something new/different!" effect on dreaming can be very powerful, or perhaps there is something more. Mugwort tea ended up being a big zero for me.

I have never tried burning the herb as incence or smoking it, but read that those were the most effective ways of using the herb as a dreaming aid back when I first looked it up. So what I've tried is the tea first of all and it seems to be that too much use of it made it innefective or resistant. It seems that there is some placebo involved too, but then again so does everything. The herb does affect dreams in my experience. I later then tried it with just a leaf under my pillow and also drinking a tincture (40%alcohol - 1part herb:3parts alcohol) I made from the dried herb which were a bit more potent then the tea.

In my experience however, for all the types of intake/use that I've tried what seems to happen is that I feel more tired or sleepy and in turn able to go back to sleep easier. So when this happens in the morning I can go directly into dreams easily. So maybe it prolongs the REM period? The vividness however had no apparent change, and perhaps was lower as it was easier for me to go in and out of dreams. The dreams do seem a bit more random, but that may also be expectation. Nothing too crazy in my experience as far as I can tell. I do use it from time to time because why not. I actually enjoyed the taste of the tea. :P

Overall it wasn't really helpful as a lucid dreaming aid as I only became lucid once with it, and it doesn't necessarily mean that it was the cause. However it is always interesting to see how it affects dreams in general and it does seem to have some kind of effect on dreams. But for lucidity I would rather be without.

When I burn, I will update :)