First Expermiment with Mugwort Dreaming Herb.
(maybe wrong section?)
Mugwort experiment - Reasons for trying
So for some weeks now I had been planning on experimenting with Mugwort, a herb that is said to encourage more vivid dreams, and potentially more lucidity.
Everything i read about mugwort lent me towards feeling it was a perfectly safe herb to use with dreaming.... and after some deliberation i decided i would like to attempt to use it as an aid, or to give me another persepctive on my dream practices.
I generally have around 1 or 2 lucid dreams per week.... not always so stable though, perhaps 1 or 2 extremley stable lucid dreams per month. My main reason for taking mugwort was the hope that I may find more solidity within my lucids and have more time to explore and experiment with some ideas i have been having.
Mugwort - How it was.
So i met up with a good freind and we hung out and then brewed a pot of tea. I decided to drink mugwort with a friend just incase it had any partiularly unpleasent side effects i did not expect.... and also for the joy of sharing dream time with another person.
there were though, no particularly unpleasent side effects to this interesting evening.
Within 20 minuites of drinking the tea a warm, amused and safe feeling engulfed me, and a strong pull towards sleep. Strangely though it did take a little longer to fall asleep. This i think is due to the fact that the whole falling asleep process changed dramaticly. The pre sleep imagery was particularly more vivid and what i would only call invasive. Ive always got a kick out of these images, and treasured when they are more vivid. I got a a strong feeling that their were some specific characters or spirits hanging around. The whole journey into sleep was very musical and much more erm....trippy.
That said, despite how strange and sometimes deranged it all seemed, a deep calmness was with me the whole night.
After this followed pretty much a whole night of falling into dreams and out into this image stage. After around 2 hours was the most intense of the period, a profound feeling englulfed me that i could move directly to my dream body if i wished it, and so i attempted the movement into my dream body. I found myself in my room, in my dream body.
It was not the kind of expereince i was really after, as i find these "room" dreams, extremley different to lucid dreams, yet often after these "room lucids" i find a full blown lucid dream world will follow.
It did not. The other dreams that night were very intense, and had elements i have not found in other dreams. For example, split perception of the same dream, and a deeper connectedness with the things coming foward. Also a very strong feeling that i was being visited by precenses. After around 5.30 when i stood up for the 20 minuites to try encourage a lucid dream, my sleep returned to a somewhat normal pattern. Before this i am nearlly certain I was in some form of dreaming state the whole evening.
Mugwort - First conclusions
I say first conclusions because i do not feel i can really justify making a conclusion on something that must have such different effects on different nights and different people, but this is just how i went away feeling.
I feel mugwort was a warm, intoxicating kind of helper which i felt extremley comfortable with. I was especially happy that their seemed to be no effects on the waking state except a mild drowsiness. I feel it seemed to create a very particular and special state of dreaming, that, with the correct focus and intent could provide an extra kick when trying to be lucid, or attempting certain projects and goals within lucidity. The fact that you appear to be in and out of dreaming all night, really gives a lot of opportunities for trying out particularly dream entering teqniques and more chances for realization that your dreaming.
I would however say that, although it was an overall positive expereince. It reminds me again of the importance (for myself) of putting a little more work into my dream experiments. I am almost certain that had i of taken mugwort in a period where I was doing more reality checks fx or had a higher dream recall that the journey would of been a lot more rewarding.
So although i think it is an interesting side detail, i think still, slow and patient work within the dreamworld interests me more. But for a fresh perspective and some new dream energies, mugwort worked a treat! ;)
Sam
