Hey HumanDoing, I'm a herbal medicine student so I can try to give you some tips on this despite not having researched Calea z myself. You seem to have the basics of making a tincture (alcohol esxtract) right. Mix the herb with alcohol in a jar and shake daily, keeping it away from sunlight stored safely at room temperature.

Now the stronger the alcohol is not necessarily the best. This would depend on the kind of constituents you want to extract from the plant as some plants have more useful constituents that are more water soluble and some that are more alcohol soluble. I don't know what this is for Calea z as I haven't tried to look it up, but in general it is hard to have access to high concentrations of alcohol other than spirits so use what you have and experiment.

It's very IMPORTANT that you know the ratio of herb(grams):alcohol(mls) and the alcohol strengh used (there are formulas online on how to dilute say a 40% alcohol to a 25%). Because this is what you'll use to determine how much you can safely take (the strength). Herbs can be very powerful so do be careful.

If all you want is the alcohol extraction than you can just strain it after a couple of weeks and the liquid is the EXTRACT. I think what is confusing you is that one thing you can do after this process is to instead of throwing away the leaves, you can make a decoction (extracting with water) of it by putting the leaves in water and then letting it simmer (don't rember how the measuring of water works here so search it up as it should affect the strength also). So then what you can do is strain this and mix both the alcohol extract and the decoction extract which means you will have more constituents from the plant, will be stronger in effect (again be careful).

To consume is usually depending on the herb and strength, etc. But it will be something like spoonfulls a few times a day or a couple of mls or drops. Usually herbs have a maximum suggested amount one should take per week or it may not be advisable to br taken for long periods of time so again read up on it and make sure you know what you're doing.

I don't know about smoking Calea z but I know that just the tea can have effects for lucid dreaminng, although I have also heard that it may taste vile and make you want to vomit. Maybe this will be the case for the tincture but that should be easier to take as it is in much smaller quantities. I think inhalation is the only way to "smoke" a liquid but don't think it would work the same way with alcohol extract.

Wish you all the best and hope you enjoy the process. I have said to be carreful various times because I know not to underestimate these plants and wouldn't want something to happen to someone both for your sake but also of herbalism, lucid dreaming. Please share your results when you have them as I would love to hear about them. Can be over pm if you prefer.

Just thought I would also say that there is no need for an external agent for Lucid Dreaming, but of course it is always interesting and helpful in building up the lucid knowledge. So I hope this was somehow helpful despite how vague I was. Dream on!