Tian Men Dong (Wild Asparagus Root)

**Oneirin** · 03-28-2016 02:57 PM

I have been delving into the taoist tonic herbs lately, and have had an interest in Wild Asparagus Root (Tian Men Dong) as well as Wild Red Reishi (Ling Zhi). I haven't seen any posts on this herbs, so I figured I'd provide some info and post my journey with it.
Tian Men Dong loosely translates to "Heavenly Spirit Herb" and was revered by taoist masters. It is believed in the Chinese tonic herbal system to open the heart and allow the spirit to soar. It is known as a "Shen" tonic which loosely translates to spirit. I won't include much more of the lore as some may find it boiling, but feel free to ask for more details. Typically the roots are decocted (boiled on med heat) for anywhere from 15 mins to an hour or so, yet they may simply be eaten.
I have been decocting anywhere from 9-12 grams add night for a few days and have noticed that I have LDs roughly 1/3 of these days or so. I have tried tinctures in the past, but did not have the same LD occurences. Granted I have had a steady and motivated practice for the past few weeks. I did, however, have interesting flying dreams with the tincture. Last night I had an amazing chain of 5 LDs which were of higher clarity. I don't want to chalk it all up to this herb off the bat, but I have noticed the correlation at least. I'll continue to update.
Feel free to add if you've enjoyed Wild Asparagus Root, or wanted to share experiences, tips etc.

**Voldmer** · 03-31-2016 12:03 PM

It does sound like an interesting herb. I have not been able to find it here in Europe however.

Reishi I do have some experience with and unfortunately it's all negative. Essentially my dreaming activity stopped completely during the time I took reishi. That went entirely counter to my expectation. It is of course still a very healthy addition to ones diet.

**Oneirin** · 03-31-2016 01:17 PM

. It is of course still a very healthy addition to ones diet.

That's the way I look at it; I'd rather just continue with the things I'm already doing and focus on/appreciate them for LDing. It'll keep consistency, and If I'm already doing it..why not lol.
I had a little extra Reishi in my tea (but no Tian Men Dong) last night and ended up with an LD and better dream recall. I'll consider starting a new thread with Reishi down the road. Too bad you didn't have good experiences Voldmer.

**Voldmer** · 03-31-2016 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by Oneirin

I had a little extra Reishi in my tea (but no Tian Men Dong) last night and ended up with an LD and better dream recall. I'll consider starting a new thread with Reishi down the road. Too bad you didn't have good experiences Voldmer.

Yeah, but I haven't given entirely up on reishi yet. The product I took was very cheap, and I've since come to believe that cheap is not the way to go with reishi. There is a lot of adulteration around in the medicinal mushrooms area, so my next foray into this will be with a (presumably) higher quality reishi.

**Oneirin** · 03-31-2016 11:10 PM

Yes, I would recommend "Wild/Wild-Crafted" or "Di-Tao" Reishi (as DragonHerbs refers to theirs). This is just about as close as you can get to naturally wild growing Reishi. Next up would be "Duanwood" (loosely translated as original wood) as it is grown on the natural medium (plum trees). Research has shown that wild crafted Reishi contains far more polysacharides, triterpenes, etc than reishi grown on inferior mediums (sawdust etc.) In Taoist & Chinese Herbalism belief the wild Reishi, especially the Red Red Reishi, contains the most "Shen" or spirit. Additionally, the "Shen" is concentrated in the mushroom fruiting body, to a lesser degree the spores, and not in the mycellium mass. Other varieties such as purple reishi contains more of the other "treasures" - although some report aid with purple reishi in regard to lucidity. Either way, taoist masters have referred to it as the "Mushroom of Spiritual Immortality" for thousands of years

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**Oneirin** · 04-19-2016 11:10 PM

I've had an increase in lucid dreams throughout the past week, and it is during this time that I've changed quite a few things in my practice/routine, including having some Wild Asparagus Root tea during WBTBs. I can't say that I've noticed an increase in flying dreams at all as the folk-lore goes. However, I've noticed that I end up with 2-3 lucid dreams on the nights when I have Tian Men Dong, yet there are many many other things which I am doing differently as well; I don't want to attribute too much to this one aspect alone. I am going to continue tracking days with and without the herb and continue to note what kinds of differences I see.

**Oneirin** · 04-24-2016 01:42 PM

I had an LD where I was spontaneously lucid while levitating last night, so I wanted to update in case anyone's interested in the herb. In the past 8 days or so, I've been having a Tian Men Dong tea and Reishi every night during my very short WBTBs and noticed that I've had a 100% success rate when I actually wake up and fall back asleep. As I said before, I've added a lot of practices as well as a lot of daytime effort to my routine, so I don't want to say it's all causation. I'll continue to update as I have interesting dreams or notice different patterns.