African Dream Root

[DrTechnical]

Overview: Summary of my 7 day experiment with African Dream Root (ADR). The results were encouraging, certainly better than my experiences with Calea Zacatechichi. Cost/shipping: I purchased 50 grams for $87.00. When the bag arrived, it was just shy of 2 ounces. After seven days of taking 1/2 teaspoon per day, I hardly dented the bag. I probably consumed 1/10 the bag, putting the cost at roughly $1.00 per day, give or take. Shipping and billing was discreet, though this substance is not illegal in the US. There were no ordering restrictions listed, so I suspect it's legal elsewhere. Dosage/administration: Starting early Tuesday morning, I took 1/2 teaspoon on an empty stomach. I repeated that every morning up to and including monday (today). There was a warning on the web site not to exceed the recommended dosage due to possible nausea. I used the suggested dose and had no such issues at all. The shredded root is mixed with water. It does not dissolve at all. Expected Results: Pretty much every web site that sells this, has the same write-up on usage. You are told that the alkaloids must build up for a few days, and that by the third day of usage, your dream should be more frequent and vivid, with claims of dead relatives coming to visit, etc ... My Experience: I typically have 2-3 dreams per evening, and have about 2 lucids per week. So what's of interest of course are the results relative to those numbers. On average, I was having 3-4 dreams per night. There was a tendency to have more cohesive story lines - though it's hard for me to prove that of course. I definately had more dreams though. So for me, full effect should have been realized by thursday evening. Here's my lucid/near-lucid summary: Thursday evening, I had a near lucid where I was on my porch looking at the furniture. It was not arranged correctly and my daughters pink toddler lounge chair was there as well. I was trying to rationalize how this could possibly be? I was probably a few seconds short of concluding "it's a dream" before I woke up. Friday night, I had an outstanding lucid. I had pre-determined that if I get lucid in my house, I would try to pass through a particular wall. This location was chosen because there's nothing on the other side of the wall to get in the way. I got lucid, went to the wall and put my hand on it. I pictured the wall dematerializing. It took on a jello-like feel. I pushed my self into the wall. When I was in it, I had this electric buzzing sensation around me. More intersting, I had this swoosh of sound that echoed as I passed through. I think this was my brains way of simulating the event of passing through time/space (I'm a big sci-fi fan). It almost sounded like the molecules were re-aligning to a different time space location. When I got to the other side, I was not outside my house - but rather in a room reminiscent of my parents bedroom. It was decorated very old fashioned. There were a few other elements, but that's the gist. Sunday evening I had a WILD. I am no expert at this technique. It was brief (maybe 1 min), but the visuals where cohesive enough to call a dream. I was emersed in the scene (it was all around me). I did not have bodily substance, it was more like an OOB. I remember reading a paper by the lucidity institute in which they claim this is very common. I was along a river, in NYC I think. The land was actually a strip of runway that I think I seem to remember from a previous dream. My perspective was from within a car driving along the runway. Suddenly, a small boat came flying across the runway and landed in the river. I was not startled by this, knowing it was a dream and could not hurt me. Summary/conclusions: So in 3 days of dreaming where I had enough ADR built up in my system to have full effect, I had 1 close call, 1 DILD and 1 WILD. Dream recall was improved by at least one additional dream per night. The tendency was toward dreams that were a little more cohesive in nature. These results are noteably better than anything I achieved with Calea Z. I have a 10x extract still laying around. My past results with that herb were marginal at best. Calea works because it's a mild stimulant. There's actually a fair amount of real scientific data on this subject. By increasing the number of awakenings during the night, you tend to remember more dreams. I suspect ADR works via the same mechanism - at least to some degree. There are several alkaloid based compounds in it. These probably tend to have a stimulant effect. Personally, I noticed that by Saturday night, I was having trouble falling asleep. My guess, is this might continue until I ramp down from the substance (within a couple days or so). If you're not sleeping, you're not dreaming. So my speculation is that best results are obtained with about a 5-6 day usage. I'll experiment some with that idea. Overall, I found my expererience with this substance to be productive. Very encouraging - certainly more helpful than the better known Calea Z.

[Spamtek]

Nice writeup. For taking the suggested dose every day for a week, those results actually sound a little depressing... at least compared to some of the things I've read on the erowid vaults. I'm about gearing up to fly through the zenith of my second Silene session (can you call it a trip?); I ingested on Sunday morning so tonight will be night 2, and I'm eager to see what happens. I think we ought to have a sticky for each of the well-known dream herbs, rather than having each person post up a new thread about their own experiences; it would be a lot more cogent.

[VPedretti]

I purchased 50 grams for $87.00. When the bag arrived, it was just shy of 2 ounces. After seven days of taking 1/2 teaspoon per day, I hardly dented the bag. I probably consumed 1/10 the bag, putting the cost at roughly $1.00 per day, give or take. Shipping and billing was discreet, though this substance is not illegal in the US. There were no ordering restrictions listed, so I suspect it's legal elsewhere. Dr. Technical, I am curious to know if you used powdered ADR or if you shredded whole root? And if possible can you recommend a reputable website that carries it? Thanks, Vic

[catzisconfus]

how did you buy this?