marijuana, bad for lucid dreaming

**Universal Mind** · 06-08-2005 11:33 PM

I have/had a problem with smoking pot too often, but I started having more frequent periods of sobriety once I convinced myself that being stoned is just an extremely low level, cheap sample of lucid dreaming with negative side effects. For some reason that is far beyond my awareness, that understanding wasn't enough to keep me off a few month binge recently. However, something else I realized might be. Pot clouds my dreams and makes it harder to remember them. Dream recall is one thing that helps me have LD's because it keeps the idea of the dream world on my mind throughout the day, which helps me identify the dream world better when I am there. I always seem to have a lot more lucid dreams, and longer lasting ones, when I have gone a while without pot. Also, pot makes me so ridiculously lazy that I don't take the necessary disciplinary action during the hours before bed necessary to induce my LD's at night. I go to work sober, but after I come home, run, eat supper, and take care of whatever business, I fire up my bong and sit in front of the television going, "Uh, I'm on dope. Duuhhhh, I'm too lazy to move, and, huh, what was I saying?" That ridiculous lifestyle has been in the way of my progress. Has anybody else come across any of this?

**dreamboat** · 06-09-2005 12:17 AM

Depends on how much you use. Pot gives me a wonderful nights sleep but I don't remember a thing. I am going to leave it well alone as it is starting to make me paranoid.

**The Guardians** · 06-09-2005 03:33 AM

Exactly the same here. It gives me such great nights of sleep but it also keeps me from remembering anything...

42 · 06-09-2005 06:39 AM

Funny you should bring this up. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I am an off and on toker (though admittedly mostly on) and I ALWAYS (I capitalized that for a reason) have terrible recall and generally no lucidity when I smoke before bed. However, I am a pretty anxious person and I've struggled with insomnia for years. So the temptation to get a solid night's sleep is usually too much for me to handle. I wish I wasn't so weak about that, but I must admit I am. Marijuana is such a wonderful "drug" for relaxation, creative thinking (sometimes), and sleep (always). But it really messes up your drive for delving into the subconscious while sleeping. Sometimes I go cold turkey on the pot (telling myself and sometimes others that it's the end of being a habitual smoker). When I do, I reap the benefits tenfold in my dreams. Maybe it's that I feel so much more clear headed and better about my self. Or maybe it's chemical. Or maybe both (and the chemical is just a physical manifestation of the mental/spiritual - which is what I suspect). But I suddenly have a drive to want to remember my dreams and to master lucidity. My girlfriend and one of my best friends have noticed the same effects (at least to some degree). I have heard if you don't smoke within like 3-4 hours of sleep, your recall is much better and quite vivid. I can't say I've observed that since, when I am smoking, I usually smoking right before sleepy time. I don't know if I have added anything incredible to this. But I am confirming your original topic statement (after years of experience with the substance). Thanks for asking. It made me think about it more and that alone gives me more drive to want to not smoke as much and start dreaming. Cuz as nice as being stoned feels, waking up from a lucid dream feels way better. Right?

**onlysleeping** · 06-09-2005 07:59 AM

I am 20 yrs old... i've been smoking for 5 years
I didn't remember dreams more than once or twice every few weeks for about... a year and half... but i've been working on gaining lucidity for about 7 or 8 months now.
Smoking definatly puts a damper on my recall, and intent of course.
I remember at least 2 nights a week... and I just had the first OBE experience I've had since I drank a bottle of robotussin... and mushrooms, ketamine, and lsa. But this one was the first non-drug induced OBE... pure intent baby.
I definatly see where you guys are coming from about the good nights sleep...
but I'm just starting to break out of the repitition and I want to quit smoking and start dreaming more.
I love pot... I really do... but my desire to dream is starting to outweigh my desire to be high.

**existenceisadream** · 06-09-2005 10:04 AM

Hey everybody I'm right where you're at with wanting to quit smoking pot. I'm 25 now and I've been smoking for a long time quiting sometimes but normally smoking. When I first got into LD'ing it was after I had quit smoking pot for awhile and my dream recall was great and I was able to LD right away. After awhile I started smoking weed again and my recall along with LD's plus the motivation to have them were gone. Years later which is last August I quit smoking again and got back into Ld'ing and picked it up like it was nothing because of my previous experience. I only quit smoking for a few months but haven't lost my desire to LD at all. I'm actually more into it than I have ever been before so I think that's why I want to quit smoking pot so I can know for sure of what my abilities can be. I have actually gotten really good in the last year alone and smoking weed hasn't really caused too many problems because I have good recall and LD plenty but I feel if I can quit It will dramatically improve my dreaming ability. My problem is is that I really like to smoke and I'm so used to doing it right before or the hours leading up to going to sleep. I can still have really long LD's and have good recall but I know that I could become very good at LD'ing/OBE'ing if I could just cut down or stop smoking weed.

**Universal Mind** · 06-09-2005 09:11 PM

Wow. It looks like everybody agrees so far. That's encouraging. I'm 33 now, and I have been playing the quit/start back game with pot since I was 22. Before 22, I was perfectly okay with never buying pot and only smoking it when it was offered to me. Lucid dreaming is a new incentive for me to quit, and I want to say that I have learned that pot is an all or nothing thing for me. I have tried for 11 years to go with, "Well, I'll just smoke it once every two weeks," or, "I'll buy a dime bag once a month, and that's it." Once I open that door, I crave the stuff immediately. If I do go a month without it, I feel like I am holding my breath and counting down the minutes the whole time. That is no way to go through life. So, I plan to completely stop and head toward being a lucid dreaming guru instead. If I need a waking high, there is transcendental meditation and also endorphins from exercise. I have to close the door on the drug chapter.

42, absolutely. Lucid dreaming kicks pot's ass!

42 · 06-09-2005 09:47 PM

Yeah, I've been playing this "game" for 4 years or so now. I'm the same way. I try to be happy with only smoking occassionally, but I'm not. I always end up smoking every day. And I think it's been eating away at my overall self-control too. It's really hard to quit, even when you want to to really badly, if you have many friends that smoke too. Dudes (and dudettes) it seems that we're starting a pothead support group here. Haha. Well, props to anyone who can at least cut back. Super props to anyone who wants to quit completely and does! Okay on three..... one two three... YAAAAAAYYYYYY SELF DISCIPLINE!

**Matchbook** · 06-11-2005 09:54 AM

I believe that marijuana CAN have a very negative effect on LDing and dreaming in general, but I also believe it can be a neutral thing as well. It depends how much and how often you use it. Actually last night I smoked some, and after I went to sleep I had a good lucid dream and completed this month's task, not to mention some other crazy dreams to follow. The key, I think, is to be very prudent about how much you choose to smoke. Once a week seems to be ok for me.

l3xicon · 06-11-2005 10:11 AM

Originally posted by Matchbook
I believe that marijuana CAN have a very negative effect on LDing and dreaming in general.

& i believe marijuana can have a very negative effect on anything...especially EVERYTHING

- See this li'll smily he totally agrees & how can u not believe someone w/a fro...?

**Matchbook** · 06-11-2005 10:33 AM

Girlismyleader, how much do you actually know about the nature of marijuana, other than what you see through the media? If you have done a lot of research, then I respect that. But I think it should be noted that weed isn't the unhealthy life-wrecking plant it is made out to be. It all depends on how often and how much you use, as well as your body chemistry. To say that it has a negative effect on EVERYTHING is a little dramatic and unspecific. But I agree with you in that it can be heavily misused and result in physical and mental consequences. But that goes the same for something like prescribed medication as well. I don't want to suffer any ill effects, so I only use it once a week at the end of the week, to lower my stress levels. But I believe the majority of pot smokers out there are doing some harm to themselves. I just want to offer a second opinion, that it can be used without negative effects. But I officially recommend to everyone not to use it. For most people it is not worth possible risks, including addiction, dream recall failure, lack of motivation, etc.

So I'm not arguing with you Girlismyleader, just offering another view. I'm not an advocate for drugs, I have just done a wide range of research on a lot of drugs so I like to see that the correct information is seen. Having done research on so many drugs makes me averted to many of them, knowing what physical and mental havoc they can cause. There are only a select few that I would ever use, and even then not long-term.

**Leo Volont** · 06-11-2005 10:41 AM

Originally posted by Universal Mind
That ridiculous lifestyle has been in the way of my progress. *Has anybody else come across any of this?

Yeah! Practically every single hippy from the Sixties went through that realization. On so many levels it became clear that dope was only a big Slow Down. The Cocaine Era was perhaps more difficult to deal with, since it was more difficult to argue that cocaine could slow anybody down. There the problem was with cocaine running the user into the ground.

Alcohol can be seductive, with so many enticing Lite Beer commercials. Such wonderfully cute and funny commericials convincing us to spend money in order to become fat and stupid.

Anyway, congratulations! Hey, you can never be too sober.

l3xicon · 06-11-2005 10:39 PM

Dear Matchbook.

I don't know anything about marijuana...other than Green Day got some of their best hits from it, & one of my best friends smokes it all the time.

I have nothing against marijuana users, the fact is my religion is against it & i'v always been against it for reasons like seeing close family members totally kill themselves w/it.

So u can say as many reasons as u want about how marijuana can be ok if not abused but over personal loss through close friends using it i'm not convinced.

...pluss it was mostly a joke my post was...c'mon it had a freak'en guy w/a fro...

**plobable** · 06-12-2005 03:12 AM

millions of deaths a day are caused my marijuana<>

i think you can find diffrent kinds of weeds that allow you to rember your dreams better like some fruity smellin stuff i had b4 i rember multiple dreams a night but it was pricier weeds.

**Universal Mind** · 06-12-2005 05:53 AM

Moderation is fine for those who are made for it, but I apparently am not. I come from a generational family of alcoholics, but my thing turned out to be marijuana. That's relatively good, considering the fact that marijuana is much safer than alcohol. For one thing, you can't overdose on it. It still has its problems. I have gone 10 days without it, and I can tell that my head is clearer, my dreams are clearer, my memory is better, I can reason better, and I actually had a snippet of a lucid dream this morning. That hasn't been happening much lately, but I am about to make it start happening again. I feel better, and my emotional state is already better. Every day pot smoking can leave people with a certain degree of depression and anxiety. I know that I can stay off pot if I make it completely a non-option, and that is what I am going to do. It's over, but my lucid journey into the frontier of the dream world is just beginning.

**Leo Volont** · 06-12-2005 06:35 AM

Originally posted by plobable
millions of deaths a day are caused my marijuana<>

.

Huh!?

Can it even be supposed that 'millions' of people even smoke marijuana every day?

**logik** · 06-12-2005 08:08 AM

Just the other night i smoked and i had a pretty vivid dream the same night...? But sometimes yeah i dont remember my dreams after smoking a bit but for the most part it, this effect doesnt usually happen to me
:-)

**Lucifer** · 06-12-2005 03:52 PM

Originally posted by logik
Just the other night i smoked and i had a pretty vivid dream the same night...? But sometimes yeah i dont remember my dreams after smoking a bit but for the most part it, this effect doesnt usually happen to me
:-)

I usually can't sleep if I'm still stoned because under influence I always think about stuff too much (I feel I jump from idea to idea and always start to sink to the idea so that it's quite hard to jump to another completely). I guess pot decreases also my dream recall, but guess what, I got my first vivid lucid dream after I drank a half bottle of wine and smoked a bowl! I wasn't really intoxicated when I finally went to sleep, but I think cannabis made a difference to my dreams by setting them to the 1st person view. I usually see my dreams from a 3rd person view (like watching a movie) so I think in my case cannabis had a positive effect for my abilities to get a LD. It's arguable that does cannabis really influence dreams so that they become more personal (1st view), but this is my suggestion about it derived from my several experiments

**CryoDragoon** · 06-12-2005 05:09 PM

http://www.downloads.nl/cgi-bin/meta/do/np...liams&where=mp3

**ravenqueen** · 06-13-2005 04:56 AM

Okay this pot situation has gotten a little wacko. Here is the thing, if you are a pothead kiss LDs goodbye. If you depend on pot to make you happy kiss happiness goodbye too. Am I anti-pot? NOOO I'm not. I too have had a great time on it. Makes for a killer sex life. If you haven't tryed it hush. Stop going on media BS. It is less deadly then alcohol. Yes it is a gateway drug if you are that miserable about your life that you need something stronger. Pot is wonderful and natural but not ever made to be a daily thing. I personal only do it like 4 times a year. I don't believe potheads are okay. I have no problem LDing. Make your judgement

**existenceisadream** · 06-13-2005 07:22 AM

Originally posted by ravenqueen
Okay this pot situation has gotten a little wacko. Here is the thing, if you are a pothead kiss LDs goodbye. * *

I don't believe potheads are okay. I have no problem LDing. Make your judgement

Well I'm an official pot head and I smoke everyday. I pretty much LD everyday and it's becoming a rarity when I wake without one. So this statement of yours is bullshit and proves once again of how if something affects one person one way they seem to assume the same for others. The key to Ld'ing is intent, desire, self awareness and constant awareness. That's it folks. Pot doesn't take away my awareness at all and if anything makes me become aware of things I was not aware of before.
I go through cycles once a year where I quit cold turkey for about 2 months and then spend a couple months doing it maybe twice a month before slipping back to smoking more often. I will admit that dream recall is easier when I'm not smoking but in the last 6 months of being a pothead I have so many LD's and non LD's recorded it's crazy.
So you don't believe potheads are okay huh?
What exactly do you mean by that.
I feel you're saying that people like me aren't mentally right or have big issues or something.
Anyway it's funny because I plan to quit again soon because I feel it's that time again. So I'll be happy for better dream recall plus I'm going into a more hard-core approach into my dreaming practices and I know that pot doesn't help Ld'ing the best but this post is to assure people that If you work on your constant and complete awareness everday for as often as you can remember pot won't get in the way of your LD's. Just try not to smoke a few hours before going to bed though I will normally have LD's regardless of when I smoke. Then again if you feel it's hurting your Ld'ing then stop doing it to see if that helps. But like I said, It's all about contant awareness. If you let pot take away your desire to LD and your awareness levels then it may not be good for your Ld's.

Oh ya and this pot head is perfectly Okay with no problems LD'ing/OBE'ing.

**queensofthestoneage** · 06-13-2005 06:15 PM

Excessive marijuana use WILL make you go stupid.. But I don't think there was anything that much to lose if that is to happen. If you're smart enough then you don't smoke it everyday every freaking minute. Yes it can be very bad for you. It can be very good too, unless you're some dimwit. I know this may seem offensive, but it's not anyone elses fault other than yourself.
But of course there are exceptions.

millions of deaths a day are caused my marijuana<>[/b]

I never use this abreviation...but here.. LMAO.

**ravenqueen** · 06-13-2005 09:01 PM

Originally posted by existenceisadream

So you don't believe potheads are okay huh?
What exactly do you mean by that.
I feel you're saying that people like me aren't mentally right or have big issues or something.

Nope I don't believe being a pothead is ok. I'm not saying potheads can't be good, nice, and caring people. But as you said people like you aren't mentally right or have big issues or something. Don't take the comment to personal my hubbie is a nighttime pothead too. Very smart, hardworking man but yes in my eyes has issues too.