FAMILY :: COMPOSITAE
$150 pesos
CALEA TERNIFOLIA, THLE-PELAKANO, “DREAM HERB”: Easily grown native Mexican subtropical shrub (probably hardy into the high 20ºs f.). Has clusters of small white flowers. It quickly grows to about 1 meter tall and likes full or part sun and a bit of moisture.

It is called “the leaf of God” (Thle-pelakano) and is used as a tea (of the dried leaves) for divination and to clarify the senses by the Chontal people of Oaxaca, Mexico. After drinking the tea, the dried leaves are smoked while resting in a darkened room. Has been reported to increase dreaming and/or the recollection of dreams. It produces a very restless sleep with intense dream sequences that are easily remembered. My guess, from personally experiencing this herb, is that Calea enhances the Lucid Dream State.

For the tea, use a good palm full of dried leaf per cup of water. It is used medicinally for stomach problems. Zacatechichi is Nahuatl for “bitter grass.”

“I was introduced to this herb in the early 90’s in the form of an alcoholic extract. My favorite method of ingesting was to get myself prepared for bed in the evening, and then put 15 drops under my tongue. Sitting mellow and comfortable a slight wave of tiredness would come over me about 10 minutes later, lasting only a couple of minutes. If this wave was ignored, there would be no further effect, but if I went to bed straight away, I would drift off to sleep within a few minutes, ‘hypnotized’ by my slow but very amplified heartbeat. I would have many dreams of a profound and insightly nature (at least that’s how it felt at the time), which I would remember in every detail in the morning. There was a slight euphoric feeling that went with the realization of these dreams, or maybe it was just a really good nights sleep, but the mornings always had an upbeat note to them (in spite of the fact that I generally dislike mornings). If I was woken within the first hour of going to sleep, I would be surprised by the number and profoundness of my dreams in such a short time span, but would not have anymore of these type of dreams after falling asleep again. Sadly, the extract from the same supplier no longer has that effect on me, and no other supplier ever produced an extract that could elicit these effects. This is why I started making my own from my homegrown herb. It is not done by Soxthlet extraction, which I believe destroys many active components, including that of Calea zacatechichi, and my method involves no heat applied to the material at any point in the manufacture, yet it is concentrated to reduce the amount of alcohol and the ‘volume of bitterness’.” — (Torsten/SAB)

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