The Mexican Dream Herb: Calea zacatechichi 🌱🌙
This powerful shamanic herb from Mexico & Central America has the power to make your dreams more vivid & memorable.
Mexican dream herb (AKA Calea zacatechichi) is one of the most reliable dream-inducing herbs available today.
It’s used by lucid dreamers to enhance the vividness and cohesiveness of dreams and help facilitate one’s ability to “wake up” within a dream. Users mix it with other herbs like mugwort, blue lotus flower, passionflower, or damiana in herbal smoke blends or prepare a strong tea right before going to sleep.
Calea zacatechichi grows abundantly from northeastern Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas) down to Colombia and Brazil. It thrives in a wide range of environments, including tropical and temperate forests, and is often found around human developments near roads and open areas.
There's some confusion about the species people use today. Some sources cite Calea ternifolia, which was the first official botanical name given this plant (published in 1820). It was later changed to C. zacatechichi by the German botanist Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal in 1835.
Zacatechichi is derived from the Nahuatl term “zacatl chichic,” which means “bitter grass.” Living up to its name, Calea zacatechichi has a pretty foul taste.
Not all calea is the same — there’s “good calea” and “bad calea.” A skilled shaman in Mexico and central America can tell the difference, but modern studies analyzing the chemical differences between samples of “good calea” and “bad calea” haven’t found any clear chemical markers to distinguish them.
Bad calea tends to be weak and has a higher affinity for inducing uncomfortable, bizarre, or unintelligible dream states. Good calea tends to produce the opposite — dreams which are clear, vivid, and pleasant.
Traditional Shamanic Uses
Calea has a long history of use in Mexico and Central America, where it grows naturally. Its use is primarily reserved for shamans who use it for ceremonial and divinatory purposes. The herb would be smoked to induce trance-like states and enhance the visionary capacity of dreams.
This herb has other uses as well. Its potent bitter flavor makes it useful for digestive disorders ranging from diarrhea and indigestion to poor appetite and cramping. Calea is also considered a febrifuge (fever-reducer) and hepatic (liver tonic). For these applications, it was normally brewed as a tea.
The Dream Diver’s Herb
The strongest effects of calea manifest while we’re asleep. In high doses, calea leaf can dramatically enhance both the vividness and memorability of dreams. It makes dreams feel longer and reduces some of the “fogginess” that can make dreams hard to comprehend after we wake up.
One of the more unique characteristics of calea is that it can also make dreams feel more cohesive — that is, it makes dreams easier to understand. This is one of the ways this herb is believed to help users extract knowledge from their dreams.
Calea dreams tend to be hyper-realistic and detailed. Some describe the feeling as being “more real” than reality itself. This is a phenomenon often described with powerful psychedelic states induced by DMT (dimethyltryptamine).
Calea is one of the more popular herbs people use to facilitate lucid dreaming (dreams where the user is consciously aware they’re dreaming). It’s less likely than other dream herbs (oneirogens) to cause nightmares, and the increased clarity makes it easier to enter a lucid dream than some of the more idiosyncratic or bizarre dreams caused by herbs like Amanita mushrooms, datura, or damiana.
Beyond Dreaming: Other Psychoactive Effects
Calea is (mildly) psychedelic when used in a waking state, but the effects are different from classical psychedelics like LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) or magic mushrooms.
The effects of calea are best described as calming and lucid. If used in high enough doses, the experience can feel somewhat dreamlike, with a calming “floaty” effect comparable to kava (Piper methysticum).
These lucid and calming qualities are similar to LSA (lysergic acid amide) or Amanita muscaria — but the experience is unique enough to make effective comparison difficult. For example, both LSA and amanita are strong sedatives — helping to push the user to a sleeping state — while calea is slightly stimulating.
In lower doses, calea may increase mental clarity and focus. Some people smoke small amounts of the herb to help while studying or engaging in creative work.
How Does The Mexican Dream Herb Work?
Calea works by keeping the mind in shallow sleep states throughout the night.
More specifically, it keeps our minds hovering between slow wave “N1” sleep and REM sleep — which is where dreams are most active and memorable.
Most of our time spent while asleep is in the N2 stage. Dreams ocurring during this stage are less memorable or recognizeable.
Sleep talking, sleepwalking, and night terrors are thought to occur primarily in stage N3.
Caleas ability to prolong the time spent in N1 sleep could explain how it’s able to increase the vividness and cohesiveness of our dreams. This dream state is closer to waking consciousness than other levels, including REM.
This effect could also explain why calea tends to leave people feeling tired and unrefreshed the morning after. More time spent in shallow sleep and more frequent waking throughout the night mean users aren’t getting the full restorative effects provided by deeper levels of sleep.
There are 5 stages of sleep, which are cycled through approximately every 90 minutes:
Awake (W)
Stage 1 Non-REM Sleep (N1)
REM Sleep
Stage 2 Non-REM Sleep (N2)
Stage 3 Non-REM Sleep (N3)
Calea Active Ingredients
Like most medicinal plants, it’s hard to isolate the effects of calea down to just one active ingredient. The effects of this plant rely on a complex interplay of dozens of psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds.
The primary active ingredients identified in calea are a group of more than 37 sesquiterpene lactones. The most abundant include calaxin, ciliarin, and caleins A–F. Other active ingredients include triterpenoids, chromenes, coumarins, flavonoids, germacranolides, and a variety of terpenes.
How to Use Calea Leaf
The traditional way of using calea leaf was to smoke it (usually in combination with other herbs) and then follow it up with a strong tea. For maximum dream-enhancement you need to take relatively high doses of this plant.
Capsules and tinctures are also good options that have become more popular in recent years.
The usual dose is between 1 and 5 grams of the dried leaf. Traditional doses of this herb are much higher, with some reports suggesting as much as 60 grams.
The dream-inducing qualities are rarely reported in doses lower than one gram. Most people find they need closer to 2 or more grams before they experience any significant oneirogenic effects.
When trying calea for the first time, it’s wise to start with a lower dose and increase in small increments once you become more familiar with how it affects you individually. Start with 0.5 grams, then 1 gram, then 2, and so on until you get the desired effects.
Because calea can reduce the quality of one’s sleep, leaving users feeling groggy the following morning, it’s wise to limit the use of this plant to just once or twice per week (or less).
Method 1: Smoke It
The active ingredients in calea are resistant to heat, which means it can be smoked.
Calea burns smoothly on its own but can be harsh if it isn’t mixed with something like tobacco, mullein, cannabis, or damiana.
In general, the dose for smoking calea is 1–5 grams. Some people find just a few puffs are enough; others will smoke two or three calea cigarettes to get the desired effects.
Here’s a simple “dream smoke mix” using calea as the primary ingredient:
Calea zacatechichi leaf — 2 parts
Damiana or mugwort — 1 part
Marijuana or tobacco — 1 part
Mullein or raspberry leaf — 1 part
Method 2: Prepare a Tea
If you don’t like the idea of smoking, you can always make calea into a tea — but be warned: calea tea tastes horrible. I’m a herbalist and am used to drinking bitter herbal brews, but this plant is on another level. There’s a reason the Nahuatl word for this plant translates to “bitter grass.”
You can cut some of the bad flavor by mixing in strong-tasting herbs like mint, lemongrass, or damiana (also oneirogenic). It also helps to add some honey or sugar to cut the bitterness, and cooling the brew in the fridge before drinking makes it (slightly) more palatable.
The bottom line is that it’s going to taste bad no matter what you do. The best way to approach this is to just knock it back quickly and rinse it down with some juice or peppermint tea.
For one person, a good starting dose is to mix 3 grams into 1–2 cups of boiling water and let it steep for 20 minutes.
When I brew calea I use a small French press. I add the herbs, then the water, and place it in the fridge for about an hour. Once it’s fully steeped and cooled, I strain it using the French press filter and knock it all back as quickly as possible.
Method 3: Capsules
The dried, crushed leaf can be made into capsules to help hide the bitter flavor. It’s surprisingly hard to find calea capsules, but they’re easy to make at home using a simple herb grinder and capsule machine (such as the Cap M Quick).
A single 00 capsule can hold roughly 750 mg of herb. If you can crush the leaf into a very fine powder, it’s possible to fit up to 1 gram in each capsule.
The usual dose is around 2–5 grams, so you’ll need to take between 2 and 7 capsules depending on the size and fullness of the caps.
Method 4: Tinctures
You can sometimes find calea tinctures online, but it’s also easy enough to make them yourself.
Tinctures don’t remove the bitterness of calea, but they will reduce the amount you need to take to take. You can also make tinctures using vegetable glycerine, which has a sweet, syrupy flavor that cuts the bitterness of the herb substantially.
To make a tincture, weigh your herb and add it to a mason jar. To make a standard 1:5 tincture, you’ll need to add 5 times as much alcohol or vegetable glycerine (in mL) as you added (in grams) of herb.
For example, in a 1 pint (16 oz or ~500 mL) mason jar, you can fit about 70 grams of calea and 350 mL of alcohol or vegetable glycerine.
Leave your tincture somewhere dark and warm for about two weeks to let it infuse, shaking or flipping the jars at least once per day to help it mix.
Once complete, filter your tincture through a mesh strainer, cheesecloth, or old T-shirt to remove the spent herb.
Your tincture is now ready to use.
At a concentration of 1:5 and a conventional dose of around 3 grams of herb, you’ll need to use about 15 mL of tincture per dose. You can mix your tincture with juice, hot tea, or just take it straight as a shot if you like.
If you want to remove some of the alcohol, pour the tincture in some boiling water or tea and give it a few minutes for the alcohol to evaporate.
Side Effects & Precautions
The most common side effects of Calea zacatechichi are nausea (from the strong bitter taste) and a feeling of grogginess the day after using it. This is a direct result of calea’s ability to prolong time spent in shallow (N1) sleep, which in turn shortens the time spent in deeper, more restorative stages of sleep (N2 and N3).
This is a tradeoff users often need to weigh when taking herbs that actively promote dreaming. You can increase the quality of dreams but at the expense of reducing the overall quality of your sleep.
Smoking the herb brings additional side effects, such as sore throat, coughing, or headaches.
Some users experience a drop in blood pressure after using calea, especially in large doses. This can cause feelings of dizziness and confusion.
Calea also has some hypoglycemic effects, which could cause blood sugar levels to drop too low in susceptible individuals.
It’s best to avoid this herb if you’re taking medications for heart disease, high or low blood pressure, or diabetes.
Further Reading
The Spirit's Call: Shamanism, Neo-Shamanism, & Altered States of Consciousness 🌿🌕
The Secret Life of Salvia: How this Bizarre Psychedelic Could Revolutionize Gut Health
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