Calea zacatechichi.

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 23:54:18 +0000
Sender: HERB.TREARNPC.EGE.EDU.TR
From: christopher hedley <christopher.GN.APC.ORG>
Subject: re Calea z.

> Thanks for the added insight into the mugwort dream connection. Also, have you had any experience with calea zacatechichi, the reputed lucid dream inducer used by Indians in the Mexican state of Chiapas?

This is taken from,'Weird Organic and Hard to find Drugs', pub Do it now foundation, Institute for Chemical Survival, Phoenix... whatever happened to them ? Such high quality practical hippy scholarship is sorely missed.

'Calea zacatechichi is a shrub of the sunlower family ranging from central Mexico to Costa Rica. The specific name is derived from the Aztec word for bitter grass which it is also sometimes called. This plant has known long use in folk medicine, especially in the treatment of fevers and as an astringent in cases of diarrhoea. The Chontal Indians of Oaxaca use the plant to induce hallucinations. Crushed dried leaves are steeped in boiling water and the resulting tea is drunk slowly. The Indian user then lies down down in a quite place and smokes a cigarette made from the dried leaves of the same plant. The Indian knows that he has taken a large enough dose when a sense of respose and drowsyness is experienced and when he hears his own heart and pulse beats. A new alkaloid of undetermined structure has recently ben isolated from the plant, but, as of yet, we don't know what the active constituents of Calea zacatechichi are.'

The booklet includes an overdose chart and the friendly advise to hand it to a friend before experimenting.

Christopher Hedley