# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity > Lucid Aids >  >  Better than Galantamine! Amino Acid Blend.

## psychology student

Substances that facilitate lucid dreaming  A Case Study

Of all the substances that are associated with Lucid Dream induction, Galantamine is the king, and well-know in the Lucid Dreaming community.
However, a study by Thomas Yuschak found an arguably more effective combination of supplements know as the "Amino Acid Blend": 
*
2000mg L-aspartic acid, 
4000mg L-glutamine, 
300mg L-theanine.*
Taken during a WBTB.

Although one may question the validity of the study in question due to extremely low test participants and trials, there was found a 100% success rate with this "Amino Acid Blend", in achieveing lucidity. Yet, in months of browsing Dreamviews, I have found no threads attesting to its proposed effectiveness. 



So if you are interested in the pharaceutical induction of lucid dreams, here is something for you. 

Moreover, has anyone tried this? I am curious to here about independent experiences and hopefully successes with the Amino Acid Blend.

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## ChaybaChayba

100&#37; succesrate? Man couldn't you have posted this yesterday! lol.. I just bought choline bitatrate today ^^ it's supposed to increase recall and improve brain functions. 

I'll also try that Amino Acid Blend, 100% succesrtate sounds insane..

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## psychology student

> I'll also try that Amino Acid Blend, 100% succesrtate sounds insane..



You must remember, there were only four attempts, and he tested it on himself. But, it certainly has potential.

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## joshbotch

i dont take suplaments but thoes dosages seem REALLY HIGH!  is that a normal dose of something or would you be swallowing like 20 pills?!?

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## ChaybaChayba

A pill is usually around 500mg afaik, atleast the pills I bought, so I guess its a normal dose

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## psychology student

> i dont take suplaments but thoes dosages seem REALLY HIGH!  is that a normal dose of something or would you be swallowing like 20 pills?!?







> A pill is usually around 500mg afaik, atleast the pills I bought, so I guess its a normal dose



Yea, probably one pill each. I have a bottle of Choline Bitartrate at 550mg a pill.

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## psychology student

Come on people! Better than Galantamine.

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## joshbotch

i'll give it a try, what are the _individual_ suppliments for?

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## psychology student

> i'll give it a try, what are the _individual_ suppliments for?



From the article:

*Amino acid blend (AAB):*
"In order to better study the effects of glutamateric activation, a blend of three
complimentary amino acids was used: L-aspartic acid, L-glutamine, and Ltheanine.
This combination was designed to preferentially activate NMDA
glutamate receptors. Aspartate (the conjugate base of aspartic acid) is a directNMDA agonist. The ability of aspartic acid to cross the blood brain barrier is
limited however, to an easily saturated transport mechanism [7] thus the addition
of glutamine and theanine. Glutamine easily crosses the blood brain barrier where
it can then transform into glutamate (the general agonist for all glutamate receptor
types). Theanine also crosses the blood brain barrier and serves a dual purpose:
stimulating the release of dopamine and antagonizing specific glutamate receptor
subtypes. The fact that theanine is thought to preferentially antagonize the AMPA
and Kainate receptor subtypes by an order of magnitude more than the NMDA
receptor subtype [5], should allow preferential binding of the available glutamate
to the NMDA receptors. The dosages used for all tests incorporating this amino
acid blend were 2000mg L-aspartic acid, 4000mg L-glutamine, 300mg Ltheanine".

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## ninja9578

I saw that study when I was making the Supplement repository.  4 tests is not a case study, 40 is minimum to make a proper normal curve.

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## psychology student

> I saw that study when I was making the Supplement repository.  4 tests is not a case study, 40 is minimum to make a proper normal curve.



Yeah, I made that clear in th OP.

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## Firewalker

I've tried L-Glutamine and L-Theanine without the other ingrediant. I didn't try the dose in the study though. I tried 1000mg L-Glutamine and 200mg L-Theanine once, nothing, and 2000mg L-Glutamine and 200mg L-Theanine once, still nothing. My L-Glutamine is 1000mg capsules, the L-Theanine is 200mg, I'm not sure if it is really safe to take 4000mg of L-Glutamine at once, at least in capsule form as it would be 4 capsules of Glutamine and 2 of L-Theanine. If anyone knows of the safety of this let me know.

I did have succes with 1000mg L-Glutamine and a 750mg Green Tea supplement that contains L-Theanine, not sure the amount and it also contains 50mg of caffeine. I suspect that had a big part in why I became lucid, this was taken as a WBTB supplement.

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## psychology student

*L-Glutamine:*
-http://www.anyvitamins.com/glutamine-info.htm#Dosage says:
"No clear toxicity has emerged in glutamine studies, but it should not be taken by people suffering from liver or kidney problems".
-http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/041501.htm says:
"DOSAGE 
As with any free form amino acid, Glutamine should always be taken with pyridoxal-5-phosphate which regulates the absorption, metabolism & conversion of all amino acids.
The usual dose recommended in my practice is 4000-5000 mg anywhere from 1-3 times daily between meals & not later than 3pm"


*L Theanine* from wikipedia
"Studies on test rats have shown that even repeated, extremely high doses of theanine cause little to no harmful psychological or physical effects".

*According to multiple sources, they are safe at the dosages in the experiment.*

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## joshbotch

i went looking for these suppliments but couldn't find any of them... do they have different/ more common names?

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## dallyup52

From what I read ref: Yuschak.

Even though he got 4 times lucid in a row they were of *short* duration and *not* very satisfying experiences.

But it is your body. I am not the boss of your body. :smiley:

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## psychology student

> i went looking for these suppliments but couldn't find any of them... do they have different/ more common names?



I could only find glutamine. Although I know that Theanine is in Green Tea supplements. You could try bying them online.#





> From what I read ref: Yuschak.
> 
> Even though he got 4 times lucid in a row they were of *short* duration and *not* very satisfying experiences.
> 
> But it is your body. I am not the boss of your body.



Yeah, but all I'm looking for is lucidity, from there other things can be easily done.

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## iadr

Unfortunately, not everyone has had the same level of success with the Amino Acid blend that Thomas Yuschak had.

My own rate of success with this blend is around 10 percent, while the galantamine has worked for me over 80 percent of the time.

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## psychology student

> Unfortunately, not everyone has had the same level of success with the Amino Acid blend that Thomas Yuschak had.
> 
> My own rate of success with this blend is around 10 percent, while the galantamine has worked for me over 80 percent of the time.



Ah, I see. Interestingly, some find that Galantamine doesn't work for them at all. It shows that individual differences are pertinent in in this area; it is useful to experiment with more than one of the recommended supplements it in order to find success. 

I found a new combination of recommended supplements that worked for me last night. I need to try it again tonight, then I may release it to the forum.

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## dallyup52

And it may be that the supplements don't cause a Lucid experience at all.  they might just help give you the mental awareness to remember the experience.  So if you don't have the experience it may have nothing to do with the supplements.

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## psychology student

> And it may be that the supplements don't cause a Lucid experience at all.  they might just help give you the mental awareness to remember the experience.  So if you don't have the experience it may have nothing to do with the supplements.



I see what your saying: of course there is no lucidity button in our brains. But each substance offers different benefits to increase the likely hood of lucidity. Galamantine raises the levels of acetylcholine, but decreasing acetylcholine agonists. Acetylcholine is linked to REM sleep. A substance that makes a dream more vivid could also be beneficial in inducing a lucid state. I could go on....

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## TalkingHead

> Ah, I see. Interestingly, some find that Galantamine doesn't work for them at all. It shows that individual differences are pertinent in in this area; it is useful to experiment with more than one of the recommended supplements it in order to find success. 
> 
> I found a new combination of recommended supplements that worked for me last night. I need to try it again tonight, then I may release it to the forum.



 
Well.. I still have a lot of this trifecta of supplemtents left.  I'm going to start using it again.. this time at the beginning of the night.   I've also got a nicotine patch that I think I'll add later on some nights.  Do any of you brain scientists know if this might be a helpful interaction?

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## TalkingHead

Well,  this did induce a small spontaneous lucid dream for me the other night.. I barely remembered it when I got up in the morning, but this definitely boosted my dreams.  I haven't used the nicotine patch either.

I still don't know; 
Is this better to do before going to sleep;  or waking up in the middle of the night and taking it?

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## SLiCeR

during your WBTB they should be taken.

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## LightningMunk

so are these available at a local vitamin store? and should it be like, if they are the pills, should be all taken at once then?

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## SLiCeR

Yes widely available and yes you take all the pills at the same time or one after the other but all during a WBTB

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## LightningMunk

do these pills have common names in the vitamin store? i know someone else just asked about it but i am curious to know  :smiley:

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## Koalaman

> Yeah, I made that clear in th OP.



Then the claim "better than galantamine" is highly questionable, which makes the topic title misleading.

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## SLiCeR

everytime i try the amino acid blend i cant fall back asleep? anyone know why this is?

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## SLiCeR

No one had any idea why this Amino acid blend keeps me awake?

In my personal experienece so far i have had 0 success with this blend but with saying that i must admit that i have never really properly fallin back asleep after taking it or i never planned to take it and just took it on a random morning that i woke up earlier than usuall on this could have something to do with my high failure rate i will keep at it and hopefully do it properly with some results which i then will post in this thread.

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## SLiCeR

Bump

Just thought i would give this thread an encouraging bump as i still have my amino acid blend and would like to know if anyone has any experience with this blend?

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## Germzx

For whoever is asking where to get these your local GNC, Vitamin World, or Vitamin Shoppe will have them.  I have only seen L-Theanine locally at Vitamin World.  You can find the L-aspartic acid at any local drugstore like Walgreens or CVS around here.  The L-glutamine is pretty common AFAIK as well.

Good luck on your searches.

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## PercyLucid

Dudes... there is nothing like meditation and will for Lucid dreaming. Come on!!!  Pills for lucid dreaming?  The pill does nothing.  It's your own subconscious that believes you will be lucid if you have the pill, so you turn lucid.  Is the same as believing as a banana increases lucidity, is not the banana, but your subconscious that believes the banana can make you lucid and you turn lucid (thanks to the subconscious)

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## FryingMan

^^ Any natural LDer (like PercyLucid) just cannot appreciate the pain of getting a taste of lucid dreaming and then having to wait weeks or even a month or more for the next LD.

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## StephL

> Dudes... there is nothing like meditation and will for Lucid dreaming. Come on!!!  Pills for lucid dreaming?  The pill does nothing.  It's your own subconscious that believes you will be lucid if you have the pill, so you turn lucid.  Is the same as believing as a banana increases lucidity, is not the banana, but your subconscious that believes the banana can make you lucid and you turn lucid (thanks to the subconscious)



Are you serious? I do not doubt nor know, if meditation is the best method of them all. Maybe.
But your argument against supplements here, is not that one _should not_ - like so many seem to say - but that it would only be _placebo effect_.
Are there placebo-controlled studies, anybody? Besides the wealth of anecdotal evidence all over the net esp. for Galantamin/Cholin?
I still didn't try myself.
Even if there were no such studies - since the effects make sense from the neurobiology involved - I would put my hand in the fire and say that's true pharmacological effect - not placebo.

Or do you maybe reckon, neurobiology has got nothing to do with lucid dreaming?

There are many more things people use, and some alternate substances, so that they don't get tolerance and effect-diminishing. 
I have a link to a whole book on that somewhere..

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## gab

4 year necro. Locked.

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