# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity > Lucid Aids >  >  Dl-phenylalanine

## SKA

I have a bottle of DL-Phenylalanine I bought once. It&#39;s a supplement that is sold over the counter in alot of Health&herb-like stores. It sais on the bottle that it&#39;s supposed to be Concentration enhancing. Enhanced concentration seems something very desirable for Lucid Dreaming, WILDing in particulair.

I decided to look up some Info on DL-Phenylalanine and found this on Wikipedia:
Phenylalanine

It covers L-phenylalanine, D-phenylalanine and DL-phenylalanine. DL-phenylalanine is a 50/50 mixture of L-phenylalanine and D-phenylalanine. Read it for yourself: In the Biological Aspects sectio it shows how L-phenylalanine will be converted into other substances in your Brain. 2 of them being Dopamine and Ephedrine: 2 stimulants.

I can see how this would be able to induce mental Clearity and a sharper awareness. 
I&#39;m going to take one 500mg tablet of DL-phenylalanine before going to bed to Find out if this might be any good for producing a Clearmindedness and higher awareness during sleep and dreams.

Later I will try this in combination with WBTB+WILD. If anyone else has this DL-phenylalanine, or knows where to get it and is prepared to give this a shot too: let me know. More participants, more acurate, conclusive results.

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## SKA

Okay. one 500 mg tablet of DL-phenylalanine was taken right before sleep.

I did recall 2 scenes of my last Dream very well: Emotions, Visual Details, DreamCharacters and Situations were Remembered very well while I&#39;ve had a pretty much Blank DreamRecall for months with some Dream Recall every now and then.

This may have been incidental, so it&#39;s not conclusive that the DL-phenylalanine was responsible for this.
To get more Conclusive results I will try this again. Maybe for even more conclusive results more people who are interrested in this DL-Phenylalanine can participate and post their results.

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## Seeker

Any objections to me moving this to Research SKA?

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## SKA

> Any objections to me moving this to Research SKA?[/b]



Oh no I don&#39;t. Sure go ahead.

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## yoast

When I was looking for the active substance in chocolat, I found reports about this substance. It says l-phenylalanine increases the PEA, which in turn causes certain parts of the brain to be more active.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3...l_reaction.html

I&#39;ve ordered some today, so I&#39;m in. I&#39;ll let you know what it does once it has arrived.

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## SKA

Allright cool let me know when you have it and are prepared to try it. I&#39;ll give it a second shot together with you.

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## yoast

Okay, I&#39;ve got it. This is going to be an extremely busy week for me, so I can&#39;t really try it. How about friday? And how much of this stuff do you take? Anything else I should now about it?

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## SKA

> Okay, I&#39;ve got it. This is going to be an extremely busy week for me, so I can&#39;t really try it. How about friday? And how much of this stuff do you take? Anything else I should now about it?[/b]



Well I don&#39;t believe there are much "things to know about Phenylalanine" since they are sold over the Counter basically everywhere. It is supposed to work Concentration enhancing and allthough my first Dreamexperience with it was interresting I can&#39;t be possitive thatthe DL-phenylalanine was responsible.

But friday is fine. By then I&#39;ll be having the last after effects from my Silene Capensis. For now the Dreams have been Vivid, very vivid yet hardily remembered. I KNOW they were vivid due to the mysterious flashbacks I get throughout the day and mostly the strong emotions carried over from the Dream after awakening.

And after this experiment; how about combining Chocolat, or better still: pure Cacao powder, with DL-phenylalanmine? If L phenylalaine is present in Cacao maybe the DL-phenylalanine could serve to enhance the cacao&#39;s effect?

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## yoast

Thank god it&#39;s friday.
So we&#39;re gonna try this stuff tonight and see what it does. I looked on my bottle and it says &#39;500mg L-phenylalanine&#39; capsules, so I&#39;ve only got the L-variant. But that&#39;s the one we want right?
So if I take 500mg of L, will you be taking 1000mg of DL?

I also got some B-vitamin complex stuff (containing 50mg of B6) and melatonin, should be a great dream combo theoretically.

I&#39;m still affected by the lariam I took (see topic lariam), but I think it should be getting less now.

Phenylalanine with chocolat, hmmm, worth a shot, maybe combined with Silene Capensis too? Still got some left. But let&#39;s concentrate on tonights effort first.

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## yoast

I&#39;ve tried the combination of B-complex, melatonin and Lphenylalanin for two nights now. The first night I couldn&#39;t remember a single dream (but I was really tired, slept like an ox), but last night I remembered about 5 or 6 dreams, one little LD too. (I woke up very soon after realizing I was dreaming, despite the hand rubbing thing)

Since I&#39;ve got all this stuff now anyway, I&#39;ll just continue using it and see if it improves my dreaming.

But after using the dreamherbs Calea and Silene, the supplements mentioned above and the lariam, only the lariam had a very noticable effect on dreaming, the others might be placebo or mild effects.

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## tommo

I&#39;ll get some too, I am interested in trying combination of things.  On my list is:
- Silene Capensis
- Calea Zacatechichi
- Artemisia Absinthium or Salvia Apiana
- SSNRI
- Valerian Root
- Kanna
- Skullcap
and now - Phenylalanine

I&#39;ve heard of a lot of things that sound interesting such as ayahuasca but I look for things that aren&#39;t hallucinogenic, just things that can affect your dreaming and help you WILD etc.

So anyway, I will see if I can get my hands on some PEA and try it with Valerian which I am going to be taking regularly.

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## SKA

> I&#39;ll get some too, I am interested in trying combination of things.  On my list is:
> - Silene Capensis
> - Calea Zacatechichi
> - Artemisia Absinthium or Salvia Apiana
> - SSNRI
> - Valerian Root
> - Kanna
> - Skullcap
> and now - Phenylalanine
> ...



Well if you&#39;re looking for things that aren&#39;t too Hallucinogenic: I would recommend you to stay away from Ayahuasca; It is the Mother of hallucinogens, DMT, prolonged for 4 hours of intense colorfull mandala shapes, contact with otherworldy beings and "Visions that come at the Speed of Light". The Physical sensation is very freaky. About as freaky as some serious Sleep Paralysis on the Freak-o-Meter I&#39;d say and yet I am only speaking of Yopo snuff experience which isn&#39;t even a fullblown DMT experience let alone a full blown 4 hour Ayahuasca vision.

I have a Wormwood plant in my garden (Arthemisia Absynthium)
I have a bag full of Mugwort (Artemisia Vulgaris)
I have a bottle of DL-Phenylalanine pills
I have plenty of Silene Capensis for another couple of shots.

Any suggestions as to how/when to ingest any of these substances or combinations thereof in order to affect dreaming positively? (except Silene Capensis: I know how that&#39;s done, allthough it doesn&#39;t always seem to be succesfull)

By the way; What is PEA?

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## Jess

_To Prepare Absinthe by Distillation_

30.0 g *wormwood*
  8.5 g hyssop
  1.8 g calamus
  6.0 g melissa
30.0 g anise seed
25.0 g fennel seed
10.0 g star anise
  3.2 g coriander seed

Put the herbs in a large jar.  Dampen slightly.  Add 800 milliliters of 85-95 percent alcohol.  Wine spirits make a better product than pure grain alcohol.  Let it steep for several days - a week is better - shaking occasionally.  Then add 600 milliliters of water and let the whole macerate for another day.  Decant off the liquid, squeezing as much from the mass of herb as possible.  Wet the herbs with some vodka and squeeze again.  Recipe should give a little over a liter and a half of green liquor.  It must then be distilled.  Inferior recipes skip this step, but what they produce is not worthy to be called _absinthe_.

In the distillation, change the receiver when the distillate turns yellow: those are the faints.  You can save the faints and add them to future distillations, but they will taint the flavor if added directly to the product.  Just use the good stuff.  The next step is to color and finish the liqueur by another round of maceration.

Color the distillate by again adding:

  4.2 g mint
  1.1 g melissa
  3.0 g *wormwood*
  1.0 g citron peel
  4.2 g liquorice root

Let the herbs macerate for another three or four days.  Decant, filter, bottle.  You will probably want to carefully add some concentrated sugar syrup to the blend.  The result will be a Swiss style absinthe of about 135 proof.  Recipe makes one liter of absinthe.

. . . 

*Wormwood* may also be smoked.  Rätsch (1992) reports that a Mexican species of _Artemisia_ is smoked as a marijuana substitute.  An Asian species of sagebrush, _Artemisia nilagirica_, is smoked by the Oraons of West Bengal for its hallucinatory effect (Pal and Jain 1989).  The Zuni inhaled fumes of _Artemisia caruthii_ to effect analgesia (Ott 1993).  The sacred sagebrush of the Great Basin, _Artemisia tridentata_, is highly important in sweat lodge rituals.  Jonathan Ott (1993) reports psychoactive effects from smoking _Artemisia absinthium_, an assertion that I have been able to verify.

~ Dale Pendell, _Pharmako/Poeia_

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## SKA

Aha I have smoked Wormwood before. From my garden. I roasted it in the oven for about 10 minutes to dry it out.
Really nice, subtile psychedelic effect that is seriously enhanced when combined with Cannabis.

My Wormwood plant grows every year and it&#39;s root sort of hybernates underground untill the seasin&#39;s weather is friendly enough for it to grow.

I was actually planning to use this summer&#39;s wormwood harvest to make Absinthe so THANK you thank you thank you for the handy Recipe. Allthough: Would it be easy to destil in a simple kitchen for me? What would I need?

I think I&#39;ll make "Rastabsinth" by adding some buds of Cannabis to the Tincture  :wink2:  I&#39;ll make the bottle&#39;s label myself&#33; 
It will be in Ethiopian Rasta colors Green, Yellow and Red and on that background I&#39;ll draw a Green Feary kissing a Rastaman. Cannabis, Wormwood & Alcohol: that should be mucho much fun. + I can think of another couple of very Tasty herbs to give it a delicious flavour; Mint grows in my garden too  :wink2: 

Maybe with next year&#39;s Absinth harvest I&#39;ll add some buds of Cannabis, some WORMWOOD off course, some crushed coffeebeans and some Mushrooms to the Tincture. I&#39;ll call it "Absinth from Mars"  :wink2: 


Back to the Topic:
I&#39;m buzzing on Nutmeg: it&#39;s actually not bad at all as many have claimed. If this was "the prisoner&#39;s drug" then I&#39;m sure those prisoners are having a pretty good time  :wink2:  The most is yet to come so I&#39;ll sleep on it and wake up with it.
I haven&#39;t tried DL-phenylalanine a second time yet, but I will to see if the innitial vivid dreams I had on it are actually the effect that DL-phenylalanine has on Dreams or not.

And yoast:
Maybe it&#39;s better not to do it every night: You MAY just, incidentally, have a period of Vivid dreaming all by yourself: You can not tell wether the DL-phenylalanine was responsible or that it was natural and unrelated to the DL-phenylalanine.
I suggest you try it once every weekeind. Or at max 3 times a week and spread out through the week to be able to tell with certainty that it wasn&#39;t a coincidence.

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## tommo

> By the way; What is PEA?[/b]



PEA is Phenethylamine, which, I am fairly certain is closely related to Phenylalanine.
I think if you take Phenylalanine it converts to Phenethylamine in your brain.  However, take this info with a small grain of salt.  ::lol:: 





> Any suggestions as to how/when to ingest any of these substances or combinations thereof in order to affect dreaming positively? (except Silene Capensis: I know how that&#39;s done, allthough it doesn&#39;t always seem to be succesfull)[/b]



First of all I read your thread on Silene Capensis and that&#39;s where I got the info about how to take it for dreaming so thanx for that  ::D: 

Second - I have tried:
- Artemisia Absinthium from the wormwood plant I have.  Funny story actually, I had one at my old house but I was young then so never realised that it was anything more then a nice smelling plant.  My mum told me it was dangerous/poisonous though lol.  After purchasing one a while ago I realised what the one at my old house was and I wish I still lived there coz the bush was MASSIVE&#33; 
Anyway, this did effect my dreams, however I drank the extraction WITH the 100% alcohol I used to do the extraction, and as you know alcohol inhibits dreaming.
- I haven&#39;t tried SSNRI but have done SSRI&#39;s and MAOI&#39;s.  In the first few weeks of SSRI&#39;s I had REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY strange dreams.  They were amazingly vivid but also they did NOT change scenes or have wierd things in them at all. (extremely hard to LD).  For example, I would be sitting there at school talking to friends or just listening to everything and watching and this would be the whole dream.  Sometimes the dreams carried over to the next night when they were a tad more eventful.  But it was the same dream the whole night, instead of seperate ones after each dreaming period.
- I have tried Valerian Root but not for long enough to get much out of it, you apparently need to take it everyday for a few weeks.  I was too inconsistent.

So from my experiences, I would say good concoctions would be:
- Prepare Absinthe.  Or dry the wormwood as you said you have done and chop it up with some weed (This is good for WILD because your head gets amazingly clear and it is so EASY to focus on it.  Maybe take an SSRI or MAOI if available because this will make your dreams vivid if you fail WILD.

A good alternative for MAOI is Passiflora.  It is also a mild sedative.  Just make a tea out of the leaves.  I don&#39;t know an amount of leaves but you need a lot.  Maybe a handful chopped?  Just boil the shit out of it.






> Allthough: Would it be easy to destil in a simple kitchen for me? What would I need?[/b]



You don&#39;t need all that other stuff in it.  It makes it taste &#39;better&#39;, but all you really need is to immerse it in alcohol in an airtight container for a few days or a week. (personally I think a few days is sufficient).  And shake it a few times a day.

After this is done just sift out all the leaves.  Either drink it with the alcohol, or if you want to dream with it you can:

- Let it sit there so the alcohol evaporates.  
- Or to do it quickly you can boil the alcohol out.  Simple put it in a pan on the stove until it reaches 78.3 degrees Celsius (172.94 degrees Fahrenheit).
I&#39;m not sure how this effects the Thujone in the mixture.  (the active chemical)

After you have got the extract you can try your own recipes to better the flavour,  I like your bud idea, I will try it.
Jess&#39;s suggestions are good ones&#33;
Just for fun, drink some with just water and the extract.  It is the most bitter thing you will EVER taste. Seriously, you won&#39;t know until you&#39;ve tried it.  Believe it or not though, I have become somewhat used to this &#39;flavour&#39;.

Good Luck.  Sorry if this was incoherent I am in a bit of a rush to sleep&#33;

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## yoast

I posted this link before in this topic, some background info on PEA, also it says that L-phenylalanine increases PEA (under &#39;takeaways&#39 :wink2: , so I think you&#39;re right.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._reaction.html

I also found some info on SS(N)RI&#39;s, they are apparently known to enhance dreaming. But I think you can only get them on prescription for depression/anxeity in the Netherlands, maybe that&#39;s different in Australia?

Good point not to take this stuff everyday, so I can tell the difference. My recall has  been good the past days, also had some really bizarre dreams, but can&#39;t say if it&#39;s related. Should try not using it for a while.

The wormwood sounds interesting, but maybe a little off topic since this is about phenylalanine, I don&#39;t mind though.

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## Jess

> Would it be easy to destil in a simple kitchen for me? What would I need?[/b]



Unfortunately I don&#39;t think it&#39;s _that_ simple.  But probably worth the effort&#33;

I found homedistiller.org which seems to be pretty comprehensive.  This is taken from the FAQ:

1) Is distilling hard to do?

Nope - if you can follow instructions enough to bake scones, then you can sucessfully distil. To distil well however, will require you to understand what you&#39;re doing, so read around and get a bit of information under your belt before you begin.

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## tommo

> I also found some info on SS(N)RI&#39;s, they are apparently known to enhance dreaming. But I think you can only get them on prescription for depression/anxeity in the Netherlands, maybe that&#39;s different in Australia?[/b]



I&#39;m not sure, they are relatively new.  I am going to the doctors tomorrow at 4:00 to re-evaluate what kind of meds I need (the others havent worked) and he may decide to try me on these SSNRI&#39;s.  If he doesn&#39;t I&#39;ll assume that they not available in Australia yet.  However I won&#39;t say anything about them if he doesn&#39;t becuase I wan&#39;t to go on benzodiazepines.  Although maybe he will put me on both.  We will see.





> Unfortunately I don&#39;t think it&#39;s that simple. But probably worth the effort&#33;[/b]



It is, believe me, it may not be perfectly distilled, but when using a normal distiller kit it isnt either, you have to get REALLY expensive ones.  Keep in mind that distilling is just boiling the solution to get something out of it.
With Absinthe it&#39;s not even necessary to boil it because all you want to get out is the alcohol, which would evaporate over two days of leaving the lid off the container, with occasional stirring of the mixture.  The only reason to distill drinking alcohol is because the distilling boils the alcohol away from the yeast and water and leftover sugar etc.  And alcohol boils at a lower point then water so the steam of alcohol comes up before the water steam.

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## SKA

> So from my experiences, I would say good concoctions would be:
> - Prepare Absinthe.  Or dry the wormwood as you said you have done and chop it up with some weed (This is good for WILD because your head gets amazingly clear and it is so EASY to focus on it.  Maybe take an SSRI or MAOI if available because this will make your dreams vivid if you fail WILD.[/b]



You&#39;re right about how easy it is to focus on a Wormwood high. It is a very subtle, defenite high that sharpens ones senses and awareness times 10. I found concentration was very strong and undisturbed.

Yeah could I just use strong alcohol like Wodka or Whiskey or something instead of pure alcohol?
I&#39;ll do it like that. Put the Alcohol, Wormwood and a few buds of Cannabis in an airtight jar. Leave it in the cool, dark closet for a couple of days while shaking it every now and then.


Another thing. *THUJE;*
I have heard of people extracting Thujone from Wormwood before. A sort of Wormwood hash many people have called Thuje. It&#39;s really very simple to make: Just make the Tincuture, for this I recommend pure alcohol, and let it sit for a couple of days to extract. Then when you&#39;re done open the Jar and leave it standing in the hot burning sun for a while. This should evaporate the Alcohol very quickly and leave you with a hash-like residue. This resin is Smokable, but you can also strain Tea out of it. It&#39;s almost pure Thujone, except for some tiny bits of fats and other plantoils.

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## tommo

Yeah you can use non pure alcohol.  I just used pure alcohol because its cheaper. (methylated spirits)
The non pure alcohol is fine though, as long as its strong, like as you said, vodka or whiskey.

I didn&#39;t think of leaving it out in the sun, I&#39;ll do that next time.

I just went to the doctors, and got some new meds.  She said they are different to lovan and avanza (SSRI and MAOI).
And whaddaya know? I just looked it up, its an S(S)NRI&#33;

So I&#39;ll see if they effect my dreams tonight&#33;  Also she said it&#39;s alright if I take some of my mum&#39;s Xanax, I may take it tonight or maybe tomoro night just to try SSNRI seperately and then together with Xanax.

EDIT:  The N (norepinephrine) in SSNRI is a phenethylamine in the brain.  SSNRI&#39;s increase this, or rather, in lamens terms, stop it from going away as quickly.  For this reason I will probably rule out taking phenylalanine or PEA.

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## SKA

In the midday I have taken 0ne 500mg tablet of DL-phenylalanine & one 120mg capsule of Ginkgo Biloba.
Maybe these substances deliver a clearifying/Concentration & Memory enhancing effects after hours and hours

Well I&#39;m interrested how I will Dream Tonight

Some other time I&#39;m going to try taking DL-phenylalanine & Ginkgo Biloba for 2 weeks straight. Maybe the effects will build up over time. I will find out.

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## yoast

What a coincidence, I was thinking along the same line. I&#39;m already taking the phenylalanine for one week now, everynight. 

Last night I had amazing dream recall and incredibly vivid and detailed dreams. I even remember the names of trainstations I passed (I read signs, they looked normal in my dream). I remember smelling the water from a sulfurous hotspring very clearly. The dream was one big story without too many strange twists and turns, very lifelike.

But the night before was just an average nights dreaming. So I&#39;m gonna see where this goes. If my recall will stay as great as today, I&#39;ll be very happy.

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## tommo

Only have time to type a little right now.  
Main info, 4 LD's in one night using 2 capsules of 35 mg SSNRI and 1 Xanax.
Secondary info, could only remember last LD properly but it may ahve been caused by the harsh, quick awakening by my c*$t-head brother.

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## yoast

Wow, 4 LD's in one night? That's amazing. How many LD's do you normally have?
And how often do you take that stuff? Does it work every night?

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## tommo

I usually have a couple LD's a month since my first Lucid Dream.

I take 2 pills (around 75 mg) everyday of SSNRI and have only been taking this for a week.  The Xanax, I take 1 pill everyday.  Not sure of the strength sorry.

And no it doesn't work everynight, however I'm sure it must have an effect.  SSRI, SSNRI and MAOI's are all supposed to make your dreams really vivid.  SSRI did for me MAOI didnt and now SSNRI's do.
The Xanax maybe would effect them also though but I'm not sure how.  I'm pretty sure it makes it harder for me to remember my dreams though.
Xanax makes me fall asleep REALLY quick and after those 4 lucids, when I woke up I remembered thinking about being lucid right before I fell asleep.  So maybe it would help with MILD.
Also it is good for WILD because it relaxes you so much!

I just took 2 SSNRI's as usual.  But instead of taking the Xanax before bed I took it now.  We shall see what happens tonight!  ::D: 
I'll try and WILD before bed also.

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## yoast

Sounds good. But I think this is the kind of stuff you should definitely only take on prescription.
You have any side effects during the day?

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## tommo

Yeh, I got it on prescription.





> You have any side effects during the day?



Only side effects I got on MAOI's was EXTREME tiredness when it kicked in.  Like I couldn't move lol.  Just had to sleep.  
With SSRI's no immediate side effects when I started them like tiredness or shaking etc.  But I was on them for about 6 months or more and occasionally I would feel like everything was fake, or like a dream.  I can't explain it, but it wasn't scary or anything it was actually quite interesting.  
With my new SSNRI's I haven't had any yet either but I hope to get that same dreamy feeling.  It was really nice and calming.
No side-effects from Xanax as of yet either.
EDIT:  Actually with Xanax, if I don't take within the hour of my routine time (once a day at 4:00) I get really anxious and nervous.  Not sure if you would classify that as a side-effect?

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