Thread: Drugs and dreams

I was kind of wondering lately, why do so many people here talk about drugs so often? I personlly don't see any connection between dreaming and drugs, yet theres always topics about them. Not just in this forum or the lounge but in the dream forums as well.

Drugs affect the mind, and (in my experience at least) this carries over to affecting dreams.

Alcohol seems to keep my mind more concious when I'm asleep. I get a ton of false awakenings, and frequently manage to get lucid dreams while sleeping off a hangover.

Weed seems to either stunt people's dream recall completely or makes them dream crazy. In my experience if I smoke regularly I remember less dreams, but when I stop smoking I get extremely vivid and intense dreams.

Hallucinogens have had a big impact on my dreams, even just a medical dose (ok a swig but its not like its hallucinogenic at those levels) of cough syrup during the day and I notice a definite impact on my dreams that night. Actively hallucinogenic doses of various chemicals make things even more interesting.

I've been noticing a lot of feelings I get in dreams are the same I get off drugs. Which makes me think... were my dreams like this before I started taking them, or have drugs imprinted feelings/experiences on my subconcious that affect how I dream. Oh well, either way it's fun.

Ohh, speaking of connections between drugs and dreaming, read up about a drug called DMT. Naturally occurs in everyones brain, people harvest it from various plants to ingest. Take a small amount (20mg) and you get effects somewhat like a high does of mushrooms for a few minutes. Take a bigger amount (50-70mg) and you get the previous effects (for like 5 seconds) then pretty much close your eyes (or pass out) and have an experience that is as immersive (or more so!) as a dream. You leave your body, all your senses are still functioning but without the usual physical limitations. You see inexplicable landscapes, sense alien surroundings, hear sounds you cant describe, communicate with entities somehow, bizarre thoughts fill your head and you're flooded with emotions. For 6 minutes (objectively) that lasts then you're back to earth. To me that drug is a dream.

.... maybe I can take it in a LD??! Sounds like it might be interesting.

-spoon

(ps, is that what you meant by connections of drugs to dreaming?

Drugs cause altered states of consciousness.

Lucid Dreaming = Altered state of consciousness.

Seems pretty logical to me that there would be a strong connection... (I'm not suggesting anyone should try either, by the way).

drugs do not cause altered states of consciousness
PSYCHADELICS cause altered states of consciousness

please there is a BIIIIIG difference, if you think something like alcohol is the same as something like lsd you are horrifically brainwashed, D.A.R.E. did it's job well

all the drugs I've heard talked about in here are psychadelics, and they make you go into the same exact realm lucid dreams do, in fact a lot of people describe their 'trips' as waking dreams, you go into a world of your imagination that you have control over and are conscious through the whole thing(well, usually conscious), I don't see any real difference other than not being able to wake up during a psychadelic trip.

I am not recommending anyone should take a psychadelic drug, especially illegal ones.

Personally, I had the collective view of reality beat into me (like everyone else) and psychedelics re-opened my thinking to the possibility of things like lucid dreaming, OBEs, etc. If not for psychedelics, I would have never gone on to learn, and continue learning, about religion, the human mind, philosophy, etc. They gave me a glimpse of the bigger picture. Some people need to be firmly booted out of normal reality a bit before accepting the possibilities. A near death experience could do the same sort of thing for a person, but those are harder to come by.

Most other drugs dull your senses and narrow your view. Not a horrible path for small detours, but a dead end if you stay on it, in my experience. When I drank/smoked daily, dream recall went to zero, and interest in philosophy/paranormal waned. Psychedelics, for me, are a learning aid. I don't use them the way I used to use drugs.

Actually, in most of the scientific type reading I've done, psychedelics aren't even classified as drugs.

What about drugs like marijuana? That seems pretty common here too but its not a psychedelic. Shrooms are however, which seem like the second most talked about around here.

Originally posted by Prometheus
drugs do not cause altered states of consciousness
PSYCHADELICS cause altered states of consciousness

Yizzah.

I thought that was a given... You can't go lucid by taking nodoes or drinking red bull. Though alcohol's physical effects overwhelm the "altered consciousness" it still changes one's frame of mind which was the key point. Lucid dreaming is an altered state SOME drugs can cause altered states ...ergo the relationship between "drugs" and LDs.