My whole life I have had extremely vivid dreams. To this day I still have recurring dreams that I've been experiencing since I was a young child, and the dream space itself has an impact on my life. I analyze dreams, try to remember them, and have had both accidental and intentional lucid dreams over the years. The real trip is a good fucking dream, when you are fully aware of your state and anything is possible.

I also became interested in astral projection a couple years ago because of an unintentional OEB when I was detoxing. I used to practice both of these methods as ways of exploring altered states and the times I had most success I was completely sober.

Currently I have a disciplined daily spiritual practice which includes meditation, breathing exercises, mantras, and writing which are often done in combination with sweet Mary Jane. I find that it helps me attain deeper levels and brings more awareness to my body and I am able to let go more quickly and easily. I LOVE pot... but being a daily cannabis smoker my dreams are nowhere near as vivid or intricate as they used to be. I used to sometimes have dreams that were days long, where I would go to sleep in my dream and wakeup in the same dream or sometimes another. I would have full on adventure-movie type intricate dreams, and lucidity gave me freedom I could not describe in words.

Marijuana is a medicine to me, though lately in my meditation I've been looking at the fact that I have a strong attachment to it which is the main reason I'm making this post. Is it possible to continue my love and chronic use for the herb and at the same time attain lucid dreams and astral projection?

It has helped me in many ways for meditation and mindfullness in daily life and I enjoy being on a higher state of consciousness. I feel it aids me in being more aware, mindful, kind, compassionate, loving, patient, understanding, intuitive, focused, and peaceful. I plan to look at this in a healing ceremony in a few weeks but I was just curious if anyone else has had any experience flying the astral plane on a breeze of marijuana smoke

Peace and Love

I feel I've sacrificed dream work for pot. Like you, I'm a "chronic" toker, and have considered herb a close ally for the majority of my life.

I've learned however to reach a good compromise. Every now and then with the help of MJ, I can enter and control a hypnogogogic state which enables me to enjoy travels on at least an inward plane, but I often find myself navigating visions that unfold seemingly somewhere outside of my consciousness-or me, rather and are perhaps akin to astral travel.

I've noticed that used occasionally, cannabis can definitely deepen meditation, energy work and hypnagogic experiences profoundly. I've also had some experiences with it where I felt like I projected, but I was unable to recall the experience. Cannabis, even used sparingly, seems to obliterate one's recall, and developing this recall seems to be one of the essential cornerstones of achieving lucid dreams and conscious/astral projection. Cannabis can definitely aid you in getting into the right state of mind awake/body asleep...I had my first spontaneous and very brief projection many years ago when I was stoned in bed, physically very relaxed, but mind more buzzing, which really caught me by surprise (hence why it was so brief).

More recently, just after the start of the new year, I had smoked some of the herb and had a few beers and actually had my first full on experience of the famed pre projection vibrational state...a feeling of powerful electrical vibrations...not painfull in any way but certainly powerful and unusual if one has not experienced this state before. They started emanating quite suddenly from my head which caught me by surprise (I was lying in bed, having listened to some binaural tones). I remembered to relax into the sensation, and as I did this I tangibly felt something evaporate out of my body...but whatever it was, my conscious awareness was not part of it. So close I think, but no cigar.

I'd recommend both you guys consider experimenting with something I've discovered recently, liminal dreaming. This is geared towards using that borderline state between waking and dreaming...with a little practice, one ca draw out this space more and more, and use it as a launch pad for lucid dreaming (and likely projection) and what sound like some pretty psychedelic hypnagogic states. It is also meant to be easier and more accessible than other dream practices geared towards lucid dreaming. The person behind it, Jennifer Dumpert, is definitely "experienced", and is very much familiar with the effects of cannabis on one's dream practice, and she considers this approach much more suited to people who regularly dabble with substances, the good herb included. A guide with a little more info is attached.

"Unlike most dream practices, liminal dreaming works extremely well in combination with mind altering substances. If you’re someone who tweaks your consciousness with such methods, try the Feedback Loop exercise."

Feedback Loop: This exercise is about surfing the edge of consciousness, moving back and forth between thought and dream. It’s also a great way to practice the Vanishing Point exercise. In bed, relax your body and mind as much as possible. Then, with eyes closed, start to look for whatever visuals appear in your mind’s eye. Breathe slowly and softly into the image, allowing it to take shape, to move and shift on its own. Let you mind wander undirected. If you find yourself thinking too hard to fall asleep, unfocus your attention. Let the shifting visual and drifting thought shift into dream. If you start to fall fully asleep, sharpen your consciousness. The trick is to do it only slightly, so you don’t completely wake. At its best, this exercise allows you to surf the edge of waking and dream for long spells of time. This is a great exercise to teach yourself the art of liminal dreaming.

Cut down the 420 for some days and get yourself some Doxylamine (cheap, safe, OTC). Use it for the intended indication. You might be in for a surprise, it's a potent Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 antagonist. I wonder why everyone is so keen on Galantamine, Doxylamine is way more effective and affordable cholinergic agent.

http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB00366

Daily (constant/chronic) cannabis use doesn't vibe well with intensive dreamworking. The first order of business is to cut back the herbal medication (tip: cbd/hemp doesn't interfere with dreamtime the way thc does and has much of the same medical application). As you detox the herb, you are gifted with an incredible vividness of dreaming that can provide a great foundation for dreamwork practices.

Once your receptors are no longer flooded with tetrahydro, you can then take advantage of the ability of cannabis to whitewash the dreamscreen as a precursor to various dream practices. An example is waking up a couple hours earlier than you usually would, taking a small puff of cannabis (remember without tolerance) and it will clean your dreamscreen, you can then proceed to engage conscious meditation into the dreamstate = cannabis assisted Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD) technique. Adding a dream herb such as silene, calea, or kirkii before slipping into the meditation is especially beneficial here.

Another method is to stagger your cannabis use. Say smoke heavily for a few days to a week and really get those cb receptors flooded. Then stop for a few days to a week or so and take advantage of the vividness of the cannabis detox dreams to do the serious dreamwork. As the vividness starts to fade pick up the ganja pipe and reflood the receptors for a few days then stop for a few days and so on. The idea behind this would be keep one moar or less in a state of perpetual cannabis withdrawal. A rather uncomfortable state, but highly desirable for dreamwork.

I personally wouldn't equate lucid dreaming with astral travel. Ime they are two very different states and I haven't found cannabis has the same effect on planewalking as it does on dreamwalking. In fact, as others have alluded to, cannabis (again without tolerance) combined with meditative techniques can be quite useful for helping to induce out of body states, especially when combined with harmalas, ime anyway.

Moral of the story, if you want to find the happy medium and get the most out of both your dreamtime and your cannabis use, one has to stop approaching the ganj as a daily habit and lose the tolerance so the truly entheogenic/psychedelic effects can be fully experienced and utilized.

Sweet Dreams

Chronic usage inhibits dream recall a bit for me generally speaking but more mild usage doesn't seem to much, and can actually improve my dreams.

I've had some extremely trippy dreams though after not smoking for a week or two and then smoking a massive amount.

Just smoke in the morning

You can certainly smoke cannabis and have lucid dreams or perform astral projection. Cannabis makes astral projection easier and can make lucid dreaming a little harder.... But I do both often even when I smoke cannabis. I often use cannabis to astrally project - I use the smoke to drift away on and go on little journeys.

From a few things you wrote though, it does sound like a break from cannabis could be good. If your use gets habitual or if you feel like you are over-using the herb, then you can benefit in many ways from taking a step back to rebalance your relationship. I regularly take breaks and when I do smoke I stick to smaller amounts now because I see how much more enjoyable it is with a low tolerance. I also notice that if I get overly habitual and heavy with my usage then I start to hold myself back in small ways.... But moderate usage doesnt seem to cause me any issues, so I figure it is about balance.

I lucid dream most often when I work with other plants - especially datura. Doesnt matter how much cannabis I smoke - if I work with datura I will mostly likely have lucid dreams for a few days or weeks after. I find projecting in meditation is easier with cannabis - especially cannabis mixed with mapacho.

One small thing to mention here is that this is a very individual game, and we all vary in aptitude when it comes to lucid dreaming and projection, so different people's mileage is going to vary, especially with cannabis in the mix...something worth keeping in mind.

That sounds exactly like what I've been doing. Well, now there's a name for it.

Thank you all for the responses



This sounds interesting and similar to some of the states I've been achieving with my practices and cannabis.





I think this is what I plan to do. I guess it just comes down to taking a break. Which, as I've been pondering the past few days, I'm actually excited about After a break and some intense dreaming maybe I can revisit the way I use cannabis. I plan to experiment with some other herbs on there own to help with sleep/relaxation. I have some nice tea and smoking blends including skullcap, damiana, chamomile, passionflower, calea, wild lettuce... etc. It will be nice to deveop a clear understanding and relationship with these plants as well.

Thanks again for all the info guys, your input is greatly appreciated and helpful!