hello Nexians,

thank you in advance for reading this somewhat lengthy piece...

i hope this finds you all well and thriving. i wanted to put some thoughts out there; not a “conclusion”, but rather some experiences i have been having and see if it resonates in any way with some of you.

for a long time i have abstained from Cannabis. many reasons exist for this, but in general i find it a distraction from my life, an agent that certainly de-motivates me and sometimes clouds my judgement. i have also found that these “symptoms” or side-effects are present even when not ingesting, but when sober between ingesting. for these reasons i have found that for my life using Cannabis sparingly or not at all suits my life best.

recently, however, i have been using a wee bit of the herb. usually at night before bed, and only a few vapor-puffs. my days of heavy use, dabbing, bonging and edibles are long gone. just a wee bit before bed is nice; i doubt few of you would disagree.

it has been shown in a lot of sleep research that Cannabis inhibits the phase of sleep during which we dream. it was once thought that we just couldn’t remember our dreams, but actually we bypass the phase during which we dream. for this reason they concluded that we actually get “better” sleep because it is more undisturbed. i am not claiming this to be the gospel; just things i’ve read while researching the effects of weed, both while stoned and sober.

so….if there is some link - some correlation between dreaming; the dream state, the part of our brain that is most active when dreaming and the DMT space…well this is what has raised my questions.

since i have started to use Cannabis again - even in these small amounts - the nature of my DMT voyages has changed significantly. i should add i have never smoalked and used weed at the same time. yet, i cannot ignore the timing; ever since i have started weed again, DMT trips are different.

not worse - not better - just much different. the most significant change is in my recollection of the trip. when i was totally without weed, i would remember the trip vividly, whether it was a smaller, sub-breakthrough or a larger, more epic dose taking me directly to the entities, the palace, the chapel of geometry….etc. since the weed, coming back it all seems so cloudy, so distant; just like trying to remember a dream…having a small taste of it - a glimpse of it - but nothing vivid. and even while i can feel that something very profound happened, all details are gone.

so, obviously i am wondering if this is more than just coincidence; is there a brain chemistry thing going on that creates a much cloudier recall, even when not stoned? or, perhaps, am i going through a phase of the different types of journeys that are not immediately recallable?

i am sure that many of you who don’t use Cannabis have had experiences that you don’t remember, and i’m also sure many of you who use weed regularly remember everything. i just would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this.

i am, of course, going to do my own research: i’m going to stop all Cannabis use for a period of a couple of weeks to flush it from my system and see what changes i can observe, if any.

really looking forward to hearing your thoughts; thanks for reading all of this!

Namaste

Having been under the influence of cannabis virtually all day every day for 15+ years, I am getting to a point where I think I need to take a major break from it just to see what if anything I am missing from the life experience.

For sure I have virtually no dream recall, and recalling my DMT journeys has always felt like trying to recall a dream fragment that is rapidly slipping away, almost an identical feeling.

As a young a child I had very vivid dreams, lucid even, these days, I am lucky to even have the feeling that I dreamed at all.

This is slightly off topic, but also related. The struggle with cannabis is a difficult one, I feel like I am similar to you, I only vape at nights when everything is done, when i'm reading or watching a show before bed. I suffer insomnia and smallest amount of weed knocks me out immediately, and all night. I have however been having dreams - this has only happened since vaping and not smoking.

Its so hard for me to stop, I function brilliantly, I don't get depressed on it, I don't get lazy, if anything I become more sensitive and relaxed - It's the inbetween time during the day where I notice the negative effects, I get frustrated at myself and my motivation for aspects of life, but thats the result of addiction. It has been a part of my life for way too long though, and I always wonder how my enthusiasm for life would be without it. I think its "anti-establishment" attitude that it instills in me is counter productive to my ability to subscribe to the working world.

Every time I do aya i manage to take a break from it, battle my insomnia, and try stay away for as long as I can after. I feel much better for it, but something always gets me back, usually on a weekend - I think its boredom...or more so, I know whatever I am doing last thing at night can be so much more fun with a little vape (yoga, cooking, music, whatever).

My aya visions are very murky, unclear and uneventful - I have always wondered if this has been a result of the cannabis in my system, regardless of if I abstain from it a week before the ceremony.

Sorry I can't contribute to the DMT aspects as much as I haven't experimented enough.

Smoked the herb for 25 years daily, all day. Half-way that period I had 3 years of voluntary abstinence, from both cannabis and tobacco. I picked up the habit again because at the time I found that some aspects of life I could better appreciate with the help of cannabis.

At some point in time I started taking time off from full time cannabis use, two or three consecutive weeks of abstinence twice a year. This was done mostly to check how dependent I really was, and it turned out that abstaining was not very difficult, quite easy in fact.

After a week or two without cannabis, daily life becomes less dreamy and more acutely focused. At the same time, it is harder to unfocus and I found myself to be easily "caught up in a focus". When I noticed that happening more intensely, I would break the fast and start smoking cannabis again.

It was a mushroom trip during one of the fasts that showed me the extent of the clouding of the senses that cannabis induces, or rather, I was impressed with the clarity of the experience without the distortions due to residual cannabis effects. This, and a growing sense of unease about not getting much done, convinced me that I should try a much more extended break from cannabis. A year after stopping cannabis use, I also quit tobacco.

The time it took for the effects of cannabis use to get out of my system was quite long. After a year, I could still sense the motivational depressant effects. It took three years until I stopped noticing it anymore.

Since quitting, I have only very occasionally smoked minute amounts of cannabis extract, as part of some changa smoking mixes. These very small amounts, and the infrequency, appear to not bring along the chronic effects that I have come to dislike.

Very nice thread.

Also an ex everyday cannabis killer. Smoked it for personal issues for like 10 years with two major breaks. Until i started noticing that there is no more benefits for me. I could easily say that after one point it started to destroy me (cannabis use).

I noticed negative effects such as Circulatory system issues, Immune system failures, poor and angry mood (after smoking it) that makes me feel stupid, lack of motivation (want to chill all the time doing nothing, and if the human body doing nothing thats it when the decay starts). The last and the most important issue i noticed is accumulation of weird thick energy around me ,that felt like it was feeding of my life energy...

Cannabis definitely helped me in many ways, and im really thankful about this help. Something tho, telling me that there was a great price for this help.

Now my views about Cannabis are very different.

Now my comic life motto is "move your ass or die".

Movements are everything.

Stay healthy everybody

Best regards

(im so sorry, i guess i was off topic with my whole comment. Sometimes the Language barrier i have sucks. But as i remember with heavy cannabis use, at some point dreams stopped to exist for me. Never tried dmt with cannabis, never will. Smoking anything is a no no for me )