Valerian doesn't do anything for me, no matter how much i take of it.
As a sleep-aid or relaxant it's totally useless in my opinion.

I've also been thinking in ways to make the mescaline-experience a bit smoother without blurring it.

I think that basically almost every relaxant has this blurring effect except maybe caapi.

There are a few other relaxants that i haven't tried in combination with halucinogens, that might be worthwile investigating: GABA and L-theanin.

GABA is said to mainly relax the muscles and to leave the mind more or less as it is.
That would make a lot of difference in mescaline journey's. Especially after 6 to 8 hours, when you realy start feeling those muscles.

What method of ingestion do you use? A hot tea, cold tea, pills, extract?

Is the root fresh?

If its old root, it is totally ineffective.

Valerian needs to be pretty fresh or at least kept in air tight containers before use.

I always used the pills and capsules they sell in drugstores. never fresh stuff.

In my limited experience I've had some batches of bulk herb that did NOTHING at all. But my recent batch is very effective. I assume this is related to the age of the herb. This is what all the valerian experts say anyway.

I never used pills or extracts. If they are made using fresh valerian they should work, but if they're made using old valerian they should be worthless.

hmm i always take the pill form. And those definitely work for me. It will take of the edge. de-stress. And indeed, nice synergy with coffee. And some bananas.
Thats a nice and easy snackpack

Havent noticed any tolerance. but wasnt looking for it. and i dont often take those more then a few days in a row. I dont know why. so maybe thats why.

Also, probably different batches from different brands in different stores, have different potency. Dunno about the stability of these extracts. I have noticed differences in potency. And i do remeber the 'extra strong' extract (little green pills) from 'het kruidvat' to be very pleasing.

Ill get some new

Ive got this really nice herbal tea blend that contains valerian.

It seems to be pretty soothing when its fresh. the pills never did anything for me though.

The tea blend i have contains: Skullcap, passionflower, valerian, hops, lavender, and some lemon balm i think.

its amazing as a tea or an herbal smoke mix.

Nice and calming/relaxing.

I used to crush fresh Valerian root(hard to break down!). Only like a half gram or so. Throw in a few pinches of hops buds and boil in water for 20-30 minutes. This was my anti-insomnia potion before I discovered melatonin .

I did have adverse effects from it though it seemed to tear down my digestive system or something making bowel movements harder and lots of stomach gurgles.

I find it to be very effective - a good alternative to ativan for me. I don't know if this is because of tolerance, but the first time I tried it I used 2 grams steeped in hot tea for 10 minutes, and recently used 8 grams to not much more effect. When I combined it with ativan I experienced very strong sedative-type effects, and after smoking a little pot had amazing auditory hallucinations. I had the impression that all of the furniture was talking to me I don't know if I could recommend combining depressants, but it was a weird experience for sure.
Any experience with making alcohol tinctures? I've been thinking of trying this.

Maybe it has some kind of synergy with your coffee.
Like if you drank the coffee in a longer or shorter timespan before/after the valerian intake.

To anyone who thinks cold water works better: I just tried it and it's totally false. The water is much darker, stronger tasting, and has a more powerful effect when I used boiling water. Also, everything settles to the bottom and it was easy to pour out. I ground the root up once and used boiling water, and this could be the most powerful method, but I haven't tried filtering it. Any information on doing an alcohol tincture? By the way - the reason I was talking about ativan above is because valerian is supposed to (amongst other things) target the same receptor (GABAa).

I have never felt any effects from valerian, but I've only used caps sold at wal-mart in 400mg doses. Maybe I'll 3g or something and see if that does anything.

Ron - have you tried the boiling water method yet? It is much more effective. I will try consuming the raw roots tonight.

This is some difficult stuff to work with. I think that tolerance, and it's subtle effects are preventing it from working more obviously on me. Two days ago I chewed up and swallowed 6 grams of valerian and drank a hot tea containing 7 grams to little effects. Tonight I powdered 12 grams of valerian. That's a lot of powder! I tried putting it in 00 gel caps but gave up at about 20. I ate the gel caps, then put the rest of the powder in a glass of water and drank it straight 0_0
For a total of 12 grams of valerian root ingested, I was expecting some serious sedation. I don't feel that It's more potent than the 4mg lorazepam I had 12 hours before. Is it worth going higher or doing an extraction?

I use occasionally to stop insomnia, i take 5G fresh root, a tablespoon full of dried passionflower, tablespoon of dried mint leaves and some stevia to sweeten the mix, makes for a wonderful night of sleep and a refreshed calm feeling in the morning.

once swim gets some LSD he will post on this topic and how lsd works with valerian for him. maybe it would be good before a pharmahausca trip as well? i think some experimentation should be done with this herb and seeing how it effects trips

I neglected to mention in my previous post that I felt a sense of calm and peace after 12 grams ingested - nothing too heavy at all though. It seems kind of strange if I think that the first time I made a hot tea out of 2g I thought 'wow this stuff is strong'. It synergised strongly with lorazepam (if taken at just the right time). I can't recommend that you try this however, it could be too strong. I imagine that it could calm you down during a trip.

I has a phase where i was using Valerian Root. It was fresh and picked up from my local herbal store. I had to grind and pill it up myself...dear god does that stuff STINK!!!!

It does however, seem to be effecive, for me, as a relaxant, at one point an opiate enhancer (no more of that for me thank you), and a seditive. There wasn't much, if any euphoria, but it was pleasant minus the smell of the stuff. It does seem to work, and I'm quite in tune with my body and can tell when something is placebo or not. The effects were just too pronounced to be anything but an active herb.

It helped with my anxiety a bit as well. I don't have a bad case, just large crowds put me off, and I want to leave ASAP, but while on Valerian root crowds didn't seem to phase me at all.

I don't use it much anymore and had to get it out of my herbal box. Apparently mice like valerian root. We recently had a massive mouse problem, but were able to (get this) catch them all in a box over the couse of a week. A simple USPS box, long, but narrow was put next to the trash can to be thrown out next run outside. For whatever reason they would land in the box and be unable to get out. One morning we had 3 mice in the box. We'd take our dog for a walk and about a mile or two away we'd let them go. No more mice. Box..amazing...but nothing to do with this thread...my bad.

I certainly don't doubt that it works, but I am used to the idea that if I take twice as much of something, that the effects will be twice as powerful. I'm not sure that this applies here. I checked a bottle of 'health store' valerian extract, and I took the equivalent of 24 of those pills. I didn't jump up to that dose, I have done a lot of experimenting. I wonder if there is a point with this stuff where it becomes intense, or if that level is physically dangerous.

Last night, I made a cold tea with 10 grams of valerian root. I placed the root into a muslin tea bag and let it sit in a jar of water for about ten minutes. I occasionally shook it up as well. I have to say, I slept very well last night and feel good this morning. I had more dreams than usual and I remember them much more clearly as well. I will say that I am still feeling the effects of it not. I feel very clear headed, but kind of have this calming feeling all over. It's hard to describe exactly, but its not necessarily a bad thing. I think I can still be productive right now.

Yes, but it seems to be weaker for me if boiled. I use cold water and soak it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes at least.



Maybe it’s just getting old. From what I’ve read, it doesn’t keep it’s potency long. You should keep it in an air tight container that doesn’t let the volatile oils escape.

The effect is very mild and could easily go unnoticed by some people I think. It makes you mentally calm, sort of centered emotionally, but doesn’t really sedate you exactly. I think most people are expecting a physical sedative effect from it, and it doesn’t really do that. It’s more a mental calmness that it embarks. That can really help you sleep if you’re the type of person that tends keep yourself awake at night by thinking too much.