For about six months now I've using Kratom for meditation twice a week and it has been very helpful. Meditation has never been easy for me as I have a very active, jumpy mind that is difficult to quiet. The low dose ( 4 grams ) of Kratom is helpful for both providing alertness and calm simultaneously. For 2 of 3 days I practice without Kratom as I surely don't want to run into physiological issues of dependence.

My practice is composed of the following elements, utilized as determined by mood and circumstance:

concentration: breath awareness, Mahasi/Shinzen Young style noting, focus on and letting pass of mental phenomena

insight: awareness of awareness, self-enquiry, Open Presence/Shinzen Young "do nothing"


Has anyone else used Kratom for meditation?

eH

Oh yeah.

Sometimes I go into a "dreaming while awake" state of consciousness while meditating on kratom.

Sounds cool. I should have meditated when I took it cus i had trouble distinguishing dream from ordinary reality. Thought it was very short though, maybe i would still prefer lsd or something with longer duration to meditate with. Kratom is still on my to do list tho and might hopefully grant some insight in why we get so many false awakenings while dreaming.

Watch Kratom closely. It's sneaky. One day you'll be getting small amounts, next thing you know, you'll be ordering kilos from Indonesia. Your dose may remain consistent, without tolerance for quite awhile, but just because tolerance doesn't rise quickly, doesn't mean she doesn't get her hooks in you. I've read accounts of people who do get into taking high doses. Multiple ounces a day. They always sound sort of surprised that they got there. Everyone is different though. I've been taking 2tsp in the a.m. and 2tsp in the p.m. for months now and it's a stable dose. It helps slightly with my chronic headache, while nothing else will, except true opiates, and I'm done with that. It's a road that leads nowhere. Kratom, when abused seems to follow the same map. It does seem to have some "entheogenic" properties though. Just stay away from extracts. We monkeys sometimes get into a lot of trouble when we concentrate substances. You should try and leave 3 days in between uses.
I don't seem to be one of the people who has a hard time lowering the dose and tapering. Some people do though and get stuck on kratom. I may be stuck and not know it, but I know how I am, and I think I'm okay. Currently working on decreasing prescribed meds for headache. Completely off of Amitriptyline, working my way off of 5mg of diazepam daily. Down to 2.5. Kratom is next. We'll see how it goes. I'm preparing for my first led trip in over 20 years to see if it works on my headache.

Lecture done, and enough about my personal stuff. Sorry.

Kratom and meditation: I can see the right strain working well to keep you in place at the very least, but in my experience, kratom doesn't lead to any great insight or facilitate it. I have spent many hours in a dark room, with kratom in my system. I've tried meditating, but kratom seems to disorder my thoughts a bit. I find it quite stimulating. I feel too hyper to meditate. Even 6-8 hours after a dose. I've never been good at meditating, so maybe your results will be better than mine. Most strains I've tried stimulate me and relax me at the same time, but the stimulation wins out every time I try to meditate while on kratom.

What strain are you using?

Unless you are using high doses of extracts, generally kratom is not that addictive, especially compared to traditional opiates. As an ex-heroin abuser, I can attest to this. (This is why I used used kratom to get off heroin).



Yeah, while not really an "entheogen", Kratom shines in its anxiolytic and anti-depressant qualities, as well as it's use in tapering off strong opiates and relieving withdrawals.



I mostly use red-veins as they seem to be more opiate-like. I know what you mean about it being stimulating. That's why I can only meditate on kratom during the tail end of the experience when the sedating effects are strongest.

As I think about it, it's not really "meditation" but more like dreaming while awake. The visions are random yet clear and my attention is unfocused, drifting. Very similar to the pre-sleep hypnagogic state of consciousness with a lot of quick bursts of random, vivid scenery, people, voices, lights, sounds, etc.