Lucid dreaming with Mugwort tea

We spend an average of 2920 hours a year snoring our corks off. And while I love bed as much as the rest of you it appears we may not have been using this opportunity quite as effectively as we could. I say this as I find out my friend Jake has been sipping away the long winter nights with Mugwort tea to increase his lucid dreaming abilities. For centuries, the Mugwort plant has been used as a vehicle for prophecy and dream exploration. I talked to Jake about what Mugwort is and how we, too, can astral travel our butts/minds out of this urban ice-tray.

So Jake tell me about Mugwort?

Well Mugwort is an ancient plant that can be found all over the world; [while it has many properties] a lot of people use it for dreaming and also to increase psychic awareness during the day. It makes the colours of your dreams more vivid - the effect people call “fast dreaming”. The way to have it is you can smoke it, some people make it into a dream pillow that they put underneath their heads when they sleep. But I have it in tea.

How do you prepare this tea?

I just prepare it like normal tea. You can boil it for ten minutes and reduce it down if you like. This is an interesting fact, though! It contains something called Thujone. Now this is an active compound that is also found in Worm Wood, which is used in absinthe. It’s also found in sage as well, which is often used to cleanse and clear spaces of negative energy etcetera…

So what’s your nightly prep then?

Well I’m very interested in dream work because you spend so much time asleep and in there you can escape the restraints of fourth dimensional time; it’s a time when your unconscious mind gets to run free. And you use more of your mind because when you’re awake the brain has to censor out so much additional information. The cars driving past, the millions of colours that are unnecessary for you to… I don’t know… walk down to the shops but you really need that to function. With other psychoactive compounds they selectively switch those sensors off. Dreaming is different. I want to lucid dream - I see dreams as a great source of inspiration and stories. And to look at recurring themes and understanding yourself. They say there is a small window just before you enter into sleep… this is where astral travels begins. It is called hypnagogia, Plato talked about it. One of the more famous ones was Dali, his method was that he would hold a metal ball in his hand and go to sleep and when the ball would drop he would write down everything he had seen in REM.

What are your Mugwort dreams like?

In Mugwort dreams I often visit recurring places. I sometimes go to an airport and sometimes I am leaving for different destinations and sometimes I am just running around the airport and interacting with people. The architecture, though, is the most interesting thing about this airport, and I’m slowly drawing a map of it. But the significance is that when I find myself there I can say to myself “I’m in the airport, I must be dreaming.” So it’s a reminder that you’re in a dream. The main thing is that if you take this Mugwort you will have more vivid dreams. And, say, if you just want to just recreational dream…

Recreational dream! As opposed to what?

Opposed to… lucid dreaming or more advanced exploration. One of the best things, well the THE BEST thing that you can do is keep a dream journal.

You keep one?

Well it’s not the most romantic thing when you wake up in the morning and you have to say, “Hey babe I’ve just got to write in my journal,” but by doing that your dream recall becomes sharper. I read back on it. When you write it down, the more things you remember from the dream. Mugwort is an enhancer. And by my thinking it will enhance I guess it does enhance. It all depends on your beliefs. If you have a big problem and you don’t know how to solve it don’t think of it obsessively, just try and think of it before you got to bed. Drink your Mugwort and maybe in the morning you might have a solution for it. But sometimes the dream can be so big and you sit there writing and you think, “Oh hooly dooly.” But you can type, too.

Oh you use a laptop?

It’s 2011 babe. I have horrible handwriting.