I don’t really dream. It’s extremely rare to the point where I’ll have a handful in a year and I don’t remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment… Then the details slip away from me and I can’t even talk to anyone about the experience.
What’s it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?
I used to be like that, unable to dream/remember dreams. Turns out that was because I had nightmares and terrors and stress dreams and my brain simply didn’t want to remember them.
I took a shaman drug (that I won’t mention, because I absolutely do not recommend it for anyone ever, and regret taking it myself) over the course of many months, and it absolutely gave me the permanent ability to dream and recall, and even consistently lucid dream (I don’t recall dreams every day, but at least once a week now). I now have a whole town that acts as a hub to get to all the places I’ve dreamed about more than once. It’s kinda fun.
However, these dreams are massively emotionally taxing. I often encounter my mother (the point of the shaman drug is to interact with dead ancestors), so I’ve relegated her to a middle floor of “my house” so she’s easier to avoid… those experiences are… just so overwhelmingly taxing. They do help with some closure stuff even tho I know it’s just my brain making up both sides of things, but it’s draining all the same.
Had nightmares as a very young child and could dream visually back then. Only when dreaming. I have total Aphantasia, and no sense memory.
I lost the ability to dream visually in my teens, so I don’t think it was a trauma response. I even remember my last vivid dream. Roller Coaster Tycoon inspired, so I can’t say it was unpleasant. My inability to remember dreams at the time followed soon after.
I managed to lucid dream once in my 20’s and very briefly had a stunning visual dream when I concentrated quite hard and it was as if smacking an old CRT TV with faulty connections. The effort maintaining that woke me up pretty quick, but for a minute I was in between huge glacial ice walls in a row boat bobbing in mostly calm deep blue sea water with chunks of ice floating around and clear skies.
That’s it though for visual dreaming.
I can remember dreams now because I trained myself to by writing what I can remember down the minute a wake up. Over time I could remember for longer and longer after walking up. This would probably work for OP too if they were interested. Gotta stick to it though.
Psychedelics don’t give me any closed eyes hallucinations and I need some pretty absurd doses of others or DMT to even see anything slightly weird open eyes. One of my motivations was to see if I could “unlock” the ability. Didn’t work for me :(
I live a extremely clean life. Zero drugs. Makes me want to try a induced hallucination…
Good call.
Hallucinations are fun, if they are purely visual and you know they are coming…
I have olfactory hallucinations as well as occasional auditory (related to migraines and headaches, not drug use) and those are just very mundane. Lol
I’ve taken every exotic research chemical and psychedelic you can think of. I can confirm hallucinations work the same with aphantasia.
Although I didn’t ‘trip’, which is the delusional state people get into when they take pills/mdma and stay up for a few days. Start talking to plastic bags, on the phone with their hand, etc. might just be me though.
This is a pretty specific usage of the word trip. Most of the time when people say it, they mean they had an above-threshold psychoactive experience (usually in the context of psychedelics). Don’t get me wrong, depending on what and how much you take you can certainly trip and find yourself doing that stuff. But many people use ‘trip’ or ‘tripping’ to describe experiences that don’t reach that point.
You sound experienced, so I’m curious how you landed on this definition of trip/tripping and what you called your experiences instead (if you use a casual term at all).
Using it like that sounds more American.
Uk loves to binge. Take a couple dozen pills each over a long weekend and people will start talking absolute nonsense. Lots of weed and coke mixed in too but seemed to be mostly the mdma and sleep deprivation that triggered it.
Small stuff like them continuing a conversation with you that you weren’t having, and then acting like a dementia patient when you correct them. To walking in on someone having a full blown conversation with a laundry detergent bottle.
No set name for the usual level of hallucinations that weren’t delirium. Usually just say something like out my tits/box, full of it, completely fucking spangled, etc.
Ahh, ok. Didn’t have the UK context, and yeah, admittedly my usage comes from a North American context.
Appreciate the answer!
I wonder what legal options there are. Can’t lose my job if I get tested.
Most psychs don’t show up on a panel just find out what the panel tests for.
I wouldn’t know where to get anything safely. Going to look into what’s available legally.
Salvia if you’re brave. World might fold in on you briefly and it’s legal because nobody has fun on it lol. But it is strong as shit and will certain fuck up your perception for a few minutes.
Most of the other legal things are pretty naff and will probably just make you feel a bit sick and fuzzy around the edges (morning glory seeds).
Depending on how strict the laws are in your area there might be some loopholes for exotic psychs but probably not the best entry. Probably best just going looking for some mushrooms, they won’t show on a standard panel.