During the first ten years I lived in the jungle, I slept outside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, covered only by a thatched palm roof and some low stone walls that gave an impression of a boundary. Each night, I listened to the rhythm of ocean waves as they changed with each lunar cycle, falling asleep in sight of the Moon and Venus in communion overhead.
Mail might arrive by sea, after a 3-week journey from the United States, with a burro waiting on the beach to carry to Don Margarito’s windowsill. There was no phone service or electricity. In this setting, the airwaves were unobstructed as telepathic information attempted to reach me and I began to experience anomalous cognition by practicing intentionality, lucid dreaming, and simply being receptive.
One night, I dreamed that my grandfather Charles, whom I loved deeply, had died. When I awoke, I knew it was true.
The next night, I again dreamed about my grandfather, but this time with more detail, and I learned in the dream that he had a heart attack. A few days later, during a 3rd night of dreams, I was flying overhead in his synagogue in Boston during the funeral service and I saw my family and his friends, in mourning. When I awoke, I knew he had come to me to say goodbye. Three weeks later, I picked up a letter from Don Margarito’s windowsill, sharing all the details revealed in my three dreams.
These dreams introduced me to learning about the present (and the future) from a distance. I continued to have these dreams as other family members passed over, which led me to explore out-of-body travel and ask for deep information and guidance for the next steps in my life.
Often in our lives, we face the unknown, asking, what’s next for me? Do I take this or that path? Do I leap or hold back? It might be a job or a relationship, or we might have completed a phase or cycle of our lives when we ask, do I travel, go to school, or take that job offer?
Whether we contemplate having children or the nest is empty, we consider retiring or starting a new business, or it may be a resting place on our spiritual journey where we ask, “What do I need to learn?” The question remains, “What’s next for me?” It is during these times that we can also use specific plants like Calea Zacatechichi, a plant known for its dream-inducing (oneirogen) qualities to help us access the deepest wisdom within that can guide our next steps.
Exercise
- Go outside and, from several sources, gather twigs and branches, moss, or straw, and build a nest to hold your hopes, dreams, and wishes; this nest will gestate What’s next?
- Gather the following herbs and flowers. Take one fresh peony and place it in a vase on your altar. The peony symbolizes compassion, which is central to reaching deeply into your future self.
- Obtain a small amount of Calea ternifolia (Zacatechichi). Place two ounces in a simple hand-sewn pouch using some old fabric and place the pouch under your pillow. Leave a little dried herb in a ceramic bowl to burn.
- Next, write your question on paper and place it under the dried zacatechichi in the bowl. Be very specific because the power of intentionality lies in specificity.
- Make a cup of Valerian root tea and drink it 30 minutes before bed. Valerian is well known to enhance dreaming states (Wheatley, 2001).
- After you drink your tea, lie on your right side to sleep. Lying on the right side quiets the left brain hemisphere (Shannahoff-Khalsa & Golshan, 2015) as the right nostril fills and enhances right hemispheric brain function.
- As you fall asleep, ask your question expressly and repeatedly. When you wake up in the night or morning, write down your dreams but do not analyze them.
- Repeat this ritual for three nights in a row.
- On the fourth day, read your writing, and you will find the answer to “What’s next?” in your dreams.
To read more about the research on Calea Zacatechichi, visit my Research Library.
References
Wheatley D. (2001). Kava and valerian in the treatment of stress-induced insomnia. Phytotherapy research: PTR, 15(6), 549–551. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.840
Shannahoff-Khalsa, D., & Golshan, S. (2015). Nasal cycle dominance and hallucinations in an adult schizophrenic female. Psychiatry research, 226(1), 289–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.12.065
She served as a Fulbright scholar on traditional medicine, a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and a National Institutes of Health-funded research scientist in mind/body medicine.
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