“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” This classic quote from The Matrix may turn out to be more real than most viewers imagine.
There are substances that enhance dreams. They are known as oneirogens and can take the form of herbs, nutritional supplements, or drugs. A detailed review of such substances was presented by Aleena Chia from Goldsmiths, University of London in the collective monograph Technopharmacology. The author paid the most attention to Dream Leaf pills. This is an oneirogen that is taken in two stages: one pill before bedtime to delay REM sleep and the second after a few hours to stimulate lucidity and improve dream memorization. Echoing the symbolism of The Matrix, one pill is blue, and the other one is red.
The alternatives available on the market are LucidEsc and Alpha BRAIN. These improve memory, concentration and, ultimately, promote lucidity in dreaming. As the author notes, for $29.99, manufacturers promise a thirty-night pass to lucid dreaming (LD).
LD is a unique opportunity to create an alternative reality. The substances listed above chemically alter the state of the brain to make this opportunity more accessible. The mind here appears as a black box that can be bypassed through a technopharmacological hack, as the researcher adds.
Have you tried these or other substances to promote lucid dreams?
The monograph was published in August 2022 and is available on the publisher’s website.
Drugs and plants may have side effects and should only be used in consultation with a doctor. This article does not call for independent experiments.
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