Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
I should probably preface every post I make with "At the risk of sounding pretty weird..." or you could just assume that preface whenever you see my name....
So far when people approach me about drinking kava I recommend that they only do so if there is a specific goal they have in mind, and tailor the project towards that goal.
For me it was expanding my dream life. I have for a long time been into dreams and it was the first and most profound effect I discovered when I first starting drinking kava and continues to be my most profound joy. With kava I have dreams which are more intricate, more vivid, more coherent, more lifelike, and the visual resolution is much higher, like going from 480i to 1080p. Like XBox One vs old games on a 486 PC. This is also true with lucid dreams, where the ones with kava have much more natural lighting and environments, almost exactly like real life whereas BK the lighting in lucid dreams was bizarre and unnatural, like a stadium when all the lights are on. Also, BK in lucid dreams the sky was always pitch black if you looked up even if it was the middle of the day, but with kava the lucid sky looks like a real sky, with clouds, even.
Anyway, I have noticed with kava that I am having more frequent nightmares. In fact, I rarely ever had nightmares before Kava (BK), maybe one every three or four years. But since kava, I have had more nightmares, maybe once every two weeks or so. However, and it is a huge however, nightmares on kava are not like regular nightmares. They do not trouble me, and they resolve, usually with a happy ending (my wife has noticed this effect, as well). e.g. in one recent one I was outside and there was a huge bear in the area and I was terrified. The terror was the nightmare. But I whispered "Call 5-1-1" over and over and this calmed the bear and he left peacefully and I was fine. Other nightmares I have experienced with kava all have a similar pattern: problem ---> resolution, happy ending.
It's very similar to how troubling thoughts get handled with kava: I still have bad or troubling thoughts just as before, but they get dissolved almost instantly and do not trouble me. Same with feelings of anger or irritation or the sudden urge to say something snarky or obnoxious or unkind.
It's very reminiscent to me of the skill one develops practicing mindful meditation where if you have a distracting thought that pops up, as is pretty much inevitable, you consciously recognize the thought and its existential validity but you tell it now is not the time and escort it to the door and scoot it outside so you can focus on what you want to focus on right now, and lather rinse repeat as necessary.
I'm wondering if others have experienced this phenomenon of paradoxically happy nightmares? Is it permanent? Is there a reason for it, do we understand this mechanism and how it works, if it is indeed "a thing" ? Or am I just nuts?
So far when people approach me about drinking kava I recommend that they only do so if there is a specific goal they have in mind, and tailor the project towards that goal.
For me it was expanding my dream life. I have for a long time been into dreams and it was the first and most profound effect I discovered when I first starting drinking kava and continues to be my most profound joy. With kava I have dreams which are more intricate, more vivid, more coherent, more lifelike, and the visual resolution is much higher, like going from 480i to 1080p. Like XBox One vs old games on a 486 PC. This is also true with lucid dreams, where the ones with kava have much more natural lighting and environments, almost exactly like real life whereas BK the lighting in lucid dreams was bizarre and unnatural, like a stadium when all the lights are on. Also, BK in lucid dreams the sky was always pitch black if you looked up even if it was the middle of the day, but with kava the lucid sky looks like a real sky, with clouds, even.
Anyway, I have noticed with kava that I am having more frequent nightmares. In fact, I rarely ever had nightmares before Kava (BK), maybe one every three or four years. But since kava, I have had more nightmares, maybe once every two weeks or so. However, and it is a huge however, nightmares on kava are not like regular nightmares. They do not trouble me, and they resolve, usually with a happy ending (my wife has noticed this effect, as well). e.g. in one recent one I was outside and there was a huge bear in the area and I was terrified. The terror was the nightmare. But I whispered "Call 5-1-1" over and over and this calmed the bear and he left peacefully and I was fine. Other nightmares I have experienced with kava all have a similar pattern: problem ---> resolution, happy ending.
It's very similar to how troubling thoughts get handled with kava: I still have bad or troubling thoughts just as before, but they get dissolved almost instantly and do not trouble me. Same with feelings of anger or irritation or the sudden urge to say something snarky or obnoxious or unkind.
It's very reminiscent to me of the skill one develops practicing mindful meditation where if you have a distracting thought that pops up, as is pretty much inevitable, you consciously recognize the thought and its existential validity but you tell it now is not the time and escort it to the door and scoot it outside so you can focus on what you want to focus on right now, and lather rinse repeat as necessary.
I'm wondering if others have experienced this phenomenon of paradoxically happy nightmares? Is it permanent? Is there a reason for it, do we understand this mechanism and how it works, if it is indeed "a thing" ? Or am I just nuts?
