(Before reading, please not that I have discovered a way to slightly improve the taste of calea zacatechichi tea. I wouldn’t have beleived it myself had I not tried it. 
I procured some ‘toothache bush’ and chewed several leaves for a few minutes before drinking the c.z. My mouth was too numb to taste much of anything. Try this!)
After a long hiatus, I decided to do some more experimenting with Calea Zacatechichi in hopes of clearing up some of the nagging questions such as: how come I tried this for a week and nothing happened?
My wife bought me a big bag of the stuff and I started using the tea again. I tried it twice, and really didn’t have the greatest of results. I thought maybe I boiled it at too high a temperature - that seems to kill the effects - so I tried it again. I had prolonged rem, but no strong LD-like state (other than the normal mild LD that I always have.)
I was a little disappointed since my experiences with C.Z. have always been good ones in the past. Then I started thinking back to the best experience I ever had. It was the first time I ever tried C.Z. I had just received my first bag in the mail, and I was eager to try it, so I chewed some of it while mowing the lawn (no joke) and then made a tea later.
That night, before going to sleep (about 30 minutes after the tea) I noticed that I was slightly allergic to the C.Z. (probably from chewing it) and that my heartrate was… if not accellerated, then at least very noticable. No, it wasn’t accellerated, it was just - well, profound. I could feel it and almost hear it.
It occurs to me that every time I’ve had a really good C.Z. experience I’ve been able to hear my heart beat. It’s not as if it’s hard on the heart. I know what that feels like, and it’s not the same. It’s more like my hearing is more attuned to what’s INSIDE my body rather than OUTSIDE. So I am working on the assumption that I MUST get that effect in order for the C.Z. to be active in my system.
Last night I tried chewing some more C.Z. The sublingual absorption seems to have significant effect. I then made the tea (horrible tasting, as usual) and S L O W L Y drank it just like the chontal’s used to do. I kept the leaves in my mouth even while I drank the tea.
After a while I began feeling the allergenic effects, but only mildly - but as SOON as I lie down on the bed, I noticed that I could hear my heart. BINGO! My dreams were really crazy - it was as if my subconscious was on steroids.
Anyway, I won’t go into the LD. That’s not the important thing. The important thing is that I think I’ve figured out what the real problem was.
1.) C.Z. needs more time in the mouth for better sublingual absorption.
2.) The user needs to feel or hear his/her heartbeat before expecting to get any results.
If you are reading this and have some C.Z. to use, please put this to t he test and post here your results so we can all learn together whether I am correct.
Thanks!