A few experiences of mine on raw cacao

Hehe, it's time. I've learned quite a bit about myself, and about cacao, by taking it so many times. Here are a half-dozen plus one memorable experiences I've had. It's kind of long, as usual. I'm working on cutting it down but since this is story time it's one you can save for later.
1. On Sociability:
Before a party in high school, I had about fifteen cacao beans, at 630 PM. I showed up and I felt ridiculous. Same symptoms as described in the previous post. I was very confident approaching people I did not know, although I usually am anyway since I practice. Still it's a noticeable increase. Inhibitions are indeed lowered, but in a much more conscious manner. When one is inebriated, one loses sight of his actions. On cacao, people will have more sight of their actions. This is variable though per person. Inhibitions are lowered because barriers are broken. You are ready to stomp into the unknown and do try new things and talk to new people and say different jokes. I've recorded myself making youtube videos on cacao and I do act strange I notice, so perhaps I am not conscious of some things, like laughing too much.

(www.personalbrandingblog.com)

I danced quite a bit that night as there is a lot of physical energy with cacao. I had to restrain myself on occasion from dancing too obscenely; high schooler boys like to act gay while they dance occasionally because I suppose it's funny. I wonder how that will change as the word gay becomes less associated with negativity. Some of my friends thought I smoked something because I had so much energy. Generally if you have too much energy no one likes you, but that's because they have no energy. I see others at parties that look miserable, it's as if their brains are completely depleted of neurotransmitters. Hm, I think depleted is a better word than miserable for this purpose. On cacao that is not possible; instead you have a contagious overabundance that pours out into the scenery.
I measured the effectiveness of the cacao that night based on how long my frontal cortex felt activated. As I mentioned in the previous post, this is usually the first symptom; blood flowing to the front of my brain behind my forehead. This spot in my head is full of happiness. That's the best way to describe it, you just have to feel it. I felt exactly the same way until 12:30 AM. That's just phenomenal by itself. This is no exaggeration. For six hours I felt "high" and energetic. That's better than 5 hour energy! There are more calories, and more nutrition, and you burn more off! Fantastic... At 12:30 there was no crash or anything, but I was starting to feel tired as usual. The most important thing I learned about cacao that night was it's long lasting effect. You think your kids are hyper on soda? Put them on this and you'll never sleep. Children will probably spit it out though. Just a guess but you never know.

I feel however that not everyone will enjoy this type of experience. Some people, mostly introverted types, prefer to have complete control over themselves at social events. Some of my friends are like this and it's the main reason they do not drink or smoke pot like other kids their age. I am extroverted, I blog, and do not worry about consequences of my actions. Therefore I am not so worried about losing control from cacao. Also, due to the differing structures of the brain in introverted and extroverted people, cacao will have different effects. That's a topic that gets inextricably detailed, and I have no idea.

2. On the body:
Once, I had a LOT of stuff to study for. More than usual. I do not remember the exact details, but I believe I had coursework from three different courses to complete. For breakfast I had 20 cacao beans. Felt more than good, great. For lunch I had like 25 (with some other food). For dinner, at 6 ish, I had another 20. Now this is where things get weird, wired, and ridiculous. It seemed as if each hour after my last dose of cacao beans, the high just grew on me. I was feeling focused, happy, energetic throughout the day, but it did not seem as if the effects were about to wane. In fact, they were waxing! I became even more focused, frowning, because that helps me focus but I shouldn't frown, and more energetic, until it became pathological. Five hours later, I could not sleep, or study. I was definitely jittery. Don't listen to those people that say "this new natural stimulant won't make you jittery!" Any stimulant can make you jittery, it depends on the dose and your metabolic type, and other things. A lot of people say cacao will not make one jittery, but this is of course such a simplistic view. In low doses it should not however, but you never know, many things can cause restlessness. I didn't meditate as much back then so I didn't know how to control my body as well either. The frustration from not being able to focus increased my restlessness and flitting thoughts.
Anyway, at around midnight, I wished I was in the middle of a mosh pit with big hairy strongmen so I could bounce off their beer bellies. I wanted to throw shit. ( I rarely swear because it hinders my spiritual development but I must portray the environment). I wanted to rave and dance. I could have been really happy if I was at a rave, but since I was not I felt claustrophobic. I decided to blast techno and heavy metal to "burn it off" in my brain. It makes some sense to me if I listen to loud music my brain could burn off the chemicals. I have little explanation as to how. Unfortunately, that didn't even work. So I went for a run at 2AM in the cold, in a t-shirt. And still I was up. My sleep is precious to me. I decided I needed to gather myself and actually do work and carpe diem, or carpe noctem. I studied a little bit, while wishing I was at a rave and then clocked out at 4 30ish AM. That was quite a day. The highest day I've ever had in my life. I was on speed the whole day and it definitely wasn't healthy. The MAOis in the beans must have built up the effects I presumed. Something like that. Some say the phenylethylamine (PEA) in cacao has a short half life, since that chemical in general does. It's about 30 minutes. But with maois, the byproducts, the dopamine, norepinephrine, the things that give us energy, stay active for longer. This may have been what happened. Because this time, I was high on 9 hour energy. It was more like 20 hour, but from one single dose about nine. Note that these effects cannot be replicated on a day to day basis because you would severely deplete your adrenal glands and kidneys probably. The next day your body will want to chill more and recover. When those organs, as well as a few others of course, are functioning optimally, they can output so much heat and energy. The next day, they'll want to recover and take time off. Other herbs can do this to you and you'll notice you simply cannot do it the same the next day.

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3. On the brain:
One day, the day before the third chemistry exam of the semester, the one before the final, usually the more difficult exams, I was determined to do very well. I needed to. So guess what I did. I chomped on a bunch of cacao beans. I didn't count, I just chomped it up because after a while, the taste feels so good. Even though it's bitter at first, you learn to appreciate the taste because you associate it with the feeling you get. Simple classical conditioning. It does taste sort of good though because it is so rich and has a strong aroma with several flavors at once. So, I sat down, and paced around, and just read through the few chapters and practiced so many problems for about four hours straight. I performed quite a few problems in my head since I can visualize extraordinarily well on cacao. I naturally am a visualizer, but doing chemistry problems visually for a long time makes the brain really tired. Not on cacao. Here's the crazy thing. Even though I didn't have the information down-pat, since I didn't have time to repeat and recite as in normal memorization, I knew how to do almost everything on the exam. I read each chapter more intently than I ever could, and I think there might have been something more than just short-term memory going on. I may have studied so hard that I had some long term potentiation. I'm not too sure but I did well above average on the exam, I got a 90 something percent and averages were usually 60 in that class. Here's how it kind of feels like when you're studying. Being focused can come in many shapes or forms. The pressure in the front of your brain when on cacao is unique, but not rare. Other foods induce the same state of mind. I believe it's related to dopamine, which travels to multiple structures in the front of the brain. Although my brainwaves were primarily beta, and I could occasionally get distracted, which is normal for being in a beta predominant brainwave state, I memorized what I read much more. Since it was also easier to visualize things, perhaps while I read I visualized it better and that helped me learn faster. It's hard to describe specifically. Next time I'll pay even more attention to this, although it'll be variable per person and experience. But yeah what really surprised me was how well I recalled everything. All the stuff was in my brain, even weeks after the exam.

4. On sex:
Cacao has been known to be an aphrodisiac for centuries. It dilates the blood vessels and increases blood flow to the genitals. So do many stimulants of course. Once before my girlfriend and I were about to have sex, I forced her to eat a dozen cacao beans. I put some raw honey on the side. I ate like thirteen. We did it for about two hours. Enough said. It's not an extraordinary amount of time, but since I knew I could have kept going, it was. I had no idea what time it was and I was afraid of breaking down my muscle tissue from doing so much cardio. Cacao contains saturated fats, which boost cholesterol and hormone production. The zinc is crucial for testosterone, and women crave chocolate for hormonal reasons too. Small amounts on a regular basis could keep you superhuman forever. I did not feel "high" at all as in the previous stories. Like all drugs, tolerance or sensitivity can develop. After a couple weeks of taking cacao every day, it does nothing. After chronic overuse, it depresses your body as it becomes stressed out and overused. Anyway, the nutritive properties remain however so I felt great from that.

(www.shamanismoflight.org)


5. On sleep
Oh yeah this is one of the first experiences I ever had. So I had taken a supplement called ZMA in the past. It's has a few minerals in it and B vitamins that promote more REM sleep. The companies that manufactured it said it would boost testosterone. It definitely did. I would wake up in the mornings and jump out and be ready for the day. I've been mimicking this through my food for a couple years now. I started eating nuts before bed and peanut butter, and I noticed I slept better and also had energy upon waking! So I said okay I'll try chocolate since it's also a nut and has tons of zinc and magnesium, the two main minerals in ZMA.

So this one night I binged on cacao. I downed probably eight ounces of a 100% dark chocolate bar, as well as twenty cacao beans. Then I nibbled on some more. Here's what happened. In four hours after dreamy sleep, I woke up and could feel energy coursing through my veins. Through every single chakra and energy center, heat was emanating. I was ready to go and DO. I wanted to take ACTION. But I also wanted to sleep and I could feel that desire somewhere in my head. It's like waking up after six hours of sleep (if that's low for you) and feeling okay, but knowing you could feel better on more.

Anyway, my joints were nimble and loose and I got up and said, okay I'll exercise a bit to fall back asleep. So the type of exercise I did was similar to what would happen in a mosh pit. Intense exercise essentially. I practiced some jumping taekwondo kicks and just felt really angry, engaging that fight or flight response. After sweating out some of that energy, I pulled out a calculator to test my skills. I could easily multiply a three digit by a two digit number, which is close to my full potential and I usually mess up. I performed this intense mental task with more accuracy than ever before, as I could "see" the numbers more clearly. I was just a pathological monster. Usually when I eat cacao now before bed, I wake up in four hours and feel the exact same way. Unless I mix it with honey which counteracts the effects a little bit. But I've never had that much since. It's quite odd and I don't know how it works but it's as if the chemicals that make me so energetic stay stagnant until I go through the required stages of deep sleep and then come to life.


6. On exercise
I took about fifteen caao beans before noon for lunch. I was planning to workout later so it was a preworkout strategy. Fortunately, and unfortunately, my body was ready to take on everything cacao could give in those fifteen. It was again pathological. I was planning to do high intensity cardio in the fighting room, with the punching bags and such, so I did. But I was SO ANGRY. Good for a fighting workout right? Yes, but that type of emotion drains the body, so it cannot be engendered in such abnormal amounts. I had so much confidence, I attempted front flips for the first time without a spring board or trampoline. I had practiced a bit with the gymnastic team the week before, but I didn't land any of them. I feel on my knees, but kept trying. I also completed a variation of this, several times, all for the first time ever.
Here is why this experience was slightly unfortunate. I ended up working out for about one hour and forty five minutes. This can be stressful to the body, even with very high nutrition from foods like cacao. I was sore for the next five days! I ate a lot of food and protein and still had such poor recovery. I also didn't really feel like going to the gym so I knew I did too much that day. The lesson: some people tend to over work themselves. Cacao increases this tendency so needs to be used mindfully in those people. This is why some people call cacao, "crackao." Usually they're the introverted type who would not enjoy feeling so good and generally stay away from loud parties, loud people, and energy. Still, I must agree that taken in higher doses, above fifteen beans, effects similar to crack and meth and other illicit drugs that the uninformed take are the result. Still cacao is my drug of choice.

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7. At work:
I work at a supermarket. Not for long though. Usually the young kids there are somewhat stressed, as they're standing around thinking about how much they hate their job. It's a toxic environment in that sense. Other times though we hang out and have fun. I never felt the same way about the workplace but the contagious of people's energies prompted me to think I didn't like being a cashier. In general I have such a strong outlook that I can deal with a wide variety of circumstances. Still, there were days in the past when I was more lethargic. So one day, I took cacao beans before work. As you could have guessed, I had lot of energy. Since it was a busy day, time was going by faster, but it went even faster on cacao. It's confusing; sometimes the stimulants make my mind jittery and time goes by slower as I constantly think about the time, but sometimes if they are in combination with relaxing chemicals, you are focused on one thing and nothing else. I hope that makes some sense. And on cacao, there are a variety of psychotropic chemicals. Some are relaxing, like anandamide, while others stimulate. That way I feel focused, without a wandering mind. On coffee my mind is more jittery so it is more difficult to focus.

So, as divinely ordained, the store was running short on employees, and needed people to stay later. I volunteered. This turned my shift into an eight hour mammoth. It is much more difficult to stay at the front of the store constantly barraged by customers for eight hours, than it is to manage such a long day in another department. That's why the longest shifts are usually six. I felt absolutely wonderful for the full eight hours. In that sense, the cacao was stress relieving, since I did not have any from such a noisy environment! This is what makes me think cacao could be an adaptogen in some circumstances.

Conclusions: Cacao, although a health food, can be used recreationally as a drug. If combined with alcohol or other drugs, you could die. The effects of other drugs will be potentiated with high doses of cacao. Is it really healthy though to go through what I've gone? Some of my experiences I'd answer a definite yes. Not the ones listed here, but the happiness I've felt from smaller healthier doses brightened my day. The happiness I feel from recalling the memories feels good too.

But from other experiences in which I've lost control, I knew it was not healthy. That's not to say I did not enjoy that experience, I enjoyed every one to the absolute fullest. The only side effects I've experienced are extreme energy states and anger, which feels amazing in combination. It's just not healthy or very reproducible on a day to day basis. This brings up the topic of addiction. The way I felt in the stories above are all experiences I'd like to feel again, but why? For the mere purpose of sensual stimulation? This seems to never lead to happiness. But one of my friends had this blurb on her facebook that said "even moderation in moderation." And that's been one of the most influential things I've read in the past six months. Life would not be life if we did not make use of our full potential, or if we balanced our unique personality and metabolic profiles with things that would reduce natural tendencies; like a successful over-stressed entrepreneur who starts meditating and doing yoga. That entrepreneur is so successful because she over works herself! Of course she just needs balance. Stopping ourselves in the middle of our work to meditate however when we feel really good goes against our natural tendencies. Not taking cacao when I love it goes against my natural tendency to feel hypermetabolic and ridiculous!
Still at this phase in my life I am evaluating the things from which I derive pleasure. I'm starting dissociate pleasure from physical things, and I'm also much happier. So that's working for me. Therefore, I could never eat cacao again and be perfectly happy. As long as you do not abuse cacao's power, you'll feel great. Most people though cannot control their longing of things so I have little hope those my advice will be taken. I do have hope that people will learn about this through their experiences with it.

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knock yourself out, it's the best way to learn
Avishek