Dream
Incubation Experiment: Instructions
Dream
Incubation Experiment: Feedback Form
Part I: Dream Incubation for Healing, Creativity, Fun, and
Guidance
Welcome to the first of a series of lessons and home experiments
being offered on the fascinating implications and applications
of dreams. Each lesson will offer techniques that facilitate
awareness of and interaction with your dreams that can be practically
applied. This article describes dream incubation and suggests
some enticing goals. Future topics will cover dream interpretation
techniques, dream skills as a springboard for creativity, precognitive
and mutual dreams, nightmares and how to benefit from them,
as well as an exploration of the intriguing realm of lucid (conscious)
dreaming. Your responses will become part of our ongoing research
and may be published at a later date (anonymously, of course)
in upcoming articles and research reports. We cordially invite
you to join what should be a fascinating voyage of self-discovery.
Why Dreams Deserve Our Attention
Since every person on Earth dreams every night, it seems logical
to assume that something extremely important must be going on
during the third of our lives we sleep and dream. But, in our
industrialized, objective culture, we often seem to be missing
this point. Although dream knowledge and techniques exist, they
are not taught in schools and are seldom seriously discussed
in our homes and places of work, though in some native cultures,
the opposite is true. Since dreams represent a connection with
our own deeper nature, cultivating them may provide answers
to many of our personal, cultural, and planetary challenges.
Throughout recorded history, dreams have been employed for
guidance and healing. In the dream temples of ancient Greece,
the ill of body or mind would perform a sacred ritual and sleep
in a specialized healing temple. The Greek god Asklepios would
often appear in a visionary dream, perform a symbolic operation,
and the seeker would awaken healed or having received guidance.
Among many Native American tribes, young adults would travel
alone into the wilderness as a rite of passage, where they would
fast and pray. After being blessed by a dream filled with guidance
or revelations, they would return to their tribe to share their
revelations and enact the guidance.
Although it is perhaps a forgotten art in our culture, dream
incubation is a natural process and neither esoteric nor difficult.
It often operates automatically to some degree as we fall asleep
with a problem in mind, as these examples show:
"After learning about dream incubation, I suggested
to myself to have a healing dream, since I'd been feeling drained
of energy for some time and had a bad cold coming on, which
is unusual for me. I dreamt that the pores of my legs opened
and ugly leeches oozed out. I awoke feeling much better. I never
did find out exactly what it represented, but it sure worked."
(M.S., Palo Alto, CA)
"I'm a triathlete. After an important, upsetting race
where I biked and ran well below my capability, I decided to
incubate a dream about it. After a week of focusing, I remembered
this dream: 'I'm with my coach discussing how I was so tight
and cramped during the race. He suggests regular sports massages
for the racing season to avoid lactic acid build-up in my muscles,
among other reasons, and says he knows a guy who could do it.'
When I awoke and phoned my coach, he confirmed the dream and
connected me with his massage therapist. A few weeks later I
won my first major race, becoming the New England Long Course
Champion. Two weeks after that, I qualified for the World Championships
in Hawaii." (R.C., Montreal, QC)
The best incubation results are achieved by combining a balance
of curiosity, playfulness, and respect, since the knowledge
gained also generally brings us a responsibility for action
that should be made in conjunction with, but not at the expense
of, our best waking judgment. Dreams are not a free ticket away
from the challenges of life, and sometimes they demand a lot
from us, pointing us in directions we might otherwise never
consider. If we occasionally look to them for insight, honestly
contemplate their messages, yet avoid completely relying on
them to make decisions for us, then dreams can support our waking
lives as the useful tool they are meant to be.
Using Dreams for Physical & Professional Skill Rehearsal
Young children, especially babies, spend more time in REM sleep
than do adults. In these stages of intense physical and mental
development, various researchers believe we're actually practicing
while we dream how to talk, walk, and perform other physical
and mental skills, suggesting that this may be one of the innate
functions of dreaming.
Innovators in the sports and business world have been among
the first to utilize the creative freedom and safety of the
dream state to improve skill and performance. German psychologist
and lucid dream researcher Paul Tholey used dream work in his
training of the German Olympic ski jumping team. He had the
skiers learn lucid dreaming so that they could creatively experiment
with new aerial maneuvers without risk of injury.
Resolving Nightmares
Fear of nightmares or misguided beliefs about dreams and the
unconscious can block dream recall. This can usually be overcome
by discovering the useful nature of dreams and by recognizing
that many nightmares represent opportunities for personal healing
through much-needed emotional release. Such nightmares can help
resolve psychological imbalances, providing a natural therapy
for the psyche.
Lucid dreaming, a phenomenon in which the dreamer becomes conscious
while dreaming, is being researched by doctors at Montreal's
Sacre-Coeur Hospital Dream and Nightmare Laboratory to help
people overcome nightmare-induced anxiety, as the following
example shows:
"After many recurring nightmares where I'm pursued
by some terrifying figure, I learned of lucid dreaming and had
the following dream: 'I'm in a frantic car chase with the pursuer
right behind me. Swerving into a lot, I bolt out of the car
and run with him hot on my heels. Suddenly, the scene seems
familiar and I realize that I'm dreaming, though the parking
lot and trees still seem more real than ever. Drawing upon every
ounce of courage that I have, I swirl to face my pursuer, repeating
to myself that it's only a dream. Still afraid, I scream at
him, 'You can't hurt me!' He stops, looking surprised. For the
first time I see his beautiful, loving eyes. 'Hurt You?' he
says. 'I don't want to hurt you. I've been running after you
all this time to tell you that I love you!' With that, he holds
out his hands, and as I touch them, he dissolves into me. I
awake filled with energy, feeling great for days.' Not only
did the nightmare never return, but more importantly, I'm now
better at standing my ground and expressing my feelings when
appropriately needed, whereas before I would usually avoid or
run from such situations." (M.R., San Jose, CA)
Dreaming for Fun, Adventure, and Wish Fulfillment
Dreams provide what Star Trek fans might call a nightly holodeck
experience or what hi-tech buffs might see as the ultimate virtual
reality. In lucid dreams especially, where the world avails
itself to the intent of the dreamer, adventure and intrigue
are almost guaranteed, because the usual laws of physics and
of society no longer apply, and the apparent blocks set by age,
sex, race, or religion simply fall away.
In dreams, we can fly, breathe underwater, be the hero of our
own adventure, find romance, and perform feats free from embarrassment,
peer pressure, and even physical handicaps. The boundaries of
imagination are the only limits:
"I suddenly realize I'm dreaming from the surprise
and excitement of recognizing that I've become a salmon swimming
upstream! Leaping high into the air, I climb a series of chutes.
Then I flip up onto the shore and the flipping sensation feels
so odd that I soon awaken." (W.D., Palo Alto, CA)
Personal Growth and Illumination
Perhaps it's most important that dreams provide us with a direct
link to the unconscious, allowing a much larger perspective
than our physical senses. They provide an ideal means for honing
intuition, for bringing about profound feelings and states of
being, for self-exploration, and ultimately, for discovering
our own true nature. We can even follow in the footsteps of
Tibetan monks who master dream skills as a stepping stone on
the path to enlightenment, as the following experience suggests:
"Falling asleep, I remember wondering what truly 'knowing
myself' would be like. Dreaming, I become aware of this incredible,
indescribably powerful 'Love Light.' The thought comes that
there is no power in the universe like it -- it's absolutely
non-judgmental, and dwarfs every worry or desire I've ever had.
It is peace and simplicity and well-being. It includes sexuality
but encompasses far more. Basking in what feels like 'an ocean
of grace', I begin to realize that I'm not looking at it, but
rather that I AM it, recognizing myself." (C.W., Palo Alto,
CA)
Dream
Incubation Experiment: Instructions
Dream
Incubation Experiment: Feedback Form
