Dream
Incubation:
A
reconstruction of a ritual in contemporary form*
Henry Reed, Ph.D.
*Originally published in
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 4, Fall 1976, 53-70
Dream incubation is the ritual of going
to sleep in a sacred place in anticipation of receiving a helpful dream
from a divine benefactor. Drawing upon a variety of contemporary
psychotherapeutic principles and procedures, I constructed an
experimental ritual of incubation. The ritual consists of selection and
preparation procedures and a special presleep ceremony using the
dreamer's own personal symbols of a sacred place and a revered
benefactor. Examples of some incubated dreams are reported to illustrate
the viability of the ritual for seeking guidance and conflict resolution
from dreams. Further research applications of dream incubation are
proposed, and the methodology implications of a ritualistic approach to
research are discussed. Dream incubation is the ritual of going to sleep
in a sacred place in anticipation of receiving a divinely inspired
dream. Incubation rituals have existed in most older cultures and,
having been employed for both guidance and healing, may be one source of
therapeutic arts.4
The classic example is that of the
dream temples of the Greek god, Asklepios. A person with an illness--it
may have been organic, psychosomatic, or strictly functional--would go
to sleep in the temple, where Asklepios would appear in a visionary
dream to perform a symbolic operation. The person would awaken healed.
Alternatively, Asklepios would diagnose and prescribe treatment in the
dream, which the therapeutes, the designated temple attendant,
would subsequently administer. Numerous testimonies exist concerning the
healings and prescriptions which occurred in the dreams of those who
incubated in the sanctuaries of Asklepios, and the origin of some
therapeutic methods has been attributed to these incubations.7, 12,
19
Closer to home is the practice of
incubation among the various tribes of native American Indians. Their
use of incubation has not been restricted to healing, and they have
attributed significant cultural treasures to dream incubations. Indian
dream quests have often been discussed in connection with a rite of
passage into manhood. Among the Ojibwa of the Great Lakes, for example,
the young boy would go out into the wilderness and prepare himself a
ritual nest, where he would remain, fasting, until he received the
anticipated dream. In his dream, some representative of the spirit world
would appear and bless the boy by revealing to him the boy's particular
gifts or abilities. The spirit representative would then instruct him in
the use of supernatural aids which might be available to the boy in the
future. Having been blessed by the dream, the boy also would incur the
responsibility of applying his gifts in a prescribed manner for the
benefit of his community, on penalty of contracting an untreatable
illness.13, 29, 34
The phenomenon of dream incubation
raises many fascinating questions and possibilities. Hoping to first
observe this phenomenon and to then investigate its implications and
potential usefulness, I have been working to reconstruct a ritual of
dream incubation in contemporary form. In this initial article, I will
primarily describe in some detail the procedure I have developed and
briefly report some general aspects of the results observed.
METHODOLOGY
This work developed out of my interest
in the creative possibilities in remembering dreams21 and was
initially conducted as an experimental ritual in a dream laboratory. The
procedure was then expanded to be consistent with healing rituals in
general8, 9, 10, 32 and taken literally out in the field to a
summer camp. Here a tent (Thermos Pop Tent #8102/28) was erected to
serve, in lieu of the laboratory, as the dream sanctuary.** Finally, the
tent was erected in a small intentional community where the incubation
ritual found its natural setting.
Thermos Pop Tent
#8102/28
As an initial guiding rationale in the
reconstruction, I assumed that an incubation ritual is an
externalization of the psychological fact--a projection mirroring a
natural inner process of self-regulation, healing, or transformation. In
other words, it is as if the incubant were able, by aligning him or
herself with the symbolic structure of the ritual, to allow a certain
inner condition to arise which cannot be produced directly. I found as a
motif common to many incubation rituals that the incubant went to sleep
in a sacred place and expected a helpful dream from a revered, divine
benefactor. I therefore assumed these two focal symbols, the sacred
place and the revered benefactor, to be projections of the incubant's
own human potentiality.26, 35 As such, these symbols are
operative today in some of our feelings and expectations concerning our
personal spaces or vacation retreats, if not churches and shrines, and
concerning our doctors, psychotherapists, clergy, or gurus. The essence
of my reconstruction is the bootstrap operation of enlisting these
current symbols of sanctity and power to constellate in the contemporary
dreamer approximately the same psychodynamic configuration which must
have existed in the psyche of the indigenous incubant upon falling
asleep in the sanctuary.
The procedure I have developed is
composed of four segments:
(a)
the selection of the dreamer for incubation,
(b)
the preparation of the incubant,
(c)
the incubation ceremony, and
(d)
the incubant's testimony.
Selection
An incubation could not be sought in a
temple of Asklepios, according to the proscriptions, without the person
first being advised to do so in a prior dream. The incubants in my work
taught me the importance of such timing, and I came to use almost as
stringent a selection criterion, not only to maximize the chances for
the incubation of a meaningful dream, but also to protect the incubant
from any feelings of failure. To introduce a strong factor of
self-selection, there purposely was no solicitation for volunteers for
this experimental incubation ritual; but since many people nevertheless
inquired about participation, it became necessary to provide them with a
means of still further self-selection on the basis of genuine readiness.
The use of prior dreams as the basis of this selection suggested itself
after I discovered that the most distinguishing characteristic of those
incubants in the early stages of the work who had no dream recall the
morning after the incubation ceremony was that they all had been unable
to recall before the ceremony a recent dream related to the consciously
stated problem. In subsequent incubations, therefore, I asked potential
incubants to rely on their dreams to provide the final basis of
self-selection, giving an explanation such as this:
It's important that there exists the
same readiness in the unconscious to work on the problem you've
presented, as well as a genuine feeling of comfortableness about working
with me and this incubation ritual. Since incubation involves the
cooperation of your dreams, at least, I've found that it's safest and
wisest to allow them to take the initiative at this point. Spend some
time thinking about your purpose for incubation, and see if your dreams
concur by portraying in some form the problem you state for yourself.
Should you decide that you would like to participate in the incubation
ritual, bring me the dreams you remember.
Allowing the person's dreams as an
opportunity to respond to the prospect of incubation served well as a
final source of self-selection. Many people who otherwise might have
inappropriately participated in the ritual simply had no subsequent
dream recall. The others returned with dreams portraying conflicts
suggestive of the consciously stated problem. With a bolstered desire to
experience the meaning of the suffering which now had been both
consciously and unconsciously expressed, all these people subsequently
incubated meaningful dreams.
Preparation
After the dreamer had decided to
participate, a date was picked, from one to three days in the future,
for the incubation ceremony. The preparation, which we proceeded to
discuss, was perhaps the most important aspect of the ritual. It
involved the incubant's contemplating the purpose of the incubation;
choosing the personal symbols of the sacred place and the revered
benefactor; rendering these symbols, and the dream upon which the
decision to incubate had been based, into pictures; and finally,
spending a period of time, usually the 24 hours preceding the incubation
ceremony, in symbolic purification. In more detail, here is how I
instructed the incubant in these matters.
I stressed the primary importance of
mulling over the purpose of the incubation until as clear an image as
possible was formed of the essential quest. I encouraged the incubant to
devote sufficient time to activate and bring toward awareness all the
feelings associated with this theme. I was especially concerned that the
incubant give serious consideration to the secondary gains of his or her
current predicament, as well as to the various sources of positive
incentive to a resolution of the situation.
As you contemplate your purpose, it is
crucial that you examine all the ways in which you may be possibly
benefiting from your current situation of conflict. Search hard for such
paradoxical benefits, and honestly consider your readiness to let go of
those that may be incompatible with your purpose. If you can humbly
accept your susceptibility to these sources of resistance, but you find
yourself nevertheless willing to let go of their benefits, you may open
yourself to other resources which may offer genuine possibilities for
change.
These were issues that the incubant was
primarily to ponder alone later during the preparation period, but I
would provide some hints how the person might apply these general
suggestions to the particular problem being presented. For instance, to
a person wanting to overcome a lack of self-confidence in creative
self-expression, I would propose that the person not only review all the
facts and intuitions which affirmed the value of the person's creative
gifts, but also search for possible fears of letting go of
perfectionistic standards, and consider the readiness to assume
nevertheless the discipline and labor that all creative work requires.
I would also review with the incubant
the symbolic scenario of the incubation ritual, how it might be
approached as a reflection of an inner process of self-guidance or
healing, and how the incubant might best enter into the spirit of the
ritual. Here I guided my coaching according to the metaphors the
incubant provided, and I explained about the selection of the personal
symbols of the sacred place and the revered benefactor:
As you contemplate your purpose, it is
crucial that you examine all the ways in which you may be possibly
benefiting from your current situation of conflict. Search hard for such
paradoxical benefits, and honestly consider your readiness to let go of
those that may be incompatible with your purpose. If you find yourself
nevertheless willing to let go of their benefits, you may open yourself
to other resources which may offer genuine possibilities for change.
Such is the general tenor of what I
tried to communicate to the incubant about the problem of the secondary
gains of the presenting difficulty. I also encouraged the incubant to
consider the sources of positive incentive for change:
Summon all of the reasons you can about
the desirability of fulfilling your purpose. Savor what you wish to
accomplish. Consider how accomplishing your purpose will place you in
greater harmony with life and your highest ideals. How have others been
missing out on you and your special gifts because of your problem, and
how will they be better served as you fulfill your purpose? But be sure
to realistically evaluate your readiness to make use of the fruits of
your incubation so that you won't be hoping to profit by new
possibilities that you can't actually implement. Perhaps the humble
acceptance of your limitations may again be helpful in opening yourself
to other resources.
These were issues that the incubant was
primarily to ponder alone later during the preparation period, but I
would provide some hints how the person might apply these general
suggestions to the particular problem being presented. For instance, to
a person wanting to overcome a lack of self-confidence in creative
self-expression, I would propose that the person not only review all the
facts and intuitions which affirmed the value of the person's creative
gifts, but also search for possible fears of letting go of
perfectionistic standards, and consider the readiness to assume
nevertheless the discipline and labor that all creative work requires.
I would also review with the incubant
the symbolic scenario of the incubation ritual, how it might be
approached as a reflection of an inner process of self-guidance or
healing, and how the incubant might best enter into the spirit of the
ritual. Here I guided my coaching according to the metaphors the
incubant provided, and I explained about the selection of the personal
symbols of the sacred place and the revered benefactor:
Your symbol of the place of sanctity
should evoke a sense of reverence along with the feelings of safety,
comfort, and nurturance that this place provides. Search for such a
place where you might go to think over an important problem, a place in
which you feel you might be able to achieve significant perspectives on
your life, a place where you would feel centered and at peace. If you
could imagine, for example, coming to a realization of the meaning of
your life, what would be the setting in which this blessing would most
likely occur?
Your symbol of the revered benefactor
should inspire you by the feelings of confidence, enthusiasm, and
optimism which this esteemed person evokes. Survey the people you have
most respected and admired--people you have actually known, or only
dreamed or fantasied about--and look for that trusted person who could
best provide you with what you need to accomplish your purpose.
Considering your own particular problem, find a person who you feel
would have specially appropriate powers of healing, or a special quality
of wisdom. Perhaps it would be someone loving and understanding, with a
depth of perception which would enable that person to see into your
heart and help you see yourself.
I advised the incubant to devote ample
time to the contemplation of the chosen symbols. I requested
additionally that pictures be made of these symbols, to provide an
external focus of contemplation to help the incubant develop feelings of
resonance with the sources of the projected images. For similar reasons,
I asked that a picture also be made of that dream, discussed previously,
which concerned the topic of conflict.
Finally we discussed the significance
of symbolic acts of purification and how such aspects of ritual may
provide meaningful expressions of sincerity and receptivity. If the
incubant was inclined to fasting, I counseled that it be approached not
with an attitude of deprivation, but rather as an affirmation that one
thing could be willingly sacrificed in order to allow sustenance from
something else.3 Rather than necessarily fasting from food, I
suggested that the incubant consider fasting from an emotional attitude
or habit pattern that would have to be relinquished anyway if the
purpose of the incubation were fulfilled. I stressed that an effective
fast need not be a perfect one, for if the incubant learned from the
difficulties of the fast how ubiquitous and unyielding to sacrifice the
fasted-from emotional pattern could be, the resultant humility might
create more receptivity to the grace of the incubation. I also prompted
the incubant to give special thought to the details of the physical
preparation for the ceremony, such as bathing, grooming, and clothing.
These were all personal matters left to the discretion of the incubant.
I did request, however, that the incubant arrange the environment of the
dream tent in a personally pleasing manner, and place the pictures
within the tent, in order to transform that space into the incubant's
own symbolic sanctuary.
Instructing the dreamer in the details
of the preparation typically required about an hour. I would then have
little contact with the incubant until the evening of the ceremony. The
day of the ceremony, the incubant set aside as a quiet day of
introspection.
Incubation Ceremony
In the early evening, the incubant and
I met in the dream tent, spending a few minutes in silence together
before beginning. To begin, I asked the incubant to explain his or her
purpose. I would simply listen to the ensuing story, asking an
occasional question to clear the way for the expression of more subtle
levels of meaning. I specifically asked about the sources of incentives
and inhibitions to achieving the purpose of the incubation. We would
discuss the incubant's preparation for dealing with these matters, as
well as with the possibility that the incubant might not remember any
dreams. I would often counsel about the danger of expecting any
particular dream experience. This initial period of the ceremony
(lasting from two to four hours) functioned as an opportunity for
cathartic confession, prompting the activation prior to sleep of many of
the ideas and feelings associated with the incubant's purpose.
I then asked the incubant to tell me
the dream that had been brought to the ceremony, which we looked at the
picture that had been made of this dream. As we began to work with the
dream, I engaged in no dream interpretation, but rather coached the
incubant to provide the meaning, which we alternated between empathic
role-playing dialogues and analytic discussion.
I would ask the incubant initially to
tell me the possible meanings of the dream, to provide a basis for later
comparison. I then encouraged the incubant to play the role of each and
every character or element in the dream,20 while I
diplomatically interviewed each one to elicit the expression of its own
feelings and ideas22 as the entire dream was repeated from
that particular point of view. Then when the incubant and I discussed
again the possible meanings of the dream, the incubant commonly would
emerge with an expression of a more deeply felt meaning than was
initially conveyed. Additionally, the incubant would usually express
some insight about the relationship between the dream and the
consciously expressed problem, often viewing the problem from a fresh
perspective.
The incubant would next resume the
role-playing the characters in the dream, this time engaging in
switch-back dialogue between the conflicting elements, while I acted as
mediator, until some constructive resolution was achieved. By entering
the dream emphatically and attempting to establish harmony, the incubant
would experience how his or her variously conflicting motives, notions,
habits, and values resisted yielding to compromise. The struggle to
carry the dream forward into harmony served as an affirmation of the
incubant's symptoms respond sympathetically to the constructive efforts
applied in the domain of the dream symbols1, 24
I then asked the incubant to assume the
role of the person chosen as the symbol of the revered benefactor, using
the picture made of the benefactor as a point of focus, or as a mask. I
would interview this person, eliciting enthusiastic expressions of the
benefactor's self-confidence in such areas as healing, power, and
wisdom. When I asked the benefactor to speak about the incubant's
predicament, the benefactor would often speak with remarkable compassion
and authority, offering surprising insights and suggestions. I then
prompted the incubant to comment on the benefactor's remarks, and a
fruitful dialogue frequently ensued. The incubant would be encouraged by
the discovery of such a helpful resource.
Finally I asked the incubant to
describe the setting chosen as the personal symbol of the sacred place,
while we looked at its picture. The incubant would assume the role of
this sacred place, giving expression to those feelings that this symbol
evoked.
The incubation ceremony at this point
would have lasted from four to six hours. There had been a progression
of emotional themes, from the frustration, sadness, or longing of the
period of confession; through the conflictual turmoil and its resolution
in the dream enactment; and finally, to the optimism and serenity evoked
by the personal symbols. I would inform the incubant that our work was
essentially finished, and we would take a needed break while the
incubant prepared for bed.
We concluded the ceremony with a
presleep reverie. While the incubant lay in bed, I began coaching in
relaxation, giving instructions in experiencing heaviness and warmth in
the limbs, and in experiencing the breath as transpiring of its own
accord and without personal effort (a modification of Autogenic Training27).
I included symbolic meanings with the instructions, and provided a
symbolic context for the reverie, to place this practice in meaningful
relation to the incubation process. "Letting go, trusting in
inspiration," was the essential theme. I assured the incubant that
having worked hard on the present problem, he or she could now relax,
temporarily releasing the problem to the unconscious, an and that just
as one could trust one's breath, so could one trust to be inspired. Here
is a partial rendition, giving the general sense of the instructional
incantation:
Hold your arm up slightly from the
ground...experience the effort required to resist the pull of
gravity...gradually yield to gravity, allowing your arm to sink slowly
back to the earth...experience the pleasure of letting go, of giving in
to gravity, of letting the earth support you...you have done all you can
to work on your problem, an and you are now entitled to relax...you
relax as you allow yourself to experience your arms and legs as
heavy...experience the pleasure of the sensation of heaviness as you let
go of your problem and let the earth support you...as you focus on the
experience of warmth in your arms and legs you feel at peace...focus
gently, gently on your breathing, following it in and out...as you
exhale, let the breath go, and release yourself from the control of your
breathing...give in to expiration with a peaceful sign of relief, and
then allow your next breath to come to you on its own...trust in your
breath, and as you inhale, think, "it breathes me"...let go of
your breath and trust in inspiration...
I then suggest that the incubant
imagine being in the chosen place of sanctity, with the revered
benefactor. The structure of meanings in the relaxation procedure and
this suggested symbolic motif of the incubation process are mutually
supportive:
Imagine that you are in your sacred
place. Allow the special protective and comforting atmosphere of your
place of healing to create within you a mood of serenity...your arms and
legs are heavy and warm, you have let go of your problem, yielding
yourself to the support of the earth, giving in to your expirations and
peaceful sighs, as you are safe within your sacred place of
healing...imagine that your revered benefactor is approaching...feel the
special vibrations of your benefactor's presence, and experience the
confidence and optimism that is inspired in you...letting go with a
peaceful sigh, trusting in inspiration....
This final combination of images,
contemplated within the context of all the preceding preparation, is
assumed to constellate the receptivity appropriate for incubating a
helpful and meaningful dream.18 To help the incubant maintain this
receptivity upon falling asleep, I would then terminate the ceremony
with a sleep-inducing reverie accompanied by low music. I now encouraged
the incubant to relinquish control of even the stream of consciousness,
and while not trying to produce any particular result, fall asleep
prepared and willing for whatever might be given.
You are in the presence of your revered
benefactor, save within your sacred place, and have relinquished all
further attempts to deal with your problem yourself. Give yourself over
to anything that you might now experience, and assume that whatever you
might experience is part of the healing that is beginning to transpire
as you fall asleep. As the music plays, report to me whatever you
experience, whether it be bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, or
images. Let go of control over what happens from this moment on. Let go,
and trust in inspiration.
I then turned on a cassette recording
presenting a series of selections of classical music designed to be
played during a reverie to enhance the emotional component of the
reverie experience. This particular program, "Positive
Affect",2 has a sequence of emotional themes quite consistent with
the symbolic situation being imaginatively assumed by the incubant. As
the music played, I would simply coach the incubant to relay any
experiences ("tell me what's happening now"), and as the
incubant provided intermittent reports, I would simply reply with simple
affirmative or supportive remarks ("fine," "go on,"
and such).
This final presleep reverie was not
intended to be an induced dream or guided fantasy, nor was it an attempt
to employ suggestion to program a particular dream experience. These
alternatives may be workable approaches to inducing potent dreams of
particular content,30, 36 but are contrary to the spirit of
this particular dream incubation ritual, whose theme progresses from
preparation, through hard work, to surrender. The suggested imagery was
not intended as a thematic starting point for a dream, but rather its
purpose was to coalesce the incubant's preceding activity into a
particular state of being upon falling asleep--an attitude to surrender,
trusting to subsequent autonomous processes--and to provide an
opportunity for the dreamlike processing and discharging of surface
material related to the incubant's work in order to free the subsequent
sleep and dream activity to deal with deeper levels of significance.
The music lasted about forty minutes.
By the time it finished, the incubant's reports would have become almost
inaudible. I would then quietly leave the tent, while the incubant would
have typically already fallen asleep.
Testimony
The morning after the ceremony, I
returned to the dream tent and listened to the incubant relate the
dreams from that night. I would ask to hear the dreams at least twice,
and then I asked about their possible meanings. In a manner similar to
that employed the night before, I would coach the incubant in assuming
the role of each dream element, and afterward we would discuss again the
possible meanings of the dreams and their relationship to the purpose of
the incubation.
I cautioned the incubant not to rest
content with any particular interpretation, but tentatively to apply
into practice a hypothesized interpretation and to allow the meaning of
the dream to develop over time. I also expressed my belief that the
ultimate value of the dream might not in fact lie in its interpretation,
but more in its direct experimental impact upon the dreamer. I would
therefore prescribe that the incubant mentally rehearse the dream
frequently in the future to cultivate a resonance with its images. I
specifically requested the incubant to make a picture of the dream to
serve as a reminder and a focus of contemplation.
The incubant would then prepare a
written testimony of the experience of the incubation ritual, beginning
the account with our first contact. The testimony included a record of
all the dreams recalled, from this first contact up until the time that
the written testimony was completed. the testimony also included a
description of the purpose of the incubation, the work that went into
the preparation, and as detailed an account as possible of what
transpired during the incubation ceremony.
The incubant was required to make a
present for me. The presentation of this symbolic gift forgave the
incubant of any obligation to me, appeased any desire of mine for
compensation, and brought our ritual relationship as incubant and therapeutes
to a close.
SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
In this initial article, I will attempt
only to describe briefly some general patterns of results so far
observed. The observations I will present may be sufficient to suggest
the viability of the dream incubation ritual. A more comprehensive
presentation must await long-term, follow-up testimonies from the
incubants and a theoretical analysis of the function of dreams and of
the process of dream incubation. I suspect that the value of the dreams
obtained from incubation to come from some synthetic mixture of the
experience of the dream itself, elaborations given to the dream images,
meanings perceived through the medium of the dream, and the test
piloting of these meanings into daily life. I will provide three
examples of dream incubations to illustrate how these complementary
processes have operated to apparently help fulfill the incubant's
purpose.
In many incubations, the dream provided
an intense emotional catharsis. For example, one man (age 29) was
frustrated by a work inhibition which was related to extreme
self-criticism. The incubant had a prior dream which graphically
portrayed the volcanic intensity of his creative energy, but which also
portrayed his father as inhibiting the dreamer with his cynicism about
the dreamer's efforts to make use of this creativity. In his incubated
dream, he had cathartic exchanges with several important people from his
past, including especially his father, from whom he received in the
dream the kind of positive emotional support which he claimed had been
painfully absent in their relationship. The incubant awoke from the
dream crying, but relieved and renewed, feeling a fresh capacity for
work. Reliving the emotional exchanges in the dream at various times
later encouraged him and supported his work efforts. He also had some
subsequent meaningful dialogues with his father, made possible, he felt,
because the dream had relieved him from continuing his inappropriate
emotional demands upon his father.
In some incubations, the dreams were of
value in providing other forms of compensatory experience. For example,
one young boy (age 14), concerned with his involvement with psychedelic
drugs, brought to the incubation ceremony an epic seafaring dream
portraying the plight of some pitifully adrift, water-logged creatures
who longed desperately for dry land. The young incubant empathized with
these creatures, and recognized in their desire for dry land his own
longing for a sure-footed alternative to his psychedelic voyages. Yet he
resented the pressures of socialization he encountered in the
"straight" environment of home and school. His incubated dream
gave him the needed experience of navigating satisfactorily on land: He
was walking down a hot dry road, the dust choking him, when he came to a
dead end. He climbed up a tree to survey the surrounding forest, and
spotted an axe a short distance away. He climbed down, picked up the
axe, and began making his own trail through the forest. In contrast to
the dry dusty road, the path he cut for himself was cool and refreshing.
Encouraged by this image of blazing his own trail, when he returned to
school he successfully initiated his own study projects. His use of
drugs declined significantly, and his subsequent dreams provided him
with additional images of special implements, such as a jewel-studded
sword, which he could add to the resources needed to pursue his
individual path.
Sometimes the apparent value of the
incubated dream has been primarily in providing just such inspiring
symbols. For example, one young woman with asthma (age 22) wished to
improve her overly restricting relationship with her mother, a situation
which she felt contributed to her asthmatic condition. The dream she
brought to the ceremony portrayed a little girl held captive within a
suffocating house belonging to an old woman who had recently died. When
she enacted this dream, engaging in dialogue between the little girl and
the house, she not only experienced the guilt feelings aroused by her
inclination to leave her mother, but she also contacted her feelings of
self-doubt about being independent, feelings echoed by her mother. In
her incubated dream, an inspiring elderly lady presented her with a
fantastically beautiful dress, and sent her away on an important
mission. The incubant did sew dresses, and dresses were frequent dream
images, but they were usually either too sexy and revealing for her
taste or were shabby or overly modest. She said that the dress presented
to her in her dream was perfect beyond her imagination. I encouraged her
to paint a picture of this dress, and perhaps to sew a facsimile.
Sometime later I encountered her, working away from home, and she said
she was taking less medication for her asthma. She showed me some
beautiful paintings of her dream dress. She was hesitant to actually sew
the dress just yet, but she described to me instances in which she would
have previously been lacking in self-confidence. Now she handled these
instances more easily, simply by imagining that she was wearing her
dream dress and acting accordingly.
There have been incubations more
ambiguous than the three examples given, as well as some more dramatic.
In addition to their incubated dreams, certain incubants experienced
something during the night which had the quality of a vision. In
contrast to their incubated dreams, the content of these experiences did
not seem to fit in with the themes being worked on and were not the
typical dreamlike dramas set in distant locales. Instead, the setting of
the vision was within the tent itself, where the incubant was visited by
a strange presence. The vision would end when the incubant awakened, but
leaving the person confused whether the event really happened or was a
dream. In one instance, an incubant experienced a beam of light
emanating from the presence of someone standing outside the tent. This
light passed through the incubant's body, seemingly near his heart. In
another instance, an incubant awoke hearing a voice say, "roll over
onto your right side and I will give you your number." When the
incubant rolled over, the voice spoke the number. The incubant reported
that he accepted the number, then fell back asleep, and had a dream in
which he took his number to a special friend for interpretation. These
vision-like experiences were quite reminiscent of the written accounts
of the dream visions experienced by indigenous incubants of other
cultures. A final dream incubation convinced me of the importance of
these experiences and led me to suspend conducting further incubations
until I had ample opportunity to value the implications of such
experiences for the pursuit of this research.
This particular incubation was
conducted with an extremely intelligent and creative woman (age 26) and
was distinguished by the responsiveness of her dreams to the prospect of
incubation. During the period of preparation, she had dreams in which
her personal symbols were portrayed for her and in which she received
guidance in other aspects of her preparation. The morning after the
incubation ceremony she reported to me some meaningful dreams which have
since seemed to fulfill the purpose of her incubation. But also she
hesitatingly revealed that something else had happened that night as
well: She awoke, startled to find that a strong wind was blowing, and
that the tent had blown away. A small, old woman appeared, calling out
the incubant's name, an commanded her to awaken and pay attention to
what was about to happen. The woman said that she was preparing the
incubant's body for death and that the winds were spirits which would
pass through her body to check the seven glands. The incubant was at
first afraid, then took comfort in the old woman's aura of confidence
and authority, and finally yielded her body to the experience, almost
pleased with the prospect of death. During this time, the incubant saw
before her a large luminous tablet, containing many columns of fine
print which detailed her experiences in her past and future lives. The
vision ended abruptly, and the incubant found herself lying within the
tent as if she had awakened from a dream. She reported that this
experience was qualitatively different, however, from any of her other
dreams or psychedelic experiences. In her most recent letter, written
several months after her incubation, she said that her visionary
experience effectively revealed to her how her existence is not
dependent upon her physical body. She also reported that her dreams were
just beginning to deal with the contents of this vision, after having
finally terminated a long series of commentaries on the dreams she had
incubated concerning her initial problem.
The tent that did not
blow away
It is in this last respect that this
particular dream incubation, as profound as it may prove to be, has been
similar to the results of the others. Whatever potential benefits were
provided by the incubated dream, they seemed to require patient
cultivation before they began to manifest in actuality. The incubants
have typically presented stories of gradual change, in which
participation in the incubation ritual is given a timely and meaningful
role, but certainly not an exclusive or necessarily causal one. Most
significantly, the incubants have frequently reported a subtle yet quite
encouraging change in their relationship to their dreams. Their dreams
appear more responsive, and there is a greater feeling of dialogue and
cooperation, as subsequent dreams have guided the endeavor to apply the
fruits of the incubated dream. The incubation ritual was designed to
reflect back the incubant's own inner resources and to help the incubant
become more self-sufficient in growth. As one incubant phrased it, the
incubation "gave me a unique touch with myself."
I will conclude these observations by
briefly noting that the dream tent also seemed to provide the community
as a whole with a means of self-reflection and growth. One incubant had
a dream about the community which, when enacted by its members, provided
a meaningful symbolic psychodrama revealing existent patterns of
interpersonal conflict and providing means of reconciliation. This dream
served to creatively reintegrate the individual incubant into the
community. I also observed instances of apparently telepathic dreams,
but particularly provocative were dreams of community members on the
night of an incubation ceremony which went beyond telepathy to suggest
that an individual incubant's healing dream involved a transformation
for the entire community of dreamers.
COMMENTS
I believe that the contemporary ritual
I have described permits the many facets of the phenomena of dream
incubation to be revealed and should prove to be a fruitful paradigm for
further research. I have some comments about such research
possibilities.
Concerning the mechanism of
transformation provided by the dream, Ernest Rossi has suggested that it
is through the creation of new phenomenological programs involving
actual biochemical restructuring.24, 25 In the context of the
body psychotherapies,4 for example, an incubated dream might
thus provide an important source of integration and consolidation of the
induced physical changes and create an inspiring symbolic orientation
for the newly gestalted body. for any psychotherapeutic application,
however, further research is required to discover the conditions and
limits of the incubant's ability to assimilate and apply the potential
transformative value of the incubated dream. Hopefully such research
will lead to the discovery of even more valid and potent means of dream
realization.
Beyond individual psychotherapy, the
cultural value of the incubated dream presents an exciting prospect for
research. As we search for vital contemporary myths, we are reminded
that incubated dreams and visions have traditionally been a vehicle of
entry for such revitalizations.5, 6, 11 Already there has
been preliminary experimentation with the social value of the shared
dream.15 I suspect that a dream incubation ritual has the
potential of providing contemporary intentional communities as a means
of evolving their own unifying symbolic culture of myths, rituals,
songs, and dances. I believe that in such an application there also lies
a unique opportunity for exploring the parapsychological and
transpersonal phenomena so often attributed to dreams.14, 33
But beyond even any particular
application of dream incubation are the important implications of ritual
for the research process itself. What happens to the philosophical
foundation of scientific methodology if exploration of certain phenomena
requires substituting a symbolic ritual for a technical method? What
becomes of our traditional reliance on the ideal of the unbiased,
controlled replicability of scientific knowledge if participating in
such an experimental ritual further presupposes surrendering as if in
faith to the operation of factors necessarily beyond our individual
control? Other researchers have already meaningfully investigated
phenomena in a manner which stretches the credibility of this
traditional ideal.16,17,31 As we continue to explore altered
states of consciousness and parapsychology, maintaining our idealization
of causal research paradigm, requiring the manipulation and control of
the experimental variables by an impartial and detached observer, may
lead us into the moral ambiguities of the practice of magic. The use of
symbolic ritual may provide us with an acausal but meaningful paradigm
through which we can attune ourselves to the self-realization of the
realities we wish to explore.28 Toward this endeavor, I have
a dream to share:
We are gathered together for research
and enlightenment. We have not yet found the appropriate paradigm for
our research, and we are standing around in the dark. Suddenly, we begin
to dance together in a circle, and we discover that the paradigm we long
for is contained and expressed in our dancing. As we greet and celebrate
one another in turn, each of us displaying our personal dream emblem,
our dance generates a central fountain of sparks which fly off to
illuminate our space.***
-------------------
**
Today,
the dream sanctuary is a few notches more luxurious, on the banks of Fox
Creek, at
Flying
Goat Ranch.
*** This dream led
both to
Sundance:
The Community Dream Journal and to the experiment in group healing
dreams, The
Dream
Helper Ceremony
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