A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (33 page)

Ask to have a dream about that friend you haven’t seen in years.

Incubate an exciting boat ride to the Indian Ocean. Want to be the

queen of England for an hour? The choice is yours.

You don’t have to be lucid to perform dream incubation. Lucid

dreaming is about influencing the dream once you’re in it; dream

incubation allows you to set the stage for your dream before bed.

After we explain the easy practice of dream incubation, we’ll talk

about how you can combine dream incubation with lucid dream-

ing, a killer hybrid of two powerful techniques.

Rub a Dying Guinea Pig on Your Body

Dream incubation is not new: ancient Egyptians incubated

dreams way back when. If they had an important question or

problem they’d travel to a

dream temple where they’d

be closer to a particular

I asked my dreams what maturity or adult-

god. The Egyptian subjects

hood means to me. strength, knowledge,

responsibility? I dream of a round pool in

would pose their question

a Roman atrium, cupped in a columned

to the gods before falling

arcade, half sun, half shade. It’s the home

asleep in the temple. Then

of a mermaid who usually doesn’t let visi-

they’d dream, in hopes of

tors get too close. But to my surprise, she

receiving divine advice to

invites me in to swim. she tells me, “I won’t

their troubles.

die till love dies.” “I . . . I’m not sure what

Dream incubation tech-

you mean.” she smiles and says “I’ll live as

long as human beings who can love still

niques were developed in

live.” —CHRIs W.

other parts of the world

as well, and they often got

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pretty weird. The Quechua Indians of Peru would perform a sleep

incubation ritual that would start with the patient being rubbed

from head to toe with a live guinea pig. It was done in such a way that

the guinea pig would die by the end of the procedure. Afterward the

animal would be skinned and from the blood and entrails a diagno-

sis would be read. Other methods include predream fasting, sleeping

in trees, or even inserting splints and ropes under the subject’s skin.

Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to go on a fast or rub dying

guinea pigs on your body. In fact, when you strip away all the

theatricals, dream incubation is really simple. All you’re doing is

prepping your mind for a particular dream to happen. That’s it.

In these cultures, theatrics served a simple role: they made the

dreamer believe that their wish would be granted. The rituals were

effective because they gave weight and importance to the idea of

dream incubation. But if you trust in the process of dreaming, you

don’t need weird rituals. All you need is a solid intention.

Want to dream you’re on the moon? Before you go to bed, ask

to have a dream of being on the moon. Want to know if you should

switch careers? Incubate a dream that will help you figure it out.

A 1993 study shows the effectiveness of dream incubation. At

Harvard Medical School, seventy-six students were taught how to

incubate. For one week, the subjects went to sleep trying to incu-

bate a dream that would solve a particular problem. One half of the

students reported a dream that related to their problems. “Seventy

percent of these believed their dream contained a solution to the

problem,” the study concludes. The student’s dream journals were

rated by judges and the reports were confirmed.

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How to Incubate a Dream

1. scribble down your intention.
Want to go fly fishing on Mars?

Write it down. Want to party with a polar bear? The more specific

the intention is, the better. A specific intention sends a clear signal

to your subconscious. You can even ask questions that you want to

be answered in your dream, such as “What should I study in col-

lege?” If you do ask a question, be careful to steer clear of yes or no

questions, they tend to produce very vague answers.

The more vivid and visceral the intention is, the more effec-

tive it will be: “I want to dip my toes in the Mediterranean shore”

is a far more effective intention than “I want to go to the beach.”

Often, just thinking about your intention a few times before bed

does the trick. You may not get exactly the dream that you asked

for, but it will be something close.

Here are a few examples of dreams you could incubate, but

when it comes down to it, your imagination is the limit:

• I will dream that I am flying in a small, red plane during

sunset.

• I will dream that I have become a focused, diligent student.

• I will dream that I see a new idea for a sculpture, already

created.

• I will dream that I’m walking around my old childhood

home in the summer.

• I will dream that my grandma will give advice on my

marriage.

• I will dream that I am having a conversation with my future

self, twenty years older.

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2. Bravo, Picasso.
Draw a picture to accompany the written inten-

tion. Draw a specific image and try to keep it simple and clear. Try

drawing and writing down your intention in your dream journal,

on the left side of the page. Then, when you wake up in the morn-

ing, record your dreams as usual on the right side. As you read over

your dreams, it will be easy to see if your intentions (left) match up

with the results (right). You’ll be surprised how often your incu-

bated dreams hatch.

3. Put the intention under your pillow.
Might sound a bit super-

stitious, like you’re waiting for the Dream Fairy to come and drop

you a nickel. But remember that dreaming is all about the mind,

and if you can send yet another message to your brain that you

want to incubate a dream, why not try it? Put your textual or visual

intention under your pillow. Maybe the Dream Fairy will stop by

after all.

4. Make up your own ritual.
Everyone has their own rituals: wak-

ing up, taking a shower, getting into a car, etc. Before you incubate

a dream, figure out a routine that makes the process focused, fun,

and important. Take a bath before sleep, listen to a special song—

whatever. Anything except lighting a candle. (Unless, that is, you

want to incubate a small fire in your bedroom.) Like the ancient

Egyptians, create a sacred space, whatever that means for you, and

focus your mind on your desired dream.

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Keeping the Egg Warm

Just as an egg needs lots of warmth from its mommy before it

hatches, you need to give your dream some lovin’. The heat

comes in the form of passion. Remember that the key principle of

a good intention is “juice.” The more passion you feel toward your

desire, the more effective the incubation process will be.

Your subconscious can tell if your heart’s not in it.

If you ask casually for a dream about, say, a “fun day in the

park,” your subconscious will treat your intention with the same

passivity. But if you pump that intention full of life, with burning

desire and urgency, your subconscious will respond with the same

energy.

Typically, the dreams that incubate the best are related to

wishes for healing, resolving deep loss, or other highly emotional,

burning intentions. If your intention isn’t already charged with

emotion, do what great actors do and find a way to connect your

intention to a deep emotion within you.

For example, if your intention is to fly through the clouds,

think about how freeing that experience would be. Maybe the sen-

sation of flying will help you with a debilitating anxiety problem

that you have during waking life. You want to

cure this problem badly, so your subcon-

scious will oblige, giving you a dream

about flying. If your intention is to walk

through your childhood home, conjure up

all those heavy feelings of nostalgia, pain, or

love that are connected to the house.

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