Dream incubation (partial) success!

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Last night before I went to bed, I had the intention to practice Dream Yoga stage 4 (fear practice) summoning a fire in the dream, and then walking into the fire.

Laying in bed, I imagined being at one of my favorite places to camp, a very secluded spot out in nature. There I decided to imagine my self collecting firewood, and then building a fire.

I fell asleep.

In the dream,( which I almost forgot about after waking, and came as a flashback to me midday), I was in a Ukrainian Government building which had had its power supply cut off, no lights, no heat, and in the center of a very large open room, I was helping teach the people there how to build a fire there!

It failed to prompt lucidity. At one point the fire kept on dying back, because one of the people there was trying to help by putting rocks around its perimeter, but the result was it was drowning out the wind/air flow the fire needed to grow.

I have not had success with dream incubation in the past, so this partial success was a big win in my eyes.

Later on in the night I had a dream that i was in a different building talking with @Dream_Hacker about lucid dreaming. I could feel that I was close to becoming lucid in that dream, but in the end the lucidity did not take hold. Interesting synchronicity, as that same night produced an actual lucid dream for @Dream_Hacker.

Tonight I went to that same building, and read in the lounge area TWRs book. On a whim, I ended up reading chapter 7. It resonated deeply with me, not just because of the importance of the material, but also becuase over the summer, the first day I got his old edition of the book from the library, I ended up reading this same section, and it hit home big.

Forgot about reading it. The part that stuck out most was when TWRs teacher had given him instructions on doing a protection prayer diligently, and then the rock that ended up saving his life, and the lives of many others. Very powerful stuff.

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Fantastic! Yes this is exactly how to go about incubation, just fall asleep thinking about what you want to dream about (or think about it for a while then just release it so you can fall asleep). One theory of mine and some other LD friends is that LD practice is almost all incubation. MILD, WILD, intention setting. The foundational practices of dream yoga keep the topic of dreaming on your mind all day long. As Andrew says, “installing pop-ups.”

It helps to do visualization practice of these pre-lucid moments, see yourself recognizing them, becoming fully lucid and present, and going on to complete your dream goals. Rehearsing your “I just got lucid!” moment also helps to make sure you do things that you’ve planned. I like to start with a full-body pat-down, it really helps to solidify/stabilize the dream. It just takes a moment.

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Really love that theory, I have heard andrew and other Buddists talk about how powerful Intention really is. Now I am really starting to believe it!

Really great advice, I have not heard this tip before but forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me, I have not been incorporating this technique in my pre sleep practices, and Imthink it will really help.

I had a really crazy dream last night. I was in old kijd of creepy house apthat was pretty dark, and there was a young girl with us, she said that she was able to see dead people. We went into a room with her and she started to get more nervous and tremble. In the back of my mind I womdered if we were going to see someone who had died from hanging. The girl felt some energy that spooked her more, but we couldnt see any beings there. Then we all approached the window, and the shade opened up, and there hanging at the top was a dead body that looked likemit had been dead for years. She screamed a heart piercing scream that I think was so awful it ened up waking me from the dream.

It was not a nightmare, but I did wake with an eirie feeling and was a little unsettled by how horrible her screaming was, I think hearing the child the scream was worse than actually seeing the dead body hanging there!

Not sure what to make of it. Its possible it was a dream of clarity, due to the uniqueness of the emotional vibes and the spooky context. I havent had nightmares in years, and rarley have dreams that are scary or spooky like this, or involve dead bodies.

My other thought is perhaps the dream was showing me the power of intention I had within the dream itself? It definitely made the teaching very memorable for me. When I had the thought in the dream that maybe we would see a person hanging, there is little doubt in my mind that that incubated the future image.

A relatives house that is very old, I think may be tied to this dream. The room that it took place is was very similar to a room in that house in the attic, that has a picture on the wall next to the window of an old newspaper clipping showing a town square close to 200 years ago, with a large gallows, and stating that several native Americans were hung there. Not sure the reason why. The dream could also be a reference to the movie the 6th Sense, the scene in the school,with people hanging is pretty chilling.

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Yes!! More and more I think with intent during the day about what I want to dream about at night, often in the form of a question. It’s a preamble to co-constructing the lucid dream, it’s the prompt for the psyche. The more I do this the more responsive the dreams have become. I posted an example of this on the Dream Journal board, entitled “What’s above the trees.” Take a peek!

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I am glad you shared that, I was wondering how you have such powerful and meaningful dreams at night.

A few weeks ago, before going to sleep, I set the intention/incubation and asked the pre dream consciousness to “show me something I that was important for me to know” efore going to sleep. I was answered with an important dream that really helped. Its so remarkable how effective this is, I am still kinda in disbelief.

I asked Andrew a few weeks ago about having dream guides and how to summon them. He said all you need to do is set the intention, but really really mean it, and it can happen. I hope to one day be like you and have my own wise lady of the forest, or some other guide that appears in dreams. Jung had this happen as well, and it was very influential to his dreamwork.

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