Dream incubation is the process of facilitating the formation of desired dreams prior to falling asleep. Anyone who is willing to put the effort into this technique can succeed. It is not difficult and results can occur in the first night to within a week. Dream incubation can be used for many things, from solving problems, and inner reflection, to lucid dreaming and improving dream control. This works mainly because of autosuggestion, which is a way of teaching the subconscious to respond to repetitive commands. Your subconscious gradually starts to accept ideas after repetitive notions; this is what we are trying to achieve. This practice is very similar to MILD, the main difference is that MILD focuses on attaining lucidity while dream incubation focuses on dreaming in general.
Step one: Intention
Set your intentions on what you want to dream about, be it a solution to a problem, a scenario, or a series of events, a fun dream, or so on. There are no limits, it can be whatever you want, like lucid dreaming. Be sure you are serious about your intention or your mind won’t internalize your desires correctly in order to respond. Intent is key in boosting your ability to influence your dreams and achieve your goals. Do not continue unless you have a clear objective in mind.
Step two: Program
Dream incubation is usually practiced before bed, though it can also be practiced at other times in addition, for better results. The method involves a combination of art and writing, meditation, visualization, and mantras. It is optional to practice this method at any time but should always be practiced prior to sleep.
Meditation:
To begin, we will start by relaxing. It is in a relaxed state of mind that our subconscious is most willing to accept suggestions. Sit or lay in a comfortable position and start with deep breathing. Focus on parts of your body and let their tensions go. Allow your mind to settle. Do not try to force your mind to empty its thoughts. The goal of meditation is to come to peace with your mind and body.
Visualization:
Now that you are relaxed, you may want to visualize yourself experiencing your desired dream. If you wanted to have a dream about being on the beach, then try to experience it, and try to feel as if you are actually there. Think of this as daydreaming. To maximize the effect, try to engage in all of your senses. Feel the elements of the dream and how you react to them. Hear the sounds of the waves crashing; the seagulls squawking, smell the fresh air, taste salty breeze, feel the gentle ocean wind against your face, whatever it is you wish to dream about. Analyze your surroundings. These elements should carry over into your dreams. Developing an in-depth vision persuades your subconscious to internalize your intention. If you are looking for answers in your dreams, imagine yourself receiving those answers. Visualize how it makes you feel to have these answers. Allow these feelings to manifest. Visualize and feel that you have already achieved your goal. This step is very important. If you believe and expect your dreams to be achieved, they will manifest.
Mantras:
In addition to visualization, use mantras. They can be verbal or non-verbal, whichever is most comfortable. Declare your intentions and desires. Repeat your mantras over and over. This is called autosuggestion. Again, we are trying to internalize our intention into our subconscious. Examples of mantras are “I will realize I am dreaming when I am dreaming”, “I can solve this issue”, “I will find a treasure chest”, “I can breathe fire”, “My questions will be answered”, “I do have control over my dreams,” and so on. Affirmations are also a great tool to use at this stage. You will be effectively bombarding your subconscious with this idea, and it will have no other choice but to internalize your suggestions.
Art and Writing:
Writing out and drawing yourself achieving your goal in your dream can greatly increase your chances of succeeding. You can draw pictures of stick men or write verbal sentences using pen, pencil, or color, it is all up to you. Do this before you go to bed each night to further help internalize your intention. When writing, describe it like you would in your dream journal. Write about it in present tense; as though it will happen to you tonight.
Achieving Lucidity:
Using dream incubation to achieve lucidity is fairly simple. You can achieve lucidity by setting your objective to lucid dream. You can practice this as you're falling asleep, with a WBTB, or even during the day. Use the same method as described above, but instead, throughout this daydream you need to be passively aware, and, as we all know, awareness is key to lucidity. If you want to learn to become constantly aware, KingYoshi’s ADA technique is recommended. If you’re intention is attaining lucidity, you should eventually drift off to sleep and enter a dream, later inducing an LD. Your dream will likely have some of the elements of your daydream and you will likely become lucid, as this passive awareness will have carried over into your dream.
Step three: Recall and Record
After you wake up, lie still and try to remember all of the dreams that you had. You should do this for at least five minutes, even if nothing comes to mind at first. Go over them in your mind until you’re sure that you remembered everything that you can, and that you covered every detail. Then get out of bed, try not to do anything too sudden, and write down every single detail you can remember. Do not neglect any information regarding your dreams, even if it doesn’t seem significant. This especially applies to those who have intentions to gain insight on a particular topic. Although it may not seem meaningful at first, after careful analysis, you may find clues to your answers. However; do not over analyze your dreams, if there is meaning in them, it shouldn’t be too difficult to interpret. If you are not willing to write or type out your dreams in full detail upon waking, that is okay, simply record key notes from your dreams and finalize them later. To learn how to increase your dream recall, read DV’s Dream Recall tutorial located in the wiki, which will also help with visualization and dream incubation.
Step four: Patience
Patience is very important when trying to achieve a particular dream. Although they can result in one day, some instances may take a week or more to yield results. Do not be discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. They will come with enough time and effort. It is very important to remain consistent when using dream incubation.
Notes:
- Techniques similar to dream incubation that focus on achieving lucidity are MILD and DDA.
- The Mantras and Art and Writing sections are very useful steps for people with low visualization skills, and will increase with practice.
- The use of binaural beats during meditation is acceptable. Some binaural beat tracks already contain mantras.
