Sunday, 20 November 2016

DREAM INCUBATION EXPERIMENT - WHAT DOES MY HEART DESIRE?

So, I have been having a few problems with dreaming/dream recall recently, due to a number of reasons which I have outlined in my new Youtube video, which I have posted below. In order to refocus and invigorate my dream work, I like to conduct experiments from time to time. I find that this gives me a goal and motivates me to try harder with my dream practices. I have noticed from the comments/messages from my subscribers/followers, that my Dream Incubation Experiments are pretty popular and often some of you lovely people like to follow along with me and try your own Dream Incubation Experiment, using the same methodology (see below). I love hearing about your dream incubation experiments and whether they are successful! 

I find that the more vague and general my Dream Incubation Experiments are, the more likely they are to be successful. If I try to be too strict or prescriptive about my chosen Dream Incubation Experiment theme, it tends to fail. In the past I have chosen specific dream themes, dream characters or dream contexts and found varying levels of success, but mainly failure. I am therefore going to chose a more traditional approach this time - asking my subconscious a very open-ended and broad question. This will allow me not only to analyse each individual dream and see how it relates to my question, but also assess the course of my dreaming as a whole, to analyse whether there are any recurrent themes or a 'golden thread' which runs through them. With the more specific, prescriptive dream incubations, my success tends to be rated on whether I have that particular dream or not. With this open-ended general question, I will have much more scope for interpreting my dreams and the ways in which my subconscious is attempting to answer my question. 

In this respect, my current Dream Incubation Experiment is much more along the lines of the approach espoused by psychologist Deirdre Barrett of Harvard Medical School, who uses dream incubation for objective problem-solving and creative inspiration. Barrett sees dreams as 'thinking in a different biochemical state' and has done extensive work in the area of dream incubation. I urge you to read up on some of her experiments or studies in this area and other dream-related subjects. 
My question for this Dream Incubation Experiment is:
WHAT DOES MY HEART DESIRE?

This can be interpreted in a number of ways: General lifestyle; career options; ambitions; romantic/sex-life etc. Typically I am someone who lives each day as it comes, with little future planning. I hate making decisions and try to avoid them. I also rarely know what I genuinely want and tend to take the easiest, least stressful route or simply put things off until they absolutely have to be confronted. I am hoping my subconscious can give me some clue as to what I really want from my life, and give me some guidance. I do actually choose certain life paths based on what my dreams tell me - in the past I have acted on ideas expressed in my dreams and had positive results, so I place a lot of trust and faith in my subconscious!

I will do the following to incubate my chosen dream theme:
  • Perform the MILD Technique for lucid dreaming on a daily basis. If this dream is a lucid dream, it will therefore be a DILD (Dream-Initiated/Induced Lucid Dream). However, lucidity is not a specific aim of this Dream Incubation Experiment - if it happens during the course of the experiment, it will be a happy eventuality, not an intended result I am working towards.
  • Incorporate elements of Tholey's Combined Technique for lucid dreaming, which has been reviewed as the most successful (cognitive) method for lucid dream induction and works well in conjunction with MILD, which is based on similar cognitive programming of the mind. I will adapt the key steps of critical reflection, intention and auto-suggestion so that I not only encourage myself to become lucid, but use these as a way of incubating my desired dream theme.
  • Use visual aids - such as a written reminder of my specific question - as well as immersing myself in material relevant to my dream incubation during my waking hours. I will also keep the written prompt for my dream incubation under my pillow and make sure I read it before going to sleep each night.
  • Where possible, I will perform the Wake-Back-to-Bed method.
  • Incorporate my chosen dream theme in both my daily reality checks (15 - 20 per day) by thinking clearly and positively about my incubated dream theme after each reality check.
  • Train myself to spot dreamsigns when reflecting on my Dream Journal entries each day following a dream.
  • Meditate on my incubated dream theme for at least 10 minutes before sleep and perform specific affirmations alongside the normal MILD Technique/Tholey's Combined Technique ones ('I will lucid dream about [incubated dream theme] tonight, and I will remember it') - this should also encourage successful dream recall.
  • Use Dream Visualisation before sleep - using my previous dreams based on the incubated dream theme as inspiration.
  • 100 - 150 mg of 'lucid dream supplement' Vitamin B6 (2/3 x 50 mg pills) where I am able to remember to do so before sleep - I will specifically note when I have taken this supplement.

I have had some successful and unsuccessful previous dream incubation experiments, which you may like to read (click on the title of each experiment to be taken to the post, which will open in a new window):
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