Click here to return to forum Dream Incubation: A Two-Part Method of Inquiry to Reveal the Shadow Kelly Lydick, M.A. Dream incubation is not something new to dream practitioners and those who regularly work with dreams. Many tailor their incubation practice to include personalized elements and rituals in order to provoke optimal, personalized results. Dream incubation can be used for deeper inquiry, not simply as a technique to request a lucid dream, for example. Dream incubation can be used to help coax the subconscious mind to reveal new information to the conscious mind in order to be worked on or worked through and in order to attain greater self-awareness. Shadow work often presents an inherent conundrum. How do you become aware of that which you are unaware? That is, where does one begin? A description of the shadow may be helpful:
The shadow loses its power when consciousness stops being divided. When you are no longer split, there s nothing to see but one self in all directions. There are no hidden compartments, dungeons, torture cells, or mossy rocks to hide under. Consciousness sees itself. (Chopra, 17). A good therapist can help with the process of revealing the shadow to their client, but this often takes time even years. Dream incubation, however, appears to accelerate this process of selfunderstanding, reveal elements hiding in the shadow of the psyche, and help a dreamer to bring about new information that actively promotes personal growth and evolution, thus allowing consciousness to see itself. I have found that a two-part process of dream incubation intended specifically to work with shadow material is effective in accelerating this process of growing self-awareness. This twopart process utilizes two different open-ended questions over a two-week period in which the dreamer inquires within to seek answers from both the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind. Seven days should be devoted to each question for this process, although the dreamer can choose to alternate each of the two questions every other day over two weeks; or use one question for 7 consecutive days and then the other question for 7 more consecutive days. Most importantly, the dreamer should make clear which dream responds to which question asked and note that in their dream journal. Before beginning the process, it s also important that the dreamer have an understanding of the present moment challenges being faced, as well as their current level of self-awareness, and understand the goal of their dream incubation inquiry. Where is the dreamer in their personal growth journey? What does the dreamer want to learn? The answers to these questions will lead a dreamer to understand what in the shadow needs to be uncovered in order to create greater selfawareness and attain the desired goal of the incubation and therefore, catalyze their personal growth. Examples of dream incubation goals may look like some of the following:
I d like to gain more confidence and become less vulnerable to other people s opinions. I d like to release trauma from my past and heal emotionally. I d like to move into a soul-directed career. Most often the shadow material is consciously recognized by the dreamer simply as the unknown piece of the growth process that gets them from their present moment of unawareness to their goal. The question, then, is: How to reach the goal? What method should be used to reach the goal? Therein lives the conundrum: how is still yet lurking in the shadow of the psyche. A look at dream symbols can be the way out of this conundrum, the bridge from shadow material to consciousness, from the unknown beginning of the path to the outcome or goal. To have a shadow, Deepak Chopra says, is not to be flawed, but to be complete. (10)
The language of the dream incubation questions is paramount to the process. Most dreamers become adept at uncovering shadow material when it is done in increments that are comfortable for the emotions to process, and when the shadow material is processed in smaller components, making the information easier to accept and integrate psychologically. Also important to note is the way that color is discussed in these dreams and within this process. Building upon the paper Color in Dreams: The Energy Centers and Their Palette of Greater Meaning presented to the 2015 PsiberDreaming Conference, the energy centers on the particular colors that appear in a given dream, revealing particular psychospiritual and emotional themes indicative of particular personal growth challenges experienced by dreamers. The alignment between color and theme seems to be pervasive across dreamers and their background and disposition, and thus a good, neutral foundation upon which to build dream analysis. (Please note that for purposes of this paper, these examples and their analyses are abbreviated.)
Example #1 Dreamer s Background and Incubation Goal: A dreamer wants to know more about their physical health and what to do to help maintain and improve health conditions and symptoms. The dreamer has had some significant trauma in the past and has done much psychological work to heal this trauma, although the trauma is not fully healed. Driven in his career, he often has reasons why things don t go well, why things won t work out well for him, and why he shouldn t attempt certain tasks or goals. These reasons, to him, seem very logical and acceptable, but to an outsider (coach or therapist), are obvious excuses rooted in fear and not fully acknowledged. The goal for this dreamer is to improve health and attain more success in career achievements. Incubation Questions: Conscious: What excuses have I been calling reasons, and why? Subconscious: What do I need to know about my body and health? Dream Symbols & Colors: Dream # 1 This dream is in short fragments and symbols without a linear storyline or beginning and end. Snakes, dark rooms, being bitten by snakes, a shiny silver object, traveling in the desert, white light, and an unknown person make up the dream.
Dream # 1 Analysis: Dream # 1 occurred after using the subconscious question: What do I need to know about my body and health? Much of the dream was unknown and came in flashes or snippets. The only color present is silver, aside from much darkness throughout the dream, which may be considered as black. The dreamer believes the snakes indicate a kundalini rising, or sacred life force energy dream. The coach sees the dream as a look into the unknown, a fear-filled dream, and, perhaps, a link between the past history of trauma and the health issues in question. The coach also suspects that some of the health issues are psychosomatic due to past trauma. Dream # 2 An important telephone call comes through to an office phone. Most of the office furniture is brown in color. The message on the phone is garbled, but his boss is the one calling. There is an important meeting in another room so the dreamer ends the telephone call. When he enters the meeting room, he is the only one there; all other employees have already gone. The meeting notes appear on a white board in blue ink.
Dream # 2 Analysis: Dream # 2 occurred after using the conscious question: What excuses have I been calling reasons, and why? The color blue is important here as it may indicate themes of will power, voice, and the need to be heard by others. This dream also may indicate a placing of responsibility onto others instead of taking responsibility for oneself (empty meeting room and notes left behind). Process work with the dreamer reveals that the dreams do indicate that some fear is present. This fear appears in many facets of the dreamer s life. In addition, the discussion reveals that there is still more investigation to be done around health issues. After these two dreams, new questions are composed that build upon the previous questions and what has been revealed through the dream analysis. The new questions for the next two weeks of dreaming are: Conscious: Where in my life do I see themes of distrust occur? Subconscious: What needs to be revealed to me in order to understand why I make excuses? These new questions are crafted in order to help draw out shadow material around personal responsibility, proactive action in life, fear of failure, fear of success, and how themes of distrust affect the dreamer s life. Then, once these ideas are revealed through dream symbols to the conscious awareness of the dreamer, waking life strategies can be put into place to help the dreamer reach the personal growth goal.
Example # 2 Dreamer s Background and Incubation Goal: This dreamer is a sensitive person who grew up in a home with a very critical mother. She suffers from self-esteem issues, self-confidence issues, and frequent anger. There is also a theme of co-dependence in relationships and fear of lack of acceptance by others. She is married and has two kids under the age of five. Often feeling overworked and misunderstood by family and co-workers, the dreamer wishes to exude more confidence in her life. This dreamer has a high level of self-awareness and is motivated to make strides in personal growth to evolve her sense of self and her relationships to others, but avoids those places that reveal fear. Incubation Questions: Conscious: If I don t control my emotions, what will happen? Subconscious: What part of me that holds anger has a message for me? Dream Symbols & Colors: Dream #1 In this dream, the dreamer is standing on a highway and the road is flooded. There is a guardrail, which reveals a steep cliff down below. It is night, and very dark outside. When the dreamer approaches the silver, metal guard rail on the side of the road, she sees a group of surfers who are surfing on huge waves that are pouring over the highway and flooding it. She tried swimming with the surfers, but ended up in the parking lot of a department store, where there were white parking lot lights illuminating the darkness. Colors in the dream included black, silver, and white light.
Analysis: There is only one dream to analyze here as the dreamer avoided altogether the subconscious question, negating it from the process (indicating an unwillingness to address what feels fearful and what appears in shadow). This dream reveals that there is a deep well of emotion that is yet to be acknowledged. The black color and the huge waves may indicate the storehouse of emotion that needs to be worked through. The silver guardrail may indicate something that is holding the dreamer back from allowing the emotions to occur naturally as they arise. Process work with the dreamer leads to the conclusion that there is much emotional energy that needs to be accepted in order to let it go and continue to move forward. The Action steps recommended in her waking life to support this include meditation, journaling, yoga, and talk therapy. Also discussed is the dreamer s lack of confidence around her feelings and being capable of owning her emotions, as well as how this fear and lack of confidence impacts her personal relationships and leads to themes of co-dependency. Based on the dream analysis, these two new questions are derived: Incubation Questions: Conscious: What happens when I give other people s opinions more power than my own opinions? Subconscious: What angry part of me holds a message for me?
In this next two-week increment, the conscious question was changed completely as the dream of the surfers satisfied the answer to the previous conscious question; however, the subconscious question was changed just slightly. Recall from the first set of questions with this dreamer that the theme of anger was inquired about, but the dreamer avoided the question. The subtle change in the language of this new question for the subconscious changes how the dreamer interacts with this material. The previous question was: What part of me that holds anger has a message for me? This indicates that a part of the dreamer was holding anger as if it were set apart from her. The new question: What angry part of me holds a message for me? allows the dreamer to take ownership of the feelings (the angry part), therefore beginning to reveal more of the shadow in order to work through this feeling and release it. The subsequent dream (omitted here due to paper length requirements) indeed did indicate where the dreamer could begin to take ownership of her anger and work through it in waking life. It s important to note that these examples show the dream incubation questions evolving with each subsequent two-week dreaming increment. Using an evolving thread of language appears to work well to ease dreamers into their own shadow material, making it easier to accept new information, difficult emotions, or challenging information. It also provides an opening from which to work through the conundrum How do you become aware of that which you are unaware? that exists when beginning shadow work.
In order to continue to draw out shadow material and bring it into the light of awareness, this two-part method can be applied on an ongoing basis, with each new set of questions for the conscious and the subconscious designed to reveal new insights from the shadow. Here s a quick checklist of tips that may help to begin this two-part method of inquiry: Cultivate an understanding of the present moment awareness and challenges to the best extent possible. Understand the personal goal of the two-part dream incubation process. Embrace a sense of openness to all types of answers that may come in dreams. Be precise with the language used for the incubation questions or statements. Trust the process! Sweet dreams!
References The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your true Self by Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford & Marianne Williamson. Harper One, New York NY (2010). Images Used in This Paper (in the order in which they appear) Guardians of the Light by sattva, courtesy freedigitalphotos.net Chakras by photomarket28, courtesy photobucket.com Catching Trust Word by Stuart Miles, courtesy freedigitalphotos.net Arches Of Possibility by sattva, courtesy freedigitalphotos.net