little trouble incubating dreams.
      All the dreamers found that on nights when they were
overly tired,  ill,  intoxicated  or  for  some  other reason
unable  to  concentrate  on   the  incubation  phrase,  they
usually  awoke  with  no  dream  recall  and  occasionally
with an apparently unrelated dream.  However, it became
clear that strict adherence  to the incubation procedure I
have  described  is  not  necessary   for  some   dreamers.
Some  experienced   incubators   found   that  they  could
reduce   the   procedure   to   a   couple   of   minutes   of
concentration  on  an  incubation  phrase before going to
sleep.   When   this   quick   method  failed,   they  would
conclude  that   they   had  overestimated  their  sense  of
clarity  regarding  the incubation issue.  They would then
begin  again,  using  the  journal  work,  and  they  usually
succeeded. However, these incubators did feel that their
experience  was  richest  when  they  took the time to go
through each step.
      Besides  good  recall,  a  courageous  desire for self-
knowledge,   and   the  willingness  to  keep  an  adequate
dream journal,  there were two basic factors that favored
successful incubation.  One was the ability to summarize
the   incubation   issue   into   an  incubation  phrase  that
clearly expressed the heart's  question in the matter. The
second  factor  was  the  ability  to  focus  intently on the
incubation  phrase.   Illness,   intoxication   and   extreme
fatigue hamper both phrase-focusing and dream recall. A
thorough "incubation discussion"  in the dream journal is
a dependable way  to  arrive  at  a good incubation phrase,
as it unclutters the mind sufficiently  to allow it to focus
clearly  on  the  phrase.  The omission  of  the incubation
discussion in written form foiled the incubation attempts
of all but  a  few experienced incubators.  Once the basic
requirements  of  recall  and recording had been met, the
ability  to  hold  the  incubation  phrase in mind made the
crucial difference between a hit or a miss.
      Now  let's  get  on  to the specifics of instruction for
this experiment in incubation  I'm proposing to you. You
are, of course, free to try it or not, or even simply to use
it as a helpful guide  in  developing your own approach to

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