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incubant to give special thought to the details of the physical
preparation for the ceremony, such as bathing, grooming, and clothing.
These were all personal matters left to the discretion of the incubant.
I did request, however, that the incubant arrange the environment
of the dream tent in a personally pleasing manner, and place the
pictures within the tent, in order to transform that space into
the incubant's own symbolic sanctuary.
Instructing the dreamer in the details of the preparation typically required about an hour. I would then have little contact with the incubant until the evening of the ceremony. The day of the ceremony the incubant set aside as a quiet day of introspection. The Incubation Ceremony. In the early evening, the incubant and I met in the dream tent, spending a few minutes in silence together before beginning. To begin, I asked the incubant to explain his or her purpose. I would simply listen to the ensuing story, asking an occasional question to clear the way for the expression of more subtle levels of meaning. I specifically asked about the sources of incentives and inhibitions to achieving the purpose of the incubation, and we would discuss the incubant's preparation for dealing with these matters, as well as with the possibility that the incubant might not remember any dreams. I would often counsel about the danger of expecting any particular dream experience. This initial period of the ceremony (lasting from two to four hours) functioned as an opportunity for cathartic confession, prompting the activation prior to sleep of many of the ideas and feelings associated with the incubant's purpose. I then asked the incubant to tell me the dream that had been brought to the ceremony, while we looked at the picture that had been made of this dream. As we began to work with the dream, I engaged in no dream interpretation, but rather coached the incubant to provide the meaning, while we alternated between empathic role-playing dialogues and analytic discussion. I would ask the incubant to tell me initially the possible meanings of the dream, to provide a basis for later comparison. I then encouraged the incubant to play the role of each and every character or element in the dream (20), while I diplomatically interviewed each one to elicit the expression of its own feelings and ideas (22) as the entire dream was repeated from that particular point of view. Then when the incubant and I discussed again the possible meanings of the dream, the incubant commonly would emerge with an expression of a more deeply felt meaning 15
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