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attention to what was about to happen. The woman said that she
was preparing the incubant's body for death, and that the winds
were spirits which would pass through her body to check the seven
glands. The incubant was at first afraid, then took comfort in the
old woman's aura of confidence and authority, and finally yielded
her body to the experience, almost pleased with the prospect of
death. During this time, the incubant saw before her a large luminous
tablet, containing many columns of fine print, detailing her experiences
in her past and future lives. The vision ended abruptly, and the
incubant found herself lying within the tent, as if she had awakened
from a dream. She reported that this experience was qualitatively
different, however, from any of her other dreams or psychedelic
experiences. In her most recent letter, written several months after
her incubation, she said that her visionary experience effectively
revealed to her how her existence is not dependent upon her physical
body. She also reported that her dreams were just beginning to deal
with the contents of this vision, after having finally terminated
a long series of commentaries on the dreams she had incubated concerning
her initial problem.
It is in this last respect that this particular incubation, as profound as it may prove to be, has been similar to the results of the others: Whatever potential benefits were provided by the incubated dream, they seemed to require patient cultivation before they began to manifest in actuality. The incubants have typically presented stories of gradual change, in which participation in the incubation ritual is given a timely and meaningful role, but certainly not an exclusive nor necessarily causal one. Most significantly, the incubants have frequently reported a subtle yet quite encouraging change in their relationship to their dreams. Their dreams appear more responsive, and there is a greater feeling of dialogue and cooperation, as subsequent dreams have guided the endeavor to apply the fruits of the incubated dream. The incubation ritual was designed to reflect back the incubant's own inner resources, and to help the incubant become more self-sufficient in growth. As one incubant phrased it, the incubation "gave me a unique touch with myself." I'll conclude these observations by briefly noting that the dream tent also seemed to provide the community as a whole with a means of self-reflection and growth. One incubant had a dream about the community which, when enacted by its members, provided a meaningful symbolic psychodrama revealing existent patterns of interpersonal conflict and providing means of reconciliation, and which served to reintegrate creatively the individual incubant into the 23
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