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community. I also observed instances of apparently telepathic
dreams, but particularly provocative were dreams of community members
on the night of an incubation ceremony which went beyond telepathy
to suggest that an individual incubant's healing dream involved
a transformation for the entire community of dreamers. (See "Dreaming
for Mary" on page 106.)
CommentsI believe that the contemporary ritual I've described permits the many facets of the phenomenon of dream incubation to be revealed, and should prove to be an impetus to further research. I have some comments about such research possibilities. Concerning the mechanism of transformation provided by the dream, Rossi (23, 24) has suggested that it is through the creation of new phenomenological programs, involving actual biochemical restructuring. In the context of the body psychotherapies (4), for example, an incubated dream might thus provide an important source of integration and consolidation of the induced physical changes, and create an inspiring symbolic orientation for the newly gestalted body. For any psychotherapeutic application, however, further research is required to discover the conditions and limits of the incubant's ability to assimilate and apply the potential transformative value of the incubated dream. It is hoped that such research will lead to the discovery of even more valid and potent means of dream realization. Beyond individual psychotherapy, the cultural value of the incubated dream presents an exciting prospect for research. As we search for vital contemporary myths, we are reminded that incubated dreams and visions have traditionally been a vehicle of entry for such revitalizations (6, 5, 11; see also Nancy Geyer's article on page 122 ). Already there has been preliminary experimentation with the social value of the shared dream (15). I suspect that a dream incubation ritual has the potential of providing contemporary intentional communities a means of evolving their own unifying symbolic culture of myths, rituals, songs and dances. I believe that in such an application there also lies a unique opportunity for exploring the parapsychological and transpersonal phenomena so often attributed to dreams (14, 33). But beyond even any particular application of dream incubation are the important implications of ritual for the research process itself. What happens to the philosophical foundation of scientific methodology if exploration of certain phenomena requires substituting a symbolic ritual for 24
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