I agree with Henry Reed's findings that as a result of undergoing incubation, my "dreams appear more responsive and there is a greater feeling of dialogue and cooperation." (6, p. 12) I now use a dream prayer- request technique which is a simplified form of dream incubation. I often receive important guidance from my dreams without asking.

It is said that when you ask you will receive. In using dream request techniques, I am often shocked to find that the answer is more or is totally different than what I had expected or asked for.

The evening before beginning to write this article, I asked my dreams to enlighten and inspire a synthesis of my ideas about incubation. I dreamed:

My Journal Transformed

I resolve to write diligently all my thoughts and inner events. I have the feeling that something will be added to it. It will be embellished or complemented or intruded on by spontaneous additions or commentaries on itself.

The dream responded to my struggle ("I resolve") to communicate my inner events. My conscious resolution was focused on making my question clearer and solving it again. The act of writing in my journal reflects my way of integrating what I have incubated through my writing. I asked for enlightenment and got it. I also got a bit of endarkenment in the form of something unknown intruding and invading what I had written.

The disquieting "intrusion" on what I had written in the dream feels like a transformation or magical mutation of my conscious openness to my inner self. Openness to the shock and even horror that dreams create in us is equally important though not as ego gratifying as visionary and ecstatic dreams.

A sense of growing fulfillment has come to me now as I have begun to sense the symbols and stories of my dreams as an unfolding myth, beginning with my first dream and continually circling around and unravelling the core themes of my life. The battle with the snake and the Pleasing to save my life are still there in many forms, yet there is a change as my inner will grows and I am more able to "see" my drama as I enact it.

THE GIFT OF MY WOUNDEDNESS

At  first  I  imagined  my  "pleasing  the  snake"  dream as a