Voidway Explorer’s Incubation Practice
As you might know, I have a pretty fast paced Persistent Realm to manage. It's been going smoothly as of late, partly in thanks to an incubation method that I used to get non lucid PR dreams a couple months ago. While yes, these PR dreams were worse as I had less control over my decisions, they worked from time to time and helped me prioritize the PR for extra motivation to lucid dream with MILD in the same night. How did I do all this though? Incubation. I touched on incubating in my Intention video, and while that was a reliable method, it was basically just MILD without lucidity. Specifically to tie into the PR, I created this incubation practice. and I think that others may be able to use it to their advantage, as did I.
To put it simply, my entire incubation practice orbits around the basic idea of Associating. I do not incubate until something comes up in my day to day life that involves my lucid dream goals. (I.e, my Persistent Realm) This includes:
Satanism
Cultism
The Character behind A/Nairu
Russian Folklore (Specifically in regards to Koschei the Immortal)
ATNRPG/Melting Passion
Lucidity in General
Fried Chicken
The reason I choose to not start my practice until these things are brought up, is not only because it's easier for me, because I believe my brain finds it easier to "start" something when using a key. A specific highlight rather than generally everything. For example, I got lucidity just about always from my old job in construction. I'm a construction worker in a dream? My subconcious uses that as a base and dream signs come flooding in. This is because of my Schemas. Which tie into Stereotypes and Associating. This simplifies the process and cuts out the filler.
So, a concept associated with my PR is brought up, and I start incubation. First, I use Visualization as a mnemonic, similarly to MILD to pre-construct the most likely scenarios for my PR, from my previous PR Dreams (if you're trying this practice without any lucid dreams or goals to your name, you could make one up). For example, I had a dream once where Satan was high, and mocking me for not being able to accomplish what I want. He lied about a character betraying me and being part of the cult. In my next visualization I not only visualized the probable path the PR would go, but outcomes that wouldn't exactly make sense, yet could be fixed and set back on track. This practice of creating false, self-fixing schema issues "awakens" the idea that if things go off track, they can naturally mend themselves. Going on course, rather than straying. (this "schema fixer" doesn't always work yet it's a decent thing to set up)
Then, I do what I like to call "Linking". I imagine this can be difficult to understand for some people. Basically, I'm not visualizing scenes. I set my mind back and forth between different events that work as just concepts in my mind. For example,
Event A: I'm in a dream. I don't visualize, I don't think about where I am, and I don't care about what it is. I'm just holding the concept of being in a dream.
Event B: A strong path that I visualized beforehand occurs. I am not visually imagining the scene. It just exists.
I switch my mind back and forth between these 2 events. I hold the concept of being in a dream world, then I hold the concept of whatever goal I may have. Back and forth. Over, and over... First in a dream, then, my PR goal for the night is complete. From my experience, this practice directly chains together schemas.
If I don't feel ready, I repeat Visualization and Linking until I do. Usually I feel decently after completing my first link, and I move on with my day until something's brought up again. Then I visualize, and I link. When it's time to go to bed, I may or may not have a PR dream incubated.