The mind is not separate from the body, though it often misunderstands itself as such. With Incubation, referring to the ancient practice of preparing for the dream experience in order to consciously influence its content, I explore the transformative potential of dreams as an integrative health practice.
In folklore around the world, an incubus is a male demon, a fallen angel, a source of anxiety and illness, a nightmare – but he is also believed to be a father of witches and wizards, smart people with intelligence above the ordinary. This suggests that, whether one believes in the actual existence of fallen angels or not, the symbolic peril they represent is that of questioning societal norms. As such, they are falsely portrayed as a negative influence, whereas the exceptions to this rule are quite notable. For example, the Symbolist movement in Romania (where incubi are called “Sburători”/”Zburători,” literally “spirits who can fly” and sometimes translated as “Dreamers”) had this to say:
“Vague thrills, warmth and coldness, yearnings for impossible beauty, and, at once, torpor, a deep unsettling of the entire soul, bashfulness and insane certainty, an escape from the world and realities, blended with a belief in chimaera, restlessness and a thirst for rest… [These come from] the very same Dreamer, the same pale master of youthful dreams, the same kiss of warm lips on cool foreheads, the same mystical engagement to whatever will be. […] Those who begin issuing this magazine have received the Dreamer’s kiss a long time ago. They are halfway through on the path of life. They have not, however, forgotten the thrills of yesteryear, nor taste and disgust for the world, the impossibility of fitting in and belief in impossible chimaera. They have not forsaken their idealism.” (Eugen Lovinescu – first editorial in Sburătorul, 1919)
Adina Ispas 