Dream Guidance: Connecting to the Soul Through Dream Incubation

by Machiel Klerk

Overview

Harness the power of your unconscious through dream incubation: an age-old technique to access hidden wisdom and receive instruction through your dreams.

Everyone dreams-both literally and metaphorically-but most people don't know that their dreams can be used for personal development. Therapist, dream expert, and founder of the Jung Society of Utah and the Jung Platform Machiel Klerk shares how, through dream incubation, you can manifest the life of your dreams just by cultivating an intimate relationship with your own dreams and taking the guidance you receive from your subconscious. If you ask the right question and keep an open mind, your dream will give you an answer. Klerk offers an easy, actionable five-step process to help you have an incubation dream, a dream that reveals the answer to your question.

1. Identify the problem and decide that you'd like to ask your dream for help.
2. Develop a question that relates directly to the issue for which you are seeking answers.
3. Engage in a ritual aimed to enhance the dream response, like meditation.
4. Sleep, and upon waking, immediately record your dream or dreams.
5. Reflect on the dream and determine the "lesson" it offered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401968199
Publisher:	Hay House Inc.
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	1,024,122
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Machiel Klerk is a licensed mental health therapist with a specialty in working with dreams. He is the founder of the non-profit organization the Jung Society of Utah, which has hosted more than 75 events to more than 20,000 guests, and the online educational organization the Jung Platform. Machiel is of the world's most recognized dream workers and international speakers on the subjects of dreams. His short CD on dreams titled Rumi and the World of Dream is one of the best-selling CDs on dreams of the last decade.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Asking Your Dream for Help 1

Chapter 2 Your Dream Life 7

Chapter 3 Spontaneous Guiding Dreams 11

Chapter 4 The Dream Is Interested in Helping Us 19

Chapter 5 Connecting to Our Fellow Dream Incubators 33

Chapter 6 How Dreams Help with Love, Health, and Purpose 49

Chapter 7 The Importance of the Question 55

Chapter 8 Step 1: What Shall I Ask My Dream Tonight? 63

Chapter 9 Step 2: How to Formulate the Dream Incubation Question 73

Chapter 10 Step 3: The Dream Night and Asking the Question 87

Chapter 11 Step 4: Sleep, Dream, Record 97

Chapter 12 Step 5: How to Work with Your Dream 103

Chapter 13 Ponderings and Pitfalls 127

Afterword 139

Addendum 1 An Embodied Imagination Dream Incubation with Robert Bosnak 143

Addendum 2 Questions to Ask the Dream 151

Endnotes 155

Acknowledgments 159

About the Author 161

Editorial Reviews

In this very accessible book, Machiel Klerk explains the brass tacks of dream incubation. The how-to and the why, the history and the ancestry. Dream incubation gives us access to healing and creativity. It was just waiting for a simple—though not simplistic—guide. Here it is.”
— Robert Bosnak, author of A Little Course in Dreams
 
“Dream Guidance offers an easy, open, and effective approach to engaging our inner wisdom and its advice! If you are looking for a way to connect with dreaming and your deeper self, try these incubation practices and discover your own dream guidance.”
— Robert Waggoner, author of Lucid Dreaming
 
“Dreams respond as oracles, offering guidance to one of life’s most precious treasures—the Soul. Few know the ways of connecting to these oracular powers. Machiel Klerk offers a step-by-step process of asking the focused questions that unleash the guiding wisdom of dreams. This book breaks new ground, opens new possibilities, speaks to the heart and soul. It is a must-read for those following the way of the dream.”
— Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute and Dream Tending
 
“Dream Guidance offers a rich resource of ideas and practices for incubating, working with, and learning from dreams. Machiel Klerk serves as a knowing guide as he draws knowledge from ancient practices and Indigenous healers to psychology and his own compelling insights into the wondrous realm of dreams.”
— Michael Meade, author of Awakening the Soul
 
“Machiel Klerk has written a remarkable book on dreams. You will learn much from him how to make dreams a part of life. The book is clear and lively and doesn’t get stuck in minor arguments and subtle theories. It’s an adventure. You need to make dreams a part of your daily life, and this book is a helpful guide and inspiration.”
— Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
 
“How do you live your Soul’s call? This beautiful, engaging book offers guidance for tapping into the deep wisdom dreams offer each night. Put it by your bedside, and it will change your life.”
— Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., LMFT, director of the Soul’s Body Center
 
“Machiel Klerk has been exploring the dream world for over 25 years. His deep and sustained interest in the dreamscape has come together in this book, which will help you to connect and explore your own dreams and their meanings. With Machiel’s experienced guidance, you will learn to allow your dreams to inform, reveal, and enhance your life.”
— Diane Musho Hamilton, author of Compassionate Conversations
 
“Learning the language of dreams and their wise and holy power to guide us into our most authentic life is a great source of joy and wisdom. In this beautifully written, wise, and original book, Machiel Klerk draws on the wide variety of world traditions and his own deep experience to offer a new way of working with our dreams—and a way to light up our waking lives.”
— Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope and Engoldenment
 
“Dreams are wise friends, and they wish to help us. With illuminating examples and a lively mix of cultural traditions and history, Dream Guidance leads readers step-by-step into the ancient and highly practical art of dream incubation. By emphasizing the power of ritual and the art of asking the right question, Machiel Klerk guides readers to their inner wisdom.”
— Dr. Clare Johnson, author of The Art of Lucid Dreaming
 
“In the introduction to Dream Guidance, Machiel Klerk describes how when he was lost, dreams helped him find his way home. That homecoming has been an ongoing journey that is now presented in this fascinating, wise, and practical guide through the five steps of dream incubation. It is especially relevant in today’s perilous times, when collectively we need the wisdom of dreams to chart a way home.”
— Robert D. Romanyshyn, Ph.D., author of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology
 
“In Machiel Klerk’s dream work, questioning is like open-heart surgery, where the human heart is eager to open if the instrument of the right question is implemented. With dream incubation: ask the right question and prepare for unforeseen surprises!”
— Dennis Patrick Slattery, author of The Way of Myth
 
“Dream Guidance is a small but powerful gem. Machiel Klerk has devoted much of his life to gleaning the wisdom found within this book from many traditions. This book is a most helpful guide to those seeking to engage the dreaming psyche in search of soul.”
— Joseph Cambray, Ph.D., author of Synchronicity
 
“Machiel Klerk understands that dreams are not only apertures into the mystery within each of us but also summonses generated by the soul to engage consciousness. He has assembled a rich collection of ideas, tools, and examples showing how to open a dialogue within and be guided by that source which knows us better than we know ourselves.”
— James Hollis, Ph.D., author of The Broken Mirror

From the Publisher