“Dream Incubation: Healing from the Era of Asclepia” – Common Ground Magazine, pg 34
Published in Common Ground Magazine – December/January 2017-18 issue – Page 34
The practice of dream incubation entails engaging the dreaming mind to help address personal or intellectual questions, encourage healing, or to enliven intuition and boost creativity.
The origins of modern medicine include dream incubation. In ancient Greece, pilgrims seeking cures for various ailments flocked to temples dedicated to the god Aesclepius. Called Asclepeia, these temples served as both shrines and hospitals. Snakes, sacred to Asclepius, were used in healing rituals and also crawled freely across floors where the sick and injured slept. Thus the symbol of healthcare and medicine – a snake wrapped around a staff, called the Rod of Asclepius.
…
Priests employed many methods to treat physical and spiritual ailments, including herbs, nutrition, and even simple surgeries. They also interpreted dreams that resulted from dream incubation.