The many ideas that spring from INCEPTION

 8-4-10  The Movie The Inception brought up many different topics including: the power and importance of dreams; how the mind works; lucid dreaming; the true reality of connectedness; inner level experiences including projection and group dreaming.  This was one of the few movies I have seen that was all about dreams and the workings of the mind.  The main focus was about thought-form projection and mind control.  It demonstrated quite graphically, and accurately that “your mind is the one to control”.

Aside from the special effects and fast action sequences, the movie stimulated people to think about their mind and dreams.  It seemed that even those with experience and knowledge still had a lot of questions and many things to evaluate from their experience of the movie.

Another positive teaching point that was brought up in Inception was that time is different as one goes deeper into mind.  They even had done some math, like Data would have done on Star Trek, where 2 seconds of conscious physical life is equivalent to 20 minutes of the next inner level, that is equivalent to 20 hours on the next deeper level of mind.  The idea of going deeper and deeper and that the inner levels of mind are like veils where there is greater and greater connections to the source the deeper we go was inferred in this movie.

One of my favorite parts of this movie occurred after the main character hired Ariadne to be the architect for the structure of the group dream, thought-form, because it would not be in the best interest for him to do it.  She stepped out into the street, after learning quite a bit from him and transformed the building structure of the city back into itself forming a six-sided cube in which all 6 planes could be used to travel upon.  She made space distort to match the time distort.  It reminded me of the truth that there are no limitations on the inner levels of mind.  The dreamer is free to do almost anything.

Another interesting part was fixing the time signal sequence to begin coming out of the group dream by the falling sequence in a van where they were all together in the physical world.  There have been many times where I have woken up from a dream where there was a sense of falling.  This reflects moving through the inner levels to the physical level quite rapidly.  There was also a good sequence with the elevator, of examining every part of the workings.  The elevator, in dream symbols represents moving through the levels of mind.

In the movie, it showed that there can be distractions that might interfere with our ability to concentrate and move in the mind.  These were distractions where the lead character would have experiences resonating with a memory of his wife or kids.

Another part of the movie that attracted my notice was that they used the word “subconscious” several times to refer to where the dream and inner level experiences came from.  This is a great evolution from the way unconscious was used in the past.

When the main character wanted to resolve the longstanding issue with his wife, he needed to go to a very deep a part of mind.  I thought that things that have been avoided, or parts of our life where there is a deep hurt are pushed away over and over.  In order to bring light to them and resolve them, there is a need to go to the dark areas of our mind and shed light upon them.  There are many parts of this movie that are worth exploring.

In conclusion of my thoughts about this movie, I delighted in seeing the alpha and omega point that begins with him on a beach, face down in the sand.  He then goes to the oriental castle.  This same scene occurs at the end.  This is his point of resolution.  He says something like “I just want to do the work and go home.”  This is the universal inner urge to complete our assignment of becoming like the Creator so that we can return home.

Tad Messenger

Christopher Nolan's new movie Inception is an action packed thrill ride through the inner levels of mind.  It was entertaining and more importantly, thought provoking.  I left the theater with questions and a desire to go deeper into some of the subjects that the movie touched on.  The first thought I had was what is true reality?  My experience has been that I can always view things from a higher perspective and awaken to a greater reality.  Shamans and certain cultures have believed that dreams are the true reality and the waking state is the dream.  I know that I can be more aware and awake in my dream state as well as my daily life. 

Inception is the idea that a thought can be planted into someone's mind while in the dream state and they would accept it as their own.  Carl Jung was one of the first to suggest that we are all connected at the subconscious mind level.  Dreams originate in the subconscious mind so it seems very possible.  The more that I study Metaphysics, the more I understand just how connected I am to everyone and everything.

What lingered in my mind after watching this film was the scene where Dom told the "real" story to Ariadne of what happened between him and Mal-- why she died, and why she keeps showing up in his dreams.  He talked about how she began to question reality.  She thought they were still in the dreamstate and that their kids were projections.  She yearned to go "home" and thought she needed to kill herself in order to go there. This reminded me of the story of entrapment and awakening to the real self.  When we  begin to awaken to the real self and the true reality, life takes on a new meaning, bringing many questions to mind.

It is healthy to question reality.  This is a huge benefit to the school because we can do this together and it is accepted and encouraged. 

I am jazzed about how talked about Inception is.  This movie is sure to spark much contemplation within many people and draw students to the school.  People have questions and this movie is making it "okay" to talk about.  We have answers for them!

Inception!  The title of the movie is a label for what it is, and it’s a label for what movies generally are, and it’s a label for art itself.  It plants ideas in people’s minds.  It doesn’t force the seeds into your mind garden.  You have to help make them grow.  Well, that’s how good teaching works, isn’t it?  Teaching seems like the highest aim of art.  The best art plants ideas in people’s minds in a way that you are free to engage with the work of art and find the meaning yourself.  You don’t sit and passively absorb something that’s already been defined for you.  Art like this movie allows an individual experience of discovery—it stimulates learning.  And the best works of art offer more and more meaning as you receive them more deeply and from different angles, like holy books.  The ideas in this movie are mind-expanding and timely, and they are the kind of ideas that really can live on and grow in a person.  Not just concepts that have already grown up and died into a frozen skeleton.  That’s outside-in.  Real ideas grow from the inside out, and that’s how real education works.  Like a mustard seed.

Another cool statement this film makes about movies, art, dreams, and life is that people project their own selves onto the landscape of an outer experience.  We see the world as we are. 

Some of my dreams from years ago have helped plant ideas that have grown in me ever since.  The most outstanding way that this film imitates dreams is that it’s meaningful.  Like a dream, you have to engage your mind to see that meaning, cuz if you just go passive, the movie can be downright confusing.

There’s so much I could write.  I’ll just touch on the two inceptions.

Two of the biggest seed-ideas incepted by this film are also the two inceptions that occur to characters in the movie.  With the spread of virtual reality (including movies) and the increasing technological power of humanity, these two thoughts are very timely.

1. There is a greater reality and you need to find it.  (Mal’s inception)  Later when Dom Cobb comes to bring the aged Saito back to waking life, we can see how distant waking life seems, and it reminds me of the sense I’ve had that there is a more real world than this one, and I’ve forgotten it.  It seems sometimes, symbolically, like my false self has to die so I can be my real Self, like Saito died to leave dream limbo.  Also when Mal jumped and died so she could leave the "dream' and be with those she loved, she was actually right, in a way.  Death is a door to a higher reality, and we are more connected in that level.

2. “Be your own man.”  That is, you can create your own life, and you are responsible for what you create. (Robert Fisher’s inception)  I guess you can go deeper with that and say, “Your Father wants you to be a Creator and unfold the potential that He put inside you.” 

In fact, the film goes even further with this second idea: You are responsible for creating with thought.  That shows up in the movie where Dom Cobb tries to resolve the unintended effects of his risky dream experiments on Mal and on the members of his dream team.  He can’t be at peace until he resolves what he’s caused and relieves the suffering that he helped bring about.  And that part of the picture shows the reality of karma.

Remember how Dom was so glad to see his kids that he just left his spinning top?  Remember how he told Mal before she “died” that even if she didn’t know where she was going, it didn’t matter, because they would be together?  Remember how Fisher the heir had a life-changing inspiration from a fake dream?  Have you ever had a big inspiration from a book or a movie?  Inception brings another angle to the old “Is the world around me real or an illusion?” theme (like in Matrix, Dark City, The Giver).  With dream reality versus waking life reality, each is real in its own way, but…maybe there’s something else that matters more.  Maybe there are more important questions than “Is this real.”  Like, “How have I changed?  What have I learned?  Am I more connected?”  Maybe the point of even having a world to experience in, whether it’s waking life, a dream world, or the world of a movie, is what we learn from it, the love we give and receive, and how we transform.  A powerful, authentic emotional resolution or insight is just as valid while watching a movie or dreaming as it is in a “real” waking experience.  So…whether it’s a movie, a 100% “real” waking experience, or a dream, what matters is, “How did I learn and grow from this?”  Just think, if Dom and Mal and Saito had learned something valuable every day during their decades in dream limbo, they would have woke up as wiser people.  But there was one thing missing in dream limbo that we need for building understandings—real people.

I guess the most important aspect to what’s real is, “Am I experiencing other people fully as their real selves?  Am I connecting with real people?”  That was the kind of question that helped Dom let go of his flawed subconscious projection of his real wife.  It’s a great question to apply to virtual reality, to video games, movies, internet, and stuff like that.  "Have I been connecting with other real beings during this experience?"  It’s even a good question to ask when lost in obsessive love.  Do I experience this person, or do I just experience the image I project of this person?

Speaking of people, the characters and their names seemed pretty meaningful too.  I’ll just address a couple characters.

Ariadne makes labyrinths, knows how to get through them, and helps Dom find his way into and out of the labyrinth of his own mind.  Just like in the myth of the Minotaur.  A thread that Dom follows to find reality and resolution is CONSCIENCE, and conscience involves caring about others and caring about one’s deeper Self.  Ariadne is also like his conscience in the movie.  If you're going to start exploring the mind without getting lost, you need to have a strong conscience and a way to keep your bearings.  That's why it's important to train your mind and make sure you're inwardly connected before exploring the subconscious.  I think more and more people are going to be exploring the mind, and they will all need an Ariadne.

Eames was my favorite, Mr. Imagination!  He pretends to be someone else.  And he has to pretend so convincingly that the dreamer accepts him.  He’s an actor.  Hmm, if he’s the actor, maybe Dom’s the director, Ariadne’s a set designer, Saito’s the producer…  Maybe movies are artificial shared dreams, and we the moviegoers are Fisher the heir?

For those willing to look, Inception is loaded with insights expressed in the best way known to man for transferring a thought: images. 

Inception...Is it a dream or is it reality?  This movie plants a very clear Universal Truth, the truth is thoughts are things.  The idea of inception made me think of my life and whether this so called reality is a dream and am I really living the true reality in the dream state.  One of the statements made in the movie when Dom was being shown what a powerful sedative could do to an individual was "these people want to wake up, they take this sedative to dream."  I think they are going deeper and deeper into mind to understand cause, the true reality, and to go home.  Each person got to a point in their evolution where they wanted to wake up due to the fact that they lost sight of what was real.  In the School of Metaphysics we practice tried and true mental discipline to wake up to reality while being awake, which aids us to sleep less to understand more of Self, creation, and the creator.  The people that were taking the sedative needed the sedative to stay in the dream state longer so they could wake up, yet they never really truely woke up.  Dreams are a very useful tool to aid in achieving enlightenment, however the dream is meant to be applied in the life to move forward in the thinking in the conscious mind to build understandings in the subconscious mind easier and quicker.  I believe that when I wake up to the true reality while being in the physical the dream will be revealed and I will become a knower as to what really is a dream and what is reality.