[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]by Dr. Teresa Martin
Last night I attended a screening of Inception and thought I would share some thoughts. The movie explores the realm of the subconscious mind. There is a long discourse by the main character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio about what the subconscious is. This takes place while in the subconscious mind walking along a street. He is conversing with someone being “interviewed” for a position as an architect of dreams that will be planted in the mind of someone else. While he is talking, she is practicing and it illustrates the immediate responsiveness of the subconscious mind to thought.
She gets the “job” and becomes the architect for the dream creation that will be planted in a man’s mind for the betterment of humanity, which is also a means for the main character to take care of some karmic debts (my words, not the movies). There is some discussion as to how to properly plant a thought in someone else’s mind so they believe it will be their own thought and make choices accordingly.
At one point, the movie goes back and forth between three dreams occurring simultaneously within the minds of all who are part of the team that enters the dream. The characters begin the planning of the Inception which is to plant the idea in a man who has received an inheritance. They realize that in order to do so there would have to be three steps, three different dreams where a part of the thought form is placed. The dreams that are created end up occurring sequentially and continue simultaneously. The three dreams portrayed illustrate the differences in time from one level of mind to another.
From this point on there is so much going on that my experience of viewing the movie was like being in a very intense dream. Sometimes I wondered whether the characters were dreaming or were awake. As the three dreams progress, there is demonstration of the effect of what happens in one level of mind on the other levels. For example, a van that they are driving in one dream tilts as they run off the road and down an incline. In the second dream, that has been created/experienced while walking down a hotel hallway, suddenly people are floating and have to pull themselves along using their hands.
Probably one of the most effective ideas presented in the movie arises from the lead character, Cobb’s need to control his attention. When he is directed, the architecture of the dream remains undisturbed. When he loses control of his attention due to memory distractions, the dreams are effected. He grows in his capacity to hold his attention through recognizing the cause and effect of his thoughts. In the end, he seems to have learned a basic universal truth: Thoughts are things.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Recent Comments