Recently I had a question, the dream world shown in the
inception movie will be possible practically in our life?
On this question I read large number of articles on the
inception movie and read many researches on the dreams. Finally i found one
article “inception: myth behind myth” which was written by Kartik Dayanand Boddapati gives
some explanation on this.
After reading that article iam impressed and got that
article for you
INCEPTION: It’s being called a mind bending exercise, a
movie that challenges our very beliefs of existence and creation, a movie that
will remain with us in our subconscious even after we leave the cinema hall.
Let’s try and look at some of the concepts from this movie and see if they
really are that path breaking and mind bending, let me warn you in advance,
this isn’t a review of the movie so don’t expect me to talk about
technicalities or other creative aspects of the movie. It is just an attempt
from me to find out the Myth behind the Myth of this movie.
The Human Mind
The human mind is the most complex of all organs in
the body. Probably every single part of the body can be replaced with an
alternative, but the human brain is unique and is irreplaceable.
Take the mind out of a man and you have no man left
Inception is based entirely on the mechanics and workings of the human mind. There
are two critical functions of our mind, one is to store thoughts and the other
is to create thoughts. Both have a beautiful interplay in creating the world
that we perceive and exist in. There is an additional dimension that is also a
part of our mind; it is the ability to dream.
Dreams
We all have dreams. It is that state of the mind
when the conscious part of our existence merges with the subconscious. Our
dreams are mostly based on a reality that is made up of people and places we
know of and these dreams tend to do things unimaginable to the conscious mind
usually containing hidden metaphors to our inner fears and aspirations.
Dreams make a man, a man who does not dream ceases to exist
Ever wondered, what if these dreams can be
manipulated? What if someone has access to and can play tricks with the mind?
Won’t it change the man himself? This point forms the premise of the movie,
quite a fascinating thought. So how does one play havoc with someone else's
dreams? According to the movie there are two ways in which that can be done,
let’s examine them both.
Stealing & Planting thoughts
What if someone could eavesdrop into another
person’s dreams and understand that persons deepest fears and secrets? Wouldn’t
that be the ultimate weapon to possess, a weapon worthy enough for any army to
destroy its enemies. Our protagonist in the movie seems to be an expert at
doing this, stealing ideas from other people’s minds. But wait; he has an even better
weapon than that.
For the subconscious mind, stealing hardly makes
any difference to the ones who get stolen but instead, planting an idea into
that same mind has more potential to play havoc. The idea when it grows into a
full blown thought has a higher probability to turn into action and alter that
person’s reality.
Both the above techniques of stealing and planting
thoughts seem like science fiction. How far are we from this turning into
reality or is it already happening? Is all this just a big Myth? Let’s dig
deeper.
Quick question before we begin
Which is more difficult to change? The engine of a
vehicle that is running, or the engine of a vehicle that is not running?
Obviously it is easier to replace the engine when
the vehicle is not running. Similar is the case with the human mind. It is
difficult to plant thoughts into a conscious mind which is like a running
engine compared to a subconscious mind which is like an engine that is yet to
start.
Inception talks
of stealing and planting thoughts while this engine (the human brain) is at
rest. Something similar to hypnotism, it is not a very tough task to accomplish
on any unsuspecting person. But have you ever realized that in reality we are
doing something far more complex than that, every single day and every moment
of our existence? Confused? Let me explain further.
Reap & Sow
We gather ideas from various sources of knowledge
like books, internet, people, etc and call it learning or inspiration. Every
sentence we read every word we hear and every sight we see belongs to someone
else and all that one is doing is stealing a bit of that information for
oneself and we keep thinking that it belongs to us. We are basically reaping
the benefits of someone else’s thoughts and efforts.
Same applies to the planting of ideas. Every single
thing that we hear from the time we are little children up until our death is
nothing but a process of sowing thoughts, be it by parents, teachers, friends,
etc. In fact all our materialistic desires arise because someone else has
planted their ideas into us. Look closely, all forms of advertising is but an
attempt to sow seeds into us. Bigger the celebrity selling the product, better
the chances of sowing the seeds deeper.
In this world, we are all thieves & owners at the same time, nothing
is original
Just look at the way almost all of us believe in
god, it’s an idea that is sown into our consciousness. Same applies to powerful
people in a position to influence others thoughts. Even animals can do it to us
these days. Take the case of the mystic octopus Pulpo Paul, all it did
throughout the 2010 FIFA world cup was to sow thoughts into the minds of the
players. It created an idea and the idea became so powerful that it started
acting on the players’ minds which in turn influenced match results.
Pulpo Paul the mystic octopus is nothing but a great Inception artist
One can now very easily question the existence of
originality. If every creation in the world is a manifestation of someone
else’s thoughts then there is nothing original out there. Maybe even
Christopher Nolan isn’t original enough in his thought process while making the
movie. It’s a paradoxical situation. Let’s observe few more aspects of the
movie and try to see how original a concept this is.
Architecture of the Dream World
The film describes the various rules of the dream
world in great detail which in turn add dramatic substance to the twists and
turns in the story; it talks of the following.
1. There are multiple levels of dreams within
dreams.
2. If someone dies in a dream level, he or she
might get lost forever in that level unless sent back by a kick to the previous
level of the dream.
3. There is also a stage which is called the limbo
where the dreamer can get stuck forever without even realising he is in a dream
with very remote chances to escape.
4. Dream world consists of projections of people
and the physical architecture is similar to a living organism that is formed by
thoughts and memories of the dreamer.
Sounds a bit confusing for those who haven’t seen
the movie and many who have seen the movie might agree that these are
revolutionary ideas from a genius director. Almost sounds like philosophy.
Let’s try and see if we have heard these things before.
Connecting the past
There is no better way to understand philosophy
than to look at the age old teachings of our religions. If there is one
religion that has done extensive study on the origins of this world and the
mechanics of its functioning than it has to be Hinduism.
According to Hinduism the whole world is nothing but a manifestation of
god’s thoughts
Even Christianity says God made humans in his own
image; we are all projections of his mind. Does it ring a bell, are we all a
part of god’s dream? Wait, there is more.
When a death occurs in our world, there are
elaborate customs and rituals that are performed to appease the dead. It is
said that the human soul lingers on and will continue to remain so unless
liberated by elaborate ceremonies. It is akin to a state of limbo and the
rituals are the equivalent of a kick. Without this kick the soul remains in
limbo and cant progress to its next level of existence which is similar to our
dream levels in the movie. How uncanny, is this life imitating art or art
imitating life?
Also we have grown up hearing terms like Aatma and
Parmatma. Our souls (Aatma) pass through various stages of existence only to
merge finally with the original dreamer (Parmatma). We generally scoff at such
talk while strangely it all seems to make sense when a good film maker presents
the same concept in a far more stylised fictional way.
A myth suddenly seems no more a myth in its remixed format
All the questions that Inception raises
and the answers to it are already there in our ancient texts and customs. It’s
just that we are too blind to see the connection.
As a movie in terms of its treatment and execution Inception is
a brilliant film and all credit should go to the director for attempting such a
complex movie, but with regards to its concept which is more talked about, we
are forgetting that it is a very clever copy of an Indian concept.
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