What is inception? Inception is a wonderful film by Christopher Nolan of "The Dark Knight" fame. The film, with all of its complexities is by far one of the best films that I have seen this summer!
I by no means am a movie critic. I simply enjoy watching films and writing about those that truly inspire me or question my understanding of the world. This film did both for me, not only is it inspiring intellectually but it also makes you question the nature of dreams.
I don't consider my self to be an expert on dream analysis, but dreams have always been a part of my life. Showing me things that I fear, things that i love, and most importantly things about my self and those around me that I may have overlooked...a visual depiction of my subconscious. What I failed to realize was the powerful nature of the subconscious it self.
Have you ever woken up from a dream and felt like you were never really asleep? That the dream wasn't a dream but was reality. The dreams reality, or our perception of its reality, is nothing more then the acceptance of the dream in question. When we consciously choose to validate what a dream has shown us, we legitimize our subconscious depiction of it, thereby making it an even more powerful tool. It has the ability to create a world that looks and feels real to us. A world that we fill with our projections of people and memories that are buried within our very being. It can scare us, mend us, uplift us and at the same time harm us.
What the movie does brilliantly is make the connection that while our subconscious is a part of who we are it is also something that can be controlled by not only our selves, but those around us. In the film, an individual is tricked into believing an idea that wasn't real, an idea that was planted into the individuals subconscious by someone else. The characters conscious acceptance of "his" dream legitimizes his subconscious depiction of reality which he takes to be insight that he hadn't seen before...
This posses a serious question...Can we truly trust our dreams? More importantly can we trust what our subconscious shows us in those dreams knowing that it has the ability to be manipulated?
For me the answer is NO. I take my dreams with a grain of salt. They never are written in stone but are mere examples of things that could be, should be, or might have been.
If you haven't seen this movie I ask that you take the time to watch it. I can't promise that you will love it, or that it will even impact your life in any way but I can say that it will be the most entertaining 2 hours of your life!