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Christopher Nolan's new film features
Leonardo DiCaprio as a skilled "extractor" stealing government secrets
through dreams. Find out the facts about dream sharing.
The opinions expressed by the authors of these articles are not
necessarily the opinions of IASD.
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Deirdre Barrett |
Inception,
Reviewed by Deirdre Barrett, PhD
In Chris
Nolan’s film Inception,
thieves can enter other people’s dreams via IV drug drips. They exploit
the technique for industrial espionage to “extract” trade secrets and
for “inception” to plant an idea which the victim will think is his own.
This is a heist film: the audience is set up to root for Leonardo
DiCaprio’s character and his fellow thieves.
Unlike the films of David Lynch or Tom DeCillo, Inception is not
rambling, surreal--or even very
dreamlike. Rather,
dreams are a plot device which affords more dramatic visuals than
stealing diamonds from vaults ever could.
Instead of the loose logic of the dream, there is a tight and
intricate thriller plot. continue to article
Deirdre Barrett,
PhD is a psychologist at Harvard. She is a past President of IASD and
APA's Division 30. Dr. Barrett has written four books including
The
Committee of Sleep and
The Pregnant Man; and has edited three others
including The New Science of Dreaming,
Trauma and Dreams, and the
forthcoming Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming. She is Managing Editor
of IASD's scholarly journal, Dreaming.
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Jayne
Gackenbach |
IASD Researchers :
Jayne Gackenbach (editor) David Kahn, Stanley Krippner, Anthony Zadra,
Tracey Kahan, Curtis Hoffman and Bob Hoss
What does the Science Say about Entering Someone Else’s
Dream?
Because
of the attention brought to dreams through the release of the film
“Inception”, IASD has posted a page talking about dream “sharing”.
While many
believe that one can to some extent enter the dream of someone else, or
“share” a dream, science and research has yet to demonstrate that and as
dream researchers we therefore must take a more conservative
perspective.
We
thought that it would be useful for this discussion to share our view.
continue to article
Jayne Gackenbach, PhD
(Canada) is on the psychology faculty at Grant MacEwan University. A
Past President of IASD, she has numerous publications primarily on
dreams, higher states of consciousness and electronic media. Her
research focuses on how video game play affects consciousness. |
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Interview with scientists and actors for Inception marketing campaign
including IASD's G. W. Domhoff, PhD, and Jayne Gackenbach, PhD. |
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Robert
Waggoner |
Inception, Shared Dreams and Lucid Dreaming
How can you become lucid or consciously aware in the dream
state?
To achieve the sudden realization, “This is a dream!” requires a bit of
effort, persistence and focus. You can use the power of suggestion to
set up a lucid dream before going to sleep. Inwardly become quiet, let
go of the day’s event and repeat, “Tonight in my dreams, I will be more
critically aware. When I see something strange, I will realize I am
dreaming and become lucid.” During the night’s dreaming, you may see
something so strange that you realize, “That’s impossible. This is a
dream!”
continue to article
Robert Waggoner,
explores shared or mutual lucid
dreams in his book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self (Moment
Point Press: 2009). An experienced lucid dreamer with more than one
thousand lucid dreams, he is the immediate past President of IASD, and
current Chair of the Board. He co-edits the quarterly e-zine, The Lucid
Dream Exchange at
www.dreaminglucid.com |
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Jean
Campbell |
Shared Dreaming
Is it possible for us to share dreams while we are asleep, be aware that
we are dreaming as the dream goes on, and remember these dreams when we
wake? Yes.
Research findings in the past thirty years indicate that many of us
spontaneously share images or appear simultaneously in each others'
dreams. This type of mutual dreaming can be broken into two categories:
continue to article
Jean Campbell,
MA is CEO of The iMAGE Project, moderator of The World Dreams Peace
Bridge (www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org), and author of several books and
articles including Group Dreaming: Dreams to the Tenth Power (2006). She
has served IASD as President and as Chair of the IASD Board of
Directors. |
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Dale E. Graff |
Real Government PSI: Some Thoughts After the Making of Men
Who Stare at Goats
When the movie, “The Men Who Stare at Goats” was released I became
caught up in the publicity generated by the movie. This publicity
resulted from the movie’s liberal portrayal of Stargate, the US
government’s program in research and applications of a mental ability
referred to as remote viewing (RV). In the “Goats” movie some of the
action is based on the Stargate activities.
continue to article
Dale E. Graff,
MS is an internationally recognized lecturer, writer and researcher in
psi topics. He is a former Director of Project Stargate, the US
government program for research and applications of remote viewing. His
books Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness and
River Dreams
discuss remote
viewing, psi dreaming, precognition and synchronicities
(www.dalegraff.com). |
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Caroline
Horton |
Inception Engaging, but not really about dreams
Christopher Nolan’s ”Inception” is an engaging action film.
But it is merely that: a film. Not even really a film about dreams.
In fact, whilst I enjoyed the complex storyline immensely, I was a
little disappointed that the film’s production team had not wanted
the film to depict dreaming in an accurate way.
continue to article
Dr. Caroline Horton, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and
Dream Researcher, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. |
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Robert
Hoss |
Self Inception: The Architect Within
Robert Hoss, M.S. with input from David Kahn, PhD and E. Hartmann, M.D.
The movie Inception proposes an exciting fantasy dream world where
the dream is populated by mutual dreamers adventuring into the deep
layers of the unconscious, engaging with subconscious projections as
well as the inception of new thoughts intended to change the dreamer’s
waking views and behavior, all taking place on a dream stage designed by
the “architect.” Although Hollywood may have staged the players as
outside forces and stretched the nature of their roles much as they
stretched time, our dreams do indeed contain many of the elements of
Inception. However, our nightly dreams tend toward a natural inception
where we venture into our own unconscious to engage with our own inner
“projections,” guided by our own ‘architect’ within, which in a sense
designs our dreams to follow a natural tendency toward mental
well-being.
continue to article
Bob Hoss M.S. is author
of Dream Language, IASD Treasurer and Past President and
DreamScience Foundation Director for funding research grants. A
scientist with Gestalt training, he has taught dreamwork for 30 years,
is on the faculty of the Haden Institute, and hosted the IASD DreamTime
radio series (www.dreamscience.org) |
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Fariba
Bogzaran |
"I suppose that was my dream
that they would reach a transformative state..."
Fariba Bogzaran reviews
Inception.I
am certain many viewers are walking out of Inception with great
delight at the concept. Its creative expression is brilliant. As
someone who has been teaching Extraordinary Dreams such as lucid
dreaming, dreams within dreams, mutual dreaming, for a very long
time, I left the movie with some questions.
continue to article
Fariba Bogzaran,
PhD. Besides being involved with the early lucid dream research
with Stephen Laberge, Fariba founded and directed the Dream Studies
Program at JFKU, established, chaired and curated the dream arts program
and exhibit for IASD, and is currently the co-founder and director of
the Lucid Arts Foundation. She is the author of books on art,
extraordinary dreaming and other psychospiritual themes.
(bogzaran.com) |
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Jean
Campbell |
Some Rules of the Road for Shared Dreaming
1. Just for fun, if you dream clearly about a partner or friend, ask
that person what their dreams were on the same night. You might be
surprised. Spontaneous shared dreams are fairly common.
2. Pick a friend to practice with if you are interested in mutual
dreaming. Dream ethics are same ones we practice in waking life.
a. Never be invasive; always ask permission.
b. Be as gentle and kind as possible to "the other" both in and out of
the dream.
c. Be honest with yourself and those with whom you dream.
d. Set growth and creative exploration as priorities.
3. Trying to get lucid? Several useful suggestions can be found in the
lucid dreaming section of this page.
4. Shared dreams can be incubated just like any other dream. Set a place
to meet that you both (or all) know, and see what happens.
5. Remember there are other dreamers who have had these or similar
experiences. There are a number of excellent online forums where
questions can be discussed. Visit
IASD's
discussion forum for a special thread on the film Inception. |
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All information on this page is copyright by the authors.
Permission for use can be obtained only through IASD at
office@asdreams.org
The opinions expressed by the authors of these articles are not
necessarily the opinions of IASD.
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