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The year is only halfway through, but Inception might just be the best movie of 2010. Directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), the movie is centered around lucid dreaming and shared dreams. A man named Cobb is an Extractor--someone with the ability to extract secret information from another person by invading their dreams. When Cobb accepts an impossible job, he and his team must go into the deepest levels of the dreamworld. There, Cobb is forced to confront his own emotional scars and finish the job before his time in the dream runs out.



It would be doing the movie a disservice to attempt to explain the entire plot, and it may take more than one viewing to catch every detail.

The movie's take on the dream world, dream characters and dream sharing is certainly unique. While Cobb and his fellow lucid dreamers show some dream control, they are far more limited than your average lucid dreamer. Having said that, the film does an excellent job of showing how detailed and realistic dreams can be, or how a lucid dreamer can literally shape the world around them. The special effects are spectacular--after so many 3-D movies with an overflow of unnecessary and unrealistic computer graphics, it was refreshing to see realistic two dimensional special effects in a movie.

Although Inception is centered around dreams, it does not rely on them as a gimmick or crutch for the plot. The story itself is what really makes this movie so captivating.

The movie's rules for lucid dreaming, dream time, and shared dreaming were mostly things which even members of Dreamviews would be unfamiliar with. In this sense, it made the movie more interesting, since Nolan had been able to create his own theory of reality and dreams. For the most part, however, these things exist in order to make the story flow more easily, and are generally not based on fact. While lucid dreaming and dream control are proven phenomena, the jury is still out on shared dreaming.

As a movie and a piece of entertainment, Inception is easily the best of the year so far. But as a good representation of lucid dreaming, it is still in the realm of fiction.

Bottom line: whether you are interested in dreams or not, this is a must-see movie!

Naiya

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What our users say about Inception:

• http://www.dreamviews.com/f35/incept...-review-99925/
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f35/%2Aoff...debate-100078/ (Spoiler!)
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f35/incept...reaming-95590/
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/inception-movie-100276/

Inception Lucid Dreaming Discussions:

• http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/how-ac...-topic-100202/ (Spoiler!)
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/inception-totem-100075/
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/movie-...ovie%2A-99950/ (Spoiler!)
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/incept...checks-100210/
• http://www.dreamviews.com/f96/incept...ssible-100261/

Imagine being able to do anything you wanted. Having the ability to do physically impossible things, and things you have always wanted to do. Well, this is in fact possible, with something called Lucid Dreaming. Lucid Dreaming is being aware of the fact that you are dreaming, which gives you consciousness. This is the most amazing feeling ever, and it gets better. You can take control of the dream with this consciousness, and do literally anything, there is no limit to what you can do within a dream. And, it can feel extremely realistic.

There are many methods to induce a lucid dream, some involve you staying conscious as you fall asleep, for example, WILD (Wake Initiated Lucid Dream). And some techniques involve you becoming conscious part way into the dream, for example, DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dream). A popular way of doing this is by doing Reality Checks throughout the day, every day. An example of a commonly used reality check is pinching your nose and trying to breath through it. If you can breath through this blocked nose, you are dreaming, if you cannot breath, then you are probably still awake, but you can't be sure of that, which is why you would have a couple of reality checks. Another one used a lot is simply looking at your hand. Observe what it looks like, and it's behaviour. If your hand is normal, has 5 fingers and is solid, then you are probably awake. But in a dream, it can very often look extremely strange, with more or less fingers, and it can look rather wavy and distorted. Don't be frightened by this, it isn't as scary as you may think.
So if you do a reality check in a dream, it can often result in a big "Oh my God!!! I'm Dreaming!". Which is what most people do, and I'm afraid that is often a big mistake. With over excitement, you will most likely just wake up. It happens to so many people. You just need to remember to be calm, even in this amazing feeling of realisation.

If you are a normal, sane human being, you will want to try this. I totally recommend it. You really don't even know the half of it till you experience it. If you are willing to put in a bit of effort, then you really should look into it, and give it a shot.

Best Wishes!

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