Thread: Inception totem

Thought that the idea of using the concept of totems to check if you are dreaming was interesting, and works in mainly two ways:
1. You believe that the object will change in some minor way, as your mind can't recreate it perfectly, so seeing the object behave/look/feel in a different way will give you a cue.
2. For those like me, who believe that the mind can recreate everything that will actually cue you it's a dream, you can use it to remind yourself to do a reality check.

Really it depends on the mind set.

But it should be noted obviously the whole reasoning behind the totem which was used for the movie, DOESN'T carry over here. The first two possible ways you could use a totem above is merely something obtained through basically common sense, and past experiences in dreams. In the movie of course, totems are only for understanding if they are in someone else's dream, as they do not know how the totem works. Technically if we wanted to actually follow the movie, you could even say totems would never work on your own dreams, as the movie says how people are unable to understand how strange a dream is, when they're in a dream, and only realize it when they wake up.

So obviously for this thread, I would like to refrain from constantly repeating what I said in the above paragraph, and rather focus on the effectiveness of totems in general in dreams.
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EDIT: Oh and I kind of added the second paragraph just because of the arguments with remorseless.... "I could really imagine Nolan taking advantage of the gullibility of some people out there". Again, the actual movie states totems are for OTHER people's dreams, in other words, Nolan couldn't take advantage of anyone even if they could. What you have failed to realize, is that everyone else who is writing in the thread right now, is not talking about the exact same totem as depicted in the movie, but rather the viability of a totem in general as something to use as a reality check.
"That, and that Inception was an average movie"
^ Frankly I felt the only reason why you would be so unable to be flexible in this thread is because you only keep telling yourself "OMG INCEPTION IS SO OVER RATED", and not actually really thinking about what we're talking about.

I think all of you are missing something, I believe it can be used in a similar way as the movie but differently. if your totem is a loaded die set to 5, you will practice during the day to make it land on anything but 5. it will only be in a dream that you will be able to get it to land on something else. when it does your dreaming. the same goes for the top, you try to make it spin for two or three minutes.