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Is it possible to go into deeper dream levels like they did in the movie inception? I know about false awakening, but I would like to know if you can actually control falling asleep in your dream, only to wake up lucid dreaming in a dream within a dream, and so on and on? Also, would time slow down with each level?
I've had long strings of FAs, and I'm sure you could switch to a different location by "falling asleep". I don't think that would involve moving through "levels", though. It would just be a continuous string of events where you imagine you're in different locations and dream states. No matter what you're experiencing, you're still basically in the same state.
At DV, some of us use "levels" to describe our various states of awareness and lucidity. From being totally unaware that you're dreaming to being completely lucid, but this doesn't require going to a literal deeper level.
There's been quite a bit of discussion recently on Time Dilation as dream control, which probably has a lot to do with Inception. From what I gather, this involves fewer instances of "falling asleep" or "waking up", and more deliberately slowing down of time itself (often using clocks). Whether this actually works is something I'll leave up to the people experimenting with it.
Short answer, no.
Inception portrays Lucid Dreaming in a completely inaccurate fashion. Just about all the 'facts' about dreaming presented in Inception are wrong and nothing like reality.
But as Samael pointed out, if a "different life" is what you're after, people have reported success in creating dreams that have lasted for days, weeks, and months. One person claimed, awhile back, to have a century long lucid dream. Personally, the most I've gotten out of time dilation experimentation is a few dreams that seemed to last a couple of hours each, but don't let that deter you from pursuing your goal.
the last time i fell asleep in a dream i woke up with sleep paralysis.. but clearly i wasn't fully awake. also a few weeks ago i had several dreams within a dream and each time i woke up in the dream i was in a different bed, so i knew i wasn't really awake. i think it happens when you're in reeeally deep sleep, because i remember feeling super tired even in my dream and it felt comfortable to fall asleep...but then i ended up somewhere new when i woke up each time. pretty strange.
Yes it is possible I've done it before.
Many years ago I tore my ACL and had surgery to fix it. The first night after my surgery I had a multi level dream.
It was rather strange because my body felt that I had to use the rest room - in my dream I went into the bathroom and started to relieve myself. As I was doing so I noticed something was wrong and at that point I knew I was in a dream. I immediately woke up and ran to the bathroom to again relieve myself. Now I can't run to the bathroom because I just had surgery so I would again wake up and go to the bathroom. This happened 4 time and each time I was in a different location. Finally I was able to wake up and get to the bathroom in my house.
That was the one and only time I ever had a dream like that. I hope to be able to do it again some day but under different circumstances.
I've had "dreams within dreams" which, then, end up with me waking up back in the previous dream. However, I don't think that these "levels" are actual "levels" - in the sense that they take you deeper and deeper into your subconscious. Like Samael said, I just think that it's a continuous strain of thought which creates that experience of you "dreaming within a dream."
Yeah I agree with you Oneironaut