People told me to go see Inception ever since the trailer came out. “There’s this sweet movie about lucid dreaming you gotta check out!” I like to know as little as possible about a movie before going to see it. This instance was particularly difficult because I had a lot of people who wanted to tell me how awesome it was. Luckily I dodged the spoilers and reviews and got to see it with fresh eyes. I have to say I was really please with the movie. I think it did what it set out to do really well. It also made the subject of lucid dreaming open to millions of people. A movie about dreams has a great potential to be very ungrounded and difficult for many to relate to. It was definitely nice knowing about different levels of consciousness and lucid dreaming going into it. One criticism I have is that Inception only scraped the surface of how we can potentially manipulate our dreams. I think Nolan was really trying to satisfy the imagination of people with the more surrealist scenes earlier in the movie. The cafe scene and the building folding were really spectacular cinematic experiences. That alone, for me, was worth the price of admission. There are also some great homages to M.C. Escher showing some great ways to play with dream space. I think it’s pretty tough to make an entire movie with that same type of visual candy but I couldn’t help but wish there was a little more.

I also was disappointed that the main form of attack in the movie were guns. How uncreative! You could create a wall or just travel to another country with a thought. I was also kind of hoping for some flying sequences but no dice on that one. Flying is one of the most common and amazing elements of a lucid dream and I just kind of assumed that it would be part of the movie. At the same time, I understand that having gravity work in a more realistic way is important in making the movie less fantastical. As with many of Nolan’s movies, I think it was a deliberate choice not to have people flying and manifesting things to happen at will. Knowing his style, he also likes to use as little special effects as possible. It makes his movies more believable to people who might not be as familiar with the subject. Instead, I think he did a great job of letting his concepts and story line satisfy the imagination of the viewer.

It is very easy to have a movie about dream become labeled as science fiction. Instead, it has been categorized as more of an action adventure and a drama. Because of this, I think that Inception will give lucid dreaming more respect and make people think about it more as a part of reality instead of fantasy. I definitely encourage anyone who hasn’t seen the movie to go out and take a look. I’ll be talking more about it in my workshop next week. Until then, sweet lucid dreams.

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I’m pleased to announce my next workshop at the Alignment Center Thursday August 19th. With the movie Inception just coming out, there has been an increased buzz about lucid dreaming. It’s exciting to know that so many people are interested in this subject. At the next workshop, I will show some more animations which will help illustrate some concepts of lucid dreaming. We will go deeper into the mystery of the dream and more importantly how we can become aware within it. The dream is a tool that has been used by cultures from across the world for as long as recorded history. It is obvious that this essential element of the human experience is no less important to us today then it was thousands of years ago.

As for the poster, the design was inspired by the art of the Huichol people of Mexico. They have beautiful yarn paintings and intricate bead work. Their use of color is almost childlike, but has an amazing luminous quality that I’ve seen in few other places. I have some friends who have a great project to make sure the Huichol community has clean water to drink. The organization is called Water for Huichols. You can view their crafts online and buy them and the money goes to help the cause. Visit them at http://www.ecozoicera.net/ Sweet dreams.

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