If you were dreaming right now, how would you know? For that matter, how do you know that waking life is the ultimate reality? Even if you feel quite confident that it is, you may have some second thoughts after watching Inception. Which everyone should, by the way.

While Inception was certainly a Hollywood Blockbuster, it’s much more than just that. The film explores some incredible concepts with a compelling story and an excellent cast. It was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the equally mind-bending film Memento. If Memento left you with questions, this masterpiece will leave you with even more. Yet from another perspective, the film can provide very clear answers regarding the nature of personal reality, and how we can achieve our goals.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, don’t despair. In the first portion of this article I’ll do my best to keep spoilers at a minimum, while still discussing the cosmic themes. In fact, I’ll do very little discussing of the film overall, which has been detailed extensively in other articles. Instead I’ll use the film as a springboard for investigating the nature of reality. Anyway, Inception will be released on DVD December 7th, (click the below DVD cover) and after that you can read the rabbit hole portion of this review (which will have quite a few spoilers).

Then again, if you’d prefer to see the film without any preconceived notions, better to avoid this article for now and come back later. I won’t judge you.

As you can see from the trailer, the film deals with dreams. Or rather, constructed realities that the characters enter into in order to extract information from their subjects. These realities are created by “architects”, and then populated with the knowledge, fears, and secrets of the person dreaming. While inside these fantastic worlds, the laws of physics are easily bent and broken, and it becomes an easy task for con-men to coax the information they need out of their target’s mind. Well, relatively easy.

One of the most prominent themes explored in the film is the question of reality. We assume, or at least many people assume, that the world around us in which we live our every day lives is “real”. Granted, in a world where realistic dreams can be constructed and entered into, it’s much more difficult to determine reality from fantasy. But even in our world the questions still remain. Is our world the ultimate reality? What lies beyond death? What are we really experiencing during our dreams, or during out-of-body or near-death experiences? If there are other realms beyond our own, are they more or less real than our own? Is there any value to asking such questions, or should we just live our lives and be happy?

Most people these days are content to accept the material world as it is. However, with the advent of Quantum Physics, it becomes much more difficult to define where the human consciousness ends and the “real world” begins, or whether or not there is a world outside ourselves at all. We have an incredible impact on ourselves, others, and the world around us simply within our own minds.

Have you ever noticed that after your initial discovery of a new word, you suddenly begin hearing that word everywhere? You lived your whole life without ever noticing that word, and suddenly it’s used three times in the same day. And this is only a small example of this phenomenon. Do these experiences imply that your understanding of the world informs your perception of it?

Have you ever wondered about the fractal nature of our Universe? The inherent patterns within nature, the fluctuations of the stock market and the exact proportions of the human body all seem to suggest a mathematical pattern hidden within all things. Could this world be a careful construction of an advanced technology, a sort of video game we find ourselves unable to remember we’re playing?

While these theories may sound ridiculous or unimportant to some, it seems prudent to others to investigate this so-called “reality” that we love so dearly, if only to understand more clearly how it works.

Just as in Inception, it’s becoming more and more clear that the beliefs and ideas floating around in our subconscious paint in the details of our reality, dictating the stories we act out over and over again. With some subtle shifts in perception, the outer “reality” which once seemed so solid and stable can change drastically.

Even on the most realistic level this concept rings true. Our perception of self and self-confidence go far further than we can imagine. Doesn’t a man with confidence and a positive self-image stand a better chance with the ladies, even if only because he tries more often? Doesn’t a clear sense of purpose and a strong determination to succeed gift one with better chances at financial success? We can’t succeed if we don’t try, so if we never give up, we can likely get far further than we ever imagined. We truly have the ability to achieve anything in life, whether or not we believe in unseen factors such as the Law of Attraction. We can perceive our goals as challenges to overcome or insurmountable obstacles that can never be achieved. If two people had the same goal, each with one of the previous mindsets, which would be more likely to succeed?

In summary, this world is incredibly malleable, and with some investigation very easy to understand. If you learn the rules of the game and apply yourself with dedication, you can play to win anything you desire. However, what if the goal of the game was to remember that you’re playing? What if material success is only a side-quest along the road back to the real reality? And indeed, how can you ever know that you’ve reached an ultimate reality? The secret is…you can’t. At least that’s all you’re getting ’til you watch the movie.

Now go watch Inception and come back when you’ve finished it!

Down the Rabbit Hole

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen Inception yet, turn back now. Look away and shield your eyes! I’m about to actually start talking about the movie and go even further down the rabbit hole. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Otherwise…let’s dive right in, shall we?

So how about that spinning top? Cliché, I know, but seriously. The easiest question you could ask is “Was it all just a dream?” and the easiest answer is “Well, obviously Christopher Nolan wanted to leave it up for interpretation.” But come on, that’s not satisfying. Sure, there is no correct answer here, so I’m not going to try to convince you of one. Okay, I am, because persuasion is the purpose of an article. But it’s up to you whether or not you believe in creating reality, or if the concept has ties to Inception. In a film such as this which can be interpreted in so many ways, there are myriad answers out there on the internet. Some say it’s a metaphor for filmmaking. Some say the whole thing is a dream. I prefer to take a flying leap, and compare the film to the nature of Life itself.

Okay so first of all, if you’re looking for an article to explain who is dreaming which dream, how the dream realities work, or whether or not Cobb was dreaming, this isn’t the article for you. There are plenty out there, for example Everything you wanted to know about “Inception”, which does a wonderful job of outlining the whole story in a way that’s easy to understand. Or see the fantastic infographic by dehahs which explains the dream sequences rather beautifully. If instead you’d like to learn more about how we create reality, and how this is communicated through Inception, do read on.

So let’s get the obvious out of the way. With all these dreams within dreams, how can we be sure that Cobb’s real “reality” isn’t a dream as well? There are many times during the film when we assume we’re watching the characters in waking life, but no confirmation is given. For example, Cobb’s top falls off the table during one scene in which he was going to test reality with it. And what’s more, how can he be sure the top is an accurate measure of testing reality? So as far as we know, he could easily have dreamed the whole thing…or not. So let’s not bother wondering whether or not the whole thing was a dream, as that’s not what matters.

What matters is that he chose to walk away from the top. What matters is that he found the reality he was willing to accept as his own from then on. What matters is that our central character has faced his demons and found acceptance and resolution. Earlier in the film, we often see Cobb obsessively spinning the top, determined to know for sure whether or not he is dreaming. At one point he even has a gun to his head, ready to shoot himself should the top spin for too long. Cobb has spent so much time in the dream realms that he never knows where he could be. He spends most of the film just as obsessed as Mal was over the question of reality.

And what about you? Let’s say you’ve achieved your ultimate goal, whether it’s finally being with your kids again, winning the lottery, traveling the world, falling in love, whatever your mind could conceive. Would you dare to spin the top? Even now, if you could know definitively whether or not this world was “real”, would you really want to?

Probably not, right? Because if the answer was no, what can we really do about it? Go jump off a building like Mal? Would that ever satisfy her burning question? For all we know, Mal woke up in another world no more or less illusory than our own, still asking the same questions. We can only wonder whether or not she would accept that world, or seek ever higher expressions of “reality”. Applying that to our own situation, it almost seems futile to ask these questions. How can we ever be sure? Well, we probably can’t, at least not until we awaken in a higher reality. As the film states, it’s only when we wake up that we realize something was strange, only then can we find validation and understanding. With that logic, we’ll never be able to understand everything completely.

All we can do for now is manipulate the reality presented before us until we are satisfied with it, until we would be happy to let that top spin to its hearts content without a second thought. We have to achieve our own personal resolution. Cobb achieved the impossible by reuniting with his kids. This is a man who walks through dream worlds, bending the laws of physics on a daily basis, and yet he never thought this particular goal could be achieved. At that point, it ceases to matter whether or not he is dreaming, or whether or not we’re dreaming. What matters is whether or not we’ve created a reality that we enjoy and choose to accept. Cobb was finally able to do that, and so he found his resolution.

This deeper metaphor in Inception can teach us how to achieve our dreams, apologies for the pun. As you’ll learn in just about any book about creating reality or the Law of Attraction, some of the biggest challenges in reaching our goals are our beliefs and emotions that lie in our subconscious mind. In Cobb’s case, it was his guilt over the death of his wife that prevented him from having a happy life with his children. He had to forgive himself and move on, which for him was a challenge far greater than Inception itself. If it wasn’t for Ariadne, constantly prodding him to deal with his problems, Cobb never would have succeeded. Ariadne, just like her namesake, is very much the ball of string that leads Cobb out of the maze of his mind.

The heist and adventure parts of the film thus become a metaphor for Cobb’s very own Heros Journey. From this perspective, it seems clear that the whole thing was a dream, an adventure within his own subconscious to defeat that nagging guilt. Cobb finally achieved his goal by performing Inception on himself, by planting the idea of self-forgiveness deep within his mind, and finally letting Mal go. Perhaps Cobb had already died, following Mal off the rooftop, and came to a sort of Limbo in which he was given the opportunity to forgive himself. The possibilities are endless with this film, which is part of what makes it so interesting. But again, let’s not talk about the answers or the questions, but instead what they mean to our daily lives.

So let’s talk about you again. Consider your biggest goal, your loftiest dream. Is it money, experience, love, wisdom? If you haven’t already achieved a goal, you only need do the inner work that prevents you from achieving it. This is not as simple as hypnotizing yourself and planting ideas in your subconscious. As we see in the film, Inception is far more difficult than that. It comes through catharsis. Luckily for you, you won’t need to storm through multiple militarized dream worlds with guns blazing in order to reach the goal (probably not, anyway). All you have to do is live your daily life, and accept the challenges you’re given. If you face those problems and solve them, rather than avoiding them or letting them drive you crazy, you can achieve absolutely anything in life.

Of course, even though this is relatively easier than the challenges faced in Inception, it doesn’t mean it’s not difficult. For many people, embracing concepts such as self-acceptance, self-love, or self-worth is the most difficult challenge of all. It is those very obstacles that prevent so many people from achieving true love, money, or success in its many forms. If you harbor obstacles such as these, you can be damn sure you’ll have to face them on the road to success.

As we go deeper, the film becomes more and more a metaphor of life itself. Just as the projections of the subconscious become hostile in Inception, so too do our subconscious fears and limitations try to prevent us from reaching our goals. We must defeat them one by one as they arise, and we’re given many opportunities in Life to do so. The world is a living reflection of our beliefs and ideas, and changes made on the inner levels will manifest in the outer world. Do you ever feel like you go through the same problems again and again, day after day? You can put an end to that process once and for all. All you have to do is treat your problems as lessons to be learned, and find out what the lesson is. Don’t take the easy way out by saying there is no lesson or that it’s impossible. Take the high road and accept the challenge with dedication. By adjusting your perceptions, the reality you’re perceiving will change completely, and the obstacles will dissolve before your eyes.

So if you could perform Inception on yourself, what would the idea be? If your goal was to create money, you’d need to fight through a variety of subconscious obstacles, including “Money doesn’t grow on trees”, “Money makes you a bad person”, and our personal favorite “Life is rough and Life is tough and in the end you die!” or whatever other beliefs you were brought up exposed to. They are different for each of us depending on what we need to learn. These beliefs attack outside forces like soldiers with machine guns, and you have to be strong enough to penetrate them if you want to succeed. Only then can you achieve Inception, only then can you plant a new belief and watch it manifest in the world. So you see, creating reality is not so simple as visualizing a car every day. We have to make ourselves believe it is possible, which is considerably more difficult, yet far from impossible.

One last nugget of wisdom. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.” Indeed, we can choose any beliefs we like and call them true, but it is only our belief that makes them so. Who are we to say what is true and false in the grand scheme of things? Everything is relative, everything is subjective, everything is perception. It’s up to you which beliefs you want to hold on to. You have to decide which beliefs keep you imprisoned in a false reality, and which beliefs could build the dream world you’ve always desired. It’s your show, baby.

So, if Inception left you with the question “Is this world real?”, I’m sorry to inform you that you’ll probably never have that answer.

Perhaps a more prudent question would be “How can I improve the reality I find myself in?”

Tagged as: consciousness, creating reality, dreams, life, quantum physics, reality, reviews