Did I Just Plant An Idea In Your Head, Inception-Style?

I recently saw Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan (whom I’ll not hide the fact that I respect greatly), for the second time in a week. I love it, and it relates very strongly to people managing their thoughts and using the imaginations.

I’m going to talk about this movie, and I may include a spoiler or two. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour…

Go watch it.

I’ll wait.

…

Done? Good.

Inception is similar to The Matrix or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Vanilla Sky, but it’s definitely it’s own flick.

It’s been touted as a "thinking man’s movie," and it’s main subject is imagination, dreams within dreams, and thoughts. It touches on some very interesting points that can really connect to thought-management and creating awesomeness.

Christopher Nolan is a gifted director, combining action with deep concepts in a pop-culture vehicle embraced by many. He does this consistently in his movies, and Inception is no exception.

Nolan provides a break from the big-guns, big-tits, and shallow escapism (which’re fun and helpful in their own right) of many summer blockbusters, and gives us instead a walk through intriguing ideas at an adrenalized pace. (How’s that for some word-weavin’ ?)

(Plus the effects were unique and really well-done. The exploding produce & books are something to behold.)

The movie delivers some incredible lines that seem simple and straight-forward at first, but which actually delve deeper into the laws of thought-management and creation.

Let’s take a look.

Ideas Are Like Viruses.

Leonardo DiCaprio narrating the trailer:

"What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind, can build cities. An idea can transform the world, and re-write all the rules."

This is said for dramatic effect and to setup the premise of the movie, but it’s also very true. Everything humanity has ever created started out as a seed of an idea first. Sometimes it materializes quickly after the first thought, and other times it requires several generations before results are seen.

It also raises some really cool questions. Is the media able to plant ideas in our heads? Are they doing it now? Can we plant our own ideas, (ie: affirmations)? Are easily influenced personalities and minds (like children) more susceptible?

Can you remember someone telling you something when you were little, and you believed them, only to come to your own conclusion much later in life, and choose a different thought than the one your parents believed. Many people today have different feelings on sex and marriage than their parents, for example. Many grew up with one thought, an inception, but it didn’t stick, and they later came to see it as false.

Want to know more about this? Read Seth Godin’s IdeaVirus or Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point or Robert Anthony’s Beyond Positive Thinking. Absolutely fantastic resources.

It’s Pure Creation.

Ariadne is the team’s ‘Architect’ (portrayed by Ellen Page); she designs dreamscapes for them to entrap their targets. She says that Dream-Architecture is ‘pure creation.’

She returns to the illegal inception-scheme, because she finds having her imagination become reality (through shared-dreaming) to be a complete thrill. This is actually a mirror of every human being’s desire. We all love to see ourselves imagine something cool, something beautiful, something fulfilling — and then have it come to be in a relatively short time.

I did the same thing with this blog post. I imagined myself writing it, quickly, easily, and inspired-ly, and as it took shape, I felt a sense of accomplishment and reward. Some people imagine a new home, or new car, and when they eventually get it, it’s a total rush. (Just writing about it, has me now imagining filming parties in a place like this, with this.)

"Dreams feel real while we’re in them."

This kind of creation becoming + feeling real, does happen in dreams, and it’s the main reason people practice ‘lucid dreaming.’

"We create the world of the dream."

You Mustn’t Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger, Darling. The pithy ‘Eames’ (deftly played by Tom Hardy), shares the screen nicely, but is usually imploring others to make use of their imaginations. He belittles ‘Arthur’ (not SpiritSentient’s very own, but a character in the film), daring him to dream bigger, and basically create a bigger gun, instantly.

This calls to many people’s desire to dream big, achieve goals, and use more power, and Eames is right, there is absolutely, positively, nothing wrong with using a few (or many more) moments of your day imagining things and dreaming big.

No one accomplished much by dreaming small. Dreaming small is a mockery of people’s potential.

You’ve Got To Forgive Yourself.

Ariadne delivers a double-edged remark about thought-management, pointing out to Cobb (DiCaprio) that unless he forgives himself, his guilt and his subconscious will make them all suffer and die. The alternative side of this, is that releasing his hurt and trauma allows Cobb to truly access his strength, imagination, and creative genius.

As he let’s Mal go (Marion Cotillard’s potent take on Cobb’s subconscious), he’s able to rescue Saito and return from the limbo of the dream-world, to a blissfully happy ending… or is it (Nolan gives us a classic cliff-hanger ending.)

You’re Just a Shade…

"Look at you. You’re just a shade, a shade of my real wife. How could I capture all your beauty, your complexity, your perfection, your imperfection, in a dream? Yes, you’re the best that I can do. But, I’m sorry, you’re just not good enough."

With this line, Cobb makes it clear that ultimately, he’s able to tell the difference from his powerful dream creations, and ‘real life.’ He makes it clear that his love for the deeply unique and beautiful person Mal was, is far more than his imagination can re-create in the dream-world.

This could be seen as a dis-empowering of himself and his creative abilities, or an applauding of the un-imitate-ability of true, inspired love. (Though the whole point of ‘inception’ is to plant inspiration in another person’s mind.)

Always Imagine New Places!

"Never create from your memory, always imagine new places!" Cobb says firmly, as Ariadne recreates bridges and locations in the dream-world.

The idea here is that creating from memories makes it easy to confuse dream and reality, but new places make it clear that you’re in a dream, imagining.

I’m not sure about all that, but not creating solutions from the same memories that led to a problem, is a staple of thought-management.

If you somehow got yourself into debt, or into an abusive relationship, or whatever — acknowledge that this was created by certain habits, actions, thought-patterns or omissions. Accept that adopting new thoughts, and imagining new things is the solution. Thought-management 101

Anyway…

Inception is a really fantastic movie and it gets rave reviews all over the place. The theatre I went to was sold out for the matinee, and sold out for the following showing, and this is 2 weeks after the movie debuted. It also drives a lot of points home regarding thought-management and self-creation. Go see it. If you’re feeling this post, let us know in the comments, maybe I’ll do a follow up on the recurring themes in the movie (it’s got some really cool ones: falling, dreaming, reality, numbers, music, architecture, etc.)

Inception suggests that other people can choose our thoughts for us, and that they can be planted through ‘inception.’ I really love the movie and I love many of the points it raises, but I’d like to categorically state that every thought you have is your domain and freedom, and you can direct them. Yes you can *allow* others to direct them, but you never have to.