Oneironauts and Geniuses

Oneironaut simply stands for ‘A person who explores dream worlds’. With all the euphoria about Inception, I decided to write a bit about it myself. Actually, I knew I was going to write this when I had first seen the trailer of Inception.

So, Inception and its supposedly complex storyline are being discussed all around. Many praise Nolan for having thought of such a brilliant idea. Dream in a dream in a dream in a ….I actually lost the count while watching it. More importantly, I was thinking of the absurdities involved, which I’ll try to list down in a later blog. This blog I reserve for trying to project the main idea within Inception.

Many claim that Dreams is Dreams is an original idea used in the movie. However, I must protest when you say that it is an original idea. Dreams have been studied by ancient Greeks and Indians in great measure. Many people have had much more brilliant insights about dreams and dream processes. Edgar Allen Poe has written a poem called ‘Dream Within a Dream’. Two of my most favourite stories about dream worlds are by the same author. Based on my previous post, you must have guessed right. It is Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) and the two stories are ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’. Alice, the ultimate dreamer, has taught me more about dreams than most modern books or movies (with the exception of The Matrix)

I cannot describe the exhilarating feeling I had as I read the book ‘Through the Looking Glass’. I could not believe that we humans had such rich imagination. As I’ve always held true ‘Our own imagination can sometimes astound us’. Very soon after reading that book, I saw the Matrix. The impact that one movie can have on your life is huge. That movie inspired me to construct my own theories of the workings of world around me. Anyone who has completely understood the Matrix, will realize that Nolan can never replace a Wachowski. I’ll write a lot more about the Matrix and the not-so-easy-to –see references in the movie in the blog that I’ve mentioned earlier.

Thus, if one wants to analyse Inception, I suggest you look at other aspects of the movie. Dreams in Dreams added to the mysticism of the movie, but were not the cornerstone of the movie.

The central point of Inception, however, I soon realized was not dreams in dreams, but the point whether inspiration can be artificially generated. In other words, can ideas and inspiration actually be placed inside your mind by external sources? This is certainly among the less researched items.

Let us for the moment assume that thoughts can be placed in your mind. The basic trouble with this particular subject is that, we cannot now distinguish between original thoughts and thoughts that have artificially been placed. This raises many philosophical questions. Suppose all the ‘original’ ideas that you have are actually fed to you through some yet-to-be recognized source? When you cannot distinguish between original ideas and placed ideas, why should you choose one over the other? The basic argument here is astonishingly close to the basic argument in the Matrix/ Alice in Wonderland etc. i.e. when you cannot make out what is real and what is not, is it not possible that everything is unreal?

Think about this for a second. So many geniuses(or as some prefer to use, genii) have come and gone. If ever we found out that inception was possible, should we really give credit to these geniuses? Is it (not) possible that somebody simply planted the ideas in their head?

I believe that the day is not far when we may see both, the creations of worlds like that of the Matrix and the inception of ideas. Basically, the technology for both might end up being very similar for they both need to trick the mind. Lets see what the future holds.