INCEPTION – Content summary

1. The American military has developed the methodology of dream sharpening.
2. Dominik Cobb, together with his wife, developed this technique further. They build a dream world.
3. Mal is so deep inside that it no longer recognizes reality. She takes her life to become real again. However, she was already in Realita at the time.
4. Cobb makes his business a business. He planted thoughts into target people.
5. He gets an order from Saito to weaken his competitors in the global market.
6. The aim is to manipulate Bob’s heirs. He is supposed to come to the thought of splitting the inherited company.
7. Together with a team, a (dream) architecture is designed in five interlaced dreams.
8. The dream in dream methodology is little tested and dangerous. A return through dying in the dream is not possible.
9. So Saito lands in the limbus and becomes an old man there. Cobb gets him out and the whole team wakes up from the dream and was successful with the Inception.

Dreams are part of our nature. Mainly, we mean mental events and images that our brain produces during sleep. Such experiences can be so intense that they are hardly distinguishable from reality. However, the experiences we can never share directly with someone. In “Inception” there already exists the method of dream sharing, that is, of common dreaming. Dominik Cobb and his wife Mal lead a “dreamlike” life for the time being. Dominik is experimenting with planting thoughts with his wife. He succeeds very well in a sad way. His wife commits suicide, in the opinion that she is in a dream and could always be with her children.

Bringing people to thought means usually manipulating them. This is legitimate in a market-oriented society. Who is well-mastered is successful. The only task of advertising is to move consumers to buy their own product. Nevertheless, the buyer firmly believes that he himself has made the purchase decision. The manipulation (advertising) begins with the creation of a scenario. A state is usually constructed that shows a certain dissatisfaction and makes it felt. This setting must be possible in Realita, so it can not be quite absurd. In this context, the target idea is then implanted. Today, this is mainly purchase incentives and election propaganda. Historically, it was religious beliefs of religions. Modern advertising has had a first climax in Nazi propaganda in Germany. For the first time mass media – the Volksrepfänger – were used.

Bob Fischer, as the heir of an energy company, has now come to the idea of ​​splitting up the empire and thus weakening it himself. Saito, his competitor, hires Cobb to develop this idea on the basis of dream sharing. It quickly becomes clear that this would not succeed with a single dream. So you need dreams in dreams. Cobb teamed up with a team of architects, Ariadne and pharmacist Yusuf. Ariadne designs a three-stage dream scenario and Yusuf has a sleep-dream preparation for the sedation. The starting point is the cabin of the airplane with which Bob flies to the funeral – the reality.

The reality: in everyday thinking is the reality that we experience. So an illustration of what is happening around us and how we act in it. At the latest with the advent of the psychological school of “Constructivism”, this is no longer so. Each brain constructs its own form of reality. That would be a kind of dream in which we are caught. Many gurus and consciousness freaks speak of awakening and thus mean the possibility of seeing reality as it is. Enlightened may indeed recognize another reality, but it is still a construction.

It is sometimes difficult to see whether something has changed in the environment or in the brain.

Bob gets a glass of water with the dream preparation from the flight attendant. He and the whole Inception team sleep with him and begin the first common dream. You are already at the destination in Los Angeles. Compared to the aircraft cabin it is cold and rainy. According to plan, Bob is kidnapped and brought together with Peter Browning. Browning is Bob’s uncle and at the same time he was the closest confidant of his father. It is about a vault, in which a second will be. After no one knows the combination, Peter tells what is around there;

The Inception:

“Your father was very proud of you and would like you to go your own way and share the company”

During the first dream phase, a fatal error occurs. Cobb has brought in an oppressive thought. He sees his wife standing at the railway track in front of a moving train. Exactly this train now drives through the street of Los Angeles and creates a “mental” fiasco. Saiko is mortally wounded. Actually, no problem with dreaming, because you wake up instead of dying. But not with this expedition. The given sleeping agent prevents a waking. Cobb explains what happens instead: “The dreamer comes to an even deeper level, into the Limbus. From there, there is no way back to reality. ” The team nevertheless decides to go to the next deeper trajectory. Bob has now arrived at his hotel. There he sits at the bar and enjoys a warm drink. At this second trajectory, Cobb wins Bob’s confidence. Both go into the room with the number of the combination of the safe. Also this level is interrupted, so Cobb, Bob and Ariadne advance to the vault. The safe is represented by a castle, which stands in a snowy, icy landscape. After an action-packed action, these are the mental defenses of Bob, they enter the dying room of Fischer sen. There is an emotional debate between father and son. Father Fischer is disappointed by his son because he has not gone his own way. Bob then decides to share the group. The Inception has thus succeeded. However, there is still a problem for the team. Saito and Cobb are dead and are in the limbo. There, Cobb has to solve his mental problems with his wife. Meanwhile, Saito is an old man. The first scene in the film shows Cobb coming to Saito and picking him up. In the end, all protagonists are awakening again in the aircraft cabin.

The story is complex. It plays on five levels with different duration. The fall of the Van takes only seconds. In the dream plane, however, a week. The levels themselves are physically interdependent. The free fall of the vane leads to weightlessness in the hotel. There were five levels. From reality over three nested dreams to the Limbus level. At the same time, two stories are told on these levels. Once the implantation of the division thought at Bob and superimposed on the relationship problems of Cobb and Mal.

Realization: Dream and reality are interdependent and events influence each other.

A model of level and levels has been and is often used in the humanities and religions. One of the oldest versions is probably the heavenly ladder of Jacob. In the Hindu tradition, it is the eight-plied yoga of Patanjali. The development of consciousness has also been reduced to a step model. In his work, Jean Gebser has proposed five stages of the development of consciousness. He derived this from the psychological development of a child and transferred it on a sociological level. The desire of man for enlightenment and knowledge has produced many different methods of altering consciousness for thousands of years. Religion has become the way of Siddhartha Gautama, who has emerged as an enlightened or Buddha. The “path of the center” and the meditation under the Bodhi tree ultimately brought him enlightenment. A long and arduous way. An experience like Buddha had, it is much easier for us by using technology and media. However, we hardly estimate this because we have exaggerated expectations. The following model (see picture) is applicable for everyone:

Body: We have the closest connection to our real environment. On a first level, the latter must be intensively employed. Yoga exercises or hometrainer are well suited for this.

Content: In a next stage the mind has to be controlled. This is best done by presenting a challenging content. Watch the video at Hometrainer or Archery with the HTC Vive.

Stimulus: On the next level, the mind should be removed from the content. This requires an inescapable stimulus. Audiovisual stimulators like Mindmachines are suitable for this. Apps there are plenty for smartphones.

Flow: We have achieved a state that fuses the environment, the body and the mind. We’ve all experienced it, but it does not happen very often. With digital extension it is always easier.

Deep: This is that condition, because we experience deep meditation. Completely infinitely, decoupled from the environment and in mental rest. Even experienced masters can or do not want us to describe the state any further.

With “Inception” Hollywood took up this topic and could be a motivation for us to experiment with mental – physical level. In a mixed reality society this will come anyway. For this we need experience to help us get along. Media will present us in the future realities, which we can no longer distinguish from reality.