The Science of Inception

I was walking in One Utama Shopping Mall and I came across the trailer, and I had this urge to watch and so I just went in and gosh it was so good~~~~ o.O

Everyone's talking about that movie now. I visited imdb.com and the rating is 9.3/10, the highest in recent history (the last movie to hit above 9 was in 1994, the Shawshank Redemption)



So... again.. Like I would always do, I went back and started googling about dreams, the concept of subconscious, etc.. and to sum it up~ it's a really good science-fiction movie.

Revisiting old topics; Why do we dream? We spend 8 hours a day, and 1/3 of our lives sleeping. If you live to 90 years old, then you've spent 30 years sleeping o.O and you probably think we'd spend 30 years dreaming~ well, that's NOT the case really. We actually spend less than 5 minutes dreaming every night.

Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, but only recently have dreams been subjected to empirical research and concentrated scientific study. Chances are that you’ve often found yourself puzzling over the mysterious content of a dream rather than wondering why you dream at all =P



Scientists pulled plugs and wires over dogs and cats to monitor their dreams, and found out that mastiffs and Great Danes might dream every 45 minutes for about five minutes, compared to their smaller canine cousins that enter a dream state every 10 minutes with episodes lasting less than 60 seconds.



We, like our mammalian pets, dream as little as 5 minutes everytime we dream but it seems like several hours or weeks in our dream. Yes! That's the concept we saw in Inception and hell yeah they did some research before venturing into the genre~~

However, the concept of infiltrating someone else's dream to steal their subconscious secret is purely science fiction~ The architect part is interesting, because they utilized the role of an architect to "build" a dream and place the victim inside the dream, and thus they could manipulate him easier, just like Fischer in the movie, he was 'taken' into the dream created by the sweet Ariadne and he got manipulated easily.



And the idea of your subconscious attacking you in the dream is similarly intriguing, but it was based purely on science fiction.

"You wake up when you are killed." How about that? Yes I do agree to a certain extend because I experienced that once, where I was almost killed in my dream and I woke up sweating... o.O in fact I was falling from an airplane... and the sensation of free fall was due to the headache that I was experiencing at that moment, and thus created the sense of free fall in my dream.



Similarly, when there is a phone ringing by your side when you're dreaming, you could be wondering in your dream whose GOD DAMN phone is ringing, and damn that person is so ignorant because HE DOESN't WANT TO PICK IT UP!!! In fact it's you~~ XD

And another point is; we always start our dream in the middle of nowhere, or...somewhere. It's as if all of a sudden we stood by the roadside facing an oncoming train, and the first thing you'd do is to jump to the side and GoD your leg got hit by the train and in fact it was your TV set falling from the shelves and hit you~!



One question: Take the above example.
How do we know that we are GOING TO experience pain and the dream relates us to the pain? Or.. How do we know that the TV set is going to fall and cause us pain, and our dream immediately relay an appropriate set of action; say got hit by an oncoming train?? IF the TV set doesn't fall down, then probably when we get hit by the train in our dream we wouldn't feel anything, right???

Yes, you wouldn't feel anything. BUT you'd probably got woken up by the fact that you died in your dream. BUT if there is something that hits you right at that moment... then you're probably STILL in your dream, but your brain will relate the pain to getting hit by the train, and that you narrowly escaped a horrible death, ie wake up from your wonderland.

I know this sounds a bitta crappy cuz I probably cannot convey my meaning clear enough via English, nor via Chinese. >_< Limited language ability certainly hits me hard...
I'm still at the ape-th level

Other facts about dream:
1) Lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. A lucid dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid, depending on a person's level of self-awareness during the lucid dream.



2) Precognitive dreams are prophetic dreams in which future events are revealed. Many times these dreams act as warnings. An example of this would be to have a dream about a plane crash the night before one was to board a plane.
The person heeds the warning and avoids the flight only to find out that the plane later crashed. Numerous people have reported experiencing precognitive dreams before 9/11.

3) Nightmares
The scariest kind of dreams are nightmares. Often times people awaken in a frightened state and the fear is so strong that it, along with vivid memories, can stay with a person all day. It is possible that nightmares are the result of unresolved problems or conflicts.



4) Recurring dreams are dreams that repeat themselves. It is a common occurrence and different theories exist as to why they happen. One theory is that the mind has an unresolved issue. Another theory is that the recurring dream represents an unconscious or conscious fear that a person is experiencing.

5)Past Life Dreams
Proponents of reincarnation believe that some dreams are actually memories of a past life. Researchers in the field of reincarnation believe that every memory of every life is stored in a person's subconscious. These memories can be recalled while being in an altered state of consciousness.

6) Other Types of Dreams
There are people who believe that spirit communication is possible during a dream. The theory is that people will be less frightened to see a deceased loved one in a dream, rather than in waking hours. Another belief is that people astral travel while dreaming. Astral traveling is an out of body experience in which the soul supposedly leaves the body and can go anywhere it wants.

I was once having problem with a math question, and I went to sleep without solving it... and soon I was dreaming on solving it WITH THE RIGHT METHOD in my dream, and... it was probably a lucid dream because I knew I was dreaming so I woke up and rushed to my table and finished the question.


This was the question i was solving, it turned out wrong!! XD

And, like I mentioned in previous entry, sometimes we should not try to recall our dreams. But sometimes, some dreams are irresistible.. if you know what I mean =)



Malcolm

Info:
http://newage.suite101.com/article.cfm/types_of_dreams
http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/dream-interpretation-facts.htm
http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2010/07/why-we-dream-the-science-behind-inception.html