Fact Over Fiction: Hollywood Movie “Inception” Is Closer To Reality Than You Think
The cinematic thrill ride Inception captured the imagination of viewers everywhere, as we all joined the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, and Joseph Gordon Levitt, while their characters delved into the dreams of others. Not only was their intention to discover what their targets were dreaming about, but to actually plant an idea within the sub-conscious— true inception — that would influence their behaviour back in the real world.
Perched on the edge of our cinema seats, this tantalising work of fiction might have seemed like pure science fantasy, but the technology required to delve into our dream experiences is only a little way behind Inception’s mind-blowing story line. A collection of bold neuroscientists working on the cutting edge of pursuing understanding of our inner workings are hacking dream states with impressive success, and it all began with believing in the unbelievable! These scientists were simply unaware that other renowned scientists in the same field were of the opinion it could not be done — that’s the problem with opinions!
A Runaway Concept
One of the doubters that changed his mind and now exclusively focuses on this field is the Israeli neuroscientist — Moran Cerf. He has never been afraid to take on the science behind our wildest imaginings. He was hard at work trying to get a handle on human decision making — big questions such as: do we really have free will, and what drives the decisions we make? He was studying this by exploring the neuron activity of brain surgery patients who volunteered to participate in his studies.
It was 2010, and Cerf answered the phone, groggy from a nap, and mistakenly implied that recording dreams was possible — In theory. Inception had seen it’s big release a few months prior, and the glossy fantasy was at the forefront of everyone’s minds. The BBC interviewer at the other end of the line had triggered a misstep that would grow into a beast of epic proportions!
The next morning, the world’s media was a-buzz with Cerf’s comment, which had magically morphed from a theoretical answer into a concrete reality. His phone blew up as businesses tried to buy into his imaginary tech, spouses asked him to spy on their partner’s dreams, and others pledged to emulate Cerf’s achievements, even though he’d never actually made them. Cerf tried to argue that dream capture was impossible, and eventually gave up answering the phone all together, trying to duck the hype that surrounded his legendary non-adventure.
A Strange Twist In The Story
After months of trying to out-manoeuvre this colossal misunderstanding, Cerf finally got some peace when — bizarrely — the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton acted as a golden carrot dazzling enough to squeeze dream-hacking from the collective minds of the baying public. Life went back to normal, and Cerf returned to his work, no longer haunted by a dream, within a dream, within a dream!
That was, until 2013. The BBC were on the phone once again, asking Cerf to comment on recording dreams. Dumbfounded, he was mystified that the BBC was re-awakening the beast, until he heard why they’d taken an interest once again. Cerf was shocked to discover that upon hearing the chinese-whispers of his fictitious work on dream-hacking, Japanese researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani had decided to emulate that which had never existed, and did so with success!
The Details Of The Dream-Scape
Cerf’s mind was blown. He realised that if he’d been more receptive to teasing at the seemingly impossible, the exploration of human dreams might have been achieved far sooner. Rather than dwelling on what had been missed, he joined the quest to explore our dreams, and is now working on projects as sci-fi-esque as: capturing visual recordings of dreams; changing behaviour through manipulation in dream-state; aligning people’s dreams, so they in essence dream the same thing; and most excitingly of all, exploring whether we can learn while dreaming. Who wouldn’t want to learn kung-fu while down for a siesta?
Where Kamitani’s team discovered how to capture visuals from our dreams using fMRI, long-term dream researcher Daniel Oldis is making strides to uncover the rest of what plays out in our minds after counting sheep. Oldis says “This is like the early years of the space race, but in this case, we’re going into the dream space.” His team discovered that, while we are in effect paralysed while we dream, the signals that tell our muscles to move still fire. This allowed him to track the body movement and speech muscle movement of dreamers, which they hope will lead to accurate capture of dream activities in real time, adding greater depth to the decoded visual recordings of our immersed state.
Hacking Our Dreaming, And Waking Minds
The research of Cerf and his peers has shed light on dream hacks such as using scent cues to train dreamers to drop bad habits, and sound cues to train them to remember specific details from the day before with greater clarity. Cerf understands that dreaming is a crucial part of how our brains process and store memory, and that the processes that take place when we sleep are key to human happiness and well-being.
While we unfortunately cannot hack our own dreams using the techniques he applies in the lab, he does conclude that through self observation and awareness we can hack our own minds at home to some extent. Through his research on decision making, Cerf concluded that the narratives we give ourselves about why we make the choices we do are often nothing more than an afterthought when one part of our brain explains the behaviour of another. Far more of our decision making processes take place “under the hood” than we might imagine.
He recommends keeping a decision making diary, to track the choices we make in our daily lives, and their positive or negative outcomes. His research demonstrated that most of us display peak states for optimal decision making, and so tracking and identifying where the hotbed of your peak state lies — whether it’s in the morning, or the evening; whether it’s when you’re hungry or satiated — can be a powerful resource for those of us who have important decisions to make. Ultimately, he believes that the better we understand our own inner workings, and the gaps between our self-perception and true inner workings, the further we will be able to push towards our potential.
The Dream Behind GRAYLL
The team behind this game-changing App know that when we choose not to explore believing in the unbelievable, we impose our own limitations on the world around us. GRAYLL offers the opportunity for first-time or seasoned investors with any volume of capital achieve above-average returns, and was created with the clear vision of helping users to live in freedom and prosperity. Each step we take towards mastering our own potential, be it through increased self-awareness, or choosing to think big rather than staying small is in line with the GRAYLL ethos. Almost anything is possible as long as we can first truly believe it, so — even knowing that one day others may be able to peer into what you come up with — dare to dream ambitiously!
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