How to Have an Inception-Like Dream

For the second week in a row, Christopher Nolan's "Inception" has topped the box office, bringing its worldwide total to $227 million. The critically acclaimed hit has become popular with audiences for its unique reality-bending plot. For many, the film's plot is so innovative that not even in their wildest dreams could they have ever imagined it. But they're wrong.

Of course, I'm not talking about going into your boss's dream and planting the idea that he should put you in charge of his company. I'm talking about lucid dreaming. Have you ever been on the run from the police or on a yacht in the Caribbean when you realized you were dreaming? You might have woken up upon realizing it or you might have used that to ease your fears in the middle of a nightmare. Without even realizing it, most of us have experienced a lucid dream; a dream in which we know we are dreaming.

In a recent interview, Joseph Gordon Levitt shared one of his experiences with lucid dreaming. He told EW:

I did have one dream where I was in L.A, where I live, hanging out with people. And I realized, 'S-, I'm supposed to be in England at eight in the morning tomorrow to shoot! This is terrible, I'm letting everybody down! There's no way I'll make it there in time. Chris [Nolan] is gonna be furious.' Etc. And then I realized, 'Oh wait, I'm not in L.A. I'm dreaming, I'm in my bed in England right now. All I have to do is wake up, and everything will be fine.'

The existence of this phenomenon has been researched and is well established. With enough practice, you can induce these lucid dreams and explore the endless possibilities. However, becoming aware that you're dreaming doesn't automatically mean you will be able to control your dream, but ultimately you do have the power to do as you wish.

So how do you do it? If you saw "Inception," you've already been practicing, because the trick is to constantly question your reality. To better understand why this works, I'll use a common example. Have you ever spent some time in the day doing an activity like playing a computer game or reading a book, only to fall asleep and dream about that activity? This happens because your mind has become habituated to doing it. So a way to become aware that you are dreaming is to do routine "reality checks" while you're awake. These will carry on into your dreams and they will help you realize you are dreaming.

The "totems" in the movie act as a reality check. Common reality checks can be anything from checking your watch to looking in a mirror to looking at your hands. Often when dreaming, these simple things will seem odd - numbers on a watch might be scrambled or upside down or your hands will look fuzzy or like they're missing fingers - allowing you to realize you are dreaming. If you really want life to imitate art, you can use a spinning top as a reality check. Chances are that if you spin it in your dream, it will behave strangely enough for you to realize that you're dreaming.

Another way to improve your ability to have lucid dreams is to keep a dream diary. This is crucial because it develops your ability to remember your dreams, including those of the lucid variety. In turn, the better you remember features of your dreams, the easier it will be for you to recognize these features while you are still dreaming, allowing you to become aware will you sleep.

If you can successfully make your mind realize that you are dreaming without waking up, then you can do anything. You can become your own dream architect and design any kind of dream and any kind of activity you want. Lucid dreaming, like any other skill, comes easy to some and takes a lot of practice for others. So try it at home! Take a nap and try bend your city unto itself or fly off a building... just make sure you're dreaming first.