Inception: Dream Researchers Expose Project Somnacin
May 17, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dreamy Movies
I’ve been following the movie Inception, due out in theaters this summer. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, involves a pseudo-government dream research team who can access people’s dreams, and perhaps construct their reality too a la the Matrix. About two weeks ago, a video showed up on youtube, showing a rough 6 minute cut of three interviews of dream researchers by the director Chris Nolan. The unfinished video looks like raw footage of interview material for a DVD bonus, but it’s actually a very clever viral marketing video, because the third dream researcher doesn’t really exist.
Who are the Dream Researchers Interviewed by Chris Nolan?
The first dream researcher in the clip is William Domhoff, a professor of psychology at University of California Santa Cruz. The video cuts away when he identifies his title, but gives viewers enough to search for and verify his credentials. Domhoff specializes in linguistic dream content analysis.
The second featured dream researcher in the video is Jayne Gackenbach. Her lucid dream research helped define the field in the early 1980s, and she served as editor of the now-defunct journal the Lucidity Letter. Gackenbach now focuses on video game research, but has released a few studies about the topic of lucid dreaming and video game interfaces, making her a natural interviewee for Nolan. I’m excited about Jayne’s influence on this movie!
This woman is not who she seems
Then we have the third interviewee: a woman who is not identified by name, and talks and looks like a professor. Her interview is fascinating, almost… scripted. As she discusses the science of lucid dreaming, she says, “if one can actively participate in one’s own dream, what would happen if one could actively participate in someone else’s dream?”
Mystery professor continues, “The military calls this project Project Somnacin. And from what I’ve heard, 2 or 3 subjects are able to collectively participate in one dream.”
Government research into mutual lucid dreaming? That really is a nightmare. Luckily, this is the viral plot device in the movie, not based on reality. Thanks to Wendy Iraheta for her insight on the topic.
Blending Dreams and Reality
Dream Machine t-shirt with QR image, thanks to slashfilm.comH
Here’s how Inception fans sleuthed it out:
Slashfilm published a viral t-shirt image for Inception, including a QR code image on the back of the shirt. Someone decoded the image, leading to the discovery of this website which has specs for the “dream machine,” known as the PASIV device: Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device.
Therefore, Somnacin is a plot point, not a real government program, and the third dream researcher is an actress. This movie has already done a good job blending dreams and reality, and its generating interest in dream research all the while. Yah Chris Nolan!
This is great year for lucid dreamers in the media, first Avatar, and now Inception.
Here’s the full video interview:
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Kris (6 comments.) on Tue, 25th May 2010 8:34 am
I’m psyched about this movie. As someone who practices lucid dreaming, I find the film’s premise fascinating. I’m also a big fan of Christopher Nolan, and I think if anyone can do this topic justice, it’s him.
It’s nice to see the concepts of dreams, lucid dreaming, etc. crop up in so many recent movies. For a while, any scenes related to dreaming were taboo in Hollywood because dreams had been misused as a plot device for so long. Now, it seems like dreams are turning up more often as a central focus of the story.
Amy (1 comments.) on Wed, 26th May 2010 6:36 pm
Looking forward to this movie! What a curious marketing tactic. Very creative.
Dave H. on Fri, 6th Aug 2010 5:51 pm
Here are some things I’ve learned about dreams from my life’s experiences…
Dreams can be a playground beyond compare. Ever play “Doom” in “God mode”? Once you learn how to control your dreamscape, you can be like Neo in “The Matrix”.
But that’s only one facet…you’re not going to defeat the creature from “Alien” unless you know that you’re dreaming.
Dreams are also a “gateway” to the afterlife. There are many, many instances of people communicating with the dead in their dreams. How can you tell that it’s real and not wishful thinking? Characters created by your mind will be “reactive”, not “proactive”. When, in a dream, a dead person tells you that they wish they’d known you when they were alive, that’s a pretty good indication that you’re not making this up! Shakespeare called sleep “death’s counterfeit”, referring to this.
Dreams are also a gateway to inspiration. A local inventor, in a recent newspaper story, credits a dream for helping him solve an engineering problem. Once again, there are many instances of this phenomenon.
Even so, there is still an aura of mystery surrounding dreams. Those without “the gift” tend to dismiss what the rest of us are doing…entering another world when we close our eyes, and for a few fleeting hours, slipping these Earthly bonds.
People share their experiences here, and so I shall share mine. Through my dream state, I have spent more time working in space than any astronaut. These dreams were so lucid that a little voice inside my head advised against doing something stupid like taking off a glove or my helmet. They were so lucid that, when I described some of the sensations to a real astronaut, he asked me how I knew these things. Those dreams ended after about four months.
A few years ago, I started dreaming about a famous woman who has died many years before. Initially, she was very angry at me, but she would eventually teach me many things about her life, the afterlife, and how everything fits together. “Paint with all the colors of the wind”, describes it pretty well. Apparently, she had never crossed over after all this time, but after dreaming with her nearly every night for six months she did go home…watching it was incredible.
Today, my dreamscape is pretty ordinary. Occasionally, I’ll get a glimpse of what may be a future event…like visiting the Mojave National Preserve with my brother-in-law as we ride our motorcycles to California.
That’s one I hope comes to pass…
Ryan Hurd (177 comments.) on Wed, 11th Aug 2010 9:08 pm
thanks Dave for sharing… dreaming holds so much potential. I recommend Deidre Barrett’s book “The committee of sleep” if you’re interested in the role dreams have played in problem solving and inventions.