One Story to Rule Them All: In Search of the Universal, by Pen Densham At Studio System News!

I am a brilliant procrastinator and zealot of self doubt. In fact, to keep my doubts at bay, I call the first draft of my screenplays the “Lewis and Clark” draft to remind myself not to fret over the imperfections that are a necessary part of discovering the unknown.  Earlier in my career, writing was like running through a fog trying to find a sense of direction, and by the time I bounced painfully off enough mist-shrouded walls with enough scrawled file cards strewn around, some kind of script came out of the process. And then I found a hero with a thousand solutions—or, really, one solution—Christopher Vogler.

Vogler’s distillation of the seminal book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by scholar Joseph Campbell gave us Campbell’s vast knowledge about universal hero myths into seven easily digestible pages of clear-cut directives.

Campbell is considered by many as a patron saint of screenwriters. George Lucas has credited him as inspiring the characters and story construction of Star Wars. What Campbell showed in his book was that the world’s myths, legends and parables, across time and all cultures, followed a singular route-stem or journey. Essentially, he said, the world’s folklores and myths comprise one massive human meta-story.

Vogler, who spent time with Campbell, found a way to simplify the latter’s dense treatise down to crib-sheet length to suit the attention span of Hollywood story execs. His guide is called A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Famously, Vogler is said to have deliberately left his work in a Xerox machine at Disney whence it made its way to every production office in town. It changed the development process in Hollywood and garnered Vogler a career as an industry writing Guru—which he truly is. And when I snagged one of those errant circulating copies of A Practical Guide, it was a relief to see that stories could have a theory-based, emotional logic. Vogler’s steps acted as a story compass—not as a set of rigid rules, but, rather, as inspiring story markers to help writers like me through our own fogs of creation toward discovery.

Subsequently, Vogler penned the inspirational classic The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, a broad-minded elaboration of his understanding of Campbell’s and his own philosophies. One of my favorites quotes from Vogler is this one from Buckminster Fuller, illustrating his book’s purpose: “I’m not trying to copy Nature. I’m trying to find the principles she’s using.”

If we understand why and how our audience is designed to respond to stories, then we can more effectively aim for their emotional bull’s eye. I spoke to Vogler recently and asked for his responses to two quick questions.

What does he perceive as the greatest mistake development executives make?
Vogler: It is failure to understand creative process. They want writers to tell them what they’re going to write before they have written it, not realizing it is a process of discovery.

With massive changes in technology under way, what does he see as the future of story telling?
Vogler: Commercial stories are going to deal more and more with philosophy, especially questions of identity, because people are so totally disoriented by modern culture. We crave moral guidelines or stories that allow us to explore what we think about proper human behavior. We will also reach back into the treasure chest of the past for classic or forgotten stories, the epics, legends, myths and fairy tales of our ancestors, because they are desperately needed for orientation, just as they were in the old days.

What Vogler and I absolutely agree on is that stories are organic, that we are designed to tell and receive them by the outcome of our own evolution. We are defined by eternal and immutable themes: Love, jealousy, rivals, enemies, re-defining oneself, and so on.

Over millions of years of evolution, these thematic instincts have been programmed into our genes, so no matter what media we use to tell our stories, the stories at their essence will always be the same. So, theoretically, the genuinely strong narratives, based in the eternal thematic foundations that Campbell evoked, should last like (like Homer and Shakespeare) while the day-to-day dross of the multiplex will wither away in no time. Pardon my delight and surprise, then, when I discovered there is proof to support that theory!

Meet Department Chair and Professor of Economics Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University, where he is also the founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies. Zak and a team of fellow researchers found that, by showing human subjects a video of a selected story and taking blood samples—you read that right, blood samples—the viewers showed heightened levels of cortisol and oxytocin in their brains.

Zak, who coined the term Neuroeconomist, is an expert on oxytocin. In fact, he’s the author of the acclaimed The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity, all about the evolutionary significance of oxytocin as a crucial element of social nurturing.  So, on the one hand, we have cortisol, a chemical released in times of stress. With regard to experiencing stories, the more one pays attention to the evil-doings of the bad guy, say, or the sufferings of a good guy, the more cortisol floods our brains. But, at the same time, oxytocin is produced—the hormone associated with care, connection and empathy. Breastfeeding, for example, stimulates the flow of oxytocin in mothers and reinforces the bond with their baby. A hug triggers the release of oxytocin and stimulates empathetic feelings.

When Zak showed subjects a video with no dramatic arc, such as one of a dad and his son walking through a zoo together. He found the eventless, non-emotionally charged story produced no chemicals and no effect. But the videos that fired up the inner chemistry had to be stories with a specific structure. Strangely, his findings coincide with the 19th Century German playwright Gustav Freytag’s theory of the dramatic arc. Like Campbell, Zak has become scientifically convinced that there is a universal story, a story that our biology is chemically attuned to, it’s always been there, a common strand running through our disparate societies.

Zak also made another discovery, that people who had been watching a story that produced these chemicals, were more likely to help strangers in need or to dedicate themselves to helping a charity. So he proved that stories can not only change our brain chemistry but can change our behavior.

Fine, you say, but what the hell has this got to do with movies?

With all the millions invested in story development, it’s exciting to learn that we’re closing in on a more precise understanding of the human mechanisms that react to narrative. Just as ill-fitting pipes will leak if you ran water through them, faulty and poorly conceived stories simply won’t flow from screen to brain and trigger the chemicals necessary for an audience to response optimally. And without that chemical reaction, the story doesn’t succeed.

There are researchers using high-tech means like MRIs to improve our understanding of how we perceive and react to stories. It will be intriguing to see if the studios can keep from wiring us all up to create algorithms and churn out synthetic stories. Let’s hope that, instead, they embrace this knowledge to emancipate artistic creativity, to condition artists to explore deeper our collective subconscious and to invest in the ambitious goal of creating new legends and myths for our time–stories that will unite our diverse cultures and carry human civilization forward in harmony.

INCEPTION Part 7: Can The Words You Tell Yourself Really Change Your Life? Jacob Krueger Studio!

by, Jacob Krueger

As discussed in As discussed in Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this series, Christopher Nolan’s screenplay Inception is deeply rooted in the principles of hypnosis.   Learning more about these principles may not only change the way you approach your own writing, but also help you understand new ways that you can break through writer’s block and build the writer’s life you’ve been seeking.

 

Can The Words You Tell Yourself Really Change Your Life?

You’re walking down the street.  You see a crack in the road ahead of you.  You visualize yourself stumbling over it.  Imagine the embarrassment of people watching you fall.   A little voice starts in your head.  “Don’t trip.  Don’t trip.  Don’t trip.”
What happens?
You trip.
If you want to understand why, try telling a child “don’t look through that window” or telling yourself “don’t imagine a pink elephant”.
It’s almost impossible, right?  That’s because your subconscious mind is just like a child.   It ignores “don’ts” entirely and accepts only the positive parts of your suggestions:  “look through that window, ” “imagine a pink elephant.”

 

What You Conjure Becomes Reality

 

Combine the words “trip, trip, trip” that your subconscious mind hears, the image that flashes in your mind of yourself tripping, and the genuine feelings of embarrassment that come with that image, and suddenly those words aren’t just words anymore.  They’re a post hypnotic suggestion, delivered with all the power of the most convincing hypnotist in the world: you.
At this point, to the subconscious mind, these words exist as if they’d already happened.   As if they were true already.  As if they were unavoidable.
As unavoidable as Mal’s thinking that her life wasn’t real, once the post hypnotic suggestion was planted in her mind, by a person she trusted, using the image systems that they had created together.
As unavoidable as Robert Fischer finally feeling free of the burden of his father’s disappointment, once the inception of the post hypnotic suggestion of his father’s love was completed.
As unavoidable as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, accepting those kids as real, whether they actually are or not.
To your subconscious mind, there is absolutely no difference between what really happened, and the story you tell about it.  Deliver the message in the right way, and the subconscious mind will react as if it were true, regardless of the facts.

 

Sounds Pretty Scary Right?

Until you realize that even the truth of your true experiences is not necessarily true.  That in fact the post hypnotic suggestions you are giving to yourself are just stories, like any other stories, and as story tellers, we can choose the kinds of tales we want to believe, based on the same objective facts.
Five people witness a car crash.  And afterwards each presents an entirely different story of what happened.  Even though they all saw the same thing.  The facts don’t change.  The only thing that changes is the perception of those facts.
Just as a writer can make small changes in the execution of a script adjust the value of a scene within a movie, so too can you adjust the stories you tell yourself about the events in your life,  to completely change the value of what those events mean to you.
So the questions become, not what is true, but what story are you telling yourself about the truth?

 

Robert Fischer’s Inception

In Inception, the father has been cruel to the son.  These are the objective facts.  But they are not the end of the story.  The process of the movie doesn’t change the objective facts, it merely changes the story the son is telling himself about his father, from “my father is disappointed in me” to “my father believes in me, and is trying to inspire me to pave my own way”.
Same facts.  Different story.  It’s not REALITY that changes his life.  It’s the story he’s telling himself about it.

 

Mal’s Inception

In Inception, after accepting a post-hypnotic suggestion from her husband, Mal tells herself the story that her real life isn’t real, and plunges to her death, losing the beautiful relationship she and Cobb have created together.  It doesn’t matter whether the story she is telling herself is right or wrong.  What matters is that she believes it.

 

Cobb’s Inception

In a way, the person incepting himself most powerfully throughout Inception may be Cobb himself.  At each step of the journey– three steps down, and three steps back up– someone tells Cobb to “take a leap of faith”.  And by the end of the movie, he finally does, by telling Mal that she isn’t real, killing off the part of her he’s holding onto, and taking a leap of faith back to his old life.
Cobb tells himself that his relationship with his children is real, and gets to enjoy it as if it were, whether the top is still spinning or not.
Once again, it’s not reality that changes Cobb’s life.  But the stories he is telling himself about it.
And of course the same is true with the stories you tell yourself about your writing.
What if you chose to tell yourself you were really a writer?  What if you chose to believe the dream was real?
What step would you take to chase it today?

 

Take A Leap of Faith

If you’ve enjoyed this series of articles about Inception, I invite you to take a leap of faith in yourself.  Check out one of my upcoming Screenwriting Workshops and take the first step toward being the writer you know yourself to be.

INCEPTION Part 6: Is Leonardo DiCaprio Dreaming? Jake Krueger!

by, Jacob Krueger

As discussed in Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this series, Inception is built around a three step down and three step back up structure that closely mirrors the techniques of classical hypnosis.  But just as the story is built around dreams within dreams, so too may it be built around an inception within an inception.

 

Is Robert Fischer The Only One Dreaming?

The spinning top at the end of Inception certainly leaves us wondering if Cobb is awake or simply at another level of his own dream. The question doesn’t have a clear answer, however the evidence that Cobb may in fact be dreaming goes far beyond the last image of the movie.
The most obvious evidence that Cobb may be dreaming is the “dream logic” that seems omnipresent in his affairs.  Cobb’s big problem– that he needs to get back to America to see his kids– only makes sense within the dream logic world of the movie.  In real life, of course, Michael Caine could simply put those kids on a plane to Europe, and Cobb could see them without performing any inception whatsoever.



Similarly, in the real world, executives don’t buy entire airlines before even finding out they need a plane, nor can a simple phone call from a high powered foreign executive forever clear the name of a man wanted for murder.
It’s possible that this could all be dismissed as sloppy action movie writing, however within the context of the film, even Mal points out the problem of Cobb’s dream logic, when she confronts him with the fact that Cobb’s “real” world is a lot like a dream, in which he’s being hunted by governments, corporations, and mercenaries, just like a persecuted dreamer.  Mal’s disturbing worlds raise the possibility that all of the characters in his world are in fact simply archetypal projections of his own subconscious, filling up the architecture of the dream he constructed.

 

Is Cobb Incepting Himself?

What makes Mal’s theory most compelling is the way that the post hypnotic suggestion with which she wants to incept him, to “take a leap of faith” are repeated, again and again, by different characters in Cobb’s “dream”.
These words are first spoken by Saito, when Cobb (believing himself to be living in reality), asks Saito for a guarantee that he will be able to clear his name, if he effectively carries out the inception.  Saito responds: “You don’t.  But I can.  So, do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man filled with regret, waiting to die alone.”
But these words,“take a leap of faith,” did not originate with Saito.  They originated with Cobb.  They’re the words with which he incepted Mal when he convinced her to lay down on the railroad tracks.  The words which she repeats to him, as she tries to get him to jump from the building.  The words she carries out in action when she jumps without him– an image which is echoed by the completion of Robert Fischer’s journey, when he and Ariadne get their first kick back to reality, by jumping from the top of the building in Limbo.
Even the post-hypnotic suggestion with which Cobb intends to incept Fischer is a variation on this theme: an invitation to take a leap of faith in his father, and to believe that his father has taken a leap of faith in him.
Finally in classical hypnotic form, these words come full circle when Cobb repeats them to Saito, after chasing him all the way to limbo to deliver the message to his friend.  “take a leap of faith”.

 

Internalizing The Post Hypnotic Suggestion

In this way, Cobb comes to accept and internalize his own post-hypnotic suggestion (just as Mal has internalized the suggestion Cobb incepted in her, and Robert Fischer has internalized the suggestion Cobb incepted in him).
The question of course is whether the “leap of faith” he is intended to take is a leap from a building, or a leap of the mind, in which he chooses one reality over another, and accepts those children as real, whether they really are, or not.

Check in next week for the final article in the series:  “Inception Part 7: Can the Words You’re Telling Yourself Really Change Your Life?”

INCEPTION Part 5: The Hypnotic Structure of Inception, Jake Krueger Studio!

by, Jacob Krueger

Just as the real hypnotic script discussed in Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series uses a three step structure to hypnotically bring about a change, the structure of the film Inception also takes three steps down, and then three “kicks” back up, to plant the post hypnotic suggestion of breaking up his father’s company in Robert Fischer’s mind.

The film begins in conscious reality, or at least what seems like conscious reality.  Robert Fischer is in a plane, and Cobb builds trust with him by returning his “lost” passport, before inducing trance by drugging Robert and entering his dream.

 

First Step Down: A Secret Safe

Robert finds himself in what he thinks is Los Angeles, where he is taken hostage by Cobb’s crew.  Eames impersonates family friend Peter Browning, and convinces Robert that he has been tortured for the combination to Robert’s father’s secret safe– a combination only Robert knows.  In the safe is his father’s last gift for Robert, a secret will that splits up the company.  Robert’s doubt of his father is so intense that even in a dream he can’t believe Browning’s story.  Even on his death bed, Robert’s father only had one word to share with him: “Disappointed”.  Ultimately, the numbers need to be extracted at random from Robert’s subconscious before Robert can be put back to sleep for the next step down…

 

Second Step Down: Browning’s Secret

At the Los Angeles hotel, Robert meets Cobb, who tells him that he is dreaming, and that he is there to protect him.  Once again using Eames’ skills of impersonation, they trick Robert into suspecting Browning, who admits that he staged the kidnapping in an effort to prevent Robert from accepting his father’s challenge to break up the company.  This experience begins to cast down upon the story Robert has been telling himself about Browning, and about his father, and to shift his trust from one to the other. Desperate to understand, Robert enters what he believes to be Browning’s dream.  As Robert is put back to sleep in the hotel room, he finds himself…

 

Third Step Down: The Father’s Secret

 

Robert attempts to infiltrate the snow fortress which he believes holds the secrets of Browning’s mind.  After Mal’s untimely appearance and a brief misadventure in Limbo, he is rescued by Cobb and Ariadne and returned to the inner chamber of the fortress.  Inside,  he discovers himself alone with his father, at the sick bed where his father once expressed his devastating feelings about Robert in one painful word: “Disappointed”.
“…because I wasn’t you…” Robert tells his father sadly, sharing the story he’s been telling himself about his father’s words.
“No, his father corrects him… disappointed that you tried.”
And at that moment, everything changes for Robert… and he is ready to open the safe.

 

The Post Hypnotic Suggestion

From the moment Robert’s story changes, so too does every element of the way his subconscious mind perceives his world.  And that’s why, when he opens the safe, what he finds is not just the will, but a symbol of his father’s love: the old pin-wheel from the photo Robert has always carried with him– his last memory of a loving relationship with his father.
And with that pin-wheel comes the healing Robert so desperately needs.
Whether the story is true or not.

 

Three Steps Back Up In Inception

As you saw in last week’s hypnotic script, in classical hypnosis, at this point a hypnotist would return the client to each level of the dream, allowing to see how the new story they have accepted will forever change those images, and building toward an even more powerful moment of healing, which anchors the larger change the person is seeking.
To some degree, Christopher Nolan does this as well, for example, by allowing the snow fortress (and with it, the secret that was once kept from Robert) to collapse.  But for the most part, Nolan reduces the three steps back up process to a series of three “kicks”: Fischer and the team falling with the collapsing snow fortress, Arthur blowing up the weightless elevator in the hotel, and Yusuf crashing the van into the water.
But even though Robert the character doesn’t go through each of the three steps back up– as an audience, we experience the whole journey, witnessing each step down from a new perspective as we race back up toward consciousness…
From a character perspective, this makes a lot of sense.  Because ultimately, Robert may not be the only one dreaming…

 

Cobb’s Inception

Just as Inception is built through a “dream within a dream” structure, it may also contain an inception within an inception.
Just as Robert is being incepted to break up his father’s company, so too is Cobb being incepted to “take a leap of faith”.  He’s the one we truly care about– in whose transformation we are most deeply invested– and through whose dream architecture we actually experience the story of Inception.

Stay tuned for next week’s article, in which I’ll be breaking down Cobb’s journey as it relates to hypnosis and Inception:  “Is Robert Fischer The Only One Dreaming?”

INCEPTION Part 4: The Power of Post Hypnotic Suggestion, Jacob Krueger!

by, Jacob Krueger

As discussed in parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, Christopher Nolan’s screenplay Inception is deeply rooted in the principles of hypnosis.   Learning more about these principles may not only change the way you approach your own writing, but also help you understand new ways that you can break through writer’s block and build the writer’s life you’ve been seeking.

 

The Post Hypnotic Suggestion

 

Just like the idea, in Inception, that Robert Fischer’s father really loved him, a post hypnotic suggestion is an idea, delivered in deep trance, that the subconscious mind accepts as if it were true.
Post hypnotic suggestions are incredibly powerful, in that when done right, they become anchored in your consciousness, and begin to bring about real life changes in your every day reality.
As suggested in Inception, these post hypnotic suggestions only work if certain conditions are met:

• They are in alignment with the person’s beliefs.  (In other words you can’t “incept” a kind person to be violent, even though you can “incept” a person who desperately wants to write to take action).

• The person chooses to accept the suggestion.  This is why post hypnotic suggestions are more likely to work if they’re given by someone you trust– such as a respected teacher, a great hypnotist, or a person you can depend on (in the case of Inception, Eames masquerades as Peter Browning, the one person Robert truly believes in, to surreptitiously deliver the post-hypnotic suggestion)

• The suggestions, and the “dream” images used to get the person to them, are phrased in the right way for that particular person, using their own language, and their own symbolic systems.

The magic book used in last week’s hypnotic script is just one of many ways of delivering a post-hypnotic suggestion.  Just as the classical three step model is only one of many ways of using hypnosis to bring about profound change.

 

How Are You Incepting Yourself?

The truth is, you’re delivering post-hypnotic suggestions to yourself every single day, in the words you say to yourself, and the soundtrack running in your head.  And these suggestions can be even MORE powerful than the ones a hypnotist provides, because they are already perfectly aligned with your belief systems, come from a person you trust (yourself), and are perfectly phrased in the way that only you can say them.
So if post hypnotic suggestions really are this powerful– are so transformative, as suggested by Inception, that a person like Mal will continue to accept them as the truth, even if they are not true.  Are so powerful that a person like Robert Fischer can heal his whole relationship with his abusive father based on a simple thought.  Then its worth asking yourself, what are the post hypnotic suggestions that you’re giving yourself about your writing?  And what effect are they having on your writing life?

Stay tuned for next week’s article, in which I’ll be breaking down the structure of Inception in relation to the three step hypnotic technique.

INCEPTION Part 3: How Inception Really Works, Jake Krueger Studio!

by, Jacob Krueger

As described in Part 1 and 2 of the series, the organizing principles of Inception‘s “dream within a dream within a dream” structure seem to be drawn directly from a classical three-step approach to hypnosis.  This technique is used to help people create profound changes in their lives, by “incepting” suggestions for positive change into their subconscious minds.  Just as the architecture of Robert’s dream sequence in Inception is built around around the people, image systems, and beliefs Robert holds most dear, so too is a three step hypnotic technique built around the most resonant images for the person being hypnotized.
After an interview process during which the hypnotist gathers images that have emotional power to the writer, the hypnotist would then induce a trance in the person, creating a dream like journey– a series of three images down into hypnosis, and three images back up–  in which each image leads them deeper into trance, and closer to the transformation they are searching for, just like a dream within a dream.

The following is an example of how this technique could be utilized to help a writer break through writer’s block, by constructing a three step sequence of images with emotional resonance to the writer. 

Three Steps Down

For example, if the writer loved the water, the first image might be of them floating in the ocean, feeling incredibly free.  The temperature of the water is exactly the temperature that that is right, and as they float along it feels like the water is caressing their skin.  In the distance, there is a dolphin splashing effortlessly through the water.  The dolphin dives deeper into the water and they find themselves longing to dive down with that dolphin…
This image would lead them to the next sequence, just like a dream within a dream.  Again, working with images that have emotional resonance to the writer.  So if they loved children, we might bring them to a scene at a playground, watching a young child playing happily, creating dream worlds full of magic and creativity, so carefree and playful, completely in touch with their most creative part, just as the writer once was.  The child invites the writer to join them…
This image would lead to the next dream within the dream.  The third level down into the writer’s subconscious, and the third step closer to the transformation they are seeking.  Perhaps they find themselves in a magical forest, where they are approached by someone they completely trust.  This could be a religious figure, like the Buddha or Jesus, a mother or father, or a teacher that they believe in.  The teacher leads them to a special place, a cave, a clearing, a secret room or chamber just for them.
And inside this secret place is an old leather bound book, in which the secret they need to bring about their transformation is written…  all they have to do is read the words, and they will already be transformed….
Those words are the post-hypnotic suggestion.  The key to change, which the subconscious mind will act upon and accept.  Just as in Inception, the hypnotist doesn’t even need to create the suggestion.  They simply need to create the book, and the subconscious mind will populate it with the suggestion it most needs right now…

 

Three Steps Back Up

Once the post hypnotic suggestion is delivered, the hypnotist brings the writer three steps back up, using different versions of the same images to anchor the suggestion, and project a positive future for the subconscious mind in which the person can experience the positive results of the change they have made, as if they had already occurred.

So taking the example previously discussed, as the writer exits the special place where the book was hidden, they can already feel how the secret contained in the book has transformed them.  As they find themselves in the magical forest, it’s like looking through new eyes… everything is so alive and magical.  It’s like there’s a story in every branch, every leaf, every sound.  Stories the writer is curious to explore, and excited to tell…
Their curiosity then carries them back once again to the playground, where they find themselves playing with the child, recapturing that childlike bliss that writing has always held for them, and always will, if they merely take the step today to open themselves to it.  As they see the child’s smiling face, they recognize that face… as a younger version of their own.  At that moment something shifts inside of them, some inner knowing, as they realize what that means…
…Ask that child, that younger self, if they would like to see the great future that lies ahead.  And they discover themselves back back in that ocean.  Only this time the adult and the child swim together with that dolphin, effortless, happy, free.  The dolphin dives, and the writer and child dive with him, together, swimming all the way to the bottom, where they discover a magical reflecting pool, in which they can see their own future.
And reflected in it, writer and child see the future that lies before them, the days of satisfaction as they work on their screenplay, the eager scribbling of endless ideas, a friend or trusted mentor guiding them, the completion of their first script, and then their next, and next, and next…  a crowded movie theatre in which a movie plays.  Their movie.  The one that’s been waiting inside them, just begging to be written down.    They can hear the applause of the audience.  The laughter.  Or maybe even the tears.  They can feel the pride welling up within them…
“How did I get here?” asks the child.
“We did it together” the writer tells the child… and it all began with the step we took today.

 

The Power of Hypnosis

If you’ve read this script, you already have some sense of how the hypnotic process works.  If the suggestions were right for you, you may have even seen yourself in that ocean, in that playground, in that magical forest, and in that secret room.  You may have discovered your own post hypnotic suggestion waiting in your own book, or simply felt the feeling of knowing even if you no longer remember the words.
And if these suggestions were right for you, with them you have already taken the first step of becoming the writer you want to be.
The images I used in this script are drawn from Jungian archetypes, but of course these images take on even more hypnotic power when they are shaped directly from your own symbolic systems, your own beliefs, and your own dreams.
Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter, in which I’ll be discussing post-hypnotic suggestion in relation to Inception.

INCEPTION Part 2: The Power of Hypnotic Images!

by, Jacob Krueger

As I discussed in last week’s article, the organizing principles of Inception’s dream within a dream within a dream structure almost perfectly mirror the classical hypnosis training one receives at a weekend certification class in hypnosis.
To understand how a movie can be built from this kind of organizing principle, you first need to know a little about hypnosis.

 

The Standard Three Step Hypnotic Technique

Weekend certifications in hypnosis generally teach a three step technique which corresponds almost perfectly with the “three dream” technique the characters in Inception are using to convince their subject, Robert Fischer, to break up his father’s company.
Just as the architecture of Robert’s dream sequence in Inception is  built around around the people, image systems, and beliefs Robert holds most dear, so too is a three step hypnotic technique built around the most resonant images for the person being hypnotized.

 

Dream Research and Hypnotic Research

A hypnotic session using this approach begins with an interview, during which the hypnotist gathers images that have emotional power to the person being hypnotized.
For example, if you were using this method to help a blocked writer pick up the pen after a long period of procrastination, you might begin with images that are not even related to writing, but which capture some of the emotions the person wishes they had when they were writing.
The hypnotist would then induce a trance in the person, creating a dream like journey– a series of three images down into hypnosis, and three images back up–  in which each image leads them deeper into trance, and closer to the transformation they are searching for, just like a dream within a dream.
With each step down, the value of the image is established, and with each step back up, the meaning of each image is deepened and adapted, associating that image with the change the person is seeking, and anchoring that change on a deep subconscious level– as if it had already happened.

 

Power of Images

Movies are built around images, because movies are hypnotic.  They carry us out of our own world, and transport us into the dream world of the writer.  Each sequence of images leads us deeper into trance, until we begin to respond to the movie as if it were real, feeling real emotions for characters we know don’t actually exist.
We cry for losses that never happened, feel embarrassed for social gaffs that never actually occurred.  Our hearts race as if we were standing in the character’s shoes– as if their fear was our fear, or their love our love.  We root for them, we care about them.
And we begin to care about their images systems as if they were our own.
When Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, sees his children but cannot see their faces, we begin to long for their reunion just as he does.  And when those children turn around and reveal their faces to him, it’s hard to fight the rush of emotion.

 

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Images?

As a writer, you can use the three step hypnotic process to craft a profound journey for your character.  Think about the images that most powerfully capture your character’s experience on the way down toward the heart of their journey, and how you can return to those images in new ways on the way back up in order to anchor and deepen the change your character is experiencing.
And while your at it, think about the hypnotic images that play in your own head as a writer.  What images do you chose to focus on?  What images are holding you back?  And how can you revisit, deepen, and adapt those images in order to anchor the future that you are seeking?
Whatever images you choose, if you get them right your subconscious mind will respond to them as if they were real– just like you do at the movies.  Perhaps it’s time to create some new variations.

Stay tuned next week for my most exciting Inception article yet– a powerful hypnotic script that uses the principles behind Inception to help you overcome your own creative blocks.

INCEPTION: A Hypnotic Script, Jake Krueger!

by, Jacob Krueger

By now, you and everyone you know have probably seen Inception.  You’ve read reviews that wax poetic about its dream like nature, its visual innovation, and its extraordinarily ambitious thematic aspirations.
Perhaps you’ve even heard me lecture about Inception, and the ways I feel it could have pushed its themes even further.


The Hypnotic Basis of Inception

One of the truly interesting things about Inception is that its structure seems to be based upon the principles of hypnosis.  In fact, the organizing principles of the dream within a dream within a dream structure of the film almost perfectly mirror the classical hypnosis training one receives at a weekend certification class in hypnosis.

Your Screenplay’s Organizing Principles

Why is this important to you as a writer?  Because as writers we all need organizing principles around which to structure our character’s journey.  Usually we think of such structures in terms of acts and themes, but as Inception demonstrates, the truth is that almost any source of inspiration can become the organizing principal of your story:  from a question, to a character trait, to a work of art or piece of music, or in this case to a classical hypnosis certification class.
As writers we are not only students of screenwriting, we are also students of the world.  And the good news is: you can utilize the hypnotic principles behind Inception not only to inspire the way you create the structure of your own movie, but also to open up new avenues toward building your life as a writer.

An Exciting New Series of Articles

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be discussing the hypnotic principles behind Inception, and ways of applying them to your own writing.  I’ll also be describing ways that you can draw upon your own experiences to create organizing principles for your own movies– and harness those ideas to create unity for your script and profound journeys for your main characters.
To that end, we’ll not only be talking about the things that work in Inception, but also the things that could have been pushed further, to make the film even more dramatically successful and emotionally powerful.
Finally, we’ll be discussing ways that you can apply hypnotic principles in your life as a writer, in order to break through writer’s block, heal old wounds to your confidence, overcome procrastination, and create a better relationship between your writing and your editing brain.

Ελληνική Μυθολογία, Ίκαρος..

Στην ελληνική μυθολογία με το όνομα Ίκαρος είναι κυρίως γνωστός ο γιος του εξόριστου στην Κρήτη Αθηναίου Δαίδαλου. Μαζί με τον πατέρα του έμεινε στην αυλή του Μίνωα, ο οποίος είχε αναθέσει στον επιδέξιο και πολύτεχνο Δαίδαλο να κατασκευάσει το Λαβύρινθο, για να φυλακίσει μέσα σ` αυτόν το Μινώταυρο. Ύστερα από λίγο όμως ο Δαίδαλος έπεσε στη δυσμένεια του βασιλιά, που φυλάκισε και τον κατασκευαστή του Λαβύρινθου μέσα στο κατασκεύασμά του. Κατόρθωσε όμως να αποδράσει, βάζοντας σε ενέργεια την ευφυΐα του. Κατασκεύασε φτερά για τον εαυτό του και για τον Ίκαρο, με τα οποία οι δύο άνδρες πέταξαν στον ουρανό και απομακρύνθηκαν από την Κρήτη. Ο Δαίδαλος έφτασε στον Καμικό της Σικελίας, όπου κατοικούσε ο βασιλιάς Κώκαλος. Ο Ίκαρος όμως δε συμμορφώθηκε με τις συμβουλές του πατέρα του και πέταξε σε μεγάλο ύψος. Αλλά τα κέρινα φτερά του έλιωσαν από την ηλιακή θερμότητα και έπεσε στη θάλασσα, η οποία από τότε ονομάζεται Ικάριο Πέλαγος. Η πτώση αυτή θυμίζει τις πτώσεις του Φαέθοντα και ιδίως του Βελλερoφόντη, ο οποίος, όπως και ο Ίκαρος, ήταν ήρωας φτερωτός.

(Source Wikipedia)

K-19 The WidowMaker!

In 1959, the Soviet Union launches its first ballistic missile nuclear submarine, the K-19 — nicknamed "The Widowmaker" due to the many deaths that occurred during its construction. The ship is led by Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford), aided by executive officer Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson). Polenin and the crew have served a number of years and missions together but Vostrikov's appointment is shown to be aided by his wife's political connections; her uncle is a member of the Politburo. During an early inspection, Vostrikov discovers the officer in charge of the sub's nuclear reactors to be drunk and asleep on-duty. Against Polenin's advice that the man is "the best reactor officer in the fleet", Vostrikov sacks the officer and orders Polenin to request a replacement. The new reactor officer arrives direct from the naval academy and has never been at sea. During the K-19's official launch, the bottle of champagne doesn't break when it strikes the bow; the sailors glance nervously at each other due to this renowned sign of bad luck.
K-19 puts to sea for her trials. Vostrikov orders a series of diving maneuvers and during these, asks Polenin to simulate a number of emergencies including fires and flooding while he times the crew's response. He is not happy with their performance. There are a number of minor accidents during these exercises which result in injuries to crew-members. In addition, Vostrikov points out to Polenin that the crew are too slow and slipshod in their reaction and completion of these exercises. The crew begin to grumble about Vostrikov's demanding orders and authoritarian manner, but Polenin silences them when he visits the crew's quarters: "I heard there'd been some complaining. I thought, 'Not from my crew. Not on my boat'." Meanwhile, Vostrikov blames the officers for the crew's under-performance, accusing them of being soft on the men and lacking leadership.
The crew's performance improves and Vostrikov decides to carry out the K-19's first mission, which is to surface in the Arctic and fire an unarmed ("test") ballistic missile. Vostrikov orders the K-19 to submerge to maximum operational depth (300 metres), then surface rapidly at full-speed to break through the Arctic pack-ice which he estimates to be no more than 1 metre thick. Polenin regards this maneuver as dangerous and, during the surfacing procedure, storms off the bridge. After scraping along the underside of the ice, the K-19 finally breaks through and surfaces with no apparent damage. The test missile is launched successfully and the crew are both relieved and exhilarated by Vostrikov's bold maneuver. The crew are allowed some time off during which they play soccer on the ice and a group photograph is taken. Talking privately with Polenin, the sub's political officer expresses some confidence in Vostrikov, but Polenin asserts that the captain was "lucky today, that's all."
K-19 then receives new orders, to sail down through the North Atlantic and patrol off the US east coast "between Washington and New York." As the K-19 sails southwards a pipe carrying coolant to one of the reactor cooling system springs a leak and then bursts completely. The control rods are inserted to stop the reactor but without coolant the reactor temperature continues to rise rapidly. Polenin and the radiation officer are shocked to discover that back-up coolant systems have not been installed. Vostrikov orders the K-19 to surface so that he may contact Fleet Command and inform them of the accident and await orders. But upon surfacing they discover the long-range transmitter on the conning tower is damaged and they are unable to contact headquarters — Vostrikov assumes, ruefully, his surfacing maneuver in the Arctic caused the antenna damage.
The officers and crew-members in charge of the reactor discuss options. The radiation officer informs them that if the reactor temperature exceeds 1000° Celsius it will result in a thermonuclear explosion and may trigger the detonation of the sub's nuclear warheads as well. They have about 3–4 hours before this happens. Some suggest sending out a distress call on the sub's short-range transmitter and abandoning and scuttling the ship. Vostrikov is against this idea. Pavel, the radiation officer's assistant, suggests they can pipe the K-19's drinking water into the reactor to cool it. But they need to set up a system of pipes to transfer the water. Vostrikov approves the plan and the crew work feverishly, cannibalizing the sub to construct the piping system. The final phase requires sailors to enter the radiation-filled reactor room to weld the pipes together. In order to restrict exposure to the deadly, leaking radiation, they require three teams of two, working for no more than ten minutes at a time. Vostrikov calls for volunteers. Pavel and another crewman, Anatoly Zubachev volunteer to be the first team, but Vostrikov has to order others into the reactor. He orders the radiation officer in as part of the last team, to inspect the success of the welds. Polenin and the radiation safety officer then discover the K-19 has no radiation suits, only chemical suits. "They might as well wear raincoats!", exclaims Polenin. Nevertheless, with no other option, he lies to the men and tells them the chemical suits will protect them.
The first team enter the reactor and begin welding. Emerging ten minutes later and removing the suits, they are both suffering from severe radiation poisoning and are carried to their quarters where the doctor attends to them. The second team enters. Meanwhile, on the bridge, the captain, officers and crew monitor the reactor temperature which is climbing steadily. In the reactor room, the second team emerges just as badly poisoned as the first and are carried away. It is time for the third team to go in, but the radiation officer is overcome with fear and cannot bring himself to enter the reactor, despite the urgings of Polenin. Chief engineer Gorelov volunteers to go in his place. They complete the welding and to everyone's relief the reactor temperature begins to fall — the plan seems to have worked. But the submarine is beginning to fill with radiation as the reactor door is now breached, to allow the coolant pipe access. Polenin wants to seek help from a nearby NATO base on Jan Mayen. Vostrikov refuses to surrender his boat or crew and orders the K-19 to sail towards the USSR, under radio silence, in the hope that they will meet up with another Soviet submarine; Polenin is doubtful this plan will succeed as it relies on luck.
Vostrikov is informed that a helicopter is approaching; he and some of the crew climb out onto the deck, thinking a Russian ship has come to save them, only to discover that it is a US Navy helicopter from a nearby US destroyer. The destroyer is asking if the K-19 requires assistance. Vostrikov orders a reply in the negative; the men on the deck notice a crewman in the helicopter photographing them, and they drop their trousers and bare their buttocks at him. The helicopter flies away. Vostrikov refuses to allow the Americans anywhere near K-19. The US destroyer follows them at a discreet distance.
The chief petty officer (CPO) meets with the K-19's political officer in private. The CPO reminds the political officer that he is empowered to remove Vostrikov as captain, if he judges Vostrikov to be jeopardizing the mission. After a few hours and no 'friendly' ship sighted the weld connecting the temporary coolant pipe to the reactor fails and the reactor temperature again begins to rise dangerously. The radiation officer dons a useless safety suit and enters the reactor alone to fix the broken weld. Vostrikov again orders the K-19 to submerge, rather than abandon ship, angering the men. As the K-19 dives some torpedo fuel, spilled when the torpedo was stripped for pipes, ignites and causes a fire in the aft torpedo room. Polenin appears to doubt the captain, but goes forward to supervise the men fighting the fire. When he is gone the CPO and political officer produce pistols, point them at Vostrikov and the political officer announces he is replacing Vostrikov with Polenin as captain of the sub, and to surface immediately. Vostrikov is handcuffed to a ladder. With the torpedo room fire extinguished, Polenin returns and is told what has happened. "Good," he says and asks for the CPO and political officer to hand over their weapons to him. They do so and Polenin immediately orders Vostrikov to be released and the CPO and political officer to be placed under arrest, which they are. Polenin admonishes them for the attempted mutiny and re-asserts that Vostrikov is the captain of the K-19.
Vostrikov then attempts to re-order the crew of the K-19 to submerge, but Polenin interrupts him to say "Don't order them; ask them." Vostrikov explains the situation. If the reactor and the ballistic missiles explode while the K-19 is surfaced, the resulting nuclear blast will destroy not only the K-19 but also the nearby US navy ship and, most likely, the NATO base as well. As the K-19 has not been able to inform anyone in the outside world of her predicament, all the USA, Russia or anyone else will know is that a huge nuclear explosion has destroyed a US warship and NATO base. It could trigger World War III. The crew appreciate their wider duty and prepare to dive deep and scuttle the sub. But the radiation officer has spent 18 minutes in the reactor successfully fixing the weld, and the temperature begins to drop again as Vostrikov himself and other crewmen drag the fatally poisoned officer from the reactor. Just as Vostrikov orders the men off the boat so that he can scuttle it, they are rescued by another Soviet submarine. Vostrikov wants to move his crew to the other submarine, away from the radiation, but permission is not granted. He moves the crew anyway. Polenin warns him that he will be sent to the gulag, just like his father, for disobeying orders. Vostrikov smiles and says, "Its a family tradition, isnt it?" Afterwards, in an inquiry of the events, Polenin speaks highly of him. The inquiry acquits Vostrikov of any wrongdoing in the end, but he is never given command of another sub again.
An epilogue shows an aged Captain Vostrikov in 1989, putting on his dress uniform in a small flat and catching a train to meet up with Polenin. It is exactly 28 years after the accident; the Berlin Wall is shown to be coming down. Vostrikov grumbles about the inconvenience but Polenin informs him this is the anniversary of the day they were rescued. The commanders enter a cemetery where a number of the surviving K-19 crewmen are gathered by a gravesite. We learn that this is the first time the K-19 survivors have met since the incident, they were ordered never to meet or discuss the incident after the inquiry. Vostrikov is visibly moved as he greets the men and informs them that he nominated the men now dead of radiation poisoning (28 in total) for the distinction of Hero of the Soviet Union, but was told they were not "worthy" of the title as they died not in battle, but as the result of an accident. The men drink a toast to their deceased comrades.
(from Wikipedia)