Do you think the spinning top totem reality check from Inception would actually work in real dreams? I’d like to test it out, but I don’t have a top currently. I’ll try to buy one the next chance I get, but in the mean time, if anyone has a top in their possession, could they try it and post their results here?
For those of you who haven’t seen Inception, the reality check is basically to keep a top with you and spin it every so often, and in a dream, it will just keep spinning without running down and falling. I have reason to believe it will work because I remember someone on this forum saying that they couldn’t make a visualized object that was spinning stop (long before Inception was released, mind you).
Reordered topic title, because the spoiler warning was being cropped off by the topic title reducer on the index page, and recently posted display.
Well, if you have the time to actually look at it until it stops… or it doesn’t, then it might work, but it’s rather slow, some other RC’s like the nose or hand one are very fast, and also do not require any object/surface in the proximities.
Yep I agree, it would be like wasting LD time! You could be doing so much more instead, when you quickly realize that you are dreaming, instead of watching if the top stops spinning in order to know for sure you’re dreaming.
But then again, I don’t know if the phase that you are in, when you’re wondering if you are dreaming, is part of your total LD time allotted. If it isn’t, then by all means take your time watching a spinning top until you are lucid. sounds kinda meditative
I wonder though if you would lose that feeling that you might be dreaming when watching the spinning top for so long?
I think the other guy’s totem was quicker, a loaded dice. But loading dice seems to change the likelihood of what you roll, not necessarily making it roll on the same face 100% of the time. Ariadne had a metal chess piece, I think it fell a certain way… so, if it rolls when it’s just supposed to fall solidly, then she knows she’s in a dream.
I’ve been trying to think of up similar RC’s since watching Inception: a mood ring that turns black the very moment you take it off, instead of fading; a pocket watch, you swing it around by its chain and if it tries to fly then you’re dreaming-- or you can just try to look at the time; an empty lighter, if a flame comes up then it must just be responding to your thought commanding fire; fake nail that if you pop it out and the real fingernail comes with it, then really hope it’s a dream!
The following i wrote, and then realized something that didn’t make much sense. Read on, regardless.
That’s how they explain it in the film, anyway. However, since Ellen Page’s character shows us clearly that one can manipulate another’s dreamworld, it seems to be moot. A minor plot hole, perhaps?
still, a fun idea, but i’d stick to good ol’ fashioned nose-plugging.
But couldn’t that apply to any RC? Pinching your nose is useless, because you know that it stops your breathing, you think your breathing’s going to be blocked, therefore it will be. The Inception totems at least got right the idea that the effective RC’s are different for everyone.
…and, yeah, I wondered what the architect’s purpose was, since Ellen Paige’s character didn’t really seem to do anything on the mission.
[spoiler]In the beginning of the movie, at the restaurant scene, Cobb briefly explains how they work - they put a dreamer into a dreamworld of their own making (made by the architect). So they aren’t really in a “normal dream” but in a constructed dream. (That’s what the architect does, create the dreamworld for their "victim).
But that doesn’t hold up in the limbo world - maybe that’s why they didn’t use the top there as well? Since she hid it? Oh there are so many things in this movie to be pondered on! [/spoiler]
I agree that the spinning top method would be too long and take up too much dream time. I have always just looked at my hand to initiate a lucid dream. My hand always looks strange in my dreams, and sometimes the thought to look at my hand triggers lucidity. I think its the easiest, quickest reality check and you can practice it in real life very discreetly without people looking at you funny.
I don’t think you wait for the spinning top to stop. In a dream the top will spin without wobbling, in reality the top will wobble a little. I think thats how Cobb used it.
You can make your own totem it’ll be fun. I wanted to find a tiny tube and fill it with sand as my totem. If I flip the tube and the sand doesn’t move then I’d know I am dreaming. Too bad I can’t find any tiny tubes . My second plan a one sided coin with a smiley face, whenever there is a different face then it’d be a dream.
Ah that’s so cool KauaiDreamer . I would wear that as a necklace. Where can you buy that?
I’ve already made my totem, I call it “The face changing coin.” It’s like a metal coin and a silver smiley face on one side. Haha I won’t let anyone touch it .
I’ll PM you the url, I can’t post it, not allowed! I bought one, it only gives you three seconds, but I think it’s perfect cause I can do it in public, and the only thing that might happen is people commenting on how cute it is, instead of wondering if I’m missing a few screws!
it’ll be fun. I wanted to find a tiny tube and fill it with sand as my totem. If I flip the tube and the sand doesn’t move then I’d know I am dreaming. Too bad I can’t find any tiny tubes 
. My second plan a one sided coin with a smiley face, whenever there is a different face then it’d be a dream.
. I would wear that as a necklace. Where can you buy that?
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