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Waking Life

The rallying cry of the Sixties was to “question authority”. In this first decade of the new millennium, that cry has evolved into “question reality”, and movies are reflecting that fascination back to us in an astonishing way.

When even one film gets produced in a particular year with a central, spiritual theme, it is cause for celebration. When FIVE such films are released in one three-month period, it becomes very apparent that interest in metaphysical movies has not only achieved, but actually exceeded, critical mass. For those of us who love films with these themes, there is great cause for celebration.

The period between October 1 and December 31, 2001 saw the release of Beautiful Mind, Vanilla Sky, Memento, Mulholland Drive, and Waking Life. All five films revolve around the central theme of what is real and what is not. Beautiful Mind and Vanilla Sky (MovieMystic Column#1) were widely-distributed, substantial box office performers, and, of course, Beautiful Mind won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2001. Memento and Mulholland Drive were also extensively distributed, albeit in art house theaters in most cities. David Lynch was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his work on Mulholland Drive (one of my favorite films of 2001 and the subject of an upcoming MovieMystic column.).

Waking Life is the one film in this group that got the least attention and actually may be the most innovative of them all. Most of the world missed this film. It was released in just a few art theaters in the fall of 2001 and then, despite brilliant, glowing reviews from such substantial critics as Roger Ebert, it disappeared rather quickly into the world of DVD and video. I hope and believe that it will find a substantial audience in these ancillary markets because it is a breathtakingly daring and utterly metaphysical inquiry into a core question of spirituality and consciousness: what is “more” real––our “waking life” or our dream life?

Even the form of the film is innovative and dazzling. Director Richard Linklater actually shot the footage in live action and then laid animation over that footage, creating an eerie, surreal look and feel to every frame. This process creates an almost hypnotic atmosphere for the action of the film, which, truth be told, is nothing less than a psychological/spiritual/metaphysical inquiry into the meaning and reality of life itself.

I’m not going to give away anything important about the plot here because there truly is no story per se to the film. An analysis of Waking Life cannot even be attempted in conventional terms. Many of you may remember a film many years ago entitled Mindwalk. In comparison, that film, as fascinating and brave as it was, was something like “kindergarten” and Waking Life is “college”. Kind of makes me look forward to seeing what “graduate school” will be like. That, as it is said, is the good news….and, with this film, the news just keeps getting better and more inspirational.

The film opens with a young girl telling a young boy that “dream is destiny” and then the film plays out that theme. The boy dreams he is floating out into the ethers and the rest of the film explores his various waking and dream states, leaving the audience in constant wonder as to which is which. Along the way, he encounters a variety of philosophers, teachers, bartenders, street gangs, and other colorful individuals, all of whom have something fascinating to say about this experiment we call life. Both he and the audience gradually become aware that he has no more reason to believe that his “waking life” is any more real than his “dream life.”

One of the most fascinating sections of the film actually discusses, explains, and details the whole notion of lucid dreaming, a state in which the dreamer is conscious of the fact that he/she is dreaming and actually can direct the action of the dream. For those who have experimented in lucid dreaming, there is a wonderful clue––which I will not divulge here––as to how we can tell if we’re truly dreaming. (Just this sequence alone kept reminding me that, as an audience, we left “Kansas” a long time ago).

Some of the lines of dialogue make you realize how far we have come in the world of consciousness to have co-created a space wherein Metaphysics 101 actually materializes in a film. Here are just a couple of examples:

“To our neural system, there is no difference between experiencing something and dreaming something.”

“Your life is yours to create. It’s always our decision who we are.”

“Maybe all of life is just a dream. Dreams are real as long as they last. What if the same thing can be said about life?”

One of the great joys I get from writing this column is to try to create awareness for films in the spirituality genre that may have been missed when they were in theaters. (Such as After Life, the subject of MovieMystic Column #2). For those of you who are interested in a daring, innovative, and inspirational night at the movies, I recommend Waking Life to you with all my heart. On my 7 point Chakra rating system (which I will explain in more detail in my next column), I give Waking Life 5 Chakras!

I am going to close this column with another line from the film, one that reflects for me a truly dazzling promise of life today:

“This is absolutely the most exciting time that we could have picked to be alive…and things are just starting.”

Stephen Simon has produced such films as Somewhere in Time, What Dreams May Come, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and All The Right Moves. His company Metafilmics will soon produce the film version of Richard Bach’s Illusions with Christopher Reeve directing. Stephen’s first book The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives will be published this fall by Walsch Books/Hampton Roads. Stephen welcomes your comments: TheMoviemystic@aol.com.