Friday 7 March 2008

Waking Life - Vanilla Sky


The idea that we are all existing in some form of dream has been posted a few times on this blog. There is also a great interest inthe phenomenon technically known as "false awakenings" - when you wake up and then wake up again. The question is; could life be living in a moment before you wake up? CTF proposes that many of us are existing in the final moment of our life - existing within a self-generated dream sequence containing our whole life from the moment of our birth to the moment of our (approaching) death.

Of all the movies that seem to be echoing CTF in this fascinating weltgeist phenomenon none, in my opinion, are more accurate than the two movie versions of Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gil's Abre Los Ojos - Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) and Vanilla Sky. If you have not seen these films I strongly advise that you do. Indeed the final sequence of Vanilla Sky (You Tube link:


contains many elements of ITLAD. Watch this with ITLAD/CTF in mind. You have The Daemon (the guy in the white suit), a fall that stimulates the glutamate flood and a full past life review in the second before Tom Cruise (David Aames) hits the ground. This past-life review is fascinating in that it is images from the life of the director, Cameron Crowe. Pure CTF on film!

An interesting synchronicity is that I wrote most of my next book with the Icelandic ambient rock band Sigur Ros playing in the background. Although I have watched Vanilla Sky many times (ditto Abre Los Ojas) it was only today that I realised that they do the soundtrack. Clearly I had picked up some subliminal link.
Those of you who have seen my CTF lecture on YouTube or live will know that at the end I use a falling skydiver to explain the workings of CTF. In many ways this is strangely similar to the movie sequence, don't you think?
I end this posting with the words of David Aames (Tom Cruise) when asked by his Daemon "What is happiness to you David" he replies
"I want to live a real life, I don't want to dream any longer"

2 comments:

SM Kovalinsky said...

YES, this is all mirroring your theory, and that is a beautiful quote - and a sort of plea of the eidolon to the daemon - that you end the post with. And I think the film and your book arose at the same historical "moment" because, as Nietzsche would say, they spring from the same source and speak to one audience. And on the YouTube video you look like a Daemon.

Karl Le Marcs said...

Matt Daemon !
*smile*