In the "Holy Moment" scene in Waking Life, when Caveh Zahedi and David Jewell are discussing film theorist André Bazin, they decide to share a holy moment. The two go silent, look into each other's eyes, and let the animation illustrate the internal experience they're trying to share. There's an interesting parallel between this and the "dissolution of ego" that Stephen LaBerge suggests is sometimes possible in the lucid dreams of those seeking some form of transcendence or enlightenment.
LaBerge excerpts the dream journals of several such lucid dreamers and (on pp. 282-83) he raises the possibility that such dreams might allow dreamers to shed the social and psychological constraints that shape their egos (in Freud's terms) or their imagos of themselves (in Jung's terms). There's something paradoxical about the idea that gaining more awareness and control in a dream allows us to shed awareness and control and somehow achieve "transcendence." LaBerge is careful in his stance. He never argues that this is what is happening; instead, he reports the subjective experience of lucid dreamers and leaves it up to readers to decide what they think.
Zahedi is careful in his stance as well. He attributes Bazin's designation of "holiness" to certain film moments to his Christianity, without critiquing or endorsing it. You might say his suggestion to "have" a holy moment with Jewell is an endorsement, but I get the distinct impression that this holy moment is secular, or at least agnostic. It does seem to involve the shedding of the social and psychological clutter that distances us from our environments and other people, but the animation and the tone of the dialogue both suggest that this holy moment is more about revering the fact of existence and the splendor of the natural world than communicating with God. I should also mention that both the experiment and the animation are conducted with a playful tone that somehow still manages to be reverent.
All of this leads to the question of why discussions of lucid dreaming so often lead to discussions of the metaphysical, mystical, and paranormal. What is it about lucid dreaming that suggests a world beyond what we can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? It seems to me that part of the answer lies in the fact that lucid dreaming suggests a state of consciousness quite different from those most of us experience on a daily basis. If such a state is within our grasps, it does suggest there is more to consciousness--and thus to being alive and aware--than we ordinarily assume. This doesn't mean the "more" is a spiritual phenomenon, but it is at the very least as of yet less than fully explained.
Comments (2)
I just finished watching scientist Sir John Houghton on Bill Moyers' Faith and Reason series, and I was glued to the set. I believe it was for the very same reason that this particular moment in Waking Life is so moving, aside form the beautiful cloud transformation. Houghton is an avowed Christian while maintaining a respected status in his field, space studies. What I find so fascinating is not his personal recognition of a god, but his need to affix a human story to it--oddly, the story of Christianity. Here is a man who despite all his knowledge, cannot come to terms with the most basic findings of late 20th century anthropological and archeological biblical studies--that the Bible is a book of man. This reflects a conscious choice on behalf of Hughton, either implicating him in a profound act of ignorance or denial. BUT even more fascinating is the way he relays his beliefs, his meditations on "what is god." He does it with metaphysical language. Houghton drops much of what is concieved of as "Christian" vernacular and opts for a more mystical tone. He describes god as the fifth dimension, a bit oblique, but still somehow really, really fitting. He says that we can only experience the world by way of our senses, all of which are encapsulated by time/space--the four known dimensions. Perhaps god is the fifth. Man oh man, this rang familiar, and I thought of LaBerge's dog example: the dog "will not (detect the book of philosophy) not because of a defect in its sense of smell, it will because ability, instinct, and experience force it to use the wrong sense for the wrong task. In the same way, the manner in which we percieve the world may not be inadaquate...it may simply be irrevelant because we are employing the wrong senses." Maybe dreams are all we know of god.
Posted by Scott Cheshire | November 20, 2006 2:02 AM
Posted on November 20, 2006 02:02
Maybe its about power...I mean control in dreams gives someone the power to alter worlds, the only other association we can make with such Power is God. So they (lucid dreamers) either become godlike or 'see' god, becoming closer to it.
Posted by Milquetoast | November 20, 2006 7:45 AM
Posted on November 20, 2006 07:45