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By, Jacob Krueger
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INCEPTION REDUX
This week, we’re going to do a little blast from the past, by revisiting Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Having just seen Get Out! which I’ll be discussing in next week’s podcast-- and which deals pretty brilliantly with the themes of race within a big genre movie, but pretty crappily with the concept of hypnosis-- I wanted to look at a movie that looks at hypnosis in a truly profound way. And in fact builds its structure around hypnotic concepts.
All movies are hypnotic, and the best screenplays actually hypnotize their readers on the page, allowing them to forget that they’re reading (just like you do when you read a great book) and actually start to see, hear and feel every moment in the script on that little movie screen in their heads.
This means that all screenwriters are actually hypnotists-- some are just a heck of a lot better at it than others. Which means that if you want to succeed as a writer, you’re really going to benefit from understanding some basic hypnotic concepts. Because your job is to help your readers-- many of whom are not naturally creative people, and who quite frankly are bored to tears reading scripts-- to slip into a creative state, and be able to effortlessly and viscerally experience your movie as if it were real, without having to supply any of that creativity themselves.
If you’ve taken our Write Your Screenplay classes at Jacob Krueger Studio, you know this is the real purpose of formatting. Not laying out your script in a “grammatically correct” way, but laying it out in a way that induces that hypnotic trance for your reader, lowering the barrier between fantasy and reality, so that they can experience your story as if it were real.
And if you’ve taken our Write Your Screenplay Level 2 classes or Protrack, you also know that structure is actually a hypnotic concept. A way of building fictional moments in a way that takes the character, and the audience, on a real, transformative journey.
Though almost all successful writers apply these concepts subconsciously, you won’t find them in most screenwriting books or the average screenwriting school. I actually learned about them from my Mom, Audrey Sussman, who is a brilliant hypnotherapist, who specializes in Anxiety, Writer's Block and other creative issues, and who taught me everything I know about hypnosis, not as a way of changing my writing, but as a way of shaping my creative and psychological life, so I could become the person that I wanted to be.
But as I moved into my professional career, I was able to apply many of these concepts to my writing, with really powerful results. So before I share this gift with you, I want to take a moment to give a shout out to my mom. And if you’re curious about working with her or learning more about how hypnosis can change your life, shoot her an email at askdraudrey@gmail.com.
The Hypnotic Basis of Inception
One of the truly interesting things about Inception is that its structure is actually 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 you’d receive during a basic hypnosis certification class.
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: a question, a character trait, a work of art or piece of music, or in this case 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.
So in this podcast, 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.
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 brains.
So first, let’s talk a little bit about hypnosis. Both what it is, and what it isn’t.
As much as movies like Get Out! and stage hypnosis shows would like you to think that hypnosis is about mind control, the truth is exactly the opposite. Just like the techniques used on the dreamers in Inception, hypnosis can’t be used to make you do something you don’t want to do, or that doesn’t fit your belief systems. But it can be hugely effective in helping you do the things that you do want to do, but for some “inexplicable” reason, simply can’t.
That’s because hypnosis is really just a way of connecting to your subconscious mind-- the part of your mind that controls your emotions, your nervous system, your instincts, your creativity, and yes, your writing.
The Standard Three Step Hypnotic Technique
Weekend certifications in hypnosis generally begin with a three step technique. The subject is brought “three steps down” into their subconscious mind, at which point a post hypnotic suggestion for the desired change is put into place. The subject is then brought 3 steps back up, and once they leave the trance, if it’s done right, the subconscious mind accepts the new suggestion as real, and their life starts to change around it.
You’ve probably figured out by now that this corresponds almost perfectly with the “three dreams down - three kicks up” technique the characters in Inception use 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
As writers, we begin our process by getting to know our characters-- or better said, by connecting to the characters that already reside within our subconscious minds-- the metaphors for the many parts of our own personalities that we’re exploring on the page as we write.
Similarly, a hypnotherapist begins their work by getting to know the metaphors, image and belief systems that resonate for their subject. For this reason, a classical 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, three steps down into hypnosis, and three images, three steps 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.
The 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 system 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 you’re at it, think about the hypnotic images that play in your own head as a writer. What images do you choose to focus on? What images are holding you back? And how can you revisit, deepen,