Apart from the many elements on how to have a lucid dream, it is very important to have a totem. Of course the many articles and blogs that you might have read were published before the movie inception came out and hence their methods might be a bit difficult to implement. However the oncoming of one of the most genius movies of our generation gave us the idea that the difference in perception of a material detail can help our brains question some simple things which ultimately help us realise that our visual senses are tricking us into an altered reality. The copper spinning top was a stylish totem and a brilliant symbol to depict the artistic genius of the science fiction flick. But the choice of a totem and the idea behind it is very difficult and requires critical thinking since every mind is unique when exposed to perceptions occurring due to all different objects. For a simple example you could easily say that Shah Jahans totem would simply be a red rose since he is always depicted holding a rose up his nose so it’s very obvious that in his dream he would choose to stick a rose up his nose too and would realize it has no fragrance. That way he would be convinced that his world is not real and his totem would do the trick.

But while figuring out the choice your totem can be a genius in its own sense there is one common totem we all have and it is fairly simple to observe it once we set up a situation for ourselves. That simple totem is simply our handwriting. If you simply write one line preferably on a board or a piece of paper for let us say once every hour, in your dream surely will do that activity too and it is while in the process of writing you will realize you either can’t write at all or it is simply some scratching you been doing all that time (again varies from subject to subject). It is a very simple process and very easily implementable.

Now once this part is over you would think it would a fun ride to enter into a lucid dream and explore the subconscious and enjoy the abstract nature of it right? Not really. There is no control over a dream. You can realize that you are in one but that does not mean you control it. Cobb says it specifically in the movie that the subconscious simultaneously does the process of creation and perception so brilliantly that we don’t even realize what is going on. So maybe you see the silheoute of a girls back and you run towards her but quickly your subconscious will play some evil trick and when you turn her around she could have a whole lot of worms eating her face. Our dreamy visions and settings will most of the time react to opposite of what we expect without our will and that’s because most of us are very scared of losing our optimistic views of life. Each and every negative aspect be is a dead dog on the street or a helpless begger or our bullies which we think we are trying to ignore in real lives will come running towards us with machetes in our dreams. So if you are thinking of having a pleasant lucid dream there is a great deal of brain programming we need to do in real life. It is only by developing the taste for aesthetic simplicity that our brains will keep the wonderland of our subconscious smooth or by engaging in art. Any kind of art but more preferably fine arts is a great pathway to frame a beautiful subconscious setting. And sometimes not by engaging in it practically but by simply looking and observing some beautiful masterpieces is enough to sooth your creativity. Inception since being a heist movie featured an architect to develop the setting because the plot kind demanded it. However instead of the architect if the characters were in dream of an artist the whole setting and each and every aspect would have taken a totally twist. Gosh imagine what the guardians of the dream would be like.