半梦半醒的人生

前言-预言（童年，种下的因，梦和现实的界限开始模糊）前言-愿望（流星、愿望、超越平常体验的来自更大世界的不可逆的引力）第一个梦-少年第一个梦-旅途、列车上朦胧听到的音乐（被拉上了一轨列车，困惑的开始，脱离母体带来的不安全感，单向性的时间，自身的成长，少年。

音乐是时间的具象，是人类对于时间最直观的感觉，某种创造随着低沉的古典乐一起走到终结，或开始了）第一个梦-排练（梦是现实的演练，还是现实是梦的演练？

戏剧感的爵士音乐，“do a bit slightly out of tune”）第一个梦-现实（你到站了，被抛向彼处，毫无经验但有一些好奇，电话线仿佛脐带，联通了你和你当地的朋友，一个黑色眼影的姑娘穿着一身黑，坐在画面正中央，宛如命运女神，你回避了如此强烈的眼神，就像自己的秘密被看穿了。

莫名其妙被好心人劝上车，但他开始像你倾售价值观：“少说些套话，行程是不需要旁白的”，而他做的恰好相反，呱啦呱啦说个不停都是些肤浅表面的东西，急于表明自身立场显得“独特”，就像他的车，就像大众传媒，虽然不会放过任何宣传自己的机会，但他懦弱伪善不敢做出任何实质有帮助的行为，一个一直沉默的乘客决定了你该下车了，“3streets 2blocks 1corner”，321，你该滚了。

也许只是让司机闭嘴，去哪？

他不会关心，就像一个只关心自己利益的政客。

【事实上，导演不仅把自己演进了电影，还把电影本身演了进去，Linklater 饰演的乘客就是导演，这整个难以醒来的梦的导演，演员（也就是观众，我们大家都是那个青涩的小伙子）是自愿参与的，只要你还在看，你就无法醒过来。

】第一个梦-命运（朦胧长大的青年的你，遭受现实重击。

没有方向不会独立思考的那个“你”，死了，而且死的很没有尊严）=================================================第二个梦-梦（新灵魂吸取了教训，你来到了大学学习知识）第二个自己-存在与责任（存在和责任都是物质层面的，都应该是实实在在的东西而不是概念，都应该被施行而不是做脑力体操。

“做出选择，承担责任”，不要怨天尤人，“不要把自己看成众多因素的牺牲品”【体制、种族、父母、性别等等】，生活要靠自己去创造，这是你的责任，了解这一切也是青年的你的责任。

）第二个自己-创造、语言与感受（“创造来源于不完美”，语言可能起源于超越自我，想要与他人建立联系的欲望，重点不是单词的发音或拼写，这种符号系统，或者更深入一些，是“让不同的人达到同感”，仅仅物质上的满足是不够的，人类还渴望着被理解，还渴望着超越，你又对自身多了一层认识）第二个自己-过场（主人公进入教室、敲门拜访、穿行不息得追逐着知识和不同的见解，学习着概念，积累着，他的眼神不再是迷惑着，变得在消化在思索，他开始有点小小的自信）第二个自己-新人类（在过去，进化是“群体性”的、为了“生存”的、“竞争”的、“被动”的，而现在呢，我们可以观察到，进化的速度越来越快，爆炸性不可预测的方向，也越来越偏向个体自发的需求，在此形成的新人类又成为新的进化螺旋的开始，直至到达某种顶峰，甚至可能改写当下视为公理的规则，也将赋予我们更良好的品格。

有些理想化，但谁知道未来呢？

）第二个自己-回到住所（构建出了一座属于自己的房子，重新获得了安全感，音乐响起，个人认知上了一个崭新的层次，超越了从前的自我，你现在不局限于你个人的体验了，可你还不知道即将面对的是什么）=================================================第三个自己-禁忌和死亡（飞翔只能持续一会儿，最终我们回到现实，触及到了不可避免的禁忌，一个老大哥开始唠叨一些过去你能感觉到却没有能力表达的“社会黑暗面”，死亡、国难财、财阀政治等等，这些似乎无法改变的事实，这些被固定的未来，就像即将来到的老大哥的死一样压在你的心头，老大哥践行了自己的反抗，他走了，但给社会给你都留下了一个问题。

你不再是从前的自己，你发现自己的命运与他人息息相关，你已经是社会人了）第三个自己-超验、共同遗产和本能（音乐响起，一对青年男女在性事完毕后，也许回忆起了高潮时那种世界大同的感觉，谈论起了濒死体验，而由谈论引发的猜想又导向自身，我还是“我”吗，也许更准确的问题是，我是“我的感知”吗？

前世，转世，“somehow i mean reincarnation is just a poetic expression of well collective memories really is. ”，我们继承下来的不只是这一世的体验，甚至可以追溯到生命体能够记忆那时（细胞记忆？

），这种数十亿年的趋利避害形成了一种天生的“本能”，这种“本能”是超验的，无论时间距离。

很好，你发现，潜意识里、本能里，“你”不仅与“他人”息息相关，“你”就是一个“人”，整个人类群体似乎就是一整个生命体）第三个自己-自由意志（我们真的比牢狱中的囚犯更自由吗？

嘿，清秀的主人公认识到人类大同似乎又回到了学校，倾听着困扰着一个科学家（？

）的哲♂学♂问题：刨去基本的经典物理规则、数十亿年的记忆所灌制的“本能”、文化家庭背景，我们还剩多少选择的自由？

【以下有不熟悉的内容，总结下教授的发言】如果这些物理规则是如此不可违抗，那么我们所谓的历史，所谓的发展不就是必然的结果吗，一切就像规则的叠加 1+1+1 这样运作下去了，一切都是可以被计算的？

经典物理不行的话那么量子力学呢，教授觉得如果我们的“自由”是基于一种完全无序的机制的话，那还不如第一种一眼看到头的未来呢（经典言论“上帝不掷骰子”）。

有没有真正基于“我”当下觉知从而做出选择的不受以前经验也不受经典物理规律影响更不是一种抽风似的毫无逻辑关联做出选择的那种自由？

这位科学家似乎想要证明这种可能性。

）=================================================第四个自己-潜意识与主人格之争不谈那么不自由的自由了，退一步，我们承认有这种主人格可以做出”自由“的选择，但是潜意识仍然在暗处伺机而动。

哪个会占上风呢？

现实中一位公放大喇叭发泄自己对于体制不满的中年男子似乎同样渴求着自由，情绪随着面部的充血也直线上升直至高潮，和性欲相通的本能似乎完全主导了他。

“从负面出发的问责，就只是我们对虚无自愿的顺从罢了。

一旦你承认了那冲动，这种认同是会传染的，它毫无限制得繁殖着这种认同。

如果你认同了某种冲动，那就准备迎接那所有的吧。

”老人似乎永远不会让冲动主导局面，他应该有着严于律己的一生。

黑人说 ：“当下的主流反而就是从边缘、从深渊去探索那些触及核心的隐秘，接受自身的脆弱，品尝、感受那种独特，汲取其中的养分，你的主人格和潜意识间的分界模糊了，尝试去达到一种更大的和谐，而借助这种体验从而进一步打开个人和宇宙连接的大门，在此间你感觉到的每分每秒都不再是空虚无意义的了，在此，自我、协调与独一无二从最根源生出。

你就是它，珍珠居住在蚌肉一般，你可以感觉到宇宙仿佛是一个生命，而时间就是它的心跳。

”感觉已经入禅了，自然的高峰体验绝对是无比美妙的，思考分辨是不是主人格什么的都已经太慢了，你只能感知。

）=================================================第五个自己-作为个人所经历的时间对人格的塑造（小时候的我和现在的我根本没有啥共同性嘛～几乎每四年人体的细胞就全部更新了一遍，我和小时候的我还有啥相同？

也许只有 DNA 和对自我的认同保存了下来。

）黑猩猩：我们做的不过是一件又一件重复的事情，甚至是重复“重复”这件事情，因为单调，因为数得清的选择酒吧，无聊故事，“良好的武装是对暴行最好的防御”，无聊到死，你为什么不去死，结果死了两个。

广告歌曲中的歌词“Now i'm free to see the world”第六个自己-梦，you're your own remixer，构建自己的宇宙lucid-Louis，关灯，控制梦境第七个自己-电影holy mom ent第七个自己-感觉一个感觉总比时间快一步的人，一个活了两倍年龄的人第七个自己-礼仪机制发心，我们需要真实的情感，从心底涌发的，你不是一个其他，而是我想要和你交流的你，不是谁都行，只是你。

表演与生活表演是什么？

表演就是生活。

你只能在事件上、或者表情或者什么别的表面上去模仿，梦里的人物将自己想了解想知道想说的按做梦人的暗示说了出来，但这不对，做梦人已经知道了这些，那为什么还需要梦呢？

为什么会做梦呢？

梦又是什么？

这里不需要什么科学的解释，这里的梦更多是自指的，而非身体上的一种机能或冲动，我想弄清这对于我有什么意义，而不是做出什么普适的解释，参与者和观察者-永恒的矛盾测不准I would say that life understand is life lived.这也是一个自指，但这种永恒的矛盾能够得到解释吗，或者至少给出一个自洽的假说也行啊，爆炸头说了一个他的认识：“And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream,that is self-awareness.”分明可以感觉到，在这种解释下，宇宙、自我、记忆、梦开始循环起来，谁是第一个造梦者已经不重要了，一切都在循环，而片中的小伙子确实是真实存在的，他就是导演脑中诞生的、真实的虚幻。

梦境会将你自己显示给你as the pattern gets more intricate and subtle,being swept along is no longer enough.而在此时，船长和那个政客就像两个先知是你定义了你自己，就像你感知了你的梦境，时间是怎样作用在你的身上，梦已经对你说完了暂时要讲的，你得给它一个回应了。

梦境就像你置身的音乐，你在其中，你能感知那音乐，但你却又不是那音乐，你是舞者，你随着那音乐起舞，或者你又“看穿”了音乐的动机，随着自身的节奏起舞，但无论如何，你得回应那音乐，而不是伫立在原地，一切虽然不像机器那么精确的反应，但那是氛围的调动，味觉的协调，虽然慢一些，但是，是整个的，不在任何别的地方别的时间，就在此时此刻，氛围，回应。

时间-幻觉-难以醒来的梦-死亡-预言-结局在最后一段，导演把所有要素都推到了一起，导演将自己也塞进了这个梦中，作为全知的观察者，他告诉了他的造物一切的真相，幻觉，他也告诉了了他的观众相对的真相，电影。

wake up, you know you should, it's easy. 小伙子回到了哪里呢，又会被谁捕捉进梦境还是开始了自己的造梦之旅呢？

无从得知，但亲爱的观众们，你们该从梦中清醒了。

导演一开始就把影片的宗旨亮了出来，“重要的不是画笔的多少，而是那些颜色和线条，也不是套话，不是框架，不是系统，就是感受”。

所以，无论有没有看懂这部电影不重要，其中的乱七八糟的理论不重要，重要的还是你自己的生活，你自己的感受，这部电影有触动到你，这就够了。

船车司机So what do you think of my little vessel? She's what we call "see-worthy." S-E-E. See with your eyesI feel like my transport should be an extension of my personality. Voila. And this? This is like my little window to the world, and every minute, it's a different show.Now, I may not understand it. I may not even necessarily agree with it. But I'll tell you what, I accept it and just sort of glide along.You want to keep things on an even keel I guess is what I'm saying.You want to go with the flow. The sea refuses no river.The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving.Saves on introductions and good-byes.The ride does not require an explanation.Just occupants. That's where you guys come in.It's like you come onto this planet with a crayon box.Now, you may get the 8 pack, you may get the 16 pack.But it's all in what you do with the crayons,the colors that you're given.Don't worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines.I say color outside the lines. Color right off the page.Don't box me in. We're in motion to the ocean.We are not landlocked, I'll tell ya that.

存在主义The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century.I 'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately,the sense of taking responsibility for who you are,the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life.Existentialism is often discussed as if it's a philosophy of despair.But I think the truth is just the opposite.Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life.But one thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it.It's like your life is yours to create.I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration.But when I read them, I always have this awful nagging feelingthat something absolutely essential is getting left out.The more that you talk about a person as a social constructionor as a confluence of forces or as fragmented or marginalized,what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses.And when Sartre talks about responsibility,he's not talking about something abstract.He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about.It's something very concrete. It's you and me talking.Making decisions. Doing things and taking the consequences.It might be true that there are six billion people in the world and counting.Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference.It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms.Makes a difference to other people and it sets an example.In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces.It's always our decision who we are.

语言、感受与精神交流Creation seems to come out of imperfection.It seems to come out of a striving and a frustration.And this is where I think language came from.I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation and have some sort of connection with one another.And it had to be easy when it was just simple survival.Like, you know, "water." We came up with a sound for that.Or, "Saber-toothed tiger right behind you." We came up with a sound for that.But when it gets really interesting, I think,is when we use that same system of symbols to communicate all the abstract and intangible things that we're experiencing.What is, like, frustration? Or what is anger or love?When I say "love,"the sound comes out of my mouth and it hits the other person's ear,travels through this Byzantine conduit in their brain,you know, through their memories of love or lack of love,and they register what I'm saying and say yes, they understand.But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert.They're just symbols. They're dead, you know?And so much of our experience is intangible.So much of what we perceive cannot be expressed. It's unspeakable.And yet, you know, when we communicate with one another,and we feel that we have connected,and we think that we're understood, I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion.And that feeling might be transient, but I think it's what we live for.

进化If we are looking at the highlights of human development,you have to look at the evolution of the organism and then at the development of its interaction with the environment.Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of lifeperceived through the hominid coming to the evolution of mankind.Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon man.Now, interestingly, what you are looking at here are three strings:biological, anthropological, development of the cities, cultures and cultural, which is human expression.Now, what you are seen here is the evolution of populations,not so much the evolution of individuals.And in addition, if you look at the time scales that's involved here two billion years for life,six million years for the hominid,100,000 years for mankind as we know it, you're beginning to see the telescoping nature of the evolutionary paradigm.And then when you get to agricultural, when you get to scientific revolution and industrial revolution, you're looking at 10,000 years, 400 years, 150 years.You're seeing a further telescoping of this evolutionary time.What that means is that as we go through the new evolution,it's gonna telescope to the point we should be able to see it manifest itself within our lifetime, within this generation.The new evolution stems from information, and it stems from two types of information: digital and analog.The digital is artificial intelligence.The analog results from molecular biology, the cloning of the organism.And you knit the two together with neurobiology.Before on the old evolutionary paradigm, one would die and the other would grow and dominate.But under the new paradigm, they would exist as a mutually supportive, noncompetitive grouping.Okay, independent from the external.And what is interesting here is that evolution now becomes an individually centered process,emanating from the needs and the desires of the individual,and not an external process, a passive process where the individual is just at the whim of the collective.So, you produce a neo-human with a new individuality and a new consciousness.But that's only the beginning of the evolutionary cycle, because as the next cycle proceeds, the input is now this new intelligence.As intelligence piles on intelligence, as ability piles on ability, the speed changes.Until what? Until you reach a crescendo in a way could be imagined as an enormous instantaneous fulfillment of human, human and neo-human potential.It could be something totally different.It could be the amplification of the individual,the multiplication of individual existences.Parallel existences now with the individual no longer restricted by time and space.And the manifestations of this neo-human-type evolution, manifestations could be dramatically counter-intuitive.That's the interesting part. The old evolution is cold.It's sterile. It's efficient, okay?And its manifestations are those social adaptations.You're talking about parasitism, dominance, morality, okay?Uh, war, predation, these would be subject to de-emphasis.These would be subject to de-evolution.The new evolutionary paradigm will give us the human traits of truth, of loyalty, of justice, of freedom.These will be the manifestations of the new evolution.That is what we would hope to see from this. That would be nice.

自燃者A self-destructive man feels completely alienated, utterly alone.He's an outsider to the human community.He thinks to himself, "I must be insane."What he fails to realize is that society has, just as he does,a vested interest in considerable losses and catastrophes.These wars, famines, floods and quakes meet well-defined needs.Man wants chaos.In fact, he's gotta have it.Depression, strife, riots, murder, all this dread.We're irresistibly drawn to that almost orgiastic state created out of death and destruction.It's in all of us. We revel in it.Sure, the media tries to put a sad face on these things, painting them up as great human tragedies.But we all know the function of the media has never been to eliminate the evils of the world, no.Their job is to persuade us to accept those evils and get used to living with them.The powers that be want us to be passive observers.Hey, you got a match?And they haven't given us any other options outside the occasional, purely symbolic,participatory act of voting.You want the puppet on the right or the puppet on the left?I feel that the time has come to project my own inadequacies and dissatisfactions into the sociopolitical and scientific schemes.Let my own lack of a voice be heard.

死后的6-12minI keep thinking about something you said.- Something I said? - Yeah.About how you often feel like you're observing your life from the perspective of an old woman about to die.- You remember that?- Yeah. I still feel that way sometimes.Like I'm looking back on my life.Like my waking life is her memories.Exactly.I heard that Tim Leary said as he was dying that he was looking forward to the moment when his body was dead, but his brain was still alive.They say that there's still 6 to 12 minutes of brain activity after everything is shut down.And a second of dream consciousness, right, well, that's infinitely longer than a waking second.- You know what I'm saying?- Oh, yeah, definitely.For example, I wake up and it's 10:12, and then I go back to sleep and I have those long, intricate,beautiful dreams that seem to last for hours, and then I wake up and it's 10:13.Exactly. So then 6 to 1 2 minutes of brain activity,I mean, that could be your whole life.I mean, you are that woman looking back over everything.Okay, so what if I am? Then what would you be in all that?Whatever I am right now.I mean, yeah, maybe I only exist in your mind.I'm still just as real as anything else.Yeah.

灵魂转世- I've been thinking also about something you said.- What's that?Just about reincarnation and where all the new souls come from over time.Everybody always say that they've been the reincarnationof Cleopatra or Alexander the Great.I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else.I mean, it's impossible. Think about it.The world population has doubled in the past 40 years, right?- So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul,then you only have a 50% chance of your soul being over 40.And for it to be over 150 years old, then it's only one out of six.So what are you saying then? Reincarnation doesn't exist or that we're all young souls like where half of us are first-round humans?No, no. What I'm trying to say is that somehow I believe reincarnation is just a poetic expression of what collective memory really is.There was this article by this biochemist that I read not long ago, and he was talking about how when a member of a species is born, it has a billion years of memory to draw on.And this is where we inherit our instincts.I like that. It's like there's, um,this whole telepathic thing going on that we are all a part of,whether we are conscious of it or not.That would explain why there's all these, you know, seemingly spontaneous, worldwide, innovative leaps in science, in the arts.You know, like the same results poppin' up everywhere independent of each other.Some guy on a computer, he figures something out, and then almost simultaneously, a bunch of other people all over the world figure out the same thing. They did this study. They isolated a group of people over time, and they monitored their abilities at crossword puzzles in relation to the general population.And then they secretly gave them a day-old crossword, one that had already been answered by thousands of other people.Their scores went up dramatically, like 20 percent.So it's like once the answers are out there, you know, people can pick up on them.It's like we're all telepathically sharing our experiences.

囚犯I'll get you motherfuckers if it's the last thing I do.Oh, you're gonna pay for what you did to me.For every second I spend in this hellhole, I'll see you spend a year in living hell!Oh, you fucks are gonna beg me to let you die.No, no, not yet.I want you cocksuckers to suffer.Oh, I'll fix your fuckin' asses, all right.Maybe a long needle in your eardrum.A hot cigar in your eye.Nothing fancy.Some molten lead up the ass.Ooh!Or better still, some of that old Apache shit.Cut your eyelids off. Yeah.I'll just listen to you fucks screaming.Oh, what sweet music that'll be.Yeah. We'll do it in the hospital.With doctors and nurses so you pricks don't die on me too quick.You know the best part?The best part is you dick-smoking faggots will have your eyelids cut off,so you'll have to watch me do it to you, yeah.You'll see me bring that cigar closer and closer to your wide-open eyeball till you're almost out of your mind.But not quite,cause I want it to last a long, long time.I want you to know that it's me,that I'm the one that's doing it to you.Me!And that sissy psychiatrist?What unmitigated ignorance!That old drunken fart of a judge!What a pompous ass!Judge not, lest ye be judged!All of you pukes are gonna die the day I get out of this shithole!I guarantee you'll regret the day you met me!

科学之后，如何自由In a way, in our contemporary world view, it's easy to think that science has come to take the place of God.But some philosophical problems remain as troubling as ever.Take the problem of free will.This problem's been around for a long time, since before Aristotle in 350 B.C. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, these guys all worried about how we can be free if God already knows in advance everything you're gonna do.Nowadays we know that the world operates according to some fundamental physical laws,and these laws govern the behavior of every object in the world.Now, these laws, because they're so trustworthy, they enable incredible technological achievements.But look at yourself. We're just physical systems too.We're just complex arrangements of carbon molecules.We're mostly water, and our behavior isn't gonna be an exception to basic physical laws.So it starts to look like whether it's God setting things up in advance and knowing everything you're gonna do, or whether it's these basic physical laws governing everything.There's not a lot of room left for freedom.So now you might be tempted to just ignore the question, ignore the mystery of free will.Say, "Oh, well, it's just an historical anecdote. It's sophomoric.It's a question with no answer. Just forget about it."But the question keeps staring you right in the face.You think about individuality, for example, who you are.Who you are is mostly a matter of the free choices that you make.Or take responsibility. You can only be held responsible, you can only be found guilty or admired or respected for things you did of your own free will.The question keeps coming back, and we don't really have a solution to it.It starts to look like all your decisions are really just a charade.Think about how it happens. There's some electrical activity in your brain.Your neurons fire. They send a signal down into your nervous system.It passes along down into your muscle fibers.They twitch. You might, say, reach out your arm.Looks like it's a free action on your part,but every one of those- every part of that process is actually governed by physical law:chemical laws, electrical laws and so on.So now it just looks like the Big Bang set up the initial conditions, and the whole rest of our history, the whole rest of human history and even before,is really just sort of the playing out of subatomic particles, according to these basic fundamental physical laws.We think we are special. We think we have some kind of special dignity,but that now comes under threat.I mean, that's really challenged by this picture.So you might be saying, "Well, wait a minute. What about quantum mechanics?"I know enough contemporary physical theory to know it's not really like that."It's really a probabilistic theory.There's room. It's loose. It's not deterministic."And that's gonna enable us to understand free will.But if you look at the details, it's not really gonna help, because what happens is you have some very small quantum particles, and their behavior is apparently a bit random.They swerve. Their behavior is absurd in the sense that it's unpredictable, and we can't understand it based on anything that came before.It just does something out of the blue, according to a probabilistic framework.But is that gonna help with freedom?Should our freedom just be a matter of probabilities, just some random swerving in a chaotic system?That just seems like it's worse. I'd rather be a gear in a big deterministic, physical machine than just some random swerving.So we can't just ignore the problem.We have to find room in our contemporary world view for persons,with all that that it entails; not just bodies, but persons.And that means trying to solve the problem of freedom, finding room for choice and responsibility and trying to understand individuality.

反抗者You can't fight city hall, death and taxes.Don't talk about politics or religion.This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket line." Lay down, G.I. Lay down, G.I."We saw it all through the 20th Century.And now in the 21st Century, it's time to stand up and realize that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze.We should not submit to dehumanization.I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world.I'm concerned with the structure.I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more!I want freedom! That's what I want!And that's what you should want!It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and just shovel the greed, the hatred, the envy and, yes, the insecurities, because that is the central mode of control-- make us feel pathetic, small, so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny.We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale.Start challenging this corporate slave state!The 21st Century is gonna be a new century, not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance and classism and statism and all the rest of the modes of control!It's gonna be the age of humankind standing up for something pure and something right!What a bunch of garbage-- liberal Democrat, conservative Republican.It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin.Two management teams bidding for control!The C.E.O. job of Slavery, Incorporated!The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies!I'm sick of it, and I'm not gonna take a bite out of it! Do you got me?Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing.Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers!We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings!We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit!Well, that's it! That's all I got to say! It's in your court.

The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness.And once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious.It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit.To say yes to one instant is to say yes to all of existence.

mindThe main character is what you might call "the mind." It's mastery, it's capacity to represent. Throughout history, attempts have been made to contain those experiences which happen at the edge of the limit where the mind is vulnerable. But I think we are in a very significant moment in history. Those moments, those what you might call liminal, limit, frontier, edge zone experiences are actually now becoming the norm. These multiplicities and distinctions and differences that have given great difficulty to the old mind are actually through entering into their very essence, tasting and feeling their uniqueness. One might make a breakthrough to that common something that holds them together. And so the main character is, to this new mind, greater, greater mind. A mind that yet is to be. And when we are obviously entered into that mode, you can see a radical subjectivity, radical attunement to individuality, uniqueness to that which the mind is, opens itself to a vast objectivity. So the story is the story of the cosmos now. The moment is not just a passing, empty nothing yet. And this is in the way in which these secret passages happen. Yes, it's empty with such fullness that the great moment, the great life of the universe is pulsating in it. And each one, each object, each place, each act leaves a mark. And that story is singular. But, in fact, it's story after story.

Time just dissolves into quick-moving particles that are swirling away. Either I'm moving fast or time is. Never both simultaneously.

It's such a strange paradox. I mean, while, technically, I 'm closer to the end of my life than I've ever been, I actually feel more than ever that I have all the time in the world.When I was younger, there was a desperation, a desire for certainty, like there was an end to the path, and I had to get there.I know what you mean because I can remember thinking,"Oh, someday, like in my mid-thirties maybe, everything's going to just somehow jell and settle, just end."It was like there was this plateau, and it was waiting for me, and I was climbing up it, and when I got to the top, all growth and change would stop.Even exhilaration. But that hasn't happened like that, thank goodness.I think that what we don't take into account when we are young is our endless curiosity.That's what's so great about being human.- You know that thing Benedict Anderson says about identity?- No.Well, he's talking about like, say, a baby picture.So you pick up this picture, this two-dimensional image, and you say, "That's me."Well, to connect this baby in this weird little image with yourself living and breathing in the present, you have to make up a story like, "This was me when I was a year old, and later I had long hair, and then we moved to Riverdale, and now here I am."So it takes a story that's actually a fiction to make you and the baby in the picture identical to create your identity.And the funny thing is, our cells are completely regenerating every seven years.We've already become completely different people several times over,and yet we always remain quintessentially ourselves.

Our critique began as all critiques begin:with doubt.Doubt became our narrative. Ours was a quest for a new story, our own.And we grasp toward this new history driven by the suspicion that ordinary language couldn't tell it. Our past appeared frozen in the distance, and our every gesture and accent signified the negation of the old world and the reach for a new one. The way we lived created a new situation, one of exuberance and friendship, that of a subversive microsociety in the heart of a society which ignored it. Art was not the goal but the occasion and the method for locating our specific rhythm and buried possibilities of our time. The discovery of a true communication was what it was about, or at least the quest for such a communication. The adventure of finding it and losing it. We the unappeased, the unaccepting continued looking, filling in the silences with our own wishes, fears and fantasies. Driven forward by the fact that no matter how empty the world seemed, no matter how degraded and used up the world appeared to us, we knew that anything was still possible. And, given the right circumstances, a new world was just as likely as an old one.

There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life and those who suffer from an overabundance of life. I've always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not essentially any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved. Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress, but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes? No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic - fear or laziness? What are you writing? A novel. What's the story? There's no story. It's just people, gestures, moments, bits of rapture, fleeting emotions.

该电影简介由豆瓣网专职人员撰写或者由影片官方提供，版权属于豆瓣网，未经许可不得转载或使用整体或任何部分的内容。

，经历各种各样的神奇体验，仿佛穿梭于不同的梦中。

在此期间，他还遇到了各色人等：从开着船形汽车的司机到大学教授，从性感的金发美女到癫狂的眼睛男，从引火自焚的金发男子再到留着雷鬼头的四人团体……每个人都喋喋不休，谈论着人生、理想和哲学。

而维利不发一言，俨然一个极具耐心的聆听者。

本片由导演兼编剧理查德•林克莱特（Richard Linklater）采用DV真人拍摄，并用软件将其“动画化”。

导演史蒂文•索德

在豆瓣上溜达一圈，觉得应该有人好好说的说的本片，无奈只能由我这个懒人暂且充当一下这个角色了，咳咳。

【欢迎潜下去的比我还懒的人来批评指导扔板砖】这部电影一下抓住了我，我承认，是有很多主观色彩在里面的，对梦的研究，量子物理，自由论，关于生活，存在，还有人与人的交流方式，都是我非常感兴趣也是一直在关注的问题。

所以看到这部电影真的非常想跪在地上，捧着盘，仰头45度，瀑布泪，还要在脑袋顶上打个光的。

所以与其说这是一部电影，更像是一种交流，像涉及语言起源话题的那个女的说的那样，人类有各种各样的交流模式，而这部电影就是其中之一，是导演在世纪交界之处希望传到一个强有力的信号，而如果你能接受到信号的话，就不会觉得这是满头雾水的对白了，而是，你也是对话之中积极的参与者。

首先，关于梦。

一段时间，我总是再做同一个梦，梦见自己在飞，我可以控制气流，轻轻向下踩一下，就会上升，可以控制高度，控制速度，控制降落，一切，就像真的在飞一样。

一直对佛洛依德梦的解释很感兴趣，得知这叫醒梦，也就是电影里多次提到的lucid dream，这是梦一种比较高级的状态，在这种梦的状态之中，梦者是对自己的梦有掌控能力的，可以思考，可以判断，可以行动，并不一定是飞翔，飞翔是一种少有的状态，可以仅仅就像是电影里那样就是进入一个又一个日常生活的情节之中，但是对自己的梦有部分掌控能力，并且这种能力可以主观上得以训练，控制梦的能力也就更强，我一直在对自己做这些有趣实验，也确实有不少收获。

而关于梦与现实，一直以来都是一个很有意思的话题。

我们是在梦中还是在现实中，怎样才能确定我们不是从一个梦中醒来，却进入了另一个梦中，怎样才能区分梦境与现实？

这个话题又可以被我非常主观的解释为——怎样才能有真正的存在感？

我看过两个对这个话题最有意思的探讨；一个是米兰昆德拉，他既提出了问题，也解决了问题，提问和答案还都是一样的，那就是——生活，永远在别处。

另外一个就是这部电影啦，很巧妙的是，导演的提问和回答也都在题目里了，那就是Waking Life.但其实这部电影的剧情不仅仅是一个个梦那么简单，若是真的要很客观的从电影内部的心理学角度来分析的话，我偏向于整部电影都是男主角死亡之前的思想停留，跟stay的剧情框架是一致的。

关于人死前的的意识存在的问题，片中也有简短介绍，简单说来就是当人的机体已经死亡之后，大脑还会有5分钟左右的生存时间，而这短短的几分钟，在思维的过程中可以是几个月，甚至几年的时间线，而大脑这段时间的运作其实于梦非常类似，都是潜意识的记忆空间的思维活动，能够反映出最基本的心理和渴望。

本片也正是如此，其中几处暗示有，1.电影刚开始男主角搭车后被撞，2.Jesse 和Céline在床上讨论人死前的意识停留，以及3.最后男主角发现自己无法从一个有一个梦中醒来，推断自己可能已经死了。

这些都应合理的推理为，(加上我的部分主观推测），男主角车祸身亡，但是由于他壮年夭折，对生活抱有诸多疑问亟待解决，（好吧，这两句是搞笑用的）所以潜意识里渴望能够得到一个答案，于是在幻觉世界里产生了大量此类话题的对白，其中夹杂着一些生前的记忆碎片，和临死一瞬间的回忆。

在对具体内容展开之前，我想先提醒大家，有没有注意到不知道在电影哪分钟里男主角的一句台词，（好吧，我是非常不负责任的影评者，大概是跟那个地下道里遇见的女人的对话里），他说，他进入了很多对话之中，这些对话似乎都是在讨论一个主题。。。

当当当当一个华丽的切入点。

所有这些不同的话题，你说他涉及了物理学也好，生物进化学也好，哲学，心理学，甚至法学，政治，民主，自由，等等似乎触类旁通，但其实仅仅是一个话题，导演只想跟我们说明一件事情，但这件事情之所以导演没有那么直白的用语言的形式明确表达出来，而仅仅是暗示，是因为，对于不同观影主题来说，会有不同的理解与看法，而仅仅明确提出这个主题，就会把这个主题的范围大大狭隘化了。

（貌似我现在就在大大狭隘这个主体，呃。。。

）如果让我总结的话，我会说，整个话题都是关于Life的，（我无法直接翻译这个词，因为译成，生命，生活，生存都不够妥当）也就是电影名字的后半部分。

（关于前半部分，我会稍后说明）如果要剖析每一段对话的话，这个影评就会有一个很难看的长度了，（这是我非常不希望发生的）因为导演在这么一部短短的电影中想表达的东西太多了，所以我就抓我认为的重点来说了。

整个电影最核心的一个人物，是在大桥上高呼：Life is not a dream! be aware, and be aware,and be aware! 的那位仁兄，并且据推断这个人物的形象很有可能就是导演本身。

其中关于认知和life他说，他并不完全赞同某某的观点（原谅我忘记那哥们叫什么了，并且很无知的不知道他是谁），而说，Life understood is life lived.(这也就正是本片的一个中心思想吧，啊，回到小学语文课的感觉真好啊）。

无论拥有怎样的人生，混混沌沌都是可耻的，就算是在清醒的”现实“状态之中，毫无知觉的渡日，如在半睡半醒之中，（所谓waking，电影名字的前半部分） 那又与真正睡梦相差几何呢？

但是这世界上有多少人是在这种所谓的半梦半醒的状态之中的呢？

如果真的要去计数的话，得到的只可能是一个残酷的数字。

地铁上多少面无表情的朝九晚五上班族，多少自觉欣慰穿着“白领”奔波的灵魂，早已忘了自己年轻时的初衷与梦想，多少大学校园里荒废时光的“新世纪接班人”。

还有多少高考考场里渴望着自己理想的院校的孩子。

等等，你以为这就是有目的，有意识的行为么？

哦，不， 我们早就在社会中被摆弄了。

整体的社会价值观就是，一个孩子，应该接受教育，应该在学校取得好的成绩，应该上一个一说名字大家都能知道的大学，应该在大学毕业之后找到一份收入可观的工作，等等等等。

虽然不可否认这可以是一种正确的人生轨迹，但是我们的人生，还是我们清醒的状态下（非梦的状态下）的选择么？

这是我们的自由意志么？

我们有选择的权利和自由么？

还是这是我们从小就被社会灌输的一种所谓正确的生活观？

或者说是在潜在的社会观念下的束缚下的非自由状态？

这就应了电影里另一位仁兄，谈及自由问题的时候问道：有没有真正的自由可言？

连我们的思考都是在尊崇所有人一致的思考程序，无非不是大脑中几个电流蹦出的火花，那我们又怎样才能摆脱这些本身就赋予在我们身上的枷锁，获得真正的自由呢？

当然这种绝对的消极主义是不可取的，谁都知道大家微观的思维过程是一致的，但是主观意识却占有更主要的比重。

毕竟苹果砸在有的人的脑袋上，能够发现万有引力，砸在我的脑袋上就肯定不行。

毕竟有的人脑袋里就能突然显现出E=mc^2，在有的人脑袋里就只能是狭隘的金钱占有欲，嫉妒，贪婪与懒惰。

但是过分乐观也是不可取的，这种潜在的社会枷锁在一定程度上虽然束缚了自由意志，但却不能否认的保障了一定的社会秩序。

换句话说，在现在的这个时代，这种有点扭曲有点病态的社会状态还是可以被接受的，借用马克思的话就是：还迎合现在所谓的生产力。

只是有一部分人会在这样的生活状态中感到极端的孤独，有的人会觉得矛盾，有的人会与整个社会格格不入，但是随着时间消逝，这一部分人中又有一部分人学会了接受和迎合，慢慢走近了社会的大圈子里，真正的问题仅存在于少数自以为文艺的青年中。

这部分人活在未来的时代当中，就像梵高毕加索不能被自己的年代赏识，就像艾米丽狄耿森的诗在自己的时代活不下去，就像一直在黑暗中踽踽独行的鲁迅，把时间狠狠往前推，就像公元前就在渴望理想国的柏拉图，像渴望完美仁君的孔孟，还有完全脱世的老庄。

在自己的年代中，都是那样的格格不入。

是时代的问题，不久的将来或是很久之后的将来，当这种问题变成社会普遍问题的时候，就意味着，革命又将到来。

你可以说我像尼采一样唯心，一样疯狂，但是这种你认为可取也可以认为不可取的意识本身的价值是不可估量的。

最后再回到电影当中，再回到梦的话题上来。

我也想站在桥上高喊：Life is not a dream, be aware, be aware, and be aware! 也许鲁迅也好，导演也好，我也好，都仅仅是想站起来，高声吼一下，就算能够唤醒一个“半睡半醒”中的人也好啊。

其实无论是昆德拉也好，本片导演也好，答案都是一样的—— 真正重要的不是区分到底是在睡梦中还是清醒着，重要的是能够自由思考，确定自己认为有价值有意义的事情，为之追求，不被周围意志所动摇，并且能够时刻清晰的意识到自己的行为还在自己原始的轨道上。

这样，就算现在所经历的状态仅仅是一个梦，也不枉此行了。

Life understood is life lived! 我再加上一句，让它逻辑上更完整，Dream understood is dream dreamed!PS 电影还有一个很厉害的地方就是，对白那么多！！！

开头30分钟，男主角基本上没说过话。。。。。

绕了一圈结果又回来了。

你曾经有没有这种感觉，好象做梦永远都不会醒。

永远分不清楚现实和梦境的区别。

我总是从一个梦境中醒来，然后发现自己进入另一个梦中，永无休止。

梦中的一切似乎都异常熟悉，清晰可见，但是却怎么都想不起来在哪里看过。

我说的不是DEJA VU，而是真实。

如果你曾经有过这样的体验，那就去看《WAKING LIFE》吧，那是我见过的最具梦幻气质的动画了。

事情总是这样有意思，当3年前某一天，朋友问我有没有看过一部叫《WAKING LIFE》的动画的时候，我就有某种似曾相识的感觉，好象在哪个遥远的地方听过这个名字？

在她发来的HP上，那油彩一般的画面，和超现实的场景马上就吸引了我。

“你是不是从来不曾醒来？

”“你知道梦中的世界是怎样的吗？

”。

可惜的是当年没有并找不到这部电影，我逛了很多的碟市，也没有听人提起过它。

可能独立电影的市场还是不行吧。

只是现在……某一天在杂志上发现了RICHARD LINKLATER的名字，知道了这个导演《SLACKER》，《BEFORE SUNRISE》的另类，原来就是创作《WAKING LIFE》的人。

欣喜之下马上在P2P上搜索，终于找到了。

于是在某个半梦半醒的晚上，在微亮的电脑前看完了它。

无法叙述更多的剧情，因为这电影基本就没有剧情，一个人在梦境中醒来，听不同的人说话，然后醒了，发现仍然是一个梦，再不断的和别人说话。

这一次又一次重复的过程让人想起了庄周梦蝶和轮回的观点，但又不完全相象，似乎更接近MATRIX所说的虚拟和现实的界限。

可是并非那么冷冰冰的，只是梦罢了，不涉及生死，无关乎大局，纯粹个人的体验。

碰巧这个想法也曾经在我脑中出现过，当你不断的醒来，不断对当下的世界做出否定的同时，也会不断加重自身的疲惫。

当你发现自己穿梭的只是一个又一个的梦，却永远没可能改变他们，或者是脱离的时候，我想任谁都无法忍受。

电影中的主人公似乎就深受其苦。

他好奇，却又彷徨，不知这一切是从哪里开始的。

“我从什么时候开始做这个梦的呢？

”，“又或者我也不过是别人的一个梦而已？

”当想到着一点的时候，个人的危机终于出现了，我是何以成为这个独一无二的我的？

这个问题从电影的一开始就被提了出来，然后通过和主角谈话的不同的人口中说出不同的答案，不过我想肯定大多数会在这看来没有尽头的对话面前晕菜的。

从量子力学，存在主义，尼采的自我本我超我，到进化论，心理学，语言学，佛教的转世，鲍德里亚的虚拟与仿真，后现代主义，“神圣”意味的电影语言……还有许多我也不知道的内容。

这种感觉怎么形容呢，好象是看到熟悉的人一样想冲上去拥抱他，但是又有一种想把显示器砸掉的冲动。

因为……许多的对话机智幽默，但也意义深刻，冗长不已，三番五次我都克制着自己想睡觉的冲动。

所有的人都像主角提供着解释的方式，却无法解决现实的问题。

直到最后……影片并未向我们提供一个一成不变的答案，相反，主人公是用一种近乎个人式的方法醒来（？

或者又进入一个梦？

），这是不是意味着所谓的知识——现存的那些知识，是不足以来解决我们所碰到的关于认识自身的那个问题——那个永远高悬在DELPHI神庙的警句。

我们只有通过逐渐地了解自己，从自身的内部寻找通往彼岸的出路。

看完电影已经很晚了。

我并没有找到答案，只是经历了一个漫长的旅程。

也许明天醒来，这也不过是昨天的一个梦，谁知道呢？

PS，值得一提的还有影片那怪异奇特的动画影象风格，对于看惯日本动画的我们觉得是一次新奇的冲击。

原文地址：http://makzhou.blogbus.com/logs/2004/11/493727.html标题套用了MOG的发言哦^^

不好意思，我看本片的时候也半梦半醒……大量的对白，恍惚又不太连续的画面……当然，和看片时的精神状态可能也有关。

并不是说影片不好看，至少不是不好。

只不过确实有点催眠的效果……很切合影片主题……我想先说一下它的动画效果（是的，这是一部动画片）。

第一眼觉得，哇靠这画得真像啊。

然后我马上就警觉了，这不能吧，肯定是拍真人再去做效果的吧。

但是它又时不时加进一些变形、迷幻等效果。

于是我一直关注着画面，直到July Delpy（“Celine”）和Ethan Hawke（“Jesse”）出现，发现了脸熟的——这也“画”得太像了，一定是真人拍的……然后我又重新将时间轴拉回前面，关注对白内容。

插说一下，“Celilne”和“Jesse”是来自《Before Sunrise》和《Before Sunset》的角色——严格地说，拍本片时还没有《Before Sunset》——但是情景上似乎在其后，因为此二人上床了，醒来依然在继续着不休而无甚边际的对白。

（少量截图见http://www.douban.com/photos/album/14766171/。

）“人的肉体死去6到12分钟内，大脑仍在活动。

而梦境意识下的时间比醒时几乎长无限多。

”“我醒来，10：12。

又睡。

做了一个长长的复杂的貌似好几小时的梦。

然后再次醒来，发现才10：13。

”“就是如此。

所以6到12分钟的大脑活动，简直可以就是你的一生了。

”……“过去40年间，全球人口翻了一倍，如果你真的相信自负的灵魂永恒论，那你的灵魂也不过50%的几率超过40岁。

如果要达到150岁，那就只有1/6。

”“你想说啥？

轮回不存在？

还是我们都是帮年轻的灵魂？

或者我们中有一半是轮头一回的人类？

”……说到我将时间轴重新拉回前面。

这片本身对话就多，又深奥、有时晦涩，一不留神顾着看画面，你就根本不理解它在讲什么。

原来就不大好懂的影片……我不大肯定我明白了它想表达的东西。

但是很多地方的谈话确实很有意思。

主要好几段关于梦境和现实的，正如同前面提到的，这是本片的主题。

这种既像实拍又是动画的画面风格本身就是表现梦境的上佳手法，看起来不是真的，又绝对像真的……片中主角不断地醒来，又不断地发现其实还在梦中。

这样的情节乍一听挺恐怖的，但影片中并非如此，而是有趣有深意得多。

尤其结合若干段对话中关于梦的阐述，你对这一次又一次的“假醒”会有自己的猜想和看法。

片名《Waking Life》也很值得思考。

http://syc0129.blogbus.com/logs/36883702.html

为什么说是“内时间意识”呢？

其实这个词放在这里是很不妥当的，深究起来，我就变成现象学的罪人和玩弄者了。

但是在《waking life》中确实不存在——即使存在，也被巧妙地掩盖住了——正常的时间。

主角一直在徘徊、画面也一直在徘徊，观众被诱进语言织体的陷阱：只有语言，庞大的且看似杂乱无章的大段独白才是观众有可能把握的——纵然杂乱，却未脱离语法，而在情节和画面中，我们甚至可以说，整部影片都是支离破碎的臆想。

这是导演的恶意抑或目的？

或许导演同时希望观众放弃情节，把全部精力投入庄之蝶的禅机。

他根本没这个必要，愿意花时间两遍三遍看片子的人根本不会在意什么狗屁情节，这种人都是偏执狂，否则他们宁愿找一张tango唱片听一下算了（顺便说一句，背景音乐恰如其分地选择了能够凸现疲惫、紧张、忧虑和努力把握一丝理性的情绪的tango，太棒了）。

本来就从早到晚累了一天，看完Waking Life更是连脑子都累晕了。

冲着Ethan Hawke 和 Julie Delpy 才一直找这部电影，一买回来就迫不及待要看，没想到是动画片，更没想到是我非常不喜欢的风格的动画片，忍着看了几眼，实在看不下去，而且根本就看不到Ethan Hawke 和Julie Delpy 的影子，当时那个失望哦。

今天突然很不甘心又重拾起来，因为豆瓣上的评价都是很好的，没理由那么难看呀。

结果基本上是用快进在看，看到对白有点意思才停下来，因为动画画面晃来晃去的基本上都差不多，之所以晃因为表现的是梦境，说实话看久了头都会晕。

结果是有意思的对白越来越多，后来就都能慢慢的看了。

看完之后觉得很惊讶，没想到拍过那么浪漫的Before Sunrise和Before Sunset的导演会拍出这样严肃的电影，而且是用动画。

明明说的是一个人的醒不过来的梦境，却又每一句话都在说现实。

其中说到一个人如何能在梦中知道自己是在做梦，可以抓住几个迹象，比如去关一盏灯，一直关不上，又比如自己在飞，再比如一直看不清钟表上的时间，当然这迹象大概都会因人而异。

这阵子正读南怀谨讲的圆觉经，说到人要在梦中知道自己在做梦是非常难的。

又说“一般人所讲人生如梦，那是在痛苦烦恼时偶尔的感叹而已，并没有真把人生当做是梦。

”而电影里则说：dreams are real only as long as they last.Can't you say the same thing about life?这是一部如果能坚持看完就一定会想很多的电影，而且也不会因为画面难看就给它打低分。

除非在看的时候昏昏欲睡以致真的睡着。

最后总算在花絮里看到一段真人出演版，感觉像赚到了。

其实Ethan Hawke 和 Julie Delpy 演的那一段还是很意思的，虽然很短，录全文如下：(A couple are in bed talking -- Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke) I keep thinking about something you said. Something I said? Yeah. About how you often feel like you're observing your life from the perspective of an old woman about to die. You remember that? Yeah. I still feel that way sometimes. Like I'm looking back on my life. Like my waking life is her memories. Exactly. I heard that Tim Leary said as he was dying that he was looking forward to the moment when his body was dead but his brain was still alive. You know they say that there's still six to twelve minutes of brain activity after everything else is shutdown. And a second of dream consciousness, right, well, that's infinitely longer than a waking second. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, definitely. For example, I wake up and it is 10:12, and then I go back to sleep and I have those long, intricate, beautiful dreams that seem to last for hours, and then I wake up and it's ... 10:13. Yeah, exactly. So then six to twelve minutes of brain activity, I mean, that could be your whole life. I mean, you are that woman looking back over everything. Okay, so what if I am? Then what would you be in all that? Whatever I am right now. I mean, yeah, maybe I only exist in your mind. I'm still just as real as anything else. Yeah. I've been thinking also about something you said. What's that? Just about reincarnation and where all the new souls come from over time. Everybody always say that they've been the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander the Great. I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else. I mean, it's impossible. Think about it. The world population has doubled in the past 40 years, right? So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul, then you have only 50% chance of your soul being over 40. And for it to be over 150 years old, then it's only one out of six. Right, so what are you saying? That reincarnation doesn't exist, or that we're all young souls like where half of us are first round humans? No, no. What I'm trying to say is that somehow I believe reincarnation is just a - a poetic expression of what collective memory really is. There was this article by this biochemist that I read not long ago, and he was talking about how when a member of our species is born, it has a billion years of memory to draw on. And this is where we inherit our instincts. I like that. It's like there's this whole telepathic thing going on that we're all a part of, whether we're conscious of it or not. That would explain why there are all these, you know, seemingly spontaneous, worldwide, innovative leaps in science, in the arts. You know, like the same results poppin' up everywhere independent of each other. Some guy on a computer, he figures something out, and then almost simultaneously a bunch of other people all over the world figure out the same thing. They did this study. They isolated a group of people over time, and they monitored their abilities at crossword puzzles, right, in relation to the general population. And they secretly gave them a day-old crossword, one that had already been answered by thousands of other people, right. And their scores went up dramatically, like 20 percent. So it's like once the answers are out there, people can pick up on 'em. It's like we're all telepathically sharing our experiences.

"Dream is destiny."Rock out.Rock and roll.Go, strings. Begin.Sara, will you try that, the thing you asked me about?- Yeah. - Will you try it a little more subdued?- Okay. - Vibrato. Just try it and see what you think.But what I want--I mean, I want it to sound rich and maybe almost a little wavy...due to being slightly out of tune.- Do you want it, um-- - I think it should be slightly detached.That's what I was wondering.Yeah, yeah, you got it.Snazzy.Okay, pick up to 20 please.- Erik, this is a pickup to 20. - Okay.1, 2, 3.Hey, man, it's me. Um, I just got back into town.I thought maybe I could bum a ride off you or something, but that's cool.I could probably just take a cab, something like that. Um--Yeah, I guess I'll hang out with you later, something like that.Ahoy there, matey! You in for the long haul?You need a little hitch in your get-along, a little lift on down the line?Oh, um, yeah, actually, I was waiting for a cab or something, but if you want to--All right. Don't miss the boat.- Hey, thanks. - Not a problem.Anchors aweigh!So what do you think of my little vessel?She's what we call "see-worthy." S-E-E. See with your eyes.I feel like my transport should be an extension of my personality.Voila. And this? This is like my little window to the world,and every minute, it's a different show.Now, I may not understand it. I may not even necessarily agree with it.But I'll tell you what, I accept it and just sort of glide along.You want to keep things on an even keel I guess is what I'm saying.You want to go with the flow. The sea refuses no river.The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving.Saves on introductions and good-byes.The ride does not require an explanation.Just occupants. That's where you guys come in.It's like you come onto this planet with a crayon box.Now, you may get the 8-pack, you may get the 16-pack.But it's all in what you do with the crayons,the colors that you're given.Don't worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines.I say color outside the lines. Color right off he page.Don't box me in. We're in motion to the ocean.We are not landlocked, I'll tell ya that.So where do you want out?Uh, who, me? Am I first?Um, I don't know. Really, anywhere is fine.Well, just--just give me an address or something, okay?Tell you what, go up three more streets,take a right, go two more blocks,drop this guy off on the next corner.- Where's that? - I don't know either, but it's somewhere,and it's gonna determine the course of the rest of your life.All ashore that's going ashore.Toot toot!The reason why I refuse to take existentialism...as just another French fashion or historical curiosity...is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century.I 'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately,the sense of taking responsibility for who you are,the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life.Existentialism is often discussed as if it's a philosophy of despair.But I think the truth is just the opposite.Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life.But one thing that comes out from reading these guys...is not a sense of anguish about life so much as...a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it.It's like your life is yours to create.I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration.But when I read them, I always have this awful nagging feeling...that something absolutely essential is getting left out.The more that you talk about a person as a social construction...or as a confluence of forces...or as fragmented or marginalized,what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses.And when Sartre talks about responsibility,he's not talking about something abstract.He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about.It's something very concrete. It's you and me talking.Making decisions. Doing things and taking the consequences.It might be true that there are six billion people in the world and counting.Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference.It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms.Makes a difference to other people and it sets an example.In short, I think the message here is...that we should never simply write ourselves off...and see ourselves as the victim of various forces.It's always our decision who we are.Creation seems to come out of imperfection.I t seems to come out of a striving and a frustration.And this is where I think language came from.I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation...and have some sort of connection with one another.And it had to be easy when it was just simple survival.Like, you know, "water." We came up with a sound for that.Or, "Saber-toothed tiger right behind you." We came up with a sound for that.But when it gets really interesting, I think,is when we use that same system of symbols to communicate...all the abstract and intangible things that we're experiencing.What is, like, frustration? Or what is anger or love?When I say "love,"the sound comes out of my mouth...and it hits the other person's ear,travels through this Byzantine conduit in their brain,you know, through their memories of love or lack of love,and they register what I'm saying and say yes, they understand.But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert.They're just symbols. They're dead, you know?And so much of our experience is intangible.So much of what we perceive cannot be expressed. It's unspeakable.And yet, you know, when we communicate with one another,and we--we feel that we have connected,and we think that we're understood,I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion.And that feeling might be transient, but I think it's what we live for.If wee looking at the highlights of human development,you have to look at the evolution of the organism...and then at the development of its interaction with the environment.Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of life...perceived through the hominid...coming to the evolution of mankind.Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon man.Now, interestingly, what youe looking at here are three strings:biological, anthropological--development of the cities, cultures--and cultural, which is human expression.Now, what youe seen here is the evolution of populations,not so much the evolution of individuals.And in addition, if you look at the time scales that's involved here--two billion years for life,six million years for the hominid,years for mankind as we know it--you're beginning to see the telescoping nature of the evolutionary paradigm.And then when you get to agricultural,when you get to scientific revolution and industrial revolution,you're looking at years, years, years.You're seeing a further telescoping of this evolutionary time.What that means is that as we go through the new evolution,it's gonna telescope to the point we should be able to see it manifest itself...within our lifetime, within this generation.The new evolution stems from information,and it stems from two types of information: digital and analog.The digital is artificial intelligence.The analog results from molecular biology, the cloning of the organism.And you knit the two together with neurobiology.Before on the old evolutionary paradigm,one would die and the other would grow and dominate.But under the new paradigm, they would exist...as a mutually supportive, noncompetitive grouping.Okay, independent from the external.And what is interesting here is that evolution now becomes an individually centered process,emanating from the needs and the desires of the individual,and not an external process, a passive process...where the individual is just at the whim of the collective.So, you produce a neo-human with a new individuality and a new consciousness.But that's only the beginning of the evolutionary cycle...because as the next cycle proceeds,the input is now this new intelligence.As intelligence piles on intelligence,as ability piles on ability, the speed changes.Until what? Until you reach a crescendo in a way...could be imagined as an enormous instantaneous fulfillment of human,human and neo-human potential.It could be something totally different.It could be the amplification of the individual,the multiplication of individual existences.Parallel existences now with the individual no longer restricted by time and space.And the manifestations of this neo-human-type evolution,manifestations could be dramatically counter-intuitive.That's the interesting part. The old evolution is cold.It's sterile. It's efficient, okay?And its manifestations are those social adaptations.You're talking about parasitism, dominance, morality, okay?Uh, war, predation, these would be subject to de-emphasis.These would be subject to de-evolution.The new evolutionary paradigm will give us the human traits of truth, of loyalty,of justice, of freedom.These will be the manifestations of the new evolution.That is what we would hope to see from this. That would be nice.A self-destructive man feels completely alienated, utterly alone.He's an outsider to the human community.He thinks to himself, "I must be insane."What he fails to realize is that society has, just as he does,a vested interest in considerable losses and catastrophes.These wars, famines, floods and quakes meet well-defined needs.Man wants chaos.In fact, he's gotta have it.Depression, strife, riots, murder, all this dread.We're irresistibly drawn to that almost orgiastic state...created out of death and destruction.It's in all of us. We revel in it.Sure, the media tries to put a sad face on these things,painting them up as great human tragedies.But we all know the function of the media has never been...to eliminate the evils of the world, no.Their job is to persuade us to accept those evils and get used to living with them.The powers that be want us to be passive observers.Hey, you got a match?And they haven't given us any other options...outside the occasional, purely symbolic,participatory act of voting.You want the puppet on the right or the puppet on the left?I feel that the time has come to project my own...inadequacies and dissatisfactions...into the sociopolitical and scientific schemes,Let my own lack of a voice be heard.I keep thinking about something you said.- Something I said? - Yeah.About how you often feel like you're observing your life...from the perspective of an old woman about to die.- You remember that? - Yeah. I still feel that way sometimes.Like I'm looking back on my life.Like my waking life is her memories.Exactly.I heard that Tim Leary said as he was dying...that he was looking forward to the moment...when his body was dead, but his brain was still alive.They say that there's still to minutes of brain activity after everything is shut down.And a second of dream consciousness, right,well, that's infinitely longer than a waking second.- You know what I'm saying? - Oh, yeah, definitely.For example, I wake up and it's : and then I go back to sleep and I have those long, intricate,beautiful dreams that seem to last for hours,and then I wake up and it's... : .Exactly. So then to minutes of brain activity,I mean, that could be your whole life.I mean, you are that woman looking back over everything.Okay, so what if I am? Then what would you be in all that?Whatever I am right now.I mean, yeah, maybe I only exist in your mind.I'm still just as real as anything else.Yeah.- I've been thinking also about something you said. - What's that?Just about reincarnation and where all the new souls come from over time.Everybody always say that they've been the reincarnation...of Cleopatra or Alexander the Great.I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else.I mean, it's impossible. Think about it.The world population has doubled in the past years, right?- So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul, - Mm-hmm.then you only have a % chance of your soul being over .And for it to be over years old, then it's only one out of six.So what are you saying then? Reincarnation doesn't exist...or that we're all young souls like where half of us are first-round humans?No, no. What I'm trying to say is that somehow I believe...reincarnation is just a--a poetic expression of what collective memory really is.There was this article by this biochemist that I read not long ago,and he was talking about how when a member of a species is born,it has a billion years of memory to draw on.And this is where we inherit our instincts.I like that. It's like there's, um,this whole telepathic thing going on that wee all a part of,whether wee conscious of it or not.That would explain why there's all these, you know,seemingly spontaneous, worldwide, innovative leaps in science, in the arts.You know, like the same results poppin' up everywhere independent of each other.Some guy on a computer, he figures something out,and then almost simultaneously, a bunch of other people all over the world...- figure out the same thing. - Mm-hmm.They did this study. They isolated a group of people over time,and they monitored their abilities at crossword puzzles...in relation to the general population.And then they secretly gave them a day-old crossword,one that had already been answered by thousands of other people.Their scores went up dramatically, like percent.So it's like once the answers are out there,you know, people can pick up on 'em.It's like we're all telepathically sharing our experiences.I'll get you motherfuckers if it's the last thing I do.Oh, you're gonna pay for what you did to me.For every second I spend in this hellhole,I'll see you spend a year in living hell!Oh, you fucks are gonna beg me to let you die.No, no, not yet.I want you cocksuckers to suffer.Oh, I'll fix your fuckin' asses, all right.Maybe a long needle in your eardrum.A hot cigar in your eye.Nothin' fancy.Some molten lead up the ass.Ooh!Or better still,some of that old Apache shit.Cut your eyelids off. Yeah.I'll just listen to you fucks screamin'.Oh, what sweet music that'll be.Yeah. We'll do it in the hospital.With doctors and nurses so you pricks don't die on me too quick.You know the best part?The best part is you dick-smokin' faggots will have your eyelids cut off,so youl have to watch me do it to you, yeah.You'll see me bring that cigar closer and closer...to your wide-open eyeball...till you're almost out of your mind.But not quite...'cause I want it to last a long, long time.I want you to know that it's me,that I'm the one that's doin' it to you.Me!And that sissy psychiatrist?What unmitigated ignorance!That old drunken fart of a judge!What a pompous ass!Judge not lestye be judged!All of you pukes are gonna die the day I get out of this shithole!I guarantee youl regret the day you met me!In a way, in our contemporary world view,It's easy to think that science has come to take the place of God.But some philosophical problems remain as troubling as ever.Take the problem of free will.This problem's been around for a long time,since before Aristotle in B.C.St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas,these guys all worried about how we can be free...if God already knows in advance everything you're gonna do.Nowadays we know that the world operates according to some fundamental physical laws,and these laws govern the behavior of every object in the world.Now, these laws, because they're so trustworthy,they enable incredible technological achievements.But look at yourself. We're just physical systems too.We're just complex arrangements of carbon molecules.We're mostly water,and our behavior isn't gonna be an exception to basic physical laws.So it starts to look like whether it's God setting things up in advance...and knowing everything you're gonna do...or whether it's these basic physical laws governing everything.There's not a lot of room left for freedom.So now you might be tempted to just ignore the question,ignore the mystery of free will.Say, "Oh, well, it's just an historical anecdote. It's sophomoric.It's a question with no answer. Just forget about it."But the question keeps staring you right in the face.You think about individuality, for example, who you are.Who you are is mostly a matter of the free choices that you make.Or take responsibility. You can only be held responsible,you can only be found guilty or admired or respected...for things you did of your own free will.The question keeps coming back, and we don't really have a solution to it.It starts to look like all your decisions are really just a charade.Think about how it happens. There's some electrical activity in your brain.Your neurons fire. They send a signal down into your nervous system.It passes along down into your muscle fibers.They twitch. You might, say, reach out your arm.Looks like it's a free action on your part,but every one of those-- every part of that process...is actually governed by physical law:chemical laws, electrical laws and so on.So now it just looks like the Big Bang set up the initial conditions,and the whole rest of our history,the whole rest of human history and even before,is really just sort of the playing out of subatomic particles...according to these basic fundamental physical laws.We think wee special. We think we have some kind of special dignity,but that now comes under threat.I mean, that's really challenged by this picture.So you might be saying, "Well, wait a minute. What about quantum mechanics?"I know enough contemporary physical theory to know it's not really like that."It's really a probabilistic theory.There's room. It's loose. It's not deterministic."And that's gonna enable us to understand free will.But if you look at the details, it's not really gonna help...because what happens is you have some very small quantum particles,and their behavior is apparently a bit random.They swerve. Their behavior is absurd in the sense that it's unpredictable...and we can't understand it based on anything that came before.It just does something out of the blue, according to a probabilistic framework.But is that gonna help with freedom?Should our freedom just be a matter of probabilities,just some random swerving in a chaotic system?That just seems like it's worse. I'd rather be a gear...in a big deterministic, physical machine...than just some random swerving.So we can't just ignore the problem.We have to find room in our contemporary world view for persons,with all that that it entails; not just bodies, but persons.And that means trying to solve the problem of freedom,finding room for choice and responsibility...and trying to understand individuality.You can't fight city hall, death and taxes.Don't talk about politics or religion.This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket line." Lay down, G.I. Lay down, G.I."We saw it all through the th Century.And now in the st Century, it's time to stand up and realize...that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze.We should not submit to dehumanization.I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world.I'm concerned with the structure.I'm concerned with the systems of control,those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more!I want freedom! That's what I want!And that's what you should want!It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and just shovel the greed,the hatred, the envy and, yes, the insecurities...because that is the central mode of control-- make us feel pathetic, small...so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny.We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale.Start challenging this corporate slave state!The st Century is gonna be a new century,not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance...and classism and statism and all the rest of the modes of control!It's gonna be the age of humankind...standing up for something pure and something right!What a bunch of garbage-- liberal Democrat, conservative Republican.It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin.Two management teams bidding for control!The C.E.O. job of Slavery, Incorporated!The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies!I'm sick of it, and I'm not gonna take a bite out of it! Do you got me?Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing.Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers!We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings!We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter:creativity and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit!Well, that's it! That's all I got to say! It's in your court.The quest is to be liberated from the negative,which is really our own will to nothingness.And once having said yes to the instant,the affirmation is contagious.It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit.To say yes to one instant...is to say yes to all of existence.The main character is what you might call "the mind."It's mastery, it's capacity to represent.Throughout history, attempts have been made...to contain those experiences which happen at the edge of the limit...where the mind is vulnerable.But I think we are in a very significant moment in history.Those moments, those what you might call liminal,Limit, frontier, edge zone experiences...are actually now becoming the norm.These multiplicities and distinctions and differences...that have given great difficulty to the old mind...are actually through entering into their very essence,tasting and feeling their uniqueness.One might make a breakthrough to that common something...that holds them together.And so the main character is, to this new mind,greater, greater mind.A mind that yet is to be.And when we are obviously entered into that mode,you can see a radical subjectivity,radical attunement to individuality, uniqueness to that which the mind is,opens itself to a vast objectivity.So the story is the story of the cosmos now.The moment is not just a passing, empty nothing yet.And this is in the way in which these secret passages happen.Yes, it's empty with such fullness...that the great moment, the great life of the universe...is pulsating in it.And each one, each object, each place, each act...Leaves a mark.And that story is singular.But, in fact, it's story after story.Time just dissolves into quick-moving particles that are swirling away.Either I'm moving fast or time is. Never both simultaneously.It's such a strange paradox. I mean, while, technically,I 'm closer to the end of my life than I've ever been,I actually feel more than ever that I have all the time in the world.When I was younger, there was a desperation, a desire for certainty,Like there was an end to the path, and I had to get there.I know what you mean because I can remember thinking,"Oh, someday, like in my mid-thirties maybe,everything's going to just somehow jell and settle, just end."It was like there was this plateau, and it was waiting for me,and I was climbing up it, and when I got to the top,all growth and change would stop.Even exhilaration. But that hasn't happened like that, thank goodness.I think that what we don't take into account when wee young is our endless curiosity.That's what's so great about being human.- You know that thing Benedict Anderson says about identity? - No.Well, he's talking about like, say, a baby picture.So you pick up this picture, this two-dimensional image, and you say, "That's me."Well, to connect this baby in this weird little image...with yourself living and breathing in the present,you have to make up a story like, "This was me when I was a year old,"and later I had long hair, and then we moved to Riverdale,and now here I am."So it takes a story that's actually a fiction...to make you and the baby in the picture identical to create your identity.And the funny thing is, our cells are completely regenerating every seven years.We've already become completely different people several times over,and yet we always remain quintessentially ourselves.Hmm.Our critique began as all critiques begin:with doubt.Doubt became our narrative.Ours was a quest for a new story, our own.And we grasp toward this new history driven by the suspicion...that ordinary language couldn't tell it.Our past appeared frozen in the distance,and our every gesture and accent...signified the negation of the old world and the reach for a new one.The way we lived created a new situation,one of exuberance and friendship,that of a subversive microsociety...in the heart of a society which ignored it.Art was not the goal but the occasion and the method...for locating our specific rhythm...and buried possibilities of our time.The discovery of a true communication was what it was about,or at least the quest for such a communication.The adventure of finding it and losing it.We the unappeased, the unaccepting continued looking,filling in the silences with our own wishes, fears and fantasies.Driven forward by the fact that no matter how empty the world seemed,no matter how degraded and used up the world appeared to us,we knew that anything was still possible.And, given the right circumstances,a new world was just as likely as an old one.There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer from an overabundance of life.I've always found myself in the second category.When you come to think of it,almost all human behavior and activity...is not essentially any different from animal behavior.The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship...bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level.Actually, the gap between,say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human...is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human.The realm of the real spirit,the true artist, the saint, the philosopher,is rarely achieved.Why so few?Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress...but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes?No greater values have developed.Hell, the Greeks years ago were just as advanced as we are.So what are these barriers that keep people...from reaching anywhere near their real potential?The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this:Which is the most universal human characteristic--fear or laziness?What are you writing?A novel.What's the story?There's no story.It's just...people, gestures, moments,bits of rapture, fleeting emotions.In short,the greatest stories ever told.Are you in the story?I don't think so.But then I'm kind of reading it and then writing it.It was in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere,but on the way to Vegas, so, you know,every once in a while a car would pull in, get gas.It was the last gas stop before Vegas.Office had the chair, had a cash register,and that was all the room there was in that office.I was asleep, and I heard a noise.You know, just like in my mind.So I got up, and I walked out,and I stood on the curb of where the gas station ends,you know, the driveway there.I'm rubbing the sand out of my eyes, trying to see what's going on,and way down at the very end of the gas station...they had tire racks.Chains around them, you know.And I see there's an Econoline van down there.And there's a guy with his T-shirt off,and he's packing his Econoline van...with all of these tires.He's got the last two tires in his hands,pushes them into the thing,and then I, of course, I go, " Hey, you!"This guy turns around, he's got no shirt on,he's sweating, he's built like a brick shithouse,pulls out a knife, it's inches long,and then starts running at me as fast as he can, going,I'm still--"This is wrong." I walked in,stuck my hand behind the cash register where the owner kept a. revolver,pull it out, cocked the trigger,and just as I turned around, he was comin' through the door.And I could see his eyes. I'll never forget this guy's eyes.And he just had bad thoughts about me in his eyes.And I fired a round, and it hit him. Boom. Right in the chest.Bang. He went-- as fast as he was coming in the door, he went out the door.Went right up between the two pumps, ethyl and regular.And he must've been on drugs, on speed or something, you know,because he stood up...and he still had the knife, and the blood was just all over his chest,and he stood up and he went like that, just moved a little like that.And I was pretty much in shock,so I just held the trigger back and fanned the hammer.It's one of those old-time-- Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!And I blew him out of the gas station.And ever since then,I always carry this.I hear that.A well-armed populace is the best defense against tyranny.I'll drink to that.And you know,I haven't fired this in such a long time, I don't even know if itl work.Why don you pull the trigger and find out?I'm not here. Leave a message.Hey, man. I guess you already took off or something.But, uh, remind me to tell you about this dream I had last night...'cause there's some really funny stuffin it.All right, man. Uh, I guess I'll catch you later. Okay.Bareback riding. Copenhagen William...and his horse Same Deal....for a hat band. Sew it into the inside of the--I do not await the future,anticipating salvation, absolution,not even enlightenment through process.I subscribe to the premise that this flawed perfection is sufficient and complete...in every single, ineffable moment.The Blonde Bee, the Firefly, Praying Mantis--...lunatic macaroni munchkin with my googat--...venerable tradition of sorcerers, shamans and other visionaries...who have developed and perfected the art of dream travel,the so-called lucid dream state...where, by consciously controlling your dreams,you're able to discover things...beyond your capacity to apprehend in your awake state.- Winning back-to-back-- - Tell us what Felix is doing--A single ego is an absurdly narrow vantage from which to view this-- this experience.And where most consider their individual relationship to the universe,I contemplate relationships...of my various selves to one another.While most people with mobility problems...are having trouble just getting around,at age joy Cullison's out seeing the world.Now I'm free to see the worldHey, how's it going?They say that dreams are real only as long as they last.Can't you say the same thing about life?A lot of us out there are mapping that mind/body relationship of dreams.We're called the oneironauts. We're explorers of the dream world.Really, it's just about the two opposing states of consciousness...which don't really oppose at all.See, in the waking world,the neuro-system inhibits the activation of the vividness of memories.This makes evolutionary sense.It'd be maladapted for the perceptual image of a predator...to be mistaken for the memory of one and vice-versa.If the memory of a predator conjured up a perceptual image,we'd be running off to the bathroom every time we had a scary thought.So you have these serotonic neurons...that inhibit hallucinations...that they themselves are inhibited during REM sleep.This allows dreams to appear real...while preventing competition from other perceptual processes.This is why dreams are mistaken for reality.To the functional system of neural activity that creates our world,there is no difference between dreaming a perception and an action...and actually the waking perception and action.I had a friend once who told me...that the worst mistake that you could make...is to think that you are alive...when really youe asleep in life's waiting room.The trick is to combine...your waking rational abilities...with the infinite possibilities of your dreams.'Cause if you can do that, you can do anything.Did you ever have a job that you hated and worked real hard at?A long, hard day of work. Finally you get to go home, get in bed, close your eyes.And immediately you wake up and realize...that the whole day at work had been a dream.It's bad enough that you sell your waking life for-- for minimum wage,but now they get your dreams for free.Hey, man, what are you doing here?I fancy myself the social lubricator of the dream world,helping people become lucid a little easier.Cut out all that fear and anxiety stuff and just rock and roll.By becoming lucid, you mean just knowing that youe dreaming, right?Yeah. And then you can control it.They're more realistic and less bizarre than non-lucid dreams.You know, I just woke from a dream.It wasn't like a typical dream. It seemed more like I'd walked into an alternate universe.Yeah, it's real.I mean, technically, it's a phenomenon of sleep,but you can have so much damn fun in your dreams.And, of course, everyone knows fun rules.- Yeah. -So what was going on in your dream?Oh. A lot of people. A lot of talking.Some of it was kind of absurdist, like from a strange movie or something.Mostly, it was just people going off about whatever, really intensely.I woke up wondering, where did all this stuff come from?- You can control that. - Do you have these dreams all the time?Hell, yeah. I'm always gonna make the best of it.But the trick is, you got to realize that you're dreaming in the first place.You got to be able to recognize it.You got to be able to ask yourself, " Hey, man, is this a dream?"Most people never ask themselves that...when they're awake or especially when they're asleep.Seems like everyone's sleepwalking through their waking state...or wake walking through their dreams.Either way they're not gonna get much out of it.The thing that snapped me into realizing I was dreaming was, uh-- was my digital clock.I couldn't really read it. It was like the circuitry was all screwed up or something.Yeah, that's real common. And small printed material is pretty tough too.Very unstable.Another good tip-off is trying to adjust light levels.You can't really do that.If you see a light switch nearby, turn it on and off and see if it works.That's one of the few things you can't do in a lucid dream.What the hell. I can fly around,have an interesting conversation with Albert Schweitzer.I can explore all these new dimensions of reality,not to mention I can have any kind of sex I want, which is way cool.So I can't adjust light levels. So what?But that's one of the things you do to test if youe dreaming or not, right?Yeah, like I said, you can totally train yourself to recognize it.I mean, just hit a light switch every now and then.If the lights are on and you can't turn them off, then most likely youe dreaming.And then you can get down to business.And believe me, it's unlimited.- Hey, you know what I've been working on lately? - What's that?Oh, man, it's way ambitious, but I'm getting better at it.You're gonna dig this. Three-sixty vision, man.I can see in all directions. Pretty cool, huh?Yeah. Wow.Well, I got to go, man.Okay, later, man. Super perfundo on the early eve of your day.- What's that mean? - Well, you know, I never figured it out.Maybe you can. This guy always whispers into my ear.Louis. He's a recurring dream character.Cinema, in its essence,is about reproduction of reality,which is that, like, reality is actually reproduced.And for him, it might sound like a storytelling medium, really.And he feels like, um-- like film--Like-- like literature is better for telling a story.And if you tell a story or even like a joke--"This guy walks into a bar and sees a dwarf."That works really well because youe imagining this guy and this dwarfing this bar.And it's an imaginative aspect to it.In film, you don't have that because you actually are filming a specific guy...in a specific bar with a specific dwarf...- of a specific height who looks a certain way, right? - Mm-hmm.So like, um, for Bazin, what the ontology of film has to deal--it has to deal with, you know, with--- Photography also has an ontology, - Right.except that it adds this dimension of time to it...and this greater realism.And so, it's about that guy...at that moment in that space.And, you know, Bazin is, like, a Christian,so he, like, believes that, you know--in God, obviously, and everything.For him, reality and God are the same. You know, like--And so what film is actually capturing is, like, God incarnate, creating.You know, like this very moment, God is manifesting as this.And what the film would capture if it was filming us right now...would be, like, God as this table,and God is you and God is me and God looking the way we look right now...and saying and thinking what wee thinking right now...- because wee all God manifest in that sense. - Mm-hmm.So film is like a record of God or the face of God...or of the ever-changing face of God.You have a mosquito. You want me to get it for you?- You got it. Yeah. - I got it?And the whole Hollywood thing has taken film...and tried to make it this storytelling medium...where you take these books or stories...and then you, like, you know--you get the script and then try to find somebody who fits the thing.But it's ridiculous.It shouldn't be based on the script.It should be based on the person, the thing.And, um-- And in that sense,they're almost right to have this whole star system...- because then it's about that person instead of the story. - Right.Truffaut always said the best films aren't made--The best scripts don't make the best films...because they have that kind of literary, narrative thing that youe sort of a slave to.The best films are the ones that aren't tied to that slavishly.So, um-- So-- I don't know--The whole narrative thing seems to me like--Obviously, there's narrativity to cinema 'cause it's in time,just the way there's narrativity to music.You don't first think of the story of the song, then make the song.It has to come out of the moment.That's what film has. It's just that moment, which is holy.You know, like this moment, it's holy.But we walk around like it's not holy.We walk around like there's some holy moments and there are all the other moments...- that are not holy, but this moment is holy. - Right. Right.And film can let us see that.We can frame it so that we see, like, "Ah, this moment. Holy."Like "holy, holy, holy" moment by moment.But who can live that way? Who can go, "Wow, holy"?Because if I were to look at you and let you be holy--I don't know. I would, like, stop talking.Well, you'd be in the moment. The moment is holy, right?Yeah, but I'd be open.I'd look in your eyes and I'd cry...and I'd feel all this stuff and that's not polite.It would make you uncomfortable.You could laugh too. Why would you cry?Well, 'cause-- I don't know.For me, I just tend to cry.Uh-huh. Well--Well, let's do it right now. Let's have a holy moment.- Everything is layers, isn't it? - Yeah.There's the holy moment and then there's the awareness...of trying to have the holy moment...in the same way that the film is the actual moment really happening,but then the character pretending to be in a different reality.It's all these layers.And, uh, I was in and out of the holy moment, looking at you.Can be in a holy-- You're unique that way, Caveh.That's one of the reasons I enjoy you.You can... bring me into that.If the world that we are forced to accept is false and nothing is true,then everything is possible.On the way to discovering what we love, we will find everything we hate,everything that blocks our path to what we desire.The comfort will never be comfortable for those who seek what is not on the market.A systematic questioning of the idea of happiness.We'll cut the vocal chords of every empowered speaker.We'll yank the social symbols through the looking glass. We'll devalue society's currency.To confront the familiar.Society is a fraud so complete and venal...that it demands to be destroyed beyond the power of memory to recall its existence.Where there's fire, we will carry gasoline.Interrupt the continuum of everyday experience...and all the normal expectations that go with it.To live as if something actually depended on one's actions.To rupture the spell of the ideology of the commodified consumer society...so that our oppressed desires of a more authentic nature can come forward.To demonstrate the contrast between what life presently is and what it could be.To immerse ourselves in the oblivion of actions and know we're making it happen.There will be an intensity never before known in everyday life...to exchange love and hate, life and death,terror and redemption, repulsions and attractions.An affirmation of freedom so reckless and unqualified,that it amounts to a total denial of every kind of restraint and limitation.- Hey, old man, what you doing up there? - I'm not sure.You need any help getting down, sir?No, I don't think so.Stupid bastard.No worse than us. He's all action and no theory.We're all theory and no actions.Why so glum, Mr. Deborg?What was missing was felt irretrievable.The extreme uncertainties...of subsisting without working...made excesses necessary...and breaks definitive.To quote Stevenson:"Suicide carried off many." Drink and the devil...took care of the rest."- Hey. - Hey.You a dreamer?Yeah.I haven't seen too many of you around lately.Things have been tough lately for dreamers.They say dreaming's dead, that no one does it anymore.It's not dead. It's just that it's been forgotten.Removed from our language.Nobody teaches it, so no one knows it exists.The dreamer is banished to obscurity.I'm trying to change all that, and I hope you are too.By dreaming every day.Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds.Our planet is facing the greatest problems it's ever faced. Ever.So whatever you do, don't be bored.This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive.And things are just starting.A thousand years is but an instant.There's nothing new, nothing different. The same pattern over and over.The same clouds, the same music,the same insight felt an hour or an eternity ago.There's nothing here for me now, nothing at all.Now I remember. This happened to me before. This is why I left.You have begun to find your answers.Although it will seem difficult, the rewards will be great.Exercise your human mind as thoroughly as possible,knowing it is only an exercise.Build beautiful artifacts, solve problems,explore the secrets of the physical universe.Savor the input from all the senses.Feel the joy and sorrow, the laughter, the empathy, compassion...and tote the emotional memory in your travel bag.I remember where I came from and how I became a human.Why I hung around. And now my final departure is scheduled.This way out. Escaping velocity.Not just eternity, but infinity.- Excuse me. - Excuse me.Hey. Could we do that again?I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant. You know?I mean, it's like we go through life...with our antennas bouncing off one other,continuously on ant autopilot,with nothing really human required of us.Stop. Go. Walk here. Drive there.All action basically for survival.All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along...in an efficient, polite manner." Here's your change." " Paper or plastic?" "Credit or debit?""You want ketchup with that?"I don't want a straw. I want real human moments.I want to see you. I want you to see me.I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be an ant, you know?Yeah. Yeah, I know.I don't want to be an ant, either.Yeah, thanks for kind of, like, jostling me there.I've been kind of on zombie autopilot lately.I don't feel like an ant in my head, but I guess I probably look like one.It's kind of like D.H. Lawrence had this idea of two people meeting on a road...And instead of just passing and glancing away,they decided to accept what he calls "the confrontation between their souls."It's like, um-- like freeing the brave reckless gods within us all.Then it's like we have met.I'm doing this project. I'm hoping you'll be interested in doing it.It's a soap opera,and, so, the characters are the fantasy lives.They're the alter egos of the performers who are in it.So you pretty much just figure out something that youe always wanted to do...or the life youe wanted to lead or occupation or something like that.And we write that in, and then we also have your life intersect...with other people's in the soap opera in some typical soap opera fashion.Then I also want to show it in a live venue...and have the actors present so that once the episode is screened,then the audience can direct...the actors for subsequent episodes with menus or something.So it has a lot to do with choices and honoring people's ability...to say what it is that they want to see...and also consumerism and art and commodity.And if you don't like what you got, then you can send it back...or you get what you pay for,or just participating, just really making choices.- So, you wanna do it? - Uh, yeah. Yeah, that sounds really cool.I'd love to be in it, but, um--Uh, I kinda gotta ask you a question first though.I don't really know how to say it, but, um--uh, what's it like to be a character in a dream?'Cause, uh, I'm not awake right now.And I haven't even worn a watch since, like, fourth grade.I think this is the same watch too.Um-- Uh, yeah.I don't even know if youe able to answer that question.But I'm just trying to get like a sense of where I am and what's going on.So, what about you? What's your name? What's your address?What are you doing?I-- I-- You know, I can't really remember right now.I can't really-- I can't really recall that.But that's beside the point...whether or not I can dredge up this information...about, you know, my address or, you know,my mom's maiden name or whatnot.I've got the benefit in this reality, if you wanna call that,of a consistent perspective.What is your consistent perspective?It's mostly just me dealing with a lot of people...who are...exposing me to information and ideas...that... seem vaguely familiar,but, at the same time,it's all very alien to me.I'm not in an objective, rational world.Like, I've been, like, flying around.Uh--I don't know. It's weird, too, because it's not like a fixed state.It's more like this whole spectrum of awareness.Like the lucidity wavers.Like, right now I know that I'm dreaming, right?We're, like, even talking about it.This is the most in myself and in my thoughts that I've been so far.I'm talking about being in a dream.But I'm beginning to think...that it's something that I don't really have any precedent for.It's-- It's totally unique.The-- The quality of-- of the environment...and the information that I'm receiving.Like your soap opera, for example.That's a really cool idea.I didn't come up with that. It's like something outside of myself.It's like something transmitted to me externally.I don't know what this is.We seem to think we're so limited by the world...and-- and the confines, but we're really just creating them.And you keep trying to figure it out,but it seems like now that you know that what youe doing is dreaming,you can do whatever you want to.You're, uh, dreaming, but youe awake.You have, um, so many options,and that's what life is about.I understand what youe saying.It's up to me. I'm the dreamer.It's weird. Like, so much of the information...that-- that these people have been imparting to me--I don't know. It's got this, like, really heavy connotation to it.- Well, how do you feel? - Well,Well, sometimes I feel kind of isolated,but most of the time, I feel really connected,really, like, engaged in this active process.Which is kind of weird because most of the time,I've just been really passive and not really responding,except for now, I guess.I'm just kind of letting the information wash over me.It's not necessarily passive to not respond verbally.We're communicating on so many levels simultaneously.Perhaps you're-- you're perceiving directly.Most of the people that I've been encountering...and most of the things that I would wanna say,it's like they kind of say it for me and almost at my cue.It's, like, complete unto itself.It's not like I'm having a bad dream. It's a great dream.But...it's so unlike any other dream I've ever had before.It's like the dream.It's like I'm being prepared for something."On this bridge," Lorca warns,"life is not a dream." Beware and beware and...beware."And so many think because "then" happens," now" isn't.But didn't I mention the ongoing "wow" is happening right now?We are all coauthors of this dancing exuberance...where even our inabilities are having a roast.We are the authors of ourselves,coauthoring a gigantic Dostoyevsky novel starring clowns.This entire thing we're involved with called the world...is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be.Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time...by moments flabbergasted to be in each other's presence.The world is an exam to see if we can rise into the direct experiences.Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it.Matter is here as a test for our curiosity.Doubt is here as an exam for our vitality.Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life...than write a hundred stories.Giacometti was once run down by a car,and he recalled falling into a lucid faint,a sudden exhilaration,as he realized at last something was happening to him.An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously.I do not agree entirely. Which is to say I do not exactly disagree.I would say that life understood is life lived.But the paradoxes bug me,and I can learn to love and make love...to the paradoxes that bug me.And on really romantic evenings of self,I go salsa dancing with my confusion.Before you drift off, don't forget.Which is to say, remember.Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting.Lorca in that same poem said...that the iguana will bite those who do not dream.And as one realizes...that one is a dream figure...in another person's dream,that is self-awareness.You haven't met yourself yet.But the advantage to meeting others in the meantime...is that one of them may present you to yourself.Examine the nature...of everything you observe.For instance,you might find yourself walking through...a dream parking lot.And, yes, those are dream feet inside of your dream shoes.Part of your dream self. And so,the person you appear to be in the dream...cannot be who you really are.This is an image,a mental model.Do you remember me?No. No, I don't think so.At the station?You were on the pay phone and you looked at me...a few times.I remember that, but I don't remember that being you.Are you sure?Well, maybe not.I was sitting down...and you were looking at me.My little friend, dream no more. It's really here.It's called Efferdent Plus.In hell, you sink to the level of your lack of love.In heaven, you rise to the level of your fullness of love.Hurry up! Come on! Get in the car! Let's go.Allegedly, the story goes like this.Billy Wilder runs into Louis Malle.This was in the late ' s, early ' s.And Louis Malle had just made his most expensive film, which had cost / million dollars.And Billy Wilder asks him what the film is about.And Louis Malle says, "It's sort of a dream within a dream."And Billy Wilder says, "You just lost / million dollars."I feel a little more apprehensive about this one than I did--Down through the centuries, the notion that life is wrapped in a dream...has been a pervasive theme of philosophers and poets.So doesn't it make sense that death, too, would be wrapped in dream?That, after death, your conscious life would continue...in what might be called, "a dream body"?It would be the same dream body you experience in your everyday dream life.Except that in the post-mortal state,you could never again wake up,never again return to your physical body.As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle,being swept along is no longer enough.What's the word, turd?Hey, do you also drive a boat car?- A what? - You gave me a ride in a car that was also a boat.No, man, I don't have a boat car. I don't know what youe talking about.Man, this must be, like, parallel universe night.You know that cat that was just in here,who just ran out the door?Well, he comes up to the counter, and I say, "What's the word, turd? "And he lays down this burrito and he kind of looks at me, kind of stares at me and says," I have but recently returned from the valley of the shadow of death." I'm rapturously breathing in all the odors and essences of life."I've been to the brink of total oblivion.I remember and ferment the desire to remember everything."So, what did you say to that?Well, I mean, what could I say?I said, "If youe gonna microwave that burrito,"I want you to poke holes in the plastic wrapping because they explode.And I'm tired of cleaning up your little burrito doings. You dig me?"'Cause the jalapenos dry up.They're like little wheels.When it was over, all I could think about...was how this entire notion of oneself,what we are, is just...this logical structure,a place to momentarily house all the abstractions.It was a time to become conscious,to give form and coherence to the mystery.And I had been a part of that. It was a gift.Life was raging all around me,and every moment was magical.I loved all the people,dealing with all the contradictory impulses.That's what I loved the most-- connecting with the people.Looking back, that's all that really mattered.Kierkegaard's last words were, "Sweep me up."- Hey, man. - Hey.Weren you in the boat car?You know, the guy-- the guy with the hat.He gave me a ride in his car or boat thing,and you were in the back seat with me.I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about,but I don't know what you're talking about.No, see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot...that you gave him directions to let me off at.I get out and ended up getting hit by a car.But then I just woke up because I was dreaming,and later, I found out that I was still dreaming,dreaming that I'd woken up.Those are called "false awakenings." I used to have those all the time.But I'm still in it now.I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever.I keep waking up, but I'm just waking up into another dream.I'm starting to get creeped out too, like I'm talking to dead people.This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dream time...that exists outside of life.I mean, I'm starting to think that I'm dead.I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had.I know that when someone says that,usually youe in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be.But it sounds like-- What else are you gonna do, right?Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K.. Dick.What, you read it in your dream?No, no. I read it before the dream.It was the preamble to the dream.It was about that book, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.- You know that one? - Yeah, yeah. He won an award for that one.Right. That's the one he wrote really fast.It just, like, flowed right out of him.He felt he was sort of channeling it or something.But anyway, about four years after it was published,he was at this party and he met this woman...who had the same name as the woman character in the book.And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book.and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police.And he had the same name as the chief of police in his book.So she's telling him all this stuff from her life,and everything she's saying is right out of his book.So that's really freaking him out, but what can he do?And shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter,and he saw this kind of, um, dangerous, shady-looking guy standing by his car.But instead of avoiding him, which he said he usually would have done,he walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?"And the guy said, "Yeah. I ran out of gas."He pulls out his wallet and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done.And then he gets home and he thinks, "Wait a second.This guy can't get to a gas station. He's out of gas."So he gets back in his car. He finds the guy, takes him to the gas station.And as he's pulling up to the gas station,he realizes, " Hey, this is in my book too.This exact station. This exact guy. Everything. "So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right?And he's telling his priest about it,describing how he wrote this book,and four years later, all these things happened to him.And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts.You're describing the Book of Acts."He's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts."So he goes home and reads the Book of Acts,and it's, like, you know, uncanny.Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible.And the Book of Acts takes place in A.D., when it was written, supposedly.So Philip K. Dick had this theory...that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in A.D.And the reason that he had written this book...was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion,this veil of time.And what he had seen was what was going on in the Book of Acts.And he was really into Gnosticism.and this idea that this demiurge, or demon,had created this illusion of time to make us forget...that Christ was about to return...and the kingdom of God was about to arrive...and that we're all in A.D. and there's someone trying to make us forget,you know, that--you know, that God is imminent.And that's what time is. That's what all of history is,this kind of continuous, you know, daydream or distraction.And so I read that, and I was like, "Well, that's weird. "And then that night, I had a dream,and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic.But I was skeptical. I was like, " He's not really a psychic."I was just thinking to myself.And then suddenly, I start floating,Like levitating up to the ceiling.And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like," Mr. Psychic, I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down, please."And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground,the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress.And this woman is Lady Gregory.Now, Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person.And though I'd never seen her image,I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory.So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says," Let me explain to you the nature of the universe." Now, Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's A.D."Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now."And it's eternity."And it's an instant in which God is posing a question."And that question is, basically, 'Do you want to, you know,"'be one with eternity?" Do you want to be in heaven?'"And we're all saying, 'No, thank you. Not just yet.'"And so time is actually just this constant saying no...to God's invitation.That's what time is. It's no more A.D. than it's you know?There's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in.And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life.That behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story,and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes."All of life is, " No, thank you. No, thank you."Then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in.Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace."I mean, that's the journey.- Everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right? - Right.So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me.So I'm petting him. I'm really happy to see him. He's been dead forbears.So I'm petting him and then I realize...there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach.And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs.She's like-- "Oh, excuse me."And there's vomit dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad.And I think, "Wait a second."That's not just the smell of vomit, which doesn't smell very good."That's the smell of dead person vomit.You know, it's, like, doubly foul."And then I realize I'm actually in, you know, the land of the dead.And everyone around me was dead.My dog had been dead over ten years. Lady Gregory had been longer than that.When I finally woke up, I was like, "Whoa. That wasn't a dream."That was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead."- So what happened? How did you finally get out of it? - Oh, man.It was just like one of those, like, life-altering experiences.I could never really look at the world the same way again after that.Yeah, but how did you finally get out of the dream?See, that's my problem. I'm trapped.I keep-- I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream.It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it.I wanna wake up for real. How do you really wake up?I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore.But, um, if that what youe thinking,I mean, you probably should.If you can wake up, you should...because someday you won't be able to.So just, um-- But it's easy.Just--Just... wake up.Special help by SergeiKvia http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/waking-life-script-transcript-linklater.html

《半梦半醒的人生》的29段谈话与自白 by idletalk《半梦半醒的人生》Waking Life——这是一部2001年拍摄的动画片。

导演兼编剧理查德林克莱特用DV在奥斯汀拍摄了这部影片，然后使用“interpolated翻拍”程序将图像转换，使得实景增加了程序化的外观看上去象是动画片。

就是这样一部看起来不像是动画片的动画片，在当年也没引起什么反响；我却反复看5遍，因为在我看来这可能是21世纪前期最为伟大的影片。

影片的故事非常的简单，主人公一个大学生，他来到了一个超现实的幻境中。

他身处的这座城市好象是奥斯汀，但日常生活的规律和秩序似乎完全被打破了。

他从一个地方游荡到另一个地方，不断遇到稀奇古怪的人。

最有意思的是他遇见的这些人都在谈论一些宏大高深的话题：从量子论到语言的起源，从存在主义到人的转世再生，从自由意志的荒谬到电影作为一种叙事工具，他陷入一场接着一场的对话中。

他极力想知道自己究竟处在梦境中，还是处于清醒中。

但最终他只是发现自己不断苏醒，又不断重新坠入梦境中。

他无法摆脱这接二连三地涌现的梦，开始逐渐理解梦的含义，并试着控制梦和周围的环境，分辨苏醒的人生与梦中人生的区别……大量对话也正是林克莱特作品的一个标志性元素。

不同于伍迪艾伦纽约知识分子神经质式的喋喋不休，也不同于埃里克侯麦法国中产阶级长篇大论的交谈，林克莱特呈现的是美国年轻人鲜活而具有时代特色的语言。

而且他的不少影片还不是几个人的谈话，而是规模庞大。

不过相对于过去的作品，此片中的对话要显得“知识分子气”浓重得多，那些晦涩抽象的哲学命题对观众可绝对是个考验。

在这些繁杂的谈话中我把它切割成了29个片段，并努力以自己的理解诠释其内容。

虽然它的丰富我只看到了一角。

但时间会证明它的伟大值得我去这样做。

1、船型车司机———任何的事物你都可以不赞同，但重要的是他存在的事实。

随大流是大多数人的共性，可最终你会发现你必须去找到自己的非共性所在。

2、大学教授————排除集体共性的过程中，并不一定能找到自我的个性，问题的重点乃在于思考的过程。

3、金发女子————语言所具有的不可沟通性，言语在每个人的心中有着不同的深层含义，也即联系物和凭借物的不同导致人类即使使用的是同一种语言，也存在永远无法沟通的盲点。

4、黑白发男子————望远镜似的人类进化过程（物质——精神）。

不同智慧间质与量的转化（毁灭——重生）5、自焚的男子————人类自毁性与人类社会自毁性存在着共通点。

（个人的自杀、病痛和人类社会的战争、自然灾害）。

媒体对社会丑恶面的频繁揭露，并无法消灭它，只能迫使人们对其麻木并接受。

6、交欢中的男女————人类记忆与经验在一代一代的遗传着。

途径并非来自言语和书籍，而是DNA中的深层存在。

7、监狱中的男子————用复仇的幻想来填补时间。

（许许多多的人都在用欲望实践的梦想来填补日常生活的时间）8、戴眼镜的中年男子————人类的自由很大程度建立在物理规则上。

但同时又存在一些不规则的元素来动摇原始的物理规则。

可恰恰在某种意义上，不规则的元素也可能是物理规则中的一环。

（上帝的决定——人类的自由意志——其中的界限）问题在于外延与内延的边界在哪？

9、宣传车上的男子————突破即定的规则，世界便是即定规则的框架，政治则是即定规则的核心动力。

革命的问题不在于是否毁灭，而在于毁灭之后建立什么？

10、戴眼镜的老者————如若中心为“无”，既是空。

对任何一个存在说是，既是对所有的存在说是。

11、黑人男子————现有的分类是对知识最大的束缚。

我们必须将其解脱重整，使之聚合。

在知识的共同领域寻求新知。

12、咖啡厅里的两位女子————人体的细胞在七年的过程里会全部更新。

新我的产生，迫使我们肯定不同于旧我，但在认知上我们还是保持着自己与旧我的认同。

问题在于延续性。

人不可能缺乏延续性的不断的与自我重新认同。

13、播电影的猴子————人在困苦中可以获得的唯一有益知识是：任何事情都有可能发生，有困苦也必有欢乐。

14、白发老者————人类的痛苦有两种，或物质过于缺乏，或物质过于丰富。

但在精神层面，人类却一直没有进步，问题在于人类的特性：恐惧和懒惰。

15、写作的男子————伟大的小说不在于其的故事，或者表现形式，而在于人、思想、时间。

16、留大胡子的胖子————梦境与现实，虚幻或真实之间的转化，有时非常简单。

特别是当表现物为暴力时，17、长发男子————梦是自我认同的一种过程，在一定意义上，它与现实没有根本区别。

18、弹琴的男子————梦的意义在于超越自我的存在形式。

你可以是任何的一种存在形式，不一定是人类，甚至不一定是物体。

19、穿皮衣的长发男子————有些人醒着也在做梦，因为他们没有梦的意识，他们并不想在梦中得到思想的解放，他们的梦是现实的延续，也就是说是对物质渴望的梦想。

20、卷发男子————沉默……沉默……在这出看来喋喋不休的电影中此时出现了一个沉默看着你的男子。

这种手法让我想起国画里的“留白”。

人生是需要静默的，那时便是反观自身的时刻。

21、留着“雷鬼”头的四人帮————行动在很多时候只是理念自然而然的放映，但并不能因此就界定它具有明确的目的性。

22、背着背包的男子————梦在于自我感性的存在，寻找一切新的可能性。

像旅行一般，向往所有的未知。

23、白衣男子————太阳底下无新事？

不。

梦具有发掘“新事”的可能性。

24、红发女子————交谈在很多时候只是人类远离孤独与表达礼貌的手段。

而交流思想往往却居于其次。

25、爆炸头男子————记忆比忘却需要更大的力量，所以梦中的事情我们便经常遗忘。

这与现实何其的相似。

26、光头男子————梦中的自己始终还是无法摆脱现实的投射，所以更多的时候梦中的本体也只不过是现实占优势的复制品。

当然，个体存在着差异，但这种差异到底在多大程度上影响着我们？

27、售货员————人类的死亡与植物的枯死一样，都需要进行包裹。

死亡是需要进行隐蔽的，因为大多数的人们不想看到这些。

但这并不妨害到它们的存在。

28、束发的女子————人与人最终还是需要以某种联系作为纽带。

但这种联系究竟应该是一种什么方式。

现代人的联系的弱化是否可以用娱乐取代？

29打弹珠的男子————时间想让我们忘记上帝的存在。

而永恒也因为时间的存在而变得可惧。

但永恒之后还存在时间吗？