My husband and I went to see the movie, “Inception” this weekend and about 3/4 of the way through it I began to feel pretty anxious. I understand a few of the contributing factors such as the idea of going into a dream and then into another dream and layers upon layers of the consciousness. I’ve had the kind of dream before where I thought I had woken up but I was actually still dreaming and I couldn’t make myself wake up. And I’ve had a few bad experiences with drugs back long ago when my tendency to anxiety and panic attacks got triggered so it’s understandable why I may have felt anxious watching this movie.

In my calm though I am curious about the concept of planting an idea into someone’s sub-or-unconsciousness. I’m sure billions of dollars are spent on this ability by companies wanting to sway consumers to use their products. The ability to plant an idea into someone else’ mind is full of all kinds of ethical questions with freedom being the top verb. Is is a good thing or a bad thing? Is it right or wrong? Even if the idea that you are planting into someone else’ consciousness is a really good thing, is it okay to do it without their conscious approval? Is it possible?

Perhaps these questions are an indication of why I have an excellent b.s. detector inside of me. I may not realize immediately that there is an attempt to plant an idea in me, but my radar goes off that something is going on. When I recruited for a living, one of the methods of recruiting that I would absolutely not employ was to try to seduce someone into a job that may not have been in their best interest. In the long run, it would end up screwing everyone from the employ who took the job and was miserable to the client who hired them to the recruiter who placed them into the job. Most of the time it would end up biting you in the butt if you tried to play a game of cups with someone’s livelihood. We figured out earlier on in the business that it works out much better for all (and certainly helped me sleep through the night) if you described the prospective job as best you could to the applicant so that they were able to make as an informed decision as they could.

Having been in the position to hire many people, I know how easy it can be to plant ideas, but I’d rather have influence on helping someone make the best decision for themselves than to hypnotize them into doing something that may very well have gone against their grain.

Helping people to figure out who they are, what they feel and what are the best choices they can make in their lives is what I love to do. And I know that good teachers can plant ideas into the students heads and leave it up to them whether to nurture and grow the idea or let it go. I realize the movie, “Inception” is just that, a movie, but you know the saying that if we can think it, it is possible. I just hope that people in the position of being able to persuade many, are paying attention to the kinds of seeds they are sowing and in what way. We are all connected and I want to be connected to others because of a willing hand reaching out to hold mine.