"Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or are we wake-walking through our dreams?"

This is the question posed by the intriguing film Waking Life. The film is set inside the dream of a man who slowly discovers he is dreaming but cannot wake up, he realises he can fly and meets all sorts of dream characters along the way.

I'm not usually into animation films but this is unique.The changing types of animation reflect (to me personally) our varying levels of consciousness and awareness. The film is more like a documentary with interesting philosophical asides and existential questions like what happens when we die? What is reality? Can we control our dreams? What is consciousness?

I have experienced lucid dreaming several times but this film set me off thinking about the true potential of this phenomena and what it means. Waking Life leads you to ask yourself many questions about your own existence. I ended up pondering these thoughts for the rest of the evening, nodding along as my boyfriend tried to explain football or cricket or some such, while I secretly pondered the true potential of us as human beings and what our purpose is on this planet.

This is a refreshing movie and a great way to get your mind ticking over some seriously interesting issues. I think I will probably have to watch it a few more times to actually get the full benefit. One quote I liked was, "They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

If you watch it please leave a comment and let us know what you think. You can see a trailer for the film below.