Watch the first-ever video documenting live two-way dream communication.

Have you ever felt drawn toward choices without knowing why? Or, as seen in the movie “Inception,” have you ever felt like you’ve woken up with a decision that’s already been made for you?

Neuroscience is beginning to demystify such feelings. Our agency and decisions, it turns out, can be measurably influenced by events that evade the conscious part of our brains. We’ll see three groundbreaking experiments that illustrate that influences we are unaware of in our waking life, during dreamless sleep, or even in our dreams, can impact our memory and behavior.

Published on February 18, 2021, in the journal Current Biology, an international team of scientists have found a bridge to the dream world by showing that it’s possible to have a direct dialogue with someone in their dream—and NOVA’s Greg Kestin (host of “What the Physics?!”) was given exclusive access.

The scientific context and potential effect of this team’s work are built up in the film through two related groundbreaking experiments. These experiments also show how scientists can influence your decisions, desires, and habits without you being aware.

Link to the Konkoly et al. paper on lucid dreaming: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/...

Link to Laura Shanahan’s paper on odors and sleep: https://elifesciences.org/articles/39681

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Produced & Directed by Greg Kestin

Senior Digital Producer
Ari Daniel

Executive Producers
Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt

Research Interns
Rachel Swansburg
Saoirse Loftus-Reid

Camera
Greg Kestin
Emily Zendt
Christina Monnen
Aaron Fillo

Consultants/Advisors:
Christof Koch
Roger Koenig-Robert
Philip Pärnamets
Anat Arzi
David Kestin
Lissy Herman
Jay Gottfried
Petter Johansson
Lars Hall

Experiment Participants:
Nicholas Croce
Diara Townes
Michelle Lee

Special Thanks:
Casey Tobias
Zach Huber
Brianna Veal
Julie Elsky
Kurtis DeSousa
Carol Rhu
Catherine Hua
Gina Varamo
Northwestern University
Susan Florczak
Karina Montelongo
Sierra Whaley
Irish Village
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York
Shantal Riley
Jennifer Dale

Music: APM
Sound Effects: Freesound.org
Stock footage: Videoblocks, Pond 5

Funding by:
Foundational Questions Institute
Franklin Fetzer Fund

This project was supported by grant number FQXi-RFP-1822 from the Foundational Questions Institute and Fetzer Franklin Fund, a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

© WGBH Educational Foundation 2021