This theory was inspired by the movie Inception – SPOILERS!!!
This weekend I saw the film Inception. (If you haven’t seen it yet – read on at your own peril!) The central plot of the film revolves around manipulating dreams, and in particular, using dreams to plant an idea or command so deep in someone’s subconscious that they think they came up with it themselves, which is called “Inception. “
The dream manipulation in the movie has some obvious parallels to Dreamwalking in the Wheel of Time series – the characters can enter others’ dreams and manipulate the dream world around them with their minds. Further, while they have some power over others’ dreams they also have to be careful lest they be caught by the dangers of the dreamer’s subconscious mind. All of these parallels lead to the question – could Inception be possible in the Wheel of Time series? It seems likely – the concept of planting a command in someone’s subconscious sounds like a form of Compulsion.
When Compulsion is used on someone, they seem to enter a receptive state almost like a trance (or a dream) – and they don’t remember being Compelled. Commands seem to be placed in the victim’s subconscious mind as they manifest themselves as urges that their mind continually tries to rationalize, coming up with reasons to follow the commands – the victim believes that they came up with the idea themselves.
So is Compulsion related to Dreamwalking? Most of the people we see use Compulsion in the series are also those who have experience Dreamwalking. The first use of Compulsion we see is in tSR Ch. 46 when Moghedien, a true master of Tel’aran’rhiod, uses it on Egwene and Nynaeve – while both are strong-willed, the Compulsion is quite successful and she does not appear to have damaged either of their minds. In other words, Moghedien is fairly skilled at Compulsion. The other characters that are skilled at Compulsion – namely Graendal and Rahvin - also seem to be able to enter Tel’aran’rhiod without the use of a ter’angreal.
Finally, we know that Verin pieced together her own form of Compulsion from her studies – and we also know that she had extensively studied Corianin Nedeal’s notes on dream ter’angreal. When she performs this form of Compulsion on Beldeine in the Prologue of tPoD, Beldeine seems to fall half-asleep:
“What…?” Beldeine said drowsily. Her head would have lolled if not for Verin’s grip, and her eyelids were half-closed.
Perhaps Corianin had stumbled across the Compulsion/Dreamwalking connection, and this is why Verin did not give Egwene the notes. After their meeting in Ch. 21 of tSR, Verin remarks to herself how Corianin had kept her studies completely secret from other sisters, and Verin once again considers burning the notes. Why would Verin, who says destroying knowledge is anathema, even think about burning these notes? Clearly, they must contain something very dangerous or she would not even think about it, much less consider it more than once - knowledge of Compulsion (or at least something akin to it) would be a plausible explanation for her reaction. Finally, the possibility of being able to Compel people through dreams has even bigger implications considering that most of the ter’angreal stolen by the Black Ajah had to do with Dreaming – they could have been using them to Compel others to carry out their plans.
Quote of the Day:
“Verin had reconstructed a thing forbidden by the Tower since its founding. In the beginning it had been simple curiosit on her part. Curiosity, she thought wryly, working at the weave on Beldeine, has made me climb inside more than one pickling kettle.” – tPoD Prologue
