Imagine looking at an old photo—and stepping into that moment. Imagine being able to walk through a forgotten house and see the people captured in the photo come to life. In Season 7, Episode 5 (Eulogy) of Black Mirror, the protagonist, Phillip Connarty, is an elderly man trying to recall the face of Carol, his former lover. Using a special program, he dives into his memories. He touches a photograph—and enters the image, where every sensation feels just as real as his waking life.
The episode unfolds like a lucid dream: Phillip wanders through worlds shaped by his own subconscious. The spaces are scenes from the past and contain many details and fragments of emotion, but all of it is artificial. Phillip knows he’s in a simulation, yet he can’t control it—until an emotional anchor appears: the sound of the cello Carol once loved to play. The music becomes a trigger, and memory begins to awaken.
Techniques in the episode that resemble lucid dreaming practices:
1. Sensory anchor that activates memory—for Phillip, it’s the sound of a cello.
2. Visualization-style entry—Phillip “falls into” his subconscious by looking at a photo.
3. Phillip doesn’t just observe—he interacts with the image. He talks to it and argues with it.
4. Only once he learns to control the space does Phillip fill in the missing frames—and finally see her face.
Have you seen the episode? Does it feel like lucid dreaming to you?
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