What did you dream about last night? In Richard Linklater’s “Waking Life,” the hazy line between dream and waking lives winds around philosophy in a brilliant presentation of life’s deepest questions.

Linklater (“Slacker,” “Dazed and Confused”) has outdone himself with the visually-stunning masterpiece, a film that truly moves viewers not only with its incredible animation, but also with a bombardment of philosophical wisdom.

More than 20 philosophers, including the likes of Nietzsche, Aristotle and Kierkegaard, laid the foundation for the film’s brain-stretching dialogue.

It got me thinking about a lot of things, as a great film should. But the complexity of the issues explored in the film was so overwhelming, I hardly know where to start.

The film, which takes place in an ambiguous big city, uses the avenue of dreams to explore just about every aspect of life. We follow the lead character, played by Wiley Wiggins (“Dazed and Confused”), who seems to be trapped in a dream from which he cannot awake. An endless stream of philosophies pours into his ear from all types of people, from young women to old men, while intricate artwork pushes the film’s concepts to a higher perceptual level.

To create the distorted quality of dreams, each character was illustrated by a different artist. The film actually is like two in one, with the animation superimposed over actual scenes with a technique called rotoscoping. Each character possesses his or her unique essence — an effect that would be a real feat to achieve with film alone. Characters become multi-dimensional and visceral, allowing the viewer to get a glimpse under the skin and into the layers of their psyches. At reelmoviecritic.com, I found what is probably the most accurate description of the film’s visual beauty, as “a painting that has come to life … It is the closest thing to filming a dream ever.”

One of my favorite sequences of the movie follows Wiggins’ character as he passes a woman while descending a stairway. As they pass one another, they share the usual meaningless acknowledgement that strangers often do. You know, the non-committal, tight-lipped “hi,” or something similar.

The woman backtracks, turning to Wiley’s character and launching into an amazing dialogue on the lack of true interaction between people. It was so striking, because every time I pass someone on the street or in class or deal with a cashier, I think about how we constantly go through these meaningless motions. We’re like monkeys, trained to behave in a certain way, which takes for granted that we are communicating with another human being.

Ever stop to think about what that really means? Sometimes when I’m in one of those situations, maybe in the check-out line at a store, I try to imagine what the other person’s life is like. What burdens do they face in life? What’s really behind the glazed-over eyes of bored, underpaid service people when they flash that plastic “just doing my job” smile? Are they in pain? What are their talents? Do they really want to know how I’m doing?

Sadly, we so often forget about each other. In every phony recital of “have a nice day,” or the mindless response of “I’m good” to the equally mindless question “How are you?,” an opportunity for real interaction is lost forever. I wonder if when we’re old and gray, we’ll look back on our lives and see a series of random, thoughtless moments.

It also makes me wonder how these frequent empty moments affect our senses of integrity, our perceptions of our world and our more meaningful relationships. It may sound nit-picky, but if you really think about it, we go through our days spouting little white lies with our natural speech. The way we treat each other, while not necessarily cruel on the face, is actually rather dehumanizing.

In our perpetual business, it seems like many of us lead stream-of-consciousness existences. Instead of creating our own currents in life, we allow the currents of other people and our consumption-drunk culture to shape our actions, our thoughts, our feelings and our beliefs. We do the one thing we should think more carefully about: believe.

Or at least we say we believe. We believe in religions, we believe in ideals, we believe in political philosophies. Like Chris Rock’s character in the film “Dogma,” I agree that beliefs can be dangerous. Once you believe in something, you have discarded all alternatives and stopped questioning the world.

This ties in with the beauty and poignancy of “Waking Life.” In its mind-boggling rhetoric, there are endless theories. Those who speak the theories sound so sure, but somehow, we are left wide-open and undecided, but with so many intellectual possibilities — the best way to be.

You can learn more about “Waking Life” at www.wakinglifemovie.com. A 20-inch column could never do justice to this amazingly beautiful film. If you ever have the opportunity, go see it, more than once if possible.