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What the #$*! Do We Know!? (23-Apr-2004)
Directors: William Arntz; Betsy Chasse; Mark Vicente Writers: William Arntz; Betsy Chasse; Matthew Hoffman; Mark Vicente Keywords: Faux Documentary Pseudoscientific new-age claptrap.
REVIEWS Review by anonymous (posted on 24-Mar-2006) I watched “What the
Bleep Do We Know?”, which, I should say for those who recommended it,
was well worth watching and was certainly a good conversation-starter.
Very enjoyable. But the premise? It certainly left me with a lot of
questions. For those who haven’t seen the movie, the basic idea is
that, in light of all the latest in quantum mechanics, we have proven
that humans can mentally construct reality in any way they choose,
because reality as we know it is illusory. If you look at solid matter,
it is actually made up of loose clouds of molecules, and those of loose
clouds of atoms and so on, ad infinitum. The idea that the movie puts
forward is that we are one with the universe, and, as the one lady (who
is channeling a 35,000 year old mystic from Atlantis) concludes, we are
God. The trouble for me is that a lot of the ideas in the film are in
the same neighbourhood as my own beliefs, so the bizarre tangents are a
little off-putting. First off, some of the claims in the film are
completely false. They refer to the “Maharishi Effect” (meditators
could lower the crime rate) which was “proven” in an uncontrolled
experiment in Washington when the crime rate was miraculously lowered
by 25% by the 4,000 meditators. Cursory fact checking shows that crime
actually rose in Washington during that period, though the organizers
claimed success. But when “facts” like this are getting thrown at you
in a movie, its hard to filter them out amid all the physicists who are
also saying all kinds of quantum-zaniness. They also refer to another
experiment wherein some guy claimed that water reacts to words, as
proven by him taping affirming messages to glasses of water, then
photographing the supposed results. Again, it seems that he forgot to
mention that he froze the water. What bothered me most, though, was the
whole “nothing is certain, therefore I am the centre of the universe”
leap of logic. What about the corollary? Far from being your own
creator and supreme observer, what if you are nothing more than a
transient cluster of atoms floating in an infinite void filled with
nearly indistinguishable particles? The fact that quantum particles
change when observed doesn’t signify any special significance to you as
the observer; no, silly, think of it as your observation being another
random act which affects the observed particles by interaction, not
observation. Observation gives centrality and importance to the
observer. Interaction acknowledges you for the insignificant cloud of
dust that you really are. Granted, my take on quantum theory is
considerably more bleak, but I would argue, much closer to the truth.
Everyone is so quick to mix and match quantum theory to justify
whatever they like, giving us quantum-leprechauns and such. But I’m
always suspicious of “feel-good” spiritual solutions, especially when
they’re supposedly proven by science. The truth is, when I first read
about quantum mechanics, I was amazed by the parallels with Zen
Buddhism. Did I jump for joy and start healing people? No. It just
affirmed to me that if you look deep enough inside yourself or deep
enough outside yourself you’ll find the same thing: nothing. You can
paint that to be fuzzy and nice, or you can accept it for what I think
it is: terrifying and beautiful.
Review by anonymous (posted on 25-Mar-2006) To say this movie
makes you think would be the understatement of the millennium. Marlee
Matlin falls "Down the Rabbit Hole", as they say, into the quantum
world where things are not as they seem. While there, she is forced to
see things on quantum level where things can be in two places at once,
time can move forward or back, and things are more energy than
solid...until you observe them, of course, in which they become solid.
Odd? You bet. Real? What is real? Open your mind and get through some
seriously bizarre discoveries in the first half and the second half
will bring you into your own head. The film graphically shows the
"storm" that rages in your brain that creates thoughts. Further yet,
they have a rather humorous cartoon showing how this storm effects your
hypothalamus, which releases chemicals throughout your body causing
emotion, and then how we all are addicted to that emotion, creating a
reality that is yours, and yours alone. Got all that? This then brings
us back to whether we are seeing what is real in the world, or only
seeing what it is we want to see. And if we cannot see what is real, is
ANYTHING real? Yet it's real to us. So what do we do with this? Just
watch the movie. It's one of those that will forever change the way you
look at anything. They present facts from science and religion, or
mysticism, without being preachy or trying to prove one side. It is
edutainment more than a Hollywood plot. It has a cult following strong
enough that they have now released a more in depth version, “Down the
Rabbit Hole” where they dig deeper into these concepts.
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