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What the Bleep Do We Know!?
is
a controversial 2004 film that combines both documentary
interviews, fiction and animation to allege a connection
between science and spirituality. The topics discussed
include neurology, quantum physics, psychology, ontology,
metaphysics, and spirituality. The film features interviews
with individuals presented as experts in science and
spirituality, interspersed with the story of a deaf
photographer as she struggles with her past. Computer
animated graphics also feature in the film. The film
has received widespread criticism for allegedly misrepresenting
scientific consensus.
Synopsis
What the Bleep Do We Know (according to the makers
"Bleep" is a bowdlerization of "fuck"
— William Arntz has referred to the film as "WTFDWK"
in a message to 'Bleeps' "Street Team")
blends a fictional story line, discussion, and computer
animation to present a view of the physical universe
and human life within it, often relating this to neuroscience
and quantum physics. Some topics discussed include:
that the universe is better thought of as being constructed
from thought (or ideas) than from substance; that
what has long been considered "empty space"
is anything but empty; and that our beliefs in who
we are and what is real are not simply observations,
but rather form ourselves and our realities. Additionally,
a brief discussion of the theory that peptides manufactured
in your brain can cause a bodily reaction to an emotion
brings a new perspective to old adages such as "think
positively" and "be careful what you wish
for."
In
the fictional story, a photographer (Marlee Matlin)
acts as the viewer's avatar as she experiences her
life from startlingly new and different perspectives.
In addition to the story line, a team of experts in
quantum physics, biology, medicine, psychiatry, and
theology discuss the roots and meaning of Amanda's
experiences. However, the viewers are left in the
dark on the credentials of the experts until the credits
at the end of the movie.
Marlee Matlin as Amanda in What the Bleep do We KnowThe
comments of those presented as scientific experts
converge on a single theme: "We all create our
own reality."
Filmed
on location in Portland, Oregon, What the Bleep attempts
to present a view that has become increasingly popular
with a particular segment of the public over the last
few decades. The views are consistent with those of
Jane Roberts (the Seth books), Richard Bach (Jonathan
Livingston Seagull and Illusions), Abraham-Hicks'
body of work, and many others.[citation needed]
[edit]
Promotion
Lacking the funding and resources of the typical Hollywood
film, the filmmakers relied on "guerrilla marketing"
first to get the film into theaters, then to attract
audiences. This has led to accusations, both formal
and informal, against the film's proponents of spamming
online message boards and forums with many thinly
veiled promotional posts. Initially, the film was
released in only two theaters: one in Yelm, Washington
(the home of the producers), and the other in Portland,
Oregon where it was filmed. Within several weeks,
it was in a dozen more theaters (mostly in the western
United States), and within six months it had made
its way into 200 theaters from coast to coast .
[edit]
Reviews of the movie
As a movie, the critics offered a fairly mixed bag
of reviews as seen on the movie review website Rotten
Tomatoes. [1]. Dave Kehr of the New York Times described
in his review of the movie, the "transition from
quantum mechanics to cognitive therapy" as "plausible",
but went on to state that "the subsequent leap
— from cognitive therapy into large, hazy spiritual
beliefs — isn't as effectively executed. Suddenly
people who were talking about subatomic particles
are alluding to alternate universes and cosmic forces,
all of which can be harnessed in the interest of making
Ms. Matlin's character feel better about her thighs."
[edit]
Featured experts and scientists
David Albert, a philosopher of physics and professor
at Columbia University, speaks frequently throughout
the movie. While it may appear as though he supports
the ideas that are presented in the movie, according
to a Popular Science article, he is "outraged
at the final product." [2] The article states
that Albert granted the filmmakers a near-four hour
interview about quantum mechanics being unrelated
to consciousness or spirituality. His interview was
then edited and incorporated into the film in a way
that misrepresented his views. In the article, Albert
also expresses his feelings of gullibility after having
been "taken" by the filmmakers. Although
noted that Albert is listed as a scientist taking
part in the sequel to What the Bleep, called "Down
the Rabbit Hole" [3], it should also be noted
that this sequel is a "director's cut",
composed of extra footage from the filming of the
first movie. [4]
Amit Goswami, Ph.D. "One of the rare scientists
that do not leave out consciousness in explaining
quantum physics." [5] He appears in What is Enlightenment
magazine, authored the book The Self-Aware Universe:
How Consciousness Creates the Material World (ISBN
0874777984), and has worked with Deepak Chopra.
John Hagelin was the head of the 1993 Transcendental
Meditation project in Washington, D.C. (The Washington
TM study [6] was mentioned in the film, but Hagelin
was never identified as one of its authors.) He is
chairman of the Physics Department at Maharishi International
University in Fairfield, Iowa. The University was
founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru
who vaulted to fame after becoming the spiritual advisor
to the Beatles.
Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist, author, and
associate director of the Center for Consciousness
Studies at the University of Arizona. He has worked
with Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose, on a speculative
quantum theory of consciousness.
JZ Knight/Ramtha appears frequently in the film as
a scientist or spiritual teacher of some kind. By
the end of the film, during the credits, she is identified
as the spirit "Ramtha" who is being "channeled"
by "JZ Knight.". Knight was born Judith
Darlene Hampton in Roswell, New Mexico. The spirit,
Ramtha, whom she claims to channel, is "a 35,000
year-old warrior spirit from the lost continent of
Lemuria and one of the Ascended Masters." (Knight
speaks with an accent because English is not Ramtha's
first language.)
Andrew Newberg, Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania
assistant professor of radiology, and physician in
nuclear medicine. He is coauthor of the book, Why
God Won't Go Away: Brain Science & the Biology
of Belief (ISBN 034544034X).
Candace Pert wrote the book Molecules of Emotion in
1997 (foreword written by Deepak Chopra) where she
espoused views very similar to those of the film.
Some aspects of the film appeared to be based on her
book. For example, the first ten minutes of the movie
can be summarized by a quote from pages 146–148
of Molecules of Emotion where she writes:
There is no objective reality! ... Emotions are constantly
regulating what we experience as "reality."
The decision about what sensory information travels
to your brain and what gets filtered depends on what
signals the receptors are receiving from the peptides
... For example, when the tall European ships first
approached the early Native Americans, it was such
an "impossible" vision in their reality
that their highly filtered perceptions couldn't register
what was happening, and they literally failed to "see"
the ships.
Another point in the movie can be well summarized
by page 285, where she writes:
The tendency to ignore emotions is oldthink, a remnant
of the still-reigning paradigm that keeps us focused
on the material level of health, the physicality of
it. But the emotions are a key element in the self-care
because they allow us to enter into the bodymind's
conversation. By getting in touch with our emotions,
both by listening to them and by directing them through
the psychosomatic network, we gain access to the healing
wisdom that is everyone's natural biological right.
Dr Fred Alan WolfFred Alan Wolf, Ph.D recently wrote
The Yoga of Time Travel: How the Mind Can Defeat Time.
(Note: he says he is also known by the name "Captain
Quantum" — an animated character that was
created for the movie but not used in the released
version.) He also appears in videos, including Shamanic
Physics: "Fred Alan Wolf discusses his efforts
to explain shamanic realities in terms of modern physics.
He suggests that shamans interact with parallel universes
and are able to enter into the world of the dead."
[7]
Other interviewees in the film include Joe Dispenza,
a chiropractor, author, and a devotee of Ramtha's
School of Enlightenment [8]; Miceal Ledwith, author
and former professor of theology at Maynooth College
in Ireland; Daniel Monti, physician and director of
the Mind-Body Medicine Program at Thomas Jefferson
University; Jeffery Satinover, psychiatrist and author;
and William Tiller, Professor Emeritus of Material
Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and
author of over 250 scientific publications.
Amit
Goswami and William Tiller are both employed by the
Institute of Noetic Sciences. [9]
[edit]
Controversial aspects of the film
[edit]
Factual errors
The movie states humans are "90% water"
when in fact newborns have around 78%, 1-year-olds
around 65%, adult men about 60%, and adult women around
55%.
The
movies states that if (human) cells are overstimulated
by neurotransmitters they adjust through a process
called down regulation. The movie also tells us that
this is the cause of lifelong problems, since the
down regulation is passed on in cell division. So
we are used to thinking in same patterns and stimulations,
hence we keep being who we are and can not change.
Since this refers to the process of thought the movie
must be referring to the brain. Brain cells, unlike
other cells in the body, do not divide. So there is
nothing to pass on. A response to this criticism is
that lifelong problems also occur in joints, muscles,
skin, for three examples, and these cells do divide.
The relationship between the nervous and other physical
systems involves the process called down regulation,
not the brain and the brain only.
The
movie also relates a story about Native Americans
being unable to see Columbus' ships. However, there
is no mention of this in any of the journals of those
voyages, and the oral traditions of the Native Americans
were lost in the following 150 years of Spanish rule.
None of the people that Columbus first encountered—the
Arawaks—had any descendants survive into recent
times. [1]
[edit]
Experts
The filmmakers assembled a panel to make their point
by discussing facts, opinions, and illustrative examples
in ways designed to inform as well as entertain. Critics
have voiced concerns that the film is disingenuous
and that it selectively presents information, while
not presenting contradictory information.
The
film presents scientific and theological experts to
support the film's underlying philosophy, but, by
and large, the scientists have previously been involved
in promoting similar ideas. Arguably, their presence
in the film represents the filmmaker's efforts to
find scientists sympathetic to the film's ideas and
largely the scientists in the film do not represent
the general scientific community's views.
[edit]
Methods
The film doesn't present any contradictory evidence
or discuss any contrarian point of view, nor does
it discuss the process of how certain conclusions
were reached. Ideas which have little acceptance in
the scientific community are portrayed as fact, despite
many of them being contradicted by evidence. Many
identified as scientists in the movie provide evidence
from experiments that were carried out improperly
or without due consideration of error propagation,
casting serious doubt on the results.
[edit]
Controversial statements about quantum physics
As the purported experts speak throughout the movie,
they make several references to concepts, ideas, and
alleged facts about quantum physics and other specific
items. They make little to no effort to explain what
these things are, perhaps because the film's quantum
claims are not outside of the mainstream of the widely
accepted interpretations of quantum mechanics, such
as the Copenhagen Interpretation. The idea that the
measurement (observing capacities) of conscious observers
creates the particle reality we see is a widely held
position in the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum
physics. But how much of consciousness creates reality,
and in what ways, is highly variable among physicists.
(The Copenhagen Interpretation is in contradiction
with the Many-Worlds Interpretation mentioned shortly.
Only one of these interpertations can be correct,
not both.) Quantum physics describes a reality not
in agreement with sense information, and the film
really sticks to this claim, not going far outside
of it, and the quantum physics of the film is perhaps
the least controversial of all the science discussed
in the film.
Some
of the film's experts, particularly Amit Goswami,
repeatedly refer to the process of measurement and
observation in quantum mechanics and speculate about
the relation between consciousness and the material
world. They claim for example that human beings have
the capability to create their own reality; Dr. Miceal
Ledwith even asserts that human beings have the capability
of walking on water.
Most
physicists do not believe this ability to freely choose
the future to be true in anything other than a metaphorical
sense. The facts of measurement and observation are
far more prosaic. Specifically, if a system is in
a state described by a wave function, the measurement
process affects the state in a non-deterministic,
but statistically predictable way. In particular,
after a measurement is applied, the state description
by a single wave function may be destroyed, being
replaced by a statistical ensemble of wave functions.
The nature of measurement operations in quantum physics
can be described using various mathematical formalisms
such as the relative state formulation or its equivalent
form the many-worlds interpretation. Noted physicists
such as David Deutsch do take this interpretation
quite literally.
However,
some see the many-worlds interpretation as supporting
the view that we, in some sense, 'choose' from an
infinite ensemble of possible universes (note however
that David Deutsch himself rejects any such extrapolation
of his views).
[edit]
Controversial studies
[edit]
Transcendental Meditation study
As described in the film, the study involved using
4,000 people in June and July of 1993 to do Transcendental
Meditation (TM) to attempt to reduce violent crime
in Washington, D.C. (which has one of the highest
per-capita homicide rates in the United States). By
counting the number of Homicides, Rapes, and Assaults
(HRA), the study came to the conclusion TM reduced
crime rates by 18%. Based on the numbers reported
in their own study, the HRA crime rate was about 30%
higher in 1993 than the average crime rate between
1988–1992. The HRA crime rate showed a decline
around the middle of the two month period where TM
was practiced and remained relatively low (by 1993
standards) for several months afterward, though the
decline was small enough that the reduced HRA crime
rate was still about 10–15% higher than average
at that time of year. There was no reduction in the
homicide rate during the period of the study.
[edit]
Water crystals
Masaru Emoto's work (The Hidden Messages in Water)
plays a prominent role in a scene set in a subway
tunnel, where the main character happens upon a presentation
of displays showing images of water crystals. In the
movie, "before" and "after" photographs
of water are presented as evidence that specific words
written on pieces of paper and affixed to different
containers of water have the power to transform the
water into beautiful crystalline shapes. Examples
and the procedure followed by Emoto can be found at
this site. In the movie, it is claimed that "non-physical
events" of "mental stimuli" are the
cause of this transformation, but skeptics have pointed
out that the "after" photographs are microscopic
images of the water after being frozen (aka snowflakes)
— a step not disclosed in the movie.
Emoto's
work is criticised for being more artistic than scientific.
His work was never subject to peer review, and he
did not utilize double blind methodology. Emoto also
claims that polluted water does not crystallize. Depending
on the properties of the pollutant, heavily polluted
water will still form crystals, though the crystals
may contain more crystallographic defects than pure
water would. These changes in the way the crystals
form can be readily explained using basic chemistry
and physics.
Emoto
appears to have arbitrarily decided what constitutes
a "brilliant crystal" and an "incomplete
crystal", but in a movie claiming a scientific
base, a quantification of what defines such crystals
is required.
James
Randi, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation,
has publicly offered [10] Emoto one million dollars
if his results can be reproduced in a double-blind
study.
[edit]
Crew
[edit]
Filmmakers
William Arntz: Producer, Director, Screenwriter
Betsy Chasse: Producer, Director, Screenwriter
Mark Vicente: Director, Director of Photography
[edit]
Cast
Marlee Matlin .... Amanda
Elaine Hendrix .... Jennifer
Barry Newman .... Frank
Robert Bailey .... Reggie
John Ross Bowie .... Elliot
Armin Shimerman .... Man
Robert Blanche .... Bob
Jeff S. Dodge .... Extra (on train)
[edit]
Physicists
William A. Tiller, Ph.D.
Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
John Hagelin, Ph.D.
Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.
David Albert, Ph.D.
[edit]
Neurologists, anesthesiologists and physicians
Dr. Masaru Emoto (certified by the "Open International
University for Alternative Medicines" in Calcutta,
India as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine — a
one year program)
Stuart Hameroff M.D.
Dr. Jeffrey Satinover
Andrew B. Newberg, M.D.
Dr. Daniel Monti
Dr. Joseph Dispenza
[edit]
Molecular biology
Dr. Candace Pert
[edit]
Spiritual teachers, mystics and scholars
Ramtha (via JZ Knight)
Dr. Miceal Ledwith
[edit]
Awards
Awards given in 2004:
Ashland Independent Film Festival — Best Documentary
DCIFF — DC Independent Film Festival — Grand
Jury Documentary Award
Maui Film Festival — Audience Choice Award —
Best Hybrid Documentary
Houston World Fest — Platinum Remi Award
Sedona International Film Festival — Audience
Choice Award, Most Thought-Provoking Film.
Pigasus Award — Media outlet that reported as
fact the most outrageous paranormal claim.
Credit:
Wikipedia
Websites
What
the Bleep Do We Know!?
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