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What the Bleep Do We Know!?

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The correct title of this article is What the #$*! Do We Know!? It appears incorrectly here due to technical restrictions.
Movie promotional poster for What the Bleep showing the difficult-to-render title.
Movie promotional poster for What the Bleep showing the difficult-to-render title.

What the #$*! Do We Know!? (aka What the Bleep Do We Know!?) is a 2004 film that combines both fictional and documentary styles to present a view of reality that blends unorthodox perspectives from fields as diverse as quantum physics, religion, medicine, and metaphysics.

Synopsis

Marleee Matlin as Amanda in What the Bleep do We Know
Marleee Matlin as Amanda in What the Bleep do We Know

What the Bleep blends a fictional story line, discussion, and computer animation to present a different view of the physical universe and human life within it. Many unorthodox concepts are explored. Among these, that the universe is better thought of as being constructed from thought 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 in the first place. Additionally, a brief discussion of the theory that peptides manufactured in your brain can cause a bodily reaction to an emotion reinvigorates debates around the effectiveness of old adages like "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 which, if they happened to most of us, might cause us to think we were hallucinating. In addition to the story line, a team of "experts" in quantum physics, biology, medicine, psychology, 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.

The comments of all the experts converge on a single theme: "We all create our own reality." Critics have pointed out that there is not one scientist presented who does not try to tie quantum mechanics to spiritualism, despite the fact that only a small minority of physicists in the field ascribe to the view presented in the film. This is a common criticism of the film as it touches on other forms of science as well.

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. It should also be noted that all three of the film's directors are students of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, a school named for an alleged 35,000 year old spirit which JZ Knight (prominently featured in the film) claims to channel.

The fact that the filmmakers and some of the cast's extensive connections to the Ramtha organization are never disclosed to the viewers has led critics to assert that the directors and producers of the film are being disingenuous with how they present relevant information. Critics have voiced concerns that the film selectively presents favorable information while ignoring contradictory information and misrepresents the current consensus understanding on the underlying science, all with the aim of furthering a particular viewpoint which can be variously described as spiritual, mystical or "New Age-y."

Promotion

Lacking the funding and resources of the typical Hollywood film, the filmmakers relied on "guerrilla marketing" to first 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. At any rate, their strategies appear to have been quite successful. 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 west), and within six months it had made its way into 200 theaters from coast to coast.

Controversial aspects of the film

Controversial experts

The filmmakers assembled a panel favorable to their views to make their point (see below). Through creative editing, voice-overs, and special effects, points are raised, discussed, and illustrated 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 experts to support the film's underlying philosophy, but, by in 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. Given the selection process, the scientists may not represent the general scientific community's views.

  • Amit Goswami, Ph.D. "One of the rare scientists that do not leave out consciousness in explaining quantum physics." [1] 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.
  • Candice 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 Wolf, a.k.a. "Dr. Quantum"
Dr Fred Alan Wolf, a.k.a. "Dr. Quantum"
  • Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D recently wrote The Yoga of Time Travel: How the Mind Can Defeat Time. (Interesting note: he says he is also known by the name "Captain Quantum"—a name which is mentioned briefly in the film, though without reference to Wolf.) 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." [2]
  • Masaru Emoto's work (The Hidden Messages in Water) is artistic, not scientific. His work has never been submitted to a scientific journal. In the movie, the photographs of water are portrayed as evidence that words like 'love' have the power to form water into beautiful crystalline shapes, but skeptics may point out that they are photographs of frozen water (aka snowflakes).
  • JZ Knight/Ramtha appears frequently in the film. In the film, she appears to be a spiritual teacher of some kind, and is identified at the end of the film as the spirit "Ramtha" who is being channeled by "JZ Knight." The three people who wrote, directed, and produced the movie are students of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Knight was born Judith Darlene Hampton in Roswell, N.M. The spirit, Ramtha, who she claims to channel, is "a 35,000 year-old warrior spirit from the lost continent of Atlantis and one of the Ascended Masters." (Knight speaks with an accent because English is not Ramtha's first language.)

Most of the other scientists appearing in the movie have similar New Age beliefs and affiliations, with one notable exception:

  • Dr. David Albert, a philosopher of physics and professor at Columbia University, speaks frequently throughout the movie. While it appears 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." [3] The article says that "Dr. Albert "spent nearly four hours patiently explaining to the filmmakers why quantum mechanics has nothing to do with consciousness or spirituality, only to see his statements edited and cut to the point where it appears as though he and the spirit warrior are speaking with one voice."

Controversial studies

  • Transcendental Meditation study. The study involved using 5,000 people in June and July of 1993 to do Transcendental Meditation to reduce violent crime in Washington, DC (which has one of the highest per-capita homicide rates in the US). 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. Whether this means that TM caused a drop in that year's unusually high HRA rate, or whether the HRA rate naturally dropped closer to its more typical frequency is the issue.
  • Water Crystals. This study plays a prominent role in a subway scene in the movie, where the main character happens upon a presentation of displays showing pictures of what (allegedly) happens when a container of water is wrapped in a piece of paper with specific text on it and then frozen. Examples include "You make me sick", "Love and Gratitude", and "Thank you". The procedure followed can be found at this site. However, there are several problems with the water crystal studies, primarily the fact that the study was not a double blind experiment. For that, the individual providing the specimen (i.e., selecting the water sample, pouring it into the container, labelling the container with a message, and freezing it) would have to be a different person than the individual who receives the ice for analysis and photography, while the latter should be unaware of what the water had actually been labelled. If there is one person performing both jobs, that individual could easily select sections of the frozen water that match what they want to see (otherwise known as confirmation bias). In other words, if they want happy words to make aesthetically pleasing shapes, all they need to do is search around the block of ice for something aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, if they want angry words to create aesthetically displeasing crystals, they just need to search around until they find a section that doesn't look as good. Emoto appears to have arbitrarily decided what a "brilliant crystal" is and what an "incomplete crystal" is, but in a movie claiming a scientific base grounded in quantum mechanics, a quantification of what defines a brilliant crystal and an incomplete crystal is necessary. Emoto also claims that polluted water doesn't 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.

Controversial statements about quantum physics

As the "experts" speak throughout the movie, they make several references to concepts, ideas, and alleged facts about quantum physics and other specific items. However, they make little to no effort to explain what these things are.

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).

Other expressions of ambiguous or unexplained meaning used by the experts include:

Crew

Filmmakers

Cast

Physicists

Neurologists, anesthesiologists and physicians

Molecular biology

Spiritual teachers, mystics and scholars

Awards

2004

See also

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