The answer is that you don't know shit
If you were thinking about watching the movie What the Bleep do we Know?, don't.
Seriously. Just don't.
According to the movie's website,
In the words of Rob the dirty liberal (whose idea it was to turn on this abortion of logical thought in the first place), "I've never heard so many words used to say nothing". The film is peppered with pseudoscience, but that's not the main objection. There is a depressing number of people who believe in pseudoscience, and to make a movie for them is just good business.
The problem comes in when the filmmakers tell me things that they say are true, when those things are not true. The claim that I am 90% water, for example. Or the claim that if you place an "emotionally charged" label (like "I'm going to kill you", or "love and peace") onto a glass of water, you can change its structure. They tell you that, and show you pretty pictures, but what they don't say is that the guy doing that experiment took "before" pictures of the glass of water, and then took the "after" pictures of frozen water. You know, snowflakes.
Basically, the biggest problem with this movie is that all the "experts" in quantum mechanics who talk about how it's related to spirituality don't know a goddamn thing about quantum mechanics. I can't even count the number of times that so-called experts have told me that "quantum mechanics measures only possibility". That's just not true - quantum mechanics measures probability. Possibility and probability are not the same thing.
On another note, these cartoons of the brain they keep showing are getting really annoying. Rob and I both agree that we've seen a fair number of videos of brain surgery, and we've never noticed it when the synapses fire in a brilliant flash of light and the brain glows as different areas become active. As the fine upstanding gentlemen at Frinktank might say, the brain is not a fucking Lite-Brite, OK? Also, the practice of representing people's desires as what I can only describe as Jello snowmen is kind of freaky. I sincerely I hope that I don't get hungry because the little Jello snowmen in my brain are addicted to the feeling of me eating. But what the bleep do I know?
So I'm writing this while I'm watching the movie, and this woman just came on the screen. She's JZ Knight, except that she's not: she's "channeling" a 35,000 year old spirit named Ramtha. Ramtha just told me, through the magic of a shitty movie, that quantum mechanics proves that Jesus was right "about the mustard seed being bigger than the kingdom of heaven".
Really.
It's hard to know what to say about something so blindingly stupid (the mystic, not the parable). I guess I can just post a link to the definition of "parable", and leave it at that, since this post is getting kind of long.
Take home lesson: I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you not watch this movie. There is no positive that you can receive. There is no enlightenment that you can get, no information that you can learn, no entertainment that you can experience. I'm angry at myself for watching it, and I'm much, much angrier at Rob for turning it on.
If you do watch this movie, though, can you tell me what the fuck is going on during the wedding scene? There are some cartoon endorphins (or whatever the hell they are supposed to be) running around, and I think some casual sex happens, but I just don't know. I am very confused right now. Hey, at least I haven't heard any chiropractors talking about quantum mechanics for more than ten minutes. I suppose that's the best I can hope for.
UPDATE: I actually just learned something useful from this movie: apparently, I have lifelong joint problems for the same reason that abusive fathers raise children who go on to become abusive parents. That'll save me a lot of money on glucosamine!
Seriously, I'm not being as glib as you might think. This chiropractor (Dr. Joseph Dispenza) just said that we have lifelong problems because we bombard our cells with negative energy, so when they divide their daugter cells (he said "sister cells", but that's just wrong) will be down-regulated. How this is supposed to caus chronic liver problems or whatever is not explained. And that's probably for the best.
Actually, since my (most likely) lifelong joint problems are caused by cartilege damage, cell divison isn't really an issue, so the good doctor's example doesn't apply to me. But the next time somebody tells me they need a kidney transplant, I'm going to do them a favor and tell them to quit their goddamn bitching and start thinking positive. Then they can grow their own replacement kidney via healthier cell divison.
I'm going to make millions! I wonder why Dr. Dispenza hasn't already done so?
UPDATE II: Welcome Shakespeare's Sister and Pharyngula and Political Animal readers! Reading over this post just now, it occurs to me how disjointed and confused I seem. This is exactly what this post should feel like, as it's a perfect reflection of what that movie did to my brain.
Tags: What the Bleep do we Know?, pseudoscience, mysticism, Ramtha, bad movies
Seriously. Just don't.
According to the movie's website,
WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?! is a new type of film. It is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations. The protagonist, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality.
[...]
The fourteen top scientists and mystics interviewed in documentary style serve as a modern day Greek Chorus. In an artful filmic dance, their ideas are woven together as a tapestry of truth. The thoughts and words of one member of the chorus blend into those of the next, adding further emphasis to the film’s underlying concept of the interconnectedness of all things.
The chorus members act as hosts who live outside of the story, and from this Olympian view, comment on the actions of the characters below. They are also there to introduce the Great Questions framed by both science and religion, which divides the film into a series of acts. Through the course of the film, the distinction between science and religion becomes increasingly blurred, since we realize that, in essence, both science and religion describe the same phenomena.
In the words of Rob the dirty liberal (whose idea it was to turn on this abortion of logical thought in the first place), "I've never heard so many words used to say nothing". The film is peppered with pseudoscience, but that's not the main objection. There is a depressing number of people who believe in pseudoscience, and to make a movie for them is just good business.
The problem comes in when the filmmakers tell me things that they say are true, when those things are not true. The claim that I am 90% water, for example. Or the claim that if you place an "emotionally charged" label (like "I'm going to kill you", or "love and peace") onto a glass of water, you can change its structure. They tell you that, and show you pretty pictures, but what they don't say is that the guy doing that experiment took "before" pictures of the glass of water, and then took the "after" pictures of frozen water. You know, snowflakes.
Basically, the biggest problem with this movie is that all the "experts" in quantum mechanics who talk about how it's related to spirituality don't know a goddamn thing about quantum mechanics. I can't even count the number of times that so-called experts have told me that "quantum mechanics measures only possibility". That's just not true - quantum mechanics measures probability. Possibility and probability are not the same thing.
On another note, these cartoons of the brain they keep showing are getting really annoying. Rob and I both agree that we've seen a fair number of videos of brain surgery, and we've never noticed it when the synapses fire in a brilliant flash of light and the brain glows as different areas become active. As the fine upstanding gentlemen at Frinktank might say, the brain is not a fucking Lite-Brite, OK? Also, the practice of representing people's desires as what I can only describe as Jello snowmen is kind of freaky. I sincerely I hope that I don't get hungry because the little Jello snowmen in my brain are addicted to the feeling of me eating. But what the bleep do I know?
So I'm writing this while I'm watching the movie, and this woman just came on the screen. She's JZ Knight, except that she's not: she's "channeling" a 35,000 year old spirit named Ramtha. Ramtha just told me, through the magic of a shitty movie, that quantum mechanics proves that Jesus was right "about the mustard seed being bigger than the kingdom of heaven".
Really.
It's hard to know what to say about something so blindingly stupid (the mystic, not the parable). I guess I can just post a link to the definition of "parable", and leave it at that, since this post is getting kind of long.
Take home lesson: I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you not watch this movie. There is no positive that you can receive. There is no enlightenment that you can get, no information that you can learn, no entertainment that you can experience. I'm angry at myself for watching it, and I'm much, much angrier at Rob for turning it on.
If you do watch this movie, though, can you tell me what the fuck is going on during the wedding scene? There are some cartoon endorphins (or whatever the hell they are supposed to be) running around, and I think some casual sex happens, but I just don't know. I am very confused right now. Hey, at least I haven't heard any chiropractors talking about quantum mechanics for more than ten minutes. I suppose that's the best I can hope for.
UPDATE: I actually just learned something useful from this movie: apparently, I have lifelong joint problems for the same reason that abusive fathers raise children who go on to become abusive parents. That'll save me a lot of money on glucosamine!
Seriously, I'm not being as glib as you might think. This chiropractor (Dr. Joseph Dispenza) just said that we have lifelong problems because we bombard our cells with negative energy, so when they divide their daugter cells (he said "sister cells", but that's just wrong) will be down-regulated. How this is supposed to caus chronic liver problems or whatever is not explained. And that's probably for the best.
Actually, since my (most likely) lifelong joint problems are caused by cartilege damage, cell divison isn't really an issue, so the good doctor's example doesn't apply to me. But the next time somebody tells me they need a kidney transplant, I'm going to do them a favor and tell them to quit their goddamn bitching and start thinking positive. Then they can grow their own replacement kidney via healthier cell divison.
I'm going to make millions! I wonder why Dr. Dispenza hasn't already done so?
UPDATE II: Welcome Shakespeare's Sister and Pharyngula and Political Animal readers! Reading over this post just now, it occurs to me how disjointed and confused I seem. This is exactly what this post should feel like, as it's a perfect reflection of what that movie did to my brain.
Tags: What the Bleep do we Know?, pseudoscience, mysticism, Ramtha, bad movies
posted by The Disgruntled Chemist at
12:09 PM
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