What The Bleep!? Down The Rabbit Hole

[freeztar]

Anyone ever seen it? If not, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube at this link: http://youtu.be/VT50SV3W5K0

 

I would be very interested to hear people's impressions of this film. It was life-changing for me. It deals with topics that have been discussed here, mainly quantum mechanics and "spookiness at a distance". The big take away point for me was that our minds have potential that is largely left untapped. It's inspired me to delve into meditation and see if I can unlock some of that unused potential to create more fulfillment in life for myself and those around me.

 

I have doubts about some of the things brought up in the video. Unfortunately, I'd need to watch it again to remember the exact points, but if you watch this, pay attention for any scientific discrepancies you notice and make note of them here.

[belovelife]

this was a great movie, i like the symoblism of the deaf person, where at one time

 

a deaf person see's things others don't

 

since their other senses are stronger (usually)

 

but also the fact that there are things that people don't usually sense

 

controlling desitny all that

 

i really enjoyed that movie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CraigD]

Anyone ever seen it? If not, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube at this link: http://youtu.be/VT50SV3W5K0

 

I would be very interested to hear people's impressions of this film.

I saw What the Bleep Do We Know!? 20 March 2005, about a year after its theatrical release. All I remember (without consulting my “watched” journal) is it had Marlee Matlin, the oscar-winning star of 1986’s Children of a Lesser God, in it, those photos of Ice that raised such a furor ca 2000, and a long, fun scene involving a superposition of a party and animated “dancing peptides”, though I can no longer remember precisely what point it was making. :)

 

I read a good bit about the movie before seeing it, so my impression was colored by lots of harsh criticism, with which I pretty much agreed after seeing it. WTBDWK's support of its claims – which, in short, amount to the old quantum-mystical one that people can exert a sort of magical control over random events by selecting what we want to have happen from a quantum superposition of everything that can happen – is marred by consisting mostly of distortions and outward falsehoods.

 

For me, this ruined it as a cautionary tale about the possible deleterious effects of people having overly materialistic worldviews, a class of tales which I believe do, when done well, have merit. It’s not necessary to boldly lie about the results of objectively verifiable experiments (boldly, because such lies are readily caught by any non-biased attempt to reproduce the results) to make the case that, while objectively accurate, a too-materialistic worldview can be unhealthy for many people, and moderate amount of delusion healthy.

 

WTBDWK also struck me as having an disquietingly commercial slickness to it, as if it was in large part a sort of add for commercial ventures that prey on the credulous, a class of entrepreneurs known of old as charlatans, and I community I know fairly well, and no longer much like.

 

I wouldn’t recommend WTBDWK other than as an excecise in skepticism. A movie with a similar subject I would recommend is 2009’s The Quantum Activist, essentially a documentary about Amit Goswami, a well-educated physicist, charismatic and warm speaker, who, though I disagree with his ultimate conclusions about the nature of reality and quantum mechanics, leave me with a warm, loving feeling, rather than one of having been insulted and the objected of attempted trickery.

 

In short, WTBDWK felt to me like mostly bunk, with a bit of whimsical wonder. Amit Goswami felt to me like a lot of reverence and wonder, fraught with guesses, and I think, error, but nothing deserving to be called “bunk”.

 

It was life-changing for me. It deals with topics that have been discussed here, mainly quantum mechanics and "spookiness at a distance". The big take away point for me was that our minds have potential that is largely left untapped. It's inspired me to delve into meditation and see if I can unlock some of that unused potential to create more fulfillment in life for myself and those around me.

I’ve no doubt that more disciplined though and physical action of many kinds, including many that can be superficially termed “mystical” and “spiritual”, can better realize each of our potentials. I’m also confident we don’t have to discard science and an objective world view to do so, even if doing so can seem, at the onset, to be the easiest approach.

 

We humans are wonderfully, awesomely complicated, and how we think barely starting to be scientifically understood. I feel fairly fulfilled just experiencing the wonder of this – though I am more of a lover of journeys than of destinations.

 

I have doubts about some of the things brought up in the video. Unfortunately, I'd need to watch it again to remember the exact points, but if you watch this, pay attention for any scientific discrepancies you notice and make note of them here.

I didn’t try systematically cataloging WTBDWK’s scientific discrepancies, because they were extensive, and had, even 7 years ago, been extensively documented by folk better at it than me. The Academic reaction Wikipedia section on it has a decent synopsis of and links to these.

 

Whether you accept or are skeptical of movies like this, and the people who make them, there is quite a rabbit hole to be explored here, if nothing more than the personalities, motivation, and society of these folk. I come from the fringes of this community myself, having for years believed the traditions of “magic society” to have great potential value to people, a believe I never discarded, just tired of enduring the attendant credulous crap of this crowd. I still know and love many of the people, but no longer have much patience with their orthodoxy.

[freeztar]

I saw What the Bleep Do We Know!? 20 March 2005, about a year after its theatrical release. All I remember (without consulting my “watched” journal) is it had Marlee Matlin, the oscar-winning star of 1986’s Children of a Lesser God, in it, those photos of Ice that raised such a furor ca 2000, and a long, fun scene involving a superposition of a party and animated “dancing peptides”, though I can no longer remember precisely what point it was making. :)

 

I read a good bit about the movie before seeing it, so my impression was colored by lots of harsh criticism, with which I pretty much agreed after seeing it. WTBDWK's support of its claims – which, in short, amount to the old quantum-mystical one that people can exert a sort of magical control over random events by selecting what we want to have happen from a quantum superposition of everything that can happen – is marred by consisting mostly of distortions and outward falsehoods.

 

For me, this ruined it as a cautionary tale about the possible deleterious effects of people having overly materialistic worldviews, a class of tales which I believe do, when done well, have merit. It’s not necessary to boldly lie about the results of objectively verifiable experiments (boldly, because such lies are readily caught by any non-biased attempt to reproduce the results) to make the case that, while objectively accurate, a too-materialistic worldview can be unhealthy for many people, and moderate amount of delusion healthy.

 

WTBDWK also struck me as having an disquietingly commercial slickness to it, as if it was in large part a sort of add for commercial ventures that prey on the credulous, a class of entrepreneurs known of old as charlatans, and I community I know fairly well, and no longer much like.

 

I wouldn’t recommend WTBDWK other than as an excecise in skepticism. A movie with a similar subject I would recommend is 2009’s The Quantum Activist, essentially a documentary about Amit Goswami, a well-educated physicist, charismatic and warm speaker, who, though I disagree with his ultimate conclusions about the nature of reality and quantum mechanics, leave me with a warm, loving feeling, rather than one of having been insulted and the objected of attempted trickery.

 

In short, WTBDWK felt to me like mostly bunk, with a bit of whimsical wonder. Amit Goswami felt to me like a lot of reverence and wonder, fraught with guesses, and I think, error, but nothing deserving to be called “bunk”.

 

 

I’ve no doubt that more disciplined though and physical action of many kinds, including many that can be superficially termed “mystical” and “spiritual”, can better realize each of our potentials. I’m also confident we don’t have to discard science and an objective world view to do so, even if doing so can seem, at the onset, to be the easiest approach.

 

We humans are wonderfully, awesomely complicated, and how we think barely starting to be scientifically understood. I feel fairly fulfilled just experiencing the wonder of this – though I am more of a lover of journeys than of destinations.

 

 

I didn’t try systematically cataloging WTBDWK’s scientific discrepancies, because they were extensive, and had, even 7 years ago, been extensively documented by folk better at it than me. The Academic reaction Wikipedia section on it has a decent synopsis of and links to these.

 

Whether you accept or are skeptical of movies like this, and the people who make them, there is quite a rabbit hole to be explored here, if nothing more than the personalities, motivation, and society of these folk. I come from the fringes of this community myself, having for years believed the traditions of “magic society” to have great potential value to people, a believe I never discarded, just tired of enduring the attendant credulous crap of this crowd. I still know and love many of the people, but no longer have much patience with their orthodoxy.

 

Is it unreasonable to think that our sub-atomic make-up is not pruning us for the world?

 

Sure, we have CERN and Dark Matter, but is that any more real than our connections to each other? If we admit that there are no 'metaphysical' connections between living beings, what then? I don't believe in magic, but I also don't believe in 'status quo'. If it is so easy to dismiss the notion of sub-atomic forces acting at distances (as has been experimentally proven), then what holds us together? A less than adept critic might say, "Our hearts! We beat as one!". An adept critic might sigh and either take a bow or postulate something greater...