practical thinking will always be cool. this movie was the seventh rung of AWFUL.

What the “Bleep” Do We Know

I heard about this movie and was quite interested in watching it to see what type of information and points of view it would offer. And then… J.Z. Knight showed up on the screen. This bothered me a great deal. So, I continued to watch but was a little more critical of the information being presented. I was impressed at the scientific community that was involved. Some of the biggest names in quantum theory and research were represented. And the facts that were presented were indeed correct. But the metaphysical information that was given in the movie was disturbing, at best. So, I did some research and was very saddened at what I found. Here is a brief summary of facts that are not easily found and what you should know.

The first thing that should raise a red flag is that all three of the film’s writer/directors belong to the Ramtha Church of Enlightenment. In fact, the Church is responsible for producing the entire film. For those of you who don’t know, this small cult, located in the Pacific Northwest, is a church that was started by J.Z. Knight (mentioned above). She claims to be the spiritual channel for a 35,000 year-old warrior spirit from Atlantis named Ramtha. I understand that people in today’s world believe in a lot of things that seem out of the ordinary, but it takes a mountain of faith to believe in this, especially since we can scientifically prove all of Ramtha’s claims to be false.

The next thing that should immediately tell you that this movie is not on the up and up is that not one but six of the expert scientist that were consulted in the movie have since come out saying that they were misled as to the movie’s real intentions and that their discussions were construed and changed to misrepresent what they were trying to say. Two of them have filed charges against the church.

Finally, Dr. Masaru Emoto’s water crystal experiments that are presented as a display of the power of word and faith have a couple of problems that should be pointed out. One, Dr. Emoto has never belonged to the Japanese Ministry of Science and was, in fact, fined by the ministry for falsifying data and records. Second, he claims to be an accredited doctor from the Open International University of Alternative Medicine, a school that is not recognized by any country on the Earth. And third, he has never been able to reproduce the results of his experiment when anyone else is watching. The BBC confronted Dr. Emoto about this and even attempted to duplicate the experiment. They were unsuccessful. But that doesn’t stop him and others from coming up with excuses.

Having said all this, I am recommending that people avoid this movie. If you must see it, keep a critical mind. It is an extremely well done movie. And they should get an award for best propaganda film out there. But it has lots of holes and should be questioned by anyone rational.

I’m not a “guffawing critic,” but I have to say this was a terrible movie.

Really, really terrible. Especially the dorky sub-”plot” which is supposed to add human interest, or something.

My girlfriend is very much in the demographic expected to like this movie — yoga instructor, into all kinds of mystical stuff. I’m more left-brained, analytical. We *both* hated it.

You could not pay either of us to see it again.

Paul Burke: Thank you! I clicked on the comments section, to write about the exact points that you posted. You saved me some time, and couldn’t have said it myself.

I was excited when I saw the movie. I said “yes, this is it! and here’s the scientific proof!” I have little info on quantum, therefore it is easy to deceit me. Thank god I’m a curious person and a little googling saved me.

As Will Arntz’s (Bleep’s producer/director) former software business partner and someone who has not only known him for about 15 years, but also had close contact with him during the entire process of making this movie, maybe I have had some exposure and insights that others out there in the larger community couldn’t possibly have had.

Maybe I could take a moment or two to dispel some of the frequent rumors that have surrounded this project for some time now. The same questions and issues come up time and again, but none of them are founded in what really happened in the process of making this film.

As for the scientific stuff and cult accusations…

- Yeah, Will did study at this Ramtha school. But that’s about the gist of that. Will funded the movie entirely (100% – to the tune of almost $10 million) out of his own pocket.

- Will and the other producers/directors/writers aren’t members of the school any more – at least as I understand it

- Will took a lot of shit from the school itself, ironically, because he didn’t use the movie enough as a vehicle to front the school – the opposite of the shit he takes from the mainstream folks

- As far as I know *one* (not *six*) of the scientists came out and said that he was edited in a way he wasn’t comfortable with – not that what he said was misrepresented. In fact….*he* was the one who said what he said – nobody twisted anybody’s arms…they were all simply interviewed

- Nobody has filed any charges against the “church”. There is no “church” – it’s a school. That’s #1. #2 is that that would be bull shit anyway, since the “church” didn’t make the movie – Will did. So if anybody is filing anything against anybody – it would be against Will.

- I don’t know if Dr. Emoto’s work has been replicated or not. Simply don’t know. But he seems to be very popular in Japan, and his books have been very successful – so I don’t know what to make of this part.

Finally, some people just love to hate shit. Some Republicans call people traitors because they question the war in Iraq. Calling somebody a traitor doesn’t make that so. Saying the experts in a film aren’t, doesn’t make that true either.

Here’s what New Scientist have to say in last weeks issue:

ONE of the most scandalously bad misrepresentations of physics in recent years is the drama-documentary What the Bleep Do We Know?, released in 2004. The film promulgated the idea that according to quantum theory, you can change everyday reality simply by thinking about it. In the fictional story, the main character successfully uses this mind-over-matter technique to thin her thighs. Depressingly, it is the fifth-biggest-grossing documentary in the US.

New Scientist are impeccably objective, and they know what they’re talking about when it comes to this sort of thing. I will not be seeing the movie.

Definitely Top 10 most despicable films of all time. Masking their new age mumble jumble as a “physics” documentary was simply unforgivable. Watch it for a good laugh but please don’t take it seriously.

This was my experience with this movie.

I landed in Dublin in my route back from a backpacking trip in South America. I had a day to spend in the city before taking the 7th and last leg of my plane trip to make it home.

Ok, so I had a massive jet leg had been awake since the ealry morning of the day before. In Dublin I was meeting my friend Luke who only could stay with me part of the morning before going back to his duties.

He brought me to the Irish Film Institute for coffee. We chatted close to two hours and then we parted. I walked around the club for a couple of hours and then I got beyond tired. Back to the IFI for another hot drink.
And then the light. They were showing this movie in the afternoon. I was so much in need of a comfortable chair that I paid the ticket and walked in.

Due to hot drink number two I was actually pretty awake at the beginning. But the movie put me right back to sleep, within 10 minutes. I slept in intervals throught the movie because every 5 minutes of it I watched were so boring and right out silly that keeping my eyes closed was a much better employment of that comfy chair.

Thank you! I never slept so well in a movie teathre as that day.

Oh, and by the way, I have a solid degree in physics and the ’science’ presented here (unless when it is a respectable university professor whose name I forgot is speaking. Or did I dream him only?), is just…err… some distorsion of well proven scientific evidence.

DO NOT rent this movie. Do not waste your time. And read again Paul Burke’s comment to understand why.

I just saw this movie last night and am a little sickened by the posts I’ve read from people who are not even open minded enough to watch and judge for themselves. There were things that were far fetched but there were also ideas in the movie that I feel can, if not at least psychologically, could benefit people and contribute to any individual’s well being.

Jeez, one need not look far to find the root of all ageism, racism or any other form of prejudice.

At LEAST watch the movie.

form of prejudice? I was skeptical about the whole thing but I clicked on one of the professors’ links and he’s involved with a group that promotes homosexuals ‘choosing’ not to be gay anymore by pledging to live celibately…what kind of eminent authority on physics would care whether homosexuals practice or not????