What the Bleep Do We Know!?

What the #$*! Do We Know!?
Movie promotional poster for What the Bleep showing the difficult-to-render title.
Directed by	William Arntz Betsy Chasse Mark Vicente
Written by	William Arntz Matthew Hoffman Betsy Chasse Mark Vicente
Produced by	William Arntz Betsy Chasse Mark Vicente
Starring	Marlee Matlin Elaine Hendrix Barry Newman
Cinematography	David Bridges Mark Vicente
Edited by	Jonathan Shaw
Music by	Barry Coffing Christopher Franke Elaine Hendrix Michael Whalen
Release date	2004
Running time	109 min
Language	English

What the Bleep Do We Know!? (or What the #$*! Do We Know!?, ${\textrm {What}}\ {\mbox{tH}}{\vec {e}}\ {\textrm {\#\$*!}}\ {\vec {D}}\theta \ \omega \Sigma \ {\textrm {({\emph {k}})}}\pi {\textrm {ow!?}}$, or ${\textrm {What}}\ {\mbox{tH}}{\vec {e}}\ \beta {\textrm {\emph {L}}}{\vec {\epsilon \epsilon }}{\textrm {\emph {P}}}\ {\vec {D}}\theta \ \omega \Sigma \ {\textrm {({\emph {k}})}}\pi {\textrm {ow!?}}$ — Australian version) is a controversial 2004 film that combines both documentary interviews, fiction and animation to posit a connection between science and spirituality. The topics discussed include neurology, quantum physics, psychology, epistemology, ontology, metaphysics, magical thinking 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 situation. Computer animated graphics also feature in the film. The film has received widespread criticism from physicists. Physicists claim that the movie grossly misrepresents the meaning of quantum mechanics, and in fact is pseudoscience.

There is also an extended 2006 version What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole [1].

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 claims 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 is used to claim 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 purported 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.

File:Bleep pic11.jpg

Marlee Matlin as Amanda in What the Bleep do We Know

The comments of those presented as scientific experts converge on a single theme: "We all create our own reality." However, it should be noted that this is not a view that is held by many in the scientific community.

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.

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 .

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. [2]. 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."

Featured experts and scientists

• Amit Goswami "One of the rare scientists that do not leave out consciousness in explaining quantum physics." [3] 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 [4] 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. 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.

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Dr Fred Alan Wolf

• Fred Alan Wolf, who 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 received the American Book Award in science for Taking the Quantum Leap. He is also author of The Eagle's Quest, The Dreaming Universe and The Spiritual Universe. [5]

• 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." [6] 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" [7], it should also be noted that this sequel is a "director's cut", composed of extra footage from the filming of the first movie. [8]

Other interviewees in the film include Joe Dispenza, a chiropractor, author, and a devotee of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment [9]; 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. [10]

Controversial aspects of the film

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%. [11]

The movie states that if (human) cells are overstimulated by neurotransmitters they adjust through a process called downregulation. 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 Christopher 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.

It is also claimed in the movie that 20 amino acids are created in the human body. While only 12 are created in the body, 8 are considered essential, that is, we must acquire them from food.

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.

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.

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. However, few of the scientists involved are actually professional physicists doing research in quantum mechanics, and those that do such research have complained that their views were deliberately misrepresented.

People quoted in this movie do not even attempt to explain precisely how the theory of quantum mechanics actually proves any of the mystical or religious teachings found in the film. Statements from physicists are made, then they are intercut with statements from people who have created their own religion, medical doctors, and others. No logical proof connecting the findings of Quantum Mechanics(QM) with the movie's core message is offered.

Most of the film's claims about QM are wildly inconsistent with what physicists have discovered from QM. The idea that the measurement (observing capacities) of conscious observers creates reality is implied to be a widely held position in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics. However, the movie's interpretation of this position is far from what most physicists actually believe.

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. No evidence is offered.

In contrast, 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).

Physicist Heinz Pagels, in The Cosmic Code, writes:

Some recent popularizers of Bell's work when confronted with Bell's inequality have gone on to claim that telepathy is verified or the mystical notion that all parts of the universe are instantaneously interconnected is vindicated. Others assert that this implies communication faster than the speed of light. That is rubbish; the quantum theory and Bell's inequality imply nothing of this kind. Individuals who make such claims have substituted a wish-fulfilling fantasy for understanding. If we closely examine Bell's experiment we will see a bit of sleight of hand by the God that plays dice which rules out actual nonlocal influences. Just as we think we have captured a really weird beast--like acausal influences--it slips out of our grasp. The slippery property of quantum reality is again manifested.

Controversial studies

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.

It should be noted the results above are being reported by the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy. www.istpp.org The ISTPP is part of the Maharishi University of Management founded by the yogi Maharishi Mahesh, most famous for his association with the Beatles.

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.

Trivia

The church in which the wedding takes place is St. Patrick's Catholic Church, at the corner of 17th and Savier, in Portland, Oregon. The church is not a "Polish" parish. It was historically Irish, built in 1888.

Crew

Filmmakers

• William Arntz: Producer, Director, Screenwriter
• Betsy Chasse: Producer, Director, Screenwriter
• Mark Vicente: Director, Director of Photography

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)

Physicists

• William A. Tiller, Ph.D.
• Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
• John Hagelin, Ph.D.
• Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.
• David Albert, Ph.D.

Neurologists, anesthesiologists and physicians

• Dr. Masaru Emoto (certified by the Open International University for Alternative Medicine 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

Molecular biology

• Dr. Candace Pert

Spiritual teachers, mystics and scholars

• Ramtha (via JZ Knight)
• Dr. Miceal Ledwith

Visual Effects

• Evan Jacobs - visual effects supervisor
• Atomic Visual Effects - brain animation
• Mr. X Inc - cells animation
• Lost Boys Studios - basketball sequence, rabbit-hole effects

Visual Effects

The film includes over three hundred visual effects shots - a hefty shot count for an independent, privately financed film. Tight budget constraints required a truly international effort with the work being split between Toronto based Mr. X Inc., Lost Boys Studios in Vancouver and Atomic Visual Effects in Cape Town, South Africa.

The visual effects team, led by visual effects supervisor Evan Jacobs, worked closely with the filmmakers to explore visual metaphors that would capture the essence of the quantum concepts while still being visually exciting. The script required stunning visual representations of effects such as a forest of nerve cells in the brain, a sea of subatomic particles, an elaborate dance sequence involving human cells of emotion, and even the concept of quantum superposition.

Cinefex article detailing the visual effects for the film

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.

See also

• Do Jump who performed in this movie.
• List of alternative, speculative and disputed theories
• Meaning of life
• Philosophy of science
• Quantum metaphysics
• Protoscience
• Quantum mechanics
• Many-worlds interpretation
• Parallel universe
• The Matrix
• CSICOP
• The Secret
• The Tao of Physics
• Consciousness causes collapse

External links

Movie-related links

• Official site and extended director’s cut, What the *****!?--Down the Rabbit Hole
• What the #$*! Do We Know!? at IMDb
• Review by BBC
• Review by The Onion A/V Club
• Review by The Skeptics Society/Skeptic magazine
• Review by The Times
• Review by Anna Darrah, www.noendpress.com
• E-Philosopher debate on the validity of the claims put forth in the movie
• Interview on radio show The Connection with co-director Mark Vicente, Dr. Fred Alan Wolf and Dr. Michael Shermer, October 14, 2004
• "Bleep of Faith": Dr. Albert describes his experience of being interviewed for the film, and describes how he feels he was misrepresented
• Further comments from Dr. Albert on his involvement with the film, in The Stranger blog
• Review by Joel Gilmore, www.illuminatingscience.org
• Watch What the Bleep for free on Google Video

Other related topics

• Ramtha School of Enlightenment
• Fred Alan Wolf
• "Quantum Physics Quackery", Skeptical Inquirer, January 1997 (discusses book The Self-Aware Universe)
• Ramtha
• Bleep Study Guide from Institute of Noetic Sciences
• MP3 of teleseminar with Will Arntz — from Shift in Action, sponsored by Institute of Noetic Sciences
• Information on Buddhism and Quantum Physics, very similar ideas as What the Bleep Do We Know?
• Distributed Unconsciousness at Wikireason