What The Bleep Do We Know?

(To see comments on previous The Secret Of Life posts, click here for The Nature of the Universe, and here to see the ongoing conversation on Let's Pretend.)

In his comment on the previous post, reader Forgetful God mentioned the movie What The Bleep Do We Know? which deals with the links between science and spirituality which I raised last time. As it happens, I'd been meaning to mention this in the post, but when I actually saw the movie I was disappointed. The issues it raises are fascinating, but I wasn't too impressed with the way in which they were presented. I've never been a fan of sound-bite journalism, and I would rather the various talking heads with which the film presents us had been given more chance to develop their arguments before we were whisked off to hear the odd sentence or two from somebody else.

I would also have liked to know who I was listening to as we went along. The usual convention is to provide captions to identify the various talking heads when they first appear, but for some reasons these captions weren't used till the end of What The Bleep...? thereby raising suspicions about who these 'experts' might be. Were these scientists who were talking or what?

As it happens, some of them were and some of them weren't, but when it turned out that one of them was actually JZ Knight, a medium who claims to channel the spirit of Ramtha, a 35,000 year-old warrior spirit from the lost continent of Lemuria, the critics started to get a bit skeptical, especially as three of the other talking heads were apparently employed at Ramtha's "School of Enlightenment". Those of us with an open mind might argue that mediums who claim to channel warriors from ancient Lemuria aren't necessarily wrong in what they say about the universe, but the circumstantial evidence was enough to convince the critics. I mentioned last time that books of this type tend to run into skepticism, and What the Bleep...? got more than its fair share.

Which is a pity really, because the potential is there for a more convincing version of What the Bleep...? and even as it is, the movie is a useful taster for anyone who is new to this sort of stuff. Though I was irritated by its failure to properly develop its arguments, I did enjoy the section on human emotions, which suggests that we might be hooked on certain emotions because of the chemicals they produce. This was a new idea to me and is certainly an interesting take on why we might keep on making the same mistakes...

The fullest - and predominantly negative - critique of the movie I could find on the net was at good old Wikipedia, though it has been interesting to discover that this review itself is not entirely convincing.

• It mentions, for instance, that one of the talking heads in the film, Amit Goswami, teaches at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and has worked with that much maligned champion of "new age" thought, Deepak Chopra. It fails to mention his more reputable credentials of having a PhD in nuclear physics from Calcutta University and having taught at the University of Oregon for 32 years.
• It goes on to say that another taking head, Candace Pert, wrote a book called Molecules Of Emotion with a foreword by - you guessed it - Deepka Chopra, but neglects to mention that she gained her PhD by discovering endorphins, no less.
• A study, mentioned in the film, which assessed the effect of transcendental meditation in lowering the crime rate in Washington DC for two months during 1993 is dismissed by the review because the overall crime rate was particularly high that year - ignoring the fact that the two month drop is nevertheless significant and that other, similar collaborative studies have been published in reputable journals (see here and here).
• The work of Masaru Emoto in studying the effects of human emotions on the formation of water crystals (also mentioned in the film and well worth checking out if you haven't seen it) is dismissed as "unscientific" because it wasn't peer reviewed and didn't use double blind methodology. This is fair enough, perhaps, though the commentary in the review seems rather harsh and it's interesting to note that in October 2006 (more recently, one presumes, than the Wikipedia review was written) the result of a pilot test of a double blind trial of Emoto's claims was published. This reported that photographed crystals had been rated as more aesthetically pleasing when they came from samples which had been sent positive intentions.  Apparently a further, larger trial is now planned.
• And finally, the Wikipedia review mentions that the church used in the movie is not really Polish at all (as suggested in the movie) but Irish. This is a very bizarre comment. The church is used in the fictional sequence that runs alongside the talking heads. The origin of the location used is therefore irrelevant. It is like criticizing, say, the TV series Cheers! because the bar doesn't really exist.

In other words, even without going into the difficult science, I can find almost as many shortcomings in the review as the review can in the movie. We can all play picky picky.

So what does this prove exactly? The shortcomings of Wikipedia? That may not be surprising. But I guess it does show how elusive the truth can be. And perhaps we're all going about this the wrong way. Perhaps we should be looking for areas of agreement, not of dispute. Because I can't help feeling that in the midst of all the skepticism and accusations of bad science, an opportunity to establish some kind of middle ground - possibly even consensus - is being lost.

Comments

[thethinker]

I love using Wikipedia, but I am aware that at times it can be pretty unreliable.

The name of the movie is interesting enough to get me to watch it.

[Sunflower Optimism]

Yes, I saw that movie a while back. I couldn't decide if it was documentary or movie or what. They could have done a lot more with it.

Thanks for the nudge, did visit Mr. Zip and The Artist - both very good recommendations - many thanks!

[Wolfbernz]

Just stopping by to check out you blog.

[The Artist]

Really enjoy the reads here, great food for thought. Thanks also for the link. You are now on my blogroll as well, best wishes, The Artist

[Omni]

People kept proclaiming that my spirituality was "obviously" based on this movie... even though I'd never seen it!! I finally DID see it, and... you can read my post about it here:

http://omniverse.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_omniverse_archive.html#111953383267493726

[new illuminati]

What it proves is the ignorance of this feudal military-industrial civilization. It's proponents don't have the right or depth to adequately review such a work.
See http://www.blogcharm.com/newilluminati
and wlcome to the 3rd Millennium!

[Accidental BlogR]

I just watched this movie about three weeks ago. The first half hour I struggled not to turn it off as the science part was going way over my little head, but because everyone told me I, in particular, needed to see this movie, I solidered on and boy am I glad I did. It has changed my perspective in so many ways, for the better, and I can honestly say it may have saved me from myself.

[Kren]

Although I liked all of the ideas and concepts in that movie, I also thought that the presentation could have been done much better. I fealt like I was watching an after school special.

I gues after watching the Waking Life, I was expecting something similar. If you haven't seen it, I would recomend it.

[Secret Simon]

Many thanks to everyone for your comments and welcome to the newcomers! Lest we be too hard on the What The Bleep?, it's worth bearing in mind the effect it had on Accidental BlogR (and thanks for sharing that with us, AB!) Whatever its failings may be, it has at least helped to bring some of these ideas to a wider audience, some of whom may have very much needed to hear them. (And that is part of what I, in my modest way, am trying to do with The Secret Of Life, of course.)

Thanks for mentioning The Waking Life, Kren. Somehow or other, it seems to have passed me by entirely - but having looked it up, it seems like I missed out.

[Gianfranco]

IP 207.56.94.147
www.tobemorepowerfulthangod.com
fight against illuminatis

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