Armchair Pundits

Part II

Ok. Back to What The Bleep. Having on good authority that this film asks some intriguing questions, raising even more intriguing answers, I had high hopes. This film delivers on the interesting questions, but when it comes to the answers or even some of the set-up for the questions, it resorts to a pop-quantam physics/new age spirituality as opposed to doing the more difficult and rewarding task of a more thorough review of the scientific literature. Additionally, the film attempts to make the query more palatable by interweaving a fictious story about a woman dealing with the pain of a broken relationship. The actor portraying the lead character of Amanda, is none other than the well respected Marlee Matlin, a fine actress, whose considerable talent would have been best lent elsewhere.

I have an amateur's interst in this field and have a cursory understanding of it, much gleaned from a Nova special on PBS. Entitled "The Elegant Universe," this fine piece of documentary exams string theory. In short, this theory promulgates 11 dimensions of reality, which in turn, lends credence to the notion of parallel universes. I know this sounds like comic book fancy, but what is truly fascinating to me, is that this works out mathematically; however, perceptually only three dimensions are readily observible to human experience. Now to my way of thinking, this has interesting implications as to the geographic existence of heaven, not to mention thinking about how (meaning by what physical law) Christ, in his resurrected form, was able to walk through walls, etc. I know. I am thinking like one who believes science exists to further manifest and display the glory of God. Certainly that isn't necessarily popular, but hey! There are plenty of blogs with other opinions.

So how much do we really understand the laws of the universe? Newton ruled the day until Einstein blew some minds with e=mc2. I am curious as to what the next great discovery will be. Certainly, being able to evidence the existence of strings as the smallest unit of matter vs. the quark will be a great embarkment concerning that endeavor. Currently, there are multiple millions of dollars being spent annually on this type of research and from my limited understanding, this seems to be the physics frontier.

This is what I had hoped for from What The Bleep. The film did not satisfactorily address the real science being conducted, which is a shame considering some of the minds involved with the picture. Resorting to new age, psuedo-spirituality in the form of a centuries old Egyptian god being channeled by a buxom, middle-aged blond woman, was disappointing and not the "enlightenment" I was looking for.

One redeeming feature of the film was the brief but interesting reference to Dr. Masaru Emoto's, The Hidden Messages In Water. This has some interesting implications regarding the messages people internalize, thus effecting the psychology of one's life.

Again, Mark Steyn's review (linked in previous post) of this film is spot on and worth reading. For my money, skip the DVD rental and purchase the Nova video.

posted by Grisby @ 3:49 PM