(NOTE: I'm hitting the road on and off for the next three weeks so this may be last entry for some time. Nonetheless, I may find time to get out a post or two, probably without any links)

I watched "What the Bleep Do We Know?" the other night. So much to say about that movie and the informative Wikipedia link above is a really good even-handed, in my opinion, summary of the film and its claims.

In a nutshell, the documentary film establishes itself as a look inside the daring world of quantum physics, then applies that to biology, psychology, and spirituality. Interviews with "leaders" in these fields are intercut with the story of a woman, riddled with anxiety, who eventually learns to be in harmony with herself.

As an experience I found the interviews fascinating and the story of the woman less so as she interacts with very one-dimensional people in her wanderings around Portland. The worst parts of the film are the horribly annoying "cell people," animations of cells that are constantly wacky and, for me, undermine the seriousness of the movie's claims.

But the movie undermines itself in other ways. It presents several "facts" that just are not true or are unproven, presents the findings of respected quantum physicists next to more fringe characters as if they all agree on the same things and further more integrates all of this with interviews with scary guru Ramtha, the 35,000 year old warrior who is channeled through the body of a middle-aged woman. She is also the guru of the films' makers. None of these experts is named until the end of the film, making it seem that Ramtha has as much of a right to be there as these physicists.
What should be a fascinating film about consciousness and quantum physics ends up feeling like a recruitment video for a certain kind of therapy.

It's not that I don't appreciate the film's final message, that we are more in control of our "universe" than we think due to neurology, quantum understandings, and biology. Through meditation and changing perceptions, we really do change more than we think we can. I agree. I also understand the need to present this information in a way that is accessible to the average movie goer. However, it comes off as a bit superficial. All these amazing developments in these fields, and the film sums it up by saying, "don't worry be happy." Hey good advice, but there are far more radical ideas at work here, ideas that really challenge us to build deeper and more meaningful lives for ourselves and our world than just ridding ourselves of our addictions to feelings. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to amazing discoveries in physics but the conclusion seems to say, this means we can all reset oursevles on tranquil mode. I felt I was watching two different movies.

I also don't like being duped into thinking I'm getting these amazing insights--all these experts agree on these phenomena--when some of them are false, one bizarre guru is treated as an "expert," and no challenges are made to any of it. It comes across as a documentary when what it is is a promotional film. That's not to dismiss some of the amazing ideas discussed in it, I still learned a great deal, but I suffered through a lot of chicanery to get to it.

LINKS:
(This oughta hold you for a while...)

The NSA has been secretly gathering data on "tens of millions of Americans."(via McJoan at Daily Kos) As McJoan says, obviously us liberals just continue to be paranoid...but of course nothing unconstitutional could be going on, which is why the NSA refuses to give Justice Department lawyers clearance to investigate the matter.

Constitutional Law scholar Jonathan Turley discusses just how unconstitutional all this is and how bizarre the nomination of the domestic spying tzar Gen. Hayden as head of the CIA is. A Must see interview with Olberman. "I've never seen a president so uncomfortable in his constitutional skin."

Also neo Marxist at Kos posted this interesting article on the possibility of the U.S. beginning to drill in Florida coastal waters despite a ban on off-shore drilling in order to combat Cuba, China, and India drilling in the area.

Excellent Jon Stewart report not only on the former CIA man who questioned Rumsfeld after a speech but on the awful media coverage that followed.

Another Stewart winner. You gotta wait till the end for the clincher.

Al Gore to narrate a documentary on climate change, "Deadwood."

I liked this smattering of wisdom on zen and the game of Go."

I'm glad to read the Pteranadons of Texas are still hot news to some. (via The Anomalist)

Via Cynical-C, this is way bizarre.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Circular Kitchen Doesn't this remind you of a space-age design from a 1950s catalogue? (via Cynical-C) Hmmm...well maybe it will catch on like that "microwave oven" and that "television set."

Bizarre battle over whether Stephen Merritt (of Magnetic Fields) is a racist. My biggest shock, there's actually a three-way debate about Stephen Merritt going on? (via Advanced Theory)

Beatles: "Nowhere Man" Live in Japan (1966)