What the Bleep Are They Not Telling Us?





When I first saw What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? at the theater I thought it was completely mindblowing and recommended it to all my friends. Admittedly "What the Bleep" felt more like a television special than a feature film, but I kept thinking that if science had been presented that way when I was in high school I might have been a better student. Not only did it make scientific theories appealing to someone who quit the subject before Chemistry, I also enjoyed how it attempted to integrate science and religion.

I dismissed the crazy blonde lady who'd had too much plastic surgery as "a little out there," but the rest of the interviewees seemed credible. I thought it a great sign of our times that people wanted to think and were hungry for something more. The film echoed themes from I "Heart" Huckabees (in an apparent trend of existentialist films with unfortunate titles) and seemed to mesh well with the concepts Julia Cameron explores in The Artist's Way--like paying attention to synchronicity and making a conscious effort to open yourself up to possibilities... Well it may have been a sign of our times, but if so then a very bad one.

If I had visited the What the Bleep website right away, instead of recently after a rewatch with friends, I would have recognized it for the wacko recruiting video that it is (whether the filmmakers deny it or not). It turns out that the bizarre lady credited as Ramtha at the end of the film, is actually JZ Knight--a woman who claims to be channeling a 35,000 year old warrior spirit from Atlantis. Oh, and the film's three directors are students of hers at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, as well as at least two of the interviewees... At least one other admitted in Popular Science that his interview was edited to sound as if he agreed with tenets of the sect.

Shame on me for not reading up on it and happily accepting its mysterious science explanations. Much like nutritious snacks, I should've known there was something too enjoyable about the whole thing for it to be healthy. If only I'd read the Seattle Weekly or Salon reviews sooner. And for those who are still curious, you'll find more on Ramtha here and the best review of this year's sequel (read: director's cut re-released as a longer film), What the Bleep Do We Know: Down the Rabbit's Hole here. The best we can hope for is that people who unwittingly swallowed the first one will see this one as the infomercial it is.

Posted: Thu - February 23, 2006 at 07:30 PM           |

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