Overall, we enjoyed the movie "What the Bleep...." Some
parts of it we responded with, "Well said!" Other parts,
"You forgot some ideas!" And still others, "What the #%*$!"
Some of the movie's key points that we appreciated the most
are as follows: blame and victimization are of no use; self-
understanding and taking full responsibility for personal
circumstances and behavior is integral to self-actualization;
everyone has the power to influence his/her physical,
emotional, and mental health through thoughts and feelings;
it's been clinically proven that stress, for example,
contributes to illness (not that clinical proof is necessary
to acknowledge the effects of stress or positive thinking/
feeling); self-actualization relies on the ability to detach
from and leave behind addictions, expectations, dramas, and
desires of all kinds (all part of the ego-self) so that one
can more closely align oneself with the spiritual self.
We especially enjoyed Ramtha's commentary about romance
and the pursuit of romance being a personal addiction for
many people.
However, it's interesting that the financier of "What the
Bleep..." is a Buddhist and that there was no mention of
reincarnation in this spiritually oriented film. Reincarnation
is one of the most important spiritual concepts (in Buddhism
especially) and it is intimately tied to free will, karma (what
goes around comes around), dharma (what one must do in this
life), and fate (predetermined circumstances and events).
One of the experts featured in the movie is Dr Joe Dispenza (a
chiropractor), who has authored several scientific articles on the
close relationship between brain chemistry, neurophysiology and
biology, and their roles in physical health. He has a Doctor
of Chiropractic Degree from Life University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr Dispenza says "I wake up in the morning, and I consciously
create my day the way I want it to happen...When I create my
day, and out of nowhere, little things happen that are so
unexplainable, I know that they are the process and the result
of my creation. And the more I do that, the more I build a
neural net, in my brain, that I accept that that's possible.
So if we're consciously designing our destiny, if we're
consciously, from a spiritual standpoint, throwing in what
the idea that our thoughts can affect our reality or affect
our life, because reality equals life."
While we admire many of the movie's messages and agree with
the idea that "Human beings have the potential to shape their
own experience for better or worse..." we strongly question
the message that "...unlimited possibilities are truly within
our grasp (in this lifetime)." This implies that a person can
erase karmic circumstances in his/her life and live in a never-
ending utopia, fulfilling all ego-self desires and skipping the
important, tough lessons in life. To be perfectly candid, our
cosmic fu-fu detectors are sounding on high while digesting
that last bit.
Jeffery B. Satinover M.D. (a former practicing psychiatrist) is
also featured in the movie. He has completed a master's degree
as a member of the Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics group
and Yale's newly-established W. H. Keck Foundation Center for
Quantum Information Physics.
In his book "Reflections of the Nature of God," he says "The
worldview that modern science has depended on, for the most
part, is that if you have 100 percent knowledge of an initial
condition, then all subsequent conditions are known as well.
If this were true, there would be no such thing as free will,
whether human or divine. God himself would be a merely passive
observer who not only doesn't but couldn't have an effect on
the world. And human beings couldn't have an effect either,
because if all physical events are in effect, laid out ahead
of time, like a complex play in billiards, then nothing one
does can alter the outcome. It's all completely determined."
Its great how he suggests that we free will exists, but our
position is that he's too haphazardly blending physical science
and spirituality; they are two distinct, separate domains.
We feel Dr Satinover also misunderstands the role of free will
while incarnated and how much we have before we incarnate. He
also seems to reject the philosophy that fated events are
necessary in order to learn specific lessons.
For instance, a person can't "create" a wonderfully harmonious
relationship with his/her father if one of that person's karmic
lessons (that they chose while in spirit form) is to endure an
abusive relationship with that parent.
He goes on to say, "This is the fundamental premise of the
modern worldview. However, it turns out and what modern physics
has now demonstrated is, that's not true. That actually, at the
most fundamental level, all the most important physical
processes are, in part, determined by ‘factors' that have no
detectable presence in the physical world. A range of possible
outcomes are determined mechanically, but untold numbers
of decisions are being made by ‘something' that from among
these possibilities selects every actual outcome..."
He's alluding to the idea of a higher power, or God and the
importance of its influence and we applaud this, but he again
carelessly mixes physical science with spirituality. Doing so is
like saying that because a circumstance is so in a dream state,
that we should expect it to be the same way in waking hours.
Different dimensions have different sets of laws, just as we
have mostly probabilities while incarnated on earth and more
possibilities while in spirit form planning our next physical
existence.
We shape and contribute to those same possibilities every day.
We believe that we design our next lifetimes by every thought,
intent, and action in this life (and previous ones), yet we also
feel that it's impossible to manifest what one wants (on a
personality level) now, in this life, if those desires don't match
one's current life blueprint.
Both Dr Dispenza and Dr Satinover in "What the Bleep..." imply
that the universe is a huge quantum sea of possibilities and that
since this is the case that we should be able to create that
which we want and leave the rest behind.
This is akin to a drunk believing s/he can manifest absolute
sobriety for the night an hour after s/he downs five stiff drinks;
it's too late to "create" something (instant sobriety) after an
alternative is set in motion/secured (intoxication).
Most well-respected quantum physicists today (those with PhD's
in quantum physics) along with the founding fathers of quantum
physics,who also believed themselves to be mystics (including
Erwin Schrodinger, Max Planck, and Niels Bohr), firmly held
that it's erroneous to group physics and mysticism in the same
dimension. Planck said that trying to merge physics and
mysticism "makes no sense at all," since spirituality is
associated with the source of everything on a soul level and
quantum physics relates to the most infinitesimal level of the
physical world of matter and energy.
Good spiritual teachers acknowledge that there's a difference
between the ego-self and the spiritual self. The ego-self wants
to satisfy all of its earthly desires. The spiritual self is here
to learn and grow. Meanwhile, most everyone wants "more" out of
life on a personality level. Often, ego-self demands ("perfect love," "better family relations," "more money," etc.) clash with
"what is." Said differently, you can't always get what you want.
Please understand, we agree that it's possible to influence our
realities and even create as we wish to a certain extent while
incarnated (if it's within the boundaries of personal destiny),
but we feel it's impossible to skip difficult karma. In other
words, you can't cheat fate and you can't just erase personal
challenges because you don't like them.
On the one hand, the experts in the movie "What the Bleep..."
emphasize the idea that everybody is fully able to create their
own realities to match the desires of their personalities.
At the same time, one of the more important (and we feel more
truthful) messages of the film is about the idea that the ultimate
spiritual goal is to leave behind/detach from personal addictions
of all kinds, expectations, dramas and desires (the ego-self) so
that one's personality can more closely meld with the spiritual
self.
That's quite a contrast in philosophies! It appears as if the film
is promoting the message, "dump the tough lessons and karma and
create what you want now in this life, it's yours!" while saying
simultaneously, "free yourself from your desires!" The former is
the antithesis of spirituality and the latter is a sacred ancient
spiritual concept.
In brief, the movie "What the Bleep..." addresses some key
aspects of quantum physics (while ignoring opposing quantum
theories such as"hidden variables") and some important spiritual
ideas (while ignoring the concepts of karma, dharma, reincarnation,
and fate), and blends them together in a feel-good mixture of
cosmic truth and New Age fu-fu. The connection between the
provided metaphysical concepts and select laws of quantum physics
is questionable at best.
Aside from a few spiritual fallacies and mixed messages in "What
the Bleep...," we really liked it. In striving for spiritual
awareness, we must think far outside conventional earthly thinking
in order to begin to grasp universal truths. This film is a big
step in the right direction.
Scott Petullo
http://www.mystictwins.com/
http://www.holisticmakeover.com/
Stephen Petullo
http://www.holisticmakeover.com
Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo
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