I Don't Know a Bleepin' Thing!
I rented a movie a couple of weekends ago that I'd heard about, called "What the Bleep Do We Know?" This is a cult film, as I understand it, and I think cult films are cool. Even though I am probably the only person on the planet my age not to have seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".
Anyway, I've always been interested in the subject matter of the film, which is the metaphysical. More specifically, it's about quantum physics, and that's a subject I have an interest in, but no aptitude for. Believe me, mathematics and science were never my strong subjects. But I don't feel so bad about it, because the huge numbers of scientists who have studied quantum physics (which simply means, studying the very, very small) don't understand it either. These are brilliant people with Ph.D.'s and a gazillion other degrees behind their names.
What I have been able to glean so far is this: reality (e.g. the world "out there", such as trucks, chairs, tables, people -- 3-dimensional objects) are not as "real" as the ultra-miscroscopic stuff we cannot see. Also, the things that we do see are all subject to our predisposition toward them. And we don't actually "see" with our eyes -- our eyes merely take in information, send it to our brains, our brain processes it all in about a nanosecond, and sends us back an "interpretation" of that information based on our emotions and possible history with it.
Confused? So was I. But it was wicked! :-)
The movie intrigued me so much that I went out and bought the book (same title) and I've been reading it for the past couple of days. Basically, it says what a million self-help books have said over and over again: that we are capable of creating any reality we want. I really, really like that thought.
Apparently, the reason we keep failing at things that we have attempted to do over and over again (let's use getting into bad relationships as an example) is because our brains are used to it. We do what we know. And unless we make a conscious decision to change things (and as soon as we make that decision, our brain chemistry actually changes), we will continue to do the same things over and over again. It is no coincidence that we keep ending up in the same predicaments. It's just our brains very efficiently recreating what we have programmed it to do.
Even when we do attempt to change things and then "fall off the wagon", that's hardly surprising -- as a matter of fact, it's a given -- because even though it is a positive change, it's unfamiliar. It takes time to develop a new way of thinking or a new habit. So, rather than feeling sorry for ourselves, the far better approach is to simply shrug it off and get that impetus to change back as fast as we can. Unfortunately, most of us fall into the self-pity trap and go right back to the same behaviours.
If you are interested in the mysterious, the beguiling, the fascinating, the frustrating but invigorating, I highly suggest you check out the movie or the book. The movie is a little irritating but only because the filmmakers chose to "spice it up", I guess, with this dramatization of a woman (played by Marlee Matlin) going through her daily life and encountering all sorts of metaphysical enlightenment. This is interspersed with dialogue by the scientists spouting their theories and opinions, which is the really good part of the film.
Check it out. It will blow your bleepin' mind.
Anyway, I've always been interested in the subject matter of the film, which is the metaphysical. More specifically, it's about quantum physics, and that's a subject I have an interest in, but no aptitude for. Believe me, mathematics and science were never my strong subjects. But I don't feel so bad about it, because the huge numbers of scientists who have studied quantum physics (which simply means, studying the very, very small) don't understand it either. These are brilliant people with Ph.D.'s and a gazillion other degrees behind their names.
What I have been able to glean so far is this: reality (e.g. the world "out there", such as trucks, chairs, tables, people -- 3-dimensional objects) are not as "real" as the ultra-miscroscopic stuff we cannot see. Also, the things that we do see are all subject to our predisposition toward them. And we don't actually "see" with our eyes -- our eyes merely take in information, send it to our brains, our brain processes it all in about a nanosecond, and sends us back an "interpretation" of that information based on our emotions and possible history with it.
Confused? So was I. But it was wicked! :-)
The movie intrigued me so much that I went out and bought the book (same title) and I've been reading it for the past couple of days. Basically, it says what a million self-help books have said over and over again: that we are capable of creating any reality we want. I really, really like that thought.
Apparently, the reason we keep failing at things that we have attempted to do over and over again (let's use getting into bad relationships as an example) is because our brains are used to it. We do what we know. And unless we make a conscious decision to change things (and as soon as we make that decision, our brain chemistry actually changes), we will continue to do the same things over and over again. It is no coincidence that we keep ending up in the same predicaments. It's just our brains very efficiently recreating what we have programmed it to do.
Even when we do attempt to change things and then "fall off the wagon", that's hardly surprising -- as a matter of fact, it's a given -- because even though it is a positive change, it's unfamiliar. It takes time to develop a new way of thinking or a new habit. So, rather than feeling sorry for ourselves, the far better approach is to simply shrug it off and get that impetus to change back as fast as we can. Unfortunately, most of us fall into the self-pity trap and go right back to the same behaviours.
If you are interested in the mysterious, the beguiling, the fascinating, the frustrating but invigorating, I highly suggest you check out the movie or the book. The movie is a little irritating but only because the filmmakers chose to "spice it up", I guess, with this dramatization of a woman (played by Marlee Matlin) going through her daily life and encountering all sorts of metaphysical enlightenment. This is interspersed with dialogue by the scientists spouting their theories and opinions, which is the really good part of the film.
Check it out. It will blow your bleepin' mind.
posted by emily pound at 1:02 PM
7 Comments:
Dear Emily:
I'm the answer to your prayers. I have taken serious course work in Quantum Mechanics and can explain the intricacies of Schroedinger's equations in such detail that you would be immediately able to manufacture and hook up a PN junction out of doped silicon so that an effective diode will be created. I can also tell you tales about Schroedinger's Cat and other obscene and bizarre examples which suggest that the universe makes no sense at all.
Of course you should be prepared to write down partial differential equations in four dimensions with many variables extending across three side by side blackboards.
Sigh.. that felt good. Its been more than 25 years since I spent a year with 150 other apparently sentient creatures in a large lecture hall listening to a man with a Russian accent describe a subject matter which was amazingly interesting if you could get by the very complicated higher order math necessary to approximate the answers to any but the simplest of questions.
Others have suggested I see the same flick. So far I haven't done it. But, perhaps I shall..
Huge
Huge,
Sounds like they should have interviewed you for the movie! :-) I should start calling you "Professor Huge" from now on.
Do check out the movie, I'm sure you'd enjoy it (except for the hoakey animation and stupid Marlee Matlin dramatization thingie).
Hi Jennie,
Check out the movie, I'm sure you'd be interested since you're also interested in "mystical" things. It's really cool. And it really made me think. Gives you a lot to ponder (even though 90% of it is totally impossible to grasp). :-) That's okay, because the other 10% is amazing.
How interesting. I like stuff like this so I may well check it out. So long as the technobabble is kept to a minimum, I think I'd enjoy it...
Hi Ian,
welcome! there's a lot of technobabble in the movie but it's not boring, somehow. My personal favourite commentator in the film was a woman named J.Z. Knight who supposedly channels a 30,000 year old Indian mystic named Ramtha ... :-) Yeah. But she says a lot of really amazing things.
If you're interested in the "big questions", you'll like it.
Wow, I haven't heard mention of J.Z. Knight for a long time. Not too long I was thinking about her. Maybe it is the blue feather in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Mechanics.
Hi not,
Thanks for dropping by. :-) I hadn't heard of J.Z. Knight before, but when I saw her in the film I was absolutely fascinated. I just can't buy this "channeling" stuff, it's just too weird for me, but she definitely spouts a lot of wisdom ...
have always meant to read "Zen" but haven't gotten around to it yet ...
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