What the Bleep Do We Know?

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—Review by Darrell Manson
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Quantum physics was developed to understand how very small things work -- like subatomic particles. At that level of matter, the laws of traditional physics break down. The world that quantum theory considers is one very different from what we consider to be reality. Of course, quantum physics is built on debatable assumptions and interpretive leaps as these physicists try to describe what is real at that level.

When thinking in terms of different realities, it is quite easy to make a shift from physics to metaphysics. When the physics are so mysterious, it is easy to shift to mysticism. What the Bleep Do We Know? is built around those kinds of shifts. Most of the film is a series of comments by talking heads (some physicists, other scientists, a theologian and an ancient shaman channeled by a mystic) about the nature and meaning of life based on the understandings of quantum physics. Another part of the film really deals more with neurochemistry and how that relates to our lives and our control of our
lives.

Within this discussion, there is also a fictional narrative portion focused on a character played by Marlee Matlin. This narrative is supposed to be illustrative of what the talking heads are discussing. Occasionally it is.

It's not unusual for people to try to unite science and religion. Certainly they can be complimentary to one another, even if they deal with different realms of understanding. (An excellent book on science and religion is Barbara Brown Taylor's The Luminous Web.) The attempt to bring them together in What the Bleep meets somewhat uneven results. The neurochemistry seems much more grounded than the quantum physics part. That could be my own bias of understanding. (Note that I find quantum physics very mind-numbing. I just can't wrap my brain around the issues.)

The discussion deals with some very big questions: Why are we here? Are we responsible? Is there a god? What is real? These, of course, have been the basic philosophical and theological questions throughout time. What the Bleep is an attempt to bring new light to the questions, but it comes at it in a very postmodern, subjective manner.

In quantum physics, observation affects the experiment. The very fact that things are being observed affects the outcome. That concept plays an important role in the discussions of reality. If we each are observers of the world around us, then that observation affects the world around us. As such, we are in control of our reality.

When the talk turns to God, the range of understanding of God encompasses a New Age mixture of animism and “You are god� to ideas that would resonate fairly well with process thought to a twelve-step concept of “a power greater than myself.� Nowhere in this film do we find the idea of a personal or transcendent God that people from many cultures would recognize even if they didn't embrace a belief.

I think there is a key problem with the approach taken by the film. Remember that quantum physics is about the very small and why “the way things work� in the rest of physics doesn't work at that level. I don't doubt that quantum physics has an important role in the understanding of the physical world. However, to take those understandings from the subatomic world and apply them to big questions is probably just as unworkable as Newtonian physics are in the subatomic world.

A question that is asked in the film is “How far do you want to go down the rabbit hole?� (a reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.) This film is a trip down the rabbit hole. It gives the viewer some interesting ideas to ponder. For many, such questions are great fun to think about and discuss. But the concepts set forth in this film should not be thought of as being securely based in science, reason or philosophy. For some it will be a pleasant mental exercise, but I wouldn't want it to be taken as serious philosophical thought.

But then “what the bleep� do I know?