I received an interesting email in my gmail account earlier this week. My gmail account is reserved for business, including magazine offers and invitations to webinars. However, I have shared it with a few friends and one, a woman who is a personal coach, sent along an invitation to a new movie. A movie designed to astound, astonish, and fundamentally alter the way we think.
I consider myself to be “in the know.” I read a lot. I have a blog and subscribe to several dozen other blogs; I even watch the news on TV several times a day.
Yet, I knew nothing of this movie until I received the aforementioned email describing the movie, and offering dates and times it will appear in my local area. When I opened it, I felt betrayed. Betrayed by the very technology I rely on to keep me informed on what’s happening with the presidential race (the usual; Bush says Kerry will ruin us, Kerry says Bush already has); on what’s happening in the war in Iraq; on what’s happening among the more mundane issues of ecommerce predictions for the coming holidays, and on what’s happening in the blogosphere.
So, why wasn’t I prepared for this movie? It does not sit well in my consciousness.
Well, let’s get on to the movie itself. The title is What the Bleep Do We Know? I will include a review here to give you an introduction to the movie: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “It aims to be the little movie that uses the powers of positive thinking and science to score big at box offices and surprise Hollywood…Sometimes, spirituality, religion, science and a little fresh thinking do sell movie tickets. Tell it to the studio executives. Maybe they will rewire their brains, too. ”
That’s what intrigued me as I read the email from my friend. A movie that brings together scientists, spiritualists, religious figures, and more, to discuss… how all of it fits together, or, maybe, how it doesn’t, should have hit my radar screen long before that email. A visit to the website increased my desire to learn even more about this shadowy concept, made into a movie that promises to cause controversy (always a good thing) as well as conversation — gee, does anyone remember what that is?
Meanwhile, the website is announcing it will have a new format on Monday, September 27th, which should be interesting as the current site is quite nice. It has the appropriate mystery to it, includes relevant quotes from Einstein, for instance, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them,” as well as quotes from Confucius, “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right,” and many other philosophers and scientists, as well as religious leaders.
There is a trailer, in Windows or Quicktime, for dial-up or broadband, and other selected information that whets the appetite for more.
We live in such a changing society today, I have to believe that this movie will rocks worlds, shatter glass, and cause earthquakes. Yes, our world maybe no more changing than the society Socrates lived in when he said, “The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.” (so Plato wrote of Socrates; the Internet says there is a dispute on who actually uttered the quote, but let’s go with Socrates) but certainly our world reaches farther than Socrates could have imagined —
I’m thinking of SETI, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, as well as the slithering invisibility of Wi-Fi reaching into far off places that were previously untouched by technology.
offers a doorway into discussion, a sliver of knowledge from a small group of people interested in more than being right or wrong. It seems to be a reckoning. Connecting heart to head, asking us what consciousness really is, and IF reality truly exists.
I’m reminded of the old story of a professor of philosophy giving his seniors their final exam. His only question on the test: “Prove to me that your desk exists.” One enterprising, and obviously smart-assed, student wrote one sentence, and received an A for his effort.
His answer, “What desk?”
The movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know?” asks the same question. How will you answer it?
