Danielle L Korgenski
PSY Extra Credit Submission
Summer Semester
“What the Bleep do we know? “
“What the Bleep do we know?” is part documentary and part story. The main Character, protagonist, Amanda finds her world completely out of sorts when her daily, boring life begins to unravel revealing the uncertain world hidden behind what we would ordinarily consider normal reality. She gets deeper and deeper into this chaotic world all along the way encountering odd characters that reveal a deeper, hidden knowledge she never even thought about or questioned before. Amanda is submerged into a crisis. She begins to question the mere fundamentals of her life. She also begins to question all of what she thought she knew about men, relationships with others, and how her emotions affect her work and the world around her. Her perception and point of view is altered. Soon Amanda learns to relax and go with the flow. She begins to overcome her fears, gain deeper knowledge than had before and even obtains keys to the great secrets of all the ages. She is no longer a victim of her circumstances and bound by her former beliefs. Her life has been completely changed. The main theme is the interconnectedness of all things. Through out the entire film the line between science and religion seems to dissipate and we learn that they both describe the same experiences.
At the basis of this film are challenging questions about the way we participate, consciously or not, in an expanding, challenging reality. The movie proposes that there is no solid universe out there waiting for our minds to comprehend it. Reality is always changing and affected by the ways in which we perceive it.
The movie talks about navigating rabbit holes. In order to successfully navigate them it is important to know the differences of what is known through the contribution of science, what we know by intuition, what is merely an equivocal perception and what remains unknown. The idea is not to favor one form of knowledge over another but to be able to freely decide when we have “crossed the line of science into imagination and make believe.” There are many claims and ideas in the movie that have not been demonstrated and proven as scientific fact; however we still may decide to believe them because they feel right to us.
For as long as we have been able to think and wonder we have been captivated by the world around us. We have asked ourselves and others where we came from, why we are here and where we are going. Everyone is trying to understand their place in the world and the unseen forces that control their lives. In the movie there are paradigm shifts. Our paradigm determines what we are able to see, how we think and what we do. The movie makes the point that we do not question our paradigms accuracy because most of the time we are unaware of its impact or existence. We are so absorbed within it we cannot distance ourselves enough to see how much it affects our views.
World views are formed to help solve problems. They are changed when existing solutions to problems no longer work and new problems require a new approach. A specific world view is not always accepted by others which are where war, mass extinction, and genocide come into play. Sometimes one world view has solved several problems but in the end created others. Yet it is impossible to change your assumptions about the world without changing the way we gain knowledge about it. The movie also discusses that things are not the way they appear to be. In one particular scene a basketball appears in several different places all at once. Amanda sees herself through the eyes of someone that she has become. Time seems to stand still and particles become waves. “What the Bleep do we know” challenges us to grasp the concept of startling discoveries of quantum physics and to entertain the idea that things aren’t what they seem to be and as Lankavatara Sutra says, “neither are they otherwise.” Things aren’t even really things at all they are more like possibilities.
I related this movie in a lot of ways to the ever popular story of Alice in Wonderland. The curious girl who chased a rabbit through an underground hole into a world where nothing made sense and nothing was really as it seemed. Reality faded away like the Cheshire cat because we now know that the fundamental properties of the physical world are not fixed. The world is always changing in small ways depending on how we choose to observe it. Our worldview is shaped by scientific assumptions. The movie also touches on the power of intention and how it shapes our lives by guiding our actions. If you intend to do something more often than not you end up doing it. If you intend to plant a garden and eventually succeed the empty space In the back yard is physically changed. Intention represents both challenges and opportunities for furthering our understanding of how we might create our days and shape the world around us. It draws our focus to some of the most interesting and challenging questions about the world in which we exhist. Intentions also affect our interactions with the rest of the world. There are even intentions that are transpersonal directed at living systems and inaimate systems. Parapsychology is a scientific study of these types of interactions as well as how we interact with the environment around us. Another key point in the movie is when Amanda’s attitude shifts and she immediately receives a call from her ex-husband. There are many changes in my life I have noticed have come from a change of attitude or perspective. When I stand outside of myself and try to see things from another’s point of view I find that the more I am open to different ways of allowing myself to perceive things the more opportunities I am presented with. What has sometimes seemed like a challenge or burden in my life was really a blessing or new opportunity when I chose to look at it in a different light. Imagine how different our lives could be if we felt the universe to be conscious and purposive. Ultimately, it is up to each of us to choose the meaning system we want to live by, While there are more questions than answers, the very process of questioning adds meaning to our lives.
Another theme that really stood out in my mind was healing the past. In the movie Amanda has been struggling with vivid flashbacks, anxiety, a hangover and lowered self-esteem. The morning after a particular distressing experience, she is angered and yells at herself in the mirror. After this breakdown she has a break through. It occurs to her that her thoughts might be having an affect on the very structure of the cells in her body. This realization brings Amanda from self-rejection and self-loathing to compassion and self-love. In Introduction to psychology we learn that one of the most remarkable things about the human brain is that we are able to function at such high levels of complexity, react to multiple stimuli in our environment and make rapid decisions about what things mean and what a particular course of action should be taken. We form associations and learn from our experiences creating new responses to new situations. In the film it is assumed that Amanda’s husband had an affair and the result of their breakup is the cause of Amanda’s unhappiness and distress. This has in turn distorted her perception of reality. Carl Jung calls this distortion “projection.” A process in which we attribute our own thoughts or motives to others. Amanda’s breakdown may have been the result of something deeper than the betrayal of her husband. Attachment theory suggests that infants, through their interaction with parents and caregivers, develop “internal working models” that shade their expectations of relationships and overall worldviews for the rest of their lives. Early experiences with caregivers lead young children to develop mental ideas of caregiver’s caring and responsiveness as well as how they perceive themselves worthy and deserving of care. Over time these models become interpretative ideas through which children then reconstruct new experiences and relationships. These then create internalized rules for how they then relate to others. The theory forecasts that children with secure or insecure attachment experiences will respond to others based on these expectations. These expectations may cause and evoke the kind of responses from others that confirm their initial expectations. Ultimately we find what we are looking for. I do strongly agree with the theory that beliefs about who one is and what one believes is real helps shape one’s reality. I believe that if one strongly desires someone or something mentally and is concentrated on that belief it can become a reality.
PSY Extra Credit Submission
Summer Semester
“What the Bleep do we know? “
“What the Bleep do we know?” is part documentary and part story. The main Character, protagonist, Amanda finds her world completely out of sorts when her daily, boring life begins to unravel revealing the uncertain world hidden behind what we would ordinarily consider normal reality. She gets deeper and deeper into this chaotic world all along the way encountering odd characters that reveal a deeper, hidden knowledge she never even thought about or questioned before. Amanda is submerged into a crisis. She begins to question the mere fundamentals of her life. She also begins to question all of what she thought she knew about men, relationships with others, and how her emotions affect her work and the world around her. Her perception and point of view is altered. Soon Amanda learns to relax and go with the flow. She begins to overcome her fears, gain deeper knowledge than had before and even obtains keys to the great secrets of all the ages. She is no longer a victim of her circumstances and bound by her former beliefs. Her life has been completely changed. The main theme is the interconnectedness of all things. Through out the entire film the line between science and religion seems to dissipate and we learn that they both describe the same experiences.
At the basis of this film are challenging questions about the way we participate, consciously or not, in an expanding, challenging reality. The movie proposes that there is no solid universe out there waiting for our minds to comprehend it. Reality is always changing and affected by the ways in which we perceive it.
The movie talks about navigating rabbit holes. In order to successfully navigate them it is important to know the differences of what is known through the contribution of science, what we know by intuition, what is merely an equivocal perception and what remains unknown. The idea is not to favor one form of knowledge over another but to be able to freely decide when we have “crossed the line of science into imagination and make believe.” There are many claims and ideas in the movie that have not been demonstrated and proven as scientific fact; however we still may decide to believe them because they feel right to us.
For as long as we have been able to think and wonder we have been captivated by the world around us. We have asked ourselves and others where we came from, why we are here and where we are going. Everyone is trying to understand their place in the world and the unseen forces that control their lives. In the movie there are paradigm shifts. Our paradigm determines what we are able to see, how we think and what we do. The movie makes the point that we do not question our paradigms accuracy because most of the time we are unaware of its impact or existence. We are so absorbed within it we cannot distance ourselves enough to see how much it affects our views.
World views are formed to help solve problems. They are changed when existing solutions to problems no longer work and new problems require a new approach. A specific world view is not always accepted by others which are where war, mass extinction, and genocide come into play. Sometimes one world view has solved several problems but in the end created others. Yet it is impossible to change your assumptions about the world without changing the way we gain knowledge about it. The movie also discusses that things are not the way they appear to be. In one particular scene a basketball appears in several different places all at once. Amanda sees herself through the eyes of someone that she has become. Time seems to stand still and particles become waves. “What the Bleep do we know” challenges us to grasp the concept of startling discoveries of quantum physics and to entertain the idea that things aren’t what they seem to be and as Lankavatara Sutra says, “neither are they otherwise.” Things aren’t even really things at all they are more like possibilities.
I related this movie in a lot of ways to the ever popular story of Alice in Wonderland. The curious girl who chased a rabbit through an underground hole into a world where nothing made sense and nothing was really as it seemed. Reality faded away like the Cheshire cat because we now know that the fundamental properties of the physical world are not fixed. The world is always changing in small ways depending on how we choose to observe it. Our worldview is shaped by scientific assumptions. The movie also touches on the power of intention and how it shapes our lives by guiding our actions. If you intend to do something more often than not you end up doing it. If you intend to plant a garden and eventually succeed the empty space In the back yard is physically changed. Intention represents both challenges and opportunities for furthering our understanding of how we might create our days and shape the world around us. It draws our focus to some of the most interesting and challenging questions about the world in which we exhist. Intentions also affect our interactions with the rest of the world. There are even intentions that are transpersonal directed at living systems and inaimate systems. Parapsychology is a scientific study of these types of interactions as well as how we interact with the environment around us. Another key point in the movie is when Amanda’s attitude shifts and she immediately receives a call from her ex-husband. There are many changes in my life I have noticed have come from a change of attitude or perspective. When I stand outside of myself and try to see things from another’s point of view I find that the more I am open to different ways of allowing myself to perceive things the more opportunities I am presented with. What has sometimes seemed like a challenge or burden in my life was really a blessing or new opportunity when I chose to look at it in a different light. Imagine how different our lives could be if we felt the universe to be conscious and purposive. Ultimately, it is up to each of us to choose the meaning system we want to live by, While there are more questions than answers, the very process of questioning adds meaning to our lives.
Another theme that really stood out in my mind was healing the past. In the movie Amanda has been struggling with vivid flashbacks, anxiety, a hangover and lowered self-esteem. The morning after a particular distressing experience, she is angered and yells at herself in the mirror. After this breakdown she has a break through. It occurs to her that her thoughts might be having an affect on the very structure of the cells in her body. This realization brings Amanda from self-rejection and self-loathing to compassion and self-love. In Introduction to psychology we learn that one of the most remarkable things about the human brain is that we are able to function at such high levels of complexity, react to multiple stimuli in our environment and make rapid decisions about what things mean and what a particular course of action should be taken. We form associations and learn from our experiences creating new responses to new situations. In the film it is assumed that Amanda’s husband had an affair and the result of their breakup is the cause of Amanda’s unhappiness and distress. This has in turn distorted her perception of reality. Carl Jung calls this distortion “projection.” A process in which we attribute our own thoughts or motives to others. Amanda’s breakdown may have been the result of something deeper than the betrayal of her husband. Attachment theory suggests that infants, through their interaction with parents and caregivers, develop “internal working models” that shade their expectations of relationships and overall worldviews for the rest of their lives. Early experiences with caregivers lead young children to develop mental ideas of caregiver’s caring and responsiveness as well as how they perceive themselves worthy and deserving of care. Over time these models become interpretative ideas through which children then reconstruct new experiences and relationships. These then create internalized rules for how they then relate to others. The theory forecasts that children with secure or insecure attachment experiences will respond to others based on these expectations. These expectations may cause and evoke the kind of responses from others that confirm their initial expectations. Ultimately we find what we are looking for. I do strongly agree with the theory that beliefs about who one is and what one believes is real helps shape one’s reality. I believe that if one strongly desires someone or something mentally and is concentrated on that belief it can become a reality.