WHAT THE BLEEP...IS ALL THIS QUANUM MYSTICISM ABOUT?

Recently I rented this movie, "What the Bleep/Down the Rabbit Hole." I've heard about if for a while through the grapevine, so, as a physicist, I was curious to see how quantum mechanics could improve my life. While some of the physics is more or less correct, there were no profound insights on how one could actually use quantum mechanics in their daily life.

Other than the film's emphasis on the power of positive thinking and that we create our own destinies, yet one doesn't need science to affirm these time-honored truisms. They've been around in the non-scientific form since the days of Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill, and currently Tony Robbins.

Thus, a little digging into the background of this film yielded some interesting facts: the three producers were all students of JZ Knight's "Ramtha School of Enlightenment." One of the more famous (or infamous) of the New Age movements. Hence, the prominent role we see for Ms. Knight (or Mr. Ramtha?) dispensing ancient wisdom throughout the film.

She's seen her share of controversies though, this from Wikipedia: "...JZ Knight has been involved in several court disputes, some personal (her divorce from Jeff Knight) and others business-related, for example, one involving the dissemination of material containing the copyrighted Ramtha. In Knight vs. Knight, 1992-1995, Jeff Knight alleges that he lost years of his life by postponing modern medical treatment for his HIV infection, due to advice from his wife that Ramtha could heal him — he died before he could appeal the court's decision against him. So, if she was privy to ancient healing wisdom via Ramtha, apparently HIV was too new a disease for Ramtha to cure.

Another case, in Austria, involved a Berlin woman who also claimed to channel Ramtha. The Austrian Supreme court decided that JZ Knight was the only person with the sole trademark and copyright license for the name Ramtha and its associated teachings..." So I wonder if Ramtha is such a noble, brave and wise warrior, then why does he need to get involved in copyright court cases over who can channel him? I think he'd be mature enough after 35,000 years to pick and choose his channelers, and why shouldn't the Austrians get the benefit of his wisdom without having to fly to Yelm, Washington? But back to the movie, while I think it's good in that it stimulates interest in quantum mechanics, the pseudo-science and quantum mysticism overshadows that.

Nevertheless, perhaps some people will go to the library and check out some books on quantum mechanics. If one is truly interested in quantum mechanics, then there are several good introductory books, with a minimum of math, you can use to get the basic concepts. My favorite is "The Story of Quantum Mechanics," by Victor Guillemin, an old favorite which balances out the math with good discussions on the metaphysical implications. This book was one of my prime motivators to study physics in college.

To truly understand quantum mechanics at a deeper level, one needs to know calculus, statistics/probability, and linear algebra to work the problems, which sounds hard but is do-able.

So, what's my advice?

Study the following Quantum Mechanics 1 course, downloadable from MIT, http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-04Spring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm

Then go back and watch "What the Bleep!," and judge for yourself....