What the Bleep should we know ?

Who are we ?
Where do we come from ?
Why are we here ?

These are the classic questions that have perplexed the thinkers
since time immemorial.Not just the thinkers almost everyone has
(or will) come across these questions, while some choose to skip
them in no time, some ponder over them for most of their lives.

"Asking yourself these deeper questions opens up new ways of
being in the world.
It brings in a breath of fresh air.
It makes life more joyful.
The real trick to life is not to be in the known ...
but be in the mystery."

In case you are wondering what's going on here lemme give you
some context, I happened to watch no wait I made myself watch
this documentary titled "What the Bleep do we know?" that was
gifted to me long back by a film maker friend of mine.
This is probably the only film after "Waking Life" reviewed
here that got me to sit back and think.
This post is a non-critical take on the documentary
and tries to highlight what we can take home.

The film takes us through a journey of Quantum Mechanics,
Consciousness, Reality, God, Emotions, Time Travel and more.
WTBDWK would easily be one of the most controversial piece of
cinema I've seen. What follows are the things that clicked with
me.

"Why do we keep re-creating the same reality?
Why do we keep having the same relationships?
Why do we keep getting the same jobs...
over and over again?
In this infinite sea of potentials that exist around us...
how come we keep re-creating the same realities?"

The question that comes next to our mind is
"Are we affecting the world of reality that we see?"

I totally buy that "we are", its our thoughts and
actions that will make our(and to some extent others)
realities/future and that the external world mirrors the
internal.By believing in this you feel in much more
control.

Another interesting question is
"Who is in the driver's seat when we control
our emotions or we respond to our emotions?"

How it basically works is that our brain is
made up of tiny nerve cells called "neurons" which branch
out and connect to other "neurons" forming what's called a
"neural net" and each place where they connect is incubated
into a thought or a memory.The brain works on the law of
"Associative Memory" and all our thoughts, feelings and
ideas are constructed and interconnected in these neural
nets. Every concept is a result of various smaller ideas,
say "Love" would be a result of combination of different
feelings for you and a combination of different
feelings for someone else depending on your experiences
both internal and external over the years.This model
keeps on changing with time according to our experiences
and as aptly put
"Any information that we process, any information
that we take in from the environment...
is always colored by the experiences that we've had..."

Those who feel they've become "Mechanized" there's more.
acc to WTBDWK?
Nerve cells that fire together wire together

"If we practice something over and over,
those nerve cells have a long-term relationship."
Also
"nerve cells that don't fire together no longer wire
together thus losing their long-term relationshiup."

So every time we interrupt and think those nerve
cells that are connected to each other start breaking
the long-term relationship.

When we start interrupting and observing not by
stimulus and response and that automatic reaction
but by observing the effects it takes then we are no
longer the body-mind conscious emotional person
that's responding to its environment as if it is
automatic.

on Right & Wrong
On the notion that some people have about right or
wrong like If I do this I will get punished by God
If I do that I will get rewarded..Instead of
viewing things this way the doc suggests another
approach of viewing things in the light of

things that you do and they'll evolve you.
and other things that will not evolve you.

In the wake of all that there is and how li'l we know
I'd conclude by quoting this extension of Descartes's
"I am much more than I think I am."

Links:
1) Creating Your Own Reality
2) Script
3) Hackery/Quackery in Scientific American
4) What the (Bleep) Were They Thinking?
5) What the bleep are they on about?

Favourite Quotes:
1)
But you know, it's, uh--
it's like positive thinking.
It's a wonderful idea,positive thinking...
but what it usually means is that I have
a little smear of positive thinking...
covering a whole mass of negative thinking.

2)
Isn't it amazing that we have options and potentials
that exist...but we're unaware of them?

Is it possible that we're so conditioned to our daily
lives...so conditioned to the way we create our lives...
that we buy the idea that we have no control at all?

3)
For the average person in the world who lives life...
and considers their life boring or uninspiring...
It's because they're so hypnotized
by their environment..they've made no attempt...
to gain knowledge and information
that will inspire them.

4)
If I change my mind, will I change my choices?
If I change my choices, will my life change?
Why can't I change? What am I addicted to?
What will I lose that I'm chemically attached to...
and what person, place, thing, time or event...
that I'm chemically attached to
that I don't want to lose...
because I may have to experience
the chemical withdrawal from that?
Hence the human drama.

5)
We have to formulate what we want...
and be so concentrated on it
and so focused on it and have so much
of our awareness of it that we lose track
of ourselves. We lose track of time.
We lose track of our identity.
And the moment we become so involved
in that experience that we lose track of
ourselves, we lose track of time...
that picture is the only picture that's real.
And everybody's had that experience...
when they've made up their mind
that they've wanted something.

6)
We've been conditioned to believe that the
external world is more real than the internal
world. This new model of science says just the
opposite--
It says what's happening within us
will create what's happening outside of us.

Waking Life

"The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving.
Saves on introductions and good-byes"

"It’s like you come onto this planet with a crayon box. Now, you may get the 8-pack, you may get the 16-pack. But it’s all in what you do with the crayons, the colors that you’re given. And don’t worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines. I say color outside the lines. You know what I mean? Color right off the page. Don’t box me in."

Above mentioned lines come straight from the script of "Waking Life", one of the movies that beckon you and without realising you are lost in 'em (or with 'em). Written and Directed by Richard Linklater, Waking Life is the kinda movie that makes me(atleast) say WOW out loud, partly maybe because its about the thing that i am quite passionate about, yes if you are observant enough its TALKING.

Mostly its about the young protagonist in a dreamy state conversing with people from different walks of life and some random people talking randomly about anything from Information Revolution to Collective Memory, Free will to Evolution and much much more..

This is just the kind of Cinema(I am in love with this word) that gets your brain cells working overtime, the way mine are right now...If you are in a habbit of thinking then chances are that you might find a discussion or two on some familiar topics. This being perhaps the only movie ever, that i watched in both directions, going back again and again to some mind-expanding dialogue or the other from the beginning right till the end.

"I’m afraid we’re losing the real virtues of living life passionately, sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life"

"In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It’s always our decision who we are."

So if you are one of those compulsive thinkers or one of those who are into experimental cinema or someone having a high curiosity index( a self coined term) or someone who found the above written prate intriguing, then you know where to go from here.

Thanks Linklater for this Intellectual Coming....

My Rating: 4.5 ++
Imdb Rating:7.4

Which is the most universal human characteristic - fear or laziness?