Who the [bleep] MADE this movie?

` This draft was created on March 28, 2006. I never did finish it, however, so it lacks a solid structure, just like the movie!

` UPDATE: I will soon (Dec 16 or so) have a proper review up, full of comparisons between quantum physics and their fanciful interpretation of it. I also found out who made the movie - it is propaganda for the Ramtha cult.

` I have reproduced here the semi-comprehensible notes I've written while watching a pseudoscientific documentary called; What the #$*! do we know? You may have at least noticed its existence in a video rental establishment.
` Unfortunately, since my mind was working very quickly, these notes are less than top-notch, and may be confusing at times.... [I've wanted to watch it again and make better notes, but I don't think I can make it through again.]

` As mystic-crystally as this movie looks, I’ll brave it anyway and write down anything I can ‘get out of it’.

` Okay! This pudgy blond woman is insane… apparently, she’s supposed to be channeling a spirit named Ramatha. [...I don't like to admit this, but I used to believe in Ramatha, too!]
` Um. The power of thought and children today… this brunette woman sounds insane… consciousness of the cell? Is there any reason to suspect that cells are conscious?
` Our brain processes 400 billion bits per second… but we’re only aware of 2,000 of those bits. Why don’t we integrate what’s left?
` Idea: Because our consciousness can handle a limited amount of data, though the subconsciousness can apparently process (or discard) the rest of it.
` We tend to ‘see’ reality after we look. That’s true – there’s a ½ second lag between stimulus and perception. In fact, one's memory is sometimes modified to show that a conscious response was actually an automatic subconscious one that took place just beforehand.

` We skip ahead in the notes, because of my, um, handwriting problems I experience in darkened rooms.

` The question is… Why? Why does matter seem solid? Why does time go one way? It’s not what you see. Why do particles – which are not solid objects – collapse? Good question.
` Physics began in our sensibilities, and started to get less intuitive. Quantum physics obviously takes the cake. Which brings up the question; how do we affect the world, anyway?
` Perhaps you can predict possibilities, but that doesn’t give you experience of what happens.
` Some of the same areas of the brain are activated when you see something, just the same as when you remember it. Yes, this part here is true, as I already know this!
` A bunch of stuff about neuropeptides that I can’t read….

` Ah, so here are some good points:

` If you can’t control your emotional state toward something, it’s a habit (which may or may not be helpful), or an addiction. You can, of course, get addicted to emotions. Love, for example, or the feeling brought on by opiates.
` When a cell divides – after being bombarded with some kind of chemical signal, the daughter cells have more receptors for that chemical, and less receptors for nourishment and excretion. As it grows and divides, it adapts. When trouble arises, this can cause things like aging. After emotional abuse and cells dividing improperly, a cell has trouble letting in what is necessary for its own health.
` Hmmmm.
` If you think your life is boring because of the media idols you cannot become, you are addicted to some aspect of brain chemistry. You are not paying attention to what you want and what you like for yourself. When you break out of the hypnosis, it’s like having a nervous breakdown – but it’s the opposite of a bad sign. This is because you have to rewire your brain, which then causes you to change.
` This is true, and this I recommend wholeheartedly!
` Quitting cigarettes is tough, largely because the nicotine can trick one’s brain into reacting like it has a friend. But it isn’t. And when you quit, you get nervous and depressed, like your friend isn’t around anymore.
` Of course, if the cigarettes, or other drugs, are hurting you at the same time you’re addicted to them, you need to walk away. They aren’t your friends.
` Sure. Whatever. I guess that makes sense.
` What makes you great? What do you put in your mind? That affects everything. Because, as they say, life is 10% what happens and 90% what you do, because you realize the difference between the outcomes. At the end of the day, you have done hundreds of things, and if you did everything backward, the outcome would be so different.
` If you can only experience this, you could see.
` Well, this is true.
` You can’t tell someone how to be, and you can’t all think something just because someone else does. But there is one real way to think on your own. And that is… thinking on your own. And there’s just one basic way of doing this. So ironically, it’s the same for everyone – think on your own, just like everyone else. Ha!
` You can avoid losing track of your mind by separating yourself from other people, in order to look objective to everything.
` You are not impressions of everyone else that you have in your head. You are too involved if you lose track of yourselves – when you want something, that desire makes it become real to you. Whether or not you have free will, this is the case.
` Those things that you may be addicted to, that are not you, don’t need to concern you. If you let go of addictions, habits of other people, and what they think, you might have some things in common with others who have done so.
` Um. Yeah?
` ?? If you think ‘outside the box’ without regard to the habit, you might agree if you’re all doing that? Maybe.
` Some things are not subjective. They are objective. If you can act on objectivity, that’s at least logical.
` If you think that this is deep (because it’s common sense), it means you limit yourself. It’s not like you’re shallow, but you limit your thinking if you think this sounds deep. It’s perfectly sensible, but how much are you exposed to that? If you have been exposed to a lot, then it becomes very matter-of-fact. It’s good for you.
` Just get away from things that make you feel dissatisfied – for example, commercials play on this sense of dissatisfication. But generally, people do not really want or need anything that’s offered in most commercials.

` Now it moves onto something completely unrelated: How does the chaos of quantum levels form into solid matter? Nobody knows, and there is no evidence that it has anything to do with what goes on in your head!
` And now we’re back to; Don’t take things on surface value. Try it. The world is hands-on – assuming you have hands. Take advantage of finding things out, so you can always have the most accurate picture.
` Most of the people talking here seem okay and scientific, and yet there are a few wackmobiles given equal billing with equal authority. It’s so unreal! Like… here’s the scientists saying their scientist thing, and they’re all right.
` But then these wackos start talking about stuff that largely has nothing to do with what the scientists are saying, but it is presented as if it does!
` Stuart Hammeroff was not talking about any kind of picture of reality that can be gotten. Where did he get this stuff? Ramatha is something this woman claims to be a chanelled spirit. Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami and a couple others… just regular quantum physicists.
` Okay, well, if you think, it may affect reality at subquantum levels… in your brain, at least. But quantum physics does not suggest that thoughts can affect the rest of reality, like the wackmobiles are saying.
` It is these filmmakers and their amazingly slanted worldview who are responsible for the content of this movie. They do not understand what science is, which is why they think that what they are saying constitutes science. Apparently, it makes people talk about these things, which I suppose is a good thing. It’s just that their idea is wrong.

` How do we get habits? Why do we see what we are used to seeing every day? If you want to change your experience, you have to look at other things, focus on what you want to happen, and do this consciously. It’s not much different than doing it subconsciously, but conscious effort is what changes your perspective. That’s good if it helps you. Stop caring about what is negative, as you cannot live in denial.
` Hey, you know, being a skeptic, you do limit yourself, but only in that you keep yourself from just believing. In the same way, being careful while climbing mountains drastically limits your numbers of outcomes on the climbs, which is good because most of those outcomes involve much pain and death.
` You know, when you’re a skeptic, it’s okay to not be sure of things, to not have conviction if there is no way to see. Not doing this actually causes problems, which pop up everywhere without any basis. You know, like stereotypes and fads and myths and cults and urban legends…. Misperceptions.
` And there are many concrete answers (the correct perception rather than the misperception), objective as anyone can see, to a lot of these myths, and yet some people will strangle you for saying that. I think opinions are fine, though when there’s a concrete answer that’s objective and someone wants to not accept that, it can often result in huge amounts of stupidity that drift around like thought pollution.
` Like, when you go; ‘Wow, that’s so stupid I can’t believe people can think something so obviously false,’… like people who think the earth is flat, and I’ve seen the curvature of the earth, so I can even say that I’ve seen it for myself. It’s really simple.

` In order to get anything out of this movie, you have to ignore the New Age stuff. Science may sometimes demonstrate evidence of free will, but it does not validate magical thinking.
` I’ll have to say that, if this movie challenges your life or blows your mind, you have evidently not been exposed to things of such optimism. Now, people do need that, but they can’t be getting it from bits of science that have been garbled together with this New Age, psychic-type stuff!
` This is the kinds of things have surmised must have been edited out of both the movie and special features:

` Scientist: Observers have an effect on the tiny areas of sub-atomic particles.
` Laymen: Really? Let’s be psychic!
` Scientist: No! You’re taking it out of context! It only works in the probability field of the particle/wave!
` Layman: Screw you! I’m getting Ramatha and will use him to support what I think!
` Scientist: What have I done? They’ll try to make me look like I agree with Ramatha! My career is finished!

` Since when was remote viewing or changing one’s genes with their mind predicted by quantum physics? Not only that, but what does that have to do with any field of science? Science is all about accepting new ideas, no matter how nonsensical they seem… just as long as there’s evidence of their existence!
` This guy thinks that this magic New Age psychic B.S. is the same as being broad-minded. Well, as a teenager, I was plagued with material that talked about how open-minded it was to believe that quantum physicists and psychics could get along. I believed it, too, which is why I can relate to him.
` He says: ‘What did the scientists say about these psychic anomalies? Blank stare!’ Of course they were staring blankly! You said something supremely stupid! They were like; ‘That has nothing to do with my field of research, it is a new age belief! What a moron if he thinks I can relate quantum physics to this nonsense!’
` You know why? Because quantum physicists really do think that!
` These laymen have a faith and are trying to apply science to it. The fact is, science does not allow blind faith in anything because science cannot be supported by it! The very fact that they put in so much actual science made me think that they might have a clue, but apparently these people are New Age Believers.
` He’s like; ‘Explain remote viewing, mind reading…’ well, if you could demonstrate it happening then a scientist could do that. He is just assuming that his conclusion is true. You are not a scientist if you obviously do not understand critical thinking, and so should not be filming this.
` Oh, and then the guy says that he’s against people having faith that remote viewing exists, claiming that science backs it up, so there is no need! Well, I used to think that, too, until I learned that a quantum physicist may ask; ‘Where are you getting that from?’
` This guy says that he has a passion for asking questions… it is tragic that he did not learn critical thinking! What he is doing is not being open-minded. It is not being broad-minded. I used to think it was, only because I had no idea what those terms meant.
` He’s like; ‘Oh, it’s really cool, look what the scientists are talking about!’ What? They’re not talking about what you think they are! They aren’t speaking in your non-scientific paradigm!
` Cray-zay. I mean, I used to make lists of predictions each day myself, and a lot of things came true, but that does not mean I affected reality or saw the future!

` This, if you can't tell, is a documentary that has more to do with people's minds affecting their lives in definite ways, as well as affecting reality in some unclear way having to do with false implications of quantum physics. It does have a good message, though, and that is to break your bad thinking habits and change your life if it is unsatisfying.
` So, breaking one's bad thinking habits is genuinely a good thing... which I did when I stopped believing in this oft-repeated link between affecting reality itself with your mind and quantum physics.