Subscribe"I say, I'm taking this time to create my day, and I'm infecting the Quantum Field. Now, if it is in fact, the observer's watching me the whole time that I'm doing this, and there is a spiritual aspect to myself. Then, show me a sign today, that you paid attention to any one of these things that I created, and bring them in a way that I won't expect."Oh yeah, he's a chiropractor. Talking about Quantum Mechanics.
The film doesn't explore "science"; it explores pseudoscience. The comments of all the purported "leading" scientists center on a single theme: "We all create our own reality." Well, at leastthe filmmakers certainly have succeeded in creating their own reality: there is not one scientist presented who does not try to tie quantum mechanics to spiritualism, despite the fact that only a small minority of physicists in the field ascribe to the view presented in the film. Largely, the scientists presented in the film have previously been involved in promoting pseudoscience and some are tied with the Ramtha cult directly. Their presence in the film represents the filmmakers efforts to use only scientists sympathetic to the film's premise.
The film fails to inform the viewer of it's maker's affiliation to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Ramtha is an alleged 35,000 year-old warrior spirit from the lost continent of Atlantis and one of the Ascended Masters channeled by JZ Knight, who is featured prominently in the film. Her group, The Ramtha School of Enlightenment, is considered by many a cult. The fact that the filmmakers fail to reveal most of this information until the very end, and only then in passing and incompletely, indicates that not only is the film factually biased, but that the filmmakers are being disingenuous about their agenda. All three directors of this film are students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Director William Arntz reports that the spiritual influences in his life include metaphysics, Rudolf Steiner, the Theosophists, Carlos Castaneda, Rama, various forms of Buddhism, and Ramtha. Director Betsy Chasse has attended SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship classes – founded by Paramahansa Yogananda). Mark Vicente says he "arrived on the planet as a Christian; performed a brief stint as a New-Ager" - until he realized that the latter was: “a bit like being a Democrat – well intentioned, politically correct but lacking balls.” He then became a student of Ramtha.
The science presented in the film contains mostly conjecture and unsupported conclusion based on errors of fact, especially around QM. They use many of the terms, jargon of QM, but they misrepresent their conclusions and rely on Bad Science that lacks objectivity. They've started with a preconceived belief and filtered their own observations so as to try to support that belief. They've failed to be self-critical and try to disprove their hypotheses by all available means. Masaru Emoto's work with frozen water crystals is prime example of this. Dr. Masaru Emoto is not a scientist but received certification from the Open International University as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine, and the yet film presents him as a scientist his conclusions as science. He has not published a single study in a peer-reviewed journal.
The film misrepresents both current science and the background and agenda of the filmmakers.
They are part of the Ramtha cult, and the opinion they present in the film is exactly one supported by the Ramtha cult, hence making their film a vehicle for the Ramtha cult's message without informing the viewer.
The necessity to depart from classical ideas when one wishes to account for the ultimate structure of matter may be seen, not only from experimentally established facts, but also from general philosophical grounds. In a classical explanation of the constitution of matter, one would assume it to be made up of a large number of small constituent parts and one would postulate laws for the behavior of these parts, from which the laws of the matter in bulk could be deduced. This would not complete the explanation, however, since the question of the structure and stability of the constituent parts is left untouched. To go into this question, it becomes necessary to postulate that each constituent part is itself made up of smaller parts, in terms of which its behaviour is to be explained. There is clearly no end to this procedure, so that one can never arrive at the ultimate structure of matter on these lines. So long as big and small are merely relative concepts, it is no help to explain the big in terms of the small. It is therefore necessary to modify classical ideas in such a way as to give an absolute meaning to size.
posted by argybarg at 6:37 PM on November 23, 2004