Thursday, May 17, 2007

"How far down the Rabbit Hole do you want to go?"

Now for a movie review of sorts:

After watching the movie What the Bleep Do We Know!? last weekend I was profoundly moved. No, I was blown away, my mind teeming with all sorts of ideas never considered. Who knew that quantum physics could get the heart racing?? I watched it twice with the zeal of a convert and wanted all my friends to watch it. There was so many ways that OFAG could benefit from changing my quantum reality! Yes! I will think the women to me! I even had mentally composed a blog entry encapsulating my excitement but I never got around to writing.

Still with me? Oh, you haven't seen the movie? Well it has developed a cult following since its release in 2004. In a nutshell the movie attempts to reconcile science (ie, quantum physics) with spirituality. Before you run away, just bear with me for a moment. If you need to, you can easily watch clips on YouTube for reference. I just need to vent because my excitement for the movie has been seriously dampened and this is why.

1. The movie glazes over the fact that JZ Knight, one of the main interviewees, performs her interview while channeling a 35,000 year old spirit named Ramtha. It also glazes over the fact that many of those involved with the making of the film are students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Believe what you will, but I kind of wish they had been a little more upfront with that because when I found that out -- and only by doing some Google research on the movie -- I felt a little dirty. No, a lot dirty. Like I had read the small print and found out that everything was funded by Scientologists.

2. Another interviewee, Jeffrey Satinover, is a proponent of the ex-gay movement and has written a book called Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth (1996) and has also written extensively on how homosexuality can be cured.

Ewwwwww.

What is it that I'm feeling now? Shame? Anger? I really wanted to like this movie and there are still nuggets of information that are valid only for the way in which they made my brain consider an entirely new paradigm, but please PLEASE! Why give credibility to a man who shills for Focus on Family and thinks the American Psychiatric Association was wrong for declassifying homosexuality in 1973 as a psychiatric disorder?

Mea culpa, my gay readers. I feel so dirty that I must now wade in the waters of gayness to cleanse myself. Perhaps watch a marathon of L Word? Tool around the GLAAD website? Thank god next month is Pride. This girl needs to go get her gay on.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh heh..."bare with me for a moment".

But more to the point--HOW COULD YOU ENJOY THAT MOVIE? I love quantum physics (let me put on my nerd glasses for a second), but I had to turn off the movie halfway through. Good Lord, it was painful. And I didn't even know about the ex-gay and Ramtha stuff, although I don't find it that surprising. That movie had all the video sophistication of "Rock And Rock Music Is From The Devil--A Special Southern Baptist Investigation".

My lovely, I'll bring you an awesome book on quantum physics and superstring theory (for the layman) when I come to visit in two weeks. And there's not an anti-gay comment in the whole thing!

Anonymous Lesbian said...

I'm with you in the shame, guilt and anger spiral... crap, I watched that movie and enjoyed it too. And now it's tainted. Thank you for bringing forth the truth!

Caro said...

OK, not that I think you should punish yourself, but, do you really think a marathon viewing of 'The L Word' qualifies as punishment?

Now a 'Grizzly Adams' marathon - THAT would be punishment!

ComputerClass said...

I also couldn't stand "What the bleep do we know?", but I have a friend who loves it.

I think I didn't like it because I had seen the Nova PBS special called "The Elegant Universe" with Brian Greene. It's all about quantum physics and string theory, and a layman can understand it.

I recommend watching that if you really want your mind blown.

nycrouge said...

Actually I have seen the Brian Greene special on string theory and it was quite good. Think I even taped it . . . back when I had a VCR.