What the bleep does <em>What the Bleep do We Know?</em> know?

Not much, apparently.

From the Wikipedia backgrounder:

-- Dave Kehr of the New York Times described in his review of the movie, the "transition from quantum mechanics to cognitive therapy" as "plausible", but went on to state that "the subsequent leap — from cognitive therapy into large, hazy spiritual beliefs — isn't as effectively executed. Suddenly people who were talking about subatomic particles are alluding to alternate universes and cosmic forces, all of which can be harnessed in the interest of making Ms. Matlin's character feel better about her thighs."

-- The movie states humans are "90% water" when in fact newborns have around 78%, 1-year-olds around 65%, adult men about 60%, and adult women around 55%.

-- The movie also relates a story about Native Americans being unable to see Christopher Columbus' ships. However, there is no mention of this in any of the journals of those voyages, and the oral traditions of the Native Americans were lost in the following 150 years of Spanish rule. None of the people that Columbus first encountered—the Arawaks—had any descendants survive into recent times, so it is impossible for anyone to know what their experience was.

-- The most severe criticism of this film is that the ideas and theories presented are based upon the beliefs of JZ Knight, a medium who claims to channel a "Lemurian" warrior Ramtha who raised an army and fought against the Atlantians over 35,000 years ago.

-- Masaru Emoto's work (The Hidden Messages in Water) ... is criticised for being more artistic than scientific. His doctoral certification is on alternative medicine from an unaccredited institution. His work was never subject to peer review, and he did not utilize double blind methodology. Emoto also claims that polluted water does not crystallize. Depending on the properties of the pollutant, heavily polluted water will still form crystals, though the crystals may contain more crystallographic defects than pure water would. These changes in the way the crystals form can be readily explained using basic chemistry and physics.

-- The experiment in [transcendal] meditation won John Hagelin the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize for Peace, an award for work "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced."


Ouch!