What the Bleep, Part II
Though the second part of the What the Bleep film contains some dubious assertions, it still provides some memorable visuals that help us digest the course material. During our discussion of states, we mentioned the three most common (waking, sleeping, and deep sleep), but there are actually as many states as there are neuropeptides to cause them. The movie shows such altered states as lust, intoxication, and self-disgust (“I hate you! You’re fat!”). In all such states our perception of reality is altered, just as it is with LSD or depression. Managing creativity has to do with managing states (Chapter 3) because, as the movie points out, we are emotional beings. We can’t just make the “decision to be creative” (Sternberg) if our emotions are getting in the way and choreographing different realities. (Remember, in the film, the woman who has a cell saying, “Help me suffer”? Do you know self-styled drama queens who have an identity built around suffering? The film says they are addicted to the repetition of the chemical that says, “Poor me.”)
Much of this part of the film is based on sound experimental psychology. Yes, we strengthen neural connections when we repeat a behavior and it becomes a habit. That is why habits (like drinking or suffering) are hard to get rid of. Yes, addictive substances make little locks that hook onto the little keyholes of the brain cells. Many addictive substances, for instance, have a little lock that fits into the same receptors as dopamine: the brain’s “feel-good” chemical. And, yes, we have a problem of seeing the present through the lens of past experience. If I get my writing rejected 11 times by a commercial publisher, I associate sending writing to a commercial publisher with pain. I want to avoid pain, so I avoid sending my material out, and my creative success is blocked. And, yes, the brain works on associations. That is why it can be so hard to get rid of blocks and fear. Your brain associates creative expression with some past pain and doesn’t want to move forward, even when your conscious mind does. The two impulses duke it out, and you are at a stalemate. I liked the graphic representation of the little red and blue blobs (fighting cells, neuropeptides, and/or impulses) to remind us of how we are blocked.
Any more comments on the relation between the movie and the text or classwork? Do you think I should show the movie if this class gets scheduled again?
What the Bleep is a frigging great movie! This movie ties together so many things in our world that have always seemed connected but with no way to prove it. For instance I am a very modern thinker but I believe strongly in the teachings of my religion, Christian Science.
This movie helps tie together both of them because the tenants of Christian Science are basically the same as the movies. That our minds create our own reality and that we are who we think we are. In Christian Science we heal people thru the power of prayer, which could also be interpreted as using the tenants of quantum physics.
This movie clearly showed some of the ideas that are shown in your book. Your chapter on quantum physics is really kind of clarified in the movie. If you teach this class in the future you should defiantly include the movie because it really makes the concepts easier to grasp than just reading them.
Thanks for the positive film review, Spring! I agree that the movie tends to clarify comments in the book, though I would have preferred the movie hadn’t used JZ Knight, who makes absurd statements like “You are God.”
Wait a secound you cannot as a student of creativity get critical of someone elses creative view point. He is expressing his viewpoint and I kind of believe what he says. In my understanding his statement “You are God” is quite true. God by the definitions of many is the omnipotent being that created our world and is constantly changing and some say controlling it. Now if I understand the ideas expressed in the film, it says that we control the world we live in. So looking at it that way we are the “God” of our own world as our mind determines our reality.
Sprig, I approved your second post but don’t know where it went. I’ll quote it here: Comment:
“Wait a secound you cannot as a student of creativity get critical of someone elses creative view point. He is expressing his viewpoint and I kind of believe what he says. In my understanding his statement “You are God” is quite true. God by the definitions of many is the omnipotent being that created our world and is constantly changing and some say controlling it. Now if I understand the ideas expressed in the film, it says that we control the world we live in. So looking at it that way we are the “God” of our own world as our mind determines our reality.”
I have two comments. First, being creative doesn’t mean I have to accept everyone’s opinions. Second, I don’t believe I am God–the God that created the universe and that sustains all creation. The part of the film I endorse suggests that all of us can be co-creators of our reality–help to shape it but also try to cooperate with “what is trying to happen.” Gee, if I were God, I would probably be doing something different today than what I am doing now–looking at e-mail and writing a blog post.
To me there’s a big difference, and saying “I am God” smacks of hubris. Perhaps we’re just quibbling about semantics, though.
Lol I would have to agree with your last comment about semantics. Good discussion I wait with bated breath for your next post
Hi, my next comment is, I don’t know what “Lol” means!
I believe that the movie shows us that many different roads of life are all around us and that the unexplainable will never be explained. We can try to understand things like a deja vu, or how people say the same thing at the same time, but as the movie puts it, “we will just do deeper in the rabbit’s hole”. It is in my opinion that religion is used to answer some of the main questions that quantum physics presents. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in a higher power, and if its God then its God, but the mysteries on the quantum level are far beyond our thinking. The best way to explain that is when you showed the class that video on string theories(or perhaps it was what the bleep). The man in the film put it quite simple: “a chip couldn’t do calculus just like we will never under stand quantum physics. Our brains are just not advanced enough”. That is why we are always going to end up in the rabbits hole.
Well said, Jason!
My own belief is that quantum physics, string theory, field theory, and “Indra’s net” are all describing the same reality. I also believe that one day all the connections will be fully discovered. For now, I think Penrose has chosen a good word when he speaks of his three “mysteries.” At present it is a mystery how mathematics, science, some sort of ideational realm, and our world are connected. But I also think these “mysteries” are at the heart of creativity.
Sprig Allan
Dr. Bunny
Log 11
4/16/2008
Creativity
Stumble Upon
Stumble Upon is an amazing tool for exploring the internet and finding awesome web sites. I started using stumble the beginning of the semester and absolutely love it! I put in a ton of interest and I have found a ton of awesome stuff. I have found games, resources, awesome images and business resources I never knew existed.
I think however this particular log should have been in the beginning of the semester so that people would of known about these and been forced to use them earlier in the year. I didn’t really use most of the resources but Stumble was an amazing find.
I do think however that you should put your link page on your blog so people can find them as wedCT will be erased in a few days. Also please keep putting stuff up on your blog and I will continue responding! Also read my blog it rules!!!
My understanding of the second part of the bleep movie is that our thoughts, which become things, also affect our bodies. If a person were to get rejected by a publisher several times and choose to associate sending material in with feelings of failure, guilt and worthlessness, those feelings would be deeply felt by the person and would cause them to be in alignment with the bad. In truth, there is a chance that the publisher will accept the person’s work this time around, but the feelings or pain and failure will only cause the person to attract that outcome and bring more feelings of pain. The effects of those feelings would manifest also in the person’s body overtime. Their body may become addicted to the “suffering chemical” and this would certainly bring about tons of stress which leads to severe health problems like a weakened immune system, heart problems, susceptibility to illnesses, etc. on the other hand if a person were to do something fun like ride a roller coaster and view it as a fun activity, their body would respond in the same way and be on a different vibration, this time of happiness. According to Dr. Deepak Chopra, the body also creates a substance called Interluken II which is a powerful chemical that enhances the immune system, fights cancer, improves circulation, and gives the person an overall feeling of peace and energy. A person must learn to manage stress and not associate pain and worthlessness to failed situations, because failures contain the seed of success.