Down The Rabbit Hole - Expanded Version Of What The Bleep Do We Know?
Down the Rabbit Hole is an expanded version of the 2004 docudrama What the Bleep Do We Know? It is not a sequel, which proved to be a point of confusion for some people who complained that Down the Rabbit Hole was not substantially new. It is, rather a three-disk update of What the Bleep, with additional interviews, as well as a feature that allows you to watch the scenes in different sequences. I suppose this is consistent with the quantum physics/create your own reality message of the film. Personally, I like the movie quite a bit but am not very interested in this latter gimmick. I simply don't have time to be watching the same film, no matter how fascinating, over and over.
What the Bleep has been both popular and controversial. Some viewers found it confusing. For one thing, it mixes up interviews with a story line, involving Marlee Marlin. The story is basically about how her character, who starts off rather depressed, learns to explore reality more deeply and becomes more curious and finds more balance and peace. I did not have a problem with the mixing of drama and documentary, as it is always obvious which is which. Also, Maitlin plays an interesting character, which makes the rest of the movie easier to digest. She is hearing-impaired and also alienated from the people around her. She is also somewhat abrasive, especially early in the film. The strength of her character is that she comes across like a real person, as opposed to an always-smiling, cultish new-ager.
The quantum physics part of the film is what makes it controversial. That, along with the presence of channeler J.Z. Knight, who allegedly channels Ramtha, a 35,000 spirit from Atlantis. This, of course, makes it easy for skeptics to make fun of the movie in an ad hominem manner (meaning that you attack a person rather than the actual ideas). Some have even called What the Bleep a recruiting film for the Ramtha "cult." Since Ramtha is never mentioned in the film -none of the people interviewed are mentioned by name until the end- I don't see much merit in this.
As for the concepts themselves, these will remain controversial. The film is firmly rooted in the "new age" interpretation of quantum physics. That is, they take what some scientists claim is an unjustified leap. For example, the observer of an experiment in quantum physics has an effect on what is being observed. Does this mean that there is no objective reality and that "we create our own reality?" How you answer this depends on whether you are more inclined towards new age/ mystical thinking or secular rationalism. I don't know nearly enough about physics to be able to say how accurate the science in What the Bleep ultimately is, but it certainly provokes some fascinating questions.
Aside from Knight, some of the interviewees include physicists William Tiller, Amit Goswami, John Hagelin and Fred Alan Wolf. Although Masaru Emoto does not appear in the film, his theories, based on photographing water crystals, have turned out to be some of the more popular and influential aspects of What the Bleep.
I would recommend What the Bleep and Down the Rabbit Hole to anyone interested in exploring different ways of looking at the world. Out of the two, I'd recommend Rabbit Hole simply because it contains more material.
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