In 2004 I spent some time with a friend in Minneapolis / St Paul, Minnesota. Damn it was cold!
When there I went to the cinema one night on a friend’s recommendation to see a movie called ‘What The Bleep?’, I watched the movie and came away going WTF? Exactly as the movie intended.
Scroll forward to the last couple of years. There have been a number of movies that I have come 
back to during my life and this is one of them. There are lots of reasons for that, but I think it is mostly because it asks the viewer to consider the great questions and consider the crispy bits at the edges of our understanding.
There is a dramatic illustration throughout it with Deaf actress Marlee Matlin. Part of the film is portrayed in cartoon form but for me the real core of the movie is the body of interviews that are interspersed throughout the movie.
The participants discuss Consciousness, Quantum Physics (oooh), Addiction, Love, God and more they talk about particles and waves, neuro chemicals and basketballs. The contributors are physicists, engineers, mystics, engineers, doctors, biologists, theologians but the whole thing isn’t pitched in a highbrow manner. It asks the questions through offering a variety of opinions and perspectives. For sure there are bits of it that sail way over my head as I suspect there will be for most of us but on the whole I find it fascinating.
A couple of years ago I bought the box set of 5 DVDs. In the set was the movie I saw in the cinema on one DVD, an extended version of the movie on two other DVDS and then two more DVDs containing the interviews.
There has been criticism of course as you can imagine, every religion pretty much has had a pop at it, it’s apparently linked to cults and all kinds of other nonsense. It challenges many tenets of organised religions around the world, or does it? Is the movie about the content, the words spoken by the participants? I suspect not.
I suspect that the movie is about causing the viewer to consider many things that we take for granted, to ask why. Although we may or may not buy into with the explanations offered, we engage in the process of consideration of the wide ranging topics and generate our own thoughts. At least that’s its effect on me and I love it. Thought provoking indeed
The fourteen top scientists and mystics interviewed in documentary style serve as a modern day Greek Chorus. In an artful filmic dance, their ideas are woven together as a tapestry of truth. The thoughts and words of one member of the chorus blend into those of the next, adding further emphasis to the film’s underlying concept of the interconnectedness of all things. The chorus members act as hosts who live outside of the story, and from this Olympian view, comment on the actions of the characters below. They are also there to introduce the Great Questions framed by both science and religion, which divides the film into a series of acts. Through the course of the film, the distinction between science and religion becomes increasingly blurred, since we realize that, in essence, both science and religion describe the same phenomena. Extracted From Here
I’ve loaned that set out several times over the years and it went missing recently. It was returned to me but I have lent it out again or lost it. Anyway, I went to find it on Amazon to buy a new copy over the weekend and Lo & Behold, it was only £7.95 for the 5DVD set!
I’m not sure how long this will stay the price but that’s what it is today! The link below will give the most recent price. Just so you know, If you purchase I’ll make 5% I think
I bought 2 – one for me and one for lending out 
The Package arrived this morning – hence the blog post!
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