Jonathan Burton 9-16-05

Mr. Sciuto What the Bleep Paper

Throughout the movie, we watch as Amanda has a learning experience and eventually comes to realize how she can affect her life so not all of life’s negativities no longer overwhelm her. The film introduces Amanda to us as a deaf photographer with an anxiety problem. She struggles in her daily life to find purpose and constantly barraged with circumstances that cause her to harbor a pessimistic outlook on the world. Her husband cheated on her, her work frustrates her, and each time something bad happens to her she wrestles with the questions “Why are these things happening to me? Isn’t there anything I can do to prevent them and therefore improve my life?” Everyone at one time or another asks themselves these same questions.

Then her life begins a turn for the better when she encounters a series of uplifting events, the first of which is a conversation with a little boy on a basketball court. She is exposed to the ideas that the universe is mostly empty space and that by superposition things can be in two places at once. At first Amanda is hesitant, as would be anyone else, but slowly she begins to turn the new information over in her mind and embarks on her journey towards the truth. Like Amanda, we need to recognize new information as an opportunity to move closer towards the great truths in life.

The next event is the most influential moment that Amanda experiences. As she is waiting for the subway, she comes across a Japanese scientist’s experiment on thoughts and water. She learns that water is the most receptive element and it even responds to the mind. This is important because later when she returns home from the wedding at which she thoroughly enjoyed herself she goes into the bathroom for a harsh experience. As she looks at herself in the mirror, she begins to see herself heavier and uglier than she truly is. She begins saying hateful things to herself and hurting herself by breaking the mirror. At the lowest point in her hysteria, she remembers the Japanese water experiment and the effects that thoughts and energy have on the water. His attitude shifts almost immediately to a significantly happier one and she begins laughing and smile while she draws hearts on herself. With new ideas and thoughts of love flowing through her, she emerges herself into a bath and gets lost in an indulging period of relaxation after which she gains an optimistic and curious outlook on the world. The importance of the powers of the mind rescued Amanda from an ugly state of mind that would have certainly brought about a miserable state of life had it been adopted. If we ourselves can steadily send loving messages and feelings to our mind and body then the beauty of the world will reveal itself more and more to our eyesight. The application of optimism to one’s life brings feelings of self-appreciation and an acceptance to the imperfect world while simultaneously supplying the courage and expertise to improve it for oneself.

Just Plato’s prisoner that was dragged from the cave and saw the world as it truly is, Amanda, through her exposure to different ways of thinking about reality, was able to see the world in a different light and realize that she is more in control of her life and future than she thought. Amanda’s experience acts as an outline to our own futures. If we can learn by her change of mind and heart and by her desire to acquire more knowledge about how the world works then we will be able to make the most out of our lives and play a more significant role in our destiny than we think.