A 2004 hybrid film mixing a scripted story, a photographer played by Marlee Matlin working through a personal crisis, with documentary-style interviews on consciousness and quantum physics, made by three students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment.
Facts
Disputed
Scholarly ReceptionA word-of-mouth commercial success held over in theaters for months despite limited initial release; drew sustained scientific criticism, with Columbia philosopher David Albert saying his interview was edited to misrepresent his views and physicist Peter Woit calling its quantum-physics claims a distortion built to support Ramtha's teaching that thought reshapes reality. 2 Sourced to the subject's own accountReviewed here as a documented split between the film's commercial reception and its scientific and philosophical reception; both sides are attested by named critics and no synthesis resolves them to one verdict. Production
Release YearSourced to the subject's own account DirectorSourced to the subject's own accountWilliam Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark Vicente 2 Country of OriginSourced to the subject's own account FormatSourced to the subject's own account Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterSourced to the subject's own accountRamtha, the entity JZ Knight, founder of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, says she channels; the film's closing credits identify one of its commentators simply as Ramtha, a mystic and master teacher speaking through Knight. No School class content, ritual, or channeling session itself is described beyond the film's own public credits. 2 Learn More
A Film Made by Students of the Teaching It Promotes
What the Bleep Do We Know!? arrived in theaters in 2004 as an unusual hybrid, part scripted drama starring Marlee Matlin as a photographer working through a personal crisis, part documentary interview reel of scientists and philosophers discussing consciousness and quantum mechanics. Its three directors, William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente, were all students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, the Yelm, Washington organization built around JZ Knight's channeling of a being she calls Ramtha. The film's closing credits identify one of its most prominent commentators simply as Ramtha, described there as a thirty five thousand year old mystic and master teacher who speaks through Knight.
The connection produced a backlash once it was widely known. Physicist David Albert of Columbia University said afterward that his interview had been edited to make it appear he endorsed conclusions he does not hold, and mathematician and physicist Peter Woit, reviewing the film on his own blog, called the underlying physics claims a distortion built to support Ramtha's teaching that thought alone can reshape reality. The film was nonetheless a commercial success, held over in theaters for months on word of mouth rather than a wide release, giving Ramtha's School of Enlightenment a far larger audience than its Yelm campus ever reached on its own, though critics and the students who made it disagree sharply about what the audience was actually being taught.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
A film made by three students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and promoting the being its founder says she channels, not an official production of the School itself.
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