When I was 19 0r 20 I used to love this documentary. Since then I've
learned more about physics and the mechanics of the universe, and
this expanded understanding has only led to a greater appreciation of
this film.
For Christmas a few years ago I was given the expanded version of
this film where a lot of the experiments which led to a better
understanding of the fundamental principles espoused in this film are
explained in greater depth.
Imagine you are a scientist and you put on a white lab coat and some
smart looking glasses and dress in such a way to look like a
scientist who commands respect. And then you invite other people to
your fancy looking laboratory. These people are your unwitting test
subjects. Nice people. Maybe a bit gullible... not horribly stupid.
And you as a scientist with your fancy lab coat and your lovely
laboratory seem awfully impressive and credible to these nice test
subjects. You tell these people that you are testing something like
the magnitude of brainwaves. But, make it sound official. Make it
sound good and scientific. Make it sound convincing. Have you got
them eating out of your hand yet? Have you practiced your
self-assured “I'm a very successful scientist” smile. Perfect.
You look charming and smart. I think the test subjects are buying it.
So, tell them the machine you have on the desk is a way of gauging
the intensity and magnitude of brainwaves. And tell them the machine
will on its own randomly produce ones and zeros in about a
fifty:fifty ratio. Tell them to pick either ones or zeros and then
focus their thoughts on making the machine produce more ones or
zeros. For example, dear test subject, if you focus your mind very
hard on making it produce more ones, it will produce more ones. What
your test subjects don't know is the machine is just a random number
generator which is supposed to produce roughly an equal number of
ones & zeros. Nothing beyond that. But because your test subjects
believed you, they focused on creating more ones. And the machine
started producing more ones. And when the statistical evidence was
analyzed at some specific rate of significance, the data was
conclusive... that their thoughts must have played some role.
Thoughts produced some effect on the outcome of a machine's
supposedly random number generation.
What are the implications of such an experiment? They are pretty
fucking cool.
That's just a taste of what is being studied and considered. Just a
little, tiny droplet in the ocean..... Fun stuff to think about.
So here is a link to watch the film free on hulu. As always, I don't
know how long the link will work. Reality is constantly in flux. If
the link stops working, maybe google it? Here is the link...
Life is your garden. Dig it.
Wishing you everything that is wonderful on this beautiful, crazy
collection of particles that is floating in this amazing universe.
