Have you ever studied quantum physics in a laboratory setting? Me neither. But apparently a lot of folks all over the U.S. are doing what appears to be the next best thing…watching the documentary apply named "What the Bleep Do We Know".

The controversial film, directed by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse, discusses some basic principles of quantum physics and then tries to somehow relate them to human consciousness and the nature of reality in general. Despite some extremely cheesy and low-budget CGI special effects as well as an extremely juvenile plot line, the film somehow succeeds at entertaining and inspiring most that view it, and has therefore achieved an unexpected level of success in terms of video distribution.

Unfortunately, many of the basic tenets that the movie stands on have little or no scientific merit, but this lack of merit does not prevent the filmmakers from presenting these tenets as undisputed fact. The way in which they go about it is simple but ingenious. They basically line up nearly a dozen or so "scientist" types that rattle on about quantum theory, neurology, and other very high brow type subjects. Upon further review, however, although many of the "scientists" on the panel have Ph.D.s only two of the panelists are academically well regarded physicists, one of which stopped publishing scientific papers in 1995 in order to pursue a cult (we'll get back to that later) and another, Prof. David Albert of Columbia University, has repeatedly slammed the filmmakers for misrepresenting his statements in the film (they used less than scrupulous editing techniques to achieve this).

Now back to the cult topic. One of the main panelists in this film is none other than JZ Knight. Who the hell is JZ Knight you ask? Well she is a woman that performs new age pseudo-psychological seminars all over the world and believes that she is channeling 35,000-year-old being named "Ramtha". It turns out that many of her fellow panelists subscribe to her belief and are members of her quasi-religious organization.

Needless to say 99.9% of all existing physicists that inhabit the earth, including Prof. Albert, dismiss virtually all of the claims made in this film, and the film itself never actually bothers to backup up its assertions with hard data. Still, the movie is surprisingly fun to watch, and the basic quantum principles that are mentioned are legitimate. The problem arises when the "scientists" in the film try to apply these basic quantum theories (all quantum physics is based on mathematical theory) to other more complex phenomenon like consciousness, physiology, and the nature of physical reality.

All I can tell you is to give the movie a shot and decide for yourself whether it has merit or not. If nothing else, you should derive enjoyment from the hilariously cheesy graphics, dialogue and plot line.