What the bleep?! Exploration of science, spirituality becomes surprise art house hit

``What the Bleep Do We Know?'' a quirky film by a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur that links quantum physics with the teachings of a Washington state guru -- who channels a 35,000-year-old warrior -- is breaking attendance records at art houses across the country.

A word-of-mouth campaign, undeterred by reviews skeptical of the film's New Age underpinnings and leaps of scientific faith, has helped it become one of the top-grossing independent films in recent years, behind ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' and ``Super Size Me.''

Filmmakers are already capitalizing on interest by readying a picture book for the holidays.

``What the Bleep,'' which recently opened at the Camera 7 in Campbell after an unprecedented three-month holdover in San Jose, weaves cartoon illustrations through interviews with Ivy League scientists and spiritual philosophers to suggests a new spirituality for the 21st century.

Its everyday relevance plays out through the soap opera story of Amanda, a photographer and divorcée (played by Marlee Matlin) who is unhappy with just about everything.

But it's the film's premise -- that we, not a separate, judging God, create reality -- that's spinning out the strongest reverberations.

Even mainstream Christians e-mailed their compliments, said producer William Arntz. ``We puzzled over that,'' he said. The 54-year-old former software engineer funded the film with some of the millions he made selling his company, AutoSys, during the dot-com boom.

``You look at the Hubble telescope and the pictures of the universe are so mind-boggling. To think that one little planet in the whole Milky Way or one group of people has the whole franchise to heaven starts looking like the Middle Ages when the Earth was the center of the universe,'' said Arntz, who was raised a Lutheran and dabbled in Buddhism while living in San Francisco and commuting to San Jose.

``I think a lot of people have realized that's an idea that is really outdated.''

Perhaps the warrior Ramtha conveys the new concept best: ``There is no such thing as good or bad; there is no God waiting to punish you. Everyone is gods.''

Frances Damore, a Roman Catholic who did not like the focus on Jesus' death and torture in Mel Gibson's ``The Passion of the Christ,'' found the views in ``What the Bleep'' more in line with her own.

``The way they explain God in this movie is the way I've been trying to describe for a long time,'' said the 45-year-old Campbell resident.

Arntz and the film's two other producers are unabashed members of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, founded by JZ Knight, a deep-voiced Elke Sommers look-alike who appears in the film. A native of Roswell, N.M., who reportedly experienced psychic phenomena at an early age, she says she was visited in 1977 by Ramtha, an ancient warrior from Atlantis who proposed channeling his message through her, according to the University of Virginia's Religious Movements Homepage Project.

Knight, identified as herself -- not Ramtha -- in the film, reached her peak of popularity in the '80s with Shirley MacLaine among her followers and a spot on ``The Merv Griffin Show'' to help spread the word. Fame was not without its drawbacks: She was also accused of ``practicing'' the Ramtha personality by a former business manager and an ex-husband.

Arntz admits the intent of ``What the Bleep'' was to hit hard on what he called an ``old way of thinking'' -- God as a separate being from humanity that must be cultivated, humored and obeyed.

``For me personally, that's what kept me away from anything spiritual for 30 years of my life,'' he says.

The film takes us along with Amanda as she learns that matter, as shown by quantum physics, is not static but a continuum of possibilities. She comes to see that she can choose among them, shifting her brain chemistry from habitual pathways -- and emotions.

Understanding dawns, and after a wedding party like no other in film history -- imagine animated Red Hots candies come to life as lust-filled frat boys -- she undergoes a radical change.

Some viewers have also found the film transformative.

Susie Goyins, a San Jose property manager who has been seeking help at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla for a longstanding case of chronic fatigue, went to court the day after seeing the film to finally get rid of her ex-husband's name. She also changed her church.

``The movie made me feel like I got it as far as understanding some of the things that have been going on with me,'' said Goyins, 51. ``There is energy attached to everything. If we've known illness or trauma for a long time, those channels stay open, rather than those for joy and happiness.''

Goyins says she can't wait to buy the film on DVD.

That may be later rather than sooner. Distributors are planning on another six months for the film, now in 130 theaters. It's already been running about 20 weeks, three times as long as most independent films.