From Amanda in What the Bleep do We Know, we can learn the dangers of transference on your future and how to treat your body in the present.

Amanda is a single, divorced woman working in Washington D.C. as a photographer. She is unable to see the truth in the present because she has predispositions about what is happening or what will happen based on her past. This includes her flashbacks to her failed marriage with a cheating husband, especially to their wedding day, as she photographs a Polish wedding. Then later at the reception, she sees a groomsman and a bridesmaid getting a little frisky, but assumes that it is the groom because that is what happened to her marriage. This transference also goes deeper than weddings and cheating husbands. Amanda has trouble trusting all men because she sees them as horrible human beings who will only hurt her because that is what she experienced in her life. Her past haunts her so much, that Amanda has trouble even setting foot in a church because she associates something intrinsically good (church and faith) with something intrinsically evil (adultery). Amanda continued to let her troubled past into her present through much of the movie, and it is only through the letting go of that past that Amanda will be able to see the reality and truth in her present.

Amanda gets so upset because of what is going on in her life with her troubled past and her resulting clouded present, that she harms her body in her attempt to find peace in herself. Whenever Amanda was in a social situation, or even by herself at times, she would get so caught up in everything going on around her and all of the memories of her past that were being procured, that she would have panic attacks. These became so bad that she was taking anxiety pills to offset the effects. These attacks were the result of Amanda trying to suppress the past and concentrate on the present, but she was not able to do this because deep down she was still holding on to the past. Amanda did find a temporary escape at the wedding, where she did what felt good: drinking, partying, and dancing. The next day, she woke up in her apartment on the couch hung-over and half-naked. She moved to the bathroom where she became verbally, and to some extent physically, abusive to herself. Amanda’s mind then shifted to images seen earlier in the subway station of water crystals after writing nice things on them and mean things on them. She reconsidered what she had just said and decided to be kind to herself instead of abusive. She did this by drawing hearts and other designs on herself and finally letting go of all that had built up inside of her from her past. She then was able to see reality and live a fuller, happier, more real life.


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