Something Unknown

Words that I never thought that I’d see in this order “The Buddhist Broadcasting Corporation in association with Paul Verhoven”. Yes Paul Verhoven, the man that bought us Robocop, Starship Troopers and Showgirls.  In association with Buddhists is helping to make films about psychic phenomena.

Now I admit to being skeptical however I like to be open minded and I find it hard to identify with people who say, “well there’s nothing to it and I’m not going to look at the evidence because I know there’s nothing to it”. If someone claims that they have evidence that psychic phenomena is real then I want to see it, especially when there’s the promise of rigorous scientific evidence to back it up. And so it was with Something Unknown a documentary that promises new evidence that will blow your mind.

Well my mind was nearly blown by the menu screen of the DVD which states “Something Unknown is doing we don’t know what” and to be frank it really sums up the who documentary, many words, little information, no facts.

It starts with Dutch born documentarian deciding that there is just too much synchronicity in her life between that and not knowing how magnets work she decides to go to California to speak to some well respected scientists about psychic ability to see if there’s anything to it.

She then does nothing of the sort and goes and talks to anyone she could find who would say that it’s real.  The Scientists that are presented to you are presented as misunderstood mainstream scientists; the fact is that if you do any research you’ll quickly discover that all of them are considered fringe scientists whose findings are contentious at best.  The fact is that if PSI exists then its effect is so small that it is effectively useless except apparently against the psychics natural enemy, the spoon. Many spoons are bent in this Doco although it has to be said that many of them look like they are being bent with brute force.

You know what’s the best thing about a mixed assortment? The nuts.  And boy does this documentary have nuts.  Edgar Mitchell was an Astronaut, he was was the sixth person to walk on the moon and he believes in PSI.  That’s fine as an Astronaut he also holds many degrees and was highly respected, that is untill he bought a giant 50% more free pack of crazy and he now believes in UFO’s, Aliens, Psychic phenomena, Conspiracy theories, remote healing and Roswell. Now I’m not saying that none of these things can’t be true but that all of them could be true stretches a long bow. When we get to the section on Psychic Healing and “John of God” who has consistently shown to be a fraud I’m basically done.

This is a contentious issue and much like “The Secret” or “What the Bleep do we know” there is not even lip service to the idea that there are respected scientists that have studies these very issues and come up with very different results. If you believe this documentary, there aren’t two sides to the issue.

The most damning thing about this documentary is the Psychic Detective.  I don’t know if there is telepathy? I don’t know if pets can predict when I’m going to die? I don’t know if my body knows if I’m about to see an erotic image? I don’t know that there’s not a morphic field that connects us all. But I do know that the FBI categorically states that no psychic detective has ever been effective in helping solve a case or significantly contributed to solving a crime in the USA and to me that weakens the already weak position of this documentary. Not recommended.

Video Quality:  In my many letters home, I do not mention the video quality of this DVD.

Audio Quality:  Two ears, two channels...what are you complaining about?

Special features:  It’s somewhat of a bonus that the producers of this DVD did not include any extra material.