WEIRD OR WHAT - Life After Death

SyFy - Original Air Date: 4/30/13

The first story is of a man who has strange emotions while visiting the battlefield of Antietam (US Civil War).  Later, a palm reader told him he had those feelings because he was the reincarnation of a soldier that died there.  Intriguingly, the man discovers that he resembles General John B. Gordon, and believes there are other parallels in their lives as well.  Dr. Cynthia Meyersburg (Harvard) believes that reincarnation is a phenomena of the way we deal with memories (and create false memories).  Lab tests have shown that past life believers have increased vulnerability to creating false memories.  A hypnotist specializing in Past Life Regression believes reincarnation is true, and he takes people to them hypnotically.  One scientist believes that our memories/souls are contained in quantum level energy and can return into a human embryo.  But of all these stories, only Dr. Meyersburg's hypothesis seems testable.

In 1993 researchers in Scole, England, held a series of seances to "prove" there is life after death.  The so-called "Scole Experiment" participants witnessed events the show describes as "baffling to science" and held in an "impenetrable" cellar room.  The experimenters claimed to see spirit lights, hear spirit voices, and be "touched" by spirit people.  (Where's the video?)  There were materialization of things falling out of the air, and spirit photographs "appeared" on a roll of film in a security box.  (Me, I'd be more impressed with IR video of these supposed events).  Supposedly the resulting photos show the afterlife -- and a mysterious "woman."  (Are you crying "Bullshit!" yet?  I am.)  Scientist Brian Dunning thinks the events of Scole are merely an illusion, based on a series of 200-year old magic tricks -- in essence  performance art.  Naturally, all this took place in the pitch dark.

Re-creating the seance with a professional magician and an IR camera easily fools the test subjects.  As Dunning points out, at Scole "no controls were applied."  (Too bad Houdini isn't still around debunking this shit.)  A photographic expert believes most of the effects can be explained by developing process distortion.  He also believes the faces are from a previous exposure of the film, which was then wound back and represented as "new."

A Haitian man dies of a mysterious illness, only to return 18 years later.  Was he a zombie? Scientists theorize that certain injuries or illnesses to the brain might give a zombie-like demeanor.  Puffer fish toxin can also make people appear dead, only to be "revived" later.  Meanwhile, the show looks at a cryogenic facility, and ponders whether it can really work, to be frozen and then revived later.

"Is life after death really life at all?" Shatner ponders, wondering about zombies and frozen people.  The show can't say for sure, but at least there's some science here -- and pretty good science at that -- along with the usual supernatural hokum.

WEIRD OF WHAT: Alien Encounters

SyFy - Original Air Date: 4/30/13

This new series features William (Star Trek, Boston Legal) Shatner as the host looking into strange phenomena.  This episode starts with cattle mutilations, and people worrying that it's being done by aliens.  Expert researchers, though, have shown that such effects occur by natural processes -- including carrion-eating flies.  Rather than (sensibly) stopping there, the show then presents a man who believes the cows are being mutilated in a government conspiracy to cover up (or control) mad cow disease, and another who actually believes aliens are taking them.

Next up: Alien abductions, people who believe they are being taken by aliens (often in the middle of the night) for experiments.  But Dr. Susan Clancy believes that these episodes are easily explained by backfiring sleep paralysis (which affects 1 in 5 Americans), linked to dream-fantasies when the brain wakes up before the body.  Essentially, the body is still dreaming while the brain believes itself to be awake; dreams and waking overlap.  Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Persinger believes the phenomenon can be explained by the brain reacting to electromagnetic pulses (from natural and other sources), and experiments with a special helmet he's designed seem to produce the same results.  Despite all this, though, a researcher at Temple University believes that so many people believe they've been abducted, that it must be real.  (A logical fallacy  BTW.)  He also believes that aliens are breeding alien-human hybrids from these experiments.  (Yeah, right.)

Finally, the show looks at the "Wow!" signal where, once several decades ago, a radio telescope seemed to pick up an alien transmission from outer space -- but only once.  Two theories explain this: one is that the instrument could have picked up a "sideways" signal from Earth (or a satellite passing overhead -- which the radio-telescope team denies).  The second is that it was a "burp" (radio energy burst) from a black hole.

I hadn't intended to do a full review of this show (or series), but the combination of irrational theories and rational explanations made it intriguing, and a cut above the other supernatural "reality" shows on SyFy and other channels.  This, at least, explains the rational side.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Heart of Squatchness

Animal Planet - Original Air Date 3/31/2013

The team goes to Vietnam to look for small squatches (5'-7' tall) and do their usual routine - though they skip the bad "real" video and go straight to local experts.  Then they do night investigations, a local "town hall" meeting, and investigate stories -- as usual.  Cliff does a camp out, and they find nothing in their second night investigation.

And, since this seems to be either a season break, or a mid-season break, I have to wonder whether it's worthwhile to continue these reviews.  After all, the videos (and such) they've been investigating have gotten steadily more bogus looking, and the show follows the same formula every week -- and like the Ghost Hunters, they never actually find anything.

So, while I like the crew, especially Ranae, I'm not sure this is worth my while to write about, or your time to read.  Maybe, if they have a great breakthrough, I'll review it.  Until then, just figure it's "more of the same."

FINDING BIGFOOT: Untold Stories: Behind the Squatch

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 3/31/2013

Once again, Keith Hoffman -- FB's Executive Producer -- rounds up the cast for interviews and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at Finding Bigfoot.  Asked about the most valuable asset each of them brings to the team, Matt says "experience," Ranae says "counterbalance" (skepticism), Bobo says "man of the people," Cliff says "data analysis."  They travel to a town hall meeting, so Keith can see the process first-hand.  They then show how they block out a witness interview in the woods for an episode.  Then they move to showing how they film night investigations -- IR cameras, etc.  They then visit Bobo at his home "bachelor pad" in Humboldt County, CA.  They then go crabbing, which was Bobo's previous job (before becoming a TV bigfoot hunter).  Keith may be the worst crabber ever.  (City kids!)  A nice change-of-pace, this is a good show and features a lot of information about how they make the series.

FINDING BIGFOOT:

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 3/24/2013

The team travels to southern Illinois to check out ongoing local reports of bigfoots in the Land of Lincoln.  They hook up with Stan Courtney, a bigfoot audio specialist -- whom Cliff describes as a leader in his field (and a model scientist).  Listening to the recordings, the group hears a lot of coyotes, and Ranae doesn't hear anything that she doesn't think are local animals: coyotes, dogs, cows.  Stan believes that some of the sounds are bigfoots trying to imitate other animasl; Ranae and Bobo are skeptical.  (It seems like little evidence for a microphone running 24/7.)  The show then settles into its normal format: night investigation, camp out (Ranae), town hall meeting, witness interviews, and final night investigation.

Ranae ends up camping out in the woods near a (haunted) cemetery near where witnesses thought a tree had been snapped by a bigfoot.  In the morning, she looks at the snapped tree, and concludes that the break looks natural.  She then uses a glider to scout the countryside to try and find the best bigfoot habitat in the area.  To lure the bigfoots out in the team's second night investigation, Cliff plays electric guitar.  (Really?  Is this science?  They're doing more of this stuff lately, and I have to ask: Would this work for luring out gorillas?)  They hear knocks, which to some of the team always means sasquatch are near by.  But to me, it means another show with no finding of bigfoot.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Virgin Sasquatch

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 3/17/2013

The team goes to small-town Oregon to look into a recent casting of over 100 bigfoot footprints.  Cliff was one of the investigators casting these prints near Cottage Grove, where sightings date back to the '70s.  The prints were discovered by dog walkers on the muddy shoreline of a drained reservoir, 122 tracks total.  Ranae wants to make sure they weren't hoaxed, perhaps placed deliberately for hikers to find.  Though she trusts Cliff's work, she thinks the find is awfully convenient.  Matt is frustrated by her skepticism.  Night investigation, town hall, camp out (Bobo), interviews, and final night investigation follow -- like clockwork.  Bobo's solo investigation is enhanced by his dog "Monkey," a veteran squatch hunter.

Later, they go into what they hope is "virgin squatch" territory -- that is, a place where bigfoots won't have heard hunters trying to lure them in before.  I'm amazed by the cast's ability to talk bout "virgin bigfoots" with a straight face, though at one point it looks as though Cliff may crack up.  In the final investigation, Cliff sets up in the top of a tree to gain a better vantage point.  (Sadly, much of the forest has been clearcut.)  But, aside from the usual dubious "wood knocks," the investigation turns up little.  Really, they might have been better off just studying Cliff's plaster casts.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Bigfoot Loves a Barbecue

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 3/10/2013

The crew goes to Connecticut to check out a bigfoot film made by a mother while watching her children.  A recreation with Bobo doesn't convince Ranae that it's not a bear, though she agrees it's not a person.  (A stabilized version of this video would really help, FB editors!)  Night investigation, camp out (Cliff), town hall, more witnesses, and final night investigation follow (as usual).  While camping, Cliff runs into a bear -- and we hear it roar, though the camera can't catch it as it retreats into the woods.  (Validating Ranae's supposition?)  After talking to some dodgy witnesses (some of whom the team doesn't believe), they decide to hold a cookout in the woods to try to lure in sasquatch.  But nothing shows; skunked again!