Paranormal documentaries

February 15, 2013 3:02 PM

I grew up watching Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of... and later, Ancient Mysteries. I recently watched Chariot of the Gods? on Netflix. I also enjoyed the similarly styled promo videos for the new Bioshock game (part I, part II). What else would I enjoy?

It's hard to pin-point exactly why I find these so compelling. I don't really care if they're particularly persuasive or even wholly fiction, as the Bioshock videos are. I guess I'd say I like the subject matter, the music and voiceover work, and the tingling "but what if?" feel these give me. One more tangentially-related thing I liked was Portal 2, which captured the pseudoscience feel.

posted by 2bucksplus to media & arts (8 answers total)

Ancient Aliens.
posted by bibliogrrl at 3:47 PM on February 15

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World.
posted by holgate at 4:03 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

e.g., in timely fashion, 'The Great Siberian Explosion'.
posted by holgate at 4:05 PM on February 15

The Hellstrom Chronicle

The science is more-or-less accurate, but listen to Dr. Nils Hellstrom give his speech near the beginning of the movie and tell me that's not what you want.
posted by RobotHero at 4:06 PM on February 15

If you are interested in reading this kind of thing too, then definitely check out Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! trilogy and Prometheus Rising.

Illuminatus! is a psychedelic tour of conspiracy theories, woven together into a surprisingly coherent novel.

Prometheus is ostensibly a transhumanist manifesto, but I found RAW's theories of psychology to be fascinating. In particular, RAW advocated believing in 'crazy' things in order to get a better perspective on your own core beliefs. Those paranormal documentaries may be a load of crap, but so is a lot of stuff that we take for granted. Stepping outside of your usual frame of reference can help you evaluate that frame of reference.

There are a bunch of recorded RAW talks on Youtube too.

For a more intellectual viewpoint, check out Umberto Eco's Foucoult's Pendulum. Eco is not as easy to read as RAW, but it is a lot easier to tell when he is being serious and when he isn't. Or is it?
posted by b1tr0t at 4:33 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

I grew up with those, too, and still love stuff like that! There are many Noah's Ark documentaries out there, but one I remember seeing in the theatre at the time is In Search of Noah's Ark.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:35 PM on February 15

Absolutely watch Ancient Aliens, but be wary of the fourth season because it sort of sucks. Also avoid Ancient X-Files because it is dumb as hell despite sharing a name.

You'd probably enjoy Mysterious Universe, too.
posted by griphus at 4:46 PM on February 15

The Pyramid Code is pretty good.
posted by fancyoats at 6:05 PM on February 15