Search - Mysteries, Magic & Miracles: Season 1 on DVD

Okay for the money

J. A. Savoye | USA | 06/06/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As far as I can tell, this series apparently ran on the Sci-Fi channel (1994-1995), although it may have still been aired as late as 1998. There seem to be a total of 52 episodes for the full run -- and I hope someone will correct me if I am mistaken. Some of the later segments appear to have been repackaged in other forms for DVD, but this was the first time I had seem most of these. The series has the same general feel as "Sightings," but almost none of the topics are dealt with in more than superficial detail, and the stories are not as slickly produced. The set has been put together rather sloppily, with the DVDs externally labeled incorrectly. (Discs I and II actually contain 8 episodes on each, and Disc III contains 9 episodes.) Also, the sequence of segments within each episode do not always match the menus, and a few of the titles are incorrectly noted. There are also a few intermittent image and audio anomalies. If there is a release of Season II, I hope it is produced with greater care. Not terribly impressive, but light fun -- the best segments being those related to ghosts and hauntings. (The same people seem to have been behind the much better Ghost Stories series.) I love this stuff as a record of modern folklore, but someone who has not seen as many things on these subjects, or is more inclined to believe in it as true, might find it more enjoyable. (Without the errors, I might have given it 3 stars.)

Total Running time: 550 minutes (22 minutes for each episode)

Since there are errors in the DVD information, and no inserts are provided, here is a detailed breakdown of the contents:

DVD 01:

o Episode 01: UFOs; briefly: The Akashic Records (Edgar Casey and records kept in the spirit world); Qi Gong (Chinese Healing); Witches & Witchcraft; briefly: The Evil Eye

o Episode 02: The Hereafter (Life after Death); Natural Disasters (Are They Increasing?); Armageddon

o Episode 03: Angel on My Shoulder; briefly: The Loch Ness Monster Hoax Photograph; Legend of Moody's Light; briefly: The Urantia Book; From the Other Side (Channeling Spirits)

o Episode 04: Special Edition - Roswell

o Episode 05: Shadows of Chicago (Bachelor's Grove Cemetery; Resurrection Cemetery and "Resurrection Mary"; Mount Carmel Cemetery and the ghost of Julia Buccola Petta; a haunted restaurant); Origins of the Universe; briefly: The Flat Earth Theory; Many Lives - One Person (Reincarnation and Therapy)

o Episode 06: Math & Mysticism (Visual Music, a combination of Music and Math); briefly: Crop Circles; Ghosts Behind Bars (State Penitentiary, Rawling, WY, haunted by murders, a cannibal, and even a black cat); The Human Rainbow (Auras); briefly: Chakaras

o Episode 07: Climbing to the Top ("Hollywood" sign and Peg Entwistle); The Mansion Mystery (Nicky Hilton); briefly: Apport; A Cut of the Deck (Tarot Cards); A Vision of Mary; briefly: Stigmata

o Episode 08: Haunted Hollywood (Roosevelt Hotel: Montgomery Clift and room 928; Clifton Webb; The Pines, and a ghostly party); briefly: E. A. Poe's house in Baltimore, MD); Mushroom or Miracle? (Kombucha mushroom); Star Guidance; briefly: 13

Running time: 176 minutes (22 minutes for each episode)

DVD 02:

o Episode 09: Magic on Wheels (driving a car blind-folded); Star-struck Spirits (ghost on a set; Tom Mix, Marion Davies); My Favorite Pleiadian (human and alien hybrids); briefly: SETI

o Episode 10: A Perfect Day with a Vampire (self-described vampire Catarina Coffin); briefly: garlic; ET's Day On Earth (UFOs, videotaping Rods, etc.); The Future is Ours (Nostrodamus); briefly: Nostrodamus and O. J. Simpson

o Episode 11: Life on Mars (the "Face" and other "structures" on Mars); The Psychic Detective (Donielle Patton, Psychic Advisor); The Devil's Playground (the Devil as a genuine entity)

o Episode 12: Wall of Voodoo; ET Artists (Carlos Macias and Steve Neill); Messages in the Grain (Crop Circles)

o Episode 13: Creating the Illusion (Franz Harary, Illusionist); briefly: Harry Houdini and Mediums; On Pins and Needles (Acupuncture); Looking for Love (Psychic book stores, crystals, oils, candles, tarot cards, instructional videos); briefly: Recipe for Health (Chinese herbs, seahorse and sea-dragon soup)

o Episode 14: Skeptic Society (Michael Sherman); Interspecies Communication (Lydia Hiby, Animal Psychic; Stacy Patterson, Falconer; Carol Gurney, Interspecies Communicator); Harmonizing with Feng Shui (Traditional and Transcendental Feng Shui; I Ching); briefly: Universal Life Force

o Episode 15: Reaching the World Beyond (séance, with medium Mark Edward and clairvoyant Rose Clifford); briefly: Ouija boards; Dream Healers (interpreting and actualizing dreams, with Dr. Arthur Bernard, Psychologist); briefly: sleep; Spirit Investigators (Harry Shepherd)

o Episode 16: The Magic of Castles; Galactic Humans (Galactic Federation); Magical Love (aphrodisiacs and love potions)

Running time: 176 minutes (22 minutes for each episode)

DVD 03:

o Episode 17: Stargazing; Walk on Fire; Sex, Scandal, Death and Hollywood (Valentino's grave; William Randolph Hearst and Chateau Elysee; Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Virginia Rappe; George Reeves, Superman); briefly: Bela Lugosi

o Episode 18: Good Vibrations(Psychometry); briefly: Time Pieces (a clock or watch stopping at the time of the owner's death); Dolphins, the Messengers (Dolphins and UFOs); Monument to a Woman's Fears (Winchester House); briefly: more on Natural Disasters

o Episode 19: Astral Projection; briefly: Apport (solid objects that appear out of thin air); Crystal Healing; briefly: more on a Vision of Mary; Scents of Smell (Aromatherapy)

o Episode 20: Sweet Adelaida - A Ghost Story; briefly: more on Past Lives; Soul Travels (spirit guides and Shamanic journeys); briefly: sacred smoking pipes; Beating the Odds (horses and vaulting as a medical treatment)

o Episode 21: Yoga: Art and Medicine; briefly: more on the Kombucha mushroom; Sedona: Psychic Hot Spot; briefly: the Bermuda Triangle

o Episode 22: Dead Sea Scrolls; Human Hibernation (Cryonics); The Seven Cities of Gold (Eldorado or UFOs?)

o Episode 23: Alien Abduction; briefly: more on ET Artists; Real Life Poltergeist (Black Hope Cemetery); Lost and Found (Pompeii); briefly: The Bog Man

o Episode 24: Red Feather (Spirit of a Navaho maiden); Railroad Spirits; The Roots of Our Past (Ancient North Americans); briefly: The Mound Builders

o Episode 25: Chessie; briefly: more on Qi Gong; Werewolves; briefly: Wolf Boy; Writhing Rituals (snakes and religion)

Running time: 198 minutes (22 minutes for each episode)
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