The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena

This documentary feature hosted by Raymond Burr is another in a series of movie mysteries about the strange and the unknown, and it's better than you'd least expect. What follows is a detailed examination of psychology through some uncommon events portrayed here. It'll be interesting for a few lazy school kids who can't turn in science reports on time. As the title says, it's amazing how man explores a vast perception of psychic abilities under a series of demonstrations including telepathy, astral projections, and sayonces. It's fun in an entertaining way, and you even have the opportunity to test yourself of any telepathic senses under the care of a doctor (Does this mean audience participation?). The acting footage that recreates uncommon happenings is fairly amusing, yet peculiar enough to make any normal movie look like a sleazy prime-time TV show. Since this was made by the once-proud Sunn Classics, you can easily sit through this one, but always remember that movies are just plain and simple fantasies that trick reality. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to find a few ghosts lurking around when I'm asleep!

.....then by all means let me know directly at the above e-mail address so that I may arrange for a copy for you. Far and away the best of the Sunn Classics docudramas, this eerily effective retrospective of thoroughly intriguing, allegedly actual accounts of things that went bump in the night (and day) benefits greatly from the commanding presence of host Raymond Burr. Chilling reenactments of bizarre, unexplained incidents (complete with scary electronic music) supplement fascinating commentary by people somehow linked to whatever phenomena, with actual eerie archival footage of some (sur)real McCoys in action to cement one's interest! Included are spine-tingling predictions of Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon; ghostly manifestations recorded in photographs (extremely creepy stuff); a post-mortem Sharon Tate's voice allegedly captured on tape (ditto); Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell's ESP expertise and claims of having telepathically contacted the earth from the moon; telekinetic dice rolling; various sixth-sense experiences; Ted Serios, whose thoughts can apparently be photographed; a once-clinically-dead man describing his experience; the psychic investigator/crimebuster who helped capture the Boston Strangler and the Mansons; the practice of astral projection; dramatizations of an unhappy wife's stress producing violent telekinesis and that of an unseen monster in a cellar, etc. etc.

Produced during a resurgence of interest in psychic phenomena in the mid to late 1970s, Amazing World covers quite a few topics, from telepathy and astral projection to ghosts and haunted houses. Raymond Burr is excellent as the host and narrator, and while the recreation actors are not Oscar material they do a fairly good job with the roles given to them. Burr himself is what makes this documentary work; someone with less stature or experience may have made this film seem less serious and more of a tabloid type movie. The scenes recreating the reports of ghosts may or may not frighten the viewer, but are quite well done nonetheless. Definitely well made, and much better than many other documentaries from the same era.