The Top 5 Beyond the Mainstream Science Documentaries

We present our top 5 science documentaries from beyond the mainstream:

1. Man’s Right To Know – Wilhelm Reich & Orgone Energy

Man’s Right to Know is a 30 minute documentary telling the story of Wilhelm Reich’s life and his discoveries. Reich (24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian psychoanalyst who is probably most known for his “discovery” of orgone energy, a life force permeating everything which has electromagnetic properties. Although mainstream science has not fully approved this concept, we know that this idea exists in many cultures. In Japan it is called Ki, in China, it is known as Chi and in India, it was named Prana. Reich was also known for his orgone accumulator, a device that can supposedly heal various afflictions; he also experimented with weather manipulation.

Reich’s life ended quite dramatically, he was thrown into jail as the American Food and Drug Administration obtained an injunction purporting that his work was a fraud. Over six tons of his publications were burned and Reich died of a heart attack in jail.

2. Where Science And Buddhism Meet

This short documentary explains how some classic Buddhist ideas correlate with certain scientific concepts. The author proposes that key Buddhist teachings are just other ways of understanding reality. Some of the topics mentioned in this film include the quantum field, the fabric of the cosmos, the emptiness of atoms, etc.

3. The Global Brain – Peter Russell

In this fascinating video, based on a live audio-visual presentation from 1983, Peter Russell explores the idea that Earth is an integrated, self-regulating, living organism and asks how humanity is related to the planet. Some of the areas he covers include: the biosphere and the evolution of the organisms, the stability of global temperatures, ocean salinity and other environmental factors affecting the habitability of the Earth.

4. Athene’s Theory Of Everything

The scientific merit of this documentary has divided online opinion in recent years, perhaps because it was produced by a gamer rather than a highly qualified scientist, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that its theories are invalid .

Bachir “Chiren” Boumaaza, aka Athene, is a well-known Internet personality, social activist and an eccentric professional gamer. One year before his film was released in 2011, Athene disappeared from public view. During that time he was conducting research into quantum physics, general & special relativity, neuroscience and metaphysics. However, the claims presented in the documentary have not been peer-reviewed or confirmed by mainstream scientific bodies.

5. Reality And The Extended Mind

Is a documentary exploring the concept of consciousness from an alternative perspective? Conventional wisdom presumes that consciousness can be explained in terms of neural impulses occurring within the brain, however, the group of scientists appearing in this film think otherwise. They propose that consciousness extends beyond our bodies and can interact with the world around us. One of the experiments supporting this claim is called The Global Consciousness Project where major events like 9/11 elicit widespread emotion or attract simultaneous attention from large groups of people. Numerous random number generators are used to determine the extent of their reactions to these phenomena and the output is measured in terms of collective emotional behavior.