Review: National Geographic: The Angel Effect

Yesterday, I saw a documentary named «The Angel Effect», produced and aired of National Geographic Channel. I did not have so high expectations to be honest, after have been disappointed about the other documentaries from NGC lately (see other reviews, and you will see what I mean), but this one turned out to be one of the best documentaries – if not the best, from NGC I've ever seen.

A survivor of 9/11, an astronaut and a hole diver - all survived dramatically different traumatic events, only to tell shockingly similar stories: each had extraordinary experience, feeling a mysterious presence that they believe guided them to safety when they needed it the most. But what were these strange presence? Can they be explained? The devout call them guardian angels or divine encounters - others encounter a kind stranger. Could they have been angels? Phantoms? Or were their minds just playing tricks on them? Dubbed the "Third Man Factor," hundreds have reported this mysterious phenomenon - and now, science is taking a closer look, zeroing in on the location and the mechanism in the brain they believe may be responsible for these visions.

The documentary takes two different approaches to the phenomenon; a scientific explanation, delivered by a scientist who has done research on this field for several years, and a orthodox priest that I got the impression didn't had studied the phenomenon closely, but gave general answers to how angels are seen in orthodox Christian faith. In other words, I think the religiose approach suffered greatly from that it partly didn't get as much time as the scientific perspective, and partly from under-qualified interview objects. That is also the only bad thing to say about this documentary.

Because even if it was a little unbalanced, it was a great watch. It goes detailed in to the phenomenon and goes to great length to understand what is happening in the brain, and why. It also made me plunder on that if it's something that we have left behind from the pre-humans through the evolution; which else abilities have the majority of us lost?

The documentary had perfect length, was entertaining and very informative. Great combination, and if it hadn't been that it was a little unbalanced as previously mentioned, I would have given it a 6 out of 6, but I'm going for a very strong 5 out of 6, and I can without doubt recommend it.

Review: History Channel Ancient Discoveries: Lost Science of the Bible

In this documentary, History Channel try to look at the histories in the Bible from a scientific perspective. Could it be possible, that at least some of the miracles described, was actually abiding the laws of nature? We will probably never know for sure, but this documentary at least confirms that it's possible.

One of the most surprising things they bring up, is levitation. The Genesis talks about that the holy arch (which by the way is still missing and subject to countless documentaries) is levitating. A Norwegian scientist shows through an experiment, that it's possible if you have the right ingredients – and more surprisingly; it's possible they had.

I think this was a great documentary. It show you a lot of things, and is built up by many experiments, with the Bible as the red line. This is great, because you can pause it if you get tired, and watch the rest some other time, or just completely stop caring about it, and still have gotten something out of the time you watched. I also liked the scientists they had found. All seemed pretty legitimate to me, and was interesting to hear from.

All in all, good watch, and I recommend it. Strong 4.