UFO Journals (1978)

Now, it might seem strange to review a documentary on UFOs on a site like this, but this 1978 documentary UFO Journals deserves special mention. First, and foremost, the narrator. He has that tone of voice where it’s just so hilarious that it’s hard to believe anything that comes out of his mouth. The subjects being covered is something else, this stuff makes whoever made Overlords of the UFO seem like they had their act together. Most of the people being intereviewed seem to be nothing else than kooks and mental nutcases that make Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate seem like a pretty sane guy. Many of them look like they were making this all up. One of them was channeling to an alien being with his eyes rolled up, and he speaks too much in this tone of voice like it came off a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I loved how he kept saying that they must put an end to all wars and there will be peace all over the planet (love the idea, but then, how the guy, channeling through an alien being, was just silly). Another guy, with either a French or German accent (can’t tell), well, he is quite a character. He talks to the lady about her chakra by placeing this device above her head and below her chin and it starts spinning around. He says a bunch of bullshit about the energies her chakras produce all by this device, then he starts playing some polka song on his harmonica with a drinking glass to cover up his harmonica. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe in chakras, but this guy is just full of it. Plus he sounds like he’s just babbling out a bunch of very pretentious nonsense. Kirlian photography also gets covered on this documentary, but it’s quite a bit different from Dr. Thelma Moss (of UCLA) and her research on this, because while Dr. Moss used simply a dark room so you can see the sparks shooting out out of your fingers, this guy used full color photograpy. The most hilarious part of this documentary goes to Ruth E. Norman of the Uniarius Academy of Science based in El Cajon, California. She claims to be channeling to some alien named Uriel. Many of the more kooky ends of New Age beliefs actually believe in what she says. She was also convinced that she and her followers will meet a UFO and its occupant. Never happened. Many of these other people you see are so unbelievable, right down to their looks (one guy with a beard looked like his hair was fake) that you can’t believe they’re real. Plus, with the exception of Ruth E. Norman, I have never seen any of these other people on any other documentaries, meaning their credibility must be zero (same for Norman, but she still got lots of publicity). And for all this silliness, throughout the documentary, you get all this bizarre, trippy electronic music that seems ever present. This whole thing seems like it was done under the influence of mind-altering substance. You watch UFO Journals and you think that Overlords of the UFO seems pretty normal and well-thought out (at least with Overlords, most of the material had been covered elsewhere). So if you want something so off-the-wall kooky, something that no one, not even Erich von Däniken can think of, go watch UFO Journals.