Enigma (TV Series) - Episodes

Episodes

(in alphabetical order)

1. Aleister Crowley: The Beast 666: Aleister Crowley was an accomplished mountain climber, poet, chess player and writer. He is also the best known and influential occult magician of modern times. His admirers saw him as the prophet of a new age, whose goal was a spiritual awakening for himself and all humanity. At times his unique message and unusual behavior led to misunderstandings and contempt. His detractors denounced him as a Satanist, a drug addict and a sex maniac. The tabloids labeled him a Black Magician, The Wickedest Man in the World and The Man We’d Like to Hang. The Great Beast, as he called himself, continues to be an influence on the spiritual world today.
2. Conjuring Philip: Conjuring Philip tells the tale of researchers who experiment in communication with the spirit world. Some believe they have made contact, others believe their experience is not with the other-side but is a form of psychokinesis – the ability to mentally affect the physical environment without any physical contact. Was Philip a ghost, was he created by the energy of the group, or is it all a trick we play on ourselves? Belief, immortality, and science are all investigated in ‘Conjuring Philip’.
3. Hypnotized!: The Trance State: Some researchers believe hypnosis can allow us access to hidden memories, help us overcome phobias and be used to manage pain? In more recent times the idea of using hypnosis to retrieve lost memories has produced discoveries of purported past lives and alien abductions. Some of the results are intriguing; some are humorous, while others have led to tragic consequences. Intense debate surrounds the topic of hypnosis; is it real, is it safe? We explore the history, beliefs and latest research on hypnosis to see if it can tell us about our limitations and our possibilities
4. Jack Parsons: Jet Propelled Antichrist: Jack Parsons: Jet Propelled Antichrist is a story about one of the fathers of modern rocketry and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) which as part of NASA still leads the way in the development of rockets and the exploration of space. He was also an occultist, a sorcerer and a magus. The infamous magician Aleister Crowley the self-proclaimed Great Beast called him son. He called himself ‘The Antichrist’ and was repeatedly investigated by the FBI. At the age of 38 Parsons died in a mysterious explosion that made headlines around the US. Officially it was a tragic scientific accident — other interpretations of the event persist to this day.
5. Madame Blavtasky: Spiritual Traveller: At a time when women, like children, were expected to be seen and not heard it was said that she left her husband to become a trick rider in the circus, traveling alone she entered forbidden Tibet, she was a spiritual genius and the mother of the new age. On the other hand there are those who say she was a fraud whose one real talent was that she knew how to tell a good tale. Either way there is no doubt that her remarkable synthesis of western occultism and eastern traditions became a foundation for the New Age. Her respect for eastern culture and religion, for Buddhism and Hinduism has had a far reaching impact on the modern world.
6. Max Maven: A Fabulous Monster: Meet a living enigma. Max Maven is a man who seems to know what you are thinking, he is known for performing what seem to be miracles with no possible explanation. He's famous among magicians — he's probably invented more magic tricks than anyone in the history of a field filled with eccentric genius. Can Max actually read minds or is he creating illusions based on his mastery of certain psychological insights? This profile of Max Maven is built around his lifelong exploration of the twilight regions of human psychology and some of the lesser known regions of show business. We join Max in a performance that is clever, intriguing and very mysterious.
7. Silo: Sage of The Andes: In May 1969 a young man descended from the simple stone hut he had built high on a windswept ledge in the mountains. He came with a message. Argentina was in the midst of a "dirty war" of disappearance and torture. In that distant corner of the Earth an unholy alliance of church and military dictatorship did their best to silence this young man. They failed. He spoke to a few hundred souls who had braved the cold of these forbidding heights and the armed soldiers intent on keeping order. His enemies mockingly denounced him as a guru, or a false messiah. He called himself a thinker or a writer. And he wrote everything from philosophical essays to novels. And today high in the Andes you’ll hear his message.
8. Spiritualism:The Fox Sisters: Spiritualism: The Fox Sisters explores a story that began on the night of March 31, 1848 in an isolated farmhouse in upstate New York. Two little girls and their horrified parents seemed to communicate with the dead. In the months and years that followed, the events in this small community grew to become far more than a simple ghost story. They became the starting point for a new mass movement referred to as modern spiritualism that influenced tens of thousands of people for the remainder of the nineteenth century. Spiritualism, in a variety of forms became one of the largest popular movements of the time, and continues to attract believers to this day.
9. Tarot: Much more than a popular form of fortune telling, some say that a great and ancient wisdom is hidden in the mysterious images of the Tarot deck. In some circles, they are thought to be the sole surviving "book" from the great fire that burned the libraries of ancient Egypt. Are they really hieroglyphic keys to the mysteries of life? Skeptical researchers say that is all just romantic delusion. They say that Tarot cards originated in northern Italy during the early 15th century and were used to play a game called ‘triumphs’, similar to bridge. Recent research shows that Tarot cards may indeed have a mysterious origin and may well have been intended as more than a simple game.
10. The Houdini Code:Harry Houdini, world famous magician and escape artist was also known for exposing fraudulent mediums. After his death, Bess Houdini announced that through a medium she received a message from her late husband. The press went wild with this shocking revelation, then just as quickly Bess recanted. There were allegations the whole thing was a hoax. Was Bess Houdini an innocent victim or as some speculated was she in on it? Now a century later Houdini's fame is undiminished, but even the memory of what may have been his greatest trick has all but disappeared. What really happened? How did this extraordinary story simply vanish from history?
11. Zombies: When the Dead Walk:Zombies are part of pop culture, but what are they? Where do they come from? How can we ever be free of the curse of the living dead? To find real zombies we will have to go quite a ways from Hollywood and its pop culture offshoots. In Haiti Zombies are an integral part of the island's cultural and religious roots. Outlawed by the government, zombification is said to be performed secretly in the countryside. It's meant as a punishment for crimes against the community. The culprit is magically killed, resurrected and enslaved. We take a look at the practice of Voodoo, examine advances in psychopharmacology, and zombies in popular culture. It's a surreal mix of religion, science and fun ‘When the Dead Walk’.