Nostalgia and The Paranormal

Lately, I’ve been thinking about VHS tapes. I’ve had weird dreams where I’m going through videotapes I watched as a kid, and yet when I wake up, I think to myself, “Okay… I know didn’t have any tapes of that weird freaky lookin’ live-action Winnie the Pooh show, so why was THAT in my dream?”

For the uninitiated, this is the show I’m talking about. And for the record, the way my dream interpreted the show was actually way more terrifying and weird.

Just look at those eyes. Good luck sleeping.

Other VHS-related dreams I’ve had involve me watching old videos that I filmed. In those dreams, I’m telling myself, “I remember this! Those props, that set, the funny wig. Good times. I had a lot of fun improvising with this character and I loved bringing him back for other appearances. Those were the glory days. I want to film more stuff like this.”

And then I wake up and I think to myself, “Okay… I know I didn’t film that! It looked like a low-budget version of Beakman’s World with less science.”

Heh, Beakman’s World. Man I watched a lot of weird shows as a kid. I feel like anyone who grew up on 90’s TV knows what I’m talking about. But I doubt it fully started there. I feel like there had to have been early signs of “weird” TV shows during the 80’s (and especially the 70’s. I mean, just yikes!). But then I remember that many of those 80’s shows were based on toys and produced only to sell those toys. So then it becomes a thing of, “There were weird toys during the 80’s.” Then I remind myself, there were even weirder toys during the 90’s.

Gak! Otherwise known as “That farty slime.”

I had a lot of favourite toys as a kid. Before I got into Star Wars, I mostly had a variety of action figures. Power Rangers, Jurassic Park, X-Men, and many more. Some were even based on video games I enjoyed. There were toys of Earthworm Jim and Mega Man, but unfortunately I had a hard time finding some of them (especially the Mega Man action figures).

If I had to pick one all-time favourite though, it definitely has to be toys based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT was always a huge part of my childhood. Even as new things came along, I never stopped thinking about it. The toys were fun, the video games were especially cool, and the movies were good too (the less we say about the third one, though, the better).

I used to have the play-set based on the sewer, and it was so awesome! Some of the parts were missing, but I still had lots of fun playing with it. And the van too! That was fun and I always loved trying to put as many toys inside it as possible.

It almost feels like I watched a little too much TV, but then I remind myself that there are shows I somehow didn’t watch. This includes cartoons and live-action shows. I’m surprised, for instance, that I didn’t watch Thundercats and Transformers. I feel like I would’ve loved those shows, but some of them were just coming to their end around the time I was born, and I never saw reruns until much later.

Time is a crazy thing, and I do tend to think about what I would’ve watched had I been born five or even ten years earlier. It’s fun to think, “What if?” from time to time, but I am mostly happy with the childhood I had. I loved the video games, movies, cartoons, and live action shows I was exposed to at the time and it definitely affected my love for media & entertainment.

As far as those live-action shows go… oh boy. There are some strange ones that I’d love to go into more in-depth for later blog posts. For now, though, I’m just asking myself, “Why did you stay up late watching Cleopatra 2525?” And then I realize, “I guess it was that or watching reruns of Psi-Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal.”

Any of you remember this one? It was a neat show presented by Dan Aykroyd that went into fictional events inspired by investigations from a paranormal team. Weird, I realized just now with that wording that it sounds like a Ghostbusters show in disguise. I feel like watching Ghostbusters now.

But anyway, it was an interesting show. I’m surprised it lasted for a while (four seasons, ’nuff said). At the time, I thought of it as a bit of a niche show of sorts. Not sure why, but it almost feels like it’s become overlooked when compared to other similar series. And even though I watched it for a bit, I stopped watching as other shows came along.

~

The Truth is Out There

I was really into paranormal stuff at the time. I would look at books from the library about it, and I also watched X-files and Sightings. Some of it was freaky, and yet I couldn’t stop watching it. Now that I think of it, it must’ve played a part in me wanting to watch more sci-fi/horror movies.

Since then, I’ve always felt there’s something interesting about the supernatural. A lot of it is undeniably faked and debunked, and yet I feel like there’s a slight hint of, “But what if?” that remains for other things. Sometimes, something just can’t be explained by science.

Sure, lights in the sky are often illusions. And sure, ghostly apparitions are often likely to be confirmed as, “Oh, that was just the wind,” type of realizations. And sure, ‘ol Nessie has been debunked as either floating logs, or seals, or naked people with deformed bodies, but there’s always the possibility of, “What if something can’t be explained?”

I’m not saying everybody has to believe in UFOs, astral projections, the Loch Ness monster, and all that other crazy stuff. But it’s fun to think about it every now and then just for that kooky feeling.

Alright brain! I’ll watch Ghostbusters tonight.

These days, other paranormal/supernatural/theoretical science stuff is intriguing me. It mostly involves consciousness and “other” worlds, so it’s still fun reading up on research and watching videos about it. I took notes on the 4th dimension during high school just for fun, and it’s tempting to revisit them and compare it to what I’m into these days.

Is there a link between everything? Is there really something just beyond our grasp that could change our way of perceiving the world around us, and knowing more about ourselves and our place in the world? Does it hold something behind what seems to be something else? Is there more than what seems? Are our brains trying to tell us something through unexplained scenarios despite others’ attempts at debunking it?

Pffffft… who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for reading! It’s always a good time sharing these random thoughts. So until next time… watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking! Keep watching the skies!