The long awaited and much-touted mini-series, The Triangle, made
it’s debut on the Sci-Fi cable channel recently. As a person who
has studied the paranormal for most of his life, I always watch
these kinds of fictional entertainment projects based on
unexplained events with a slightly more critical eye then the
average viewer or sci-fi fan might. Unlike other Sci-Fi projects
that attempted to report on or fictionalize various areas of the
unexplained, this one is a gem. There are several reasons why I
believe that The Triangle is one of the best science fiction
projects based on unexplained events I have ever seen.
Beyond the fact that the cast really delivered the goods, those
responsible for the project know good science fiction. Rockne S.
O’Bannon is credited with writing the teleplay and as Executive
Producer. With projects like Alien Nation, SeaQuest DSV, Amazing
Stories and the 1980’s incarnation of The Twilight Zone under
his belt, O’Bannon knows how to tell a story well. Dean Devlin
is also one of the Executive Producers and is given writing
credits. Despite the disaster that was Godzilla, Devlin gave us
Star Gate and Independence Day. Craig R. Baxley is Director and
is certainly no stranger to the weird having been involved with
Left Behind, Rose Red and Kingdom Hospital.
Despite the luminaries that acted in, wrote, produced and
directed The Triangle, the most important reason for the success
of this mini-series may be its willingness to offer The
Philadelphia Experiment as an explanation for all the weird
happenings. It’s obvious that those responsible for this
production did their homework. Paranormal Investigators have
been linking people, planes and ships lost or missing in the
Bermuda Triangle to the infamous Navy project for many years.
Anyone wanting to create a fictional entertainment project about
weird events that occur in the area also known as the Devil’s
Triangle would be foolish to ignore the interest people have in
the possible Philadelphia Experiment connection.
Unlike other Sci-Fi channel projects based on the unexplained,
The Triangle doesn’t bother to apologize for what’s presented. I
was especially impressed with the no-nonsense manner in which
the Philadelphia Experiment material was worked into the plot.
Anyone who has studied the alleged U.S. Government
experimentation with time travel, invisibility and mind control
as deeply as I have knows what a hard sell that material is. The
Philadelphia Experiment was never just some World War II project
to make Navy ships invisible. It was and is an incredibly
complicated and diverse program that is able to exist based on
the fact of non-existence in the public mind, propped up by over
fifty years of disinformation and secrecy.
I have always said that paranormal reality is better then any
science fiction ever presented in book, film or other forms. The
cases I have investigated involving the unexplained have
challenged everything I believe or have been taught about the
world we live in. I’m not speaking of ethereal New Age concepts,
but actual occurrences which defy you to explain them. That is
what I liked about The Triangle. The characters were average
people mulling through life until they were suddenly slammed in
the face by paranormal events. Whether believers or disbelievers
by nature, none of them could deny what they were experiencing.
Most mini-series start off with a bang, then end in the most
disappointing way possible. That certainly wasn’t true of The
Triangle. In the end, the characters involved found themselves
in a new and permanently altered reality. For me, it was a more
then worthwhile payoff for watching the six hour presentation
over three nights. That’s because I not only believe it’s
possible, but have seen evidence that such things have already
happened.
As a child growing up on Long Island, I found myself constantly
confronted by things I couldn’t understand. Stories of UFO
sightings, odd disappearances, alien abductions and even strange
creature sightings were not uncommon in a place less then a one
hour drive from New York City. Add to that the weird stories I
heard from our mostly ex-military neighbors. Despite government
claims that paranormal events were often reported by untrained
observers or unstable people, most of those I met with unusual
stories to tell were very credible. These included active and
retired military pilots, police, firefighters, engineers,
scientists and technical writers. Then there was what I
experienced myself.
Our home was built in the 1950s on what had been farm property.
It was the first house built on our block. It didn’t take long
for all the houses that were subsequently erected to be
purchased. All of the homes except one were occupied by
families. That home was across the street and a couple of houses
down from us. It was occupied by an elderly couple who liked
their privacy and, it was rumored, had been involved in some
sort of scientific research for the U.S. Government. If you were
a kid, you knew better then to play in front of their home. They
would call your parents, the police or both. Obviously, they
were not the most beloved people on the block. However, that
became a non-issue one summer morning.
It was the mid-1960s and I was enjoying my summer break from
elementary school. Since most people went on vacation during
that time, I was left to roam the block and rummage up what
friends I could. With stores, a library, park and even a bowling
alley close by, I was always looking for someone to venture out
with me to those places. Each time I walked pass the house owned
by the elderly couple, I admired how well it was kept. Window
boxes were filled with carefully chosen flowers, the lawn was
manicured to perfection and bird droppings were quickly cleaned
off the sidewalk or driveway whenever any dirty bird dared to
poop on the property.
As I walked toward the elderly couple’s house to visit a friend
next store on that particular day, I was frozen in my tracks.
The house was gone! I mean it just wasn’t there and looked like
it never had been. When I mentioned this to my parents, they
assumed it was a joke. They had never seen or heard about the
couple. When they saw how serious I was, my parents assured me
that no house like I described had ever existed in our
neighborhood. My friends and their parents said the same thing.
In the interest of not being labeled the neighbor nut cake, I
dropped the matter. Beyond the fact that a house and its
occupants had managed to vanish overnight, what really bothered
me was why I was the only person who remembered the structure
and the people who lived in it. Then I remembered something.
A few days after the couple had moved in, I was walking past the
house when the elderly man called out to me. He asked if I
wouldn’t mind helping him hang some pictures and do some odd
jobs. I ran home to ask my parents for permission to go into the
house. They said it would be fine. So I spent most of that
afternoon helping the man with various jobs inside and outside
the house. I earned five dollars and some good will for my
efforts. To my knowledge, I was the only person living in that
neighborhood who had ever actually been inside the house. That
is the only reason I can think of for possessing the memories of
the house and the elderly couple.
I gave up thinking about the incident until I started the
seventh grade. My junior high school had a well stocked library.
After reading The Time Machine, A Wrinkle in Time and some
comments by physicists published in a scholastic magazine, I
began to consider the possibility that a natural or deliberate
event involving alteration of the space time continuum had
occurred. The comments by the physicists in an article about
modern science introduced me to the idea of alternative
realities and dimensions. While some felt that there were only a
few physical dimensions, others saw a universe full of
alterative realities that could eventually be accessed if the
technology to do so was available.
With that foundation, it wasn’t hard to imagine what someone
with access to technology of the type described as being used in
the Philadelphia Experiment project could do. Playing with time
would be as easy as riding a bike; until you fell off. It’s
always the aftereffects that anyone wanting to play Time God
would have to take into consideration. The consequence of
messing with the fabric of time and space would be a new and
possibly undesirable reality. That’s if you view Time as a line.
I believe that people involved in the real Philadelphia
Experiment and related projects look at Time as a continuous
circle without beginning or end. If you have the right
technology, you can jump anywhere into the circle, make subtle
changes and still retain the overall stability of the reality in
which you live. Your reality would be where you were born in the
circle.
The Triangle took a quantum leap (no pun intended) for a major
production. It dared to take a plunge in the reality that
researchers like myself have lived with for most of their lives.
That reality is the fact that we cannot always run to science or
some known database of information for answers when it comes to
understanding the unexplained. Although a fictional
presentation, I was glad to see that those involved with the
project had the guts and intelligence to step out from the usual
sci-fi mold and give the world of the paranormal the respect it
deserves without the usual skeptical disclaimers.
You can read more about my research into the Philadelphia
Experiment, The Bermuda Triangle and related topics on my
website at http://www.ufoguy.com