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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features (click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)

The Bridgewater Triangle: The Paranormal in Massachusetts
Produced, directed, and shot by Aaron Cadieux and Manny Famolare, “The Bridgewater Triangle”
tells the story of a region in southeast Massachusetts—called, of course, The Bridgewater Triangle—which is associated with a large number of reports of paranormal activity. Equally unusual, the activity covers a seemingly full range of phenomena—hauntings, UFOs, mysterious occurrences and creatures, and sinister activities.

Cryptozoologist* Loren Coleman, who appears in the film, gave the region its name in his 1983 book, “Mysterious America”.

With narration by John Horrigan, and interviews of an all-star assembly of paranormal researchers, folklorists, and authors, the viewer is introduced to the region’s history, and a large sampling of the phenomena. Some interviewees describe the phenomena from their research, and some present them as their direct personal experience.

“The Bridgewater Triangle” is produced with top quality production values—including an original soundtrack of haunting music.

The word ‘paranormal’ evokes the hearer’s or reader’s personal epistemology—though said hearer may not know that word. For those few readers who may not know, the word, epistemology is ‘a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.’ I like to call it my‘philosophy of knowledge’ for short.

We each have our own philosophy of knowledge—whether we like it or not. I mention that because the simple acceptance of the mere idea of epistemology implies an acceptance of the possibility that there may be a relativity of knowledge—i.e., just that word, its meaning, can be a threat to one’s rigid belief system.

The late John Mack, M.D., was a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard University. He wrote two non-fiction books inspired by his treatment of people who claimed to be abducted by aliens—and, wouldn’t you know, he lived and worked in Massachusetts. Predictably and understandably, the Harvard establishment attempted to have him removed from his position with the University. They failed for one simple reason: He worded his introductions very carefully, making sure that no one could conclude that he was presenting his material as objective reality. Epistemology in action!

Yes, for almost all viewers, “The Bridgewater Triangle” confronts or, at least, evokes our epistemology, our personal approaches to what and how we determine what we chose to believe and to not believe, to know, to question, and/or to deny.

Confronting, exploring one’s epistemology is both the challenge and the fun of this film.

I’ve made my own study of the paranormal, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the paranormal is not ‘para.’

Coda: John Mack, M.D. died tragically on the streets of London. He was struck by a drunk driver. Mack was in London, attending a conference on the after-death state.

* Cryptozoology: the study of evidence tending to substantiate the existence of, or the search for, creatures whose reported existence is unproved, as the Abominable Snowman or the Loch Ness monster.

D. Schwartz May 31, 2014