Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
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00:00Throughout the ages and around the world, certain special places have been thought to
00:06be divinely imbued with unusual power or energy.
00:12Places like the ancient pyramids of Egypt, the holy city of Jerusalem, or the healing
00:21waters of Lourdes.
00:24Today, special places of increased energy or earth power are known as vortexes.
00:34The earth has been touched by the powers of magic in the most bizarre places.
00:39Many people believe that the most magical place in America is within the red rocks of
00:45Sedona in north central Arizona.
00:50For thousands of years, people have believed that it is a spiritual mecca, pulsating with
00:57psychic energy.
01:00Its rich natural beauty adds to the widely held belief that power spots or vortexes exist
01:07in Sedona.
01:10Long known by the early Apache peoples of the great desert southwest, Sedona's topography
01:17and landscape combine seamlessly the elements of earth, water, fire, and air.
01:25These powerful forces were worshipped and respected by all of these ancient Native American
01:31visitors.
01:33Sedona's current Native American population are devout believers in the magical powers
01:40hidden here.
01:42Long ago, the ancient ones simply had to walk into the area, not even knowing that it is
01:49of a powerful spirit background.
01:51Now what the Native people saw and felt was something that was unseen and a place for
01:59bringing forth the spirit thought to its fullest.
02:04Yuquala's traditional beliefs are rooted in thousands of years of Native American spirituality.
02:14His religious pulpit is the Sedona desert, and his sermons are ceremonial blessing to
02:20the spirits.
02:25His offerings are the earthly elements of fire and air.
02:33Yuquala's ancient ancestors had no unique names for these places we now call vortexes,
02:49for their feelings were far more powerful than words.
02:53Today, Sedona is a spiritual mecca for the world's New Age converts.
03:01They come to experience the electromagnetic energy of these red rocks and the heightened
03:09psychic ability it is reputed to bring.
03:13I'm going to hike around a bit and see if any cosmic energy or something infiltrates
03:19my body and changes my outlook or gives me some new perspective.
03:23For me, it's been a very powerful place.
03:26I feel a tingling in my hands and many of the people that I bring up here feel that
03:30also when we stand right at the top of this hill.
03:36The magic of Sedona resides in a special place called a vortex.
03:42New Age spiritualists and psychic investigators hope to experience a vortex where they believe
03:50they'll find a more peaceful world through increased psychic awareness.
04:04Bruce Orion is a spiritualist who lives in Sedona and conducts tours of the vortexes.
04:12The place that we are right now is called the Airport Mesa Vortex.
04:20This is one of the two male or electrical vortices in Sedona.
04:24And it is an incredibly beautiful spot because we have a 360 degree view of the entire area
04:28from this location.
04:30This is a spot where many people will come to meditate, get some sense of a feeling of
04:34expansion or maybe energize certain specific visualizations they're doing in the hopes
04:38that they will see them manifest at a later date in their life.
04:42Orion compares the energy of the vortexes with the acupressure lines of the human body.
04:48On the Earth, these lines are referred to as ley lines and create a high degree of electromagnetic
04:56energy where they intersect.
05:00This energy, invisible to the naked eye, would spiral upwards like a cyclone.
05:08Some vortexes are believed to have more power than others.
05:16The Bell Rock Vortex is thought to be especially powerful.
05:22Bell Rock is one of the two male or electrical vortices in Sedona.
05:28In the metaphysical community, they borrow from all different cultures, all different
05:32religions and beliefs.
05:34There are no set specific ceremonies that people do.
05:36So it's used actually for all different varieties of ceremonies.
05:40Whether it's done with a medicine wheel or whether it's done with a Taoist or a Buddhist,
05:44whatever it is that people do, they borrow from all different cultures, all different
05:48religions and beliefs.
05:50It seems to believers that the rules of physics apply only to conventional thinkers.
05:56Vortexes, you see, have no rules.
06:00They are instead an invisible avenue for personal exploration.
06:04Sedona and the vortexes make me feel calm.
06:08I have a calmness to them.
06:10Kind of like what they talk about with yoga and something like that, you know, where you
06:14can feel your whole body.
06:16You have the sensation of your whole body.
06:20It's just an amazing place.
06:23Behind me is Cathedral Rock.
06:26Cathedral Rock is one of the magnetic or female vortices in Sedona.
06:30It is a place that quite often people will go to if they want to clear up some unresolved
06:35emotional issues from their past.
06:37Even though this was part of the Avapai Apache territory, we know the Apache people that
06:43they would all get up here to do their sacred ceremonies.
06:46They considered Sedona to be too sacred a place to actually live in.
06:51One ancient practice that survives in Sedona, the medicine wheel ceremony, was borrowed
06:57from Plains Indian tradition.
07:00Participants are first purified with a bundle of burning sage.
07:05This exercise is known as smudging and is believed to cast off negative energy and evil
07:12spirits.
07:14The participants walk around the eight points of the wheel until they feel within a reason
07:20to stop at a particular point.
07:22You see, each wheel point has its own spiritual significance.
07:27Bruce Orion explains how the wheel can be a bizarre experience.
07:34Death and rebirth.
07:38Death and rebirth.
07:39Death and rebirth.
07:41Death and rebirth.
07:42Death and rebirth.
07:43Endlessly along this cycle right here.
07:46What would be your insights as to why you ended up in this particular spot today?
07:50Well, I had a very powerful experience today about cultural conditioning.
07:56And I think that's why I ended up in this space.
08:01Every spiritual seeker who walks the medicine wheel is mystically drawn to examine their
08:09intense feelings and ultimately the meaning of their lives.
08:16Yuquala's ancient ancestors never called these places vortexes and knew they were sacred
08:24as they had discovered a place of unusual and spiritual powers.
08:29They had also, we now know, taken a giant step into the infinite world that is beyond
08:38bizarre.
08:42Well, the great Italian artist Michelangelo was asked,
08:46How do you create such beautiful sculptures?
08:51The genius answered,
08:53The sculpture is already there inside the block of marble.
08:58I just chip away all that doesn't belong.
09:01Tom Avery is a sculptor too.
09:05While Michelangelo sculpted with his chisel and his soul,
09:10Tom Avery sculpts by channeling a 19th century alter ego named Dr. Evermore.
09:21When most of us think of sculpture, we think of the classic Greek and Roman style.
09:26Magnificent figures carved from a single block of marble.
09:31Contemporary artists have redefined the craft, sometimes to astonishing extremes.
09:38In rural Wisconsin, there is one artist who may be the most extreme and peculiar sculptor in the world.
09:47Tom Avery lives a life of solitude, hidden from sight behind a battered junkyard
09:54and a congregation of dying machines.
09:58It's here he creates his bizarre art, which he claims originates from his eccentric family.
10:06We've been in England since 1640.
10:10Every name has been, but I go back to 1066 and further in English history.
10:18William the Conqueror is my 32nd grandfather.
10:22I am the sixth cousin of Queen Elizabeth.
10:25Tom's family tree has many branches, but Tom's kinfolk are so unusual,
10:32that you consider the very unusual.
10:43Tom claims his sculpting ability is channeled to a 19th century character from his own imagination.
10:51Dr. Evermore was an Englishman.
10:54He had a belief that he could perpetuate himself back into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam,
11:00inside a glass ball, inside a copper egg.
11:03And that's what the Forevertron is all about.
11:09But before we view the incredible Forevertron,
11:13we must learn more about what is the inspiration and motivation behind these bizarre art pieces.
11:25You'd lose all the power, energy that you've got to create something
11:30if you've got it all tied up in models and maquettes.
11:34That's my thinking, just go do it.
11:37Take the material and glue it together, and that's the end of the story.
11:42Tom admits the Industrial Revolution is an inspiration.
11:46That period in history, named after Queen Victoria,
11:51may help define this Dr. Evermore,
11:54as the Victorian era was dominated by the advent of machines and new technologies.
12:01This new age of mechanical wonders ignited the fertile imaginations of many writers.
12:08The novelist Jules Verne foretold fantastic, unbelievable visions of the future.
12:20There is a mystic connection in time that appears to join Tom and Dr. Evermore.
12:27One of the things that is very fundamental and basic with me is we do not alter any shapes or forms.
12:36Instead, Tom, as Dr. Evermore, uses only existing shapes to create metal creatures.
12:44Tom believes that each of these creatures is imbued with life.
12:49He does not, however, know who breathed life into his creatures.
12:55That's a spider. Whether it ate somebody up in order to evolve into something, I don't know, but there it is.
13:05The size of this immense creature is difficult to gauge
13:10until you notice the human onlooker in the background.
13:18By drawing on an extinct past, Tom has renewed the tired lives of machinery from the Industrial Revolution.
13:27Now every item is serving a new and unique purpose.
13:32By adding new flesh to these old, ancient bones, perhaps Tom's own breath gives new life to these old machines.
13:42And all the birds, you can walk right up in and give them a blow on the horn, or you can, the percussion birds will play,
14:08you can ring their bells or hit the drums or whatever you may want to do.
14:12Isn't that something, huh?
14:39From a brass and horn section to a complete timpani, this orchestra plays a song no bird watcher has ever heard.
14:52They're really alive, you see. I tell everybody that they don't come alive until after eight o'clock at night.
14:59Tom Every has spent a lifetime stockpiling brass, copper and stainless steel.
15:05He believes he is trying his best to fulfill the Doctor's vision.
15:10And now, Dr. Evermore wants to build the ultimate thrill ride on his creation called the Forevertron.
15:21The Forevertron weighs over 300 tons and features the decompression chamber of NASA's famous Apollo mission.
15:30In 1923, Ford Motor Turbine will provide the Forevertron's power.
15:39Tom claims that very soon he will take the final trip of his life, blasting off from the sky.
15:49And for all those doubters, Tom's leaving behind a telescope, so his triumphant flight can be viewed more easily.
15:59Frankly, whether we believe Tom's claims or not is irrelevant. He believes them.
16:06This earth-bound artist and welder is a man who will do anything to make his dreams come true.
16:14Frankly, whether we believe Tom's claims or not is irrelevant.
16:23He believes them.
16:26This earthbound artist and welder has all the faith in the world that he'll soon follow
16:34in the bizarre footsteps of his amazing mentor, Dr. Evermore.
16:42This time, everybody, I was an industrial wrecker, and as Dr. Evermore, I'm working
16:47on the possibilities of making it back into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force
16:51beam inside a glass ball, inside a copper egg, and powering on for Evermore.
16:56Yeah, if you want to ride with me, you come with me.
16:59There's plenty of room in the glass ball to make the trip.
17:04Voodoo, the very word conjures up images of blood sacrifice, trance, possession, jungle
17:19drums and secret rites.
17:22Perhaps the most infamous icon associated with voodoo is the devil doll.
17:30This voodoo doll was believed to produce pain and mind control over vast distances
17:37by nearly sticking pins into the proper places.
17:44But is that really what voodoo is all about?
17:50Or is voodoo a benign belief system, not unlike many of the world's other religions?
18:00Each culture has its own religious beliefs, and complex rituals and ceremonies play an
18:07integral part in the daily life of its believers.
18:11Even the more familiar Judeo-Christian faiths implement very elaborate practices.
18:25Which is the case with voodoo, a very misunderstood religion.
18:32In 1947, experimental filmmaker Maya Deren traveled to Haiti and captured what could
18:41perhaps be the first images of voodoo dance and ceremony.
18:47Practitioners insisted their bodies become temporarily possessed by spirits who speak
18:54and act through them.
19:00But we know voodoo was first practiced by people on the west coast of Africa.
19:07Correctly pronounced vo-doo, its followers believe in a single creator, but worship individual
19:14spirits.
19:16These spirits are called loa, and are believed to be links between the creator and the earth.
19:24Later, these same West Africans were captured by slavers and brought to the New World.
19:31Stripped of possessions and dignity, they carried nothing but their voodoo beliefs.
19:37They were determined that their religion survived.
19:42Christian slave owners were equally determined that it did not.
19:49The inhumane treatment of these people led to a slave uprising on Haiti in 1852.
19:57The voodoo ritual of sacrificing a pig marked the beginning of the revolution.
20:04Upon hearing of this, fearful slave owners in the states banned voodoo drums and carvings
20:11known as boccio.
20:15The boccio were used as symbols of the loa spirits.
20:18They were cleverly replaced with the rag doll, or voodoo doll.
20:29Used primarily for healing, they attracted an evil reputation and became a symbol of
20:35the voodoo faith in America.
20:39Voodoo would survive so well here that the city of New Orleans is almost synonymous with
20:47voodoo itself.
20:50The once feared rag doll is now a popular tourist item.
20:56Voodoo's survival can be attributed in part to the influence of one woman whose body lies
21:03in this graveyard.
21:07Her name was Marie Laveau, Queen of Voodoo.
21:18Today, believers come from far and near to make offerings and receive blessings at Marie
21:25Laveau's tomb.
21:28Initiates believe that by marking Laveau's tomb, they will be able to help the people
21:36of this tomb with X's and saying a prayer that their wishes may be granted.
21:42The influence of Marie Laveau to the New Orleans style of voodoo is undeniable.
21:50But to fully understand the world of voodoo, one must examine modern day Haiti.
21:57Haiti is a poor country, but its people are rich in faith and almost everyone practices
22:06some form of religion.
22:08In Haiti, drumming, dancing and singing serve to physically express religious faith and
22:15fervor.
22:22Once hidden from prying eyes, voodoo, dancing and singing are now practiced openly.
22:31However, events such as blood sacrifices are still seen as controversial and bizarre.
22:41The spiritual leader in the voodoo faith is called a hougon or voodoo priest.
22:49The hougon leads the ceremony under the influence of the steady beat of drums.
22:58The hougon is more than just a spiritual leader, he is a community leader as well.
23:07As the intensity of the event increases, the hougon falls under the influence of possession
23:14by one of the spirits or loa.
23:18Offerings to the loa are brought forth while the hougon falls deeper into his possession.
23:30Trance-like, the appearance of the loa is embodied by the actions and words of the hougon,
23:37often speaking in tongues.
23:39The hougon experiences rapture at the height of his possession.
23:44The spirit has arrived and the hougon is transformed literally into a living god.
23:53President for life, the late Francois.
23:58Using the dark side of voodoo,
24:01many say that he attempts to control the will of the Haitian public.
24:07Through violence and intimidation, he sacrifices himself for the good of the Haitian people.
24:14The hougon is a symbol of the spirit of the Haitian people.
24:19The hougon is a symbol of the spirit of the Haitian people.
24:24Through violence and intimidation, he sacrifices nearly an entire generation of his people
24:31to satisfy his greed and political ambition.
24:37It is also said that Duvalier consciously imitated a popular voodoo spirit,
24:44the evil Baron Samedi, to oppress and dominate his people.
24:50Today, around the world and in the U.S., belief in voodoo is strong
24:56and the number of followers and practitioners is on the rise.
25:02From Hollywood's bizarre and misleading depiction
25:06to the beauty and color of a voodoo ceremony,
25:10clear answers are still elusive for the uninitiated.
25:17If you want to learn more about voodoo,
25:21you may have to travel far
25:24and into that realm which is truly beyond bizarre.
25:32The time has come now for this three-ring show to end.
25:37As the lights fade, the clowns stay behind to take off their makeup
25:42to wait until the next show.
25:45All the world's a stage
25:48and to each comes a time to say farewell.
25:53I'm Jay Robinson
25:55and I hope you have enjoyed this performance of Beyond Bizarre.