TV Review: "The Twilight Zone"

*******

This series represents true "vintage tv," and was first produced way back in the late 1950's. It was rewritten and refilmed as a series in the mid-1980's. It still contains the very familiar musical refrain, although, in this later edition, it is much more "psychedelic" than the original.
One episode is particularly thoughtprovoking. It concerns a young man named Leonard who earns a fat paycheck by practicing "trance-channeling." In the episode, he has his very first appearance on national tv. Then, astonishingly, he comes into touch with the "real thing," a higher Power in the Unconscious mind that wants to speak through him.
This is completely new to him; it has never happened before. All during his fabulously wealthy career, he has claimed to "channel" a "ten thousand year old warrior," but he has been just pretending (acting). When the real Power does come through, he admits to the audience, which includes many "faithful" followers, that his work has all been fake and phony: He has never "channeled" anything or anyone in his long career. This, as his manager warns in the beginning, ruins them both economically, but Leonard feels more comfortable being authentic than when he was playing a "role." He chooses to live in honesty, and begins, for a radical change, actually to help people. He exposes the whole "channelling" phenomenon as one of sheer desperation; people need to pay to believe that they are being touched by the extraordinary, or even the miraculous. This is a very poor foundation for metaphysics or spirituality.
*******