There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits.

At night we sit in bed (me with my cuppa hot cocoa) watching old 1960s episodes of one of my favorite shows The Outer Limits via NetFlix online. We’ve watched I think 5 episodes so far. Think we have over 40 to go. One of my favorites is The Galaxy Being. The black and white video quality is crystal clear. The sound is excellent. Some of the props are hilarious (like the asteroid that’s supposed to be levitated around a room with mental energy but you can see the fish line suspending it from above), and the computers and databases that look like painted cardboard, and the simple sound effects like the genetically mutated monkey (the monkey was a ratty stuffed spider monkey and the crazy sound it made was  exactly like dentures clacking together.) The episodes are simple. They’re black and white. The acting is dramatic and oddly disconnected at the same time. The story lines are uncomplicated and wise. Even though the episodes are from the 1960s the stories are about humanity, the human condition, and how technology and science can affect the human experience. At the end of each episodes there’s a moral spoken to the audience from the host in the form of a summary of the story. Gives one something to ponder as they regain control of their horizontal and vertical.  This excerpt is from The Galaxy Being, truly one of my favorites with reaching spiritual implications. http://www.theouterlimits.com

THE GALAXY BEING

Allan Maxwell owns and operates a radio station. He sacrifices his station’s transmitting power to send signals to outer space. By feeding the signals he receives through a television circuit, he is able to construct a three-dimensional image of the radio waves. One day, without warning, a new image takes shape on his screen — he is communicating with a creature from deep in another galaxy!

Allan is called away from the transmitter by his wife, Carol, though he promises the creature he will return. In his absence, Eddie, a substitute disk jockey goes on the air and turns the station’s power up. The creature is drawn across space and time and materializes on the earth. Anxious to find Maxwell, the being begins to search the town. Although its intent is peaceful, its powerful radiation can burn and destroy anything in its path.

The creature finds Maxwell and they return together to the broadcasting shed. By now, the police and army have been alerted. They surround the shed and threaten to destroy Maxwell, his wife, and his new-found friend. The creature tells Maxwell that by the rules of its own people, it can’t go home; but, by turning down the station’s power, it can release its own mass and disintegrate. If it stays on earth, the people will come and man’s own fear will destroy him. Thus the creature makes the ultimate sacrifice, giving up its life. But the people of earth have learned a new lesson — there are powers in the universe inscrutable and profound. Everyone must learn to live together if the world is to survive.