SUPPRESSED SCIENCES

An entertaining and educational perspective on suppressed sciences and taboo ideas that could change our lives for the better.
Mike Middleton, On Camera and Gillian Norman, Avante Films, feature world experts and internatioanal opinion that will leave an impact on the world for the betterment of mankind.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES: 4 x I hour
GENRE: Science
CROSS-MEDIA: Online, interactive with supporting educational material

SYNOPSIS
Many of our most important scientific developments were made by backyard eccentrics on the margins of the scientific establishment who were derided before being recognized. From the dynamics of an Electric Universe to prohibited plants and cars that run on water, SUPPRESSED SCIENCE takes a counter-intuitive look at ancient knowledge and extraordinary new discoveries that have been hidden from the public eye.

SERIES OUTLINE
It was not institutionalised science but lone mavericks who brought us electric light, photography, computers, telephones, aeroplanes and movies.
SUPPRESSED SCIENCES asks why certain ideas are censored, and why important inventions and new technology that could benefit humanity are sometimes cast aside and the innovators scorned and ridiculed.
While some science is forbidden because it is too dangerous or unethical, we find that other areas of beneficial research are taboo simply because they challenge vested interests and upset entrenched conventions of orthodoxy.
Controversial ideas that challenge the status quo are invariably unwelcome, and many brilliant innovators have been condemned to slink into the twilight of anonymity, never to be remembered.
From the earliest great empires until now, specialised knowledge has been the protected domain of influential people who gain status or privilege as experts, and who may benefit from the commercial application of their sciences. When politicisation and social control of science becomes entrenched in the cause of defending private prestige, power or profit, it constricts the funding and publication of ground-breaking research by mavericks who refuse to be constrained by established customs and antiquated beliefs.
Cognitive dissonance is the term used by psychologists to describe the discomfort that is provoked when we are confronted with information that is inconsistent with prior beliefs. If these prior beliefs are wrong, cognitive dissonance is especially strong and leads to angry, hostile attempts to relieve the discomfort by shutting out or suppressing the conflicting new information, even if it is true and advantageous.
When academic institutions and the popular mass media act as gatekeepers of orthodoxy to promote obsolete traditions and erroneous dogma, progress is inhibited and truth is concealed.
Before Edison demonstrated a working light bulb, erudite Professors in supposed defense of science, described Edisons experiments as a fraud upon the public. American scientists ridiculed the Wright brothers claiming it was scientifically impossible for machines to fly! John Laird, the inventor of television was derided in statements that it was absolute rubbish that television waves could produce a picture!
Following invention of the telescope, we see brutal suppression by high priests of the Catholic Inquisition, who crushed new discoveries about the solar system in defense of an entrenched world-view based on invalid cosmology.
Against the background of historical precedents, each episode in the SUPPRESSED SCIENCE series explores contemporary examples of suppressed information in cosmology, botany, mechanics and medicine. Based in unconventional research, and incorporating a strong online component, this series is imaginative with popular appeal, recognising that forbidden fruit always tends to entice, as we all like to discover hidden secrets for our own information, entertainment and benefit.