OK, here’s a theory I want you to try on: If psychic abilities exist in humans then children are most likely the ones who have it.

I say "humans" because there are some folks who believe that animals are psychics: dogs can read the minds of their masters ( I suspect it helps if the intelligence of the dog and its master are in the same ballpark) and cats can see ghosts.

The cat thing has possibilities. Cats can see in light spectrums we can’t, so if there was something around that’s invisible to us it could be that cats can see it. Now if only we can convince a cat to tell us what it sees then we’d be on to something.

Anyway, my theory about kids and psychic ability is largely based on anecdotes and experiences from my own life.

I believe, for example, that when we are born our minds and our senses are wide open to everything. We haven’t learned what is real, what is not, or what’s in between. Who’s to say that we don’t see visiting dead relatives while we chow down on pabulum or gum a wubbie? We have no way of knowing if the being in front of us is the incorporeal essence of great grandma, or Fluffy, the family dog. We are new to reality and we don’t have a clue what is real and what’s what may be a bit of undigested dinner.

I also believe that we see with our minds, not with our eyes. We are like radios. (you remember radios, right? It’s what we listened to in the car before iPods came along.)

The antenna of a radio (analogous to our eyes) picks up all sorts of signals, everything from AM static to short wave shock jocks. It’s the tuner in the radio (that would be our brains in my analogy) that selects what we hear. If the radio can’t tune in a frequency, it doesn’t mean there’s no music on the air, just that we have no means to hear it.

As we get older we learn how to use our "preset" stations, but we also learn to tune out certain things. I think kids with psychic abilities haven’t learned to tune some things out yet.

Anyway, that’s my theory.

If you have had weird experiences when you were a kid I’m sure you’ve figured out some way to cope with it. But what if you couldn’t? What if your sensitivities were so overpowering that you found it hard to function in today’s society? What would you do?

In the new show, Psychic Kids, children with paranormal abilities explain what it’s like to see and hear things that no one else can.

One of the problems with shows like this is that there is often precious little meat. There is little proof or disproof that these kids can do what they say they can. Instead the show’s producers fill the minutes with flashes of scenery taken in odd camera angles, close-ups of the kids and their parents, and a lot of jumping about.

The dialogue is equally thin. The 43 minute show is filled with the children explaining themselves in a variety of ways. They often repeat themselves, saying the same thing over again, but in slightly different ways. Parroting their initial statements is a tough way to fill 43 minutes. They just say the same thing again and again. Repeating. Over and over. You get the idea.

Still, the free episode, The Ghost Of Freddie, is interesting if you’re interested (sorry) in that sort of thing. Check out Psychic Kids. (I knew you would.)

When your kids aren’t talking to dead people they may want to check out a music video featuring the ghost of dead chipmunks. At least I thought they were dead until 20th Century Fox released a live action movie featuring the very much (virtually) alive furballs.

The movie, appropriately called Alvin and the Chipmunks, did OK at the box office, and the DVD seems to be selling well, so expect more action from the resurrected rodents. As proof of their postmortem mobility Theodore, Simon, and AAAAALLLLVVVVIIINNN sing and dance like wee clones of Michael Jackson, only hairier.

The video, Alvin and the Chipmunks: How We Roll, is available for free at the iTunes Store.

Speaking of videos and resurrected entities, Maxwell Smart, the CONTROL agent who bumbled through Get Smart TV episodes in the 60’s, has been brought back to life and is now living on a theater screen near you. Get Smart: The Movie opens today and it stars Steve Carrell as Smart. A good fit for the role in my opinion.

To make sure as many people know about it as possible, Warner Brothers has released an eight minute video featuring Carrell and Anne Hathaway (Agent 99) and a fairly long clip from the movie.

If you weren’t sure you wanted to see Get Smart, I suppose this clip might change your mind. Or not.

In any event, the video is free and it’s available for download from the iTunes Store.

Well, that’s it for this week. I just want to remind you that just because you are getting an iPhone next month doesn’t mean that your 8GB iPod nano is suddenly obsolete.

...

OK, maybe it is. Even so, you shouldn’t neglect your first love. I’ve been playing Monopoly on my nano and it does not suck.

Monopoly for iPod

I’ll be posting a review of it and Sims DJ soon. Watch for them.

More free stuff at the iTunes Store (with direct links):

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.