NBC'S 'OTHER SIDE MAKES THE CUT

Responding to the powerful American fascination with extra-ordinary events that even science cannot always explain, NBC has launched a one-hour daytime program titled The Other Side. The non-traditional reality/talk show explores the out-of-the-ordinary experiences of everyday people.

Since its debut in October, the show has dealt with topics like reincarnation, out-of-the-body and near-death experiences and UFO abductions. Host Will Miller has talked with guests like Bettie J. Eadie, author of Embraced by the Light and Dannion Brinkley (Saved by the Light) before live studio audiences.

Miller, a licensed psychotherapist, ordained minister and veteran stand-up comedian, encourages audience members to describe their own extraordinary experiences.

Initial response has been strong enough to persuade the network to commit to at least the balance of the season

EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES OFFICIAL PREFERS TUNNEL TO CHAMBER

The widely reported discovery of an unexplored tunnel into the right side of the Sphinx has drawn something of a shrug from veteran Egyptologist John Anthony West. It's nothing new, he says, despite representations from Giza antiquities director Zahi Hawass and others that the passage is a new mystery of the Sphinx. It's amazing, said Hawass, After all this time, the Sphinx still holds its secrets.

At any rate, official exploration of the tunnel is set to begin shortly. West says he'll be surprised if they find anything. In fact he sees not a little hypocrisy in the eagerness of the establishment to investigate the old tunnel, while ignoring the large chamber which he and geologist Dr. Robert Schoch have seismographically demonstrated lies beneath the paws of the Sphinx. The existence of the chamber, West feels, is likely to prove of far greater potential significance than the tunnel. Nevertheless, proposals to excavate that site continue to be vehemently opposed by Hawass and his confederates.

VON DANIKEN, BACK IN U.S., ACCUSES ARCHEOLOGISTS OF COVER UP

For the first time since mysterious opposition, including unfounded rumors of tax fraud in Switzerland, made him unwelcome in U.S. publishing circles, Erich Von Daniken has returned to America. After an exile of 14 years, the Chariots of the Gods author made a featured lecture appearance in October at John White's 7th annual Omega UFO Conference in North Haven, Connecticut.

No stranger to dispute, the man who introduced millions to the ancient astronaut theory of biblical miracles was on hand to promote another controversial thesis. In his forthcoming book The Eyes of the Sphinx (Putnam), Von Daniken argues that prominent Egyptian and European archeologists have deliberately covered up discoveries of new shafts and chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza. With dramatic slides, he showed the sympathetic Connecticut audience how one shaft was explored by a $200,000 robot developed by German inventor Rudolph Kantenbrink. After rolling up a steep incline, the robot was blocked by a wall which appears to be a door to another chamber. Von Daniken says the story was suppressed until a British publication came upon it indirectly.