1 00:01:20,457 --> 00:01:23,460 Mr. Black: It was July 18th, 1969. 2 00:01:25,462 --> 00:01:28,465 It was early in the morning, about 5:30 a.m. 3 00:01:29,550 --> 00:01:31,218 It was a beautiful day to fly. 4 00:01:31,343 --> 00:01:32,970 {\an8}No wind to speak of. 5 00:01:33,095 --> 00:01:34,638 {\an8}So how could it be better? 6 00:01:36,515 --> 00:01:38,517 We start up the engines. 7 00:01:38,642 --> 00:01:40,435 We were full of fuel. 8 00:01:40,561 --> 00:01:41,228 Everything was fine. 9 00:01:41,353 --> 00:01:43,397 And we started taxiing. 10 00:01:47,234 --> 00:01:48,318 And then sure enough, 11 00:01:48,443 --> 00:01:50,070 the aircraft started to climb. 12 00:01:50,195 --> 00:01:53,156 Chuck brought the landing gear up. 13 00:01:54,241 --> 00:01:55,909 We were accelerating and climbing 14 00:01:56,034 --> 00:01:56,910 above the runway, 15 00:01:57,035 --> 00:01:59,204 and I think we were about 16 00:01:59,329 --> 00:02:02,499 100 feet above the ground when I started noticing 17 00:02:02,624 --> 00:02:03,667 that something was wrong. 18 00:02:05,711 --> 00:02:07,671 You have one engine at higher rpm, 19 00:02:07,796 --> 00:02:09,047 another low rpm. 20 00:02:09,172 --> 00:02:12,092 Now that can happen with an engine failure. 21 00:02:14,094 --> 00:02:16,179 And I mean, I grabbed the chairs 22 00:02:16,305 --> 00:02:18,932 and held on and looked out 23 00:02:19,057 --> 00:02:21,476 and I saw a bunch of green grass 24 00:02:21,602 --> 00:02:23,437 and it looked like a city park 25 00:02:23,562 --> 00:02:25,647 And I thought, well, worst case scenario, 26 00:02:25,772 --> 00:02:28,150 we've always been trained to just land in a park. 27 00:02:29,234 --> 00:02:32,237 But the next thing I noticed was 28 00:02:32,404 --> 00:02:35,365 towering trees were filling our windshield 29 00:02:37,034 --> 00:02:38,577 Chuck grabbed the flight controls, 30 00:02:38,702 --> 00:02:41,622 and he yanks them all the way left. 31 00:02:41,747 --> 00:02:42,956 As far as they'll go. 32 00:02:43,081 --> 00:02:45,042 And then he pulls them all the way back, 33 00:02:45,167 --> 00:02:46,835 against his chest. 34 00:02:58,972 --> 00:03:01,975 I suddenly found myself 35 00:03:02,100 --> 00:03:05,103 above the crash site, 36 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:07,940 but unaware 37 00:03:08,065 --> 00:03:11,068 of what I was looking at or why. 38 00:03:11,443 --> 00:03:12,819 I was not in any pain. 39 00:03:12,945 --> 00:03:15,155 I was not in any fear or discomfort. 40 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:17,824 I was just above this crash site. 41 00:03:23,038 --> 00:03:26,333 I could see an airplane and I could see a pilot. 42 00:03:26,458 --> 00:03:28,961 First of all, my eyes went right to one pilot. 43 00:03:29,086 --> 00:03:31,171 This was Gene. 44 00:03:31,296 --> 00:03:33,799 And then I went over and I saw another pilot 45 00:03:33,924 --> 00:03:35,676 right next to him five feet away. 46 00:03:35,801 --> 00:03:38,762 And I recognized this as Chuck. 47 00:03:41,390 --> 00:03:43,892 And while I'm processing what I'm looking at, 48 00:03:44,017 --> 00:03:47,104 I see a third pilot also about five feet away. 49 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,483 And this is me. 50 00:04:05,998 --> 00:04:09,334 Mr. Burke: Imagine if what we're living here on this 51 00:04:09,459 --> 00:04:12,546 earth is really being lived on a flat, black 52 00:04:12,671 --> 00:04:14,548 and white painting on a wall, 53 00:04:14,673 --> 00:04:15,924 and death is separation. 54 00:04:16,049 --> 00:04:17,551 So when we die, our 55 00:04:17,676 --> 00:04:20,637 spirit separates from our physical body. 56 00:04:22,222 --> 00:04:23,557 You die and you're ripped off 57 00:04:23,682 --> 00:04:25,308 that flat, black and white 58 00:04:25,434 --> 00:04:26,768 two-dimensional painting 59 00:04:26,893 --> 00:04:29,563 your brought out into a three-dimensional room 60 00:04:29,688 --> 00:04:31,732 of color all around you. 61 00:04:33,608 --> 00:04:34,484 You're experiencing things 62 00:04:34,609 --> 00:04:35,652 you've never experienced before, 63 00:04:35,777 --> 00:04:37,195 even though you can see your world 64 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,406 is contained within this world, 65 00:04:40,991 --> 00:04:43,076 then imagine you're put back into 66 00:04:43,201 --> 00:04:44,911 that flat, black and white painting, 67 00:04:45,037 --> 00:04:46,538 and you have to describe 68 00:04:46,663 --> 00:04:49,374 three dimensions of color 69 00:04:49,499 --> 00:04:52,502 in two-dimensional black and white terms. 70 00:04:52,627 --> 00:04:53,670 How would you do it? 71 00:05:32,667 --> 00:05:34,002 Dr. Sabom: Medically, 72 00:05:34,127 --> 00:05:35,337 Scientifically, 73 00:05:35,587 --> 00:05:37,172 the point of death 74 00:05:37,923 --> 00:05:39,299 cannot be defined. 75 00:05:39,424 --> 00:05:44,554 {\an8}What we do know is there is a process of dying 76 00:05:45,555 --> 00:05:47,015 {\an8}during which I feel the 77 00:05:47,140 --> 00:05:50,060 {\an8}near-death experience occurs. 78 00:05:53,522 --> 00:05:56,149 75% of the people in that first study 79 00:05:56,274 --> 00:05:59,277 have had a documented cardiac arrest. 80 00:06:03,073 --> 00:06:04,407 Part of the experience is they 81 00:06:04,533 --> 00:06:06,159 said they floated up out of their body 82 00:06:06,284 --> 00:06:07,994 and they can see what was going on 83 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:10,080 during the resuscitation. 84 00:06:10,539 --> 00:06:13,542 I felt that myself, as a cardiologist 85 00:06:13,667 --> 00:06:16,670 could pick that apart. 86 00:07:29,159 --> 00:07:31,203 Mr. Burke: This is clinical death as we know it, 87 00:07:31,328 --> 00:07:33,288 sometimes for a few minutes, 88 00:07:33,413 --> 00:07:35,916 sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes hours. 89 00:07:36,041 --> 00:07:39,044 {\an8}And yet modern medicine or the miraculous, 90 00:07:39,211 --> 00:07:40,045 {\an8}I don't know, 91 00:07:40,170 --> 00:07:41,671 {\an8}resuscitated them 92 00:07:41,796 --> 00:07:43,340 {\an8}and they were able to come back 93 00:07:43,465 --> 00:07:44,841 {\an8}and talk about it. 94 00:07:44,966 --> 00:07:46,760 You may think you've died. 95 00:07:46,885 --> 00:07:48,595 {\an8}Dr. Sabom: All definitions, medically, 96 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:50,555 {\an8}scientifically, and legally 97 00:07:50,722 --> 00:07:53,433 {\an8}state that once you go across that red line, 98 00:07:53,558 --> 00:07:55,101 {\an8}i.e. you die, 99 00:07:55,977 --> 00:07:57,520 you don't come back. 100 00:07:57,729 --> 00:08:00,732 And I like to say doctors resuscitate, 101 00:08:01,149 --> 00:08:03,276 not resurrect their patients. 102 00:08:04,569 --> 00:08:06,196 Mr. Burke: I was actually an agnostic. 103 00:08:06,321 --> 00:08:08,281 I didn't know if I believed there was a God. 104 00:08:08,406 --> 00:08:10,116 I thought, I don't know if I believe 105 00:08:10,242 --> 00:08:11,243 there's a heaven or not, 106 00:08:11,368 --> 00:08:13,453 but my dad was dying of cancer 107 00:08:13,578 --> 00:08:16,915 and someone gave him the very first research 108 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,043 on what's now called near-death experiences. 109 00:08:20,293 --> 00:08:21,753 And I saw it on his nightstand, 110 00:08:21,878 --> 00:08:24,339 picked it up and read it in one night. 111 00:08:24,464 --> 00:08:26,174 And that just got me curious. 112 00:08:26,299 --> 00:08:29,261 So I kind of opened my my eyes, my mind, 113 00:08:29,719 --> 00:08:31,263 and I started to explore from there. 114 00:08:34,099 --> 00:08:35,517 I found it fascinating, 115 00:08:35,642 --> 00:08:37,811 kind of, the train of how this 116 00:08:37,936 --> 00:08:39,854 whole near-death experience phenomenon 117 00:08:39,980 --> 00:08:42,941 started to get traction in America. 118 00:08:43,275 --> 00:08:47,112 Dr. George Ritchie was the first one 119 00:08:47,237 --> 00:08:49,948 to really talk publicly about this. 120 00:08:50,073 --> 00:08:52,409 He was actually at Camp Barkeley 121 00:08:52,534 --> 00:08:55,537 getting ready to go fight in World War II. 122 00:08:55,704 --> 00:08:58,415 Joan Rivers: What happened during those 9 minutes? 123 00:08:58,540 --> 00:08:59,791 What did you see? What happened? 124 00:08:59,916 --> 00:09:01,293 Dr. Ritchie: I met the Christ 125 00:09:01,418 --> 00:09:03,169 because I was told to stand up, you are 126 00:09:03,295 --> 00:09:04,921 in the presence of the Son of God. 127 00:09:05,046 --> 00:09:07,132 He came into my room 128 00:09:07,257 --> 00:09:09,676 and he conducted me through four different 129 00:09:09,801 --> 00:09:11,636 realms of life after death. 130 00:09:11,761 --> 00:09:13,805 Life really is forever. We don't die. 131 00:09:13,930 --> 00:09:16,057 Death is nothing more than just a gateway 132 00:09:16,182 --> 00:09:16,933 through which we go. 133 00:09:17,058 --> 00:09:20,520 Mr. Burke: Dr. Moody actually heard him lecture 134 00:09:20,645 --> 00:09:22,230 at the University of Virginia, 135 00:09:22,355 --> 00:09:24,649 where he was a visiting professor 136 00:09:24,774 --> 00:09:25,942 and heard him talk about 137 00:09:26,067 --> 00:09:27,110 this near-death experience. 138 00:09:27,235 --> 00:09:28,611 Dr. Moody: In 1969, 139 00:09:28,737 --> 00:09:30,447 I became a professor of philosophy 140 00:09:30,572 --> 00:09:32,365 at East Carolina University 141 00:09:32,490 --> 00:09:34,659 {\an8}and in teaching courses on Plato. 142 00:09:34,784 --> 00:09:36,202 {\an8}I began to hear these 143 00:09:36,328 --> 00:09:38,580 {\an8}experiences from my students 144 00:09:38,705 --> 00:09:41,291 {\an8}and also from other faculty members. 145 00:09:41,416 --> 00:09:42,500 Dr. Sabom: I was brought into this 146 00:09:42,625 --> 00:09:44,294 field kicking and screaming. 147 00:09:44,419 --> 00:09:46,796 {\an8}I was at the University of Florida in Gainesville 148 00:09:46,921 --> 00:09:48,548 {\an8}with Sarah Kreissinger 149 00:09:48,673 --> 00:09:50,467 {\an8}who was a psychiatric, social worker 150 00:09:50,592 --> 00:09:52,761 {\an8}at the hospital I was working at. 151 00:09:52,886 --> 00:09:54,262 And she had picked up 152 00:09:54,387 --> 00:09:56,806 Raymond Moody's book Life After Life, 153 00:09:56,931 --> 00:09:58,224 about two months 154 00:09:58,350 --> 00:10:00,643 after it was initially published. 155 00:10:00,769 --> 00:10:02,854 She read it. She gave it to me. 156 00:10:02,979 --> 00:10:04,606 She asked me what I thought. 157 00:10:04,731 --> 00:10:06,024 This is Dr. Raymond Moody, 158 00:10:06,149 --> 00:10:08,777 noted psychiatrist, lecturer, and researcher. 159 00:10:08,902 --> 00:10:10,612 He is perhaps best known as the author 160 00:10:10,737 --> 00:10:12,155 of the groundbreaking examination 161 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:13,615 of the near-death experience. 162 00:10:13,740 --> 00:10:16,451 The bestselling book, Life After Life. 163 00:10:16,576 --> 00:10:19,037 It has sold upwards of 15 million copies, 164 00:10:19,162 --> 00:10:22,040 and has been printed in 14 different languages. 165 00:10:22,165 --> 00:10:23,416 Dr. Moody: They tell us, first of all, 166 00:10:23,541 --> 00:10:25,210 that they seem, from their point of view, 167 00:10:25,335 --> 00:10:27,379 to leave their physical bodies 168 00:10:27,504 --> 00:10:30,590 to float up above the scene of the resuscitation 169 00:10:30,715 --> 00:10:33,510 and to watch the events going on down below. 170 00:10:35,887 --> 00:10:37,347 They tell us that they go 171 00:10:37,472 --> 00:10:40,392 through a narrow passageway or a tunnel 172 00:10:41,267 --> 00:10:43,019 into an incredibly brilliant 173 00:10:43,144 --> 00:10:44,729 and warm and loving light 174 00:10:45,772 --> 00:10:46,856 Dr. Sabom: Hogwash. 175 00:10:46,981 --> 00:10:49,526 I never heard these experiences before. 176 00:10:49,651 --> 00:10:50,819 I went into the hospital 177 00:10:50,944 --> 00:10:52,821 asking some of the older physicians, 178 00:10:52,946 --> 00:10:54,989 "Hey, you ever heard a patient say this?" 179 00:10:55,115 --> 00:10:55,949 "No." 180 00:10:58,493 --> 00:11:00,537 So I was very skeptical 181 00:11:00,662 --> 00:11:02,872 that these things were even occurring. 182 00:11:02,997 --> 00:11:04,541 And if they were occurring, 183 00:11:04,666 --> 00:11:06,376 they were either hallucinations 184 00:11:06,501 --> 00:11:09,421 or delusions or whatever. 185 00:11:11,714 --> 00:11:15,176 In cardiology, we're about scientific studies. 186 00:11:15,427 --> 00:11:16,928 So I asked a few people 187 00:11:17,053 --> 00:11:18,596 who had been resuscitated, 188 00:11:18,721 --> 00:11:19,556 and the third patient 189 00:11:19,681 --> 00:11:21,641 I talked to had an experience 190 00:11:21,766 --> 00:11:23,101 similar to what Moody talked 191 00:11:23,226 --> 00:11:25,437 about in his book, Life After Life. 192 00:11:25,562 --> 00:11:28,022 So, Sarah and I said, 193 00:11:28,148 --> 00:11:31,443 Well, maybe we ought to look into this further. 194 00:11:32,777 --> 00:11:35,572 We devised a scientific protocol 195 00:11:35,697 --> 00:11:36,948 to interview these people. 196 00:11:37,073 --> 00:11:38,992 We tape recorded the interviews. 197 00:11:39,117 --> 00:11:40,827 We took down their background data, 198 00:11:40,952 --> 00:11:43,538 the demographics, etc.. And... 199 00:11:44,789 --> 00:11:47,041 this went on for five years. 200 00:11:47,167 --> 00:11:48,710 First of all, I'd get permission 201 00:11:48,835 --> 00:11:52,464 to tape record it and then say, 202 00:11:52,589 --> 00:11:53,798 okay, go... 203 00:12:58,279 --> 00:12:59,447 Dr. Sabom: These people say, 204 00:12:59,572 --> 00:13:01,533 "I've never told anybody about this, doc. 205 00:13:01,658 --> 00:13:02,909 And by the way, I'm the only one 206 00:13:03,034 --> 00:13:04,410 that's ever had this." 207 00:13:04,536 --> 00:13:07,163 So the near-death experience at that time, 208 00:13:07,288 --> 00:13:11,417 and that's about 45 years ago was not well known. 209 00:13:11,626 --> 00:13:14,462 And so these people were sort of 210 00:13:14,587 --> 00:13:16,381 coming up with it on their own, 211 00:13:16,506 --> 00:13:19,634 and they were suspicious of me asking the questions, 212 00:13:19,968 --> 00:13:20,802 which to me 213 00:13:20,927 --> 00:13:23,763 lent credibility to what they were telling me. 214 00:13:23,888 --> 00:13:25,557 Dr. Moody: Many of them said, for example, 215 00:13:25,682 --> 00:13:28,434 that they had tried to tell their doctor about it 216 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,437 or a minister about it and that they were dismissed. 217 00:13:31,563 --> 00:13:33,648 And in those initial years, 218 00:13:33,773 --> 00:13:37,068 the people that I talked with were just very happy 219 00:13:37,193 --> 00:13:39,320 that at last somebody would listen to them. 220 00:13:42,282 --> 00:13:44,576 Mr. Storm: I started at Northern Kentucky University 221 00:13:44,701 --> 00:13:46,369 in 1972. 222 00:13:46,828 --> 00:13:49,205 {\an8}I was hired as an assistant professor and I was 223 00:13:50,164 --> 00:13:52,542 {\an8}offered a promotion to full professor 224 00:13:52,667 --> 00:13:55,795 at the age of 25, and I was also given tenure 225 00:13:56,921 --> 00:13:59,340 my third year. 226 00:14:01,593 --> 00:14:03,177 Seven students, myself 227 00:14:03,303 --> 00:14:03,970 and my wife 228 00:14:04,095 --> 00:14:05,722 toured Amsterdam 229 00:14:05,847 --> 00:14:08,016 and then went up to Denmark. 230 00:14:08,141 --> 00:14:11,102 Spent a few days there, went to Sweden for a day. 231 00:14:11,519 --> 00:14:14,230 And last week, it was a three week trip, 232 00:14:14,355 --> 00:14:17,275 and our last week, was a week in Paris. 233 00:14:19,110 --> 00:14:23,656 It was an art tour, it was, pretty much all museums. 234 00:14:26,367 --> 00:14:28,286 On that Saturday morning, 235 00:14:28,411 --> 00:14:29,954 June 1, 1985, 236 00:14:30,079 --> 00:14:31,164 and I had the most acute 237 00:14:31,289 --> 00:14:32,915 pain I'd ever experienced in my life 238 00:14:33,041 --> 00:14:36,044 in the center of my abdomen. Right there. 239 00:14:41,090 --> 00:14:42,467 It was terrifying because it 240 00:14:42,592 --> 00:14:43,843 it just came from nowhere. 241 00:14:43,968 --> 00:14:46,179 And I never experienced such acute pain. 242 00:14:46,304 --> 00:14:47,764 I mean, this was like 243 00:14:47,889 --> 00:14:49,390 the kind of pain that blows 244 00:14:49,515 --> 00:14:50,725 the top of your head off. 245 00:14:55,355 --> 00:14:56,731 A doctor came very quickly, 246 00:14:56,856 --> 00:14:57,982 got me up off the floor, 247 00:14:58,107 --> 00:14:59,901 with a great deal of difficulty because 248 00:15:00,026 --> 00:15:01,235 I couldn't move. 249 00:15:01,361 --> 00:15:02,612 He knew exactly what was wrong. 250 00:15:02,737 --> 00:15:04,781 and told me that I had a perforation 251 00:15:04,906 --> 00:15:05,990 of the duodenum. 252 00:15:06,115 --> 00:15:07,450 Which means I had a hole 253 00:15:07,575 --> 00:15:09,452 go through my small stomach. 254 00:15:10,119 --> 00:15:12,080 What was happening was the hydrochloric acid 255 00:15:12,205 --> 00:15:12,872 and the enzymes 256 00:15:12,997 --> 00:15:13,748 and the bacteria in everything 257 00:15:13,873 --> 00:15:15,166 are now migrating, leaking 258 00:15:15,291 --> 00:15:16,709 into my abdominal cavity. 259 00:15:16,834 --> 00:15:17,877 To put it in crude terms. 260 00:15:18,002 --> 00:15:21,422 I was digesting myself, on the inside. 261 00:15:22,590 --> 00:15:24,092 Without exaggeration, 262 00:15:24,217 --> 00:15:25,718 what it felt like was fire. 263 00:15:26,719 --> 00:15:28,137 my wife riding alongside me 264 00:15:28,262 --> 00:15:29,055 in the back of the ambulance 265 00:15:29,180 --> 00:15:31,724 as we traveled 70, 80 miles an hour 266 00:15:31,849 --> 00:15:34,977 through the streets of Paris to the big 267 00:15:35,770 --> 00:15:36,813 city hospital 268 00:15:39,273 --> 00:15:40,692 they confirmed basically, 269 00:15:40,817 --> 00:15:42,527 if I didn't have the surgery in an hour, 270 00:15:42,652 --> 00:15:43,653 I would die. 271 00:15:45,113 --> 00:15:47,740 So they sent me to the surgical hospital. 272 00:15:47,865 --> 00:15:49,242 And because it was the weekend, 273 00:15:49,367 --> 00:15:51,869 there was no doctor available. 274 00:15:51,994 --> 00:15:54,622 No surgeon available at the hospital 275 00:15:54,747 --> 00:15:57,667 they sent me to. So I was put in a room. 276 00:15:59,711 --> 00:16:00,753 I begged, I screamed, 277 00:16:00,878 --> 00:16:03,840 I yelled, 278 00:16:05,133 --> 00:16:05,967 and my wife begged 279 00:16:06,092 --> 00:16:07,385 and yelled and screamed, 280 00:16:07,510 --> 00:16:09,512 Nurse, can someone please come in here? 281 00:16:11,681 --> 00:16:12,306 Mr. Storm: Sorry. 282 00:16:12,432 --> 00:16:14,809 We need a doctor to prescribe something 283 00:16:14,934 --> 00:16:16,978 Can you please talk to someone who can help us? 284 00:16:17,103 --> 00:16:18,104 There has to be somebody, 285 00:16:18,229 --> 00:16:20,273 how can there not be someone here? 286 00:16:24,902 --> 00:16:27,780 Mr. Storm: There I was for 10 hours. 287 00:16:27,905 --> 00:16:29,532 About once an hour, the nurse would come in 288 00:16:29,657 --> 00:16:32,160 and ask how I was doing, and I would tell her in 289 00:16:32,285 --> 00:16:35,246 French and English that I was dying and 290 00:16:36,456 --> 00:16:39,459 shrug their shoulders and walk away. 291 00:16:40,460 --> 00:16:41,502 I wasn't in fear. 292 00:16:41,627 --> 00:16:42,879 I was in terror 293 00:16:43,004 --> 00:16:45,882 Because I was 38 years old, very successful 294 00:16:46,007 --> 00:16:47,633 in my career at the university, 295 00:16:47,759 --> 00:16:52,013 you know, wife and two kids, nice house, two cars. 296 00:16:52,472 --> 00:16:53,723 The thing that kept going through 297 00:16:53,848 --> 00:16:55,725 my mind is this can't be happening. 298 00:16:55,850 --> 00:16:57,977 This can't be happening. This can't be happening. 299 00:17:00,521 --> 00:17:01,355 People ask me, 300 00:17:01,481 --> 00:17:02,690 How do you know you were dying? 301 00:17:02,815 --> 00:17:05,735 It's like the stupidest question in the world 302 00:17:06,819 --> 00:17:08,571 when you're dying, you know it 303 00:17:09,697 --> 00:17:11,407 with every breath. 304 00:17:11,532 --> 00:17:14,452 I felt like I had one more breath to go. 305 00:17:17,955 --> 00:17:21,751 Nurse came into the room at 8:30 that night 306 00:17:21,876 --> 00:17:23,169 and said they were sorry, 307 00:17:23,294 --> 00:17:23,961 but they were 308 00:17:24,086 --> 00:17:26,714 unable to locate a doctor and they would try 309 00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:29,801 to find one the next day, which was Sunday. 310 00:17:30,551 --> 00:17:32,428 Well, when she said that, I was like, 311 00:17:32,553 --> 00:17:34,347 okay, it's over. Done. 312 00:17:34,472 --> 00:17:36,098 You know, I can't do this anymore. 313 00:17:36,224 --> 00:17:38,267 You know, I'm exhausted. 314 00:17:38,392 --> 00:17:39,352 And I looked at her [Beverly], 315 00:17:39,477 --> 00:17:42,396 and it was horrible to see her crying like that. 316 00:17:43,397 --> 00:17:47,068 And I closed my eyes and stopped trying to breathe. 317 00:17:47,193 --> 00:17:50,196 And I went unconscious. 318 00:17:52,532 --> 00:17:54,242 I was an atheist, and I knew that 319 00:17:54,367 --> 00:17:56,410 when you die, it's just over. 320 00:17:56,536 --> 00:18:00,414 It's like the big nothing, you know, void the end. 321 00:18:03,292 --> 00:18:03,918 Mr. Black: The official 322 00:18:04,043 --> 00:18:07,004 impact speed recorded by the National 323 00:18:07,129 --> 00:18:10,967 Transportation Safety Board was 135 miles an hour. 324 00:18:12,426 --> 00:18:15,429 We impacted right below the cockpit 325 00:18:15,847 --> 00:18:16,931 with that impact speed. 326 00:18:17,056 --> 00:18:20,268 It just exploded the cockpit into... 327 00:18:20,393 --> 00:18:23,020 {\an8}We just, everything was opened up. 328 00:18:23,145 --> 00:18:25,064 {\an8}We hit that dome and fell, 329 00:18:25,189 --> 00:18:28,109 boom, right down to the ground. 330 00:18:29,694 --> 00:18:31,779 {\an8}I'm told by the curator 331 00:18:31,904 --> 00:18:33,739 {\an8}of the mausoleum, that the mausoleum 332 00:18:33,865 --> 00:18:35,700 {\an8}was six stories, seven stories tall. 333 00:18:35,825 --> 00:18:37,285 {\an8}And we slammed 334 00:18:37,410 --> 00:18:39,537 {\an8}right into the top of it. 335 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:42,373 I can remember today 336 00:18:42,498 --> 00:18:45,418 as well as I could five years ago, ten years ago. 337 00:18:46,127 --> 00:18:50,172 You realize that you are not 338 00:18:51,424 --> 00:18:53,175 a body. 339 00:18:53,301 --> 00:18:55,344 I believe it's 340 00:18:55,469 --> 00:18:58,431 what happens to everyone when they die. 341 00:19:00,057 --> 00:19:01,809 Mr. Storm: I awoke from unconsciousness 342 00:19:01,934 --> 00:19:03,227 standing there 343 00:19:03,352 --> 00:19:04,604 next to the bed, 344 00:19:04,729 --> 00:19:06,606 feeling better than I ever felt before in my life. 345 00:19:08,941 --> 00:19:12,069 My vision was greatly increased. 346 00:19:12,194 --> 00:19:13,696 {\an8}Instead of seeing 106 347 00:19:13,821 --> 00:19:17,241 {\an8}degrees, I could see almost 360 degrees. 348 00:19:18,117 --> 00:19:20,828 My depth of field was total. 349 00:19:20,953 --> 00:19:23,915 When I looked at something close, I, everything 350 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:25,458 far was in focus. 351 00:19:25,583 --> 00:19:27,835 Being an artist and being a visual person, not much. 352 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,922 The first thing I was like, Wow, I've never been able 353 00:19:31,047 --> 00:19:31,756 to see like this. 354 00:19:31,881 --> 00:19:33,174 Then I realized I could hear, 355 00:19:33,299 --> 00:19:35,092 smell, taste, touch, everything. 356 00:19:35,217 --> 00:19:36,260 I could feel 357 00:19:36,385 --> 00:19:39,305 all the little nuances in the cold linoleum floor. 358 00:19:40,431 --> 00:19:43,351 I could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights 359 00:19:43,476 --> 00:19:46,437 in the ceiling really loudly. 360 00:19:47,313 --> 00:19:50,483 All of my senses were greatly, greatly enhanced. 361 00:19:51,233 --> 00:19:53,444 Mr. Black: I'm looking down and I'm realizing 362 00:19:53,569 --> 00:19:56,489 there's my body, but I'm up here. 363 00:19:56,864 --> 00:20:00,660 I can't be dead because I've never felt more alive. 364 00:20:02,870 --> 00:20:05,539 I was not only alive, I was free. 365 00:20:05,665 --> 00:20:07,500 And I didn't understand this. 366 00:20:07,625 --> 00:20:09,251 But I realized then, okay, 367 00:20:10,836 --> 00:20:13,839 I am a spirit. 368 00:20:14,090 --> 00:20:17,093 I have a soul. 369 00:20:18,177 --> 00:20:18,970 And I used to live 370 00:20:19,095 --> 00:20:22,056 in that body. 371 00:20:23,516 --> 00:20:26,519 I was pressed up against the instrument panel 372 00:20:27,186 --> 00:20:30,189 and was motionless. 373 00:20:30,356 --> 00:20:32,858 It was 16 minutes before the fire department 374 00:20:32,984 --> 00:20:33,818 got there. 375 00:20:33,943 --> 00:20:36,946 The paramedics got there right after 376 00:20:39,573 --> 00:20:42,576 they put me and Chuck in the same ambulance. 377 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:48,541 And I have tremendous strong memories 378 00:20:48,874 --> 00:20:53,754 that I'm watching my body and Chuck and I'm chasing 379 00:20:53,879 --> 00:20:56,882 that ambulance as it goes through the streets. 380 00:20:57,049 --> 00:21:00,302 I have no idea how to explain 381 00:21:00,428 --> 00:21:02,596 a lot of the things we're talking about. 382 00:21:02,722 --> 00:21:06,892 But chasing that ambulance without really any effort. 383 00:21:07,143 --> 00:21:08,019 How did I do that? 384 00:21:08,144 --> 00:21:11,063 I don't know. 385 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:15,651 I wasn't worried. 386 00:21:15,776 --> 00:21:16,986 I wasn't in pain. 387 00:21:17,111 --> 00:21:19,447 I wasn't concerned really. 388 00:21:19,572 --> 00:21:24,410 I was questioning, what is this all about 389 00:21:26,495 --> 00:21:28,539 {\an8}Dr. Long: Now, while no two near-death experiences 390 00:21:28,664 --> 00:21:29,457 {\an8}are the same, 391 00:21:29,582 --> 00:21:31,083 {\an8}they have a very consistent 392 00:21:31,208 --> 00:21:33,419 {\an8}pattern of elements or what occurs 393 00:21:33,544 --> 00:21:34,879 {\an8}during the near-death experience. 394 00:21:35,004 --> 00:21:37,840 That typically occur in a very consistent process. 395 00:21:40,134 --> 00:21:41,010 The very first thing that 396 00:21:41,135 --> 00:21:44,055 happens is that close brush with death. 397 00:21:44,180 --> 00:21:45,181 They're unconscious. 398 00:21:45,306 --> 00:21:47,516 They may be clinically dead with absent heartbeat, 399 00:21:47,641 --> 00:21:48,726 absent breathing. 400 00:21:48,851 --> 00:21:50,311 At that time when they shouldn't 401 00:21:50,436 --> 00:21:52,813 have any experience at all, they do. 402 00:21:52,938 --> 00:21:54,815 Often the first thing that happens is 403 00:21:54,940 --> 00:21:57,860 what's called an out-of-body experience. 404 00:21:58,069 --> 00:21:59,528 {\an8}Mr. Burke: People leave their bodies. 405 00:21:59,653 --> 00:22:01,238 {\an8}They're, they're watching 406 00:22:01,363 --> 00:22:03,074 {\an8}the resuscitation many times, but they say 407 00:22:03,199 --> 00:22:05,284 {\an8}they still have a spiritual body. 408 00:22:05,409 --> 00:22:06,494 Dr. Long: From that vantage point, 409 00:22:06,619 --> 00:22:08,454 they can see ongoing earthly events 410 00:22:08,579 --> 00:22:09,955 and often later describe 411 00:22:10,081 --> 00:22:13,042 frantic efforts at their own resuscitation. 412 00:22:16,378 --> 00:22:18,172 Mr. Burke: They move out of that place 413 00:22:18,297 --> 00:22:19,590 of their resuscitation, 414 00:22:19,715 --> 00:22:22,635 and they come to a place of exquisite beauty. 415 00:22:22,802 --> 00:22:25,471 - Dr. Sabom: - They very commonly see a light at times. 416 00:22:25,596 --> 00:22:28,557 They interpret that as a religious figure. 417 00:22:28,766 --> 00:22:32,853 Mr. Burke: And this light was light that is love and life. 418 00:22:33,145 --> 00:22:34,522 It was palpable 419 00:22:34,647 --> 00:22:35,481 and not hard to look at, 420 00:22:35,606 --> 00:22:37,066 but it came out of everything, 421 00:22:37,191 --> 00:22:39,443 and yet it made everything vibrant. 422 00:22:39,568 --> 00:22:41,570 The colors, they say, are far 423 00:22:41,695 --> 00:22:42,988 beyond our color spectrum. 424 00:22:44,365 --> 00:22:45,157 Dr. Long: Music has been 425 00:22:45,282 --> 00:22:47,159 described so beautiful 426 00:22:47,284 --> 00:22:49,286 that they say they've never heard anything like it. 427 00:22:49,411 --> 00:22:51,831 Nothing like that is possible on earth. 428 00:22:51,956 --> 00:22:54,208 Dr. Sabom: Deceased relatives or friends often 429 00:22:54,333 --> 00:22:56,418 come to meet them there. 430 00:22:56,544 --> 00:22:58,921 Mr. Burke: You know, they say we still have all our memories 431 00:22:59,046 --> 00:23:01,006 our humor, we're the same people. 432 00:23:01,132 --> 00:23:03,509 But we meet again on the other side. 433 00:23:03,634 --> 00:23:06,720 {\an8}Dr. Sabom: And some of them say, well, I reached a place where 434 00:23:06,887 --> 00:23:07,596 {\an8}I felt like 435 00:23:07,721 --> 00:23:10,683 {\an8}if I went any further, I wouldn't come back 436 00:23:11,433 --> 00:23:12,101 Dr. Long: At that time, 437 00:23:12,226 --> 00:23:13,769 they may then have a life review. 438 00:23:13,894 --> 00:23:16,814 They may see part or all of their prior life. 439 00:23:17,982 --> 00:23:19,441 Dr. Sabom: The whole experience is 440 00:23:19,567 --> 00:23:22,528 very calm, it's very peaceful. 441 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,323 Some people don't want to come back. 442 00:23:28,576 --> 00:23:29,577 Mr. Burke: And then many talk 443 00:23:29,702 --> 00:23:32,913 about a God of light and love 444 00:23:33,414 --> 00:23:35,916 that they experience in this presence. 445 00:23:36,041 --> 00:23:38,335 This light is brighter than the sun, 446 00:23:38,460 --> 00:23:41,255 but again, not just light like we would see 447 00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:42,173 here on earth. 448 00:23:43,090 --> 00:23:46,635 And they feel an unconditional love 449 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:48,596 and peace and acceptance 450 00:23:48,721 --> 00:23:51,682 from this God like they've never experienced before. 451 00:23:53,142 --> 00:23:55,644 - Dr. Long: - Ultimately, they either make the choice to return 452 00:23:55,769 --> 00:23:58,731 to the earthly body or sent back involuntarily. 453 00:23:59,648 --> 00:24:02,484 Mr. Burke: This God almost always says to them, 454 00:24:02,610 --> 00:24:04,612 Your time is not up yet. 455 00:24:04,737 --> 00:24:07,364 You still have a purpose on Earth. 456 00:24:07,489 --> 00:24:08,532 Sometimes he asks them, 457 00:24:08,657 --> 00:24:09,950 Do you want to stay or do you want to go? 458 00:24:10,075 --> 00:24:12,453 Many times he says, You got to go back. 459 00:24:12,578 --> 00:24:15,581 None of them want to go back. 460 00:24:20,544 --> 00:24:22,046 Mr. Burke: Not every single one of 461 00:24:22,171 --> 00:24:24,423 them experiences all the commonalities. 462 00:24:24,548 --> 00:24:27,843 Some do, some experience three, four or five, 463 00:24:27,968 --> 00:24:30,930 some ten, 20, some, all of them. 464 00:24:31,513 --> 00:24:33,807 But those commonalities overlap. 465 00:24:33,933 --> 00:24:36,393 But there are uniqueness to each experience. 466 00:24:36,518 --> 00:24:39,563 Like when they encounter this god of light and love, 467 00:24:39,813 --> 00:24:42,024 each one of them feels like 468 00:24:42,149 --> 00:24:44,068 they are the only one God loves. 469 00:24:46,987 --> 00:24:47,738 And yet, 470 00:24:47,863 --> 00:24:50,866 they all feel that way. 471 00:25:08,217 --> 00:25:09,260 Mr. Burke: You know actually, these near-death 472 00:25:09,385 --> 00:25:12,346 experiences are not new. 473 00:25:13,472 --> 00:25:15,182 Plato wrote in the Republic about 474 00:25:15,307 --> 00:25:18,227 a soldier who comes to on his funeral pyre 475 00:25:18,644 --> 00:25:21,647 and had an experience like this. 476 00:25:22,231 --> 00:25:24,358 Paul in the New Testament, who wrote much of 477 00:25:24,483 --> 00:25:25,526 the New Testament, 478 00:25:25,651 --> 00:25:27,069 I believe in Acts chapter 14, 479 00:25:27,194 --> 00:25:29,780 He's stoned to death in Lystra 480 00:25:30,072 --> 00:25:31,156 and left for dead. 481 00:25:31,282 --> 00:25:34,118 And then he gets back up and he talks about 482 00:25:34,243 --> 00:25:37,246 how he had an experience of going to heaven 483 00:25:40,874 --> 00:25:41,959 Dr. Moody: In the ancient world. 484 00:25:42,084 --> 00:25:45,129 Presumably these experiences were very rare. 485 00:25:45,796 --> 00:25:48,132 By the time I started investigating it 486 00:25:48,257 --> 00:25:50,509 in the 60s and 70s, 487 00:25:50,634 --> 00:25:52,845 the advent of cardiopulmonary 488 00:25:52,970 --> 00:25:55,097 resuscitation had greatly increased 489 00:25:55,222 --> 00:25:57,808 the number of people who had been to the brink 490 00:25:57,933 --> 00:25:59,101 of death and recovered. 491 00:25:59,226 --> 00:26:01,020 So there were a lot of cases. 492 00:26:01,145 --> 00:26:04,148 Dr. Sabom: Some of them say, well, I reached a place where 493 00:26:04,273 --> 00:26:05,024 I felt like 494 00:26:05,149 --> 00:26:08,068 if I went any further, I wouldn't come back. 495 00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:11,280 And I get questioned about this a lot. 496 00:26:11,405 --> 00:26:12,197 And the question 497 00:26:12,323 --> 00:26:15,200 is, well, is that really a barrier or not? 498 00:26:15,326 --> 00:26:16,660 And my answer is, 499 00:26:16,785 --> 00:26:18,537 well, I've not been able to interview 500 00:26:18,662 --> 00:26:20,331 any of them that didn't come back. 501 00:26:20,456 --> 00:26:21,623 So I assume 502 00:26:21,749 --> 00:26:25,210 that if they do go over that, it very well may be 503 00:26:25,419 --> 00:26:26,670 a point of no return. 504 00:26:26,795 --> 00:26:28,714 I have no evidence to suggest that, 505 00:26:28,839 --> 00:26:32,426 except I have no evidence to refute it either. 506 00:26:35,846 --> 00:26:37,473 Raymond Moody heard about our work, 507 00:26:37,598 --> 00:26:40,476 so he called us up to his house, 508 00:26:40,601 --> 00:26:43,520 along with two other researchers. 509 00:26:44,063 --> 00:26:46,690 Dr. Moody: And that's when I met all of these wonderful people 510 00:26:46,815 --> 00:26:50,069 Bruce Grayson and Mike Sabom and Kenneth Ring. 511 00:26:51,111 --> 00:26:53,447 Dr. Sabom: We got together, we compared notes 512 00:26:53,572 --> 00:26:55,032 and we said, you know, we ought to form 513 00:26:55,157 --> 00:26:58,702 a group and share with one another what we're doing. 514 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:00,788 And it eventually turned out to be 515 00:27:00,913 --> 00:27:03,207 what's now known as IANDS 516 00:27:03,332 --> 00:27:06,293 International Association and Near-Death Studies. 517 00:27:10,047 --> 00:27:12,716 Mr. Burke: After five years of doing research, Dr. Sabom 518 00:27:12,966 --> 00:27:15,928 ends up writing a book convinced that 519 00:27:16,220 --> 00:27:19,848 this really does show that there is life after death. 520 00:27:19,973 --> 00:27:22,643 But then even more fascinating, he publishes 521 00:27:22,768 --> 00:27:23,727 in the Journal of the 522 00:27:23,852 --> 00:27:25,396 American Medical Association 523 00:27:25,521 --> 00:27:27,815 his findings and what changed his mind. 524 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,275 Dr. Long: I was in my residency training 525 00:27:30,401 --> 00:27:32,152 and I was going through a bound journal 526 00:27:32,277 --> 00:27:34,029 looking for a cancer related article. 527 00:27:34,154 --> 00:27:37,032 And completely by accident, I found in the title 528 00:27:37,157 --> 00:27:39,952 of an article the term Near-Death experience. 529 00:27:42,371 --> 00:27:44,123 Dr. Long: Everything I knew as a doctor said, 530 00:27:44,248 --> 00:27:46,792 This is medically inexplicable. 531 00:27:46,917 --> 00:27:47,918 In this article 532 00:27:48,043 --> 00:27:49,545 all around the world, were people 533 00:27:49,670 --> 00:27:51,880 having these experiences while they were unconscious 534 00:27:52,005 --> 00:27:53,799 or even clinically dead 535 00:27:53,924 --> 00:27:55,843 who can't be mystified by that question 536 00:27:55,968 --> 00:27:58,929 of what happens after you die? 537 00:28:00,806 --> 00:28:03,267 Dr. Moody: As I've traveled around the world to China 538 00:28:03,392 --> 00:28:05,102 and Japan and India 539 00:28:05,227 --> 00:28:08,147 and North and South America and all over Europe, 540 00:28:08,564 --> 00:28:11,150 people all over the world use the word light, 541 00:28:11,275 --> 00:28:12,693 but they say that it's not 542 00:28:12,818 --> 00:28:13,777 the light that comes 543 00:28:13,902 --> 00:28:16,196 from a light bulb or from the sun. 544 00:28:16,321 --> 00:28:18,949 But universally the description is that the 545 00:28:19,074 --> 00:28:21,618 light of complete compassion and love. 546 00:28:21,743 --> 00:28:24,621 And people also say that they learned 547 00:28:24,746 --> 00:28:27,124 from their experience that what we call 548 00:28:27,249 --> 00:28:30,836 death is a transition into some other reality. 549 00:28:31,170 --> 00:28:33,088 So they lose their fear of death. 550 00:28:38,469 --> 00:28:41,972 Don Piper: The day was January 18th, 1989, 551 00:28:42,097 --> 00:28:45,100 very chilly by South Texas standards. 552 00:28:45,559 --> 00:28:48,103 {\an8}I almost stopped in a little town 553 00:28:48,228 --> 00:28:50,898 {\an8}before you cross all the bridges to get some 554 00:28:51,023 --> 00:28:52,816 {\an8}some coffee. I didn't. 555 00:28:52,941 --> 00:28:55,277 The people who were on the highway ahead of me, 556 00:28:55,402 --> 00:28:57,529 she wanted some coffee. They pulled over. 557 00:28:57,654 --> 00:29:00,616 I drove past them and they came in behind me, 558 00:29:00,782 --> 00:29:03,785 Dick and Anita, Onarecker. 559 00:29:04,453 --> 00:29:09,500 {\an8}It was foggy and a slight rain. 560 00:29:09,625 --> 00:29:11,835 {\an8}It was wet 561 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:14,880 and I knew I would have to cross some bridges. 562 00:29:16,381 --> 00:29:19,009 It was an old bridge 563 00:29:19,134 --> 00:29:22,095 and it is very narrow. 564 00:29:22,638 --> 00:29:25,474 I'm just really focused on getting back 565 00:29:25,599 --> 00:29:28,560 to Alvin, Texas, where I lived. 566 00:29:28,852 --> 00:29:30,646 I was headed back that way 567 00:29:30,771 --> 00:29:32,272 and looking forward to seeing my family, 568 00:29:32,397 --> 00:29:35,734 which I missed for three days, especially my wife. 569 00:29:37,152 --> 00:29:38,320 What I didn't know 570 00:29:38,445 --> 00:29:41,406 was that steep embankment was there. 571 00:29:42,866 --> 00:29:44,826 It's like going on a tunnel 572 00:29:44,952 --> 00:29:46,870 because you had this big metal superstructure 573 00:29:46,995 --> 00:29:49,915 above you, on both sides of you. 574 00:29:50,415 --> 00:29:52,167 You can see only really 575 00:29:52,292 --> 00:29:55,212 to the end of the bridge and then 576 00:29:55,504 --> 00:29:57,506 the highway goes up. 577 00:29:57,631 --> 00:30:00,634 So I couldn't see beyond the end of the bridge. 578 00:30:01,051 --> 00:30:02,970 Out of nowhere, a tractor 579 00:30:03,095 --> 00:30:06,014 trailer truck hit the car in his lane, 580 00:30:06,265 --> 00:30:09,393 then came over to my lane and hit me head on. 581 00:30:22,990 --> 00:30:25,450 When we approached the bridge, 582 00:30:25,576 --> 00:30:27,953 the first thing on the right 583 00:30:28,078 --> 00:30:31,123 was this large 18 wheeler, and then the next 584 00:30:31,248 --> 00:30:33,667 thing on the left, I believe, was a gray car. 585 00:30:33,792 --> 00:30:36,712 It had a single older man in it. 586 00:30:37,796 --> 00:30:40,966 Then the next thing was Don's red car 587 00:30:41,091 --> 00:30:43,385 that was all crushed and smashed. 588 00:30:43,510 --> 00:30:46,054 So we were only four vehicles on the bridge 589 00:30:46,179 --> 00:30:47,472 at that point. 590 00:30:47,598 --> 00:30:48,473 Swen Spujt: I was stationed 591 00:30:48,599 --> 00:30:50,100 {\an8}in Walker County at the time. 592 00:30:50,225 --> 00:30:51,768 {\an8}I said, How does it look for him? 593 00:30:51,893 --> 00:30:53,687 And they said, "not good at all." 594 00:30:53,812 --> 00:30:56,064 That was, you know, just something I never forgot. 595 00:30:56,189 --> 00:30:57,608 I mean, was seeing that 596 00:30:57,733 --> 00:30:59,901 it was a miserable, miserable day. 597 00:31:00,027 --> 00:31:01,528 Traffic is backed up from miles 598 00:31:01,653 --> 00:31:03,655 in both directions because at that time 599 00:31:03,780 --> 00:31:06,116 there was the only bridge across that lake, 600 00:31:06,241 --> 00:31:07,284 in fact, Dick Onarecker. 601 00:31:07,451 --> 00:31:08,201 And Anita 602 00:31:08,327 --> 00:31:11,830 had to leave their car and walk up on the bridge 603 00:31:11,955 --> 00:31:14,791 to get to where the accident was. 604 00:31:14,916 --> 00:31:16,918 Police approached Dick first and said, 605 00:31:17,044 --> 00:31:18,962 Don't even bother with that man. 606 00:31:19,087 --> 00:31:21,590 I've already checked him and he has no pulse. 607 00:31:21,715 --> 00:31:23,592 And then Dick did check, 608 00:31:23,717 --> 00:31:26,136 and he could not identify any pulse. 609 00:31:27,721 --> 00:31:30,641 You could see from this wrecking yard picture that 610 00:31:30,766 --> 00:31:33,727 the trajectory of the truck as it went over. 611 00:31:34,978 --> 00:31:37,773 When the truck hit me, it literally took 612 00:31:37,898 --> 00:31:40,859 this arm over my shoulder into the back seat. 613 00:31:41,902 --> 00:31:42,903 The steering wheel 614 00:31:43,028 --> 00:31:46,198 actually went horizontal and into my chest 615 00:31:47,282 --> 00:31:50,202 My head had banged up against the metal side 616 00:31:50,327 --> 00:31:53,288 of the interior of the car. 617 00:31:53,538 --> 00:31:56,541 My right leg was broken at the knee, 618 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,504 but I must have slid on the seat a little sideways 619 00:32:01,171 --> 00:32:02,881 because it hit from that angle. 620 00:32:03,006 --> 00:32:06,051 And when it did, it literally severed my left 621 00:32:06,176 --> 00:32:09,179 leg just above the knee, 622 00:32:10,097 --> 00:32:13,225 and four and a half inches of the femur 623 00:32:13,558 --> 00:32:17,062 was ejected from the car and actually never found. 624 00:32:17,938 --> 00:32:19,314 I had been killed instantly. 625 00:32:19,439 --> 00:32:21,566 My heart was not beating, 626 00:32:21,692 --> 00:32:23,318 so it was not pumping blood. 627 00:32:24,611 --> 00:32:27,614 I died on the bridge. 628 00:32:34,079 --> 00:32:37,082 Dr. Neal: I'm a board certified orthopedic spine surgeon 629 00:32:37,833 --> 00:32:42,754 {\an8}and physicians spend their entire career 630 00:32:44,172 --> 00:32:45,549 {\an8}evading death. 631 00:32:45,674 --> 00:32:49,052 {\an8}We believe that if we are smart enough, 632 00:32:49,428 --> 00:32:51,346 if we are well-trained enough, 633 00:32:51,471 --> 00:32:54,808 and if we do a good enough job that we can control 634 00:32:54,933 --> 00:32:57,936 the outcomes, that we can control the variables 635 00:32:58,061 --> 00:33:01,064 and we can cheat death. 636 00:33:03,775 --> 00:33:06,862 My husband and I were avid kayakers. 637 00:33:07,946 --> 00:33:10,031 Kayaking is 638 00:33:10,157 --> 00:33:13,160 both challenging and exhilarating. 639 00:33:13,618 --> 00:33:16,371 We began to go down the river. 640 00:33:16,496 --> 00:33:19,124 We went over the first couple of drops. 641 00:33:19,249 --> 00:33:22,294 It was very high flow, very high 642 00:33:22,419 --> 00:33:24,421 current, strong current. 643 00:33:24,546 --> 00:33:27,257 There is another client that sort of bobbled 644 00:33:27,382 --> 00:33:29,301 her way past me and 645 00:33:29,426 --> 00:33:32,429 ended up sideways at the entrance to the chute. 646 00:33:33,263 --> 00:33:36,183 So my only option was to veer over 647 00:33:36,308 --> 00:33:38,435 and go over the main part of the waterfall 648 00:33:43,064 --> 00:33:45,192 and the front end of my boat 649 00:33:45,317 --> 00:33:48,278 became pinned 650 00:33:51,531 --> 00:33:53,325 and the boat and I were then 651 00:33:53,450 --> 00:33:56,953 completely submerged under 8 to 10 feet of water. 652 00:34:04,711 --> 00:34:08,006 I recognized that I was probably going to drown. 653 00:34:12,469 --> 00:34:15,388 I would think about the fact that 654 00:34:15,514 --> 00:34:18,558 I must be dead, but I didn't feel dead. 655 00:34:19,351 --> 00:34:22,312 I felt more alive than I've ever felt. 656 00:34:24,689 --> 00:34:27,150 I felt this incredible experience 657 00:34:27,275 --> 00:34:30,195 like I was just part of the water. 658 00:34:30,737 --> 00:34:33,740 I felt magnificent, actually. 659 00:34:34,783 --> 00:34:37,869 I knew that I was being held by Christ 660 00:34:39,079 --> 00:34:42,082 as purely as I know, 661 00:34:42,457 --> 00:34:43,708 anything. 662 00:34:45,418 --> 00:34:48,004 I know it sounds crazy, 663 00:34:48,129 --> 00:34:52,217 but it's just something that 664 00:34:53,260 --> 00:34:56,263 is outside of our language. 665 00:34:57,472 --> 00:34:59,975 Peter Panagore: We went up a world famous climb, 666 00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:02,602 maybe 500 feet, three pitches up 667 00:35:02,727 --> 00:35:04,479 David Ditchfield: As the train started pulling out, 668 00:35:04,604 --> 00:35:06,481 I just thought, This is it. I'm going to die. 669 00:35:06,606 --> 00:35:08,650 I took a corner to a 90 miles 670 00:35:08,775 --> 00:35:11,236 an hour, flipped over, and it landed on the top. 671 00:35:11,361 --> 00:35:13,655 All I remember seeing was a big white, white light. 672 00:35:13,780 --> 00:35:15,907 The knife had gone all the way through my liver. 673 00:35:16,032 --> 00:35:19,077 I had a punctured lung and I started feeling myself 674 00:35:19,744 --> 00:35:20,745 leave my body. 675 00:35:20,871 --> 00:35:22,747 You were in the hospital bed, right? 676 00:35:22,873 --> 00:35:24,457 But you had left your body and you 677 00:35:24,583 --> 00:35:26,501 Betty Eadie: My body was on the bed and my spirit ... 678 00:35:26,626 --> 00:35:28,169 and I could see in every direction. 679 00:35:28,295 --> 00:35:30,005 {\an8}Up on the ceiling looking down. 680 00:35:30,130 --> 00:35:32,883 {\an8}There was this feeling of a presence. It felt like God 681 00:35:33,008 --> 00:35:34,801 Not like this guy up in the sky. 682 00:35:34,968 --> 00:35:36,011 And that was God. 683 00:35:36,136 --> 00:35:37,137 I just know it was God 684 00:35:37,262 --> 00:35:39,097 The meaning of life, of everything, 685 00:35:39,222 --> 00:35:41,182 It was unlike anything I've ever experienced. 686 00:35:41,308 --> 00:35:42,893 I have no fear of death. 687 00:35:43,018 --> 00:35:45,604 ...it's with total knowledge and unconditional love... 688 00:35:45,729 --> 00:35:48,607 It was all the love that is in the universe. 689 00:35:48,773 --> 00:35:50,901 Death is not the end. It's probably the beginning. 690 00:35:51,026 --> 00:35:52,319 I looked into his eyes, It was like 691 00:35:52,444 --> 00:35:54,404 I was looking at forever inside of him, 692 00:35:54,529 --> 00:35:55,822 and I could see the love he had for me. 693 00:35:55,947 --> 00:35:57,657 You know, people don't believe you 694 00:35:57,782 --> 00:36:00,285 when you say the story, but it's just so real. 695 00:36:03,955 --> 00:36:07,125 Dr. Neal: Almost 30 minutes had gone by. 696 00:36:07,292 --> 00:36:11,296 Enough time had passed that they had shifted from 697 00:36:11,796 --> 00:36:15,216 a rescue mode to purely a body recovery mode. 698 00:36:16,176 --> 00:36:20,221 I could see this bloated purple body 699 00:36:20,347 --> 00:36:24,434 and I never felt alive and then dead. 700 00:36:24,559 --> 00:36:27,646 I never felt conscious and unconscious. 701 00:36:28,063 --> 00:36:30,774 I felt conscious and then more conscious 702 00:36:30,899 --> 00:36:35,153 I felt alive and then more alive. 703 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,909 Dr. Sabom: I came into this thing skeptical, mean 704 00:36:41,034 --> 00:36:43,995 {\an8}I could have very easily blown this whole thing off. 705 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,580 {\an8}If you go to the resuscitation 706 00:36:45,705 --> 00:36:46,790 {\an8}for 20 minutes 707 00:36:46,915 --> 00:36:47,582 {\an8}and you've been 708 00:36:47,707 --> 00:36:50,627 {\an8}without oxygen for 20 minutes or whatever, 709 00:36:51,544 --> 00:36:53,838 you're going to lose some neurons, 710 00:36:53,964 --> 00:36:55,173 You're going to have brain damage. 711 00:36:55,298 --> 00:36:56,967 You may not live either. 712 00:36:57,092 --> 00:36:59,761 You'll die a neurologic death 713 00:36:59,886 --> 00:37:02,847 general rule is, the longer without the oxygen. 714 00:37:03,181 --> 00:37:06,851 Normally, the more brain damage you're going to have, 715 00:37:07,227 --> 00:37:10,897 and it's progressive until it's restored. 716 00:37:12,190 --> 00:37:14,317 CBS News: A new study may provide answers 717 00:37:14,442 --> 00:37:15,527 {\an8}to the age old question 718 00:37:15,652 --> 00:37:18,613 {\an8}What happens to our brains when we die? 719 00:37:20,615 --> 00:37:24,661 {\an8}Dr. Zemmar: The brain has always been the most fascinating 720 00:37:24,869 --> 00:37:26,079 {\an8}and the most interesting 721 00:37:26,204 --> 00:37:27,956 {\an8}organ to me because to the world 722 00:37:28,081 --> 00:37:30,208 {\an8}it is completely unexplored. 723 00:37:30,333 --> 00:37:32,252 I was working in Vancouver at the Vancouver 724 00:37:32,377 --> 00:37:33,378 General Hospital. 725 00:37:33,503 --> 00:37:35,797 This was the 87 year old gentleman. 726 00:37:35,922 --> 00:37:38,842 He came during the emergency shift 727 00:37:39,426 --> 00:37:43,304 with a bleed between the brain and the skull. 728 00:37:43,430 --> 00:37:46,391 We call it a subdural hematoma. 729 00:37:46,725 --> 00:37:49,019 And we decided to operate. 730 00:37:49,144 --> 00:37:50,687 We removed the skull. 731 00:37:50,812 --> 00:37:52,022 We removed the bleeding. 732 00:37:52,147 --> 00:37:53,815 He did fairly well after the surgery 733 00:37:53,940 --> 00:37:55,859 for about three days. 734 00:37:56,109 --> 00:37:58,737 And then he started having seizures. 735 00:37:58,862 --> 00:38:02,574 So we went and applied an EEG to see 736 00:38:02,699 --> 00:38:04,701 where the seizures are coming from 737 00:38:04,826 --> 00:38:06,327 and how to treat them. 738 00:38:06,453 --> 00:38:08,329 Once we had this applied, 739 00:38:08,621 --> 00:38:10,457 he had a heart attack and died. 740 00:38:12,625 --> 00:38:14,669 So that left us with 741 00:38:14,794 --> 00:38:18,214 the rare recording of the human brain 742 00:38:18,339 --> 00:38:20,050 that went from a life to death. 743 00:38:21,051 --> 00:38:24,763 It's the first ever recording of a dying human 744 00:38:24,888 --> 00:38:27,891 brain, one that happened entirely by chance. 745 00:38:28,016 --> 00:38:29,851 We've heard about people 746 00:38:29,976 --> 00:38:32,395 {\an8}before who have faced near death experiences. 747 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,522 {\an8}Describe this moment 748 00:38:34,647 --> 00:38:36,232 where they were the important moments 749 00:38:36,357 --> 00:38:38,234 in their life flashed before their head. 750 00:38:38,359 --> 00:38:39,778 Is that what we're talking about? 751 00:38:39,903 --> 00:38:41,488 Is that what this is? 752 00:38:41,613 --> 00:38:42,781 - Dr. From what this case of 753 00:38:42,906 --> 00:38:43,740 One tells us 754 00:38:43,865 --> 00:38:45,784 all the things they are consistently 755 00:38:45,909 --> 00:38:48,495 being described by people who undergo 756 00:38:48,620 --> 00:38:50,080 near-death experience. 757 00:38:50,205 --> 00:38:52,916 These guys have exhibited these brain waves 758 00:38:53,041 --> 00:38:55,960 that exactly the same ones we're measuring 759 00:38:56,086 --> 00:38:59,464 when we record the activity of this patient 760 00:38:59,839 --> 00:39:00,507 30 seconds 761 00:39:00,632 --> 00:39:02,217 before the heart stops beating 762 00:39:02,342 --> 00:39:05,303 and 30 seconds after the heart stops beating, 763 00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:07,889 that we found was quite astonishing. 764 00:39:08,932 --> 00:39:11,101 After searching and searching, 765 00:39:11,226 --> 00:39:14,437 we had not found anybody at the time when we wrote 766 00:39:14,562 --> 00:39:16,481 the manuscript and submitted it 767 00:39:16,606 --> 00:39:19,901 that had full brain recordings 768 00:39:20,026 --> 00:39:21,820 from the dying human brain. 769 00:39:21,945 --> 00:39:24,948 Under acute clinical environments. 770 00:39:25,615 --> 00:39:28,743 brain waves are always present 771 00:39:29,035 --> 00:39:31,746 {\an8}in our brain. 772 00:39:31,871 --> 00:39:34,999 {\an8}They differ in frequency, 773 00:39:35,125 --> 00:39:39,629 {\an8}meaning how many times per second they oscillate. 774 00:39:40,004 --> 00:39:44,884 The high frequency waves are called gamma waves. 775 00:39:45,510 --> 00:39:48,138 Then the lower ones we call them 776 00:39:48,263 --> 00:39:51,266 beta, theta, alpha and delta waves. 777 00:39:51,641 --> 00:39:54,811 Those are slower frequent oscillations. 778 00:39:54,936 --> 00:39:58,940 We found an increased interplay 779 00:39:59,065 --> 00:40:02,026 of these oscillatory bands with each other. 780 00:40:03,361 --> 00:40:06,573 We looked at how this, for example, 781 00:40:07,323 --> 00:40:10,743 theta waves that are known for memory recall, 782 00:40:10,869 --> 00:40:14,539 how do they couple with gamma waves? 783 00:40:14,956 --> 00:40:17,542 And we found an increased coupling of the 784 00:40:17,667 --> 00:40:20,545 two after a heart stopped beating. 785 00:40:20,670 --> 00:40:23,464 The brain is a prediction machine that is designed 786 00:40:23,590 --> 00:40:24,424 for survival. 787 00:40:25,592 --> 00:40:26,634 So we see something, 788 00:40:26,759 --> 00:40:27,886 we interpret the signal, 789 00:40:28,011 --> 00:40:29,637 we generate a response 790 00:40:30,388 --> 00:40:33,850 in all kinds of responses that the brain generates. 791 00:40:34,809 --> 00:40:38,605 The only one we can measure right now is movement. 792 00:40:39,898 --> 00:40:42,775 We can't measure what we call thinking. 793 00:40:42,901 --> 00:40:44,360 Can you measure emotions? 794 00:40:44,485 --> 00:40:45,153 Feelings? 795 00:40:45,278 --> 00:40:46,321 I don't know what to answer you. 796 00:40:46,446 --> 00:40:48,239 We can't measure all these things. 797 00:40:48,364 --> 00:40:51,367 We know that the brain somehow does these things. 798 00:40:51,993 --> 00:40:53,077 We may never understand 799 00:40:53,203 --> 00:40:54,621 what exactly happens. 800 00:40:54,746 --> 00:40:56,080 And maybe that's not the most 801 00:40:56,206 --> 00:40:57,916 important thing either. 802 00:40:58,499 --> 00:40:59,626 If the science 803 00:40:59,751 --> 00:41:02,587 can contribute even a minute percentage 804 00:41:02,712 --> 00:41:04,797 and can shed light 805 00:41:04,923 --> 00:41:08,218 on the nature of the human brain dying. 806 00:41:08,593 --> 00:41:10,011 If I could go to my patients 807 00:41:10,136 --> 00:41:11,554 and I could tell them, 808 00:41:11,679 --> 00:41:15,308 it may be that your loved one is replaying 809 00:41:15,433 --> 00:41:17,268 some of the memories of their life. 810 00:41:18,895 --> 00:41:21,898 It somehow makes things easier. 811 00:41:22,106 --> 00:41:24,776 It tells them they're not suffering. 812 00:41:24,901 --> 00:41:27,862 That, I think, would help patients in that 813 00:41:27,987 --> 00:41:30,949 tremendously difficult time. 814 00:41:41,459 --> 00:41:43,378 {\an8}Growing up in South Korea. 815 00:41:43,503 --> 00:41:45,004 {\an8}I grew up in a Buddhist home. 816 00:41:45,129 --> 00:41:46,506 {\an8}Ever since the age of six, seven, 817 00:41:46,631 --> 00:41:50,551 {\an8}I was asking questions like, Why are humans made? 818 00:41:50,677 --> 00:41:52,679 Why are we born? 819 00:41:52,804 --> 00:41:55,223 What is the purpose of mankind? 820 00:41:55,348 --> 00:41:57,392 Why am I here? 821 00:41:57,517 --> 00:41:58,935 The Buddhist monks at the temple 822 00:41:59,060 --> 00:42:00,561 would say things like, Oh yeah, Steve, 823 00:42:00,687 --> 00:42:02,397 you can go to heaven, you can go to hell, 824 00:42:02,522 --> 00:42:03,314 come back, 825 00:42:03,439 --> 00:42:04,482 you can get reincarnated 826 00:42:04,607 --> 00:42:06,567 into an animal or a different species. 827 00:42:06,693 --> 00:42:08,528 They taught you how to do right and do wrong, 828 00:42:08,653 --> 00:42:10,697 and try to earn your salvation. 829 00:42:10,822 --> 00:42:13,658 My mother, who was trained as a registered nurse, 830 00:42:13,783 --> 00:42:14,450 she got recruited 831 00:42:14,575 --> 00:42:17,537 by a VA veterans hospital in Boston. 832 00:42:18,371 --> 00:42:20,081 You know, she prepared the way for us to come. 833 00:42:20,206 --> 00:42:22,458 So I came with my younger brother in elementary school. 834 00:42:26,671 --> 00:42:27,463 The older I got, 835 00:42:27,588 --> 00:42:30,091 middle school and even up to freshman year, 836 00:42:30,216 --> 00:42:31,968 and I remember feeling a lot of confusion. 837 00:42:32,093 --> 00:42:33,803 I remember looking in the mirror and saying, 838 00:42:33,928 --> 00:42:35,513 How come I'm the only one? 839 00:42:35,638 --> 00:42:37,849 How come I have to be Korean? 840 00:42:37,974 --> 00:42:40,393 And it was a big struggle and led me to become 841 00:42:40,518 --> 00:42:41,352 a little rebellious. 842 00:42:41,477 --> 00:42:44,188 Like I joined the garage band. I tried to... 843 00:42:44,314 --> 00:42:45,356 I think I tried a little harder 844 00:42:45,481 --> 00:42:48,443 than others to try to fit in. 845 00:42:49,235 --> 00:42:51,779 And I just remember, you know, always feeling 846 00:42:51,904 --> 00:42:54,782 a little empty, feeling confusion and emptiness. 847 00:42:54,907 --> 00:42:56,242 You know, from high school. 848 00:42:59,037 --> 00:43:00,997 I remember in the summer of 1998, 849 00:43:01,122 --> 00:43:03,041 we will get high in the morning, 850 00:43:03,166 --> 00:43:05,752 in the afternoon, in the evening, the whole summer. 851 00:43:05,877 --> 00:43:08,254 I don't remember being sober for an hour. 852 00:43:08,379 --> 00:43:11,215 And my mom and brother were getting super worried. 853 00:43:11,341 --> 00:43:12,842 I called the Buddhist temple for help. 854 00:43:12,967 --> 00:43:14,052 They didn't help either. 855 00:43:14,177 --> 00:43:14,969 So I realized, like, 856 00:43:15,094 --> 00:43:18,556 this is something that is beyond my power ability to 857 00:43:19,015 --> 00:43:20,683 to to save myself from. 858 00:43:23,019 --> 00:43:24,687 You know, people say when they see demons 859 00:43:24,812 --> 00:43:26,230 or evil spirits, they might think 860 00:43:26,356 --> 00:43:28,941 somebody comes with a pitchfork and horns. 861 00:43:29,067 --> 00:43:30,485 But I had an open eye 862 00:43:30,610 --> 00:43:32,653 vision of all Asian grandpa coming. 863 00:43:32,779 --> 00:43:34,572 He's talking to me like I'm talking to you. 864 00:43:34,697 --> 00:43:35,490 He said, Hey, Steve, I know you're 865 00:43:35,615 --> 00:43:36,366 having a hard time. 866 00:43:36,532 --> 00:43:39,660 If you commit suicide and take your own life, 867 00:43:40,036 --> 00:43:42,997 then I can give you 50,000 less years of hell. 868 00:43:43,122 --> 00:43:44,707 And I'm like, That's a great deal. 869 00:43:46,501 --> 00:43:47,960 I went to the kitchen. 870 00:43:48,086 --> 00:43:50,171 I grabbed the biggest knife I could find. 871 00:43:50,296 --> 00:43:52,131 Got on my knees. 872 00:43:52,256 --> 00:43:53,091 So I grabbed a knife 873 00:43:53,216 --> 00:43:54,842 and I cut my neck open here, 874 00:43:55,426 --> 00:43:58,096 which, you know, was very painful. 875 00:43:58,429 --> 00:44:00,098 My mom sees the event happening, 876 00:44:00,223 --> 00:44:01,933 so she calls 911. 877 00:44:02,058 --> 00:44:04,102 The cops came, and then there's 878 00:44:04,227 --> 00:44:06,229 the Grandpa spirit is still there speaking to me, 879 00:44:06,354 --> 00:44:07,105 says, Steve, you got to hurry up. 880 00:44:07,230 --> 00:44:08,523 You're going to miss your chance. 881 00:44:08,648 --> 00:44:09,440 Go for the stomach. 882 00:44:09,565 --> 00:44:14,153 So I cut my stomach open, which actually is, 883 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:16,406 you know, the scars go down all the way here. 884 00:44:16,531 --> 00:44:18,741 I lost a big part of my blood. 885 00:44:19,909 --> 00:44:22,912 The cops came and whacked me with a bat. 886 00:44:23,204 --> 00:44:24,997 I dropped the knife. 887 00:44:25,123 --> 00:44:27,583 I remember losing consciousness. 888 00:44:27,708 --> 00:44:29,001 The whole living was bloody red. 889 00:44:29,127 --> 00:44:31,796 My mom was crying. I remember hearing her. 890 00:44:31,921 --> 00:44:33,005 They put me in the stretcher 891 00:44:33,131 --> 00:44:34,882 because already I'm very damaged. 892 00:44:35,007 --> 00:44:37,260 I'm losing blood, like at a very fast rate 893 00:44:37,385 --> 00:44:39,387 and I'm going in of conscious. 894 00:44:39,512 --> 00:44:41,222 The grandpa spirits gone 895 00:44:41,347 --> 00:44:43,641 and then it was just into the unknown after that. 896 00:44:44,225 --> 00:44:45,435 I remember coming out, 897 00:44:45,852 --> 00:44:49,480 seeing my body and then seeing the E.R. room. 898 00:44:49,605 --> 00:44:53,943 I remember going through just darkness, like even 899 00:44:54,068 --> 00:44:57,071 seeing rocks and stones around me just falling. 900 00:44:57,738 --> 00:45:00,241 It just felt like I was falling in an elevator. 901 00:45:00,366 --> 00:45:03,327 And I don't know how to put it into words exactly, 902 00:45:03,661 --> 00:45:05,455 but I knew I was going to a different place. 903 00:45:05,580 --> 00:45:07,123 There was still real, 904 00:45:07,248 --> 00:45:09,292 more real than anything here on Earth. 905 00:45:09,417 --> 00:45:10,585 I was still fully conscious. 906 00:45:10,710 --> 00:45:11,627 Everything's happening, 907 00:45:11,752 --> 00:45:13,129 but now it's like 908 00:45:13,254 --> 00:45:14,380 there's different set of rules, 909 00:45:14,505 --> 00:45:17,300 there's a different set of awarenesses. 910 00:45:17,425 --> 00:45:19,093 And you're saying goodbye to Earth. 911 00:45:19,218 --> 00:45:21,179 I knew I was saying goodbye to Earth. 912 00:45:21,304 --> 00:45:24,265 And going to another place of eternity. 913 00:45:24,515 --> 00:45:26,893 And then God came to me and like a ball of light, 914 00:45:27,018 --> 00:45:28,603 that became like a triangle. 915 00:45:29,437 --> 00:45:31,689 Behind it I saw the city, 916 00:45:31,814 --> 00:45:34,025 I looked up and it was glittering like gold. 917 00:45:34,150 --> 00:45:35,359 The walls were gold. 918 00:45:36,736 --> 00:45:37,612 I don't know how it works, 919 00:45:37,737 --> 00:45:40,656 but it's definitely a place we go. 920 00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:44,118 I heard a voice before I woke up. 921 00:45:44,243 --> 00:45:45,661 I love you. 922 00:45:45,786 --> 00:45:48,748 And I open my eyes and I'm in the emergency room. 923 00:45:48,873 --> 00:45:51,667 I was like, Oh my God, I'm alive. 924 00:45:51,792 --> 00:45:53,294 So first of all, I was so thankful I was alive. 925 00:45:53,419 --> 00:45:55,671 I look around, my mom's there, 926 00:45:55,796 --> 00:45:58,508 she's crying, grabbing my hand, son, you know, 927 00:45:58,633 --> 00:46:00,635 you, you regained consciousness. 928 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,054 And I was still trying to process what happened, 929 00:46:03,179 --> 00:46:04,597 but I just knew I was back on Earth. 930 00:46:06,724 --> 00:46:09,352 They said it took two surgeries to cover 931 00:46:09,477 --> 00:46:10,645 the blood vessels that were cut. 932 00:46:10,770 --> 00:46:13,397 A specialist had to fly in at the last minute, 933 00:46:13,523 --> 00:46:15,024 and if he was late, they told me I would 934 00:46:15,149 --> 00:46:16,359 have been bye, bye forever. 935 00:46:16,484 --> 00:46:18,402 My heart and blood wouldn't go back up. 936 00:46:18,528 --> 00:46:20,112 We just kept sinking, sinking, sinking, 937 00:46:20,238 --> 00:46:21,572 during the whole surgery. 938 00:46:21,697 --> 00:46:23,199 And they said it was a miracle. 939 00:46:23,324 --> 00:46:24,242 Good timing. 940 00:46:28,913 --> 00:46:32,291 I know one thing, we all live once and die once. 941 00:46:32,416 --> 00:46:34,794 And there is judgment after. 942 00:46:42,552 --> 00:46:43,386 Dr. Sabom: I think that there are 943 00:46:43,511 --> 00:46:47,306 a lot of people that do take advantage of this. 944 00:46:47,598 --> 00:46:49,850 The novelty and the fascination 945 00:46:49,976 --> 00:46:52,853 of this experience. 946 00:46:52,979 --> 00:46:55,064 We're all to die and we all want to know 947 00:46:55,189 --> 00:46:56,732 what's going to happen once that happens. 948 00:46:56,857 --> 00:46:57,900 So, I mean, 949 00:46:58,025 --> 00:47:01,612 this is speaking to us all. And of great importance. 950 00:47:02,738 --> 00:47:05,741 That can be abused. 951 00:47:06,951 --> 00:47:09,412 Some of these these cases 952 00:47:09,537 --> 00:47:11,872 are transmitted through 953 00:47:11,998 --> 00:47:14,709 several different people before they get in print. 954 00:47:14,834 --> 00:47:16,252 And they get a lot of attention 955 00:47:16,377 --> 00:47:17,461 because they're fantastic. 956 00:47:17,587 --> 00:47:19,046 But what I've tried to 957 00:47:19,171 --> 00:47:22,466 do is remove some of the subjectivity 958 00:47:23,134 --> 00:47:26,053 to these experiences. 959 00:47:26,178 --> 00:47:28,347 And put data out there 960 00:47:28,472 --> 00:47:31,892 that's been scientifically, rigorously collected. 961 00:47:32,977 --> 00:47:34,812 There's no way you can verify 962 00:47:34,937 --> 00:47:37,315 the transcendental part of the experience. 963 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:38,899 The person feels like they go 964 00:47:39,025 --> 00:47:41,360 to an otherworldly environment 965 00:47:41,485 --> 00:47:42,987 as opposed to their environment 966 00:47:43,112 --> 00:47:44,822 right there in the room with them. 967 00:47:44,947 --> 00:47:46,949 {\an8}Mr. Burke: What really convinced me and what convinced 968 00:47:47,074 --> 00:47:51,162 {\an8}many skeptical doctors, oncologist, cardiologist, 969 00:47:51,412 --> 00:47:54,999 {\an8}is that when people initially leave their body, 970 00:47:55,291 --> 00:47:56,626 they say that many times 971 00:47:56,751 --> 00:47:57,835 they were in the room 972 00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,880 still where they were being resuscitated or worked on 973 00:48:01,047 --> 00:48:01,714 many times up 974 00:48:01,839 --> 00:48:04,759 near the ceiling, looking down, watching. 975 00:48:04,925 --> 00:48:07,053 They felt incredible peace, even though 976 00:48:07,178 --> 00:48:08,137 it was chaotic. 977 00:48:09,513 --> 00:48:11,098 oftentimes in the room 978 00:48:11,223 --> 00:48:13,225 where they were working on their body, 979 00:48:14,226 --> 00:48:16,437 When they would come back, 980 00:48:16,562 --> 00:48:19,523 they were able to give corroborative evidence 981 00:48:19,982 --> 00:48:21,609 that they actually saw 982 00:48:21,734 --> 00:48:22,860 what was going on in the room, 983 00:48:22,985 --> 00:48:24,654 even though they were unconscious 984 00:48:24,779 --> 00:48:26,947 at the time they were worked on. 985 00:48:27,073 --> 00:48:30,034 They shouldn't have been able to see this. 986 00:48:30,493 --> 00:48:33,829 Dr. Sabom: Autoscopic means self-visualization. 987 00:48:33,954 --> 00:48:37,375 They were visualizing themself from the ceiling, 988 00:48:37,541 --> 00:48:41,128 lying in bed, lifeless, or being resuscitated. 989 00:48:42,546 --> 00:48:45,174 That is the verifiable part 990 00:48:45,299 --> 00:48:47,426 of a near-death experience, where you can go back 991 00:48:47,551 --> 00:48:49,345 and either verify what they said they saw 992 00:48:49,470 --> 00:48:51,222 or what actually occurred. 993 00:48:51,347 --> 00:48:53,349 And that's what I wanted. 994 00:48:53,474 --> 00:48:54,517 That was the main thing 995 00:48:54,642 --> 00:48:56,769 that got me hooked on this thing. 996 00:48:56,894 --> 00:48:58,771 And I paid very little attention 997 00:48:58,896 --> 00:49:01,399 to the tunnel, the light, the deceased relatives 998 00:49:01,524 --> 00:49:03,818 and friends, the religious figures. 999 00:49:03,943 --> 00:49:07,196 For me as a cardiologist, scientist, 1000 00:49:07,321 --> 00:49:08,489 and a physician, 1001 00:49:08,614 --> 00:49:10,199 I wanted some verification, 1002 00:49:10,324 --> 00:49:12,034 I wanted some medical records. 1003 00:49:12,159 --> 00:49:14,870 I wanted to talk to people who had been there 1004 00:49:14,995 --> 00:49:17,998 and seen what had happened in the room. 1005 00:49:26,382 --> 00:49:27,842 Dr. Greene: Back in the early 1990s, 1006 00:49:27,967 --> 00:49:30,553 when I was a resident training and neurosurgery 1007 00:49:30,678 --> 00:49:33,681 at Phoenix and at the Barrow Neurological Institute, 1008 00:49:33,806 --> 00:49:36,392 one of the best places to go in the world. 1009 00:49:36,517 --> 00:49:39,437 It was a destination center for neurosurgery. 1010 00:49:40,146 --> 00:49:41,522 {\an8}I was on the Chairman Service, 1011 00:49:41,647 --> 00:49:44,066 {\an8}Dr. Robert Spetzler 1012 00:49:44,191 --> 00:49:47,403 and Dr. Spetzler is world renowned. 1013 00:49:47,528 --> 00:49:49,196 There was a patient who came to him 1014 00:49:49,321 --> 00:49:51,240 named Pamela Reynolds, 1015 00:49:52,575 --> 00:49:55,119 Dr. Spetzler: What we're looking at is the aneurysm that she had. 1016 00:49:55,244 --> 00:49:57,246 Which is at the very base of the brain. 1017 00:49:57,371 --> 00:49:59,331 {\an8}This is the balloon that can burst 1018 00:49:59,457 --> 00:50:02,209 {\an8}and cause this incredible catastrophe. 1019 00:50:02,334 --> 00:50:05,045 It's all the way at the very base of the brain. 1020 00:50:05,171 --> 00:50:06,839 And that is why it's so 1021 00:50:06,964 --> 00:50:08,466 incredibly difficult to get there. 1022 00:50:08,591 --> 00:50:10,593 Dr. Greene: The anatomical location of the basal 1023 00:50:10,718 --> 00:50:13,721 artery is a neurosurgeons no man's land. 1024 00:50:14,472 --> 00:50:16,432 She underwent an operation. 1025 00:50:16,557 --> 00:50:17,308 Again, 1026 00:50:17,433 --> 00:50:20,060 pretty unusual operation called cardiac standstill. 1027 00:50:20,186 --> 00:50:22,021 I came in several times into the operating room 1028 00:50:22,146 --> 00:50:23,355 because it's a cardiac 1029 00:50:23,481 --> 00:50:25,483 standstill case and they're fascinating. 1030 00:50:25,608 --> 00:50:28,402 Dr. Sabom: If you were going to do a laboratory experiment, 1031 00:50:28,527 --> 00:50:30,196 this is the perfect experiment. 1032 00:50:30,321 --> 00:50:32,198 She was put on the operating room table 1033 00:50:32,323 --> 00:50:35,284 and immediately put under general anesthesia. 1034 00:50:35,743 --> 00:50:38,120 Dr. Greene: The cardiac standstill operation requires 1035 00:50:38,245 --> 00:50:41,248 teams of medical providers, surgical providers, 1036 00:50:41,457 --> 00:50:42,750 all of which is designed to: 1037 00:50:42,875 --> 00:50:46,045 1. drop the temperature of a person's body. 1038 00:50:46,170 --> 00:50:49,507 2. Drain out all the blood out of their body. 1039 00:50:49,632 --> 00:50:53,552 3. Keep them in a state of suspended animation, 1040 00:50:54,011 --> 00:50:55,888 shut down brain function. 1041 00:50:56,013 --> 00:50:57,640 And you've actually stopped the heart. 1042 00:51:00,100 --> 00:51:02,520 Dr. Sabom: They had these things in her ears 1043 00:51:02,645 --> 00:51:06,524 that emitted 95 to 100 decibel clicks. 1044 00:51:06,649 --> 00:51:08,192 If the click went off 1045 00:51:08,317 --> 00:51:11,403 and you saw spike on the EEG 1046 00:51:11,529 --> 00:51:13,781 that was measuring the brain stem, 1047 00:51:13,906 --> 00:51:16,534 then you knew the brainstem was active. 1048 00:51:16,659 --> 00:51:18,077 Dr. Greene: No heart that's beating, 1049 00:51:18,202 --> 00:51:21,831 a brain that's no longer functioning. 1050 00:51:21,956 --> 00:51:23,415 Dr. Sabom: And what they had to do is get it 1051 00:51:23,541 --> 00:51:26,377 so that those clicks were eliciting no 1052 00:51:26,502 --> 00:51:29,421 brainstem reactivity, i.e. 1053 00:51:29,547 --> 00:51:31,006 it was flatlined. 1054 00:51:32,508 --> 00:51:35,261 So was pretty much totally isolated 1055 00:51:35,386 --> 00:51:37,638 from the environment physically. 1056 00:51:37,763 --> 00:51:41,183 And medically, she was in a-- 1057 00:51:41,308 --> 00:51:43,686 that's why they call procedure standstill. 1058 00:51:43,811 --> 00:51:45,563 Everything was at a standstill. 1059 00:51:46,814 --> 00:51:47,982 Tom Wilkinson: She would be clinically dead 1060 00:51:48,107 --> 00:51:50,317 for a whole hour of the operation. 1061 00:51:52,444 --> 00:51:55,281 Dr. Sabom: She had a three part near-death experience. 1062 00:51:55,406 --> 00:51:57,741 The first part was out-of-body, 1063 00:51:57,867 --> 00:51:59,285 autoscopic part, 1064 00:51:59,410 --> 00:52:02,663 When Spetzler first started up the brain saw 1065 00:52:03,414 --> 00:52:06,208 she heard the conversation between Spetzler and 1066 00:52:06,333 --> 00:52:07,501 the surgeon 1067 00:52:07,626 --> 00:52:09,753 about the artery being too small 1068 00:52:09,879 --> 00:52:11,005 in her right femoral artery, 1069 00:52:11,130 --> 00:52:13,549 and they had to switch over to the left. 1070 00:52:13,674 --> 00:52:14,717 The visual part. 1071 00:52:14,842 --> 00:52:18,721 She saw the bone saw, which I didn't even know 1072 00:52:18,846 --> 00:52:21,765 what it looked like myself as a cardiologist. 1073 00:52:21,891 --> 00:52:23,475 {\an8}And I was then looking down at the body. 1074 00:52:23,601 --> 00:52:26,937 {\an8}I knew it was my body, but I didn't care. 1075 00:52:27,688 --> 00:52:29,815 My vantage point was sort of 1076 00:52:29,940 --> 00:52:32,067 sitting on the doctor's shoulder. 1077 00:52:32,192 --> 00:52:35,279 I remember the instrument in his hand. 1078 00:52:36,113 --> 00:52:39,909 It looked like the handle of my electric toothbrush. 1079 00:52:40,034 --> 00:52:42,995 Dr. Sabom: And then she said that there was this tray 1080 00:52:43,495 --> 00:52:47,291 of instruments to the right of Spetzler, 1081 00:52:47,541 --> 00:52:50,252 that it looked like the socket wrench set that 1082 00:52:50,377 --> 00:52:51,587 her father used to have. 1083 00:52:53,130 --> 00:52:56,091 And then the other stuff was the same autoscopic. 1084 00:52:56,216 --> 00:52:58,427 And in between those two experiences, 1085 00:52:58,552 --> 00:52:59,637 which she relates 1086 00:52:59,762 --> 00:53:02,765 the experience as a continuous experience, 1087 00:53:03,390 --> 00:53:05,225 she had the transcendental experience. 1088 00:53:05,351 --> 00:53:06,560 I felt a presence. 1089 00:53:06,685 --> 00:53:08,062 I sort of turned around 1090 00:53:08,187 --> 00:53:10,564 to look at a pin-point of light. 1091 00:53:10,689 --> 00:53:12,858 Dr. Sabom: Well, how do you know the transcendental 1092 00:53:12,983 --> 00:53:14,610 experience happened 1093 00:53:14,735 --> 00:53:16,779 when the blood was drained out of her head? 1094 00:53:16,904 --> 00:53:18,906 Well, you don't. 1095 00:53:19,031 --> 00:53:21,283 All you can do is infer it. 1096 00:53:21,408 --> 00:53:22,576 You can't prove it. 1097 00:53:22,701 --> 00:53:24,745 The other two are time anchored. 1098 00:53:24,870 --> 00:53:27,081 The middle is not. 1099 00:53:30,084 --> 00:53:31,377 Dr. Greene: Pam came back, 1100 00:53:32,169 --> 00:53:34,296 I believe, the following day. 1101 00:53:35,214 --> 00:53:36,882 As with every patient, I'm rounding on her 1102 00:53:37,007 --> 00:53:39,635 in the intensive care unit before the chairman rounds 1103 00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,763 and she's awake talking with me. 1104 00:53:43,263 --> 00:53:44,515 You know, usually ask the 1105 00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:45,975 typical questions How are you feeling? 1106 00:53:46,100 --> 00:53:48,644 {\an8}after that tube was removed from her by extubation 1107 00:53:48,769 --> 00:53:50,396 {\an8}and she was able to control her airway 1108 00:53:50,521 --> 00:53:52,564 {\an8}and she was becoming more lucid? 1109 00:53:52,690 --> 00:53:54,692 Well, she had a lot to talk about. 1110 00:53:55,693 --> 00:53:56,652 She began to 1111 00:53:56,777 --> 00:53:59,780 describe some details about her operation. 1112 00:54:00,322 --> 00:54:02,533 And as she spoke, 1113 00:54:02,658 --> 00:54:04,868 I became spooked. 1114 00:54:07,246 --> 00:54:09,707 She talked about her blood vessels and her 1115 00:54:09,832 --> 00:54:12,793 groin, being canulated and being too small. 1116 00:54:14,336 --> 00:54:17,297 She talked about her heart being shocked twice. 1117 00:54:18,549 --> 00:54:21,552 Giving me details that she just shouldn't know. 1118 00:54:22,052 --> 00:54:25,055 I sort of put the kibosh on the conversation. 1119 00:54:25,723 --> 00:54:28,017 "Pam, you need to get some rest. 1120 00:54:28,142 --> 00:54:29,643 I'll come back later." 1121 00:54:29,768 --> 00:54:30,686 I went to my chairman 1122 00:54:30,811 --> 00:54:33,480 and told Dr. Spetzler, 1123 00:54:33,605 --> 00:54:35,858 "You need to talk with Pam Reynolds. 1124 00:54:36,692 --> 00:54:39,695 She's describing stuff that she just shouldn't know. 1125 00:54:40,195 --> 00:54:42,698 This ain't right." 1126 00:54:44,074 --> 00:54:45,034 Functionally speaking, 1127 00:54:45,159 --> 00:54:46,952 Pam, was dead. 1128 00:54:47,995 --> 00:54:50,873 Dr. Moody: Typically, when people are coming out of a dream 1129 00:54:50,998 --> 00:54:51,707 in the morning, 1130 00:54:51,832 --> 00:54:54,752 they feel like they're coming back to reality. 1131 00:54:55,085 --> 00:54:58,505 But people who have a near-death experience 1132 00:54:58,630 --> 00:55:01,383 say that is they go into that experience, 1133 00:55:01,633 --> 00:55:04,511 it's this life that becomes dreamlike. 1134 00:55:04,636 --> 00:55:07,598 {\an8}People feel that when they, from the world's 1135 00:55:07,723 --> 00:55:11,435 {\an8}point of view, are dying, they actually are waking up 1136 00:55:11,935 --> 00:55:15,230 {\an8}to a reality that this state of existence 1137 00:55:15,355 --> 00:55:17,900 that we're in now seemed like a dream or 1138 00:55:18,025 --> 00:55:19,318 as though you're asleep. 1139 00:55:25,115 --> 00:55:25,991 Dr. Sabom: I think the near-death 1140 00:55:26,116 --> 00:55:29,286 experience is where science meets religion. 1141 00:55:29,411 --> 00:55:32,372 There is a big difference between proof and evidence. 1142 00:55:32,581 --> 00:55:34,124 This is all evidence, 1143 00:55:34,249 --> 00:55:36,794 but enough evidence at some point 1144 00:55:36,919 --> 00:55:42,508 makes it so close to proof that most people would say 1145 00:55:43,884 --> 00:55:44,593 it's right, 1146 00:55:44,718 --> 00:55:46,136 it's real. 1147 00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:51,683 I got to watch what I say because I don't want to 1148 00:55:51,934 --> 00:55:54,937 unnecessarily alienate people. 1149 00:55:55,145 --> 00:55:57,981 I think skepticism is good 1150 00:55:58,107 --> 00:56:00,025 skepticism, true skepticism. 1151 00:56:00,150 --> 00:56:02,236 But rigidity is not. 1152 00:56:02,361 --> 00:56:04,113 In other words, if you have an 1153 00:56:04,238 --> 00:56:07,282 ideological opposition to something 1154 00:56:07,825 --> 00:56:11,370 and you fight tooth and nail to support it, 1155 00:56:11,578 --> 00:56:14,581 or at least advocate it 1156 00:56:15,374 --> 00:56:17,543 and refuse to look at the other side, 1157 00:56:17,668 --> 00:56:19,086 that's not being objective. 1158 00:56:19,211 --> 00:56:20,796 {\an8}Dr. Long: There's a lot about the afterlife 1159 00:56:20,921 --> 00:56:22,381 {\an8}that we don't know for sure. 1160 00:56:22,506 --> 00:56:25,384 {\an8}We'll all know for real only after we die. 1161 00:56:25,509 --> 00:56:27,553 {\an8}And not completely before then. 1162 00:56:28,137 --> 00:56:30,806 Mr. Burke: There have been lots of alternate theories 1163 00:56:30,931 --> 00:56:32,850 fighter pilots syndrome. 1164 00:56:34,226 --> 00:56:34,893 You're pulling G's, 1165 00:56:35,018 --> 00:56:37,020 It feels like you're going through a tunnel. 1166 00:56:37,146 --> 00:56:38,021 Some say 1167 00:56:38,147 --> 00:56:41,775 psychedelic drugs like DMT or LSD or mescaline, 1168 00:56:42,776 --> 00:56:45,070 vibrant colors and, and, 1169 00:56:45,195 --> 00:56:48,157 maybe going to another place, 1170 00:56:48,740 --> 00:56:51,660 Dr. Long: You name it, DMT, Ketamine, LSD, 1171 00:56:51,785 --> 00:56:52,911 those are 1172 00:56:53,036 --> 00:56:55,622 generally illicit substances that produce 1173 00:56:55,747 --> 00:56:56,790 hallucinatory effects. 1174 00:56:56,915 --> 00:56:58,375 And in fact, many people 1175 00:56:58,500 --> 00:57:00,377 that take these illicit substances 1176 00:57:00,502 --> 00:57:03,380 and the difference between the experience they have 1177 00:57:03,505 --> 00:57:06,175 and the typical near-death experience 1178 00:57:06,300 --> 00:57:07,676 is very striking. 1179 00:57:08,385 --> 00:57:11,013 Mr. Burke: The problem is that 1180 00:57:11,138 --> 00:57:14,516 all of those might describe one aspect. 1181 00:57:16,101 --> 00:57:19,062 You have people and we're talking thousands 1182 00:57:19,188 --> 00:57:22,900 and thousands of people all around the globe, old, 1183 00:57:23,025 --> 00:57:26,612 young, sighted people, blind people. 1184 00:57:27,112 --> 00:57:29,489 And they're saying the same thing, 1185 00:57:29,615 --> 00:57:32,367 though on the other side, blind people can see 1186 00:57:32,492 --> 00:57:35,120 they have to adjust to it, to describing things 1187 00:57:35,245 --> 00:57:38,081 that they see, but they see the same things. 1188 00:57:38,207 --> 00:57:41,251 And there was one study done with 23 blind people, 1189 00:57:41,376 --> 00:57:43,962 14 of them blind from birth, 1190 00:57:44,087 --> 00:57:45,214 two of them that I report 1191 00:57:45,339 --> 00:57:48,300 about describe the light coming out of everything. 1192 00:57:49,092 --> 00:57:51,386 Dr. Long: There's the near-death experience of Marta. 1193 00:57:51,511 --> 00:57:54,848 She was a five-year-old girl and totally blind. 1194 00:57:55,307 --> 00:57:58,060 Marta went into a lake and drowned, 1195 00:57:58,185 --> 00:58:00,896 and her consciousness rose above her body. 1196 00:58:01,021 --> 00:58:04,274 She described vividly details of birds' feathers, 1197 00:58:04,399 --> 00:58:07,319 birds' eyes, details on telephone poles. 1198 00:58:07,486 --> 00:58:10,697 It's remarkable to me how someone totally blind 1199 00:58:11,114 --> 00:58:12,199 can be fascinated 1200 00:58:12,324 --> 00:58:14,660 by mundane things that you and I 1201 00:58:14,785 --> 00:58:16,536 would not consider to be so exciting. 1202 00:58:16,662 --> 00:58:18,789 Seeing this for the first time 1203 00:58:18,914 --> 00:58:20,999 while she's unconscious 1204 00:58:21,124 --> 00:58:23,001 and below the surface of the water 1205 00:58:23,126 --> 00:58:25,629 and yet having a near-death experience. 1206 00:58:25,754 --> 00:58:29,299 Mr. Burke: So how do you get a lucid experience 1207 00:58:29,925 --> 00:58:32,511 that happens both for people who have had 1208 00:58:34,054 --> 00:58:35,472 hallucinogenic 1209 00:58:35,597 --> 00:58:38,267 drugs potentially in the hospital or, 1210 00:58:38,392 --> 00:58:40,060 you know, anesthesia, 1211 00:58:40,185 --> 00:58:41,186 But they're saying 1212 00:58:41,311 --> 00:58:44,231 the same things as those who have had no anesthesia 1213 00:58:44,356 --> 00:58:46,984 and the same things that little kids say, 1214 00:58:47,109 --> 00:58:48,777 the same things that people from different 1215 00:58:48,902 --> 00:58:50,487 religious backgrounds and cultures 1216 00:58:50,612 --> 00:58:53,740 say you don't have mass hallucinations. 1217 00:59:01,164 --> 00:59:02,958 The moment the truck struck me, 1218 00:59:03,083 --> 00:59:06,044 I was standing at the gates of Heaven. 1219 00:59:11,842 --> 00:59:14,636 And it was magnificent. 1220 00:59:14,761 --> 00:59:17,097 It was like the inside of an oyster. 1221 00:59:17,222 --> 00:59:20,809 It was pearl and dazzling, 1222 00:59:21,059 --> 00:59:24,062 almost like it was living. 1223 00:59:25,564 --> 00:59:27,858 It just looked that way because of the light 1224 00:59:27,983 --> 00:59:30,944 reflecting off the gate. 1225 00:59:32,070 --> 00:59:33,655 {\an8}Heaven is light. 1226 00:59:33,780 --> 00:59:34,698 {\an8}God is light. 1227 00:59:34,823 --> 00:59:36,867 {\an8}It's... it's astounding. 1228 00:59:39,119 --> 00:59:40,537 One of the most difficult things 1229 00:59:40,662 --> 00:59:42,247 about talking about heaven 1230 00:59:42,372 --> 00:59:44,791 is that you have to do it with earthly words, 1231 00:59:44,916 --> 00:59:48,545 and there are no earthly words that do it justice. 1232 00:59:55,719 --> 00:59:58,513 Mr. Black: I did think for a moment, okay, I died. 1233 00:59:58,638 --> 01:00:00,223 Okay, I'm gone. 1234 01:00:00,349 --> 01:00:01,350 And was I sad? 1235 01:00:01,475 --> 01:00:03,310 No, not at all. 1236 01:00:06,355 --> 01:00:07,022 I wasn't worried 1237 01:00:07,147 --> 01:00:08,523 about my mom or dad 1238 01:00:08,648 --> 01:00:11,068 or what they would think or my--, nothing. 1239 01:00:11,193 --> 01:00:14,029 {\an8}I was only looking forward to where I was going 1240 01:00:14,154 --> 01:00:17,616 {\an8}and it was nothing but joy and peace, love and unity. 1241 01:00:25,457 --> 01:00:28,460 I was surrounded by people I knew and loved in life. 1242 01:00:30,087 --> 01:00:32,923 The first person I saw was my grandfather. 1243 01:00:33,048 --> 01:00:35,217 I was very close to my grandfather. 1244 01:00:35,342 --> 01:00:38,053 The last time I saw him, he was in a casket. 1245 01:00:38,178 --> 01:00:41,014 At his funeral, he did not look good. 1246 01:00:41,139 --> 01:00:44,101 Now I'm standing at the gates of Heaven, 1247 01:00:44,226 --> 01:00:46,144 and there he is to greet me. 1248 01:00:46,269 --> 01:00:47,562 And he looked really good. 1249 01:00:47,687 --> 01:00:49,022 He extended his hands to me 1250 01:00:49,147 --> 01:00:51,149 and spoke a language I've never heard before, 1251 01:00:51,274 --> 01:00:55,445 but fully understood and said, Welcome home, Donnie. 1252 01:01:01,910 --> 01:01:05,831 Mr. Black: I recognized this group of people. 1253 01:01:05,997 --> 01:01:11,586 These people are looking at me with such love. 1254 01:01:14,589 --> 01:01:18,260 They're all seemingly at the prime of their life. 1255 01:01:18,635 --> 01:01:19,636 And these people 1256 01:01:19,761 --> 01:01:23,348 were greeting me and they were so delighted 1257 01:01:23,723 --> 01:01:26,726 that I was there, 1258 01:01:27,352 --> 01:01:30,647 {\an8}Dr. Neal: And I knew that they were there for me, 1259 01:01:30,772 --> 01:01:34,151 {\an8}to welcome me, to greet me, to to love me, 1260 01:01:34,276 --> 01:01:36,278 to make me feel known. 1261 01:01:36,945 --> 01:01:39,448 And I knew that they had known loved me 1262 01:01:39,573 --> 01:01:42,492 as long as I've existed. 1263 01:01:46,246 --> 01:01:48,665 The music was phenomenal. 1264 01:01:48,790 --> 01:01:51,793 Thousands of songs at the same time without chaos, 1265 01:01:52,461 --> 01:01:53,795 all manner of music, 1266 01:01:54,129 --> 01:01:55,464 instrumental, 1267 01:01:55,881 --> 01:01:57,632 choruses, 1268 01:01:59,843 --> 01:02:03,180 Astoundingly, they just invade you. 1269 01:02:03,305 --> 01:02:06,266 I mean, you're permeated by the music. 1270 01:02:11,271 --> 01:02:14,983 My senses were incredibly vivid, 1271 01:02:15,108 --> 01:02:18,862 you know, touch and taste and feel and hearing. 1272 01:02:18,987 --> 01:02:20,113 It was just all. 1273 01:02:20,238 --> 01:02:21,490 It's just the most real thing 1274 01:02:21,615 --> 01:02:22,991 that's ever happened to me. 1275 01:02:25,494 --> 01:02:28,914 After I greeted the people, they parted 1276 01:02:29,039 --> 01:02:32,042 and I could see through the gate. 1277 01:02:32,876 --> 01:02:34,836 There was a long boulevard that 1278 01:02:34,961 --> 01:02:36,796 really bisects the city 1279 01:02:36,922 --> 01:02:39,925 and it appears to be constructed of gold. 1280 01:02:40,467 --> 01:02:43,470 So many of the things that we experience here 1281 01:02:43,762 --> 01:02:46,515 are there, but much infinitely 1282 01:02:46,640 --> 01:02:49,559 more glorious and perfect. 1283 01:02:49,726 --> 01:02:52,145 I wanted to climb that hill 1284 01:02:52,270 --> 01:02:54,397 and fall at the feet of the great 1285 01:02:54,523 --> 01:02:56,566 God of all creation and say, 1286 01:02:56,691 --> 01:02:59,402 "Thank you for letting me come." 1287 01:02:59,528 --> 01:03:00,820 That was my objective. 1288 01:03:07,285 --> 01:03:09,913 Mr. Burke: Not every near-death experience is a good one. 1289 01:03:10,038 --> 01:03:13,375 23% of those who come forward talking about them 1290 01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:17,003 talk about how they had hellish experiences. 1291 01:03:26,846 --> 01:03:27,639 At that time, 1292 01:03:27,764 --> 01:03:30,684 I, I felt really empty. 1293 01:03:30,809 --> 01:03:33,061 {\an8}It just seemed like the best thing to do 1294 01:03:33,186 --> 01:03:35,063 {\an8}was just to die at that point. 1295 01:03:35,188 --> 01:03:37,357 {\an8}If I die, then it's game over. 1296 01:03:37,482 --> 01:03:39,901 {\an8}And if I die, then the pain and the suffering, 1297 01:03:40,026 --> 01:03:41,403 the depression, 1298 01:03:41,528 --> 01:03:43,947 the darkness, all this is going to stop. 1299 01:03:44,072 --> 01:03:46,157 Well, if I do enough cocaine, 1300 01:03:46,283 --> 01:03:47,909 then maybe my heart will stop beating 1301 01:03:48,034 --> 01:03:50,287 because it feels like it's racing out of my chest. 1302 01:03:57,711 --> 01:03:58,920 And I didn't see a bright light. 1303 01:03:59,045 --> 01:03:59,963 I saw a black tunnel. 1304 01:04:00,088 --> 01:04:01,673 It felt like somebody grabbed me and dropped me 1305 01:04:01,798 --> 01:04:04,217 in this outer darkness. 1306 01:04:04,342 --> 01:04:06,928 As I started racing down this tunnel, 1307 01:04:07,053 --> 01:04:08,430 it seemed like infinity. 1308 01:04:08,555 --> 01:04:11,349 It was like a bottomless pit. 1309 01:04:11,474 --> 01:04:13,977 I don't know how, but I was no longer high. 1310 01:04:14,102 --> 01:04:17,105 All my senses were at 1,000. 1311 01:04:18,690 --> 01:04:20,442 I knew that I had died, 1312 01:04:20,567 --> 01:04:22,068 and it was one of the scariest moments 1313 01:04:22,193 --> 01:04:24,154 in my entire life. 1314 01:04:25,363 --> 01:04:27,324 And I'm racing down this tunnel 1315 01:04:27,449 --> 01:04:28,992 that seems like forever, 1316 01:04:29,117 --> 01:04:31,620 like a thousand miles an hour 1317 01:04:31,745 --> 01:04:33,663 as I'm just freefalling. 1318 01:04:36,124 --> 01:04:38,335 If I'm going to hell, there's got to be a mistake 1319 01:04:38,460 --> 01:04:40,420 because I never killed anybody. 1320 01:04:40,545 --> 01:04:41,504 I didn't rob a bank. 1321 01:04:41,630 --> 01:04:43,548 I mean, I'm a good person. 1322 01:04:43,673 --> 01:04:44,674 I'm not a bad guy. 1323 01:04:44,799 --> 01:04:47,010 The only person I hurt was myself. 1324 01:04:47,135 --> 01:04:50,221 When I began to justify how good I was, 1325 01:04:50,847 --> 01:04:52,474 it went faster 1326 01:04:52,599 --> 01:04:54,601 like 2,000 miles an hour. 1327 01:04:56,269 --> 01:04:58,146 It speeded up the process. 1328 01:04:58,271 --> 01:05:01,232 Like, now you're really going to Hell. 1329 01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:04,694 I remember at that point I cried out 1330 01:05:04,819 --> 01:05:07,781 with all desperation. 1331 01:05:09,574 --> 01:05:13,244 I said, "God, you need to come help me right now. 1332 01:05:14,079 --> 01:05:17,082 because I need you. 1333 01:05:17,916 --> 01:05:20,919 If you really exist, I need your help. 1334 01:05:21,461 --> 01:05:22,712 So you got to come help me. 1335 01:05:22,837 --> 01:05:25,757 Please, God, I need your help." 1336 01:05:30,637 --> 01:05:31,388 Mr. Storm: In the bed 1337 01:05:31,513 --> 01:05:34,432 that I had been in was this big slab of meat. 1338 01:05:34,641 --> 01:05:36,685 And when I looked at the face, 1339 01:05:36,810 --> 01:05:39,854 it bore an amazing resemblance to me. 1340 01:05:41,773 --> 01:05:44,526 And I could not understand 1341 01:05:44,651 --> 01:05:47,070 how that could resemble me. 1342 01:05:47,195 --> 01:05:49,280 But I was perfectly well standing there, 1343 01:05:49,406 --> 01:05:52,325 perfectly alive, looking at this, 1344 01:05:52,534 --> 01:05:53,451 hunk of meat. 1345 01:05:54,953 --> 01:05:56,788 The other thing that bothered me was that 1346 01:05:56,913 --> 01:05:59,874 my wife would not respond to me. 1347 01:06:01,710 --> 01:06:03,628 {\an8}Well, at first I started talking in a nice voice, 1348 01:06:03,753 --> 01:06:05,296 {\an8}and then I started yelling at her, like, you know, 1349 01:06:06,631 --> 01:06:08,967 {\an8}what the hell is going on here? 1350 01:06:09,092 --> 01:06:11,136 Look at me. Talk to me. 1351 01:06:11,261 --> 01:06:12,178 You know, I'm all better. 1352 01:06:12,303 --> 01:06:14,848 You know, what's that thing in the bed? 1353 01:06:14,973 --> 01:06:16,516 How did it get there? 1354 01:06:18,143 --> 01:06:21,146 I was very upset, very distressed. 1355 01:06:21,479 --> 01:06:24,315 And then I heard people out in the hallway 1356 01:06:24,441 --> 01:06:27,318 outside the well-lit room 1357 01:06:28,111 --> 01:06:32,449 in the darkish-gray, hazy hallway. 1358 01:06:40,415 --> 01:06:42,292 And there was a group of people standing 1359 01:06:42,417 --> 01:06:46,004 outside the light of the room in the hallway. 1360 01:06:46,671 --> 01:06:47,547 I said, "I'm sick. 1361 01:06:47,672 --> 01:06:49,215 I need a doctor." 1362 01:06:50,717 --> 01:06:53,303 And they said, "We know. 1363 01:06:53,428 --> 01:06:54,971 We know all about you. 1364 01:06:55,096 --> 01:06:56,389 It's time for you to come with us." 1365 01:06:56,514 --> 01:06:59,058 So I thought that they were 1366 01:06:59,184 --> 01:07:02,145 hospital personnel to take me to a doctor. 1367 01:07:05,398 --> 01:07:06,649 When I left the room 1368 01:07:06,775 --> 01:07:08,026 and went into the hall, 1369 01:07:09,444 --> 01:07:11,196 I can't explain how I knew, 1370 01:07:11,321 --> 01:07:13,198 I couldn't go back into the room. 1371 01:07:13,323 --> 01:07:14,574 The door didn't close, 1372 01:07:14,699 --> 01:07:16,242 but I knew that it was impossible 1373 01:07:16,367 --> 01:07:18,995 for me to go back into the light of the room. 1374 01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:21,331 So I hesitated and the people became very... 1375 01:07:21,456 --> 01:07:23,374 Hurry up, Let's go. Let's go. 1376 01:07:23,500 --> 01:07:25,210 We can't wait anymore. You know. 1377 01:07:25,335 --> 01:07:27,962 We've been here a long time waiting for you. 1378 01:07:28,087 --> 01:07:28,838 Hurry up. 1379 01:07:28,963 --> 01:07:32,175 So I gave in and went with them 1380 01:07:32,300 --> 01:07:34,469 and they immediately surrounded me 1381 01:07:34,594 --> 01:07:37,180 and moved me forward into that greyness. 1382 01:07:48,399 --> 01:07:52,570 As we moved along, I could not perceive walls, 1383 01:07:52,904 --> 01:07:56,324 ceiling, any feature at all. 1384 01:07:56,950 --> 01:07:58,743 And we walked and walked and walked. 1385 01:07:58,868 --> 01:08:00,537 And after a while I was like, okay, 1386 01:08:00,662 --> 01:08:02,705 this hospital's not that big, you know? 1387 01:08:02,831 --> 01:08:05,750 I mean, we walked miles now, and it's like, 1388 01:08:05,959 --> 01:08:07,627 where's the stairs? 1389 01:08:07,752 --> 01:08:08,962 You know, where's the up and down? 1390 01:08:09,087 --> 01:08:11,130 Where's the walls? And there was nothing. 1391 01:08:11,256 --> 01:08:12,757 We just walked and walked. 1392 01:08:15,593 --> 01:08:16,761 So I was asking the people 1393 01:08:16,886 --> 01:08:18,763 around me like, this isn't the hospital, 1394 01:08:18,888 --> 01:08:21,266 This isn't right, you know, where are we? 1395 01:08:21,391 --> 01:08:22,100 Stuff like that, and, 1396 01:08:22,225 --> 01:08:25,562 their response was, "Shut up, be quiet. 1397 01:08:25,854 --> 01:08:26,521 Keep moving. 1398 01:08:26,646 --> 01:08:28,231 Move, move, move!" 1399 01:08:30,650 --> 01:08:33,194 They'd say, "You're going to find out. 1400 01:08:33,319 --> 01:08:35,405 You'll find out. 1401 01:08:35,530 --> 01:08:38,491 You're going to get there." 1402 01:08:39,742 --> 01:08:41,494 There was a lot of people around us, 1403 01:08:41,619 --> 01:08:42,954 possibly hundreds, 1404 01:08:43,079 --> 01:08:44,622 I don't know. They were 1405 01:08:44,747 --> 01:08:47,792 being very vulgar, very threatening, very scary. 1406 01:08:48,918 --> 01:08:50,753 I'm in abject darkness. 1407 01:08:50,879 --> 01:08:53,256 I have absolutely no idea which way 1408 01:08:53,381 --> 01:08:55,633 is forward, backward. I mean, 1409 01:08:55,758 --> 01:08:57,802 all I knew was I wanted to get away from them. 1410 01:09:00,597 --> 01:09:03,266 They said, "No, you've got further to go." 1411 01:09:03,391 --> 01:09:06,311 And they started to push and shove me. 1412 01:09:07,145 --> 01:09:09,981 And I fought back. 1413 01:09:10,106 --> 01:09:13,109 They began by punching, shoving, kicking. 1414 01:09:14,193 --> 01:09:17,697 And then they started biting, scratching 1415 01:09:18,907 --> 01:09:21,784 and tearing me apart, literally. 1416 01:09:21,910 --> 01:09:24,120 disemboweling me, gouging my eyes. 1417 01:09:24,245 --> 01:09:25,788 And it was all accompanied 1418 01:09:25,914 --> 01:09:27,582 with a great deal of laughter and joy. 1419 01:09:32,670 --> 01:09:35,048 I thought about 1420 01:09:35,173 --> 01:09:36,841 my whole life and everything seemed like 1421 01:09:36,966 --> 01:09:38,843 what was the point. 1422 01:09:38,968 --> 01:09:40,803 And I realized that my relationships 1423 01:09:40,929 --> 01:09:43,848 with my mother and father were a disaster. 1424 01:09:44,182 --> 01:09:47,185 My relationship with my sisters wasn't good. 1425 01:09:47,393 --> 01:09:50,647 My relationship with my wife was very troubled. 1426 01:09:52,857 --> 01:09:55,276 I was not proud or pleased 1427 01:09:55,401 --> 01:09:57,612 with my relationship with my two children. 1428 01:09:59,906 --> 01:10:01,824 I sank into 1429 01:10:01,950 --> 01:10:05,662 a pit of despair and hopelessness 1430 01:10:05,787 --> 01:10:08,039 that I can't begin to describe. 1431 01:10:12,418 --> 01:10:17,048 My mind offered up a memory of myself as a little boy 1432 01:10:17,173 --> 01:10:20,134 going to a Sunday school singing "Jesus Loves Me" 1433 01:10:21,010 --> 01:10:22,303 When I was a little boy 1434 01:10:22,428 --> 01:10:24,514 and I was afraid, like having nightmares 1435 01:10:24,639 --> 01:10:27,684 at night or whatever, I would pray to Him and 1436 01:10:28,226 --> 01:10:30,186 He would chase the lions and tigers. 1437 01:10:30,311 --> 01:10:32,313 and bears away. 1438 01:10:32,438 --> 01:10:34,983 And as a child, it was, like, mostly 1439 01:10:35,108 --> 01:10:37,026 in the image of like a superhero. 1440 01:10:37,151 --> 01:10:39,195 Jesus was like a superhero. 1441 01:10:39,320 --> 01:10:40,196 And so... 1442 01:10:40,530 --> 01:10:41,239 that's it. 1443 01:10:41,572 --> 01:10:43,074 That was all I knew. 1444 01:10:43,199 --> 01:10:46,744 So I called out to him in complete desperation, 1445 01:10:47,996 --> 01:10:51,082 A tiny little star appeared in the sky, 1446 01:10:52,542 --> 01:10:54,627 and very rapidly it got brighter 1447 01:10:54,752 --> 01:10:57,672 and brighter and brighter. 1448 01:10:58,297 --> 01:11:00,091 Mr. Black: I started moving 1449 01:11:00,216 --> 01:11:03,428 helplessly without direction. 1450 01:11:03,553 --> 01:11:05,388 I had nothing to do with this. 1451 01:11:05,513 --> 01:11:07,348 I started moving out of the room. 1452 01:11:07,473 --> 01:11:09,684 I next realized that 1453 01:11:09,809 --> 01:11:12,937 I have left the hospital and now I'm traveling 1454 01:11:13,646 --> 01:11:16,649 almost like a rocket ship, just moving 1455 01:11:16,899 --> 01:11:18,317 out of this atmosphere. 1456 01:11:20,611 --> 01:11:23,614 As if in deep space. 1457 01:11:24,991 --> 01:11:28,369 Mr. Storm: I realized we were not on the ground anymore. 1458 01:11:28,494 --> 01:11:31,456 We were moving upward, straight upwards. 1459 01:11:33,416 --> 01:11:35,501 So I've got my face buried in His chest 1460 01:11:35,626 --> 01:11:36,461 hanging on to Him. 1461 01:11:36,586 --> 01:11:39,088 I'm like, I don't want to let me go because I, 1462 01:11:39,213 --> 01:11:40,590 I'm afraid if I let go, 1463 01:11:40,715 --> 01:11:42,550 or if he lets go, I'm going to fall back 1464 01:11:42,675 --> 01:11:44,427 into that horrible place again. 1465 01:11:44,552 --> 01:11:47,346 Mr. Black: And there was a beam of light that was lighting 1466 01:11:47,472 --> 01:11:50,391 the pathway of where I was going. 1467 01:11:52,852 --> 01:11:54,520 My whole life flashed in front of me 1468 01:11:54,645 --> 01:11:56,147 as big as the sky, 1469 01:11:57,023 --> 01:11:58,816 Mr. Black: Tiny spheres of light. 1470 01:11:59,484 --> 01:12:02,445 They weren't planets, they weren't stars. 1471 01:12:02,570 --> 01:12:05,573 These were beings going to Earth 1472 01:12:05,990 --> 01:12:08,034 Mr. Storm: Where we were going is what I first thought 1473 01:12:08,159 --> 01:12:11,579 was a galaxy. A huge world of light. 1474 01:12:11,954 --> 01:12:13,831 Mr. Black: The light that I'm looking at, 1475 01:12:13,956 --> 01:12:17,001 is coming from none other than God Himself. 1476 01:12:20,379 --> 01:12:23,382 Inside the light was life, 1477 01:12:24,967 --> 01:12:27,970 And inside that light was love. 1478 01:12:28,096 --> 01:12:31,766 And my body is still on Earth. 1479 01:12:33,351 --> 01:12:36,813 My brain and eyeballs are back there. 1480 01:12:37,980 --> 01:12:39,816 But, I'm sensing and discerning 1481 01:12:39,941 --> 01:12:42,860 all of these things. 1482 01:12:43,694 --> 01:12:45,029 When you leave this earth 1483 01:12:45,154 --> 01:12:47,323 and you step into the eternity, 1484 01:12:47,448 --> 01:12:50,451 everything is crystal clear. 1485 01:12:58,042 --> 01:13:00,128 Mr. Black: I knew I was coming to this holy area 1486 01:13:00,253 --> 01:13:01,712 and obviously 1487 01:13:01,838 --> 01:13:04,757 it took another second to connect the dots. 1488 01:13:04,882 --> 01:13:06,300 This is Heaven. 1489 01:13:11,722 --> 01:13:12,640 Mr. Storm: And he spoke to me 1490 01:13:12,765 --> 01:13:15,685 for the first time in his voice, 1491 01:13:15,810 --> 01:13:17,937 but it was telepathic but it wasn't 1492 01:13:18,062 --> 01:13:19,105 a thought of mine. 1493 01:13:19,230 --> 01:13:21,357 It was his voice in my head. 1494 01:13:21,482 --> 01:13:23,025 And then he said, I've got some people 1495 01:13:23,151 --> 01:13:24,402 that I want you to meet. 1496 01:13:24,527 --> 01:13:26,195 They've recorded your life 1497 01:13:26,320 --> 01:13:29,282 and they want show you your life. 1498 01:13:29,824 --> 01:13:31,701 So they proceeded to 1499 01:13:31,826 --> 01:13:33,995 show me my life in chronological order. 1500 01:13:38,791 --> 01:13:41,794 What I saw, to summarize it, was 1501 01:13:42,920 --> 01:13:44,755 happy youth 1502 01:13:44,881 --> 01:13:45,798 pretty much 1503 01:13:45,923 --> 01:13:49,260 going to adolescence, everything going sour, 1504 01:13:50,428 --> 01:13:51,679 particularly with my relationship 1505 01:13:51,804 --> 01:13:52,513 with my father. 1506 01:13:52,638 --> 01:13:56,851 Because of my father's cruelty to me, 1507 01:13:58,060 --> 01:13:59,729 I was cruel back. 1508 01:14:01,606 --> 01:14:04,525 My father was physically and emotionally abusive 1509 01:14:04,650 --> 01:14:07,904 every day to my mother, my sisters and to me. 1510 01:14:09,947 --> 01:14:11,157 I mean, it never stopped. 1511 01:14:13,451 --> 01:14:14,994 The only way that I could deal with it 1512 01:14:15,119 --> 01:14:17,997 was to try and not feel anything. 1513 01:14:18,372 --> 01:14:20,208 And all he wanted for me 1514 01:14:20,333 --> 01:14:23,461 was to be a little duplicate of him, 1515 01:14:23,794 --> 01:14:26,672 you know, just be subservient to him. 1516 01:14:26,797 --> 01:14:29,425 You know, being being disobedient 1517 01:14:29,550 --> 01:14:31,886 had immediate physical consequences 1518 01:14:32,011 --> 01:14:34,972 of being kicked or punched or hit. 1519 01:14:36,224 --> 01:14:38,976 And I saw myself striving 1520 01:14:39,101 --> 01:14:42,396 to become emotionless and feeling-less, 1521 01:14:43,272 --> 01:14:45,316 which was a way for me to protect myself 1522 01:14:45,441 --> 01:14:46,400 from being hurt. 1523 01:14:48,402 --> 01:14:51,239 As I became more manipulative 1524 01:14:51,364 --> 01:14:53,241 and successful, 1525 01:14:53,366 --> 01:14:56,494 the more the angels and Jesus expressed 1526 01:14:56,619 --> 01:14:57,828 their disappointment 1527 01:14:57,954 --> 01:15:00,957 and sadness with me and my life. 1528 01:15:02,625 --> 01:15:04,961 And it really hurt to disappoint them 1529 01:15:05,086 --> 01:15:05,920 because I here 1530 01:15:06,045 --> 01:15:09,006 I have these newfound friends, my big rescuer, 1531 01:15:10,007 --> 01:15:13,010 you know, best friend I ever had. 1532 01:15:14,845 --> 01:15:16,597 And I'm-- and I'm looking at my life 1533 01:15:16,722 --> 01:15:19,642 and I'm a big, huge disappointment. 1534 01:15:22,645 --> 01:15:25,815 and you should put me back. 1535 01:15:26,941 --> 01:15:29,443 I don't belong here. 1536 01:15:33,823 --> 01:15:34,949 You know, you've made a mistake. 1537 01:15:35,074 --> 01:15:36,033 I don't belong here. 1538 01:15:36,158 --> 01:15:38,119 And he said, "We don't make mistakes. 1539 01:15:38,244 --> 01:15:41,122 You do belong here." 1540 01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:46,961 Dr. Neal: At this point. 1541 01:15:47,086 --> 01:15:48,838 I had had 1542 01:15:48,963 --> 01:15:50,923 a number of operations and 1543 01:15:51,048 --> 01:15:55,428 I was finally able to be upright instead of 1544 01:15:56,012 --> 01:15:56,971 wheelchair bound. 1545 01:15:58,514 --> 01:16:00,182 But I, 1546 01:16:00,308 --> 01:16:03,311 wasn't able to walk very well. 1547 01:16:05,604 --> 01:16:08,607 When I was sent back to my body, 1548 01:16:09,608 --> 01:16:12,778 I knew that sharing my experiences 1549 01:16:12,903 --> 01:16:15,823 with other people was part of the deal. 1550 01:16:16,699 --> 01:16:20,661 I knew that part of that was writing about them. 1551 01:16:21,579 --> 01:16:23,956 And so I woke up 1552 01:16:24,081 --> 01:16:27,793 and I spent the next week or so 1553 01:16:28,419 --> 01:16:31,839 getting up at three or four in the morning and 1554 01:16:32,465 --> 01:16:35,468 writing for a few hours before the morning routine. 1555 01:16:36,677 --> 01:16:40,598 And so I, you know, made my final revisions. 1556 01:16:40,723 --> 01:16:43,934 And when I hit the save button, 1557 01:16:44,185 --> 01:16:47,855 I took my youngest son, who was still living at home 1558 01:16:48,522 --> 01:16:51,525 into town to get ice cream so we could celebrate. 1559 01:16:52,193 --> 01:16:55,196 And so as we were driving into town 1560 01:16:56,530 --> 01:17:00,201 to celebrate, I called my older boys 1561 01:17:01,035 --> 01:17:04,038 because my oldest son and his brother 1562 01:17:04,413 --> 01:17:06,999 were at the time living in Maine. 1563 01:17:07,124 --> 01:17:08,250 They were ski training. 1564 01:17:10,378 --> 01:17:11,796 And I called them 1565 01:17:11,921 --> 01:17:14,882 to share this great news. 1566 01:17:16,008 --> 01:17:18,636 And the coach answered the phone 1567 01:17:18,761 --> 01:17:22,556 and told me that Willie had just been hit 1568 01:17:22,681 --> 01:17:24,642 by a car and killed. 1569 01:17:32,691 --> 01:17:33,901 and um, 1570 01:17:40,699 --> 01:17:42,034 I mean, 1571 01:17:43,411 --> 01:17:45,621 I reacted 1572 01:17:45,746 --> 01:17:48,707 like any mother would. 1573 01:17:57,049 --> 01:18:00,761 The depth of my spiritual knowledge, 1574 01:18:02,096 --> 01:18:05,266 does not protect me from grief. 1575 01:18:06,517 --> 01:18:09,520 It doesn't protect me from 1576 01:18:09,645 --> 01:18:12,606 sorrow or any of those things. 1577 01:18:14,316 --> 01:18:15,443 The depth of pain, 1578 01:18:15,568 --> 01:18:18,529 of losing a child is, 1579 01:18:19,238 --> 01:18:22,032 I don't think, a 1580 01:18:22,158 --> 01:18:24,243 pain that can be replicated by 1581 01:18:24,368 --> 01:18:27,288 any other human experience. 1582 01:18:28,831 --> 01:18:31,834 I mean, I was devastated 1583 01:18:48,684 --> 01:18:51,687 And it all stopped 1584 01:18:52,813 --> 01:18:55,816 just as quickly I arrived. 1585 01:19:02,114 --> 01:19:04,867 That accident happened at 11:45 in the morning. 1586 01:19:04,992 --> 01:19:07,995 I arrived at Hermann Memorial Hospital 1587 01:19:08,245 --> 01:19:11,248 at like 6:15 that night. 1588 01:19:11,665 --> 01:19:14,543 {\an8}So they went and got my wife out of her classroom, 1589 01:19:14,668 --> 01:19:15,503 {\an8}brought it down to the office 1590 01:19:15,628 --> 01:19:17,129 {\an8}and told her the news. 1591 01:19:17,796 --> 01:19:20,257 And I walked down the hall and into the office, 1592 01:19:20,382 --> 01:19:21,926 {\an8}and our assistant principal 1593 01:19:22,051 --> 01:19:23,469 {\an8}came out from around her desk 1594 01:19:23,594 --> 01:19:25,179 {\an8}and just wrapped me in this hug. 1595 01:19:25,304 --> 01:19:28,182 And she says, "Don's been in an accident." 1596 01:19:28,307 --> 01:19:30,309 And that's all that we knew. 1597 01:19:30,434 --> 01:19:33,437 I was taken into surgery that evening 1598 01:19:33,687 --> 01:19:36,690 and was in surgery for 12 hours. 1599 01:19:38,484 --> 01:19:39,985 The next day 1600 01:19:40,110 --> 01:19:43,030 was when I realized I was in the recovery room. 1601 01:19:43,739 --> 01:19:46,742 The emergency room had called 1602 01:19:46,867 --> 01:19:49,119 and the nurse said, he can't hold the phone, 1603 01:19:49,245 --> 01:19:51,038 but I'm going to put it next to his ear 1604 01:19:51,163 --> 01:19:52,790 so he can hear you. 1605 01:19:54,041 --> 01:19:55,084 And I started with the questions, 1606 01:19:55,209 --> 01:19:57,044 "Are you okay? What happened? 1607 01:19:57,169 --> 01:19:58,212 Do I need to come out there?" 1608 01:19:58,337 --> 01:20:01,215 just, you know, rambling sort of things. 1609 01:20:01,340 --> 01:20:02,925 And all I could hear him say was, 1610 01:20:03,050 --> 01:20:04,802 "I just want to go home. 1611 01:20:04,927 --> 01:20:06,053 I just want to go home." 1612 01:20:08,472 --> 01:20:09,682 Later, I understood 1613 01:20:09,807 --> 01:20:12,726 that he meant his Heavenly home. 1614 01:20:13,727 --> 01:20:14,520 Had I had a choice, 1615 01:20:14,645 --> 01:20:16,230 I would not have come back here. 1616 01:20:16,355 --> 01:20:19,400 I mean, I've had 30 wonderful years here, 1617 01:20:20,025 --> 01:20:21,819 but I would still rather be there. 1618 01:20:21,944 --> 01:20:23,070 I know what happens next, 1619 01:20:23,195 --> 01:20:25,447 and it's it's always better there 1620 01:20:25,573 --> 01:20:26,824 than it will ever be here. 1621 01:20:26,949 --> 01:20:29,910 So I didn't really want to come back, but 1622 01:20:30,327 --> 01:20:32,329 I didn't get a choice. 1623 01:20:34,290 --> 01:20:36,542 He went into a deep depression. 1624 01:20:36,667 --> 01:20:40,588 And I would go in, and he would just lay there. 1625 01:20:40,879 --> 01:20:44,133 He wouldn't talk to me. He wouldn't acknowledge me. 1626 01:20:44,925 --> 01:20:46,176 I would bring papers to grade. 1627 01:20:46,302 --> 01:20:47,970 I would sit over in the corner and grade 1628 01:20:48,095 --> 01:20:50,180 and stay there till about 11:00 1629 01:20:50,306 --> 01:20:52,099 almost every night. 1630 01:20:52,850 --> 01:20:54,184 And then I'd tell him goodnight, 1631 01:20:54,310 --> 01:20:55,561 and I'd leave. 1632 01:20:59,440 --> 01:21:02,443 And it was hurtful, because I thought, you're alive. 1633 01:21:02,860 --> 01:21:04,445 You know, you're alive. You're back with us. 1634 01:21:04,570 --> 01:21:05,529 Don't you love us enough to 1635 01:21:05,654 --> 01:21:06,947 be glad to be back with us? 1636 01:21:09,158 --> 01:21:12,244 And to me, that was harder to deal with. 1637 01:21:12,369 --> 01:21:14,246 The depression was harder to deal with 1638 01:21:14,371 --> 01:21:17,374 than the physical injuries, which were massive. 1639 01:21:17,916 --> 01:21:20,085 And I remember one night, 1640 01:21:20,210 --> 01:21:21,670 I thought, you know what? 1641 01:21:21,795 --> 01:21:23,255 I'm going to go home early tonight, 1642 01:21:23,380 --> 01:21:25,257 and I'm going to take a warm shower, 1643 01:21:25,382 --> 01:21:26,800 and I'm going to crawl in the bed, 1644 01:21:26,925 --> 01:21:28,552 and get a good night's sleep. 1645 01:21:28,677 --> 01:21:31,639 So I gathered up all my stuff, 1646 01:21:31,764 --> 01:21:33,140 and I just said, 1647 01:21:33,265 --> 01:21:35,351 well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. 1648 01:21:40,648 --> 01:21:43,442 No response. 1649 01:21:43,567 --> 01:21:44,735 That night, something 1650 01:21:44,860 --> 01:21:47,738 clicked inside of me, and I had had it. 1651 01:21:47,946 --> 01:21:50,908 And I dropped that book bag, 1652 01:21:51,033 --> 01:21:53,619 and I stomped my way over to the side of the bed, 1653 01:21:53,744 --> 01:21:54,995 and I let him have it. 1654 01:21:55,120 --> 01:21:56,830 What is wrong with you? 1655 01:21:56,955 --> 01:21:58,457 Why aren't you glad to see us? 1656 01:21:58,582 --> 01:22:00,376 Why aren't you glad that you're back with us? 1657 01:22:00,501 --> 01:22:02,294 It was just-- it just tumbled out. 1658 01:22:04,755 --> 01:22:05,964 And so I grabbed my stuff up, 1659 01:22:06,090 --> 01:22:08,175 and I'm walking out the door. 1660 01:22:08,300 --> 01:22:11,220 And there was a big mirror next to his bed. 1661 01:22:12,888 --> 01:22:15,891 And I looked over there, and he was crying. 1662 01:22:17,601 --> 01:22:19,186 Just tears. 1663 01:22:20,062 --> 01:22:23,732 So I walked myself back over, and I kind of had to- 1664 01:22:23,941 --> 01:22:26,944 he had so many metal things that we had kind of 1665 01:22:27,236 --> 01:22:30,239 got my way in and I just wrapped him in my arms. 1666 01:22:30,781 --> 01:22:33,575 And I said, It's going to be okay. 1667 01:22:33,701 --> 01:22:37,913 And I realized then that 1668 01:22:39,206 --> 01:22:42,167 I had to accept that sometimes 1669 01:22:42,459 --> 01:22:45,421 he was going through things I didn't understand. 1670 01:22:54,513 --> 01:22:56,640 Mr. Storm: Finally, 1671 01:22:56,765 --> 01:22:59,476 I got through it. 1672 01:22:59,601 --> 01:23:01,437 Jesus said, "Do you have any questions?" 1673 01:23:01,562 --> 01:23:03,063 I said, "I've got a million questions." 1674 01:23:03,188 --> 01:23:05,190 He said, "What do you want to know?" 1675 01:23:05,315 --> 01:23:06,275 So I asked him everything that 1676 01:23:06,400 --> 01:23:08,235 I could think of to know, 1677 01:23:08,360 --> 01:23:09,903 And if we went through that, 1678 01:23:10,028 --> 01:23:11,321 it would take us several years. 1679 01:23:12,781 --> 01:23:14,366 And He gave me a whole 1680 01:23:14,491 --> 01:23:16,994 new understanding of everything. 1681 01:23:17,119 --> 01:23:18,495 I said, "Great, 1682 01:23:18,620 --> 01:23:20,330 Now that I understand, I want to go to heaven." 1683 01:23:20,456 --> 01:23:21,874 He said, "um um, 1684 01:23:22,958 --> 01:23:24,752 You're not ready for Heaven yet." 1685 01:23:26,462 --> 01:23:28,464 Finally, I said, "What do you want me to do?" 1686 01:23:28,589 --> 01:23:29,715 "I want you to love the person 1687 01:23:29,840 --> 01:23:30,591 that you're with." 1688 01:23:30,758 --> 01:23:32,301 I said, "Okay, yeah, but then what 1689 01:23:32,426 --> 01:23:33,552 do you want me to do after I do that?" 1690 01:23:33,677 --> 01:23:35,429 And He said, "No, that's what I want you to do." 1691 01:23:35,554 --> 01:23:38,557 I said, you know, "What good is that going to do?" 1692 01:23:38,682 --> 01:23:40,851 He said, "It's going to change the world." 1693 01:23:41,685 --> 01:23:44,688 And I said, "That's going to change the world? 1694 01:23:45,272 --> 01:23:47,357 I don't think so, no." 1695 01:23:47,483 --> 01:23:48,442 I said, "You don't understand. 1696 01:23:48,567 --> 01:23:51,028 The world is like a terrible, cruel place. 1697 01:23:51,153 --> 01:23:52,696 Even if I love someone, they're just going to go 1698 01:23:52,821 --> 01:23:55,574 get beat up somewhere else and not going to--" 1699 01:23:55,699 --> 01:23:57,242 He said, "No, if you love someone, 1700 01:23:57,367 --> 01:23:59,203 they'll take that love out into the world 1701 01:23:59,328 --> 01:24:01,872 and maybe they'll love somebody and it'll 1702 01:24:01,997 --> 01:24:02,956 grow and grow and grow." 1703 01:24:03,081 --> 01:24:04,583 I said, "It's not going to work." 1704 01:24:04,708 --> 01:24:05,626 And He said, "It's God's plan. 1705 01:24:05,751 --> 01:24:07,211 It's going to work." 1706 01:24:07,336 --> 01:24:09,755 Well, when he pulls out the God's plan work, 1707 01:24:09,880 --> 01:24:10,547 you know, 1708 01:24:10,672 --> 01:24:12,007 I mean, like, what can you say? 1709 01:24:15,719 --> 01:24:18,722 And so finally I conceded. 1710 01:24:18,847 --> 01:24:20,224 and I said, "Okay, I'll go back." 1711 01:24:20,349 --> 01:24:21,600 And with that, bang, 1712 01:24:21,725 --> 01:24:23,644 I'm in the body, I'm in the bed. 1713 01:24:29,316 --> 01:24:30,484 The nurse who'd been in the room 1714 01:24:30,609 --> 01:24:31,944 comes in and says, 1715 01:24:32,069 --> 01:24:33,737 a doctor has arrived at the hospital and 1716 01:24:33,862 --> 01:24:36,573 we're going to prepare you for surgery. 1717 01:24:36,698 --> 01:24:38,242 When I awoke, 1718 01:24:38,367 --> 01:24:40,494 I knew that what had happened to me 1719 01:24:40,619 --> 01:24:43,622 was the most important thing in my life. 1720 01:24:45,123 --> 01:24:48,794 Because now my life had real meaning and purpose. 1721 01:24:50,212 --> 01:24:51,380 I was very, very weak. 1722 01:24:51,505 --> 01:24:54,424 I had been in surgery for hours. 1723 01:24:55,968 --> 01:24:57,594 I'd spent most of the morning 1724 01:24:57,719 --> 01:24:58,929 trying to think of how I was going 1725 01:24:59,054 --> 01:25:02,015 to tell my wife what had happened. 1726 01:25:02,808 --> 01:25:05,769 I said to her, "It's all love." 1727 01:25:07,187 --> 01:25:09,064 She said, "I love you." 1728 01:25:09,189 --> 01:25:11,692 And I said, "I know you love me, but it's all love." 1729 01:25:14,361 --> 01:25:17,364 She said, "What are you talking about?" 1730 01:25:17,531 --> 01:25:20,534 And I said, "It's an ocean of love. 1731 01:25:21,827 --> 01:25:24,788 And you have to just go in 1732 01:25:25,080 --> 01:25:28,083 into that ocean of love and be a part of it." 1733 01:25:30,210 --> 01:25:33,213 And she said, "Okay, honey, 1734 01:25:35,090 --> 01:25:37,426 Try to get some rest." 1735 01:25:41,889 --> 01:25:43,015 Here I am. I'm I' giv-- 1736 01:25:43,140 --> 01:25:46,059 I'm giving her the abbreviated 1737 01:25:46,602 --> 01:25:49,605 wisdom of God. 1738 01:25:50,814 --> 01:25:52,774 And she's basically telling me, 1739 01:25:52,900 --> 01:25:54,318 you know, you're making no sense. 1740 01:25:54,443 --> 01:25:55,903 It's crazy talk. 1741 01:25:58,697 --> 01:25:59,907 From that day forward, 1742 01:26:00,032 --> 01:26:03,577 I tried to tell people about God, Heaven, Hell, 1743 01:26:04,953 --> 01:26:07,956 what I'd experienced, and nobody, 1744 01:26:08,415 --> 01:26:11,418 nobody took me seriously at all. 1745 01:26:11,752 --> 01:26:13,378 I was a zealot. 1746 01:26:13,503 --> 01:26:14,796 I was a complete zealot. 1747 01:26:14,922 --> 01:26:17,841 And it was 1748 01:26:18,425 --> 01:26:19,968 not good for my relationship 1749 01:26:20,093 --> 01:26:23,013 with my kids because the more that they 1750 01:26:23,972 --> 01:26:26,975 did not respect what I was trying to tell them 1751 01:26:27,392 --> 01:26:30,187 and the more they told me I was nuts and crazy 1752 01:26:30,312 --> 01:26:31,355 and stuff like that, the more... 1753 01:26:32,689 --> 01:26:34,483 it totally alienated them 1754 01:26:34,608 --> 01:26:37,152 from the Bible, from God, from me. 1755 01:26:37,277 --> 01:26:40,280 I mean, it was completely counterproductive. 1756 01:26:41,281 --> 01:26:42,908 It was a disaster. 1757 01:26:50,415 --> 01:26:51,875 My wife left me. 1758 01:26:53,126 --> 01:26:56,505 She poisoned the kids against me. 1759 01:26:59,007 --> 01:27:00,092 They've rejected me. 1760 01:27:00,217 --> 01:27:01,218 They don't want anything to do with me. 1761 01:27:01,343 --> 01:27:04,304 They think I'm a crazy man. 1762 01:27:05,389 --> 01:27:08,392 It's all going to work out. 1763 01:27:12,729 --> 01:27:14,064 I know that God works stuff out. 1764 01:27:14,189 --> 01:27:17,150 It just doesn't happen on our time frame. 1765 01:27:17,609 --> 01:27:19,069 I mean, I'd like it now. 1766 01:27:19,194 --> 01:27:20,946 It's not happening right now, 1767 01:27:21,071 --> 01:27:22,030 but it could happen tomorrow. 1768 01:27:22,155 --> 01:27:24,950 It might take a long time. 1769 01:27:25,075 --> 01:27:26,493 I don't know, 1770 01:27:31,456 --> 01:27:32,541 A couple of years down the road 1771 01:27:32,666 --> 01:27:33,291 when I found out 1772 01:27:33,417 --> 01:27:34,918 about the Heaven experience, 1773 01:27:35,043 --> 01:27:35,919 people have asked me, 1774 01:27:36,044 --> 01:27:38,588 "Aren't you mad that he didn't tell you?" 1775 01:27:38,714 --> 01:27:40,340 Not really. 1776 01:27:40,465 --> 01:27:44,094 I was relieved because now I understand. 1777 01:27:45,554 --> 01:27:46,722 You know, if you've been to Heaven, 1778 01:27:46,847 --> 01:27:49,182 why would you want to be back in the pain 1779 01:27:49,307 --> 01:27:50,684 that he was in? 1780 01:27:54,062 --> 01:27:56,481 I found myself on a daily basis 1781 01:27:56,606 --> 01:27:59,359 with all these devices attached to me 1782 01:27:59,484 --> 01:28:02,195 and unable to move at all. 1783 01:28:02,320 --> 01:28:04,031 I couldn't do a single solitary thing 1784 01:28:04,156 --> 01:28:05,073 for myself at all. 1785 01:28:05,198 --> 01:28:07,659 38 and then 39 year old man 1786 01:28:07,784 --> 01:28:10,746 who was completely helpless. 1787 01:28:16,543 --> 01:28:17,419 Why? 1788 01:28:18,170 --> 01:28:19,629 You let me see that, 1789 01:28:19,880 --> 01:28:21,506 And you brought me back to this. 1790 01:28:22,174 --> 01:28:24,009 What is going on here? 1791 01:28:24,217 --> 01:28:27,220 What was the purpose of this? 1792 01:28:35,896 --> 01:28:37,481 Dr. Moody: In my studies of psychiatry, 1793 01:28:37,606 --> 01:28:39,775 I quickly realized that practically 1794 01:28:39,900 --> 01:28:42,819 everybody is chasing something. 1795 01:28:43,612 --> 01:28:46,823 Some chase fame or money or power. 1796 01:28:47,741 --> 01:28:50,702 But what I quickly realized in talking with people 1797 01:28:50,827 --> 01:28:52,412 who had near-death experiences 1798 01:28:52,537 --> 01:28:54,664 is that whatever they were chasing 1799 01:28:54,790 --> 01:28:57,751 before this experience, convinced them that 1800 01:28:58,043 --> 01:29:00,796 what life is all about is learning to love. 1801 01:29:04,549 --> 01:29:07,511 Mr. Burke: And they all come back all around the globe 1802 01:29:07,719 --> 01:29:11,181 with the same "aha". That God is love. 1803 01:29:11,598 --> 01:29:13,517 And that how we treat and love one another 1804 01:29:13,642 --> 01:29:16,019 is what matters most to God. 1805 01:29:16,144 --> 01:29:16,853 You have people 1806 01:29:16,978 --> 01:29:19,439 who have these experiences and come back 1807 01:29:19,564 --> 01:29:22,526 and their life is radically changed. 1808 01:29:24,861 --> 01:29:25,695 Mr. Storm: When I came back 1809 01:29:25,821 --> 01:29:26,988 one of the things I knew I wanted 1810 01:29:27,114 --> 01:29:30,033 to make friends with my dad. 1811 01:29:31,034 --> 01:29:33,703 Not only was I able to forgive my father 1812 01:29:33,829 --> 01:29:36,665 because I understood that he was just messed up 1813 01:29:36,790 --> 01:29:39,209 because of his messed up childhood. 1814 01:29:39,334 --> 01:29:40,669 All my father really wanted to do 1815 01:29:40,794 --> 01:29:42,212 was to be loved but he 1816 01:29:42,337 --> 01:29:44,339 didn't know how to do that in an appropriate way. 1817 01:29:44,464 --> 01:29:46,842 So he tried to be loved in inappropriate ways. 1818 01:29:46,967 --> 01:29:49,886 He thought obedience and discipline. 1819 01:29:50,679 --> 01:29:52,097 And my mother and my sisters 1820 01:29:52,222 --> 01:29:53,265 were really angry with me 1821 01:29:53,390 --> 01:29:56,309 because they all told me several times 1822 01:29:57,060 --> 01:29:58,979 "You and Dad hated each other 1823 01:29:59,104 --> 01:30:02,023 and now you're his best friend. Why?" 1824 01:30:03,775 --> 01:30:05,777 And I'd say, "Because he's my dad." 1825 01:30:07,404 --> 01:30:09,197 Grace is passed along and passed along 1826 01:30:09,322 --> 01:30:11,867 and passed along. And it's powerful. 1827 01:30:11,992 --> 01:30:13,994 It's powerful because people change lives 1828 01:30:14,119 --> 01:30:15,245 for the good. 1829 01:30:15,370 --> 01:30:19,332 They find hope, peace, love, joy, contentment. 1830 01:30:19,457 --> 01:30:21,918 You know. 1831 01:30:22,043 --> 01:30:23,753 And they also find 1832 01:30:23,879 --> 01:30:25,755 God and eternal life. 1833 01:30:33,180 --> 01:30:35,599 Dr. Neal: When I was being shown 1834 01:30:35,724 --> 01:30:37,601 the ripple effect of my own actions 1835 01:30:37,726 --> 01:30:41,188 and my own words, I was able to see this 1836 01:30:41,688 --> 01:30:45,859 20, 25, 35 times removed from me. 1837 01:30:47,110 --> 01:30:48,486 That's 1838 01:30:48,612 --> 01:30:51,615 a big distance. 1839 01:30:51,865 --> 01:30:54,868 I understood all the hurts and sorrows and dreams. 1840 01:30:55,202 --> 01:30:58,830 Everything that had brought me to that point in time 1841 01:30:59,247 --> 01:31:02,250 when I may have hurt someone else. 1842 01:31:02,375 --> 01:31:05,295 I also had this complete understanding 1843 01:31:05,420 --> 01:31:06,755 of the back story 1844 01:31:06,880 --> 01:31:08,340 or the, you know, the life story 1845 01:31:08,465 --> 01:31:10,508 of the other people involved 1846 01:31:11,051 --> 01:31:13,470 and everything that had brought them 1847 01:31:13,595 --> 01:31:16,431 to that moment in time where they hurt me 1848 01:31:16,556 --> 01:31:17,807 or they hurt someone I loved 1849 01:31:19,643 --> 01:31:21,353 What we each say and what we 1850 01:31:21,478 --> 01:31:24,522 each do and the choices we make matter. 1851 01:31:25,690 --> 01:31:26,900 They really do. 1852 01:31:33,823 --> 01:31:36,826 Dr. Neal: When I talk about my son's death, 1853 01:31:37,077 --> 01:31:38,870 I know that he went home, 1854 01:31:38,995 --> 01:31:41,790 and I'm sure that he didn't want to come back either. 1855 01:31:41,915 --> 01:31:44,834 I'm sure he was reassured that we would be fine. 1856 01:31:46,670 --> 01:31:48,546 When my time on earth is done, 1857 01:31:48,672 --> 01:31:51,258 my oldest son will be there to greet me, 1858 01:31:51,383 --> 01:31:54,386 my father, my stepfather. 1859 01:31:54,928 --> 01:31:55,762 I now know 1860 01:31:55,887 --> 01:31:58,431 other people who have died, people who I love, people 1861 01:31:58,556 --> 01:31:59,891 who are important in my life. 1862 01:32:00,016 --> 01:32:01,309 I don't see 1863 01:32:01,434 --> 01:32:04,479 us here on Earth, and God's world is over here. 1864 01:32:04,938 --> 01:32:08,233 I think we exist in the midst of it. 1865 01:32:11,403 --> 01:32:13,363 I had the most 1866 01:32:13,488 --> 01:32:16,408 overwhelming sense of being home, 1867 01:32:17,075 --> 01:32:18,785 of being where I really belong, 1868 01:32:18,910 --> 01:32:21,454 where we really belong, all of us. 1869 01:32:23,206 --> 01:32:25,875 It took about a few months to recover fully. 1870 01:32:26,042 --> 01:32:28,211 I was still feeling the pain, 1871 01:32:28,336 --> 01:32:31,339 feeling a little down, depressed. Seeing Hell 1872 01:32:31,464 --> 01:32:35,593 and Heaven, changed me to kind of prioritize others. 1873 01:32:36,386 --> 01:32:39,431 So at the age of 35, I joined the Army Reserves. 1874 01:32:40,265 --> 01:32:42,309 I became a chaplain. 1875 01:32:42,434 --> 01:32:43,727 People just came back from war 1876 01:32:43,852 --> 01:32:44,936 and you could tell that they had 1877 01:32:45,061 --> 01:32:47,355 a very heartbroken experience 1878 01:32:47,480 --> 01:32:50,191 or a psychological damage, or the atrocities of war. 1879 01:32:50,317 --> 01:32:52,485 So we did a lot of counseling. 1880 01:32:52,610 --> 01:32:54,154 We would pick up phone calls at two, 1881 01:32:54,279 --> 01:32:55,280 three in the morning, 1882 01:32:55,405 --> 01:32:57,657 go with them to training, hang out with them. 1883 01:32:57,782 --> 01:33:00,535 I would tell them that there's hope. 1884 01:33:00,660 --> 01:33:03,621 I would tell them that depression is not forever. 1885 01:33:05,373 --> 01:33:07,375 I believe all over the world, 1886 01:33:07,500 --> 01:33:08,793 there are so many unique 1887 01:33:08,918 --> 01:33:10,879 NDEs, near-death experiences, 1888 01:33:11,004 --> 01:33:12,005 and so many cultures 1889 01:33:12,130 --> 01:33:14,132 and backgrounds, American or not, 1890 01:33:14,257 --> 01:33:16,885 all types of religions, because 1891 01:33:17,010 --> 01:33:18,553 death is as real as life. 1892 01:33:19,637 --> 01:33:21,306 And I believe God in his mercy, 1893 01:33:21,431 --> 01:33:22,807 no matter what religious background 1894 01:33:22,932 --> 01:33:24,934 you are, allows you to go through that 1895 01:33:25,060 --> 01:33:28,063 so that you can seek Him in the process. 1896 01:33:28,813 --> 01:33:31,316 I don't know why some people survive 1897 01:33:31,441 --> 01:33:33,234 and some people don't. 1898 01:33:33,360 --> 01:33:34,611 I wish. 1899 01:33:34,736 --> 01:33:36,529 I wouldn't have survived. 1900 01:33:36,654 --> 01:33:37,655 I've had some very real things 1901 01:33:37,781 --> 01:33:38,615 happen to me on Earth. 1902 01:33:38,740 --> 01:33:40,909 The birth of five grandchildren, 1903 01:33:41,034 --> 01:33:42,702 seeing my children all graduate. 1904 01:33:42,827 --> 01:33:45,747 I mean, it's been glorious in many ways, 1905 01:33:46,081 --> 01:33:47,582 but nothing compares to Heaven. 1906 01:33:47,707 --> 01:33:49,376 It's just, that's the most real thing. 1907 01:33:49,501 --> 01:33:51,419 That is my reality. 1908 01:33:51,544 --> 01:33:53,254 This is not. 1909 01:33:53,380 --> 01:33:54,047 Mr. Burke: What do we have 1910 01:33:54,172 --> 01:33:57,092 more in common as humanity than death? 1911 01:33:57,342 --> 01:34:01,012 And to know that there is hope beyond this life, 1912 01:34:01,805 --> 01:34:04,099 that there truly is beauty, 1913 01:34:04,224 --> 01:34:07,018 and relationship and love 1914 01:34:07,143 --> 01:34:09,813 and adventure ahead. 1915 01:34:09,938 --> 01:34:11,314 You know, that 1916 01:34:11,439 --> 01:34:14,192 all of our our history and our memories, 1917 01:34:14,317 --> 01:34:17,028 they don't end and we don't become something else. 1918 01:34:17,153 --> 01:34:18,071 It goes on. 1919 01:34:21,658 --> 01:34:23,284 Dr. Sabom: People ought to keep an open mind 1920 01:34:23,410 --> 01:34:25,120 to what's going on, 1921 01:34:25,245 --> 01:34:27,997 not accept everything they hear 1922 01:34:28,832 --> 01:34:31,876 from people, from me, from anybody. 1923 01:34:32,710 --> 01:34:35,713 Be skeptical, ask questions, 1924 01:34:36,798 --> 01:34:38,550 think about it. 1925 01:34:38,675 --> 01:34:41,719 There are things that we can't explain, and I think 1926 01:34:42,011 --> 01:34:45,223 it needs to be documented as much as we can. 1927 01:34:45,515 --> 01:34:49,060 Documentation's important. Without that, 1928 01:34:49,727 --> 01:34:52,730 it's an interesting story, and that's it. 1929 01:34:55,066 --> 01:34:56,568 We can only do so much. 1930 01:34:56,693 --> 01:34:58,153 You know, we're human beings 1931 01:34:58,278 --> 01:34:59,821 and we do the best we can. 1932 01:34:59,946 --> 01:35:01,698 I think most people really do. 1933 01:35:01,823 --> 01:35:03,783 We don't have all the answers, 1934 01:35:03,908 --> 01:35:06,870 and I don't think we ever will have all the answers. 1935 01:35:06,995 --> 01:35:09,247 In the scientific realm. 1936 01:35:09,372 --> 01:35:11,875 What is a human soul? Is a human soul? 1937 01:35:12,000 --> 01:35:13,877 does it live after death? 1938 01:35:14,002 --> 01:35:15,211 I don't think science is going 1939 01:35:15,336 --> 01:35:16,713 to answer those questions. 1940 01:35:16,838 --> 01:35:19,924 I think all of these near-death experiences 1941 01:35:21,384 --> 01:35:24,637 suggest that that's possible.