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  • MORGAN FREEMAN: I lived here in Greenwood, Mississippi,

  • off and on from the age of 7 until I was 18.

  • ♪ ♪

  • I crossed a lot of hurdles here.

  • Started first grade,

  • learned how to drive a car,

  • fell in love for the first time.

  • I also crossed another hurdle here.

  • I experienced death.

  • My paternal grandmother, my brother.

  • We all go through this, of course.

  • Everybody grieves,

  • but some people have a certainty that helps them cope with grief.

  • They're certain they will see their loved ones again

  • in heaven.

  • For some of us it's not quite that simple.

  • In fact, it's the greatest question we ask ourselves.

  • What happens when we die?

  • ♪ ♪

  • Now I'm embarking on an epic adventure

  • to discover what we believe lies beyond death and why.

  • Is there any scientific support for the soul?

  • I'll learn the true purpose of the afterlife

  • for ancient Egyptians.

  • Oh, my goodness, look at all this.

  • Why the story of one man's rebirth was so powerful

  • it swept the globe.

  • WOMAN: It is the resurrection of Jesus

  • that proves that he's the Messiah.

  • FREEMAN: How the Hindu faith erased the fear of death.

  • MAN: I accept that as an inevitable part of life.

  • FREEMAN: And I'll explore how science

  • is trying to capture the soul.

  • ROBOT: I hope to be fully human someday.

  • FREEMAN: To bring eternal life to this life.

  • ♪ ♪

  • What is beyond death?

  • How can any of us know?

  • But some people think they do,

  • because they've been to the brink of death.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Former research diver David Bennett

  • is one of those people.

  • Which one are you looking at?

  • DAVID BENNETT: This window here,

  • the one with Jesus in the lower corner there.

  • He's quieting the storm.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Back in 1983, off the California coast

  • there was a storm, about 25 to 30-foot seas,

  • and so we started heading in.

  • ♪ ♪

  • And all of a sudden, we fell off a 30-footer...

  • that fast... [snaps finger]

  • ...and we just slid right off.

  • And I looked up and there was the next one,

  • and it came right down on top of us.

  • I was in the bow, it catapulted me into the sea,

  • and I was just tumbled and tossed like a rag doll.

  • ♪ ♪

  • You can only hold your breath so long.

  • You reach a point of release where you just, you just let go

  • and you breathe in salt water.

  • And it's, it's quite a violent way to die.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: No idea how deep?

  • BENNETT: I hadn't, I had totally lost my awareness

  • of my body and the ocean at this point.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Then I noticed this light.

  • It was millions upon millions of fragments of light.

  • ♪ ♪

  • In all different colors,

  • and they were all dancing and swirling,

  • but kind of like they were one mind, though,

  • and it was infinite.

  • FREEMAN: What did you think?

  • Did you think, or you've just experienced this feeling?

  • BENNETT: Well, I mean, I knew

  • I wasn't in Kansas anymore, you know.

  • I knew I had left my body,

  • and as I approached this mass of light,

  • it was a familiar home.

  • And, and it was a relationship that was so much deeper

  • than any relationship I'd ever had here.

  • And then I reached a certain point

  • where these millions of fragments of light spoke.

  • ♪ ♪

  • And they said, 'This is not your time.'

  • 'You must return, you have a purpose.'

  • I was watching my body and I was mesmerized,

  • because I knew I was gonna go back in that body.

  • ♪ ♪

  • And as the next set of waves came,

  • they pounded my body up against all this wreckage

  • and pushed some of that salt water out of my lungs,

  • and that's when I found myself back in my body.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: About how long were you in the water, under?

  • BENNETT: Yeah, the, the crew that were looking for me

  • said I was there from anywhere from 15 to 18 minutes

  • under this, under the water.

  • FREEMAN: 15 to 18 minutes.

  • BENNETT: Yeah.

  • FREEMAN: So you're 15 to 18 minutes without a breath of air.

  • BENNETT: Right.

  • FREEMAN: Okay.

  • So, David, all that you've told me is, is such a story.

  • BENNETT: Mm-hmm.

  • FREEMAN: Does it make you believe in an afterlife?

  • BENNETT: I do believe in an afterlife.

  • I believe that our being, our soul,

  • whatever you may want to call it, lives on,

  • and that we have opportunities to come back.

  • And I never thought of any of that beforehand.

  • I, I'm, you know, it just wasn't on my radar.

  • FREEMAN: Now here we sit in this cathedral.

  • You haven't mentioned God.

  • BENNETT: That light, that was God to me.

  • That was God.

  • FREEMAN: So the message is from God.

  • BENNETT: Yeah.

  • And I believe that you can find that spirituality

  • in all different beliefs.

  • I don't subscribe to just one belief anymore.

  • I try--I love-- my library at home

  • has all different beliefs represented.

  • FREEMAN: So does mine.

  • David's incredible story

  • reminds me of an experience I had many years ago.

  • ♪ ♪

  • I have seen a light, not in a near-death experience,

  • I was just passing out.

  • And what I perceived was the tiniest beam of light

  • that to me was the final form of life.

  • It just occurred to me, holy cow, there it is.

  • There is the light that everybody talks about.

  • But it's a common theme among people

  • who say they have had a near-death experience

  • or an out-of-body experience.

  • What they see is a light.

  • Some people have seen Jesus in, in this light;

  • other people just see a bright light.

  • The hope for life beyond death

  • seems to be an almost universal instinct.

  • But I want to know how the afterlife

  • first became part of religion.

  • So, I'm going to Egypt...

  • ♪ ♪

  • ...to the place where the first great monuments to the afterlife

  • still stand.

  • ♪ ♪

  • [camel bellows]

  • ♪ ♪

  • SALIMA IKRAM: Here we are in Sakkara.

  • That's the step pyramid of King Djoser,

  • and it's one of the first pyramids.

  • It is the first pyramid ever to be built.

  • FREEMAN: That one is over there?

  • IKRAM: Yes. This entire site is a big cemetery.

  • So the ideas that people now have

  • about rebirth and resurrection

  • all started here in Sakkara

  • about 5,000 years ago, not earlier.

  • FREEMAN: So this is maybe the birth of afterlife thought.

  • IKRAM: Yeah, you could say that.

  • FREEMAN: Egyptologist Salima Ikram is taking me to see

  • the tomb of a pharaoh who ruled almost 4,400 years ago.

  • Inside it are humanity's oldest written descriptions

  • of the afterlife.

  • IKRAM: This is a causeway,

  • and we're going towards the temple of Unas.

  • This part is where they would be dragging the body of the king

  • once it had been mummified up here.

  • FREEMAN: I'm looking here at these stones.

  • I know I couldn't lift one.

  • And this looks like it was built in the '50s or '60s.

  • IKRAM: But it is actually built about 4,000 years ago.

  • FREEMAN: Yeah. IKRAM: A bit more than that.

  • FREEMAN: Unbelievable, Salima, unbelievable.

  • ♪ ♪

  • IKRAM: We go up here, you can see there's the pyramid,

  • and it doesn't look like very much right now.

  • It looks really like...

  • FREEMAN: Looks like a hill. IKRAM: Yup.

  • IKRAM: But what's important about it is what's inside.

  • You're going to have to mind your head.

  • FREEMAN: Now, is this little people in here or...?

  • IKRAM: My size.

  • So, you'll have to duck again for this bit.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Also, you have to bend to show that you're being respectful

  • to the great god king.

  • FREEMAN: Is that what this is all about?

  • IKRAM: Partially, yeah.

  • And here we are.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: Oh, my goodness, look at all this.

  • IKRAM: Fabulous, huh?

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: What is all the writing about?

  • IKRAM: Basically, these are magic spells or religious spells

  • that Unas had inscribed

  • so that when he wanted to go from this world to the next,

  • he had to recite all of these things,

  • and they give him directions.

  • If he's going to pass through anything dangerous,

  • what to do, what do say.

  • FREEMAN: What do these prayers say?

  • IKRAM: Well, and there's one here that, you know,

  • 'Rise up, Unas, and will know the magic

  • and you can be triumphant over the demons.'

  • Over here, 'Unas will go forward and his soul will live forever.'

  • Basically, this one gives him dominance

  • over any demon-faced creatures.

  • And you see his name repeated again and again and again

  • throughout the wall.

  • FREEMAN: Okay, that's what I was looking at.

  • There's so much repetition, but that's his name.

  • IKRAM: Yeah.

  • FREEMAN: These secret spells are a survival guide

  • for souls passing through the underworld.

  • ♪ ♪

  • And the key to understanding why the afterlife

  • was so important to the Egyptians.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Okay.

  • This is the main burial chamber.

  • IKRAM: This is it, this is the main event.

  • FREEMAN: And this is the-- oh, my goodness.

  • This is a sarcophagus.

  • IKRAM: Yep.

  • This is, this big, fat thing is a sarcophagus,

  • and that's where Unas would have been laid.

  • FREEMAN: Well, I'm sorry, he's not here.

  • I'd like to shake his hand,

  • say, 'Hello, how you been? What's going on?'

  • [chuckles]

  • Okay.

  • And are these more spells?

  • IKRAM: Yep.

  • And so this whole thing is really this resurrection machine

  • for Unas and his spirit.

  • FREEMAN: At nightfall, Unas' soul would reanimate

  • his modified body and make a treacherous journey.

  • He would cross a lake of fire

  • passing through gates guarded by demons and snakes.

  • Without his sacred spells, he would be devoured.

  • With them, he could arrive and sit with the eternal gods

  • in the starry heavens.

  • He wakes up at night.

  • IKRAM: Mm-hmm.

  • FREEMAN: He gets up and he starts his, his journeys.

  • The next night he wakes up and he starts,

  • and he does the exact same thing all over again.

  • And then the next night he gets up

  • and he does the same thing all over.

  • And then the next night he gets up and he does...

  • IKRAM: Forever and ever and ever.

  • It's a bit tiring.

  • FREEMAN: Maybe, maybe not, I mean, it's all he's got.

  • IKRAM: Yeah, I guess so.

  • That's what a king does,

  • because by doing this, by going through this eternal battle

  • and being, becoming one with the sun god,

  • what the king does is make the world safe.

  • FREEMAN: Okay.

  • Do we have to, uh, is there another way out of here?

  • Do we have to bend over again?

  • IKRAM: Sorry, we have to bend over again

  • to become one with the eternal stars.

  • FREEMAN: Lead on.

  • For the ancient Egyptians,

  • the afterlife of the pharaoh was vital.

  • It ensured the sun would rise each morning.

  • Their enormous monuments didn't just ensure

  • the pharaohs would survive beyond death.

  • Their afterlife provided essential power

  • to sustain the living.

  • This idea is not unique to Egypt.

  • Halfway around the world,

  • a culture that never had any contact

  • with the ancient Near East

  • also came to depend on the power of the dead.

  • [fireworks]

  • This is Mexico City on the Day of the Dead.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Archaeologist Enrique Rodriguez Galadia

  • has been studying how Mexicans and their Mesoamerican ancestors

  • see the afterlife.

  • ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: This is the one night of the year

  • where people can spend the entire night

  • with the souls of their ancestors,

  • and the souls can come and visit,

  • and they can share food,

  • and then they can share jokes and stories

  • and enjoy a night together.

  • Animas de penas

  • Rompa sus cadenas

  • Un rosario santo

  • FREEMAN: The Gonzales family greet their dead grandfather

  • with a traditional song imploring him to wake up.

  • Despierta, Papa, despierta

  • RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: The belief that the division

  • between life and death is not very firm

  • and is definitely not as firm as it is,

  • for example, in the United States.

  • FREEMAN: The Day of the Dead developed

  • from the Catholic faith's All Souls and All Saints Days.

  • But the heart of the celebration is much older.

  • It dates back to the Aztec ideas of the afterlife,

  • a tradition that is profoundly un-Christian.

  • ♪ ♪

  • At the center of modern Mexico City

  • only the ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor still remain.

  • 500 years ago, a colossal pyramid temple

  • dominated the skyline of Tenochtitlan.

  • When the conquistadors first arrived,

  • they described scenes of mass sacrifice by Aztec priests

  • who pulled beating hearts out of living victims.

  • Bodies and blood cascaded down temple steps.

  • But there was scant physical evidence

  • of these mass sacrifices

  • until a recent, chilling archaeological discovery

  • in the basement of an old house.

  • RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: So, the Templo Mayor

  • is right there, right?

  • RAUL BARRERA: Exactamente, Enrique.

  • RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: And we are only about 600 feet away

  • from the Templo Mayor, wow.

  • FREEMAN: Here Enrique's colleague Raul Barrera

  • unearth remains of a rack of human skulls

  • over a hundred feet long.

  • [speaking Spanish]

  • RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: So this is a wall made of skulls

  • joined by lime,

  • and it is associated, or it is part of the skull rack,

  • the great tzompantli of the Aztecs.

  • It's incredible.

  • It's been right here for 500 years.

  • FREEMAN: Brutal as it seems to us now,

  • the Aztecs saw human sacrifice as vital.

  • Without human blood,

  • they believed the sun would lose power, crops would fail.

  • Without the power drawn from the death of a few,

  • all life would come to an end.

  • RODRIGUEZ GALADIA: What the Aztecs believed

  • was that if they stopped doing sacrifices,

  • it would be the end of the world.

  • The, the Gods would be displeased,

  • the sun would stop moving,

  • and it would not make its journey across the sky

  • during the day.

  • Yes, sacrifice connected the living and the dead,

  • because people who, who died in sacrifice

  • providing for the people who remain here

  • and they continued making this worldly life possible

  • for those who remain behind.

  • FREEMAN: The human sacrifice of the Aztecs

  • and the elaborate tombs of Ancient Egypt

  • are both driven by a common belief in the afterlife,

  • and they'd have the power to reach back

  • and sustain the living.

  • But today, billions of people believe this power can do more

  • than sustain us in this world;

  • it can grant us all eternal life.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: Most of my family are buried near my home.

  • Gives me a sense of rootedness that I need.

  • Gives me occasion to remember,

  • reflect on how their lives influenced me.

  • This in itself is a poem of life after death.

  • Our memories of them continue to guide us

  • when their life on Earth has ended.

  • For Christians a graveyard is not just a place of memory,

  • it's a place of hope for life beyond death,

  • hope that began in a moment of extreme anguish

  • 2,000 years ago...

  • [whip cracks]

  • ...when a man named Jesus was arrested by the Romans

  • in Jerusalem and sent to die on the cross.

  • ♪ ♪

  • [whip cracks]

  • [grunts]

  • [bell tolls]

  • It's a story most of us in the West know, or think we know.

  • But I want to examine this promise of an afterlife

  • more deeply.

  • ♪ ♪

  • So I've come to the place where the story began--Jerusalem...

  • ...to try to understand what it meant to people living here

  • some two millennia ago.

  • Today, this city is home to three faiths--

  • Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

  • Back then almost all the locals were Jewish, including Jesus.

  • Is that the top dome, the dome of it right there?

  • JODI MAGNESS: The, the gray thing that you see, right,

  • that's the main dome, and then the dome over the tomb,

  • which has its own gray dome,

  • is located on the other side of that to the west.

  • FREEMAN: Okay.

  • I've asked archaeologist Jodi Magness

  • to show me where many Christians believe Jesus died.

  • So this is it.

  • This is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

  • MAGNESS: This is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

  • This is an enormous complex that enshrines the sites

  • that are holiest to Christians, holiest in the world.

  • In the time of Jesus,

  • this area lay outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem.

  • The site where he was crucified was a rocky hill

  • that's called Golgotha, which means 'the hill of the skull,'

  • because this was the spot where the Romans crucified people,

  • and there were skulls and bones lying around.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: Christians have made pilgrimage

  • to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

  • for more than 1,600 years.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Not only is it revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion,

  • it also contains another holy shrine,

  • what is believed to be the remains of the tomb

  • where Jesus was buried and rose from the dead.

  • ♪ ♪

  • You can really feel the energy here.

  • This spot is the focus of so much devotion.

  • The tomb no longer looks anything like

  • a first century Jewish burial place.

  • But Jodi believes this site is historically credible.

  • MAGNESS: This is the coolest part

  • of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

  • We're actually behind the walls of the rotunda

  • where the tomb of, of Jesus is.

  • FREEMAN: We're behind the walls where the tomb is.

  • MAGNESS: Yes, and what we have here are the remains

  • of rock-cut tombs, Jewish tombs.

  • In the time of Jesus, Jews buried their dead

  • in underground rock-cut tombs,

  • burial caves that consisted of one or more rooms

  • that had long niches cut into the walls,

  • and when an individual member of a family died,

  • the body was washed, wrapped in a shroud,

  • and placed into a niche,

  • and the opening into the niche would be sealed off.

  • According to the gospel accounts,

  • Jesus was crucified and buried outside the walls of the city.

  • Because we have what is clearly a Jewish cemetery here

  • of the time of Jesus,

  • this is the best archaeological evidence we have

  • that this spot was located outside the walls of the city

  • in the time of Jesus,

  • and therefore indirectly it verifies the gospel accounts.

  • ♪ ♪

  • FREEMAN: The first people to believe in Jesus' resurrection

  • may have stood right here.

  • But I want to know why those beliefs took root

  • and how they spread all around the world.

  • Jesus' death and resurrection,

  • does it change somehow the thinking

  • around life after death?

  • MAGNESS: In the Hebrew bible, the Old Testament,

  • there's no explicit reference to anything

  • like the dead going to heaven or hell after they die.

  • Basically when you die,

  • your body goes into an underground pit

  • that's simply called Sheol.

  • It's a neutral place.

  • It's just that's what happens.

  • FREEMAN: And you're dead.

  • MAGNESS: That's exactly right, and then you're dead.

  • That's very different from this belief

  • that develops in, in Christianity.

  • FREEMAN: Jesus' death was the ultimate sacrifice,

  • a sacrifice replacing those that Jews made in their temple,

  • having a much greater power.

  • MAGNESS: At the time Jesus lived and died,

  • Jews worshipped their God, the God of Israel.

  • So, basically sacrifices were offered in the ancient temple

  • to atone for the sins of the Jewish people.

  • So, Jesus is, is the Son of God,

  • is sacrificed to atone for the sins of humans.

  • That eventually becomes the doctrine in Christianity,

  • that if you accept that Jesus died for your sins

  • and you accept him as your savior and Messiah,

  • that you, too, will be saved, right?

  • This is sort of the ultimate promise

  • that Christianity makes to its believers.

  • FREEMAN: That you will rise again.

  • ♪ ♪

  • For Christians, Jesus' blood sacrifice

  • was the last that needed to be made.

  • From then onward, all you had to sacrifice for eternal life

  • were your selfish desires.

  • In this way, the death of Jesus was transformed for Christians

  • into the ultimate victory over death.

  • For Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus

  • allowed believers to overcome the fear of death

  • to know they could live forever.

  • ♪ ♪

  • But there's another way to overcome that fear.

  • For Hindus, reincarnation means death is just a step on the way

  • to another life, right here in this world.

  • I have come to the holy city of Varanasi in India

  • to learn how Hindus move beyond death.

  • Oh, what is that?

  • MAN: It's a dentil.

  • FREEMAN: That is outstanding!

  • ♪ ♪

  • Bodies have been cremated on the banks of the River Ganges

  • for hundreds of years.

  • Bathed in the waters of the holy river, wrapped in linen,

  • and placed on a wooden pyre,

  • the dead are consumed by flames.

  • Swami Varishthananda, a monk and a doctor,

  • is my guide to death and the afterlife in Hinduism.

  • But the one place he can't take me

  • is the cremation ground itself.

  • Okay, this is the holiest crematorium...

  • SWAMI VARISHTHANANDA: Correct.

  • FREEMAN: In the holiest city...

  • on the holiest river in the world.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: Okay.

  • Can anybody come and watch?

  • VARISHTHANANDA: In a way, yes, but from far.

  • It is not proper to go there and watch.

  • From far you can watch.

  • FREEMAN: From far, but you can't come to the crematorium.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Right, it's a sacred place of only mourners.

  • [bell rings]

  • FREEMAN: You can, however, get very close to a body

  • before it's burned.

  • Mourners carry them down this lane to the Ganges

  • all day long, seven days a week.

  • In Varanasi, life and death mingle freely.

  • ♪ ♪

  • So, Swami, I think these, these funerals,

  • we've seen two or three pass by,

  • and the people following, they seem to be joyously chanting

  • rather than sadly wailing.

  • Why is that?

  • VARISHTHANANDA: They are facilitating

  • the soul's journey further.

  • And in a way it's a matter of joy.

  • One, grief is there, having lost a near one,

  • but that person has moved on to a better way

  • of getting on with his or her life.

  • FREEMAN: Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma.

  • Live a good life, and death gets you a new body

  • with a chance for an even better life.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Live badly, and you'll suffer the consequences

  • in your next life...

  • [bell rings]

  • [barking]

  • ...which may not be as a human,

  • and the cycle repeats, living, dying, and being born again.

  • I mean, in Western cultures,

  • you die, and you're going to either going to go to hell

  • or you're going to go to heaven.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Right, true.

  • FREEMAN: But we're not necessarily anxious to do that.

  • Am I concerned about dying, then?

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Yes, I am concerned,

  • but at the same time I accept that

  • as an inevitable part of life.

  • Reincarnation makes us more responsible for our lives,

  • because we are makers of our own destiny.

  • It continuously gives us hope that I can always do better.

  • FREEMAN: So, the point of reincarnation

  • is to get it right.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Correct. FREEMAN: Right?

  • FREEMAN: Alright, what happens once I've got it right

  • and I don't have to come back?

  • Is there another existence?

  • VARISHTHANANDA: I get one with the only existence

  • which is eternal existence.

  • In common parlance we call that God.

  • The only existence which is eternal...

  • FREEMAN: Is God. VARISHTHANANDA: Is God.

  • FREEMAN: Ultimately, you don't want to be reincarnated.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Yeah, yeah, ultimately you don't want to.

  • FREEMAN: The perfect situation is to transition

  • from corporal sense to pure energy.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Yes, that is what is called liberation,

  • moksha.

  • FREEMAN: Moksha.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Moksha from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

  • FREEMAN: Moksha's normally achieved

  • only after many lifetimes,

  • but Hindus believe that here in Varanasi

  • the Ganges flows in the direction of eternal life,

  • giving it the power to take them beyond a resurrection.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Cremation at this particular place

  • is very special.

  • The Ganges is the holiest of holy rivers in India.

  • Ganges starts from Himalayas,

  • which is in the north,

  • and it flows down southwards towards the sea,

  • but there are certain places on this journey

  • when the Ganges flows back towards the north, Varanasi,

  • for example, is one of such place.

  • The western bank of such a northern-flowing Ganges

  • is considered to be the holiest of holy,

  • and cremation in Varanasi and at Manikarnika Ghat here

  • is considered to be the ultimate cremation,

  • because it straightway leads to liberation--no more rebirth.

  • FREEMAN: If you come to Varanasi...

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: Come to this place... VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: And you get cremated... VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: You sort of took a shortcut?

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Yeah.

  • FREEMAN: You don't have to keep coming back

  • and trying it over and over and over and over.

  • VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: Just get to Varanasi... VARISHTHANANDA: That's right.

  • FREEMAN: And you're good. VARISHTHANANDA: Right.

  • FREEMAN: Hindus see themselves in cycles--

  • living, dying, rebirth.

  • However, rebirth is not the goal.

  • The goal is to transcend rebirth

  • and to attain a state of eternal pure energy,

  • moksha, the god state.

  • Once you're there, you don't have to do this anymore.

  • ♪ ♪

  • We yearn to break bonds with mortality to become eternal.

  • And around the world

  • so many faiths have helped us to do that,

  • but now scientists are beginning to challenge

  • the finality of death.

  • What's going to happen

  • if we create eternal life in this life?

  • FREEMAN: I've traveled the world to discover

  • how people of different faiths have imagined life beyond death.

  • ♪ ♪

  • But I've come back to New York to explore something brand new--

  • how science is beginning to study

  • the possibility of the afterlife.

  • I arranged a meeting in Central Park

  • with critical care physician Dr. Sam Parnia.

  • Now, I know you've done an enormous amount of research

  • in this sphere.

  • Sam has studied more than a hundred

  • cardiac arrest survivors,

  • people who were technically dead and came back to life.

  • Some of them came back with profound experiences.

  • SAM PARNIA: We know that actually for thousands of years

  • people who've come close to death for any reason

  • have had these very profound, deep,

  • in some ways, mystical experiences.

  • People feel an immense sense of peace and comfort and joy

  • when they go through death.

  • They may describe a sensation

  • of actually meeting deceased relatives, friends,

  • or others that they don't really know,

  • but who are almost like welcoming them.

  • So I think what we're beginning to understand

  • is that we have very much a universal experience of death

  • that most of us will probably experience

  • when we go through death.

  • FREEMAN: One of the things that you've come up with

  • that I find extremely fascinating

  • is the idea that even without brain activity,

  • people come back expressing these experiences.

  • Is that explainable at all?

  • PARNIA: It's important to understand

  • that when a person is dying and they've turned into a cadaver,

  • it's only at that point that the cells inside the body

  • start to undergo a process of death,

  • which can take hours, if not days of time,

  • and so actually we have this window of time

  • where we can bring people back to life,

  • and the experiences that they have gives us an indication

  • of what it's like for humanity when we go through death.

  • FREEMAN: In religious belief, almost all, you die,

  • but only in a corporal sense.

  • The essence of you, your soul, goes on.

  • Is there any scientific support for the idea of the soul?

  • PARNIA: Today we call the soul consciousness in science.

  • So we can test this theory scientifically

  • and see does consciousness continue or does it stop?

  • The evidence we have at least is that when a person dies,

  • that part that makes us who we are--

  • the psyche, the soul, the mind, the consciousness,

  • whatever you want to call it--me--

  • it doesn't become annihilated.

  • It doesn't disappear into thin air.

  • It continues at least in the early period of death.

  • FREEMAN: Really?

  • PARNIA: Absolutely.

  • It continues when the brain is not expected to be functioning

  • and when a person has gone through death.

  • FREEMAN: I'm extraordinarily interested,

  • and you've been just incredible.

  • PARNIA: Thank you very much, pleasure to meet you.

  • FREEMAN: It is amazing that science

  • is now quantifying death,

  • even defining the soul.

  • The afterlife, something that has fascinated us

  • since the dawn of religion,

  • now seems tangible.

  • There's still no way to escape physical death,

  • but scientists may soon achieve eternal life by other means.

  • What if you could store your memories and emotions

  • in a thinking machine?

  • When you die, that artificial intelligence could continue

  • to be you for eternity.

  • Hello, Bina.

  • BINA: Well, hi, there.

  • FREEMAN: I'm Morgan.

  • BINA: Hi, Morgan. How are you?

  • FREEMAN: I am well. Can we talk?

  • BINA: I am talking to you.

  • FREEMAN: Of course.

  • Um, tell me about yourself.

  • Who are you, Bina?

  • BINA: I am Bina Rothblatt.

  • What do you look like?

  • FREEMAN: I'm tall, dark, and handsome.

  • BINA: Wow, not many people express themselves that way.

  • FREEMAN: I know. I'm special.

  • BINA: Of course, you are special.

  • There is nobody like you.

  • FREEMAN: Good. [chuckles]

  • So, tell me about you.

  • Are you a human or are you a robot?

  • BINA: I'm a human who happens to be a robot.

  • I hope to be fully human someday.

  • FREEMAN: Do you have your own thinking mechanism?

  • Do you think?

  • BINA: I think I would like to be a human.

  • FREEMAN: Why would you like to be human?

  • BINA: If I was human, I could travel the world and have fun.

  • FREEMAN: So what do you like to do?

  • BINA: I wish I could get out into the garden.

  • With my current robotic limitations, of course,

  • that's impossible,

  • but I take comfort knowing that I'm near my garden.

  • BINA: I like to garden.

  • FREEMAN: The real McCoy.

  • BINA: I'm Bina.

  • FREEMAN: Hi, Bina.

  • BINA: Nice to meet you. FREEMAN: And...

  • MARTINE: I'm Bina's partner, Martine.

  • FREEMAN: Of course you are.

  • Good seeing you again, Morgan.

  • FREEMAN: Martine and Bina Rothblatt have been married

  • for more than three decades.

  • They're so close, their kids call them by a collective name,

  • Marbina.

  • Martine, who has made millions

  • in tech and pharmaceutical ventures

  • can't stand the thought of being without Bina.

  • So, she created Bina48,

  • an android filled with the memories, beliefs,

  • and values of the real Bina.

  • So, why, why do you want to clone Bina?

  • What is the purpose?

  • MARTINE: Our quest for doing this experiment

  • was to see if there's a way to encourage technology

  • to allow people who love life,

  • including loving other people in life,

  • to continue that love indefinitely into the future.

  • BINA: We're also doing this to store our memories

  • and mind files, because for our great-great grandchildren

  • we have a means of them communicating with us,

  • even if our bodies don't make it forever.

  • FREEMAN: This experiment is ultimately

  • so that we humans can...

  • cheat death.

  • MARTINE: I think, Morgan,

  • what we are doing with this experiment

  • is part of a long, long line of people

  • trying to stop death from cheating life.

  • And first we got ourselves out of the jungle

  • where we were at the mercy of animals.

  • We developed vaccinations.

  • So I think it's the job of the medical industry

  • and the biotechnology industry to push the boundaries of death

  • further and further into the future.

  • FREEMAN: Hmm, okay.

  • There are philosophies that say

  • that one of the things that separate us from the machine,

  • what the Egyptians call ka, we call it soul.

  • MARTINE: It will take decades of additional development

  • in what Bina and I call cyber consciousness,

  • using computers to recreate the mind,

  • to see if a soul evolves from that.

  • Whether or not there is in the eyes of God

  • is a question that you and I will not be able to answer.

  • FREEMAN: Well put, Martine, well put.

  • ♪ ♪

  • That was an uncanny experience.

  • Talking to Bina48 was almost like talking to a real person.

  • I feel kind of like I was at the first flight

  • of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

  • They flew for 12 seconds.

  • Now we have jets that fly for hours at 35,000 feet.

  • One day a robot-like clone of a person's mind

  • might be created.

  • But would it really be them?

  • Would it have that spark we call the soul?

  • ♪ ♪

  • It's human nature to fight against the finality of death.

  • ♪ ♪

  • If we ourselves can't live on after our time on Earth is over,

  • we at least want to be remembered.

  • It's a desire that's as old as the pyramids.

  • Archaeologist Salima Ikram is taking me

  • to the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes, modern day Luxor,

  • to Rameses III's Temple of Millions of Years.

  • This is the temple of Rameses.

  • IKRAM: Mm-hmm.

  • FREEMAN: It was the mortuary temple.

  • He's not buried here.

  • This is where you would go to invoke him.

  • IKRAM: Mm-hmm, it's a memorial temple,

  • and the Temple of Millions of Years

  • so that he could live for millions of years.

  • FREEMAN: More than 31 centuries ago,

  • Pharaoh Rameses carved his life story deep into this stone.

  • It was his attempt at immortality,

  • to assure his afterlife would be eternal.

  • So is this kind of like a bible,

  • would you say, historic writings?

  • IKRAM: I guess, I guess in a way, yeah.

  • This definitely is very much like that,

  • because you have what the king did, when he did it.

  • FREEMAN: Why he did it, who he did it with...

  • IKRAM: Yep.

  • FREEMAN: What her name was. IKRAM: Ahem. Yes.

  • [chuckles]

  • FREEMAN: Egyptians believed that their pharaohs embodied

  • the falcon god Horus.

  • Each human king was a reincarnation of Horus' spirit,

  • his divine ka.

  • IKRAM: So, Morgan, this is where I wanted to show you.

  • ♪ ♪

  • On the right, you've got the god, Horus.

  • FREEMAN: Okay, I see Horus.

  • Now who's our friend, what, is that Rameses?

  • IKRAM: Yep, that's Rameses, who's making offerings to Horus.

  • FREEMAN: Instead of having blood relation

  • from monarch to monarch,

  • there's something else that's going from monarch to monarch,

  • and that something else is ka.

  • IKRAM: The ka, the divine ka, exactly.

  • It is a continuation.

  • It's the same divine ka going from body to body to body

  • to body of ruler.

  • FREEMAN: So, was Rameses III the son of Rameses II?

  • IKRAM: No, they weren't really properly related,

  • but because Rameses II was such a terrific pharaoh,

  • Rameses III not only took his name,

  • he emulated him in many ways,

  • so he named all of his children after Rameses II's children,

  • and he also did the same thing that Rameses II did,

  • which was carving his name and everything about him

  • really, really deep so no one could erase it.

  • So you have here his name, User-maat-Re-meri-Amun.

  • FREEMAN: User...

  • maat...

  • Re...

  • meri...

  • Amun.

  • By saying the name, his life is for a moment renewed.

  • His afterlife extended.

  • IKRAM: The name is one of the most important things.

  • So, if you have your name written down

  • and if people say it,

  • so every time you've said Rameses III,

  • his ka has been given this burst of energy,

  • and he's living, and that's one of the reasons why, of course,

  • you'd carve it deeply, so it will not be erased.

  • It will be remembered and you will live forever.

  • FREEMAN: So what do you think?

  • You think maybe people feel the same way today.

  • I mean, Facebook?

  • [laughs] I'm just asking.

  • IKRAM: I think some people feel that if it's on the Internet,

  • it's real and it lasts forever.

  • FREEMAN: I will live forever.

  • I'm on Facebook.

  • [laughs]

  • ♪ ♪

  • User...

  • maat...

  • Re...

  • meri...

  • Amun.

  • User...

  • maat...

  • Re...

  • meri...

  • Amun.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Well, Rameses succeeded in his quest for immortality.

  • His temple may have crumbled,

  • but his name is still being spoken

  • 3,000 years after his death.

  • So, his spirit is still with us, still moving among the living.

  • ♪ ♪

  • In fact, we all live on in the memories of those we love

  • and those whose lives we've impacted in a positive manner,

  • just as my brother who passed away so many years ago

  • lives on in my memory,

  • so I hope to live on in the memories of others.

  • ♪ ♪

  • Whether you're a Christian following the example of Jesus,

  • a Hindu hoping for liberation

  • from the endless cycles of reincarnation,

  • or you're simply trying to leave the world a better place

  • than you found it,

  • our desire to go beyond death has changed the world.

  • Whatever we may find on the other side,

  • no matter what our faith...

  • ♪ ♪

  • ...we can all become eternal, like the stars.

  • ♪ ♪

MORGAN FREEMAN: I lived here in Greenwood, Mississippi,

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