Original subtitles

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FREEMAN: The road to Damascus.

Somewhere along here Saul was blinded by the light.

He had a vision of God, and at that moment he became Paul the Apostle.

The man who spread Christianity to the gentiles.

Now Prophet Muhammad,

Zoroaster,

even Joseph Smith, they all had visions too.

Now I'm fascinated by these moments of insight.

Not just by the glimpses they might offer of God and heaven,

but also because these visions inspire change.

They give birth to new ways of understanding God.

Even starting entirely new religions.

How do visions change life here on Earth?

I'm setting out to explore the power of divine visions.

In this first photo you're in a wheelchair and now you're standing, you're walking.

I'll see how visions can turn a life upside down.

IAIN: I just reached up and touched the wall, and the wall was alive.

FREEMAN: I'll step into a space designed to bring on divine visitation.

Learn how facing down spirits...

EDDIE: I was just coming apart at the seams up there.

FREEMAN: Can bring one man back from the brink.

And discover how a message from God...

MULLI: And I said, "yes Lord, I will do it."

FREEMAN: Can save more than 10,000 lives.

[theme music plays].

I've come to south western France to visit one of the holiest sites in Catholicism.

The sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Many Catholics believe this grotto is where, in 1858,

a poor 14 year old girl named Bernadette Soubirous

had several divine visions.

Father Xavier d'Arodes is a Franciscan priest who grew up nearby.

Trust me, and this is?

FATHER XAVIER: So this is the grotto Massabielle and

that's where it all happened, in 1858.

FREEMAN: Right here?

FATHER XAVIER: Right here.

Bernadette was just coming to get wood for the fireplace.

And suddenly she sees the apparition.

She's scared.

She thinks that she's a ghost.

She tries to make the sign of the cross...

but she's afraid.

FREEMAN: Bernadette didn't find out until later that her vision

matched depictions of the Virgin Mary.

FATHER XAVIER: The lady starts doing the sign of the cross

and says, "I am the immaculate conception."

FREEMAN: Bernadette was shaken, but she was sure of what she saw.

She goes home, she says to her parents, "I saw a lady at the grotto,"

and the parents say?

FATHER XAVIER: And the parents say,

"but you're crazy. And we forbid you to, to come back here to the grotto."

FREEMAN: Now Father, why would they say that to the child?

FATHER XAVIER: Because they were the lowest in the town

and so they didn't want to create scandal.

FREEMAN: The parents say, "just shut up." Why didn't she shut up?

FATHER XAVIER: Because the urge was so present.

She had in her heart that call for coming back.

FREEMAN: Bernadette disobeyed her parents.

In fact, she returned to the grotto another 17 times.

FATHER XAVIER: She was asked to do penance for sinners, not for herself.

FREEMAN: Not for herself.

FATHER XAVIER: But for the sake of the people and for the sake of the whole world.

FREEMAN: According to the legend, in one vision the Virgin told Bernadette

to dig for water in the grotto and to drink it.

She dug with her hands but only found muddy water.

She drank it anyway.

Villagers gathered, wondering if she'd gone mad.

FATHER XAVIER: They don't understand what's happening

because they cannot hear the discussion.

They just see the reaction of Saint Bernadette.

FREEMAN: I'm watching that, I'm saying what, what in the world is she doing?

FATHER XAVIER: Exactly.

FREEMAN: But soon the water started to run clear.

And the villagers had a change of heart.

They took it as a sign that Bernadette was indeed directed by the Virgin Mary.

FATHER XAVIER: On the following day a lady who was in the neighboring village

had an arm problem.

FREEMAN: Paralyzed, or...

FATHER XAVIER: Yeah, and so she came and put her arm in the spring and got cured.

There was no internet, no television but the word spread, quickly.

That something very unusual was happening.

FREEMAN: Were a lot of people healed?

FATHER XAVIER: Many people have been healed here.

FREEMAN: In the decades after Bernadette's visions,

three sanctuaries were built on top of the grotto.

Today, millions of people make the pilgrimage here

to bathe in, and drink from the spring's water.

Father Xavier introduces me to a nun, who claims that she too was cured

by the healing waters at Lourdes.

Her name is also Bernadette.

FATHER XAVIER: Sister Bernadette, I mean, may I introduce you.

FREEMAN: So, Bernadette.

SISTER BERNADETTE: Bonjour.

FATHER XAVIER: She was officially recognized as being cured.

FREEMAN: Why? Cured of what?

FATHER XAVIER: She had to wear...

FREEMAN: Brace?

FATHER XAVIER: Yeah. Braces and she couldn't walk.

FREEMAN: Sister Bernadette's illness had no medical cure,

so her doctor suggested she make a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

In this first photo I see you're, you're in a wheelchair and in the second one you're

apparently pushing a wheelchair.

And you don't look much older.

FATHER XAVIER: That's 2008. FREEMAN: Yeah.

FATHER XAVIER: And 2009. FREEMAN: One year?

FATHER XAVIER: Yeah.

FREEMAN: Doctors could find no medical explanation for her recovery.

Sister Bernadette believes it was a miracle.

The Catholic Church agreed.

In 2018 they recognized her healing as one of only 70 official miracles at Lourdes.

So miracles are not that prevalent?

They're rare in the Church.

FATHER XAVIER: We're not looking for miracles.

What is important for me, is that indeed it's a holy place.

Our Lady appeared here.

FREEMAN: Saint Bernadette's vision of the Virgin Mary lives on,

in the waters of the grotto, the basilica, this entire place.

Catholics believe that what happened here was a miracle,

and even if you don't believe,

you have to accept the power of her vision.

It has created a place that has transformed many lives,

like Sister Bernadette's, and many thousands more.

But does the divine only appear to the deeply devoted?

Or is it possible to see God even if you doubt God exists?

I've come to London to meet writer and editor, Iain Ball.

Iain had a series of epileptic seizures, which led to a

profound change in his outlook on life.

FREEMAN: Iain. IAIN: Nice to meet you Morgan.

[laughs].

FREEMAN: I wanna know about your seizures.

How did they start?

IAIN: It started really in January 2010.

One evening I was at my local pool, having a swim,

when everything turned sepia colored.

Next thing I know it's two days later and I'm waking up in a hospital,

after two days of epileptic seizures.

Turned out I had a tumor, what they call a chondroblastoma tumor of the bone, and...

FREEMAN: A bone tumor?

IAIN: Yeah, it was a bone tumor that was becoming a brain tumor and that was what

was causing the epilepsy, and I had neuro surgery to have it removed.

FREEMAN: You had the surgery, it was removed.

IAIN: Yeah, and it was after the surgery, after I'd left the intensive care unit

that I started to have what I call breakfast meetings with the universe.

FREEMAN: Clever.

Breakfast meetings with the universe.

IAIN: Yeah.

FREEMAN: Can you explain it a little bit?

IAIN: The first morning I remember, it started with the sunrise.

Sunlight came into my room and woke me up,

and I remember just looking at the wall above my bed,

which was the same as it always was, except now it really felt like...

A miracle.

FREEMAN: The fact that there was sunlight?

IAIN: It was the, the wall itself.

The presence of the wall.

FREEMAN: The wall.

IAIN: I just reached up and touched the wall and I remember feeling like

the wall was alive.

Like it was conscious.

FREEMAN: Everything Iain thought he knew about reality was cast aside.

He had begun to see the world in an entirely new way.

FREEMAN: Iain Ball had never been a religious person.

He never really thought about God, but scarring from brain surgery brought on a

series of visions that made him question everything.

IAIN: This carried on for about three or four weeks.

FREEMAN: About how often?

IAIN: Every day. FREEMAN: Every day.

IAIN: Every, every morning.

I felt like I was being sort of transported and being revealed

fundamental truths about the nature of reality.

One of which is that all inanimate objects are conscious.

All beings are conscious, including walls.

Tables and chairs.

Which seemed very counterintuitive to me.

I mean who, you know, how can you have consciousness without a brain?

The other thing that seemed to be happening was that everything is bound together

in one thing, by an endless unconditional love.

And there was this huge wave of emotion that came with this experience,

which was really powerful and uplifting.

FREEMAN: Are you religious?

IAIN: I was an agnostic.

I didn't know how to understand it.

I don't know if it was God.

FREEMAN: You don't know that it wasn't.

IAIN: I don't know that it wasn't, I don't know what it was.

FREEMAN: Um-hmm.

Iain wanted to find out whether his visions had a medical cause,

so he joined the Cambridge University study

conducted by Doctor Joseph Tennant.

It was searching for a connection between epilepsy and mystical experiences.

IAIN: That's a scan of the tumor, that was the cause of the seizures I was having.

FREEMAN: Okay.

TENNANT: So, I mean, as you can see on this scan, the growth from the skull,

the left temporal lobe and so this is pushing up against

Iain's brain, and so they had to cut all that section away,

but obviously when you do that you leave a bit of

scarring on the left temporal lobe.

So it seems something about the temporal lobe is potentially capable of

producing spiritual experiences.

FREEMAN: You have not come to any sort of conclusions yet, on it.

TENNANT: We can't induce a seizure on someone, of a mystical nature,

and hope that we can get a good scan of it under a MRI.

We don't know when these seizures are happening.

FREEMAN: Can't you come to some sort of conclusion behind that?

TENNANT: Uh, not quite yet.

FREEMAN: I would. TENNANT: I mean...

FREEMAN: Jump right to it. Just think, God exists.

Joan of Arc.

Saint Bernadette.

Do you think that there is a possibility that they experienced

this sort of epilepsy?

TENNANT: It is possible.

So there was a neurological paper that speculated that Paul's vision on the road to

Damascus was epilepsy, but I mean, so what?

Because the thing that occurred afterwards was

Paul was moved to go preach and become, you know, Saint Paul.

FREEMAN: Right.

TENNANT: As a scientist I can't tell you whether these are metaphysical or not.

The thing we can look at, is to say that something in the brain is capable of producing

religious experience, and can do so even when it's not intending to.

FREEMAN: Alright.

Here's the $64 question, how has it changed you?

IAIN: Well I think, you know, it did remove any sense of, that I had,

that the universe is a meaningless cold place.

I think it gave a kind of foundation of meaning for me, and I think this idea of,

was it a revelation?

Or was it just an, an aberration in the brain?

I've come to the conclusion it doesn't really matter because the thing that really sticks

with me is that feeling of endless unconditional love, and I don't think that really

matters where it came from, a divine force or from my damaged brain.

It was a real feeling and for me that's, you know...

FREEMAN: Yeah.

IAIN: That's inspiration enough.

Just trying to live in that spirit is enough.

FREEMAN: Very good.

It's easy to get caught up, pitting science against religion.

The rational versus the spiritual, but Iain's case shows that there is room for

scientific understanding, without discounting subjective feelings of the divine.

As Carl Sagan once said,

"the notion that science and spirituality are

mutually exclusive does a disservice to both."

Visions can be shaped by our personal relationship to the universe,

but changes don't just happen inside those who receive divine messages.

They can shape the lives of thousands.

Sociologist Andreas Schneider has come to rural Kenya

to meet a man who changed the world.

Doctor Charles Mulli is a prominent businessman and philanthropist,

but he didn't have an easy start in life.

MULLI: I grew up in a rural area, far away from the center of Nairobi.

At the age of six years my father, my mom, they abandoned me.

ANDREAS: At the age of six, being by yourself.

MULLI: Yeah.

ANDREAS: I, I cannot imagine that.

MULLI: At the age of 16 years I decided to walk to the city of Nairobi

and I had no experience.

I had no education, but I got a job.

I got some money, I bought a vehicle

and later I was able to buy another one.

Then I had a fleet of buses.

FREEMAN: His bus fleet grew into a successful transportation conglomerate

and he became a wealthy man.

But his newfound success was about to suffer a profound blow.

In 1986 Charles was confronted by some poor boys on the street in Nairobi.

They wanted money.

MULLI: I said, "no, what have you done?

You have done nothing, and I will never give you money."

FREEMAN: It was a decision he would come to regret.

The boys stole his car, but Charles' feeling about those boys soon shifted

from anger, to sympathy.

MULLI: But I had no peace in my heart, because I did not give this food.

I'd already forgotten about my past, that I was like them.

FREEMAN: The faces of those boys haunted Charles for years.

Until one day his guilt became too much to bear.

MULLI: In November 17, 1989, it was around 11:00 in the morning.

I felt like the world was falling apart.

There was no peace.

I was crying, you know.

I was asking God "what is that you want me to do?"

And there was a little fear in my heart, and after four hours in that car...

ANDREAS: Four hours?

MULLI: Four hours, crying, the voice of the Lord God, showed to me.

"I gave you everything, I rest you from nowhere, and I gave you all this,

and now I want to take everything that you have. Give it to the poor."

I went down to the humblest level.

That was the real turning point.

I said, "yes Lord, I will do it."

And at that moment, I got the greatest joy in my heart.

ANDREAS: This is actually something that we see as a breakdown.

That brought on a new beginning.

MULLI: I told my family, I have good news for you,

and I said, "I will not want any time for money.

I want to give everything that I have for the poor."

FREEMAN: Hearing God speak to him gave Charles the courage to start an orphanage,

but this proved to be another test of faith.

He found a large plot of land capable of housing many children,

but it was useless without one vital resource.

Water.

MULLI: We had a severe drought.

We had no water anywhere.

We had three years in that we never got water.

I was praying for three weeks.

It was after midnight and during that time is when I heard the voice.

"Your problems are over. Get up. I'll show you where I'll give you water."

I told my wife and we walked all the way.

And then we stood here, and God said,

"this is the place. I'm gonna give you water."

And then I told my wife, "call the children,"

and then the following day, and we started to dig.

We had to trust God.

ANDREAS: That must have been a gigantic relief, when you finally found water.

MULLI: Never seen something like that.

I've never felt in my life, something that was so touching.

All the people from the village, all the children,

from Mully Children's Family were in jubilation.

FREEMAN: The water from that well helped the Mully Children's Family become an

operation that today almost funds itself through farming.

Since Charles heard the voice of God on the side of a road he has built six orphanages

and raised more than 10,000 orphans.

He has rescued ten failing schools, and built many more shelters for children.

MULLI: There was nothing better in my own life, that I could do,

than saving children's lives in the world.

ANDREAS: That's quite a privilege.

MULLI: Yeah.

FREEMAN: Charles was willing to give up everything he had for the sake of his vision.

For the sake of God, and in doing so he changed thousands of lives.

How many of us would have done that?

For the faithful, visions of God are a source of divinity here on Earth.

They bring miracles, unconditional love and endless compassion.

Visions however, are rare,

but what if divine guidance was available on demand?

FREEMAN: I've come back to France, home to some of

the world's most inspiring architecture.

But one of its most important works is not in the City of Light,

but in a small town 50 miles outside Paris.

Chartres.

Since its completion in the early 13th century,

Chartres Cathedral has drawn a never-ending stream of pilgrims.

Its design is said to inspire them to feel the presence of God.

I wanna know how.

So I'm meeting Doctor Julio Bermudez.

BERMUDEZ: Welcome to Chartres.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

A professor of architecture who studies sacred spaces.

BERMUDEZ: We're gonna enter the sacred space.

FREEMAN: Alright.

BERMUDEZ: And I'd like you to prepare.

FREEMAN: How do I do that?

BERMUDEZ: Well we're gonna walk into the threshold, looking down into the floor,

and then once we get in, close your eyes.

FREEMAN: Closed.

BERMUDEZ: Take a breath and look up as you open your eyes.

FREEMAN: Wow!

And this was built by hand. I mean no, no machines.

BERMUDEZ: No machines. FREEMAN: No machines.

BERMUDEZ: Manpower. FREEMAN: Every stone cut.

BERMUDEZ: An act of love and commitment to God.

FREEMAN: A project of this scale was a colossal undertaking in the

pre-industrial age, which makes it even more remarkable that Chartres was mostly

complete by 1220, just 26 years after construction began.

BERMUDEZ: Back at the time of the 12th, 13th century this was just an amazing thing.

It was the biggest thing ever built.

Imagine you being a pilgrim, that had walked for several mile, and see the highest,

biggest, most incredible church in Europe.

FREEMAN: Pilgrims eight centuries ago would likely

never have set foot in a space this tall.

BERMUDEZ: First thing about the whole thing is verticality.

FREEMAN: Uh-huh.

BERMUDEZ: They eye goes up and this is about 120 feet high vaults.

FREEMAN: To the ceiling.

BERMUDEZ: To the ceiling, yes, but what you had to think, these people really felt

that they were conducted to God, to heaven.

FREEMAN: And when pilgrims looked up, they would experience

another key element of this sacred space.

Light.

BERMUDEZ: Light, perhaps the most important thing.

It represented God.

So God, He spoke through light, and that's why he wanted to have these

stained glass windows, with those beautiful icons.

They believed that God was talking to them, telling the stories of the Bible.

When you encounter a place that overwhelms your senses,

absorbs your attention completely outward,

and demands so much brain power, and that allows you

to enter in a state of unity.

FREEMAN: So, an actual physical change takes place in the human mind,

when it walks into a place like this?

BERMUDEZ: Yes, a mystical state if you wish.

FREEMAN: Or a state of grace.

BERMUDEZ: Yeah, absolutely state of grace, correct.

FREEMAN: See, I'm catching on.

But the people who built Chartres Cathedral nearly 800 years ago

meant for it to be more than the passive experience of space and light.

It was built so that pilgrims could make a physical journey all the way to God.

BERMUDEZ: Look at that. It's a labyrinth.

Maybe the most famous labyrinth in the world.

Something that allows you to enter in a contemplative state.

FREEMAN: Meditation. BERMUDEZ: Yes.

Morgan, why don't you try it?

FREEMAN: I'm game.

Bizarre.

BERMUDEZ: You're doing very well.

And you can't go too fast otherwise you lose your way.

Every time it feels like you're going further and further

from the state of truth, or the center,

and yet you're getting closer in a different way.

FREEMAN: And, ta-dah!

BERMUDEZ: Morgan, you made it.

FREEMAN: There is something to this,

but I feel something's at work here,

so it's very interesting.

You accomplish something and you have an experience.

BERMUDEZ: Yes.

FREEMAN: I had an experience.

BERMUDEZ: In the middle of this incredible space.

FREEMAN: The designers of this cathedral created a magnificent space.

In there you feel a connection to something bigger than yourself.

There are generations of history connected there.

Not to mention the Herculean efforts of the people who built it.

It's more than that.

For me it creates a sacred space, up here.

Stops logic,

it stops the persistent drumbeat of modern life.

It transports you outside of time.

I guess you can call that divine.

High in the mountains of Ethiopia, orthodox monks

take a different path to the divine.

The Tigray region is famous for its mountain churches.

Many built more than 1,000 years ago by Ethiopian Coptic Christians.

Carved directly into the mountain, the ancient houses of worship

often tower thousands of feet above the ground.

The climb up to them, can be extremely dangerous.

One false step can mean the end of a priest's earthly journey.

But, many of them make the perilous trek every day.

US based Ethiopian journalist Bemnet Yemesgen,

has come here to try and understand why.

He's meeting Doctor Hagos Abrha,

a scholar of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

BEMNET: Doctor Hagos.

ABRA: Hi. Hi, hi. Good morning.

How are you?

BEMNET: So tell me where we are?

I'm, I'm looking at a structure up there, and what are we looking at?

ABRA: Yeah, this is a Christian Orthodox monastery called Abba Yohani monastery.

BEMNET: Why is it so far up there?

Why not build a church that's slightly lower and more accessible?

ABRA: I have been asking the same question for many priests and monks,

and most of the time the answer is

simply because they are getting closer to God.

BEMNET: So the burning question for me is, can we walk up and be closer to God?

ABRA: We have to first call the monks and then ask permission to walking up.

[speaking in native language].

He's a monk of this monastery.

So he goes up and down this mountain every day?

[speaking in native language].

He says minimum once a day.

He prays frequently and he mediates in the cave.

BEMNET: So do you think he can take us now?

[speaking in native language].

FREEMAN: They embark on a strenuous climb to a lofty chapel.

And perhaps to experience the presence of God.

BEMNET: Oh my goodness.

FREEMAN: The climb to the Abba Yohanni monastery in Ethiopia's Gheralta mountains

is not for the faint of heart,

but its remote location has allowed it

to resist invaders and looters for at least 1600 years.

BEMNET: Wow! Oh my goodness.

Breathtaking.

Wow, this, this space is beautiful.

What, what is the monk doing?

ABRA: He's praying the Book of Psalms.

The Book of Psalms is the most respected prayer book of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

FREEMAN: Far removed from the noise of the modern world,

the monks who make the climb find a mystical refuge.

A space to pray in peace and lose themselves in contemplation of the divine.

BEMNET: It's really amazing to, to be in this space and, and to just really experience

the, the peacefulness and just the special place that this is.

I have to say at first, I didn't know why anybody would want to build a church or a

monastery so far up and so far removed from everything.

But now that I'm up here I understand why they would do this because

the peace and the tranquility up here.

ABRA: Now we can say that we are where God dwells.

FREEMAN: Every day, Orthodox monks of Ethiopia make long, dangerous treks up rugged

mountains to be closer to God's home in heaven.

Along the way they sense the presence of God, in silence, stillness.

For them, it's not the destination, it's the journey.

The tradition of actively seeking divine guidance is not only a Christian one.

I've come to the Mississauga First Nation community of

Scugog Lake, in Ontario, Canada.

I'm here to learn about the Anishinaabe First Nation's practice of vision questing.

Here to welcome me, is Eddie Robinson.

[speaking in native language].

EDDIE: Means...

FREEMAN: I see your light.

EDDIE: Yes, and I'm gonna learn from you and you can learn from me,

and I'm gonna respect you and you can respect me.

FREEMAN: Perfect. EDDIE: Um-hmm.

FREEMAN: I wanna know about a vision quest.

How do you decide to go on one, and what are you seeking when you do?

EDDIE: One of the main things is it's, for us as human beings,

to re-engage with our original family,

our first family, and that's creation.

But it's also giving up food and water, giving up of those basic essential needs and

physiological needs for creation.

So we go and spend time on the land, in a singular spot and just pray,

and while we're there we engage and interact with energy.

Spirits and animals.

They know that we're there to pray, to show our gratitude.

FREEMAN: So it's a way to get back in touch with the great spirit.

EDDIE: Yes, yes.

FREEMAN: Okay. EDDIE: Yes.

FREEMAN: So how did you happen to go on a vision quest?

EDDIE: A calling.

An unexplainable calling inside that tugs at you.

Like a lot of indigenous people in Canada, I live in poverty, living on the margin.

It was after being in juvenile detention and on the streets

that I was actually doing community service hours

at one of the local centers in Toronto and I heard the drum.

And that heartbeat of that drum, boom, boom, boom, boom,

just called me, and I just started crying.

And all I kept thinking was that this is my culture, this is who I am.

FREEMAN: Eddie met an Anishinaabe elder from Minnesota,

who advised him to head to the woods, undertake a fast

and seek the spiritual guidance of a vision quest.

EDDIE: It was at the end of October.

It was minus one.

[laughs].

They drove me out on a ATV, ten miles into the forest,

and they put me in my fasting spot and said,

"we'll see you in three days," and just left me there.

FREEMAN: What, no shelter?

EDDIE: No.

FREEMAN: Come on.

EDDIE: They said, "if you get cold make a fire." I'm like, "okay."

And they said, "if you see any spirits just put some tobacco down."

I said, "okay." And they left.

FREEMAN: Alone in the freezing woods,

Eddie steeled himself for his quest.

His life was about to take...

A new path.

FREEMAN: Eddie Robinson, a young man of Anishinaabe descent,

was barely connected with his nature and spiritual tradition,

but now he was on a vision quest,

on a freezing night, miles from help.

So you're on your vision quest here?

At, during [inaudible].

EDDIE: And it was tough, because I was sitting up on a scaffold,

probably about six feet off the ground.

They're not built for comfort, 'cause you're supposed to stay awake for three days,

so we put your stuff up there in your bundle

and you just pray while you're sitting up there.

FREEMAN: Did you see anything while you were out there?

EDDIE: Yeah.

There was a spirit bear that came and visited me.

It came and sat, not even four feet in front of me.

I'm like, I've gotta give him tobacco.

He's coming for his tobacco.

And then he just disappeared.

He must have ran 60 kilometers an hour.

It was surreal to me.

FREEMAN: And you didn't eat for two days.

EDDIE: Three.

I didn't eat anything or drink anything for three days.

I was crying.

Yelling.

Singing.

I was just coming apart at the seams out there.

I was battling and proving myself to those spirits.

FREEMAN: But you didn't die.

EDDIE: No.

It was tough.

It was hard.

But the hardest thing I had to do out there was face myself.

I wasn't sure if it was my imagination or if I was just seeing things

'cause I didn't have food or water.

But true enough, there was this old man that presented himself to me.

And I could see him as clear as day.

He was just there, looking at me.

And then he was gone.

FREEMAN: And that was your vision.

EDDIE: That was my vision.

Kind of like, how I interpreted it later was that the spirits,

or the old ones are waiting for me.

They're waiting for me to take that path.

FREEMAN: You took that path, and that's the path you took,

then that was a better path than you were on before.

EDDIE: Yeah, and...

FREEMAN: Sort of like Saul on the road to Damascus, huh.

EDDIE: Yeah.

That's where I found my calling.

FREEMAN: Eddie's vision quest was his key to escaping a life of

addiction and violence in western culture.

It was an experience he knew he had to share with other young First Nation's people.

So then you became sort of a guru, teacher.

EDDIE: Yeah.

I learned about how the sweat is done, I learned about how the fast is done.

I learned how to help with healing and doctoring ceremonies for our people,

and all I wanted to do was just keep giving it back.

Keep giving it back, right.

FREEMAN: So now that's your quest.

EDDIE: For a lot of people on this Nation, they have been disconnected from that way,

so I'm here to help support them on their journey back.

They've never been in a sweat and they've never been to a vision quest.

We need to re-connect our spirit to this land.

We consider creation our first family.

There are so many people that wanna sit with their first family.

FREEMAN: Like Saul, on the road to Damascus,

Eddie's life was completely changed by a vision of the divine.

In his case, it was the great spirit,

the manifestation of his people's connection to the land.

And, like Saul, who become an apostle named Paul,

Eddie became a guide for the First Nation's people,

spreading the transformative power of the vision quest.

What happens when someone sees, or feels,

what they believe is the presence of God?

The simple answer is perspective.

It's a moment of understanding.

Shows a way forward.

Visions happen in the mind of one person.

But when someone like Saint Bernadette,

Charles Mulli or Eddie Robinson

have the courage to share their vision,

it can alter the course of many lives.

Even...

Change the world.

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