All language subtitles for IneXplicável - S05E07 -

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Ancient practices

used to ward off evil spirits.

A community celebration,
in which the guests of honor

are all dead.

And an oppressive drought
that was ended

by the power of prayer.

Throughout human history,

diverse cultures
have all used sacred rituals

to express profound
spiritual beliefs.

And while some
ceremonial practices

may appear strange at times,

there are many rituals
that are thought

to unlock incredible powers.

Is it possible that performing
certain acts can, in fact,

connect us
to a higher plane of existence?

Well, that is what
we will try and find out.

♪

SHATNER: It is home
to one of the world’s

largest religious structures,
the Grand Mosque.

In the center courtyard
of this immense edifice

stands a 43-foot-tall
granite cube

known as the Kaaba,
the House of God.

Five times a day, every day,

almost two billion Muslims
across the world

turn and pray towards
this striking black monument,

the holiest and most
sacred site in all of Islam.

Why?

Because embedded
in the eastern corner

of the shrine is perhaps
the most sacred stone

in all the world,

the Black Stone of Mecca.

For the world’s
1.8 billion Muslims,

this stone is crucial.

When Muslims face
in the direction of Mecca,

they face in the direction
of that stone.

ANDREW COLLINS: This object,
as simple as it might be,

is of incredible significance
to the Muslim faith,

because it is said to have
fallen from heaven

at the commands of Allah

at the time of Adam and Eve.

And it was said to have
marked the position

of the first temple,

which obviously,
becomes Mecca itself.

HUSSAIN:
Then the story is that stone

gets lost during the flood,

because Muslims have
the same flood story

that Jews do
from the Hebrew Bible.

Then that stone for Muslims
is rediscovered by Abraham.

So, Abraham,
with his son Ishmael,

build in Mecca
the first place of prayer.

That’s why Mecca
is important to Muslims,

is this is the first place
of prayer to the one God.

Over time, it gets worn away,
the building gets rebuilt.

In 605, the prophet
Muhammad himself

is the one that places
that stone in its place.

That’s part
of what gives it power.

SHATNER:
Each year, millions of Muslims
make a pilgrimage

or hajj, to the Kaaba.

Once there, visitors take part
in a series of rituals

called Tawaf,

which includes circling
the Kaaba seven times

in the belief that it will
bring about true humility

by linking them with God.

The Black Stone

is, therefore,
one of the focal points

of the Hajj ceremony

that every Muslim
certainly tries to achieve

during their lifetime,
and they will then enter

the central court of Mecca
and, if possible,

try to kiss the Black Stone
in emulation of Muhammad,

who was said to have
set it up in this position

in the year 605 AD.

This is the most
mystical encounter

with any material object

that a loyal Muslim
can possibly have.

They’re in such
a hypnotic state,

such a transcendent state,

and they use
the corner of the building

to make sure it’s seven times,

to have the full effect
of the ritual activity.

With Muslims in Mecca,
the Black Stone has the power

to communicate with people.

I mean, literally
talk with people.

There’s two million people
nowadays

that make that pilgrimage.

You might get trampled,
and unfortunately,

there have been people
who have been trampled to death.

But that’s so important

that it connects you back
to the historic past.

The Black Stone
is a major material focus,

the most sacred object

in one of the world’s
most major religions,

and it also was sacred
to other people.

HUSSAIN:
So, people who are outside
the Islamic tradition

may risk their lives
to travel to see this.

And if they’re found out,
they may well be killed.

You have
these accounts of people

like Captain Richard
Francis Burton,

one of these famous explorers,

who disguises himself
as a Muslim.

There’s a power there
for him to see the ritual,

to see the stone,
to handle this thing.

Richard Francis Burton
goes in, sees this,

is able to come back out
and writes about this.

So, you can see from him
the importance of this place,

because the connection
to the biblical prophets.

THOMPSON:
Certainly, the stories

that have been built around it
really pull people in.

And some people suggest
that maybe it’s something

in the stone itself, uh,
that pulls people in.

SHATNER:
The stone itself
pulling people in?

But how?

For the millions,
if not billions of Muslims

who have made their pilgrimage
to the Kaaba,

there’s no doubt
that the Black Stone

has an inexorable power

that seems to draw them
into its orbit.

And according to some experts,

that’s because the Black Stone
is not of this world.

Muslims believe that this
was sent down by God to Earth.

If we’re scientific,
we may call that a meteorite.

If we’re not scientific,
we may call that miraculous.

You know, here’s this stone
that comes from the heavens.

AARON CELESTIAN:
When a meteorite hits the Earth
and somebody witnessed the fall

and-and they were
to go to that location,

there’s a variety of things
that they might be able to find.

If the stone falls
in a sandy area, for example,

there might be a lot of heat
associated with the meteorite

as it falls,
and that could cause

a fusion of the sand to cause
some kind of glass to form.

And so, when you walk up
onto it, you might find

some interesting new features

that you probably
wouldn’t have seen

in that particular part
of the-the world before.

Meteorites arrive
from outer space

being exposed to cosmic rays,
they’re slightly radioactive.

To people not exposed
to electromagnetic radiation,

they might have been able
to even feel that buzz

from this rock,
from the radiation.

Beta particles especially.

You know, whether you believe
it was sent by God

or whether you believe
it was a random act,

it has literally
extraterrestrial origins.

And so, that creates
a real power there.

SHATNER:
Could the Black Stone
of Mecca really have the power

to physically affect people
who come near it?

Well, the truth is,
we may never know for sure.

Because no one has ever
been officially allowed

to inspect or analyze it.

So, there are a lot of exciting
and interesting questions

about the Black Stone.

I think the first initial one
is, is it actually a meteorite?

A lot of people propose that
and there’s some evidence,

particularly from a local impact
crater, that it came from there.

And is there some sort of
radiation energy that it emits

or is coming from it that
we just don’t understand yet?

So it would be really amazing
to have the opportunity

to analyze the Black Stone.

There are obviously challenges,

both sort of social
as well as scientific.

It’s in the Muslim world,
it’s in a very sacred place,

it’s a very sacred stone.

So bringing in scientists
and doing careful analyses

have those social challenges,
and would be difficult.

HUSSAIN:
Even if you don’t believe,

as a Muslim,
that this comes from God,

and has
this religious significance,

you understand the power
of this object

that, for at least 1,400 years,

Muslims have been circling
as they do their prayers.

There’s a tremendous
power there.

We want to touch that.

It’s profound to see
the massive crowds of people

walking around
a mysterious stone

that they believe
connects them to a higher power.

And for people of all faiths,

making contact
with the spiritual world

is often achieved by using
the simplest of rituals:

the practice of prayer.

SHATNER:
Here, in what is known
as the Holy Land,

the average temperature
is almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit,

and water
is a precious commodity.

But this is no average year.

It’s been almost five years

since more than
a few drops of rain

fell upon Israel’s
thirsty sands,

and the people
are beginning to panic.

TZADOK:
The spring season
in the Middle East

is the time
for the rains to come.

As such,
if the rains are not there,

you don’t have your agriculture,

which is a life and death
type of experience.

Even in modern times, with
all of our modern technology,

rain makes the crops grow.

No crops, no food.
No food, no life.

So, when we have a drought,

this creates crisis.

SHATNER:
Israel is one of the wealthiest

and most technologically
advanced countries in the world.

It is also
one of the most religious.

So when facing its worst drought
in close to 100 years,

with the fate of the entire
country hanging in the balance,

what is their solution?

Prayer.

TZADOK:
In our Judaic tradition,

we have had
a long-standing history

that when there is drought,
the chief rabbi of the country

can call the entire nation
to prayer,

and you can have
a gathering in Jerusalem

of literally thousands or tens
of thousands of minds, souls,

that will come together and pour
out their collective energy,

calling upon God in heaven
to literally manipulate

the forces of nature
and bring rain.

THOMPSON:
In 2018, Israel was
in a major drought.

And this was really beginning
to cause problems.

At this point, uh,
Chief Rabbi David Lau

organized a massive ritual,

put out a call
for believers to come

to one of the most sacred sites
in Judaism, the Wailing Wall.

They went to the Wailing Wall,
and you had thousands of Jews

praying for rain to come.

(all praying)

TZADOK:
When the individual
Torah-observant Jewish man

wraps himself
in his tallit prayer shawl

and puts on
the boxes of the tefillin,

he creates for himself
a psychic bubble of energy

which unites
the individual mind and heart

with the collective power
of the word of God,

literally materialized
before him in the form

of the fringes
of the prayer shawl,

and literally in the form
of the scrolls

that are upon his arm
next to his heart

and on his head
close to his mind.

SHATNER:
It is one thing for us
to believe the ritual of prayer

has the ability
to affect our world.

But can the act of praying

actually connect us
to a higher power?

A ritual is a very predictable
sequence of-of events.

The interesting thing is,
if you have two things,

you have a boundary
between them.

And prayer and prayer rituals
might be a way

of influencing that boundary
between the physical

and the non-physical,
in a way that the non-physical

then interacts again
with the physical world.

SHATNER:
To those more secular
and cynical-minded,

praying is a rather quaint
if not irrelevant pastime.

There’s no reason
it should work, right?

Except that in the case of
ending Israel’s drought in 2018,

many believe it did.

(thunder rumbles)

HUSSAIN:
You can say that
it’s just simply correlation.

Yes, you prayed and yes,
three days later,

there was rain, but the one
thing didn’t cause the other.

I mean,
that’s the scientific approach.

The religious approach is
a little bit different to say,

"Well, maybe we did, maybe
we did influence, uh, this.

Maybe God listened
to these prayers."

TZADOK:
In Judaism, there are rituals

that augment
the power of the individual.

The passion, the desire,
the thought, the idea.

Creating, if you will,
a psychic field,

which combines to give
great psychic spiritual energy

for the fulfillment of that
which the individuals seek.

But when we come together
as a collective,

we find that it does have
the power to influence change.

They prayed for rain,
and the prayers were answered.

Were the prayers of Israel
answered by God?

Or was the rainfall
simply a coincidence?

It would seem the answer
is a matter of faith.

But not all sacred rituals

involve the fate
of millions of people.

Some are thought
to have an effect

on the life of a single person,

such as the ancient
healing practice of voodoo.

SHATNER:
32-year-old author Julia Buckley

is writing in her office
when she experiences a pain

unlike any she has
ever felt before.

I was just at my desk
one day at work, typing away,

um, reached out
for a cup of coffee,

and suddenly, it was as if
my right arm was on fire,

as if someone
had laid out fireworks

all the way from my fingers
up to my armpit,

and across to my neck.

I was really pretty
disabled by the pain,

’cause it was getting worse
day by day, week by week.

I couldn’t do anything
with this right arm at all.

I saw three general doctors,
I saw eight specialists.

I was doing everything
that I was told to do.

So after two years, I was
completely at my wit’s end.

So I was pretty desperate
and in quite a dark place.

SHATNER:
With her life
virtually in shambles,

Julia was willing
to try anything.

Turning away
from conventional medicine,

she began to investigate
alternatives,

and this led her down
a, shall we say, unusual path.

Voodoo healing.

And I was reading
a book about voodoo.

And reading it, I hadn’t
seen anything like it

in any of the other research
that I’d done.

I just got this impression
that the voodoo priests

were probably the people
who had the most kind of grasp

of the mind-body relationship.

And I just thought, if anyone’s
gonna be able to help me,

it’s gonna be someone in Haiti.

SHATNER:
Still fighting
debilitating pain,

Julia Buckley flew to Haiti,

and, once there, arranged
to meet with Richard Morse,

a voodoo practitioner.

BUCKLEY:
I’d actually read interviews
and knew

that he was a voodoo priest
as well as a hotel owner,

and so I’d already thought,
"Oh, I need to try and ask him

whether he can,
he can do anything for me."

So, I checked in
to the hotel, met him,

and then we started
talking about voodoo

and its capacity for healing.

And so, I told him
exactly why I was there,

and I just said,
"Can you help me?"

I think he said, "Are you--
are you sure you want this?"

And I was like, "Absolutely."

MORSE:
No one taught me how to do this.

I didn’t go to school
to do this.

But I have a c-certain capacity

for something of this sort.

My mom was a voodoo priestess,

and my father’s family
goes back to the Puritans.

I like to call my thing
"puritan voodoo,"

because I’m a mix.

SHATNER:
After learning
about her symptoms,

Morse led her into a dark room,

one meant to summon spirits

and extract
whatever was harming her.

BUCKLEY:
There were candles and bottles
all around the room.

There were strips of cloth,

different-colored cloths,
that now I know represent

the different loa, all the
spirits, all around the room.

There were
these terra-cotta pots

that he said were filled
with the souls of the dead.

And there were
these little bottles

of what I found out afterwards
were holy water

brought from shrines
all over the rest of the world.

He went around me
a couple of times.

Then he stopped
at the back of my neck

and started feeling
from the bottom of my skull

down to my neck.

Kind of pressing on it,
almost like what a chiropractor

might do before they
really start going for it.

I was scared, because that’s
where all my problems were

and I didn’t want him to hurt me
and I didn’t want my neck

to be cracked
or anything like that.

I was terrified.

He told me that he had found

a demon in the shape
of a black cat on my neck.

So when he had been dragging
his fingers down my neck,

he was literally picking up

and detaching this black cat.

He said he didn’t know
how I’d got it,

when I’d got it
or how long it had been there,

but he said it was nasty and...

that he’d got rid of it.

It was only when I got
to the airport,

decided I needed a cup of coffee

and jumped up the stairs
to the coffee bar

carrying
my little carry-on suitcase.

I was standing with the coffee,

and I kind of looked down
and thought,

"Hang on,
I can’t normally do that."

And I checked in with my body
and I realized,

"Actually,
nowhere is hurting right now.

This is really strange."

It was the first time
in nearly three years

that I hadn’t been in pain.

SHATNER:
As far as Julia Buckley
was concerned,

voodoo had worked

after everything else
had failed.

But how?

THOMPSON:
Voodoo is a fabulously
interesting tradition.

We see it in the Caribbean,

primarily, perhaps, in Haiti,

although certainly
in other places

around the Caribbean as well.

It’s a part
of a much larger assemblage

of religions
with a shared sort of worldview.

This traces back to West Africa,

uh, and to several, uh, groups

and several different religions
there.

The West African
religious tradition, uh,

was brought over
via the slave trade

to the Caribbean,
to the Southern United States,

where it flourished
and took on different forms

and blended somewhat easily
with the Catholic faith.

You can call it God
or you can call it, uh,

how you... how you want...

(singing)

SHATNER:
Perhaps one of the reasons

voodoo’s followers believe
in its incredible power

is because they know
it not only can be used to heal

but also to harm.

We hear this phrase, uh,
"voodoo death," you know,

that people
may have cast a spell

or done some kind of ritual

that causes the death
of other person.

And if we’re scientific, well,
that’s ridiculous. That has

no causal relationship here.

But if we dig a little deeper,

there have been cases
of voodoo deaths

where someone has said something
or done something

that literally affects
another person.

NICK HOBSON: Most scientists,
doctors or researchers

would just call it an anomaly.

A physical
or psychological anomaly

that we can’t quite explain

with the data or the information
that are presented before us.

BUCKLEY:
I think there’s a lot of value

in things being unexplained.

Something like voodoo,

you’re never gonna be able to
have the proof of what happened.

I don’t know what happened
in that room, and I was there.

♪

Can voodoo healing practices
involving candles,

pieces of cloth and holy water

cure ailments that modern
medicine can’t even diagnose?

It’s an intriguing idea.

And the truth is that,
throughout history,

many seemingly ordinary objects

have been used
in mystical rituals.

For instance, there’s a stone

that plays an important role

in the coronation
of England’s kings and queens.

SHATNER:
Here on Saint Andrew’s Day,

Scotland’s
official national holiday,

a long-awaited ceremony
is finally taking place.

The occasion
will finally see the return,

after more than 700 years,

of one of Scotland’s
most important artifacts--

a roughly two-by-one-foot
sandstone block

weighing 335 pounds

called the Stone of Scone.

Or as it’s known
according to legend,

the Stone of Destiny.

THOMPSON:
The stone itself
is just a stone,

uh, somewhat
unremarkable-looking.

And yet the stories of that
stone have been so powerful,

reflecting so many wars

and-and contests between nations
for hundreds of years.

And another fascinating aspect
of this is that we know

that this stone was
religiously important.

The Stone of Scone has really
interesting religious roots.

And this goes back
to the biblical tradition.

The patriarch Jacob
in the Book of Genesis

has this dream
at this place called Beit El,

literally "the house of God."

He’s sleeping and he uses stones
to rest his head on.

There’s a tradition that says
Jeremiah, a later prophet,

takes this stone to Ireland.

The stone then finds its way
to Scotland.

SHATNER:
In 840 AD, a nobleman
named Kenneth MacAlpin

brought the sandstone slab
to the medieval town of Scone.

According to Scottish legend,
it was the stone itself

that proclaimed him "Kenneth I,"

the original king of Scotland.

According to the stories, uh,

when the rightful ruler would
place their foot on the stone,

the stone would speak out
and proclaim them

as the rightful ruler
of the land.

HUSSAIN:
It’s used in Scottish rituals
as a way of coronation.

It’s this stone
that is really key,

and the idea here
is that the monarch

isn’t just selected
by the people--

God has chosen the monarch.

SHATNER:
For centuries, the Stone
of Destiny was considered

not only one of the greatest
treasures in all of Scotland

but also a legitimate means

by which someone
could rule the country.

Which is why, in 1296,

the English monarch Edward I
wanted it

and the Scottish throne
for himself.

In the 13th century,
the English come in

-and conquer.
-(horse neighs)

We always talk about conquerors
taking out valuable objects,

and we think of gold,
diamonds, jewels.

We don’t think about stones.

But what’s one of
the first things that they take?

Well, they take this stone,
the Stone of Destiny.

YOUNG:
The reason Edward I
took the stone

was to demoralize the Scots.

This was the treasure
of Scotland.

This was the center
of their power system.

And now he controlled it and had
himself crowned on this stone

and then could declare
that he was not only the king

of the English but the king
of the Scots as well.

COLLINS:
It was placed
in Westminster Abbey

beneath a coronation chair
known as Edward’s Seat.

And thereafter

it was used in the coronations
of all English rulers.

HUSSAIN:
Edward basically builds it
into a chair.

Covers it over with-with wood

and it becomes a throne,
essentially.

But the idea is that the power
comes from this stone,

the Stone of Destiny.

SHATNER:
Destiny--

the idea that the course
of one’s entire life

has been predetermined by a
power beyond our understanding.

Back in the Middle Ages,

it might make sense
that people would think

that greatness could be bestowed
upon someone by a divine force.

But what is it about
this unremarkable slab of rock

that still holds
such importance today?

We tend to think
of these rituals

as somehow going back
to older, superstitious people,

but the fact that the British
in the 21st century

still will proclaim the monarch
on the throne of this stone,

that becomes really important.

These are not ancient,
archaic people

who don’t know anything
about the world.

These are modern,
21st century Brits

who are still saying, you know,

that we still need to be able to
show that our queen or our king

comes from this divine,

God has chosen this person.

SHATNER:
Nearly every British king
or queen since the 14th century

has been coronated
on the Stone of Destiny.

It was last used in 1953,

during the coronation ceremony
of Queen Elizabeth II.

But-- as a growing number
of Scottish people

have begun to speculate--

was Elizabeth’s coronation
legitimate?

Because--
as many have come to believe--

the Stone of Destiny

may not be the real thing.

NEWSMAN:
A Christmas Day sensation
at Westminster Abbey.

The Stone of Destiny,

which had been there
for some 600 years,

was stolen
from the Coronation Chair.

COLLINS:
In 1950,

a group of Scottish students

actually got
into Westminster Abbey

and stole the Stone of Scone

and took it back to the altar

of Arbroath Abbey in Scotland

and thus giving it into the
hands of the Church of Scotland.

The Church of Scotland then gave
the stone back to England.

However, there is a strong rumor

that the original stone
never reached Westminster

a-and that the one that is there
was a fake.

However, whether this story is
true or not, we may never know.

SHATNER:
A fake Stone of Destiny?

It’s an interesting claim

but one that is
not without its problems.

Because when the English
returned the Stone of Destiny

to the Scots,

they did so on one condition.

HUSSAIN:
In 1996, when the stone
is returned back to Scotland,

there’s an agreement
that, okay, you have it,

but we’ll use it the next time
we coronate a monarch.

COLLINS:
The point is
that we believe in its power.

We believe in its potency.

The heritage,

the traditions,

the history of the stone
gives it energy.

And that’s
what’s important here.

If people believe
strongly enough in an object,

that can create a reality.

♪

King Charles III is the latest
English monarch to participate

in the coronation ceremony
using the Stone of Destiny.

It’s a sacred rite that
the royal family has honored

for over 700 years.

But half a world away,

the Malagasy people show
reverence to their ancestors

in an entirely different ritual,

one that involves

digging up the dead.

SHATNER: On this large island
in the Indian Ocean

some 250 miles
off the eastern coast of Africa,

the indigenous Malagasy people
gather every few years

for a multigenerational
celebration known as Famadihana.

But this party is not
a typical family get-together.

Because the Malagasy
don’t just invite

their living relatives
to this reunion--

they also invite

the dead ones.

STEAVU: Famadihana,
or "the turning of the bones,"

is a ritual that is performed

usually once every five
to seven years

in which a...
the family or the relatives

of a deceased person
will get together from all over

and celebrate
the life of the deceased.

They exhume the body,
they carefully lay it out,

they clean it and then change
the death shrouds

on the basis of this idea
that the living

can intervene
on behalf of the dead

to improve their lots

or their level of comfort
in the afterlife.

One part of the celebration
also involves

basically shouldering
the bones of the deceased,

and the turning of the bones
will take place,

sometimes dancing with them.

(whooping)

Usually the ceremony concludes

when they re-entomb
the remains of the deceased.

But they’re not cutting off
the memory of this person

from their lives. They will keep
them present in their lives

until the next time
they see them,

which is periodically
every five to seven years.

And this is a way to really...

reinforce the connection
between the living and the dead.

YOUNG:
People will come to honor

the lost ancestors, to be sure,

but also to work
on coming to terms with death

that hovers around our lives.

Some cultures deal with it
more directly than others.

And the value of this tradition

is that it’s a different way
of thinking

about how death ends a life but
it does not end a relationship.

So it is lovely,
even though it’s a little eerie.

It reminds us
the dead aren’t entirely gone.

There are many belief systems
that suggest

the soul is attached
to the body,

particularly the bones,

and that,
as long as bones exist,

some trace presence of soul,

the soul of the person
that lived in that body,

will still remain
with the bones.

SHATNER:
Could it be true that our souls

really remain in our bones
after we die?

While that idea
may sound far-fetched,

there are some people around
the world who believe it’s true.

In fact, it’s often thought
that our souls

lie within the most recognizable
part of the human body,

the skull.

Each year, on November 8,

the indigenous Aymara people
gather for an ancient custom--

a colorful procession

known as Día de las Ñatitas,

or the Festival of Skulls.

STEAVU:
The Aymara indigenous people
of Bolivia and Peru

keep skulls, uh,
in shrines in the home.

They keep ’em in places of honor
in the household

and make regular offerings
to them.

The skulls are thought
to bring harmony to the family.

They’re thought to protect
people from illness and death.

And they also ask them
for advice.

They ask them
for support or for help.

-(ringing)
-And once a year,

they will take out the skull

and parade them
in this festival.

PAUL KOUDOUNARIS:
You’ll get 20,000, 30,000 people
down in the cemetery.

It’s really quite a spectacle,

’cause you’ll get
people bringing

five or more skulls down
in big boxes

and they dress them up.

If it’s cold in the morning,
they’ll put on a hat.

They’ll put sunglasses on ’em.

And there are certain offerings
that are pretty typical--

cigarettes,

alcohol,

little bits of money,
coca leaves, things like that.

You know?
And it’s kind of a thank you

to make sure
the dead will continue

to assist the living.

STEAVU:
These skulls are perceived

as a kind of portal

between the realm of the living
and the dead,

a site where the spirit
of the deceased can manifest.

And it’s through these skulls
that the living

can communicate with the dead,

as if they are living
and as if they are present,

there and then, in those skulls.

There’s something about the way
that the skulls are presented

that you feel like these
individuals are being venerated.

We’re a species
that communicates with our face.

So it shouldn’t surprise us that
we really fixate on the skull

as being a way
to honor and communicate

with those ancestors.

Can ceremonies involving
the bones of the deceased...

...actually bring us
into contact

with the spirits
of our loved ones?

And if so, is it possible
that sacred rituals

can actually preserve the soul

for eternity?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining

a fascinating
and strange practice

known as the art
of self-mummification.

SHATNER: Just outside
the Tsuruoka city limits

sits Churen-ji Temple.

Surrounded by 200-year-old
cherry blossom trees,

Churen-ji is similar
to many other rural temples

throughout the region,

with one notable exception.

The monk who presides here

has been seated
in meditative prayer

for almost 200 years.

KEN JEREMIAH:
Among the mummified monks

of Yamagata, Japan,

Sunada Tetsu
is perhaps the most famous.

And his body is currently
located at Churen Temple

in northern Yamagata Prefecture.

Sunada Tetsu is
an 18th century Buddhist monk

who wasn’t
a religious person at all.

He didn’t plan
on entering religion.

However, he ended up
killing two samurai.

♪

And at the time,
19th century Japan,

if you kill two samurai
and you’re a commoner,

you’re gonna be killed.

But local temples
were exempt from that law.

So he joined Churen Temple

and, over time,
became a believer

and one of the most holy people
in Japan,

traveling throughout
the Japanese countryside,

repairing bridges,

doing anything he could
to help people.

SHATNER:
Sunada Tetsu was so dedicated
to serving the Japanese people

that the one-time outlaw
earned a reputation

as a miracle worker.

But as old age
began approaching,

Sunada Tetsu realized
that there was only one way

for him to continue his good
works well into the future--

the ancient art
of self-mummification,

known as sokushinbutsu.

In this particular tradition
of, uh, Buddhism

that we find in Japan,

there’s this practice
of sokushinbutsu,

which is basically
a mummification practice

the practitioner undertakes
when they’re still alive.

People who engaged in the
process of self-mummification,

they wanted to preserve
the flesh because they thought

there was a divine merit
that could be of use

of people who are still alive.

SHATNER:
In order for a monk’s soul

to shed his body
in the proper manner,

the practitioners
of sokushinbutsu

were required to undergo
a very specific process,

a process which--

as one can imagine--

isn’t exactly pleasant.

JEREMIAH: The process
of self-mummification

is to gradually decrease the
amount of food you’re ingesting

and, in place,

start ingesting things
that are preservative in nature.

And in the case
of the self-mummified monks,

they were pine bark, pine resin

and urushi tea.

Urushi tea, which comes
from the lacquer tree,

is considered
to be extremely toxic

but also lacquers the body
from inside out

and it removes moisture
at the same time from the organs

and presents some kind
of embalming faculties.

When the monks have completed
their pre-mummification diet,

they would be placed
into a box made of pinewood

and buried underground
with a little bell.

(tinkling)

Once the bell stopped ringing,

the other monks
would know that...

the self-mummifying practitioner

had, uh, deceased
inside the box.

SHATNER: According
to historical accounts,

Sunada Tetsu spent 3,000 days--

which is more than eight years--

starving himself in preparation
for his living burial.

After his body
was eventually unearthed,

it showed no decay whatsoever,

signifying that his spirit
was indeed pure.

But as morbid
as Sunada Tetsu’s tale may be,

he was not the first
to attempt the extreme ritual

of sokushinbutsu,

nor the last.

The founder
of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan

was believed to have,
uh, studied in China

and, uh, learnt
about this practice there

and subsequently brought it
to Japan,

upon which some Japanese monks,
the most intrepid amongst them,

would have picked it up
and applied it.

But the
self-mummification practice

was outlawed in the 19th century

because it was
rarely successful.

JEREMIAH:
They actually wanted
to cause their own death

so they could be
in meditative posture

so they could direct their soul

where they wanted it
to go afterwards

and they’d be lucidly aware
of the change

between life and death.

That’s why they’re considered
living Buddha.

These mummies were still alive

because they are in between
the realm of life and death

and perhaps they can influence
the two of ’em.

♪

Could the slow process
of turning yourself into a mummy

actually be the secret
to living forever?

Well, if nothing else, these
actions reinforce the belief

that human beings
can be transformed

through the power
of sacred rituals.

And while
the practice of rituals

may be an intentional act
that connects us to each other

and to a higher power,

the mystery of how they work
remains...

unexplained.

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