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It's such a blessing to have
a place like this to sit

and just smell the air
and hear the creek.

I know that I'll fade into
it at some point in my life.

I'm 53 years old and was
told about five weeks ago

that I'm dying.

I've been given about six to
eight months left to live,

and that's really what's
happening in my life

at the moment.

Being OK with dying is
a weird place to be.

It's very disconnected from
most of the people I know.

They don't get it.

They think that I've given in.

It's definitely hard
for me to talk about it.

I know that he's upset
about dying and leaving

his loved ones.

But what's amazing is that he's
so at peace with this journey

that he's going
through and where it's

going to take him afterwards.

What keeps me not
agitated about death

is appreciation for the
life I've already had.

I've had a beautiful
marriage, and my kids

are fabulous people.

And they hold, fortunately,
some of the best parts of me.

Have you had any
experiences yourself

that give you an insight into
what happens when we die?

I've thought about
death since the age

of six years when my grandfather
passed away suddenly.

It's taken me almost a
lifetime to fully comprehend

that death is an ongoing process
that makes life possible.

What makes the universe
fresh is that it's dying

and it's being reborn, and
it's dying, being reborn.

And every time it's
reborn, it actually

creates a better
version of itself,

and we call it evolution.

In the United States
of America, I'd

say most people pretend
that death doesn't exist.

They call it a crime,
or the mistake,

they don't want
to do with it all.

And actually, death
is our birthright.

So to think of it
in any other way

is really just asking for
misery and pain in your life.

Because everybody dies.

Every form of life dies--
what we call "dies."

We came today because one of
the gibbons died recently,

and Nikko, the partner, is
here and apparently he's

been in a kind of
state of grief.

Nikko had a mate that he
lived with, named Onyx,

and they've been together
since 1986, which

is a very long time, 26 years.

Gibbons in the wild
are monogamous,

so it's pretty common for
them to have that pair bond.

They tend to stick together.

They're one of the very few
primates that is monogamous.

Most are not.

Definitely that
was hard for him.

His activity level decreased
pretty significantly.

Gibbons in the wild will do this
beautiful song every morning,

and it's a duet between
the bonded pair,

and he stopped singing
for several weeks.

We're at about eight
or nine weeks out now,

and he's really starting to get
back to normal, which is great.

We're really happy to see that.

We're sad when animals
die, but birth and death

is all part of the same cycle.

And you know, when leaves
fall and decompose,

it makes the soil richer.

So you really do have to have
all aspects of life and death

to live on this beautiful
planet that we live on.

Deep within us, for reasons
that still strike me as quite

mysterious, I think
every organism

knows how to die, whether it's
a deer that finally just relaxes

in the mouth of the lion,
or thinking, myself,

about a rock climbing story--
a fellow on El Capitan,

3,000 feet high, rappelled
off the end of his rope.

He forgot to tie a knot
in the end of his rope,

so he just came off the end of
his rope and started falling.

And people watching him told
me that he started screaming

and writhing in the air,
trying to walk in the air,

which you just cannot do.

And then after a few seconds
of that, just opened out.

He relaxed and opened
out, as if he knew,

you know, I don't want to spend
the last 10 seconds my life--

because that's about how
long it takes to fall,

roughly-- I don't want to spend
that panicking, and struggling,

and resisting.

There's something in us
that knows how to open out.

We've been doing
research on the idea

that consciousness
may be something that

is more than just the brain.

It may involve the brain, but
it may reach beyond the brain.

For example, we've done
a series of experiments

that look at the possibility
that one person's intention can

influence another person's
biology, their physiology,

at a distance and with
no sensory communication

between the two people.

This speaks to the idea that
consciousness is more than just

our physical being,
and that in fact, there

may be ways in which
consciousness transcends

physicality.

The implications of that
for what happens when we die

is that perhaps there's
something more to our essence.

The event that changed my
life was, I was on my way

to dinner one
evening with my wife,

we'd been married
for five months.

On our way to our
favorite restaurant,

a van crossed the stop sign
at between 70 and 80 miles

an hour.

It broadsided our
car and bulldozed us

clear across Beverly Boulevard.

The car took off and
flew through the air,

and hit that tree
in mid-air and came

to rest in those
bushes over there.

That night, the
doctor saved my life.

I was at the deepest
level of coma

that they measure, a
Glasgow Coma Scale 3.

When I came out of the
coma, pieces of memory

started to come back.

The memory from
my coma came to me

of a protector who
was traveling with me

through this inner space,
through this journey

into infinity.

I was traveling through an
ancient grove on a boat,

and I could hear
the sounds of rain

pattering down on the cabin.

And there was a person
who was up one deck,

who I knew I would be safe
if I could only just go up

to be with her.

And very slowly, in the
middle of the night,

it occurred to me who
that protector was,

and I realized it was my wife.

And the following morning, my
mother came to the hospital

to explain that I hadn't
always been in this room,

and in this bed.

The reason I was in this
room, and in this bed,

was because I'd been
in an accident--

that before this room and this
bed, I'd been a filmmaker,

and that yes, I was
married to Marcy,

and that she died
instantly in the crash.

And during my month in
coma, she had been laid

to rest in Phoenix, Arizona.

So I'd lost everything, really,
that mattered most to me,

and that started this
journey through consciousness

to find what makes us who we
are, could I recover who I was,

and also to find a
reason to go forward.

Tony Redhouse is a Native
American practitioner

from the Navajo tradition.

His work with hospice patients
and people in life transition

connects him with the
importance of living

with the reality of death.

When you're laying
in a hospice bed,

you are going to look at
your whole life, everything

that you've created, and whether
you have lived true to yourself

or whether you have lived your
whole life for the expectations

of everybody else.

My idea of life and death
is focusing on the present.

And what I've learned
in this is that if I

think about what it is right now
that I really want to fulfill,

what dream do I want to fulfill
in my life right now, that I

have the ability, the
passion, to do these things,

the energy to do them.

I'm going to do them right now.

I first got interested
in doing this work,

really when I was
a undergraduate.

And I was at a small, very
competitive university

that half the student body
graduated first or second

in their high school classes.

It also turned out
to be the school that

had the highest suicide rate in
the country per capita, which

wasn't in their course catalog.

And the more I worried
about doing well,

the harder it became to
study, and the harder

it became to study, the
harder it became to do well.

And I got into
this vicious cycle

where I literally couldn't
sleep for a week straight.

I remember sitting
in physics class,

and I thought, you know,
I'll just kill myself.

Why didn't I think
of that earlier?

That'll put and end
to all this pain.

Because I came so close
to killing myself,

that was my doorway.

You know, I came about as
close to doing that as you can

do without actually doing it.

So naturally, I started
to ask questions.

What is death about?

Is death, you know, just
you kind of close your eyes

and go to sleep, or is it
something more than that?

We know that people have
a lot of fear of death.

How do you see
this idea of death?

When the autumn comes, the
leaves are brown, and the fall.

And where do they go?

They go back into the soil.

That nutrition of those leaves,
which becomes like compost,

goes into the roots,
and they come back

and the new leaves
are born again.

So the old leaves, if
they were afraid of dying,

how the new leaves will come?

We are members of
the life force,

and that life force continues.

It's a dynamic life force.

If we become static in
one body and never die,

and we are afraid
of dying, that means

we are blocking the
dynamic force, which

is ever changing, ever evolving,
ever transforming life force.

If we block that, world
will be a boring place.

Now, and the real Robert Sheldon
must answer your questions

truthfully, and he will answer--
and you will ask questions

until you [inaudible] your
opinion is the real Robert

Sheldon.

And since you're
so pretty there,

let's start with
Betsy [inaudible].

Betsy?

Number one, what's the
name of your nightclub?

The South of the Line.

The South?

South of the Line.

South of the Line.

When that incident happened and
I swallowed the lighter fluid

and got rushed to the hospital,
what was the family thinking?

Oh, it as a terrible
fear that we'd lose you.

When you have someone sick
like that, especially a child,

there's a pallor
over the whole house.

You live a life, you
go through the motions,

but you don't enjoy things,
because we were so concerned.

You could've died.

You were so lucky.

When my son was three or four,
we were driving one night,

and it was a beautiful evening.

And I said to him,
"Look at that full moon.

Isn't this a glorious
night to be alive?"

And he said, "What
do you mean, mommy?

Do you think dead people
can't see the full moon?"

And I thought, I guess not.

I guess I think dead people
can't see the full moon.

And he said, "Oh no, mommy," he
said, "our friend Elizabeth,"

who had just died,
"she's up there,

and she's looking at the
full moon, and she's singing,

enjoy yourself, it's
later than you think,"

And so it was such a
great reminder to me,

out of the mouth of babes
comes this kind of wisdom

that suggests that we are
more than our physicality

and that there may
be possibilities

beyond physical death.

Have you ever had anybody
in your family or somebody

you knew who died?

My cat died, and he'd been
with me my whole life,

so I was really sad.

What do you think happened
to him when he died?

I believe he went to
heaven and met other cats.

Uh-huh.

So is there a
special cat heaven?

No, I think it's all the
same, but they're just

with each other.

Have you ever wondered about it?

I have wondered about
what happens after death,

but I've never figured
out the answer.

Let's just stay with the
topic right now about death.

Uh-huh.

So you for it, against it?

I'm against it, man.

The afterlife, I'm for it.

Aha.

I hope it's real.

But again, like the paranormal
or the ESP or whatever,

I just would be very
surprised if it turned out

there's some sort of afterlife.

If there's not some
scientific natural way

to explain where the pattern of
me gets stored in some medium

and carried on into the future,
then the default position

is that when you
die, nothing happens.

It's just-- you're just gone.

You're in the same place you
were before you were born,

which is to say, nowhere.

We're faced with that sort
of cold, hard reality,

and I think that
produces something--

the anxiety for some people,
anyway, it doesn't bother me.

But I don't worry about
it, but I know apparently,

a lot of people do.

So when you said that when
you're dead, you're dead,

you're gone, there's nothing--

Well, near as I can tell.

I don't know for
sure, nobody knows.

But the evidence is
pretty overwhelming

that that appears
to be the case.

Dr. Rudy Tanzi is
a neuroscientist

and does research on Alzheimer's
disease at Harvard University.

His views on
consciousness and what

happens after death are
unconventional and provocative.

You know, a neuroscientist
would tell you

that your identity is just
within your neural network,

that everything you do and
learn is just associated

with what you already know.

So then that leaves us
with the question of when

you die, and the brain is gone,
the electrical activity is

turned off, is everything gone?

The other side of the coin
that most neuroscientists don't

want to talk about is,
where is consciousness?

Where are memories when
you think about the past?

Where were they stored?

I mean, we don't have an answer
for that in neuroscience.

I ask students, I ask other
professors this all the time.

They say-- it's
always hand waving.

You know, it's in
your neural network.

I'm like, well where, exactly?

Well, in the synapses.

No, the synapses fire, if
fire is to be called a memory,

but where is the actual memory?

Where is my mother's
face before I see it?

What's the thumb drive
of the brain that stores

the JPEG of my mother's face?

We have no idea.

I've been doing
anesthesia for 38 years,

and it's still
amazing to me that we

give a medication like propofol,
or have a patient breathe

the gas like sevoflurane and
their consciousness goes away.

What's missing, primarily,
is consciousness.

Other brain activities continue.

So anesthesia is fairly
specific, erasing consciousness

and memory without affecting
other brain activities.

Now, how that works
is still unknown.

But the real question
in anesthesia

isn't so much why
they go to sleep,

but why they're awake
in the first place.

The prevalent theory
is that the brain

is a computer whose
fundamental units, bits, are

neurons firing or not firing.

But neurons are far
more complicated,

not to mention being
alive, and we don't really

know what that is, yet.

If you consider single cell
paramecium, it's one cell,

it swims around, it finds food,
it finds a mate, it has sex,

it can learn.

If you suck it into
a capillary tube,

it escapes, faster
and faster each time.

And yet, it's only one cell,
it doesn't have any synapses,

it's not part of a network.

So it, in and of itself,
has at least cognition.

I'm not saying it's conscious.

But it performs
intelligent activities.

So I think it's an
insult to neurons

to say they're simple on-off
states when a single cell

paramecium is so clever.

We're asking very
ancient questions

that humans have been asking
for hundreds, if not thousands

of years.

When we talk about
death and dying,

what's the nature of
reality, ultimately?

We discovered that there
is a part of reality

that is beyond experience.

It doesn't consist of
things, it consists of forms.

These forms are
real, even though you

can't see them, because
they can actualize

in the empirical world.

Everything that you
see is an actualization

of a form in this
background realm.

So the nature of it is
that of a potentiality.

Potentiality is
thought-like,

the mind
their cosmic mind.

There are two views
in consciousness

that come from science.

One is that consciousness is an
emergent property of the brain,

and therefore also an emergent
property of evolution.

That's the materialistic
reductionist view of science.

There's another view
that's creeping up now

in some postmodern
scientists, and this

is the view is that
consciousness is actually

not an emergent
property of evolution.

In fact, evolution is
driven by consciousness,

that consciousness is
non-local, it is transcendent,

it's eternal, it's the
grand state of the universe

from where everything emerges.

And being prior to
time and transcendent,

it is not subject
to birth or death.

When we think about the evidence
for what happens when we die,

there is this idea
that there's something

about our consciousness that may
transcend our physical being.

We know that from a
scientific point of view,

people have looked
at near death,

out of body, reincarnation.

These kinds of
experiences actually

can be documented and studied.

I'm trained as a hard
scientist, my PhD

is in pharmacology
and toxicology,

and when I was in
graduate school,

my mother committed suicide.

And I had been a scientist
for as long as I can remember,

and so I looked to
science-- what does science

have to say to these questions.

What happens when we die?

Where is she?

Where she go?

Our main focus is the
survival of consciousness.

This thing that I call
me, what happens to it

when I'm no longer
a physical body,

and not associated with
a physical body anymore?

And so the primary way
that we're looking at that

is with the studying
mediums, people

who report regular
communication with the deceased.

Many people believe that they
can communicate with the dead,

they call them mediums.

So what we're doing
in an experiment now

is to take a high density
EEG recording of a medium

as a medium is doing her work.

We want to then study
in the laboratory what

is happening in the
brains of mediums

while they say they're
in communication

with a departed person.

So we know from past
experience that the mediums

will be roughly 70% correct,
which is way beyond chance.

Where is the information
coming from that a medium is

getting when it turns out
to be veritically correct?

And we don't know the
answer to that, yet.

And what we thought is
that by using an EEG

and looking at brain
activity of the medium,

that might give us
a clue as to whether

or not it is something
like telepathy

between the living
or something else.

If it's telepathy with
the dead, well that

would be quite new
and interesting.

I lost my sister four years
ago, and I wrote a song for her,

it's, "Do You
Remember Who You Are?"

And I wrote it for her.

And I'm going to this psychic,
and the first thing out

of her mouth, I
didn't say a word

to her was, "Your sister,
she loves her song."

And I started to sob.

You know, and this is that
feeling, again, of connecting

to that which never dies.

People have all
kinds of experiences

that kind of lie outside
what we accept as truth,

or what is possible.

I think that the kind of
science that we're doing,

which really looks at the powers
and potentials of consciousness

helps to expand our
sense of possibility.

And more important,
it allows us to ask

questions that
have been put down,

that have been considered taboo.

A medium that we work
with, a woman contacted

her and her aunt had died.

And they lived in Peru,
and they had told her,

"Your aunt died of
stomach cancer."

She went to a medium and she
wasn't getting stomach cancer.

She was getting that the
woman had been murdered--

the aunt had been murdered.

And she provided a first name,
and she had lots of like,

identifying information, and
the personality came through

very strongly.

And the sitter took
that information

to the Peruvian government
and they exhumed the body,

and they did another autopsy.

And there was no
evidence of cancer,

but there was evidence that
her trachea had been crushed.

They found the name-- the
name the medium had given

was the name of the person
that had killed the aunt,

and that person is
currently serving

in Peruvian jail for her murder.

When I was 15 years
old, I was in a place

where I shouldn't have been,
with someone I shouldn't have

been with, and we had a serious
motorcycle accident involving

a drunk driver.

I remember watching my body
tumbling through the air

and landing on the
roadway with a crash.

Out of body experiences
can't easily

be explained by
materialist science.

And if it hadn't happened
to me personally,

I might not believe something
like this was possible.

Dr. Peter Fenwick is a
distinguished neurophysiologist

and senior lecturer at
King's College London.

His studies of death,
near death, and out

of body experiences
provide interesting insight

into what happens at
the point of dying.

I was led to this
work, really by chance.

I believed that
there was nothing

in near death experiences.

They were experiences which
happened in California,

they never crossed
the sea to England.

And so I thought that they
probably were more imagination.

Then, a case came into
my consulting room.

He'd had a cardiac arrest, he'd
had a near death experience.

And I knew that they were real.

I was sitting,
holding the telephone.

Lightning came down
the phone line.

It hit me in the
side of the head,

it went down my spine,
it welded the nails

of the heels of my shoes
to the nails in the floor.

It threw me in the air,
suspended me in the air,

and slammed me back
down on the bed.

It melted the phone.

And I was burning
and hurting so bad.

Then all of the
sudden, I lift up.

And everything was cool,
I looked down on the bed,

I saw me on the bed.

I saw Sandy come
running down the hall.

My friend who was on the
other end of the phone

heard the explosion, he came,
he called the paramedics.

The greatest thing that I've
discovered at that point

was that first, the
place that I was

was between this
world and the next,

but I knew it better than
any place I had ever been

living in this physical life.

It looks as if when
brain function is down,

there is a set of experiences
in which you leave your body

and watch the
resuscitation process.

Now what happens during
this out of body process?

No brain function, you've
got a cardiac arrest,

you're not breathing.

All the brain stem
reflexes have gone,

so it is, in fact, a very
good model for death itself.

I watched them load
me in the ambulance.

I watched the
things that went on.

I really didn't care, because
where I was, floating above it,

was so much better than where I
was when I was involved in it.

And I was in the ambulance,
and the guy said, "He's gone.

He's gone."

And me?

I thought, gone where?

I'm here, the paramedic's here.

Where is anybody going?

And I heard these chimes,
and I moved down this tunnel

and come into this
place of light

and I sensed an absolute
sense of safety.

If it's true, that you really
do have experiences when

the brain is not
working, then it

means that consciousness, or
mind, if you like, are in fact

not the same as brain.

It's a fundamental step.

I'm thinking,
actually, about how

this one moment changed my
life, it ended my wife's life.

And that perhaps is because
what I've come to feel

is that consciousness
only knows one moment.

It's the one moment
that we all share,

and the one moment in which
we live our whole lives.

Our subconscious doesn't
know the time of day,

our subconscious
doesn't know the month.

All our subconscious
knows is now.

And this one moment, this now,
is what's still inside me,

will always be within me.

The most fully
collected consciousness

I'd ever experienced
was at that borderline

between life and death.

I'll never forget
the river of time,

flowing from the
horizon towards me.

From the future to the present.

And at a certain point in
my coma, I felt it stop.

And the river of time ran
still, I call it the moment

when everything is now.

And then I felt it flow
in the other direction.

Time was traveling away from
me, and I felt very alone,

because I realized
at that moment

that when something
passes us into the past

it doesn't return,
and it would be gone.

And I remember how I felt
at that moment in my coma.

I remember how I understood
that in some ways, that

was a moment of death,
and a moment of rebirth.

I'm frozen at that
moment, emotionally.

The Pam Reynolds
case is one more

dramatic near-death
experience episodes.

Pam Reynolds had a
brain aneurysm, which

was in a portion of the brain
that was difficult to get to,

and the surgeons were concerned
that if they tried to get to it

and they made an accident,
that it could burst,

and she'd be dead before
they'd be able to repair it.

So they used a radical
surgical method

which would require draining
all the blood out of her head.

When you do this, and the
body has been cooled down

to 60 degrees
Fahrenheit, eventually

goes into shock and
then cardiac arrest.

So that's like
one level of dead.

You drain the blood
out of the body,

then the body's really
dead, it's like double dead.

And then they check by putting
very loud clicks in both ears.

You're wearing earphones
that have a very loud click,

so it will make a
brain stem response.

They monitor that, and the
brain stem response goes away,

you're like, triple dead.

It's every form of dead
that we know is dead.

So she had a full-blown
near-death experience.

And I remember the top
of my head tingling,

and I just sort of popped
out of the top of my head.

And I was then looking
down at the body.

I knew it was my body,
but I didn't care.

She did say a couple
of things that

were unusual about the nature
of the saw that was used to open

her skull, and a certain
sound that it made,

and music that was being
played during the surgery,

and it turned out to be correct.

I had assumed that
they were going

to open the skull with a saw,
I had heard the term, saw,

but what I saw looked a lot
more like a drill than a saw.

It even had little bits
that were kept in this case.

One of the reasons to believe
that her experience was

unusual, at least,
is that when you

are going under
general anesthetics,

or if you're getting
hypoxia, or all

of the usual
physiological shutdowns,

your ability to have a
clear thought very rapidly

diminishes.

And your ability to remember
what happened also goes away.

I felt a presence, and I sort
of turned around to look at it.

And that's when I saw the
very tiny pinpoint of light.

And I went toward the light.

The closer I got to
the light, I began

to discern different
figures, different people,

and I distinctly heard
my grandmother call me,

and I immediately went to her.

It felt great.

I asked if God was the
light, and the answer

was no, God is not the light.

The light is what
happens wen God breathes.

And I distinctly
remember thinking,

I'm standing in
the breath of God.

So it's one of the more
startling cases where

the evidence that she was really
dead, dead, dead was very good.

In many of the
traditions in the world,

their understanding is that
when we die, that we go,

and some say we go to place
of rest, a place of learning,

that is, not in
the material sense.

And that then we come back
again in another form,

or as a human being, or
as another life form,

and we have other
kinds of experiences.

What do I think might be next?

I think we get recycled.

I think we come
back into life for

new and different experiences.

The purpose or the
meaning of that,

I'm not going to pretend
that I honestly know.

I think we do sort
of progress over time

in our multiple lives.

We change, we learn, and we
learn from these past lives,

and we become, let's say,
better, deeper, shinier.

That's my belief structure.

I'll try to let you know
when I get to the other side.

That's all I can say.

What happened before
you were born?

I mean, that's an
important question, too.

Where were you
before you showed up?

In the end, we're all made of
the same stuff-- earth, water,

and air, which
recycles as our body.

Death affects the body,
but not the spirit.

The spirit recycles itself
to the physical body

For over 50 years,
research has been

conducted at the
University of Virginia

into cases of
apparent reincarnation

and the possible implications
of our consciousness

experiencing multiple lifetimes.

After 50 years of
research now, we've

got 2,500 cases in our
files of young children

who reported memories
of previous lives.

Several hundred
of the cases have

involved birth marks
or birth defects

that match wounds on the
body the previous person.

And some of them have also
included written records where

we know precisely, exactly
what the child said

about the previous
life, and then we

can match that with the previous
person that's been identified.

One is a little boy
named Sam Taylor.

When he was about a
year and a half old,

his dad was changing
his diaper one day

and Sam looked up at him and
said, "When I was your age,

I used to change your diapers."

But he kept saying this
stuff, he kept saying,

"I was grandpa," and,
"I used to be big."

And he came out with some
pretty interesting details.

Like, he talked about the
grandfather's sister being

murdered, and in
fact, she had been

killed some 60 years before,
and his parents felt certain

that he'd never heard about it.

He also talked about his wife,
which was his grandmother,

but his wife from the past life,
said some specific details.

And then when she died, she
died when he was about 4

1/2, and his dad
went out and collected

belongings and so
forth, and came back

with some family photos.

So one night, Sam's mom had them
spread out on the coffee table,

just looking at the
various pictures.

Well, Sam walks over
and starts pointing

to pictures of his
grandfather and saying,

"That's me, that's me."

And also a picture of his--
it was his grandfather's

first car, and there's
no one in the car,

but it's just a
picture of the car.

And he got very excited and
said, "Hey, that's my car."

So to test him,
his mom showed him

picture of a class photo from
elementary school and said.

"OK, well then show me where
you are in the picture."

And he ran his finger
along the different

faces and stopped at the one
of his grandfather and said,

"That's me."

So that was one that has what
we call recognition, where

he was able to pick
out his grandfather

and, in a group photo.

It's what we call
a same family case

where a child is seeming to
remember the life of a family

member.

Some people criticize
the work simply

by dismissing it out of
hand by saying reincarnation

can't happen, so obviously
there's no value to this work.

But that's really not
a very scientific,

I mean, sort of
scientism, perhaps,

but it's not a scientific
view of letting your beliefs

prejudice your view
of the evidence

when it should, of course,
be the other way around.

So have you had people
in your life that died?

Oh, absolutely.

All my parents are
dead, all four of them.

I had two bio parents,
two stepparents.

Yep, so I've been
all through that.

So I drove around
to doctor's offices,

I went through all that.

I'm sure my telomeres are
much shorter from the stress

of being a caretaker.

Yeah, so that brings home the
reality of death for sure.

But they're gone.

I mean, absolutely, I don't
think they're anywhere else.

You know, occasionally
afterwards,

I thought I heard my mom's
voice, that sort of thing.

But we all have these auditory
hallucinations a little bit.

But then it went away
shortly after that.

So it's just-- it's
just part of growing up

in the cycle of life, and I
guess that's how I look at it.

I just don't--

So you had this experience--

dwell on it.

maybe that your mom did?

You heard her voice?

I just not-- I don't want to
make a big thing about that, I

just remember a
couple times in bed,

you know, sort of
like, late at night,

you know how you're
sort of falling asleep?

It's one of those
transition things

where your mind is producing
all sorts of things.

I don't think it's
anything more than that.

I think more than the
other hallucinations

I've had from sleep deprivation,
from sensory deprivation

things.

I've done all that stuff.

So my father, when he
died, he was a typical man

of his generation.

Loving guy, but at a distance,
you know what I mean?

So he passed on, and
around a week or two later,

and I was in this
very room one morning,

and suddenly one
day, there he was.

I was really almost overwhelmed
with the unconditional love

that I was experiencing
from him, directly from him.

I realized he was
very close to me.

Very close in my space.

Too close.

I had to just say,
"Dad, you know,

just give me a
little space, here."

So he did.

The love was still there,
none of that changed.

But he was happy.

He was kind of
radiating happiness.

And once in awhile I would ask
him, in my mind, a question.

What about this,
what about that?

And just get a few words, a
few impressions, a few senses

of what was going on for him.

And then after about
two days, maybe three,

he just-- that was
it-- just moved on.

I just said OK, you know?

Thanks, it's been
good, you know?

Good luck, best wishes
wherever you're heading.

And thank you, I--
thank you for the time,

and the-- particularly the--
just that unconditional love.

Oh, it's great, isn't it?

I mean, just life.

I mean, take a breath,
let that body just extract

that oxygen. Oxygen is a gas.

Ha.

We're keenly aware
of consciousness,

and we're aware of consciousness
does not come from the body.

We're aware of consciousness
independent of the body.

And so people are
more aware that they

are consciousness having
a body rather than a body

with consciousness.

Oftentimes, people
are actually very

anxious about whether
they're going to die,

and they make decisions
about their life,

whether they're going to die.

And in fact, that's not where
we should be making decisions

from.

Our decisions and choices
need to be made from,

what gifts am I going to
give before I leave here?

What talents am I
going to cultivate?

How am I going to be
a beneficial presence

on the planet?

And that's a much
higher frequency than,

"I'm afraid I'm going to die."

I think the structure
of our society right

now is a fear of death.

And, I mean, I hate to sound so
blunt about this, but the whole

anti aging movement?

You're a loser if you die.

You're a loser if you get old.

And yet, somehow, we all do.

And our society has set
it up that death and aging

are the enemy, whereas
they're inevitable.

I truly know that I have no
control when I live or die.

So the combination of
accepting a lack of control

over my own death, and
a very deep gratitude

for the life I've already
had, is my real reason

for being at peace.

A lot of people have
fear around them,

and yet here you were, fighting
in Korea, and, you know,

piloting crafts that took
off from aircraft carriers,

and then having to land again
in the middle of the ocean.

You know, you've described it
like a needle in a haystack.

And then getting on the Apollo
14 capsule after Apollo 13

almost was disastrous--
those actions imply a kind

of fearlessness about death.

I pondered my own
immortality or mortality.

But I think the more
important thing for we humans

is, learn to feel
pleasurable, happy, successful

in what we do in
this life and feel

that we're being productive,
caring and helpful

to each other and to our
families, that that's really

more important than
whether we really

have all the answers to what
happens after this life.

Living this life to its
fullest, and properly

and happily, to me, is
far more fundamental.

I got a call from my brother,
I was living in Phoenix,

my dad was in Tucson.

He had taken a fall, and he was
in ICU, and he was in a coma.

And so when I left
the house in Phoenix,

I took two things with me.

I took my drum and I
took two eagle feathers.

And I went upstairs to the
ICU room where my dad was at,

and here I am, took my
drum, two eagle feathers.

My dad was like this.

He was laying there
with his eyes open,

and his hands like this.

And I took a eagle
feather, and I put one

in each hand-- I placed
one in each hand.

And I took my drum, and I
wanted my dad to wake up.

I wanted him to live, because
my mom and dad had been together

56 years.

That was my intention
when I came down,

I want to see him wake up.

I want him back with my mom.

And so I put the eagle
feathers in his hands

and I took the
drum, and I simply--

I created a heartbeat.

And I went from head
to toe over his life,

and I prayed over him.

And I wanted him to be healed.

And on the last beat, my
dad went into a convulsion,

and he closed his
eyes, and he released.

When he did, he grabbed that
eagle feather in his right

and he closed his hand.

And I knew what I had done was
what he wanted to have done.

And he-- when he grabbed
that eagle feather,

I knew that I had been sent to
do what I was supposed to do.

We need to talk about death
and the fear of death.

I personally have more
fear of an unfulfilled

life than of death itself.

I know I'm afraid of
death because I don't

want to think a different way.

I don't want to become
a different person.

I just want to stay who I am.

If I change, I want to remember
this form, or this person.

Contemplating death can
really bring us peace.

Without impermanency,
there's no change.

If there's no change,
there is no life.

Can you imagine your
life without any change?

Doesn't exist.

Death is a taboo to talk about.

Just is-- many people don't
want to talk about death,

because it's something that
it happens to somebody else.

But that doesn't know a culture,
death doesn't know religion,

death doesn't know-- death
doesn't discriminate.

That's the thing,
is that in the end

it's going to
happen to all of us,

and we have to be prepared for
it in any time, in any moment.

It's hard to watch the
people I love suffer.

And I have to say, it's harder
for them than it is for me,

because I'm not
suffering with this.

I suffer with
physical discomfort.

The pain is not fun, pain
sucks, but dying doesn't.

Dying is just what we do.

I want to thank
everyone for coming,

for bringing your unique and
special love for Lee here

today.

Lee was absolutely
adamant that this

was supposed to be a celebration
of life-- his and everyone

else's here.

And so with that
in mind, we figured

we'd turn the
beginning over to Lee.

I want you gently
to close your eyes

and begin taking deep
breaths, in and out.

Now start thinking of
people you love, those that

bring meaning to your life.

Begin to feel the sense of
appreciation in your body.

Do you feel it in your chest,
your stomach, your back?

Continue to breathe
deeply in and out.

Now think of a place
that you'd love to be,

a place that brings you peace.

And image yourself
in that place.

And now you're joined
in that place by someone

you really love.

Allow them to sit with you.

Look at their face,
and in your mind,

tell them how you
feel about them.

Returning to the place
we're born and raised

can be an emotional experience.

It is for me, because of family
members who are now passed on.

I took my son
Skyler on pilgrimage

to pay final respects
to my mom and step

dad who died two years earlier.

My sisters arranged a
memorial service and burial

of their ashes in
the family plot,

a sweet good bye for
these two beautiful people

who played such an
important role in our lives.

And I'm watching the
people that I love leave,

and I am being left behind
by the people that I love.

And then I have
to say the hardest

symptoms there is to say.

I have to say
goodbye, I love you.

How can it possibly be
goodbye, I love you,

in one sentence together?

This is my mother,
I lost her 2004.

It's comforting to me that
I can come and talk to her,

be with her, bring her flowers,
and just practice the way,

culturally, we do in Mexico.

Clearly, the cross
cultural evidence

suggests that people
all over the world,

and throughout
history, have thought

that consciousness is more
than just our physical being.

Different religions,
different cultural groups

have created practices
to honor that transition.

Many times when you
see your friends that

do get hit, that are
sitting beside you--

I've had several pilots come
out from under me-- and the fear

hits afterward-- that's
when you feel it.

I was down twice, and you
wonder why you make it and maybe

the pilot didn't.

I joined the service in 1966,
and I trained as a medic.

And part of your training,
they teach you not

to care about your patients.

It's a job, and that's all they
want to do is to do your job.

But what happens is that when
you have people, especially

the men who are coming
in off the field

and have been mortally wounded
and not expected to live,

your own personal feelings
start coming in and they-- you

start caring.

And there isn't any other way.

It's-- for me, it
was just really,

I just had to stop and just--
right now I'm having to do

this.

Just really brings
a tear to your eyes.

We honor the memory of
those who gave their lives

in the service of our country.

And of those others who
have dropped their burdens

by the wayside of life.

When people use art at the end
of life, or people in grief,

as a way of processing
their emotions.

People have used art as a mode
of expressing emotions, grief.

Art is a mode of inquiry
into consciousness.

Now, the moment
of death is known

to have this experience
of life review.

But then when you are
going through these,

in the passage in
here, it says if you're

passing through all
your experiences

before you totally release.

When I first saw
footage of elephants

encountering the remains
of another elephant,

I was deeply moved.

You could see that they were
very interested, certainly

curious.

Where they grieving?

Each member of the herd
explored the remains

using their sense
of smell and touch,

as if looking for clues
about what happened,

or in remembrance of
events in the life

of their departed companion.

You know, grieving is an
important part of the process,

and it's necessary.

That's how we look at it with
the zoo-- an animal dies,

but there are still
other animals that

are counting on us, and we need
to continue to do our best take

care of those animals.

So if you have members of your
congregation that are in grief,

what do you do?

If I really want to quiet
and be present with my heart

and the grief in it,
I walk the labyrinth.

The labyrinth is a
pattern, actually.

It's usually about
a 40 foot circle,

and it has one path that starts
at the outer edge, and weaves

in a very circuitous way,
eventually into center.

And what it is is a
walking meditation where

you find your natural pace,
and that's pretty rare.

By walking, the mind
quiets much easier.

I know we are here to
celebrate David's live,

but I would not be
honest if I didn't

say that I'm grieving right
now, and my heart is broken.

I grieved over David
as a brother would.

Grief is something that
you must go through.

You must feel it, embody
it, experience it,

and it has a life cycle.

It, you know, it reaches a peak,
and then it rains, and then

slowly dissipates as an energy.

And when it dissipates, then
you revive the bond, the love,

that was always there.

OK, and then you have a
relationship with that person.

And that person doesn't have to
be perceptually right in front

of you, they're in
your consciousness

and you have access to
them anytime you want.

I think that everyone has their
own way of getting through it,

but once you have an awareness
that life is eternal,

you miss the person-- I
miss my mom, you miss them--

but you have a
different relationship,

because they're here.

You know, they're
around, and it just

becomes a different
relationship.

In the Christian
tradition, you know,

we've had many versions over
the century of death and dying,

but I think certainly
the major tenant

is that there's a life beyond,
after the body, or after death.

I do really truly
understand that there's

consciousness beyond
death, there's

consciousness beyond the body.

And I think that's
what we mean by soul.

The soul really can
awaken, we know that.

It's often asleep
for many people.

And as we become more conscious
of this part of ourselves,

we really, I think, want to
guard that, protect that,

grow that, be in love with it.

This is a good subject,
because it's universal.

Whether you're
Christian, or Buddhist,

or Muslim, or Atheist,
everybody meets in that point,

we call it death.

It says in the Surah that
Prophet, peace be upon him,

was teaching, he
said, "Blessed the one

who created death and life."

Usually, you think life and
death, we call this life,

and we call, that the
end, you know, this.

But in that teaching, he
calls this whole life, death,

and he calls the
after death, life.

Because this one has a limit.

You're born and
you have an ending.

The other one doesn't
have an ending.

I think one of the
great advantages of most

traditional religions
is that they make

people less afraid of death.

I mean, death's scary,
especially if it's painful.

But they make people
less afraid of death,

because this is the feeling
that death is a transition.

If you're a materialist
or an atheist,

and you believe that
death is the end

and the mind just goes blank,
you may be scared of that,

or scared of growing old.

I think that the main
purpose of religion

is to make people feel
that their lives are

part of something
bigger than themselves,

that they're connected
to something much larger

than themselves.

And that includes
something larger

than themselves in
relation to death.

If people choose
a spiritual path,

you know, whatever
path that is for them,

and only they know what's right
for them, and stick with it,

you get these direct experiences
of, on one level, I'm separate,

you're you, and I'm me, and
another, I'm part of something

larger that connects us all.

I think that the
universe is becoming

self conscious through
the human nervous system.

The [inaudible] that knows is
is an omnipresent, omniscient,

omnipotent being--
the cosmic mind.

And our mind is an
aspect of that mind.

As the great poet Rumi
says, "You're not just

a drop in the ocean, you're
the mighty ocean in the drop."

The Indian sages
had this allegory

of pots of water
put in the sunlight.

You take a million pots
and fill them with water,

and the sun is shining, the
sun is in each one of them,

but there's only one sentence.

So, you know, you
take a million people,

that all our conscious is
only one consciousness.

What I know for
sure about death,

it's just a passageway, a
doorway into ever unfolding

of who and what we really are.

And it's nothing
to be afraid of.

When the time comes,
it's a common denominator

that we all pass through.

Know that one day, we're
not going to have this body,

so while we're here, in a
human incarnation, we can ask,

how can I serve?

How can I love?

How can I cultivate the
gifts that are within me,

and express them?

Let me not leave without saying,
and being, and giving all

that I can say, and be,
and give, while I'm here.

I know unequivocally,
without any question,

there is no such thing as death.

No one ever dies, you just
shift from one frequency

into another frequency.

And more importantly, you go
back to where you originally

came from.

So scientifically, we don't
know if identity, self-awareness

can survive death.

That's more of a
spiritual belief

right now than a
scientific belief.

But I trust my intuition
more than anything,

and my intuition says yes,
this is probably the case.

Be aware that we are
part of a continuum.

We were here at the
time of the Big Bang.

I never died, from the time
of Big Bang, I was here.

And I will never die, I'll
be here for the eternity.

I only change form.

The moment you realize
that, then you not afraid.

The dead are not under
the earth, you know?

They're in the water, they're in
the woods, they're in the fire,

they're in the air, they're
in the breast of the woman,

they're in the child
that is crying.

The dead are not dead.

The key to the conquest of death
is to find out who you are.

As long as you confused with
your body and your mind,

you're bamboozled
by superstition, OK?

Because the body and the
mind are dying anyway,

all the time, OK?

I don't have the same thoughts
I had when I was a teenager.

I don't have the
same personality.

I don't have the same emotions.

If you're the string
of beads, there's

a thread that strings
together the string of beads.

So when you think of the beads
as the memories and the string

as what the memories
are strung on,

that's you-- the string on which
the memories are strung on.

And if you can go
to the deeper level

and be grounded there now,
you've conquered death.

Because you realize that
death is an illusion.

It's actually the movement
of space time events.

In coma, it's a
different universe.

I had no sense of
concern, no anxiety.

I just found myself exploring.

It was an area of
complete curiosity.

It was boundless.

Vista, after vista, after vista.

Every environment was
beautiful, one environment

leading seamlessly to the next.

The landscapes and
places I visited,

I knew them well, although I
had never been to them before.

The people I met, I felt
I'd known them for as long

as I could remember, although
I'd not met them before,

which is why I feel that we have
one consciousness that we all

share, in complete connection
with everything and everyone.

Very beautiful.

And whether we recover,
whether we wake up or not,

there's no cause for fear
when we change-- when we

move into some other existence.

On the day when death will
knock at your door, what will

you give to him?

Oh, I will set before my guest
the full vessel of my life.

I will never let him
go with empty hands.

All the sweet vintage of all my
autumn days and summer nights.

All the earnings and
gleanings of my busy life

will I place before Him
at the close of my days.

Now the day has dawned, and the
lamp that lit my dark corner

is out.

A summons has come, and
I'm ready for my journey.