All language subtitles for In Search Of s01e08 Life After Death.eng

[Zachary Quinto]
Death--

one of the only certainties

of our human experience.

Throughout history
fears about the great unknown

of the afterlife
have terrified mankind.

From ancient cave drawings

about being reunited
with the gods,

to Medieval manuscripts

depicting the dark reaches
of hell,

the question of mortality
and what happens after death

is something
that haunts us all.

But is there any way
to truly understand

what happens when we die?

And what can we learn
from the Texas man

who actually touched death

and lived to tell about it?

I was on a kayaking trip
with a good buddy of mine

and got sucked into a pipe
underneath the bridge.

I was under water
for four or five minutes

till I lost consciousness.

I went to this place--

I felt connected to
many, many billions of souls.

I would say yeah, I was dead.

[Quinto]
If accounts like are true,

then what really happens
when we die?

Will we live on in some
other place or dimension?

And is it possible
to find evidence

of life after death?

My search begins now.

My Name is Zachary Quinto.

As an actor,
I've played many supernatural characters

that blurred the line
between science and fiction.

I'm drawn to the unknown,
the otherworldly,

and those experiences
so beyond belief,

they call everything
into question.

I'm exploring some of
the most enduring mysteries

that continue to haunt mankind
in search of the truth...

wherever it leads me.

Death is the inescapable end
we all meet.

For centuries,
mankind's quest to understand this phenomenon

has led us to wonder and fear

the potential for an afterlife

that lies
just beyond our world,

from the ancient Egyptians
Book of the Dead,

thought to contain
a guide to the afterlife,

to the Greeks, who believed
that the fate of the dead

was a shadowy half life
in Hades.

Our worldwide fascination
with life after death

has been depicted in movies
likeThe Sixth Sense

andWhat Dreams May Come,

as well as TV shows
likeThe Walking Dead.

In more recent times,

technological breakthroughs

have given way
to the possibility

of escaping death

with advancements
in anti-aging drugs

and even cryogenics,

leaving many to wonder

if one day we may actually
be able to bring ourselves

back to life.

So where do we go when we die,

what will we experience,

and is it possible

to come back from the dead?

Today I'm meeting
with Pat Johnson...

How are you?Nice to meet you.

...a Texas business owner
who cheated death

during a horrifying
kayaking incident in 2010.

So tell me a little bit
about your story.

[Johnson]
Well, it was September 10th, 2010.

I was on a kayaking trip.

Were you with somebody?

Yeah, I was with
my friend Bobby.

That particular day the river
was up a couple of feet.

because we'd had a flood
a few days earlier.

As we were coming up
on the bridge,

I hit one of the blocks...

and the current turned
my kayak sideways

and I slid out of the kayak.

I was just jerked
under the water.

I knew I was getting
sucked into a hole.

I would reach up and feel these
bumps on the tops of my hands

and I recognized immediately

that I was in
a corrugated pipe.

Since the water was so high,

there was no air gap.

What kind of things were going
through your head?

Just thinking
about how to survive.

That's it.
There's no tomorrow.

Physically you also must be
incredibly strained.

Right?Yes.

I'd been under water
for a long time.

I don't know how much longer
I can hold my breath.

So I pushed myself forward.
I made it about two feet.

And at that point,

it just felt like
a bubble came over me.

I mean, I was just enveloped

in this almost
like an egg shell.

And just as soon
as I felt that,

just immediately it was like
turning off a light switch,

I lost consciousness.

I felt like I was
in this hallway,

like 75 yards long.

At the end of this hallway
there was this blue stained glass,

and there was this hole
in the glass

and there was this bright,
bright white light

coming through the hole.

I wanted to get to the light.
I was drawn to the light.

As I got closer to the light,

there were people walking
back and forth

in front of the light

I wanted to see who they were,

but all I could see
was the silhouettes.

I was almost close enough
to tell who the people were.

The next thing I know...

I'd regained consciousness.

I was pushed down in the pipe.

And my friend Bobby

was able to catch up to my body

and resuscitate me.Wow.

I told him,
I said, "Man, Bobby,

you're gonna think this is
weird--

I know you're gonna think
this is weird,

but I'm really glad this
happened to me."

I knew in that moment
that my life would never be the same.

Did you feel,
when you were in that place,

like this is what death is?

It's hard to say

You know, it's different.

It's different over there.

It's unexplainable.Right.

But I'm-- definitely confirmed

my belief in the afterlife.Uh-huh.

[Quinto]
He transcended something.

I mean, he's been
through something

that 99% of the rest of the
planet will never understand

until the movement
when they come back anymore.

Whether or not
there's something

beyond that light
at the end of the tunnel, I don't know,

but I'm interested to see
what we find out.

Pat is certainly not
the first person

to have such a vivid
and terrifying brush with the afterlife.

The earliest known description
of a near-death experience

was recounted by Plato
in his Myth of Er,

which was written
circa 400 B.C.

And each year
over 200,000 Americans

report similar
near-death visions

of bright lights, tunnels,

and a powerful feeling

of being transported
to another world.

But if these transcendent
visions are true,

then what really happens

when we die?

Will we live on in this place

that Pat and so many
have described,

and could there be a way
for us to get answers

to these questions directly

from the other side?

To find out,

I'm meeting with a man

who claims
to have tangible proof

of direct communication
with the deceased,

including his own daughter--

renowned paranormal expert
and inventor Gary Galka.

Going back 13, 14 years ago,

I actually lost my daughter.
She was 17 years old.

What was her name?

Melissa.
Melissa.

Before his teenage daughter's
tragic death

from a car accident in 2004,

Gary was an engineer with no
interest in the spirit world.

The day we came back
from the hospital,

we smelled her scent,
her perfume.

We no sooner got into the house,

and the doorbell
started ringing.

From there it evolved
to the TV changing channels.

There was one evening,

my wife and I were going to bed.

We heard music
just swirling within our room.

We're walking incrementally,
just following the sound

and went down the hallway,

and then the stereo came on.

Nothing like this
had happened before

your daughter passed?Not at all, ever. Ever.

If you don't have experiences,

and then all of a sudden,
suddenly,

these weird things
start happening,

Now, you're given a choice.
Do you ignore it or do you become a believer?

[Quinto]
Melissa's death

and the bizarre incidents
that followed

inspired Gary to invent a line

of paranormal
investigation equipment in her honor,

including the Mel Meter,
a dual sensor

that tracks both temperature
and electromagnetic fields

to detect signs
of paranormal activity.

He felt compelled
to create these products

because he couldn't ignore
the signs

that Melissa was reaching
out from the great beyond.

I wanna believe
in this stuff so much,

and when I meet people
like Gary,

who do believe,

I feel closer to it,

but I am much more interested
in proof.

How did you start to really
identify these energies as her?

I actually have evidence

that shows her entering
into my consciousness

while I'm dreaming,

and you can see
the actual energy ball

going into my forehead.

You're gonna see it
with your eyes.

[Quinto]
After her death in 2004,

Gary set up
a home video experiment

to prove that his
daughter was communicating with him

from beyond the grave.

And did you feel something
in that room?Oh, absolutely.

Am I about to see evidence

that life after death
is possible?

Is this an infrared camera?

[Galka]
This is just a security camera.

I felt something in the room.

So what I did
was I asked her to come

and give me a kiss
on the forehead.

And here's what happens.

[Quinto]
Whoa.

Did you see that?Yes.

That was the most remarkable
feeling ever.

Wow.

What you're about to see

you've never seen before.

So basically I'm going to go in,
and I'm gonna call angels.

I'm gonna talk to Melissa,

I'm gonna go into
my meditative state.

You see the room is normal,
right? Mm-hmm.

There's nothing there.

So what I'm doing is,
I'm connecting with her.

Watch.

See that?Yeah.

Now watch what happens.

That's all energy, Zach.

[Quinto]
I mean, it looks like it's snowing.

It looks like it's snowing.

It's basically a portal.

That's so crazy.

Is that something?

The videos were completely
inexplicable.

Those are all souls.
Those are all individual souls.

And I've never seen
anything like that before.

I was unsure

how he was able to capture

that energy on just
a regular home security camera.

However, this isn't
Gary's only proof

of spectral encounters
with his daughter.

He used his professional
talent as an engineer

to create a device
that he claims allows him

to actually speak with her.

This device right here--
this is a digital record

that deals with electronic
voice phenomena.

And EVPs are basically sounds

that can't really be
distinguished with our senses.

[Quinto]
His EVP device purports to capture

sound waves that are inaudible
to the human ear

and after processing,

converts them to files
that we can hear.

I've been able to capture
some pretty remarkable things.

[Quinto]
Though many people have challenged the validity

of these ghost recorders,

I'm anxious to see for myself

what new proof Gary can offer.

Is there an example
that you can let me hear

of something that you've
captured from your daughter?Yeah. Sure.

I want you to listen
very carefully.

[Quinto]
Coming up, I attempt to make contact with the oth[woman's voice mutters][Gary] Hello.

[woman's voice mutters]

[distorted voice]
That's great."That's great."

[rewinding]
That's great.

Okay, that's her voice.

...That's great.

Okay, now, what-- what--
This part right here, Zach.

Uh-huh.I want you to try real hard to
hear that.

You tell me what she's saying.

[replays recording]

"Tell them that's great."

"Tell Mommy...""Tell Mommy..."

"Tell Mommy that's great."

Let me hear it again.

Tell Mommy that's great.

"Tell Mommy it's great."Yeah. Wow.

So the news
that I was sharing with her--

I had that running and, um,
she was just giving me her opinion on it.

She thought it was great news,
and she says, "Tell Mommy that's great."

It was that simple.

I mean, yeah,
that's kind of...

So I have communication
with my daughter.

Isn't that amazing?That is amazing.

That certainly sounded
like she was saying, "Tell Mommy that's great."

And-- And-- And so
I want to believe it,

but I'm still left with
a healthy skepticism,

and I think that's just
who I am.

Gary has agreed to put his
EVP technology to the test

with an experiment
to communicate

with spirits rumored to be
in this very hotel.

The Omni Parker House

is considered
by paranormal experts

to be one of the most haunted
hotels in America.

Built in 1855

hundreds of workers and guests

have reported ghostly sights,
sounds, and smells

that hearken back to the people who have walked these halls.

You're gonna hold it
till it initializes.Mm-hm.

And then you're not gonna move
your fingers, your hands at all...

Just hold it....because it has dual
microphones.

Okay. Okay.Very sensitive.

[Quinto]
I wanna know if Gary's technology

could actually give us
a direct line of communication

to the deceased
in this strange location.

And if so, what secrets
could they reveal about the afterlife?

You ask some questions,

and we'll see what kind of
results we get.

Okay.You up for that?

I absolutely am.
Let's do it.

I'm a little skeptical,

but we're about to put
Gary's device to the test

so I can see for myself.

Light's blinking.
You're good.

Okay.
Good to go.

I'm going to be asking
the spirits questions

and hope the EVP device
records a response.

What is my name?

What day is it?

When did you die?

Do you live in the hotel?

We won't know the results
for a few weeks

while Gary processes
the recordings

through his EVP software.

[Galka] I'll review these
in more detail.Yeah. That would be great.

If you find anything,

I would certainly love
to hear that.

Beyond making contacted
with the dead,

I'm interested to learn
what it's actually like to die

and if there's anything
in that experience

that can teach us more
about the possibility

of life after death.

Could the visions
experienced by Pat Johnson...

There were people walking back
and forth in front of the light.

All I could see
was a silhouette.

[Quinto]
...and so many others throughout history

tell us more about what lies
beyond the great void?

I'm meeting with one
of the world's leading experts

on death and dying,

Dr. Jeffrey Long.

An oncologist by trade,

Dr. Long has interviewed
over 4,000 people

who have had
near-death experiences,

and he's compiled the most
comprehensive report

on the subject in the U.S.

[Dr. Long]
They're unconscious.

They're at the brink of death,
literally.

Suddenly there's an unearthly,
often described as mystical, light,

not like any light that we know
on this earth.

It is amazing, the common
threads that occur

no matter where on the earth

or whatever age you are

or what your prior beliefs are.

The two most common words used for people

that have near-death experiences

are peace and love.

It seems to make no difference

whether you're, say,
a Muslim in Egypt

or a Hindu in India

or a Christian
in the United States.

Wherever you are on the planet,

By the scores, people have
shared a profound sense

of an all-encompassing love,
connection, peace

far beyond what they knew
on earth.

Wow. So then my question is,

from your vantage point,

what is happening after death?

That is a great question, Zach.

My take, based on that huge
amount of research

and that investigation now
coming up on close to 20 years,

I believe that we are much more
than our physical body.

We have that consciousness.

Some people
have called it a soul...

that can exist separately
from our physical body

when we die.

That's based in real near-death experience observations.

That's medically inexplicable.

Uh-huh. You know, this journey
for me has been

particularly interesting.

I've experienced death
from a young age.

I lost a parent
when I was really young,

and so I feel like death has
always had a place in my life

that I wished it hadn't
on some deep level,

but I have an appreciation
for it as well.

[Dr. Long] What we don't know about death, dying and what lies beyond

far exceeds what we do know.

All of us are on
a journey of discovery

No two are the same.

It's a wonderful experience
that awaits us all.

[Quinto]
Dr. Long comes from a medical background.

He comes from a world that is
designed to look for proof,

to look for data,

and yet he's saying

that we could cross over
into some realm beyond.

It just makes me wonder.

If death is as wonderful
as Dr. Long describes,

why are so many of us
afraid of it?

There are people that say,
"I'm not done yet."

Yeah.They want to somehow avoid
death.

I can certainly understand
the desire

of some people to really hang on
to that earthly life.

They value it, they love it,

and maybe they can extend it

beyond the boundaries

of what we're aware of today

as being
scientifically possible.

[Quinto]
But is there a viable option

for people who aren't ready
to cross over,

those who want
a second chance at life?

This is a container that has
actual h [Quinto] Death-- All of us will

but no one can say for sure

what, if anything,

lies beyond.

Despite the harrowing
near-death tails

of people like Pat Johnson...

There was this bright, bright
white light.

...and so many others like him
throughout history,

we still have yet to find
definitive proof

about what happens when we die.

However, recent advances
in the controversial field of cryonics

may ultimately give us
the power

to control
that destiny ourselves.

Cryonics is the freezing
of human corpses

at extremely low temperatures

with the promise of being able
to revive or reanimate them

at a later date.

The idea of
cryopreserving humans

sprang from the pages of
science fiction in the 1960s

with rumors about Walt Dy

and even Hitler's brain
being cryogenically frozen.

In the 21st century,
Michael Jackson made headlines

when he declared his interest
in being frozen.

And the late baseball legend
Ted Williams

actually went through
with the procedure

upon his death in 2002.

How does this work?

Is it possible we could freeze
ourselves after death

and one day have new life?

To get some answers,
I'm going to Arizona

to visit the Alcor Life
Extension Foundation.

Alcor is one of the leaders
in cryonics,

with 156 clients who have been
cryogenically preserved,

and over a thousand members

who have signed up
for the procedure upon their deaths.

Welcome to Alcor's
Patient Care Bay.

So nice to meet you.
Thank you for having me.

Max More is one of the world's
leading experts

in the field of cryonics.

You have been a pioneer
of this technology for 30 years.

Yeah. But, actually,
I started thinking about life extension

when I was about 16 or 17.

Even then,
it occurred to me that aging and death is a problem,

and is a problem
we should try and fix.

What's the cost
for something like this?

For a whole-body patient,
is a minimum of $200,000.

For brain only, $80,000.

So it's a state of hibernation?
Not dead but not alive?

Right.How does it work?

Yeah, it's hard for people to
get their heads around it,

because they're not dead
if by "dead,"

you mean irretrievably gone
forever.

There is the potential that we
can revive them in the future.

So they're just kind of in
between, a twilight state, if you like.

But capturing someone

during that in-between state

is a complex process.

To do this successfully,

the body is prepared
for the freeze

as soon as the patient dies.

As soon as the doctor give us
the go, the legal death,

we begin the process by moving
the patient into the ice bath.

We have to give medications to
protect the patient's cells,

and so we need circulation

to distribute those drugs
around the body,

so we use this device.

It has the side effect
that even though the person's been declared dead,

they could still come to some
level of awareness.

The next stop
is the surgery room,

where doctors perform a very delicate and potentially dangerous procedure

that transforms the client's
internal organs

into a glass-like state.

We're gonna connect the
patient's vascular system

to a pump to remove as much
blood as we can,

and we're gonna gradually pump
in a cryoprotectant,

a medical-grade antifreeze,
if you like.

So, what we do then, really,
we're not freezing people.

We're actually vitrifying.

From the Latin, meaning glass.

But then we have to slow down
a bit

because if you keep going down
very fast,

they'll actually fracture
into different pieces.

[Quinto] As delicate as
the process is to prepare the patient's body...

the brain tissue is the most
important thing to preserve.

The brain is where
the personality and memories are stored.

Because of this, many clients
choose only to preserve their brain.

Their hope is that
in the future,

it can be implanted
into a new body,

and the two will be
revived together.

Is it just the brain,
or it's the whole head?

[More]
The brain's what we're interested in.

But it's actually quite hard
to extract it from the skull,

so we leave it
in the skull as a kind of protective mechanism.

For those clients who choose
to just preserve their brains,

the next part of the process

involves removing
the patient's head

from their body.

We place the head upside down
in the ring here.

We'll do a separation
a couple of vertebrae down.

The brain is then dehydrated
until it shrinks to half its normal size.

What's the blue around it?

That's empty space from
the contraction of the brain.

The brain is actually shrunk--

Mm-hmm....inside the skull.

It really is shocking to me.

You're desanguinated,

you have medical-grade
antifreeze in you.

I mean, you may be just a head.

Like, I-- It's just like,
"Uhh"...

The whole thing is really
difficult for me to wrap my mind around.

Once the body or just the head
and brain is fully prepared,

it is ready to go
into the tanks.

Each ten-foot-high steel tank

contains four whole-body
patients in protective pods.

In the very center column,

there is a chamber that holds
up to five severed heads.

So is there a way for us to see
what these tanks look like on the inside?

We can actually take a look down
in the top and give you an idea.

I'll be bringing my
technical genius, Steve Graber.

Great.

So, minus 320 degrees
Fahrenheit in there.

[Graber] That's right.
You do not want to fall in.

You want to take a look?
Here you go. Thank you.

I'm about to get
a close-up view of the chamber

that holds decapitated and
cryogenically preserved heads

waiting to be reanimated.

[Quinto]
This is a container that has actual human heads in it.

So crazy.

So this is a container
that would house human heads,

the brain-only patients.That's right.

And how many heads would fit
in this column?

Um, you can fit up to five,

but normally we'll just do four.

This one is empty at the moment.

Are there actual bodies
in here, though?

There are.There are.

So there are full-body patients
in here.

That's right.

And then this is waiting
for the next donors to come and...

That's right.You're building it out.

That's amazing.

I don't think I would ever
cryogenically preserve myself.

I definitely feel like
when I'm done, I'm done.

You know, all these 156 people
and the 1,150 people who are waiting to come here

are people that say,
like, "I'm not giving up.

I believe that there will be
life again in the future."

People that undertake this path
for themselves obviously loved life, right?

Yes, our members do tend to be
a bit more adventurous and optimistic.

They're willing to say,
"The future could be very different,

it could be very weird, but
that's better than being dead."

[Quinto]
While cryonics may rest on a hope of reanimation,

it is only one small part

of mankind's perpetual quest
to defy death

and escape the afterlife
altogether.

Throughout history, explorers
have gone to extraordinary lengths,

risking life and limb,

in search
of the Fountain of Youth.

Ancient voyagers
like Ponce de León

ventured into distant,
unknown territories,

chasing the promise
of immortality.

And today science may be far closer to the fountain of youth

than we realize.

At Harvard Medical School,

Dr. David Sinclair
and his team

are developing
a groundbreaking pill

that could stop
and even reverse aging.

Tell me a little bit
about what you're doing here.

You're doing research into
actually anti-aging, right?

Yes. It's actually much harder
to cure cancer

than to cure aging...Huh.

...it turns out.Right.

And we're now making
little pills

that you could take
after the age of 45, 50,

that would prevent you
from getting many of the diseases of old age.

[Quinto]
Dr. Sinclair and his team

believe they have isolated
the cells that control how we age,

and they are conducting
a variety of experiments

in an effort to extend life
as long as possible,

and perhaps one day forever.

Currently they're trying
to modify these cells in mice

with the eventual goal
of controlling the aging process altogether.

[Dr. Sinclair]
All right, come this way.

And the results of their most recent experiment

might surprise you.

So these mice are all siblings
from the same litter.

They're the same age.

[Quinto]
When this litter of mice were young,

scientists
introduced a hormone into the test mouse's diet.

This turned on a crucial gene

that instructs the mouse's
cells to age.

So you take a young mouse,
and then you age it rapidly?

About twice as fast as normal.

What we're looking at there
is cellular amnesia.

The cells in that mouse
are forgetting what type of cells they are.

You'll see they have wrinkled
skin, they have arthritis, cataracts.

[man] It's gray.
It's losing hair.[Quinto] Right.

It's got a little bit
of curvature of the spine.

It's lost weight.

Internally,
their organs look old.

And even down to the cellular
level, they look old.

Whereas these guys
are the same age.

They're genetically identical

except for the one gene
that we've modified to cut the DNA.

And these guys are nice and
healthy and shiny and plump.

[Quinto] Wow.
That's amazing.

I mean, it's so obvious.
This one is younger-looking and shinier.

Yeah, this was one of those
Hail Mary experiments

that actually
worked once in a career.Wow.

It's easy to forget that they're
brother and sister, isn't it?

So now the question is,
can you teach those cells in that animal,

and in our bodies,
to be young again?

We believe you can.

And that would truly be
the fountain of youth.

We wouldn't get diseases
of old age.Wow.

He's talking about people
living to be 125, 135 years old,

and still feeling capable of
engaging in physical activity

the way someone in their
40s or 50s might be able to.

That just changes the game
altogether for humanity.

Does death then become
less of a specter?

That world is coming.

If you look at what the world
looks like a century from now,

there may be a time when living for hundreds of years is normal,

where you can expect to meet
your distant descendants...

Right.and teach them everything

that went on last century
and the previous century.

It is hard to wrap your mind
around it.

I think it's dangerous to think
that just because we live to 130 years old

that that life is gonna be
any easier.

I don't know.

But certainly, it seems
like we're gonna find out one way or another.

As promising as these
advancements seem, some experts warn

that we may be risking
more than we realize

when we try to extend life
on earth

and avoid what comes next.

We might wonder whether we
should try to live longer

even if we can.

If we can live forever,

there's a worry that
a lot of human projects

might lose their meaning--

things like the pyramid.

The pyramid was built

because people wanted
to continue to live longer.

Or Mozart's Requiem was written
because there was death.

Right? And so,
a lot of human achievements

might not exist if death
wasn't inevitable.

[Quinto]
For now,

death remains one of the most
terrifying mysteries and motivators

of our human existence.

And while we can't live to be
130 years old just yet,

could a part of our physical
bodies provide life

even when we die?

I'm about to find out.

I'm on a journey to understand
what happens after we die,

but right now I wanna know

if we pass on to an afterlife,

what happens
to our physical body?

Throughout history
many cultures

have sought strange ways

to preserve the human body
after death.

From the ancient Egyptians,
who invented mummification

to prepare their bodies
for the next life...

to the Soviets, whose uses of
advanced embalming techniques

has allowed the remains

of their former dictator
Vladimir Lenin

to lie on display since 1924.

But today modern technology
not only allows us to preserve the physical body

but also to utilize it
in unprecedented and often controversial ways

To find out how our bodies

may be able to provide
life even after our death,

I'm visiting
a state-of-the-art facility

in Phoenix, Arizona

that specializes
in repurposing human bodies.

John Cover is the chief
operation officer

of Research for Life,

a body donor organization.

So tell me just a little bit
about what you do here.

[Cover]
Primarily we're a tissue bank.

So what we'll do is, we'll
intake the donors here,

and then we'll hold the
different tissues

until they're needed
by researchers.

For instance, if a neurosurgeon
wants to practice removing an incurable brain tumor,

they're not gonna want
the entire body.

So we're gonna go ahead and
remove the tissues needed for each specialty.

There's your life after death.

The life of these dead bodies
continues.

It goes on and gets spread out
all over the world.

And that's pretty incredible.

While many view body donation
as a noble final act by the deceased,

some others still have grave
concerns about abuse and profiteering.

And in some cultures
body donation is forbidden entirely.

In other countries,
it is absolutely a no-no.Right.

For instance,
in Muslim communities,

where you have to bury
the body before sunset,

within 24 hours.Right. Uh-huh.

Some cultures, um, it's a matter
of shame.Mm-hmm.

With so much controversy
surrounding this field,

I want to find out
if body donation

is truly a helpful way

to provide life to others,

or a morbid practice.

So this is the way
to our laboratory.

Uh-huh.

Come on in.

So that is our removal service,
one of them.

They will pick up the donors
at the place of death

and bring them to our facility.

We were just standing there
talking, and a body rolled through,

and that's when it kind of got
real, in the sense of like,

oh, like, death waits
for no one.

So, generally, how long after
a person passes does the body arrive here?

Usually hours.

We try to get to our donors
within hours, if we can,

to make the best use
of the donor.Right.

So we'll gown up.Okay.

That way, you're protected when
we go into this environment.

Yeah.

For corpses like this,

the next stop
is the operating table

where they're divided
into segments and sorted.

These are part of bodies that
have already been processed.

[Cover] Correct.

And ultimately taken
to the donor cooler,

which is where John
is taking me.

So in terms of protecting
ourselves, is it just a matter of the biohazard

of being around dead tissue?

Any time you're around human
tissue,

you always assume that
it'll transmit infection.

There's no such thing
as safe human tissue.

So that goes like this?Correct.

This is our donor cooler.
Let me know when you're ready to go.

[Quinto] Ready.

So this is where the donors
first come in.

They will enter in here,

and then we will store them
until such a time as we can get them assessed

and verify
that they are suitable

for medical research
and education.

This particular room can hold
about 30 donors.

All donors are put
into body bags

to make sure that they don't
contaminate another donor,

in case we do find that they
have an infectious disease.

Being in that cooler with dozens of recently deceased bodies around me

was definitely the weirdest.

It was like going to a morgue.

That experience got progressively more intense,

like nothing
I've ever seen before.

[Cover]
This is a working surgical suite.

But I want to know how exactly
are these bodies being used

for medical research?

[Quinto] What's this?

[Cover] These are eyes--Wow.

...that we have recovered
for anatomical study.

Yeah, they look creepy.

And this is a human brain

that is made available
to a neurological institute.

They're going to practice
surgical approaches.

So these guys are looking
for new, innovative techniques

for incurable brain tumors,

strokes, uh, hemorrhages.

This donor is gonna help
future donors that way.

Research for life was really a powerful experience.

There are hundreds if not
thousands of people

benefitting from the work
that's being done,

and I think that's a pretty
noble thing

for the person who decides
to donate their body to science.

And has this given you any
deeper insight into what happens when we die?

Yes, as a Christian,
I believe in an afterlife,

but I also believe
that I have an obligation.

The death precedes what I do.

What I do is
I try to give life,

a renewed life, a renewed sense
of purpose for that donor and their family.

Right.

Why there are real ways

for our physical bodies
to have a purpose

even after we pass on...

I still wonder
if perhaps there is life

on the other side.

I'm ready to face
this question head on

and find out the results
of my experiment

in the Boston hotel
with Gary Galka...

[Galka]
You ask some questions.

What day is it?
When did you die?

And we'll see what kind of
results we get.

Okay.

...and whether it can
deliver proof

about what happens when we die.

Hey, Gary, how are you? Hey, Zach.

So I understand that you have
some discoveries

from our time together
at the Omni Hotel.

Yeah, I do. I wanted you
to listen to those yourself.

I'm gonna listen
to them and see what I can hear.

[Quinto on recording]
When did you die?

[electronic whoosh]

Let me hear it again.

When did you die?

What day is it?

[distorted speech]

What day is it?

It was Wednesday that we were
there, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it was Wednesday.So crazy.

Wow.

I heard things that certainly
sounded otherworldly.

That was weird
and kind of unexpected.

The clearest thing I heard was
the answer to "What day is it?"

That's considered a classic EVP.

A majority of the people
would agree

that that would be the answer.Yeah.

Gary really went a long way

to helping me understand
how this is possible.

But I didn't find it conclusive.

There's nothing
completely definitive here

that makes me say like,
"That is a spirit."

I don't know what that is.

I would certainly be curious
to find out more about it.

At least it opened up your mind

to other opportunities

and other thought processes

that you're not accustomed to.

You agree to that right?Yeah.

I don't wanna dismiss
what Gary is telling me

in terms of his relationship
with his daughter,

but that is his experience
of it.

I still think that there are
a lot of unanswered questions,

and it's quite possible
that I won't know

until that moment when
I leave this world myself.

Death remains
the ultimate destination

on our long journey
through life

and one of the only certainties that we all must face.

As we marvel at the mysteries

of the great unknown

that await us beyond the grave,

stories of bright lights,
spirits,

and the potential
for an afterlife

continue to inspire
and haunt our imaginations.

I, for one,

remain hopeful
that a part of us

has the real potential
to live on,

whether on this planet

or in some distant,
unimaginable place.

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