All language subtitles for The Story of God with Morgan Freeman s03e03 Visions of God.eng

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FREEMAN: The road to Damascus.

Somewhere along here Saul
was blinded by the light.

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

The man who spread
Christianity to the gentiles.

Now Prophet Muhammad,

Zoroaster,

even Joseph Smith,
they all had visions too.

Now I'm fascinated by
these moments of insight.

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

but also because these
visions inspire change.

They give birth to new
ways of understanding God.

Even starting entirely
new religions.

How do visions change
life here on Earth?

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

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

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

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

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

Learn how facing
down spirits...

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

FREEMAN: Can bring one
man back from the brink.

And discover how a
message from God...

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

FREEMAN: Can save more
than 10,000 lives.

[theme music plays].

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

The sanctuary of
Our Lady of Lourdes.

Many Catholics believe this
grotto is where, in 1858,

a poor 14 year old girl
named Bernadette Soubirous

had several divine visions.

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

Trust me, and this is?

FATHER XAVIER: So this is
the grotto Massabielle and

that's where it all
happened, in 1858.

FREEMAN: Right here?

FATHER XAVIER: Right here.

Bernadette was just coming to
get wood for the fireplace.

And suddenly she
sees the apparition.

She's scared.

She thinks that she's a ghost.

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

but she's afraid.

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

matched depictions
of the Virgin Mary.

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

and says, "I am the
immaculate conception."

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

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

and the parents say?

FATHER XAVIER: And
the parents say,

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

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

FATHER XAVIER: Because they
were the lowest in the town

and so they didn't want
to create scandal.

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

FATHER XAVIER: Because
the urge was so present.

She had in her heart that
call for coming back.

FREEMAN: Bernadette
disobeyed her parents.

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

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

FREEMAN: Not for herself.

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

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

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

She dug with her hands but
only found muddy water.

She drank it anyway.

Villagers gathered,
wondering if she'd gone mad.

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

because they cannot
hear the discussion.

They just see the reaction
of Saint Bernadette.

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

FATHER XAVIER: Exactly.

FREEMAN: But soon the
water started to run clear.

And the villagers had
a change of heart.

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

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

had an arm problem.

FREEMAN: Paralyzed, or...

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

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

That something very
unusual was happening.

FREEMAN: Were a lot
of people healed?

FATHER XAVIER: Many people
have been healed here.

FREEMAN: In the decades
after Bernadette's visions,

three sanctuaries were
built on top of the grotto.

Today, millions of people
make the pilgrimage here

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

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

by the healing
waters at Lourdes.

Her name is also Bernadette.

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

FREEMAN: So, Bernadette.

SISTER BERNADETTE: Bonjour.

FATHER XAVIER: She was
officially recognized as being cured.

FREEMAN: Why?
Cured of what?

FATHER XAVIER:
She had to wear...

FREEMAN: Brace?

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

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

so her doctor suggested she
make a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

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

apparently pushing
a wheelchair.

And you don't look much older.

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

FATHER XAVIER: And 2009.
FREEMAN: One year?

FATHER XAVIER: Yeah.

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

Sister Bernadette
believes it was a miracle.

The Catholic Church agreed.

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

So miracles are
not that prevalent?

They're rare in the Church.

FATHER XAVIER: We're not
looking for miracles.

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

Our Lady appeared here.

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

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

Catholics believe that what
happened here was a miracle,

and even if you don't believe,

you have to accept the
power of her vision.

It has created a place that
has transformed many lives,

like Sister Bernadette's,
and many thousands more.

But does the divine only
appear to the deeply devoted?

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

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

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

profound change in
his outlook on life.

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

[laughs].

FREEMAN: I wanna know
about your seizures.

How did they start?

IAIN: It started
really in January 2010.

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

when everything
turned sepia colored.

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

after two days of
epileptic seizures.

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

FREEMAN: A bone tumor?

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

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

FREEMAN: You had the
surgery, it was removed.

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

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

FREEMAN: Clever.

Breakfast meetings
with the universe.

IAIN: Yeah.

FREEMAN: Can you
explain it a little bit?

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

Sunlight came into my
room and woke me up,

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

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

A miracle.

FREEMAN: The fact that
there was sunlight?

IAIN: It was the,
the wall itself.

The presence of the wall.

FREEMAN: The wall.

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

the wall was alive.

Like it was conscious.

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

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

FREEMAN: Iain Ball had never
been a religious person.

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

series of visions that made
him question everything.

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

FREEMAN: About how often?

IAIN: Every day.
FREEMAN: Every day.

IAIN: Every, every morning.

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

fundamental truths about
the nature of reality.

One of which is
that all inanimate objects are conscious.

All beings are conscious,
including walls.

Tables and chairs.

Which seemed very
counterintuitive to me.

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

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

in one thing, by an
endless unconditional love.

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

which was really
powerful and uplifting.

FREEMAN: Are you religious?

IAIN: I was an agnostic.

I didn't know how
to understand it.

I don't know if it was God.

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

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

FREEMAN: Um-hmm.

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

so he joined the
Cambridge University study

conducted by Doctor
Joseph Tennant.

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

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

FREEMAN: Okay.

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

the left temporal lobe and so
this is pushing up against

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

but obviously when you do
that you leave a bit of

scarring on the
left temporal lobe.

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

producing spiritual
experiences.

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

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

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

We don't know when these
seizures are happening.

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

TENNANT: Uh, not quite yet.

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

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

Joan of Arc.

Saint Bernadette.

Do you think that
there is a possibility that they experienced

this sort of epilepsy?

TENNANT: It is possible.

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

Damascus was epilepsy,
but I mean, so what?

Because the thing that
occurred afterwards was

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

FREEMAN: Right.

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

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

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

FREEMAN: Alright.

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

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

that the universe is a
meaningless cold place.

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

was it a revelation?

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

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

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

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

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

FREEMAN: Yeah.

IAIN: That's
inspiration enough.

Just trying to live in
that spirit is enough.

FREEMAN: Very good.

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

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

scientific understanding,
without discounting subjective feelings of the divine.

As Carl Sagan once said,

"the notion that science
and spirituality are

mutually exclusive does
a disservice to both."

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

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

They can shape the
lives of thousands.

Sociologist Andreas Schneider
has come to rural Kenya

to meet a man who
changed the world.

Doctor Charles Mulli is
a prominent businessman and philanthropist,

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

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

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

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

MULLI: Yeah.

ANDREAS: I, I
cannot imagine that.

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

and I had no experience.

I had no education,
but I got a job.

I got some money,
I bought a vehicle

and later I was able
to buy another one.

Then I had a fleet of buses.

FREEMAN: His bus fleet
grew into a successful transportation conglomerate

and he became a wealthy man.

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

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

They wanted money.

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

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

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

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

from anger, to sympathy.

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

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

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

Until one day his guilt
became too much to bear.

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

I felt like the world
was falling apart.

There was no peace.

I was crying, you know.

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

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

ANDREAS: Four hours?

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

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

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

I went down to the
humblest level.

That was the real
turning point.

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

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

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

That brought on
a new beginning.

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

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

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

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

but this proved to be
another test of faith.

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

but it was useless without
one vital resource.

Water.

MULLI: We had a
severe drought.

We had no water anywhere.

We had three years in
that we never got water.

I was praying for three weeks.

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

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

I told my wife and we
walked all the way.

And then we stood
here, and God said,

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

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

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

We had to trust God.

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

MULLI: Never seen
something like that.

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

All the people from the
village, all the children,

from Mully Children's
Family were in jubilation.

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

operation that today almost
funds itself through farming.

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

and raised more
than 10,000 orphans.

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

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

than saving children's
lives in the world.

ANDREAS: That's
quite a privilege.

MULLI: Yeah.

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

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

How many of us would
have done that?

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

They bring miracles,
unconditional love and endless compassion.

Visions however, are rare,

but what if divine guidance
was available on demand?

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

the world's most
inspiring architecture.

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

but in a small town
50 miles outside Paris.

Chartres.

Since its completion in
the early 13th century,

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

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

I wanna know how.

So I'm meeting Doctor
Julio Bermudez.

BERMUDEZ: Welcome to Chartres.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

A professor of architecture
who studies sacred spaces.

BERMUDEZ: We're gonna
enter the sacred space.

FREEMAN: Alright.

BERMUDEZ: And I'd
like you to prepare.

FREEMAN: How do I do that?

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

and then once we get
in, close your eyes.

FREEMAN: Closed.

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

FREEMAN: Wow!

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

BERMUDEZ: No machines.
FREEMAN: No machines.

BERMUDEZ: Manpower.
FREEMAN: Every stone cut.

BERMUDEZ: An act of love
and commitment to God.

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

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

complete by 1220,
just 26 years after construction began.

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

It was the biggest
thing ever built.

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

biggest, most incredible
church in Europe.

FREEMAN: Pilgrims eight
centuries ago would likely

never have set foot
in a space this tall.

BERMUDEZ: First
thing about the whole thing is verticality.

FREEMAN: Uh-huh.

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

FREEMAN: To the ceiling.

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

that they were conducted
to God, to heaven.

FREEMAN: And when
pilgrims looked up, they would experience

another key element
of this sacred space.

Light.

BERMUDEZ: Light, perhaps
the most important thing.

It represented God.

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

stained glass windows,
with those beautiful icons.

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

When you encounter a place
that overwhelms your senses,

absorbs your attention
completely outward,

and demands so much brain
power, and that allows you

to enter in a state of unity.

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

when it walks into
a place like this?

BERMUDEZ: Yes, a mystical
state if you wish.

FREEMAN: Or a state of grace.

BERMUDEZ: Yeah, absolutely
state of grace, correct.

FREEMAN: See, I'm catching on.

But the people who
built Chartres Cathedral nearly 800 years ago

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

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

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

Maybe the most famous
labyrinth in the world.

Something that allows
you to enter in a contemplative state.

FREEMAN: Meditation.
BERMUDEZ: Yes.

Morgan, why don't you try it?

FREEMAN: I'm game.

Bizarre.

BERMUDEZ: You're
doing very well.

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

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

from the state of
truth, or the center,

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

FREEMAN: And, ta-dah!

BERMUDEZ: Morgan, you made it.

FREEMAN: There is
something to this,

but I feel something's
at work here,

so it's very interesting.

You accomplish something
and you have an experience.

BERMUDEZ: Yes.

FREEMAN: I had an experience.

BERMUDEZ: In the middle
of this incredible space.

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

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

There are generations of
history connected there.

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

It's more than that.

For me it creates a
sacred space, up here.

Stops logic,

it stops the persistent
drumbeat of modern life.

It transports you
outside of time.

I guess you can
call that divine.

High in the mountains of
Ethiopia, orthodox monks

take a different
path to the divine.

The Tigray region is famous
for its mountain churches.

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

Carved directly into
the mountain, the ancient houses of worship

often tower thousands
of feet above the ground.

The climb up to them, can
be extremely dangerous.

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

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

US based Ethiopian
journalist Bemnet Yemesgen,

has come here to try
and understand why.

He's meeting
Doctor Hagos Abrha,

a scholar of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

BEMNET: Doctor Hagos.

ABRA: Hi. Hi, hi.
Good morning.

How are you?

BEMNET: So tell
me where we are?

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

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

BEMNET: Why is it
so far up there?

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

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

and most of the
time the answer is

simply because they are
getting closer to God.

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

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

[speaking in native language].

He's a monk of this monastery.

So he goes up and down
this mountain every day?

[speaking in native language].

He says minimum once a day.

He prays frequently and
he mediates in the cave.

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

[speaking in native language].

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

And perhaps to experience
the presence of God.

BEMNET: Oh my goodness.

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

is not for the faint of heart,

but its remote
location has allowed it

to resist invaders and looters
for at least 1600 years.

BEMNET: Wow!
Oh my goodness.

Breathtaking.

Wow, this, this
space is beautiful.

What, what is the monk doing?

ABRA: He's praying
the Book of Psalms.

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

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

the monks who make the climb
find a mystical refuge.

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

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

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

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

monastery so far up and so
far removed from everything.

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

the peace and the
tranquility up here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've come to the Mississauga
First Nation community of

Scugog Lake, in
Ontario, Canada.

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

Here to welcome me,
is Eddie Robinson.

[speaking in native language].

EDDIE: Means...

FREEMAN: I see your light.

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

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

FREEMAN: Perfect.
EDDIE: Um-hmm.

FREEMAN: I wanna know
about a vision quest.

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

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

to re-engage with
our original family,

our first family,
and that's creation.

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

physiological
needs for creation.

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

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

Spirits and animals.

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

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

EDDIE: Yes, yes.

FREEMAN: Okay.
EDDIE: Yes.

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

EDDIE: A calling.

An unexplainable calling
inside that tugs at you.

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

It was after being in juvenile
detention and on the streets

that I was actually doing
community service hours

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

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

just called me, and
I just started crying.

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

FREEMAN: Eddie met
an Anishinaabe elder from Minnesota,

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

and seek the spiritual
guidance of a vision quest.

EDDIE: It was at
the end of October.

It was minus one.

[laughs].

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

and they put me in my
fasting spot and said,

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

FREEMAN: What, no shelter?

EDDIE: No.

FREEMAN: Come on.

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

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

I said, "okay."
And they left.

FREEMAN: Alone in
the freezing woods,

Eddie steeled
himself for his quest.

His life was about to take...

A new path.

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

was barely connected
with his nature and spiritual tradition,

but now he was on
a vision quest,

on a freezing night,
miles from help.

So you're on your
vision quest here?

At, during [inaudible].

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

probably about six
feet off the ground.

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

so we put your stuff up
there in your bundle

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

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

EDDIE: Yeah.

There was a spirit bear
that came and visited me.

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

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

He's coming for his tobacco.

And then he just disappeared.

He must have ran 60
kilometers an hour.

It was surreal to me.

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

EDDIE: Three.

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

I was crying.

Yelling.

Singing.

I was just coming apart
at the seams out there.

I was battling and proving
myself to those spirits.

FREEMAN: But you didn't die.

EDDIE: No.

It was tough.

It was hard.

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

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

'cause I didn't have
food or water.

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

And I could see him
as clear as day.

He was just there,
looking at me.

And then he was gone.

FREEMAN: And that
was your vision.

EDDIE: That was my vision.

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

or the old ones are
waiting for me.

They're waiting for
me to take that path.

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

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

EDDIE: Yeah, and...

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

EDDIE: Yeah.

That's where I
found my calling.

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

addiction and violence
in western culture.

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

So then you became sort
of a guru, teacher.

EDDIE: Yeah.

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

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

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

Keep giving it back, right.

FREEMAN: So now
that's your quest.

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

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

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

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

We consider creation
our first family.

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

FREEMAN: Like Saul, on
the road to Damascus,

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

In his case, it was
the great spirit,

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

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

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

spreading the transformative
power of the vision quest.

What happens when
someone sees, or feels,

what they believe is
the presence of God?

The simple answer
is perspective.

It's a moment of
understanding.

Shows a way forward.

Visions happen in the
mind of one person.

But when someone
like Saint Bernadette,

Charles Mulli or
Eddie Robinson

have the courage to
share their vision,

it can alter the
course of many lives.

Even...

Change the world.

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