All language subtitles for The UnXplained s05e07 Sacred Rituals.eng

Ancient practices

used to ward off evil spirits.

A community celebration,
in which the guests of honor

are all dead.

And an oppressive drought
that was ended

by the power of prayer.

Throughout human history,

diverse cultures
have all used sacred rituals

to express profound
spiritual beliefs.

And while some
ceremonial practices

may appear strange at times,

there are many
rituals that are thought

to unlock incredible powers.

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

connect us to a higher
plane of existence?

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

It is home to one of the world�s

largest religious structures,
the Grand Mosque.

In the center courtyard
of this immense edifice

stands a 43-foot-tall
granite cube

known as the Kaaba,
the House of God.

Five times a day, every day,

almost two billion
Muslims across the world

turn and pray towards this
striking black monument,

the holiest and most
sacred site in all of Islam.

Why?

Because embedded
in the eastern corner

of the shrine is perhaps
the most sacred stone

in all the world,

the Black Stone of Mecca.

For the world�s
1.8 billion Muslims,

this stone is crucial.

When Muslims face in
the direction of Mecca,

they face in the
direction of that stone.

This
object, as simple as it might be,

is of incredible significance
to the Muslim faith,

because it is said to
have fallen from heaven

at the commands of Allah

at the time of Adam and Eve.

And it was said to
have marked the position

of the first temple,

which obviously,
becomes Mecca itself.

Then the story is that stone

gets lost during the flood,

because Muslims have
the same flood story

that Jews do from
the Hebrew Bible.

Then that stone for Muslims
is rediscovered by Abraham.

So, Abraham, with
his son Ishmael,

build in Mecca the
first place of prayer.

That�s why Mecca is
important to Muslims,

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

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

In 605, the prophet
Muhammad himself

is the one that places
that stone in its place.

That�s part of
what gives it power.

Each year, millions
of Muslims make a pilgrimage

or hajj, to the Kaaba.

Once there, visitors take
part in a series of rituals

called Tawaf,

which includes circling
the Kaaba seven times

in the belief that it will
bring about true humility

by linking them with God.

The Black Stone

is, therefore, one
of the focal points

of the Hajj ceremony

that every Muslim
certainly tries to achieve

during their lifetime,
and they will then enter

the central court of
Mecca and, if possible,

try to kiss the Black Stone
in emulation of Muhammad,

who was said to have
set it up in this position

in the year 605 AD.

This is the most
mystical encounter

with any material object

that a loyal Muslim
can possibly have.

They�re in such
a hypnotic state,

such a transcendent state,

and they use the
corner of the building

to make sure it�s seven times,

to have the full effect
of the ritual activity.

With Muslims in Mecca, the
Black Stone has the power

to communicate with people.

I mean, literally
talk with people.

There�s two million
people nowadays

that make that pilgrimage.

You might get trampled,
and unfortunately,

there have been people who
have been trampled to death.

But that�s so important

that it connects you
back to the historic past.

The Black Stone is a
major material focus,

the most sacred object

in one of the world�s
most major religions,

and it also was
sacred to other people.

So, people who
are outside the Islamic tradition

may risk their lives
to travel to see this.

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

You have these
accounts of people

like Captain Richard
Francis Burton,

one of these famous explorers,

who disguises
himself as a Muslim.

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

to see the stone,
to handle this thing.

Richard Francis Burton
goes in, sees this,

is able to come back
out and writes about this.

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

because the connection
to the biblical prophets.

Certainly, the stories

that have been built
around it really pull people in.

And some people suggest
that maybe it�s something

in the stone itself,
that pulls people in.

The stone
itself pulling people in?

But how?

For the millions, if
not billions of Muslims

who have made their
pilgrimage to the Kaaba,

there�s no doubt
that the Black Stone

has an inexorable power

that seems to draw
them into its orbit.

And according to some experts,

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

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

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

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

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

When a meteorite hits
the Earth and somebody witnessed the fall

and-and they were
to go to that location,

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

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

there might be a lot of heat
associated with the meteorite

as it falls, and
that could cause

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

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

some interesting new features

that you probably
wouldn�t have seen

in that particular part
of the-the world before.

Meteorites arrive
from outer space

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

To people not exposed to
electromagnetic radiation,

they might have been
able to even feel that buzz

from this rock,
from the radiation.

Beta particles especially.

You know, whether you
believe it was sent by God

or whether you believe
it was a random act,

it has literally
extraterrestrial origins.

And so, that creates
a real power there.

Could the Black Stone
of Mecca really have the power

to physically affect
people who come near it?

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

Because no one has
ever been officially allowed

to inspect or analyze it.

So, there are a lot of exciting
and interesting questions

about the Black Stone.

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

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

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

And is there some sort of
radiation energy that it emits

or is coming from it that
we just don�t understand yet?

So it would be really amazing
to have the opportunity

to analyze the Black Stone.

There are obviously challenges,

both sort of social
as well as scientific.

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

it�s a very sacred stone.

So bringing in scientists
and doing careful analyses

have those social challenges,
and would be difficult.

Even if you don�t believe,

as a Muslim, that
this comes from God,

and has this
religious significance,

you understand the
power of this object

that, for at least 1,400 years,

Muslims have been circling
as they do their prayers.

There�s a tremendous
power there.

We want to touch that.

It�s profound to see the
massive crowds of people

walking around a
mysterious stone

that they believe connects
them to a higher power.

And for people of all faiths,

making contact with
the spiritual world

is often achieved by
using the simplest of rituals:

the practice of prayer.

Here, in what
is known as the Holy Land,

the average temperature is
almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit,

and water is a
precious commodity.

But this is no average year.

It�s been almost five years

since more than
a few drops of rain

fell upon Israel�s
thirsty sands,

and the people are
beginning to panic.

The spring
season in the Middle East

is the time for
the rains to come.

As such, if the
rains are not there,

you don�t have your agriculture,

which is a life and
death type of experience.

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

rain makes the crops grow.

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

So, when we have a drought,

this creates crisis.

Israel is one of the wealthiest

and most technologically
advanced countries in the world.

It is also one of
the most religious.

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

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

what is their solution?

Prayer.

In our Judaic tradition,

we have had a
long-standing history

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

can call the entire
nation to prayer,

and you can have a
gathering in Jerusalem

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

that will come together and
pour out their collective energy,

calling upon God in
heaven to literally manipulate

the forces of nature
and bring rain.

In 2018,
Israel was in a major drought.

And this was really
beginning to cause problems.

At this point,
Chief Rabbi David Lau

organized a massive ritual,

put out a call for
believers to come

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

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

praying for rain to come.

When the individual
Torah-observant Jewish man

wraps himself in
his tallit prayer shawl

and puts on the
boxes of the tefillin,

he creates for himself a
psychic bubble of energy

which unites the
individual mind and heart

with the collective
power of the word of God,

literally materialized
before him in the form

of the fringes of
the prayer shawl,

and literally in the
form of the scrolls

that are upon his
arm next to his heart

and on his head
close to his mind.

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

has the ability to
affect our world.

But can the act of praying

actually connect us
to a higher power?

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

The interesting thing
is, if you have two things,

you have a boundary
between them.

And prayer and prayer
rituals might be a way

of influencing that boundary
between the physical

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

then interacts again
with the physical world.

To those more
secular and cynical-minded,

praying is a rather quaint
if not irrelevant pastime.

There�s no reason
it should work, right?

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

many believe it did.

You can say
that it�s just simply correlation.

Yes, you prayed and
yes, three days later,

there was rain, but the one
thing didn�t cause the other.

I mean, that�s the
scientific approach.

The religious approach is
a little bit different to say,

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

Maybe God listened
to these prayers."

In Judaism, there are rituals

that augment the
power of the individual.

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

Creating, if you
will, a psychic field,

which combines to give
great psychic spiritual energy

for the fulfillment of that
which the individuals seek.

But when we come
together as a collective,

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

They prayed for rain, and
the prayers were answered.

Were the prayers of
Israel answered by God?

Or was the rainfall
simply a coincidence?

It would seem the
answer is a matter of faith.

But not all sacred rituals

involve the fate of
millions of people.

Some are thought
to have an effect

on the life of a single person,

such as the ancient
healing practice of voodoo.

32-year-old author Julia Buckley

is writing in her office
when she experiences a pain

unlike any she
has ever felt before.

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

um, reached out
for a cup of coffee,

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

as if someone had
laid out fireworks

all the way from my
fingers up to my armpit,

and across to my neck.

I was really pretty
disabled by the pain,

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

I couldn�t do anything
with this right arm at all.

I saw three general doctors,
I saw eight specialists.

I was doing everything
that I was told to do.

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

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

With her
life virtually in shambles,

Julia was willing
to try anything.

Turning away from
conventional medicine,

she began to
investigate alternatives,

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

Voodoo healing.

And I was reading a
book about voodoo.

And reading it, I hadn�t
seen anything like it

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

I just got this impression
that the voodoo priests

were probably the people
who had the most kind of grasp

of the mind-body relationship.

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

it�s gonna be someone in Haiti.

Still
fighting debilitating pain,

Julia Buckley flew to Haiti,

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

a voodoo practitioner.

I�d actually
read interviews and knew

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

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

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

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

and then we started
talking about voodoo

and its capacity for healing.

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

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

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

And I was like, "Absolutely."

No one taught me how to do this.

I didn�t go to
school to do this.

But I have a c-certain capacity

for something of this sort.

My mom was a voodoo priestess,

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

I like to call my thing
"puritan voodoo,"

because I�m a mix.

After learning
about her symptoms,

Morse led her into a dark room,

one meant to summon spirits

and extract whatever
was harming her.

There were candles
and bottles all around the room.

There were strips of cloth,

different-colored cloths,
that now I know represent

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

There were these
terra-cotta pots

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

And there were
these little bottles

of what I found out
afterwards were holy water

brought from shrines all
over the rest of the world.

He went around
me a couple of times.

Then he stopped at
the back of my neck

and started feeling from
the bottom of my skull

down to my neck.

Kind of pressing on it,
almost like what a chiropractor

might do before they
really start going for it.

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

and I didn�t want him to hurt
me and I didn�t want my neck

to be cracked or
anything like that.

I was terrified.

He told me that he had found

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

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

he was literally picking up

and detaching this black cat.

He said he didn�t
know how I�d got it,

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

but he said it was nasty and...

that he�d got rid of it.

It was only when
I got to the airport,

decided I needed a cup of coffee

and jumped up the
stairs to the coffee bar

carrying my little
carry-on suitcase.

I was standing with the coffee,

and I kind of looked
down and thought,

"Hang on, I can�t
normally do that."

And I checked in with
my body and I realized,

"Actually, nowhere
is hurting right now.

This is really strange."

It was the first time
in nearly three years

that I hadn�t been in pain.

As far as Julia
Buckley was concerned,

voodoo had worked

after everything
else had failed.

But how?

Voodoo is a
fabulously interesting tradition.

We see it in the Caribbean,

primarily, perhaps, in Haiti,

although certainly
in other places

around the Caribbean as well.

It�s a part of a much
larger assemblage

of religions with a
shared sort of worldview.

This traces back to West Africa,

and to several, groups

and several different
religions there.

The West African
religious tradition,

was brought over
via the slave trade

to the Caribbean, to the
Southern United States,

where it flourished and
took on different forms

and blended somewhat
easily with the Catholic faith.

You can call it God
or you can call it,

how you... how you want...

Perhaps one of the reasons

voodoo�s followers believe
in its incredible power

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

but also to harm.

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

that people may
have cast a spell

or done some kind of ritual

that causes the
death of other person.

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

no causal relationship here.

But if we dig a little deeper,

there have been
cases of voodoo deaths

where someone has said
something or done something

that literally affects
another person.

Most
scientists, doctors or researchers

would just call it an anomaly.

A physical or
psychological anomaly

that we can�t quite explain

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

I think there�s a lot of value

in things being unexplained.

Something like voodoo,

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

I don�t know what happened
in that room, and I was there.

Can voodoo healing
practices involving candles,

pieces of cloth and holy water

cure ailments that modern
medicine can�t even diagnose?

It�s an intriguing idea.

And the truth is that,
throughout history,

many seemingly ordinary objects

have been used
in mystical rituals.

For instance, there�s a stone

that plays an important role

in the coronation of
England�s kings and queens.

Here on Saint Andrew�s Day,

Scotland�s official
national holiday,

a long-awaited ceremony
is finally taking place.

The occasion will
finally see the return,

after more than 700 years,

of one of Scotland�s
most important artifacts...

A roughly two-by-one-foot
sandstone block

weighing 335 pounds

called the Stone of Scone.

Or as it�s known
according to legend,

the Stone of Destiny.

The
stone itself is just a stone,

somewhat unremarkable-looking.

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

reflecting so many wars

and-and contests between
nations for hundreds of years.

And another fascinating
aspect of this is that we know

that this stone was
religiously important.

The Stone of Scone has
really interesting religious roots.

And this goes back
to the biblical tradition.

The patriarch Jacob
in the Book of Genesis

has this dream at this
place called Beit El,

literally "the house of God."

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

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

takes this stone to Ireland.

The stone then finds
its way to Scotland.

In 840 AD, a
nobleman named Kenneth MacAlpin

brought the sandstone slab
to the medieval town of Scone.

According to Scottish
legend, it was the stone itself

that proclaimed him "Kenneth I,"

the original king of Scotland.

According to the stories,

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

the stone would speak
out and proclaim them

as the rightful
ruler of the land.

It�s used in Scottish
rituals as a way of coronation.

It�s this stone
that is really key,

and the idea here
is that the monarch

isn�t just selected
by the people...

God has chosen the monarch.

For centuries, the
Stone of Destiny was considered

not only one of the greatest
treasures in all of Scotland

but also a legitimate means

by which someone
could rule the country.

Which is why, in 1296,

the English monarch
Edward I wanted it

and the Scottish
throne for himself.

In the 13th century,
the English come in

and conquer.

We always talk about conquerors
taking out valuable objects,

and we think of gold,
diamonds, jewels.

We don�t think about stones.

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

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

The reason
Edward I took the stone

was to demoralize the Scots.

This was the
treasure of Scotland.

This was the center
of their power system.

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

and then could declare
that he was not only the king

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

It was placed
in Westminster Abbey

beneath a coronation chair
known as Edward�s Seat.

And thereafter

it was used in the
coronations of all English rulers.

Edward
basically builds it into a chair.

Covers it over with-with wood

and it becomes a
throne, essentially.

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

the Stone of Destiny.

Destiny...

The idea that the
course of one�s entire life

has been predetermined by a
power beyond our understanding.

Back in the Middle Ages,

it might make sense
that people would think

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

But what is it about this
unremarkable slab of rock

that still holds such
importance today?

We tend to think
of these rituals

as somehow going back to
older, superstitious people,

but the fact that the
British in the 21st century

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

that becomes really important.

These are not
ancient, archaic people

who don�t know
anything about the world.

These are modern,
21st century Brits

who are still saying, you know,

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

comes from this divine,

God has chosen this person.

Nearly every British
king or queen since the 14th century

has been coronated
on the Stone of Destiny.

It was last used in 1953,

during the coronation
ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II.

But... as a growing
number of Scottish people

have begun to speculate...

Was Elizabeth�s
coronation legitimate?

Because... as many
have come to believe...

The Stone of Destiny

may not be the real thing.

A Christmas Day
sensation at Westminster Abbey.

The Stone of Destiny,

which had been there
for some 600 years,

was stolen from the
Coronation Chair.

In 1950,

a group of Scottish students

actually got into
Westminster Abbey

and stole the Stone of Scone

and took it back to the altar

of Arbroath Abbey in Scotland

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

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

However, there is a strong rumor

that the original stone
never reached Westminster

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

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

A fake Stone of Destiny?

It�s an interesting claim

but one that is not
without its problems.

Because when the English
returned the Stone of Destiny

to the Scots,

they did so on one condition.

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

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

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

The point is
that we believe in its power.

We believe in its potency.

The heritage,

the traditions,

the history of the
stone gives it energy.

And that�s what�s
important here.

If people believe strongly
enough in an object,

that can create a reality.

King Charles III is the latest
English monarch to participate

in the coronation ceremony
using the Stone of Destiny.

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

for over 700 years.

But half a world away,

the Malagasy people show
reverence to their ancestors

in an entirely different ritual,

one that involves

digging up the dead.

On this large
island in the Indian Ocean

some 250 miles off the
eastern coast of Africa,

the indigenous Malagasy
people gather every few years

for a multigenerational
celebration known as Famadihana.

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

Because the Malagasy
don�t just invite

their living relatives
to this reunion...

They also invite

the dead ones.

Famadihana, or
"the turning of the bones,"

is a ritual that is performed

usually once every
five to seven years

in which a... the
family or the relatives

of a deceased person will
get together from all over

and celebrate the
life of the deceased.

They exhume the body,
they carefully lay it out,

they clean it and then
change the death shrouds

on the basis of this
idea that the living

can intervene on
behalf of the dead

to improve their lots

or their level of
comfort in the afterlife.

One part of the
celebration also involves

basically shouldering
the bones of the deceased,

and the turning of the
bones will take place,

sometimes dancing with them.

Usually the ceremony concludes

when they re-entomb the
remains of the deceased.

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

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

until the next time
they see them,

which is periodically
every five to seven years.

And this is a way to really...

reinforce the connection
between the living and the dead.

People will come to honor

the lost ancestors, to be sure,

but also to work on
coming to terms with death

that hovers around our lives.

Some cultures deal with it
more directly than others.

And the value of this tradition

is that it�s a different
way of thinking

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

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

It reminds us the dead
aren�t entirely gone.

There are many belief
systems that suggest

the soul is attached
to the body,

particularly the bones,

and that, as long
as bones exist,

some trace presence of soul,

the soul of the person
that lived in that body,

will still remain
with the bones.

Could it be true that our souls

really remain in our
bones after we die?

While that idea may
sound far-fetched,

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

In fact, it�s often
thought that our souls

lie within the most recognizable
part of the human body,

the skull.

Each year, on November 8,

the indigenous Aymara people
gather for an ancient custom...

A colorful procession

known as D�a de las �atitas,

or the Festival of Skulls.

The Aymara indigenous
people of Bolivia and Peru

keep skulls, in
shrines in the home.

They keep �em in places
of honor in the household

and make regular
offerings to them.

The skulls are thought to
bring harmony to the family.

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

And they also ask
them for advice.

They ask them for
support or for help.

And once a year,

they will take out the skull

and parade them
in this festival.

You�ll get
20,000, 30,000 people down in the cemetery.

It�s really quite a spectacle,

�cause you�ll get
people bringing

five or more skulls
down in big boxes

and they dress them up.

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

They�ll put sunglasses on �em.

And there are certain
offerings that are pretty typical...

Cigarettes,

alcohol,

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

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

to make sure the
dead will continue

to assist the living.

These skulls are perceived

as a kind of portal

between the realm of
the living and the dead,

a site where the spirit of
the deceased can manifest.

And it�s through these
skulls that the living

can communicate with the dead,

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

there and then, in those skulls.

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

that you feel like these
individuals are being venerated.

We�re a species that
communicates with our face.

So it shouldn�t surprise us
that we really fixate on the skull

as being a way to
honor and communicate

with those ancestors.

Can ceremonies involving
the bones of the deceased...

actually bring
us into contact

with the spirits of
our loved ones?

And if so, is it possible
that sacred rituals

can actually preserve the soul

for eternity?

Perhaps the answer can
be found by examining

a fascinating and
strange practice

known as the art of
self-mummification.

Just outside
the Tsuruoka city limits

sits Churen-ji Temple.

Surrounded by 200-year-old
cherry blossom trees,

Churen-ji is similar to
many other rural temples

throughout the region,

with one notable exception.

The monk who presides here

has been seated
in meditative prayer

for almost 200 years.

Among the mummified monks

of Yamagata, Japan,

Sunada Tetsu is
perhaps the most famous.

And his body is currently
located at Churen Temple

in northern Yamagata Prefecture.

Sunada Tetsu is an 18th
century Buddhist monk

who wasn�t a
religious person at all.

He didn�t plan on
entering religion.

However, he ended
up killing two samurai.

And at the time,
19th century Japan,

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

you�re gonna be killed.

But local temples were
exempt from that law.

So he joined Churen Temple

and, over time,
became a believer

and one of the most
holy people in Japan,

traveling throughout the
Japanese countryside,

repairing bridges,

doing anything he
could to help people.

Sunada Tetsu was so
dedicated to serving the Japanese people

that the one-time outlaw
earned a reputation

as a miracle worker.

But as old age
began approaching,

Sunada Tetsu realized
that there was only one way

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

The ancient art of
self-mummification,

known as sokushinbutsu.

In this particular
tradition of, Buddhism

that we find in Japan,

there�s this practice
of sokushinbutsu,

which is basically a
mummification practice

the practitioner undertakes
when they�re still alive.

People who engaged in the
process of self-mummification,

they wanted to preserve the
flesh because they thought

there was a divine
merit that could be of use

of people who are still alive.

In order for a monk�s soul

to shed his body in
the proper manner,

the practitioners
of sokushinbutsu

were required to undergo
a very specific process,

a process which...

As one can imagine...

Isn�t exactly pleasant.

The process
of self-mummification

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

and, in place,

start ingesting things that
are preservative in nature.

And in the case of the
self-mummified monks,

they were pine bark, pine resin

and urushi tea.

Urushi tea, which comes
from the lacquer tree,

is considered to
be extremely toxic

but also lacquers the
body from inside out

and it removes moisture at
the same time from the organs

and presents some kind
of embalming faculties.

When the monks have completed
their pre-mummification diet,

they would be placed into
a box made of pinewood

and buried underground
with a little bell.

Once the bell stopped ringing,

the other monks
would know that...

the self-mummifying practitioner

had, deceased inside the box.

According
to historical accounts,

Sunada Tetsu spent 3,000 days...

Which is more than eight years...

Starving himself in
preparation for his living burial.

After his body was
eventually unearthed,

it showed no decay whatsoever,

signifying that his
spirit was indeed pure.

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

he was not the first to
attempt the extreme ritual

of sokushinbutsu,

nor the last.

The founder of Esoteric
Buddhism in Japan

was believed to have,
studied in China

and, learnt about
this practice there

and subsequently
brought it to Japan,

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

would have picked
it up and applied it.

But the
self-mummification practice

was outlawed in the 19th century

because it was
rarely successful.

They actually
wanted to cause their own death

so they could be in
meditative posture

so they could direct their soul

where they wanted
it to go afterwards

and they�d be lucidly
aware of the change

between life and death.

That�s why they�re
considered living Buddha.

These mummies were still alive

because they are in between
the realm of life and death

and perhaps they can
influence the two of �em.

Could the slow process of
turning yourself into a mummy

actually be the secret
to living forever?

Well, if nothing else, these
actions reinforce the belief

that human beings
can be transformed

through the power
of sacred rituals.

And while the
practice of rituals

may be an intentional act
that connects us to each other

and to a higher power,

the mystery of how they work
remains...

unexplained.

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