Original subtitles

to say to all the young women? People haven't always been there for me, but

music always has.

Me not going in there. Nope. It hurts young brains. You can't do that. Your

brain is just as young as mine, Lila. Nope.

I am an extra woman.

What are you guys doing? You had one task.

Balloons. Come on.

more oh my god daughters come here tell

us how much you've missed us okay here we go what we

need around here is discipline

I want to see what I'm doing. Okay.

Oh. Oh, what's wrong? Oh, it's nothing. I leaned against the stove. I burned

myself. What? Where?

On my stomach.

Oh, let me see. No, no, no. It's really nothing. Hey, hey, hey. Let me see.

What the heck? What?

The stove did that? Yeah, I was making pancake.

I'll be right back.

It's been a long, long time.

Yeah. Have you forgotten how to do it? I may need a few lessons.

Put my hand here, I think. Do it a little lower.

Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Do that again.

Chris, I don't want to hurt you. I said do it again.

Oh.

Oh. I don't think that's a good idea.

Oh. Oh.

The girls will hear us.

Okay?

No, no, no. Hey, I still want to. I just.

We could just take it down a knot.

What are we... What is this?

Gags.

Why? Are we kidnapping people now?

Here, this is for you.

I bought them for us.

oh oh oh

It's called the MLTS, which stands for something.

It's a new neurological study at the University of Cornell.

Oh, the magnetic temporal parietal lobe simulator.

Yes, I guess.

It's the brain mapping that they're doing there. Oh, right, the God helmet.

Actually, that's trademarked, so we've been asked not to call it that.

What is it? Using magnetic fields to probe regions of the brain. The

Vatican's... Pontificia Academia Dei Licensia has asked us to investigate it.

Why? It induces spiritual visions in subjects.

Supposedly 10 % of the subjects convert to Christianity.

The Holy See wants an analysis to see if these results are legitimate and

warrant further examination or whether this should be dismissed as a hoax. What

kind of hoax? I don't know.

That's where you three come in. Just write up a report.

This one should be easy.

The low -intensity magnetic temporal parietal lobe stimulator. What are you

researching? Beta amyloid plaque and tau proteins in the brain. Oh, for

neurodegenerative disease.

You're with the Vatican?

No, I'm with them. So you're mapping the brain?

Yes. It's not a study of the neurological basis for religion.

That's just an artifact of stimulating the plenary gland and the parietal

cortex. How many people have had spiritual experiences while wearing it?

30%.

The Vatican people said you wanted to interview some of them?

We do.

I was walking down a road in the snow, and

I felt someone walking beside me.

So I looked toward it, but there was no one there.

And I felt... A hand on my shoulder. A man's hand.

And I heard a whisper.

You're going the wrong way. Turn around.

Toward? I don't know.

But I felt something I've never felt before.

Joy.

I hate using that word. It sounds so religious -y.

Is that a word?

I put it on, and immediately I was in this white sphere thing, and I was

floating past the planets and the sun, and one person was walking towards me.

He offered his hand, and he said he was Keith Moon.

The drummer.

Yeah.

I don't know why, but he was in heaven, and he said, I didn't run over my

chauffeur.

And that was it? Yeah.

And everything changed after that.

I didn't feel so depressed anymore.

It was beautiful.

No words to describe.

So what do you think?

I think they're a lot more persuasive than I thought they'd be.

And their vision stayed with them. They're still talking about joy and God.

are we here?

What do you mean? What does the church want from this?

My guess is they're studying the varieties of religious experiences.

Or are they trying to convert people using technology?

I doubt that.

Spirituality is more than just a triggering of a few synapses. These

changed. That woman, her vision changed her life.

No, getting treatment for depression saved her life.

So you're saying her vision had nothing to do with it? I'm saying her vision was

collateral.

The helmet stimulated her frontal lobe and alleviated her depression on a

physiological level.

Or the vision came first and the physiological effect second.

Doctor.

What else do we describe the miracle of coming out of depression except with

religious language?

Our vocabulary for the sublime is entirely informed by spirituality.

Father.

Okay, I'm ready.

For? The next session.

Who's up first?

The archdiocese said you wanted to be subjects.

Well, I'm ready.

Nice of the bishop to mention that to us. If you don't want to do it... No.

I do.

Ready. Ben, are you serious?

I want to see God.

Who wouldn't want to see God?

Let's do it.

So what is this, a Faraday cage?

It's my modification.

Shields out.

EMF emissions.

You sure you want to go through with this, Ben? Are you kidding me? A chance

see God and Keith Moon? Come on, how can I pass that up, right?

How's it fit?

Good. It's not supposed to be too heavy or you'll be too aware of it. Uh -huh.

Okay.

Here we go.

Count back from 40, please.

40.

39.

38.

37.

36.

35.

4.

And three.

How long does it take?

Just a few seconds.

Will you know winter if you have a vision?

Maybe. It's EEG.

It mimics REM sleep.

Something wrong?

I don't know. We may just have one electrode loose. Let me adjust.

Are you okay?

Yeah. Great.

Just having a nice sleep. So no visions of hell?

No. Not yet, but... But what?

Hmm.

But I'm in my head, and that's why I'm seeing you. You're seeing me now because

you've rejected everything I was for.

Are you kidding me, Mom? You wanted me to be a scientist.

No, I wanted you to understand science, but not reject Allah. I didn't reject

Allah. Allah rejected me.

I don't want to talk about this.

Why are you here?

Take my hand.

Why? What's this, son? Stop being so contrary. Take my hand.

In Vijaypur, where you were born.

Wow.

Oh, I haven't been here since I was six years old.

Looks poor.

When did you become so contentious?

You're right.

Let me hear your prayers.

See,

was that so hard?

Are you in heaven, Mom?

I think I'm supposed to see God here.

Yes, heaven.

But you can't see God.

Why not? Because you don't believe.

If I saw, I might believe.

No, you won't. I know you. You're stubborn.

I always said that. You made me stubborn.

Who's that?

One of the prostitutes from the neighborhood.

Oh, yeah.

They came out at ten.

Do you remember what I said to you? No.

Oh, yeah.

Her feet.

That's right.

Look down at her feet.

It's a ghost.

Mom, Mom, what is it, Mom? What is that?

I can't help you. Mom, Mom, what do you mean?

Mom!

Hey, give yourself a few seconds.

Are you okay?

What happened? What did you see? I couldn't get away.

You couldn't get away from what?

Sam.

Could be a vestigial reaction from being stuck in that basement.

I thought the helmet only provoked positive reactions.

The most significant sampling is.

As we've expanded our data collection, we're starting to see some participants

experience counter -positive reactions.

Like what?

Grief, sadness, darkness, meaninglessness.

So some see heaven, others see hell?

It's not a word that I would use.

We should talk

I'm

here Go ahead

You

recognize that I

hand

That you splashed with your holy water. That's right.

During your exorcism.

But it wasn't holy water.

It was ammonia.

Huh. Yeah.

Huh.

Ammonia like this.

Here, let me show you.

Put out your hand.

Sure.

How come I've never heard of you?

Because I'm a nun.

Do you know what's black and white and red all over?

A decapitated nun.

You're moved.

Well, now that we've established that your little holy water magic trick was

just ammonia...

And that God has no power on this earth. And that Jesus could never really

survive his fall from the parapet.

Perhaps we should discuss your future.

My future?

I don't think you have anything to offer there.

Oh, you might be surprised.

God gives you his reward in heaven.

But on this earth, your wrath is mine.

You know where to find me.

I'm a spiritual advisor.

How are you?

What are you doing here?

I've been having the most enlightening conversation.

I think the church is too hard on its nuns.

I think they're sexy.

Sister, are you all right?

Yes.

I saw Leland.

We were talking.

He talked quite a bit.

Did he hurt you? No.

But we have to talk.

Father, I need you to leave.

We need to work harder on your meditations.

Why? Our enemy has become more aggressive.

We need to prepare.

What are you talking about?

Mom loved you. She was disappointed in me, wasn't she? She was disappointed in

everyone who wasn't her. She always had unrealistic expectations for us. But

when I dropped out of college, she... Ben, what is this about?

Nothing. I just had a dream about it. You're always the one telling me to

my dreams.

Can I go to sleep now?

She was disappointed that I ignored Shahada, right?

Ben, let it go.

When she died, did she say anything? I'm not doing that. Good night.

Karima.

Last night.

Yeah, you dirty rat.

Can I say, Chris, you've changed.

In what way?

Come on, the masks, the gags, the burns. I mean, what is going on?

Don't you remember when we were climbing the things we used to say?

We're never going to turn into some boring suburban couple?

Yeah. So I haven't changed.

Change back.

Hey, could we get another cashier here? There's a line.

Hey, hey, hey, hey. It's Chris.

It's okay. No, Andy. This is who we were. We didn't give a fuck.

Yeah, sure.

But we can't go through life that way.

Sure we can. I can.

So I was putting the masks back in the closet, and I found a shoe.

Yeah. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm getting the... Buddy, line's back there.

I just got a couple of things.

No, you don't. You got more than enough.

Guys, can we just not sweat this? Okay, I'm here.

Slow your roll.

You want us to slow our roll?

Excuse me.

You get to the back of the line right now.

Or what?

Seriously, what? What are you going to do?

Uh -huh.

Show me your car. I'll show you mine.

Okay. You know what, Tiger? Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Hey, it's okay.

Karma will get it.

Yeah, that's right. Karma.

I think I forgot something anyway.

Next.

Oh, my God. It's over, bitch.

We won't need a bag.

Thank you. Andy?

It was just black.

With the helmet on me, that's all I saw.

I don't know if it was for an hour or for five minutes, but I didn't think it

was working on me.

And then I felt something.

What?

A mouse.

Like an animal.

It clamped down on my hand and I screamed out.

I thought maybe it was something on the chair that cut into me, but then it

started dragging me.

And I... Do you need a minute?

No.

It dropped me into a pool of tar and when I looked up I saw this massive

with wings about 10 stories tall and it was covered with

naked people stuck to it screaming.

There are no physical consequences.

Any psychological after effects?

These are the post -experiment evaluations. Feel free to go through

The subjects occasionally experience residual nightmares, but otherwise

fine. Even who we just interviewed?

Yes. So, do either of you want to go, or are you done? Yeah, I'll go.

Kristen, we just spoke to someone who saw hell.

Then it's a good thing I don't believe in it.

This is a simple conductive adhesive for the electrodes.

Okay.

Huh. Uh... Wait.

What's wrong?

For some reason, it's not registering you.

Because I don't have a soul?

Let me go first, Kristen.

Why? I thought you weren't going to do this at all.

I changed my mind. I'm fine, David. No, I want to.

Please.

47.

46. Maybe David shouldn't do this.

It's just a neurological experiment.

He'll be fine.

49.

38, 37.

Kristen Bouchard.

I take it you got my gift basket?

I told you to stay away.

But you didn't mean it.

You love attention from men.

Especially with all these months alone.

I told you to stay away or I would kill you.

You're coming to my house to threaten me?

No. The threat was already made.

I'm here to deliver on it.

Well, I'm sure the police will be thrilled to hear about this.

You're okay, David. Hold on.

You're okay, David.

What was that?

What was that?

What the hell? What happened? What did you see?

What did you see, David?

You.

Me?

Doing what?

Was that heaven or hell?

You took an axe.

You went to his house.

I mean, unlikely.

That's what I saw.

I gotta go.

Why?

I have an appointment.

He knew.

He saw me do it. This is your priest friend? Yeah.

So we're testing this brain mapping device, and he saw me go to LaRue's

and kill him. Well, he obviously sensed your guilt and intuited the rest.

No, the details were too specific. He knew about the ice axe, LaRue's house.

he knows you were a climber, so an ice axe makes sense, and he probably saw

LaRue's house on the news.

Kristen, I think you should consider going to him and telling him the truth

about LaRue.

What? Why?

Well, not for religious reasons, but for pragmatic ones. The placebo effect of

confessing, of coming clean to someone you consider an authority, moral

authority, will alleviate your psychosomatic symptoms.

Does that make sense?

I think it does.

I'll be right there.

I thought I tied that.

Oh, hey, Kristen, come on in.

You can help me with this. Kristen!

Are you all right?

What?

What happened? You were screaming.

I what?

When did I put this on?

When did you go?

Go where?

Your session with the helmet. When did you do it? I have it. We were thinking

tomorrow.

Didn't I start to put this on and then you said you wanted to go first?

No. Is that what you saw?

David putting the helmet on?

Yeah.

I saw him having a vision too.

What vision?

Nothing. I mean, I don't remember, but we talked afterwards, after the vision,

and then I had an emergency therapy session, and then I went to your room,

Leland was there. None of that happened?

No, you haven't left.

You've been here.

You okay?

Yeah, I gotta go.

I did this once before.

What do you mean?

We're testing a brain mapping device, and I saw myself sitting across from you

in an emergency session.

Really? Yeah. How'd that go? Well, I told you that my friend David saw me

hurting LaRue.

He saw you?

In my vision, in the session.

Yeah, that's your guilt coming out.

That's what you said in my vision, too.

Did I have any advice in your vision? Yes. You told me that I should go to

and confess to him for the placebo effect of alleviating my guilt.

Really? Yeah.

Well, that's not my advice, but I think it's interesting that that's what you

think my advice would be.

You might have to unpack that for me. I feel like I'm in a house of mirrors

here. You speak of... David quite often in our session. Yeah, well, we work

together, so?

Well, your husband's back from nearly two months away. You haven't mentioned

once.

Meaning?

Reflect on what you want your life to be in this moment.

If it's your husband, it's your husband.

If it's David, it's David.

Why is it a guy at all?

Okay, you're right.

Could be what they represent.

Your husband, the responsibilities of home. David, the freedom of work.

There's another option.

David's becoming a priest, so therefore it's unobtainable attraction.

True.

Or it's a challenge.

How so?

He doesn't become a priest, then he's not unobtainable.

This is nice.

Kristen asked me to stay. Hey, did I say anything?

It was in the huh. It was very expressive.

Okay,

how about you and I pretend we're complete strangers and we don't have any

history without any baggage.

Should we do that? Sure.

You start.

Okay.

Um, so listen, Kristen has changed.

In what way?

In every way.

She beat up someone for cutting in line to the supermarket.

Really? Cheryl, that's not a good thing.

She's more aggressive.

She's more dismissive. She's more angry.

Maybe she should be.

You know I go away because that is our business, right? And if our business

under, then we can't pay for the mortgage. You were only supposed to be

a few weeks. Right.

And then the world economy changed.

Right. Right?

Because climbing is a luxury item, and we had ten people drop out. I didn't go

away for my own pleasure. There are reasons for everything. But I am back

because Kristen is overwhelmed. She's working, she's being a mom, and you're

wondering why she's changed. Because she's had to adapt.

Okay, so this is my fault. Yeah.

You thought I'd say differently, right?

But I won't.

Yes, it's your fault.

That's not right.

Cheryl. Huh?

Are you okay?

Yeah.

I... This

is

a simple conductive adhesive for the electrodes.

You're sure about this? I think it's important for all of us to give a

assessment. You know, I've been getting a lot of requests from the Mormons to

try it.

I think it's a direct line to God.

Well, if it's good enough for the Mormons.

Okay.

Count back from... 50... 49... 48...

47... 46... 45...

44. So what do you think?

I'm an atheist. I saw my dead mother.

You're an agnostic. You saw David have a vision.

David is a believer.

What does he see?

I don't know.

28.

27.

26.

5.

Did you get anything?

Not a thing.

Okay, I'm coming in to detach you.

Well, that's appropriate.

We get visions, the visionary gets nothing.

I made a mistake.

We were investigating a technology that supposedly gives non -believers...

A glimpse of God.

It magnetically prods certain areas of the brain.

I tried it.

I wanted to see whether it could challenge my ideas of visions.

And?

I know nothing.

Not God.

Or hell.

Because your visions are not coming from regions of your brain.

They're coming from God.

can rewire the brain.

My guess is that you've lost everything you've gained.

Now start over and you better do it quickly because Mr.

Townsend is coming after us and we need your abilities to know how to protect

ourselves.

And David, don't use technology to rewire your brain again.

What are your findings?

After much deliberation, we do not recommend the technology for further

at the Vatican.

Why? Yeah, why? At the minimum, the device reduces spirituality to the

stimulation of synapses.

It can also rewire the brain's receptivity to the work of the Holy

Last, a significant percentage of the participants have seen visions of hell.

And is that a bad thing?

Excuse me? Fear of hell can lead people to God. Is their faith less legitimate?

But is that the kind of faith we want to promote? Who are we to judge what

brings someone into the fold?

It sounds like the helmet's ability to help people directly envision the

realities of our faith could be an asset for the church. But the harm can

undoubtedly outweigh any potential benefits. What's the evidence of this

Well... None.

There's no concrete evidence to support that claim.

Furthermore, the helmet offers the unique ability to help people suffering

neurological conditions such as depression.

Now, that's a miracle in itself, religious or not. And if people want to

attribute those qualities to God, then, hey, lucky you.

I saw my dead mom.

And my experience may not classify as harm in the empirical sense, but it felt

real, and I've been having trouble sleeping ever since. Yeah, but that's

your pre -existing night terrors. I mean, we can't condemn the technology

being pre -existing.

The question is a simple one. Should this technology be sent on to the

Accademia delle Scienze for further examination?

No. Absolutely.

Okay, this is helpful. Thank you.

Leave your research with me, and I'll make a decision.

Okay Here's my suggestion We sell the climbing business and I take a job at

REI You quit your job at the Catholic Church and we just focus more on home

We moved Cheryl out of the garage.

You take it back as an office.

You always wanted to write that book on criminal defense.

You've got a job offer from REI?

No. I mean, not yet.

But I know people who work there.

On the sales floor?

No.

In the corporate offices. I'm talking about a nine -to -five job.

This is something I should have done ten years ago. Why would I quit my job?

You have changed.

And I think it's directly connected to the burden of carrying this family and

this job.

There is something in it that is making you... different.

It's making me tougher.

It's making me more self -sufficient. You beat up a man at the supermarket.

We're wearing animal masks to have sex now.

Okay, this is what I suggest.

You try to get a job at REI, and when you do, fine, then we'll sell the

business. And then we can talk. But this job, my job, is not the problem.

It supplies our health care. It's our lifesaver.

It's mine.

Well, I didn't know what they were until Laura saw them.

Laura saw them?

She came into the room when I was looking.

And she said that they were maps to kill people. No, they're not. They're not.

It's... Then what are they?

It's just... It's from therapy. It's a way to deal with anger. When people piss

me off, I draw where they live. It's meaningless.

It's nothing.

Your children don't know that.

I need to talk to Laura. Not now. Not tomorrow.

She's okay.

She's fine.

I explained to her that parents don't mean things.

They pretend.