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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries that
keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.
Others just defy logic.

[♪]

NARRATOR: Is there
life after death?

In Connecticut, a man visits
a Civil War battlefield

where he is suddenly
overcome with emotion.

JEFFREY KEENE: To this day
I don't understand what

exactly happened.

NARRATOR: Is he the
reincarnation

of a dead general?

In Haiti, eighteen
years after his death,

a man returns from the grave.

WADE DAVIS: This
individual had clearly

been pronounced
dead by the doctors.

NARRATOR: Do zombies
really exist?

And in a remarkable
experiment, scientists in

England conduct a series
of groundbreaking séances.

Is it our first genuine
proof of the afterlife?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER: Death.
Not exactly pretty,

especially when you
consider that one day

all of us could end
up looking like this.

But should we simply
accept this as our fate

or is there something
else that awaits us?

Since the dawn of time,
humans have been obsessed

with the idea that there's
something more than -

this.

Well, is there?

Do our lives go
on, even if we die?

Can we return and
communicate with our

loved ones here on earth?

Is there life after life
and, perhaps the most

important question of
all, can we prove it?

Well just maybe we can.

[♪]

NARRATOR: Jeffrey Keene
is a retired firefighter.

In 1990, he decided to
visit the site of the

famous battle of Antietam,
one of the bloodiest

encounters of the Civil
War...

and a place where thousands
died in just one day.

JEFFREY KEENE: I was
traveling down through

Pennsylvania with my
wife, antique hunting,

and I asked my wife if it
was okay if we took a little

side trip over to Antietam
to see the battlefield.

NARRATOR: But what begins
as a fun day out will soon

turn into a nightmare.

JEFFREY KEENE: My wife
wasn't very much into

history so she remained in
the car and I walked over to

where the battle had taken
place at the Sunken Road,

gone about fifty feet
when it became very

hard to breathe.

I started crying, I was
very angry, I was very sad.

If you take the saddest
you've ever been and magnify

that by about a thousand
times, that gets close.

I was exhausted.

I couldn't tell exactly
what was going on.

I thought I was maybe
having a heart attack but

I didn't have any pain.

NARRATOR: Overcome by a
wave of violent emotions,

Jeffrey then has a powerful
urge to visit the gift shop.

JEFFREY KEENE: I felt
compelled to go there.

I threw a magazine
on the counter.

I said I want this and it
was a Civil War quarterly

magazine on Antietam.

To this day I don't understand
what exactly happened.

NARRATOR: For the next
eighteen months, Jeffrey's

life returns to normal -
until one night when he

attends a Halloween party.

JEFFREY KEENE: It was
a really nice party.

They had spent a lot of
money on the decorations.

They had hired
a, a palm reader.

And I sat down in front of
this woman and she took my

hands and I told her the story
of what happened at Antietam.

NARRATOR: As Jeff tells
his story, the palm reader

suddenly becomes uneasy.

JEFFREY KEENE: And she's
sitting there shaking her

head and she dropped
my hands a few times.

NARRATOR: And then she
drops a bombshell.

She believes Jeffrey was at
Antietam in a previous life.

JEFFREY KEENE: She said
you died there but you

hung around for
a long time.

I said just let me
ask you one question.

Are you sure he was dead?

She said he was
full of holes.

That's one thing I'll,
I'll never forget.

NARRATOR: The bizarre
encounter will lead

Jeffrey on a journey in
search of the truth.

JEFFREY KEENE: The next
day I took my wife to work

and I remembered the
magazine that I had to have.

I had it for a year and a
half and hadn't read it.

I opened it up to the
section on Antietam, where

I'd had the experience and
my eyes skimmed down the

page and I see a, a
photograph of a general.

NARRATOR: As Jeffrey
stares at the photo he is

stunned by what he sees.

JEFFREY KEENE: I look over
and this picture says

General John B. Gordon

and when I see the
face uh I tell people

I know the face very well.

I shave it every morning.

And unless you're
unfeeling, unthinking,

completely drained
of any type of emotion,

it's gonna have a bit of
an effect on you, even if

it's just awe and wonder.

NARRATOR: Remarkably,
Jeffrey is a double for

General John B. Gordon.

But as he reads on,
things get even weirder.

JEFFREY KEENE: I read
in the story he'd been

wounded five times that
day, was shot through the

face and I figured he had
probably been killed there.

NARRATOR:
John B. Gordon was

a general of the
Sixth Alabama Regiment -

a hero who was shot in the
bloody battle of Antietam.

Could there be a link
between Jeffrey and a

general who had died nearly
two hundred years before him?

Suddenly, Jeffrey makes
another startling connection.

JEFFREY KEENE: It was on
my thirtieth birthday.

At twelve midnight I got such
a horrendous pain in my jaw.

It radiated down
into my neck.

I know what it feels like
to be shot through the face.

That's how bad it hurt.

NARRATOR: Was Jeffrey's
mysterious pain somehow

related to General
Gordon's injuries?

JEFFREY KEENE: Gordon was
thirty years old when he

was shot through
the face, same age.

NARRATOR: Could all these
remarkable similarities be

explained by coincidence?

Jeffrey believes there
is only one answer.

JEFFREY KEENE: I don't
need any more proof that

there's reincarnation
because of all the things

that happened to me.

We never die. We're continuous.

We always have been,
we always will be.

That's how Gordon
found me, at Antietam.

WILLIAM SHATNER: What
an extraordinary story.

Did a Civil War general
who died over a century

ago reincarnate, jump into
Jeffrey Keene's body and

continue his life
through Jeffrey's eyes?

Are we all in a continuous
cycle of birth and rebirth,

simply interchanging
bodies as we go?

And if so, this raises
yet another question -

do we get to choose?

I mean who was I before
I was who I am now?

And who will I be
next? Could I be you?

Now that is definitely
weird - or what?

NARRATOR: Dr.
Cynthia Meyersburg is

a Harvard psychologist.

She believes reincarnation
is simply a function of

how we deal with memories.

CYNTHIA MEYERSBURG: Something
odd happens and people

go looking, as we all do, to
make sense of their lives.

If you have a rich
imaginative ability it

becomes very difficult
to distinguish between

something that's a record
of perception and a record

of imagination.

Did I dream that
or did it happen?

Did I hear about that or did
I actually experience that?

It can be very difficult.

NARRATOR: Cynthia believes
that one way we do this is

by creating
false memories.

CYNTHIA MEYERSBURG:
False memories are

what they sound like.

They're recollections for
either events that didn't

take place or didn't take
place in the way in which

they're remembered.

NARRATOR: Are people like
Jeffrey just making

their stories up?

If so, why?

CYNTHIA MEYERSBURG:
Memory, although it feels

a lot of times like we're
watching a film in our

mind's eye, that's not
what's really happening.

We're always
reconstructing it from

little pieces that we have
saved in a sense and we

put it back together.

And our brain fills in
for us the missing parts.

NARRATOR: Researchers have
been able to study

this phenomenon.

CYNTHIA MEYERSBURG: It's
possible to induce false

memories, in a
matter of moments.

For instance, if someone
sees a doctored photograph

showing him or her as a
child in a hot air balloon

people can very quickly
form memories for it.

NARRATOR: Can Jeffrey
Keene's claim of

reincarnation be dismissed
as a series of false memories?

Does it explain
what struck him down?

CYNTHIA MEYERSBURG: People
come to believe they have

past lives because
something weird happens,

something that's outside
of the norm in some way

for them, that they need
an explanation for.

NARRATOR: Is reincarnation
real or simply a product

of our minds?

Do we all have past,
present and future lives?

STUART HAMEROFF: We know
so little about the nature

of reality that I think
it would be very, very

foolish to say that
this cannot happen.

NARRATOR: An emotional
collapse at a Civil War

battleground leads a man
to believe he is the

reincarnation of
a dead general.

Is it possible we
all have past lives?

Tariq Sattaur is a
facilitator at the

Ontario Hypnosis Centre.

He not only believes
reincarnation is real, he can

demonstrate it using a process
called past life regression.

TARIQ SATTAUR: Past-life
regression is a series of

steps that you go through
in order to access

memories from
previous lifetimes.

It is allowing the
conscious mind to be put

aside for a while as you
access the subconscious mind.

TARIQ: Begin by just lightly
closing your eyes now.

NARRATOR: Tariq is
preparing a patient, Karen,

to travel back - not
only deep into her own

past but to lives she
may have lived before,

and from where he can
access her memories.

TARIQ: Imagine if you will
above your head is a point

of absolutely
pure white light.

TARIQ SATTAUR: It starts
by first taking the client

back through age
regression and typically

it's about fourteen or
fifteen years old and then

to three or
four years old.

KAREN: I'm on my
mum's lap and I'm getting

all of her attention.

NARRATOR: Karen has now
gone back over thirty years.

The next step will take
her into what is known as

blue mist, a space in
between her current life

and the one she
lived before.

TARIQ: Take a deep breath now
and go beyond the blue mist,

finding yourself at
a still earlier time.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, it
appears Karen has now

entered a former life.

KAREN: I'm climbing rocks
and there's the forest nearby.

TARIQ: Are you
male or female?

KAREN: I'm male.
I think I'm hunting.

TARIQ: Okay.

NARRATOR: Tariq believes
what Karen is seeing is real.

TARIQ SATTAUR:
They're interacting.

They're in the body
of that past life.

They can see out of
that person's eyes.

It's very, very personal.

NARRATOR: To complete
the session, Tariq must

reverse the process and
bring Karen back into her

current life
and present age.

TARIQ: And one. Eyes open.
You're back.

NARRATOR: Did Karen actually
visit her former life?

Is past life regression
evidence that

reincarnation is real?

Dr. Stuart Hameroff
is a scientist.

He believes the only way
to find real proof of

reincarnation is
by using science.

STUART HAMEROFF: There's a
lot of anecdotal evidence

for apparent reincarnation
but it's been dismissed

because it seems
irrational.

Now we have a theory, a
possible explanation,

so I think all this evidence
needs to be reevaluated

and considered seriously.

NARRATOR: Hameroff's theory
concerns one of the greatest

mysteries of both religion
and science - the soul.

STUART HAMEROFF: I
think the soul is our

consciousness, the sum
total of our memories and

conscious awareness and I
think it can exist outside

the body, after life and
possibly in reincarnation.

NARRATOR: But even more
remarkable is that

Hameroff thinks the soul
exists as a series of

information,
quantifiable by physics.

STUART HAMEROFF: I think
a quantum version of

consciousness can give
rise to something like a

quantum soul that can
account for a lot of these

anecdotal stories that we've
been hearing for, for eons.

NARRATOR: Many scientists
believe consciousness

exists with cells in the
brain, but Hameroff thinks

it exists on a subatomic
level in quantum particles

that can stay connected
and survive death.

STUART HAMEROFF: When a
patient has a cardiac

arrest and is
resuscitated, they often

tell a story of a white
light, a tunnel and in

many cases floating above
their body looking down on

what's going on.

This could b
consciousness as quantum

information dissipating.

When the patient's
resuscitated the quantum

information goes back and
the patient wakes up and

reports having had a
near-death experience

and perhaps even an
out-of-body experience.

NARRATOR: It's an
incredible theory,

but if our souls do
exist in quantum form

how are they reincarnated?

STUART HAMEROFF: It's
conceivable that this

quantum information, the
quantum soul if you will,

could reenter an embryo,
which would be reincarnation.

NARRATOR: Do our souls
consist of information

that can travel,
even into an embryo?

Have we solved one
of the greatest mysteries

in the universe?

STUART HAMEROFF: We know
so little about the nature

of reality that I think
it would be very, very

foolish to say that
this cannot happen.

NARRATOR: Was Jeffrey
Keene the reincarnation of

a long-dead general?

Or did false memories
convince him it was true?

Does the soul exist
independent of our bodies?

Can we visit past lives and if
we can, what will we find?

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: Scientists in
England conduct a series

of groundbreaking
experiments.

Did they find the first
genuine proof of the afterlife?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Hello? Hello?

I don't know about you but
I've always been scared of

things that go bump
in the night.

[crash, meow]

Fred!

[meow]

Most of them we can
explain but what about

those we can't?

Are we surrounded by
spiritual entities,

the remains of those that
passed from this life?

Are they what
we call ghosts?

And, if they are there,
are they friendly?

And can we
communicate with them?

[crash, meow]

Fred!

[sigh]

NARRATOR: In 1993, a team
of researchers in the town

of Scole, United
Kingdom set out to find

indisputable evidence
of life after death.

[♪]

Conducting a series of
extraordinary séances, they

witnessed paranormal events
that would mystify science.

They called it the
Scole Experiment.

ROBIN FOY: What we didn't
know was that it was going

to become very, very
special and work in a

pioneering way to provide
proof of life after death.

NARRATOR: Robin Foy
led the séances.

He believes the experiment
was unique because of

their attempts to make
sure it was credible.

ROBIN FOY: It was
important for us to show

to the outside world that
we'd taken every security

precaution that we could
to ensure that the work

was fraud proof.

NARRATOR: To conquer the
skeptics, the séances were

held in the supposedly
impenetrable cellar of

a suburban house.

ROBIN FOY: The whole place
was brick, there were no

trapdoors and the only
door into the cellar was

locked internally.

Each one of us would wear
luminous armbands so that

everybody who was present
could see that no one moved.

We were using a, a table
which was actually

fraud proof so that nobody
could get under it and do

anything at all.

We were seeking to
actually get viable proof

that we live on
after we die.

NARRATOR: The Scole
Experiment began in

November 1993.

As Robin Foy and his team
assembled in their cellar,

they had no idea
what might happen.

But it didn't take
long to find out.

ROBIN FOY: After a short
while, the spirit lights come,

little lights about
the size of a pea or

slightly larger,
very bright.

And they would sort of
perform aerobatics.

Later on there were spirit
voices speaking from midair.

We were able to hear on a
one-to-one basis all of

the spirit people.

Everybody in that room
would be regularly touched

by spirit hands.

NARRATOR: As the
experiment continues,

the team is amazed as
the paranormal activity

becomes more intense.

ROBIN FOY: All sorts of
different things would

materialize in midair and
then fall down onto the

table and we would hear the
bang as that hit the table.

We may actually have solid
spirit personalities

moving around in the room.

We were pushing the bounds
of psychic research

further forward than
anyone had been able to

produce or witness
anywhere in the past.

NARRATOR: Encouraged by
the success, Foy decided to

try something extraordinary,
something that would

prove they had made
contact with the afterlife.

ROBIN FOY: We were doing
an experiment with a film

that was still in its
plastic container.

We would have this locked
into a security box to

ensure that nothing was
ever done by us to that film.

NARRATOR: It was a
remarkable and ambitious idea.

The team hoped a spirit
might somehow implant an

image on the film
inside the box.

If so, it could be the
proof they were looking for.

When they finally checked
the film, they couldn't

believe their eyes.

ROBIN FOY: That
was quite amazing.

We had hundreds of
photographs that were

produced to show us
various aspects of the

spirit world itself.

Some of them were so
fantastic they really

would knock
your socks off.

NARRATOR: But there was
one photograph that was

different from the rest -
a haunting image of

what seemed to be a
woman's face.

ROBIN FOY: You actually
see on this one areas

of this person's face.

NARRATOR: Who
is the woman?

And how did her image
appear on the film?

Foy believes this chilling
incident makes the

Scole Experiment the
definitive exploration into

the presence of the afterlife.

ROBIN FOY: The Scole
Experiment I think was

very, very important
because it went further

than anybody had ever
been able to go before in

proving the real existence
of life after death.

NARRATOR: Despite his
claims, many skeptics

doubted the results.

Did Robin Foy and his
team of researchers make

contact with
the other side?

Is the Scole experiment
proof that there is

life after death?

Or could it have been
an elaborate fake?

One way to find out is
to try it for ourselves.

MAN: Ahhh!

NARRATOR: A UK research
team experiences

a remarkable series of
paranormal events during

a series of séances.

Did they find proof
of life after death?

Brian Dunning is a
scientific journalist.

He believes the events of
Scole were nothing more

than an illusion.

BRIAN DUNNING: Here's the
problem with séances is

that séances have existed
as a magic trick for

two hundred years.

They are an illusionist
giving the impression that

spirits are in the room.

ILLUSIONIST: What we are
trying to recreate are the

famous Scole Experiments.

NARRATOR: Was the Scole
Experiment a magic trick?

To test Dunning's theory,
we've set up a fake séance

using a professional
illusionist.

To create the conditions
at Scole, the participants

are sitting in
pitch darkness.

Using night vision
cameras, we can see them

but they can see
nothing at all.

The session begins with
everyone holding hands.

ILLUSIONIST: Give me your
hand here and your hand here.

Please do not break the
psychic circle at any time

during the séance.

Spirits, are you
with us tonight?

NARRATOR: The Scole
experiment claimed that

spirit voices seemed
to come from midair.

The illusionist will
attempt to recreate them

with an assistant using a
cardboard tube as a megaphone.

ILLUSIONIST: Speak to us.

VOICE: She will
always love you.

WOMAN: Whoa!

NARRATOR: Faking disembodied
voices seems simple.

VOICE: Charles.

ILLUSIONIST: Charles,
the name Charles.

NARRATOR: But can
they convince these

participants they are
being physically touched

by spirits as claimed
by the people at Scole?

ILLUSIONIST: I'm going to
ask my spirit guide Francine,

will you give us a
physical manifestation?

I want Francine to come towards
the centre of the table.

WOMAN: Whoa.

ILLUSIONIST: Whoa what?
What happened?

WOMAN: I think
someone touched me.

Ahhh!

ILLUSIONIST:
Whoa, whoa, whoa.

NARRATOR: The final trick
centers around the claim

that objects materialized
out of thin air.

Is this so easy to
disprove?

ILLUSIONIST: Leave
us now! Leave us!

GROUP: Ahhhh!

NARRATOR: The
experiment is over.

Even though his séance
was badly faked,

the participants are
left visibly shaken.

BRIAN DUNNING:
Nobody's laughing.

Everybody took that
completely seriously.

That was a very powerful
experience for these people.

NARRATOR: Although the
participants were fooled,

Brain believes this proves the
Scole experiment was a hoax.

BRIAN DUNNING: We saw a
few of the things today

that were reported from
the Scole Experiments.

We've seen that those
can be easily faked.

Do we know that they
faked them at Scole?

No, of course not because
no controls were applied.

We don't know what
actually happened.

But when we see how easy
it is to fake it, how can

we know that these
could have been real?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Could the
greatest experiment into

the existence of the
afterlife be just an

illusionist's game?

No doubt magic tricks are
easy to perform and many

of the claims made at
Scole have been dismissed

out of hand but the
biggest mystery of all

still remains unanswered.

Who is this woman and how
did her image appear on

a roll of film that was
locked inside a box?

Even Houdini would have
trouble with that one.

NARRATOR: Peter Sramek
is a photography expert.

We asked him to examine images
from the Scole experiment

and try to unlock one
of its biggest mysteries.

PETER SRAMEK: As I
understand it, the uh film

was put into this box
and locked away and the

exposure, the effect on
the film was supposed to

have happened while the film
was locked up in this box.

My first reaction was
this is an interesting

manipulation.

I assumed it was something
that would have been done

in the dark room.

It looks very similar to
the kinds of distortions,

collages, manipulations
that people have done in

the darkroom because
it's fun to do.

NARRATOR: But there was
no darkroom at Scole.

Was this photograph created
by the spirit of a woman?

Peter believes the answer
to the mystery lies in the

type of film they used.

PETER SRAMEK: With
Polaroid you have the

direct development so there's
no darkroom involved.

When you process it, you
actually put it into a

container that is full of
a gelatinous chemical

that gets spread on to
the film evenly.

And that, in my mind, is what's
happened in these photographs.

All you're seeing are the
chemicals, the way that

they've affected the film
as it's gone through.

PETER SRAMEK: What is
harder to explain are the

actual faces
in the images.

They're not light effects,
they're not chemical effects.

They actually are, you
know, images of faces.

NARRATOR: So how was this
haunting image created?

PETER SRAMEK: My
explanation for that would

be that the film has been
tampered with and the film

has been put through the
camera and these faces have

been exposed into it, prior
to the supposed experiment.

NARRATOR: Peter believes he
has solved the mystery, but

what if the Scole researchers
were telling the truth?

PETER SRAMEK: I don't
think while the film was

in the box that any of the
effects that we're seeing

could have been created
unless one believes in

some sort of supernatural
explanation.

NARRATOR: Is this a woman
from the spirit world?

Did Robin Foy and his
research team find proof

of life after
death at Scole?

Or was it an
ingenious hoax?

Whatever the truth is,
this is - weird or what?

[♪]

In Haiti, a man dies
after a sudden and

mysterious illness.

Eighteen years later, he
returns from the grave.

Could this prove
that zombies exist?

WILLIAM SHATNER: When it
comes to the mysteries of

the afterlife, perhaps
there's nothing weirder

than zombies.

The dictionary describes a
zombie like this: the body

of a dead person given the
semblance of life but made

mute and will-less by
a supernatural force,

usually for some
evil purpose.

Sounds like my bank manager,
but could it be true?

Could mindless shuffling
cannibals actually exist -

outside of Hollywood?

NARRATOR: The tiny nation
of Haiti is home to many

mysteries, but none
weirder than the tale of

a man named Clairvius
Narcisse.

Wade Davis is an
explorer and author.

He investigated the case,
which began in 1962 when

Narcisse suddenly
became violently ill.

WADE DAVIS: I mean the
kind of the constellation

of symptoms that he
reported were so strange

that you initially thought
this had to be coming

from the realm of
science fiction.

NARRATOR: Although doctors
work feverishly,

it's too late to save
the stricken Narcisse.

WADE DAVIS: The death was
witnessed by both the

physicians, the nurses and
his own family members and

his sister had
actually affixed her,

her thumbprint to the death
certificate, verifying

that this was her brother,
her brother had died.

NARRATOR: Devastated,
family members say their

final goodbyes and Clairvius
is finally laid to rest.

WADE DAVIS: You could go
to his gravesite where the

slab of cement had been
placed upon his grave

shortly after his demise.

NARRATOR: It should have
been the last anyone heard

of Clairvius Narcisse.

But eighteen years later,
something incredible will

happen that ensures no
one forgets his name.

NARRATOR: In 1980,
Clairvius' sister is going

about daily chores in
her family's village.

Suddenly, she sees
something beyond comprehension.

Standing before her is
her deceased brother.

Clairvius Narcisse has
risen ... from the dead.

WADE DAVIS: He claimed
that he was buried.

He claimed that he was
magically resuscitated by

a sorcerer and then led
off to the north of the

country where he'd been
working as a sort of

a zombie slave for
eighteen years.

NARRATOR: Did Clairvius
Narcisse return from the dead -

a zombie?

WADE DAVIS: There was
no question that this

individual had clearly been
pronounced dead by the doctors.

And then the
question became why?

How? What happened to him?

NARRATOR: This incredible
story attracts the

attention of a team of
scientists who are keen to

examine the case and
uncover the truth.

WADE DAVIS: They
investigated all these

lines of evidence,
analysis of the

fingerprints by forensic
experts, the testimony of

the family members
and the doctors.

NARRATOR: After
months of searching,

the investigators come to
a remarkable conclusion.

WADE DAVIS: It really
led two very reputable

scientists to go public
saying they had found the

first provable
instance of a zombie.

NARRATOR: What did
the scientists find?

Did Clairvius Narcisse
rise from the dead?

Do zombies exist?

Steven Schlozman is a
Harvard psychiatrist.

Incredibly, he believes
the answer could be yes.

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: When I
started thinking about how

I would explain zombies
medically, it was kind of

a lark and then it ended
up getting a little creepy.

The typical zombie, in my
view, is slow, shambling,

can't figure even the
simplest of, of dilemmas out,

wants to
eat human flesh.

There is ways you can medically
explain the behaviour.

NARRATOR: Remarkably,
Schlozman believes just

a few changes in the human
brain could turn one of

us into one of them.

It starts with
the cerebellum.

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: This is
a sheep brain but imagine

this is a human brain,
which looks an

awful lot like this,
just, just bigger.

The function of the
cerebellum is to help

us maintain balance.

In zombies, we've got
to think that there's

something not right with
their cerebellum because

zombies are really
not balanced well.

There's a number of
diseases that could affect

the cerebellum.

In those cases, you have
exactly the shambling gait

that you see in
the zombie movies.

NARRATOR: The shuffling
is one thing, but what

explains a zombie's
mindless violence?

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: The
amygdala is the most

primitive part
of the brain.

It's the region of brain
that has very base emotions.

NARRATOR: Our amygdala is the
source of all anger and rage.

But it's kept in check
by our frontal lobes,

the most advanced
part of our brain.

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: So we
might have an impulse when

somebody cuts us off on
the road to yell at them,

to tailgate them, to
do something not nice.

The frontal lobe jumps in
and stops you from doing that.

When we watch zombie
movies, we can guess that

zombie frontal lobes
are pretty much gone.

They can't hold
back their impulses.

NARRATOR: Could a unique
combination of brain

injuries somehow
create a zombie?

There's just one problem.

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: The
zombie, by definition,

has to die and be reanimated.

There is no medical basis
for something coming back

from the dead, so far.

NARRATOR: But how does
Scholzman explain that

Clairvius Narcisse was
certified dead, buried,

then returned
from the grave?

STEVEN SCHLOZMAN: Maybe
he's not telling the

truth, maybe he's
undergone some kind of

neurologic insult that
prevents him from

remembering what's
just happened.

But if we're talking about
really rising from the dead,

that doesn't happen.

NARRATOR: A Haitian man dies
from a mysterious illness,

then returns from the
grave eighteen years later.

Is he proof that
zombies exist?

Wade Davis has
investigated the case and

has an incredible theory.

He thinks Clairvius
Narcisse didn't die at all,

that something made
him just seem to be dead.

But who or what could
have fooled the doctors?

WADE DAVIS: There are lots
of drugs that can kill.

But to find a drug that
brings you to the doorway

of death and then brings
you back into the realm of

the living would be
remarkable indeed.

NARRATOR: In 1982, Davis
made a breakthrough.

He discovered that Haitian
Voodoo Priests were

rumoured to be using a
special poison to turn

people into zombies.

Was this the drug
he was looking for?

He decided to visit Haiti
and see for himself.

WADE DAVIS: Through a
series of negotiations

I was able to get a local
priest to make this poison

for me.

I collected all the raw
ingredients, which ranged

from, you know, dried
toads to dried fish, dried

snakes, plants,
human remains.

NARRATOR: Back in the US,
Davis takes the poison to

be tested in a lab.

He finds something
extraordinary.

It contains a chemical
more deadly than cyanide.

WADE DAVIS: Tetrodotoxin
acts by physically

blocking nerves but it
brings on a state of

apparent death so profound
that it has many times

fooled physicians.

NARRATOR: Had the Haitian
priests discovered

a drug that could
replicate death?

If so, where
did they get it?

WADE DAVIS: In Haiti
there's this sort of

famous puffer fish which
inflates like a big porcupine.

Without doubt, the Haitian
sorcerers had identified

a natural product that
contained a toxin that

could make someone
appear to be dead.

NARRAT: Could this
powerful drug produce the

symptoms Narcisse
experienced?

WADE DAVIS: He said
he was paralyzed.

He could hear himself
pronounced dead.

He could sense the sheet
pulled over his eyes.

He heard his sister begin to
wail but he could not respond.

NARRATOR: Was an innocent
man turned into a zombie?

The evidence seems undeniable,
except for one thing.

WADE DAVIS: No one
knows if Narcisse was

administered the poison.

What we do know is that
he was pronounced dead.

WILLIAM SHATNER:
All right.

Let's, let's think about
this for a second.

We know that a certain
set of brain alterations,

diseases or injuries could
cause the zombie-like

symptoms you see in the
movies, that a mysterious

poison has the power to
mimic death, but is there

any real proof that we
can return from the dead?

Well let me tell
you something.

The living dead are
living among us -

and they're in Detroit.

NARRATOR: At a warehouse
in Detroit, something

remarkable is happening.

Inside these containers, a
hundred and three people

are waiting - to
return from the dead.

This is a cryonics centre.

The people entombed here
have made an incredible

choice - to have their
bodies frozen after death,

with the hope that science
will one day bring them

back to life.

NARRATOR: Ben Best
is the president of the

Cryonics Institute.

He believes not only
can we survive death

but that the people here
haven't actually died.

BEN BEST: We do call them
patients because we don't

regard them as being dead
in an ultimate sense.

I think in practice be
regarded as a hospital

because I think that's
what we're doing, we're

holding these metabolically
challenged patients.

NARRATOR: But can
cryogenics work?

It's a remarkable and
controversial process.

BEN BEST: Behind me
are our cryostats.

They hold liquid
nitrogen, which is at

minus 196 degrees Celsius.

Each of these cylindrical
units holds six patients.

NARRATOR: Best believes
cryogenics has changed our

definition of death.

Only a few decades ago if
your heart stopped -

that was it.

BEN BEST: But it's just not
the way we see things anymore.

NARRATOR: How do you keep
someone who is dead alive?

It begins by pumping
oxygen-rich blood

throughout the body.

This keeps cells alive
and avoids damage caused

by rigor mortis.

Then, the body
must be cooled.

BEN BEST: We don't just
drop the patient in

a liquid nitrogen.

NARRATOR: The body
temperature is slowly

lowered, first by an ice
bath and then in a cooling

chamber where it will
reach minus 196 degrees.

Best believes this will
preserve these bodies for

hundreds or perhaps
thousands of years.

But why?

BEN BEST: It seems to me,
if you're preserving all

the material there, that
some future technology is

going to be able to figure
out a way to get that all

fixed and going again.

It's reasonable to think
that nano machines can

restore the person to
their original condition.

NARRATOR: Nano machines
already exist -

tiny machines smaller
than a single cell.

Scientists believe they
could soon flow through

our bloodstream, targeting
viruses, repairing organs

and destroying disease.

Can cryogenics give
us life after death?

Could it even conquer
death itself?

Best believes it is
our greatest hope for

eternal living.

BEN BEST: It doesn't seem
so much more unreasonable

than to speculate that people
will someday live on Mars.

NARRATOR: Can we die and
wake up a thousand years

later and resume
our lives?

And even if we can,
would we really want to?

Or do we return as
zombies, doomed to

a mindless existence?

Is life after death
really life at all?

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So
there we have it,

stories of life after death
from all over the world.

In Connecticut, a man is
overcome with emotion at

a Civil War battlefield.

Is he the reincarnation
of a dead general?

In England, scientists
conduct a remarkable

paranormal experiment.

Did they find the first
proof of the afterlife?

And in Haiti, a man
returns from the grave

eighteen years
after his death.

Are the living dead
walking amongst us?

Do zombies exist?

Are these stories evidence
of life after death?

Can we dismiss those who
claim they are true?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
next time for more stories

that will
undoubtedly be...

weird or what?

[♪]

[♪]

[♪]