1 00:00:00,834 --> 00:00:07,833 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:07,833 --> 00:00:14,232 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not 3 00:00:14,232 --> 00:00:18,031 necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:18,031 --> 00:00:22,831 For men in war, 5 00:00:22,831 --> 00:00:26,030 death is an ever-present possibility and terror. 6 00:00:30,829 --> 00:00:35,709 The 7 00:00:35,709 --> 00:00:40,428 soldiers who experienced near-death encounters 8 00:00:40,428 --> 00:00:43,828 suggest that death may not be something to be feared. 9 00:00:43,828 --> 00:00:50,626 At what point does life fade 10 00:00:50,626 --> 00:00:55,426 into death? Is it possible to scientifically prove 11 00:00:55,426 --> 00:00:58,425 that there is life after life? 12 00:00:58,425 --> 00:01:14,423 During the 11 long years that America was involved in the Vietnam War, 13 00:01:14,423 --> 00:01:20,422 over 57,000 men died in combat. 14 00:01:20,422 --> 00:01:23,422 There were more than 300,000 wounded. 15 00:01:23,422 --> 00:01:29,421 The line between life and death was for these men very narrow. 16 00:01:36,420 --> 00:01:39,419 In the case of one of those soldiers, Tommy Clack, 17 00:01:39,419 --> 00:01:42,419 Vietnam is more than just a hellish memory. 18 00:01:42,419 --> 00:01:47,418 Tommy, now an administrator at Atlanta's Veterans Hospital, 19 00:01:47,418 --> 00:01:52,417 encountered a life after life experience that remains very real. 20 00:01:52,417 --> 00:01:58,416 I was a captain in the Army. In particular, my job was that of what's called a Ford Observer. 21 00:01:58,416 --> 00:02:03,416 I called in artillery and plane strikes and gunships and was actually the person that 22 00:02:03,416 --> 00:02:08,415 directed us from point A to B by reading the map and coordinates and knowing where we are at all times. 23 00:02:08,415 --> 00:02:15,414 But one particular morning, May 29, 1969, to be exact, we ended up in a big firefight. 24 00:02:22,413 --> 00:02:27,412 The first time I saw a gun, I was like, 25 00:02:27,412 --> 00:02:32,411 I'm going to shoot you. 26 00:02:32,411 --> 00:02:38,410 Through the course of that action, I got hit by one of the incoming rounds we had coming in. 27 00:02:38,410 --> 00:02:45,409 I was conscious the whole time when I got hit. 28 00:02:45,409 --> 00:02:51,408 I remember flying through the air and I remember coming down and I set up and I looked down 29 00:02:51,408 --> 00:02:58,407 and I saw that I was missing. My right arm, my right leg and my left leg was laying off to the side like it was broke. 30 00:02:58,407 --> 00:03:02,407 I had several puncher wounds over my body that I was bleeding from. 31 00:03:02,407 --> 00:03:07,406 I saw everybody running around. I laid back down and from that point forward, 32 00:03:07,406 --> 00:03:14,405 I guess I really started thinking about the fact that my time had come. I really was going to die. 33 00:03:14,405 --> 00:03:20,404 I heard no more battle sound. I didn't feel anything. There was no pain. 34 00:03:20,404 --> 00:03:25,403 I felt this calm come over my body as I was laying there. 35 00:03:30,402 --> 00:03:38,401 But then the battle subsided and they got in a medevac helicopter. 36 00:03:38,401 --> 00:03:44,400 And I remember that I was laying there on the ground. They put this poncho over me. 37 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,400 It was the only time we put ponchos over people were when they were dead. 38 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:53,399 I guess for the first time and I had no comprehension of what length of time this was, 39 00:03:53,399 --> 00:04:00,398 I realized that I was dead. I wasn't alive. I wasn't functioning as a human being anymore. 40 00:04:00,398 --> 00:04:05,397 All of a sudden I realized that I wasn't visualizing this from the ground. 41 00:04:05,397 --> 00:04:08,397 I was looking down and seeing this go on. 42 00:04:08,397 --> 00:04:15,396 I don't ever remember leaving my body quote. It was really a weird experience because there was no emotions. 43 00:04:15,396 --> 00:04:22,395 There was nothing. It was just total peace and tranquility. I just realized I didn't exist anymore. 44 00:04:24,394 --> 00:04:31,393 Typical field procedure dictated that the mortally wounded be airlifted to the nearest possible field hospital. 45 00:04:32,393 --> 00:04:42,392 Tommy was rushed to the 25th Division Headquarters Hospital near Coochee, some 20 miles from the battlefield. 46 00:04:44,391 --> 00:04:52,390 One of the things that you learn real fast in Vietnam when you have a lot of casualties is that people have priority over other people depending on your warnings. 47 00:04:52,390 --> 00:04:59,389 Realistically, if I had been in charge somebody in my condition I probably would have given a low priority due to the extent of the injuries. 48 00:04:59,389 --> 00:05:06,388 But for some reason a doctor came over and lifted a potchow up. I saw him do it very clearly. 49 00:05:06,388 --> 00:05:12,387 And all of a sudden I had a group of people on trying to do whatever it is they were trying to do to me. 50 00:05:12,387 --> 00:05:19,386 They lifted me up and took me into the operating room. I saw him cut my clothes off. I saw him start IVs. 51 00:05:19,386 --> 00:05:26,385 I didn't feel any remorse or anything. It was just total peace and nothing for what was laying there that was my body. 52 00:05:27,385 --> 00:05:36,383 But then all of a sudden I left that operating room and it was almost like a blink of the eyes and I was back at the battlefield where I had gotten injured. 53 00:05:36,383 --> 00:05:47,382 And at that particular time I think is when I come to realize I really was dead because everybody in Vietnam that I had put in plastic bags, 54 00:05:47,382 --> 00:05:54,381 when somebody got killed you put them in a plastic bag, were right there with me. They were around me. 55 00:05:55,381 --> 00:06:01,380 Jeff and Mark and all these guys were right there with me and we communicated like we were talking with our minds. 56 00:06:01,380 --> 00:06:10,378 I was above the earth and it was a gigantic brightness that surrounded the whole battlefield. It was just pure peace. 57 00:06:12,378 --> 00:06:19,377 Ten days later I woke up and I was laying in a bed in Coochee, Vietnam. And I did not have to ask what went on. 58 00:06:19,377 --> 00:06:26,376 I remember everything that went on. I knew I was missing the limbs. I didn't realize they had cut my left head off in the operating room. 59 00:06:26,376 --> 00:06:33,375 It was beyond repair. But I told the doctor everything that had gone on, what they had done to me that I had been covered up. 60 00:06:33,375 --> 00:06:40,374 And even a couple of guys that lived through the battle with me stopped by and I told them who had gotten killed that day. 61 00:06:40,374 --> 00:06:47,373 And there was no way for me to know that except that I had been with them wherever we were, whatever that place was, whatever it was. 62 00:06:47,373 --> 00:06:50,372 We were there together because we were all dead. 63 00:06:51,372 --> 00:06:58,371 Was Tommy indeed dead? How can we explain his profound and mysterious experience? 64 00:07:01,371 --> 00:07:06,370 If Tommy Clack had been a soldier during World War II, he probably would have died. 65 00:07:06,370 --> 00:07:13,369 The high level technology of modern medicine saved his life and made it possible for him to recount his out of body experience. 66 00:07:14,369 --> 00:07:25,367 It is ironic, however, that the same sophisticated medical devices which were used to keep Tommy alive also make it more difficult to determine exactly when death occurs. 67 00:07:27,367 --> 00:07:37,365 At the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, physicians like Dr. Michael Saban continually grapple with pinpointing the precise instant at which a human life ceases. 68 00:07:38,365 --> 00:07:47,364 The definition of death is very nebulous both medically and legally. There is no one generally accepted definition of when the point of death occurs. 69 00:07:48,363 --> 00:08:03,361 I can't give you in ten words or less how we determine how somebody is dead. Sometimes it's obvious from examining the patient that there's no pulse, no heartbeat, and rigor mortis is set in so that the patient is obviously dead. 70 00:08:04,361 --> 00:08:24,358 But when you're talking about lack of vital signs, a cardiac arrhythmia or irregularity of the heartbeat which would not support blood pressure, unconsciousness, all of these types of definitions that have been used in the past can be, there are exceptions to these at the present time. 71 00:08:24,358 --> 00:08:33,357 So it becomes difficult to establish medically, physically, and scientifically when the exact point of physical death occurs. 72 00:08:34,357 --> 00:08:46,355 What is the precise moment that death occurs? Researchers are only now beginning to probe the depths of near death and a person's ability to return from that level of consciousness. 73 00:08:47,355 --> 00:08:53,354 As with most medical research, the investigation begins with laboratory animals. 74 00:08:54,354 --> 00:09:04,352 We bring our experimental animal, rat, to body temperature of about 10 or 5 degrees centigrade which is about 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. 75 00:09:05,352 --> 00:09:14,350 Dr. Wozien Popovich of Emory University School of Medicine uses a cooling process in an attempt to define the instant of death. 76 00:09:15,350 --> 00:09:26,349 When the body temperature decreases to such a low body temperature, metabolic processes, heart rate, respiration, everything slows down and eventually stops. 77 00:09:27,349 --> 00:09:33,348 So the animal now looks dead. The animal is clinically dead but it is not biologically dead. 78 00:09:34,347 --> 00:09:40,347 That means all clinical signs of death appear present but the animal is still alive. 79 00:09:41,346 --> 00:09:50,345 After two hours we could still recover that animal by rewarming. After three hours we cannot because we now pass the point of biological death. 80 00:09:51,345 --> 00:09:53,345 The point of biological death is passed and the animal is dead. 81 00:09:55,344 --> 00:10:02,343 With the success that Dr. Popovich has had in freezing and reviving rats, it seems likely that the same could be done to humans. 82 00:10:04,343 --> 00:10:08,342 Some human bodies have been purposely frozen immediately after death. 83 00:10:10,342 --> 00:10:14,341 There has been at least one unsuccessful resuscitation attempt. 84 00:10:15,341 --> 00:10:22,340 An accident in Canada provided researchers with an unusual opportunity to try to revive a frozen boy. 85 00:10:23,340 --> 00:10:29,339 His story begins to unlock the secrets of that special place between life and death. 86 00:10:30,339 --> 00:10:47,336 It was a cold evening in January 1976 in an area near Winnipeg, Canada. The temperature had dropped from a brisk 32 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 40 below. 87 00:10:49,336 --> 00:10:54,335 Ted Milligan, then 16, was a member of the St. John Cathedral School. 88 00:10:55,335 --> 00:11:00,334 Part of the curriculum included a 27-mile cross-country snowshoe hike. 89 00:11:02,334 --> 00:11:06,334 Ted set out on his assignment along with a number of his classmates. 90 00:11:09,333 --> 00:11:15,332 Only a few miles from the end of the hike, however, Ted collapsed into unconsciousness. 91 00:11:16,332 --> 00:11:22,331 His colleagues, unable to move him in the intense cold, returned to their school for help. 92 00:11:25,331 --> 00:11:35,329 Dr. James Bristow, an expert on human frostbite, freezing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, attempted to revive Ted. 93 00:11:36,329 --> 00:11:45,328 The lad was clinically dead. There was no heartbeat. The cardiogram showed a flat line on the cardioscope indicating a systole. 94 00:11:46,328 --> 00:11:50,327 He was, of course, not breathing. And his body temperature was very cold to touch. 95 00:11:50,327 --> 00:11:59,326 And in fact, the temperature as recorded by a low reading thermometer was 25 degrees Celsius, the normal being about 37 degrees. 96 00:12:02,325 --> 00:12:06,325 Ted Milligan's heart had stopped beating for over two and a half hours. 97 00:12:07,324 --> 00:12:10,324 Dr. Bristow worked over Ted's body for nearly another two hours. 98 00:12:11,324 --> 00:12:21,322 Conventional medical textbooks state that without oxygen for more than four and a half minutes, a body will suffer irreparable brain damage and will die. 99 00:12:22,322 --> 00:12:26,322 Yet Ted regained consciousness and was perfectly normal. 100 00:12:29,321 --> 00:12:34,320 Ted Milligan, now a private in the Canadian Armed Forces, recalls his ordeal. 101 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:44,319 Well, mainly it was just like being asleep, like a total total darkness and waking up out of a sleep that you didn't know that you had gone into. 102 00:12:45,319 --> 00:12:51,318 I'm not afraid of dying. When I die, I'm going to die and I'll probably die with a smile on my face. 103 00:12:52,318 --> 00:13:03,316 Biological death basically means brain death, irreversible brain death as opposed to clinical death with just simply the lack of vital signs, heartbeat and respiration. 104 00:13:04,316 --> 00:13:17,314 These episodes and such as Ted's has focused on and brought more awareness to the fact that there can be a great discrepancy between clinical death and biological death in some instances. 105 00:13:18,314 --> 00:13:33,311 And notably, accidental hypothermia is one of these, where in fact an individual could be written off and could be given up as being clinically dead only to have the brain still intact, the brain still intact and capable of being resuscitated. 106 00:13:34,311 --> 00:13:35,311 That's the same thing. 107 00:13:36,311 --> 00:13:50,309 Ted Milligan's experience seems to indicate that there is no fine line between life and death. Perhaps it's a broad expanse through which a person moves simply and logically from one state to another. 108 00:13:51,309 --> 00:13:58,308 What happens when this process is interrupted by modern medicine and a person who has been gliding toward death is revived. 109 00:13:59,307 --> 00:14:08,306 Fred Schoonmaker, a doctor of cardiology at St. Luke's Hospital in Denver, has had repeated experiences bringing patients back from death-like states. 110 00:14:09,306 --> 00:14:17,305 Their accounts of life after life experiences were so numerous and similar that Dr. Schoonmaker was intrigued by the phenomena. 111 00:14:18,305 --> 00:14:27,303 The first questions that began to come to my mind is that could this in some way be a dream-like state? Could this in some way be hallucination? 112 00:14:28,303 --> 00:14:43,301 If you take a person, an example who is hallucinating, if you take a person who may be in DTs from withdrawal from a drug dependency problem, they're seeing pink elephants, they're seeing white rats, red rats, whatever it may be, but this is a terrifying experience to them. 113 00:14:43,301 --> 00:14:54,299 It was an unreal when they became back into and filtered back into the mainstream of life after being hospitalized over a period of time and rehabilitated. 114 00:14:55,299 --> 00:15:07,297 These kind of vivid expressions that they had either in dream states or hallucinary states or if they were on any kind of drug medications for decreasing pain or whatever, they knew they were not real. 115 00:15:07,297 --> 00:15:20,295 They were unreal and the word that began to pass through many of these people as we talk back and forth was this was a real experience that I had. I don't know what it was, but it indeed was real. 116 00:15:21,295 --> 00:15:32,293 Schoonmaker discovered that those who have had life after life experiences are profoundly changed. Unlike most of us, they no longer fear death. 117 00:15:32,293 --> 00:15:40,292 I found that people who have not really come to grips with their own feelings about death are not very well equipped to live. 118 00:15:41,292 --> 00:15:45,291 Janet Rainwater's encounter with death occurred in 1952. 119 00:15:46,291 --> 00:15:56,290 The doctor said I had flu, but there was a polio epidemic going on and I became gradually aware that I had polio and finally went for a spinal tap. 120 00:15:56,290 --> 00:16:02,289 And they said, okay, you'd better go to Variety Children's Hospital. 121 00:16:03,289 --> 00:16:15,287 By the time Janet had reached the hospital, she could barely walk. As recreated for in search of, each step jarred her already excruciatingly painful spine. 122 00:16:16,287 --> 00:16:21,286 She lost her ability to swallow and encountered incredible difficulties in breathing. 123 00:16:22,286 --> 00:16:26,285 Finally, her arms and legs became totally paralyzed. 124 00:16:28,285 --> 00:16:33,284 Janet lost consciousness and began drifting between life and death. 125 00:16:40,283 --> 00:16:45,282 Well, the next thing I knew, I was walking across this dry riverbed. 126 00:16:46,282 --> 00:16:50,282 And in the distance, there was this marvelous, marvelous white light. 127 00:16:51,282 --> 00:16:58,280 And I could hardly wait to go into it. It was so peaceful and calm. I was incredibly happy. 128 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,280 And then I became aware of some women. 129 00:17:05,279 --> 00:17:11,279 I felt they were calling to me, but I kind of said, go away, don't bother me, because I really wanted to go into the light. 130 00:17:16,278 --> 00:17:19,277 And then I realized that one of them at least was calling me Mary. 131 00:17:20,277 --> 00:17:24,277 And that startled me because that's a name I was called the first 10 years of my life. 132 00:17:25,276 --> 00:17:28,276 And for 20 years, no one had called me by that name. 133 00:17:29,276 --> 00:17:32,275 So then I paid more attention and I realized it was my grandmother. 134 00:17:34,275 --> 00:17:39,274 She had died two years before and she was someone who I'd loved very, very, very much. 135 00:17:39,274 --> 00:17:44,274 And then I realized if I was there with my grandmother, I must be dead. 136 00:17:45,273 --> 00:17:50,273 And I said to her, Grammy, if we're here together, you're dead, that means I must be dead too. 137 00:17:51,272 --> 00:17:52,272 And she said, that's right. 138 00:17:53,272 --> 00:17:59,271 And then the next thing I knew, it was like I had total knowledge, as if someone had put a computer print out in my brain. 139 00:18:00,271 --> 00:18:05,270 I saw the results of all the actions and inactions I'd ever taken in my life. 140 00:18:05,270 --> 00:18:09,270 And surprisingly, there were no black marks for anything I'd done. 141 00:18:10,270 --> 00:18:13,269 I had lots of black marks for things I hadn't done. 142 00:18:14,269 --> 00:18:17,269 I said to my grandmother, it's too soon. 143 00:18:18,268 --> 00:18:19,268 I can't be dead, I've got to go back. 144 00:18:20,268 --> 00:18:24,268 And she said, well you can go back, but leave right now and don't look at the light anymore. 145 00:18:25,267 --> 00:18:30,267 And I didn't even pause to decide, I just turned around and started back across the riverbed. 146 00:18:31,266 --> 00:18:32,266 And that went very quickly. 147 00:18:36,266 --> 00:18:41,265 But then I came to this practically vertical sand bank. 148 00:18:42,265 --> 00:18:47,264 And I started climbing up it, but I couldn't get really good handholds and I would fall back down. 149 00:18:48,264 --> 00:18:51,263 And I'd work some more and climb some more and I'd fall back down. 150 00:18:52,263 --> 00:18:58,262 But finally I made it up and I just fell back exhausted on the top of this sand dune. 151 00:18:59,262 --> 00:19:07,261 And the next second I woke up, whatever you want to call it, and I was in my own body and I could breathe and I could swallow, 152 00:19:08,261 --> 00:19:11,260 which was incredible because I hadn't swallowed for three or four days. 153 00:19:13,260 --> 00:19:18,259 Someone came in the room almost immediately and I could tell they were really surprised at how well I was doing. 154 00:19:19,259 --> 00:19:20,259 And I said, I can swallow. 155 00:19:21,259 --> 00:19:23,259 And give me some water, I want to prove it. 156 00:19:24,258 --> 00:19:28,258 A little bit later they brought me a bowl of turkey broth. 157 00:19:29,258 --> 00:19:32,257 This was dawn, it was Thanksgiving day. 158 00:19:33,257 --> 00:19:37,256 And Thanksgiving day has always been a very special day for me. 159 00:19:38,256 --> 00:19:40,256 It's Christmas and Easter and everything else rolled into one. 160 00:19:41,256 --> 00:19:48,255 I'm not afraid of death, I know it's a beautiful experience that when it comes to be my time I'm going to really look forward to it. 161 00:19:49,255 --> 00:19:59,253 No one is sure what the near-death experience really is, but the message from those who have encountered it and returned is that death should not be feared. 162 00:20:00,253 --> 00:20:05,252 They suggest that what is to come is simply life after life. 163 00:20:08,252 --> 00:20:14,251 We cannot say for sure that the life after life experience is actually death itself. 164 00:20:15,251 --> 00:20:20,250 Obviously, however, it does alter our perceptions of life and the hereafter. 165 00:20:22,250 --> 00:20:38,247 Based on the experiences that we've heard from those who have had the near-death experience, this has influenced my concept of a God that makes him far greater, far more merciful, far more loving than I'd ever concede of him to be before. 166 00:20:39,247 --> 00:20:50,245 Dr. Lauren Young is an eminent theologian and scholar. His experiences with those who have had life after life encounters have given him new religious insights. 167 00:20:51,245 --> 00:21:03,244 I've been under the influence of the light who have really come into a personal encounter with this image of mercy and love, come back into this world with a totally different attitude. 168 00:21:04,243 --> 00:21:12,242 And to me, this is a solid encounter, an exquisite expression of what it really means to come face to face with God. 169 00:21:14,242 --> 00:21:27,240 If we could remove from society a major fear, there's a tremendous contribution. Death is a major fear. Those who have experienced it are no longer afraid of life or death. 170 00:21:33,239 --> 00:21:38,238 Coming up next, agents hunt down a bank robbery gang on FBI The Untold Stories. 171 00:21:39,238 --> 00:21:46,237 Then, history's crimes and trials investigates the strange case of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy. 172 00:21:47,237 --> 00:21:56,236 And tomorrow night on Danger Central, when oil fields explode into flame, hell fighters go on suicide missions at 10, here on the History Channel.