The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (2016) s02e02 Episode Script
Heaven and Hell
When I was a little boy, growing up here in Mississippi, I spent a lot of time outdoors.
Part of it looking up at the night sky.
We had no electricity so the moon was the only light that ever challenged that of the stars.
And they filled me with such an inexpressible sense of wonder.
My paternal grandmother told me that that was where Heaven was, where God lives, the place where good people go, when they die.
She also warned me about the other place.
Hell.
The place you go when you're bad.
At age five or six, these ideas are a bit overwhelming.
Frightening.
Inspiring, I guess.
And I think most people, no matter what their faith, have faced similar thoughts and fears.
What is Heaven? What is Hell? How have these unseen places changed the way we live our lives on Earth? To find out Oh, look what I see.
I'll descend into the Underworld of ancient Native Americans.
I think there's something in here that they don't want found.
See people who are tormented by Hell.
And touched by paradise.
It's that sneak preview of what Heaven's gonna be like.
I'll discover Heaven in the Cambodian jungle.
We really are at Heaven on earth.
And in one woman's remarkable story.
As far as I can tell you just described Heaven.
It was my Heaven.
Do Heaven and Hell await us in the afterlife? Or are they here and now? For how long have we been contemplating Heaven and Hell? We know that more than 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians dreamed of their souls travelling through a fiery underworld and up to the stars.
And the people of Stonehenge fixed their gaze on the Heavens even earlier, some 5,000 years ago.
But archaeologists have recently found evidence of a culture that believed in a version of Heaven and Hell even before those monuments were built.
It's not where you'd expect.
Archaeologist Jan Simeck is taking me to a site in the hills of Tennessee, one that the ancient Native American ancestors of the Cherokee used for hundreds of generations.
So, then where are we going now? So, we're going to a cave called Dunbar Cave.
It's a cave that was used for as much as 10,000 years by prehistoric people.
Much of that time they were using it as a religious site, uh, kind of the entryway to Hell in, you know, our terms.
These formations, they just scream ancient.
Well, they are, the cave itself is a very ancient place.
Wow.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Over the centuries, people have left their mark on these walls, most have little historical significance, but, in a chamber 200 yards from the mouth of the cave, Jan's archaeological team has made a stunning discovery.
Artwork that could represent humanity's oldest imaginings of Heaven and Hell.
-So, Morgan, this is Beau Carroll.
-Hello.
A graduate student in anthropology and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Look at this.
So, what we're looking at here is These two symbols, one looks like a star, one could resemble a comet.
So, the original peoples came down and they make these symbols representative of what? Some people have actually interpreted this cross and circle image as a sign that represents the Upper world above, the Middle world and the world below.
Cherokee people believe that they came from the stars, and they were put here in the Underworld, in the Earth, and we were born from the Earth.
I think that this could be a depiction of that.
The Cherokee believe the universe is encased in a stone sphere.
Inside are three levels of existence.
Cherokee souls are created amid the stars of the Upper world, then they sink deep underground into the lower world where they await their birth into the Middle world, the land of the living.
At death, their soul returns underground and then travels back up to the stars.
Closing an endless cycle of life, death and rebirth.
For the ancient Cherokee, to enter this cave was to set foot into the lower world, a place where the living did not belong.
Oh, look what I see.
What do I see? So, we're looking here at a reclining human figure, about 6 and a half feet long.
His head is pointed down into the depths of the cave, so this is a warrior floating into the death realm of the Underworld.
Do you get a special feeling coming into these caves and knowing you the ancestry of that part of your? I get nervous.
But you're an archaeologist.
Yeah.
I think that they put this guy here because he's guarding something.
I think there's something in here that they don't want found.
I think that I get that feeling from this drawing because we're really not supposed to be here.
Jan and Beau have brought me to the edge of the Cherokee Underworld, but I wanna know if these ancient people also tried to make contact with their Upper world, their Heaven.
What about the Upper world? -Would you like to go see? -Absolutely.
-Let's go.
-Come on.
So, we're near a place called Mount Bottom.
It was a large village, centred around a mound that provided access to the Upper world, the temple, and that's what we're looking at here.
This Native American village, situated about 50 miles south of the Dunbar Cave, was a centre of religious life for the Cherokee ancestors.
The top of the central earthen mound was as close to Heaven as the living could get.
Okay, so what happens up here? Just like with the cave and the Underworld, you go from inside the cave, you go from Middle to Under.
Here it's the same thing except we're going from Middle to Upper.
We're right on the cusp of a cosmic doorway.
Can you be a little bit more specific about what that is? When we say you're on the cusp of a cosmic doorway, who is? The living? So, all these people that have passed on before us they're essentially in another world.
They can hear us if we talk to them in the right way.
If we dance the right way, if we sing the right songs, then those people can hear us, and those people know that we haven't forgotten who they were.
We haven't forgotten who we were.
Everything wants to go up, and if you build this up here and have those same dances, it would be heard better than doing it down on the ground.
The higher you go, the more you're likely to be in touch with the elders or the Gods Whoever wants to listen.
Right.
Going into the Dunbar Cave, I felt like Orpheus must have when he descended into Hell.
And it made me realize how ancient and universal our connection with Heaven and Hell is.
I felt a vague sense of fear as I moved deeper into the darkness of the cave.
Likewise, I felt a sense of hope and release when I climbed to the top of the temple.
We all share these hopes and fears.
We always have.
We probably always will.
For thousands of years, Heaven and Hell have driven us to create enduring monuments.
They've inspired iconic works of art.
Around the world, the faithful hope for an afterlife in paradise, or, fear eternal damnation.
But sometimes Hell visits people on Earth.
In Ethiopia, many people believe evil spirits can take over the bodies of the living.
One way to chase them out is to undergo an exorcism.
Historian, Nancy Caciola, and religions scholar, Solomon Getina have come to Debre Libanos, a seventh century monastery of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
It's a site with a long history of exorcism.
I can't wait to see what it's like.
I will take you inside and you will see how people get healed.
Ethiopian Christians believe demonic possession manifests itself in many ways.
From the mild pain of a headache to extreme hallucinations and emotional disturbances.
People travel here from all over Ethiopia to rid themselves of the Hellish demons they believe possess them.
Zelalam Gedachim is one of those people.
Why were you feeling ill and why did you decide that you needed to come here? You see, he said he heard unusual voices.
Ah, so these voices feel sinister and evil to you? Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Zelalam, like the hundreds of other people with more severe symptoms, has come here to be healed by St.
Tekle's cross, a holy object, so revered, it's always kept wrapped in cloth.
St.
Tekle was an Ethiopian Orthodox monk who took charge of this monastery in the 13th century.
So this cross has a very special power of expelling demons then? So it makes the demons upset and that's why they react in this way? Because the demons can't tolerate to be close to something holy? Exactly, exactly.
She's saying 'I'm burned.
' Demon in her is saying, you know, you know, 'I'm burned, I'm burned, I'm burned.
' As the cross nears the possessed they believe the demons will be expelled from their bodies.
Now it is Zelalam's turn.
Despite his outward calm, he firmly believes the voice in his head is a demon.
And only the cross can expel it.
So he's going to beat the demon? Exactly, they ordered to kneel down so So the cross is for the blessing and then if it's stubborn, he'll beat them with the strap? Exactly.
So, do you feel that the evil spirits have left you now? Permanently? So, after he kissed the cross he didn't feel the previous feeling.
He said that he is sure that he's healed.
You can see that there's this struggle going on between good and evil, Heaven and Hell, -humanity and forces of evil and demons.
-Exactly.
You can see that in the responses of people, the noises they make, the way that they twist their bodies.
You can see the struggle that is this cosmic part of the world of good and evil that we live in.
Exactly, this is a war taking place.
But it's right in the body of this individual.
Ethiopian Christians see their suffering, be it illness, conflict or any calamity that befalls them, as the shadow of Hell falling on their lives.
Bowing down to the cross can purge them of that shadow and bring them peace in this world.
But where there is darkness there is also light.
Some people feel they are touched by Heaven in a physical way, every Sunday.
I've come to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet Annie Naz.
-Hi.
-Hi.
I'm Annie.
I'm Morgan.
Pleased to meet you, Morgan.
It's my pleasure, Annie.
Annie's family recently immigrated from Pakistan to the U.
S.
-You're from Pakistan? -Right.
The name Annie isn't that a Christian name? It is.
I was born a Pentecostal, Christian family.
-Yeah.
-Yes.
But you were not Pentecostal Christian.
In the beginning, I didn't like going to church, I thought it was boring, but then I had a great spiritual experience.
One day we were worshipping and all of a sudden, I just started feeling like crying, and I started praising God, I started saying those words.
When I started speaking, I was speaking in tongues.
Okay, all right.
You know, it just changed my life in a huge, huge, huge way.
Any chance I get to see you speaking in tongues? When you feel the presence of God, -even if I try to speak to you -Yeah.
I just can't, my tongue starts twisting and I start speaking in tongues, so you might.
Annie is taking me to the New Life United Pentecostal church, where they worship by speaking in tongues.
This practice comes from the Christian Bible.
According to the Book of Acts, 50 days after Jesus's death, on the day of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled Christ's disciples causing them to speak in an unknown language.
Pentecostal services recreate this moment of Heaven coming down to Earth.
# Yeah, I gotta praise, I gotta praise now, now, now # # Now, I gotta praise # # Can't stop, praising his name # # I just can't stop praising his name # # I just can't stop praising his name, Jesus, Jesus # In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.
When I began to open myself up and surrender to God and allow his spirit to move into me, it's a sneak preview of what Heaven's gonna be like.
I want you to close your eyes, I want you to begin to pray.
In your heart, right now, I want you to open your soul and say God, here I am.
I surrender to you.
I don't care what you're facing in life, what situations you're struggling with, I'm here to tell you today that God has the ability and the power through his spirit to bring you out of that circumstance, to give you that Heaven can be a real place.
Hallelujah, we thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
Thank you Jesus.
In the name of Jesus right now, let your Holy Spirit begin to move! All around me, people have been swept up by an invisible force.
And now they speak in, what they believe, is the language of Heaven.
I can see on their faces that they are genuinely somewhere else.
You were there for a long time.
You don't have any idea what you were saying? No, but when you let the Holy Spirit flow through you then, I mean, then you don't have, kind of, control over yourself and it's just the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking to you, and I can't wait till I go to Heaven, because that's how I would be at all times.
Well, you know, I've been going to the cultural experiences of different religions and belief systems, and the thing that I have learned is that everybody's truth is the truth.
That was quite a powerful experience.
I could feel the energy in that space.
Normal people suddenly transformed by some power.
And then, just as suddenly, return to normal.
Pentecostals believe that they are bringing Heaven down to Earth.
Now, whatever it is, once they felt that power, they're not the same.
Experience changes them.
How they see themselves, how they relate to others how they live their lives.
The Pentecostals feel the presence of Heaven through their unique ritual.
But one Hindu king physically built Heaven on Earth to entice the Gods to reside there.
Mississippi is my home.
Being here just feels right.
To me it's like Heaven on Earth.
And we all yearn for that place where you're at ease, the place where you feel you belong.
The ancient Jews sought the heaven of their homeland when they left Babylon.
The Mormons found theirs by the Great Salt Lake.
It's a universal human urge to find your Heaven here, and now.
In the jungles of Cambodia, over 900 years ago, one king built his own Heaven on Earth.
This is Angkor Wat.
It's the largest religious monument in the world.
Today it's a Buddhist temple, but that wasn't always the case.
It was originally constructed by the king of the Khmer Empire, Suryavarman II, as a model of Hindu Heaven.
Hey David, how are you? -Good.
-It's been a while.
-Right? Welcome, welcome.
-It's been too long, mate.
Thank you, thank you, very much.
Archaeologist David Brotherson, has enlisted the aid of Cambodian historian, Syan Superovi to understand why this incredible site was built.
It's mind boggling how much work was put into building this immaculate building.
Tremendously.
So the amount of manpower that was deployed here, there must have been a very important underlying reason -for them to go to all this effort? -Definitely.
This whole complex itself is the symbolisms of the entire universe.
Moat, in the Hindu mythology, moat is symbolizing the oceans that is surrounding Mount Meru.
In Hindu mythology, the five peaks of Mount Meru are the centre of the universe.
The Heavenly abode of the Gods.
So, the moats which surround these temples are huge, and they symbolize the ocean that surrounds where the Gods live.
The entire complex itself symbolizing the universe, right? But, this temple, it's not only that, it is the Heaven on Earth.
It is the place called the highest world of Vishnu.
In Sanskrit it's called Parama Vishnu Yuga.
I believe I read the translation, it's a sacred paradise of Vishnu as well.
The Hindu God, Vishnu, is the protector of creation and Angkor Wat was built for him.
Inside the temple are over 12,000 square feet of intricately carved reliefs.
One relief was created to link.
King Suryavarman II to Vishnu himself.
Look, you can see that by relief, the king who build this temple, and if you look closely over there, there is an inscription saying Meaning that he is the king who went through the highest world of Vishnu.
Archaeologists aren't sure whether the king is buried here, but local people believe that his spirit resides here in Vishnu's paradise.
That paradise, that Heaven, lies at the top of the central tower.
So they believe that Suryavarman II's spirit would inhabit these towers in the afterlife? Exactly, exactly, exactly.
If you look at the steps, you know, like the wider the step, why it's too narrow, you know, like it can be implied, the ideas, of that, you know, approaching the worlds of God.
It's not that easy.
All right, well, let's Let's not wait a moment longer, let's let's go up.
Please, come.
The peak of the temple was believed by the Khmer to be the highest reaches of Heaven and the realm of Vishnu himself.
David, what do you think? I think that everyone is impressed by your ancestors.
-Yeah, yeah.
-This is phenomenal.
Perhaps they were building such immaculate, beautiful structures to entice the Gods to inhabit these structures so that the priests, the king, would have had this opportunity to have a direct connection with the supernatural.
That's true.
Even if you're not a spiritual person, you can feel the aura of this kind of place, you know.
We really are at Heaven on Earth.
Angkor Wat is an impressive example of one man's attempt to build a Heaven on Earth, but, I wonder does it have to be so monumental? So elaborate? 2,000 years ago, in Galilee and Jerusalem, a man called Jesus began his ministry.
He told his followers that they would inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
I've always struggled to understand what he meant by that.
Whether the Heaven he spoke of was up in the sky or down here on Earth.
There's one group of Christians that might know the answer to that question.
The Assyrian Christian Church dates its foundation to just a few years after Jesus's death.
It claims its theology is what Jesus himself believed.
For them, Heaven means being close to God, Hell is being far from God.
The Assyrian community's home is now called Iraq.
So, I wanted to understand how you can find a piece of Heaven when you are living in what became Hell on Earth? I've been invited to break bread with two Assyrians from Baghdad.
-Hi, how are you, sir? -Just fine, how are you? Mervat Schlyaman Nice to see you.
And her son, Mattius Aneuam.
Hi, my name's Mattius.
Mattius.
-Nice to meet you, have a seat.
-Would you like some tea? -Thank you, that would be nice.
You're from Iraq? -Uh-huh, yes.
-You? But you're not Iraqi? You are? We're Assyrian Christians.
We lived in Iraq for over 2,000 years.
How old are you? I'm just kidding.
But the Assyrian Christians have been there since the time of Jesus? Uh-huh.
You were in Iraq and then the Civil War broke out? Yes.
That's the insurgence against the government? And you were still there? -Yes.
-During the war? Must have been awful.
She's saying, 'Before the war started 'the Muslim and the Christian community they were all peaceful.
'Everyone was treated equally, 'but, when the war started everything started going downhill.
' Is that problematical? That you were Assyrian Christians in a largely Muslim country? There was no law and order between the communities, and the militants thought that the Christians were working with the American soldiers, so, started creating problems.
The insurgents, they put bombs in cars and they used to really to put 'em, like, in front of churches and other religious areas and they'd blow 'em up.
Didn't that frighten you? She said, 'Yeah, it frightened us.
' We hear, like, that church got blown up, it struck fear in our hearts.
We started getting threats.
-Threats? -Yeah.
What kind of threats? 'We're gonna kidnap your son and kill you.
' Wow.
Okay, then what? You left Baghdad? Yeah, we did leave.
Where'd you go? We got onto a bus with our some of our clothes and we just went to Syria.
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Within a year of their arrival in Syria, Mervat and Mattius faced a new threat: ISIS.
We actually filed applications with the United Nations and they actually accepted us to come to the United States.
Welcome to the U.
S.
Thank you.
I want you to, for me, to make a comparison.
Your time in the hottest part of Iraq and the hottest part of Syria, and your life now? It's life here, freedom.
Freedom of religion.
It's really different to come here, to America.
I do think between the heaven and hell and I compare it to my life.
Mervat and Mattius have joined other Assyrian refugees in California's Central Valley, where they can live and pray in peace.
Mervat and Mattius, have lived through Hell on Earth.
They were chased out of two countries because of their faith, but, the promise of Heaven rooted in a tradition that goes back to the time of Christ gave them the strength to find a better life.
They made it to their Kingdom of Heaven.
Finding Heaven on Earth is a goal for many faiths around the world.
But in the jungles of Mexico, the faithful dared to step into their own Heaven in an underwater graveyard.
As a youngster growing up in Mississippi, Hollywood seemed impossibly far away.
A land I only dreamed of ever seeing.
Many faithful think of Heaven the same way, an impossible realm that you will never set foot in, in this life.
Or is Heaven a place where you can come back from and tell the tale? In Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient Maya believed they had found entryways to Heaven through water-filled, underground caverns called cenotes.
Archaeologist and National Geographic explorer, Giamo Dianda and his colleague, Dante Garcia, are here to dive at two cenotes deep in the Yucatan jungle.
They are searching for evidence that the Maya entered these cenotes to offer human sacrifices to their God of Rain, Chac.
-What's up? -Good to see you again, man.
Pedro Flores is a descendant of the ancient Maya people who lived in this area.
This is the cenote that I talked to you about.
Oh this is great, it's a great entrance.
It's very mystical for me.
The cenotes, with water, is the closest doorway to underground Heaven.
This is the threshold between our world, physical world, and the spiritual world.
And the world of Gods, like, for instance, Chac.
Maya legend says the Rain God, Chac, lived in the clouds, the heavens.
But his Heaven also extended underground, where Chac's avatars scoop up water from the cenotes with earthenware jars to make rain.
Thunder is the sound of these jars being broken open and releasing the downpour, The rain was vital for the survival of the corn crop, and, in turn, the Maya people.
Archaeologists believe ancient Maya would come to the cenotes and offer human sacrifices to bring the rain.
Before Giamo and Dante enter the cenote, Pedro makes an offering to Chac.
I just asked permission you, Chac, the father of rain, father of water, thunders, he's the one who gonna help us to go in safe and get back safe.
Thank you.
Let's go.
Giamo and Dante dive 100 feet below the surface.
They discover some carved stones which Giamo believes could be over 1,000 years old, but no sign of human remains.
Giamo hopes they will find proof of human sacrifice at another cenote that's two and a half miles away.
So, then, we we repel down and suit up and make a quick look, we will forage.
Access to the second cenote requires the divers to be lowered down to the water 30 feet below.
Giamo and Dante discover some pottery.
And then the evidence of sacrifice they've been looking for.
This is the ultimate offering you can make to Gods.
Human blood or a human life.
So, in times of desperation, big droughts, no rain, no agriculture, it's maybe time to do a sacrifice and to appease the Gods and to ask for them, to beg them, to make rain.
The ritual importance of these places, cenotes and caves, they are strong.
They have huge, important energies that the Maya knew about, and these people supposed to, sometimes, carry a message for the Gods that live there.
The Maya believed cenotes were passageways to Heaven.
Some who ventured into those waters returned.
I'm sure they told incredible tales of what they saw.
Across the world in India, Hindus also believe they have a passageway to an eternal world: the Ganges River.
It leads to a state of pure energy called moksha.
Hindus believe in reincarnation, but when they reach moksha, their version of Heaven, they don't return to Earth.
We can't ask them any more than we can ask the Maya what Heaven is like, but, today, thanks to modern medicine, people occasionally die and come back to life.
Perhaps they have tales of Heaven to tell us? To learn what Heaven might be like, I'm going to speak to a woman who claims she went there when she died.
-Would you like to come and sit? -Surely.
A physician's assistant named Krista Gorman.
You had a near-death experience.
I'm talking to a real, live woman who had a near-death experience? Uh-huh, yes you are.
What led up to that? Well, I was pregnant with my daughter and I went in a week before she was due because she had a problem with her kidney, not only that, but her heart rate was dropping very low.
So, they said, you know, 'We need to do a C-section,' and it was too dangerous to wait.
I started having trouble breathing and I passed out.
They lost my pulse for eight minutes.
Can we define that as death? In the clinical sense, perhaps.
My heart stopped beating.
I wasn't getting any blood flow to my brain.
-Okay, so you pass out.
-Mm-hmm.
Then the next thing I remember was being very far above my body.
I saw the body laying there and there were people around it, and I was still me, I was still Krista, but I had no relationship with anything that I was witnessing below.
It's happening, but you're still not involved in it? Correct.
I felt this tugging to my left, something kind of pulled at me a little bit, as if to say, come on.
And I said, 'Okay, I'll go.
' I just started moving through the wall and into this bright white space that was just a flash.
I came out into what I called my Eden.
It was a space that was incredibly beautiful.
Green, rolling hills, beautiful, blue sky.
There was a deep, evergreen forest, and to my left there was a moss-covered rock waterfall, and it was beyond beautiful.
I felt like I was one with it and it was one with me.
I was flanked on both sides by what I refer to as my spiritual guides, or what we would call angels, here.
They were very tall and thin and almost like they were wearing drapes, and they communicated to me that I could either stay in that place, that Eden.
I could move beyond that to what came next, or I could come back here.
And as soon as I made that decision I started to move backwards very, very quickly, and they, sort of, turned to me and communicated, 'Well if you choose to go back, you need to share what you learned here,' and I had this feeling of tremendous love.
Just permeated me.
-Awesome.
-Yeah.
As far as I can tell, you just described Heaven.
It was Heaven, it was my Heaven.
When do you get back the time that you knew, 'Oh, wow, okay, I'm here.
I'm back here.
' They were able to get me back and awake on some level roughly 24 hours after the event, and I woke up that morning, just wanting to, you know, shout from the hilltops, what I had learned, what had happened to me.
Religion.
Got one? My religion is love.
You know, God, to me, is love.
That's what we were taught when we were three years old.
Mm-hmm.
God is love.
And it's that simple.
We are love.
Now, hold on a second, you're gonna say to the entire world it's as simple as that? For me it is.
Well, I have to believe that it's as simple as that.
Yeah.
All of this we have discussed is around the birth or attempted birth of a baby.
Which is it? The birth of my daughter.
So you have her? She is a reality? Would you like to meet her? Of course.
Let's go.
Hey, Maggie.
Hi.
There's somebody I want you to meet.
-Nice to meet you.
-What are you doing? -What? -Don't I get a hug? Oh, hi.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
All right, you know we're here to talk to your mom about you'alls experience? -Yeah.
-How do you feel? I was ten, 11, when she first sat me down and talked to me about it, and when I first heard about it I didn't really understand it all that much.
It went over my head.
After that, I was around 14 when I finally realized why she thinks so highly of this experience, and I can finally understand how to apply it to my own life.
It makes sense to me -that at ten, -Yeah.
Your mom explaining to you your birth, -Mm-hmm.
That's about as far as you can go with it.
-Yeah.
Until things start to percolate over the years.
Yeah.
-Well, Maggie.
-Aw.
Darling, I am so happy to see you.
It's such an honour.
I mean particularly knowing Mom and you and your trip together, I am happy to see you here.
Thank you so much.
So many faiths have so many beliefs about Heaven and Hell.
But Krista, like so many other survivors of near-death experiences, came back from her trip with an overwhelming feeling of love.
That's that's Heaven.
Heaven is simply love.
And that's the power of Heaven and Hell, I think.
How they affect us emotionally and fill us with love for our brothers and sisters and fear that drives us away from evil and hope for a brighter future.
It drives us to make a positive change.
Not in some other world, but right here on Earth.
My journey to understand Heaven and Hell has taken me from the bowels of the Earth to the gates of Eden.
From people who live in the shadow of the inferno to those who bathe in the light of paradise.
Heaven and Hell are not just ideas.
They're a part of us.
A part of what we yearn to escape.
What we hope to become.
Part of it looking up at the night sky.
We had no electricity so the moon was the only light that ever challenged that of the stars.
And they filled me with such an inexpressible sense of wonder.
My paternal grandmother told me that that was where Heaven was, where God lives, the place where good people go, when they die.
She also warned me about the other place.
Hell.
The place you go when you're bad.
At age five or six, these ideas are a bit overwhelming.
Frightening.
Inspiring, I guess.
And I think most people, no matter what their faith, have faced similar thoughts and fears.
What is Heaven? What is Hell? How have these unseen places changed the way we live our lives on Earth? To find out Oh, look what I see.
I'll descend into the Underworld of ancient Native Americans.
I think there's something in here that they don't want found.
See people who are tormented by Hell.
And touched by paradise.
It's that sneak preview of what Heaven's gonna be like.
I'll discover Heaven in the Cambodian jungle.
We really are at Heaven on earth.
And in one woman's remarkable story.
As far as I can tell you just described Heaven.
It was my Heaven.
Do Heaven and Hell await us in the afterlife? Or are they here and now? For how long have we been contemplating Heaven and Hell? We know that more than 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians dreamed of their souls travelling through a fiery underworld and up to the stars.
And the people of Stonehenge fixed their gaze on the Heavens even earlier, some 5,000 years ago.
But archaeologists have recently found evidence of a culture that believed in a version of Heaven and Hell even before those monuments were built.
It's not where you'd expect.
Archaeologist Jan Simeck is taking me to a site in the hills of Tennessee, one that the ancient Native American ancestors of the Cherokee used for hundreds of generations.
So, then where are we going now? So, we're going to a cave called Dunbar Cave.
It's a cave that was used for as much as 10,000 years by prehistoric people.
Much of that time they were using it as a religious site, uh, kind of the entryway to Hell in, you know, our terms.
These formations, they just scream ancient.
Well, they are, the cave itself is a very ancient place.
Wow.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Over the centuries, people have left their mark on these walls, most have little historical significance, but, in a chamber 200 yards from the mouth of the cave, Jan's archaeological team has made a stunning discovery.
Artwork that could represent humanity's oldest imaginings of Heaven and Hell.
-So, Morgan, this is Beau Carroll.
-Hello.
A graduate student in anthropology and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Look at this.
So, what we're looking at here is These two symbols, one looks like a star, one could resemble a comet.
So, the original peoples came down and they make these symbols representative of what? Some people have actually interpreted this cross and circle image as a sign that represents the Upper world above, the Middle world and the world below.
Cherokee people believe that they came from the stars, and they were put here in the Underworld, in the Earth, and we were born from the Earth.
I think that this could be a depiction of that.
The Cherokee believe the universe is encased in a stone sphere.
Inside are three levels of existence.
Cherokee souls are created amid the stars of the Upper world, then they sink deep underground into the lower world where they await their birth into the Middle world, the land of the living.
At death, their soul returns underground and then travels back up to the stars.
Closing an endless cycle of life, death and rebirth.
For the ancient Cherokee, to enter this cave was to set foot into the lower world, a place where the living did not belong.
Oh, look what I see.
What do I see? So, we're looking here at a reclining human figure, about 6 and a half feet long.
His head is pointed down into the depths of the cave, so this is a warrior floating into the death realm of the Underworld.
Do you get a special feeling coming into these caves and knowing you the ancestry of that part of your? I get nervous.
But you're an archaeologist.
Yeah.
I think that they put this guy here because he's guarding something.
I think there's something in here that they don't want found.
I think that I get that feeling from this drawing because we're really not supposed to be here.
Jan and Beau have brought me to the edge of the Cherokee Underworld, but I wanna know if these ancient people also tried to make contact with their Upper world, their Heaven.
What about the Upper world? -Would you like to go see? -Absolutely.
-Let's go.
-Come on.
So, we're near a place called Mount Bottom.
It was a large village, centred around a mound that provided access to the Upper world, the temple, and that's what we're looking at here.
This Native American village, situated about 50 miles south of the Dunbar Cave, was a centre of religious life for the Cherokee ancestors.
The top of the central earthen mound was as close to Heaven as the living could get.
Okay, so what happens up here? Just like with the cave and the Underworld, you go from inside the cave, you go from Middle to Under.
Here it's the same thing except we're going from Middle to Upper.
We're right on the cusp of a cosmic doorway.
Can you be a little bit more specific about what that is? When we say you're on the cusp of a cosmic doorway, who is? The living? So, all these people that have passed on before us they're essentially in another world.
They can hear us if we talk to them in the right way.
If we dance the right way, if we sing the right songs, then those people can hear us, and those people know that we haven't forgotten who they were.
We haven't forgotten who we were.
Everything wants to go up, and if you build this up here and have those same dances, it would be heard better than doing it down on the ground.
The higher you go, the more you're likely to be in touch with the elders or the Gods Whoever wants to listen.
Right.
Going into the Dunbar Cave, I felt like Orpheus must have when he descended into Hell.
And it made me realize how ancient and universal our connection with Heaven and Hell is.
I felt a vague sense of fear as I moved deeper into the darkness of the cave.
Likewise, I felt a sense of hope and release when I climbed to the top of the temple.
We all share these hopes and fears.
We always have.
We probably always will.
For thousands of years, Heaven and Hell have driven us to create enduring monuments.
They've inspired iconic works of art.
Around the world, the faithful hope for an afterlife in paradise, or, fear eternal damnation.
But sometimes Hell visits people on Earth.
In Ethiopia, many people believe evil spirits can take over the bodies of the living.
One way to chase them out is to undergo an exorcism.
Historian, Nancy Caciola, and religions scholar, Solomon Getina have come to Debre Libanos, a seventh century monastery of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
It's a site with a long history of exorcism.
I can't wait to see what it's like.
I will take you inside and you will see how people get healed.
Ethiopian Christians believe demonic possession manifests itself in many ways.
From the mild pain of a headache to extreme hallucinations and emotional disturbances.
People travel here from all over Ethiopia to rid themselves of the Hellish demons they believe possess them.
Zelalam Gedachim is one of those people.
Why were you feeling ill and why did you decide that you needed to come here? You see, he said he heard unusual voices.
Ah, so these voices feel sinister and evil to you? Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Zelalam, like the hundreds of other people with more severe symptoms, has come here to be healed by St.
Tekle's cross, a holy object, so revered, it's always kept wrapped in cloth.
St.
Tekle was an Ethiopian Orthodox monk who took charge of this monastery in the 13th century.
So this cross has a very special power of expelling demons then? So it makes the demons upset and that's why they react in this way? Because the demons can't tolerate to be close to something holy? Exactly, exactly.
She's saying 'I'm burned.
' Demon in her is saying, you know, you know, 'I'm burned, I'm burned, I'm burned.
' As the cross nears the possessed they believe the demons will be expelled from their bodies.
Now it is Zelalam's turn.
Despite his outward calm, he firmly believes the voice in his head is a demon.
And only the cross can expel it.
So he's going to beat the demon? Exactly, they ordered to kneel down so So the cross is for the blessing and then if it's stubborn, he'll beat them with the strap? Exactly.
So, do you feel that the evil spirits have left you now? Permanently? So, after he kissed the cross he didn't feel the previous feeling.
He said that he is sure that he's healed.
You can see that there's this struggle going on between good and evil, Heaven and Hell, -humanity and forces of evil and demons.
-Exactly.
You can see that in the responses of people, the noises they make, the way that they twist their bodies.
You can see the struggle that is this cosmic part of the world of good and evil that we live in.
Exactly, this is a war taking place.
But it's right in the body of this individual.
Ethiopian Christians see their suffering, be it illness, conflict or any calamity that befalls them, as the shadow of Hell falling on their lives.
Bowing down to the cross can purge them of that shadow and bring them peace in this world.
But where there is darkness there is also light.
Some people feel they are touched by Heaven in a physical way, every Sunday.
I've come to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet Annie Naz.
-Hi.
-Hi.
I'm Annie.
I'm Morgan.
Pleased to meet you, Morgan.
It's my pleasure, Annie.
Annie's family recently immigrated from Pakistan to the U.
S.
-You're from Pakistan? -Right.
The name Annie isn't that a Christian name? It is.
I was born a Pentecostal, Christian family.
-Yeah.
-Yes.
But you were not Pentecostal Christian.
In the beginning, I didn't like going to church, I thought it was boring, but then I had a great spiritual experience.
One day we were worshipping and all of a sudden, I just started feeling like crying, and I started praising God, I started saying those words.
When I started speaking, I was speaking in tongues.
Okay, all right.
You know, it just changed my life in a huge, huge, huge way.
Any chance I get to see you speaking in tongues? When you feel the presence of God, -even if I try to speak to you -Yeah.
I just can't, my tongue starts twisting and I start speaking in tongues, so you might.
Annie is taking me to the New Life United Pentecostal church, where they worship by speaking in tongues.
This practice comes from the Christian Bible.
According to the Book of Acts, 50 days after Jesus's death, on the day of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled Christ's disciples causing them to speak in an unknown language.
Pentecostal services recreate this moment of Heaven coming down to Earth.
# Yeah, I gotta praise, I gotta praise now, now, now # # Now, I gotta praise # # Can't stop, praising his name # # I just can't stop praising his name # # I just can't stop praising his name, Jesus, Jesus # In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.
When I began to open myself up and surrender to God and allow his spirit to move into me, it's a sneak preview of what Heaven's gonna be like.
I want you to close your eyes, I want you to begin to pray.
In your heart, right now, I want you to open your soul and say God, here I am.
I surrender to you.
I don't care what you're facing in life, what situations you're struggling with, I'm here to tell you today that God has the ability and the power through his spirit to bring you out of that circumstance, to give you that Heaven can be a real place.
Hallelujah, we thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
Thank you Jesus.
In the name of Jesus right now, let your Holy Spirit begin to move! All around me, people have been swept up by an invisible force.
And now they speak in, what they believe, is the language of Heaven.
I can see on their faces that they are genuinely somewhere else.
You were there for a long time.
You don't have any idea what you were saying? No, but when you let the Holy Spirit flow through you then, I mean, then you don't have, kind of, control over yourself and it's just the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking to you, and I can't wait till I go to Heaven, because that's how I would be at all times.
Well, you know, I've been going to the cultural experiences of different religions and belief systems, and the thing that I have learned is that everybody's truth is the truth.
That was quite a powerful experience.
I could feel the energy in that space.
Normal people suddenly transformed by some power.
And then, just as suddenly, return to normal.
Pentecostals believe that they are bringing Heaven down to Earth.
Now, whatever it is, once they felt that power, they're not the same.
Experience changes them.
How they see themselves, how they relate to others how they live their lives.
The Pentecostals feel the presence of Heaven through their unique ritual.
But one Hindu king physically built Heaven on Earth to entice the Gods to reside there.
Mississippi is my home.
Being here just feels right.
To me it's like Heaven on Earth.
And we all yearn for that place where you're at ease, the place where you feel you belong.
The ancient Jews sought the heaven of their homeland when they left Babylon.
The Mormons found theirs by the Great Salt Lake.
It's a universal human urge to find your Heaven here, and now.
In the jungles of Cambodia, over 900 years ago, one king built his own Heaven on Earth.
This is Angkor Wat.
It's the largest religious monument in the world.
Today it's a Buddhist temple, but that wasn't always the case.
It was originally constructed by the king of the Khmer Empire, Suryavarman II, as a model of Hindu Heaven.
Hey David, how are you? -Good.
-It's been a while.
-Right? Welcome, welcome.
-It's been too long, mate.
Thank you, thank you, very much.
Archaeologist David Brotherson, has enlisted the aid of Cambodian historian, Syan Superovi to understand why this incredible site was built.
It's mind boggling how much work was put into building this immaculate building.
Tremendously.
So the amount of manpower that was deployed here, there must have been a very important underlying reason -for them to go to all this effort? -Definitely.
This whole complex itself is the symbolisms of the entire universe.
Moat, in the Hindu mythology, moat is symbolizing the oceans that is surrounding Mount Meru.
In Hindu mythology, the five peaks of Mount Meru are the centre of the universe.
The Heavenly abode of the Gods.
So, the moats which surround these temples are huge, and they symbolize the ocean that surrounds where the Gods live.
The entire complex itself symbolizing the universe, right? But, this temple, it's not only that, it is the Heaven on Earth.
It is the place called the highest world of Vishnu.
In Sanskrit it's called Parama Vishnu Yuga.
I believe I read the translation, it's a sacred paradise of Vishnu as well.
The Hindu God, Vishnu, is the protector of creation and Angkor Wat was built for him.
Inside the temple are over 12,000 square feet of intricately carved reliefs.
One relief was created to link.
King Suryavarman II to Vishnu himself.
Look, you can see that by relief, the king who build this temple, and if you look closely over there, there is an inscription saying Meaning that he is the king who went through the highest world of Vishnu.
Archaeologists aren't sure whether the king is buried here, but local people believe that his spirit resides here in Vishnu's paradise.
That paradise, that Heaven, lies at the top of the central tower.
So they believe that Suryavarman II's spirit would inhabit these towers in the afterlife? Exactly, exactly, exactly.
If you look at the steps, you know, like the wider the step, why it's too narrow, you know, like it can be implied, the ideas, of that, you know, approaching the worlds of God.
It's not that easy.
All right, well, let's Let's not wait a moment longer, let's let's go up.
Please, come.
The peak of the temple was believed by the Khmer to be the highest reaches of Heaven and the realm of Vishnu himself.
David, what do you think? I think that everyone is impressed by your ancestors.
-Yeah, yeah.
-This is phenomenal.
Perhaps they were building such immaculate, beautiful structures to entice the Gods to inhabit these structures so that the priests, the king, would have had this opportunity to have a direct connection with the supernatural.
That's true.
Even if you're not a spiritual person, you can feel the aura of this kind of place, you know.
We really are at Heaven on Earth.
Angkor Wat is an impressive example of one man's attempt to build a Heaven on Earth, but, I wonder does it have to be so monumental? So elaborate? 2,000 years ago, in Galilee and Jerusalem, a man called Jesus began his ministry.
He told his followers that they would inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
I've always struggled to understand what he meant by that.
Whether the Heaven he spoke of was up in the sky or down here on Earth.
There's one group of Christians that might know the answer to that question.
The Assyrian Christian Church dates its foundation to just a few years after Jesus's death.
It claims its theology is what Jesus himself believed.
For them, Heaven means being close to God, Hell is being far from God.
The Assyrian community's home is now called Iraq.
So, I wanted to understand how you can find a piece of Heaven when you are living in what became Hell on Earth? I've been invited to break bread with two Assyrians from Baghdad.
-Hi, how are you, sir? -Just fine, how are you? Mervat Schlyaman Nice to see you.
And her son, Mattius Aneuam.
Hi, my name's Mattius.
Mattius.
-Nice to meet you, have a seat.
-Would you like some tea? -Thank you, that would be nice.
You're from Iraq? -Uh-huh, yes.
-You? But you're not Iraqi? You are? We're Assyrian Christians.
We lived in Iraq for over 2,000 years.
How old are you? I'm just kidding.
But the Assyrian Christians have been there since the time of Jesus? Uh-huh.
You were in Iraq and then the Civil War broke out? Yes.
That's the insurgence against the government? And you were still there? -Yes.
-During the war? Must have been awful.
She's saying, 'Before the war started 'the Muslim and the Christian community they were all peaceful.
'Everyone was treated equally, 'but, when the war started everything started going downhill.
' Is that problematical? That you were Assyrian Christians in a largely Muslim country? There was no law and order between the communities, and the militants thought that the Christians were working with the American soldiers, so, started creating problems.
The insurgents, they put bombs in cars and they used to really to put 'em, like, in front of churches and other religious areas and they'd blow 'em up.
Didn't that frighten you? She said, 'Yeah, it frightened us.
' We hear, like, that church got blown up, it struck fear in our hearts.
We started getting threats.
-Threats? -Yeah.
What kind of threats? 'We're gonna kidnap your son and kill you.
' Wow.
Okay, then what? You left Baghdad? Yeah, we did leave.
Where'd you go? We got onto a bus with our some of our clothes and we just went to Syria.
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Within a year of their arrival in Syria, Mervat and Mattius faced a new threat: ISIS.
We actually filed applications with the United Nations and they actually accepted us to come to the United States.
Welcome to the U.
S.
Thank you.
I want you to, for me, to make a comparison.
Your time in the hottest part of Iraq and the hottest part of Syria, and your life now? It's life here, freedom.
Freedom of religion.
It's really different to come here, to America.
I do think between the heaven and hell and I compare it to my life.
Mervat and Mattius have joined other Assyrian refugees in California's Central Valley, where they can live and pray in peace.
Mervat and Mattius, have lived through Hell on Earth.
They were chased out of two countries because of their faith, but, the promise of Heaven rooted in a tradition that goes back to the time of Christ gave them the strength to find a better life.
They made it to their Kingdom of Heaven.
Finding Heaven on Earth is a goal for many faiths around the world.
But in the jungles of Mexico, the faithful dared to step into their own Heaven in an underwater graveyard.
As a youngster growing up in Mississippi, Hollywood seemed impossibly far away.
A land I only dreamed of ever seeing.
Many faithful think of Heaven the same way, an impossible realm that you will never set foot in, in this life.
Or is Heaven a place where you can come back from and tell the tale? In Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient Maya believed they had found entryways to Heaven through water-filled, underground caverns called cenotes.
Archaeologist and National Geographic explorer, Giamo Dianda and his colleague, Dante Garcia, are here to dive at two cenotes deep in the Yucatan jungle.
They are searching for evidence that the Maya entered these cenotes to offer human sacrifices to their God of Rain, Chac.
-What's up? -Good to see you again, man.
Pedro Flores is a descendant of the ancient Maya people who lived in this area.
This is the cenote that I talked to you about.
Oh this is great, it's a great entrance.
It's very mystical for me.
The cenotes, with water, is the closest doorway to underground Heaven.
This is the threshold between our world, physical world, and the spiritual world.
And the world of Gods, like, for instance, Chac.
Maya legend says the Rain God, Chac, lived in the clouds, the heavens.
But his Heaven also extended underground, where Chac's avatars scoop up water from the cenotes with earthenware jars to make rain.
Thunder is the sound of these jars being broken open and releasing the downpour, The rain was vital for the survival of the corn crop, and, in turn, the Maya people.
Archaeologists believe ancient Maya would come to the cenotes and offer human sacrifices to bring the rain.
Before Giamo and Dante enter the cenote, Pedro makes an offering to Chac.
I just asked permission you, Chac, the father of rain, father of water, thunders, he's the one who gonna help us to go in safe and get back safe.
Thank you.
Let's go.
Giamo and Dante dive 100 feet below the surface.
They discover some carved stones which Giamo believes could be over 1,000 years old, but no sign of human remains.
Giamo hopes they will find proof of human sacrifice at another cenote that's two and a half miles away.
So, then, we we repel down and suit up and make a quick look, we will forage.
Access to the second cenote requires the divers to be lowered down to the water 30 feet below.
Giamo and Dante discover some pottery.
And then the evidence of sacrifice they've been looking for.
This is the ultimate offering you can make to Gods.
Human blood or a human life.
So, in times of desperation, big droughts, no rain, no agriculture, it's maybe time to do a sacrifice and to appease the Gods and to ask for them, to beg them, to make rain.
The ritual importance of these places, cenotes and caves, they are strong.
They have huge, important energies that the Maya knew about, and these people supposed to, sometimes, carry a message for the Gods that live there.
The Maya believed cenotes were passageways to Heaven.
Some who ventured into those waters returned.
I'm sure they told incredible tales of what they saw.
Across the world in India, Hindus also believe they have a passageway to an eternal world: the Ganges River.
It leads to a state of pure energy called moksha.
Hindus believe in reincarnation, but when they reach moksha, their version of Heaven, they don't return to Earth.
We can't ask them any more than we can ask the Maya what Heaven is like, but, today, thanks to modern medicine, people occasionally die and come back to life.
Perhaps they have tales of Heaven to tell us? To learn what Heaven might be like, I'm going to speak to a woman who claims she went there when she died.
-Would you like to come and sit? -Surely.
A physician's assistant named Krista Gorman.
You had a near-death experience.
I'm talking to a real, live woman who had a near-death experience? Uh-huh, yes you are.
What led up to that? Well, I was pregnant with my daughter and I went in a week before she was due because she had a problem with her kidney, not only that, but her heart rate was dropping very low.
So, they said, you know, 'We need to do a C-section,' and it was too dangerous to wait.
I started having trouble breathing and I passed out.
They lost my pulse for eight minutes.
Can we define that as death? In the clinical sense, perhaps.
My heart stopped beating.
I wasn't getting any blood flow to my brain.
-Okay, so you pass out.
-Mm-hmm.
Then the next thing I remember was being very far above my body.
I saw the body laying there and there were people around it, and I was still me, I was still Krista, but I had no relationship with anything that I was witnessing below.
It's happening, but you're still not involved in it? Correct.
I felt this tugging to my left, something kind of pulled at me a little bit, as if to say, come on.
And I said, 'Okay, I'll go.
' I just started moving through the wall and into this bright white space that was just a flash.
I came out into what I called my Eden.
It was a space that was incredibly beautiful.
Green, rolling hills, beautiful, blue sky.
There was a deep, evergreen forest, and to my left there was a moss-covered rock waterfall, and it was beyond beautiful.
I felt like I was one with it and it was one with me.
I was flanked on both sides by what I refer to as my spiritual guides, or what we would call angels, here.
They were very tall and thin and almost like they were wearing drapes, and they communicated to me that I could either stay in that place, that Eden.
I could move beyond that to what came next, or I could come back here.
And as soon as I made that decision I started to move backwards very, very quickly, and they, sort of, turned to me and communicated, 'Well if you choose to go back, you need to share what you learned here,' and I had this feeling of tremendous love.
Just permeated me.
-Awesome.
-Yeah.
As far as I can tell, you just described Heaven.
It was Heaven, it was my Heaven.
When do you get back the time that you knew, 'Oh, wow, okay, I'm here.
I'm back here.
' They were able to get me back and awake on some level roughly 24 hours after the event, and I woke up that morning, just wanting to, you know, shout from the hilltops, what I had learned, what had happened to me.
Religion.
Got one? My religion is love.
You know, God, to me, is love.
That's what we were taught when we were three years old.
Mm-hmm.
God is love.
And it's that simple.
We are love.
Now, hold on a second, you're gonna say to the entire world it's as simple as that? For me it is.
Well, I have to believe that it's as simple as that.
Yeah.
All of this we have discussed is around the birth or attempted birth of a baby.
Which is it? The birth of my daughter.
So you have her? She is a reality? Would you like to meet her? Of course.
Let's go.
Hey, Maggie.
Hi.
There's somebody I want you to meet.
-Nice to meet you.
-What are you doing? -What? -Don't I get a hug? Oh, hi.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
All right, you know we're here to talk to your mom about you'alls experience? -Yeah.
-How do you feel? I was ten, 11, when she first sat me down and talked to me about it, and when I first heard about it I didn't really understand it all that much.
It went over my head.
After that, I was around 14 when I finally realized why she thinks so highly of this experience, and I can finally understand how to apply it to my own life.
It makes sense to me -that at ten, -Yeah.
Your mom explaining to you your birth, -Mm-hmm.
That's about as far as you can go with it.
-Yeah.
Until things start to percolate over the years.
Yeah.
-Well, Maggie.
-Aw.
Darling, I am so happy to see you.
It's such an honour.
I mean particularly knowing Mom and you and your trip together, I am happy to see you here.
Thank you so much.
So many faiths have so many beliefs about Heaven and Hell.
But Krista, like so many other survivors of near-death experiences, came back from her trip with an overwhelming feeling of love.
That's that's Heaven.
Heaven is simply love.
And that's the power of Heaven and Hell, I think.
How they affect us emotionally and fill us with love for our brothers and sisters and fear that drives us away from evil and hope for a brighter future.
It drives us to make a positive change.
Not in some other world, but right here on Earth.
My journey to understand Heaven and Hell has taken me from the bowels of the Earth to the gates of Eden.
From people who live in the shadow of the inferno to those who bathe in the light of paradise.
Heaven and Hell are not just ideas.
They're a part of us.
A part of what we yearn to escape.
What we hope to become.