In a graveyard at night, narrator Brad Crandall asks what happens to a human’s soul after he dies. In a dramatic re-enactment, lawyer Dan Wilson on his route to work accidentally swerves off the road to avoid a truck. Dan reflects about what he experienced after the crash; everything went black and silent, and he left his body as he floated above the scene, a blinding light enveloped him and he felt that he was somewhere between life and death. It was beautiful and peaceful. He saw a bridge and knew that if he crossed it, he would never return, but he thought of his family and how much they needed him. Suddenly, Dan found himself in an ambulance. Lying on a couch, Dan tells his wife that he no longer fears death. This account is typical of most people who have near-death experiences, and the narrator notes that some of history’s greatest thinkers believed in life after death. Plato thought the soul was immortal, and Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1756 “a man is not completely born until he’s dead.” The dying words of other famous figures such as poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and inventor Thomas Edison are enacted. Medical advancements can bring people back from the brink of death, and some of these people's near-death experiences have sparked the interest of scientists in the field of thanatology. A Gallup Poll showed that seventy-three percent of people questioned believed in life after death. Psychiatrist Dr. Eleanor Stevens spent years studying the psychological and emotional state of terminally ill patients to discover how doctors could prepare patients for death. After observing terminally ill patients and making detailed accounts, Dr. Stevens found that patients had similar experiences. Housewife Anne Fleck suffered from Hodgkin’s disease and was declared clinically dead for fifteen minutes before returning to life. Fleck’s account, like those of many others, involved a tunnel, a comforting white light and an out-of-body experience. During a lecture, Dr. Stevens stated that she believed in life after death, provoking uproar. Members of clergy took issue with Dr. Stevens applying scientific reasoning to spirituality. Other scientists reject the existence of a soul and prefer the term “consciousness” or the energy of the mind. Science tells us that energy can’t be destroyed and can only change into another form. Studies of the brain show that the brain emits electrical impulses in the form of energy, and parapsychology is the study of such energy. Many universities across the nation study paranormal phenomena such as telepathy and psychokinesis, questioning what happens to this energy of the brain after death. The film re-enacts the case of Dr. Paul Kelley who was declared clinically dead for nine minutes in 1943 after a bought of pneumonia. During his near-death experience, Dr. Kelley claims he spoke to Jesus Christ who asked him what good had he done on earth. At one point, Dr. Kelley found himself in another dimension. Travelling into the future and through outer space, Dr. Kelley visited a city built of light before coming back to life. Dr. Kelley waited twenty years before publically speaking of his experience. In 1901, Dr. Duncan MacDougall theorized that the soul had mass and tested this theory by weighing the body before and after death. Every patient lost between one-half to three-quarters of an ounce at death. Dr. MacDougall conducted the same experiment on dogs, animals that presumably have no soul, and found that there was no weight loss. Several case histories are discussed about what the soul looks like when it leaves the body. Novelist Louisa May Alcott claimed that she saw a faint mist leave her sister’s body when she died. In 1911, French photographer Hippolyte Baraduc photographed his wife Nadine moments after her death, and the photograph shows a white vapor leaving Nadine’s body. According to research, there are fourteen common elements to a near-death experience, including: a loud buzzing; an intense white light; an out-of-body experience; the sensation of seeing life flash before you; the image of a door, bridge or body of water that represents a border between this world and the next; an awareness that if you went beyond the boundary you would never return; seeing dead relatives or friends; and seeing a divine presence. Studies concluded that people from various religions and spiritual faiths experienced a divine entity. Spiritual “mediums” are people who can communicate with the dead. Harry Houdini wanted to believe in life after death and he and his wife came up with a secret code to send messages to each other after death. When Houdini died, in 1928, noted medium Arthur Ford conducted a séance, where he claimed to have spoken with Houdini. Ford delivered Houdini’s secret message to his wife that no one else, including Ford, could understand. Plato believed that “if the soul can exist in the future then it must also have existed in the past.” In India, a twelve-year-old boy spoke in detail of a previous life in a city ninety miles away. When the boy’s parents traveled to the town and found the friends and family of the man who had died in 1943, the boy’s statements were confirmed. Author Taylor Caldwell claimed her novels were based on her past lives. General George Patton believed he was the reincarnation of a great military man out of history. Although most near-death experiences are similar, the accounts of those who attempted suicide are different. A young bride-to-be recounts that her fiancé left her weeks before their wedding, and she attempted suicide by driving off a cliff. She saw darkness, felt pain, and perceived snakes striking at her. Deformed beings surrounded her and forced her to look into a pit. Inside, she saw the pain and suffering her suicide caused her family and friends, as well as images of children who were never born because she took her own life. Back in the graveyard, Brad Crandall re-states the commonalities of everyone’s near-death experience and notes that both ancient and modern philosophers believed that the soul survives death.