In the first half, on what would have been the 71st birthday of Jim Morrison, photographer and filmmaker Frank Lisciandro recalled Morrison's life, his work with the Doors, and some of the media distortions, and myths that have clouded the memory of the late singer and poet. Lisciandro was a good friend of Morrison's-- they met back when they were both students at UCLA. He actually saw the first performance of the Doors on Sunset Strip-- Morrison was hampered by shyness and kept his back to the audience for almost the entire set, he recounted. After the Doors became well known, Morrison reveled in performing, and enjoyed goading and manipulating the audience into having different reactions, Lisciandro noted.
Books about Morrison and the Doors have contained inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and the Oliver Stone film The Doors used a lot of fictitious material about Morrison, Lisciandro said. In contrast to how he has sometimes been portrayed, Morrison was not a heavy drug user, and probably didn't die of an overdose, he suggested. But Morrison was an alcoholic, and this took a toll on his well being. Rather than material possessions, Morrison most valued his music, poetry, and creativity, Lisciandro commented. For more, check out a trailer for the documentary about the Doors, Feast of Friends, finally released 46 years after it was filmed in 1968.
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In the latter half, engineer and scientist Maurice Cotterell provided an update on his most recent work regarding the nature of the soul, and the science of reincarnation. "The only thing more improbable than being born twice, is being born once...To come from nothing into a conscious being is not only incredible, it's absolutely fantastic. Once we're here as an intelligent being, and we can recognize what we are, then it's always possible to come back again a second time," he remarked.
Living beings are a combination of physical matter and God, Cotterell explained, adding that we have a generator inside us and the body converts food into electromagnetic energy. If we lead good lives, and raise our "voltage" level, when we die, we return to God's energy and enhance it-- however if a person's voltage is diminished, they must reincarnate in a new life form, he detailed. Cotterell described the soul as a form of ball lightning but at a much lower voltage that leaves the body upon death. If it doesn't reunite with God, the soul will attach to a developing collection of physical cells that could be any type of living being. He also spoke about how Jesus has reincarnated in various lives, sunspot cycles, and ancient civilizations such as the Maya.
News segment guests: Douglas Hagmann, Howard Bloom