Welcome to Alive Again

In this preliminary episode, host Dan Bush introduces Alive Again and the deeper questions at the heart of the series. Dan is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and storyteller whose work has long explored the human condition—what it means to be alive in a world where impermanence is our only guarantee. He’s drawn to the quiet, powerful truth that every person we know, everyone living today, will one day die. And in the face of that, how do we shape a meaningful existence? What truly matters?

Though Dan himself has never had a near-death experience, his fascination with mortality, transformation, and belonging has fueled decades of storytelling. Alive Again continues that exploration, sharing real stories from people who came face to face with death—and came back changed.

This series isn’t about proving or disproving the afterlife. It’s about the moments that shake us, open us, and reconnect us to what’s real. From near-death experiences to miraculous survivals and brushes with the unknown, Alive Again invites listeners into conversations that reveal something universal: how fragile and miraculous it is to simply be alive.

Warning: This series contains graphic descriptions of trauma, violence, abuse, and other content that may not be suitable for certain listeners.

* If you have a transformative near-death experience to share, we’d love to hear your story. Please email us at [e-mail] 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to Alive Again, a production of Psychopia Pictures
and iHeart Podcasts. Welcome to Alive Again, a podcast that
showcases miraculous accounts of human fragility and resilience from people
whose lives were forever altered after having almost died. These

(00:34):
are first hand accounts of near death experiences and, more broadly,
brushes with death. Our mission is simple, find, explore, and
share these stories to remind us all of our shared
human condition. Please keep in mind these stories are true
and maybe triggering for some listener, and discretion is advised.

(01:00):
Hey everyone, Dan Bush here and welcome to Live Again.
I wanted to start by saying that, you know, although
I've never had a near death experience myself, I've always
been deeply intrigued by existential questions. Like most of us,
I've experienced tremendous loss and profound grief. These moments bring
us face to face with our deepest doubts and our

(01:21):
greatest hopes. I've always been fascinated with I guess the
impermanence of this life. I mean, after all, that is
our shared human condition. Right. Eventually everyone dies, everyone we know,
every person currently living on this planet. Everyone passes on,
so it always brings up for me the question of

(01:43):
what is the point? What is the point of our existence?
Is there any inherent meaning here? And I remember as
a kid thinking how frightening and simultaneously funny our predicament is.
And I mean that, I mean from one perspecise, if
it's completely absurd, isn't it? We all seemingly appear here

(02:04):
in this existence, at a specific point in time and space,
inhabiting a body for what is just a blip in
the grand scheme of a relatively short, unpredictable time, wherein
we struggle to survive our desires, struggle to belong to
something greater than ourselves, struggle to have meaning and purpose,

(02:27):
and all the while, none of us can say for
sure why These are the big questions that have followed
me since I was a child. What really happens at
the moment of our death? Does the surge of DMT,
a powerful psychedelic compound that occurs in the brain trigger
these profound visions and experiences reported by those who have
come back from the brink? Or is there life after death?

(02:50):
And why do these near death experiences share so many
themes across vastly different cultures and personal backgrounds. Today's science
tells us about flat EEGs there's no brain activity in
the cerebral cortex, yet people report being vividly aware during
these moments. About seventeen percent of survivors describe near death experiences,
and their descriptions are as diverse as they are profound.

(03:13):
And although no two near death experiences are the same,
these survivors are one hundred percent certain that they have
experienced something extraordinary and this is super interesting. People who
are resuscitated after flatlining often ask the same exact question,
why did you bring me back? Whether or not somebody flatlines,
a brush with death changes them. It changes their outlook,

(03:36):
their behavior, and their consciousness. In some of these stories,
the survivor is left with an even greater existential dilemma.
They enter into an ongoing struggle with PTSD, or they
are still to this day seeking tools and coping mechanisms
to reconcile the trauma. Others share stories about how their
experience change them in a very different way, renewing their

(03:57):
sense of purpose and meaning. And then you will hear
fascinating stories where the experience of a seemingly miraculous survival
instigates an absolute transformation of a person's relationship with the world,
with the people in their lives, and with themselves. And
these stories aren't just about bright lights or out of
body experiences. They're about acquiring a transcendent sense of peace, love,

(04:19):
and belonging. As a filmmaker and storyteller, I've always been
driven by something that I think is fundamental to the
human experience. It's the need to belong. My work, from
films to fiction podcasts, explores characters grappling to find their
place in the world and compensating for lack of a
sense of belonging. So Alive Again extends this exploration, sharing

(04:43):
extraordinary stories of survival and the profound realizations that often
come with them. Whether it's David Ditchfield, who with no
previous or formal musical training, composed a symphony after surviving
a horrific train accident, or Rodney White, who entirely reinvented
art following his brush with death, or Peter Panigor, who,

(05:04):
after dying on an ice climbing expedition, glimpsed the true
nature of the cosmos and his place within it. These stories,
they challenge and they inspire us more than that. They
show us a shared reality, one that is interconnected in
ways that we might not fully understand. So that's really it.
I invite you to join us as we delve into
these incredible testimonies. Here. It's not about religious faith or

(05:27):
scientific proof, neither of those. It's about the universal truths
that these stories illuminate. It's a peak at our shared humanity,
after all, the one thing we all have in common.
We will all pass from this life in one form
or another eventually, so let's explore together what it means
to truly belong in this vast, mysterious universe. Welcome to

(05:51):
alive again, and thanks for listening.