Beyond and Back

I was a student at UofU in Salt Lake City when this was being filmed and I was a "day" extra. All background. In one scene I was a Dr. Holding a clipboard speaking to a nurse in the background. In another, I was a junkie getting advice from a Dr as I'm being lead to the exit. I think I made $50 off this. The main actress on that day was an older woman who looking like she had a bad hangover and was about two minutes away from having the D. T.'s.... never so it, but it was super weird... several local 'celebrities' were very proud to be in it.... I was just earning some bucks....

My parents allowed me to see this crappy documentary for some reason when I was a small child. I was traumatized by it and never again got out of bed without looking back to see if my body was still lying there! Still, every time I get out of bed, the thought occurs to me. So don't let your kids watch it! That is, if you can even get your hands on it, which I strongly doubt!

By the way, the storyline that affected me most was about a guy who entered the hospital with a chest cold, then left his body and encountered evil satanic nurses. Nice. I can't believe I can remember some crappy documentary from 1978 and that it affected me so much.

I think this movie contributed to an extreme fear of death in me from a young age, and I'd have been vastly better off never having seen it. I am no longer as impressionable of course, in fact I'm a callous skeptic, but I cannot erase the emotional damage caused by this stupid 70's documentary. Lame, I know.

Beyond and Back is one of the few movies that impacted me for years to come. I saw it with my mother back in 1978 or 1979 at a local theater. Since that time I have had an enormous desire to see it again. Unfortunately the producer of the film, Sunn Classic Pictures Inc. became defunct shortly after several of its top managers left to the expanding Tri-Star Pictures. Recently however, several of the original management members reacquired Sunn Classic Pictures Inc. and are in the process of redeveloping the company so there is a possibility that this movie will return on VHS or DVD. I recently contacted Sunn Classic Pictures Inc. to try and find out if the possibility is a real one.

It was only 14 years old the last time I saw this movie almost 25 years ago, but as I mentioned it made a bigger impact on my than any other movie I have ever seen, even to the point of encouraging me to try and obtain a copy now as an adult.

The movie as others have mentioned in their reviews was somewhat of a documentary with interviews of people who claimed to have died and then come back from the dead. The movie took the stories and then reproduced them into visual representations of what occurred and how the experience would have been observed from a first hand perspective.

One scene I can still recall is of a younger man who had died in the hospital and then while dead left his body thinking he was alive and o.k. only to look back and see his body dead on his hospital bed. After walking around the hospital out of his body he eventually ends up returning to his body at which point life returns to his body.

Some reviewers have said the movie is to long. Personally I don't recall the overall length of the film, I only that in many ways this movie helped reaffirm my beliefs in life after death regardless of whether one ultimately ends up in heaven or hell.

This movie primarily tries to take you on a journey with the question of whether life ultimately ends when the physical body dies. Those who have seen this movie or may see this movie in the future and who enjoy it may also be interested in the books by Mary K. Baxter called an "A Divine Revelation of Hell", "A Divine Revelation of Heaven", or "A Divine Revelation of the Spirit Realm".

I saw "Beyond and Back" only once -- in May 1978 during its initial theatrical run. But the film proved to be a lifesaver -- literally.

It saved my life. I went to see it at a time when I was very lonely and despondent and was contemplating suicide. I was 25 years old at the time and was depressed over what at that time had been an inability to find love in my life -- that is, the love of a companion, having fallen in love with someone fir the first time in my life, only for that love to go unrequited.

I won't spoil it for those who have never seen "Beyond and Back," but suffice it to say, it convinced me that suicide is not a viable option.

Ironically, I recently saw a clip of "Beyond and Back" on YouTube exactly 30 years to the day after I saw it in the theater. It's really cheeky by today's production standards, but it's still worth watching, even if only as a vintage 1970s period film.

As others have stated, Beyond and Back is a film that deals with the phenomena of those who have had near death experiences, and also talks some about seances and past life regression. While it deals with an interesting subject and has passable production values, the retelling of the near death experiences get to be somewhat tiring after a while. There are about eight experiences reported, and except for the last one dealing with an attempted suicide the stories are all presented the same way, so you almost want to say "here we go again" when a new case is presented. The narrator does an average job explaining everything, but he seems to be trying to imitate Raymond Burr most of the time. Not a great film, but not bad either and is worth watching for anyone interested in psychic phenomena. The video is long out of print and the best way to find it is at an online auction house, which is where I got my copy.