- 7 hours ago
Pole to Pole with Will Smith - Season 1 - Episode 04: The Himalayas
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:13For most of my life, I felt really confident that I could build anything I wanted.
00:22I built all of the dreams that I ever dreamed.
00:30But a couple of years ago, after the Oscars, I realized that nothing can last forever.
00:43That shook me a little bit.
00:46So what do you do?
00:48Collapse?
00:51Dissolve?
00:52I began to ask myself the question,
00:58how can I be happy knowing that everything falls apart?
01:03I began to ask myself the question,
01:08how?
01:08How?
01:14What?
01:15How?
01:20How?
01:21How?
01:28How?
01:32How?
01:33Where?
01:40for the next leg on my pole to pole journey i've landed in the kingdom of bhutan to join
01:48a scientific expedition in search of one of life's most elusive treasures the secret to happiness
02:09yes heading up the expedition our bhutanese writer danker cheering the road trip begins
02:17and dacre keltner one of the world's leading professors in the science of happiness
02:26how did you make your way to the study of happiness i got interested in it because
02:33i think it's one of the biggest questions we can ask about life you know are you happy
02:40i've been studying happiness and emotions for 30 years in that time the data tells us people
02:48are getting richer people live longer but what's astounding is that for many of us
02:54our sense of well-being is actually going down
02:59because it doesn't matter who we are we have a lot of bad ideas about what makes us happy
03:06i haven't been this excited in a long time this is coming at a really interesting time in my life
03:14you can have a lot of successes and it just doesn't bring you a lot of happiness yes definitely be
03:19interesting to get a sense of why that is right so what do we do you come to bhutan you
03:25come to bhutan
03:29bhutan is very different compared to rest of the world everything we strive for is people's happiness
03:37in our country we measure our development through the well-being and happiness of the people here you
03:46measure the wealth of a nation by the happiness of the people that is beautiful and there's even new
03:55village where the happiest people live they have been living in the mountains for centuries at 13 000 feet
04:06we're actually heading to laia laia yep it's literally at the top of the country it's like one of the
04:14highest settlements in the world so i want to show you what's going on in that community this is like
04:20the perfect disney movie the journey to the top of the mountain to find the secret of happiness
04:41oh yeah i'm ready let's go
04:46on our journey up to laia i'm going to introduce will to some of the most important principles of
04:51happiness by putting him to the test in some extraordinary experiments i thought it was really
04:58wise to start with the most simple source of happiness where people very often run into trouble
05:11what is pleasure to me
05:17you know the big three money sex power
05:28you know when i set out i told myself i wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world
05:33and i was going to have as much money as i could have and i was going to be happy
05:39all the time
05:40as you can imagine uh that idea came crashing down
05:46so i'm hoping you got something for me yeah we're going to need to explore pleasure in the body
05:52oh love it what's it feel like in our heart what happens in our brain all right let's have some
05:57fun
06:05we're stopping
06:11here we are jeez all right so what are we doing so in this exploration of pleasure
06:19i need you to jump off that bridge oh my god
06:30see because you said we were doing pleasure i don't think you understand pleasure
06:37we are wired to go out into the world and find exciting things we seek out sex
06:45we seek out delicious foods and even extreme sports very often we find pleasure in pushing our
06:53body to the limits we're going to track your heart rate and your breathing all the way down through
07:00the whole experience so go right across there yeah that's right
07:05decker went out on a limb you just can't ask somebody to jump off a bridge when you first meet
07:11them
07:14your parents would say that to you if your friends jumped off of a bridge would you do it and
07:21apparently yes
07:26oh check that out
07:31how's that heart rate doing the heart rate is certainly up you'll be fine not ready not ready
07:48so
07:48oh
07:48oh
07:48oh
07:48oh
07:48oh
08:12Will!
08:43This was a radical experiment.
08:46He's falling through space.
08:49And we're gathering measures of, you know, down to the millisecond of what his heart
08:53is doing and what his respiration is like.
08:55So here's your heart, clipping along, you're kind of nervous.
08:58And then you step up on the ledge and your heart is almost 160 beats per minute.
09:03Wow.
09:04And then you jump and as you start to reframe this acute stress, like I'm not dying, the
09:10ropes worked, that then activates dopamine.
09:14Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is activated by sources of pleasure.
09:22We have this quick high.
09:24And then by design, our body calms down.
09:28It's how we are chemically constructed.
09:31Pleasure is not meant to last.
09:33This is the hedonistic view of happiness.
09:35We could call that the willanistic view of happiness.
09:41I've lived most of my adult life here, climbing the mountain of success, climbing the mountain
09:49of money, you know, sex and power and fame.
09:52And I absolutely believed that would bring me happiness.
10:00That wasn't the case.
10:05I got a deeper understanding about the concept of pleasure.
10:10It's like drinking salt water.
10:12It just makes you thirstier.
10:21So, Will, yesterday we explored pleasures of the body and you chose to jump off a bridge
10:25and you got a lot going on in your life and what about your mind gets in the way.
10:31So the second part of the happiness equation is stress.
10:42My father was military.
10:45So I was raised with that military mindset and I've always felt like, you know, bring it.
10:57I'll handle whatever.
10:59But I'm starting to look at it as something that's damaging to my health.
11:07I can always tell when I'm stressed.
11:10I'll usually wake up and my neck will be locked, you know, and I'll be looking around corners
11:16like this.
11:18Here we are, sir.
11:25You're going to swab this around your cheek to get cortisol, which is a stress hormone.
11:29A stress hormone.
11:31Right.
11:31And we're going to read your cortisol levels and see how you're doing.
11:34Up or down as you probe me through the day.
11:37Yes, exactly right.
11:40Cortisol prepares your body to deal with threats and struggles of life.
11:46The problem is when it's chronically high.
11:49We tend to suffer in terms of our mental and physical health.
11:58People call me the happy farmer.
12:03People think I'm a very positive person.
12:05So I heard you are exploring happiness here.
12:07Yes.
12:08And I can feel your energy already.
12:10So I want some of that.
12:12I want some of that from you, too.
12:16Happiness for me is having right relationship with nature.
12:21Nature has a profound effect on our mind, which helps us to overcome any stress that we
12:26may be carrying in our body.
12:28Can I invite you for nature bathing?
12:30Nature bathing?
12:31Okay.
12:32I don't know what that is, but I'm with you.
12:39You can join me if I want to remove my shoes and I want to feel the ground.
12:44Remove your shoes and feel the ground.
12:47Would you love to do that?
12:48I wouldn't, but I will.
12:52I'm a city boy, so I was resistant to the nature bathing.
12:59I'm in nature, sometimes without any clothes.
13:04I was like, old boy better keep his robe on.
13:11Salander.
13:14Okay.
13:17Ow.
13:19Stand this side.
13:23You can join me.
13:30Really?
13:32Oh.
13:32Oh.
13:32Maybe we can light here?
13:34It's a real test to just stop.
13:41You should relax.
13:43It's almost like my mind's a thousand miles per hour.
13:50You can't just sit there.
13:52You've got to take a walk.
13:53Your back hurts, Will.
13:53Get him.
13:54Stand up.
13:54Stretch.
13:56The energies of my mind almost attack.
14:05Like Mr. Will, many years ago, I live in the city.
14:10I had a nine to five job, so my mind was full of negative emotions.
14:16But I was looking for peace.
14:20So, what happened?
14:23In 2009, I had an auto car accident.
14:27Wow.
14:28I was disabled.
14:29I could not move.
14:30My whole body was casted.
14:32From there, how did you discover here?
14:38I was bedridden for around nine months.
14:41Nature is a place where I go find myself.
14:46When I was in physiotherapy, I went to many natural spring waters.
14:50I was there for months walking in nature.
14:54It was a very profound experience for me.
14:58I was able to let go of the stress in my life.
15:03I'm going to get well to live a life in harmony with nature.
15:14The sound of the river, the valley.
15:19Research was finding that any relationship to nature can calm the body down.
15:26Bird song and the wonderful sounds of running water have positive effects on mood.
15:36The sense of smell, the flowers and trees, makes you better able to focus, open your eyes.
15:47You don't need to radically transform your life.
15:51Just 20 minutes a week can deactivate stress.
15:56But with a butterfly.
15:59And you're going to be happier.
16:06I think we heard you howling out there.
16:08I know, yeah, yeah.
16:11How did it go in there?
16:12It was interesting.
16:13I realized when my mind is going, it's like my eyes and ears are off.
16:18Right.
16:19And then I relaxed into it.
16:21I could see and feel why it was beautiful.
16:23Let's take a quick look at these data, stuff we gathered from the cheek swab.
16:28What you see is as you hike up the hill to get ready for your forest bathing, you see a
16:34rise in cortisol.
16:35That's exactly what you would expect.
16:37And then remarkably, after being in nature, you drop precipitously in cortisol.
16:43Yeah, I certainly felt that, but like when you look around here, it's a whole lot easier to manage your
16:51cortisol than in traffic on the 405 in L.A., you know?
16:58My friends used to say that I only had one gear and it was go all the time.
17:06It's now pretty clear to me that for most of my life, I didn't have a release valve.
17:16I was a cortisol bomb just ready to explode.
17:22I just wish I could have known that long ago.
17:33This is the last stop before I trek to Laya.
17:42So here you are.
17:45This is a polar.
17:53Wow.
18:00It's like from a different era.
18:06So, Will, on our search for happiness, we've kind of covered pleasure and then stress, but there's a lot more
18:13to happiness than the individual body.
18:15It's about meaning, you know, how we find purpose in life.
18:19And so what we thought is, you know, we would bring you to a place where they've been thinking about
18:24this for hundreds of years.
18:26So here you are, the monastery.
18:35For most of my life, I've had absolute purpose.
18:41You know, I was striving to be the biggest movie star in the world.
18:47I set very high standards for myself.
18:51Signing every autograph and shaking every hand and kissing every baby.
18:56And this is our dog.
18:58I had a relentless focus on outward perfection.
19:06But it certainly didn't turn out as I had planned.
19:17First of all, sitting like a monk is very difficult.
19:26It's really difficult.
19:28That's why I couldn't be a monk.
19:32So, for you, what is happiness?
19:36How we find happiness is by realizing, like, everything that happens outside is impermanent.
19:42Everything is changing.
19:44And we use many examples.
19:47We can be rich and poor.
19:49Sometimes we can be very popular and sometimes not.
19:52I know about that personally.
19:55I tasted the top of my success, fame, money, and then watched it fall apart.
20:06I'm trying to find ways to stop worrying about that.
20:13All the attachment you have is never going to lead you to happiness.
20:19So by trying to hold on to those things so hard becomes the actual source of my unhappiness.
20:33That's pretty accurate.
20:43I can see the emotion in you, in your face.
20:47Yeah.
20:48And that is actually the starting of our wisdom.
20:50When we encounter a very bad moment or incident in our life, there is no other way to find happiness
20:57You stand within yourself.
20:59Within me where?
21:16Death.
21:20I've never really thought about death or dying.
21:28What is the theory behind death?
21:43So turn your full attention to the idea of your death.
21:50To contemplate what's important and what's unimportant.
22:01We would like to offer you the monk's robe.
22:06You do.
22:10It's funny talking about death.
22:13I just don't think about it.
22:16I feel like maybe I'm hiding from it a little bit.
22:21My death, that's a heavy thought for me.
22:32Unlike Bhutan, one of the real shortcomings in our western view of happiness is we ignore
22:42death.
22:42death.
22:44And I am like a classic example.
22:49Rolf was my younger brother.
22:53We really did almost everything together.
22:58Five years ago, he, uh, so Rolf got colon cancer.
23:12So I get a call, drive two and a half hours to his house.
23:19He was in a unconscious state.
23:24And then passed away at 6 a.m. I think.
23:30And I was blown off the map.
23:34I was at my low point in life.
23:39Nothing made much sense.
23:42And so I went to the mountains.
23:49And I talked deeply to the brotherhood of monks.
23:55Reflecting upon death changed my life.
23:59And I sharpened my sense of what really matters.
24:04And for me, that's helping people find happiness.
24:09And I wanted Will to find his own sense of understanding.
24:14So we had to put him to the test.
24:32We believe that when we die, we see everything in our lives.
24:41The monks dance is a presentation of death.
24:45Where you face the demons in your life.
24:54You see your true self.
25:05I have a very active imagination.
25:10When the mask dance started, I was like, oh, no.
25:15This is it.
25:21The music, the fire, those frightening masks and darker energies.
25:31I know that it's set up and it's a ritual.
25:35But it forces you to look deep down inside.
25:46Will Smith!
25:48Grammy-winning rapper.
25:49One of the biggest movie stars in the world right now.
25:51I make this look good.
25:52Let's welcome Will Smith!
25:54I was always attractive when I was going.
25:57Like in the studio, it's almost triple platinum now.
26:00While the other guy's sleeping, I'm working.
26:04You have this phenomenal career.
26:06As long as they scream at Will, I'm cool.
26:09The infamous slap at the scene around the world.
26:13At your highest moment.
26:14Unacceptable.
26:15Stunt.
26:16Do you blame it forever?
26:17That's when the devil comes for you.
26:35So last time we saw you, you were going into the monastery, man.
26:39Yeah.
26:40And the dance.
26:41What was that like?
26:42I was like, yo, this is scary for real.
26:47And at the same time, it's your own mind.
26:50Yeah.
26:51It's like what you're scared of is you.
26:53And I know this is so weird.
26:56Right.
26:59After the Oscars, I mean, that night was brutal for everybody.
27:06But for me, I had a bizarre sense of relief.
27:12Right.
27:12That the image of Will Smith was dead.
27:16Yeah.
27:17And it was like, I can be me.
27:22Right.
27:23Somebody who's actually flawed.
27:25Mm-hmm.
27:26And scared.
27:27Right.
27:28And embarrassed.
27:31Yeah.
27:31And staring down your fears of death introduces you to that space of freedom.
27:43After my time at the monastery, now when something presents itself to me, I'm like, am I going to care
27:53about that on my deathbed?
27:57And if the answer's no, then I'm not going to let myself care about it now.
28:04We're good to go?
28:05I think we got two miles ahead of us.
28:07This is going to be a real walk.
28:14Hey, watch it.
28:17I was very eager to take Will to Laya.
28:21Because I wanted him to discover what happiness looks like high up in the Himalayas.
28:28In one of the most remote communities.
28:33We've begun our ascent into Laya.
28:38It's the highest settlement in Bhutan.
28:41Yes.
28:42I'm the happiest.
28:43So it's high in multiple ways.
28:47As we were walking up the mountain towards Laya, it just felt mythological.
28:55This hard road, climbing to the highest altitude I've ever been.
29:05It feels very hard to breathe.
29:09This is the road to these people's town.
29:12I don't know if you can see how little that road is.
29:15Is it going to get colder or warmer as we go up?
29:18Super cold.
29:19It's going to be super cold.
29:21We're heading into trouble, man.
29:22Oh, gee.
29:31We are here, uh, at mid camp.
29:38Um, it is 29.9 degrees.
29:48That's not enough degrees.
29:51We're at 12,000 right now.
29:54Can't even tie my damn shoes without getting winded.
29:59But tomorrow we're going to 13,000 feet.
30:03What makes people live up here and they the happiest people in the country?
30:13They're going to have to show me.
30:31There you go, sir.
30:35Wow.
30:37Every five years, there's a nationwide happiness survey.
30:41And the happiest people have been in Laya.
30:49Today, we regard them as the guardians of the mountains.
30:53Finally, we're here in Laya.
30:55Hello.
30:57Hello.
31:02Thank you for your beautiful song.
31:07She's like, you're handsome.
31:22Oh, absolutely.
31:30That's beautiful.
31:33Wash your hands.
31:35Wash your hands?
31:36Okay.
31:45I don't cook much.
31:47And by much, I mean, like, not at all.
31:51We went quickly from, hey, how you doing?
31:55Nice to meet you.
31:57To come in my kitchen and cook with me.
31:59La is yes.
32:00Yeah, yeah.
32:01La, la.
32:02It doesn't happen in Philly like that.
32:06Okay.
32:10All right, let me try it.
32:11Let me try it.
32:11And I'm scared because I don't want to chop my finger off.
32:15How am I doing?
32:16We need more?
32:19How many people are we cooking for?
32:25A hundred people.
32:26We should hurry up.
32:41I feel like I'm good at this.
32:43Good, good.
32:44Very good.
32:45Good, good.
32:47You can say, that's hot.
32:48That's hot.
32:49That's hot.
32:50You are hot.
32:51Good, good, good.
32:52Yeah, I'm kooppa sang.
32:56You know, I can tell she thought I was cute.
32:58She was happy I was there.
33:07I am so intrigued by Laia and the joy that you exude.
33:16How did you learn this way growing up?
33:47I was born in the world.
33:52I was born in the world.
33:54I was born in the world.
33:59I was born in the world.
34:06So, you're here alone.
34:30Oompah Sang has suffered excruciating circumstances.
34:38I don't think that it's a coincidence that life in Laia is difficult, yet they are some
34:49of the happiest people on earth.
34:53I don't totally see it yet, but I can definitely feel that there's a correlation.
35:15Life in Laia, it's cold and it's remote.
35:23Electricity only recently arrived, there's no running water, it is hard.
35:32But it's the way this community faces these challenges that I think is essential to their
35:40happiness.
35:47Festivals are very important here.
35:51And central to festivals here is archery.
35:56In fact, it's the national sport.
35:59It brings people from all walks of life to witness the match.
36:03You have your team set there waiting for you.
36:06Oh, my team.
36:07This is our team.
36:08Our team.
36:08This is our worthy opponent.
36:10Okay.
36:11The game of archery in Bhutan is very different compared to the rest of the world.
36:17Instead of shooting at one direction, the archers actually shoot across each other.
36:25Wait, we shooting at each other?
36:28Is this tournament to the death?
36:30No.
36:30No.
36:32Tell me the truth.
36:33When was the last time somebody accidentally got hit with an arrow?
36:36Tell me the truth.
36:37Be honest.
36:38Maybe a month ago.
36:40Oh.
36:40In another part of the village.
36:42I was okay.
36:43I was making a joke.
36:49Let's have some fun.
36:51I am a very competitive person.
37:00Good shot.
37:01People say it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.
37:07It's your turn.
37:11Growing up in America, you would only say that because you lost.
37:23Oh.
37:26But I did love that hit for Miss We All Dance.
37:31Oh.
37:33Oh.
37:34Oh.
37:34Oh.
37:34Oh.
37:35Oh.
37:37Oh.
37:46Oh.
37:47Oh.
37:47Oh.
38:00No, no, no.
38:00This is crazy, you know, sir?
38:02This is wild.
38:04The event is being called because of the wind.
38:09Does that mean we win?
38:11No, it's not fair to say that we won the matches.
38:14Damn it.
38:17Oh, that was fantastic.
38:19You know, the wind shut us down.
38:20It was one to zero, and so somehow in Bhutan, that's a draw.
38:26I saw you bust out some moves in the dance after that archery.
38:29It's so funny. I wasn't even thinking about that.
38:31But it's like, all of a sudden, I felt accepted.
38:35Right, right.
38:36I'm a part of the group if they're letting me do the dance
38:39and learning the words. But it's like...
38:45Wow, okay. So something just dawned on me.
38:50It's collective harmony.
38:52Yeah, yeah. It's about togetherness.
38:54Yes, it is.
38:56Mm-hmm.
38:56What do you make of that?
38:57Of course, I want that. I want, you know,
38:59everybody wants a tight-knit family, but you certainly can't do that
39:05if your priority is something else.
39:08Mm-hmm. Agreed.
39:09You know, as a scientist, I really take heart in what Charles Darwin wrote.
39:13A lot of people think he was all about dog-eat-dog,
39:16survival of the fittest, and he wasn't.
39:18Right.
39:19Darwin was really about survival of the kindest or friendliest.
39:23Yes. It's a mentality.
39:25Yeah.
39:26I had a goal. I had a mission.
39:28I wanted to be the biggest movie star on Earth.
39:31Right.
39:32But I'm not one of the best friends on Earth.
39:35I'm not one of the best fathers on Earth.
39:39It was my kids that started making me aware that my heart wasn't as available.
39:44Yeah.
39:46It's a big part of why I'm here.
39:47Yeah. I got work to do.
39:49Or you look up and your kids are 28 and they don't come home for Christmas.
39:53Aw.
39:57The Lyops people are so happy because they spend enormous amounts of time together.
40:10They share food.
40:15They revel with dance.
40:20They are kind and warm to each other.
40:25So they're doing all the things that we are hungering for.
40:36We have a need to belong.
40:42When you're deprived of that, it's like being deprived of food or water or sleep.
40:48I guess we're going in.
40:50One, two, three.
40:52Right, left, right.
40:59I'm on the turn up.
41:00I know.
41:04It dawned on me we might be asking the wrong question.
41:08How can I be happy?
41:10But it seems like the question might be,
41:13how can we be happy?
41:17That's the question they ask in Lyah.
41:39I just got a chill.
41:41Today is my father's birthday.
41:43He would have been 81 today.
41:4581.
41:46He would have been 81.
41:48He would have been 81.
41:50That's great.
41:51All right.
41:51I'm ready.
41:52Let's go.
41:53OK.
42:16We are all dropped into this existential
42:23confusion and given the job to figure it out.
42:31Now I'm kind of realizing, you know, if you let life lead, it'll take you really interesting places.
42:41Walking up to the highest point to have the flag reach for the heavens as an honor to those who
42:52have passed on.
42:53It's a beautiful ceremony.
42:59It's a beautiful ceremony.
43:17It's a beautiful ceremony.
43:23And loss.
43:25And loss.
43:26We were connected by letting go.
43:45I never really thought of letting go as being a part of happiness.
43:56My mindset was always about gaining and keeping, but there's something in surrendering that
44:05is ecstatic.
44:31I'm not a great swimmer.
44:33I don't care.
44:34I want you to get underwater right now.
44:41I don't care.
45:19I don't care.
45:21I don't care.
Comments