[church bell rings]
[Zac] We're somewhere in Europe,
about to meet Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis,
the permanent residing physician of the Office of Medical Observations
here at the most famous healing shrine in the world.
He's the official doctor, who was appointed by the regional bishop.
This is an incredibly special and holy place.
And he's a really, really big deal.
[Zac] Uh...
Are you OK in town? Did you like the town?
[man 1] Sir, excuse me. I'm sorry.
Can you stop talking just for a second? I gotta check Zac's mic.
[doctor] Why you interrupt me?
-I'm not an actor. -[Darin] Right.
You know my city, you know everything about me.
We've been preparing this for months.
I was even told that one of you is very famous. I don't care.
-Yeah. -It's him.
-It's you? I don't know... -No.
[Zac] Just a few days into Europe and we're already off to a bad start.
Hooray.
[doctor] Don't intimidate me, because then I react very negatively.
-[Darin] These cameras mean nothing to us. -Nor to me.
-Right. -I'm discussing with two people.
-Exactly. -That's all.
-And I'm telling you a story. -Ex--
-Unique in the world. -Exactly.
[Zac] I'm sure something just got lost in translation.
So, while Darin clears all this up,
I'll explain why we're here.
We came all the way to the culinary capital of the world
to study the most important nutrient that we put into our bodies.
Water.
-[Zac] What? -This looks disgusting.
I love it.
[Zac] And even though water isn't a food, in many ways it's even more important.
Why the hell water?
-That is a very fair, valid question. -I think so too!
[Zac] We can live three weeks without food,
but we can't go more than three days without water.
And our bodies are between 50 and 65% water.
There's some real science to all of that stuff.
I dig it, man. I'm also thirsty as...
-[horn honking] -[Zac] Just like the food we eat,
we need to ask the hard questions about the water that we drink.
What's the source of our water?
I'm just ready for a merman to swim up
-and be like... -Yes.
[all laughing]
[Zac] Aside from hydrogen and oxygen molecules,
what's in the water that we drink?
Are we getting enough water?
-I didn't bring you a bottle. -[Zac] I don't think he needs it.
[Zac] Also, does water hold any secret metaphysical properties?
It's not about any kind of superstition. It's symbols.
Through water, through light.
[Zac] This is France.
Guys, we're going to Paris!
[Zac] Let me start at the beginning.
A few years ago, I met Darin.
-I can't feel my feet or my hands. -I'm proud of you, bro.
Yeah.
[Zac] He's a guru of healthy living and superfoods.
Yes, great. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
[Zac] You could say he wrote the book on the subject. Literally.
[Darin] A healthy lifestyle, solid principles.
Darin and I are traveling around the world to find some new perspectives
on some very old problems.
[Darin] That's Mother Earth, bro.
Searching for healthy, sustainable living solutions for the planet...
[Zac] Wow.
...and all who live on it.
Woo-hoo!
Ignore the crazy white guy.
-[Zac] And hey, you gotta eat too, right? -[Darin] You don't have to eat it.
-How does it move like that? -[woman] Oh, my God.
[Zac] It's time to get... Down to Earth.
Trippy.
[traditional French music]
[Zac] OK, so we're not in France yet.
But we are at a fancy French restaurant in Los Angeles,
and I brought my friend Anna.
She makes everything fun.
-Oh, my darling! -[Zac] Even water.
This is Le Petit Ermitage in West Hollywood,
home to America's first certified water sommelier.
That's right, Martin Riese is a water sommelier.
"Martin, you're a sommelier for water?
You could be a wine sommelier. You could do drink beer,
you could drink liquor. Like, why the hell water?"
That is a very fair, valid question.
[Martin] I think so too.
And we all know this, in L.A. especially, you're getting this,
pardon my English, nasty tap water. Water's like highly chlorinated.
And I thought, "I'm gonna change that."
It was for me fascinating that we all need to drink it, we drink it on a daily basis,
but nobody actually talks about it. It's kind of crazy.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
[Zac] So you're gonna show us a variation of waters
that we'll be able to taste the difference in because of their mineral content?
-[Martin] Yes, correct. -And none of them are purified?
No. I don't touch any purified water.
-So, all this-- -Wait, what's wrong with filtered water?
[Martin] So when it says "purified water" on the labels, or "distilled water,"
I would never touch that.
That means it's nothing other than actually boiled up tap water.
I'm always saying, "When water's pure, don't drink it."
-OK. -[Martin] 'Cause water needs minerals.
Calcium, magnesium, potassium, silica, all those amazing minerals,
what your body actually needs.
When you won't drink pure water, water will look for minerals,
and it will find minerals in your body.
So that means it pulls out of the body
and you're losing actually minerals by drinking water.
-OK, my mind is actually blown. -[Martin] So...
the World Health Organization is actually saying you should not drink that
'cause you could jeopardize your health in the long-term.
-Did you both know that? -[Darin] Oh, yeah.
-You're such hippies. -So all these purified water brands,
who are selling themselves, "No, this is the most purest water ever,
and this is so cool, and pure, pure," that's all bull-[bleep] for me.
That's the worst thing on planet Earth, to call a water completely pure.
There is a TDS to every single water on this planet.
TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids.
So the higher the TDS level is, the more powerful we'll be tasting the water.
And we will start now with Australia.
This water is the olive oil of water.
[Anna] I've always wanted the olive oil of water.
[Martin] It's literally, it's a thick water.
-[Zac] It's a thick water? -It is.
-[Martin] This water has a TDS of 1,300. -Whoa.
It annoys me that this is so good,
'cause I don't know how to describe it, but it tastes so strong!
-Yeah. -Like, not in a good or a bad way,
-but it's wild. -Yeah.
-Water has a flavor, for sure. -Crazy, huh?
It's a watery flavor.
I feel like I'm being Punk'd, and if these all turn out to be the same water,
and it's like this is actually an episode about the power of suggestion.
I mean, I don't know, egg on my face, I guess.
[Martin] Next water, the very, very famous brand in the UK.
So Hildon, we're introducing our little bubbles.
And Hildon, this is now gently sparkling. Very British, obviously.
Gently sparkling.
-[laughing] Cheers, everybody. -Cheers.
-Cheers.
Wow, that's got some...
-I don't know. -The bubbles are awesome.
They're, like, super tiny. Almost like Champagne bubbles.
-[Martin] So I really like this. -[Anna] I like this one a lot.
[Martin] Next one...
Vichy Catalan, and obviously Spain right here,
and the spring is actually a little bit northern of Barcelona.
This is pretty much the number one consumed sparkling water in Spain.
You will find it everywhere.
But this water is very unique in taste. It has a TDS of 3,050.
-Whoa. Naturally? -Have this water.
-Naturally. -Amazing.
Mmm!
Oh, my God.
-Oh, my God. -[Darin] That's Alka-Seltzer in a bottle.
[Martin] I love that you're saying this.
I would say, "What do you think? What's the taste?"
-Yeah, Alka-Seltzer. Clearly. -Yeah.
-But it has the same impact. -This is wild!
[Martin] This is considered a healing water in Germany,
so this has so many minerals dissolved that this, like,
actually has an impact on your body now.
I can, like, feel it sticking to the roof of my mouth.
[Martin] Crazy, huh?
-How intense this water is? -It's oilier. Reminds me of Vegas water.
It comes of a 140 degrees Fahrenheit hot spring...
-I like that. -...out the geyser.
I have a very interesting water for you.
And this is a water, nobody else can access this in America. You're the--
That's my favorite, then.
So you're the only people today on the whole continent of America
who actually have access to this water.
-No one's got that in their fridge? -So this water, nobody get it.
-I feel like a Kardashian. -This water comes from...
-Not even the Kardashians. -I made it!
-We did it! -We made it! We did it!
So this water comes from Slovenia.
And I have to be very careful.
[Anna] This is when I worry that this is all a joke on me.
Because you tell me that it's, like, the fanciest water,
-and I'm really excited. -I think there's gold in it.
You see, like, there's something happening here, huh?
So it looks like, when I'm pouring it, it looks like a soda.
Oh, wow.
-What? -This looks disgusting.
I love it.
What?
-[Darin] That is very active. -What's in there? Something.
This water has so much minerals combined
that you can actually see sometimes the minerals,
and you can see it, there's little floating residues right here.
So it comes from a very old spring.
And I'm not telling you the TDS of this water.
-[Darin] It tastes like there's... -This tastes crazy.
[Darin] Tastes like there's a coin...
in there.
God, you are so good.
-I'm always telling people, this is... -There's gold in here?
This is, for me, like a very metallic flavor to it.
-No one has said that there's gold! -It's the gold cap.
One of the highest-magnesium content waters ever found on this planet.
-[Darin] Really? -So it's magnesium.
[Darin] Magnesium is one of the lowest in most people.
So we need magnesium.
-What's the TDS? -What's the TDS?
-7,400. -Wow.
This is not for hydration.
This is like, it's pretty much medication now.
-Right, it's... -This is like a functional water.
-Yeah, functional water. -But from nature.
That's a pretty amazing takeaway of...
just for the day: Why do you pick the water that you pick?
-When you're at the store... -What'll fit in my cup holder in my car.
[Martin] Yeah, but I get it, yeah. Look at this.
Exactly, sometimes that's it. But, like, I guess I don't really...
think about it much. This is amazing to sit down and really see
what you're actually putting in your body.
[Darin] It's so distinct.
It's so distinct, and I'm ashamed I've never done this before.
And when you think over 70% of your body's actually water...
[Zac] Yeah.
I think it's really important what you're actually putting into your body.
It's kind of the first go-to tip for anyone looking for overall health.
Anybody who's seeking an overall change in their health...
-[Martin] Yes. -Go-to is...
Drink a lot of water. It will really help.
Just go to the grocery store and look at the labels.
Like when it says spring water or aquifer water or...
or ice glacier water, that is your choice.
And when you see purified, just leave it on the shelf.
I would love to hear your takeaway.
-Do you think water has taste? -[Anna] Yeah.
-Do you appreciate water more? -Yes.
-Do you think water has value? -Yes.
This is pretty much my three points.
Do I think you have a real job or a made-up job?
-[all laughing] -Still not sure.
[Zac] OK. Now we're on our way to France.
-Oh, hey. -[Zac, mocking] "Oh, hey."
[Zac] We're in England, about to cross the English Channel.
We're just driving our car into this large train,
which will then transport us about 32 miles through a tunnel...
Whoa, this is a weird-looking train.
...from England to France.
No way.
Underwater.
-[Zac] Oh, my God. -[Darin] Whoa, what the [bleep]?
Whoa, I feel like we just drove into a hospital.
[Zac] This is the Chunnel. Short for Channel Tunnel.
And while 57,000 people safely travel through this every day,
I'm not so comfortable with it.
[Darin] We're in the tube!
[Zac] But here we are...
in a car...
inside a train...
inside a tunnel...
[Darin makes trumpet sound]
...underwater.
We're in a train in a tunnel under the sea.
I'm in a train in a tunnel under the sea.
-[gasps] -[Zac] In a car.
-In a car. [Darin laughs] -In Europe.
[engine starts]
[Darin] Welcome to France.
We should figure out a place we can get out and stretch, man.
Yeah, could we? [yawns]
[Zac] Man, I'm tired.
[Darin] Something I like to do when I hit another country is, like, feel the earth.
Push-ups?
No, like, just, like, take the shoes off, feel the earth,
get grounded, feel the [bleep]... the pulse of the earth.
[Zac] Where's he going with this?
-[Darin] Take off your shoes. -[Zac] Right now?
-No, dude, that's like thorny ground... -Yeah, yeah. No, no.
No, you gotta take off your shoes.
-Come on. -What?
[Darin] Let's go. Take off your shoes!
[Darin] Oh, my God.
-Shoes off! -All right.
[Zac] What are you doing?
-Are you barefoot? -[Darin] Yeah.
'Cause I wanna get my feet on the ground.
It's a new... It's a new country.
All that travel.
Don't you feel like you gotta just, like...
get connected?
-[chuckling] Yeah, I feel very connected. -[Darin] Oh...
[Darin] Dude, you're missing out. I'm telling you.
-[bird chirping] -[Zac laughing]
[Darin] This feels so good. Take your bloody shoes off.
Even that guy was... That Larry David guy was looking at us.
I promise, if you take 'em off, and it doesn't feel good,
you can put 'em right back on.
[Darin] Come on.
[Darin] Woo!
[Zac groans]
[Zac] How do you say "poison oak" in French?
[Darin in French accent] Poison ivy.
-Yeah! -[Zac] Aw!
Dog [bleep]!
[chuckling] Oh, no way.
No, yeah, I feel barefoot, I feel like, uh...
[Darin laughing]
[Zac] Wow, that is really pretty.
[Darin] Gotta get the electromagnetic connection to the earth again.
It'll help your, uh... circadian rhythm.
[Zac] Well, it turns out the circadian rhythm really is a thing.
It's basically your internal clock, based on the 24-hour-a-day cycle.
Tell me it doesn't feel good.
[Zac] Jet lag happens when you upset your internal clock
by quickly traveling to another time zone.
The idea of grounding is that, in order to combat your jet lag,
you reset your internal clock by connecting with the magnetic field
of your new time zone.
Does it work?
I don't know.
Maybe it's just really nice to get out of the car and stretch.
Or maybe Darin is really onto something here...
and my feet really are becoming one with France.
[Zac] Go!
-[Zac] He might have beat me... -[Darin laughing]
[Zac] ...but I was tired and these weren't optimal conditions, so...
Ah, yeah.
-[Darin] Ready? -Yeah, I feel grounded.
[Darin] Paris, here we come.
Totally needed that.
Guys, we're going to Paris!
♪ I'm guessing I should waste some time ♪
♪ Enjoy the sunshine ♪
♪ So many reasons I shouldn't complain ♪
♪ Now that's what I'll do ♪
[Darin] Can you cry on demand?
Have you ever seen one of my movies?
-You're crying on demand? -That's why they hire me.
'Cause I can... I could just cry right now for no reason.
-Really? -Oh, easy.
I just make a certain face, and it's frickin' floodgates.
[Darin] No [bleep].
Yeah, if I just l just think about something, like,
sort of stressful and emotional, like I can kick in a reflex,
and already, like...
[Darin laughing]
I don't even like know why, I just... already. Like...
[laughing] Oh, my God. That's incredible.
-It's kinda sad, isn't it? -Holy... It's kinda sad.
[Darin laughs]
-It's kind of pathetic. -Oh, yeah, it is. It is kind of sad.
Yeah.
[Darin] Wow.
[Zac] So, what's in tap water, city tap water, that's... that's bad?
Oh, Jesus. A lot.
So we have what seems to be water coming on demand,
which is a beautiful, modern solution.
It's not coming off of the rocks and streams and fresh rivers,
and got the minerals and energize itself from the sun.
There's some real science to all of that stuff.
So now we have water that we've put through very old systems of filtration.
It's been infused, unfortunately, with a lot of chemicals.
And we're drinking this kind of experimental tea
that has all of these unnatural things in it.
-Yeah, that's terrifying. -It is!
[Darin] 'Cause one of the greatest things you can do is drink great water,
and it cleanses your body.
And it's one of the number one sources of literally energy.
So when we feel low in energy, instead of grabbing coffee or tea...
-Hydrate. I know that. -You should hydrate first, right?
-With good quality water. -Yeah.
Cool! I dig it, man. I'm also thirsty as...
[horn honking]
[electronic dance music]
-All right, great trip. -[Darin in French accent] Par-ee!
[Zac] Not all tap water is created equal.
Paris is known for so many things,
but most don't realize how well they do tap water.
Since 2010, water production and distribution in Paris
has been taken out of the private sector and provided by a single public operator:
Eau de Paris.
We're meeting the elected official in charge of the water in Paris,
Deputy Mayor Célia Blauel.
Well, my job is really interesting, because in France,
water is one of the most controlled product that you can eat or drink.
Actually, in France, the idea is that everybody,
you, tourists coming in Paris, can have free water in the streets,
but also homeless people.
Wow, so no one goes without clean water.
Everybody has clean water all year long.
What are some of the things you wanna try to filter out?
New pollution, you know, like drugs in the river and that kind of stuff.
Bacteria. We check a lot of pesticides,
and we have more than 1,000 fountains all around Paris.
[Zac] Wait... And so the water in the fountains is just as good to drink?
Yeah. Yeah. This is one of our--
We're talking so much about water, I'm thirsty now.
And I didn't bring you a bottle! I have to give you one later.
[Zac] I don't think he needs it.
[Zac] You went for the straight-under catch.
-[Célia] So is that OK? -That's very good.
[Zac] Aside from how bad single-use water bottles are for the environment,
there's concrete evidence that bottled water
isn't all it's bottled up to be.
[Célia] I think a bottle of water is the biggest joke ever.
Because of what's inside and how much you pay it. So...
I love it.
[Zac] About 25% of it is locally sourced, plain old tap water.
And testing has shown that some bottled water contains
dangerous contaminants, microbes, and even mold.
It's hard to imagine that people would drink that,
let alone pay for it.
[church bells ringing]
[Darin] As Paris... takes back control,
you also eliminate the need for companies to sell us overpriced water.
Yeah.
We still make a lot of profit, but we give it directly back to the people of Paris.
Come on!
-That's amazing. -By investment or in reduction of prices.
-Wow. -Wow, that's a fantastic model.
[Darin] You guys are setting a hell of a standard to...
But we are not the only one.
It's just like a movement that is gaining all Europe.
More than 500 cities all around the world decided to make the same movement.
-[Darin] Wow. -Thinking water is a common good,
shouldn't be business.
[Zac] Wow. When she puts it like that,
the US is really behind.
But imagine if the Paris model was adopted all over the US.
We'd have less bottle waste, less pollution,
less dependence on oil, and an overall healthier population.
[Zac] Is there anything that you add back to the water?
No. We're just like on the really natural properties.
The only thing we can add sometimes is bubbles,
when we have sparkling fountains. Otherwise--
-You have sparkling fountains? -We have sparkling fountains in the city.
[Zac] They're shooting, essentially,
-Perrier or-- -[Célia] Yeah.
-[Darin] Next-level. -[all laughing]
-That's next-level. -Yeah, they are. That's amazing.
[Zac] OK, now I'm completely consumed with the idea
of finding a sparkling water fountain.
[Darin] Look at that.
[Zac] Sparkling fountains are scattered all over the city,
and they even list the mineral content, so you know exactly what you're getting.
-Is it good? -[woman] Yes, very good.
-Very good? -Yes.
-With bubbles. -Really?
The sparkling water doesn't come from a natural spring.
It's simply CO2 added to the regular drinking water.
[Darin] Oh, wow, that's empty water bottles you can buy.
-Oh, sick. -And then they'll give you the water.
That's, like, completely opposite.
[Zac] One million bottles per minute.
That's the world's single-use plastic water bottle consumption rate.
With these fountains, Paris is doing something about it.
We wanted to learn more about how they treat water,
and what's so unique about the process.
So our next stop is the Paris water treatment plant.
-[Darin] This must be the plant, huh? -I smell... [Zac sniffs]
-[Darin] You smell what? -[Zac] ...water.
[Darin chuckling]
Get some water.
[Zac] This is Benoit Lorain, the plant manager.
-Hey, how are you? -Hello.
[Zac] Here, they're so confident in their systems,
they are more than happy to pull back the curtain and show us how it's done.
So first, we're gonna put the... security gears.
-Protect us from the water? -Yeah.
OK, cool.
-They wanna know where the Americans are? -Yes.
[both laughing]
[Benoit] Here, we treat water from the river main
for people living in Paris.
Up to 300,000 cubic meters per day.
Like a huge amount of water.
[Zac] To visualize that, one cubic meter is about the same volume
as a washer and dryer sitting next to each other.
Now imagine 300,000 cubic meters.
That's a lot of water.
[Benoit] We use different processes to treat the water.
First, we do a screening,
so we remove all the big stuff.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever filtered out?
A lot of weird stuff. Like bicycles... stuff like that.
-Really? Oh, wow. -Yeah.
[Zac] Merci.
-[Benoit] The second one is clarification. -[Darin] Whoa.
[Benoit] So the water goes through something like sand.
Just aims to remove all the particles you can see.
After those filters, we go directly to the big filters.
We test at every step,
about 300,000 parameters...
-300,000? -...on the water.
[Benoit] Because we find more and more by size.
[Zac] They test for 300,000 different contaminants
in the water,
everything from pesticides and pharmaceuticals, to even arsenic.
This testing is to ensure that these levels
are below the acceptable standards for human consumption.
And Paris has very high standards.
So the...
All those measures that you take to make sure that they're clean,
at what point do you guys remove the ducks?
[ducks quacking]
-[Zac] Removing the birds. -[Benoit] The last clarification process.
[all laughing]
It's not a problem for us,
because we haven't treated yet the bacterial problem.
-[Darin] Right. -[Zac] Wonderful.
[Benoit] The next one is what we call a polishing process.
[machines whirring loudly]
So around you is the big tanks where we put ozone in the water.
-Whoa! That is so cool. -[Darin] That is so cool.
No bacteria, virus, or microbiological can survive in a high-oxygen environment.
That is a high-oxygen environment.
-Wow. -And you said it's super efficient?
It's very efficient.
It's more efficient than chlorine.
Can you guys see in there?
[Zac] Wow, that's awesome.
I'm just ready for, like, a merman to swim up and be like...
Yes.
[Darin] Yeah.
[Darin laughing]
[laughing]
[Benoit] So here... you can see the lights.
[Zac] Whoa!
That's trippy!
-[Zac] So UV is a very good thing. -[Benoit] UV is a very good thing.
-[Zac] Cool. -And there's no chemicals.
-[Zac] Wow. -It's just light.
In the US, they still use a high amount of chlorine, and...
-[Benoit] Yes. -And I think we're at 300 to 600 times
what we need in a day because of the overuse of it,
and it builds up and it creates some carcinogenic effects.
So I really like the fact that you're using ozone and UV...
-Yeah. -...so you use less of the chlorine.
In Eau de Paris, we try to use the right dose to do the right thing.
Wow.
[Darin] I feel like swimming. Is that wrong?
If the ducks are swimming, can I swim?
[Benoit] You could but... no.
[ducks quacking]
[Zac] As if providing flat and sparkling drinking water
all over the city wasn't enough,
Eau de Paris provides a free app to make their water even more accessible.
[traditional French music]
[Darin] Where is this thing?
-I'm on the Find Your Water app right now. -Hold on, hold on.
I got my own techniques.
It just... but it shows you right here where it is.
Yeah, well...
I'm figuring it out on my own.
How?
Feeling it.
Feeling where the water is, bro.
-I think it's this way. -That's just a broken sprinkler.
No, wait, the app literally shows you right where it is.
Like, there's sparkling water... and then there's...
You don't wanna use the app?
There's two...
-in this park. Yeah, two in this park. -There's two?
[Zac] First one to find it wins.
Do you know where to go? Is it in here?
You gonna trust the app or are you using your hand-ground technology?
[Zac] Yeah, it's gotta be in there.
[bleep]
[both laughing]
[Zac] It says I'm on top of it.
[Zac] I don't know, this is way harder than Pokémon Go, man.
[Darin] Oh, it's right here!
-What? -It's right here!
Are you serious?
Ho-ho-ho!
-It was right here the whole time. -[Darin] Water!
Thanks, guys.
[crew laughing]
[violin playing]
[Zac] I've never given so much thought to water before.
[violin playing]
[Zac] The last time I was in Paris, it was all about the steak frites.
[violin playing]
[Zac] But now, I admire Paris for how well they promote healthy living.
Especially through their water supply.
Thanks to this trip,
I'll never look at the City of Lights the same way again.
[church bell rings]
[Zac] Water can provide more than just hydration.
There is also a spiritual aspect to it.
We're on our way to Lourdes, France,
home of the most famous healing shrine in the whole world.
It is here that four to six million people come to visit each year,
specifically for the water.
Most of the people come in search of a miracle.
We are seeking answers.
-[birds singing] -[insects chirping]
[Zac] As the story goes, in 1858,
the Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old peasant girl here in Lourdes.
The young girl, Bernadette,
was instructed by the apparition to uncover a natural spring
and to drink and bathe from the water.
Bernadette's furious digging into the mud led townspeople to think she was mad.
Yet, when water eventually began to flow, her vision was determined to be real,
and, thus, a miracle.
To this day, that water continues to flow from the spring,
and thousands have claimed miraculous healing
as a result of drinking and bathing in it.
Which brings us to how we started this story.
Right after we insulted the chief doctor of Lourdes Medical Bureau
here at the sanctuary.
Luckily, Darin sorted all this out.
Right, Darin?
Yeah, he's got this.
-And? -And we're gonna get to it.
-Let me give you a backstory of me and us. -[doctor] Yes.
[Darin] So, I've been dedicating my life to finding
-health principles around the world. -Good.
[Darin] And it means everything to me.
And he heard me on a podcast years ago,
and he reached out because something about it was truthful to him.
Had no discussion of a TV show.
It was just two people respecting each other and getting to know each other.
I've kind of studied what Darin knows.
I've been learning what he knows. It's opened my eyes... drastically.
So I'm very eager to hear what you have to say.
So, basically, since 1883,
there has been a residing physician at the sanctuary.
We have the duty of welcoming anyone...
that wants to report an alleged cure.
Uh, the last one was yesterday. I listened to the story.
-[Darin] Wow, yesterday. -Yeah, I see about 100 people per year.
And then I have to judge as a doctor, am I in front of a possibly true cure?
So it's a filter, as any doctor would do.
[Zac] Since the 1700s, the Catholic Church has seven strict and clear criteria
for a health event or healing to be determined a miracle.
One, a full diagnosis, verified by doctors.
This is a young man, age 23. He develops a cancer.
[Darin] So the blurry mass there, that's the cancer?
-[Darin] Jeez. -[Zac] Hmm.
[Zac] Two, the ailment is severe, not a headache or the flu.
So he comes to Lourdes in 1963.
The cancer has eroded the articulation.
-So he just... -[Darin] Holy cow!
-[Zac] Yeah, that's... -So now, his left leg
is attached only by skin and muscles.
He is bathed in the baths of Lourdes with a cast.
As he gets out of the baths, he says, "I have no pain."
He puts aside his crutch.
He feels a subjective feeling of consistency of the articulation.
[Zac] Three, it instantly goes away,
just like that.
-[doctor] This is after the cure. -[Darin] Come on.
-[Zac] Oh, my gosh. -It's a complete reorganization of a new--
[Zac] Four and five, it disappears immediately and completely,
with no remaining side effects or symptoms.
-[Darin] And he did nothing else? -[doctor] Nothing.
-We have a new, completely new... -[Darin] Holy [bleep]!
...a completely new head of the femur.
This was the side non-affect... It was a side effect.
-Oh, my God. -This was '69.
[Zac] It's completely rebuilt.
[Zac] Six, the illness does not come back.
For this reason, they don't even consider a case
until the healing is over a decade old.
[doctor] And I have a beautiful RMI that he did for me in 2013,
50 years after the cure, and, yeah.
[Zac] Seven, no explanations can be found
for why the illness has gone.
In the last case considered a miracle, in 2018,
over 300 doctors studied the case, looking for a medical explanation,
but none could be found.
In medicine, we have every now and then reports of...
spontaneous regression of diseases.
-Severe diseases. -Sure.
We don't know the reason. So I know that in...
in medicine, in the world, there are events like that that can happen.
-[Darin] Sure. -All we do here
is to study thoroughly an alleged cure to make absolutely sure
that we are in front of a person that was sick, of a severe disease,
they've been cured in the full with it, and there's no explanation.
Then his bishop will recognize this cure that scientists cannot explain...
Fifty years later cannot. He says, "For me, this is intervention of God."
So this is a miracle, it's not my business, because I'm in medicine.
But I understand that if a miracle is recognized
on an unexplained cure, uh... why not?
If you want to measure it, all of this is medicine. This is religion.
[Darin laughing]
[Zac] And if it seems like having a cure deemed a miracle is hard,
that's because it is.
Over the past 135 years,
out of 7,400 claims submitted to the Lourdes Medical Bureau,
only 70 have been substantiated and verified by the bishop as miracles.
-See you soon. Keep in touch. -What a pleasure.
[Zac] That was really mind-blowing. And it ends up...
-[Zac] Grazie. -[doctor] Prego.
...he's a really nice guy.
[Zac] And now we go from the medical to the spiritual part of this journey.
-[Darin] Hey. -[Zac] This is Father Jim Phalan,
one of the chaplains at the sanctuary here at Our Lady of Lourdes.
Father Jim leads us to the grotto, where it all began, back in 1858.
[Darin] Like, it doesn't seem real. It's just so...
huge.
[Father] So those who want pilgrimage here.
We have about 7,000 or 8,000 people who have cancer come.
They find a peace here.
Even if they don't necessarily all expect
that they're all gonna be miraculously cured, but there's a...
-there's something that goes on inside. -[Darin] Right.
-[sermon in Italian] -[Father Jim] This is the grotto.
[priest preaching in Italian]
[Father Jim] Let's take a walk over there.
[priest preaching in Italian]
[Zac] It's hard to believe that back in the 1800s,
a 14-year-old girl that people wrote off as crazy
had a miraculous holy vision, right here at this very spot.
And for hundreds of years,
thousands and thousands of people have come here
in hopes that they will too have their own unique epiphany.
That something in the air, the water, the grotto, can rub off
and help them in some way.
There is no denying the sacred feeling you get just by being here.
And when people walk away from this experience,
real or imagined,
there's a change.
[Father Jim] Let's make it clear.
Lourdes is not about magic, it's not about any kind of superstition.
It's symbols. Through water, through light.
[Zac] Intentions of prayer are left by lighting a candle at the sanctuary.
It's a way of kind of making your prayer concrete.
[Zac] Prayer means different things to different people.
But what I've found is that, sometimes, just taking the time to ask
can help bring peace.
I don't expect everything I pray for to be answered.
But taking the time to ask is often comforting in and of itself.
Does that comfort come from a spiritual force or from within?
If you're able to find inner peace,
it doesn't really matter.
[Zac] A busy time for you.
Oh, that's what I'm here for. I love it.
You can't ever just go, "Sorry, I'm busy"?
-Uh... Not when I'm dressed like this, no. -[all laughing]
-[Darin] You don't get to do that. -[all laughing]
Could I have a minute, Father Zac?
I don't know where I'd start.
-Look, you were really great. Fantastic. -Yeah, thank you very much.
[serious French indie rock music]
["Pour Mieux S'unir" by AuDen]
♪ On a compté les lendemains ♪
♪ Qui nous restaient mais incertains ♪
♪ On s'est perdu sur un chemin ♪
♪ Une inconnue dans le refrain ♪
♪ De grands sourires N'y changeraient rien ♪
♪ Car le début jouait la fin ♪
♪ À l'origine on n'était rien ♪
♪ Juste une ébauche ou un dessin ♪
♪ Des rêves suivis de petits points ♪
♪ Au coin des rues un doux parfum ♪
♪ Suprême idylle main dans la main ♪
♪ De belles photos on se souvient ♪
[uplifting tune]
♪ Puisqu'on se perd pour mieux s'unir ♪
♪ Puisqu'on ne tient plus au présent ♪
♪ Le moindre souffle nous détruit ♪
♪ Et nous disperse avec les vents ♪
[Zac] The evening torchlight procession.
Whether or not you believe in the power of prayer,
when you witness thousands of people at a candlelight vigil like this,
there's no denying the energy.
My thoughts are almost in a pure meditative state,
and I feel like I'm a part of something much greater than myself.
I definitely believe there's some kind of power in group prayer.
All of these people coming together for prayer,
creating one massive force.
Does it work?
I don't know.
But you can't deny the extraordinary peace and beauty that is going on right here.
♪ Puisqu'on se perd pour mieux s'unir ♪
♪ Puisqu'on ne tient plus au présent ♪
♪ Le moindre souffle nous détruit ♪
♪ Et nous disperse avec les vents ♪
♪ Tous ces mensonges que l'on déguise ♪
♪ Nous laissent un beau jour Sans défense ♪
♪ Puisqu'on se perd pour mieux s'unir ♪
♪ Puisque l'on s'aime toujours autant ♪
There is the thought, of course, that all of this is simply a placebo effect.
But if a miracle is defined as
"the impossible inexplicably becoming possible,"
then real or not doesn't matter, does it?
[music ends]
So what does all of this have to do with water?
It's got everything to do with it.
The Earth's surface is 70% water.
Our bodies are on average 60% water.
We need water to bathe,
to grow our food,
and to simply survive.
Look, we're all here on one Earth.
Let's make it last.
[Zac] Hello, France!
[crew laughing]