nightmares themselves have become a topic of research as susan spencer will be reporting in our sunday morning cover story. >> reporter: halloween comes only once a year. >> someone was chasing me with a gun. >> reporter: but nightmares can last a lifetime. for millions bad dreams are chronic condition. >> i go into the bathroom turn on the light and the entire bathroom is literally covered in blood. >> reporter: your worst nightmare. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: houdini who is a famous magician and escape artist continues to fascinate people all over the world. this morning martha teichner will tell his story. >> reporter: magicians are still trying to figure out houdini's great escapes, a century after he devised some of them. say the word magic, people still think houdini. you know what? he died on halloween. houdini, later this sunday morning. >> osgood: the after life is one place from which even houdini couldn't escape. man is mortal. woman is too. where we go when we die is the subject of religion and philosophy, science and speculation. a top movie director will be weighing in on that subject in a talk with our katie couric. >> couric: is clint eastwood giving us a glimpse of the after life in his new movie? it's the one unknowable thing, isn't it? in terms of what happens to us when we die. >> nobody is in a rush to find out. >> couric: but this woman thinks she might have gotten a preview when her mother was close to death. >> we were floating out the window. it was the strangest experience i've ever had. >> couric: the after life in all its dimensions later on sunday morning. >> osgood: to the point. this story from bill geist all about a skilled performer who is always sharpening his skills. >> this is my waterfront chapel. >> reporter: mild-mannered minister david adamovich of sub urban long island has another identity, the great throwdini, the master of the impalement arts. even if i'm not still around, i hope you'll enjoy it later on sunday morning. >> osgood: we'll also meet folks with a chronic fear of clowns. join the tourists of sleepy hollow cemetery, meet a master pumpkin carver at work and a lot more but first the headlines for this sunday morning the 31st of october, 2010, halloween. the investigation into the plot to bomb american synagogues via airmail has widened after an arrest in yemen. homeland security correspondent bob orr has the latest for us from washington. good morning, bob. >> reporter: good morning, charlie. a young woman who is an engineering student in yemen has now been arrested and accused of mailing those two bombs addressed to two chicago sin zogs. we don't know if the suspect is part of the al-qaeda, but u.s. officials strongly believe a master bomb maker from that terror group built the explosives. the bombs, concealed in two computer printers, were found friday, one on a u.p.s. plane in great britain, the other at a fed-ex facility in dubai. sources say the devices were professionally crafted and wire. each, we're told, contained a large amount of the explosive p.e.t.n., the same compound used in the failed underwear bomb attack on christmas day. while the printer bombs were supposed to be shipped to the u.s. on cargo planes at least one of the explosive devices spent some time on two passenger planes. the bomb in dubai was shipped on passenger flights from yemen and then on to the united arab emirates before it was found. charlie? >> osgood:. >> schieffer: thank you, bob orr in washington. it was part pep talk. wyatt andrews took in yesterday's sanity rally on the washington mall. >> ♪ it's the greatest, strongest country in the world ♪ > jon stewart and steven colbert played the rally mostly for laughs. but the huge audience was already in on the joke. >> what's the sanity you're hoping to restore? laura ford drove here from north carolina. >> meaningful dialogue, concern for each other, respect for each other. >> reporter: the very name of the rally "to restore sanity and/or fear" was itself intended to be both funny and bitingly satirical. in one serious moment stewart explained his intent. he showed clips of cable news shouting. >> progressivism is a cancer. >> reporter: and appealed to the media generally to tone things down. >> if we amplify everything, we hear nothing. >> reporter: the satire of both men typically leans liberal but this was not an openly political rally. it was an appeal for less heat and more light. for sunday morning, i'm wyatt andrews in washington. >> osgood: hurricane thomas is barreling through the caribbean leaving considerable damage in its wake. this morning it was upgraded to a category 2 storm and is expected to continue gaining strength as it heads towards jamaica. indonesia's mountain erupted again today. the volcano has been spewing hot ash since tuesday, prompting fears that a far more powerful blast could be coming. the texas rangers play their first world series game at home in arlington texas last night where a hometown groud and a couple of home runs gave them a 4-2 win over the san francisco giants. the giants now lead the series two games to one. they meet again tonight for some baseball trick or treating. there's a new miss world. she's an american. 18-year-old alexandra mills won the contest in china last night. she's from louisville and says she plans to become a teacher. now for today's forecast, most of the country will enjoy good trick or treating weather though some rain will fall in the northeast and the northwest. november gets off to a mostly mild start before turning wet along the coast. the place to be in the days just ahead will be the dry and sunny midwest. just ahead, shedding light on nightmares. >> couric: what do you think happens when you die? >> i haven't the foggyiest happens when you die? >> i haven't the foggyiest idea.,,,,,,,,,, i know many of you see this election as an unhappy choice between a longtime politician with no plan for the future and a billionaire with no government experience. well, let me tell you my story. my husband and i came here as newlyweds. we raised our family here and the california dream came true for me in ways i could never have imagined. now i'm running for governor to restore the california dream for everyone. i'm not a career politician or a hollywood star. i'm from silicon valley, where i created thousands of jobs at ebay. as governor, i'll do something that's been missing from california politics for far too long. i'll treat you like grownups, tell it to you straight, and offer a practical plan forward. these are scary times and i know that cleaning up sacramento won't be easy. our problems are tough, but so am i. if you want more of the same from sacramento, then vote for my opponent. but if you want to get california moving again, i'm ready. are you? pry as we might, there's probably no scary effect we can conjure up that can possibly compare with your worst nightmare. yours and just about everybody else's in the world. our cover story is reported now by susan spencer of "48 hours." >> reporter: an october night and halloween is in the air. at the nightmare haunted house practically a new york institution, no one expects sweet dreams. >> trying to kill me. >> someone chasing me with a gun. >> it looked like something out of a horror movie. >> reporter: but real-life nightmares are no laughing matter. >> i'm running away from something and i'm stuck in place, like i can't run. i can't walk. i can't move. i try to stop and i just fall over. >> i go into the bathroom, turn on the light and the entire bathroom is literally covered in blood. >> my teeth will just all of a sudden start becoming loose and fall out. recently i had a dream where i woke up from my dream and i still didn't have teeth. >> reporter: like millions of others around the world, these young people suffer from chronic nightmares. not just bad dreams but horrifying, hair-raising dreams. >> it will be such a realistic situation and then something terrifying will happen to me. >> reporter: the devil really is in the details. >> imagery can be very, very vivid. so even once they're awakened they're still left with those images replaying in their minds. it can be very troubling. >> reporter: university of montreal psychology professor antonio zadra got a wake-up call early in life when he had a nightmare so powerful that he gave up on med school so he could study them. >> but it was all crumbled. it was ashen, gray and wrinkleded. >> reporter: for two decades he's been following his dreams by collecting other people's. how many dreams am i looking at in these file cabinets? >> we probably have about 7,000 to 8,000. there's another 2,000 or 3,000 in the other ones on the other side. >> reporter: it's not hard for this professor to find bad dreams. as many as one in four adults has one nightmare or more a month. roughly one in 17 reports being frightened by nightmares at least once a week. this is nothing new. in 1781, artist henry painted his vision of the nightmare. portraying it as a menacing visitor suffocating its victim. >> originally nightmares were conceived as demons or evil forces that came and visited us. >> reporter: we thought people were possessed. >> possessed or they were being tempted being made aware of the evil forces that surrounds them. >> reporter: some of our most common nightmares involve our deepest fears. and so the teacher dreams he's in front of class naked or the doctor walks into surgery and suddenly can't remember how to do the operation. or the television correspondent finds herself on camera mid sentence and just... just... just... goes jts dust blank. are there personalities who are more disposed to have nightmares? >> people who are anxious. people who get distressed aate lot. particularly when something bad occurs are much more likely to have frequent nightmares. >> reporter: and watching horror movies probably doesn't help either. but for sleep specialist ross levin, the exorcist and its frightening dream sequence inspired something positive: his career. (screaming) in his practice today, he uses a technique called image rehearsal therapy to stop patients' nightmares. he says it can work in as few as three sessions. >> imagine the nightmare and imagine changing the nightmare in a way that becomes less nightmarish and practicing that imagery over and over again during the day. that tends to rewire the nervous system we think. >> reporter: by thinking of a alternative end to my nightmare during the day, i can rescript it. >> correct. >> reporter: i can make it go away completely. >> yes, you can make it go away completely. >> reporter: sounds like a dream come true like directing your own personal movie. >> i had one patient, for example, who had the recurrent nightmare that someone was chasing her into a dark alley. so we worked on changing that to her turning around and the... and saying the man left the wallet on the table. she reported having the dream the same four or five nights. so she got her wallet back. there was an added benefit. >> reporter: what is it doing to their life? by contrast psycho analyst maxine emphasizes not changing nightmares but finding their deeper meaning. >> all of a sudden i'm like my teeth are falling out again. >> reporter: take that common dream about losing your teeth. >> there are people who have talkd about teeth falling out as meaning being quite symbol symbolic of transitions in life because when you're young and your teeth falling out that's a period of transition. when your teeth fall and you're old, that's also a very important transition period. >> reporter: once you establish those connections, can you usually stop these nightmares from occurring? >> they typically do abate. >> reporter: surprisingly, the promise of a cure fell flat with our nightmare sufferers. >> sometimes it can be inspirational. >> reporter: who seem convinced there's good in their bad dreams. >> i don't ever want to actually experience any of these things so it's kind of like i'm still getting to have these experiences but from the safety of my bed. >> it's almost fun to analyze them in the morning. not only do you get a sense of relief when you know it's a dream. it's almost like how crazy was that. it's almost like thinking about a movie or something. it's just fun. >> reporter: try keeping that in mind tonight. sweet dreams. >> osgood: next.... >> to me, you carve a pumpkin to transform it into something that's alive. >> osgood: a pumpkin sculptor whose who is cutting edge. wow... what is it? peace of mind... a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. it's called toyota care and we're the only full-line brand to offer anything like it. we look so happy and worry-free. you are. 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[ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. >> osgood: the grinning jack-o-lantern is a halloween staple. still when it comes to showing what you can do with a carved pumpkin, old jack is old hat. steve hartman takes us to see a master at work. >> reporter: when you watch this family of michigan dig into their halloween pumpkin, the first question that comes to mind is.... >> there he goes. >> reporter:... what did a pumpkin ever do to them? norman bates carved more kindly. this is how ray teaches his kids how to start on a pumpkin. not just his kids. >> take this tool. >> reporter: he goes around to schools and tries to get other kids to adopt the same skin 'em alive approach. >> if you want to make a good pumpkin, you have to push the limits. >> reporter: there's clearly a madness to his method but ray is not completely out of his gourd. in fact, he may be a genius. >> just a different way of thinking. >> reporter: for the past 15 years, ray has spent every october in his basement studio, reinventing the art of pumpkin carving. using sculpting tools instead of knives. he can now take a pumpkin and over the course of about eight hours turn it into a truly museum quality fruit. >> to me you carve a pumpkin to transform it into something that's alive. >> reporter: believe it or not, all these started out as single pumpkins. each carving more improbable than the next. each creation challenging the limits of what is pumpkinly possible. >> i'm so obsessive. when i get into something i don't go to sleep. i stay up all night. i've keep doing it. >> reporter: has he been like this since you met him? >> pretty much. >> reporter: ray's wife tammy says pumpkins were just the beginning. they merely openeded his eyes to an infinitely carveable world. today he sculpts full time. he makes models for toy companies. he's starting to get into sand sculpting too. this is what he made the first time he ever tried. ray clearly has a give. such a gift it's almost a curse. >> i see the eyes are too big. >> reporter: like so many people who are the best at what they do. >>, ray is rarely satisfied with anything he does. would you throw it away? >> i've thrown away better ones than this, right. >> reporter: although it drives his wife nuts, ray says it's a healthy neurosis. that's the message he likes to leave with kids. that no matter what you do to be great you can't ever think you are. and of course 15 years of practice doesn't hurt either. >> very nice job. >> osgood: coming up, obituary writers. >> reporter: how would you capture your life in 205 words? >> osgood: facing the ultimate deadline. [ female announcer ] your hands are only as clean as the towel used to dry them. so why use the same hand towel over and over instead of a clean, fresh one every time? kleenex® brand hand towels. a clean, fresh towel every time. >> osgood: nothing is certain but death and taxes. let's not talk about taxes. the other inevitability is the special province of a kind of journalist our jeff green field now reports on. the only kind of journalist who notes with certainty that sooner or later his story will run. ♪ good-bye... > when the famous or powerful or celebrated die, little in their lives can match the leaving. >> i just want to say i love him. >> reporter: the world quiets down. millions grieve. ♪ good-bye > those left behind build imposing memorials to remember them or to hold their remains. few, of course, will be honored with days of mourning and splendid tombs like this that are reserveded for kings and president, president uwe lease he's grant in this case but for those who have left a mark on the times they lived in, their passing will be marked if at all here on the obituary page of a newspaper. >> obits only have one line that deals with death. the rest of the story is about the amazing lives that people lead. >> reporter: once upon a time, the obituary was traditionalist typewriters and switchboard operators and news rooms heavy with tobacco smoke. they were formal, polite, and the standard for inclusion was rigid. >> in the old days, people were often obituaryized, if that's a word, just for being upstanding members of society. >> reporter: bill mcdonald has edited the "new york times" obituary section for more than four years. >> if you belonged to the right clubs and went to the right schools, you would make it to the obituaries of the times. it's not an automatic call where it might have been 20 or 40 years ago. >> reporter: in the early 1980s, a philadelphia daily news writer named jim nicholson moved to the obituary beat and began to breathe new life into this very old form. >> we were the people paper. still is the people paper. and it just seemed natural to do row house people. mechanics, plumbers, teachers, cops. >> reporter: people like a chef who was a hard worker and an easy touch, a bartender who could make a setting click whether it was a tavern, girls' club or home. >> i wrote the obituaries for the daily news. >> reporter: and it's made nicholson a hero to those who followed in his path and who gathered earlier this year in philadelphia. >> it's well deserved and congratulations. >> thank you. we couldn't have done it without you. >> reporter: writers like kay powell who spent 16 years writing obits for the atlanta journal constitution. >> i feel every person has one good story in 'em. and this is my chance to be on the phone talking to family and friends capturing that person. >> reporter: and powell found that humor and an off-beat lead can work just as well in an obit as in any other story. >> i give you the lead on one of my stories i wrote. "george hopkins died again friday." >> reporter: turns out george almost drown during world war ii and was brought back to life. powell also loved her idea for an auctioneer's obit. >> i resisted using the lead going going gone. >> reporter: of course it's a whole new universe of media that surrounds us now. >> we are all called to a better country. >> reporter: and it's given the obituary a whole new dimension. >> people of all ages have their own blogs and journals. they have their own facebook pages. there's no reason why we can't link to those. >> reporter: jade walker who runs a website aptly call the blog of defendant says the web offers limitless ways to remember. >> oftentimes when we're doing research for obits we search places like you-tube or if i'm dealing with a musician i'll link to their page with music clips. >> reporter: the "new york times" has met the challenge of new media as well. >> i just died. >> reporter: video interviews in contemplation of the inevitable. buchwald, suffering from diabetes, spoke about his life six months before his death. >> i was put on earth to make people laugh. if you can make people laugh, you get all the love you want. >> reporter: but there was no laughter, no contemplation of death nine years ago when the times faced its biggest challenge in memorializing the dead. when nearly 3,000 people died in an instant. on the front page, headlines and photos could signify the enormity of the event. but how to deal with a few thousand dead, most of whom were known only to friends, family and colleagues. >> we quickly realized that the traditional obituary structure where you introduce someone's great achievements in the first paragraph, tell their life as a sort of narrative chronically and then end by saying their relatives wouldn't work for 2400 people. so we set up this idea of focusing each one on one trait of that person's life. >> reporter: portraits of grief, short capsules of more than 2,000 lives that ran every day for three-and-a-half months. it was awarded a pulitzer prize. >> the singular quality that really stays with me is almost no one ever talked about that person's job. >> reporter: jan hoffman wrote more than 75 of them. >> it was about love. it was about singularity. it was about connection. it was about moments of thoughtfulness. >> reporter: and she found the stories that lay beneath the surface. for instance, the apparently happy-go-lucky young man. >> right before the memorial service an oncologist came to the family and said i'd like to speak at his memorial. the family said, what are you talking about? the oncologist said didn't you know? he had cancer. and what he did was he put make-up on his face so his family wouldn't realize he was going through chemotherapy. >> reporter: for those who chronicle death on a daily basis, the writing about the end of life has left them with very clear lessons about their own. >> i recognize that it's going to happen. i'm not afraid of it. but knowing that it's coming, i have to make the most of what we have. >> a question i ask myself is, what would mine say? how would you capture your life in 205 words? >> osgood: still to come, houdini's lasting spell. ,,,,,,,,,,,, >> strange things are happening on sunday morning. here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: that's a seance from the 1953 movie houdini starring tony curtis. he was the magician and master of escape who died on halloween in 1926. even he couldn't escape it. even he didn't see it coming. here's martha teichner. >> reporter: just watch. you'll know why we haven't forgotten the name houdini. you can't take your eyes off him. any more than they could. staring up, mouths open from a boston street. not before, not since has there ever been a magician like him. >> i think you can see in the film footage of houdini's escapes how crowds, tens of thousands of people would amass right before his performance. >> reporter: brook cayman rap a port is curator of houdini art and magic at the jewish museum in new york city. >> houdini really predicts and was an originator of our own dizzying and widespread entertainment culture. he worked very hard to promote himself. >> reporter: in 1907, think about it, over a venturi ago, houdini first had himself filmed. handcuffed. jumping off a bridge in rochester, new york. emerging hands free. he would boast nothing on earth can hold houdini a prisoner. over the years no matter how impossible the tasks he devised for himself seemed, nothing did. he always escaped. it was quite a trick but perhaps his best trick of all was the invention of harry houdini. >> he was born in budapest hungary, but he always said he was born in appleton, wisconsin. >> reporter: he was born eric weiss on march 24, 1874. at the age of four he moved with his mother and brothers to appleton to join his father, rabbi meyer samuel weiss who was fired by one synagogue after another. >> they were very poor. his father worked for a while in a neck-tie cutting factory. houdini also worked there as a child. >> reporter: even then says his biographer kenneth silverman, houdini was seeking fame and fortune as a performer. >> he was i think about 14. he did his first performance as a circus acrobat. he started off at the bottom rung, the lowest rung of show business which was dime museums. >> reporter: by his late teens he was already calling himself harry houdini. the name taken from a famous french magician named robert houdin. playing those dime museums, houdini met and married singer/dancer bess ronner. she became his assistant. >> this first really important magic trick was a thing called the metamorphosis. his wife would be put into a sack. she would go into the trunk. the trunk would be locked. the curtain would be closed around it for a moment. bang, the curtain would open. bess would be standing on top of the trunk and inside the locked trunk would be houdini. >> what interested me about the metamorphosis trunk is how poignant a symbol it would have been to the immigrant community in this time. >> reporter: the millions of poor immigrants who arrived with similar trunks, seeking metamorphosis of their own. >> in this period there was anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-semetic sentiment. people wanted to become americans. by seeing houdini's own transformation, it was really a great story of liberation from your past. >> reporter: as he became world famous, houdini had to up the ante. in 1910 he made the first successful flight in australia. in the 1920s, he produced and starred in silent films. his exploits became more and more difficult. more and more dangerous. especially when he added water. >> he practiced staying underwater. he would lie in the bathtub and see how long he could stay underwater. >> reporter: possibly his most sensational stunt? breaking out of the chinese water torture cell. >> it's hard to be upside down in water, not breathing and struging out of retaint. it's a crazy feat to do night after night but he did not stop. he kept doing this and doing it. >> he is seven minutes in. >> reporter: inspired by houdini magician david blaine subjects himself to punishing even life-threatening faes of endurance. >> i don't think anybody wants to die. but i think there's a certain rush or like this heightened sense of awareness that you get when you're pushing yourself in a place where you can only focus on that moment. it's like this moment of clarity. it's an amazing feeling. >> reporter: blaine, if anyone, knows how much of what houdini did was real and how much was illusion. >> just a very small, clever device which with the right feel and the right pressure.... >> reporter: for the love of magic, david blaine will show you how a trick works. but houdini spent the final years of his life relentlessly exposing the trickery of spirit mediums who claimed they could contact the dead. he told the los angeles times in 1924 that it takes a flim flamer to catch a flim flamer. >> reporter: which is made his death bed pact with his wife so strange. he didn't die the way it happened in the old tony curtis movie, in his water torture cell. but from a ruptured appendix in a detroit hospital. >> houdini died on halloween in 1926. bess houdini his beloved wife and he had an agreement that for a decade after his death if, in fact, there was an ability to reach the other side, that he would communicate with bess through a secret code. >> reporter: every halloween for ten years she held a seance. but he didn't come back. >> i know he has turned out the lights. >> reporter: houdini had imitators, but who remembers x- celo or torini? more than 80 years after houdini's death, his name is still synonymous with magic. as he used to say at the end of his shows, will wonders never cease? >> osgood: ahead, mo rocca, clowning around. >> reporter: do you like it? big apple circus popcorn. the best. i do a lot of different kinds of exercise, but basically, i'm a runner. last year. 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( ding, cheering, ringing ) keeping you full and focused with more than double the fiber and whole grain... in every tasty bite -- frrrrrrosted mini-wheeeeats! didn't know i had it in me. the circus clown is a familiar figure for all of us. we're supposed to laugh but for more than a few a clown is more scary than funny. our mo rocca has given that subject some serious study. >> reporter: all the world loves a clown, right? they play tricks. they smile. they just want to make you laugh. i'll put it to you this way. then why do so many of us find them so terrifying? funny or scary? >> terrifying. >> reporter: how did you escape? >> we just like ran. >> reporter: he was wearing clown shoes. he can't run that fast. >> absolutely. >> it's scary. >> reporter: turns out that much of the world loaths a clown. the evil clown has long lurked outside the big top from the scary funny to the scary bad. to the just plain scary. >> he's selling you a perception of himself that is so strident and so resoundingly false it all but begs you to believe there's something awful behind the carnival music. >> reporter: writer mark dery believes that fear of clowns is a reaction to the clown's mask. its eerie white face. >> the clown is a very cadaverous figure. he has deathly palor. he has the frozen grin of the corpse which is why the joker in batman is such an uncanny figure. >> reporter: is the clown even smiling, dery wonders? or bearing his teeth? >> it's the story told by the clown in the stephen king novel "it" which is that the man dangling the the painted on smile may not have your best interests in mind. >> reporter: a sorry all too real in the case of serial killer john wayne gassey who often dressed up as pogo the clown. >> people are scared of clowns for a reason. you know what i'm saying. >> reporter: come on. you say people are scared of clowns for a reason. >> everybody knows what the hell is going on behind that face paint. >> reporter: i your honor a lot of people are scared of clowns but obviously there are a lot clowns out there that are good citizens. >> the dorky ones. they're not even doing the face paint justice. >> reporter: the rap group insane clown posse has exploited the fascination with wicked clowns to sell over 10 million albums. but leaders singers violent j and shagy 2 dope aren't exactly anti-clown. >> the clown sometimes put out a pretty good dam show like when they all get out and they're bopping each other and they all climb out of a volkswagen. that's not too scary but take them out of the 3 ring circus anywhere else, terror. >> reporter: if the fear of clowns seems like a big joke in some cases, it kind of is. this is your trailer right here. big apple circus clown barry lubin thinks it's a joke, a bad joke. >> there are things on the internet in which there seems to be a trend at times where it's hip on act afraid of clowns but it's not real. >> reporter: he says genuine cases of fear of clowns are rare. did clown college prepare you for the reality that some people are terrified by clowns? >>. >> we never really addressed that. it's the sort of thing that you experience every once in a while. i mean i've had adults say to me, i know this is irrational but i'm scared to death of you. can you please go away. my job at that point is to give them their space. and not try to break through the walls.... >> reporter: back off. >> exactly. back off. >> reporter: this reporter must not be experiencing the fear of clowns because he didn't find any of these clowns scary. are you a little concerned that especially with you like that the nose the little polka dot on the nose is a little too cute and friendly. >> are you saying i'm cute and friendly because of my nose? i think maybe the nose by itself would be cute and cuddlely but connected on the rest of my face i think i'm plenty evil. >> reporter: on to the big top. the best clowns says barry lubin wear make-up and costumes that reflect the performer underneath. i wouldn't hold the door for berry but i will for grandma. is this a clown joke that i can't open. >> maybe you should try the other one. >> reporter: funny. >> osgood: next. >> reporter: funny. >> osgood: next. >> it's smaller than their our state is in a real mess. and i'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. we have to make some tough decisions. we have to live within our means. we have got to take the power from the state capitol and move it down to the local level, closer to the people. and no new taxes, without voter approval. we have got to pull together not as republicans or as democrats but as californians first. at this stage in my life, i'm prepared to do exactly that. i'm among 30,000 employees who used to work for hp. i was supposed to retire there. carly fiorina changed all that. fiorina laid off 30,000 people and she shipped our jobs to china and india. i had to pack my bags and i was out the door that night. we even had to train our replacements. she didn't need 5 corporate jets. one hundred million for herself. fiorina never cared about our jobs. not then and not now. >> osgood: tired of the same old tourist spots? rita braver walks us through one tourist attraction that is truly at the end of the line. >> reporter: cemetery and sleepy holy new york conjures up frightening images. >> ichabod looked over his soldier and saw, yes, it was a black shape following him closer and closer. >> reporter: it could only be the fearsome loadless horseman pursuing poor ichabod crane as depicted in the 1949 disney film the legend of sleep owe hollow. we must disclose that rumors persist that this place is still haunted. and among the spirits here is that of washington irving, the man who made the place famous by writing the legend. as guide linda ford explains. >> he was a brilliant sat tireist. i think if he were alive today he would be writing for s and l. >> reporter: yes, these brave souls dare to venture into the spooky world. >> this became the home of barnabus collins, the vampire. >> reporter: of cemetery tourism. >> come in. >> i just think they're wonderful places. they're full of history. they're full of architecture. >> reporter: and full of dead people. >> and full of dead people but they don't mind. >> reporter: if there's a chief tombstone tourist, it has to be photographer doug keister who has visited hundreds of cemeteries and published four books. >> we have andrew carnegie. >> reporter: he says it's a great way to see how the rich and famous end up. folks like steel manufacturer andrew carnegie. >> he was one of the wealthiest men in america. his monument, which is a celtic cross, is actually quite simple. >> reporter: even simpler.... >> immediately under us is a concrete vault. >> reporter: according to the cemetery's historian jim logan is the virtually unmarked gravesite of darling leo, a cocker spaniel entered in 1892 by a wealthy tobacco hareess who visited everyday. >> she would hire local school children to accompany her. the more tears they shed the higher the wages. >> reporter: turns out you can learn a lot about human nature by visiting a cemetery. this is bigger than a lot of people's homes. >> no surprise that hotel magnate lyona helmseley notorious for her personal extravagance would shell out millions for a tomb for herself, her beloved husband harry and her even more beloved maltese trouble. but guess what. the queen of mean, as she was known, first built this mausoleum now owned by others at wood lawn cemetery in the bronx. >> in my position i get to learn all their stories. >> reporter: historian susan olsen says leona was dead set on moving because she claimed her view here had been spoiled. >> she brought a lawsuit against the cemetery. >> reporter: is that all over or is that still going on? >> i'm not allowed to talk about it. >> reporter: of course, going out in style is old hat here at woodlawn. this replica of leonardo da vinci's tomb constructed at the turn of the 20th century houses oliver belmont of the belmont raceway, and his wife alba vanderbilt belmont. what was the reason that they wanted to duplicate da vinci's tomb? just because they could? >> just because they could. >> reporter: in the place where you can see the tombs of everyone from miles davis to f.w. woolworth and architecture styles from classic egyptian to gothic, complete with gargoyles, our favorite may just be this one. keister called it "what were they thinking" architecture? clark dunlop and his wifey lies a loved paris and not just on stained glass. >> if you turn around, if you want to turn around, in this little box.... >> reporter: oh, no. a parrot. >> oh, my gosh. >> reporter: that's the great thing about a cemetery. it might not be night of the living dead. >> still in search of the head. >> reporter: but you'll never be bored stiff. >> osgood: after this break, the after life. and later, don't move a muscle. [ male announcer ] with jerry brown, it's just one dishonest smear after another. and another. just a dishonest politician, trying to hide his record of failure. the real brown plan? more spending on out-of-control state pensions. more favors for the big teachers union, blocking education reform. more job-killing taxes and regulations. more of the same old failure from sacramento. job killer jerry brown. always more taxes, more spending, and more lost jobs. >> it's a very scary sunday morning, and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: the movie star turned director clint eastwood has made a new movie about the after life. do you know anything about that? katie couric decided to find out. >> couric: what do you think happens when you die? >> i haven't the foggiest idea. >> couric: generally when clint eastwood wants you dead, you're dead. >> what do you think happens when we die? >> if you're worried about being on your own, don't be. you're not. >> reporter: but in here after, the new movie directed by eastwood, death is only the beginning. it's the one unknowable thing, isn't it? in terms of what happens to us when we die. >> nobody is in a rush to find out. >> couric: but the characters in "here after" are in a rush to understand their brushes with death. there's the woman who has a near-death experience during the 2004 tsunami. the boy desperately trying to reach out to his twin who has been killed. >> i recognize you. you're that psychic. >> i have news for you. i don't do it anymore. >> reporter: then there's the psychic played by matt damon haunted by his ability to communicate with the dead. >> please, i want to talk to him. >> i can't help you. i don't do that. >> i'm operate miss the i can that there's a point to all this and that the decisions we make here really matter. so i want to live my life here that way. if the light switch just goes off, then it goes off and i'll be none the wiser. >> i think everybody is curious about the here after because even as a young kid if you go to sunday school or if you're part of some organized religion, you always believe in the here after. if you're really good, you get to stay there on forever, immortality is something. >> that's the pivotal question of existence, i think. is whether we live after we die. >> couric: if anyone has spent a lot of time pondering the after life, it's raymond moody. you're kind of the go-to guy for near-depth experiences now. >> well, it appears to be. >> reporter: dr. moody, psychiatrist and philosopher, has been collecting thousands of first-person accounts of near-death experiences for four decades. putting them in books and even a movie. >> i was scared to death, but i was already dead. >> couric: in fact, he coined the term "near-death experience." what exactly is that? >> well, katie, all over the world we found out that many people who are brought to the brink of death and resuscitated come back and tell us a very similar story of leaving their physical body >> and i felt myself pop out of the body. >> they tell us that they seem to go through a passageway of some sort and come out on the other side into this incredibly brilliant light. >> i came into a place much like walking out of a dark room into a bright room as if my eyes were trying to adjust to this brilliant light. >> every detail of their lives is displayed around them in a sort of hologram. >> i saw every minute detail of my life. >> and they say that relatives or friends of theirs that have died are there almost in the role of a greeting committee. >> and i also saw my grandparents coming to meet me. >> couric: it might sound like a lot of new-age mumbo-jumbo to you, but consider this. about three-quarters of americans believe there is an after life, as an article of faith. >> one of the major challenges that religions address is the problem of death. >> couric: a professor of religion at boston university. >> if you think of religion as competition, there are those who offer the most benefits in the after life. you're going to die. after you die, the good people or the faithful people or whoever it is determined will go to this amazing place. the bad people or the unfaithful people will go to this horrible place. >> couric: owe uses moody's research in his classes, acknowledging skip... skeptics of the near death experience who say the bright lights and floating feeling might just come from the chemical process of the body as it shuts down. ann wonders if moody's concept might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. >> i think it's tricky now because his ideas are so out this in the culture now that we have in our head an expectation of what's supposed to happen when you have a near- death experience. we're sort of like where's the light? where are the beams of love? >> couric: we're taught to believe there is heaven, a white light, you know, spirits rise. and could this be almost psychosomatic, if you will? >> well, katie, i'll tell you what i have reached about it. i think that it's really the other way and h around. my thought is that probably the reason we have a notion of an after life is that in remote antiquity people had these experiences. they put the explanation on it that there is some sort of after life. >> couric: if you're just getting used to near death experiences, how about shared death experiences? where witnesses get involved as their loved one crosses over to the other side. >> i was really just terrified my mother was going to die. >> couric: it's something that connie phillips believes she experienced firsthand 23 years ago. her mother, bety joe philip, was lying in a hospital bed following brain surgery. >> she would have these experiences where she would say, i'm leaving. i'm going. i'm floating. i'm floating out the window. when she said that, this actually began happening to me. i was in this awareness with her that we were floating out the window. it was the strangest experience i've ever had. >> couric: moody says the stories he's been collecting, like that of connie phillips, are leading him to believe that one day we might know what has always seemed unknowable. >> i am going through a stage in my life right now where i'm really beginning to think, my goodness. there does seem to be something to this. but still we're just here at the very beginning of researching this. we haven't seen scratched the surface yet. >> couric: you really think that one day we'll be able to know? >> i wouldn't say it's impossible. >> couric: really? >> i think that it mate be, yes. >> couric: but until that day comes, despair not. there's a new way to achieve immortality, at least digital immore at that time... immortality. >> hi, i hope all is well. >> couric: meet don davidson. actually that's his avatar. here's the real don davidson. he's the ceo and chief talking head of a company which just came alive online this month. >> our concept is start today and build your own legacy going forward. >> couric: you give them a photo of yourself and an audio recording of your life story. employing artificial intelligence, your avatar is able to talk to future generations. >> so that years from now family and friends could come back and actually have a conversation with you and find out what you were like. >> couric: really? a conversation. >> a conversation. >> couric: so i'm going to ask you where did you go to college? >> yep. >> i went to roanoke college in virginia. >> couric: is there something borderline freaky about this to you? >> well, we get the word creepy every once in a while. i think it's all an individual's perspective. you know, i lost my mother a couple of years ago. i'd give anything to be able to go in and just hear her say the five or ten things that i remember her saying that it used to make everyone laugh. >> couric: so we may or may not ever have proof of an after life. but now there's at least one way to ensure that some version of you could be around for all eternity. >> osgood: ahead, famous last words. >> that's all, folks. funny how nature just knows how to make things that are good for you. new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants. refreshingly good. because they have 20% more calcium per chew than viactiv or for the delicious flavors like chocolate truffle and vanilla creme? mmm. -mmm. -mmm. [ female announcer ] hard to say really. new caltrate soft chews, we put the yum in calcium. >> osgood: head stones are a kind of tablet for the dearly departed to leave the world with one final thought. >> that's the story of my life. no respect. >> osgood: he didn't get any life and comedian rodney dangerfield didn't expect any better in death. his head stone reads there goes the neighborhood. when frank sinatra said good-bye he of course did it his way. with a positive. ♪ that the best is yet to come ♪ >> osgood: and fellow rat packer dean martin went out with the theme that usually ushers him in ♪ everybody loves somebody sometime ♪ >> osgood: edgar alan poe quotes the rain, never more. no biting commentary from dracula. his head stone reads beloved father. jackie gleeson went out with his trademark line. ♪ and away we go ♪ the beat goes on >> osgood: and sonny bono, his trademark song. ♪ the beat goes on >> congratulations. who is the lucky girl? >> i am. >> osgood: jack lemmon was ready for his next role in the here after whatever it might be. his head stone reads jack lemmon in... and merv griffin wants us to know "i will not be right back after this message." >> what's up, doc? mel blank is the voice behind so many classic cartoon characters from bugs bunny to porky pig. he gets the last word. >> that's all, folks ♪ great! at progressive, you can compare rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. wow! that is huge! [ disco playing ] and this is to remind you that you could save hundreds! yeah, that'll certainly stick with me. we'll take it. go, big money! i mean, go. it's your break, honey. same coverage, more savings. now, that's progressive. call or click today. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. (screaming) >> osgood: when it comes to frightening sights and sounds, halloween is up against some tough competition this year. chief washington correspondent and face the nation anchor bob schieffer explains. >> people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well i'm not a crook. >> schieffer: remember when politicians thought that's all they had to promise? that was then. this is now. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> schieffer: in an election season so weird it's been halloween scary, no wonder this has been the most talked- about commercial. >> i'm christine o'donnell and i approve this message. >> o'donnell spends money she doesn't have. hired employees she didn't pay. >> schieffer: boy, with people angry and the economy in the dump, the commercials this year have been, well, how about this one? >> the man who literally helped put the state of california on the path to bankruptcy and higher taxes. >> schieffer: here's the really scary part. >> sharron angle, extreme and hypocritical. >> i'm harry reid and i approve this message. >> schieffer: the cost for tv commercials alone will run a record $3 billion this year. >> no one knows when whence it came. >> schieffer: be honest now. do you feel we're getting our money's worth. >> soon hery leaseist self-image grew so that it overwhelmd the capital and drifted west. >> schieffer: worth it or not this year the power players aren't working here. in the shadow of this famous sign. >> the way we look at an ad is if you don't see it, why bother making it? why bother spending millions of dollars to put it on the air. >> schieffer: meet fred davis. he may work for republicans but he's anything but conservative in his aroach. the deem onsheep and the barbara boxer balloon and christine o'donnell's witch ad were his work. in tough times he says there's really no place for subtlety. >> one who is calm and confident or one who is, well, not so much. >> if you come to us, you're probably not going to expect a rubber stamp normal political ad. so to start with, the fact that you're here in this office probably means you're willing to push the boundaries a little bit. >> schieffer: the commercials have been no more unusual this year than some of the candidates. not surprising, says william galston of the brookings institution. why do you think there's so many characters running for office this year? >> these are very unsettled times. throughout american history, hard times have brought forth political candidates and movements that are outside what's broadly considered to be the mainstream. this time is no exception. >> schieffer: from the pre-civil war "no nothing" party to hughie long "share our wealth" movement during the great depression, an uncertain economy invariably results in an uncertain political landscape. >> barack obama is the worst president in history. >> schieffer: this year that's meant bad news for the democrats. although some in the new crop of republicans are giving democratic party chairman tim kaine a reason to smile. >> the tea party has enabled candidates to win that are way outside the mainstream. so while i'm not predicting numbers on the outcome tuesday, i will say this. we will win seats. i feel confident. we will win seats that we would not have won without the tea party. >> schieffer: you are the chairman of the democratic party so i guess you don't see any extremists on the other side. for sure it seems as if this campaign season has rattled nerves in both parties. >> vote the bums out. >> schieffer: what about the tea party? did that give you a little scare? suddenly along comes this group of people that they don't seem to care too much for the establishment. >> they don't. they're shaking up the republican party. >> schieffer: ed is a former chairman of the republican party and a key strategist this year and even he is taking nothing for granted. >> it creates growing pains but growing pains are better than shrinking pains. >> schieffer: nobody is feeling more pain this year than incumbents. with just days to go, a cbs news poll finds that 8 in 10 disapprove of the job congress is doing. and they think it's time for new blood. >> november, november. >> schieffer: which leads to the scariest question of all. whoever takes control, can the two sides find some way to work together? william galston says they better. >> the fact that the american political system is having a hard time getting things done doesn't mean that the world is standing still. time is is not clearly on america's side the way it used to be. the more time we spend mired in gridlock, yelling at each other, the farther ahead our competitors can get. >> schieffer: scary stuff for scary times. maybe the only thing left to say is happy halloween, charles. >> osgood: and to you, bob. thank you. while we've got you what's coming up on face the nation. >> schieffer: we'll have key republicans and democrats to talk about the election but we're going to hear first from the white house point man on terrorism john brennan. >> schieffer: thank you, bob schieffer. we'll be watching. by the way bob is here in new york for tuesday night's cbs news coverage of the midterm elections anchored by katie couric. just ahead here on sunday morning, bill geist looking sharp. it means getting everything you need to invest for yourself, not by yourself. it means choosing from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. plus 5-star service and research designed to increase your intelligence, not insult it. so you can wave good riddance to some high-priced joker churning out cookie cutter portfolios. price is one thing. value is another. don't confuse the two. e-trade. investing unleashed. i love running my tongue across my teeth and feeling all the stuff i missed. 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[ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol to advil. to learn more and get your special offer, go to takeadvil.com. take action. take advil. this morning our bill geist gets right to the point. >> reporter: it was the sunny autumn afternoon, and there was old dave out in his driveway again throwing knives at people. a neighbor lynn dropped by for a spin. >> i live about two blocks away. i walk by every morning walking my dog. >> it's different. >> reporter: greg lives next door. >> it makes for an interesting neighbor. >> reporter: oh, he's an interesting neighbor all right. dave is a minister with indoor- outdoor wedding chapels in his long island home. how many weddings have you performed? >> in the thousands. sometimes i put the bride on the wheel of death. >> reporter: yes, he said the wheel of death. >> it really adds a highlight to their wedding album. >> bill, this is houdini central. >> reporter: oh, my god. mild-mannered rev. david adamovich is also the great throwdini, master of the impalement arts. >> it's my stage name as a knife thrower. >> reporter: his attic is a cutlerry museum complete with a practice range. >> i've studied and analyzed and researched the flight of a knife. i've done it with high speed video. 60-frame per second stuff. i've done it with radar. >> reporter: he had been intensively training to scale the mount everest of knife- throwing. >> wow, what am i hitting. >> reporter: the veiled wheel of death in which the spinning wheel and the women on board are completely obscured from the life thrower. >> oops. one collision. i don't think i hit the girl. >> reporter: ready or not, it was time to attempt the feat in a show at a long island university. >> bang, bang, bang. >> reporter: throwdini quickly changed back stage. he had stopped along the way to perform a marriage. >> man of cloth by day. man of steel by night. >> please put your hands together for the very, very talented and our headliner for the evening, throwdini. >> reporter: throwdini warmed up. his knives flying at his target girl melissa ann. ever faster, larger and closer. >> now we really raise the stakes. >> reporter: it had reached the hour of the veiled wheel of death. successfully performed only three times since 1939. >> you guys are witnessing history in the making. >> reporter: the audience grew silent. some turned away. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: throwdini made history. and his target girl emerged without a scratch. >> we did it. we did it. let's hear it for melissa. >> reporter: have you had any serious injuries in your show? >> i knew you were going to ask that. there have been several incidents over nine years of performing on stage. and they've never involved impaling or sticking the girl. they have involved scrapes. >> reporter: why would anyone want to be a target girl? melissa ann? >> i've never been one to lead a very dull life. that's for sure. you know, i think i'm going to look back on this when i'm older and be like, that was pretty cool when i was doing that. >> reporter: melissa ann is is cool, calm, collected, and, yes, to the rest us perhaps a little crazy. you have to be crazy to let someone throw knives at you. >> whatever you do, don't run away. >> reporter: what do i do with my arms? i'd like a last meal and a cigarette. >> you were rocking back and forth. were you afraid of them. >> reporter: was i rocking? >> yes, you were. with each one you were shifting to each side. >> reporter: i think it's natural. that's how the species got this far. throwdini said i wasn't ready to be a target girl. there's no flinching in the impalement arts. receiving the bronze star, that was definitely one of my proudest moments. i graduated from west point, then i did a tour of duty in iraq. when i was transitioning from active duty, i went to a military officer hiring conference. it was kind of like speed dating. there were 12 companies that i was pre-matched with, but walmart turned out to be the best for me. sam walton was in the military, and he understood the importance of developing your people. it's an honor to be in a position of leadership at walmart. i'm captain tracey lloyd, and i work at walmart. ♪ >> sunday morning's moment of nature is sponsored by... >> osgood: we leave you this halloween sunday among a trail in nevada where tarantulas lurk. >> osgood: i'm charles osgood. we wish you all a fun-filled and safe halloween and hope you'll join us against next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org it makes it hard to do a lot of things. and i'm a guy who likes to go exploring ... get my hands dirty... and try new things. so i asked my doctor if spiriva could help me breathe better. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better for a full 24 hours. and it's not a steroid. spiriva does not replace fast acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, have vision changes or eye pain... or have problems passing urine. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate... as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take... even eye drops. side effects include dry mouth, constipation and trouble passing urine. i'm glad i'm taking spiriva everyday because breathing better is just better. ask your doctor if once-daily spiriva is right for you.