>> oh, i had many loves. >> and, of course, her charlie. >> i'm way too old for him now. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. anybody watching the debt vote in the house monday night had to have been extraordinarily moved by that remarkable emotional moment when congresswoman gabrielle giffords walked out on the floor to cast her first vote since an assassination attempt nearly killed her back in january. joining me now is a man who's had his own brush with death, abc news' bob woodruff. he's got a primetime "nightline" special on her and other near death experiences tonight at 10:00 eastern. he joins me now. bob, it must have been a pretty moving moment for you particularly watching gabby giffords given what you had been through yourself. >> you know, i think all of us -- i'm sure you're the same. you're pretty stunned and shocked that she showed up like that suddenly right there on the floor of congress. her recovery's been pretty remarkable, i have to say. i didn't really expect her to be out there alone, out there walking and speaking to those that were there. you know, the last time she even went public in terms of visually was just the release of a couple of pictures back about three months ago, shortly before -- yeah, right before she got the part of her skull put back on. but now this time suddenly out of nowhere, and she said this is ahead and vote on this g to her, extremely important issue. >> you're a top news man. it's been a very divisive period for american politics and washington getting a lot of heat. in that one moment it seemed to bring a bit of humanity to proceedings, i thought. >> yeah, it was this moment of being united instead of, you know, bitter and fighting. and i think people did step away from that. it's not exactly a permanent cure to this kind of conflict that we've got. but certainly at that moment and for that day i think there was some happiness to see her not only just alive because it's a miracle that she even survived, but also reaching the medical level that she has. >> to remind people who don't know your story. you were working for abc. you went to iraq. you were embedded with american soldiers. and what happened next? >> well, we were on the road. this is back january 2006. believe it or not, five envelope years ago, so we're aging a lot faster than we thought we would, piers. buwe were on the road just outside of taji with the u.s. military and the iraqi military. and suddenly there was an ied that exploded about 20 yards to my left. my cameraman, doug vote, was also there on top of theehicle with me. and then instantly knocked out, unconscious. and it wasn't till 36 days later got back to the bethesda naval in new york, where i finally woke up and was able to start to remember somewhat of what happened to us out there. >> and you wrote a very moving piece about gabby giffords soon after the attempt to kill her, which i read at the time. and you were sort of predicting how you felt it could have gone. you were quite optimistic when many were pessimistic because having been through what you'd been through, arguably you started from a worse place. you were in a coma for 36 days. she wasn't. you know, she came around quicker than you did. so you could see possible life at the end of the tunnel, couldn't you? >> yeah. and i think people are kind of surprised. when you see at first what happened -- i've seen this and i've done stories many times about those that were badly injured. now, nobody gets back to 100% of the way they were before. but it goes in some ways better. slower, generally, for everybody, the recovery. but it goes better than you thought. i mean, certainly there she was, you know, shot right in the head. unconscious in the beginning. just really didn't know. but she improved faster than people thought. but, i mean, the main point i wanted to say was, that you know, this is a long, long road to recovery, but you end up being better every year than you were before. even though there are some comments from certain insurance, especially, you know, this improvement ends after a couple years. but she's got the same thing. she's got injury to the left part of her head. she was actually shot right over here. the ied, you know, hit me on that side. my skull, called a craniectomy, was removed from this side so the brain could expand, so that the brain can actually breathe. and she's had exactly the same thing. for the same exact reason. and it takes generally about four months before they put that back on because the brain has gone back to normal. and she did exactly the same thing. so in that sense i had a pretty good idea of what she's feeling like, how she's speaking, how she's walking, and certainly her cognitive abilities of what she's able to think like and what she can understand. >> the extraordinary thing talking to you, bob, is if i hadn't known your story you seem completely normal in eve respect. are you? i mean, do you still have residual issues with the injuries? do you still have any cognitive problems? >> yeah, my wife still has problems with me. other than that, in terms of medically, you know, i do have issues. you know, i've got what's called aphasia, which is a loss of my ability to remember certain things. the order of letters sometimes are very difficult. i've lost my memory of many, many words. so in the very beginning, when i was hit, i lost just tons of words. in fact, i couldn't even make my point because i couldn't get past the point where i could continue. i just couldn't find any way to communicate, to really give somebody my ideas. but now i'm able to find synonyms. so i can make my point as long as i can have this ability to deviate around some way. i can't just go straight down the interstate like i used to. now sometimes i run into points where i can't remember something specific. so i have to go around it another road and then back on the interstate to keep going. sometimes it may appear to be the same speed to someone like you, piers. but i know to me it's slower than it used to be. so there's still a lot of difficulty with that. i've also got recognition problems still where sometimes i'll meet people, and i don't even really recognize them again ten minutes later or really knew exactly where i met them. but every day, every week this is getting better. i can't even tell you. if i was doing this with you a year ago, it would be even more difficult for me. >> i mean, despite all these obvious frustrations, b, i guess there must also be a sense that you feel every day of being -- of feeling lucky to be alive. >> you know, that's interesting you say that because i absolutely feel that way. and i've had, you know, more time to spend with my -- with my family, with my kids, with my friends. i don't -- i'm not quite as irritated by things that you irritate me, but it is not a cure. other issues are raised that exist. and i also feel like we've got a very short period of time alive. you know, i have a good idea now that life is not long. it is certainly relatively short. and so let's do things more that we want to do. let's do -- let's have more adventures. let's help more people. let's spend more time with the people that we love. in that sense, yeah, it's been a change for me. >> both and you gabby giffords had the benefit of remarkable people to help you. in her case her husband, mark. in your case your wife, lee. how important looking back do you think it is to have a spouse who's just absolutely there for you? >> piers, there's no -- there's no proof, you know, scientifically or medically that having a family around you in moments headache that step up your recovery, but they without question do. does this mean that your neurons of your brain are improved because of friends around? i don't know. i don't think we really know. but i feel that them being close at times like that was a better way to be in terms of the speed of your coming back. and i tell that to a lot of people that have gone through the same thing. now, the sad thing is i have met some that are not necessarily, you know, very close to their families, have now gotten better over more time because of this. and i don't want to feel that this is the only way to improve it, but i think when you're there with your family, certainly those that have come there to help you, i think it does step it up scientifically and medically as well. >> have you been able to talk to any of gabby giffords' family throughout this process? >> i've spoken to mark, her husband, who's been a remarkable astronaut, and i've covered that as well at nasa. he's been -- i think he's been incredibly optimistic from the very beginning. you know, we had obviously conferences down at nasa where he -- where he gave, you know, the statements about how she's doing, which was really pretty reflective of exactly how she was advancing. and so he's been that way as well. and i think, again, without him i don't know how she would have done, but i think the general issue would have been the way she is. but without him i think it would have been slowed down a bit. he's been remarkably, remarkably good. >> and given that she's four and a bit years behind you in terms of her recovery and the injuries were not dissimilar, what's the best advice you would give gabby giffords right now as she's finally back on her feet and beginning to be able to lead a more normal life? what do you say to her? >> you know, in some ways, piers, i don't really know what to say. i think she's probably got the same feelings about it that i did. i think i've got, you know, deep feelings, that there are certain frustrations in your life, you're going to have more fatigue, you're going to have difficulty speaking. she's also got physical issues because she actually had some tissue injury that means that the right side of her is not -- it's not completely paralyzed, but it is -- she's lost some of her movement on her right. but all of these things with her, i guess my only advice to her is keep faith. you know, you are going to come through. and you remember that your life is not necessarily the same as it was before. and some things are worse than they were before. but i think there really are some things that are even better. part of it is the time that you spend with your family and members of your friends and your family i think is also something that's improved over time. and i think you've got a better attitude toward the way life is. >> what did you learn about yourself, bob, in all this? >> you mean good news or bad news? >> good and bad. >> i have more time to spend with my brothers. yeah. i get a lot of old bad stories about it. but what i learned about myself, i don't know how to answer that. i think that -- you know, that's a good question. i don't think many people have ever asked me that before. but i think part of it is you look back at the way that you had -- certain things to you were easy. you know, how much i could -- how much i had read, how many places i'd been to and how lucky that has been. and generally, i've been -- i don't know. i've been okay with changing directions to go to different kinds of work. you know, now, though, i have more -- i'm more tired at times than i was before. so i don't have that same kind of energy to go everywhere that i want to go. i do want to spend more time around my family, which means i don't do as much of that. but i don't know. i've learned that i've been a little bit kind of insane of wanting to go as far as possible to see as more interesting pieces that i could, places that i could see. but now i see that in my -- in my mind, and i think generally -- you'll have to ask that question of my wife, for example. she could probably tell you more about that. >> well, i guess the reason i was curious is because gabby giffords is clearly, i would imagine, beginning to consider a political comeback. and you have made a very successful comeback as a reporter. do you think you're a better reporter in a strange way for what you've been through? >> you know, some people have actually said that. you know, there's more of a calmness, i think, to the way that i report. maybe different kinds of stories that i'm pursuing. i'm not really able to -- i'm not allowed anymore to cover wars the way those old days. neither abc nor my wife. and my family, my brothers don't really want me to, either. so i'm reporting differently. more longer term, in-depth stories as opposed to breaking news stories daily. so that's somewhat different. and gabby, now she's made this comeback, which is very important. i did a story with tim johnson, the senator out of south dakota, a story about him because he did the same thing. you know, he had an aneurysm that just knocked him out. he was on a radio show at the time and just completely passed -- you know, just could not speak anymore. and he was out of senate, of the senate for more than a year, and then he finally came back and ran again. and that's the big question now with gabby. in 2012 will she run again? now they have not committed to it yet. according to mark and, of course, her campaign members, that they said she has not made her decision yet whether she's going to run in 2012 again. but i think she's going to. i think you saw her right there on the floor, and you saw that she can fit in. so like tim johnson i think she's probably going to make a comeback. but it's going to be some challenges for her as well when she's there. but i think cognitively the most important thing for her is that she's going to get that back over time, and she'll be able to translate and communicate as well as she did before. her voice will sound different, probably. and certainly her wording is going to be different. but i think that she will have the same political position on things, although who knows? and she will probably have the same ability to get through issues of politics and policy that is probably the same as it was before. >> bob, you've told in great detail about your own near-death experience. when we come back after the break, i want to talk to you about this show you have tonight on "nightline," on abc. it's a primetime special about not just your experience but also other people that have been, well, close to death. 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[ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪ unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. back now with abc news' bob woodruff. you've got this special primetime show "beyond belief" tonight on "nightline." tell me about it. >> if you look at all -- people that have got into some issues, medically, they've been hit or they've gone unconscious, and even some of those that have remained conscious, a lot of people have these images. they feel like they've gone after life. some of them deeply believe they've now seen heaven. others believe that they've just seen part of their past when they see. but this is what happened to me really. when i was hit back in 2006, when i was knocked out by that bomb, when i went unconscious for that one minute, i saw my body floating underneath me, and i did not wake up until 36 days later, back in the u.s., in the bethesda naval. and one of the very first thing that i said to my wife was i saw my body floating below. and she wrote down all the details of this. what i said. and i told her, i said i saw, you know, whiteness. i said there was no pain. it was comfortable. in some ways that i thought maybe i should just stay here. i should not even go back. and it turns out that i met so many others that felt the same. you know, we put part of our book about this, you know, four and a half years ago we came out with, and i got so many calls after that from people who have seen something very similar when they've had difficulties or were gone or believed they were going to die. some even said they did die and then they came back over the line. so it's very interesting to take a look. we want journalistically in this case to try to see what people feel like, what it looks like to them, what doctors think about this, what do scientists think. we even had a conversation with an atheist who also saw something very similar to those that are very, very religious. very similar to what they saw. it's really an interesting thing to take a look at. >> that must have been a bit of a blow for an atheist, to find out there's an afterlife. >> well, it is kind of an afterlife. just what is it, you know, when you go. some of them believe certainly it's an illusion. >> let's take a look, bob, at a clip from the show tonight. >> were you ever above your body? did you see yourself at all in any of this? >> well, when i was going up, i knew my body was back there, like i caught a glimpse of it. >> you did? >> mm-hmm. >> i wasn't afraid at all. >> yeah. i mean, i saw mine. that's really pretty much as far as i got. >> were you attached to it? >> attached to it? >> yeah. like did you feel attached to it? >> no. i felt like i'd become a stranger. i think i had -- i don't know. i thought either i'd gone into a dream or there was something firing around my head or i was somehow on a trip. >> it's a fascinating subject here, bob. and i can't wait to see the whole show. because everyone wonders, don't they, what it's like, if you go through what you've been through, do you have these kind of out-of-body weird experiences? when you look back on what you went through, what do you actually think it was? i mean, are you a believer in god? do you believe it was a religious thing? well, what was it? >> you know, this is one of those things that we will know the absolute truth of what it is that we saw and lived through when we die. yes, i'm definitely a believer. and a lot of them, even some critics in some ways, and she was kind of a little bit not a full believer in where she was going, mary jo, who you just saw there, when she went, but this was a changer for her. now she's a deep believer. she saw such specific details of what she partly expected. she did not see god, but she saw, you know, comfort, and she saw the whiteness, and she saw incredible comfort and absolutely no pain. all of that very similar to mine. but we don't really know exactly what caused it. i think most of the people that we talked to really hope that it ends up that way, that we're in a beautiful, comfortable place once we're gone. but those that were -- in fact, we talked to an atheist who really believes that they are totally fine with dying now because of what they saw. again, because it's not -- it's not painful, and they saw some people that have been parts of their lives there at that moment. and they think that they may be having those same thoughts. at least probably ending when they die. but certainly they're having during that time, during that time of dying. >> well, bob woodruff, i can't think of many more compelling reasons to watch the show than the end of atheism as we know it. so everyone should tune in tonight to abc's "primetime nightline" special, "beyond belief," hosted by bob woodruff. i can't wait to see it. bob, it's been a real pleasure. it really has. thank you very much. >> yeah, thank you, piers. same thing. >> coming up, my interview with a woman who knows charlie sheen probably better than just about anyone else. his ex-wife denise richards. your favorite big g cereals.em from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check. just don't feel like they used to. are you one of them?