Because it’s mostly full of mildly interesting stories of the paranormal, I don’t typically rely on Bio’s “Celebrity Ghost Stories” for serious discussions/thoughts on the afterlife.

And that’s why a recently aired episode caught me completely off-guard.

During a segment on Eric Roberts (brother of Julia, father of Emma), the character actor recounted his near-death experience following a vehicle accident in 1981. (According to IMDB and other online sources, Eric suffered significant facial and head trauma and was comatose for several days.) When he awoke from the coma, he said he remembered little of his life and was concerned his acting career was over.

In addition to an out-of-body experience, Eric spoke about how an elderly Romanian couple he didn’t recognize came to visit him in the hospital and gave him specific instructions for taking medication that would help him regain his memory. After writing down the names of the drugs, the couple disappeared and no one at the hospital recalled ever seeing them. Eric took the medication as they suggested and within a week, he said, his memories began to return.

While that story was interesting, it was a short, off-hand comment Eric made that really got me thinking. He was talking about how peoples’ spirits are made of energy, and that it’s not so much about the physical body – although we tend to associate the spirit with its human form. So when someone dies, Eric suggested, it’s really only the outward shell that is gone forever.

And then he said this:

“You can’t kill energy. You can only displace it.”

I find that way of thinking to be extremely comforting.

It also makes me wonder what New Yorker Joe Tiralosi – who WCBSTV.com reports was considered dead for 47 minutes before being revived – experienced and/or saw. Unfortunately, that particular aspect is not mentioned, except when reporter Chris Wragge’s co-host, Kristine Johnson, asks him outright at the very end.