The Basement: William Shatner | Beyond the Final Frontier: Life, Death, and What Comes After

Summary

Star Trek icon William Shatner sits down on The Why Files' The Basement with AJ Gentile to talk about life, mortality, and the masks people wear for those they love. He recounts a strange 1967 incident in the Mojave Desert where, after crashing his dirt bike and finding himself stranded and overheating, a mysterious figure dressed in silver appeared over a ridge and led him to safety. Shatner also reflects on surviving stage 4 melanoma, a final phone call with his dying sister, the philosophy of Spinoza, the reported hum inside the Great Pyramid, and his own theory of what we see at the moment of death.

Key takeaways

• 1In 1967, Shatner crashed his dirt bike into a prospector's trench in the Mojave Desert while alone and overheating in his riding leathers.
• 2He describes a figure dressed in silver standing over a ridge who led him to safety, an encounter often discussed as a possible UFO or extraterrestrial contact story.
• 3Shatner says he survived stage 4 melanoma during the same period his daughter was facing her own cancer diagnosis.
• 4He recounts a phone call with his dying sister and connects it to Captain Kirk's final words, 'Oh my,' in Star Trek Generations.
• 5The conversation touches on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza's ideas about God and nature, and on claims of a hidden hum or resonance inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• 6Shatner shares a personal theory about what people perceive at the very end of life.

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