Strange Rituals

Cannibalism--it's a universal taboo. But around the world, the shocking practice continues. In India, we meet an Aghori monk who believes eating human flesh is a crucial step toward enlightenment. Uncover cannibalistic feasts filmed in Liberia where soldiers would consume the organs of their defeated military enemies. Examine why nearly every culture on earth reviles the idea of using human flesh for food.

The different ways people deal with death around the world, including traditions in India, Indonesia and Mexico.

Mankind's obsession with how the world will end; a California preacher and his family await the apocalypse; British researchers believe fallout from an asteroid impact destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah 5,000 years ago; preventing World War III.

Rites of passage; vampire-like rituals in New York City; psychedelic initiations in the jungles of Peru; Aborigines perform painful warrior scarification rituals in Australia.

Ruben Enaje endures a crucifixion for the seventh time; hundreds of people hang from hooks at Suspension Convention; an underground club in Los Angeles where members play with fire.

Blurring the line between male and female; religious sect in India filled with castrated boys; a college professor struggles to keep his job and family after changing his name to Jennifer; performance artist transitions from female to male.

Warrior women; ancient Amazons; all-female boxing team from Brooklyn, N.Y.; Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman to lead the Cherokee Nation; women rule a remote village in China.

Testing the limits of the human body; a man runs barefoot marathons on Arctic ice; dentists drill the teeth of patients anesthetized through hypnosis; members of an Amazonian religious cult believe their priest can suck disease out of a sick person.

The Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome; Anchee Min is forced to live in a Maoist work camp; the Jessop family practices Mormon polygamy in Arizona; estranged father and daughter meet as adults and fall in love; tantric sexual healing.

Ritual killings; Celtic rites of ancient Ireland; Cambodian genocide of the 1970s; cult members commit mass suicide in 1997.

People venture into the wild in search of adventure and discoveries; underwater explorers dive into icy caves in Antarctica's glaciers; three Mexican fishermen survive nine months adrift in a tiny boat; a teenage girl communicates with wild animals.