Visiting Shane (2006)

 Directed by Varda Hardy

Starring Shane Lewis and Andrea Benson

Runtime 53min. - Not Rated

Star rating N/A

"Visiting Shane" is part of the IndieRights collection and is available on Amazon Instant for $1.99.

"Visiting Shane" contains powerful images that are permanently seared into my mind. It's not a great documentary on the technical level, but its content is so heavy that you tend to not notice. Shane Lewis is an astounding character and it's a shame that no one thought to document his life before his final days. I can't give you all the details on his medical condition, but I'll try to generalize. He has tumors in his brain. They are benign, but they are forcing fluid into his spine and brain stem. This is causing Shane to lose control over his muscles and putting him in unfathomable pain. The tumors are inoperable. Shane will not survive and he knows it.


There's no real footage of Shane when he was healthy. The things we learn about that period come mostly from his mother. He joined the military and became a field medic. He was also passionate about art. Much of that art is shown in the movie and it's heartbreaking to think he'll never draw again. He still gets excited when he recalls meeting a famous comic book artist and getting positive feedback.

Shane was staying at a Veterans Affairs hospital and was lucky enough to meet three people from a charity organization called "Compassion in Action". The volunteers for this group visit terminal patients on a regular basis to make sure they are never alone. Shane's volunteers became very close with him. They were all particularly distraught because of Shane's age. Not many of their terminal patients were under 30.

One of the volunteers was a young, beautiful girl. She would lie with Shane in bed and pat his shoulder or belly. He told her this comforted him. She would also play guitar and sing songs for Shane. He admitted to his mother that he was in love with this girl. We're never told if the feeling was mutual or if Shane confessed his love. His mom cries when she tells us that the details aren't important, it's only important that he loved. I think she's right.

There's many mentions of faith in this film. While this isn't the time for me to hop on my atheist soapbox, there are a couple of points I want to address. The volunteers in this film seem to think that visiting the sick and dying is what a good Christian should do. I'm not saying they're wrong, I'd just take it one step further. It's what a good person should do, regardless of religion.

The other point concerns a post-death phone call that Shane supposedly placed to his mother. She claims that he told her he would try to call her from the "great beyond". Not long after his death she found a strange message on her answering machine. There was a lot of noise and popping, but she believes there were also words. I don't remember the specifics, but they were the kind of phrases a son would use to comfort his mother. This sort of thing is an illusion. Our brains have a remarkable ability to find patterns where there are none, especially when we're already looking for a specific pattern. Most people say that trying to convince Shane's mother of this would be unjustified. I often hear, "If it gives her comfort, then let it be." That sounds reasonable, but once a person has embraced this sort of thinking they can become more suggestible to dangerous ideas. Like the idea that if you pay 100's of dollars to a psychic they can contact your dead loved ones. Or the idea that they can be cured through the power of prayer. Or the idea that herbal remedies should be used in place of their prescriptions. This may sound like a stretch, but it happens. To learn more about the way EVP and other auditory hallucinations work, check out THIS VIDEO.

Phew! Glad I got all that off my chest. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

"Visiting Shane" is a film documenting a dreadful experience for everyone involved. The biggest thing I took away from the movie? Youth is an illusion. No one is invincible. No matter what age you are, seize the day. Use your body to do what you love because one day it may fail you. Shane seemed to have celebrated life with vigor while he was healthy. Just before his death his whole body is paralyzed with the exception of his left hand and his face. He would use a TV remote by holding it in his mouth and pressing the buttons with his left hand. Despite such a horrible condition, he smiled. He made jokes, laughed with others and even managed to fall in love. The complete title of the movie is "Visiting Shane: Living life fully while dying". That's exactly what he does. It's exactly what we should all do.