Best Spiritual Movies to Stream: Films That Wake You Up

The best spiritual movies do not tell you what to believe. They open a door and let you walk through. Here is a hand-picked list of spiritual films and documentaries you can stream, grouped by what you are curious about, with a few well-known classics at the end.

What Makes a Movie “Spiritual”?

There is no official definition, but spiritual films tend to share a few traits. They ask about meaning, death, suffering, or the nature of reality. They slow down. They trust the viewer to feel something instead of telling them what to feel. And they leave a question behind after the credits.

That is different from a religious film, which usually tells a story from inside one tradition. A spiritual film can come from any tradition or from none. It can be a documentary, a drama, a travel film, or an experimental piece with no dialogue at all.

• Documentaries bring you real people, research, and places.
• Dramas let you live inside a seeker’s journey.
• Meditative films use image and sound instead of story.

How to Choose a Spiritual Movie

Ask yourself one question: What am I looking for right now? Comfort, answers, a challenge, or wonder? A film about life after death lands very differently from a film about success or about ancient history. Use the sections below like a menu.

You can stream every NLS TV title in this guide at NLS TV.

Hidden Christian History

• Jesus in India Explores the old stories that Jesus spent his missing years in the East.
• Jesus in Egypt: The Missing Childhood Years Follows the trail of his childhood and the Egyptian mysteries.
• The Forgotten Christ A look at the mystical side of Jesus that many churches rarely teach.
• Crucifixion Quake Investigates the earthquake recorded at the time of the crucifixion.
• Marketing the Messiah A documentary on how the image of Jesus was shaped and spread.

Want the full background first? Read our guide to the Gospel of Thomas.

Yoga and Eastern Wisdom

• Awake: The Life of Yogananda The story of the yogi who brought meditation to the West.
• Hare Krishna A look into the devotional tradition and the people who live it.

Life After Death

• Afterlife: Beyond the Light Accounts from people who say they went to the other side.
• The Life After Death Project A research-driven look at what may happen when we die.

For a firsthand account, listen to neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander in his near-death interview.

Ancient Mysteries and Hidden Worlds

• Dwarka: Atlantis of the East The search for a legendary submerged city.
• Sacred Earth Expeditions A travel series to sacred sites around the world.
• First Contact: Channeling Bashar An introduction to channeling and the Bashar material.

Personal Growth and Inner Change

• The Soul of Success Features Jack Canfield on success and purpose.
• The Natural Law A personal crisis opens a global inquiry.

Classic Spiritual Films From Elsewhere

These are not on NLS TV, but they are worth knowing:

• Baraka (1992) A wordless journey through sacred places and human life.
• Samsara (2011) From the same filmmaker as Baraka, again with no narration.
• What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004) A mix of documentary and story about consciousness and physics.
• Siddhartha (1972) Adapted from Hermann Hesse’s novel of a seeker.
• Kundun (1997) Martin Scorsese’s film about the early life of the Dalai Lama.

How to Get More Out of Each Film

1. Watch with no phone nearby.
2. Pause when something lands.
3. Write one sentence about what stayed with you.
4. Wait a day before judging.
5. Share it with someone and ask what they noticed.

If you want a guided path to go deeper, explore NLS Mastery.

Three Viewing Paths for Beginners

If a long list feels like too much, pick a path and watch three films in order.

Questions to Ask After Each Film

A film is only the start. These prompts turn watching into practice.

For Hidden History Films

• What claim in this film surprised me most?
• What would I need to see to be convinced? What would change my mind?
• What part of this story moved me even if I am unsure it is true?

For Yoga and Eastern Wisdom Films

• Which teaching could I practice this week?
• Where do I notice the same ideas in my own tradition?

For Life After Death Films

• What do I fear, and what do I hope?
• Who do I want to speak to before it is too late?

For Personal Growth Films

• What am I holding on to that is no longer serving me?
• What is one small action I can take tomorrow?

How to Host a Spiritual Movie Night

1. Pick one film. Make it short enough to leave time to talk.
2. Invite three to six people. Small groups get honest.
3. Set the room. Lower lights, no phones, tea or something simple to share.
4. Watch without interrupting.
5. Hold a ten-minute silence after. Let it settle.
6. Share one sentence each. What stayed with you?
7. Close by naming one thing you will try.

A Short History of Spiritual Cinema

Filmmakers have wrestled with spiritual questions since the very beginning of the medium. The camera turned out to be a surprisingly good instrument for the invisible: faces in silence, light moving across a landscape, a long shot that gives you time to feel. Here is how the tradition grew, decade by decade.

The Silent Era: Faith on Screen

Early cinema leaned on scripture and saints. Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) is still one of the most intense portraits of faith ever filmed, built almost entirely from close-ups of a single face. These films proved that cinema could carry the inner life, not just action.

The 1940s and 1950s: Heaven, Death, and Doubt

After the Second World War, filmmakers turned to the big questions. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death (1946) put a pilot on trial in a heavenly court. Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) showed a man what the world would be without him. Then came Ingmar Bergman, whose The Seventh Seal (1957) staged a knight playing chess against Death, and whose Wild Strawberries (1957) followed an old man reviewing his life. These films made doubt itself a spiritual subject.

The 1960s and 1970s: The Auteurs of the Spirit

This was a bold decade for mystical film. Pier Paolo Pasolini made The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964). Andrei Tarkovsky built a body of slow, searching work, including Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), and Stalker (1979). Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ended in a psychedelic passage that viewers still debate, and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) became a cult classic of symbolic spiritual cinema. The East also arrived in the West, with Siddhartha (1972) adapting Hermann Hesse’s novel.

The 1980s: Wordless Films and Fallen Angels

Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982) used images and Philip Glass’s music alone to ask what modern life is doing to us. Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) brought the story of nonviolence to a worldwide audience. Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987) followed angels who watch over a city and one who longs to become human. Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) sparked intense debate about how Jesus can be portrayed.

The 1990s: Spirituality Goes Mainstream

The decade opened the doors wide. Ghost (1990) and Defending Your Life (1991) made the afterlife a hit subject. Ron Fricke’s Baraka (1992) took viewers around the world’s sacred places without a word of narration. Groundhog Day (1993) is a comedy that many spiritual teachers read as a story about breaking a loop of habit. Little Buddha (1993), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), and Scorsese’s Kundun (1997) brought Tibetan Buddhism to the multiplex. What Dreams May Come (1998) imagined a heaven painted by the mind, and The Matrix (1999) turned an ancient idea, that the world may be an illusion, into a global phenomenon.

The 2000s: The Documentary Wave

The new century gave documentaries room to grow. What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004) mixed story and interviews to explore consciousness and physics, and brought those ideas to people who had never read a book on them. Dramas kept pushing deeper: Richard Linklater’s Waking Life (2001) wandered through dreams and philosophy, and Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006) braided three eras into a meditation on death.

The 2010s and Beyond: Big Ideas, Big Budgets

Mystical questions now sit comfortably in major releases. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) joined a family’s grief to the story of the cosmos. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012) asked which story about our suffering we choose to believe. Cloud Atlas (2012) followed souls across centuries, Arrival (2016) played with the nature of time, Coco (2017) honored the dead, and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) asked what matters when every version of life is possible. Meanwhile, Ron Fricke’s Samsara (2011) revisited the wordless form, and films about teachers and traditions, such as Awake: The Life of Yogananda, found worldwide audiences.

Recurring Themes Across the Decades

• Death as a doorway. Almost every era returns to what happens next.
• The search for a teacher. From Siddhartha to Peaceful Warrior, seekers meet guides.
• Is the world what it seems? From Plato’s cave to The Matrix, reality is questioned.
• Love that outlasts time. Somewhere in Time, Cloud Atlas, and Wings of Desire all circle this idea.
• Silence. The best spiritual films leave space for you.

Where Spiritual Cinema Is Now

Streaming has made this far easier to find. Films that once played in a single art-house cinema can now reach anyone with a connection. NLS TV exists to gather the best of the documentary side of that tradition in one place, with titles chosen by people who care about the subject.

More Classics Worth Watching

• Little Buddha (1993) Bernardo Bertolucci’s film about the Buddha’s story and a modern search for a reincarnated teacher.
• Seven Years in Tibet (1997) A mountaineer’s transformation in Tibet.
• Peaceful Warrior (2006) Based on Dan Millman’s book about a gymnast and a mysterious mentor.
• The Seventh Seal (1957) A medieval knight plays chess with Death.
• The Tree of Life (2011) A meditative film about grief, family, and the cosmos.
• Koyaanisqatsi (1982) A wordless film on modern life, with music by Philip Glass.

Narrative Films With Spiritual Ideas: 22 to Watch

Documentaries give you information. Story films let you feel an idea from the inside. The films below are not spiritual in a religious sense. They use story to explore the afterlife, reincarnation, the nature of reality, and what a soul is here to do. Some are rated R, so check ratings before you press play.

The Afterlife and the Soul’s Journey

Reality, Simulation, and Waking Up

If you are curious about reality shifting and the idea that experience is more flexible than it looks, these films all play with that idea, each in its own way.

Time, Love, and Reincarnation

Seekers, Teachers, and Awakening

How to Choose From This List

• Grieving? Start with What Dreams May Come, Ghost, or Coco.
• Questioning reality? Start with The Matrix, then Waking Life.
• Drawn to love across lifetimes? Somewhere in Time and Cloud Atlas.
• Want a lighter touch? Defending Your Life and Groundhog Day.

Tips for Finding Your Next Film

• Follow your question. Pick the film that matches what you are wondering about this month.
• Check the length. Choose a short film when you are tired and a longer one when you have time.
• Look for the guest list. Interviews on the NLS podcast often lead to films on NLS TV.
• Re-watch. Good spiritual films reveal more on a second viewing.

Go Deeper with NLS Mastery: Awakening Divine Consciousness

If you are ready to move from reading about awakening to experiencing it, this course is a direct path. Paul channels the Guides through attunements that clear the static of the mind, in eight lessons you can take at your own pace. Paul Selig teaches it in Awakening Divine Consciousness, part of NLS Mastery. Watch the course preview below.

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