tonight on "nightline" -- in a flash. as another wave of summer storms pound the country, we head straight into their electrifying center with a man trying to catch lightning in a bottle. and true believers. what makes a guru? this man says all it took was a robe and a fake accent. >> hello. >> to spawn a legion of disciples. why he did it and what it says about his followers. plus -- cheers. the olympics are winding down and the athletes are cutting loose. in some of london's famous pubs. we go in search of the perfect a point.

good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. breaking news, gofrper mitt romney's campaign announced late this evening he will reveal his choice for vice president tomorrow morning in virginia. "good morning america" will have the news as it develops. but we turn now to the summer of wild weather. the hottest july on record, crippling drought in half of the country and now tropical storms bringing epic rains to the east coast. ji ginger zee has been out storm chasing. >> reporter: we're chasing one of nature's most destructive and unpredictable forces. >> oh, look at that. that was beautiful. >> reporter: tim samaras is a seasoned storm chaser and no stranger to wild weather. >> most of the core i believe is right here. >> reporter: but today he's focused on another nearly

impossible mission. he's attempting to document the birth of a lightning strike. tim wants a glimpse behind that blazing flash he believe this is moment holds the clues that will help us better understand the mystery of this lethal phenomenon. armed with an ultra high speed camera. >> a shot we just got. >> reporter: cool. oh, my gosh. he will try to capture this elusive moment as it's never been seen before. >> and return strobe. >> reporter: oh, my gosh. this is it? >> that's it. >> reporter: each lightning bolt is five times hotter than the n average of 54 people a year in the u.s. alone. and even though every thunderstorm is pregnant with that brilliant but deadly force we know surprisingly little about where, when or why it strikes. >> why does it choose a target like a tree instead of a building or building instead of a tree? perhaps some of the imagery we collect in the field may help

answer some of those questions. this one's dead. this is developing. >> reporter: tim's been looking for the answers since 2006 when he first started chasing lightning. his results so far have been impressive. these shots came from a high-speed camera called the phantom. it can record dramatic slow motion at 10,000 frames per second. but in order to capture that fleeting moment when the lightning bolt is actually born, samaras will need something much faster. >> the problem is, people say it's easy, get in your car, hear a rumble of thunder, park next to it, you're in. it's not that easy. sometimes it's almost as difficult chasing a tornado as it is a good lightning storm. >> reporter: to get a sense of how difficult an endeavor this really is you have to know a little bit more about the way lightning strikes the ground. first, a negative charged bolt takes off and branches out from the base of a cloud, then an upward positive bolt shoots up from the ground to meet it, return stroke of electricity rockets back to the cloud and all we see is a flash of light.

there is no camera in the world fast enough to pull back that curtain. we'll see the kahuna. except maybe this one. >> there is actually 82 cameras on this instrument here taking one picture of the lightning and one micro second steps of time. >> reporter: he is trying toal us high-speed, high-resolution camera in the world. >> this camera was built in the '60s. it's probably pushing 45, 50 years old. >> reporter: during the cold war, it was used to record nuclear testing and in the '80s, time was actually one of the operators. he's since retro fitted the camera for the digital age. >> this is a shaky image of what the kahuna is seeing right fou. >> reporter: but after many attempts in field tim has president successfully shot a lightning strike with the unwieldy camera. at least not yet. >> i won't give up until this is done. the naysayers it can't be done it drives me harder.

>> reporter:od, he and his son, paul, are at it again and get to tag along for the ride. >> let's go. >> reporter: tim and i have looked at the forecast, looks like northern new mexico between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. on this latest computer model pops up a few thunderstorms and that is going to be our target. it's an arduous trip, four states, 800 miles and plenty of pop and drop disappointing storms. >> this storm kicked out several lightning strikes. they were probably five minutes apart. hardly worth firing the equipment over but it's pretty. >> reporter: rainbow chasing the goal, we did it. >> we did it. we scored the f-5 in rainbows. >> reporter: we did. when all options were exhausted a bright beacon of hope started gleaming on the radar. this has to be the storm because this is about all that is out here, last line of storms and the most promising we've seen the entire trip. problem is, it's 85 miles this opposite direction and we only have an hour to get into position.

any false move, wrong turn or even a balthroom and we could miss the magic moment but thankfully as dusk settled in -- oh my god! there it was due north a classic thunderstorm bursting with lightning. all right. it's happening. it's going to come right now. >> 12:00. >> reporter: and then we snagged one. a beautiful cloud to ground strike or c.g. pay dirt for tim. >> so numerous branches and first one hits the ground. >> reporter: it's a beautiful image but it wasn't taken about the kahuna. see the bright flash, that means the camera wasn't fast enough to capture the exact moment when the bolt was born. maybe next time. >> this condition here is very difficult on the kahuna. it's not good enough. >> reporter: kahuna or not, for those of us who live for storms, sometimes the chase alone is reason enough to sit back and just enjoy the show. >> i don't know how many storms i've seen in my lifetime but

every single one of them i still get pretty excited. the little boy in me wants to come out here and watch and stare. >> reporter: for "nightline," ginger zee in colorado. >> tim samaras' hunt for lightning is featured in the august issue of "national geographic" magazine. our thanks to ginger zee. up next, et, pray, lie? these people thought they were on a spiritual quest with an indian yo xwshgs i but it turn out this guru is a guy from new jersey. why he says he duped them. at purina one,

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the boom in the yoga business has led to a bump crop of self-styled spiritual gurus. well, tonight we meet a young filmmaker who set out to make a movie about the fakes and instead found himself becoming one. here's nick watt with the story. >> reporter: kumare sounds like a mystical indian guru. a simple man from a farway land. who effortlessly becomes a spiritual beacon for a curious bunch of truth seekers in phoenix, arizona. >> i consider kumare to be a living embodiment of the design. >> i feel myself getting warmer than normal. i'm sure that's your energy. >> reporter: but kumare, well, he's really a hip, young filmmaker from new jersey. >> isn't the most traumatic part of the illusion of kumare that the guy they thought was from another country grew up in jersey. >> reporter: so far -- >> kumare. >> kumare.

kumare? >> kumare. >> my english isn't that good. >> reporter: so "borat." but there is more. >> it's not about making fun of people here. it's about the general absurdity of what we all believe. >> reporter: and our need to believe. vic ral gandhi was raised in a hindu household and watched slack jawed as fellow americans embraced spirituality of his ancestors in search of truth. 15 million americans practice yo gashgs $6 billion a year industry. do you read or see "eat, pray, love?" >> i think in the beginning it's absurd, are you friending to be indian? and i guess what they call now yogalebrities, which is not a sanskrit word. >> reporter: he made fame about these guys. >> he is having sex with young

girls. he cannot be a real guru. >> reporter: decided a real truth would come from being a religious leader. >> i was creating kumare who will he be? jesus, buddha? i was looking at those, what do they say and do? and the one thing i couldn't get down with, they could, was saying they had authority. kumare was about saying he didn't have authority. >> you come lately. >> reporter: kumare's message was simple. the only guru you need is inside of yourself. that's vic ral/kumare's invented mirror philosophy. >> he holds up aer for you, but not literally. >> i wanted to tell a carbary tale about spiritual leaders we trick ourselves to we leave them so we can be happier, too. this was trying to unveil the trick. when he said he wasn't real, which he said every class and every encounter that he is an illusion, he's not real, no more a guru than people in front of

him, people often thought that was a rild because of the accent and the robe and because of what we are programmed to think of a holy man. >> i had goosebumps all over my arms. as soon as i would look at him. >> reporter: did anybody try to sleep with you? >> something complicated about rolling around with a camera crew. you never get in that intimate of a situation. >> reporter: then the day he had to unveil his true identity. >> the only way to complete the mirror teaching would be to unveil my true identity. would they hate me? >> reporter: well, you'll have to watch the movie to find out. but the yoga crowd seemed to love him when he preached the guru inside philosophy at an l.a. studio. >> this is my own personal religion in a way. >> reporter: even i got a little caught up in the moment. the problem is not everybody has goodness in themselves, not everybody is their own guru. some people are sociopaths. >> it might be naive, but i

think everybody has similar potential to be wise and good. >> reporter: this is an enormous, ambitious challenging movie about those we look to as religious leaders and what they feed us. if we woke up on a deserted island, with no scripture, we could still live perfectly happy lives. >> reporter: it's a revolutionary tale told by a man wearing a saffron robe and impersonating his grandma's accent. >> your religion symbol? >> no, just mickey mouse. >> reporter: i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. >> oh, thanks to nick watt for that. kumare opens up nationwide today. up next, bill weir with our olympic report and our intrepid correspondent julie foudy in search of the perfect pub. those little things still get you.

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co-anchor bill weir has been bringing olympic results. where are you tonight? >> greetings, along the thames, partying next to the tower bridge and another dramatic kay inside the olympic stadium. all about passing the baton and the best sprinters in america set a new world record to beat jamaicans and take gold in the 4 by 100 relay but on the mens in 4 by 400 big upset, looked like the usa had it in the anchor leg but the bahamas won their first ever gold medal. dream team 2012 dispatches argentina to move into the gold medal final game against spain. and on the medal board, america, firmly on top, both widening their lead in total medals and golds over china. probably the most passionate

event in london is the 16-ounce curl. this is a pub town and our special correspondent julie foudy is doing her journalistic duty in search of the perfect pub. >> after 14 days of covering olympics i'm ready for one thing. we're in search for the public pub. not just any would do. you look like you would know where the perfect pub is? >> what? >> hundreds of pubs in london. >> reporter: i want the perfect pub. even in a town of hundreds, maybe thousands of pubs, the perfect one is getting harder to find. >> have you seen the perfect pub? >> still searchinging. >> reporter: robin and paul have tried, too, they set on a journey across england for their book with the rather fitting title. how long would it take to visit every pub in great britain? >> originally that was the plan. >> went to five a day. five days a week.

would take -- >> reporter: there is another number that is even more startling. the guys say on average every week 12 pubs close in the uk, the proof is in the photographs of the dead and decaying. >> they were like pub graveyards. >> reporter: the guys blame everything from smoking bans to the rising cost of a pint. there is finger pointing at the olympic games where heineken, a dutch brew is the official brew of the games. they say this is their perfect pub. french house in soho. >> basic things that make a pub are the beer and the people. everyone is the same under this roof, that's how it should be. >> reporter: secret meeting place of the french resistance during world war ii. leslie is the landlady for 23 years and has a history as well. oh, yes, she used to perform with snakes. >> they say if you stay here long enough you get written into the soap opera.

>> reporter: back on the streets of london i'm losing my battle. ♪ i want to find the perfect pub ♪ until i wander into this place. and find the key to making any pub perfect. >> at the world cup in '99 when you scored the penalty kick i took my shirt off. >> reporter: old friends. >> hey! >> how are you? >> reporter: in london, i'm julie foudy for "nightline." >> here's to london 2012. >> if anybody in the abc standards and practices department asks, that was a near cynthia, see you back stateside next week. >> good to you. we're already planning your welcome home party. thank you for watching abc news, "good morning america" will be waiting right here for you in the morning. have a great weekend. "jimmy kimmel" is right here next.