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>>We can only see as far
forward as we remember back.

>>I don't know what the
future's going to be.

And there may not be a future.

There may not be one.

It may all end in disaster
of one kind or another.

>>The Greek historian
Plato believed

that there had been many
great civilizations that

had disappeared in a
variety of catastrophes.

Today, humanity has
forgotten the past.

In the human unconscious, there
is an extremely powerful force

that acts on an
individual, keeping him

from seeing with clarity
the obvious symptoms

of his next death.

Only in the last moments are
the eyes of the soul opened,

and man understands his
situation and accepts it.

The landslide of all the empires
and all the human institutions

is evident as soon as
one studied the past.

Why do we believe in a
progress without end?

Everything dies around us.

High atop a vast plateau
in the wild Carpathian

Mountains of old
Europe, there is

an unknown enigmatic sculpture
that strikingly resembles

the Great Sphinx of Egypt.

For that reason, he was
named the Carpathian Sphinx.

Could there be a link
between the Carpathian Sphinx

and the Great Sphinx of Egypt?

Could the Carpathian
Sphinx be the result

of a lost civilization?

While living in Boston, I go
and I check all the libraries

sources I can find.

I'm convinced by
why what I find.

I decide to leave
the United States.

And I return to Eastern
Europe, to the homeland

I left 15 years before.

The Sphinx was calling me
to unravel its hidden story.

I had to solve the mystery.

Could the Carpathian
Mountains and the Sphinx

have a central
yet forgotten role

in the history of the world?

>>I'm probably best
known in certain circles

for my work on the Sphinx.

I'm only going to mention
that very briefly, because I

sort of feel like I have to.

Because in many ways, it does
set the stage for what we're

here about at this conference,
conference on procession,

ancient knowledge, and really
pushing things way back.

And this work that goes
back almost two decades

now for myself personally really
set the stage for much of what

has come later.

And I'm not claiming
any credit here.

I'm giving credit to the Sphinx.

And it's also changed my life.

Sometimes I think-- usually
I think for the better.

Sometimes I wonder
what I got myself into.

So I really started
on the Sphinx work

when I was very young.

This is me about 20 years ago.

And what it really
is indicated doing,

at least for some
people-- and this

was part of the controversy,
and part of why we're here now--

is talking about if you push
the date the Sphinx back,

does it mean that we have
to view history differently?

Do we have to rewrite history?

>>Dr. Robert Schoch, a geologist
from Boston University,

is an expert in ancient stone.

He had studied the Egyptian
Sphinx for many decades,

and he believes that
the Egyptian Sphinx

is much older than traditionally
believed, dating back

many thousands of years before
the rise of Egyptian culture.

>>The head was re-carved
into the human form

that it takes now.

Parts of the Sphinx itself,
if you look at to this day,

it's been heavily repaired.

Some of those repairs go
back 4,000 and more years,

because it was a much
more ancient statue.

Thousands of years earlier,
things were happening in Egypt

at a much earlier period than
conventional archaeologists,

conventional historians have
ever admitted or suspected.

>>Dr. Schoch believes
that the fundamental ideas

and the great
knowledge of Egyptians

to be more ancient than the
Egyptian civilization itself.

Dan Braneanu, a
researcher from Bucharest,

has spent the last 40 years
investigating what he believes

is the legacy of a
lost civilization.

All around the Carpathian
Mountains and the plateau

where the Sphinx is
located, Dan Braneanu

sees great evidence of
a lost civilization.

[speaking foreign language]

Daniel Ruzo, a
Peruvian archaeologist

and protohistorian
from Peru, has

come to believe
that there once had

been a great worldwide
civilization that had

been destroyed in a cataclysm.

This civilization left
marks all over the world,

in all the continents.

Ruzo found proof in
England in such monuments

as the Stonehenge, in
France in Fontainebleau.

Wherever he looked,
he found proof.

He became aware that the
civilization was especially

a mountain
civilization that lived

on the high peak
of the mountains

in all the continents.

In 1954, Ruzo discovered
Marcahuasi, a small plateau

high atop the Andes
mountains in Peru.

Marcahuasi, up to this
date, remains a mystery.

There are faces here of women.

He called this one the
Monument to Humanity.

Ruzo believed that the
Monument to Humanity

was one of the most important
sculptures ever made.

In 1968, Ruzo came to
the Carpathian Mountains

in Romania.

Here, Ruzo found the proof
that he was searching for.

Everywhere he looked
on the Bucegi Massif

in the Carpathian
Mountains, he found proof

of a very ancient culture.

He believed here was the door to
the treasure of a lost people.

Ruzo believed that the
treasure is not a material

one, but a spiritual treasure.

Ruzo investigated the area
around the Carpathian Sphinx,

and he found tantalizing proof
of this lost civilization

here as well.

"The Carpathian Sphinx
is an ancient monument

sculpted before the flood,
destroyed in the face,

and being very corroded
by wind and rain."

Ruzo concluded that the
Carpathian Sphinx, just as

the Monument of
Humanity in Marcahuasi,

was the important
legacy of a lost people.

When he returned to
Peru, Ruzo published

a book called "The Fantastic
History of a Discovery."

And in that book, he wrote
about a trip to Romania.

He dedicated a chapter to
what he saw in the Carpathian

Mountains, and he said, "the
Romanian Carpathian Mountains

were at the center of the oldest
European civilization known

today."

His conclusions were made after
he saw the Carpathian Sphinx.

Ruzo died in 1991 before
he was able to find

this worldwide
vanished civilization.

But his work paved the
road for later research.

Ruzo was confident
that he was right,

and that one day, someone
will clarify the mystery

and fill the empty
question marks.

Who were these vanished people
that left their imprints

in these monuments?

"It is in these
sacred mountains where

people found their
salvation after the flood,

and where they
will be saved when

the next catastrophe occurs.

It is vital today to find
these sacred mountains

and sacred caves.

Here we are in front of an
original sculpture, known

all over the world,
that has not been

reproduced in historical times.

Being so used to a
three-dimensional landscape

starting in Sumerian times,
we had failed until today

to see the sculptures
considered made by nature."

"The strangest
apparition on the plateau

is the Sphinx, a huge rock
with an enigmatic profile

around which a protohistorical
legend had been formed.

The legend says that a
sphinx is a statue made

in times long forgotten by the
people of a lost civilization."

>>Sort of U shape.

You can't tell this from down
at the base of the mountains.

It's really like a
fortress up there.

>>From a distance, it looks
very abrupt, uninviting,

with steep rocky areas that
are very hard to climb.

But the reality of the
mountain is actually

something different.

>>Interestingly, once you get up
there, you get the unexpected.

It opens up into a huge plateau.

>>The Sphinx is at a central
point on the plateau.

Going south directly
from the Sphinx,

there is a group
of enigmatic rocks

called The Peaks of Longing.

From here, in direct line to the
north, one can see the Sphinx

and then the highest
peak called Omu,

the Peak of the Human Being.

>>Something that's
very interesting

looking at the
Sphinx in Romania,

looking at the plateau,
looking at the surrounding area

is at high elevation, you have
these incredible structures.

They can be seen before
from a very great distance.

They certainly seem like markers
or signposts, or something that

might attract ancient peoples.

And I think this is something
we have to take very seriously.

>>Many of the rocks on the
plateau have feminine names.

This one is called
the Big Old Lady Rock.

These ones are the old
ladies of Cocora Mountain.

This is the Mountain
of the Old Lady.

The Ialomita Valley hides the
mountain called the Goddesses

Mountain.

The highest peak in Bucegi,
facing the north direction,

the Peak of the Human Being.

This mountain is called
the Origin or the Beginning

Mountain.

The main river flowing
down the valley

below the Goddesses
Mountain was called Naparis,

which means "Heavenly One."

So the question is,
why are all these women

names in this mountain,
and the sacred names,

such as the Mountain of the
Goddesses and the mountain

called Human Being?

Could there have been here a
religious matriarchal society

at one point in time?

Could there have been a very
ancient feminine worship?

"The origin of these
names must be discovered

as the myths as well
as the sculptures

are before the
time of the flood."

The Sphinx has
multiple profiles, best

seen in the changing light.

Where do the orbits of
the Sphinx point to?

Why are there all these figures,
especially the ones looking

west towards the setting sun?

The profile that resembles
the Egyptian Sphinx

is looking north.

The profile that resembles
an anthropoid face

is looking west.

Why does one profile look
towards the north and another

towards the west?

One to the northern
sky and the other one

towards the setting sun?

Why?

And where is the
door to the treasure?

Who is this spirited god?

Will I ever find out?

The enigmatic
faces are only seen

from certain points of view.

They are best seen with the
changing light, the shadows

of the moon, and the sun.

Will the sun point to
a secret direction?

Ruzo believed these
monuments point

to the sacred treasure
found in caves.

And what is the mystery
of the gigantic rock

resembling very much
a podium, a stage?

Could this place have been used
for some type of performers,

from some rituals of
a vanished humanity?

A vast crowd could have been
in the valley, looking up

at somebody performing,
singing or dancing on the top.

Could this be the
door to the treasure?

Could this relate back to
the Sphinx, to the caverns

that Daniel Ruzo
was talking about?

Could the spiritual treasure
Daniel Ruzo was talking

about be found in these caves?

This cave is on the mountain
called Goddesses Mountain.

Could there be any
choices here that would

point to a lost civilization?

Daniel Ruzo considered that only
an expert could find this door.

Where do I need to look
to find the answers?

Could this be an ancient
religious center,

as Daniel Ruzo had concluded?

Could there be a
spiritual treasure here?

>>Some people think
the world of long ago

contains a body
of great secrets,

like some treasure trove of
insights that will unlock

the universe's hidden doors.

>>Or new undiscovered
technologies

they will free us
from drudgeries.

I doubt that such is the case.

The gifts of the ancient
world go much deeper.

>>I think when we look for
this lost civilization,

there may have been
lost civilizations,

but they were not
necessarily what we expect

or what many people expect.

That is, they were
not a mirror image

in the past of
what we are today.

>>"They lived around the
mountains and carved into them.

They appreciated
the natural beauty

and had high mental abilities."

Ruzo called them "the guardians
of an ancient wisdom."

"It was a magical work done
by a culture whose science

and understanding of the world
was different from the present.

It was from these people
that we had inherited

all our ancient wisdom,
our sense of religion

and spirituality.

The world we had today was the
legacy of a lost civilization.

All the symbolic systems,
all the legendary characters,

all the myths and
the legends do not

have the name of the author.

We have inherited them
from a vanished humanity."

>>If Daniel Ruzo was right about
an ancient lost civilization,

was this ancient lost
civilization actually

what we would now
call Neanderthals?

So going back tens of thousands
of years into the last ice age.

>>Could the Neanderthals
be the anonymous authors

of our legends and myths?

Of our ancient wisdom?

Could the lost civilization
that Daniel Ruzo

had been searching
for his entire life

without finding be the extinct
Neanderthal civilization?

Is there any valid
evidence to support

such an original hypothesis?

Born in London to
working class parents

and spending most of his
days in England and Wales,

on the surface,
Stan Gooch's life

may not have seemed
particularly exciting.

But it was his remarkable
intellectual journey

that distinguished
him as a person

and where his legacy lies.

In relative
isolation, Stan Gooch

studied the elements of human
evolution and the human psyche,

and he came to an
astonishing conclusion.

>>We are a hybrid species.

We are a cross-breed between
two very different types

of early man, Neanderthal
and Cro-Magnon.

>>Gooch authored many books,
including "Total Man,"

"Personality and Evolution,"
"The Neanderthal Question,"

"Guardians of the
Ancient Wisdom,"

and "The Double
Helix of the Mind."

However, Gooch never
gained a popular audience,

critical acclaim, or
monetary remuneration

that he had hoped for.

Indeed, Gooch became convinced
that the establishment

was deliberately ignoring him.

By the late 1980s,
he had all but

given up his
studies and writing,

and went almost into
total seclusion.

In the end, Gooch did
entertain the thought

that perhaps after his
death, his contributions

might be widely acknowledged.

Gooch was convinced
that the Neanderthals

had been underestimated.

>>For Stan Gooch, Neanderthals
were their own species.

They had their own culture.

They had their own
civilization even.

He used terms like
cities of dreams,

that they built
cities of dreams.

They had a dream culture.

They had an advanced,
sophisticated culture.

>>Gooch believed that the
ancient moon worship was

possessed by the Neanderthals.

>>Neanderthal was,
in fact, nocturnal,

or at least semi-nocturnal
and worshipped the moon,

whereas Cro-Magnon was a
daylight creature, a hunter

and whatever, and
worshipped the sun.

>>The Neanderthals
lived in Europe

during the ice age for
at least 100,000 years.

Neanderthals' range
included all of Europe

and parts of Asia, the
Middle East, and the Levant.

During the time of the
Neanderthals in the Carpathian

Mountains, there was
a high population

of cave bears, one of the
biggest populations in Europe.

There is still a
puzzling mystery

why Neanderthals went
extinct, but a number

a possible scenarios have
been proposed by scientists,

ranging from natural
disasters, massive earthquakes,

and catastrophic
volcanic eruptions

in Europe, but also
human diseases.

It is clear if the
Cro-Magnon massively

eliminated Neanderthal
on purpose,

or if they were already doomed.

Contrary to popular belief,
many Neanderthal populations

in Europe had light skin,
green eyes, and red hair.

>>Typically, people had
the concept of Neanderthals

as being dark, brutish,
ape-like, if you would,

and the Cro-Magnons,
our ancestors,

were the light-skinned,
fair-haired individuals.

May be totally opposite.

That in fact, the early
archaic Homo sapiens

were much darker
than the Neanderthals

that they came in
contact with in Europe.

Gooch predicted this long ago.

>>Neanderthals were much
stronger than modern humans.

The body type of a
Neanderthal can easily

be compared to that of a modern
wrestler or body builder.

They were not delicate, nor what
we would consider beautiful.

But surprisingly, Neanderthals
were highly emotional

and a very sensitive bunch.

There is strong evidence
from their anatomy

suggesting they had a very
well-developed vocal apparatus.

Powerful voices, perfect pitch,
and a more sensitive inner ear

than the one of
the modern human.

Steve Mithen, an
archaeologist from the UK,

thinks Neanderthals were
the most musically developed

human species that ever lived.

They were musically
inclined, amazing singers,

and they were great performers.

"The Neanderthals were
a nocturnal species,

and they worshipped the moon.

They came out at the night
and performed ceremonies

for the moon goddess, especially
at full moon or new moon.

Anatomical evidence for
a nocturnal lifestyle

rests on the Neanderthals'
very large, round eye sockets,

and very large ear apertures.

Large eyes in particular
are the special hallmark

of a nocturnal creature.

The Neanderthals learned how
to not fear the darkness.

And in the process, they fell
in love with the night sky.

The Neanderthals worshiped
the northern sky.

They considered that the
still center of the heavens

was in the north.

They worshipped the
northern constellations,

the constellation of the
little bear and the big bear."

According to Stan Gooch,
the cave bear ritual

of the Neanderthals
is the oldest ritual

in the world performed
by a human species.

"The Neanderthal may have
been far more intelligent

than we recognize.

Neanderthal man appeared to
know far more about the stars,

for example, than
one would suppose.

I mean, our general
picture of Neanderthal

is obviously of a shambly ape.

And Stan argued that, in fact,
he knew an enormous amount

about the heavens, and
also about procession

of the equinoxes, and about
all kinds of other things."

Symbolic behavior was central
to the Neanderthal culture.

Neanderthals made advanced
stone tools, cook their meals,

and ate vegetables.

They wore jewelry
and body painting,

had their own language
system, and lived

in complex social groups.

They collected and preserved
crystals and minerals,

and probably made figurines.

In Stan Gooch's
view, Neanderthals

were culturally advanced people,
highly civilized in spirit

with a deep sense of religion
and practiced herbal medicine.

"The Neanderthal society
was fully ruled by women.

They were the
ultimate authority.

The night and moon
ceremonies of Neanderthal

were presided over
by priestesses."

>>We've got the sun, the
positive, and the moon,

the negative, or whatever
you want to call them.

It's incredible, really.

And that's why the
moon and the sun

fascinate us so much, because
they reflect, as it were,

literally, our own duality.

>>"The Neanderthal society
was peaceful, compassionate,

and loving to one another.

Central to their life was
religion and magical practices.

Neanderthals were what we
would call today magicians,

also shamans, and also wizards.

Cro-Magnon's life was rooted in
the concept of male ownership.

This was a society
fully ruled by man.

It was a society who
worshipped the sun

and lived for daylight."

>>They were about
hunting and producing

weapons, things like that.

Cro-Magnon was
certainly superior.

But if you're talking
about knowledge of herbs,

then I would say
Neanderthal was superior.

It depends on what
you're talking about.

>>He was interested in
things like brain structure.

He pointed out rightfully
that Neanderthals on average

had larger brains
than modern humans.

But these larger brains
were differently arranged,

differently proportioned
than our modern humans.

So for instance, a very
important point of Gooch,

one that he makes over and
over in his writings and books,

is that Neanderthal brains
had larger cerebellums.

The brain of humans, be it
Neanderthal or modern humans,

is composed of a cerebrum
and a cerebellum.

The cerebellum is
sometimes referred to

as the smaller brain,
the lesser brain.

It's essentially,
one could argue,

a separate brain housed inside
and underneath, anatomically,

the rest of the brain.

Gooch points out that
the cerebellum was larger

in Neanderthals.

He attributes, and I believe
perhaps rightfully so,

based on clinical evidence,
that the cerebellum is really

the seat of many
mental abilities,

many mental processes
that we to this day

have a very poor
understanding of.

So for instance, dreams
may originate primarily

in the cerebellum.

Certain types of
artistic impulses,

religious impulses,
impulses of the sacred,

certain, we could call
it loosely philosophical

and cyclical impulses.

>>My view is that
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon

cross-bred in central
Europe some 30,000,

35,000, 40,000 years ago.

>>When Neanderthal and
Cro-Magnon interbred,

Stan Gooch believes each side
made a unique contribution.

At one level, this was a
cultural cross-fertilization.

But at a deeper level, it
was a genetic encounter.

Neanderthal contributed
our religious genes,

while Cro-Magnon contributed
our scientific endowment.

A project to sequence
the Neanderthal genome

took off in 2006 with
the participation

of the Planck Institute
in Zurich, Switzerland,

and the Broad Institute of
Harvard and MIT in Boston.

In May 2010, the genome project
revealed shocking results.

Interbreeding between
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon

took place, resulting
from 1% to 4%

of the current European
and Asian populations

having Neanderthal genes.

>>"You have these two cultures
meeting, very different world

views.

Essentially a duality.

The scientific on the
one hand, the religious

on the other hand.

I can imagine the Cro-Magnons
studying the Neanderthals,

perhaps surreptitiously at
first, trying to understand,"

well, what are these
weird people doing?

What is all this about?

What are these strange
rituals and practices,

these ceremonies, this
dancing, this singing

that they were observing?

What this is all about?

Cro-Magnons could
not necessarily

understand what was going on.

They tried to figure
out what was going on,

but it was very alien to them.

>>Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal
did not interbreed peacefully,

in my opinion.

Basically, it was Cro-Magnon
raping Neanderthal woman.

That's how we arose.

And that's why it says in
the Old Testament, when

the sons of God came into
the daughters of men,

these were the
mighty men of old.

Their offspring were
the mighty men of old.

Sons of God, Cro-Magnon, male.

Daughters of men were
her, female, Neanderthal.

It was Cro-Magnon raping
Neanderthal woman,

in my opinion, that produced us.

>>Our culture, our
religious impulses,

many of our
institutions, societal

institutions are
really a combination

of both Neanderthal institutions
or religious aspects, if you

want to call it that,
and Cro-Magnons,

that the Cro-Magnons really
adopted or inherited,

or actually took over
many Neanderthal concepts,

many Neanderthal
mental innovations.

For instance, maybe symbolism,
religious ceremonies.

Many of what, in a
most deep-seated way,

make up our culture, make up
our identity as we see it today.

>>A lot of our culture and
our beliefs and our disbeliefs

come from Neanderthal.

So we've incorporated much
of the Neanderthal material

into our lives.

Now in particular-- I'm
picking on this in particular--

I maintain that the story of
Christ and the Resurrection,

all of it, is simply a distorted
version of the ancient moon

religion.

Crucified on the cross.

The cross is the
symbol for the moon

in all pre-Christian
cultures worldwide.

He's crucified on a Friday,
which is Friars Day.

She's the moon goddess.

He's resurrected on Monday,
which is my Moon Day.

And he's resurrected three
days later, then he dies.

Now three is important for
several reasons in the moon

culture.

One, the moon has three
colors, white, red, and black.

So the moon has three colors.

And what's more
important than that?

Oh, yeah.

The other thing, of course,
is that earth, moon, and sun

are considered to be
mother, father, child.

And the earth is the child,
the daughter of the sun

and the moon.

That was part of
the moon religion.

So the three is important
for several reasons.

Christ is said to be born
of the 25th of December.

Now that's three
days-- did you say

three-- three days after the
shortest day when the sun is

reborn every year after
the moon sacrifices him

on the shortest day.

She sacrifices him,
and then resurrects him

so that life can continue.

>>Could the story
of Jesus Christ

be based upon a far older
story of Neanderthal rituals?

Could our most cherished
religious beliefs

originate with the Neanderthals,
such as the concepts

we have of immortality
and resurrection?

Could the Bible be an
actual historical source

that had preserved some of the
Neanderthal fundamental wisdom,

preserving it for
us in a veiled form?

Ralph Solecki, an archaeologist
who worked at the Smithsonian

Institution, went to do an
excavation in northern Iraq

in a cave called Shanidar.

What he discovered he
published in a book

called "Shanidar: The
First Flower People."

In the cave of Shanidar,
Solecki discovered

nine Neanderthal skeletons, the
most ever found in one cave.

During the excavations that
took many years to uncover,

Solecki discovered
something extraordinary

that changed completely the
perception of Neanderthal up

to that point.

This was 1971.

What he discovered was
a burial with flowers.

The Neanderthals had
buried their dead

with seasonal flowers that
also had medicinal purposes.

This was quite
shocking to discover,

the compassion of these
people and the fact

that they believe
in an afterlife.

The flowers found
in the Shanidar cave

are found in Bucegi.

It was a spring burial
with flowers that

were white, violet, and yellow.

In his excavations, Solecki
discovered other things

that changed our
perception of Neanderthal.

He discovered the skeletons
of handicapped and old people,

so it meant that
the Neanderthal had

to take care of their
sick and their old.

Isn't that such a human touch?

Solecki called the
Neanderthals people

with such good characters.

We should be proud to have
them as our ancestors.

This is a far cry from
the view of Neanderthal

held for most of this
century, that they were

a brutal subspecies of humans.

In light of recent
evidence, Neanderthal

emerges shockingly
close to a modern human,

a sensitive, highly
intelligent creature

with a well-developed culture
and a well-developed sense

of self.

Like any good scientific
theory, Gooch's ideas

are subject to testing
and further exploration.

Two hours walking
distance from the Sphinx,

there is a cave
called the Bear Cave,

because a lot of cave bear
remains had been found here,

as well as Neanderthal tools
and two Neanderthal hearths.

It is possible, I believe,
that the Neanderthals used

this cave not only
for living, but they

used it to perform rituals.

Daniel Ruzo considered
that everywhere else

in the world, the legends
and the sculptures

had been forgotten.

But here in the Carpathian
Mountains of Romania,

the legends keep
alive the memory.

A legend called the Ialomita
Cave, collected by the Romanian

Queen Elizabeth, talks about an
old magician, an old wizard who

was isolated here, who
lived in seclusion,

and who practiced
herbal medicine,

and who was very,
very knowledgeable.

Another legend talks
about Zalmoxis.

>>The cult of Zalmoxis.

This was recorded by the ancient
Greek historian Herodotus,

but clearly goes back to
much more ancient times.

I suspect it actually goes
back to Neanderthal times.

>>And when he emerged, he was
designated "God of Immortality

and of the Night."

>>It was clearly a cult that
believed in immortality,

that there was something
beyond physical death.

There was something beyond
the material existence.

There was something
that we might

call a soul that would
continue, that would survive.

This is actually not a belief
that the ancient Greeks,

for instance, had, but it
seems to have been a belief

that the Neanderthals had.

>>The Bats Cave has not
been properly excavated

since the 1950s when Neanderthal
remains had been found here.

The evidence in the
Carpathian Mountains

shows that a
Neanderthal cave bear

ritual is 75,000 years old,
the oldest in the world.

>>It's important, in my mind,
to carry out new excavations,

not looking for just
the same old, same old,

but also looking for new
evidence with a new view,

with a new frame of mind.

No flowers have
been found yet with

any other prehistoric burials.

We offer the suggestion
here that up to this time,

no one has looked
for the evidence.

>>In early August, I returned
to Bucharest to welcome a very

special guest.

[music playing]

>>Yeah, we do.

>>[inaudible]

>>Yeah. [inaudible] where
they were excavating before.

>>Yes, exactly.

>>[inaudible]

>>Very important, yes.

>>Even looking today, I found--
for instance, here's a tooth.

>>Oh, wow.

>>The remains of a tooth.

It looks to me like a--

>>Pretty big.

>>Pretty big.

A bear, ancient bear.

You can see the root.

You can see the crown.

It looks to me
like a molar tooth.

But to just come in here, just
be looking for a few minutes,

and to find it right
on the surface.

>>Also, there's not
only one type of ritual

that they found with cave bears.

That there were
different formations,

different arrangements.

So that implies
complexity of thinking.

>>Exactly.

Different rituals, maybe, for
different specific things.

So there are
variations on a theme.

So there's a continuity.

There's a connection.

But there's also the variations.

So it shows a real complexity.

So here you have a
connection, I think,

at least anthropomorphic.

A human connection between
caves on the one hand

and stone sculptures
on the other hand.

I find this absolutely amazing.

Everyone looks at one
side of the Sphinx

and sees a face there.

It looks like a modern face.

But if we walk around to the
other side, look what we have.

This is a face.

>>We have an anthropoid
looking face.

>>Exactly.

But it looks like a Neanderthal.

A Neanderthal face with a
big eye socket, low forehead.

You can see the mouth
and the nose here.

And notice-- and I think this is
very telling, very important--

the way it's facing.

This face is looking
toward the west.

And we're here in the evening.

The sun is setting.

Look how the sun is lined up.

>>Direct line to the eye.

>>Direct line to the eye.

This Neanderthal-type face
is looking toward the west,

looking toward the setting sun.

Now it's been speculated
that Neanderthals

were a more nocturnal species.

If that's the case, what sun
would they be interested in?

The setting sun.

The sun that sets
as they come out

for their nocturnal
activities, their ceremonies,

their rituals.

So they would not be
looking toward the east

as many modern cultures
do, but toward the west.

The setting sun, which would
be significant and important

to them, because essentially,
that would start their day.

That would start
their ceremonies.

And here we have a
Neanderthal-like face

looking toward the setting sun.

Yeah, looking at this
face as a geologist,

looking at the types
of rock, you've

got several different
layers of rock.

You've got more fine sandstones.

You've got conglomerates.

You've got rocks that
are set within the rock.

That's all natural.

>>Yes, like that one.

>>Like these pink rocks and
these darker blackish rocks.

And then you have what looks
like a little hat on top of it,

which is a slightly
different rock,

different lithology again.

So you've got a very complex
interplay of different rock

types, and that's all natural.

Then you have them shaped
into this face, this profile.

And that's where
I start to wonder,

is that totally natural
erosional features,

or is there the
possibility that it

started to look
like a face because

of natural erosional features?

Is it possible that maybe people
came, they pecked away at it,

they modified it a little
bit to look more like a face?

We know from other
places that does happen.

Now when I've walked around
this, looked at it closely,

it's so badly eroded that
it's, I would say, virtually

impossible to tell at
this point if there's

any kind of artificiality to it.

There could have been.

I can't say for certain.

But I think more importantly
in a way, it doesn't matter.

Because you've got this profile,
you've got this structure.

It's clearly recognizable as
a face, as a human profile.

When you walk around
to the other side,

you've got another clearly
recognizable profile.

They're oriented in
important directions,

this one toward the north,
the other face that looks more

Neanderthal toward the west.

That's significant
in both cases.

So whether they're
natural or whether they're

artificial or some
combination of both,

I can see that they were
incredibly important.

They would have attracted
attention in ancient times

just as they do now.

Many sacred sites around
the world are natural,

and they're maybe even
considered more sacred

because they are natural.

They're from nature.

They're from the gods.

>>Exactly.

So it looks like a miracle.

>>That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

>>The natural rock has a
shape of a face or an animal.

>>Exactly.

>>Without any--

>>Any human touch,
any artificialities.

So in some ways, one could argue
that if this is fully natural,

it's even more spectacular,
even more important,

because it's an indication
of something that

could be considered from
the gods' sacred divinity.

>>Exactly.

If this is completely
natural, I'm

a lot more impressed
and moved than if it was

sculpted by the hand of man.

>>So I see this as a huge head.

But really, only the
upper portion of the head,

what I call the emerging head.

And if you look at it, this
to me looks like a nose.

So you've got a
nose starting here.

>>It's a huge nose.

>>Huge nose.

You've got an eye socket here.

And then above the eye
socket, the brow ridge.

And then a low forehead.

And what's interesting
is this forehead

is not like a modern
forehead, but much lower.

The whole skull, the
whole head is pulled back,

elongated toward
the back portion.

Which, to me, says this
is a Neanderthal head.

It's not a modern head,
but it's a Neanderthal head

or a Neanderthal face
emerging from the bedrock.

>>Exactly.

Top of face.

>>Yeah.

It's like it's being
born from the bedrock.

And so not only do you have
this face sort or this emerging

head, which I think
is very recognizable--

>>Oh, yeah.

>>Neanderthals would
have recognized it.

But you also have-- look
what we're standing on.

Sort of this staging area
right in front of it,

which I think could
have been used

for ritual purposes,
ceremonies, initiations.

It would make a perfect place.

It's like a-- I
don't want to call it

an altar, but a stage where
things could take place

with the backdrop of the head.

Here on this area in front
of the emerging head,

where I've suggested that
ceremonies, rituals may

have been taking place,
look what we have.

What this is is sort
of a scooped out area.

>>It's almost a round--

>>Yeah.

It's a round, sort
of basin area.

If you put your hand in it,
it's filled with rainwater now

and sediment.

It's actually quite deep.

>>Very.

I mean, that is deep, and I'm
not really touching the end.

>>Yeah, it's quite deep.

>>It's just sediment.

>>Yeah.

It's just sediment that's
collected in modern times.

But what I think we have here
is really a depression or basin

area that would
have been perfect

for ritualistic purposes, for
different ceremonial purposes.

It may have started out
as a natural depression,

but I believe it was probably
enhanced by people rubbing it,

scratching it.

You see in more recent
ancient sites from only a few

thousand years ago, say at
temple complexes in Egypt,

in Turkey, places where
people will rub the rock.

They'll scrape it, and
it makes depressions.

They're trying to get
the sacredness, the power

from that sacred site.

This may have been formed
initially the same way, formed

this depression.

This now serves for
ceremonial purposes.

>>How many people
would you need--

>>Oh, many--

>>In order to create
something like this.

>>Oh, a lot if you're
scraping it like that.

>>Over a very long
period of time.

>>Over a very long
period of time.

>>Thousands and thousands--

>>Of generations, potentially,
if they're doing it by hand

and rubbing it or
scraping away at it.

But once you have it,
you've got this depression,

this basin that could
be used for any number

of ceremonial purposes.

Maybe it was filled with
water and used for some kind

of cleansing ritual.

Maybe it was used for some kind
of sanctified or holy water.

We still have those
concepts today,

either cleansing
rituals as you go

into a sacred place
or holy water that

brings the power
of the sacred site,

and lets you may be ingest it
or sprinkle it on yourself.

Baptism.

We still use water from a
basin from a depression.

Maybe it was used to collect
some kind of sacrifice

for the gods.

Maybe it was filled with liquid.

Maybe some kind of drink.

Maybe it was used to
collect blood if there

were sacrifices of animals.

>>We saw a little bit
higher, that basin area

that may have been used
for ceremonial purposes.

To me, this is very similar.

This is not exactly a basin.

Possibly it was at one point,
if this has eroded back

in more recent times.

You can see there
some breakage there.

But what it looks like is
an area that eroded out.

You can put your hand--

>>Almost.

Because I really cannot
reach in the end.

>>No, it goes way back.

>>Probably up to--

>>At least back to there.

And what it looks to
me like is a place

where people may
have been scraping

at it, removing material.

It's a slightly different rock
here in the general matrix.

It would have
attracted attention.

You see it's sort of an
orange-ish, reddish color.

But like you see at other sacred
sites of more recent origin,

it may have been a place
where people scratched

it to try to get a
little bit of powder,

a little bit of the,
essentially, power,

the sacred power of this spot.

Another feature that is on the
plateau that really struck me

is what we can call the bearded
head or the bearded man's head.

It's a huge structure.

Very powerful, very
moving in my mind.

And I suspect that whether
it's natural or artificial

or some combination
of both, this

is something that
may have survived

from a very long time
ago, geologically,

and may have moved people
and been recognized

by people, specifically
Neanderthals,

before the end of
the last ice age.

That they would have recognized
this as looking like a face,

as a bearded face,
just like we do now.

It almost looks to me like what
some people's image of God is.

You know, a Judeo-Christian
bearded male figure.

Interesting that you find
it up in the mountains.

And you approach it, and
it seems to be, in my mind,

a sacred, ritualistic setting.

I'm told that the name that's
been given to it is the Mechid.

It's a name that goes back.

We don't know exactly how long.

But it's called the
Mechid, which loosely

translates as the church.

And this suggests right away
that there's something special

about this area.

What is the Mechid?

It's this incredible limestone
formation, huge formation,

incredibly symmetrical.

And it appears to me as if
it were a stage or a podium,

but of enormous scale.

At a scale-- I think of giants.

It's a huge scale.

And it's symmetrically arranged.

It itself is symmetrical.

And it sits in the little valley
area that forms, in my mind,

a natural amphitheater.

This, I can't help but think,
would form a perfect stage

for ceremonies, for
ritual practices,

for initiation,
for other types of

sacred and religious practices.

In fact, maybe at night it
would be even more dramatic

if there were huge
bonfires on the Mechid,

if various trees like evergreen
trees were thrown onto bonfires

and then sparked
up like fireworks.

If there was drumming, if there
were singing, music, voices.

So I think this could be
a very powerful setting

for ceremonial purposes.

All of the pieces, in
my mind, come together

here to suggest that this
is a central location.

The river, the ancient name for
the river, which effectively

originates at the
Mechid, is sometimes

interpreted or translated
as divine river,

or the heavenly river.

So here we have more allusions
to the divine, to the sacred.

But there's still more.

On one side of the valley,
the rock formations,

the rock peak is
referred to as the Origin

Peak, or the beginning peak.

This suggests to me a
religious connotation

of the origins of the universe,
the cosmos, of people.

How did things originate?

Sort of in a Judeo-Christian
sense, a genesis?

How did life itself and the
universe, the cosmos originate?

On the other side of the
valley, the formations

are known as the Goddesses.

Clear reference to
divinity, especially

if we're talking
about Neanderthals,

and they put a lot of emphasis
on women and goddesses.

So we've got the Goddesses.

We've got the Origins.

We've got the Mechid.

We've got the heavenly
or divine river.

And then if we keep going
further north beyond the Mechid

to the highest peak,
we have the Peak

of the Human Being,
which suggests

to me that origins of life,
the origins of humanity.

Processions would be
carried on, going up

the river valley from the
south up toward the Mechid.

As you ascend up the river
valley toward the plateau,

you find the Mechid as
a very central location.

There's nothing else like
this in the vicinity.

There's nothing like
this in the area.

There's nothing like this
potentially in all of Europe.

So perhaps this was a focal
point, a gathering place

for ancient Neanderthal
people from a very

broad geographic region.

I could see this very
much as a gathering

place for sacred
rituals, for ceremonies.

And in fact, as I've
looked at the maps,

as I've looked at the
geology and the topography,

the geography of
this region, you

don't have anything
like this anywhere else.

You don't have a place
that's at high altitude

where from below, it looks
like huge mountain peaks.

In fact, we're in the
Carpathian Mountains.

But then when you get up to
the top, it's like a fortress,

and it opens up
into this plateau.

>>And in the middle of
the fortress, there is--

>>Structures like this.

>>This natural or
artificial feature.

>>Here it is.

So this would be
a gathering point.

I see it very much
as a gathering

point, a ceremonial point.

And I wonder as I think about
how widespread the populations

were that would gather here
periodically, because there's

no other area that's
as well-suited as this

for, I believe,
hundreds of kilometers.

So if we're talking
about Neanderthal culture

and consistent rituals over
a large geographic area,

consistent beliefs,
shared beliefs,

shared religious ceremonies,
periodically, they

would gather all together
to exchange stories,

to participate in
ceremonies that would bond

different communities together.

I think this is the
perfect spot for that.

We know that there's a strong
Neanderthal presence here.

We have a number of caves,
caves that occur along the river

valley as you ascend
up toward the Mechid

and up toward the plateau.

These caves to this
day preserve evidence

of Neanderthal
presence, evidence

of Neanderthal rituals.

>>The anthropoid face of the
Sphinx looks towards the west

to the Old Lady Mountain.

Inside that mountain,
there is a cave considered

sacred for a very long time.

Robert and I, we
go to investigate.

And this is the bear hole.

>>Oh, OK?

[yell]

>>Very echo-y.

The perfect place for some
type of musical ceremony.

>>Yeah.

I mean, maybe there were ritual
feasts in a chamber like this.

>>What's the behavior of-- what
was the behavioral of ice age

bears?

>>Right.

And also--

>>Would it be natural
for-- would so many of them

come here to die?

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

And they just all
decided to come here

when they were about to die.

>>It's also possible
that perhaps they

were used in rituals.

>>That's what I'm thinking.

They'd be using tame bears.

>>Yes.

And if this place was
used for performance,

it would make a lot
of sense that they

would have the dancing bears.

[water rushing]

Beautiful.

>>Really incredible space.

It's an amazing experience.

>>I don't know.

For me, it creates
an experience that

is really extraordinary,
very moving.

But it's hard to
find the right words.

>>Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's not easily put in language.

See, I'm wondering how
they're physically following

the river at this point.

>>Because the best
would be 20 meters down.

>>Right.

>>And the river is--

>>And the river's going
through that pass.

>>Yeah.

And here it would be almost
the same - almost narrower.

>>Right.

See, what I'm saying,
where would they

be walking unless they're
walking right in the river?

>>That's what I would
think, that they

would be walking in the river.

>>People could have been
coming from many even hundreds

of kilometers or more away,
gathering at a certain time.

Maybe this was something that
happened every few years.

Maybe it was even
major ceremonies that

occurred once in a generation.

And it was a pilgrimage.

And we can very
much imagine-- and I

think it's more than
just imagination.

We can reconstruct,
start to reconstruct

how such a pilgrimages occurred,
and what practices would have

been carried out along the way.

Maybe initiations were
carried out along the passage,

getting up to the plateau.

>>We are really the
combination, in many ways,

of both Neanderthals
and Cro-Magnons.

And one question is,
can we successfully

integrate these two aspects?

Arguably, Neanderthals
were much closer to nature.

They understood how they
fitted into nature much better

than Cro-Magnons.

>>The overall experience
of one going into this cave

would be it's sort of
similar for a Neanderthal.

>>Oh, I think it
would be very similar.

What an incredible
experience here.

>>Especially if they
had better night vision.

>>I was going to say, if
they had better night vision.

And also, what were they
using for illumination?

Even with really
good vision, they

had to have some
kind of illumination.

What are the acoustics in here?

Oh, well--

[yelling]

[clapping]

[yell]

>>That's pretty good.

>>This place could be used for
some sort of musical rituals.

>>Yeah.

>>Worked well.

You got good
acoustics, potentially.

You've got sort of
a natural chimney.

You've got water that you
could channel through.

You probably keep a
fairly-- you know,

temperature-wise, fairly
close tolerances year-round,

naturally.

>>Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

>>A perfect place to live.

>>It creates very interesting
shapes all of a sudden.

Things start to emerge.

>>Yeah.

Yeah, isn't that amazing?

Just one candle.

>> For me-- I don't
know for you--

everything is a lot
more organic and alive.

>>Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

Because I think the harsh
headlamps and flashlights,

they sort of flatten everything.

You don't see the texture to it.

It washes things out.

>>And imagine now a ceremony
here and a musical performance.

>>Oh, yeah.

With things like pine
trees and whatnot.

If you brought in
the pine branches,

you know how if you light them,
they just all of a sudden,

for a short period of time,
you have-- it's like fireworks.

>>Exactly.

>>And I could see
them doing things

like that for dramatic
effect and at certain times.

You know, during a ceremony.

I bet a lot of the hearths
and a lot of the fire

remains that are found had
nothing to do with warmth.

It was probably ritualistic.

I mean, they were
used to the climate.

>>Exactly.

And they would have fur.

>>And they would
have fur and whatnot.

And in fact, if anything, I
could say during these rituals,

they might have been overheated
because they're not-- you know,

fires get really hot like that.

And if you're used to the
natural climate, and relatively

cold conditions, and that's
what is normal for you,

you wouldn't want to be
building these huge fires

just to get really hot,
then to go back out

and get really cold.

You

>>Build a huge fire, and
then also wear the fur,

and you would be boiling up.

That's the traditional image you
see everywhere of Neanderthals.

>>Huddling around the fire.

>>All around the
fire, wearing furs.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

That's probably not
the case at all.

Christmas traditions, which of
course are way pre-Christian,

bringing in a tree,
bringing in-- what

do you call it--
wreaths and vines.

>>Yes.

>>And does that go back
100,000 years or more?

>>This was covered
with snow and ice.

The caves that we are
going to see in a bit

were probably
covered by glaciers.

>>Or on the edge of
a glacier somehow.

This is the Bear Cave.

Reminds me of a pyramid in
the sense of the height.

Oh, you know, I bet the floor
may have been lower back then.

>>Exactly.

With all these deposits.

>>Yeah, deposits inside here.

Oh, yeah.

I can see, it's-- getting
more and more beautiful.

Oh, wow.

It's like a cathedral.

You don't get-- at least I don't
get this feel from a quote,

"real church," unquote.

Modern church.

>>So it makes so
much sense that this

would be, like you said
before, a ritual cave.

>>I'm thinking if
they were bringing

crystals in or special
stones, things probably

take them out again.

>>Yeah.

>>Use them.

Or I'm even thinking
if they were

using some kind of
crystals or whatnot,

they might bring them
in, sort of sanctify

them, if I could
put it that way.

And then they'd want
to take them with them.

So it's not like we
expect-- it's not

like we would expect them to
leave their valuables just

laying about for
us to find later.

Yeah.

>>Stunning.

>>Those are really stunning.

Yeah.

>>What a beautiful environment.

>>Yeah.

Oh, this is really
interesting how it works.

>>A few candles
and a few crystals,

and suddenly, you have an
extraordinary, unexpected

experience away from
modern life and time.

What do think about this
setting with all the--

with about 15 candles?

>>Yeah, it's beautiful.

This is the first church
or sanctuary or cathedral.

Whatever you want to call it.

>>Very much, yeah.

It has the feel of a cathedral.

>>Yeah.

I mean, I think the
modern, artificial churches

and cathedrals, they're
trying to imitate this.

Not vice versa.

>>Yes.

It makes me really feel
religion, but not--

>>Well, spirituality.

>>In a very deep
and personal sense.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not like an organized religion,
but a real deep feeling

of sanctity and
spirituality, I would say.

>>You go into a cathedral
in many cases, one that's

not illuminated by
modern lighting,

but it's illuminated
the more traditional way

with very subdued lighting,
essentially, in my mind,

you're going to an
artificial cave.

I think that many of the
churches and cathedrals we

see now from medieval
or Renaissance

times, for instance,
are actually

a legacy, a legacy of
the cave, the cave being

used as a ritualistic site.

Some of these legacies may
go back tens of thousands

of years.

I suspect, for a
Neanderthal culture,

for Neanderthal civilization,
maybe the single most important

thing, the most central point
was their religion, what

we would now call religion.

I'm not sure they would have
used that term, because it

may have been so
all-encompassing for them

that it was well beyond what
we think of religion now

in a modern, Western sense.

But the religiosity, the mental
world that they developed.

And we'll call it a
religious/magical sense.

And they may have been
incredibly sophisticated,

incredibly developed.

I think possibly well
beyond where we are today.

The Cro-Magnons,
I would speculate,

tried to put it into
simplistic terms.

Well, what's going on
with these other people,

these Neanderthals?

Who are they?

We can't really understand
what's going on,

so they try to categorize
it in simple terms.

Well, sometimes it's black,
sometimes it's white,

sometimes they're
doing good things,

sometimes they're
doing bad things.

And our modern concept of things
like a good god, a bad devil,

angels versus
Satan may have come

from a simplistic
Cro-Magnon understanding

of much more subtle, much more
nuanced Neanderthal rituals

and religion.

I suspect for Neanderthals,
it wasn't a simple category

of good on one side and
bad on the other side,

or what we would
call God and devil.

It may have been
much more nuanced.

It may have seemed
you need both aspects.

I even think of ancient
religions in a classical sense.

For instance, ancient Egyptians.

They did not make
this same distinction

between good and bad as
modern society often does.

They realized that
for the working

of the cosmos, the universe, in
a general sense as they saw it,

there had to be
both good and bad.

You had to have
both sides, or what

we would call good and bad.

They were just two ends
of a continuous spectrum.

And I suspect that Neanderthals
saw a lot of gray area also.

>>I would say, well, we've
got to accept that we are,

you know, Neanderthal
and Cro-Magnon in one.

It's not easy to do.

>>What we really have to do
is to take our dual aspects,

the Cro-Magnon aspects
and Neanderthal aspects,

combine them so that either
overpowers the other,

hit a balance between them.

And if we can do
that successfully,

we may, in fact,
create something

that rises above either.

>>It could have been some
sort of ritual or pilgrimage

that would come here.

>>Right.

Right.

>>Sort of a returning.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

>>Returning to the beginning.

>>Yeah.

Maybe certain times of year.

Or there may even be times that
even bigger groups got together

on a more lengthy cycle.

>>Cyclic.

>>Yeah.

Cyclical maybe.

You know, based on a lunar
cycle of the-- what is it?

The 19-year return, or
something like that,

which was essentially
be a generational thing.

And you might have a huge
sort of congregation of--

>>Hundreds or--

>>If not more.

>>Possibly thousands of people.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which would have been--
and you can visualize.

It would have been
really amazing.

>>It's something that makes
it very intimate and personal.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

>>At the same time, it's also
very public and communal,

but it's also very private.

>>Yeah.

But it's reminding me
of being in the caves.

So you get in almost
that intimacy here,

but then you can go out and
it's sort of ties them together.

>>It's almost as though--
yeah, like I said, the shock.

They were bringing out whatever.

>>Exactly.

>>And you're exposing it.

>>Exactly.

And that's what's
happening here.

>>To the people
in the community.

and to the nature.

>>Exactly.

It really does look like that.

And because our civilization,
it's based on such triviality.

>>It seems today we are
missing something vital

to our human well-being.

We are missing that deep
connection with nature

the Neanderthals had
so well developed.

How would rediscovering
Neanderthal values

impact our civilization today?

What will this new awareness
bring to our lives?

They lived around the
mountains and carved into them.

They appreciated
the natural beauty

and had high mental abilities.

Ruzo called them the guardians
of an ancient wisdom.

It was a magical work, done
by a culture whose science

and understanding of the world
was different from the present.

>>I think modern society
or people in modern society

are afraid to deal
with a lot of things.

I think they're almost
a terrible stereotype

or generalization, but they're
afraid to deal with anything

that's really meaningful.

It's not a given that a culture
has to be materialistic.

>>Archaeologist Ralph
Solecki ended his book

"Shanidar: The
First Flower People"

saying, "in the face of
the growing evidence,

we will be forced to
accept Neanderthal

as our real human ancestor."

>>And so you have this dichotomy
between religion and intuition

with Neanderthals, reason
and logic with Cro-Magnons.

And Stan Gooch says that
it was sort of monumental

when the two met.

Also, you had two different
world views coming together.

Neither really
understood the other.

So Neanderthals didn't
really understand

these new Cro-Magnons that
were invading their territory.

The Cro-Magnons didn't
really understand

what the Neanderthals were doing
with all these weird rituals

and ceremonies and
dancing and singing.

That was foreign to them.

They tried to figure it
out, what they called magic.

>>Exactly.

And they probably-- I mean, how
would you see these rituals?

They would have to
spy probably at night.

>>Night.

Yeah.

Try to figure out
what's going on.

>>From a distance.

>>It must have been
very mysterious, very

scary to the Cro-Magnons
to see these people doing

all these things.

You know, when you don't
understand something,

you fear it in many cases.

Much of our culture--

>>And our beliefs--

>>--and our beliefs--

>>Our religious practices--

>>--that's inheritance
from Neanderthals.

So we, in a cultural
sense, carry

on many Neanderthal traditions.

>>Erik Trinkaus, a leading
Neanderthal expert,

is convinced that a
cult of immortality

was invented by
the Neanderthals.

He thinks the Neanderthals
were the first ones to practice

burials, and that Homo Sapien,
Cro-Magnon, learned how to bury

the dead from the Neanderthals.

He observed how they buried and
how they did their practices,

and so he copied them.

Daniel Ruzo had said that
the Carpathian Mountains were

at the center of the oldest
European civilization known

today.

The first age was the age
of truth and knowledge.

The people lived around
the sacred mountains

of pyramidal summits,
and carved into them

for us and for the
future generations,

signaling the caves.

"The cave represents the
other world, but also

the entire universe.

It is a place that
constitutes a world--

>>--in itself.

The ritual cave sometimes
imitates the night sky.

In other words, it is an mago
mandi, a universe in miniature.

Living in a cave
does not necessarily

imply going down
among the shades.

It can as well imply living in
a different world, a world that

is vaster and more complex
because it incorporates

various modes of existence,
and hence is full of riches

and countless virtualities."

>>"Here in the mountains of
Romania lies the blood of men,

the subterraneous tunnels
where humanity saved itself

during the flood.

These are the caverns
of the treasure referred

to in so many world legends."

>>The Egyptian Sphinx is
part of a larger complex,

just like the Carpathian Sphinx
is part of a larger complex.

So in both cases,
I believe we're

talking sacred ceremonial sites
that held incredible importance

to their respective people, to
their respective populations.

>>"It is in these
sacred mountains

where people found their
salvation after the flood,

and where they
will be saved when

the next catastrophe occurs.

It is vital today to find
these sacred mountains

and sacred caves."

>>They and other
ancient-- you know,

certain other ancient peoples,
but we'll focus on Neanderthals

for now-- were much more
sophisticated in ways

that we don't even have a
good language to describe.

I mean, you have traditions
around the world.

The golden age,
which I think is not

referred to a
materialist golden age.

Our civilization has progressed
one way, materialistically.

And that type of
sophistication, we've plummeted.

To judge a culture
like the Neanderthals

by the scanty remains, physical
remains, it's sort of insane.

In fact, Neanderthals,
with their traditions,

with their concepts,
they were the pioneers.

Looking at the universe with its
cosmic rhythms, untold beauty,

and great dangers, they
understood themselves

as part of something bigger
than they themselves were.

They knew their place
in the order of things.

We need to recover that
sense of the world.

>>In waking up to
the new paradigm,

we recover something
long lost, something

very old in ourselves.

"When you climb a mountain, you
go with humility and devotion,

as in a cathedral, where you
enter not to conquer a creed,

but to rediscover yourself,
to rediscover something

inside yourself,
hidden for so long,

that awaits to be awakened.

>>When you climb a mountain, you
go with humility and devotion

as in a cathedral, where you
enter not to conquer a creed,

but to rediscover yourself,
to rediscover something

inside yourself,
hidden for so long that

awaits to be awakened."

>>Here's a setting
where effectively

in the mythology and
the religious beliefs,

humans may have originated.

And maybe this was
the most important,

the most sacred, the
most central location

for Neanderthal
populations as a whole.

It's as if you're approaching
an incredible cathedral,

and incredibly holy spot.

And as you approach it,
you come to various points

where you prepare yourself
for the ultimate adventure,

the ultimate religious
experience at the highest

peaks.

So this entire complex,
which in many ways

is symbolized by the
Carpathian Sphinx,

is a huge, religious,
ceremonial, ritualistic complex

that must have been
incredibly important

to the Neanderthal people for
generations and generations,

probably thousands and
thousands of generations

over tens of thousands of years.

Really important to
me to be able to come

here and experience
firsthand the caves,

to experience
firsthand the plateau,

to experience firsthand
the Carpathian Sphinx.

To me, in fact, in
some ways, we can

think of the Carpathian
Sphinx as being

a symbol for a lost world.

Literally a lost
people, a lost culture.

The mountain is
a lost cathedral,

and the Carpathian
Sphinx is the lost altar.

[singing]

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