All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S12E12 The Animal Agenda

Tom is our insect wrangler,

who's gonna help us set up
a demonstration

on one of the coolest animals
on Earth, the bombardier beetle.

This animal is
a chemical warrior.

This guy has a couple of
chemicals in his abdomen,

and it's able to shoot out
boiling hot streams

of a really toxic liquid

that have the same sort of mix
as rocket fuel.

‐GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Oh, wow.
‐PETER WARD: There it goes.

TSOUKALOS:
How cool.

You can actually see the
squirts, the mist, the vapor.

What was the evolutionary
process of this beetle

for that defense mechanism
to even exist?

It defies evolution.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Houston, Texas.

December 11, 1992.

In one of the strangest alien
abduction cases on record,

eight different people report
being taken

onto an extraterrestrial
spacecraft.

Even stranger is the fact
that the same eight people

were allegedly abducted again
three days later.

Derrel Sims, a former U. S.
intelligence operative,

is the first to investigate
these separate cases

as a single event.

DERREL SIMS:
All these people came back

with the same
identical information.

Exact same story, same location,
same entity, same everything.

I was just absolutely amazed

at the clarity
of their information.

These people were kept separate
and apart from each other.

No one had any knowledge
of any mass abduction.

NARRATOR: Each of the
self‐described abductees

reported being taken aboard
a small craft

that transported them
to a much larger spaceship.

And once inside,

they encountered other abductees
that were not human.

They were all led out through
this massive hallway.

It looked like a museum.

They seem to have collected
species, animals, people,

all kinds of things.

This room that they found
themselves in

that was straight out of
a science fiction movie

with these glass tubes
and glass cases.

And according to their
eyewitness reports,

in these glass cases,

they saw creatures that they
had never seen before,

but also creatures
from planet Earth.

When we look out into the cosmos
we have to ask,

is it filled with beings
of different kinds

of‐of types of
animalistic characteristics?

Bird‐headed beings,
other animal‐headed beings

that exist within the cosmos.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
Thousands of abductees

have given us information

on a wide variety of
extraterrestrial beings

in all kinds of shapes
and forms.

And so we would think, really,

that in this universe there are
extraterrestrial entities

of every form, size and shape
that we can possibly imagine.

Insectoid, octopoid,

looking like giant cats
or birds.

Is there some actual
genetic connection

with some of these
extraterrestrials

being of a lineage from animals
that we have here on Earth?

NARRATOR: Could the accounts
given by the eight people

who were abducted in Houston,

and numerous other reports
of encounters

with animal‐like aliens,

point to the possibility
that humans

are not the only life‐form
on Earth

to have been
captured and examined

by extraterrestrial visitors?

In 1859,
biologist Charles Darwin

introduced the world
to the theory of evolution,

with his book,
On the Origin of Species.

In it, he proposed that gradual
multi‐generational changes,

occurring due to
natural selection,

had resulted in the modification
of all existing species.

While scientists agree that this
process does, in fact,

take place to some extent,
in recent years,

evidence has been presented
that suggests evolution alone

cannot account for all
of the species present

in the animal kingdom.

WARD:
There's one species of dog,

but look at it‐‐ from
Chihuahuas to St. Bernards,

to bulldogs,
everything in between.

And all that has happened in
less than a few thousand years.

This is crazy.

This is like going from this
generalized wolf‐like creature

into this huge variety of dogs.

JOHN BRANDENBURG:
There are fossils of giraffes

with short necks,

and then we have the present.

And there's no
intermediate form.

If you suddenly give a giraffe

a much longer neck
than it had before,

a lot of things have to change.

Its blood pressure regulation
has to change.

It's got to have
a different heart.

It's going to be eating
different things

with a long neck.

All of that software for the
animal has to be rewritten.

And you're telling me
this all happens overnight.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut
theorists propose

that if some,

or possibly all of
the life‐forms on Earth

cannot be explained

as the product of natural
selection, or evolution,

it may, in fact, offer proof,

of not only intelligent design,

but also what they believe to be
extraterrestrial intervention.

And they say the overwhelming
evidence can be found

by examining the practices
of ancient cultures

all over the world.

Manchester, England.

September 2015.

Researchers from the
University of Manchester

use the latest medical
imaging technology

to reveal the first look inside

more than 800 mummies
from ancient Egypt.

The deceased are not humans,

but crocodiles,

cats, baboons, birds,

and numerous other species
painstakingly preserved

for thousands of years.

When we think of mummies,

we tend to think of people
being mummified.

But what we actually find out
is that Egyptians

also mummified
a tremendous amount

of cats, dogs, alligators‐‐

all sorts of things were being
mummified in ancient Egypt.

NARRATOR: The mummification
of animals was so pervasive

that in 2015,
archaeologists discovered

that a catacomb underneath
a temple dedicated to Anubis,

the canine god of the dead,

held a staggering eight million
dog mummies.

The dogs were thought to have

a direct connection with Anubis,
the lord of the underworld.

That was the jackal‐headed god,

so when a dog died,
it could carry a message.

NARRATOR: It is believed that as
many as 70 million animals

were mummified at sites like
this throughout Egypt,

which is roughly the same as
the number of human mummies

that have been found.

70 million is just the ones
that have been found, right?

Some presumably have
gotten lost, have decomposed.

So the fact that there's
that many

means that this practice
was widespread,

and also that it continued
over a long period of time.

This went on for the whole
2,000 to 3,000 years

of ancient
Egyptian civilization.

NARRATOR: But why did
the ancient Egyptians

mummify their animals?

RAMY ROMANY:
In Saqqara,

you see thousands
of birds mummified

right next to each other,
thousands of them.

The reason that huge amount of
animals were mummified in Egypt

was because they believed
those animals were sacred.

They are the equivalent

to lighting a candle
when you go to a church.

You bring a mummified animal
that the god would employ.

Historians believe
that the reason for this

is that Egyptian people
originally were animist.

In other words,
they saw the entire universe

around them as filled with life.

And they attributed deity,
divinity,

to the animals
in their universe.

NARRATOR: But it wasn't just
in ancient Egypt

where animals
were so highly revered.

Similar practices
of animal worship

can be found among
the ancient Sumerians,

the Maya and Aztec of
Mesoamerica,

and the Australian aborigines,
just to name a few.

And in each of these separate
cultures can be found stories

in which animals are involved in
encounters with alien visitors,

otherwise known as gods.

Animals have always played

a very interesting role
in the Bible.

One of the races
of angels themselves

who was witnessed by Ezekiel in
his famous chariot vision

are in Hebrew called chayot,

which translates as "animals."

And indeed,
they had the faces of animals.

Lions, eagles and the like.

So, in all these
parallel cultures,

we have a crossover
of‐of spiritual beings,

and extraterrestrial beings,
manifesting in these forms

that's repeated
over and over again.

Could it be that these were
the same extraterrestrial beings

that were visiting each of these
cultures at different times?

NARRATOR: If cultures all across
the world revered animals

as having a connection with gods
that came down from the sky,

could this be evidence
that certain Earthly creatures

possess a link
to extraterrestrial entities?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and suggest

that some of the planet's
non‐human life forms

may even be directly related

to mankind's
ancient alien ancestors.

NARRATOR:
Luxor, Egypt.

Within the Mortuary Temple
of Hatshepsut,

one of the few female pharaohs
of ancient Egypt,

is a carving
of the bull god Apis,

depicted with a solar disk
above his head.

Although
he is little known today

among the pantheon
of Egyptian deities,

historians suggest
Apis was the very first god

to be worshipped in Egypt,
emerging around 3,000 B. C.

He was considered
to be the creator of humanity.

Animals were so important
in ancient Egypt

that one of the creation myths
starts with a bull.

The bull
that comes out of nowhere,

the bull
that comes out of the sky,

that appears in the middle
of the endless ocean,

is the one
that creates humanity.

That bull is the father
of all humanity.

In many, many mythic traditions,
it is an animal

or sometimes a council
of animal that creates people.

And different cultures
have different animals

that played very,
very formative roles.

Sometimes this is a particular
ancestor to humankind.

Sometimes it's an ancestor
to a particular tribe

or a group of people.

We find this very commonly

in the Northwest coast
Native American groups,

where you'd have different clans

that would have
different lineages

sacredly founded
by different animals.

The Wolf Clan, the Bear Clan,
the Frog Clan.

And you can even
see this reflected

in their totem poles
of those groups.

(woman speaking
in native language over P. A.)

NARRATOR: Many ancient cultures
throughout the world

not only had stories that humans
were created by animals,

but also depicted their gods
with animal features.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
Ganesh, the Indian Hindu god,

the one with the head
of an elephant,

could intervene and solve
problems for the faithful.

The monkey god Hanuman
was a bit of a trickster,

but he could be seen interacting

with human beings,
walking among us.

In Aboriginal stories
from Australia,

the creator of the universe
was a rainbow serpent.

Many of the animal gods
were described

as descending from the sky.

The Egyptians believed in Thoth,
a god with a head of an ibis

who taught science,
philosophy and magic.

Khepri had the head of a scarab

and played a major role
in the creation of the world.

ROMANY:
Most of the gods were depicted

with the animal head
and a human body because

ancient Egyptians knew
that the head had the wisdom.

NARRATOR: If the ancient stories
of flying monkeys

and animal‐headed gods
are literal accounts

of what our ancestors witnessed,

as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest,

is this evidence
that humankind was created

by otherworldly beings
that are genetically connected

to animals
that still roam the Earth today?

Or did the extraterrestrials
disguise themselves as animals

to appear more friendly
and acceptable to early humans?

HENRY: We could be dealing
with extraterrestrials,

extraterrestrials
who chose to incarnate

as cats and dogs
and other animals,

in order to guide humans,

and also
to disguise their true form,

to manifest on Earth in a form

that would be perhaps
more palatable to humans.

Zeus is one
of our most well‐known gods

from the Greek Pantheon.

And we have Zeus transforming
himself into a bull,

which is part of the story

of how the people
of Europe were formed or Europa.

We have Zeus transforming
himself into a swan,

Zeus and Leda.

In the traditions
of West Africa,

the voudon traditions, Papa
Legba as he's sometimes called,

very often appears
as a variety of animals.

In the Native American
Pawnee culture,

the sky god, the creator god,
the Great Spirit,

would never come in direct form,

but use animal forms,
many different animals,

as a way to communicate
with the humans.

NARRATOR:
In the Pawnee tradition,

young men entering adulthood
would go out on vision quests.

They would isolate themselves
from the tribe,

perform ritual prayers
and fast.

Through this process, they would
enter a trancelike state

in hopes of communicating
with these intelligent animals.

TOK THOMPSON: A bear might
come up to you and say hi.

It might be a caterpillar,
it might be a squirrel.

But at some point,
something interacted with you.

Some animal actually interacted
with you.

And that was held
to be very, very profound

in terms of your own identity,

in terms
of your own spirituality.

So the idea is
that each animal, therefore,

is connected to their own
sort of animal spirit.

So that a singular caribou
is in part in touch

with this sort of
larger caribou spirit.

So, in terms
of the vision quest,

you might figure out
who your guardian spirit was.

NARRATOR:
Similarly, in India,

the prophets known as "rishis"
would describe animal encounters

after extensive meditation.

‐(singing in native language)
‐And in Mesoamerican

and Pueblan cultures,

shamans would use powerful
psychedelic plants

to not only communicate
with otherworldly creatures,

but in some cases, transform
into the animals themselves.

In all these traditions,

the encounters are taken
very seriously.

These animal energies
are very real and tangible,

and the wisdom
is extremely valuable.

NARRATOR: Some ancient astronaut
theorists propose

that while extraterrestrials may
disguise themselves as animals,

they may also have
a real physiological relation

to certain creatures on Earth.

And they suggest

that those creatures
were put on this planet

‐with a very specific purpose...
‐(growling)

‐(bird screeching)
‐...one that is vital

to the advancement of humanity.

NARRATOR:
Thousand Oaks, California.

May 2017.

Ancient Astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos

visits the Ventura BioCenter

to examine one of Earth's
most curious creatures‐‐

the bombardier beetle.

This little bug is
a marvel of evolution,

or, some say,
intelligent design.

‐Peter, good to see you.
‐Giorgio, nice to see you.

‐How are you? All right.
‐And this is Tom.

‐Hi. Nice to meet you.
‐Hello, Tom.

Pleasure. How's it going?

Tom is our insect wrangler,

who's going to help us
set up a demonstration

on one of the coolest animals
on Earth, the bombardier beetle.

TSOUKALOS: That's fantastic,
because about a year ago,

Erich von Daniken gave me
his latest manuscript

for his newest book.

And we all know that there are
these multiple creatures

that seem
to defy Darwinian evolution.

And one creature
that jumped out at me

that I hadn't heard before
was this beetle right here.

This beetle is fascinating from
an evolutionary point of view.

And in fact, it's been used
by many people

to suggest that evolution
doesn't work at all, and

the reason is the enormous
complexity of this thing.

This animal is
a chemical warrior.

It's able to shoot out
boiling hot streams

of a really toxic liquid

that had the same sort of mix
as rocket fuel.

‐TSOUKALOS: That's amazing.
‐WARD: And it can shoot

over 500 of these bursts
per second.

‐Wow.
‐But the process happens

so fast, it's almost
in the blink of an eye.

So we have a high‐speed camera
over here

that can shoot
about 2,500 frames per second,

and with that camera,
we can slow down this process,

and in seeing that process,

we could work out
the exact sequence of events.

So let's set this up with Tom
and watch this take place.

Let's do it.

Okay, guys, so what I've got is

some non‐toxic,
very mild adhesive.

And I'm just going to touch it
to the beetle's back,

and that will suspend him
in the air.

We're gonna give him
a little bit

of stimulation
with these forceps.

It simulates the predator
and makes him feel defensive.

Oop, there it was.

NARRATOR: While it is almost
imperceptible to the naked eye,

with the high‐speed camera,

the beetle can be seen
blasting rapid‐fire streams

of deadly chemicals directed
at any would‐be predator.

‐TSOUKALOS: Oh, wow! How cool!
‐PETER: There it goes!

‐Projected it in that
particular direction. ‐Right.

TSOUKALOS: You can actually
see the squirts,

the mist, the vapor!

The appendage which allows this
to happen can rotate.

It can move back and forth,
so it can shoot this

‐in lots of different
directions. ‐TSOUKALOS: Yeah.

This is really awesome.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Ward has set up

‐a computer‐generated...
‐So here he is.

...model
of the bombardier beetle

to show Giorgio
the incredible process

that is taking place
inside its body.

WARD:
You've got

the organs that produce
the chemicals, and two separate

chemicals are being made.

We've got this hydroquinone,

which is actually a makeup
of the organics of the creature.

It's part of his
external skeleton.

The second one is a chemical
called hydrogen peroxide,

which is rocket fuel.

Now if we combine these two
together in a chamber,

what we can do is build
this chemical material

that's gonna get really hot and
blast out the back of the bug.

So one of the coolest things
about this whole system,

it's got a one‐way valve.

Once this chemical concoction

that's getting really hot
starts reacting,

the last thing you want
is having it blast back

into the interior of your body.

So it can direct it,

squirts out this super hot,
super toxic material

into that predator's face.

TSOUKALOS:
And one has to wonder,

what was the evolutionary
process of this beetle

for that defense mechanism
to even exist?

WARD: Yeah, that's
the critical question.

If evolution takes place
step‐by‐step,

what's the intermediate?

How does this thing
not blow itself up

as it's experimenting
through time?

How do you go from just
a garden‐variety beetle

‐to a super beetle like this?
‐Mm‐hmm.

TSOUKALOS:
One has to wonder

if this creature perhaps

was brought here
in its finished form,

or at least the genetic material
for this creature

came here as a finished product.

NARRATOR:
Could the physiology

of the bombardier beetle
be proof

that there are animals
on this planet

of extraterrestrial design?

The gases that the beetle emits
can burn the skin of humans,

and if the mechanism it holds
within its body

was constructed
on a larger scale,

it could be a very deadly
chemical weapon.

Is it possible that aliens
placed certain creatures

on this planet so that humans
could learn from them

and recreate their abilities?

KIRSTEN FISHER: Throughout
the animal kingdom

there are other organisms that
also have tremendous abilities.

The dung beetle

is able to pull upwards of
1,100 times its body weight.

The mantis shrimp,
they can see things like

polarized light,

UV, infrared light.

Squids and octopus

basically change their‐their
body coloration,

and the patterns, and even
the texture of their skin

as they move across
different substrates,

which is just incredible.

NARRATOR: Many advances
in human technology

have been inspired
by the animal world,

an approach scientists
refer to as biomimicry.

Airplanes were designed

to imitate the winged flight
of birds.

(bird screeches)

Military camouflage evolved

out of observing
the way squid, octopuses,

and chameleons
take on the appearance

of their surroundings.

Sonar used in the navigation

of submarines and ships
is a skill taken from dolphins,

whales, and bats,
who emit sound waves

to locate both prey
and predators.

WARD:
We have stolen

so many attributes of animals
in the past

for our own technologies.

We're taking on this world‐view
of what an animal can do,

and using technology
to rebuild it.

WILCOCK: We're taking clues
from the natural world

in order to develop
technologies.

This may be part

of a greater hidden
extraterrestrial initiative,

perhaps for a seeding
of a technological

and human revolution that we're
just starting to see now.

NARRATOR:
Could extraterrestrial beings

have intended for mankind to
study the other animals of Earth

in order to advance
our technology,

as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest?

And if so, is this the
continuation of an experiment

that they have been conducting
with different life‐forms

on Earth for thousands of years?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
the recent discovery

that humans have not always been

the most intelligent animal
on the planet.

NARRATOR:
Barcelona, Spain.

July 2016.

Researchers studying the genome
of indigenous Australians

living in the Andaman Islands

uncover a mysterious strand
of DNA

dating back 40,000 years‐‐

a strand that is not human.

Although they do not know what
species this DNA belongs to,

they theorize
that if it co‐mingled

with the DNA of humans,

it would likely add one more
name to the ever‐growing list

of intelligent hominid species

that lived alongside
our ancestors.

To date, archaeologists
have discovered

that at least eight other
intelligent human‐like species

have existed on Earth.

One of the surprises of really
the last decade

has been that now that we can
break into bones

and extract ancient DNA,

is‐‐ surprise, surprise‐‐

that we seem to have been
interbreeding

with creatures
that are not of our species.

We've got pieces of DNA,

these foreign, if you will,
non‐Homo sapiens DNA within us.

HENRY:
This discovery adds

to the ever‐growing list
of hominid species

that were roaming around the
planet in the ancient world.

And it brings up the question:

Just how many other intelligent
species were there out there,

that humans, as we know them,
were interacting with?

Perhaps we're gonna discover
fossils of other versions

of humanity that were mated,
or hybrid versions

of other animals
that we have yet to discover.

NARRATOR: How is it
that there were so many

other intelligent
human‐like species

that inhabited the planet

thousands of years ago,

but only humans remain today?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

that Earth may have acted
as a laboratory,

in which extraterrestrials
experimented

with various life‐forms,
and as evidence,

point to the numerous ancient
stories of hybrid creatures.

YOUNG: Hybrid creatures
abound in mythology.

All over the world
we get animals

that are partly one thing,
partly another.

In ancient Greek we hear about
the Cerberus,

a terrifying three‐headed dog

who was the guardian of
the portal to the underworld.

The Greeks also had the centaur,
half human, half horse,

a large and impressive creature.

In Hindu mythology,
we have the Naga.

These are strange‐looking
characters.

Serpentine at the bottom,

human torsos
and heads and faces.

Even in the Qur'an,
the horse that was said

to have flown Muhammad
from Mecca to Jerusalem

was a flying horse
with a human face.

Either it's all fantasy

or our ancestors
witnessed these things,

and if they witnessed them,
there's two options to that.

Either these creatures
actually came here

or whatever extraterrestrials
were here created them.

And it's a huge, huge question,

because both possibilities,
in my opinion, are possible.

NARRATOR: If the hybrid
creatures described

in ancient mythologies

really did exist
alongside humans

and other intelligent hominids,

is it possible that
Charles Darwin's theory

of natural selection
played a role

in the rise of humans after all?

Could it be a case of
alien intervention on Earth

creating numerous species

that were then forced to fight
for survival?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining stories
of an ancient cataclysm

often referred to
as the Great Flood.

The Bible teaches us
an ancient legend

that there was a global flood.

We all know that the sins
of the people

would cause God to intervene.

But yet, the legends tell us

that the actual problem
that occurred at this time

was an
extraterrestrial involvement

and manipulation
of human genetics.

The Bible speaks in Genesis,
chapter six,

of the sons of God
who came down from heaven

and took the daughters
of men as wives

from which were born
a race of titans.

Gibborim is the Hebrew word.

And that they unleashed terror,
havoc upon the world.

The Books of Enoch teach us
that these sons of God

were the angels
who came down from heaven.

ERICH VON DANIKEN:
The development was going

the wrong direction.

And then they decided to start
the whole experiment again.

They decided to create
a great flood.

(lightning cracks,
thunder rumbles)

We have stories
of the Great Flood

practically all over the world.

Not only in the Bible,

not only in the Gilgamesh epics,

not only in the Enûma Eli.
from the Sumerian.

We have it in Central America
among the Mayans.

We have it in South America

among the Kogi Indians.

They live in Colombia.

Always the Great Flood story.

But in every case,
there was a so‐called god

who give instructions
to construct a ship.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK: And
this is where ancient legends

get very interesting,

because while Noah
was building his ark

and saving his animals,

other legends say
that others of his generation

took other precautions.

Some building
other types of ships,

which were to go to the stars.

And what is also interesting

is that the legends tell us

that not all animals
were included on Noah's ark.

NARRATOR: Does the story
of the Great Flood

provide evidence

that extraterrestrials
have been experimenting

with different life‐forms
on Earth

for thousands of years?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

that such experimentation
continues to this day,

but that it is now
being directed

by humans.

NARRATOR:
Rapallo, Italy.

1988.

While studying marine life
off the coast of Italy,

German biology student
Christian Sommer

discovers a microscopic species

with an incredible ability:

it never dies.

The animal, a jellyfish
called Turritopsis dohrnii,

repeatedly reverts back
to its earliest polyp state

and begins its life cycle
over and over again.

WILCOCK: Now, there's
something strange going on here.

There's something

that doesn't appear to happen
in any other life‐form

that we've ever identified

in the millions and millions
of different creatures

that live on Earth.

There is no theoretical limit

to how much this creature
is able to recycle itself.

That completely defies all
known scientific laws of biology

as we now see them.

NARRATOR: Scientists
have nicknamed the species

"the immortal jellyfish"

and are attempting to unlock
its biological secrets

in the hopes
that they may hold the key

to increasing
the lifespan of humans.

But how
did such an incredible creature

come to exist
in the first place?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe

that extraterrestrials
may still be seeding our planet

with new life‐forms
to help direct

the path of mankind's evolution.

The idea that life on Earth

may have an otherworldly origin

has fascinated mankind
for thousands of years.

It was first proposed
in the fifth century BC

by Greek philosopher Anaxagoras.

He believed
that all living things

came from cosmic seeds

scattered
throughout the universe.

He called the concept
panspermia.

Significant thinkers
throughout the ages

have considered
this possibility:

Anaxagoras in ancient Greece,

Lord Kelvin, Fred Hoyle,

Francis Crick,
the codiscoverer of DNA‐‐

who, by the way, thought
that it was too complicated

to have been developed
on Earth alone‐‐

up to Stephen Hawking,
in our time,

have considered this idea

that life came
from beyond the planet.

WILCOCK:
Is it also possible

that what we're looking at
is a series of ETs

that might
have been visiting Earth

for hundreds
of thousands of years

and have been
systematically dropping off

some of their favorite creatures

from other biological worlds
very similar to our own

that have certain
special ingredients

so that once we reached
a certain level of technology,

we could adapt those qualities
into our own life.

NARRATOR: Is humanity
still under the influence

of animals introduced to Earth
by otherworldly beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest
that we are beginning to become

like our alien ancestors,

playing a hand in the evolution

of life on Earth.

WARD: One of the cutting edges
of biology now

is we are taking
human stem cells, putting them

into embryos of animals

and then hoping that it becomes
a human organ itself.

So, this is a lot
of experimentation.

We can take a DNA molecule

within an animal

and knock out specific genes.

We've been able to do that
for a while.

But now we're able
to replace them

with specific genes
for the very first time,

which is unleashing
lots of Frankenstein monsters.

Right now, what we've seen,

the most interesting and, to me,
scary example of this

comes from China,

where they have taken
a single gene,

inserted it into a beagle

and caused that beagle
to have twice the musculature

than it otherwise would have.

These things
are, like, super beagles.

And that begs the question:
if you can do it to a beagle,

can you do it to a human?

Absolutely.

WILCOCK:
This could be the first step

of a revolution in biology

that leads to us starting
to have the type of abilities

that are commonly reported
in the ancient lore

of extraterrestrial gods
visiting Earth.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that mankind is beginning
to reach the level

of our alien ancestors,

as ancient astronaut theorists
propose?

And do they continue
to assist us in this process,

secretly introducing

incredible new life‐forms
on Earth?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
a new scientific endeavor

to seed Earth life

on other planets.

NARRATOR:
Frankfurt, Germany.

September 2016.

German physicist
Dr. Claudius Gros

of the Institute of Theoretical
Physics at Goethe University

introduces a new theory
titled the Genesis Project,

which proposes that mankind

should not simply search
for life on distant planets,

but create it.

CLAUDIUS GROS:
So, in exoplanetary research,

we have realized now

that there will be planets

which will be habitable
but lifeless.

And normally, people believe,
well, that is bad luck

because we are looking
for a second Earth.

But it offers us
a new opportunity

maybe to bring life
to these planets.

NARRATOR:
The Genesis Project

calls for depositing
single‐cell living organisms

onto lifeless planets.

WARD: If you really want
to kick‐start this thing,

you find
an already oxygenated world.

And then you can put out

cells such as ours
that have a big nucleus

that can move directly
into an animal grade,

which is multicellular.

CHILDRESS:
In a sense, this kind of seeding

that Professor Gros
is wanting to do

in the near future

is exactly the kind of thing

that extraterrestrials
would have probably have done

in the remote past.

NARRATOR:
In planning to transmit life

to other planets,
are humans today

replicating what
extraterrestrials did on Earth?

Are we continuing a cycle

that has been taking place
throughout the universe

for many millions of years?

The fossil record,
while it's there,

doesn't necessarily correspond

to Darwinian evolution

because you don't see
the transitional creatures

in between whatever evolution
there may have been.

So this suggests, to me,
an outside influence,

whether it was panspermia,

direct panspermia

or, later, the artificial
mutation of our genes

by extraterrestrials.

I think, in fact, it may be
a combination of all three.

JASON MARTELL:
It's very possible

that there have been
lost cultures and species

that have literally evolved
and left the planet.

When we look at the various
races of extraterrestrials

that are possibly
visiting us today,

there could be some connection

to various species
here on Earth.

With all
of these incredible stories

of ancient human‐animal hybrids

and strange creatures
coming from the stars

coupled with modern stories
of people

that have had experiences

with animalistic‐type
extraterrestrials,

we have to ask if Earth
is some kind of a laboratory

where extraterrestrials
are experimenting

with various species,

trying to come up
with different beings.

When we look out into
the cosmos, we have to ask:

is it filled with beings

of different
animalistic characteristics?

And as we begin
to meet these beings,

are we meeting
with past versions of ourselves

or perhaps future versions
of ourselves?

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that extraterrestrials
seeded the Earth

and continue to use it
as a genetic laboratory

in which humans are just one
of many experiments?

If so,
could there be another species

destined to overtake us?

Or are we in the process

of merging other animals
with ourselves

to become
more like our alien ancestors?

Perhaps one day soon,
we will learn

that such genetic manipulation

is happening not only on Earth,

but throughout the universe.