All language subtitles for Strangest.Things.S01E04.Mystery.of.the.Black.Mirror.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_eng

[narrator] Can this
golden disc answer
the biggest mystery of all?

Are we alone in the universe?

[narrator] What secrets are
hidden in a bizarre 600 year
old book that nobody can read?

The Voynich manuscript
is one enormous puzzle.

It could be a hidden key
to unknown mysteries.

[narrator] And is this
stone mirror a conduit
to the supernatural?

This weird thing is encased
in mystery.

Nobody knew how it worked
or where this came from.

[narrator] These are the most
remarkable and mysterious
objects on Earth.

Hidden away in museums,
laboratories and
storage units.

Now, new research and
technology can get under
their skin like never before.

We can rebuild them,
pull them apart and zoom in

to reveal the unbelievable,
the ancient

and the truly bizarre.

These are the world's
strangest things.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] This is the most
distant manmade object
in the universe.

An eye catching gold disc.

It's already beyond the limits
of our solar system, 14
billion miles from Earth.

Now, to reveal its secrets,
we're bringing it back home
virtually.

[dramatic music playing]

This is the
Voyager Golden Record.

Just 12 inches in diameter.

Etched onto its outer casing
are what appear to be

incomprehensible scientific
hieroglyphs.

And what's inside is even
more bizarre.

[Philip] It is a metal disc
that is coated with gold

and engraved with
these very fine grooves
that preserve information.

[narrator] It looks like
an LP record because
that's exactly what it is.

A record of a very
human planet.

Pictures, sounds, music and
a message in 55 languages.

[Sascha] In essence, it's a
time capsule giving us a
glimpse of the human world.

[narrator] But this message
is not designed for humanity.

[Maggie] The purpose of
the disc was to explain what
planet Earth is all about.

And the goal was to pass
information on to aliens
out there.

[narrator] But how do you
create something that can be
understood by an alien species

you don't even know exists?

What exactly is on the disc?
And why send it
in the first place?

By 1972, humans have put
12 men on the moon,

sent seven successful unmanned
probes to Venus and
four to Mars.

But NASA wants to
explore further. Much further.

[man] Three, two, one...

[narrator] In 1977, NASA
launches two state of the art
space probes.

[man] And we have lift off.

The first of two Voyager
spacecrafts to extend
man's senses

farther into the solar system
than ever before.

[pleasant music playing]

[narrator] Voyager 1...

and Voyager 2.

Their mission? To visit all
the outer planets,

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Neptune
for the very first time.

But this will be
a one way trip.

[Maggie] If you want to send
a probe to the outer planets

it needs to be travelling
stupidly fast, about
ten miles per second.

But when you're travelling
at that speed, you can't stop.

You sort of fly past
all the planets grabbing
pictures as you go

and then you keep on going.

That means after they'd
finished their mission,
they're just going to carry on

out into interstellar space.

[narrator] So NASA dreams up
a plan for the probes to carry
a message

out into the universe.

The Golden Record.

The idea was that if in some
distant future, thousands or
even millions of years hence

some alien civilization were
to come across
this bizarre artifact

floating in deep space

and then maybe decode
information that's contained
on it.

Find out something about
the strange species that sent
this time little traveler off

deep into interstellar space.

[narrator] It is a message
in a bottle.

A message to a race
of space-faring aliens.

To my mind the golden disc is,
I guess a dream, a hope

that one day something
out there might find it and
realize that we're here.

We're alive and we want
to make contact.

[narrator] But if NASA is
really serious about making
first contact with

an advanced alien species,

why on earth did they send
something as old-fashioned
as a record?

That decision falls to the man
who NASA selects to produce
their interstellar message.

Carl Sagan.

[Andrew] Carl Sagan was one of
the most famous scientists
and science communicators

of the 20th century.

At heart he was an astronomer.
But he was also one of the
world's first astrobiologists.

He was really interested in
the nitty gritty science of

what aliens would actually
look like.

[narrator] Whatever format
Sagan chooses to carry
his message to the stars

has to survive thousands
of years.

And space is a brutal place.

Beyond the Earth atmosphere
is a very harsh environment.

[Maggie] Radiation from
the Sun blasts you.

Temperature ranges are
suddenly huge.

[Philip] It's a very dangerous
environment.

So it's actually very
difficult to think about
what sort of object

is going to be able
to retain information
in that environment.

[mystical music playing]

[narrator] Sagan ignores
the magnetic tapes used
in 70s computers.

The tape itself would
disintegrate in space.

Instead, he goes old school.
Vinyl.

[Maggie] The idea of using
a phonograph, a record,
to send information

seems bizarre. Even in the 70s
it was dated a technology.
But it was a good way to go.

It's a physical object,
the information is stored
on it

in these tiny little grooves.

They're carved into
the material.

They're going to be able to
withstand a bit of bombardment
from high energy particles.

[narrator] They assume that
any species capable of
building spacecraft

will be able to work out how
to play the disc.

And for good measure, they
decide to include a record
needle under the cover.

But actual vinyl, the material
isn't space-proof.

So they pimp it up.

They decided they would
make it out of metal.

In fact they made it out of
engraved copper.

And then to make sure that
it was going to last
for a long time,

they coated the copper
with gold.

Because gold is a very
inert metal.

It doesn't corrode.
It doesn't degrade easily.

[narrator] Sagan's next
problem is what to put on
his intergalactic record.

How can he sum up
all of humanity and
the world around us

on a 12 inch LP?

[narrator] NASA has given
astronomer Carl Sagan

the job of sending
a comprehensive message
about us

to aliens.

But it's all got to squeeze
on to a single 12 inch disc.

The challenge posed by this
is immense.

You have got one record.

And on it, you somehow have to
sum up

the nature of human
civilization in all
its many forms.

What do you put on the record?

[narrator] NASA gives Sagan
just eight months to complete
and deliver the entire project

He builds a team from
scientists, musicologist
and artists

It includes SETI pioneer,
Frank Drake.

And author Ann Druyan,
Sagan's future wife.

The first thing the disc
does is say,
"Hi from everyone on Earth."

The beginning of the record
has a greeting from the UN
Secretary General

and greetings in 55
different languages.

One of the weirdest things
is that uh...

Two of those greetings,
one of them is Sumerian,

and another is ancient Greek,

neither of which have been
spoken for quite some time.

[narrator] Greetings done,
the aliens can relax with
90 minutes of eclectic tunes.

The greatest hits of
an entire planet.

You've got Mozart's
Magic Flute opera.

A Georgian folk song.

Johann Sebastian Bach,
of course.

Songs from Navajo Indians.

-The Brandenburg Concertos.
-Indonesian gamelan music.

A Japanese song about cranes.

And of course, Chuck Berry's
Johnny B. Goode.

[Sascha] Sagan is
a pioneer here in that he's

put together a collection
of world music

before the term or concept
"World Music" was really
in common usage.

[narrator] Then, there's
the sounds of the Earth.

A rousing compilation of wind,

thunder, an erupting volcano,

animal noises,

Morse code,

a train, a tractor,
a moon rocket,

and a kiss.

Sagan wants this to be a truly
multimedia experience for
our new alien friends.

So, it gets a photo album too.

By an incredibly fortunate
coincidence, the technology
had just been developed

to allow images to be recorded
to vinyl discs.

[narrator] But there is space
for just 115 pictures.

Surprisingly, Sagan wastes
the first one on
a plain circle.

The thinking being that
circles are universal
structures.

There will be circles anywhere
in the universe.

And any alien civilization
intelligent enough to start
decoding this message

will figure out pretty quickly
that this was a circle.

[narrator] So aliens can use
this to tell if the pictures
are the correct shape.

That leaves space for just
114 more pictures
to show to the aliens.

[Andrew] When we look at a
photograph,

you have a much better idea
of what you're looking at
than an alien might.

So, the picture of a couple
of people holding hands...

Would an alien even recognize
that those are separate
organisms

or would they think that's
just one giant creature?

[narrator] The pictures they
choose cover biology

animals, plants, our planet

our behavior,
our civilizations,

and our accomplishments.

All in just 115 images.

The final addition to the disc
is a one hour recording
of human brain waves.

Just in case aliens can read
our minds.

[Andrew] The Voyager Golden
Record is a pretty good answer

to a frankly ridiculous
question.

Which is how can you
encapsulate the entire works,

the entire history
of a species

life on a planet, a planet,
a solar system

on basically two sides
of a long playing record?

[narrator] The content
is the easy bit.

The tricky part is
the instructions.

These will be engraved
on the disc's cover.

But how do you create
instructions that the aliens
will understand?

[amusing music playing]

The team's only assumption
is that anyone who finds
the disc

will already have made it
into space.

But they won't speak or read
any human language.

And their measurements for
time and distance will be
totally, well, alien.

So what unit of measure
could possibly be considered
literally universal?

The genius answer comes
from Frank Drake.

If you listen to the universe
with the right radio
at the right frequency

you can hear a signal. And
it's a signal that pervades
throughout the universe.

It's a signal created by
the most common element
in the universe.

Hydrogen.

[narrator] This signal is
known as the Hydrogen
Hyperfine transition.

Drake's choice of using
the hydrogen frequency
was a brilliant one.

Any intelligent beings
out there would be aware
of this frequency.

[narrator] Its wavelength
is 8.28 inches long.

And the time it takes for
a single oscillation

is seven tenths of a billionth
of a second.

And those measurements
are the same everywhere
in the universe.

Frequency of the oscillation
gives you a universal
unit of time.

The wavelength of that
oscillation gives you
a universal unit of distance.

[narrator] To explain this
to aliens,
Sagan engraves on the cover

a tiny drawing of two
hydrogen atoms representing
the hyperfine transition.

So imagine you're an alien,
you find this disc

you can use it to explain
how tall a human being is or
how big the solar system is

in terms of hydrogen
hyperfine wavelengths.

Or you can use it
to explain time.

How long it takes a human baby
to be born or even how fast
you have to play this record.

[narrator] The next problem
is numbers.

How exactly does
an alien count?

Now most of us work in base 10
what that means is you've got
digits from 0 to 9 which is

ten digits in total.

And that makes big numbers
easier to write in
a small space.

But essentially,
it's completely arbitrary.

[narrator] Sagan can't rely on
aliens counting in tens.

But there is one system that
any intelligent being
should recognize.

The numerical information on
the Golden Record is encoded
in binary.

So just using ones and zeroes.

And the reason is that binary
is perhaps the most
fundamental numerical system.

If they're advanced enough
to be space-faring,

hopefully, they'll be able to
understand the mathematics
that we've used.

[narrator] At high
magnification you can see
a picture of the record itself

on the cover.

And engraved around it
in binary is the speed
it should rotate at.

16 and 2/3rd rpm.

And a diagram of nearby stars
with their distances
also marked in binary

gives directions to Earth.

There's one last unplanned
but very human addition
to the record.

Under extreme magnification

there's a faint inscription

scratched into the surface

by the men that
cut the master disk.

It reads,
"To the makers of music

all worlds all times."

And there you have it.

A snapshot
of human life on Earth,

and the means
for ET to read it.

All contained in one LP.

So what has become of these
interstellar messengers?

[narrator] The Voyager
space probes

are carrying
a message from Earth

and are now over 11 billion
miles away from our planet.

The Voyager spacecraft
transformed our understanding

of bodies that are out there.

As the probes
went through space,

we get these images back.

Saw close-ups of Jupiter.

We can just about
make the red spot out

from Earth using telescopes.

But now, we could see

a dynamic weather system

churning around this
amazingly huge planet.

We went out to Saturn

and saw close-up of the rings.

It just transformed
our understanding.

Neptune and Uranus,

had been just points
of light from Earth.

And now we could see them

as of a beautiful, sort of
aqua marine bodies.

[narrator] Incredibly, more
than 40 years after launch,

both Voyagers
are still working.

They have left
the solar system,

carrying our message
on a golden disk,

out into the Universe.

It will be 40,000 years

before either of them
passes close to another star.

The golden record is
a beautiful, hopeful message

about a bountiful,
amazing planet
that it comes from.

A huge mixture

of different cultures
and languages

and even emotions have gone
into making this record.

[narrator] The question
is will anyone or anything

ever find them?

In a locked cabinet
at Yale University,

is a strange medieval book

that has confounded historians

for a hundred years.

There is just
one copy in existence,

we have no idea who wrote it

and we have no idea
what it's about.

It's one enormous mystery.

[narrator] This is
the Voynich manuscript.

It measures nine by six inches

and it's pages are made
of cat skin parchment.

It has 240 pages.

Sometimes
with inked illustrations.

[narrator] It's
pages are covered

with incomprehensible writing.

It really looks
like a language.

[narrator] But is it?

We can't really
make sense of the letters.

[narrator] Why would anyone
create such a detailed book

and then make it impossible
to understand?

The text is a riddle

but the drawings
aren't much better.

[narrator] It's packed
with arcane symbols

and bizarre illustrations.

Like naked ladies bathing,
plants and castles.

Now recent research
may finally have uncovered

hidden clues in these drawings

that could help
explain this mystery.

Despite that, the Voynich
manuscript remains an enigma.

Where does it come from?

How old is it?

And what is it
trying to tell us?

It could still be a hidden key

to unknown mysteries.

[narrator] Even a brief glance
at this bizarre document

raises one
very obvious possibility.

[Mark] When you take
everything together,

the illegible alphabet,
the weird drawings,

sooner or later you
have to consider that

it might be
a relatively modern hoax.

[narrator] For decades,
the Voynich manuscript

has been tainted
by accusations

that it is a modern fake

created for the lucrative
antiquarian book market.

If it is, the prime suspect

has to be the man
who discovered it in 1912,

Wilfrid Voynich.

[Kevin] Voynich spent his life

looking for rare books
and lost manuscripts.

If you were
looking for a character

who would have had
the correct mental equipment

to construct such a fake,

he would certainly
be a candidate.

[narrator] But it is
also possible Voynich

was the victim of a scam

perpetrated by the people

he bought the manuscript from.

[Mark] He bought it from
a monastery

that was in dire
need of money.

So maybe they just
made something up,

gave it to him, sold it,

and got some money for it.

[narrator] To find the truth,

experts have
turned to science.

[Andrew] In 2009, scientists
at the University of Arizona,

managed to use carbon dating

to work out that
the manuscript date

as from somewhere
between 1404 and 1438.

So the vellum it's made
from at least days
from the appropriate time.

[narrator] But
that doesn't mean

it's written
in the Middle Ages.

Using old vellum

or reusing pages
from an old manuscript

is a common forger's trick.

To test this,
scientists analyze the ink

searching for synthetic
modern chemicals.

The ink that was used
on the manuscript

is very similar to the inks
that were used in other

medieval manuscripts.

They're made of things
like hematite or iron,

naturally occurring
simple substances,

rather than the complex
hydrocarbons

that are often used
as pigments in modern inks.

[narrator] The combination
of different ancient materials

is enough to convince experts.

If you look
at the vellum and the ink,

and the dating of both,

then you know that

this is something
that is really old.

[narrator] Which
means if it's a fake,

it's not a modern fake.

So could it be real?

And if it is,
what does it say?

[narrator] For decades,
code breakers and linguists

have been trying to decipher

the extraordinary
Voynich manuscript.

[Mark] When we look
at the possible alphabet,

we see more than 20 letters,
maybe 22, 25,

we see something
that could be vowels,

we see something
that could be numbers,

but beyond that nobody knows

what this alphabet
consists of.

[narrator] Which suggests
an obvious possibility.

Perhaps, it's not
normal writing at all.

Perhaps, it's a code.

[Andrew] One idea
is the manuscript

could have been written
with what's called

a substitution cipher.

And this is a code where you
simply take a given letter

of the alphabet
or a given symbol

and replace it directly
with another one.

So A becomes B,
B becomes C and so on.

And that means
you can write things

that look very difficult
to read just at first glance.

[narrator] But substitution
ciphers are relatively easy

for mathematicians to spot.

You look at the text

and you see which letters
occur most frequently.

So, for example,
in written English,

the most common letter
is the letter E.

So say you were to find a Z

as the most common letter

in the text that
you're looking at,

you could guess that maybe

that Z corresponded
to the letter E.

And then you can go down

looking at less
and less frequent letters

and slowly but surely build up
a picture of the words.

[narrator] Experts have tested

this approach
on the enigmatic writing.

[Andrew] When you're trying
to do this with
the Voynich manuscript,

you don't come up
with anything.

Even when you compare it

to loads and loads
of different languages,

there's just nothing
that seems to work

with this technique.

[narrator] If it's not a code,

maybe the Voynich manuscript

is simply written
in an unknown language.

In 2013, mathematicians
and computer scientists

at the University
of Sao Paulo in Brazil,

test the Voynich language
to see if it displays

the same kind of patterns
as known languages.

Scientists have tried
to compare objectively

things like word length,
and the number of letters

with English and Portuguese
in the Voynich manuscript

to get some idea
of whether or not,

even the kind
of word groupings

would make any sense.

And generally speaking,
it does kind of fit,

it doesn't fit perfectly,

but it's not outside
of what we would expect.

[Andrew] What's bizarre is
that you look at
the Voynich manuscript

and even though we don't know
what any of the symbols are

or what they mean,

they still seem to have these
same kinds of patterns.

This isn't just
random gibberish.

It really looks
like a language.

[narrator] So
the Voynich writing

seems to fit the pattern
of a real language.

But knowing it's a language

is a long way from being
able to translate it.

[Abigail] We can
identify words
through two routes,

that we've seen
that word before,

and that we've heard
that word before.

But the fact that
we can't make out

what any of the letters are,

leaves you in a kind
of no man's land.

Cause not only do we
not know what these words are

but we've no idea
how they sounded either.

[narrator] Decades of analysis
by code breakers and linguists

have failed to unlock
the manuscript's writing

which just leaves
the illustrations.

Could they crack the secrets
of the Voynich manuscript?

[Abigail] The images
on this text

are some of the strangest
things I've seen.

[narrator] The manuscript
is a riot of colorful

and baffling illustrations.

It's a bit like a list
of classes at Hogwarts.

You've got kind of Herbology,

all these beautiful
pictures of plants

and then you have things like
images of naked women bathing

and then very detailed
images of a castle.

[narrator] Now new research
claims these drawings

could finally
answer the puzzle

of the Voynich manuscript.

In 2013, the manuscript's
bizarre illustrations

catch the eye
of two US scholars.

They think they've seen some
of the plants in it before.

[Abigail] A couple of
American botanists

have looked at these images

and they've seen similarities

between the plants
depicted in this manuscript

and plants that are native

and indigenous
to Central America.

[narrator] They identify
nearly 60 plants

in the Voynich manuscript

that they believe show
a striking correlation

with Mexican plants.

Agave, Dioscorea,

Cylin, Eryngium,

and the Viola

and many more.

It certainly seems
convincing at first glance.

[Abigail] The idea
of identifying this manuscript

and connecting
it to scholarship
from Central America,

is an interesting idea

and it's quite creative
and innovative.

[narrator] The botanists
have also noted similarities

between the Voynich manuscript

and a well-known
ancient manuscript

on Central American herbology,

called the Codex
Cruz-Badianus.

So has this new research

finally begun
to crack the secrets

of the Voynich manuscript.

Can its origins be traced
to Central America?

Is it a Mexican
herbology of plants?

Indigenous cultures
certainly have writing

and a sophisticated knowledge
of the natural world.

But there are problems
with this idea.

For one thing,
the timing seems off.

The vellum in the Voynich
manuscript has been dated

to around 1404 to 1438.

The problem is,
and it's a big one,

at this date Europeans
won't discover the Americas

for another 50 years.

And the Codex Cruz-Badianus,

that it's been compared with,

isn't written for a 100 years
after the vellum's dating.

Is it possible that
after someone made
this valuable vellum

it sat unused for a 100 years?

It's not completely
out of the question

but it does seem
pretty unlikely.

And even if you
ignore the dating issues,

other illustrations
point towards an origin

much closer to home.

There's an intricate
drawing of a castle

and there are aspects
of the architecture that are

identifiable as what
they would call

Ghibelline architecture.

It's particularly I think

the crenellations
on the turrets

and they are in kind
of Central Northern Italy

around that kind
of northern border.

[narrator] So is it
a book on Mexico

or some unknown text on Europe

or something else entirely?

No one seems certain.

But there is one final clue.

A clue that might at last

tell us the origins
of the Voynich manuscript.

[narrator] The
Voynich manuscript

is a 500 year-old document.

Written in an untranslatable
text and covered
in strange images,

it has baffled scholars
for centuries.

But there is one
final clue to its origins.

A letter dating to 1639

that mentions the manuscript.

According to the letter,

the book was owned
by an alchemist in Prague

by the name of Georg Baresch.

[narrator] Almost nobody
had ever heard of Baresch.

But there is a second clue

that also ties
the manuscript to Prague.

But it's only visible
under UV light.

Another tantalizing detail

is that a signature

was found on the title page
of the volume

of a man named Tepenec

who was a herbalist
in the court of Rudolf II.

[narrator] Rudolf II,
the holy Roman emperor,

one of the most
colorful characters
in renaissance Europe.

Rudolf II was exactly
the sort of person

who would want to acquire
a manuscript like this.

He had the money,
he had the interest,

and he necessarily need
to understand it himself.

He just needed enough people
around him telling him,

that it was fascinating
and important.

[narrator] So could Prague
and Rudolf II explain
the manuscript's origins?

If you were looking to sell
something for a high price,

something which featured
an untranslatable text

and mysterious illustrations,

which seemed to cross
continents and cultures,

what better place
to try to shop this

than in the court
of Rudolf II?

[narrator] Is this
the real truth

behind this strange book?

Unfortunately, there seemed
to be as many explanations

as there are experts.

I personally see a lot
of drawings and scripts

and very, very long texts
of people who have psychosis.

[narrator] People
with psychosis

can construct
their own reality

unconnected
to the outside world.

So maybe our
basic assumption is wrong,

that this is a language
that we can ever understand,

comprehend and decode.

So maybe, for everybody else
except of that person

it will never make any sense.

[narrator] So, could it be
the result of psychosis

or could it simply be
and ancient fraud?

I don't think
the Voynich manuscript
was created

ultimately to be understood.

But to puzzle, to deceive,
to fascinate

and perhaps to get
a sack of gold

from Rudolf II.

[narrator] Maybe
the real secret
of the Voynich manuscript

is that it will always remain
an unsolvable puzzle.

[Abigail] I kind of love
how it remains a mystery

and it remains something

that we can continue
to speculate

because we don't know
what it says.

[narrator] In 1966,
the British Museum in London

acquires one of its
eeriest artifacts.

It appears to be
a very plain black disc.

It's a great deal
more than that.

It is a macabre
supernatural device

whose origins have perplexed
experts for centuries.

[Ruth] This weird thing
is encased in mystery.

Nobody knew how it worked
or where this came from.

[narrator] Now using the
latest graphics technology,

we can shed new light
on the Obsidian Mirror.

Roughly seven inches across
and a half an inch thick,

it is made from a single slab
of obsidian.

A stone born in the heart
of a volcano.

It's a natural form of glass,
but it's very nature,

it has this glassy,
black sheen to it.

[narrator] But in the mirror,
these natural properties

have been taken
to unnatural extremes.

It's clearly been
very, very worked

and polished
into this final form.

And it shines like a mirror.

[narrator]
But this isn't a mirror
intended for the human world.

It has a much more
macabre purpose.

Now, new research
can finally reveal

the incredible origins
of the Obsidian Mirror.

So where does it come from?

Who made it?

What is it?

When the British Museum
acquired this object

it came with a little note

The claim,
"This was the stone

with which Doctor Dee
called his spirits."

[narrator] There is only
one famous Doctor Dee
in history.

John Dee, a shadowy
enigmatic figure

from Tudor Britain
500 years ago.

So who was Doctor Dee?

Well, that's actually
quite hard to pin down.

He's a kind of
slippery character.

Was he a magician?

Was he a scientist?

Was he a philosopher?

Was he an astrologer?

He sort of,
sat on the boundary

between what we now
think of as science

and what we now think of
as magic.

[narrator] Dee's reputation
as a man of knowledge,

sees him rise
to the position of astrologer

and personal advisor
to Queen Elizabeth the First.

She, on occasions,
actually visited him
in his house.

They had consultations
about the future,

about the nature
of the universe,

about how she should
run the country.

This is a man who had
his finger right in the middle

of the political heart
of the nation.

A man with influence.

[narrator] But the
volcanic mirror isn't part
of his cultured life

in the Elizabethan court.

John Dee uses it to speak
to the dead.

[narrator]
This Obsidian Mirror

was one of
the strangest possessions

of Elizabethan alchemist,
John Dee.

[Ruth] Many of us think
of alchemists

as people who try to turn
lead into gold,

but actually, they were
much more interested

in finding something called
the philosopher's stone.

And what they meant by that,

was something
that would prolong life

and give you the answers
to the meaning of life.

So in searching for this
philosopher's stone,

he became convinced

that he could seek
the assistance of angels.

[narrator] The Obsidian Mirror
is central

to this obsession
with the occult.

A note attached
to its case claims

Dee uses it
for calling spirits.

He is known to have attempted
to raise spirits
to speak with them

in a search
for more knowledge

to try and speak
with other worldly beings.

[narrator] The Obsidian Mirror
is Dee's supernatural gateway

to the other side.

In order to communicate
with these angels,

he began to use something
that he called a scrying stone

or a seeing stone.

And it may well be
that this object

is that stone.

[narrator] So, it appears
John Dee uses this object
to summon spirits.

And that's not as surprising
as it sounds

because this connection
between mirrors and spirits

is very old indeed.

Looking into a glass
or mirror

in order to try
and see something more

is a very ancient idea.

People have been doing it
for a long time.

[narrator] More than
1,500 years before John Dee,

the Celts in the British Isles
are already using

bronze mirrors
and pools of water

to connect
with their Gods and spirits.

Could this ancient British
mystical connection

between spirits and mirrors

explain why this strange
obsidian object

turns up in Tudor England?

Unfortunately, there's one
big problem with that theory.

[Dougal] We don't have
obsidian in the UK.

There's a very small
ancient volcanic rocks

which have some glassy bits,

but nothing
that would give you

such a beautiful object
that we see in this mirror.

So it must've come
from somewhere else.

[narrator] So where on earth
does it come from?

And who made it?

Whoever is responsible

for this supernatural
spirit mirror

went to great lengths
to craft it.

It's made out of
one piece of obsidian
which is quite hard to find

'cause often it's fractured
in many places.

They must've really
looked hard

to find a natural example
that they could work up

into this wonderful mirror.

[narrator] But to produce
this mirror-like finish,

out of rock
as hard as obsidian,

would mean weeks of grinding
and polishing by hand.

It must've been
something very special
to the people that made it.

[narrator]
For hundreds of years,

the origin of the mirror
remains a mystery.

But in 2019,

the University of Manchester
in England

analyzes the mirror's
chemical fingerprint

using a cutting edge technique

called X-Ray Fluorescence.

[Dougal] Different
magma bodies in different
parts of the earth

have different
chemical fingerprints.

And so, if you can analyze
what the mirror is made up of

and you can work out
which volcano,

or which area
that your fingerprints too,

bingo, you could find out
where it came from.

[narrator] The results
are astonishing.

[Dougal] They trace
the composition
of this obsidian

back to the jungles

in the Sierra de Las Navajas
in Mexico.

And there they found
ancient quarries

that have been worked
for over 3,000 years

where they were
taking obsidian

from a two million
year old volcano.

And that's
the actual birthplace

of this beautiful
Obsidian Mirror.

[narrator] But this
doesn't tell us
when it was made.

You can date

the age of the rock
that made the mirror,

but it's actually
impossible to date

exactly when this mirror
was manufactured
by human hands.

So it could well have been
hundreds of years old

when Doctor Dee
got his hands on it.

It's difficult to know.

[narrator] So, chemistry
doesn't hold the answer,

but maybe archaeology does.

Over 700 years ago,

when these quarries
were being mined for obsidian,

the area was ruled
by the Aztecs.

And the mirror fits into
the Aztecs story

like a missing puzzle piece.

Because the Aztecs religion

is known to involve
Obsidian Mirrors.

In fact, the name
of one of their Gods

is Tezcatlipoca,
meaning, smoking mirror.

And he is shown in some images
clutching an Obsidian Mirror.

And this is where things
get very strange.

Because some Aztec rulers
possessed a mirror

known as a Tezcatl

that they used to travel
to the underworld

and talk to the dead.

Which is an
astonishing coincidence given

that is exactly
what John Dee uses it for.

The mirror probably
reaches Dee

via the Spanish conquistadors

who invade
Aztec, Mexico, in 1519

and carry it's treasures
away to Europe.

[Ruth] There's no
real surprise

that somebody like Doctor Dee
might get his hands on it.

It's going to be
encased in mystery.

And that's absolutely his bag.

He is Mister Mystery.

[narrator] This strange
inky, black object

connects two
different cultures

separated by
thousands of miles of ocean

Both identified it

as a supernatural doorway
to the spirit world.

Who knows?
Maybe John Dee now sits

on the other side
of the mirror

next to its Aztec owners

looking out at us.