Original subtitles

I'm often asked if the ancient astronaut theory discounts

the theory of evolution, and the answer is of course not.

Science has proven that everything--

including animals and humans-- evolves.

But when it comes to human evolution,

there is one thing that science and Darwin's theory

can't account for, and that is the missing link.

Most mainstream scientists agree

that some 200,000 years ago,

there was a sudden and tremendous leap

in human evolution.

One that defies simple explanation.

And it is this leap that allows mankind

to create music, art,

literature, religion, and sets it apart

from every other living being on this planet.

But just as fascinating is the fact

that in virtually every ancient creation story,

our ancestors claim that their origins

don't come from the Earth

but from beings who are said to have come from the stars.

TSOUKALOS: In April of 2015,

scientists at Sun Yat-sen University in China

announced that they had created

the first genetically modified human embryo.

The procedure involved removing the gene HBB,

which causes a deadly blood disorder.

In the near future, it is possible that scientists

may soon be able to edit every part of our DNA.

And this genetic engineering will not only help

to prevent diseases, it could also be used to alter

an unborn child's eye color, height, gender,

athletic skill and intelligence.

There are many who believe that this incredible ability

raises serious ethical questions about the dangers

of tinkering with the blueprint for human life.

But there is also a wealth of evidence

that genetic engineering of humans has been done before,

thousands of years ago,

by extraterrestrial visitors.

NARRATOR: South Africa.

25 miles northwest of Johannesburg

lie the Malapa Caves.

Here, in August of 2008,

paleoanthropologist Lee Berger

and his nine-year-old son Matthew

discover several fossilized skeletal remains

of two-million-year-old early humans,

including a female adult

and male child, perhaps a mother and son.

The size and shape of the bones indicate that

the individuals walked upright

and had modern hands.

Over the past several decades, scientists

have unearthed the remains

of nearly two dozen different types of early human ancestors,

all known as hominids.

IAN TATTERSALL: We have an extremely good fossil record

of ancient hominids...

and I think the picture emerging from it

is pretty clear

that, in earlier days,

before Homo sapienscame along,

there were typically many different kinds of hominids

coexisting in the world.

CRAIG STANFORD: We have a hard time getting our minds

around this now, because, of course,

there's just one kind of human on Earth today

and there's seven billion of us, but at one time,

within the last few hundred thousand years,

you could find two or even three species

of hominid living in the same area at the same time.

NARRATOR: Most mainstream scholars tell us

hominids evolved from an ape ancestor,

nearly six million years ago,

through what is referred to as natural selection.

This theory of evolution was first popularized

by English anthropologist Charles Darwin

in his 1859 book

On the Origin of Species.

TATTERSALL: Darwin's mechanism of evolution

was natural selection.

That is to say a long-term process

whereby better-adapted individuals

reproduce more successfully.

FIORELLA TERENZI: Darwin's theory of evolution

by natural selection

explain that organism

with certain traits,

such as mutation,

turn out to be actually beneficial.

Turn out to be of advantage

in the struggle for reproduction.

So mutation allow organism

to survive and to pass on

to the next generation

these mutation.

NARRATOR: Darwin speculated that, over time,

hominids walking on two feet

used their hands to make tools.

This, in turn, made them smarter.

Then, approximately 200,000 years ago,

hominids evolved into Homo sapiens,or modern man.

But many scholars dispute Darwin's findings.

We don't see dolphins building cars.

We don't see elephants building houses.

That might sound trite, but it's a fact

that these animals just simply haven't progressed

and advanced in the way we have.

And the big question is: why is that?

Why should that happen? Why should we be so unique?

STANFORD: Tool use doesn't really come into play

for several million years

after the first, earliest humans began to walk upright.

And then brain size doesn't really begin to expand,

and really mushroom in size,

until the last several hundred thousand years.

So actually, six million years of human evolution--

there are millions of years

separating each of those major features:

upright posture, tool use, brain expansion.

So Darwin was wrong because he couldn't possibly

have known the chronology in his day.

NARRATOR: In 1967,

British zoologist Desmond Morris

argued against Darwin's theories on evolution

in his book The Naked Ape.

In it, Morris wrote that there was no reason

why man stood alone from other species

in terms of his nudity.

If we were to subscribe 100%

to the idea of survival of the fittest,

isn't it illogical to think

that, all of a sudden,

we're completely naked

and we're losing all of our fur?

I mean, that makes absolutely no sense,

because right after we shed our fur,

we had to wearfurs to keep warm.

Had we not worn any furs,

we would've frozen to death.

We would've died.

So the whole idea that we shed all of our hair

in order to survive, because we were stronger,

logically, makes no sense.

NARRATOR: But if Darwin's theory of natural selection

cannot account for the appearance

of intelligent hairless Homo sapiens,what can?

Might the transition of hominids

to modern human beings

have been the result of an otherworldly design,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

Alfred Russel Wallace, a colleague of Darwin,

called it the intelligence evolution.

TATTERSALL: Darwin believed that the human brain

had been driven into existence by natural selection,

but Wallace couldn't quite see how this could be so.

What Wallace perceived was that

the way that humans think,

their intellectual faculties are qualitatively different

from anything that had preceded them.

And he couldn't quite see how this enormous gap

could be bridged by natural selection.

So he invoked another explanation

for the evolution, the arrival of, uh,

modern human cognitive abilities.

His... choice

was a spiritual explanation.

DAVID CHILDRESS: Alfred believed there was an unseen

creative spirit that was behind

all life on our planet.

And he believed that this unseen

creative spirit had interceded

three times in this planet.

[rumbling]

First, was to create life

from inorganic matter.

And then, the second time was

when animals achieved some kind of consciousness.

And the third time was when humans, suddenly, were able

to have the mental abilities that we have today.

But he felt that it wasn't just a random selection

like Charles Darwin thought.

He believed that all of these changes

had a creative intelligence behind it.

The view that I have is that

because the rest of nature

hasn't changed that much,

that, arguably, we shouldn't.

So, that suggests to me we're seeing something potentially

that has gone against nature, and if it's gone against nature,

maybe that means

because somebody has been manipulating nature.

PHIL IMBROGNO: There's no explanation for human beings.

They shouldn't be here on this planet.

If we were evolved and changed

by an extraterrestrial source

from our early primate ancestors,

that's the only way, really, you can account

for the human species,

unless you, of course, put God in the equation.

And who knows who the gods may have been.

GEORGE NOORY: Charles Darwin might be rolling over

in his grave right now,

but it's very possible

that mankind came about

because of extraterrestrial intervention.

NARRATOR: Did the evolution of modern humans

really receive a jump-start by extraterrestrial beings,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

And, if so, might there be tangible evidence?

Some scientists believe proof can be found

inside the human brain.

One of the great mysteries of man is

why our brains are so much more sophisticated

than every other species on Earth.

And studies are showing

that we are rapidly becoming even smarter.

According to scientist James Flynn,

in the last 100 years alone,

we've gained, on average, 30 IQ points.

Simple evolution would take millions of years

to achieve this incredible leap.

And recent evidence suggests

that this wasn't the only time in our evolution

that humans made an extraordinary jump

in their intelligence.

But what, or who, is causing it?

NARRATOR: Chicago, Illinois.

December, 2004.

Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

of the University of Chicago

publish the results of a study that claims

the sophistication of the human brain

was the result of a so-called "Special Event."

They said mankind's intelligence

was not only the result of evolution,

and that around 50,000 years ago,

the genes of ancient humans

went through an intense amount of change

in a relatively short amount of time--

what some refer to as the "Big Bang" of the brain.

IMBROGNO: No one really knows how

human beings developed so fast in such a short period of time.

I don't believe it was done naturally.

TATTERSALL: It's very clear

that fully modern intellectual function

is a very recent acquisition in our lineage.

It's not an improvement upon what was there before.

It's a new kind of manipulation of information in the mind.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE: There's no other animal creature

on the planet that has such a comparative point,

and that's why they call it "The Big Brain Event."

REDFERN: People talk about the missing link.

Where is the link between going from apes,

monkeys, gorillas, etcetera,

to being able to develop atomic weaponry

and fly in space?

PHILIP COPPENS: When we're looking at

the origins of man,

we realize that, 50,000 years ago,

we really went where no creature on Earth had ever gone before.

We have become human.

NARRATOR: But what was the spark that spurred human intelligence?

Was it a genetic mutation brought about

by the natural selection process of evolution,

as many mainstream scientists contend?

Or could it have been a genetic modification,

produced by extraterrestrial beings,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

STANFORD: There is the idea that there was a gene or genes

that popped up sometime in our ancestors... uh, randomly,

that may have given us the ability

to symbolically represent objects in our environment,

or be abstract.

Those are things that-that, for instance,

chimpanzees have a great deal of trouble with,

even when they're taught language.

TATTERSALL: Homo sapiens,

emerging from Africa, started to behave symbolically.

They started to manipulate information in their mind

in a way in which their predecessors

had never done before.

They disassembled the world around them

into a vocabulary of, uh, discreet symbols,

and recombined them

so they could imagine new kinds of worlds.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: Long, long time ago,

extraterrestrials arrived on this planet.

They realized that the planet was full of life,

and one of them was the most advanced form,

was one of our ancestor.

They took the DNA out,

and they changed the basic information

in the DNA.

This is what our genetics are doing every day.

Now the cell was changed.

The product you plant into the womb

of a female of the same species.

This female will give birth

to a child approximately after nine months.

But because of this artificial mutation,

that's different,

because it was made artificially by the extraterrestrials.

BILL BIRNES: What if, as part of the genetic updates

human beings were getting from extraterrestrials,

one of those genetic updates involved

a software download, a biological download,

to differentiate

the different hemispheres of the brain,

to allow human society--

toolmaking, fire,

social organization-- to be created,

and from that, that particular species of hominid,

became the human being we are today?

DR. LYLE ARMSTRONG: If alien species out there

could fly across interstellar space,

then, in all probability,

they would have similar DNA recombinant technology.

Of course, it would depend

on their own genetic composition being similar to ours.

But if they understood sufficient chemistry

and physical principles from their own experience

of-of the physical world model, then, in all probability,

manipulating our DNA would be simple.

NARRATOR: But if alien beings created humans

by genetically altering our primitive ancestors,

might various versions of hominids have been the result

of experiments at creating intelligent life on Earth,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

COPPENS: This is one of the greatest unanswered questions.

The ancient records do not say

that we are part of a social experiment.

The ancient records say that we were bestowed upon this gift.

The gods gave us the gift of intellect,

and it is for us to use it.

So, yes, we might actually be part of an experiment,

but it might be an experiment in intelligence.

It might actually be a game,

a kind of the greatest reality TV show,

whereby the entire human species is watched by ancient aliens

who have been watching the show for maybe 50,000 years.

TSOUKALOS: Fox P2 is a gene that was found

in our nucleotides, and it is something

that sets us completely apart from any other animal.

And scientists have suggested

that that gene alone

is responsible for language.

And there is absolutely no evidence of origin

or that this thing somehow mutated

from the animal kingdom towards us.

So this gene exists out of nowhere,

without any origin.

So my question is: is it possible

that this gene was given to us

or grafted into us

by extraterrestrials in the remote past?

And the answer is yes.

Was it the same non-human ancient aliens

of so many ancient settlements on this planet deciding

that they wanted humans to be able to communicate

at a more sophisticated level?

I think that's the fundamental angst today

among people trying to understand who are we

in relationship to extraterrestrials

that may have been manipulating DNA

on this planet for thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Might the evidence of our alien origins

really have been passed down to us,

implanted in our genetic code,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

Perhaps further evidence can be found,

not by scientists, but by religious scholars

that claim Adam and Eve really did exist.

NARRATOR: The Hebrew Bible.

In it, the Book of Genesis describes

how God created the first two humans,

Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden,

and told them to "go forth and multiply."

For centuries, scientists and theologians have debated

whether this story of the creation of man

was mere myth or historical fact.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The Torah mentions that humanity is made

out of the dust of the earth,

and that God breathed life into this to make us animated.

Here is the breath of soul, the breath of vitality,

the divine breath, which suggests

that we, the spark, the life force

that makes a human body tick, is divine in its nature.

NARRATOR: In 1987, scholarly disagreements

over the origin of man intensified

with the discovery that the genetic lineage

of every living person could be traced back

to a single woman who once lived in Africa.

TATTERSALL: It's pretty well established by now,

particularly from the, uh, molecular, the DNA record,

that Homo sapiensdid originate at one place in Africa.

And after having become fully modern--

in the sense of intellectually modern--

spread out to occupy Europe,

to occupy eastern Asia, and the Old World in general.

STANFORD: It's sometimes called "the Eve model,"

not meaning that we're all descended from the same woman,

but it does mean that there was a woman

in that early human population migrating out of Africa,

who was the only female who ultimately left her genes

in every modern person.

NARRATOR: But is it possible that mainstream science

and the Book of Genesis are both pointing

to the same moment in ancient time,

when modern man first appeared on earth?

NOORY: The myth of Adam and Eve, I think, is not a myth.

I think it's a true story.

I think Adam and Eve were on this planet.

They were the first human beings that we know of.

And they helped populate this planet.

What is the Garden of Eden?

I think it just happened to be the area

that the genetically manipulated human being,

Adam and Eve, were placed.

That's where they lived.

That's where they started to breed.

And that's where the populations

of the planet started to grow.

NARRATOR: If Adam and Eve actually had existed

as described in the Hebrew Bible,

might this also mean that a serpent really did tempt them

to eat from the tree of knowledge?

And if so, might this account have been an effort to describe

the sudden awakening of the modern human mind,

when man first became an intelligent being?

[translated]: In the Bible, it says that if you eat

from this tree, you will be like God.

[rattling]

Satan, in the form of a snake, tempts Adam and Eve

and promises them that they will be like God.

The knowledge that Adam and Eve acquire,

as well as humanity in general, gives man the ability

to eventually carry out genetic manipulations.

So what was this tree of knowledge?

Is the tree of knowledge, in fact,

the helical DNA sequencing in our own bodies,

that was genetically engineered

by extraterrestrials 50,000 years ago,

so that we would have the abilities that we have today?

In my mind, it's our DNA itself that is the tree of knowledge.

But why was this suddenly, uh, a bad thing?

It would seem that the aliens, some of them wanted us

to have this knowledge, to be like the gods.

But others said, "No, no.

Man is not to have all of this knowledge."

This is also the same story of the Greek god Prometheus,

who, against the orders of the other gods,

comes down to earth

and gives mankind the knowledge of fire.

But because of this gift to mankind,

he himself, as a god, is, like Satan,

he's banished from the earth.

And why?

Because he helped mankind to have greater knowledge.

TSOUKALOS: The whole idea or concept of Satan

is based on a misunderstood visit

by extraterrestrials in the remote past.

According to the ancient astronaut theory,

the reason why we have

the idea of a "Satan" today is

because there might have been some type of a mutiny

between good and bad extraterrestrial factions

in the remote past.

And so the mutineers were cast out by the commander,

and they became known as the evil fallen angels...

...which they never were.

NARRATOR: If, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

extraterrestrials were responsible

for providing humans with intelligence,

might they have also given man the ability to speak?

Our voice box, our larynx, is so different than the apes,

even the chimpanzee, who's our closest cousin--

that we're able to produce sounds and produce language--

to a scientist today, that's almost like

it was genetically designed

so that we can say words and sing.

REDFERN: There really isn't anything more advanced

than the human language.

So many different cultures, dialects,

languages around the world, and the very fact

we can communicate on such a deep, extensive level,

that really sets us apart from all other animals.

Who invented language?

Where did that come from?

Was that something instilled in us?

I think these are mysteries that, to a large degree,

science and the world of history, even in archaeology,

are still scrambling around for answers.

Maybe we shouldn't be looking down here for answers,

maybe we should be looking up there.

VON DANIKEN: In my opinion, the extraterrestrials,

by an artificial mutation,

they created the intelligence of humans.

Then the extraterrestrial disappeared.

And some of our ancestors had, again, sex

with their ancestor, with ape-like beings.

And that was called into mythology "original sin,"

then they return again, the gods.

They realized what happened.

And they decided to destroy

the whole race by a great flood

and to restart the experiment again

with what we call, in mythology, Noah.

That's all text.

That's the way it is.

TSOUKALOS: In 1997, American explorer David Allen Deal

discovered a 538-foot-long impression of a boat

in the ground on a hillside outside Uzengili, Turkey,

just a few miles from its legendary resting place

of Mount Ararat.

Deal also found that the area contained over a million graves,

confirming legends that people would flock

from all over the world to bury their dead

in the presence of this significant event.

So here we could have physical evidence

that Noah was not a fictional character, but a real person,

and, according to the ancient texts,

quite possibly, one of the first modern humans

created by extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Northern Iraq.

Along the east bank of the Tigris River,

opposite the city of Mosul, lie the ruins

of the ancient city of Nineveh--

a place originally inhabited

by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

Here, in 1842, British archaeologist

Austen Henry Layard unearthed the ruins

of the great library of Assurbanipal,

a royal archive containing thousands of clay tablets

with cuneiform inscriptions.

Dating to 3000 BC,

the messages carved into stone

are considered to be the world's first written accounts.

Sumerian tablets are probably

one of the oldest form of a written record that we have.

They've been translated,

and they tell exciting stories

about how gods intermingled with human beings,

and actually had a hand in the creation of human beings.

Whether or not it's just mythology

or if it's fact, no one really knows.

NARRATOR: According to interpretations

of the Sumerian tablets,

the gods were called the Anunnaki.

What we're looking at here is a Sumerian tablet

that actually shows the tree of life,

flanked by divine beings.

You can see here the Anunnaki on each side.

We also see the winged disc, a symbolic reference

that the Anunnaki had the power of flight.

They actually had necklaces

with astronomical references,

a moon, a star, various symbols,

which even could be symbolized as a wristwatch--

technology being used 6,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: The written accounts etched into stone

suggest the Anunnaki were giant beings,

standing eight feet tall,

who came to Earth in search of gold for their home planet.

MARTELL: When the Sumerian gods,

the Anunnaki, realized the toll it was taking

to mine the gold themselves,

they decided to fashion a worker being,

a slave to mine the gold for them.

And they explain, in the Sumerian creation tales,

that this was an arduous process.

So it's very possible that our genetic evolution

was a process done by the Anunnaki

to create us in their image, and after their likeness.

They created man, according to the Sumerian texts.

They created Adam and Eve.

How interesting that the Bible will echo the story,

but talk about it in terms of "God."

REDFERN: It's almost like these highly advanced creatures

were acting as teachers.

And certainly, Sumerian culture and mythology

is full of stories of, you know,

receiving visitations from these mysterious higher entities

that, you know, bestowed wisdom

and fantastic ideas and concepts.

And, you know, you have to wonder:

is this just down to myth?

Or was somebody coming down,

and really trying to give us a... a push, if you like?

NARRATOR: Ancient chronicles of sky beings creating human life

are common in early cultures found all over the world.

But while mainstream scholars often dismiss this evidence,

might such tangible historical accounts

provide proof of alien intervention in man's evolution,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

The Sumerians are not the only culture

that talks about this.

Also in the Koran it says

that language was given to us

by Allah or God.

The Maya Popol Vuh says

that language was given to us by the gods.

The ancient Egyptian texts

are saying the exact same thing.

It doesn't matter what ancient culture we look at,

they all say the same,

that language was a gift from the gods.

We should finally come to grips with the idea

that extraterrestrials had something to do

with our development.

NARRATOR: Prior to the use of early systems of writing,

ancient people carved symbolic communication into stone,

called petroglyphs.

The oldest date to about ten to 12,000 years ago.

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

petroglyphs located in the American Southwest

link the prehistoric ancestors of the Zuni and Hopi tribes

with star beings.

[speaking German]

[translated]: The first graphic expressions by humans

were petroglyphs.

That means symbols or figures scratched into stone.

The Hopi Indians, for example,

scratched petroglyphs into their rock faces

that show people with radiating wreaths,

gods that descend from the sky.

The Hopi Indians say that these beings are Kachinas:

beings from space, who came to Earth in aircraft,

who were not gods,

but who brought them knowledge from another planet.

We have the same phenomenon in Europe, in Val Camonica,

we have it in Asia, we have it in Brazil.

When we look at the fact that all around the world,

we hear similar legends of people from the stars

coming down and having a profound impact

on the people of this country or that particular culture,

all embroiled in similar time frames,

you know, we're seeing a pattern developing,

and it's difficult to dismiss that that pattern is suggestive.

In our ancient past, creatures came down,

interacted with us, and maybe manipulated us

to become the people we are today.

NOORY: Why are so many past civilizations

all saying similar things?

I think the simple answer is,

is that the same thing happened

and they know the story.

And the story is that extraterrestrials

came to this planet,

genetically made and manipulated

whatever creatures were here at the time,

and helped jump-start society.

The bottom line is:

every civilization

talks about the existence of man

through the eyes of a god,

and if you think of the eyes of the god as ETs,

it all makes sense.

REDFERN: Back then,

this was the way they communicated events

that were significant to them...

and so, when we have this imagery

of the so-called star people

on petroglyphs and things like that,

they're clearly chronicling something real,

to my mind at least, that occurred in their history.

The big question is: what?

NARRATOR: But while the evidence of contact between alien beings

and early humans is compelling,

what if life did not begin here on Earth,

but arrived from somewhere else?

TSOUKALOS: In February of 2015,

scientists at the University of Buckingham

found a tiny metal globe among matter

gathered by a high-flying balloon

in Earth's stratosphere.

As described by the scientists,

this globe was made up of "filamentous life on the outside

"and a gooey biological material

oozing from its center."

According to astrobiologist Milton Wainwright,

this could be a sign that life is being purposely

seeded on Earth by an alien civilization, even to this day.

And the evidence is piling up that this just may be the case.

NARRATOR: Huntsville, Alabama.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Here, in March of 2011,

astrobiologist Richard Hoover

reports the extraordinary news that he found

microfossil organisms-- or ancient bacteria--

inside rare meteorites that are more than 4 billion years old,

dating back to the birth of our solar system.

Until recently, scientists did not believe

life could survive the rigors of space travel.

But Hoover's finding suggests

that live bacteria made it to Earth

and may have even taken root here.

TERENZI: Microorganisms trapped inside comets

can survive the travel

through interplanetary space, and interstellar space.

And the reason is that

the microorganism are trapped in the rocky core.

Around, you have a thick shield

of icy material.

And, on top, you have a stratification of dust.

Dust is highly effective

in shielding the microorganism

from ultraviolet light.

So comets are an excellent vehicle to transport

microorganism single cell life,

amino acid in the vastness of space.

REDFERN: Instead of aliens coming to the Earth in UFOs,

in classic Hollywood terms,

a microbial piece of life

comes to the Earth on a meteorite,

survives entry into our atmosphere,

crashes on the planet and begins to thrive.

NARRATOR: The theory that life on Earth

began with alien organisms landing here

from other parts of the universe is controversial.

Called "panspermia,"

one of the most vocal proponents of this theory

was Sir Francis Crick, a British scientist

who co-discovered DNA in 1953.

FIEBAG: Uh, Francis Crick...

[translated]: Francis Crick, co-discoverer

of the double helix in cells,

said that all this can't happen by chance,

but has to have been engineered.

One of his arguments

is that the rotation of the DNA is in the same direction

for all living things.

Had DNA developed on Earth,

it would probably have had a 50/50 distribution,

and that's exactly what we don't have.

[speaking German]

NOORY: One of the reasons why I think

the theory of panspermia is so incredible

is that it tells you that there's life

throughout the universe.

If panspermia is correct,

life came here on comets or meteorites,

and we're being seeded, not only on this planet,

but other planets as well.

And it could be part of the great design.

REDFERN: In terms of our science and technology today,

we have the ability to extract cells

and DNA at a genetic level

and... save them.

That's how we have so-called test tube babies

for couples who can't have babies.

We preserve the materials for when they're needed.

And the day may well come when we send into outer space,

the equivalent of like Noah's ark,

but instead of sending literal animals,

we send their essence,

their DNA, their genetic makeup.

I don't rule out the idea that we could seed a whole new world.

NARRATOR: Today, scientists know

that only about five percent of the DNA contained

in our genes is used to reproduce human beings.

The remainder is an undecipherable code,

once referred to as "junk DNA."

But is it really possible that so much of our DNA

is unnecessary?

Or might the majority of our DNA be decoded

sometime in the future?

And when it is, what might our DNA reveal

about the origin of modern man?

CHILDRESS: We have so much to learn from studying our own DNA.

We're only just now beginning

to decode the human DNA sequence.

And as we do that, what we may discover

is that extraterrestrial DNA

is built into our own genetics.

NOORY: Whatever is out there created the universe,

this planet and other planets, and life.

And I strongly believe that this tie-in

with whether gods and ETs were one of the same

might very well be the case.

It does not take away from the fact

that there's a God,

that there's a higher power,

that there's some creation out there that made the ETs.

But I think that layer between God and man

is right in the middle,

and that's extraterrestrials from other planets.

VON DANIKEN: We have to learn that most of our knowledge

in religion is wrong, except one thing.

There is creation.

There is what we call "God" in all respect,

and we have to learn by religion

we are very teeny, little beings

in this gigantic universe

and why God is absolutely unexpressible.

It's so gigantic, it's so wonderful.

So we would never lose God when we continue

to think of extraterrestrials.

God becomes bigger.

How is it possible that humans made

such a giant leap in intelligence

in such a short period of time?

Evolution alone doesn't explain it.

Is it possible we were designed by an advanced race of beings?

Beings who tampered with our DNA in an effort

to make us more like them?

Perhaps the answer lies deep within our genetic code.

And only when we unlock its secrets

will we reveal one of the ultimate mysteries

of the universe-- the truth

of our own extraterrestrial origins.

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