All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens Origins s02e02 Extraterrestrial Rituals.eng

[narrator] Traditions
designed to commemorate

the arrival
of celestial visitors.

Rituals that echo
lost technologies.

And ceremonies intended

to reconnect
with otherworldly beings.

For nearly two decades,

Ancient Aliens
has traveled the globe

exploring towering
megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts

and stories
of otherworldly beings

in a quest for
evidence that might

reveal the truth of our
extraterrestrial origins.

You know, it's fascinating
that we have these rituals

where people dress up
to look like spacemen or aliens.

[narrator] Now, we take
a look back

through the
Ancient Aliens archives

to the show's very origins

to examine the evidence
that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

? ?

Some of the most
compelling evidence we have

of our extraterrestrial past
is found in our rituals,

these deliberate practices and
ceremonies that we've created

that typically honor
some otherworldly entity.

Right, and oftentime,
you see ancient cultures

wearing these elaborate

outfits commemorating
some extraterrestrial contact.

And my question is:
Could that be living mythology?

Yeah, it's like there's
something in our DNA

that wants us to commemorate
things in humanity's past.

And Ancient Aliens covered this
way back in 2011.

The same year
Giorgio's meme was born.

- [laughter]
- Correct.

[narrator] The Yucatan
Peninsula, Mexico.

Here, among the ancient
Mayan ruins of Chich�n Itz�

stands the great pyramid
of El Castillo.

Built by the Maya
sometime between the 9th

and 12th centuries AD,

El Castillo served as a temple

to the feathered
serpent god Kukulkan.

It is also believed
to be the site of the Mayans'

most important ritual:

human sacrifice.

[William Bramley] They would
bring human victims

up the stairs of their temples,

they would cut out their beating
hearts, and that would be

the form of sacrifice
the Mayans engaged in.

[Rick Ross] In the rituals,

there was the central importance
of blood sacrifice,

that by shedding blood,
they could

empower their desire

and be granted what they wanted.

So, there is a theme of blood

that runs through
this system of sacrifice.

That blood must be shed.

[narrator] Although
ritual sacrifice

is no longer practiced
at El Castillo...

...worshippers still come
to celebrate a time

when the Mayans say god Kukulkan

descended from the heavens
to bring wisdom to man.

They light fires to unite
with the spiritual realm,

perform sacred dances
and repeat prayers

in numerical sequences to enter
a deep state of meditation.

But the most powerful ritual
that takes place at El Castillo

is a reenactment of
Kukulkan's descent to Earth,

a reenactment that is literally
built into the pyramid itself.

[Erich von D�niken] This is
a model of the pyramid

of Chich�n Itz� in Mexico.

And every year, on March 21st,

when the sun goes up,

directly on the stairway here

is created triangles
of light and shadow

coming down the stairs,

which represents god Kukulkan

has descended to the humans.

At the end, you see
the face of god Kukulkan.

On, uh, September 21st,
it's the opposite.

This time, when the sun
rises up in the morning,

god Kukulkan goes
up the stairs and ends

in a bright light
up on the little temple.

Which means god Kukulkan
visited the earthlings,

teach them,
and after a certain period,

he disappeared again
into the sky

with the promise
to return one day.

[Bill Birnes] It could be
that not only

are the Mayan celebrating

their extraterrestrial
ancestors, but it could well be

that the ancient aliens
who came to Earth

instructed the societies
that they helped to maintain

a connection with them by
performing certain rituals,

celebrations at
the appearance of stars,

and keeping the story

of the extraterrestrials
alive in their legends.

[narrator] Did the Maya really
conduct these elaborate

and bloody rituals
to honor a mythical deity?

Or might they have been,

as ancient astronaut
theorists contend,

commemorating an actual visitation

by extraterrestrial beings?

A ritual is absolutely
a way to kind of reconnect

with, uh, with the gods.

So, not only are you reenacting
your faith in this god, right?

You are actually reenacting
the original moment

when the god
did a very specific thing.

All over the world,
ancient people and modern people

are using the rituals
to connect them with-with gods,

yet these gods may well be
ancient astronauts.

[narrator] The Hill
of Uisneach, Ireland.

Each year,
on the first day of May,

the local citizens celebrate
the sacred festival

of Beltane, similar
to the one first performed

by the ancient Celts
more than 2,000 years ago.

Like the ceremony
at Chich�n Itz�,

it is designed
to connect and communicate

with beings from
outside our world.

This day was the day
when you would set fires,

bonfires.

And then you would walk
your cattle between the fires

as a way to protect them for
the coming spring and summer.

And these Mayday fires
were a magical way

of calling down protection
upon animals and human beings.

[narrator] But why fire?

What was it about
this most basic of elements

that made it so important
to the ancient Celts?

[Nagy] The association of

fire with Beltane

suggest that this is a time
when extra vision,

extra knowledge, is available.

And what the Celtic peoples
were most interested

in knowing about was,
in fact, the otherworld.

There is this notion
that at Beltane,

there is
a greater opportunity for

actually, perhaps, meeting
people from the other world.

[narrator] Might the fire
rituals of the Beltane festival

have been started
by the early Celts

as an attempt to recreate
the strange lights

and ignitions they saw
from an alien spacecraft?

Although no written records
exist to explain

the event's true origins,
there are those who believe

that such
an incredible idea is possible.

And to prove it,

they point to a ceremony
practiced each year

by the Kayapo people of Brazil.

[Tsoukalos] A long time ago,
Bep-Kororoti appeared

descending from the sky.

And when he landed,
there was a lot of wind.

The earth was shaking
and trembling.

There was a lot of noise.

The appearance of Bep-Kororoti
has been preserved

to this day.

In fact, it's a medicine man
wearing a straw suit.

And that straw suit
looks eerily similar

to a modern-day astronaut suit.

[speaking German]

[translator] The Kayapo remember
the very special suit

this man or alien wore...

...which essentially
completely enclosed the body.

And what's more interesting is

what a neighboring tribe said,
namely the Bakairi.

They already had such a thing

hanging in a hut
in the 19th century.

[narrator] But for the Kayapo,
the Bep-Kororoti festival

is only one
of the ways they honor

an ancient visitation
by an extraterrestrial being.

They also recount his visitation
in their everyday lives

by wearing symbolic headdresses
made of feathers.

[speaking German]

[translator] There is
this feather headdress

that has a row of feathers,

and when it's worn,
it looks like a halo.

And these feathers
represent no more

and no less than outer space.

The Kayapo see outer space
as being a flat disk,

spreading out into infinity.

The band that holds
these feathers together

is a symbol for the rope
that the Kayapo ancestors

used to climb down to Earth
from a celestial world.

[narrator] Could the Kayapo
rituals of Brazil

really have been inspired by
an extraterrestrial visitation?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining a sacred

African tradition encrypted
with a knowledge of the cosmos.

You know, it's fascinating
that we have these rituals

where people dress up
to look like spacemen or aliens.

Right, or for example,
in Africa,

where we have the Dogon people,
who celebrate

this celestial deity
Nommo every year

by wearing these elaborate,

very bizarre-looking
wooden masks.

And they even say
that their creator god

comes from a star
called Sirius B.

Which can't even be seen
with the naked eye.

- Right.
- [Henry] We covered this

in the first season
of Ancient Aliens

in an episode called
"The Visitors."

Mm-hmm.

[narrator] Mali
in northwest Africa.

Deep in a remote valley
live the Dogon people,

who are the descendants
of a nomadic tribe

that settled here
around 1000 AD.

[Robert Schoch] The Dogon
claim a very long

and ancient tradition,

and in my opinion,
maintain some of

the ancient Egyptian traditions

and myths that
have been carried on

right into the present age.

Parts of ancient Egypt
may not have died.

They were carried on,
to this day, among the Dogon.

[narrator] But what exactly
are their beliefs?

Dogon mythology holds
that the sky god Amma

created the first living
creature known as Nommo.

[Tsoukalos] Still today,
Dogon celebrates

a festival in the honor of Nommo

and that visitation that
occurred in the remote past.

How do we know this?
For this festival, they have

wooden masks that date back

to a very long time ago,
when this festival began.

[speaking German]

[translator] Dogon masks
tell the mystic stories

of their ancestors.

This is a sculpture
of the creator.

They call him Amma.

He's embracing the universe.

This is how
they pass on information

from generation to generation,
by stories carved in masks.

[rhythmic drumming]

[narrator] But could Nommo
have been a real person?

Some see eerie similarities
between the Dogons' legend

and the story of the mysterious
Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Akhenaten believed
he was directly descended

from the sun god Aten.

Nommo was said to have been
created by the sky deity Amma.

Is it a coincidence
that both cultures,

although thousands
of miles apart,

shared mythical tales of
beings coming from the skies?

And both Nommo and Akhenaten

were depicted
with elongated heads.

Is it possible
that these legends

were based on real events?

[Fiebag speaking German]

[translator] The Dogon dwell
in the central plateau region

of Bandiagara.

Their knowledge
is centuries old,

and their priests
have been sharing it

with chosen individuals only.

In the 1920s,
French anthropologist Griaule

and ethnologist Dieterlen
visited the tribe

and were invited
to share their secrets.

[narrator] But one secret
stood out.

The Dogon claimed
that their god Amma

came from a specific star
in the Sirius constellation,

the same place
where the ancient Egyptians

believed their god
Osiris was born.

This star,
which modern astronomers

refer to as Sirius B,

the Dogon called Po Tolo.

But what baffles experts
is that the star is so far

from Earth, it's impossible
to see with the naked eye.

[Bauval] I was very intrigued
by this, by the way.

I mean, the Dogons
should not have known

about the existence
of this star.

Sirius is the second nearest
star from our solar system.

It's eight light years away.

In fact, it's not even visible
with standard telescopes.

It was first seen,
literally seen

and photographed in the 1970s.

[Tsoukalos] Modern science
has corroborated

that Sirius B does indeed exist.

Problem is,

the Dogon knew about this

before modern science
corroborated it.

I mean, that's spooky.

[narrator] Measurements taken
with the Hubble telescope

in 2003 have confirmed

that Sirius B is what's known
as a white dwarf,

or a partially burnt-out star
with extremely dense mass.

Although it is
smaller in size than Earth,

it's estimated to weigh
eight times as much as our sun.

But how did the Dogon acquire

this ancient knowledge of
astronomy that seems to be

centuries more advanced
than that of modern science?

The mystery is:
How did this story

get passed on down generations?

If the story came from
a time before astronomers

knew there was
a companion star to Sirius,

which can't
be seen with the human eye.

[speaking German]

[translator] This is
the Dogons' symbol for Sirius.

When you move it around,
you can see an orbit

around the center
marked by Sirius A.

Sirius B circles around it,
so it is a circular system.

This sign is practically
an astronomical model

that the Dogon
could not have invented

because only
Sirius A is visible.

Sirius B and C are invisible.

However, their description
of the orbit is correct.

One assumption
is that this god, Nommo,

who brought them
this knowledge, could have been

an extraterrestrial
intelligence.

[narrator]
Since the early 20th century,

the tribe has been
routinely studied

and researched
by anthropologists.

This has led many
modern historians

to claim that the Dogon
must have learned

about astronomy from Westerners.

[Tsoukalos] When critics suggest
that this knowledge

was given to them
by modern ethnologists,

that's simply incorrect,
because we know

that the story goes back

hundreds of years earlier

than any modern ethnologist
ever went there.

[Fiebag speaking German]

[translator]
If it were ever proven

that all this information
is exactly correct,

including the parts
that are still being studied

by astronomers, this would mean
that the Earth had visitors

from outer space
in prehistoric times.

[Bauval] Either they inherited
that knowledge,

and the question is: from where?

From a previous civilization

or from some sort of
extraterrestrial civilization?

Or it's a coincidence.

In my view,
it is not a coincidence.

[narrator] If the Dogon people
really possessed

this advanced
astronomical knowledge,

were their legends
based on real events?

The ancient Egyptians
and Dogon were far from alone

in their belief in gods
or mystical beings

that came from the sky.

Is there an explanation

for similar myths shared
by ancient cultures

all around the world?

And what does that reveal as to

who these visitors may be?

Perhaps the answer can be found

not in northern Africa but here,

in the rocks and canyons
of the American Southwest.

[narrator] 30 miles south
of Gallup, New Mexico,

lies the Pueblo of Zuni.

Sheltered from
the desolate high plains,

this adobe city
is home to the Zuni Indians,

one of the oldest indigenous
tribes in North America.

They have inhabited this land
for almost 2,000 years,

and have protected
their secrets even longer.

The Zuni are
a very interesting culture

in that they're one of
the few cultures

that really
have not opened up, uh,

to the rest of the world

about their
star knowledge traditions.

Most of this type of information

is-is very closely held,
uh, by the-the natives.

And, um, I-I really find it,
uh, very intriguing

that this is the time,
uh, period in history

where now, we're starting
to learn more and more

about their star knowledge.

[narrator] Much of
the Zuni people's history

is etched in the rocks
in the New Mexico desert.

Tribal Elder Clifford Mahooty

and archaeologist Dan Simplicio

have studied the Zuni's
secret history firsthand.

They've collected stories
passed down through generations

that are rooted in
the belief that the tribe's

creators and protectors

are supernatural beings
from the sky.

[Dan Simplicio] This one's
kind of interesting here.

I would imagine it was
created in last century,

but from this design,
you can see the star figure.

Celestial images
oftentimes are depicted

in a lot of
our cultural petroglyphs.

And this is one of 'em
where it depicts the star.

It could be the supernova
of the Crab Nebula.

[Mahooty] Our Zuni mythology

in the prayer system,
in the ritualistic protocols,

talk about these people
that came over here

and told us how
to actually live our lives

as beings, sky people.

If you listen to a lot
of religious chants and songs

and prayers,
that's all they talk about.

They're talking about space.

They're talking about
out there in the universe

where they came from.

So, they depict it
on a rock wall here,

but the actual meaning of it
is somewhere more profound

and more complex than that.

[narrator] These drawings are
thought to have been created

around 1200 BC,
yet they appear to depict

modern space travelers
and their vehicles.

If you move back a little bit,
you can see another figure here.

It has a dome.

It has eyes.

Uh, there's something
coming down.

- [Mahooty] And a nose.
- Like a nose, through the nose,

but it kind of flares out.

[Mahooty] I think it has
something to do with

the ancient ones,
when they saw something,

they took as much description
of it to put in on there.

Of course, it's not gonna be
exactly what they saw

but that's as best as they can
do for something that they saw.

[Childress] With all petroglyphs
and-and things like that,

I mean, they're up
to interpretation.

Sometimes they're just
doodlings of people.

But other times,
they may well be

actual descriptions
and-and depictions

of some kind of god
from outer space,

some ancient astronaut.

And when you go around,
say, like the Zuni Pueblo,

I mean, that's what they'll
tell you those petroglyphs are.

Even the Zunis themselves
call them the spacemen.

[Simplicio] This one
seems to have

two legs coming out like that.

It has a broad,

diamond-shaped body. Um...

There probably was a better head
that chipped off here.

Uh, that's very

different-looking
than humans are.

[Mahooty] Now usually,
they're called UFOs.

But in the Zuni way,

we've always been
taught that they're

the keepers of the upper world,
which means space.

You know, they're sky people.

Beings that are of
the extraterrestrial origin.

And this is still
within our mythology

and our religious
practices today.

[narrator]
Like most Indian tribes,

the Zunis call
these sky people "kachinas."

According to
the Zunis' creation story,

the kachina gods
came down from the sky.

[group singing
in native language]

[narrator] Every year,
the Zunis participate

in a ceremony known as
the Shalako Festival.

Dressed in traditional costumes
to represent the kachinas,

the Indians celebrate the
arrival of the gods on Earth.

[Childress] This is,
uh, a figurine

of kachina gods,

and these guys are some gods
from the sky who came down.

Uh, they wear weird helmets.

[Tsoukalos] This one has
a helmet as a head,

and if you look at

the whole body of it, it's as if

it wears some type
of a, of a suit.

This one here also

has the helmet and the visor.

[Childress] For the Pueblo
Indians like the Zunis,

these are their-their
sky gods that, every year,

they have special ceremonies.
People put on

these special costumes and masks

to reenact
the coming of the gods.

They really look
like ancient astronauts.

[Birnes] If you look at
the poetry and the legends

and the stories from American
Indian tribes in the Southwest,

they have the legend
of the star people.

The star people came to Earth

and seeded planet Earth,
and they came on flying ships.

If you speak to the elders,
they will tell you that,

"A lot of us believe in the
existence of extraterrestrials."

[Thomas O. Mills] The Zunis
don't have a written language.

The storyteller comes
and he tells the young children

how it all happened.

All of their songs
that they do in their ceremonies

tell the story over and over,

and that's how
they pass them down.

Traditions, customs, beliefs,

they tell it in the Indian way.

They use things they understand

to explain things
that they don't understand.

[Simplicio] I remember
my grandparents talking about

a craft that flew and had
actually crash-landed on

one of the mesas east of here.

There's no interpretation
of what an aircraft is,

so the closest thing
that they could

interpret as anything
capable of flight

is a bird or
our masked kachina dancers.

[Mahooty] We are very, very
superstitious people.

It's always been
in the history of Zuni

that they have always
been here, even right here,

where we're sitting right now,
but you just don't see them.

They're in
a different frequency.

And those are very, very sacred,

and those are very, very secret.

They're out there somewhere.

[narrator] Could rituals really
serve as ancestral records

of contact
with extraterrestrials

who came to Earth
in the remote past?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest further proof

can be found
in an elaborate ceremony

that honors
their descent from the sky.

You know, it's incredible
to me how many

of these ancient rituals
involve the power of flight.

In Mexico, for example,

you have the participants
descend from the sky

commemorating the arrival
of their so-called gods.

Right, and anthropologists
might argue this has something

to do with bird worship,
but that's not what

the ritual looks like at all.

They're not flapping
their arms like wings,

they're attached to a pole
and they're smoothly gliding

- through the air.
- Yeah.

Yeah, right.
It's like they're mimicking

something technological,
like a glider or an airplane

- or something.
- [Tsoukalos] Right.

[narrator] Five men
in ceremonial dress

ascend a 100-foot pole.

Once at the top,
one of the men performs

a sacred dance while
playing a flute and drum

atop a platform.

The other four men
launch themselves off.

It is a ritual known as
"La Danza de los Voladores,"

or "The Dance of the Flyers."

[Jonathan Young]
The ritual has the leader

stand on the top of the pole,
a tiny little platform,

and the four flyers wrap a cable

around that pole
and then branch out

and fly around
in a pyramid shape

in perfect synchronous order.

It's a stunning
and daring thing to do.

And they are
representing the birds,

they are representing the four

cardinal directions,
they are representing

the elements, heavily symbolic

and mythic,
and it is a powerful ritual.

[narrator] The Totanac people
who practice this ceremony today

claim it is a dance
that was invented 500 years ago

as a plea to the gods
to end a severe drought.

But could this ancient ritual

have different,
perhaps otherworldly origins?

[Tsoukalos]
What we have here

with the Voladores is 100%

living mythology.

Something that describes
and illustrates,

in front of our living eye,
the descent

of the gods
from a long time ago.

[narrator] According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the Voladores ritual is a
reenactment of a close encounter

with alien visitors
in the distant past.

They believe extraterrestrials
descended upon

the flat mountaintops
of the Palpa region in Peru

around 500 AD,

dropping from their aircraft

and gliding down to Earth
in spiraling circles.

[Tsoukalos] The Voladores ritual
was very technological, as in,

you know, these beings
descending from the sky,

and the circle signifying
arrival of the gods.

Where does that flying or
descending gods motif originate?

Our ancestors saw something,

because why
would you hurl yourself

from a 100-foot pole
out of nothing,

to imitate a bird?

Birds are not that important.

Something
very significant happened.

[narrator]
Could an alien encounter

really be the inspiration
for the Voladores ritual?

And could the Totanac people
who created the ceremony

really have been trying
to mimic the ancient gods'

power of flight?

As further evidence that early
humans may have encountered

alien visitors equipped
with the power of flight,

ancient astronaut theorists
point to various artifacts

and statues depicting
ancient gods.

One such example is
the Mayan god Ah-Muzen-Cab,

also known
as the Flying Bee God.

Another is
the most prominent god

of early Mesoamerican culture,

the winged deity Quetzalcoatl.

[Logan Hawkes] The Mesoamericans
believed in the plumed serpent,

or Quetzalcoatl, which, uh,

came from the sky,
bringing wisdom, uh,

powered the wind
and also influenced everything

that happened in
the daily life of the Mayans.

In fact, they looked to the sky
for all their answers,

from everything as simple as

when to plant corn
to when to go to war.

Uh, they believed
all answers in the universe

came from the sky
and trying to relate that

to their daily lives.

[Henry]
The ancient record

are loaded with fantastic

examples of
the gods flying around.

These are the ancient aliens,
and humans are being shown

the ultimate capability
of these gods.

[von D�niken] In my eyes,

because we are
the sons of the gods,

we are the offsprings
of the gods,

whatever humans can dream,

whatever humans think,

was once reality in the past

or will be reality
in the future.

[narrator] July 31, 2003.

The English Channel.

Felix Baumgartner
becomes the first person

to cross this
22-mile-wide body of water

in freefall, using
a specially made fiber wing.

But the Austrian daredevil
is just

one of many who have used
wingsuits to simulate

flying by means of a free fall.

[Ed Pawlowski] A wingsuit
is basically a jumpsuit

that you put on under your rig,

and it's designed to

actually make you fly
when you exit the plane.

Uh, the material inflates
underneath your arms,

in between your legs,

and creates,
basically, an airfoil

that you glide on
through the air.

It's an amazing feeling because

you're actually
the pilot and the plane.

It is total freedom.

You feel as though
you're flying.

Though you are falling,

you're using the air
to maneuver your body.

And the wingsuit helps you
cover a lot of ground

as you're descending.

Some people have been exceeding
two-to-one glide ratio.

For example, three-to-one
would mean for every foot

you descend, you're traveling
three feet forward.

[Tsoukalos] We got these flying
guys that have these wings

attached to their backs,
and they hurl themselves

out of planes,
and some even have

rocket engines attached to them.

And so they essentially
themselves become airplanes.

Now imagine showing that

to someone from 100 years ago.

That person would be
in complete awe

of what they're witnessing,

not understanding that there is
technology involved with this.

Just using our own body,
we cannot fly.

We have no wings.

But, of course,
we have the fantasy

and we have
the technology to develop

wings that we can fly.

[Tsoukalos]
The pursuit of flight

has been one of the most
sought-after quests

in all of
mankind's history. Why?

Because with flight,
you could reach,

conceivably,
the realm of the gods.

[narrator]
From the ancient Greek myth

of Icarus fashioning wings

of feathers and wax,

to modern daredevils
like Felix Baumgartner,

human beings
have been fascinated with,

and often frustrated by,

their desire to fly.

But have birds really served
as mankind's inspiration?

Or something else?

Something extraterrestrial?

And if so,
might ancestral rituals

preserve the memory
of their visitation?

Perhaps further evidence
of otherworldly contact

can be found in
our oldest and most sacred

funerary rites.

When you're thinking about
rituals that involve

whole communities of people,

you're typically not
thinking about funerary rites,

but these are some of the most

powerful and mysterious
practices we have.

Right, and they include
some pretty interesting rituals,

like mummification, for example.

And the Egyptians,
you know, were very elaborate

in how they prepared the body.

Right, and we're
told that, allegedly,

all of this was done
in order to prepare them

for the afterlife.

But my question is: Did they
witness extraterrestrials

getting ready
for a journey to space?

In fact,
we covered that question

in a 2014 episode called

"Secrets of the Mummies."

[narrator] Vatican City.

April 2nd, 2005.

Pope John Paul II dies...

...bringing his historic
26-year papacy to a close.

His corpse is chemically
preserved and transported

to Saint Peter's Basilica
for public viewing.

In a funeral service
watched by millions,

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

speaks of
the beloved pontiff's soul

being guided to
the eternal glory of heaven.

His body is then interred

in a large underground tomb
beneath the church.

We can see
that a great deal of care

was taken to preserve
Pope John Paul's body.

And the idea
is that death, in fact,

is just the beginning
of this journey.

Many modern funerals,

those that take place
in Europe and the Americas,

many of the initial ideas

actually have their roots
in ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egypt,
bodies were mummified

and put into sarcophagi
that resemble human beings.

And this is still done today
in many religious traditions,

including
the Roman Catholic Church.

[narrator] The preserved body
of Pope John Paul II

is, essentially, a mummy.

But why do so many people
go to such great lengths

to preserve the body
after death?

[Young] Our ancestors
believed in an afterlife

and that the proper
ceremonials rites

at time of death
allow the departed

to travel to the reward,
to the next life...

...which was often imagined
to be in the heavens, the stars,

and that this travel allowed

the person to come
into their full reward.

You have, all over the world,

people continue
to preserve bodies,

and it's because there is
this idea of living forever,

that death is not the end,

it's a beginning,
it's a transitory state.

For some reason,
everyone has this idea

that we need the body
to live forever.

If people truly believed
there was a spiritual essence

that infused the body that left
at the moment of death,

they can't justify
mummification.

[narrator]
What can explain the fact

that for thousands of years,

in cultures
throughout the world,

people have held a belief

that the preservation
of the body

is necessary to transition
into the afterlife?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe clues can be found

hidden beneath
the desert sands of Upper Egypt.

The Valley of the Kings.

Located on the western bank
of the Nile river

lies one of the most expansive
burial grounds in all of Egypt.

The tombs were constructed

between 1539 and 1075 BC

for pharaohs and other nobility.

To date, 63 tombs
have been discovered

in the Valley of the Kings.

One of the best-preserved
is that of Pharaoh Ramesses VI,

who ruled from approximately

1145 to 1137 BC.

More than 4,000 years ago,

King Ramesses would have
started digging this

to become his tomb.

Or as he called it,
his "House of Eternity."

For ancient Egyptians,
a tomb wasn't just a place

where they would end up dead.

A tomb was a place
where they would start

their eternal life.

[narrator] The Egyptians
believed that, in death,

the soul would split
into several parts,

and begin the journey
to the afterlife.

But to make this transition,

it was essential
to reunite the soul

with the physical body.

And while the Egyptians were not
the first to mummify their dead,

no other ancient culture
went to such great lengths

to preserve the body

and ensure entrance
into the next life.

Ancient Egyptians
would put a body, um,

that needed to be mummified
in a dry room.

And they would first take out
the internal organs,

and they'd pack that body
with natron salt

to start the drying process.

And then they would
remove the brain.

And then they would
rinse the body

with sweet-smelling oils

and they'd cover the entire body
in natron salt,

and it would stay that way
for about 35 to 70 days.

Once the body was all dried out,
they would wrap the entire body,

putting amulets and other
special jeweled objects

in the linen and then,
once it was completely wrapped,

and be done.

[narrator]
The Egyptians understood

the most important factor
in mummification:

the removal of fluids,

which ensures
that bacteria cannot survive

and the body will not decay.

Although archeologists
have discovered

much about how these mummies
were prepared,

the Egyptians
left behind no texts

or instructions
on mummification.

Just how the Egyptians
came to create

this complex practice
remains a mystery.

But they did leave behind
extensive records

regarding their thoughts
on the afterlife.

This right here
is a very good depiction

of the journey of the afterlife
with King Ramesses.

You see him here
on a solar barge

being protected by all
the different gods behind him.

Goddess Isis and god Osiris.

This right here is god Anubis.

And god Anubis is the god
of the mummification.

[Young]
The most important story

in Egyptian mythology
is the god Osiris,

how his brother Set coveted

his brother's power
and killed him.

Then his wife Isis, in grief,
got help from Anubis,

who then helped Isis
breathe life back into him,

to survive into the next life
with the help of Anubis,

the inventor of embalming
and mummification.

The mummification process
in Egypt

is often- be related
to, uh, the star Sirius,

which we call the Dog Star.

And the mummification rites
were overseen

by the Egyptian god Anubis,
who was a jackal-headed god.

And so, you have
to wonder if Anubis

wasn't some real,
physical extraterrestrial god.

The ancient Egyptian
temple walls

are-are covered with images
of-of transformation.

And what it reveals is that
their core sacred science

was about human transformation

or ascension
into celestial beings.

So, you wonder: Is it possible?

It's because those
who originally taught us

these concepts
came from the stars.

[narrator] Could it be that
the ancient Egyptians' beliefs

about the afterlife
were influenced

by extraterrestrial visitors?

Was it from these visitors

that they learned
the process of mummification?

And if so,
what was their ultimate agenda?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining the rituals
of the Inca,

who believed that mummies
could communicate with beings

from beyond Earth.

[narrator] Cuzco, Peru.

This sacred city was once
the capital of the Inca Empire,

and by the 13th century,
was the center

of one of the largest
and most sophisticated

pre-Columbian civilizations
in the Americas.

The Inca were renowned

for their proficiency
in architecture,

and widely regarded
as the most important

of their many temple complexes
was the one known as Coricancha.

Historical accounts describe it

as a magnificent
palace of gold that housed

the most holy objects
of worship for the Inca...

...the mummies
of their dead kings.

[Ed Barnhart]
That's where the king

did his most important rituals

and where the mummies
of the previous Sapa Incas,

or kings, were kept.

And those mummies
were communicated with

on a regular basis.

[narrator] Even today,
descendants of the Inca

recreate the centuries-old practice

of using the mummies
in sacred ceremonies.

[Brien Foerster] Four times
a year, they were brought out,

and the living descendants
would then consult with them

about the affairs of state,

as well as what they should do
in the future.

It was believed that
these mummies could communicate

with deities,
or otherworldly beings,

in this twilight realm...

...or in this state
between life and death.

They even had people
specially trained

to take care
of the royal mummies.

And some of the duties
that these caretakers had

were interpreting
what the mummy wished to say,

arranging meetings
with the living and the dead

and strangely,
even taking the mummy outside

so he could urinate.

[narrator]
But why would the Inca,

the most advanced civilization
in South America at the time,

treat corpses as though they
were living, thinking beings?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining
the Incan creation story.

The Incan creation myth
describes

how the world was created
by the Ayar brothers.

And the word "ayar"
actually means "mummy."

So, written right into the myth
from the very beginning

is the idea that mummification
is of central importance

to whomever and whatever
these gods are.

Is it possible
that those mythical gods

were actually extraterrestrial

flesh and blood beings
of some kind?

[narrator]
But if the Ayar brothers

really were extraterrestrials,

why would the Inca
have used the same term

for these alien visitors

as they did
for their mummified dead?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that the Inca

may have witnessed these
otherworldly space travelers

emerging from a state
of suspended animation.

What if they were
trying to mimic

whatever it is that they saw?

And so, if someone
with no technological knowledge

witnesses someone
who is in suspended animation,

and then they come alive,

they have just witnessed
the resurrection of someone-

someone coming back
from the dead-

when in reality,
that was never the case.

[narrator]
Is it possible that the Inca

witnessed alien visitors
coming out of hibernation,

and that this is why
they mummified their dead?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and claim that this might
also explain mummification

in other cultures,
most notably the Egyptians.

[Wilcock] It's possible
that the extraterrestrials

who visited Egypt
would have needed to have

some sort of hyperbaric
isolation chambers

to get from
their home world to here.

Now, if that is true,
then it's also possible

that the mummification ritual
actually originated

from this long-term
hyperbaric storage

that they were doing
with their bodies

inside sarcophagus-like
chambers.

One idea, certainly,
is that human beings

and these societies
were seeing extraterrestrials

who were wrapped
in certain body suits,

and then they would
come back alive.

They were put in a special
suspended animation

that was similar
to mummification,

and perhaps this is why

the Egyptians
were doing mummification.

[narrator] Could mummification
really have been an attempt

by ancient people to imitate

extraterrestrial space travelers?

Perhaps, but ancient astronaut
theorists propose

that there may be an even more
profound explanation,

that early humans were not
simply imitating alien visitors

but intended
to join them in the future.

And they suggest that other
ritualistic processes

were left behind,
granting humans

the ability to commune with
otherworldly beings at will.

You know,
while we have a lot of rituals

that are about people
commemorating the past

or past encounters,
we also have a lot of rituals

that are about people
contacting the gods.

[Tsoukalos] Oh, absolutely.

There are multiple cultures

that talk about creating
specific sound frequencies

in order to communicate
with the gods.

But that's not all.

They also took
mind-altering substances

in order to access other realms.

Yeah, and all these cultures

had shamans and priests
that that acted as guides.

And we still have them today.

So, you wonder, were
some of our present-day rituals

taught to our ancestors
by extraterrestrials

- to make contact with them?
- Mm-hmm.

[narrator]
The Amazon jungle, Peru.

Stretching from
the Andes Mountains

to the eastern shores of Brazil,
this rainforest is home

to more than 80,000 species
of plants,

many of which
shamans and religious healers

have consumed
for thousands of years

as a way to access realms

they say are inhabited
by otherworldly beings.

In the Amazon,
one of the shaman's jobs,

aside from going
to the other world

and speaking with the spirits...

...is to find the plants
right here on Earth

that can heal
the people of his tribe.

And in the Amazonian
belief systems,

each plant in the jungle
has its own spirit.

And one of the shaman's gifts

is that he can communicate
with these plant spirits.

[narrator] Originating
in the Central Andes

of South America,

ayahuasca, meaning
the "vine of the souls,"

is a psychedelic brew

consisting of two different
types of plants

cooked with water.

[Ross Heaven]
And this is drunk by the shaman

in order to enter
the spirit world

to gain information
about diseases,

to foresee the future,

um, to carry out
a healing for somebody.

We know some
of the history of ayahuasca

because archaeologists
have found artifacts

from the rainforest
which date back

three and a half thousand
or 4,000 years.

But those are only the surviving
artifacts that they've found.

Potentially, this could go back
to the beginning of time.

[narrator] Ayahuasca contains
dimethyltryptamine, or DMT,

one of the most powerful
hallucinogens known to man.

But strangely,
this chemical compound

only works when consumed
under precise conditions.

Ingest DMT, it's inactivated

in the intestine
by, uh, by certain enzymes.

So, in order to get the DMT

to be activated
and to be able to be absorbed,

they had to combine it
with other plants.

[Hancock] Ayahuasca contains
a mixture of two plants.

There's actually quite subtle
and sophisticated knowledge

of plants
goes into the preparation,

'cause these two things on-
separately will not work.

You have to mix them together,
and let's not forget

that there's a 150,000
different species

of plants and trees
in the Amazon.

It's really quite
an amazing achievement

of ancient chemistry

to bring these two plants
together to produce

a highly psychoactive,
uh, visionary brew.

[narrator]
But how did ancient people

living in the jungles of Peru

over 3,000 years ago,

with tens of thousands
of plants to choose from,

figure out that combining
these two particular plants

would produce
these powerful visions?

According to the mythology of
the Achuar people of the Amazon,

their ancestors didn't
discover this on their own

but were guided
by extraterrestrial beings.

[Heaven] The shamans
communicated with their spirits

and were told to go
into the jungle

and turn two corners,
as the myth goes,

and then they would
find this plant.

And they brought that
back to the village,

prepared it
in the appropriate way.

[Wilcock] The oral tradition
says that ayahuasca

is a linkage to the upper world,

and it is entirely possible

that they were given this gift
by their own gods,

which may be extraterrestrials.

[narrator] If the Achuar story
of how their ancestors

discovered ayahuasca is true,

could they have been guided
not by spirits

but by extraterrestrial beings,

beings who communicated
with them

on another plane of reality?

Between 1990 and 1995,

scientists at the University
of New Mexico

administered DMT,

the active ingredient
in ayahuasca,

to 60 volunteers,

and discovered shocking results.

[Henry] Medical researchers
actually administered DMT

to patients in
a controlled medical setting,

and they had exactly
the same experiences as those

reported in the jungles
of South America

and elsewhere
who are experiencing ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca users
typically experience

hallucinations
in the visual form,

and a lot of them say
that they see other beings.

And a lot of them say
that they get messages

sent to them from these beings.

In several cases,
those intelligent entities

said to them, roughly,
the following:

"We're so pleased you've
discovered this technology.

Now we can communicate
with you more often."

Perhaps what
we're dealing with here

is intelligent inhabitants
of other dimensions.

[narrator] Why would
so many people

report such similar experiences
while using ayahuasca?

Is it possible extraterrestrials
gave the ancients

the recipe
for this powerful concoction

as a way to communicate
healing powers with shamans?

And if so, might the very core
of mankind's knowledge

about medicine have come
from an otherworldly source?

Hua Shan Mountain, China.

This 7,000-foot-high peak
in the Shaanxi province

is believed to have been
the place where Shennong,

a benevolent emperor
that ruled the area

more than 4,500 years ago,
was conceived.

According to accounts
from the Han dynasty,

Shennong not only introduced
agriculture to mankind

but also developed a profound
knowledge of Chinese herbs.

[Dominic Steavu]
Shennong pledged that he would

venture out into the world

and test every plant
on the planet

in order to determine
its, uh, benefits for humans

and also to catalog, uh,
the more, uh,

toxic or dangerous effects
of ingesting these plants.

Sometimes he would ingest,
of course, poisonous plants

and he would suffer poisonings
up to 70 times, uh, per day.

[narrator]
More than 2,000 years later,

Shennong's findings
were compiled

in The Divine Farmer's
Herb-Root Classic,

a medical journal that became

one of the foundations
of Chinese medicine.

But just how could
this mysterious being

have tested so many herbs,

some even containing
deadly poisons?

[Childress] Shennong was
a quite unusual person.

It's said that he had
a transparent stomach.

And he himself,
after ingesting these poisons,

would look into
his own stomach and see how

these poisons were
interacting with himself.

And then he would take
the antidotes for it.

So, you have to wonder
if he's not

some kind of extraterrestrial.

[Henry] Shennong could,
in fact, have been

an astral, or star being,

who came to Earth to teach
the secrets of healing.

[Tsoukalos] This idea would
explain his strange appearance

and also his ability
to withstand ingesting

poisonous plants
without ever being harmed.

[narrator] Might Shennong
have been an alien visitor?

One who traveled to Earth
in order to educate mankind

about medicine and the healing
nature of plants?

And is this proof
that ingesting DMT,

a practice that dates back
thousands of years,

actually connects shamans
with extraterrestrial beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and claim further evidence lies

with the supernatural healing
rituals of the San bushmen.

[narrator] The Kalahari Desert,
South Africa.

Here, the native San bushmen
hold elaborate fireside rituals

lasting for hours
into the night.

During these ceremonies,

their shamans perform
what's known as a trance dance,

through which they reach
an altered state of being

and access other dimensions.

The trance dance is thought
to activate an energy

in their body called n/um.

And this energy
opens a portal of sorts

that enables them to travel
into the spirit world.

And when the Bushmen activate
this energy, they're able to put

their hands in the fire
without being burned.

They can see vast distances
and it's as if,

in every way, shape and form,

they're transformed
into super powerful beings.

[narrator] By accessing
the power of n/um energy,

it is believed that a shaman
can extract illness,

see the insides of the sick

and travel out of their own body
to the land of the gods.

[Cumes] This n/um
goes up the body and then,

often, it goes out
of the crown of the head,

and that's usually when

the out-of-body experience
occurs

and they travel
to the spirit world.

I've seen a bushman
put a coal in his mouth

and he wasn't burned.

They'll put their heads
in the fire,

and although their hair
might singe and even catch fire,

their face won't be burned.

So something is happening
with this n/um energy.

They call it "boiling energy."

It's almost like
there's a vibrational change

in their whole body and probably
in their DNA in some way.

[narrator]
Could the so-called n/um energy

really be inherent in shamans,

accessed only while
in a sort of dream state?

And is it possible
that the genetic makeup

of these medicine men
is what allows them

to access other dimensions?

[Graham Phillips] The San
bush people have a tradition

that they are
the first tribe ever created.

They're the oldest people
in the world.

DNA tests have shown
that they probably are.

That all other cultures
and all other peoples

that spread throughout the world

came, originally, from

where the San people are now.

[Wilcock] When we look
at the San bushmen

and we see the clear
genetic evidence

that they are
the primordial seed

of human civilization and life
on Earth, it is possible

that their DNA
is especially well equipped

to have this potential to access

these non-ordinary states
of consciousness

which may, in fact, be a key

to physically journeying
into them,

giving these people the ability

to do things that most of us
seemingly cannot.

[narrator] Is it possible
that the San bushmen

have special knowledge of how
to alter their genetic makeup

in order to access other realms,

a knowledge that is shared
by shamans around the world?

And might this knowledge
or power have been given to them

by alien beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe an undeniable connection

between shamans
and extraterrestrials

can be found in cave paintings

that date back
thousands of years.

The Lascaux caves,
southwestern France.

Discovered in 1940
near the village of Montignac...

...this cave complex is covered
in Paleolithic paintings

dating back
more than 17,000 years.

Anthropologists believe
ancient shamans

used these subterranean chambers
to perform sacred rituals.

And curiously,
among the many Ice Age animals

that are depicted on the walls,

there is a strange creature

that has the body of a man
and the head of a bird.

[Hancock] The technical term
for such a creature

is a "therianthrope,"

and that's from
the Greek "therian,"

which means "wild beast,"

and "anthropos,"
which means "man."

Clearly, these are not things
that one encounters

in everyday life.

The imagery of cave art

is best explained
as the experiences

that shamans undergo
in a deep state of trance.

When they return
from the trance state...

...they then depict
on the cave walls

the visions that they have seen

in this deeply altered
state of consciousness.

[narrator] The bird man
found in Lascaux is reminiscent

of one of the Egyptians'
most important gods, Thoth.

It is also consistent
with the depiction

of the Sumerian sky gods,
the Anunnaki.

But is it mere coincidence
that these shamans

are encountering the same types
of beings while in a trance

that the world's
earliest civilizations

depicted as their gods?

[Wilcock] In all of these
different Indigenous cultures

around the world, there are
remarkable similarities

of what types of beings

people claim to be meeting
when they go out of body.

This suggests that,
in the dream plane

and in the shamanic state,

there is, in fact,
a real place that we are going

and real beings that we are
encountering when we get there.

[Tsoukalos] This is where
the ancient astronaut theory

suggests that they were
the same teachers,

the teachers that went
to all the ancient cultures

and brought them the basics for
what we've accomplished today.

[Hancock] There was a-a big,
noticeable change

in human behavior
around 40,000 years ago,

exactly at the time
that our ancestors

begin to manifest the first
amazing, uh, c-cave art.

But what is clear is that
it's not a coincidence,

that at the moment
that the cave art begins,

we also witness,
in the archeological record,

a radical change
in human behavior.

[narrator] Could the Lascaux
cave paintings

be proof that shamans

really do communicate
with extraterrestrial beings,

as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest?

And if so,
might it be that the rituals

performed by tribal elders
enable them to bridge the gap

between humans
and these otherworldly entities?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining a somewhat
more traditional ceremony,

one still performed to this day,

and to an audience of millions
around the world.

You know, a lot of these
ancient ceremonies

have survived
to the present day.

Like, for example,
coronation ceremonies.

Yeah. Look at
the British Royal Family.

Uh, their rites,
with the coronation,

involve scepters and crowns
and other objects

as part of their coronation,
going on for centuries.

Yeah, they even have
this strange object

called the Stone of Destiny

that they place in the throne.

And what all this is doing
is elevating

the king or queen
to a higher realm.

These strange rituals
give them the right to rule.

[narrator]
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

In the Crown Room lies
a 336-pound oblong stone block.

Known as the Stone of Destiny,
and also as the Stone of Scone,

it has been present
at the coronation

of nearly every English
and Scottish monarch

for more than 800 years.

Its purpose: to unite
the new ruler with God.

And there are those who believe
it is part of a meteor

that fell to Earth
more than 3,000 years ago.

[Andrew Collins] The Stone,
it was seen as an axis mundi,

the connection point
between heaven and Earth.

It was almost like
the English strengthened

their own belief
that Westminster Abbey

was the axis mundi.

They placed it within a throne

right in front
of the Cosmati Pavement.

And within this Cosmati Pavement
are circles and swirls

and lines that represent
the universe as a whole.

And the monarch becomes

what's known as a "cosmocrator,"

looking over
not just what was going on

on the Earth but the stars,

the heavens as a whole,
by sitting on the throne.

[narrator] Is this ancient stone
merely a symbol of divine right?

Or might it, at one time,

have held some strange,
unknown power?

Throughout recorded history,
coronation rituals

have incorporated devices
like the Stone of Destiny

as a way of linking
the new ruler

with superior beings
beyond our world.

What is coronation
in the first place?

Well, it's the idea
that the monarch can embody

some kind of
cosmic consciousness,

something that is divine.

And this is actually best seen
through the eyes

of the old traditions relating
to the Japanese mikados.

They would have
to sit upon the throne,

which would be considered to be

at the point of creation
of the world.

There's a notion called
the divine right of kings

that, um, certain
British kings had,

that somehow, the sovereign

is God's representative
on planet Earth.

But for the ancients,
it went steps further.

[narrator]
But if some otherworldly power

is actually being handed down,

who or what
is the source of that power?

[Noory] If you were
an extraterrestrial

and you came down
to this planet,

one of the first things
you'd try to do

would be to mingle
with leadership.

And I think the pharaohs

believed that they might have
been gods themselves.

[Andrew Wyatt]
The king was considered a deity.

Did he go back into his room
and sit and talk with the gods?

Uh, we don't know, we weren't
exact- we weren't there.

But he certainly did communicate

with the deities
through these rituals.

[narrator] In addition
to the Stone of Destiny,

another ritualistic symbol
which features

in most coronation ceremonies
is that of the scepter.

The scepter is a symbol
of divinely granted authority,

and in ancient times,

it often took the form
of a staff or a golden wand.

According to historians,

its use dates back
to ancient Egypt,

and there are those who believe

it is connected symbolically
to the Egyptian ankh.

When it comes to the ankh
in ancient Egypt,

we find that it is
intimately familiar with Isis.

Isis symbolizes the ankh
because she is the one

who was able to restore life.

It is the symbol
of transformation,

the symbol of alchemy,
the symbol of ritual.

[Childress]
You have to wonder here

if the original ankh wasn't
some kind of high-tech device

that the ancient
astronauts used,

and then it was given
to the kings for their use.

And with a coronation ritual
and holding a scepter,

suddenly, normal people
become as gods.

And today, all we have
is a symbolic representation

of this high-tech object.

[narrator]
If the throne and the scepter

are identified with a connection

to otherworldly
or extraterrestrial power,

what about the most iconic
of all coronation symbols,

the crown itself?

[Coppens] What says kingship?
It's the crown.

It's clearly a device, whether
you see a crown as a symbol

or whether you see a crown
as something literal,

it's clear that somehow,
it was very specific.

Something placed on your head
established this connection.

[narrator] Some historians
believe the idea for the crown

may have originated with
the divine image of the halo.

[Jason Martell]
Sumerians described their gods,

the Anunnaki, as literally
having a glow about them.

And this was carried
into more recent times

as angels with a halo
over their head.

These are the beings
that from heaven came to Earth.

Kingship now wants to have
that same lineage of connection

with the gods by placing
a crown on the king's head.

[Birnes] That headpiece
symbolized the translation

of a human being heir apparent

into a sovereign,
to deify that sovereign,

to make that sovereign
extraterrestrial.

[Tsoukalos] Some of the earliest
cave drawings

we can find in the world
show these humanoid beings

with halos around their heads.

And that is very fascinating
because if you look today

at modern-day astronauts,

if you have the Sun
rising behind them,

or even just
with their flashlights

that they have on the sides
of their helmets,

well, if someone who is
not knowledgeable in technology

sees this, well,
it looks like their head

is surrounded
by this divine light.

Which, it's not divine at all.

It's a light source.

So, over time,
people- our ancestors-

started to imitate the gods,

these extraterrestrials,
by wearing crowns.

[narrator] The throne,

the scepter,

the crown.

Could these symbols
of coronation

have been inspired
not by the imagination

or even spiritual visions

but by some sort of
alien encounters?

If so,
what other ancient rituals

might find their roots
in a kingdom not of this world?

s

are very important
to the human experience,

and the ones we most commonly
practice today are religious.

The Catholic Mass, for instance.

Right, and there are
so many ancient rituals

that we are doing today

while we have no idea
why we're doing them

or how they came about,
but we are still doing them.

Yeah, and this may trace back to
the extraterrestrial visitors.

To me, it goes back
to this notion

that there's something
embedded in our DNA

that compels us to commemorate
and honor the past.

[narrator] Vatican City, Italy.

Pope Benedict XVI
walks down the aisle

in Saint Peter's Basilica
carrying a golden crucifix.

Upon reaching the altar,
he lifts the thurible,

a metal vessel
suspended from chains

in which incense
is burned for purification.

The pope recites
the Eucharist Prayer,

and then he and his congregation

consume the consecrated
bread and wine.

They are, according to the most
sacred laws of the Church,

eating the actual body
and blood of Jesus Christ.

[Young] The mass, the communion,
the transubstantiation

of eating the-the body of God,

allows us to ingest
the divine energy.

This is called manna,
or magical energy,

and the-the almost cannibalistic
aspect of the ritual is crucial

for a-atonement,
which is "at onement,"

to become one
with the divine source.

[narrator] But what does it mean
to become one with the divinity?

Most historians say
the ritual of the Catholic Mass

can be traced back
to the Last Supper,

when the act of Jesus serving
bread and wine to his disciples,

during what was actually
a Passover Seder,

created a powerful spiritual
bond that must not be broken.

But there are others
who believe the Catholic Mass

stems from a ritual practiced
thousands of years earlier.

[Young] Scholars have
speculated that the Mass

is actually inspired
by Egyptian mythology

and a similar ritual that was
done for the god Osiris.

The idea is we take
the divine substance,

the body of the god into us

so that we are one
with that transcendent energy.

[narrator] The legend of Osiris
tells how he was killed

and dismembered
by his jealous brother,

then resurrected from
the various parts of his body

by his wife Isis.

Egyptian priests reenacted
this ancient event

with a ritual
involving clay and wheat.

[Young] The ritual has to do
with making wheat, uh, cakes

that resemble the pieces
of the dismembered god,

which are then hidden
and, uh, a woman playing,

uh, the-the wife goes
and finds the pieces.

And then, in the end,
the priests eat the pieces.

[narrator] Those who ate
the sacramental wheat cakes

believed they had
brought the god Osiris

back to life within themselves.

But where did early Egyptians
get such a profound idea?

The question then is:

Are they mimicking things
which they saw...

...and it somehow involved
this transformation

from a dead Osiris to a person
who was regenerated?

When we're looking at
some of these rituals,

really, contact with
the divine is a technology,

whether it's the ritual
or whether it's practical

or whether it's to mimic
extraterrestrials.

[narrator] Could the
Roman Catholic ceremony

of eating the body
and blood of Christ

actually have its origins

in the ancient Egyptian story
of Osiris?

And if so, does it suggest
that the Catholic religion,

like other ancient beliefs,
has its roots

in an extraterrestrial
encounter?

[Jon Lohse] A ritual is
a participatory performance,

and the main objective
of a ritual

is to communicate something

about an underlying belief
or an idea.

[Birnes] These ancient rituals
coincided with the appearance

of various constellations
in the sky, various stars.

All across the world,
in ancient societies,

there was a belief
that human beings were placed

on planet Earth
by the star people.

Mythology, like legend,
has real history in it.

There's a strong sense
of connection to those sources

when one enters into ritual.

Our deepest yearnings are
for things we cannot remember.

We yearn for lost wisdom,
lost possibilities.

It seems we work toward goals
we do not understand.

It seems we are driven
by aspirations

that are truly mysterious.

[Nancy Red Star] The ones
who come from another world,

our relatives,

are the ones that bring
the laws and the instructions

and the ceremonies
and the rituals here

so that people will go through
this process of evolution.

[narrator] Are today's
frequently practiced rituals

such as prayers,

funerals

and coronations,

really based
on early man's attempts

to emulate
ancient alien visitors?

Or are they something
even more profound?

Could they provide an actual
means with which humans

may communicate with,

or even return to,

another perhaps
extraterrestrial existence?

If so, we may only know
the truth

when we, ourselves,
make the journey.

Or perhaps, when they return.

The word "ritual"
means right, or truth.

So, when we're enacting
a ritual,

it is a performance
of the original truth.

And then it's up to us, then,
to pull on the thread

and ask the question:
Where did it come from?

Yeah, and so, by studying them

and finding their origins, if-
we can, you know, understand

what these rituals
are really about.

Right. I think
many of these rituals

still in existence today
are breadcrumbs

that lead to a past

of extraterrestrial contact
where our ancestors

didn't quite understand,
"We're communicating

with flesh-and-flood
extraterrestrials."

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