All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E14.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Tonight
on "Secrets Declassified,"

government cases
and programs so strange,

they cross into
the supernatural,

like when the U.S.
resorts to ancient magic

to win a modern conflict...

- They're on
the front lines of a war,

deploying 16th century
witchcraft.

- Or the time the FBI went
hunting for monsters...

[Sami] It's one of the most
advanced forensic labs

in the world,
and it's testing for Bigfoot.

- And the most mysterious
UFO sighting of them all.

[Hakeem] He sees
a gleaming metallic object.

It looks like a big egg.

♪ ♪

- These are some
of the strangest things

done throughout history
by governments

and the people
who work for them.

It's time to bring them
to light.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

In the Vietnam War,
the U.S. military is desperate

to locate the Viet Cong's
jungle hideouts.

They try aerial reconnaissance,
tracker dogs,

even deadly chemicals
to strip the jungle bare.

When none of that works,

desperate times call
for desperate measures,

and they turn to something
far stranger--

two bent wires
and some witchcraft.

[tense music]

[Sami] By 1967,
the conflict in Vietnam

is a brutal deadlock.

American troops had
massive firepower

and cutting-edge gear,
yet they're getting worn down.

- Their enemy, the Viet Cong,
is determined and innovative.

And one of their
most effective ways

of combating U.S. troops
is by using

a massive network
of underground tunnels.

- The Viet Cong have dug
and expanded

200 miles of these
underground tunnels

that stretch under the jungle.

[Hakeem] For the American GIs,

these tunnels are a nightmare.

The VC can pop up,
ambush a patrol,

and then just disappear
back underground.

[Duchovny] One reason the VC
tunnels are so effective

is because they're almost
impossible to find.

- Traditional aerial
reconnaissance doesn't work,

because the jungle canopy
is just too thick.

And on the ground,
they're so well camouflaged

that the soldiers
can't find them

unless they just get lucky.

[Duchovny] To find
their invisible enemy,

one U.S. official
pleads for help.

- In November 1966, Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara

screens a film
for military consultants

that demonstrates some
of the problems they're facing

in Vietnam, and it includes
this appeal for new ideas

to detect and wipe out
tunnels used by the enemy.

- The film catches the eye

of a professional land surveyor
from Virginia.

His name is Louis Matacia.

When he sees the film showing
these American troops

searching helplessly
for these underground tunnels,

he thinks, I know exactly
how to fix that problem.

[Duchovny] Matacia's answer is

a form of witchcraft:
divination.

[Dan] Divination is
this centuries-old

mystical practice where people
claim they can pinpoint

underground water or minerals
with just a forked stick

or with metal rods.

[Martin] Divination is
used by people

who believe that,
by balancing a rod,

someone can notice
a subtle movement in it,

which is its magnetic
attraction to a variation

in the magnetism
below the soil.

[Dan] Mystics
and mineral prospectors

have used this
throughout Europe.

And some frontier settlers
used it to help them find water

when they were pushing West.

There's just one catch,
and that is that

there is no scientific evidence
that it works--

for water or for minerals
or for anything.

- Louis Matacia uses divining

as a part of his regular job
as a surveyor.

And he is convinced
divination can be used

to pinpoint the location

of Viet Cong tunnels
in Vietnam.

[Duchovny] Matacia volunteers

his skills to the military.

With nothing to lose,
the Marine Corps decides

to put his idea to the test.

- A group
of Marine Corps engineers

bring Matacia
to a basement location

where he can demonstrate
his technique firsthand.

- During this demonstration,
he walks beneath

exposed water pipes
on the ceiling

holding two L-shaped
metal rods,

one in each hand.

- Every time he passes directly

under a pipe,
the rods swing out.

[Hakeem] Some officers think
that this is just

a total waste of time,
but others buy it.

- They view this
as a potential way

to see underground
and locate the Viet Cong.

- Matacia's demonstration
is enough to inspire

a stunning leap of faith.

The U.S. Military gives
their troops

a crash course in witchcraft.

[Dan] In May of 1968,

Matacia leads
a training session

for Marines in North Carolina.

He shows them how
to make divination tools

from simple coat hangers.

And he promises they can
learn to find anything,

from booby traps
to hidden weapons.

- They create
a simulated Vietnam trail

with ammunition stored
underground.

They have a couple of tunnels.

And the results are
reliable enough

that it's worth the effort

to roll it out
in combat theater in Vietnam.

- Did they set up
the experiments properly?

We don't really know,
but what we do know

is that the military
fast-tracked divination

to the front lines in Vietnam.

[Duchovny]
Now American troops in Vietnam

carry a weapon into combat--
bent coat hangers.

[Hakeem] You have Marines
walking through the jungle

holding their M16 in one hand
and forked rods in the other.

- The crazy thing is,
the commander in chief

of U.S. forces
in Vietnam reports back

that Marines are getting
marked success.

He claims divination is
enabling his troops

to find tunnels as well
as hidden weapons stores,

supplies,
and even buried documents.

[Duchovny] But not everyone
in the military

is a believer.

[Catherine] Many think this is

a textbook case
of confirmation bias.

The troops are desperate
for any edge they can get.

[Sami] When they do
locate a tunnel,

whether through
intelligence or luck,

they're holding these rods
in their hand.

And naturally,
the divining gets the credit.

[Duchovny]
Witchcraft or chance?

The military never
truly discovers

what is behind divination's
alleged hit rate.

And as the war winds down,

so does the interest
in divining.

- Without any clear evidence
of effectiveness,

that any of this works
to begin with,

backing for the program
slowly fades.

And by 1971, the Marine Corps

quietly shuts
the whole thing down.

[Duchovny] Though few
journalists had glimpsed

troops wandering the jungle
with coat hangers,

the full story stays
classified for several years.

- In May of 1977,
a detailed 79-page report

on cheap and unconventional
innovations

from the Vietnam era
gets quietly declassified

and released.

- Buried in that document
is the bizarre tale

of how the military embraced
divination.

[Hakeem]
In the end, for Marines

walking through
a booby-trapped jungle,

a bent coat hanger
offering even

a slight edge over pure luck
was worth a shot.

Science be damned.

- Four years after the Marines
turn to divination,

the Army attempts to harness
its own supernatural power,

a secret weapon that can
slip past any guard

and penetrate any vault--

the out-of-body experience.

[tense music]

[Sami] In the spring of 1972,

inside the Defense
Intelligence Agency, or DIA,

a secret report suddenly lands
like a shockwave.

[Dan] This document contains
unconfirmed reports

that the Soviets are
creating spies

whose consciousness can
detach from their bodies.

[Sami] They're attempting
to project their minds

thousands of miles to spy
on classified meetings

or read restricted files,

while their physical bodies are

safely back in Moscow.

[Duchovny] At the height
of Cold War paranoia,

any report that the Soviets
have an edge is investigated,

even one claiming the enemy
is training psychic spies.

- In the 1970s,
both superpowers

locked in the Cold War are
basically terrified

that the other is
gonna come up with

some technological development

that's gonna instantly win
the conflict.

[Andrew] In this
high-stakes environment,

a report that says that
the Soviets might have

found a way to harness
psychic abilities,

it's taken seriously.

[Duchovny]
To close the psychic gap,

the DIA doesn't look
to a high-tech lab

or research installation.

It heads to a mystical retreat
in Virginia's

Blue Ridge Mountains,

the Monroe Institute
for Applied Sciences.

- This Institute is run
by Robert Monroe,

a former radio executive
who has turned into

a best-selling author.

Word has reached the military
that Monroe claims

to have unlocked the same
power as the Soviets.

- After years of experimenting,
he says he can trigger

an out-of-body
experience at will

and allow his mind
to separate from his body

and travel anywhere.

[Duchovny] The military
immediately dispatches

one man to discover
if it's true.

[Sami] Lieutenant Colonel
McDonnell is an officer

working
for the Army Intelligence

and Security Command.

He's sent to immerse himself

into Monroe's
curious institute.

And when he arrives,
he does a real deep dive.

Over time, he discovers
what Monroe claims

is the secret
of the out-of-body experience.

[Duchovny]
Monroe calls this system

the Gateway Process,

and he says he can
teach it to anyone.

[Greg] According to Monroe,

the process uses
audio frequencies

to manipulate the brain.

Monroe plays one tone

in the left ear,
and another in the right.

The brain tries to reconcile
the difference

and, in doing so, creates
a third frequency.

This can then "click"
the subject out of space-time,

and now the subject's mind
can travel anywhere.

[Duchovny] After fully
immersing in the institute,

McDonnell returns
to his bosses.

On June 9, 1983, he drops
his classified report

of Monroe's work
on his superior's desk.

It's not what anyone expects.

- McDonnell drinks
the Kool-Aid big time.

His 29-page analysis
reveals that

he's become a true believer.

It argues that there is
a rational, scientific basis

for the Gateway Process.

- He believes that this process
will allow agents

to transcend space-time,

which means spies could
theoretically eliminate

sinister plots before
they're even hatched.

[Duchovny] Despite
his convictions in Gateway,

McDonnell issues
a chilling warning.

A supernatural spy mission
brings supernatural risks.

- McDonnell claims agents
traveling out of body

might encounter
intelligent energy forms.

- He's talking entities,
beings, things in the void,

and they might not be friendly.

- Despite what dangers
might lurk in the abyss,

McDonnell convinces the army
to green-light

a top-secret initiative
to train up a battalion

of psychic spies
for the U.S. government.

First, they need to find their
potential mind travelers.

[Andrew] Recruits are pulled

from the intelligence
services themselves,

and they are heavily vetted.

They're looking for people
who aren't too skeptical

but also aren't cult fanatics.

They want believers,
not extremists.

[Duchovny]
Over a range of ambitious,

mind-expanding projects,

the early results
seem promising.

[Dan] In one session,
this one agent says

he sent his mind
soaring to Mars--

and not just Mars,
but Mars a million years ago.

He traveled through
space and time.

Oh, and by the way,
there were pyramids there too.

[Amy]
He talks about giant pyramids,

swirling dust storms,

and an entire civilization
of colossal figures.

[Duchovny] The problem is,

when subjects'
supernatural abilities

are tested more rigorously,

the results are
dangerously unreliable.

- In a more controlled
experiment

at the Monroe Institute,
subjects on the East Coast

are asked
to project their minds

all the way to the West Coast,
where there is

a computer screen projecting
random numbers.

[Andrew] Their job is to read
the numbers on the screen

and then report back
to their East Coast handlers

what they actually see.

- And guess what--
it doesn't work.

They do no better than
you would if you just guessed.

[Duchovny] McDonnell himself
acknowledges this problem.

He calls it
information distortion.

- Nevertheless,
the government continues

to push research forward
into the 1980s,

oftentimes under
classified projects,

but the experimental results
are still wildly inconsistent

and unreliable.

- In 1984, it's all shut down,

because the military
was not getting

any real return on investment.

Go figure.

[Duchovny] For two decades,

McDonnell's Gateway report
remains locked away.

Then, in 2003,
it's finally released,

but some details remain
classified.

[Amy] What we do know is,

for a brief period
in American history,

the government was
actually trying to use

out-of-body experiences
as the new era of espionage.

- In the 1950s and '60s,
a top-secret government project

named Blue Book investigates
12,000 UFO cases.

Of those, one file stands apart
as the most credible of all--

this one.

[tense music]

[Hakeem]
On one spring afternoon,

Sergeant Lonnie Zamora is
in the middle

of a high-speed pursuit.

Suddenly, a massive boom echoes
across the desert,

and Zamora sees a column
of flames and smoke

rising up
from a distant ravine.

His first instinct is that

a dynamite shack out there
has exploded.

Zamora abandons the chase
and tears off road to go help.

[Duchovny] Zamora drives
his cruiser closer

but struggles to make
out what he sees.

[Paul] Initially,
he thinks it's actually

an overturned car, but it
doesn't have any windows.

It doesn't appear
to have any doors.

- He sees a gleaming, white,
oval-shaped metallic object.

It just looks like a big egg.

- According to Zamora,
standing beside the craft

are two figures dressed
in white overalls,

too small to be adults,
yet too large to be children.

- He calls it in
to the sheriff's dispatcher

and says he's going
to check out what looks like

it might be
some kind of wreck.

And when he looks back up,
suddenly,

the two figures are gone.

[Duchovny] Zamora's heart rate
goes up a notch.

He drives 50 yards closer

and cautiously gets out
to approach on foot.

[Hakeem] As he gets nearer,

he notices what looks
like landing gear.

The craft has two metal legs
that are angled outward.

On the side,
there's a red insignia.

It's an arrow design
that he's never seen before.

[Duchovny] Suddenly,
the silence shatters.

- A deafening roar erupts,
the ground shakes,

and a blue-orange flame spews
from beneath the craft.

- Zamora panics.

He thinks the thing's
about to detonate.

He turns and sprints away,
dives behind the hill,

and covers his head.

[Duchovny]
But no explosion comes.

- The roar cuts out.

And so Zamora peeks out.

And he says that
he sees the craft now,

slowly lifting up.

- It pauses, hangs about
15 feet in the air,

then picks up speed
and blasts across the sky,

vanishing beyond
the distant peaks.

[Duchovny]
When Lonnie Zamora radios in

to report what he's seen,

an FBI agent is listening in
on the frequency.

For him, this sighting
isn't just a mystery--

it's a threat
to a top-secret U.S. base.

- Zamora's sighting takes place
about a hundred miles outside

of White Sands Missile Range,

very near
Holloman Air Force Base,

which is ground zero
for classified

military aerospace programs.

Anything strange
that happens here

could very easily be
considered a threat,

possibly even from the Soviets.

[Duchovny] The FBI agent
alerts the Army.

Soon, military police arrive
to secure the location.

[Don] The military finds
Zamora shaken,

but crystal clear
about what he saw.

- Lonnie Zamora is
a very special kind of witness.

He's a no-nonsense cop
who carried out

everything by the book.

[Don] They also find
something else--

physical proof
of the craft's existence.

[Andrew] There are
indentations in the ground

that look like landing gear
as well as scorched brush

in the area from flames.

[Duchovny] To investigate,
the military sent in

the Air Force's top-secret
UFO program,

Project Blue Book.

[Hakeem]
Project Blue Book started

back in the 1940s to track

unidentified flying objects
across the United States.

Its job is to assess
every unexplained sighting

and determine if they pose
a threat to national security.

[Duchovny]
Project Blue Book is led by

Major Hector Quintanilla,

a professional skeptic
whose team has debunked

thousands of sightings.

While the press clamors
for answers,

he quietly launches
a forensic investigation.

- Quintanilla brings in teams
with Geiger counters

to sweep the area
for radiation.

They take soil samples
and send them

to the Air Force Materials Lab

to see if they can find
traces of propellants.

All tests are negative.

No foreign materials
are identified.

[Don] His team scours
the flight logs

of every military base

and civilian airport
in the region.

They contact weather stations
across the state,

but there were no
experimental flights that day

and no balloons sent up.

- At one point, he actually
even approaches the White House

and tries to discover whether
there's anything going on

at the highest levels
of the government,

and that also does not
bear any fruit.

There's no doubt that
something happened,

but the FBI can't
point to anything

as being abnormal or alien.

[tense music]

- After a thorough
investigation,

Quintanilla stamps the file
"unidentified."

For years, the Zamora case sits
in a Blue Book filing cabinet.

Then, in 1976, the project's
findings on UFOs go public.

[Andrew] In part
to quell public speculation

that the government is
trying to cover up

proof of alien existence,

Project Blue Book is
publicly declassified.

- Of its 12,000-plus files,
the government claims

that all of them can be
either explained or debunked.

But a small number,
around 700 or so,

remain unsolved,

including Zamora's.

[Duchovny]
It's not just unidentified--

it's one of a kind.

In private memoirs
released after his death,

Quintanilla, the skeptic who
spent his life debunking UFOs,

makes an astonishing
admission.

The Zamora sighting was

the best documented
case on record.

- The Zamora incident
was the one

that bothered him the most

because he could never
figure out what happened.

There's no proof that
the Zamora incident involves

any form of alien life,
but there's also

no definitive evidence
of what it was.

♪ ♪

- In the 1970s, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation

hunts infamous fugitives
like Ted Bundy,

John Wayne Gacy,
and Patty Hearst.

But for a brief period,
its world-leading forensic lab

also attempts to find
a much more outlandish monster:

Bigfoot.

[ominous music]

[Sami] Deep in
the Pacific Northwest,

tales have spread since
the 1800s of an enormous,

ape-like creature,
sometimes over 8 feet tall,

covered head to toe in hair,

walking upright
through remote forests.

They call it Sasquatch
or Bigfoot.

[Duchovny] In 1967,
59.5 seconds of grainy film

make the folktales seem
shockingly real.

[Don] A single shaky
piece of footage

is captured by two hikers,

Roger Patterson
and Bob Gimlin,

that shows an ape-like figure
glancing back at the camera.

[Kavitha] This eerie snippet

ignites a frenzy
of Bigfoot pursuit nationwide.

- Amateur hunters flood
into the forests.

And Washington State now
leads the nation

with more than
650 reported sightings.

That's about 9 for every
100,000 residents.

[Kavitha] It becomes
a widespread obsession.

Everyone is seeing
something in the woods.

[Duchovny] While Bigfoot fever
sweeps the nation,

one organization refuses
to get involved: the FBI.

- The FBI is asked repeatedly
to investigate these sightings,

but it constantly gives
the same answer.

"We investigate terrorism
and fugitives.

We don't do myths."

[Duchovny] That policy
holds firm for a decade,

until a compelling
new Bigfoot encounter

inspires a bizarre exception.

[tense music]

[Sami] In the summer of 1976,

two biologists
from the U.S. Forest Service

claim that they saw
a massive creature

lumbering through the trees
and disappearing.

Now, this isn't some vague
campfire story.

These are credible witnesses,
trained observers,

guys who know the woods.

- They immediately contact
the world's most dedicated

Bigfoot researcher,
Peter Byrne.

[Amy] Peter Byrne is
a former big game hunter

who has dedicated his life
to wildlife conservation

and also Sasquatch hunting.

He operates the Bigfoot
Information Center

in The Dalles, Oregon,
in what's thought to be

deep Sasquatch country.

[Duchovny] Byrne rushes
to the site to investigate.

- Peter Byrne interviews
the biologists

and then goes to the area where
they spotted the creature.

And Byrne notices that
the path the creature

supposedly took cuts
between two trees that are

really close together.

And that gap is too narrow

for anything
with broad shoulders

to pass through
without making contact.

- Byrne examines the trees
carefully,

and right there,
about 5 feet up,

snagged on rough bark,

he spots a small clump of hair

and a fragment of skin tissue.

[Amy] For Peter Byrne,
this isn't just

another footprint in the mud.

This is biological material
that can actually be tested.

- Could Byrne be holding
in his hands

the proof that Bigfoot exists?

He thinks so,
but wants it tested

by an authority
no one can question,

so he reaches out to the FBI.

[Don] Byrne drafts a letter
to the Bureau,

offering to send in
his Bigfoot sample

and pleading for them
to analyze it,

stressing the seriousness
of his research.

[Duchovny] Luckily for Byrne,
the FBI's forensic team

has never been
better equipped to help.

- Just the previous year,

the FBI has moved
their central lab

to a brand-new headquarters
in D.C.

And this is now
one of the largest

crime labs on the planet.

[Amy] It's filled
with cutting-edge technology

and can do more than
a million tests in a year.

[Dan] Chemical analyses,
toxicology reports,

ballistics--
basically any scientific

test you can think of.

[Duchovny]
But it's never tested

for legendary monsters
until now.

Byrne's letter lands
on the desk

of Assistant Director
Jay Cochran, Jr.

[Dan] Cochran, Jr. is

a career
law enforcement officer.

He is a by-the-book
kind of guy.

- The FBI has a strict policy

on what cases
they examine in their lab,

and that doesn't
include Bigfoot.

- Cochran is not
the type of guy

you would expect
to deviate from the rules.

[Duchovny] For reasons
that remain a mystery

to this day,
Cochran makes an exception.

[Dan] Maybe Cochran's curious.

Maybe he figures, if there is

a 7-foot humanoid
running around,

the government should
probably know about it.

Or maybe he just wants to put

all this wild speculation
to rest.

But whatever his motive,
he replies to Byrne,

and he agrees to test that
sample if Byrne sends it in.

[Duchovny]
Byrne meticulously wraps up

the 15 strands of hair
and the skin fragment

and ships them off
to the FBI lab.

Then nothing.

- Weeks, months,
and then years go by,

and he never hears anything.

[Don]
Byrne continues his work,

always searching for Bigfoot.

But the question
is always there--

what did the FBI find?

[Duchovny] The results remain
unknown for four decades.

Then when Byrne is in his 90s,
he finally gets an answer.

[Kavitha]
In 2019, the FBI releases

a 22-page Bigfoot file

after a Freedom
of Information Act request.

And inside, there's only
one investigation reference,

Peter Byrne's.

[Duchovny] The file reveals
that Cochran did

write back in 1977,

but Byrne never
received the letter,

and no one knows why.

- The document explains
that the FBI lab scientists

had subjected Byrne's Bigfoot
sample to a rigorous analysis.

[Amy]
This was before DNA testing,

so they tried to use
different microscopies

to figure out
as much as they could.

They looked at root structure,
cuticle thickness,

and scale cast, and the results
were pretty clear.

- Not an unknown primate,
not a new species,

but a deer.

- It was a deer.

[Dan]
It's not proof of Bigfoot,

but it is proof that,
for a brief moment at least,

the U.S. government took
the Sasquatch story

seriously enough
to forensically test it.

- Most countries fight wars
with spies and soldiers.

But in the darkest hour
of World War II,

Britain turns to someone with
an unexpected set of skills,

an astrologer who claims
he can defeat Germany

by reading the stars.

[tense music]

[Greg] It's 1940.

Hitler's Nazi machine has

blitzkrieged its way
across Europe.

Britain remains
essentially alone

in its stand against Hitler.

[Sami] Britain realizes
that its best shot

at surviving is
to draw the wealth

and military power
of the United States

into the war on their side.

[Greg] The problem is,

America is neutral
and isolationist.

And public opinion is
deeply set against

what is seen as a European war.

[Duchovny]
With conventional diplomacy

failing to lure America
into the fight,

Winston Churchill needs
a new plan.

Instead of sending in
one of his spies,

Churchill turns
to an astrologer for help.

- Louis de Wohl is
a flamboyant 37-year-old

Hungarian-Jewish immigrant

who fled Nazi Germany
five years earlier.

- In London, he casts himself
as this celebrity stargazer.

He charges
high-profile clientele

more than $1,000
in today's money

for one horoscope reading.

- Louis de Wohl is very good
at convincing people

to part with their money
and change their ideas.

[Duchovny]
He's recently been recruited

by British intelligence
to feed them information

on his high-profile clients.

Now he pitches them
a wild idea of his own.

[Sasha] De Wohl claims that,

by studying
planetary alignments

and the birth charts
of Nazi leaders,

he can predict
Hitler's military strategy.

[Greg] He insists that
every major German offensive

is timed to astrological
calculations.

- There is some evidence
to show that several

of the members of the German
High Command, including Hitler,

really are motivated
by astrological phenomena.

So de Wohl claims that
if you have the time and place

of their birth,
you can actually predict

their future actions.

- He's offering a sort
of celestial intelligence.

♪ ♪

- It's then that
British intelligence

gets an ingenious idea.

De Wohl's prophesizing
is so powerful,

they wonder if they can
use this wacky mystic

not to predict the war,

but to spook the U.S.
into joining it.

[tense music]

[Sasha]
British intelligence sees

that astrology is becoming
more and more

popular in the United States.

Millions of Americans are
reading their horoscopes

in daily newspapers.

[Greg] British intelligence
reasons that,

if the United States
can't be convinced

to join the war
for political reasons,

perhaps they can be
coaxed into it

through astrological warnings.

[Sami] They decide to send
de Wohl to America

to masquerade
as a freelance astrologer

not linked to any
British authority.

Here, he'll embark
on a lecture tour

aiming to sway public opinion
into joining the war

by convincing
the American public

Hitler is coming for them.

[Paul]
They're going to use him

because he's
a charismatic individual

who's very good
in front of crowds.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] On August 5, 1941,

de Wohl delivers
his first major address

to the American Federation
of Scientific Astrologers

in Cleveland, Ohio.

- De Wohl tells 500 delegates
that the stars are aligning

for a Nazi invasion
of the United States.

He even claims
to know the date.

Next spring,
Hitler will strike.

[Paul] When Saturn
and Uranus cross over

the constellation Gemini,
that will be the moment

at which
the Nazi attack occurs.

[Hakeem] The only way
to prevent this cosmic destiny

is for America
to abandon neutrality

and enter the war immediately
before it's too late.

[Duchovny]
The American press eats up

these apocalyptic
celestial warnings.

[Sasha]
Newspaper headlines explode,

from New York to California.

- The "Los Angeles Times"
even puts his prediction

on their front page,
saying that Hitler plans

to invade the United States
via Brazil.

[Duchovny] De Wohl's secret
mission is working perfectly

until it's blindsided
by a shocking event

that neither the U.S.
nor de Wohl predicted:

Pearl Harbor.

[Greg] On December 7, 1941,

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

It's this attack,

not mystical signs
from the stars,

that draws the United States
into the war.

- Despite Pearl Harbor,
the SOE considers

de Wohl's operation
an enormous success.

He generated a lot of publicity

and helped shift
American opinion

at a critical moment.

[Duchovny] Britain's
stargazing agent returns

from his U.S. tour, but now
his love of the spotlight

threatens to undo
all his secret work.

[Hakeem] De Wohl has always
loved attention,

so he struts about in uniform,

and he calls himself
Britain's state seer.

And he boasts
of the work that he's done

during the war
for British intelligence,

but British intelligence see
an egotistical charlatan

with a love of the limelight.

- Essentially,
he's gone from being

kind of a useful idiot

to being a danger
to state secrets.

[Hakeem]
They don't want the U.S.

to know that they've been
playing their public.

[Duchovny] De Wohl needs
to stop talking, permanently.

[Sami] Intelligence officials
draft a memo

with three options
to dispose of him.

Now, one is exile
to a remote village.

The other two options,

those are still completely
redacted.

[Duchovny]
Perhaps sensing his peril,

de Wohl takes the hint.

- He quiets down about a lot
of his grandiose claims.

He stops engaging in his
astrological profession,

and he reinvents himself
as a novelist.

[Duchovny]
De Wohl dies in 1961,

and for over 60 years,
this bizarre chapter

of British spy history
is locked away.

Only in 2008 are
de Wohl's intelligence files

declassified by
the National Archives,

and the full fantastical
story emerges.

[Greg]
De Wohl may have been seen

as vain and eccentric--

and in fact, perhaps was.

Nonetheless, de Wohl had
his 15 minutes of fame,

exercising celestial influence,
if you will,

on the highest levels
of British intelligence.

- In 1977, a new movie
called "Star Wars"

becomes a global phenomenon.

The same year,
behind closed doors,

the Pentagon investigates
if it can train

Jedi warriors of its own.

But these men aren't
after Darth Vader.

They'll take on goats.

[tense music]

[Sami] It's the late 1970s,

and the U.S. Army is
recovering

from the Vietnam War.

They're desperate
to ensure a conflict

as brutal and intractable
as that never happens again.

- The U.S. Army brass is
looking for new

and unconventional ways
to fight future wars.

[Sami] The usually
conservative military

turns its attention to a very
unconservative counterculture

sweeping from California
right across America,

the New Age Movement.

[O'Keefe] The New Age
Movement in the 1970s

is starting to look
at the world

and life in a different way.

They're experimenting with
transcendental meditation,

clairvoyancy--everything.

[Catherine]
The movement's led by

a number of spiritual gurus

who boldly claim
that they can access

incredible powers simply
by using the power of the mind.

[Sami] Some in the military
start to wonder,

could these discoveries be
weaponized to create soldiers

with new psychic powers?

[Duchovny]
One Vietnam combat veteran

decides to find out:

Lieutenant Colonel
Jim Channon.

[Catherine] Channon witnessed
some horrors while serving.

And after the war, he turned
to the New Age Movement

to cope with his trauma,
and it leads him

to encounter some of its
most advanced ideas.

- Channon approaches
the Pentagon,

and he suggests he might
be able to infiltrate

into these New Age communities,

soak up as much intelligence
as he can,

and then bring it back.

The Pentagon is quite
receptive to all this.

They end up funding him
and sending him in.

[Duchovny]
Channon heads to California

and begins his research.

- It is the ultimate
mind-expanding road trip.

- Over months,
Channon visits workshops,

retreats, spiritual centers--

150 different organizations.

You name it,
Channon goes there.

- And he tries everything,
from firewalking

and spoon-bending
to primal arm wrestling--

which is arm wrestling
combined with just, like,

guttural screaming--

and naked hot tub
therapy sessions.

[Kavitha] One thing
he becomes obsessed with

is an idea called
the Human Potential Movement.

This believes that
collective meditation

can alter brainwaves
and heart rate

and give humans
untapped power.

[Duchovny] After two years
of immersing

in this strange world,
Channon distills

everything he's learned
into a 125-page manifesto.

He argues
the Human Potential Movement

can be tapped to create
a new kind of soldier,

a warrior monk.

[Sami] He envisions
divisions of elite soldiers

trained in psychic combat,
soldiers who can turn invisible

through sheer mental focus
or stop an enemy's heart

just by concentrating on it.

[Duchovny] In 1979,
Channon delivers this dossier,

named "The First Earth
Battalion Operations Manual"

to the Army brass.

Enter Albert Stubblebine,

a major general
of U.S. Army intelligence

who buys it wholesale.

[Greg]
Major General Stubblebine

is another Vietnam veteran.

He's a true patriot,
and at this point has

16,000 men who answer to him.

- He believes that
the United States of America

needs the best soldiers
possible.

- Stubblebine reads
Channon's manual

and becomes convinced that
this means psychic soldiers.

[Duchovny]
With Stubblebine's backing,

the First Earth Battalion
transitions from madcap theory

into a real-life
psychic school for soldiers.

[tense music]

[Greg] The story goes
that Stubblebine sets up

a special unit
in Maryland to create

soldiers of the future
using Channon's techniques.

[O'Keefe] Soldiers are trying
to become invisible,

trying to walk through walls,

all with just the power
of the mind.

- The First Earth Battalion
talks a big game,

but the results
don't match the hype.

By the end of 1983, the program
was on the chopping block.

Stubblebine needs proof
it works.

Then special forces sets up
a make-or-break test.

[tense music]

[Catherine] Inside Fort Bragg,

which is the home
of the U.S. Special Forces,

is what's called the Goat Lab.

It houses 100 goats, and here,

U.S. soldiers can practice

treating gunshot wounds
on the livestock.

[Duchovny]
Now these crack troops get

a much more unnatural mission.

- The story goes the special
forces bring in a goat,

and selected men are
tasked with one order.

- With the power of the mind,

make the heart of the goat
stop beating.

[Catherine]
The soldiers meditate

and channel their thoughts
into what they believe

is a focused lethal force.

[Duchovny] And the goats?

- Just stand there,
staring back, chewing.

[Duchovny] There's no evidence

a single goat is killed
by psychic energy.

The test is
a complete failure,

and in 1984,

the First Earth Battalion is
quietly dissolved.

- General Stubblebine's
credibility is shattered.

[O'Keefe] He ends up
going into early retirement,

but he's still sure that there
was promise to this program.

The military was not
ready to accept it.

[Duchovny] Anything
associated with the project

is classified,
but secrets like this

don't stay buried forever.

After 20 years,
one journalist unveils

the entire surreal experiment.

[Sami] A British reporter
named Jon Ronson

hears rumors about the story
and chases it down.

He interviews former members of
the First Earth Battalion unit,

including Stubblebine
and Channon.

In 2004, he tells the whole
barely believable tale

in a book that becomes
a Hollywood film.

He calls it
"The Men Who Stare at Goats."

- Las Vegas is
full of the bizarre--

an indoor Eiffel tower,

a water slide
through a shark tank.

In 2017,
one journalist gets a lead

on something even stranger--

a secret warehouse
packed with UFO artifacts.

[tense music]

[Hakeem] It's October 2017,

and an investigative reporter
named Leslie Kean

gets a tip
from a trusted source.

A high-level
intelligence officer

wants to blow the whistle
on a government program

he claims is
investigating UFOs.

[Kavitha] This is the break
that Leslie Kean has been

waiting her entire career for.

She's built her reputation
on asking

serious questions about UFOs.

She's been fighting
the government hard,

often through the courts,

for transparency
on the subject.

[Duchovny] This could be big.

If Kean can prove that
the U.S. government is

secretly researching UFOs,
it would expose

the first official probe
into the subject

since the close of its
Project Blue Book in 1970.

- To bring the story to
the widest audience possible,

Kean teams up with
Ralph Blumenthal,

a veteran reporter
who spent 45 years

at "The New York Times."

Together, they set up a meeting
with the whistleblower

in a hotel room
in Philadelphia.

[Duchovny] In an intense,
hours-long session,

the 37-year-old intelligence
officer from Texas

lays out his story.

His name is Luis Elizondo.

[Dan] Luis Elizondo claims

he has just resigned
from the Pentagon

in protest at the cover-ups

of a top-secret
UFO research program.

[Amy]
He says he was the director

of a covert program called
the Advanced Aerospace

Threat Identification Program,
or AATIP.

[Dan] It was set up quietly
in 2007 with a mission

to analyze tracking data,
witness statements,

and military encounters

with unidentified
aerial phenomena or UFOs.

[Duchovny] At first,
the facts about AATIP

seemed hard to believe.

[Hakeem] He claims that it was
funded with $22 million,

largely from the Pentagon's
black budget,

which means that it doesn't
show up on any public ledger.

- This undercover operation
assembled what could be

the most advanced
and extensive collection

of UFO data in existence.

- Over 200,000
reported incidents.

[Duchovny] Elizondo's exposé
is potentially huge.

But for Kean, the word of one
whistleblower isn't enough.

[Greg] The journalist can't
run a story this incredible

without bulletproof evidence.

[Amy]
Kean has spent her career

trying to get people
to take UFOs seriously.

So if this story flops,
everything's just gonna get

pushed back into the fringes.

They need this to land.

[Duchovny] To corroborate
Elizondo's UFO claims,

the journalists go after two
of the key players he's named.

First up, a former senator
named Harry Reid,

who Elizondo says green-lit
the hidden funds.

- Kean and Blumenthal
track down Harry Reid

and ask him point blank,

"Did you authorize a secret
Pentagon UFO program?"

- You'd expect a politician
to distance himself

from little green men,
but incredibly,

Reid doubles down.

He tells them on the record

that this program was vital
to national security.

He even says,
"I'm not embarrassed

or sorry that
I got this thing going."

[Duchovny]
Next, Kean chases down

the strangest player
connected to the program,

a billionaire
real-estate magnate

and UFO truth seeker
named Robert Bigelow.

- Robert Bigelow says
he had a paranormal encounter

when he was a child,
which made him a true believer.

And so, in his adulthood,
he's poured money

into the study
of space and UFOs.

[Kavitha] He runs a company
called Bigelow Aerospace,

which ostensibly builds
modules for space stations.

But the journalists uncover
that Bigelow Aerospace has

a secret side contract with
AATIP that nobody knows about.

- Bigelow tells the journalist
that his aerospace company

is paid by the program
to manage a specialized

storage facility in Las Vegas.

- According to Bigelow,
it houses files,

but also physical materials,

pieces from downed UFOs,

mysterious fragments
recovered from crash sites.

- Essentially, says Bigelow,
the U.S. government

has an entire warehouse
of alien technology.

- As the journalists
prepare to take

this incredible revelation
to the public,

they're missing
just one thing--

a comment from the Pentagon.

[Hakeem] The team reaches out
for an official response,

and on December 16th,

just hours from going
to press, it arrives.

- The Pentagon knows
the story is about to break.

There's no stopping it.

So instead of denying it,

the Pentagon acknowledges
that AATIP existed.

♪ ♪

[Dan] This is
the first time since 1970

that the United States
government has admitted,

on the record,
that they have been running

a program to study UFOs.

♪ ♪

The article hits
the front page.

It goes global instantly.

The public demands answers,

and Congress wants
transparency.

[Duchovny]
It's a watershed moment.

Almost overnight,

U.S. authorities remove
the stigma on UFOs.

- After Kean's exposé,

the military changes
its stance on UFOs.

Pilots are told, if you see
something, say something.

And they even declassify
videos

of previous
unexplained phenomena.

- In 2022,
the government establishes

a new public-facing task force

to investigate reports of
unidentified aerial phenomena,

and they call it

the All-Domain Anomaly
Resolution Office.

Everybody knows
what it really is.

it's the Pentagon's
UFO program.

♪ ♪

- From witchcraft

supposed to give troops
an edge in battle

to out-of-body espionage,

all governments secretly
embrace the unconventional,

mystical,
and outright unexplained.

But what they do
or don't discover

will always find its way
into the light.