All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens [1x04] - Closer Encounters [eng]

President Thomas Jefferson...
Christopher Columbus...

Crusaders in the Middle Ages...
What did they have in common?

They either experienced or believed in
the possibility of alien encounters.

And the fact is there have been
so many descriptions by various

chroniclers talking about a strange
cloud in the sky that glowed red.

Columbus, on his first voyage, he
noted in the log, a glowing object

rise out of the water and
head off into the atmosphere.

Could alien beings have been responsible
for biblical floods, medieval

plagues, and even ancient
nuclear attacks?

Visitations occurred since before
recorded history all the way to today.

Millions of people around the world believe
we have been visited in the past by

extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And what if these visitations
didn't only occur thousands

of years ago, but much more recently?

Might there be evidence of
real-life close encounters?

Alamogordo, New Mexico.

White Sands Proving
Ground, July 16, 1945.

Early in the morning, a number of U.
S. military officers and

scientists gather to watch a
powerful new weapon being tested.

Some believe the device will
be a complete failure, others

think it might destroy the
entire state of New Mexico.

As a precaution, viewing
stations are placed from ten

to 20 miles away from the test site.

At precisely 5:29 and 45 seconds,
the first atomic bomb is detonated.

>> Three, two, one...
Fire!

The blast emits a fireball over 600 feet
wide and produces an explosion equal

to 20,000 tons of TNT.

The mushroom cloud reaches over
reverberations can be felt

nearly 100 miles away.

The world had a new weapon;

one so terrifying it left even its creator, Dr.
Robert Oppenheimer, shocked and

shaken.

A few people laughed.

A few people cried.

Most people were silent.

For the first time in its history, the
Earth had been assaulted by a manmade

weapon of incredible power.

But what if it had
all happened before?

What if an explosion of even greater
force and destructiveness had long ago

shaped the Earth's history?

Some people have suggested on the basis
of a number of lines of evidence

that there may have been
atomic warfare, atomic bombs,

atomic explosions, in
the very distant past.

Atomic warfare among ancient civilizations
may sound like something out of a

science fiction novel, but
descriptions of similar deadly

occurrences can be found in the
very same text Dr. Oppenheimer

quoted after the New
Mexico atomic test.

I remembered the line from the Hindu
scripture, the Bhagavad Gita,

"Now I am become death,
the destroyer of worlds."

Part of an ancient Hindu scripture
known as The Mahabharata, the Bhagavad

Gita was written sometime between
the fifth and second century B.C.

This massive 100,000-verse text
contains stories about the

ancient empire OJ Rama, which
it is said existed over 12,000

years ago, or roughly 5,000 years before
the earliest recorded civilization

in Mesopotamia.

If you read the ancient Indian
epics, they read like modern-day

science fiction.

Yet they are thousands of
years old with references

not only of flying chariots and
of these gods that had these

incredible technological
capabilities, but incredible

weapons that they used
in those epic battles.

They had what was
called a Brahma weapon.

There were many people that were
singed and burned and melted

by the Brahma weapon.

Ancient astronaut theorists believe the
Brahma weapon was an early nuclear

device because the descriptions
of its deadly aftereffects are

eerily similar to the effects of
exposure to intense radiation.

It is a theory largely discounted
by conventional science.

There is no evidence that a nuclear
bomb was described in The Mahabharata,

the Bhagavad Gita.

It describes a battle.

In battles there are
explosions, big explosions.

It's one thing about suggesting that,
you know, battles have explosions, but

that's not really what
we're looking at.

You've got to look at
the whole picture.

One reference that we have,
for example, speaks of these

explosions that were brighter
than a thousand suns.

And when these blasts occurred,
the suns were twirling in the

air, trees went up in flames and there
was just this mass destruction.

After those blasts, people who
survive start to lose their hair

and nails start to fall out.

I mean, right there, we have a
concise reference to radiation

poisoning, nuclear fallout.

And those texts are
thousands of years old.

But if The Mahabharata is based
on fact, wouldn't archaeologists

have uncovered physical
or radiological evidence?

According to ancient astronaut
theorists, they have.

The Indus Valley, Southern Pakistan.

In 1922, an officer with an
Indian archeological survey

group discovered the ruins of an
ancient city known as Mohenjo-Daro.

According to mainstream
archeologists, the city, whose

name means "mound of the dead,"

had flourished between
2600 and 1900 B.C.

However, scientists in Pakistan have
suggested Mohenjo-Daro is much older.

Mainstream archeologists
believe the city was abandoned

as a result of climatic changes
or possibly a decrease in trade.

But when the ruins of
Mohenjo-Daro were discovered in

the 1920s, 44 skeletons were
found lying face down in the

street, many holding hands.

Their faces and body positioning
suggested they suffered

a sudden, violent death.

You have a culture of people who
literally were lying dead in the street.

Archaeologists have found human
remains, and something big

has happened to these people.

What, in fact, did happen to
the people of Mohenjo-Daro?

Why is there evidence that wild animals
avoided scavenging their remains?

And why, even after thousands of
years, had their bones not decayed?

In certain areas of that site, you
find increased levels of radiation.

And radiation exists
all over the place.

When, all of a sudden, you have
higher levels of radiation

in certain areas of the world,
the question, arises, "Why?"

Is it possible that Mohenjo-Daro was
one of the cities mentioned in the

Bhagavad Gita-- a city that suffered the
equivalent of a sudden atomic attack?

In his 1979 book, Atomic

Destruction in 2000 B.C.,

British researcher David

Davenport claimed to have found

a 50-yard-wide epicenter

at Mohenjo-Daro where everything

appeared to have been fused

through a transformative process

known as "vitrification."

Vitrification is

a process in which regular-type

stone gets molten into a magma

state and then it hardens again.

But once the stone is hardened

again, it feels like glass.

At Mohenjo-Daro, we find

evidence of vitrification, which

could have only been achieved

if the material was exposed to

extreme heat by some type of

a blast.

When British

and Indian and Pakistani

archeologists began doing

excavations in the Sian Desert,

on the borders of India and

Pakistan, in the late 1940s and

early 1950s, what they found in

these cities-- Mohenjo-Daro,

Harrapa, Kot Diji-- was

archeological evidence to show

there were apparently atomic

weapons.

Only it happened in ancient

times.

There's other evidence in parts

of Africa and the Middle East,

where it would seem to be like

some sort of atomic explosion

had taken place there, and had

turned the desert sand

into glass.

And that's exactly what happened

at Alamogordo, in New Mexico,

when they detonated the first

atom bomb in the desert.

Could the strange

ruins found in the Indus Valley

really contain evidence of an

ancient atomic explosion?

If so, where did these powerful

weapons come from?

Who was using them?

And why?

In the ancient

Indian texts themselves it says,

and I quote, "At one point,

three giant cities were orbiting

the Earth."

And those giant cities were

often described as being made

of gleaming metal and iron.

And at one point, those three

cities went to war with each

other.

And it's described how the gods

threw weapons at each other,

destroying those cities,

they all went up in flames

and fire came raining down onto

Earth.

So, when you read those

passages, the question I ask is:

What is it that our ancestors

tried to describe here?

And I think that it was some

type of a technology that was

witnessed, yet our ancestors,

while being highly intelligent,

didn't understand the nuts and

bolts aspects behind that

technology.

And so they created something

divine out of it, something

supernatural, yet it never was

divine.

It never was supernatural.

If, in fact,

The Mahabharata is describing

historical events, might we
also find similar accounts

in other ancient writings?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

we need look no further than in
the pages of the Holy Bible.

According to one of the stories contained
in the book of Genesis, angels were

sent by God to destroy the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

because of the sins
of their inhabitants.

Only a righteous man named Lot, along
with his family, was to be spared.

But while making their escape,
Lot's wife ignores the angels'

warning not to look back, and
upon gazing at the horror and

devastation, is turned
into a pillar of salt.

When you are at a nuclear testing range
and you witness a nuclear blast, you're

told to look away and not to
look straight into the blast.

And here we have a similar
description in ancient biblical

text where instructions were
given, "Whatever you do, don't

look back because you will die."

And sure enough, it
happened to Lot's wife.

Could it be that the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah is really a description of a

nuclear explosion, similar to the one
described in the Hindus' Mahabharata?

Do the stories of The Mahabharata and
the Bible represent actual historical

events?

For ancient astronaut theorists,
the answer is a resounding "yes."

And they believe the so-called
"angels" who brought forth the

devastation were, in fact,
beings from another planet--

alien visitors armed
with advanced weaponry.

September, 2000.

The Black Sea, Turkey.

Marine archaeologist Robert
Ballard and his team of

underwater scientists discover
what appears to be a farmhouse

some 330 feet below the surface.

Estimates suggest the submerged dwelling
to be approximately 7,500 years old.

Ballard and other scholars
speculated that rising ocean

levels could have caused the
Mediterranean Sea to burst

through a natural dam, creating
a flood so great it drowned

an estimated 58,000 square
miles under 500 feet of water.

But more than finding the ruins
of an ancient dwelling, had

Ballard actually discovered
proof that the biblical story

of Noah and the great flood was true?

Those villages, of course,
weren't built underwater.

So Ballard concluded that the
Black Sea, as we know it, was

only created some eight,
9,000 years ago.

That is exactly what we're
talking about with Noah's Ark

and the flood, the same area
where all that happened.

And in fact, mainstream
archeologists know that in the

Mediterranean there are over
200 known sunken cities.

Those cities, too, were somehow
flooded the same time that the

Black Sea was flooded.

Also written in the book of Genesis, the
story of Noah tells how God "saw that

the wickedness of man was great ," and
decided to destroy all of creation.

Only Noah, his family, and the
animals aboard the ark were

allowed to survive and
repopulate the planet.

But is this the whole story?

Was Noah selected only for his virtue?

Or was there another reason he
was chosen to save the planet?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe the
Bible doesn't tell the whole story.

In the late 1940s and early
1950s, a series of ancient

texts known as the Dead Sea
Scrolls were discovered in a

cave located in what is
now Israel's West Bank.

Among the ancient writings are
various stories not found in

the traditional Hebrew Bible.

One such story tells of Noah and
his strange, miraculous birth.

One of the Dead Sea Scrolls is
called "The Lamech Scroll."

What is Lamech?

Lamech was a shepherd.

And one day, Lamech, his
woman was pregnant.

And he said to her,
"This is impossible.

I was not here for months."

But his woman with the name Bathenosh
swears, "No one touched me."

But Lamech doesn't believe his
wife, Bathenosh, and he goes to

his father, which was Methuselah.

And Methuselah says to
Lamech, "I can't help you.

I don't understand this.

I believe your woman, Bathenosh, "that
nobody touched her, and I believe you.

What shall I do?"

So Methuselah goes to his father,
the grandfather now of Lamech.

His name is Enoch.

Now Enoch tells to Methuselah
that the guardians of the sky

have made an artificial insemination
into the womb of Bathenosh, the wife.

And he should accept this child,
because this child will be

the father of a new human generation.

And in the Bible, this is Noah.

What if, as ancient astronaut
theorists believe,

the story of Lamech is true
and the guardians of the sky

described in the story
are, in fact, aliens?

Does this mean that Noah was
the product of an artificial

insemination, a genetic experiment
performed by extraterrestrials?

If so, what was the reason
for the great flood?

Well, the reason for the flood,
and we need to understand this.

What it tells us is that Noah was
pure in all of his generations.

What does that mean?

You know, why would the account,
you know, specify "pure in all

his generations"?

According to the Bible, God sent the
flood because of man's wickedness and

corruption.

But ancient astronaut theorists
believe the flood was actually

a means of ridding the Earth
of biological imperfections.

By using Noah and his family,
they could repopulate the

planet with a genetically
superior species.

Part of this human society is, again,
genetically backward, closer

to the animal.

What can we do?

These humans were spread
out over the planet.

So they said, "We have to mill
them all by a great flood, and

then we have to restart again."

Another familiar element in the story
of Noah involves the collection of

animals brought aboard the ark.

In the Bible, God commanded
Noah to collect two of every

kind of living creature--
animal, bird and insect.

But many biblical scholars and
theologians agree that such

a task would have been both physically
and biologically impossible.

Could there be another more
scientific explanation?

The story of Noah's Ark is pretty
implausible, if you think about it.

You have two animals of each
creature on planet Earth on a boat.

Not only would the boat have to
be huge, but how are you going

to collect every animal on the
planet and put it on that ship?

So, could it be possible that
Noah's Ark was once again

misunderstood technology, and
Noah's Ark was a DNA bank?

Could it be a story?

Could it be technology somehow
gathering up all living things

as in a DNA bank of some kind?

It fits together.

Hard to imagine, uh, how that
would happen so far back, but

if it did happen, it would need
to be told as a story, and the

to be told as a story, and the
story of a boat works.

Perhaps this is really an
extraterrestrial DNA bank as well.

The extraterrestrials need plants and
animals and minerals on this planet, too.

Just like when we go to Mars
or something, we'll be using

what we can use on that planet.

So, extraterrestrials coming here
would want to do that as well.

And if they knew that some
cataclysm was coming, they, too,

would want to preserve certain
kinds of animals and plant life,

and create, you know, what
we think of as Noah's Ark.

An alien DNA bank?

Is there any evidence that
such a thing is even possible?

In 2008, on the Arctic island
of Svalbard, a vault was built

to store the seeds of hundreds
of thousands of plants in the

event of a global catastrophe.

Elsewhere, similar efforts are
reportedly underway to store

animal and human DNA as well.

Cutting-edge science or merely
history repeating itself?

The Frozen Ark Project is a program that
was initiated by the London Natural

History Museum.

What they've done is they started to store
DNA of endangered species for future

generations, for preservation.

And, as of today, over a
thousand species have been

preserved in small little vials.

So, the question arises,
could it be possible that

Noah's Ark wasn't necessarily a
boat made out of wood, but what

if Noah's Ark was some type of a
DNA storage facility that was

used in order to preserve all
the species on planet Earth?

If each species can be held in
a tiny vile like this, then

it all becomes very logical.

And, once again, we have to look
at it from a perspective, "What

did our ancestors try to describe?

What did they witness?"

Aliens artificially inseminating humans...
Ancient DNA banks...

Could such ideas really help our
understanding of the Bible?

And is it possible that extraterrestrials
have influenced the development of

mankind?

There are many who claim that
the proof can be found in some

astonishing places.

For those who believe that close
encounters with alien beings have helped

shape Earth's history, it is
important to remember that it

isn't only ancient history
that has been so influenced.

There have been literally
hundreds of credible accounts

of strange creatures, UFO
sightings and otherworldly

phenomena that took place, even
in the so-called Dark Ages.

There have been sightings all over the
world throughout the Middle Ages.

There are stories going from Scotland
to England to Italy to the Crusades.

Remember the Crusades took
place over hundreds of years.

And at certain points in the
battle, in some cases over

Turkey, in some cases over
Jerusalem, there are images

captured in writing by various
chroniclers talking about

"a strange cloud in the
sky that glowed red.

A strange image coming out
of a cloud in the sky."

Why would we say this is a UFO?

Because, traditionally, UFOs
mask themselves by forming

a cloud around themselves.

And it's a cloud that's going
through the sky-- that's their

invisibility cloak.

In his 13th century historical
work titled Otto

Imperialia, Gervase of Tilbury

wrote about an aerial craft
over the city of Bristol,

England, which caught an
anchor in a church steeple.

He uses specifically
the term "anchor."

Now, we don't know what
kind of anchor that is.

But a creature, a man, climbs
out of this craft and tries

to free the anchor from the steeple.

And all the people in the
village start stoning him,

thinking he's some sort of evil demon.

But for ancient astronaut theorists,
evidence of an alien presence during the

Middle Ages isn't only
found in literature.

All throughout the Middle Ages, there
are some magnificent paintings...

...and in certain areas of the painting,
there are what looks like to be UFOs.

They're always floating up in
the sky-- usually above the

Virgin Mary or above Jesus on
the crucifix-- or somewhere we

have sceneries that Pict
what looks like UFOs.

One very interesting painting
is where Jesus sits up in the

clouds with quote, unquote "God
," and they're holding onto

the antennae of what looks like
Sputnik; and theologians say

what is depicted here is
nothing else but the Earth.

But why would Earth have two
antennae sticking out of it?

And why would it be round?

Because the mainstream viewpoint at
the time was that the Earth was flat.

Here are pictures of the crucifixion
dated around 1350 from Kosovo.

Here are, presumably, vehicles
with people driving them in

attendance at the crucifixion.

Could this be a crude-- an
attempt on the part of the

artist drawing on a tradition--
obviously, he wasn't there--

drawing on a tradition?

Could he be reflecting the folklore?

Possibly.

The people of the Middle Ages depicted
devils and angels frequently,

in their art.

They did not depict what we today
consider aliens, specifically.

But angels are heavenly creatures
that come from outside

of our sphere, aren't they?

Did the medieval artists include strange
creatures and flying spacecraft

in their paintings because they
had seen them in real life?

Or were they trying to
communicate their belief that

the miraculous events of the New
Testament had otherworldly origins?

The most famous painting that
resolved any doubt in my mind

depict a UFO with its laser
beam, was made by Crivelli in

1486-- The Annunciation to Mary.

In medieval art, in The
Annunciation, when Mary is

told that she will have a child,
but she will still be a virgin,

and the angels tell her this, over
Mary's head is a space capsule.

But what's a UFO, or a space
capsule, doing over Mary?

Maybe the artist saw it and he's
putting it in the painting to

bring together his own vision of
a UFO, the annunciation from the

Bible, and the mystery of salvation
that there could be a virgin birth.

According to ancient astronaut theorists,
the UFO-shaped objects found in

medieval paintings aren't the
only evidence of an alien

presence during the era.

In his book, The Gods of Eden,

author William Bramley cites

private journals and other

publications throughout

Europe which contain accounts

of cigar-shaped flying objects

emitting noxious mists.

The first reports of this kind

began during the mid-14th

century, closely corresponding

to the outbreak of the worst

health epidemic in human

history-- the Black Plague.

The Black

Plague, back in the 1300s, many

have said was caused by a virus

from a rodent-- bitten by fleas.

This disease that wiped out

75-plus million people on the

planet at the time.

But there's another theory by

a fellow by the name of William

Bramley who says that the Black

Plague was created by ETs, that

they wanted to eradicate human

beings, for whatever horrible

reason.

We know that

plague can be spread by rodents.

But there weren't that many

rodent infestations being

reported back then, at least not

enough to account for all of the

breakouts that we had.

So what you find in the

literature from that time are

numerous reports of bright

lights moving through the sky,

emitting gas, or what they call

"mists."

And we find them in China, you

find them in Europe.

There are similar reports

from the Justinian plague from

earlier in history, and even

later plagues, the cholera

epidemics.

You find similar stories of

mists that are the cause of the

Plague.

We have weapons like that--

biological warfare.

As for the motive as to why

this happened, I can only kind

of scratch my head, because in

the UFO phenomena, we see

certain consistent patterns, but

we don't always understand the

motive.

Italian historian

Matteo Villani, who both
chronicled the Black Death and

died from it in the 14th
century, wrote of pestilential

fogs reported by travelers from Asia.

He even wrote that people were
convinced they could actually

see the plague coming
through the streets.

But what some ancient astronaut
believers find to be even

stronger evidence of alien involvement,
are the numerous reports of mysterious

black-cloaked creatures who
would appear on the outskirts

of villages just before
plague broke out.

Contemporary accounts describe
them as having "terrifying

faces" and "waving long, scythe-like
objects dispensing noxious mists."

It's the image we know
today as the Grim Reaper.

These figures in black would appear
usually on the outskirts of a town.

They were carrying these long
devices that looks like scythes.

These figures in black would
start sweeping in the fields as

though they were cutting
down the wheat.

Then immediately there would
be an outbreak of the plague.

Although ancient astronaut theorists
are divided on Bramley's proposal that

aliens we behind the plague,
his research, like the artwork

of the time, has led to
one important conclusion.

What is evidenced is the fact that
visitations occurred since before recorded

history all the way to today.

It's not like ancient astronauts
only happened thousands of years

ago, and then all of a
sudden we have Roswell.

The fact alone, that these
visitations have been going on

for all this time, thousands
of years, that's sensational.

Flying cylinders spreading
plague from the sky?

Black-clad aliens looking
to destroy humans?

But even if possible, why?

And, if true, wouldn't there
continue to be evidence of even

more close encounters-- encounters that
would take place much closer to home?

When Columbus and his men first set foot
in what to the Europeans was the "New

World," the indigenous people had
never encountered anyone like them.

Their skin was pale.

They wore strange clothes made of
bright, often shiny materials.

They arrived in massive ships
and had powerful weapons.

To the natives, the visitors were truly
aliens from a strange, faraway world--

powerful beings who might just as
well have been sent from the heavens.

Columbus wrote in his journal that
the inhabitants eagerly came out

to see their ships, and asked them
if they had come from the heavens.

And despite the fact that
Columbus and his men indicated,

"No, we didn't come from the
heavens," they called out to

the people still on the shore,
"Come out and see the people

who've come from the heavens."

Certainly, it seems interesting
to wonder why it is that

instead of thinking that
possibly they came from some

other part of the sea, that
they'd come from the sky.

But there is more to the story.

Less well-known is that
Columbus had an alien encounter

of his own, one reported in
his log just days before he

reached the shores of the New World.

p.m. on the 11th of October, 1492, the
anxious explorer was on the deck of the

Santa Maria when he saw a

"light glimmering at
a great distance."

Columbus wrote, "The admiral, standing
on the quarterdeck saw a light.

Calling to Pedro Gutierrez, he
told him he saw a light, and

bid him look that way,
which he did and saw it.

The admiral again perceived it
once or twice, appearing like

the light of a wax candle
moving up and down."

Summoning another member of the
crew, the two watched as the

light vanished and
reappeared repeatedly.

Seeing lights in the water
isn't really an anomaly.

We all know that certain kinds of
underwater life give off lights.

But this light actually
traveled along with the ship.

Columbus noted in the log a glowing object
rise out of the water, and head off

into the atmosphere.

What did Columbus see?

A phosphorescent sea creature?

An hallucination?

Or was it something more?

Something from out of this world?

What did Columbus'

men see?

What they saw was a luminous
object, that upon breaking

the water's surface, became a UFO.

To UFO researchers like
Bill Birnes, Columbus'

sighting is significant, not only because
of when it occurred, but also because

the object was spotted coming
out of the sea, ruling out the

possibility that what he saw was
a comet or a shooting star.

What's intriguing is that this was in
what we cal- today the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle, that
area, particularly off of

Bimini, the Bahamas, may in
fact be-- and I'm way out on a

limb here-- Colony
headquarters underneath that.

Your UFO goes down into the water
and then into a subterranean.

What better position would
be to monitor South America,

Middle America, Egypt
than the Caribbean?

Many people believe that
it's possible that UFOs

could have established
bases on the seafloor.

To some extent, it's true
that we know more about the

Moon or some parts of outer
space than we do about the

deepest parts of our own oceans.

This event is extremely important
because it is the world's first

recorded event that illustrate
the appearance of UFO as object

emerging from the water.

If Columbus sighting was so extraordinary,
why do we only find record of it

in his log?

Some believe another account
of this event exists in the

official records of the
Spanish Inquisition.

UFO researcher Maximillien De Lafayette
claims that Columbus' shipmate, Pedro

Gutierrez, reported him to the
Inquisition after hearing

Columbus describe the lights in the
sky as resembling the Jewish menorah.

When they went back to Spain,
Gutierrez went directly to the

infamous Inquisition.

This is the Catholic organization
created by the Vatican to persecute and

kill the infidels.

The infidels means the Jews, the Muslims
and Christians who are not Catholic.

The Inquisition called him
for explanation, deposition.

"Did you say that you saw menorah?

Why did you say menorah?

Oh, so you are a Jew."

He said, "I'm not a Jew."

In the deposition, which is
lengthy, you find more details,

meticulous details of what
Columbus saw above the water.

The file of the Inquisition is
in the vault of the Vatican.

And good luck if you can go
to the secret file of the

Vatican and try to dig for
document as explosive as this one.

Secret files of the
Spanish Inquisition?

UFOs and alien sightings
in the time of Columbus?

Farfetched, perhaps.

But to proponents of ancient
astronaut theory, these

precolonial close encounters are
considered commonplace events.

For them, it offers additional
proof that we are not alone.

They have several sightings of
what we would call UFOs today

along the discovery of America,
during the conquest of America.

Columbus was not the only one.

Also on the trip of Magellan.

Fernando De Magellan, the
discoverer of the Strait,

who circumnavigate the
world after Columbus.

He have also sightings.

Seafarers often encounter strange
lights both in the sky and below the

surface of the ocean.

Skeptics argue that Columbus'

sighting, like many others, was
simply a natural phenomenon.

At night, there are all kinds
of things, for example bolides.

Bolides are these very large
comets, and they're spectacular.

It's just like this enormous
bright light with a trail that

just arcs through the sky.

But we can tell the difference.

When you have a meteor like that or a
bolide, the characteristics are very

different than the
ones of genuine UFOs.

As far back as the 19th century,
people have speculated about what that

light could've been.

Explanations have centered
around the possibility that it

could've been a light or a torch being
carried by an island inhabitant.

They were in fact more than
35 miles away from any land,

which makes that impossible.

The other possibility is that
it was a meteor traveling

very close to the horizon, and that the
movement of the ship is actually what

made the light appear to
be moving up and down.

But what if conventional science
is wrong and the ancient astronaut

theorists are correct?

What if Columbus, Magellan and the early
explorers really did see evidence of

extraterrestrial creatures
visiting our planet?

What does this say about our past?

Our history?

And our future?

Germany, April

14, 1561.

At dawn, the citizens of
Nuremberg awoke to what was

described in a local news flier
as "a very frightful spectacle."

Various strange objects
were spotted in the sky...

engaged in what appeared
to be an aerial battle.

Could they have been
witnessing a close encounter?

They see this incredible sight
as the sun is coming up.

They see what they describe as
cigar-shaped objects, circles

in the air, and crosses;

flying crosses.

And suddenly, these shapes
begin emitting other shapes.

The spheres and discs were seen for
a long time, as they apparently

were fighting in some kind
of a battle over the city.

In fact, the battle was so
evident that the people in

Nuremberg were actually able to
perceive which side was winning.

Some of the objects were seen
to crash into the ground

and disappear in a cloud
of smoke or steam.

Other objects were seen to fly off and
disappear in the direction of the sun.

This entire event becomes
memorialized in a broadsheet.

Now a broadsheet in the 16th
century was literally a newspaper.

And that broadsheet exists
today in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Zurich Central Library to this day
retains a copy not only of the famous

woodcut that shows the 1561
sighting over Nuremberg, but

also a 1566 woodcut showing a
sighting from that year that

was quite similar in
Basel, Switzerland.

What's fascinating is it's
a very similar event.

People saw a bunch of
circles in the air.

In fact, a proliferation
of circles in the air.

They didn't necessarily
interpret that as a battle in

the air, but they did interpret
it as some kind of heavenly sign.

The broadsheets that were distributed
both in Nuremberg and in Basel five

years later, advised people to
"repent for their sins" and

interpreted these extraordinary
events as signs from God.

In old time, everything paranormal,
extra, extra-- hyphen--

ordinary belongs the realm
of divinity, of Gods.

"God's doing this!

God is punishing us!

God is blessing us!

Go repent!

Go to church!"

It's interesting to read the Nuremberg
description because it is written with

religious iconography in mind.

They talk about crosses seen
in the sky on the previous day

during that sighting.

Now what we might think of as a
fuselage with wings, might've

appeared as a cross to people
who saw religious symbolism

constantly in their everyday life.

It's difficult to imagine
how these things might have

appeared, but it's certainly
possible that if these were to

appear in the sky today, we would
describe them quite differently.

Could the people of Nuremberg have
actually witnessed a battle between

warring alien factions; an event
eerily similar to the one

written about in the Bhagavad
Gita over 3,000 years earlier?

And if not, what else would
explain the vivid accounts of

luminous globes and blood-red
crosses appearing in the sky?

Throughout the Middle Ages,
visions of strange happenings

were often attributed to God
or to the supernatural.

But moving into what is known
as the early modern period of

the 17th century, people began
to look more and more toward

science and the stars for answers.

And with the invention of the
refracting telescope in 1608,

there would be more eyes trained
on the stars than ever before.

Ironically, the first report of
a UFO witnessed through this

new device came from colonial
America's best-known Puritan

minister, Cotton Mather.

There was an incredible sighting that
the very famous New England preacher

Cotton Mather had.

Cotton Mather said that he was
looking through a telescope at

the Moon, and in the telescope
he saw a flying light over the

surface of the moon.

Well, how did this get recorded?

By none other than NASA.

And people can find it themselves.

Go to the NASA report on lunar
anomalies over 500 years,

and they will find Cotton
Mather's sighting of a UFO

over the surface of the Moon.

There are a vast number of natural
atmospheric phenomena that can appear as

bright lights in the night sky.

Certainly, uh, meteors
are a possibility.

Even certain kinds of terrestrial phenomena
do materialize as glowing balls of

light that, seen from a distance,
may appear to be a star.

And it's incredibly difficult
to judge the distance of a

point source of light in the night.

So he may have thought that it
was on the surface of the Moon,

or-or hundreds of miles away,
when in reality, it could've

been quite close to where he was.

Though it is uncertain what Cotton
Mather saw, ancient astronaut theorists

find it significant that a
prominent religious figure would

report such a sighting not as a vision
from God, but as an astronomical event.

They see it as a sign, not only
of the sighting's authenticity,

but that views on the
possibility of extraterrestrial

life were starting to shift, even
within the Christian church.

Cotton Mather was known as a
fire and brimstone preacher.

But there's a rational part
of Cotton Mather as well...

because this was the very beginning;
the dawn of the industrial revolution.

And in this context, people were
thinking about science, they

were thinking about machines, and
really thinking about, could

there be something in space?

Although sightings like Cotton Mather's
were still rare in the 1700s, the

increasing interest in
astronomy sparked a new debate

over a centuries-old theory
called "the plurality of

worlds;" the idea that life might exist
elsewhere throughout the universe.

By the end of the 18th century, the
majority of people, at least of educated

people, were convinced that all
throughout the solar system

on Jupiter, on Mars, on Saturn.

All of them had extraterrestrials.

Very possibly the Moon would
have intelligent beings on it.

I once did a tally of the
leading intellectuals in the

18th century; over half
of them included ideas of

extraterrestrial life
in their publications.

The premier 18th- century astronomer
William Herschel also supported the

theory that life existed
on other planets.

So did Thomas Paine, one of
America's Founding Fathers,

along with many religious
leaders of the time.

Preachers were preaching about extraterrestrials
as a proof of God's goodness.

That's the idea that if there
is a good and beneficent

God, he would populate all
the planets, all the stars.

Though there was open
debate about the existence

of extraterrestrial life in the
1700s, the discussion did not

often extend to the idea
of aliens visiting Earth.

But in 1731, a series of
sightings occurred across

Europe that were so compelling, the
possibility could no longer be ignored.

In modern UFO sightings, the
communications about UFOs are instant;

it's on the Internet, it's on YouTube.

But what about some of these
18th-century or Renaissance sightings?

Here's something incredible.

In 1731 over Kilkenny, Ireland,
there was a sighting of

a luminous object coming
out of a red cloud.

That same sighting is reported in the
span of a week over the rest of Europe,

particularly over Romania
in Eastern Europe.

Now, here are two countries that are
not communicating with each other.

Newspapers don't go back and
forth, they don't speak the

same language, there's no radio
and there's no television.

Yet a UFO was spotted traveling
from the Irish Sea, across

Europe all the way to Eastern
Europe and towards Asia, and

is spotted in different
places as it goes.

Independent observations
that don't cross-pollinate.

Could these nearly identical
reports of a strange

object passing through the
sky be mere coincidence?

And if it was an alien craft,
is it possible that earlier

sightings simply weren't
reported because they were

interpreted as signs from God?

In colonial America, the idea
that aliens were visiting Earth

was gaining ground.

And in the 1800s, this
controversial theory would even

make its way to the White House.

The United States officially declared
its independence from Great Britain

in 1776... and just 14 years
later, a report of the first UFO

sighting in American history
appeared in the newly published

journals of John Winthrop, the second
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

His journals, which are now
known as "A History of New

England, 1630-1649," are still
considered the preeminent record

for that period in American history.

When the journals were finally
published in 1790, over

140 years after Winthrop's
death, they were found to

contain an alarming account of a
possible close encounter over

Boston's Muddy River.

One night in March of 1639,
James Everall, who is

described as being a "sober and
discreet man," and two of his

companions, boarded a little boat
in the Muddy River of Boston.

As they paddled along the river,
they saw a great bright

light that hovered in the sky.

As they watched, the light
flared up and then contracted

into what they described
as the figure of a swine.

It's difficult to imagine
anybody seriously reporting a

sighting of a glowing, flying pig.

Looking at the sighting, one
can't help but wonder if they

were struggling to describe an
oval-shaped fuselage and four

short, what we might now call
landing struts or landing gear,

in a way that made sense
in the 17th century.

Winthrop's account states that the
object moved swift as an arrow, jetting

back and forth as well as up and
down for two to three hours.

And when it finally disappeared, the
three passengers in the boat, who had

been drifting downstream the
entire time, were astonished to

find themselves back at the point
where they began their trip.

What Winthrop describes in his journal
is really difficult to explain.

Certainly, it seems hard to
fathom that, for two or three

hours, three men in a boat
watched a bright light moving

around in the sky over
the city of Boston.

And it seems almost inconceivable that
their boat could've been drawn back

against the tide without
their noticing it.

These type of strange and
inexplicable phenomenon are now

associated with the phenomena
that's called "alien abduction."

As abduction cases evolved, you heard
people say all of a sudden everything

around them was slowing way, way down.

And they associate the slowing
way, way down with whatever

this event is that we call the
"human abduction syndrome."

Could this event at Muddy
River be not only North

America's first documented UFO
sighting, but also the first

account of an alien abduction?

Those who believe the account!

in Winthrop's journals was an
actual alien encounter point to

the last line of his report
which states, "other credible

persons saw the same light."

By the time Winthrop's history
was published in 1790, the

debate over the possibility of
extraterrestrial life was more

heated than ever before.

In fact, the question of
whether life existed on other

planets had become so hotly
contested, it caused one of

America's Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine,
to be unofficially exiled to Europe.

Thomas Paine enters the extraterrestrial
life debate in a very dramatic way.

He was an Englishman, but
famous American patriot.

Thomas Paine publishes a book
called The Age of Reason.

And in The Age of Reason, he

makes one of the most vigorous
attacks on Christianity ever made.

The bottom line on it is, he says, you
must believe in extraterrestrials if you

know any modern astronomy.

The idea of God made the entire universe
going from planet to planet redeeming

people is just impossible to believe.

That creates a sensation.

Thousands of copies of
the book were sold.

In December of 1793, Thomas Paine was
arrested in France as a result of

supporting a political party
that was no longer in power.

When the American ambassador
refused to speak on his behalf,

Paine believed that George Washington had
abandoned him because of his writings

supporting the idea of extraterrestrial
life and refuting traditional

Christianity.

In 1802, he was invited back to
America by the third president,

Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson, an intellectual, was
considered a genius by many in

his time, both for his skill as a
statesman and his scientific aptitude.

And some believe he was
also a proponent, like his

contemporaries Ben Franklin and
John Adams, in the concept of

the plurality of worlds.

The concept of a plurality of worlds was
a very widely accepted concept in the

18th century.

People like John Adams and Thomas Paine
didn't view extraterrestrial life as a

possibility but rather as a matter of
fact that everybody knew to be true.

The new rationality in
science changed the way that

these Founding Fathers
talked about religion.

1825: Thomas Jefferson is hiring faculty
for the University of Virginia.

And John Adams writes to him and gives
him advice on how to do that hiring.

He says, "Do not hire any
European professors.

If you hire a European
professor, they are liable to

believe in Christianity, and
that is a very dangerous

doctrine that we should
stay far away from."

Other Founding Fathers also agreed with
this view, which included a belief

in the existence of
life on other planets.

Benjamin Franklin wondered if
there were different gods for

every sun that harbored
intelligent life.

Many of them felt it was clear
that there were intelligent

beings conceivably through
the whole universe, and that

the notion that God came
to this planet as a person

who was spit on and persecuted,
simply was ridiculous.

And they rejected that long-
held traditional belief, which

was a very radical thing at the time.

America's Founding Fathers defending
the concept of extraterrestrial life

against Christianity?

A revolutionary idea to be certain...
but perhaps not so

revolutionary to the country's
Earlie inhabitants, who long

before claimed to have met
visitors from the sky.

In northwestern New Mexico lies a
vast concentration of ancient ruins

known today as Chaco Canyon.

Built from sandstone blocks and
timber between 900 and 1150

A.D., the 15 major complexes
of Chaco Canyon contained

four-story structures with
hundreds of rooms that required

thousands of man-hours to construct.

Until the 19th century, they were the
largest buildings in North America.

Chaco Canyon was a center of activity
for a lot of different Indian

tribes, Pueblo tribes.

Archeologists, anthropologists have a
lot of theories about what that was.

But what I have studied and
what I can tell by just some of

the chants from our own tribe,
and other Pueblo tribes, is

that this would've been a big center of
activity for technological-spiritual

activities.

There's a lot of places on there that has
direct bearings up into the universe.

When archeologists first excavated these
ruins in 1896, they marveled at their

architectural precision.

But even more astonishing was
the fact that many of these

ancient structures-- like those
found in Egypt, England and

South America-- suggested the
inhabitants had a sophisticated

knowledge of astronomy.

A number of devices designed for
tracking solar events were found.

And at Fajada Butte, which sits
at the entrance of the canyon,

three giant slabs of rock are positioned
near two spiral petroglyphs etched on

a cliff wall.

During the solstice and the
equinox, these rocks catch the

sun in such a way as to shine
daggers of light on different

areas of the petroglyphs.

But why would early Native
Americans spend so much time

building the structures at Chaco
Canyon along such precise

astronomical alignments?

And why build them in such a
desolate area of the country?

It is one of those sites which has been
posing so many questions, and which

science is only slowly
beginning to explain.

But really, there are more questions than
answers at this moment in time about

Chaco Canyon.

In his 2006 book
The Orion Zone,

archaeo-astronomer Gary David

proposed that the geographical

layout of Hopi ruins in the

American Southwest precisely

mirrors the star patterns of a

number of constellations.

When you look at

where the ancestral Pueblan

major ceremonial sites are

actually located, Gary David

has identified that when you

just map these, you actually

find that they depict

constellations, specifically,

Orion is very important.

Orion's Belt points

to the brightest star in the

sky-- Sirius.

If one looks at the Hopi mesas

as the stars of Orion's Belt,

they also point to an important

location-- Chaco Canyon.

But why Orion?

And could it be merely a

coincidence that this

constellation pattern has been

found at other important sites

around the world, and always

with the belt pointing

towards a place of significance?

Ancient astronaut theorists

have discovered the

constellation of Orion lining

up with the Mayan complexes

along The Street of the Dead in

Mexico City.

And here, Orion's Belt points

to Cholula, the largest pyramid

in the world.

They also find it at the Giza

Pyramids in Egypt, with the

belt pointing toward the city

of Heliopolis; a place of

worship for ancient Egyptians.

The one thing we

know about Orion's Belt is that

this is a theme which is

recurring in Mayan mythology.

It's also actually a theme

which is occurring in Egyptian

mythology.

Orion's Belt, and the stars

around it, were seen as the

heart of creation; it is where

everything began.

And it's probably not

coincidental that the Hopis

see the place where they are

living as the heart of the

world.

These are ancient

people.

All they had to go by were the

stars.

And so, they believed-- as

astrologists believe today--

that the stars have certain

powers over what goes on on

planet Earth.

According to their

legends, the Hopi believe there

were three worlds that preceded

the one we are in today.

Each of those worlds was wiped

out when guardians of the sky

called to the Creator to tell

him that his finest creation,

humans, were no longer living

according to his plan.

And they called to him by

setting off a warning through

the Earth's axis, a vibration

strong enough to shift the

balance of the planet.

Is it possible the structures

at Chaco Canyon were built along

precise celestial alignments so

that the Hopi could predict the

periods of Earth's devastation

and renewal?

Could the guardians of the sky

have led them here so they could

monitor the position of the sun?

Why in the

world people settled at that

location wasn't... wasn't

something that they did on their

own.

There's no running water there.

There was no reason to live

there.

There's no good soil.

They did that because their

guardian told them to live

there.

During the times of

the summer and winter solstices,

as well as the spring and fall

equinoxes, the people at Chaco

Canyon could gauge the Earth's

balance by watching the path of

the sun daggers at Fajada Butte.

If the daggers did not pierce

the petroglyphs at the same

points as the previous year,

they would know that the Earth

was out of balance.

And since the Earth fell out of

balance at the end of the

previous three worlds, this

could mean the end was coming

once again.

Scientists from NASA determined

the earthquake that hit Chile

on February 27, 2010 shifted

the Earth's axis by three

inches.

Would the ancestral Pueblo

people have Se this as a sign

from the guardians above?

Well, do you think

that's going to show up at Chaco

Canyon on that dagger stick that

comes down at the time of the

solstice?

Do you think the Indians were

watching that?

It's what the

Hopi call koyaanisqatsi.

We are living in koyaanisqatsi

right now.

We are living in a life that's

out of balance.

Could these Native

American legends be more than

just myth?

Is it possible that these

stories, along with the ancient

texts of India and the stories

of the Bible, are all describing

alien visitations?

For ancient astronaut theorists,

the answer is yes, and the proof

may lie on a small, uninhabited

island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

In 1795, three Nova Scotia farm boys set
out to explore nearby Oak Island after

witnessing strange green lights
coming from its shore in the

middle of the night.

As they came to the island, they saw
that there was one little, you know, pit

that they thought, "Well, this
is very odd," so they started

to dig in that particular spot.

They came across different
platforms made out of wood,

especially out of oak, and the
deeper they dug, they also came

across a mat made of coconut
fiber, and they came across a

stone slab that had very
bizarre writing on it.

One thing is crystal clear:

Canada does not have any
coconut trees, so the mat made

of coconut fiber-- where
did it come from?

That's a very intriguing question-- how
all these different levels were made.

The initial excavation
stopped at a depth of feet.

But since that time, over a
dozen professional excavations

have been attempted and funded
by everyone from actors

John Wayne and Errol Flynn to Franklin D.
Roosevelt.

Mining and excavation companies have
dug multiple shafts surrounding the

whole Money Pit with the hopes
of achieving or reaching

whatever is buried down there.

They've even tried to dig in
sideways, and even that didn't work.

Based on the findings from numerous
excavations, the Money Pit

contains a series of oak
platforms starting at a depth of

ten feet and recurring every ten feet
thereafter, going at least 200 feet down.

In between these platforms
are slabs of flagstone-- not

indigenous to the island--
and layers of puddle clay.

Efforts to reach the bottom
of the pit have proven so

dangerous, six people
have died in the attempt.

Its underground is covered with
canals-- flooding canals that

lead seawater into the system.

Each time there seemed to be a
progress, underground floods in

the canals would make further
searches impossible.

So, this is what we know:
many centuries ago, someone

constructed a giant hydraulic
system under this island.

It couldn't have been pirates.

It had to be someone with great expertise
for architecture and hydraulics.

We still haven't been able to access
whatever is down there because of the

incredible flooding system.

These treasure hunters poured
red paint into one of these

shafts, and not only did it come
out on one side of the island,

but also on the other side.

Up to three shafts
have been discovered.

I mean, it's ingenious.

But who-- or what-- constructed
this elaborately booby-trapped pit?

And, perhaps more importantly, what-- if
anything-- lies hidden at the bottom?

Some have speculated that it
might be the crown jewels of

England, pirate treasure, Viking
hoards and even the original

manuscripts of Shakespeare.

But perhaps the most audacious
theory of all is that the Money

Pit is the hiding place for one of the
most sacred objects in the world.

There is a possibility that the Ark of
the Covenant, with its contents, has

been hidden on Oak Island.

The Ark of the Covenant?

The most sacred object in
all of Judeo-Christianity?

The gold chest that is supposed
to contain the tablets on which

the Hebrew God wrote
the Ten Commandments?

Why would this religious relic
be placed at the bottom of an

elaborately booby-trapped
pit in Northeastern Canada?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the Ark may have been

hidden because of the powers it
held-- powers from out of this world.

According to the ancient astronaut
hypothesis, the Ark of the Covenant housed

an extraterrestrial device which
was given to the Israelites

during their 40-year wandering
through the desert.

When you go back to the biblical
descriptions, it becomes a weapon.

It rises up into the air.

It rushes towards the
enemies of Israel.

When the Philistines briefly
capture it, um, they make the

mistake of opening it
and filing past it.

Suddenly, thousands of
people start to die.

The biblical account states
quite clearly that the cause of

death was cancerous tumors.

This is a very mysterious
and puzzling thing.

What kind of object could
have these almost machinelike

attributes and cause deaths that
sound like radiation sickness?

What powers the Ark held is the subject
of wide speculation, but an even bigger

mystery is what happened to the Ark
and where it might be located today.

One legend says that it was
taken during the Crusades by an

elite band of monk-like warriors
known as the Knights Templar.

The cover story-- and it feels like a
cover story-- is that they were to

protect pilgrims on the route between the
coast and Jerusalem in the Holy Land.

But they don't ever seem
to have done any of that.

Um, right soon after they were
founded, they took possession

of the Temple Mount, uh, in Jerusalem.

And, uh, for the best part of
80 or 90 years, they devoted

themselves to what looked like
an archaeological expedition on

the Temple Mount.

And I'm pretty certain they were
looking for the Ark of the Covenant.

The legend tells of the
Knights taking the Ark to

Scotland, where they formed an alliance
with the powerful Sinclair family.

Some historians believe William
Sinclair may have taken the Ark

to Oak Island in Nova Scotia in the 1400s
to protect it from English invasion.

Here, Sinclair and his men could
have built what might be the

most impenetrable vault ever
made-- the notorious Money Pit.

But, if so, where is the evidence?

In the 1990s, some scientists were
able to send cameras down into one of

the shafts.

There, they discovered strange objects
that had a rounded, tubular shape.

Their C-14 values were diverse
and their radiometric age

ranged from very old to futuristic.

Now, that is basically impossible.

However, there is some chance that that
effect could be caused by some kind of

radioactivity.

That's why we suspect that a
nuclear reactor may have been

taken there and hidden inside this
ingenious hydraulic system...

...so that it would
be kept safe forever.

What would it mean if the Ark of the
Covenant really was discovered at the

bottom of the Money Pit?

Would it provide the proof of
alien intervention-- the very

proof that ancient astronaut
theorists have been waiting for?

If the Ark of the Covenant is found at
the bottom of the Money Pit, well...

story's over.

Perhaps.

But an even greater
question persists: why?

Has mankind been helped by the
intervention of beings from

other worlds, as ancient
astronaut proponents contend?

Or was there a more ominous intention?

Could the Ark, if discovered,
be a sort of Pandora's box

that, once opened, would reveal
more about our origins than we

would ever want to know?

As the 20th century dawned, the
industrial revolution suggested that

nothing conceived by man
could be impossible.

We could now ride through the
countryside in horseless carriages...

...sail the seas in huge ocean liners...
fly through the sky in airships.

Even the idea of building
rockets and flying them to the

Moon, Mars and beyond seemed
well within our grasp.

It was the era of science
fiction writers like H.G. Wells

and inventors like Einstein,
Tesla, Edison and Ford.

In 1896, there were widespread
reports of strange airships

hovering over various locations
in the American West.

Coincidence or consequence?

There were sightings throughout
history, and of course, there were a

large number of sightings
in the 19th century.

But it wasn't until 1896 that
there were waves of sightings.

Thousands of people in 1896 and
1897 in the United States saw

phantom airships, the origin
of which was never explained.

These reports were catalogued,
discussed in newspapers.

There were sightings
in 1896, 1897, 1898.

And in fact, we kind of know,
from newspaper reports from the

Southwest, that people were
seeing craft with wings.

And the Wright Brothers didn't
fly an airplane until 1903.

So what were these craft?

Well, on the one hand, people were
flying balloons in the 19th century.

So balloons were not high technology.

What was high technology back
then was affixing a gasoline

engine to the gondola of a balloon.

That whole airship mystery--
my guess is that some

of those were just dirigibles
that people were flying around.

On the other hand, during that
time, we also find reports of

objects that moved really too
quickly to be dirigibles.

And some were maybe too shiny
really to be the types of

balloons that they were
making at that time.

The prevalence of these balloons powered
by gasoline engines flying around

in the late 1890s in the turn
of the century probably opened

up people's minds to the
possibility that there could be

literally unidentified flying objects.

People began, to put it
bluntly, looking up.

So it could be said that modern
UFO history began with these

mysterious airships of the 1890s.

It certainly seems possible, if we
believe that the airship sightings were

sightings of extraterrestrial
spaceships, that perhaps the

aliens were interested in human
activity at the time because of

the rapid increases being
made in technology.

Some people have suggested that aliens
have been interfering with the lives of

human beings for thousands of years.

And because they were always
here at significant points in

human history, they introduced
various kinds of technologies

to spur development
along a certain line.

Could the same alien presence that
some believe had been visiting the

Earth for centuries have been
responsible for inspiring our

great leap into the modern age?

Or could the increased close
encounters with UFOs-- which

would persist through the next
century-- be a sign that we

were in danger of going too far?

A very common idea that we have today
is that, as we develop technologically,

we're going to see an increase
in UFO phenomena-- that UFOs are

basically monitoring us.

Decades ago, we saw a lot of
UFO activity around air bases,

around atomic bases and also
UFOs following airplanes and

maybe following our aircraft.

I would say that certainly, as
we keep developing, we will

continue to see that
monitoring aspect to the UFOs.

Especially as we continue going
to space, we're going to

continue seeing more UFO activity.

Whether it's for our benefit
or not, that's hard to say.

Our history, the history of human
beings on planet Earth-- whether we

ourselves are the aliens seeded
from another planet or that

the aliens created us, as the
stories of the Anunnaki say--

regardless, it may be that human
beings are being directed

toward a certain end.

In the 20th century, the inhabitants
of planet Earth were capable of

blasting off and touching the stars.

We were also capable of
harnessing the atom... >> Fire.

...and using it to inflict the
deadliest of devastations.

We would send satellites into orbit,
land on the Moon and reach Mars.

But what would we find?

A barren, empty universe of
dead planets or something else?

In the 1960s, mainstream scientists
were already exploring the question

of whether or not we're
alone in the universe.

And there was only a handful
of scientists who actually

proposed the idea that, yes, there
are other civilizations out there.

Now fast-forward 50 years.

You'd be very hard-pressed to
find any scientist today saying

that we're alone in the universe.

What we're coming up to now,
in the 21st century, is

going to be a redefinition.

Our entire history may have to
be revised, in the context of

nonhuman intelligences
coming and going.

And what else is out there in
this incredible universe of

which we humans are a part?

Perhaps the dawn of the space age was a
signal to whatever or whoever was out

there that, after centuries of
writing on cave walls, building

temples and mapping the skies,
the inhabitants of planet Earth

were at last ready.
Ready for their return.