All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S03E09.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

>> NARRATOR: Rockets capable

of destroying entire cities...

Fire that burns underwater...

And fighter jets that fly

without pilots...

Throughout history, advances in

technology have lead to the

development of powerful

weapons... each more deadly than

the last.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: We go from

attaching sharp stones to the

ends of sticks, and then all of

a sudden, we have actual swords.

>> DEEPAK SHIMKADA: In the

Mahabharata, 46 different

types of weapon are described.

>> BILL BIRNES: They're using

air‐to‐ground missiles, powerful

particle beam weapons.

It's astounding to read about

events from centuries ago using

weapons that are in use today.

>> NARRATOR: But were these

lethal weapons the product of

human innovation?

Or were they developed with help

from another, more otherworldly,

source?

>> DAVID CHILDRESS:

Extraterrestrials may well have

given man these weapons.

They want us to be able to

advance, and ultimately to be

like them.

>> NARRATOR: 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 might they have been

responsible for the development

of mankind's deadliest weapons?

>> NARRATOR: Earth, 4.5 billion

years ago.

Molten‐hot magma spews from

beneath the ground.

Lightning cracks down in bursts

from the sky.

And rivers of lava flow across

the land.

Ever since the dawn of time, our

planet has been changing...

evolving... and ripped apart by

the awesome forces of nature.

And it's the harnessing of that

nature that has offered mankind

its most formidable challenge

and greatest accomplishment.

>> DAVID SOUTHWELL: Mankind

achieving the ability to

manipulate fire is probably the

most historical event that ever

happened.

When we achieved the ability to

master fire, everything changed

for mankind.

>> NARRATOR: But how did our

ancestors learn to recreate and

harness this most volatile‐‐

and ultimately essential‐‐ of

the Earth's elements?

Was it simply a part of our

intellectual evolution?

Or is it possible that the

knowledge came from another,

more otherworldly, origin?

>> PHILIP COPPENS: When we look

at fire, we imagine this idea

that somehow our ancestors are

rubbing some sticks together.

But each culture always says

that fire is a gift from the

gods.

>> SOUTHWELL: In Native

American traditions, quite often

it's fire was stolen from the

world above.

In Maori legends, again, we see

the theft of fire from the gods.

In the Greek legends, it's

Prometheus stealing fire from

the gods.

>> NARRATOR: How is it that such

similar myths exist about fire

being given to man by the gods?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, this eerie similarity

may actually be evidence that

gods, or, perhaps,

extraterrestrial beings, really

do exist.

And, if so, it might also reveal

how mankind eventually used fire

to create deadlier and more

sophisticated weapons.

>> SOUTHWELL: If we are

talking about ancient aliens

having an impact, where would we

expect to see that impact?

I would expect to see it in

metal working.

And do we actually see hard and

fast evidence of mankind making

sudden huge leaps in metal

working?

Yes, we do.

>> TSOUKALOS: We go from

attaching sharp stones to the

ends of sticks, and then all of

a sudden, we have actual swords.

>> NARRATOR: According to

archaeologists, the first human

work with metal weaponry began

in the Bronze Age, beginning

around 3300 BC in the Near East.

>> PHIL IMBROGNO: Most of the

swords at one time were either

copper or iron.

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: If you think

about it, the ages, we started

first with bronze, nickel,

softer things that are easier to

work with.

The reason we don't have iron as

our first example is because

it's a much harder material,

you have to get much hotter fire

to be able to work with it, and

it's just a tougher material to

work with.

>> RAFAEL KOSCHE: They were

fighting, bashing each other

with these swords.

They wanted a tough sword, which

means it was not always very

sharp.

When these people were fighting,

when they're hacking each

other's heads and arms off, they

were ripping each other's heads

and arms off with blunt pieces

of metal.

>> NARRATOR: Approximately 1,000

years after the development of

iron came another, even greater,

breakthrough: the invention of

steel.

>> IMBROGNO: No one really

knows when people first started

making steel.

Some say it only dates 1000 B. C.

To make a steel sword in ancient

times was not an easy task.

You would have to get

high‐quality iron.

And most of the time they could

not get that iron mined from the

Earth.

And meteorites were obtained,

which were pure iron, which made

the best steel swords.

And these were considered magic

swords.

And they were usually a guarded

secret, and villages would have

one or two steel swords.

And there's tales about warlords

who had one purpose in mind: to

find all the steel swords that

were made and take them for

their army.

There's no doubt that the

cultures that were able to

obtain steel usually became

masters of the world.

(grunting and shouting)

>> NARRATOR: But where the

forging of iron requires a

relatively unsophisticated

knowledge of metallurgy, the

creation of steel is a more

complex scientific process.

So who, or what, was responsible

for this incredible evolutionary

innovation?

>> IMBROGNO: In the Book of

Enoch we see some type of

interaction between celestial

beings and human beings.

What did they give us?

They gave us steel.

And the legend goes‐‐ not only

from the Bible and from Enoch,

but it goes to Sumerian times‐‐

where the gods had steel.

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: The making of

the sword is a magical process.

Back in the time before modern

metallurgy, the ability to take

natural material and make a

sword out of it was considered

the work of a wizard.

>> PETER FIEBAG (translated):

You mustn't look the village

blacksmith in the eyes because

people are frightened of being

killed by his gaze.

The blacksmith isn't allowed to

live in the village, because of

his magical powers.

>> NARRATOR: The notion of metal

working being a dark and magical

process was so prevalent in the

ancient world that in Greek

mythology, even Zeus looked upon

his son Hephaestus, the god of

metallurgy, with suspicion.

>> RICHARD RADER: Hephaestus is

responsible for making armature

for the gods.

But the real miracle that he

does is for this shield for

Achilles.

And it's got the whole universe

on it.

What's amazing about this thing

is that it's not just a static

shield; it's alive.

This is not something that a

human being makes.

This is terrifying, this is

scary, and this thing will kill

you, just in its own kind of

metaphysical beauty.

And so he has this weird ability

to kind of endow metal with a

kind of life of its own.

So Zeus is, in fact, very

suspicious of this guy and just

tries to get rid of him.

So Zeus picks him up and slings

him, and he just falls and falls

and falls and falls and falls

until he crash‐lands on the

island of Lemnos.

There is a little city on the

island of Lemnos called

Hephaestia, so there's a place

that is named specifically after

Hephaestus.

>> NARRATOR: 3,000 years ago,

Hephaestia was one of the most

important cities in Greece.

And according to the ancient

stories, Hephaestus actually

lived here among the people

of Lemnos.

The Greeks worshiped this

divine blacksmith and built

monuments to him.

But could this mythological

being have actually been present

in ancient Greece?

And if so, might he have been

not a god...

but an ancient alien visitor?

>> RADER: In Greek mythology,

you conceive of gods as kind of

like human beings.

And we have lots of literature

which deals with a whole range

of interactions that human

beings can have with gods.

>> TSOUKALOS: It is very clearly

stated that the knowledge for

making swords was given directly

by the gods.

And those gods weren't figments

of our ancestors' imagination,

but they were physical beings.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible that our ancestors'

ability to forge metals and make

weapons was aided by

extraterrestrial beings?

And might stories of swords

imbued with magical powers be

something more than mere works

of fiction?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answer can be found

half a world away‐‐

in Japan.

>> NARRATOR: Japan.

700 A. D.

Here, according to legend, the

sword smith, Amakuni, and his

son, Amakura, sealed themselves

away in their blacksmith shop in

an effort to forge the perfect

weapon.

For seven days and seven nights,

they prayed to the Shinto gods

to guide them.

31 days later, they emerged from

their isolation with a curved,

single‐edged sword resembling

no blade ever made before.

>> KOSCHE: At that time, the

swords that they used were these

double‐edged Chinese design,

clunky, heavy, unwieldy swords.

And Amakuni started

reestablishing and learning

everything that he knew about

metallurgy, and after about a

month, he finally emerged from

his forge, and he had this

single‐edged blade with a

curvature to it.

Every sword smith in the area

ridiculed him.

Everybody laughed at him.

They thought he was ridiculous,

that he didn't know what he

was doing.

"That's not the way you do it."

Well, the next time the emperor

went off into battle...

when he came back, Amakuni

stood on his front porch, and he

started counting the blades:

two, ten, 15, 20, 100, 200

blades‐‐ none of them

were broken.

And the emperor praised him and

said, "You are the greatest

sword smith ever."

Ever since then, they have

followed that design.

>> NARRATOR: But what was the

secret behind Amakuni's radical

new design?

And what‐‐ or who‐‐ inspired him

to deviate from the one that had

been used for more than 1,000

years?

Was he simply ahead of his time?

Or could he really have received

otherworldly guidance during the

seven days and nights he and his

son prayed to the Shinto gods?

(swords clan

>> NARRATOR: According to the

beliefs of the samurai, higher

beings called kami began human

life.

But in order for humans to

experience the divine nature of

the kami, they must undergo

purification rituals, which were

always performed when making a

new blade.

>> KOSCHE: Before you even

begin, you bathe yourself, and

you put on clean clothes.

All your assistants give

prayers, and they solicit the

help from the gods.

And, in fact, there are

sword smiths that will actually

chant as they're hammering on

the blade...

because every hammer, as it

compacts the metal, is also

including their chant into it.

>> NARRATOR: Could the sword

maker, Amakuni, and his son,

Amakura, have actually come in

contact with the kami?

And might these Buddhist gods

have come not from a spiritual

realm, but from an

extraterrestrial one, as ancient

astronaut theorists believe?

Might alien beings have chosen

Amakuni, the greatest sword

maker of his time, to hold the

knowledge of this new

technology?

>> COPPENS

>> NARRATOR: Another example

of Amakuni's work‐‐ the

Kogarasu Maru blade, the most

legendary sword in Japanese

history‐‐ resides in the

Japanese Imperial Collection.

But modern scholars and

scientists have had difficulty

in figuring out the secret to

its amazing strength.

>> DENNIN: The famous stories

are always, of course, the

Japanese steel used for the

samurai blade.

It's been very hard to reproduce

because some of these processes

can be incredibly sensitive to

the exact detail of the

temperature.

Some of its features are just

its flexibility and the way they

were able to fold it over and

over and its incredible strength

and its resistance to oxidation,

which is what you really

need to keep something sharp.

>> NARRATOR: Could the fact

that modern sword makers have

been unable to achieve the same

quality as Amakuni's blades be

further evidence that he was

trained by a more advanced

race of beings?

And might these ancient swords

have held some technology we

have yet to discover?

>> KOSCHE: In Shingon Buddhism,

the sword has a life of its own.

It's not tha

>> NARRATOR: Is the philosophy

of Shingon Buddhism‐‐ that the

blade chooses its owner‐‐

simply an example of early

humans' tendency to project

spiritual consciousness onto

inanimate objects?

Or might ancient sword smiths

like Amakuni really have

possessed some otherworldly

knowledge?

A knowledge that swords, like

other deadly weapons, come not

from man, but from a divine or

extraterrestrial origin?

According to legend, one such

sword may have existed in

15th‐century France‐‐ the sword

>> KATHLEEN McGOWAN: When Joan

of Arc was arrested and brought

to what we now know of as her

condemnation trial, her

inquisitors were determined to

get information about her sword.

Her inquisitors were obsessed

with finding out about her

sword, and that is because Joan

of Arc's sword was reputed to

have legendary power, divine

power.

Joan claimed that her voices,

her angelic voices, led her to

this sword.

>> COPPENS: She's said to have

found it, as it was, hidden

behind an altar dedicated to

Saint Catherine de Fierbois.

It is said that the sword itself

was forged by the archangel

Saint Michael...

and that whoever possessed it

was invincible.

>> McGOWAN: And that was

certainly true when Joan wielded

this sword, carried it with her

into the Battle of Orleans.

Which was the decisive battle,

which allowed them to put King

Charles VII on the throne of

France.

>> NARRATOR: Could Joan of Arc

really have been given her

invincible sword by

extraterrestrials who had an

interest in the future of

France?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe such a thing is not only

possible, but likely.

And they point to the legendary

story of King Arthur as evidence

of their claim.

>> CHILDRESS: King Arthur had

two swords.

The Sword in the Stone, that

showed that he was to be king,

is one sword.

>> TSOUKALOS: When I hear a

story about this magnificent

sword that's encased in this

stone with only the handle

sticking out and only King

Arthur has the capability to

pull it out, well, then I start

thinking about some type of a

biometric security system, where

today we now have guns that can

only be fired if the handle

recognizes your fingerprint.

Is it possible that the Sword in

the Stone was calibrated

specifically to King Arthur's

biometrics?

I think yes.

I know it sounds crazy, but

we're merely saying that what

today is being discovered is a

rediscovery of what already took

place thousands of years ago.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

stories of King Arthur, the

sword that he is said to have

pulled from the stone was never

used in battle.

His weapon was the legendary

Excalibur.

>> CHILDRESS: The Excalibur

sword came to him from the Lady

in the Lake, where a hand came

up and handed him a magical

sword.

And according to the ancient

chronicles, this sword shone

with the light of 30 suns and

blinded his enemies.

>> FIEBAG (translated): This

sword of King Arthur was said

to have radiated lightning and

energy when he fought

against monsters.

So, we have swords as magical

objects, but here also is

suspicion that a misunderstood

technology could exist.

>> NARRATOR: Although historians

still debate whether the stories

of King Arthur have a basis in

fact, in 1998, archeologists

found a sixth‐century piece of

slate inscribed with his name at

his reputed birthplace‐‐

Tintagel, England.

But if King Arthur really

existed, might the legends of

his incredible swords also be

true?

And, if so, might that suggest

that extraterrestrial visitors

did in fact provide humans with

weapons not of this world?

Perhaps the answer can be found

in ancient Rome and by examining

a legendary battle, one

involving a much‐witnessed

phenomenon in the sky.

>> NARRATOR: Rome.

October 27, 312 A. D.

At the Milvian Bridge on the

north side of the city, deposed

Emperor Constantine prepares to

reclaim his throne from

Maxentius.

In the sky, he witnesses what he

will later describe as a cross

hovering above him.

He interprets this vision as a

sign from the Christian God.

The next day, Constantine and

his army bear the image of the

Chi Rho on their shields and

flags, one of the earliest

cruciform symbols used by

Christians.

When they emerge victorious,

Christianity becomes the

official religion of the Roman

Empire, and the world is changed

forever.

But was the cross‐shaped object

Constantine claimed to have seen

in the sky really a sign from

God?

Or might it have been some other

extraordinary force?

>> BRAMLEY: It looked like the

shape of a cross, but the shape

of a cross could have been

airplane‐type objects, because

the fuselage and the wings will

look like a cross to somebody

who's looking up.

And of course, they had no

concept of these things back

then.

>> PITTMAN: There were other

signs and portents that were

seen around the same time that

were described as a crucifix in

the sky.

If these were to appear in the

sky today, we would describe

them quite differently.

>> TSOUKALOS: Is it possible

that Constantine, instead of

actually having seen a cross

floating in the sky, actually

saw a type of an

extraterrestrial craft?

Is it possible that Constantine

won because the

extraterrestrials were siding

with Constantine and thus

altering mankind's history

forever?

>> NARRATOR: But according to

ancient astronaut theorists,

even stronger evidence exists

that Emperor Constantine had a

genuine alien encounter.

Shortly after the Battle of

Milvian Bridge, he was said to

have acquired a powerful new

weapon.

Known as Greek fire, it was the

most devastating weapon of the

time.

And it was said to have been

given to Constantine by angels.

>> IMBROGNO: It was said to burn

so violently and so hot, it was

said that even in the greatest

of rainstorms, the fire would

not go out.

And when projected out to sea,

when it sunk into the water, it

would still burn on the bottom

of the ocean.

>> FIEBAG (translated): In one

battle, Byzantium was attacked

by 1,800 Persian ships.

Only 15 escaped.

All the others were destroyed by

the so‐called Greek fire.

Prince Igor, who attacked

Byzantium in the year 941 A. D.,

attacked with a fleet of 1,000

ships.

Ten ships made it home.

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps even

more astounding than the

incredible power of Greek fire

is the fact that scientists have

not been able to reproduce it,

even after 1,600 years.

>> COPPENS: Scientists have been

trying to identify what Greek

fire is for decades, if not

centuries.

Nobody has come up with a

satisfying answer.

The most logical answer is that

it might be somehow petroleum,

because it is known that

petroleum continues to burn when

in contact with water.

>> NOORY: I think it has to do

with phosphorus and magnesium.

Because when they are mixed in

with water, they tend

to explode.

>> NARRATOR: The formula for

Greek fire was not even known

to most of those who used

the weapon, as the

delivery system required

multiple people to operate it.

>> TSOUKALOS: What's interesting

about Greek fire is that it only

worked when all the different

components worked together as

one piece.

Each component was operated by a

different person, so if somebody

was captured, they couldn't give

away the quote, unquote, secret

of Greek fire.

>> NARRATOR: But what was this

mysterious weapon?

And, more importantly, where did

it come from?

>> TSOUKALOS: One story goes

that Greek fire was given to

Constantine by an angel.

Now angels are supposed to be

these friendly creatures that

instill peace and love‐‐ and all

of a sudden, we have this one

quote, unquote, angel that gives

one of the most sophisticated

weapons in mankind's history

to Constantine?

Replace the word angel with

extraterrestrial and we have

a very different story.

>> NARRATOR: Could Greek fire

really have been a type of

advanced alien technology given

to Constantine to ensure the

success of the Roman Empire?

If so, wouldn't there be

evidence of extraterrestrial

influence during other earthly

conflicts?

>> FIEBAG (translated):

Hannibal, who crossed the Alps

and attacked Rome, was said to

have had a chemical explosive.

We don't know where the

knowledge came from in these

cases, but there could

definitely be a connection to

other weapons of the gods.

>> NARRATOR: The explosive

weapon Hannibal allegedly used

against ancient Rome, in the

3rd century BC, predated

gunpowder by over a

thousand years.

And some believe even gunpowder

itself may have been a discovery

inspired by otherworldly beings

back in the 9th century.

Ironically, this deadly

invention was discovered by

Chinese alchemists attempting to

create an elixir of immortality.

>> SUN: Alchemy has a

long history in China.

And the alchemist Tze had been

seeking an elixir for

immortality‐‐ the medicine, for

example, to live forever.

So they were experimenting for

many centuries and mixed all

kinds of things and it was not

until around 850 Common Era, and

we have records to show the

disastrous impact of

this mixing.

>> NARRATOR: Though the Chinese

emperors never achieved this

elixir for immortality, they

ended up with something almost

as valuable‐‐ a weapon more

powerful than anything that had

come before.

>> SUN: The Chinese gunpowder

technology led to this important

political and geographical

changes in China, in Vietnam, in

Southeast Asia.

It led to the, even the rise and

the fall of dynasties.

>> NARRATOR: But where did such

an incendiary ability come from?

>> IMBROGNO: Was the formula

given to us by

extraterrestrials, or did

somebody discover it

by accident?

No one really knows.

Gunpowder was made of charcoal,

which they burnt trees and

ground down the charcoal.

Sulfur they would get from

volcanoes, and sodium or

potassium nitrate is, you know,

not readily available.

So how would they know to get

those nitrates and mix them

all together in the

right proportions?

>> NARRATOR: Could the formula

for gunpowder really have

extraterrestrial origins?

And if deadly technologies like

gunpowder and Greek fire really

were handed down to humans by an

alien race‐‐ why?

Might they have been trying to

shape our future?

And, if so, what other even more

powerful weapons might they have

had in their arsenal?

>> NARRATOR: An unmanned aerial

vehicle hurtles across the sky.

It travels at supersonic speeds,

spitting fire, launching deadly

missiles... programmed to seek

and destroy.

The effect is devastating‐‐

high‐tech warfare at its

most lethal.

But what could be a page stolen

from a U. S. military black

project, is actually a

description written down over

2,500 years ago in the

sacred Hindu text known as the

Mahabharata.

>> COPPENS: When it comes

to the ancient Indian accounts,

they're really eyewitness

testimony of the gods fighting.

>> CHILDRESS: When you read the

ancient Hindu epics, they talk

about horrific weapons‐‐

missiles...

and atomic weapons...

massive laser weapons that are

melting and devastating

entire cities.

>> TSOUKALOS: I refuse to think

that our ancestors came up with

these stories out of thin air.

When writing was first invented,

they wrote down their history.

The first things that were

ever written down, were

actual events.

>> NARRATOR: How is it that some

of the earliest written accounts

of warfare describe

sophisticated weaponry that

humans wouldn't develop for

thousands of years?

For the answer, Ancient

Astronaut theorists point to

numerous descriptions of deadly

weapons found throughout the

Mahabharata‐‐ many strikingly

similar to those used by the

military today.

One example are the incendiary

weapons wielded by Vishnu, which

are specially equipped to find

their targets.

>> DEEPAK SHIMKADA: Vishnu has a

flying guided missile,

the Narayanastra.

And once it is launched, it will

destroy everything that

is moving.

So according to the description,

it is a motion‐detecting weapon,

which is pretty much like our

modern weaponry.

There is also a weapon that is

heat‐seeking.

>> MAJ. GEN. ROBERT E. DICKMAN:

Heat‐seeking is a very effective

way of finding something.

You would fire a missile from

behind one aircraft, at an

aircraft in front of you,

specifically targeted against

the hot engine.

And then you were able to move

off, from behind the airplane

and the heat seeker would still

be able to find the target.

>> TSOUKALOS: I am aware that

there are forces of Nature.

You've got thunder, lightning,

earthquakes.

But how would you go from

witnessing that to a description

of heat‐seeking missiles?

>> NARRATOR: In addition to

guided missiles, the Mahabharata

is filled with accounts of other

sophisticated weapons wielded

by the gods.

>> SHIMKADA: In the Mahabharata,

46 different types of weapon are

described, and each one has

a specific function.

The Pashupatastra is a weapon

that actually multiplies into

seven different arrows.

So then it hits seven different

targets at the same time.

Salva is an anti‐god; he can

make his vehicle disappear.

So we're talking about a flying

object that is stealth.

He also can put people

into sleep.

So we're perhaps talking about

nerve gas.

>> CHILDRESS: They talk about

weapons that are so high‐tech,

that it could only be from

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: But of all

the weapons described

in the Mahabharata, perhaps the

most deadly was a device called

the Brahmastra: a weapon that

the texts warned was never

to be used.

>> SHIMKADA: Brahmastra is

described as the ultimate

weapon.

Once it is launched, it will

simply burn everything, so it

will incinerate the entire

universe.

We're talking about

a nuclear blast 100‐fold

magnitude of the bomb that we

have seen or experienced in our

own times.

So it would never be used.

And yet, someone was going to

make use of that Brahmastra.

And so that's the dilemma that

the books talks about in the

Mahabharata.

India now has a rocket program,

and one of their rockets is

called Shakti.

Shakti means "goddess energy."

This is also another divine

weapon.

Indians are now sort of going

back to their text or their

mythology and they're reliving

it by their modern technology.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible

that alien beings visiting the

Earth thousands of years ago

dealt with the same issues of

nuclear annihilation that

humans are dealing with today?

And might the deadly weapons

currently being deployed by the

world's military really be

recreations of weapons first

used on Earth by

extraterrestrials in the ancient

past?

Perhaps.

But then it should also be

possible to predict mankind's

military future by searching

through still more ancient

texts.

>> NARRATOR: The Tonlé Sap Lake,

Cambodia.

This combined lake and river

system has a flow that changes

direction twice a year, and the

portion that forms the lake

expands and shrinks dramatically

with the seasons.

But this unusual body of water

is unique for another reason‐‐

it is said to hold the mythical

sword of Preah Pisnokar.

>> SHIMKADA: The swordsman in

Cambodia has a wonderful legend

and a story within that culture

called Pisnokar.

This is a wizard, a master

craftsman.

>> NARRATOR: In Cambodian

mythology, Preah Pisnokar is

the son of a human man and

a woman who came from the sky.

The stories say that he is

brought to the sky world where

he is taught the technology of

the gods, and some have credited

him as being the architect

behind the world's largest

religious shrine, Angkor Wat,

which sits just north of the

Tonlé Sap Lake.

But in addition to magnificent

structures, Preah Pisnokar was

also said to have fashioned a

sword that made him invincible

in battle.

>> SHIMKADA: In the Cambodian

legend, he's been credited

crafting a sword as thin as

a feather.

>> FIEBAG (translated): Preah

Pisnokar had a sword that

could cut stone... and it's

reported that he could use

this to cut a ceramic jug so

finely down the middle that the

water only ran out when the two

halves fell apart.

>> NARRATOR: According to

legend, Preah Pisnokar threw his

mighty weapon into the Tonlé Sap

Lake when it grew too weak to

be of use to him anymore, much

like Excalibur was given back

to The Lady of the Lake in the

story of King Arthur.

But how does a sword grow weak?

According to Ancient Astronaut

theorists, the blade had lost

its power, and that blade was

not made of metal, but of light.

>> TSOUKALOS: Does a sword of

fire really exist?

Well, it does if you think of a

type of lightsaber.

Whenever he took it out to cut

something with it, it was more

blinding than the sun.

>> SHIMKADA: It was very thin

and very bright, emitting light.

From the description of it, it

could be a kind of laser type

of beam.

>> DENNIN: Lasers‐‐ what you

want to just think about is a

whole bunch of waves all moving

together in step.

The light that comes out of a

lightbulb is a bunch of random

people in a mob running crazy in

all different directions, and

the laser is all the people

marching in orderly fashion.

Everything lines up and

basically makes the light that

much more powerful and

effective.

>> NARRATOR: Could Preah

Pisnokar really have existed?

And if so, might the amazing

sword he wielded have involved

some type of laser technology?

Is it possible that lightsabers,

a work of modern science

fiction, actually existed in the

ancient past?

>> DENNIN: So there's two ways

to think of a lightsaber that

you're trying to make.

One is actually out of a laser

beam, and that's very hard to

imagine because it's hard to

figure out how you would get the

endpoint, because light just

keeps traveling.

And you would need a way to

bend it back on itself.

They make much more sense as a

plasma beam.

And a plasma beam is a bunch of

very, very energetically charged

particles, um, that would glow

so you'd get the effect of the

lightsaber.

And they're much easier to have

an endpoint, because they

respond to magnetic fields.

The plasma beam really is

energetically charged particles

with a lot of energy and pretty

much cut through anything.

>> NARRATOR: For ancient

astronaut theorists,

descriptions of laser‐type

technology can be found in

numerous texts throughout the

ancient world.

>> FIEBAG (translated):

In China, it's called a yin yang

mirror, which could kill

opponents with a beam of light.

We have the Maori, whose god

defeated rebels with a kind of

laser‐lightning weapon.

>> CHILDRESS: Stories come to us

from ancient India of Rama's

arrow, which was some kind of

laser weapon.

We have the famous story of

Archimedes, using some kind of

magic mirror to create a laser

that set ships on fire.

So it seems that ancient lasers

were being used, and that

technology probably came from

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: What if the

futuristic weapons we believe we

have cultivated in our modern

day arsenals are really

reinventions of something that

has come before?

Could we subconsciously be

recreating our ancient past?

>> COPPENS: What we have is

people who are eyewitnesses

and, to some extent, victims

of a show which is happening

above their heads.

And they are trying to explain

to people something which was

truly on a scale which they

couldn't comprehend.

>> TSOUKALOS: Here we are today

thinking that we are inventing

all these wonderful things,

which we are, but it's been

here before.

>> CHILDRESS: Extraterrestrials

may well have given man these

weapons.

They want us to be able to

defend ourselves, to advance and

ultimately to be like them.

>> NARRATOR: From flaming arrows

to heat‐seeking missiles, could

the evolution of mankind's

deadly weaponry really be the

result of alien intervention?

Could extraterrestrial beings

have given us technology as a

way of accelerating natural

selection?

Or might they have imparted

their knowledge with a

specific‐‐ and perhaps

insidious‐‐ agenda in mind?

Some say the answer is right in

front of us‐‐ or in yet another

ancient text or carving waiting

to be discovered.

But one thing is certain‐‐ it

is best we keep looking and be

prepared before they return.

Captioning sponsored by

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS

Captioned by

Media Access Group at WGBH