All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S03E12.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

>> NARRATOR: Mass suicides...

Human sacrifices...

Unholy rituals...

>> MARK MIRABELLO: They had

ripped vertebrae from his

backbone to make a necklace.

And his body parts were put in a

cauldron.

>> NARRATOR: Throughout history,

people have claimed to have

otherworldly knowledge‐‐ and

have led followers to commit

horrific acts of violence.

Are they con men?

Are they insane?

Or might the voices in their

heads really be of an

extraterrestrial origin?

>> RICK ROSS: Applewhite made

the claim that he was chosen

to reveal the truth as known to

these alien beings.

>> WILLIAM BRAMLEY: They

believed that those gods wanted

them to commit these acts.

>> LOGAN HAWKES: We have to

ask ourselves, are they doing

this simply for their own

amusement?

Or, are they possibly leading us

in a direction, to attain

something that they want?

>> 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 be behind

mankind's deadliest cults?

>> NARRATOR: San Diego,

California. March 26, 1997.

In a multi‐million dollar

mansion in the gated community

of Rancho Santa Fe, police make

a bizarre and horrifying

discovery.

>> ROSS: There were 39 bodies

found.

All of them dressed identically,

all with the same Nike tennis

shoes, all covered in purple

shrouds, all with the same

haircut.

>> SHERIFF BILL KOLENDER: All

indications are that this was

a mass suicide.

>> NARRATOR: 39 neatly arranged

corpses.

The final act of devotion to a

charismatic leader named

Marshall Applewhite‐‐ and the

suicide cult he created known

as Heaven's Gate.

>> MARSHALL APPLEWHITE: We do

know one thing, we don't care

to cling to the life of

this body.

>> BILL BIRNES: Applewhite

believed that on that

particular night, a UFO would

appear and the members of

Heaven's Gate would commit mass

suicide and immediately their

souls would be beamed up to the

UFO.

>> APPLEWHITE: We're ready to

leave this place.

>> NARRATOR: Marshall

Applewhite...

Charles Manson...

Adolfo Constanzo...

Shoko Asahara.

Today, cult leaders are often

written off as con men,

hucksters, or criminally insane.

But in the ancient world, entire

empires were also ruled by men

who claimed to have direct links

to a higher power.

>> ROSS: The Roman Emperor

Caligula who is perhaps the most

infamous, ruthless and sadistic

ruler of ancient Rome...

...he would even remove the

heads of statues of gods and

then place his own head there.

>> NARRATOR: It was a concept

that the Romans had inherited

from the Greeks and the

Egyptians.

>> ROBERT BAUVAL: The whole

kingship of Egypt rested on

the belief that there has been

a divine king called Osiris

that had come from the sky

ruling Egypt with his sister

wife, Isis.

And from her was born a male

child called Horus.

Every pharaoh believed

themselves to be the

reincarnation of Horus.

They truly believed this.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: The

pharaoh clearly was invoking

and convoking the message of the

gods to his people.

>> ROSS: It was that authority

that built the pyramids; that

built the temple complex at

Luxor, because the people

believed they were serving a

god.

>> NARRATOR: But were the

ancient kings, pharaohs, and

religious leaders merely

deceiving their subjects by

claiming to have a connection to

the gods?

Or might they have had

actual contact with divine or,

as some would describe,

"otherworldly" beings?

>> DAVID SOUTHWELL: When we

look at those ancient systems

of belief where the ruler,

the emperor, the king was not

just the divine representative

of the gods, but was a god

himself, we can see obvious

parallels with modern day cults.

>> MIRABELLO: Gods and aliens

may indeed be the same except

we're using different names.

Is this a spaceman from another

planet or is this a god?

And it's simply our terminology.

>> NARRATOR: While in the

hospital recovering from a heart

attack in the early 1970s,

Marshall Applewhite professed to

have a vision that he and his

nurse, Bonnie Nettles, were the

so‐called, "two witnesses" as

described in the New Testament

Book of Revelation.

After further visions,

Applewhite's story evolved‐‐ he

told his followers that he and

Nettles were actually aliens

inhabiting human bodies.

>> ROSS: Applewhite made the

claim that he was the exclusive

means by which a power from

outer space would communicate

with the world‐‐ that he had

been chosen to reveal the truth

as known to these superior alien

beings.

>> APPLEWHITE: Part of our test

of faith is our hating this

world‐‐ even our flesh body

enough to be willing to leave it

without any proof other than

what we have come to know.

>> NARRATOR: Whether the visions

Marshall Applewhite had were

real or imagined, one thing is

certain‐‐ he believed in them

completely.

>> MIRABELLO: He clearly

believed his own teachings and

in fact, castrated himself

surgically because that was part

of the teaching.

They believed that highly

evolved beings would have no

sexual characteristics.

Someone who is a con man is not

going to do this.

>> NARRATOR: If Applewhite

really was contacted by

extraterrestrials, were they the

same beings that ancient

astronaut theorists say visited

earth thousands of years ago?

But, if so, why would they

ultimately betray and deceive

him?

Some believe the answer can be

found in the creation story as

told by the Sumerians of

Mesopotamia, the world's oldest

known civilization.

>> BRAMLEY: The ancient

Mesopotamian stories talked

about how the ancient ET's

really wanted to keep control

over the human race.

>> NARRATOR: In Sumerian

mythology, the god Enki created

humans as a slave race‐‐ but his

superiors forbade him from

giving them knowledge of their

true origins, for fear of

revolt.

>> BRAMLEY: That was actually

the express intent of these

extraterrestrials to actually

create that kind of ignorance.

It's actually talked about in

some of the old creation

stories, and that was really

what the Biblical Adam and Eve

story talked about as well,

when Adam and Eve wanted to

partake of the fruit, which was

a symbol for knowledge, but the

gods said, "No, you cannot have

access to that knowledge."

>> NARRATOR: According to the

ancient Sumerian texts, Enki

defies his superiors and hands

down this forbidden knowledge to

a secret society known as the

Brotherhood of the Snake.

>> MIRABELLO: The Brotherhood of

the Snake was originally an

organization by a benevolent

alien who wanted to bring

us knowledge.

But the other aliens objected,

defeated him and, in fact,

turned the Brotherhood around

until it became a sinister force

in history.

So now the Brotherhood of the

Snake is used to undermine the

human race.

>> NARRATOR: According to

ancient legend, the gods

infiltrated the Brotherhood of

the Snake, and the knowledge of

their true origin was distorted

so that humans would follow

false gods and masters.

>> BIRNES: According to the

legend, the original Brotherhood

of the Snake split up into many

different diverse cults, and

those cults, in various

incarnations, are still fighting

one another today.

>> MIKE BARA: So maybe the truth

is, we're worshiping the same

people more and more, just in a

different way, and we're

understanding better that

they're not necessarily gods;

they're just advanced creatures,

kind of like us, that have been

coming here and visiting us for

a long time.

>> NARRATOR: Might

extraterrestrials really have

posed as false gods in order to

keep humans under their control?

And if so, could they have

appeared to Marshall Applewhite

and manipulated him and his

followers into committing a

horrific ritual suicide?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answer is a

chilling yes.

And for further evidence, they

point to a series of shallow

graves and a Mexican drug lord

believed to have supernatural

powers.

>> NARRATOR: Matamoros, Mexico.

1989.

Police investigating the

mysterious disappearance of an

American college student make a

shocking discovery.

On property belonging to drug

lord Adolfo Constanzo, they find

12 bodies buried in a row.

Some have been shot...

others hacked to death with

a machete.

And one of the graves contains

the mutilated body of the

missing student, 21‐year‐old

Mark Kilroy.

>> MIRABELLO: They had ripped

vertebrae from his backbone to

make a necklace.

And his body parts were put in

a cauldron.

>> ROSS: Constanzo's followers

believed fervently in his claims

of supernatural power, and it

was that power that was the glue

that held the cult together and

enabled him to murder as many as

23 or more people.

>> NARRATOR: But what could have

inspired such brutal and

senseless murders?

Was it madness?

Evil?

Or was Constanzo guided, as he

professed to his followers, by

otherworldly beings?

>> MIRABELLO: Adolfo Constanzo

practiced what is known as

Palo sorcery, which is a type

of sorcery derived from

African religions.

>> ROSS: He was a worker of

witchcraft who was trusted

by drug traffickers to

protect them.

He became their miracle worker,

and to work his miracles, he

created a cauldron in which he

would have dismembered parts of

human bodies, of brain, all of

this to create incantations or

spells to protect his sponsors.

He claimed that he could protect

them from the police, he could

protect them from bullets, and

they believed in him.

This culminated in him

kidnapping and murdering and

mutilating different victims.

>> NARRATOR: According to

scholars, Palo Mayombe

incorporates traditions and gods

from numerous West African

religions, but Constanzo claimed

a direct connection to

Kadiempembe, more commonly known

by the Yoruban name, Eshu.

>> BARA: Eshu, he's got this

very elongated head, he's got

the very large eyes.

He looks a lot, in the

sculptures of him, like an

extraterrestrial.

He doesn't look very different

from the modern day grays and

ETs that we see so commonly.

>> NARRATOR: Was Adolfo

Constanzo really in touch with

an extraterrestrial being?

If so, what does that say about

the good or evil motives of

alien visitors?

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: Eshu was the

trickster god.

He can speak all the languages.

He can change form.

He can confuse.

He likes to destroy things.

He also likes to create

opportunities.

So he can sneak up on you in any

number of ways.

He can be completely devious.

>> SOUTHWELL: He's the master

of lies‐‐ a god who may tell you

the truth three times in a row,

but on the fourth time, he's

going to lie, and that's the lie

that's going to trip you up.

And that he's been setting this

course of feeding you truth,

giving you help, only to set you

up for a fall, maybe for comic

effect or maybe for a much more

serious effect.

>> NARRATOR: Eshu is also

represented in Haitian Voodoo as

Papa Legba, a god that has been

linked to another notorious

mass murderer.

>> YOUNG: Papa Legba is Eshu.

This is the Voodoo name for the

same energy.

Papa Legba can speak all

languages, even the languages of

animals, so he channels his

energy through dogs, and

actually is somewhat fond of

that particular species, so

he'll more often take that

animal form than others.

The terrible serial murderer,

the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz,

said he got his orders from

dogs.

One could speculate Papa Legba

is speaking through the dog to

the sinister end.

>> NARRATOR: Could the homicidal

acts of men like Adolfo

Constanzo and David Berkowitz

have really been inspired by

some unearthly entity?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, such an audacious

idea is possible, and for

evidence, they point to a number

of ancient legends and beliefs

throughout the world.

>> SOUTHWELL: If you look

across mankind's wonderful

variety of religious beliefs,

there are some archetypal

god figures which occur in

culture after culture after

culture.

They are completely resilient to

changes in fortune of empires

and history.

One of the most powerful of

these gods, which occurs in

several cultures across vastly

different periods of history, is

the trickster figure.

>> MIRABELLO: Trickster gods

seem strange to Christians

because they appear to be

demonic.

But typically, in traditional

religions, the gods are amoral.

And they have good and bad

qualities, and they can do

mischief as well as good.

And among their number is Loki

among the Norse gods.

>> YOUNG: Loki was a

shape‐shifter.

He could be a fish, often a

salmon, or a falcon so he could

go fly.

He could make himself in any

shape he liked, usually for

mischief.

>> HAWKES: Among the Native

Americans, there was the

coyote‐‐ the great trickster.

In the Anasazi, there was

Kokopelli.

Among the Aztecs and the

Mesoamericans, there was

Tezcatlipoca.

>> SOUTHWELL: Even the Christian

idea of Satan is a trickster

god.

>> HAWKES: We have to ask

ourselves: Are they doing this

simply for their own amusement?

Or are they possibly leading us

in a direction to attain

something that they want?

>> BARA: It makes sense that a

lot of the gods that we consider

"trickster gods" really weren't

gods at all.

They were extraterrestrials

that set themselves up as gods.

It's perfectly logical that if

you come to a place like

the Earth, which is not nearly

as advanced, of course you'd

set yourself up as a god,

or a king, or both.

One of my favorite examples of

what I would consider to be a

trickster god form, in a very

modern UFO framework, would be

Spectra, which was claimed to be

an alien intelligence circling

the Earth in the early '70s,

which was in contact with Uri

Geller and various other people.

>> NARRATOR: Beginning in 1971,

renowned psychic Uri Geller,

along with Andrija

Puharich‐‐ a respected scientist

and parapsychologist‐‐ claimed

to be receiving mysterious

telepathic messages.

The messages, they said, came

from a computer intelligence

orbiting the Earth that called

itself "Spectra."

>> SOUTHWELL: It would help them

see amazing psychic phenomena.

It would make very accurate

predictions, which would seem to

come true.

And it was gathering around it a

number of people that really

believed that Spectra was a very

special alien intelligence.

Of course, it then did what many

trickster gods seem to do: It

told them a big lie.

It told them the world was going

to end.

And a lot of people said, "Well,

it's telling us the world is

going to end.

It must be going to end."

And of course it didn't.

>> NARRATOR: Could Spectra have

been a hoax?

Or might it have been a

so‐called "trickster god"‐‐

purposely sending false

messages?

And might some similar

extraterrestrial force or entity

have been behind the actions of

Adolfo Constanzo and others like

him?

>> SOUTHWELL: Quite often in a

lot of UFO contactee cults, a

lot of information starts off

being very, very sensible,

appearing to check out,

appearing to have a lot of

validity.

But it gets stranger and weirder

and predictions are made and

things are promised, which are

going to happen, which don't

happen.

We see it throughout the 21st

century.

Just as the new form of gods has

quite often become alien or

inter‐dimensional or

extraterrestrial, those gods

are still going to behave as

trickster gods.

Just because they're aliens

doesn't mean there's not a

trickster element among them.

>> NARRATOR: When on May 6,

1989, Adolfo Constanzo was

cornered by the police, he

ordered one of his disciples to

shoot him.

He was estimated to have

murdered anywhere from 20 to 40

people.

But what if a similar deadly

cult is allowed to go unchecked

for hundreds of years?

Such a nightmarish possibility

did, in fact, happen.

And its victims numbered‐‐ not

in the dozens or hundreds‐‐ but

in the millions.

>> NARRATOR: Bangalore, India.

In the private collection of

artist Jo Nambiar is a brass

medallion made to honor the 18th

century Italian sculptor

Antonio Canova.

The medallion bears the bust of

the artist on one side, with his

famous work The Three Graces on

the other.

It is unique, not only because

of the medallion's artistic

value, but because it is

connected to literally hundreds

of murders committed all by one

man, known only as "Behram."

>> SOUTHWELL: When we talk about

Behram, what we're talking about

is a mass murderer.

He was directly responsible or a

major participant in more than

900 murders.

That's a staggering number, and

what appalls us and intrigues us

even more was, he saw this as an

act of religious devotion.

>> NARRATOR: Behram dispatched

with all his victims by means of

strangulation, using a long

strip of silk he wore wrapped

around his waist called a

ruhmal.

The ruhmal had the Canova

Medallion sewn into it to add

weight to one end, so when

thrown, it would easily wind

around the intended victim's

neck.

But this method of murder was

not unique to Behram.

It was also practiced by a

network of organized killers,

who by the 19th century numbered

in the thousands.

They were known as the

"Thuggee", and by even the most

modest estimates, they are

history's deadliest cult.

>> HAWKES: Nearly two million

deaths have been attributed to

this cult, found in mass graves

throughout India.

>> ROSS: They were really a band

of thieves.

They made their money by

attacking people and robbing

them on the roadways of India.

Today, we call people often

thugs, who are robbers or

violent criminals, and this word

comes from the Thuggees of

India.

>> NARRATOR: The Thuggee are

believed to date back to the

1300s, and although many have

claimed they were no more than

bandits, the Thuggee also

claimed they murdered their

victims for a very specific

purpose‐‐ to offer blood to the

Hindu goddess, Kali.

>> DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Kali is the

black goddess.

She has sunken eyes, fangs, and

she has a very long, lolling

tongue.

She wears a garland of human

skulls.

And she also holds a severed

head, and she holds a machete in

one hand.

She's the most powerful goddess

there is because she is totally

unstoppable when she's angry.

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: The Thuggee

cult were wanting to offer blood

to Kali.

Because they didn't want to even

spill one drop of blood, they

would strangle their victims so

that Kali would be able to have

all of the victim's blood.

>> NARRATOR: Curiously, although

Kali is a Hindu god, the Thuggee

also included Muslims and Sikhs.

>> HAWKES: The Thuggees came

from a very diverse background.

So, we see these people,

following Kali, who may

transcend religion, and they

believe that Kali is a goddess

that comes from the stars.

This may represent an

extraterrestrial.

>> NARRATOR: Could the Thuggee

really have been influenced by

an otherworldly visitor‐‐ one

who had been mistaken for a god

for centuries?

And, if so, why would an alien

being have a thirst for human

blood?

>> BRAMLEY: When you look at the

history of ancient cults and

their worship of these

human‐like extraterrestrial

gods, you find atrocities, human

sacrifice in the name of those

gods.

They believed that those gods

wanted them to commit these acts

to commit the sacrifices.

>> NARRATOR: Mount Llullaillaco.

Argentina, 1999.

At the top of this 22,000‐foot‐

high volcano, archeologist Johan

Reinhard discovers the frozen

remains of three human mummies‐‐

one boy and two girls‐‐ all

under the age of 16.

Dating back approximately 500

years, they were also surrounded

by a number of gold statues,

silver, ornate textiles and

pottery.

The children had been drugged

and left to die on top of the

mountain as sacrifices to the

Inca gods.

>> HAWKES: The Incas would make

human sacrifice after a major

earth event, like a volcano or

maybe an earthquake, and the

sacrifice would always be a

child between the age of six and

14 years old‐‐ an unblemished

child, a perfect child.

>> TSOUKALOS: Slaughtering their

own people was the ultimate

sacrifice‐‐ to kill someone in

order to possibly get the gods

to return.

And that proved how intense

those encounters were thousands

of years ago.

>> NARRATOR: For the Aztecs,

human sacrifice was so important

that they believed it to be

necessary for the survival of

the entire universe.

>> MIRABELLO: The Aztecs

sacrificed because they thought

the gods needed blood to

maintain the universe.

And without human blood, the

universe would die.

At the consecration of one

temple, they allegedly

sacrificed 20,000 people, in

which the persons were taken up

to the top of these pyramid‐like

structures.

They were cut open, the heart

ripped out, held up, and then

the bodies rolled down the

steps.

But we have accounts that

there were actually volunteers

for this.

>> NARRATOR: Do alien visitors

really desire the blood of

humans in order to exert power

and gain control over the earth?

There are those who believe the

answer is yes, and that there

may be a greater, even more

insidious agenda.

And the clues can be found by

examining cults that don't just

call for the death of others,

but require the faithful to

sacrifice themselves.

>> NARRATOR: North Africa, the

fourth century A. D.

Throughout the region, small

bands of religious fanatics

wielding clubs have been

attacking random travelers on

the road, while shouting praise

to God.

Their hope is to be met with

retaliation and ultimately be

killed.

These precursors to modern

suicide cults are called

Circumcellions, and their

followers purposely seek death

so that they may ascend and join

Jesus in the heavens.

>> YOUNG: The Circumcellions,

interestingly, didn't kill

themselves.

They tried to provoke other

people into killing them, so

they were obnoxious.

>> HAWKES: They would waylay

travelers on the road and

bludgeon them with a stick,

hoping to solicit a violent

response, because they believed

if they died, they would achieve

martyrdom.

And they tried so hard to be

killed that when it didn't

work, they banded together and

threw themselves off cliffs and

committed mass suicide anyway.

>> NARRATOR: Christian

suicide sects like the

Circumcellions became so

widespread that they drove the

Church to declare suicide a sin

in 364 A. D.

But what was it that inspired so

many early Christians to martyr

themselves?

In the second century A. D., more

than 200 years before the

Circumcellions, another group

was formed called the Gnostics,

who are still around today.

>> GOLDWAG: The Gnostic beliefs

are that the world we live in

wasn't made by God, it was made

by lesser beings.

The Archons are celestial

beings.

God made them, but they got out

of God's control, and they made

Earth.

This whole world isn't what it

seems to be.

And if you have this knowledge,

then you can get into a higher

world.

>> BIRNES: The Archons were

entities that came to Earth to

divert the human species to

their own ends.

Imagine a group of demonic

extraterrestrials that fed on

human misery, that are here to

this very day with every war,

every famine, every plague,

every human mishap.

Those were the Archons.

>> NARRATOR: Could it be that

some subconscious connection to

an extraterrestrial past made

groups like the Gnostics and the

Circumcellions believe in the

existence of a world better than

their own?

In Geneva, Switzerland, in 1984,

two men, Joseph Di Mambro and

Luc Jouret, formed a secret

society called the Order of the

Solar Temple.

They preached that nirvana could

be found on a planet circling

the star Sirius.

>> ROSS: Luc Jouret was a

kind of a holistic healer that

incorporated bits and pieces of

different religions...

primarily Christianity, the

Order of the Templars, claims

about extraterrestrials into

what became his religious

construct.

>> NARRATOR: While Jouret was

the figurehead of the group, it

was Di Mambro's young daughter,

who they called a cosmic child,

that was to lead them to the new

world.

>> SOUTHWELL: Joseph Di Mambro

managed to convince his

followers that his daughter

Emmanuelle was actually a divine

being, and that his

communication through her

allowed him to know that their

future on a planet around Sirius

was absolutely set.

All they had to do in the end

was believe so strongly that

they were actually willing to

give up their lives.

>> NARRATOR: Jouret and Di

Mambro preached that the

apocalypse was near, and to

reach this new planet, they

needed to commit suicide and

have their souls purified

through fire.

>> ROSS: All their bodies were

arranged in a network of chalets

in France and Switzerland.

And then there were timed

explosives that set these

chalets on fire.

The bodies were essentially

cremated.

(siren wailing)

>> NARRATOR: After the last

wave of suicides in 1997, the

death toll increased to 74

people.

But authorities were even more

shocked when, that same year,

another fanatical group also

committed mass suicide for a

similar purpose‐‐ Heaven's Gate.

>> ROSS: When the suicides

occurred of Heaven's Gate, it

was initially believed that this

was just one more installment of

the Solar Temple.

It wasn't until later that

reports established that this

was another cult entirely.

>> NARRATOR: In the late 1980s,

at the same time Heaven's Gate

and the Order of the Solar

Temple were gaining followers,

yet another cult was formed in

Uganda called the Movement for

the Restoration of the Ten

Commandments of God.

Their leader, Joseph Kibwetere,

claimed he was in direct

communication with the Virgin

Mary through electronics in his

home.

>> SOUTHWELL: The way that the

Virgin Mary was talking through

telephones, through the

television, bears eerie

similarities with the way a lot

of extraterrestrial‐based cults

claim to actually be getting

communications from UFOs.

>> NARRATOR: Kibwetere predicted

the world would end on December

31, 1999.

But when the date passed without

incident, he decided to bring

about the end of the world

himself.

>> ROSS: He poisoned them.

He threw their bodies down

wells.

Finally, more than 500 were

locked within a wooden church

building that was set on fire.

In the end, more than 750 bodies

were recovered.

It was probably the most

horrific cult tragedy in modern

history.

>> NARRATOR: Three separate

cults...

all committing mass suicide or

murder within a five‐year

period.

Over 1,000 dead.

And all three cults believed

they had received messages from

otherworldly beings.

Messages that convinced them

that their deaths would

transport them into a better

life in the heavens.

Coincidence?

Or might these cult members

really have been the recipients

of some sort of bizarre

extraterrestrial communication?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe that such an incredible

notion is possible.

And that the the evidence may be

found inside the human brain.

>> NARRATOR: Tokyo, Japan.

March 20, 1995.

Members of the doomsday cult

Aum Shinrikyo‐‐ or the Supreme

Truth Sect‐‐ place packages

filled with a deadly sarin nerve

agent on five different trains,

all racing into the heart of the

Tokyo underground.

Cult members puncture the

sarin‐laced packages with

sharpened umbrella tips...

and their leader's apocalyptic

vision nearly comes true when

cries for help start to echo

throughout the subway.

>> SOUTHWELL: This attack killed

13 people.

It caused great injury to 50

more and temporary blindness and

temporary effects to more than

1,000 people.

>> NARRATOR: After an exhaustive

investigation, it was determined

that the attacks were carefully

and single‐handedly orchestrated

by Aum Shinrikyo's cult leader,

Shoko Asahara.

>> GOLDWAG: He had visions about

the end of the world.

And he decided that he would

pull this group together, and he

would hasten the end of the

world.

>> ROSS: And he was the leader

of a cult that was responsible

for perhaps the most heinous

terrorist attack in Japanese

history.

>> NARRATOR: When Japanese

officials raided Aum Shinrikyo's

research and development

facility after the subway

attack, they found explosives, a

military helicopter,

weapons‐grade strains of anthrax

and Ebola virus.

But the strangest item they

seized may also have been the

most deadly: a mind control

device.

>> MARTELL: Asahara convinced

his followers to wear a type of

helmet called a PSI helmet.

This stood for "Perfect

Salvation Initiation."

This helmet supposedly would

actually connect

electromagnetically to his brain

waves and transmit information

and thought directly to his

followers.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

electrical or magnetic impulses

can influence something that

simulates the feeling of

spiritual experience in the

human brain?

According to findings by

Canadian neuroscience researcher

and university professor Dr.

Michael Persinger, magnetic

fields can, in fact, affect the

brain's temporal lobe.

And he claims to have proven it

with experiments involving a

device he calls "The God

Helmet".

>> SOUTHWELL: Persinger's God

Helmet is one of the most

interesting new developments in

neuroscience and the study of

neuroscience.

By actually inducing fluctuating

magnetic fields in the human

brain, these fluctuating

magnetic fields have been shown

in many, many cases to give

people what can only be called

a religious experience.

Some have very shamanistic

experiences.

Some have experiences which

absolutely mirror alien

abduction or alien contact.

It has left some people very,

very changed.

>> NARRATOR: If the God Helmet

can induce spiritual or

otherworldy experiences, could

more advanced alien technology

have influenced mankind in

similar ways?

In 2005, geneticist Dr. Dean

Hamer published the results

of his experiments testing

whether or not human beings are

hardwired to believe in God.

After collecting DNA samples and

conducting a series of

psychological tests on 2,000

people, Hamer examined the

correlation between human genes

and spirituality.

>> HAMER: We found one

particular gene that seemed to

match up.

That gene is called VMAT2,

which stands for Vesicular

Monoamine Transporter number 2,

but for handiness we just call

it "the God gene."

>> SOUTHWELL: Some people have

seized on Hamer's very

straightforward ideas about an

evolutionary benefit of being

capable of believing in gods as

saying this may be a sign of

alien genetic manipulation.

>> NARRATOR: Might

extraterrestrial beings really

have exploited mankind's genetic

and biological inclination to

believe in the existence of a

higher power?

>> HAWKES: If our DNA is made up

of both extraterrestrial and

human genetics, then we have to

wonder, is it possible then,

that an extraterrestrial race

could influence us more, because

our genetics are made up of them

as well?

>> CHILDRESS: If

extraterrestrials have been

influencing us, and our

spirituality... and then

creating these cults... it would

seem that extraterrestrials, who

have genetically manipulated us,

have wanted us to have special

brains that would be receptive

to certain influences.

>> HAMER:

>> NARRATOR: Might aliens have

used some sort of electrical or

biomagnetic technology to

compel cult leaders like

Marshall Applewhite, Shoko

Asahara, and their followers,

to perform horrific and

otherwise insane acts of murder,

torture and mass suicide?

Did these men and women‐‐ as did

millions of others, going back

centuries‐‐ merely come into

contact with a force they didn't

understand, a force they

misinterpreted?

>> MARTELL: Many modern day

cults that are led by, let's

say, madmen could possibly be

misinterpreting events that have

taken place throughout history,

whether it be things that relate

to the Bible or astronomical

things happening in the heavens.

>> NARRATOR: But whether cult

leaders are misinterpreting

extraterrestrial messages or are

being directly guided by them,

might we someday discover that

the other worlds they preach

about actually exist?

And is their ultimate goal to

help us or to harm us?

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