All language subtitles for The UnXplained Special Presentation S01E07 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A Renaissance prophet

who foresaw World War II.

A Siberian mystic

who warned about the fall
of the Russian Empire.

And a divine encounter

between three small children...

and the Virgin Mary.

Throughout recorded history,
numerous people

have claimed to receive
glimpses of the future

that allowed them to predict--

and sometimes influence--

events that had not
yet come to pass.

Is it really possible to foresee
what tomorrow may hold?

And if so, can we use
this information

about what lies ahead
for the benefit of mankind?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Astrologer and physician
Michel de Nostradamus

publishes a volume of four-line
poems called quatrains.

Readers at the time are confused

by the author's use of multiple
languages, word puzzles,

and what was even then
considered antiquated syntax.

But perhaps even more baffling

is the volume's title
Les Prophéties--

The Prophecies.

JOHN HOGUE:
Nostradamus had become

initially famous
as a almanac writer.

You've got to understand

that this is during the time
of the Printing Revolution

and he was one of
its first best-selling authors.

And then he embarked on
a history of the future,

which would look at everything

up to the year 3797 AD,

nearly 1,800 years
from now, and beyond.

SHATNER:
The Prophecies was
initially met with

outright skepticism
and derision.

Many believed Nostradamus to be
either a fraud or mentally ill,

possibly both,

likely due to the fact
that one of his verses

scandalously foretold
of a particularly gory death

for Henry II,
the king of France.

HOGUE:
Nostradamus made
a prediction about Henry II

dying in a jousting accident.

Quatrain 35 read that,

"A young lion would face
the old in traditional combat.

"He shall be pierced
through a gilded cage.

Two wounds made one."

The joust happened exactly
as he foretold it.

Both men had lions
on their shields.

Large shards went through
the gilded visor of the king,

one penetrated
his forehead into his brain,

the other in between his eye
and socket, destroying his eye.

And he died
of infection of the brain

ten days later,
an agonizing death.

SHATNER:
After the king's death,
Nostradamus's reputation

as a seer of the future
grew rapidly.

Which was, at the time,
not necessarily a good thing.

It is well known
that Nostradamus

concealed the nature
of his prophecies,

which at that time was
very politically incorrect

and could have gotten him
in a lot of trouble.

He would come
into great conflict

with the Church if
he put himself on a pedestal

and be like Noah or Moses
or people like this.

SHATNER:
Despite the controversy,
The Prophecies

eventually became one
of the most widely read books

in the world.

It both astounded
and terrified readers

with its predictions about
dreadful events to come.

Is it possible Nostradamus
received his prophetic visions

because he was in touch
with a higher power?

It's an interesting theory

and could help explain
how Nostradamus

was able to see and know things

that would not happen
for centuries.

Things he was trying
to warn us about.

With World War II
wreaking havoc

throughout Europe
and the Pacific,

it wasn't only the latest news

from the front lines
making headlines,

but also Nostradamus
and his prophecy

centering on the rise
of a man named Hister.

HOGUE:
What triggered
his international fame

was a reference five times
in his prophecies

about a man named Hister

with a Gothic "S,"
which has a "T" cross to it,

another "push push nudge
nudge" perhaps in his work.

Hister is the ancient name
of the river Danube.

Adolf Hitler grew up
on the river Danube.

Nostradamus had a pattern
of using a place as a person.

The river is a code

and the things that are said

in the other parts
of the prophecies

indicate that it's a man.

The man who is called the
"captain of greater Germany."

SHATNER:
Is it possible

Nostradamus predicted the rise

of one of the most
evil men in history?

According to many who
have studied these quatrains,

the answer is yes.
And as evidence,

they point to other things
he foresaw.

Things that a person who lived
and died in the 16th century

could never know
would one day exist.

It's happened many times for me

when I want to just
slap the book shut

and say, "Oh, come on."

And then names
suddenly come out.

"A man named de Gaulle
will lead France three times,"

and it's factually true.

Charles de Gaulle
led the free French,

led the provisional government,

and then finally
in his final years

was president of France
three times.

And that's one of hundreds
of things I can cite.

How does he do this?

MITCH HOROWITZ:
Nostradamus is one of
the most enduring names,

perhaps the most enduring name,

in post-Biblical prophecy.

His quatrains have been
applied to hundreds

upon hundreds of events
throughout history.

And people continue to feel

that they can learn
what's around the next corner

by studying his quatrains.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
Nostradamus fascinates us
because it's perhaps

part of our fear instinct,
isn't it?

When we're in difficult times,
we turn to the seers,

we turn to the prophets
to try to find out,

can they give some insight into
these chaotic times we live in,

particularly in today's time?

SHATNER:
If it's true that Nostradamus

was able to predict
so many things

with such incredible accuracy,

why aren't we scouring
his works in order to prevent

the next natural catastrophe
or world war?

Perhaps because,
as scholars of Nostradamus

have to admit,
of the thousands of prophecies

he made over
the course of his life,

only a small fraction
have actually come true.

And even his seemingly
accurate predictions

have been questioned.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
We kind of have a double problem
with Nostradamus

in some ways because some of
the predictions are a bit vague

and people can project
all sorts of things

into these vague predictions
and then relate them

to something
that's happening now.

But also sometimes they take

two completely
unrelated sentences,

put them together,
and it seems to relate

to something we have today.

MICHIO KAKU:
The brain is a pattern-seeking,

learning machine.

It constantly sees patterns

even when they're not there.

Uh, in fact, there's
a name for it-- apophenia.

We can't help it

because sometimes we were right.

Then we make leaps of logic.
"What does he mean?"

"What did he
really mean by that?"

And then we try
to make sense of it

because that's what
the brain does.

SHATNER:
Are Nostradamus's predictions

merely the ramblings
of a madman,

which people
deliberately interpret

in order to fit history
after the fact?

As with anything,

it all depends on who you ask.

HOGUE:
What makes Nostradamus
so relevant today

is that he's found a way

through his obscurity

to make everybody
a "sleuth-sayer,"

a detective.

He understood that
it would keep him topical

for four and a half centuries.

He even said that
"when I'm dead,

"I will be far more famous

than I ever was
while I'm alive."

SHATNER:
Thousands of people
gather to celebrate

the coronation of
Czar Nicholas Romanov II

and his wife,
the Empress Alexandra.

For more than 300 years,

the Romanov dynasty
ruled the vast Russian Empire.

But Nicholas's reign
would be a troubled one

during very troubling times.

Nicholas II, the last Romanov
on the throne, was probably

the last person who ever
should have been on the throne.

He was weak,
indecisive, uh, passive.

And at the time,
Russia was modernizing.

And so Nicholas was facing
all sorts of challenges

from a society
that wanted a greater voice

in politics and the economy.

But in fact
Nicholas was dictatorial,

authoritarian,
in many ways very brutal.

And he insisted
on plunging the country

into what would become
the First World War...

...and was never able
to sort of guide

the political institutions
into the modern era.

And-and he failed in just
an epic, epic fashion.

SHATNER:
Less than ten years
into his reign,

Czar Nicholas was confronted

with worker strikes
and military mutinies.

Russians across
the country were upset

that while the aristocracy
lived a life of luxury,

average people struggled
to make ends meet.

With civil unrest building
momentum throughout the empire,

the Romanov family
lived a secluded life

in the capital city
of St. Petersburg.

In 1904, Alexandra gave birth
to their fifth child,

a boy whom they named Alexei.

But the joy
of having an heir apparent

to the Romanov dynasty
was quickly overshadowed.

Alexandra gives birth to a son.

Glory, glory, glory.

Except the son has
a hereditary medical condition.

Hemophilia.

He lacks
a component in his blood

that allows it to clot.

So, to understand Alexandra,
you have to

understand this
is one of the reasons

she will become drawn
to mysticism.

SHATNER:
In order to ensure
Alexei's well-being,

Nicholas and Alexandra
sought the help

of a mysterious Siberian mystic

named Grigori Rasputin.

SPENCE:
Grigori Rasputin
was born around 1869.

And he was a Strannik,

a kind of traveling preacher.

Not a priest, not a monk,

but what he really was,
was a shaman.

Because what
he's claiming is that,

"The spirits have spoken to me

and they have given me powers."

So, what are
the powers he claimed to have?

Well, the two most important--
prophecy and healing.

SMITH:
In the early 20th century,

Russians as a whole

were obsessed by the notion

of mystics and peasant holy men.

And that's the way
Rasputin was finally able

to gain access to the palace

and to meet Nicholas and
Alexandra for the first time,

because they were,
they were also fascinated

by people like this.

SHATNER:
Beginning in 1906,

Rasputin acted as an important
faith healer for young Alexei

and a trusted prophet
for Czar Nicholas.

From the very beginning
that Rasputin

makes contact with
the Romanovs and is embraced

by them as a friend--
it's the actual word they use--

people become jealous,
they become envious.

You have courtiers
and mighty aristocrats

who don't get to go
to court, they would say,

"Here this 'dirty peasant'
gets to go in.

Why don't I get to go in?"

Which was the sign
of an aristocratic family.

By late 1916,

there's already
been several attempts

on the life of Rasputin,

and he begins to come
to this realization

that he's a marked man.

He is not going
to live much longer.

SPENCE:
Rasputin tells the empress,

"If I'm killed by the nobles,

"that will mean the end
of you and your dynasty,

and none in your family
will live more than two years."

Now, that's
a pretty scary prophecy

because, you know,
he had mystical powers

from the forces beyond.

SHATNER:
Shortly after making
his dark prediction,

Rasputin was invited

to the Yusupov Palace
in St. Petersburg,

where several Russian noblemen

poisoned, shot,

and ultimately drowned
the Siberian mystic

in the freezing waters
of the Moika River.

PAUL STONEHILL:
It took a lot of effort
to kill Rasputin,

but it was a treacherous murder,
and they did kill him.

It was at a very bad time

because there was nobody else
to give advice to Nicholas II.

But it was not as bad
as what came after.

SHATNER:
After 300 years of Romanov rule,

Czar Nicholas II is overthrown

by the Communist Bolsheviks.

In the aftermath
of the revolution,

Nicholas, his wife Alexandra,
and their five children

are exiled to the remote town
of Yekaterinburg.

At that time, the decision
is made to execute the family.

They are awakened at night

and forced to go
down to the cellar.

The person in charge,

he says, "By the decree
of the people,

"to prevent your liberation,

you are to be executed,"

and shoots the czar.

-(gunshots)
-The czar is killed immediately

and so was his wife,

and of course the royal family.

Rasputin prophecy of doom
was absolutely correct.

He was killed by aristocrats,

and after that, less than
two years, Czar was gone

and his family was gone.

SHATNER:
Did Rasputin somehow
channel mystical powers

that allowed him
to foresee the execution

of the Romanov family?

Perhaps.

But what's even
more extraordinary

is that there is another
Russian who was also said

to have predicted
the fall of the Romanovs

more than 300 years earlier.

After a period of
lawlessness and civil war,

Mikhail Romanov
becomes czar of Russia.

Mikhail is the first czar
of the Romanov dynasty,

but he also faces an
immediate threat to his power.

Because one of his rivals
who was killed in the war

left behind a four-year-old son

named Ivan Dmitriyevich.

And some Russians think
that young Ivan

is the rightful heir to throne.

SMITH:
The new czar Mikhail Romanov

is not going to let this Ivan,

who's only four years old,

survive and be some
sort of pretender to the throne

around which various factions
might mobilize.

So he sends forces to seize Ivan

and has this little boy
taken out

and hanged publicly.

SHATNER:
News of the cruel execution
shocked the country,

and no one was more affected
than Ivan's mother,

Marina Mniszech,

an influential noblewoman

who had been imprisoned
by the new czar.

When she learned of
her child's gruesome fate,

Marina reportedly uttered
a vengeful prophecy

about the collapse
of the Romanov dynasty.

There's a story that
when Marina heard about

the gruesome hanging
of her four-year-old child,

that she said that,

"As your reign began

with the hanging
of little Ivan," her son,

"so shall your reign end

with the death of a male son
to inherit the throne."

And in fact, 300 years later,

the Romanov dynasty
would then end

with the death of Alexei,

the hemophiliac son
of Nicholas and Alexandra,

after the revolution.

STONEHILL:
Marina was obviously devastated,

and with the prophecy
that she authored,

this bloody prophecy
against the Romanovs,

it seemed that
she had this insight

into the future of Russia.

And so you have
two people that were

around the Romanovs,
one way or another.

And their destinies

was to have precognition

which played out
in a very bad way.

SHATNER:
In the hills located
just outside

this small farming village,

three young children are walking
through a sheep pasture

when, suddenly, a bright
light appears in the sky.

They are shocked
to see what looks like

a heavenly angel
floating above them.

The children believe
that this otherworldly figure

is the Blessed Virgin Mary,

the mother of Jesus Christ.

These three shepherd children,

Francisco, Jacinta and Lúcia,

they are out in the field,

and Our Lady,
the Blessed Mother,

appears to them.

When Our Lady began speaking
to these children in Fatima,

she told them
that she would come back

on the 13th of each month.

And those children,

they immediately
told this story

of this apparition
to their parents.

CARGILL:
When these children
go and tell this story

to the people of the town,

they don't believe them.
Three little kids,

you know, shepherds up there
in the mountains,

they're not gonna believe them.

People said, "You're lying."

SHATNER:
Despite the skepticism,
the children insisted

that they were being visited
by the Virgin Mary

on the 13th of every month.

In fact, they reported
that the apparition

had specifically told them

she would return
to perform a miracle

on October 13th.

For months,
the residents of Fatima

wondered whether
this extraordinary prophecy

would come true.

And so, on October 13, 1917,

thousands of people
gathered with the children

to see if the Virgin Mary
would appear.

And the crowd witnessed

an incredible celestial event

that came to be known

as the Miracle of the Sun.

SYMONDS:
There was a crowd of anywhere
between 70,000

to 100,000 people on that day,

and it had been pouring rain.

Everybody was drenched.

And everybody looked up.

The clouds had parted,
they could see the Sun,

and the Sun was going
all around the sky.

And then it was coming
crashing into the Earth.

(astonished gasps)

People were crying,
they were screaming,

some were openly
confessing their sins.

But then, gradually,
the Sun went back

to its place in the sky.

And when everybody
looked around,

their clothes and the ground
were completely dry.

So, after all of this
had happened,

that changed the opinions
of many people

because you can't explain
those things.

If they had doubted,
now they believed.

SHATNER:
After conducting
a thorough investigation,

the Catholic Church declared
that the Miracle of the Sun

was an event that was
"worthy of credence."

Also taken seriously
were visions and prophecies

the Blessed Mother shared
with one of the children.

CARGILL:
At one point,
one of these children, Lucia,

was given three secrets.

The first was that
she got to see

what hell looked like.

To see how horrible it is.

And the second was
that there would be

an end to the war--
this is World War I--

but that another war would come.

This would be World War II.

SYMONDS:
Our Lady said,
"When you see a night

"illuminated by a great light
in the sky,

"know that it is when

"God is about to punish

the world for its crimes."

Well, that great light happened
in January of 1938.

It was reported as
an aurora borealis.

Even The New York Times had
a story on it back then.

And shortly thereafter,
Hitler annexed Austria,

and some believe that to be

the real beginning
of World War II.

SHATNER:
For the faithful,
the second secret

was further proof that
the children had received

prophecies from the Virgin Mary.

However, for decades,
the third and final secret

was kept in a sealed envelope
in the Vatican.

But then, on the 64th
anniversary

of the first vision of Fatima,
an event took place

which ultimately led to
the third secret being revealed.

CARGILL:
This secret

remained sealed
until May 13, 1981,

when Pope John Paul
was in Vatican Square,

and an assassination attempt
was made on his life.

He was shot
and very close to death,

but he survived.

SHATNER: After recovering
from his gunshot wounds,

Pope John Paul II decided
to open the envelope

containing the third secret.

Because he believed that
the attempt on his life

taking place on the anniversary
of the Fatima vision

was not a coincidence.

LOONEY:
The third secret of Fatima
talks about this vision

of a man in white who is
walking about a city.

And then he arrives
at a cross, and then

at this cross he is shot
with bullets and dies there.

A lot of those who have looked
at this third secret of Fatima

really see that
this man in white

has to be the Holy Father.

SYMONDS:
If the bullet went a fraction
one way or the other,

it would have killed the pope.

And because it happened
on May 13th,

which is the anniversary
of the first apparition

of Our Lady of Fatima,

he believed that it was
the Virgin Mary

that had saved his life.

Pope John Paul II saw this
as verification

of these three children,

the Miracle of the Sun,

all of it being true.

So Pope John Paul II then
beatified two of the children,

and they became saints.

And the third one,
who recently died,

is now in the process
of canonization

and becoming a saint.

Now, does this prove
the children's story?

We don't know.

But a lot of people,

from a long time ago
and to today,

believe this story.

SYMONDS:
The town of Fatima has become

a huge place of pilgrimage,

and we're still, to this day,
trying to make sense of it.

And as we put those
pieces together, we realize

the importance of Fatima
is only being

more proven over time.

More than a century after
the visions at Fatima,

many Christians remain
firmly convinced

that the Virgin Mary gave
those three small children

information about the future.

But there are other premonitions
that reportedly come

not from heavenly sources
but rather from people

who have passed away.

Like in the case of one woman
who believes she received

a lifesaving warning
from Princess Diana.

SHATNER:
Interior designer Clare Henry
is driving to her home

in the county of Hampshire,
nearly 100 miles from London.

It's a trip that she's made

more times than
she can remember.

HENRY:
So I'm sitting in the car.

I was driving back from London
to Hampshire.

Uh, it was about the eighth
of February,

uh, 1998.

It was six months after
Princess Diana had died.

I met Diana when I was a member
of the Harbour Club.

And I would meet her many times

when I was working out
in the gym.

And I wasn't a close friend.
I wish I had been.

But we used to have
a giggle together.

And we had a lovely time,

and she was a very dear soul.

Full of light, full of love.

There was something about her.

I couldn't quite
put my finger on it.

SHATNER:
As Clare pulls onto
the M27 motorway,

she notices that the highway
is shrouded in fog.

HENRY:
I came across a fog wall.

It had been raining
in the morning,

and when it rains, you know,
you often get

damp weather in England
and you get foggy evenings.

Especially in the West Country.

SHATNER:
Instead of pulling
into the fast lane,

as she's done
countless times before,

Clare slows down
and proceeds with caution.

And then Clare suddenly has
a strange

and disturbing vision.

She sees a woman's face.

But not just that of any woman.

She sees the face
of Princess Diana.

And suddenly I see this vision.

And I was very surprised,
very shocked

to see the face
of Princess Diana.

Just here, literally here
in front of my face.

And because I see her face,

and I put two and two together.

Diana killed in a car crash
in the tunnel.

In a Mercedes.

I suddenly realized that Diana's
trying to tell me something,

and something is about to happen
in front of me.

And I need to pay attention
and I need to change

what I normally do.

So I had a very, very, very
short time to think about

what I was going to do next.

I shot across, left,
towards the hard shoulder,

and I kept on going,
and all of a sudden

I hear this awful sound.

(tires screeching)

(crash)

And the sound was
metal on metal...

...and breaking glass.

I realized there's an accident.

I just remember passing
this barrage of cars.

And I couldn't believe
how glass didn't hit me.

It was a pretty big pileup.

And then I stopped
'cause I realized

there's nobody next to me,
there's nobody behind me.

And nobody got out
of that accident.

I was the only one

who got out of that accident.

And if I had done what
I normally do that day

and gone straight into
the fast lane,

I don't think I'd be sitting
here today, to be honest.

SHATNER:
This strange ability
to anticipate danger

before it happens may seem
like a far-fetched notion.

But if not for seeing the face
of Princess Diana,

Clare Henry believes
that she would have met

a rather sudden and tragic end
on the highway that day.

Was the vision that
she claims to have seen

simply a coincidental figment
of Clare's imagination?

Or was it something more?

Clare had a glimpse
of the future

in that one instant,
which is exactly the time

she had a vision of
Princess Diana warning her,

"This is not your time to die."

Be careful.
Get off the road now.

Clare and Princess Diana
may have been just friends

at the gym, but perhaps
there was a deeper,

stronger connection
on a spiritual level.

On a much higher level.

A bigger story, so to speak.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
I think many of us have
had that experience of,

you know, your hair tingling

or ducking just before
something's coming.

And if our brain is good
at interpreting it

without us knowing,
we can get a premonition

and get out of harm's way.

But at the end of the day,
science doesn't really have

a good explanation of this yet
because we haven't studied it

in the ways I think
that needs to be done.

(monitor beeping steadily)

CORY:
Sometimes premonition

comes from what we call
our spirit family.

They are communicating with us
from the other side,

giving us messages

that something is about
to go wrong.

Because premonition is coming
from our higher consciousness,

it is not part of our normal
awakened state.

It is coming from
another dimension

beyond this human reality.

SHATNER:
Can people really
receive information

about the future
from the other side?

Perhaps further clues
about mystical premonitions

can be found
by examining the story

of a neuroscientist
who claims that

she can see the future
in her dreams.

SHATNER:
Cognitive neuroscientist
Julia Mossbridge

settles into bed
after a long day.

It's a night's sleep
that begins like any other,

until she experiences

a strange and disturbing dream.

MOSSBRIDGE:
This dream was horrible.

I was taken to someplace
in the Middle East.

I didn't know where.

I met this man.

He shows up sometimes
in my dreams.

He's like a guide.

There was this outdoor building.
It was mosque-like

in that it was built
out of stone,

and there were breezeways.

It was the middle of the day.
People were praying.

SHATNER:
In the confusing fog
of her dream,

Julia pieces together
an unsettling picture.

It seems that her guide
is desperately trying

to warn her of something
that is going to happen.

Something dire.

MOSSBRIDGE:
And he's showing me this event.

There was rubble because
there was a terrorist explosion

when people were praying.

And he showed me this writing.

It was Arabic.

There were the letters
for "I" and "S."

And I knew that stood
for Islamic State.

SHATNER:
But before she can awaken
herself from her nightmare,

she realizes he still has
one more message to deliver.

MOSSBRIDGE:
He called the place
we were in "Kyuck Kyuck."

He kept saying "Kyuck Kyuck,"

and I didn't know
what that meant.

Since I was a kid, I have had
precognitive dreams.

Usually they're describing
an event

that happens the next day,
the next week, the next month.

So when I woke up,
I wrote it in my dream journal

because that's my habit.

I've never had
a precognitive dream

of something horrible like that

on a major world scale.

It shook me.

Later in the day,
I got the news report

of a bombing
in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

I figured, ugh, that was
the "Kyuck Kyuck."

I had it almost right
but not quite.

This happened during
noontime prayers.

Responsibility was claimed
by ISIS, Islamic State.

I felt heartbroken
because I saw it happen.

SHATNER:
Dreams have long been known

to reflect the dreamer's
subconscious mind.

Desires, anxieties,
long-forgotten memories

all bubbling to the surface.

But precognitive dreams?

Is it really possible
that dreams,

like the ones we have
every night,

can actually predict the future?

KAKU:
When we take a person
who's dreaming

and put him in
a brain scan machine,

we begin to realize something
very interesting.

Blood flow to the front
of the brain

is turned off for the most part.

Second, blood flow goes to
the emotional part of the brain,

and you start
to have nightmares.

You start to have fears.

You imagine the future
or have a premonition.

Dreams are important
because it allows us

to articulate the fears
and premonitions that we have

in the unconscious mind.

And then we're able to evaluate
it with the conscious mind.

SHATNER:
As unbelievable
as it may have seemed

to her scientific mind,

Julia firmly believed
she had seen the future

before it happened.

Having been in this position
before

and regretting not doing
anything about it,

Julia wasn't going to let
the same thing happen again.

In fall of 2017,
I had another one of these

world stage-type dreams
that felt precognitive,

and that did not feel good.

There was a cruise ship.

And there were those
cartoon, sort of, creatures

on the cruise ship.

I thought, "Oh, no, Disney."

And then, after that,
there was a bridge structure.

It was this arching-- it was
actually quite beautiful--

this arching bridge structure,

and the concern
in the dream was,

that's where the explosion
would happen.

And that scared me.

I'd never seen
a bridge like that.

So I googled
the shape of the bridge,

and the first thing
that shows up

is the Coronado Bridge
in San Diego.

I remembered that
I'd promised myself

that I was going to

go to authorities,
even if I felt stupid.

MULLEN:
I was detailed to the FBI's
Joint Terrorism Task Force

in San Diego, California.

Julia contacted
somebody within NCIS,

and my boss got word of it

and said,
"Hey, just look into this."

I knew very little, if anything,
about precog. I was curious.

I knew from the very second
that I started talking to her

that there was
no ulterior motive.

When she gave me
the information,

she was very specific on
the location and the time.

She had actionable information

and wanted somebody
to run with this,

to prevent something
that she saw in a dream.

Most cops don't like
using information

that they can't explain.

And precog is something
that is unexplainable.

But if this is something
that would actually work,

why not give it a try?

The Coronado Bay Bridge
in San Diego

is one of the big things
that we try to protect,

along with
all of the Navy assets.

There are always threats.

We were able to
move patrol boats

to provide coverage
around the bridge.

(siren wailing)

And nothing happened.

Did nothing happen because
there were patrol boats,

and somebody
who was looking to do

something nefarious
against the bridge

basically said,
"I don't want to be caught"?

Or was the attack
not even going to happen?

The simple fact
that nothing happened

was, in my mind, a win.

MOSSBRIDGE:
If you're going to go
into this world

and use this talent
to create data

that can be used
to prevent something,

sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.

But as long as
the bad thing doesn't happen,

good.

SHATNER:
The International Data
Corporation publishes a report,

which estimates that
by the year 2022,

over $270 billion

will be spent annually
on a new form of prophecy.

It's called
predictive analytics.

Only this time the prophets will
be made of ones and zeros...

...instead of flesh and blood.

Predictive analytics

is a fancy way of saying,

look at the data

and figure out
why things happen.

Very important.
Banks, corporations,

computer companies spend
hundreds of millions of dollars

sifting through tons of data,

trying to find
instances of causality.

If I raise
the price of a product,

does my profit margin go down?

Will I go bankrupt?

In other words,
corporations constantly try

to predict the future.
That's the name of the game.

You predict it wrong,
you zag when you should zig,

you go bankrupt.

ANNE M. CLEARY:
I think predictive analytics

operate very similarly
to how our brains work.

Our minds come equipped

to make predictions
about the future

based on our past experiences,

and they operate very similarly.

In fact,
machine learning algorithms,

the type that carry out
predictive analytics,

are often called
neural network models

because they're
designed to mimic

how neurons work in our brains.

SHATNER:
The idea of advanced computers

pulling information
from the cloud

in order to predict the future
may sound like science fiction.

But in truth, this idea

has been around
for thousands of years.

HOROWITZ:
Every culture in history

has had some concept
of a universal mind.

The Greeks used to call it
nous, or a "great over mind."

In Vedic tradition
it's sometimes called akasha,

or a kind of universal ether.

People like Nostradamus
and any seer will tune into

what we call the akashic record.

This is like
the memory of all things.

It's a universal mind.

We enter it by going
into a state of meditation

and connecting with the past,
the present, and the future.

One of the great secrets
of the mystical tradition

is that all human souls are one,

so we are part
of a collective whole.

In later psychology,
it has been understood

to be called
a collective unconscious.

In ancient times,
it was referred to

as a collective soul,

which is the collective mind
of all humanity,

past, present, future.

MOSSBRIDGE:
I think the people
who work in this way,

what they're doing is
they're tapping into

some source of information.

I don't think the question is

"Why are we able to get
information about the future?"

I think the question
is more like

"Why don't we get more
information about the future?"

Is there really
a universal, all-knowing

source of information
that we can tap into

for insights about the future?

It's an intriguing prospect,
and if true, hey,

it would validate the many
prophecies and premonitions

that have been recorded
throughout history.

Perhaps technology will one day

allow us to prove that these
mysterious visions

were authentic glimpses
of the future,

but until then

they will remain unexplained.

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