Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Millions of people around the world

believe we have been visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

For over a decade, the hit TV series Ancient Aliens

has examined the profound and highly controversial theory

that extraterrestrials came to Earth thousands of years ago

and quite possibly never left.

Now, on a special two-hour Ancient Aliens event...

WILLIAM SHATNER: I think it's utterly,

utterly fascinating.

NARRATOR: ...William Shatner will boldly go

where he has never gone before,

talking to scientists, spiritual leaders,

and, of course, ancient astronaut theorists

in an attempt to answer the question:

could it be that Earth has been visited

by extraterrestrials?

SHATNER: Convincing me about ancient aliens

is the first step to convincing me

about the existence of a higher power.

So, convince me.

Hello, I'm William Shatner.

And we have around here this roundtable

of experts in esoteric knowledge,

practical knowledge,

but also people who are equally curious

about aliens.

I love the idea that we've been visited,

we have been, we will be, we are, by aliens,

but I have my doubts.

I want to be convinced

of what you guys know and what you guys have done

for a decade and more on Ancient Aliens.

So, I throw it open.

You.

-(laughter) -Giorgio.

There are ancient texts and oral traditions

that have been handed down for thousands of years.

And pretty much, they all begin in the same way,

that a long, long time ago,

someone taught us how to build

the ancient structures,

how to figure out mathematics and agriculture

and all those different things.

The ancient astronaut theory suggests that at some point,

we've had teachers.

And they have far more advanced technology

that our ancestors thought was divine or magic.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theory challenges

humankind's most established understandings of history,

archaeology, science and religion.

Proponents suggest that the truth

behind the very origins of the human race

is far different and far more profound

than what we've been taught.

TSOUKALOS: Ancient cultures have these very detailed stories

of the so-called gods,

and described someone descending from the sky.

We have these stories worldwide.

And so, the ancient astronaut theory suggests

that these gods were

flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials

whom our ancestors misinterpreted as divine

only because they descended from the sky.

All civilizations talk about beings coming from the sky

to assist humankind in development.

They taught astrology, astronomy,

how to make offensive and defensive weapons.

CHILDRESS: And these traditions

-are all over the world. -Mm-hmm.

And what they say is, there were these avatars.

Like Osiris, like Viracocha, coming from the sky.

Their mission was to bring civilization to man

and to teach them medicine,

-arts, metallurgy... -Yes.

...how to build things, construction, architecture.

Everything that we know.

Well, let me ask you a question about legends, then.

'Cause this is all legendary.

Legends are, uh, verbal.

HENRY: They're oral traditions.

-They're oral traditions. -The entire... Yeah.

And if I told you a joke, the whole joke

would be different when it got to the other end of the table.

-Sure. -Legends are oral traditions

told around a campfire that change.

-Well... -But not by ordinary people.

By priests and people trained with memory skills...

...when you're dealing with aborigine peoples,

oral traditions were actually very rigidly passed on

from generation to generation.

SHATNER: Okay, I'm good with that.

But all of you spent a lifetime studying evidence

that ancient aliens came here, are here, were here.

I need you to explain to me the timeline.

Did Erich von Daniken start it all,

or was-was he the...

-He popularized it. -CHILDRESS: Yeah,

and Ancient Aliens

is-is continuing that today.

NARRATOR: In 1968,

Swiss author Erich von Daniken

published what would become the seminal book

for the ancient astronaut theory, Chariots of the Gods?

The highly controversial text posed the question,

did aliens come to Earth centuries ago?

It caused an instant sensation, and two years later,

a feature-length documentary based on Von Daniken's book

was so highly regarded

that it was nominated for an Academy Award.

Chariots of the Gods? was one of the most impactful

and most intriguing publications in the modern history.

The questions made people seek an answer.

Chariots of the Gods? led to a fundamental rethink

about our history, our origins

and indeed our place in the cosmos.

MICHAEL DENNIN: It helped motivate and push science a little bit

to think about things differently.

Now, the other feature, I think, that's interesting is

in this space in the intersection between religion,

science and other ways of thinking about the world,

you added a new piece in the new dynamic.

When I was ten years old, my dad read Erich von Daniken's book

and gave it to me and said, "Read this, son,

it'll open your mind."

So, that led me to be a scientist,

to find out, "Well, I want to know what-what this

really is saying."

And if these things actually did happen,

what can we learn from it that we could use today

to make our lives better today?

Yeah.

I think we can have him join on a Zoom call.

SHATNER: Let's get Erich von Daniken,

father of the ancient alien theory, on screen.

There he is. Erich von Daniken, how are you?

-CHILDRESS: Hi, Erich. -TSOUKALOS: Good to see you.

Hi. Hi.

Erich, tell me what the ancient alien theory is.

I spent six years in a Catholic boarding school

led by Jesuits in Switzerland.

And there we had to translate parts of the Bible

from Latin to Greek and from Greek to German.

And I was a deep, absolute deep believer in God.

By the way, I still, as an old man,

I still am a believer in God.

But God, for me, as a boy, had to have some qualities.

For example, God does not need a vehicle in which

to move from point A to point B.

God is all over. Our God is timeless.

Now, while making these translations,

I came together with the God

who had vehicles, he was moving around.

Uh, written by the prophet of Ezekiel,

by Moses and others.

So, I simply had doubts in my own Catholic education,

and I discovered the Book of Enoch.

Talk to us about Enoch.

Enoch is mentioned in the Bible very, very, uh, short.

In the beginning, you learn

he was the seventh patriarch

before the great flood.

He was the first human who disappeared

with his body into the sky.

NARRATOR: Enoch is one of the earliest patriarchs

mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

He was the great-grandfather of Noah,

the man credited with building the ark that saved humankind

and two of every animal from the great flood.

But where the Hebrew Bible only mentions Enoch briefly,

his detailed story is told through more than 100 chapters

in a book that bears his name.

The Book of Enoch can still be found in the Bible

used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

And when archaeologists unearthed

the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947,

they found that 11 different manuscripts

of the Book of Enoch had been preserved,

indicating that it was considered a work

of vital importance.

Enoch was an incredibly popular book, uh,

in the time leading up to the formation of Christianity.

In the book, the character of Enoch,

it was said, he walked with God and then was no more.

But the tradition grew that Enoch never died.

In fact, the tradition has

that he becomes the scribe of God.

He is the only one in heaven allowed to sit,

you know, along with God.

And he actually writes these things down

and he reveals information to humanity.

NARRATOR: One curious passage from the Book of Enoch

tells the story of two angels who visit Enoch

and take him up to heaven in what is described

as a fiery chariot.

VON DANIKEN: It's fascinating because Enoch

speaks in the first person.

The "I" version.

"I did. I heard. I learned."

Now, Enoch has no language of technology.

He doesn't know what a spaceship is or a mother spaceship.

He says, "We were over the planet Earth.

"I saw the round face, the round face of the Earth.

"And up there was something like gigantic diamonds.

Doors opened and doors closed automatically."

He was in space in a mother spaceship.

And finally, he stands before the throne of the almighty God.

But this is all nonsense.

If we really would have to do with the almighty God,

God would never have stand up from his throne,

take a few steps to Enoch,

and shake his hand and welcome him.

TSOUKALOS: Our ancestors simply didn't understand

that when they went to that so-called celestial realm,

that they actually went, to put it in a simple term,

to a spaceship, to a space station

that is told in ancient texts that were orbiting the Earth.

VON DANIKEN: And the Bible is full of it.

And not only the Bible.

I know many, many myths,

legends of this planet,

and all came to the same thing.

It was some gods who created humans

but always according their own image.

We are the copy.

We are the offsprings of extraterrestrials.

And now you arrive in the legend of Adam and Eve

and the so-called "God created humans

according their own image."

SHATNER: And how do you account for archaeological evidence

that shows the evolution, uh, Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon?

VON DANIKEN: That's all correct.

I fully agree with-with archaeology,

with the theory of evolution,

except, for our branch, there was

an artificial mutation made by the extraterrestrials.

And you can really compare it.

I mean,

all our family brothers and sisters--

the apes, the gorillas, the chimpanzees--

they still exist.

We are still of the same family.

But they have not created intelligence,

language, information.

Only we.

Why only we, out of the same family tree?

Because we are the product of an artificial mutation.

HENRY: What he's saying is our intelligence

is far greater than the chimpanzee and gorilla.

We now know why.

We have an activated neocortex,

which is the basis for all human civilization.

NARRATOR: The neocortex of the human brain

is the region responsible for language,

logical reasoning and conscious thought.

Many scientists believe the activation of the neocortex

is what makes humans different

from all other earthly creatures.

The neocortex is kind of one layer of our cortex,

um, that is fairly unique to Homo sapiens.

And as far as we can tell,

that's the area where activity

is occurring directly related, particularly, to consciousness,

but probably also some of our other senses

in the way they interact.

It is probably the part

of the brain, because of that, that most sets us apart

from other primates.

HENRY: There was a genetic alteration.

The National Institute of Health,

in their own publication, says this is not a natural fusion

of chromosome 2 that activated our neocortex.

SHATNER: So, are you saying that the neocortex

was activated

-by ancient aliens? -Yes.

VON DANIKEN: Just a small comment.

I'm a specialist in the old writings,

and practically every old writing says the same thing.

Some gods created humans.

Now, is this just imagination?

Worldwide, worldwide, I mean,

the Sumerians or the biblical translation.

Or the Maya in Central America or Plato in Greek.

Why should they all come to the same lies,

the gods created human according their own image?

Erich, in your opinion, for you,

what is your top example for a physical representation

of the ancient astronaut theory?

Well, th-there are many.

One of them which everyone can watch every year.

Just go down to Mexico, go to the city of Chichen Itza.

There is a big pyramid

laid out in a special way.

NARRATOR: The great pyramid of El Castillo in Chichen Itza

was built by the Maya

sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

It served as a temple

to the feathered serpent god Kukulkan

and was built to reenact his descent to Earth

through the manipulation of light and shadow.

JON C. LOHSE: The Castillo is a stepped pyramid

with some outward radiating staircases.

And these staircases have big, high balustrades on them.

And on the autumn and the spring equinox,

the Sun casts a shadow

across the corner of this stepped pyramid,

and you see the shadows of the steps

on the staircase balustrade.

Well, at the base of the balustrade

are these big, carved snakeheads.

And, so, the entire image is created

of an enormous coiled serpent

that begins to descend from this building

at this important sunrise event.

VON DANIKEN: This message is clear.

You see god Kukulkan

coming down the step of the pyramid

in form of triangles of light and shadow, light and shadow.

Erich, why couldn't these people

who lived by the weather and the Sun--

when to plant their crops, when to harvest--

why wouldn't they divine

through observation that this was the moment to plant?

Why does it have to prove that an ancient alien gave them

-the knowledge? -Well, because they say it.

They say it in their writings, in their mythology.

They say, "We have received

-our astronomical knowledge from the gods." -SHATNER: I see.

VON DANIKEN: The first writers of the Maya

wrote down in their holy writings

that a god with the name of Kukulkan,

which they represented as a snake with feathers,

descended to them and give them their knowledge.

It's their idea, not Erich von Daniken's.

Why have our ancestors worldwide

created the most gigantic temples

or pyramids? Why?

The answer is, all over the world, the same:

for the gods.

The so-called gods were teacher.

They give them information.

And it's the people who have written down this.

SHATNER: The-the basic question

that I want to have answers to,

and-and we're touching on the edges of it,

but-but it seems like a...

It's-it's metaphysical.

I can't quite reach it.

Why would a civilization

all these billions of light-years away

come here and leave?

Or, if they're here, why aren't they displayed?

Well, I-I don't know about the present.

But I'm a specialist in the past, and in the past,

they wanted to multiply intelligence.

These extraterrestrials change our line of evolution

simply because they wanted to multiply

intelligence in the universe.

We are simply too arrogant to accept this.

We want to be the greatest.

We should become a little more humble

and learn we are not the greatest.

Erich von Daniken,

uh, what a pleasure it is to speak to you.

We appreciate you being here,

Erich, and a pleasure to have talked to you.

Thank you so much.

-Thank you very much, too. -SHATNER: Um,

Talk to me about the physical evidence

of ancient aliens.

There are many areas

of the world, all over the world,

where gigantic megalithic structures exist

that people point at and say, "How did that get there?"

The crazy part: a lot of the architectural engineering

used to build some of these large megalithic structures

is technology that we do not understand today.

And these temples are aligned to specific star systems.

Why do you do that unless you're trying to get there

or call people in?

-That's the extraterrestrial connection. -Well, again,

the-the whole idea of the pondering the stars.

They had nothing to do but lie on their back

and say, "I see a thing here in the sky."

-TZADOK: Nothing to do? -But, see, the ancient... -What?

-Nothing to do? -Well, look, well...

Just building pyramids. All these slaves.

-Nothing to do. -Yeah, pyramids we can't build today.

SHATNER: No, I'm talking about a guy

with a beard lying on his back

looking at the stars and saying,

-"Geez, I see the same..." -TZADOK: Why not a woman?

Judging-judging from the archaeological evidence,

I think they were very busy doing other things.

HENRY: When you're in Egypt and you are

in the Osirion, a temple at a place called Abydos,

you're in a temple that now we think

is at least 10,000 years old.

And it's composed of red granite blocks

that weigh, on average, about 50 tons.

And it's the perfection, the precision.

It's an intelligence.

It's ancient astronaut evidence.

NARRATOR: The Osirion in Abydos is just one

of the many ancient megalithic structures that can be found

all over the world,

built with stone blocks that weigh

tens and even hundreds of tons.

Stonehenge in England.

The ancient temples of Malta.

Baalbek in Lebanon.

Nan Madol in Micronesia.

Sacsayhuamán in Peru.

No historical record has ever been found

to explain how these

and dozens of other megalithic structures were made.

By the way, where were those megalithic blocks mined?

Was it down in the valley, or was it up on the mountain?

That's also a great question.

It's often... It's often many miles away.

-At Ollantaytambo... -TSOUKALOS: Yes.

Over mountains, over valleys.

-Yeah, up-up high. Yeah. -Over bodies of water.

CHILDRESS: They brought

giant blocks that are weighing 60, 80 tons at Ollantaytambo.

They actually brought them down a mountain,

up over a river,

across a river, which they haven't been able to explain.

-TSOUKALOS: 60-ton blocks. -Yeah, and then up...

And there is a ramp there, actually, but then they...

they move it up to the very top of a cliff.

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR: The cliff where the ancient site of Ollantaytambo was built

is located at an elevation of over 9,000 feet

in the Andes Mountains of Peru.

Historians date it to 1440 AD

and credit the Inca with its construction.

But some scholars say Ollantaytambo was built

upon the ruins of a far older city,

one whose origins remain unknown.

The gate behind me is called the Gateway of the Gods,

and it was built several thousand years

before the Inca arrived here.

It was built by a culture we call the Urin Pacha.

We give them that name because we have no idea

who they were, where they came from

or where they went.

It's clearly evident that the earliest parts of Ollantaytambo

dates to at least 12,000 years old, if not older.

NARRATOR: But how could people living thousands of years ago

have produced such astonishing stonework,

with massive, interlocking blocks

precisely fitted together?

Or have moved and set colossal stones of granite,

each weighing more than 50 tons?

BILL BIRNES: What you can't explain

is the moving of 50-ton stones

up the sheer face of a cliff

to create the walls of the fortress.

That, in and of itself,

required more than cranes,

more than lifts, more than scaffolds.

And part of the problem there

is that the mainstream archaeologists are saying:

Okay, well, you got a 60- or 80-ton block

of red granite-- all you have to do is

just get enough people,

and they supposedly didn't have the wheel or anything,

but you had... they propose that they're all wearing harnesses,

and you get, say, 200 people,

-Yeah? Okay. -and they're all, you know, to drag this block, okay?

-What's wrong with that? -Well, there's a...

there's nothing really wrong with it at first,

because you can mathematically say,

okay, this block weighs 60 tons, so we... this is how many people

we need to drag it.

But they're taking it up onto a narrow cliff, okay?

-There's no place for those 200 people to stand. -SHATNER: Wow.

And they have to bring it around corners.

So how do mainstream archaeologists explain it?

-HENRY: They don't. -(overlapping chatter)

No, no, no, no.

'Cause they're archaeologists.

They don't... they're not engineers.

But when you bring in an engineer and you say,

"Okay, now, how are you gonna do this?"

And they don't have an answer.

They... they say, "I don't know."

(overlapping chatter)

They're the real experts.

I would love to have an engineer here to...

TAYLOR: I have three different engineering degrees.

-You-You've been in that room? -Here. We've got one right here.

-I have three different engineering degrees. -(laughter)

You're just the man I want to talk to.

(laughter)

But-but are you prejudiced?

Uh, toward what?

Towards, uh, ancient aliens.

No. In fact, I was skeptical

of a lot of the ideas that's being thrown out,

but I always thought that there was something more to the story.

I want to know, could we do this?

We have places where... where there are, like,

laser-cut rocks

that we don't even have the tools that can do this today.

You take a master toolmaker-- my father is one.

He's looked at some of these things and said,

"I can see the toolmarks.

Somebody used a tool machine to cut this thing."

But that was 10,000 years ago.

HENRY: Before the wheel.

So what we're saying is there was civilization

prior to what we think was civilization.

TSOUKALOS: In the early 1990s, Dr. Robert Schoch

proposed that, according to his research,

the Sphinx on the great Giza Plateau

-is at least 12,000 years old, -Mm-hmm.

because it shows geological features

that indicate water marks

of a long-ago flood.

HENRY: It was assumed that the erosion on the Sphinx

was caused by wind.

As a geologist, Schoch spent three seconds looking at it,

saying that's not wind, that's water.

And the only time there was water like this in Egypt

was at the end of the Younger Dryas, 10,000 BC.

Mm-hmm. And so what happened was

that he was ripped apart by the archaeological community,

because nothing before 10,000 BC could exist on Earth,

because that is what mainstream archaeology suggests.

And they said, "Well, can you show us anywhere else

-on the planet..." -But hunter-gatherers were around 10,000 years ago.

But an archaeological, like, a structure,

-a monumental structure. -Uh-huh. Oh, I see.

But in 1993, Gobekli Tepe was suddenly discovered,

and mainstream archaeologists agree that this is

a minimum of 12,000 years old.

Which is the same age as the... as the Sphinx.

Yes.

NARRATOR: The ancient stone complex

unearthed in Southeastern Turkey--

known as Gobekli Tepe--

contains the world's oldest known megalithic structures.

With monoliths weighing up to ten tons

and sophisticated carvings,

experts say that only an advanced civilization

could have built it.

But according to mainstream historians,

the world's first true civilization--

the Sumerians-- did not arise

until thousands of years after Gobekli Tepe Was built.

One thing that I've been working on very intensely

over the last 30-plus years

is the concept that globally, civilization goes well back

before 5,000 years ago.

This started when I started pushing back the age

of the Sphinx based on the erosional features

and the geological features

that were incompatible with the arid conditions

at the present day.

Then we had Gobekli Tepe,

and that site goes back

well over 11,000, 12,000 years ago.

PAUL BAHN: Gobekli Tepe became

one of the most important archaeological sites

in the world.

These limestone pillars are up to 18 feet high.

They're beautifully dressed and smoothed.

We've never seen work like that from that period before.

And the geomagnetic analyses that have been done

of what's under the surface

seem to indicate that there are

at least 20 major circular structures in this mound,

and so far they've dug up to half of them.

But there's still an awful lot of work to go.

SCHOCH: These early sites go back

to the end of the last ice age.

We now know, based on a lot of geological data,

that there were incredible climatic changes

at the end of the last ice age.

There were well-developed cultures, I believe,

probably around the world

at this early period.

Okay, but when you talk about something like ancient healing,

and we discover that... Lister discovers, uh,

bacteria, uh, cleanliness...

why didn't they know that 4,000 years ago?

HENRY: A key tenet of ancient astronaut theory

is that we have lost knowledge.

We are a civilization with amnesia.

We don't know our past.

Wow.

Somebody, uh, explain to me--

and I know a little but not enough--

about practical knowledge in ancient times

that, uh, is, um... unexplained.

A key tenet of ancient astronaut theory

is that we have lost knowledge.

We are a civilization with amnesia.

-We don't know our past. -That's true.

-CARTER: Oh, yes. -Oh, yeah. -CHILDRESS: What traditions say

all over the world is there have been civilizations before us.

They have risen and fallen.

TAYLOR: Don't forget that the planet is

four and a half billion years old.

-Don't forget that. -Yeah.

We're... This solar system has been here

for four and a half billion years.

-Mm-hmm. -And humanity, as far as we know,

has only been here for a few thousand,

-maybe tens of thousands of years. -Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So what happened before that?

And we know from the fossil records

that there were many mass extinctions.

So who's to say civilizations don't rise and fall

for over long periods of time?

But the mass extinctions... We-we... archaeologists know

what those mass extinctions were

and what was alive at that time

and what almost petered out.

I mean, it-it's...

-there in the earth. -But there were...

there were civilizations there, there were, that came and went.

-Well... -Part of it is,

it's how we look at the past, and modern archaeologists

are just assuming; it's an assumption.

Well, they're from the Stone Age.

They don't have electricity.

They don't have machines.

They don't have heavy equipment.

(clears throat): Um, you know,

they don't have power plants and things like that.

But that may be completely wrong.

-Right. -The evidence is there

that in ancient times they had electricity,

they had batteries, they had...

-Look at the Baghdad Battery. -Yeah.

They had batteries?

NARRATOR: In 1938,

the director of the National Museum of Iraq

discovered in the archives terra-cotta pots

and copper cylinders that may have been used

as galvanic cells.

The nearly 2,000-year-old devices,

called "Baghdad Batteries,"

are believed to predate the invention of the cell battery

by more than 1,000 years.

JASON MARTELL: Usually a Baghdad Battery would consist of a clay pot,

and it would have an iron rod

surrounded by an asphalt stopper.

And you'd pour any type of weak acidic liquid in there--

wine, grape juice, vinegar--

and with a voltmeter, you can consistently get

about four volts with something about that large.

Now, all over Egypt, we see large vials,

which could be a representation of a much larger Baghdad Battery

being able to generate a much larger current.

NARRATOR: Mainstream scientists agree

that the Baghdad Battery is evidence

that ancient people had the means to create power

and the understanding of how to apply it.

Might our ancestors have possessed

other advanced technology?

So, today there is a carving

in Egypt, uh, at the Dendera Temple,

and it's in a underground crypt.

And it is this depiction

of what looks like--

Archaeologists refer to it as a snake and a lotus flower.

But what's so interesting is the hieroglyphics

that have been translated not only say

that what is depicted here is dangerous

but also it is the bringer of light.

-And so you... -Wait a minute. So the hieroglyphics warn you

but also say it's the bringer of light.

-Yes. -So that wants you--

It's both "stay away" and "come."

-(overlapping chatter) -Well, and the hieroglyphics show a...

a detailed drawing of the equipment.

NARRATOR: The reliefs that have become known as the Dendera bulbs

are carved into the walls of a 4,000-year-old temple

dedicated to the Egyptian sky goddess Hathor.

Within the temple,

Hathor is depicted sailing in a ship of eternity

along the Milky Way.

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that this is, in fact,

a representation of an extraterrestrial arriving

in a flying craft

and the Dendera bulbs are a technology

they gave to the Egyptians.

The reason why we have proposed

that in Dendera we have depictions of light bulbs

is because you have that cable coming out of that lotus flower

or the bulb's socket that goes underneath it to a box.

And the actual bulb rests

on what's called a djed pillar.

And a djed pillar is always referred to

as something to do with significant power.

And so the suggestion is

that the extraterrestrials provided lighting sources

and then that was also put in stone.

There is a-a theory that sound

could levitate something

and-and that may be the answer to-to these giant megaliths

that seemed to be too heavy for even us to-to lift.

-Address that. -Well, there are so many of the ancient astronaut legends

-where the big blocks were levitated in. -Yeah, there are ancient...

NARRATOR: One of the most well-known ancient stories of levitation

can be found on Chile's Easter Island,

where standing along the shoreline

are nearly 900 megalithic stone statues called moai

that weigh up to 90 tons each.

According to the oral traditions of the native Rapa Nui people,

a type of energy known as mana

was used to levitate the giant sculptures into place.

Curiously, similar stories can be found in association

with other ancient megalithic sites all over the world,

like Stonehenge in England,

the Great Pyramid in Egypt,

the Uxmal pyramid in Mexico,

Nan Madol in Micronesia

and Puma Punku in Bolivia.

It would be one thing to me

if this levitation of stones across an island

would be the only story or legend worldwide.

But the fact of the matter is

that we have multiple stories

that these stones somehow were levitated

or flown through the air.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that acoustic technology

could levitate stones weighing tens and even hundreds of tons?

Uh, my father said when he-- they were testing sh--

uh, shake testing the Saturn V first stage

that they used a thing that the German scientists created

using wind tunnels and made a big flute horn.

And it-- they shot it with acoustic,

uh, energy and they called it the Jericho device--

because it was like a big Jericho horn--

and it would shake the-the stage and-and mimic launch,

the vibration of a launch.

And he said one day they tuned it to a particular frequency

and, when it did, that it broke the bolts that were--

that had this first stage bored into the concrete,

picked the rocket first stage up-- it had to weigh tons--

and moved it several meters.

And they were afraid it was gonna fall over

-and destroy the first stage. -Wow.

TAYLOR: And so that's...

-Yeah, wow. -And that's part of--

part of the mystique of... the-the subject,

that sound is mathematical.

Uh, you can draw mathematics

to sound and maybe find the formula

for the kind of sound you need.

That's so totally fascinating.

And the idea that the stones were cut like a--

with a machine. Was it your dad that saw machine cuts on...

-on-on the... -And several others have. Several others have seen 'em.

So-so talk to me about that,

because that, that's less dreaming.

There's a place in the high Andes on a plateau

called Puma Punku.

It's one of the most magnificent sites on planet Earth.

And there, strewn about,

are these big platforms made out of red sandstone.

And they're massive,

and some of 'em are up to 60 tons. 6-0.

But amongst these stones are also andesite blocks.

There is one rectangular block.

It's about this high.

And on one side, there is a perfect groove

that is so--

(stammers) the edges are so perfect,

that if you were to go down like this with your thumb,

you could cut yourself.

*

NARRATOR: Giorgio Tsoukalos has been studying Puma Punku

for more than two decades

and has made over a dozen visits to the ancient site.

This is... It's beautiful.

NARRATOR: During one such visit in 2014,

he documented his investigation

of the incredible stonework

found among the mysterious megalithic ruins.

So, this is-- this is pretty amazing.

I mean, check this out. If you look at this groove right here,

you simply cannot do this with primitive tools.

And you've got these holes drilled at an equidistant,

as if it's some type of a female piece to a male piece.

I mean, these look like technical components,

part of a larger, almost industrial-type construction.

I've got a little paper clip,

ordinary paper clip, that I've just unfurled

to see how deep they go.

And they actually go equidistant all the way down.

I mean, that is something

that cannot be achieved with-with chicken bones.

So, is there any explanation as to how they carved it? Anything?

So, according to the local legends

that go back a long, long time,

they say that this was built by the so-called gods.

Now, whenever I hear stories about the gods, my ears perk up.

Nobody discusses the question or asks the question

"who were these gods?"

What are we talking about?

Everything that we call "advanced" in the ancient days

from which we would ask, where did this come from?

-SHATNER: But... -Now, you could say it came from the angels.

-You could say it came from aliens. -(overlapping chatter)

Here-Here's the crazy part.

We could not build the pyramids today.

We cannot build the pyramids today.

Why not?

What we're talking about here at this table

is physical evidence

that ancient aliens, uh,

came here, are here, were here.

Talk to me about-- the first one that comes to mind,

of course, is the, uh, pyramid.

Remember where Moses brought the children of Israel out from.

-Egypt. -HENRY: Egypt.

TZADOK: The Torah

and the Jewish tradition,

which is the foundation of Western tradition,

originally came out of Egypt.

-Right. -All right? In the tradition that later became the Bible,

ideas, beliefs like the Ark of the Covenant, they--

these things were clearly based upon

knowledge that was brought out of Egypt.

CHILDRESS: Erich von Daniken

said an interesting thing there, too,

that the Great Pyramid of Egypt is not a tomb for the pharaohs,

-uh, but rather a-a repository -SHATNER: A-a library.

of ancient knowledge.

-It's a library. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Egypt's Great Pyramid

is perhaps the most familiar

and most mysterious megalithic structure in all the world.

It is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids

that stand on the Giza Plateau.

But exactly how and why

the Great Pyramid was constructed remains a mystery.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

isn't just one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.

It's the most ancient of them all.

And it's the only one still standing.

And it's what's inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

that is absolutely mind-boggling.

You look at a beautiful, perfect tunnel

with perfectly smooth walls

and a vaulted ceiling that rises all the way up.

And there are shafts, tunnels,

and the architecture and the way it was built

is a mystery till today.

NARRATOR: The Great Pyramid

consists of nearly two and a half million

limestone and granite blocks,

many of which were quarried from 500 miles away.

It stands 480 feet high,

covers 13 acres

and has an estimated mass of six million tons.

According to most Egyptologists,

this miracle of engineering

was constructed during a 20-year period

by order of the pharaoh Khufu

sometime around 2500 BC.

But many experts dispute this notion,

and ancient astronaut theorists suggest

the origins of the Great Pyramid are far more profound.

This is... applies to this discussion right now, you know,

to move these blocks in the sand,

because anybody who's ever played in the sandbox

or anybody who's been to the beach,

it's very difficult to do.

And if you have a 75-ton block...

-60. -Or 60, and...

-No, 15 tons is a lot more. -No, no.

They all vary, by the way. There are, inside the Grand Gallery,

-there are some 75-ton blocks in there. -Really?

So, they floated them on barges, and then...

-But the bottom line is... -And then they picked them up,

and they took them up on the...

SHATNER: But-but okay,

-so I-I can get beyond... -(overlapping chatter)

H-Hold on. I-I need you to explain to me the timeline.

What was the... what's the pyramids supposed to be?

-4,500 years. -4,500. -4,500...

So-so the Sphinx predated the-the pyramids.

Yes, and so, today, according to some archaeologists,

it is 12 thou... a minimum of 12,000 years old.

-Which is the same age as the... as the Sphinx. -Yes.

NARRATOR: The dating of the Great Pyramid has been the subject

of much controversy, and over the years,

many experts have suggested that it was built far earlier

than the reign of the pharaoh Khufu,

who ruled around 2500 BC.

In 1837, a British colonel who became an archaeologist,

named Richard Howard Vyse, used dynamite...

(hissing, explosion)

...to get up into the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid.

This was something that had not been entered

by other archaeologists before.

When he got into these upper chambers,

he then apparently claimed that he found

some hieroglyphic cartouches

that mentioned the pharaoh Khufu.

NARRATOR: The cartouche, or signature,

of Khufu in the King's Chamber is what Colonel Vyse used

to date the Great Pyramid to 2500 BC.

But he was under tremendous pressure

to make a major discovery

due to the enormous cost of his expedition,

and some researchers have suggested

that he may have actually fabricated this evidence.

CHILDRESS: Recently it has been discovered,

by going through Vyse's journals,

that he, in his journals, actually says

that there were no hieroglyphs within this chamber.

And so, it is suspected

that Vyse did, in fact, forge this cartouche

of the pharaoh Khufu.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that the Great Pyramid of Giza

was constructed long before the reign of Khufu,

and with the help of extraterrestrials?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and as further evidence,

point to a very curious detail

regarding the placement of the pyramid.

TAYLOR: Here's something else, Bill.

The central peak of the pyramid, its location on the planet,

coincides with the location

that is the same number, out to about ten digits at least,

-as the speed of light. -What do you mean, the same number?

What does that... what does that mean?

So the speed of light is like 2.99879...

Okay, so if you project a photon out of the tip of the...

No. No. No, no, no, no. If you look at the position on Earth

that it is, its location on the map...

-SHATNER: The geographic location? -Geographic location.

-Is what? -Geographic location, and then the-the...

The number that describes its position,

uh, an inclination is the same number as the speed of light.

NARRATOR: The latitudinal coordinate for the Great Pyramid

is 29.9792458 degrees north,

a number that exactly matches the speed of light

when measured in meters per second.

Now that's interesting because the Great Pyramid is known,

um, as the "Mountain of Light."

So here we have the value of the speed of light

encoded into the Great Pyramid.

Another thing we find, as well,

is that the location of the Great Pyramid is really unique,

because at that specific location,

if you pass a great circle

from the Great Pyramid through its cardinal

and its ordinal directions,

what you find is that these circles will pass

through more land mass of the Earth

than any other location on the Earth.

You find that the Great Pyramid is essentially located

at the center of the world's landmass.

TSOUKALOS: This is amazing stuff.

When you consider the vast amount of information

about the Earth encoded into the Great Pyramid,

you cannot consider it all to be coincidence.

NARRATOR: Is it possible,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

that the information encoded in the Great Pyramid of Giza

is a signature of its alien architects?

Sophisticated mathematical

and-and scientific concepts are being embedded,

were embedded into the pyramids.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are still hidden chambers

that many believe are still to be discovered in the pyramids

and that might give us the answers.

The King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid is about the size

of this room right here, and there are room

for 47 more of these rooms inside the pyramid.

And just three years ago, we discovered

that when you go into the pyramid...

And I've been in there 40 times.

-Have you? -Yes, and you ascend the Grand Gallery.

And now we know that riding upon the Grand Gallery

is another chamber that we knew nothing about

-until a few years ago. -Massive.

-And so now, we have... -Did we open it?

-We haven't opened it yet. -Why not?

Well, talk to the Egyptian authorities.

SHATNER: You're-you're giving me facts,

but you haven't convinced me.

To me, it's improbable

that a spaceship, given the unimaginable distances,

could traverse those distances.

Does anybody have an answer to that here?

In a universe nearly 14 billion years old,

civilizations might be out there

-with millions of years head start. -Right.

Yeah, just because we can't do it

-doesn't mean somebody else can't. -Right.

I've actually had conversations with, uh,

Michio Kaku several times

about the idea of what we would have to do

in modern day to build a warp drive

to travel between the stars.

NARRATOR: The ancient astronaut theory suggests

that aliens from another world and most likely,

another star system, came to Earth in the distant past.

Mainstream scientists, however, argue

that the distances between stars are simply too vast

for this to be possible.

But Dr. Michio Kaku,

one of the world's leading theoretical physicists,

has proposed that there are likely

to be other intelligent beings in the universe

who are even more advanced than humans,

and that they could, in fact, possess the technology

to travel between stars.

Michio Kaku is, uh,

waiting to talk to us on the television set. Michio?

-Yes? -It's Bill Shatner, and I'm pleased to see you again.

Last time we met, we were talking string theory.

-That's right. -Michio, what's your opinion

of the ancient alien philosophy, theory, if you will?

-What do you think about it? -Well, I think

we have to keep our minds open, because first of all,

we've discovered 4,000 planets

in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy.

We now realize that there could be literally billions

of earthlike planets, some of them twins of the Earth

in outer space. And to believe

that we're the only game in town,

I think, is rather presumptuous.

-Yeah. -Since the universe is 13.8 billion years old,

there's plenty of time for civilization to rise and fall.

We're discussing here time travel, warp drive,

all those things, and most people think

that's theoretically possible, but practically impossible.

What have you got to say about that?

Well, you know, the skeptics make a big mistake thinking

that-that aliens can never visit the Earth

'cause distances are too large.

That assumes that the aliens are maybe only

100 years more advanced than us.

But they could be a million years more advanced than us,

in which case they might,

just might, have the capability of rocketing across space-time

faster than the speed of light.

This is not out of the question at all.

There are two ways in which you can use Einstein's equations

to break the light barrier.

The first is wormholes.

NARRATOR: The concept of traveling through a wormhole, or stargate,

as it is sometimes called,

has become a popular device in science fiction.

But the theory was actually proposed

by the most famous astrophysicist who ever lived--

Albert Einstein.

In 1935, Einstein

and fellow physicist Nathan Rosen theorized

that two separate points in space could be connected

through an Einstein-Rosen bridge,

or what we now call a wormhole.

This would make travel to the most remote stars

in the universe a real possibility.

What you're talking about is a structure in space

that involves very, very strong bending of space

and the connecting of two different parts of space.

So if you think of a piece of paper curved around

and then punched out and connected

from one place to the other,

that's your basic wormhole.

Alice's looking glass would be the wormhole.

That is punching a hole in space and time.

The second possibility is what's explored in Star Trek.

And that is compressing space or the Alcubierre drive.

You know, Alcubierre once told me

that he was watching an episode of Star Trek,

and said, "Well, if they do it on Star Trek,

why can't I as a physicist do it with Einstein's equations?

I love it.

NARRATOR: In the Star Trek television series,

the starship Enterprise is equipped with a warp drive,

which enables it to rocket through space

faster than the speed of light.

While some scientists have suggested that

faster-than-light travel is an impossibility,

in 1994, Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre

proposed a warp drive that would do just that.

RICHARD DOLAN: Miguel Alcubierre developed an equation

of warp drive in which he developed mathematics

that said, look, with enough energy, you could actually

warp space and time

around your craft to create a kind of space-time bubble,

and in a sense shrink space in front of you

and extend that space behind you.

So you're not exceeding the speed of light

within that bubble.

You're obeying all of the laws of physics there.

But you're warping space and time.

You compress the space in front of you,

expand the space behind you

and, whomp, you break the light barrier.

There's always a catch there.

You need fantastic amounts of energy

in order to do this. Now, of course, on Star Trek,

we have the dilithium crystals,

so your spaceship may go zapping

through at warp speed.

HENRY: Let's say you're visiting Earth and you want to leave

the most important piece of scientific information

for these rudimentary... humans to discover.

What would you think that could be?

Well, I think they would probably leave a piece

of their DNA because mechanical things can rust,

fall apart, but DNA self-replicates.

It constantly mutates to survive and the one thing

that will survive over millions of years

after the aliens have left, for example,

would be DNA

because it's self-replicating, mutating, adaptive,

while steel will rust, computers fall apart

and machines break down, but DNA

simply keeps on going forever.

HENRY: And they could conceivably also

program that DNA or implant scientific knowledge

into it that could be rolled out over a millennia, perhaps.

In fact, yeah, in fact, scientists have actually

looked for messages in the DNA.

And so far, they find none.

But it's conceivable that one day if we do find

a message in DNA,

that'll be an existential shock.

An existential shock,

realizing that somebody is communicating

with us after millions of years.

Long since machines have turned to dust

that these self-replicating molecules are mutating

and surviving and are leaving a message.

We haven't found it yet, but we cannot rule it out.

SHATNER: Thank you so much

for that beautiful way of expressing your thoughts.

It was a delight to have talked to you, a pleasure.

And I hope we do it again soon.

My pleasure. And a great honor to be with you.

Thank you. Take care.

Well, what a gift.

TSOUKALOS: But with his last answer,

the circle has closed because he mentioned DNA.

What Dr. Michio Kaku said was so important,

because almost the single biggest

objection from the skeptics to the whole--

whether it's the UFO phenomenon,

the ancient astronaut theory--

is you can't get here from there.

And there was Dr. Michio Kaku saying, "Oh, yes, you can."

-If you had a certain level of technology. -TSOUKALOS: Yes.

-We're unlikely to be first... -SHATNER: No, of course we want to be able to--

The salient question, of course, even that is

our imperative, is to stay alive.

Have the-- our civilization stay with us long enough

to be able to invent that kind of thing.

You wouldn't build big massive starships to travel around

and populate the universe at first.

That's, that would take too much time, energy and resources.

What you would do

is create a teeny, tiny little probe.

And our DNA replicates itself over and over and over.

And you can send it as a particle

across the universe

and when it lands there a billion years later,

it might stimulate the growth of life

and DNA propagating in other species.

HENRY: That's the term "panspermia."

NARRATOR: Panspermia is a hypothesis that suggests alien organisms

have reached our planet traveling on meteorites.

Some proponents believe that panspermia was

responsible for seeding all life on Earth,

while others propose that it may have introduced

just one highly unique species--

humans.

TSOUKALOS: In the concept of panspermia, there's

two ways to look at this. One is...

panspermia that happens just like that.

And then there's another version that is called

direct panspermia, and direct panspermia would suggest

that it was done deliberately by

a faraway extraterrestrial advanced civilization.

And why wouldn't a-a rock which has the cells

of life that land on Earth,

why don't we think of that sending its seed?

Francis Crick himself said life is a miracle

and the most practical way to explain

how life arose on Earth is that

some advanced civilization sent out rockets packed with DNA.

NARRATOR: Francis Crick was a British geneticist,

who, in 1953,

along with American biologist James Watson,

discovered the three-dimensional double-helix shape of DNA.

This scientific breakthrough was a giant leap forward

in unraveling the mystery of humankind's origins.

But Francis Crick found our genetic code to be so complex

that he proposed it could not have developed

by mere evolutionary chance,

and most likely did not originate on Earth.

The information content of life

at the level of DNA is so incredibly vast,

super astronomical, that one could entertain a possibility

that there has been an artificial creation of this.

So what Francis Crick suggested is that

perhaps there was a super intelligent life-form

somewhere nearby to the Earth

that essentially designed the life that exists on the Earth.

The origin of life is extremely improbable

is something that I would agree with.

I'm skeptical on that.

I sit at this table, obviously,

as-as somebody who investigated UFOs for the British government.

I bow to the greater expertise of my colleagues

on the ancient astronaut theory, of course.

That's not my specialist area.

But I am a little skeptical of some of this,

"Well, aliens tinkered with us."

I think that normal random mutations and natural selection

-could explain this. -Fred Hoyle, Fred Hoyle commenting...

-TAYLOR: But actually, it can't. -Fred Hoyle, commenting on...

Statistically, mathematically, it can't.

-Fred Hoyle, yes. -Fred Hoyle, astronomer, scientist,

commenting on this genetic alteration

of chromosome 2 said, "The odds

"of this happening are like a tornado sweeping

"through a junkyard of 747 parts and manifesting

-a fully functional 747." -TAYLOR: Yes.

TSOUKALOS: A lot of stuff happens by coincidence.

But there are certain things where you have to say,

"Coincidence doesn't quite apply."

So, some people say, "Oh, well, that was God,"

and some people say, "Well, no,

maybe it wasn't God, but it was an extraterrestrial."

-(overlapping chatter) -Or it happened so many times,

-it was bound to happen in that way. -TAYLOR: You have to think,

"Well, could this have been a random cosmic ray

"bounced and caused this thing? What are the odds

of that actually happening, and could it...?"

Now, that did happen in probably billions of instances.

But certain things, like lining up the human chromosome chain

and getting that right and causing that to happen is

beyond statistical probability within the life of the universe.

-I high-- You don't know that. -Yes, you do! Yes, you do.

-You can mathematically... -No, you don't, because, I can

tell you why you don't know it.

Because the numbers involved in the universe,

the numbers of what could happen, you-you...

Our mind can't encompass it.

Well, but in order for the human genome to be created,

this thing has to happen, and then this thing,

and then this thing, and then this thing, and then this thing.

It's not these things in parallel, and so,

the probabilities multiply times each other, and in...

And when you get to the point where all of these things had

to happen in sequence to get to the end point,

you can actually do the statistical math

for this and show that you could not create that randomly

within the age of the universe.

POPE: Well, look, I was the one who disagreed on the point

-about tinkering with evolution. -Please, Nick.

I want you to hold forth, Nick.

Yeah, I think that it can all be explained

with random mutation and natural selection, so...

But the point is,

we don't necessarily agree all around this table.

You've got a diverse group here.

I think it would be very unproductive

if we all just nodded along and agreed.

We have different backgrounds,

-different areas of specialism. -SHATNER: Yes. Yes.

-But that's where we get to the good stuff. -Yes.

-Where we do disagree and debate. -I absolutely agree,

and-and I want you to disagree.

And I can't tell you how I love this.

We've covered ancient aliens,

but what about today? Does anybody know

anything about them today?

I'd love to hear from you guys about, uh,

about UFOs and Roswell.

You keep hearing it was a weather balloon, it wasn't.

TSOUKALOS: Before Ancient Aliens,

I never paid any attention, really,

to the modern-day UFO phenomenon.

But over the past few years, because of Ancient Aliens

and some of the people sitting at this table,

I've gotten very much interested

in the modern-day UFO phenomenon.

And one person from whom I've learned a lot

is Linda Moulton Howe, who is one of the experts

-in modern-day UFO... -SHATNER: She's the journalist?

The award-winning journalist filmmaker?

NARRATOR: Investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe

has been documenting strange phenomena,

UFO sightings and alien encounters

for more than four decades.

She has received numerous awards

for her journalistic excellence

in a wide range of fields

and today is reporter and editor

of the website Earthfiles.com,

which contains an archive

of nearly 3,000 in-depth UFO reports.

We've got her ready on a call.

-HENRY: Hey, Linda. -TAYLOR: Hi, Linda. -Hi, everyone.

Hi, Linda. I-I'm William Shatner, Bill Shatner.

-It's a pleasure to-to meet you. -HOWE: Yeah.

I've heard so much about you.

-Well... -Everybody around here has come up

to tell me how wonderful you are.

-(chuckles) -It's true. And...

Well, I-I feel like I know you as a longtime Star Trek fan.

-Oh, I appreciate that. -Wonderful

-to be here with you. -SHATNER: Well, thank you.

And I'm consumed by the subject matter,

and we've arrived at, uh,

spaceships and-and-and...

and ancient aliens. Where are they now?

I think a lot of them are hiding right here on this planet

and have been here for millions of years.

I think this is a revolutionary time.

No matter whatever else happens,

we have to learn we're not alone in the universe.

Are we seeing space vehicles, then?

Was Roswell an example of that?

I'll tell you from firsthand knowledge

that there was the retrieval of a craft

in July of 1947

when that big headline,

a real, honest headline came out

that the Roswell Army Airfield

was reporting the downing of a flying disk.

NARRATOR: The Roswell incident has become

the most famous UFO event on record,

the crash landing of an unidentified object

in the New Mexico desert in July 1947.

And it was the United States Army

that reported the craft as a flying disk.

On July 8th of that year, the Roswell Daily Record

had an incredible headline,

which was that the United States Army

had captured one of these flying disks

that everyone had been talking about.

It was absolutely a big, big news story at the time.

NARRATOR: Within days, the military walked back its story,

suddenly claiming that the crashed object

was nothing more than a weather balloon.

But curiously, they said that the balloon was taken

to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

in Ohio.

DOLAN: When you really think about this,

why on earth would anyone send any kind of weather balloon

or the alleged Mogul balloon

that the Air Force came up with many years later?

And you're gonna send this off to Wright Field

for technical analysis?

None of it makes any sense whatsoever.

Unless that material was much more exotic

and much more scientifically interesting

than just a mere balloon.

NARRATOR: In April 2011,

the FBI released

thousands of files as part of its online FBI Vault,

and one of those files included a 1950 briefing

to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

regarding informant information about three flying saucers

that were recovered in New Mexico.

Many researchers believe this corroborates

long-standing rumors that the Roswell incident involved

not one but three crashed UFOs.

SHATNER: Have there been more things

that are noted in the news?

Sightings, uh, saucers and things?

The one that most people are not aware of today,

the date was February 25, 1942,

and it's called the Battle of Los Angeles.

It made the L.A. Times and a big front-page story.

NARRATOR: Five years before the now famous Roswell incident,

an extraordinary UFO event was witnessed in the sky

over Los Angeles.

(air-raid siren wailing)

What's called the Battle of L.A. is actually

one of the earliest unexplained UFO mysteries

in our modern era.

It took place on the early morning of February 25, 1942.

1,430 artillery shells were fired

at several unknown objects.

Many eyewitnesses on the ground saw this.

So, the question is what were these things?

Uh, in terms of covering it up,

uh, the military consistently downplayed this.

The secretary of the Navy,

uh, said to the public it was just war nerves.

There was nothing out there whatsoever.

In the 1970s,

an FOI request obtained a memorandum

by Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall

in which he wrote a memo about this incident

to President Franklin Roosevelt.

So, it's clear that the military was interested in it.

NARRATOR: The secret memo that General Marshall

sent to President Roosevelt

directly contradicted the Navy's public statement

that there was nothing in the sky

over Los Angeles that night,

claiming instead that as many as 15 unidentified airplanes

may have been involved.

We've had a policy of denial since World War II,

thinking that humans could not handle

whatever it is that is the perceived bottom-line truth.

SHATNER: But assuming all that is true,

does American technology

have those super ships?

Do we know anything more?

Uh, did anything result

as a result of that advanced technology?

(chuckles): Well, I think

that there is a huge, um,

if you want to call it underground

or a black world

of all kinds of back engineering

and laboratory and all things related to,

uh, whether they were crashed disks

or technology deliberately placed in our hands.

Given the way the government, uh,

sends out whistleblowers, all kinds of,

uh, hidden information we're getting all the time,

this mind-blowing idea that you've just espoused,

it seems it would be impossible to hide

for any length of time.

We honestly do not fully understand agendas,

and the biggest problem we have

is how do we trust?

It's our own governments and power brokers

that keep the human family in the dark.

SHATNER: Fascinating.

Linda, thank you so much for that, uh,

interesting information.

We'll have an occasion to discuss it here.

Uh, and it was very informative,

and I thank you so much for spending your time

-with us. -TSOUKALOS: Thank you, Linda.

Oh, thank you.

-TAYLOR: Bye, Linda. -Bye, Linda.

Take care.

When you get into the UFO phenomenon,

it-it doesn't take long as you scratch the surface

that a conspiracy is there

because there's, at-at the very least,

if there are UFOs, there is a conspiracy

-to cover it up. -But it's not a conspiracy. -Why?

-Why? -CHILDRESS: Well...

POPE: This is where I part company

from some of the-the people

more deeply into the conspiracy theories,

because my view-- and I've-I've actually done this

for the British government-- my view is that government

doesn't necessarily have all the answers to this.

TAYLOR: That's exactly right. I agree with that 100%.

And Nick and I have talked about this. This is what

your conspiracy is. Your conspiracy is time.

If something happened in 1947 in Roswell,

three or four guys,

because that's all there was budget for

to go investigate whatever this was, went out there.

They took stuff, packed it up in carts,

and they may have taken it and had

some scientists look at it. They may not.

They may not have had budget to hire a scientist to look at it.

Scientists are expensive.

Then, when they were done with it,

they shoved it in a safe

or a drawer or a vault somewhere,

and they retired.

And when they retired,

so, the next guy comes into the building,

and he says, "Hey, I need room in the vault.

What's this stuff over here?"

And nobody owned up to whose it...

This is... This is 100% it happened,

'cause it happened to the Saturn V blueprints.

Yeah, yeah, you can imagine.

We find the Saturn V blueprints in barns

-in North Alabama all the time. -SHATNER: So, what you ascribe

as a... as a plot is stupidity and ignorance and-and...

-and lethargy. -No, it's a lack of... lack of resources and time.

POPE: It's also... it's also the inherently secretive nature

of the organizations that tend to be running these programs.

Well, I will... I'll go with that. I mean, look, the...

NASA supposedly erased all the master tapes

of the Apollo 11 program.

-I mean, supposedly. -Why?

-And they said, oh-- Yeah, why? -TAYLOR: They needed them.

-They didn't need them. -TAYLOR: No,

-they needed them. -CHILDRESS: Yeah, they...

The tapes were still intact.

They needed to reuse them,

-so they rerecorded over them. -TAYLOR: You guys...

-Be careful. -Did they erase the tapes?

They erased the tapes because they needed them

on another mission, and these tapes didn't exist

in-in multitudes at the time.

-It's just like the whole fallacy... -SHATNER: So, what...

How... What's the loss in, uh,

-erasing the tapes? -All the original footage

of going to the Moon has been lost.

TZADOK: Do not ever underestimate the power

and abilities of our governments to keep secrets.

POPE: I would certainly agree with that.

There's something in our airspace.

There are factions within government

that probably think it's Russia

or it's China or it's our own tech,

and then there's a faction that probably thinks, "What if

this is extraterrestrial?"

CARTER: Is it possible

that the reason that now we're hearing all this stuff

from the government,

because, you know, we got our cell phones,

I mean, everybody's under surveillance one way or another,

is it possible that one day there's gonna be a sighting

that cannot be explained away?

TSOUKALOS: What's interesting is that since UFO groups

have come into existence in the 1970s, 1980s,

they've always been laughed at, belittled,

and the U.S. government for decades has denied

that they're investigating UFOs.

But in December 2017,

there was a New York Times headline story,

front page, that said:

yes, the U.S. government had been investigating UFOs,

and there was a special program for it,

and this was not the first time nor is it the last time.

NARRATOR: On December 16, 2017,

The New York Times ran a front-page story entitled:

"Glowing Auras and Black Money:

The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program."

It brought to light a top secret U.S. government project,

the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,

otherwise known as AATIP.

This took the subject of UFOs out of the fringe

and into the mainstream.

For the first time, these top-level political outlets

were talking about this in a serious,

investigative journalist mode, not as a joke.

So that was really what opened the floodgates,

and revelation followed revelation.

This is a completely new ball game here.

We are in new and uncharted territory.

NARRATOR: The article reported that in 2007,

without any public debate,

$22 million was allocated

from a "black money" budget to investigate UFOs.

But wait a minute, wait a minute.

They've been investigating.

-Yes. -They didn't say, "We now,

"as a result of our investigation,

we definitively say there are..."

Well, that was... that was December 2017.

On April 27, 2020,

the U.S. government itself admitted that, "Yes,

"we are investigating craft, and we do not know

where they are from."

They did not say it is extraterrestrial,

-Right. -but, you know, in a press release,

you have to read between the lines.

I would be careful about reading between those lines.

May I please finish?

-Oh, I love that. Argue. -So, in order...

Either the U.S. government just admitted

that somebody else on this planet

has better technology than the U.S. Air Force,

which I doubt that they would admit this,

or they're pointing to the direction

of a non-earthly source.

NARRATOR: Within months of the New York Times headline,

extraordinary videos associated with AATIP

featuring three separate UFO encounters

captured by infrared cameras mounted on Navy jets

were leaked to the public.

(laughs)

NARRATOR: While skeptics initially suggested

the footage was not genuine,

in 2020, the Navy officially released the same videos,

confirming not only that the footage is real

but also that the objects recorded were, in fact,

unidentified craft.

I've analyzed those videos, uh, in detail,

and I-I will tell you that there is no evidence in them

that says that it's not our near peer adversaries,

like Russia or China.

However, if Russia or China invented these devices,

whatever they are in these videos,

then they are way ahead of us in physics and engineering.

And that's something that's-- doesn't add up,

because you don't see the large multibillion-dollar efforts

to put all of the right brains in one location.

-There isn't the industry going on there... -Yeah.

-...that would make them that superior. -So-so that raises your eyebrow.

Whatever the craft is itself is extremely cold,

and it looks like there's a vacuum around this vehicle.

And then the vehicle makes maneuvers that are so rapid,

-you would pull so many g-forces -Yeah.

-that it would kill any occupants almost instantly. -Yeah.

I wouldn't call that a smoking gun, but I would say

that the technology is so far advanced

in these videos

that we can't explain how it's doing what it's doing.

*

SHATNER: This is now--

This is the meat. This is the-- this is the...

The nut has opened up and the kernel is here.

And I'm the captain.

-(chuckling) -The, uh...

That information

is like...

opening the can up.

(overlapping chatter)

POPE: The U.S. Navy videos,

-the Senate Intelligence Committee, -Right.

that's tangible.

Three or four things else have happened

which are worthy of note here.

Firstly, the U.S. Navy issued instructions

to its own pilots telling them what to do

-if they encounter these things. -Which are what?

-That-- Uh, that-that's classified. -Right.

-They confirmed that they've issued the... Sure. -Well, it's either run

-or fight, right? -(overlapping chatter) -Well, no. H-Hold on.

Let me-- let me finish. This is important.

So, they've confirmed that those instructions have been issued,

but they have not confirmed what they will say.

In parallel with that,

the Senate Intelligence Committee

just put into the Intelligence Appropriation Act

for Fiscal Year 2021

this demand for a report

from Director of National Intelligence.

And in response to that,

a body called the UAP Task Force,

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

And they released a list of 38 technical studies that they did

as part of this program:

antigravity, wormholes,

warp drive.

But here's the smoking gun.

There was a paper on the Drake equation.

Now, the only purpose of the Drake equation

is to estimate the number of communicable civilizations

in our galaxy.

NARRATOR: In 1961,

radio astronomer Frank Drake proposed a mathematical argument

for the likelihood of the existence

of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the galaxy.

DENNIN: Frank Drake developed an equation

that took the probability of different things happening--

having the right type of sun,

having the right type of planet,

how many planets and stars there were--

and made an estimate of how likely life would be.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: The Drake equation would seem

to logically predict

tens of thousands of civilizations out there

that we ought to be able to hear on radio traffic.

The thing with the videos--

there are factions

that probably think it's Russia or it's China

or it's our own tech.

And so it's not Russia and China.

Otherwise, the Drake equation wouldn't be part of that.

I don't know whether I've heaved a sigh of relief or, uh,

-or-or holding my breath in... -So, let-let-let... -But it's all...

-None of this is disputed. -TAYLOR: Let me add to this.

Up until recently, if a pilot

saw and reported a UFO, it was the end of his career.

-Right. -They decided he was nuts or whatever and wasn't trustworthy

-or it was something you didn't talk about. -Mm.

The new protocols are,

while there may be pieces that are classified to it,

the deal is if you see something,

you have to say something to us.

Because if these things are flying around in our airspace,

-we need to know about it. -They destigmatized it.

-Yeah. That-that was the point. -But it's okay for the pilots to talk about.

I think that Ancient Aliens has enabled the world

to talk about these topics in a more open fashion.

I think that a discussion of the extraterrestrial question,

the way it is conducted today,

-was not possible 15 years ago. -Mm.

I mean, there are some on-- at-at this table

who have been following this,

including myself, for 25-plus years.

-SHATNER: Wow. -And I think that Ancient Aliens

was the reason for this paradigm shift,

that we blazed the trail

for these discussions to go on right now

and for more people to come on board with these ideas.

So I think that Ancient Aliens has been part of disclosure.

SHATNER: I think it's utterly,

utterly fascinating.

And, you know, we've been at this, uh,

discussion... so beautifully

and so connectively,

I feel like I-I've known you all my life.

So, the through line that I started

our discussion was "convince me."

What I'd like to tell you is--

and I got a chill just thinking about it--

is that I feel... (stammers)

I-I believe much more now

about what you purportedly think of as ancient aliens.

I'm beginning to understand more

why people of your intelligence and education

believe this-this-this to be true.

I understand that more completely now.

I am so grateful that you imparted to me

and hopefully to the audience watching the show

this passionate information,

in all its various forms that you all individually believe.

It smacks of passion. It smacks of truth.

It smacks of intrigue.

It smacks of complexity

and a mystery that is, uh, unexplained.

Thank you.

-Thank you. -Thank you, Bill. -Yeah.

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