Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Incredible accounts of U.S. presidents

receiving visitors from beyond Earth.

BILL BIRNES: President Eisenhower and Richard Nixon

are contacted by an E.T.

NARRATOR: Stories of alien ambassadors

reaching out to the British Royal Family.

NICK POPE: This is the top royal aide

who's been introduced

to a mysterious individual from another planet.

NARRATOR: And shocking claims

that Earth belongs to a galactic federation.

I found the spreadsheet.

It was actually titled in the column

"Non-terrestrial Officers."

NARRATOR: Could there be certain people on Earth

who not only have knowledge of extraterrestrial visitors

but are even in contact with them?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: When it becomes accepted knowledge that,

not only are we not alone today but we never have been alone,

that'll be the most profound conclusion

in the history of humanity.

NARRATOR: There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is the promise of truth.

It demands we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

NARRATOR: In the first month of the new year,

it is announced that a new spending bill

will require the U.S. Defense Department

to review UFO sightings dating to 1945.

Another major headline involves controversial claims

by a U.S. congressman of a huge UFO coverup,

and yet another claims that a UFO

was shot down by the Russian military.

In today's world, UFO reports

are no longer a fringe curiosity

but part of the daily news cycle.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE: Finally, in the 21st century,

you got the whole world curious.

Everybody's looking for real UFOs.

Headlines in every newspaper, everywhere.

Every television,

every radio,

every cell phone.

Things like, "NASA Announces Unidentified

Aerial Phenomena Study."

The big headline in The New York Times

having to do with UFOs doing remarkable demonstrations

in front of military pilots.

It's suddenly respectable for these topics

to be discussed in the open.

The level of official interest,

the level of scientific interest

and media interest is to the point

where now we can look at evidence

that's been sitting around for decades

that hasn't been scrutinized.

And finally, it's getting some scrutiny.

It's getting attention.

That is a sea change.

And because of the media interest,

the topic became acceptable for Congress.

There's political cover for them to go ahead

and ask questions.

In May 2022,

there was an unprecedented congressional hearing

from one of the subcommittees

of the House Intelligence Committee--

a lot of it in public--

and some absolutely

fascinating information was disclosed.

I mean, effectively, this was

an admission that the phenomenon was real.

We know that our service members have encountered

unidentified aerial phenomena,

and because UAPs pose potential flight safety

and general security risk, we are committed

to a focused effort to determine their origins.

RALPH BLUMENTHAL: Here was Congress paying serious attention to it,

that these objects are undoubtedly real,

they're not, uh, figments of the imagination,

they're not hoaxes.

There are objects up there that are legitimate mysteries.

NARRATOR: Considering the recent explosion of UFO reports,

is it possible that there is,

in fact, an extraterrestrial presence on Earth?

And if so, have there been encounters

not only with strange objects in the sky

but also with alien entities?

JEREMY CORBELL: Now we're kind of saying,

well, UFOs are real, these craft are real.

The next logical question is:

Have people engaged entities,

intelligences that operate these craft,

whether it be biological or artificial intelligence,

or some sort of marriage between the two?

NARRATOR: Dr. Travis Taylor,

who was hired as the chief scientist

for the U.S. government's UAP Task Force in 2019,

says that in his experience,

while UFO sightings are no longer scoffed at,

the same cannot be said for reports

of much closer encounters.

TRAVIS TAYLOR: If an F-18 pilot came to you

and said, "We chased

"a UAP in the sky with our fighter plane

and couldn't catch it,"

you're gonna listen to that guy.

But if the same fighter pilot came and said,

"I was flying along in my F-18,

"and a UAP came down and abducted me

"from my cockpit, took me off,

"did something to me and brought me back

"and put me right back in my cockpit

as though I'd never been gone,"

you would think he's crazy. Why?

Why is that any more fantastic

than there being something we can't explain what it is,

that we can't catch with a modern-day fighter plane?

I think each are equally fantastic

and should at least be considered.

NARRATOR: One of the first people to suggest

that reports of close encounters with extraterrestrials

should be taken seriously

was the man who held Travis Taylor's position

more than 60 years prior:

astrophysicist J. Allen Hynek.

In 1952, Hynek was the scientific consultant

for Project Blue Book,

the U.S. government's first public investigation

into the UFO phenomenon.

According to J. Allen Hynek's son Paul,

one of the cases his father found

most compelling involved an encounter

with alien entities.

My father didn't talk that much

about individual cases,

but there were some cases that really stood out to him.

One was the case of Lonnie Zamora

in 1964 in New Mexico.

Lonnie Zamora was a policeman,

and he saw some kind of craft in the sky land.

It was an egg-shaped craft.

He saw some humanoids come out,

a fairly brief encounter, and they took off.

Lonnie Zamora had not been active in UFOs

or flying saucers before that.

My father thought he was very credible.

And it was the case

that was maybe the straw that broke the camel's back

on my father being more comfortable

talking publicly about abduction cases and humanoids.

NARRATOR: Of the 12,618 sightings

reported to Project Blue Book,

701 were left unexplained,

including the case of policeman Lonnie Zamora.

Yet, despite the hundreds of unsolved close encounters,

the government shut down Project Blue Book in 1969.

But not before J. Allen Hynek

made arguably his most famous contribution

to the UFO phenomenon.

PAUL HYNEK: My father, being a scientist,

decided that UFOs needed to have a classification system.

So, he came up with a close encounters

of the first, second and third kind.

A close encounter of the first kind

is a visual sighting within 500 feet or so.

A close encounter of the second kind

is where there is some kind of physical evidence:

a sunburned face,

broken tree branches, radar sighting, etcetera.

And a close encounter of the third kind

is where you actually see some type of creature.

NARRATOR: Following the demise of Project Blue Book,

claims of even more bizarre alien encounters

started being reported across the globe,

and two more categories

of close encounters were identified.

A close encounter of the fourth kind indicates

an alien abduction.

And a close encounter of the fifth kind

involves communication and interaction

with an alien entity.

Close encounters of the fifth kind

are essentially human interactions

with extraterrestrials.

It's not just seeing.

It's being a participant in an event.

There is often, for example, direct communication,

either verbal or telepathic.

And this is particularly interesting,

because what we get is not just description and perceptions

but often information,

messages are sometimes given

in this two-way interactive communication.

And that's fascinating because it gives us

perhaps our best insight

into extraterrestrial motivation.

NARRATOR: Accounts of close encounters of the fifth kind

are often regarded as too sensational to be true.

But according to ancient astronaut theorists,

such face-to-face interactions with extraterrestrials

can be found throughout recorded history.

Throughout the history of humankind,

cultures from all continents of the world

described someone descending from the sky

and imparting knowledge.

And instead of attributing these stories to pure fantasy,

the ancient astronaut theory proposes

that contact between physical extraterrestrials

and our human ancestors

happened face-to-face.

NARRATOR: Could it be that the designation

"close encounters of the fifth kind"

is not merely terminology

for potential alien encounters in the distant future

but describes interactions that have been

happening on Earth for thousands of years?

Perhaps clues can be found by examining

claims of such encounters within the highest levels

of the United States government.

NARRATOR: At 5:05 AM,

one of a series of nuclear tests

under the umbrella code-named Upshot-Knothole is set off.

Within seconds of the blast,

a disc-shaped object is seen rapidly descending from the sky

headed south toward Las Vegas,

then disappearing into the mountains.

Just two days after this event,

government officials secretly gather a team of scientists

for a curious assignment.

They were to investigate the crash

of an unidentified flying object

on the outskirts of Kingman, Arizona,

a city 175 miles south of the nuclear test site.

There were 40 engineers that boarded a bus,

and they took a long, three-and-a-half-hour ride

from Phoenix to Kingman.

When they got there, it was nighttime.

There were MPs on all corners of the craft.

It's about a 40-foot diameter disc shaped craft

that was perfectly intact.

There wasn't a scratch on it.

There were four beings associated with this craft,

and they shipped it to Groom Lake.

RICHARD DOLAN: Groom Lake is the Area 51 region in Nevada.

When Area 51 was just bare bones,

they took the craft and the aliens

out to that location in the middle

of the Nevada desert, because it was so remote.

And around that, they built Area 51.

NARRATOR: Hidden within a ring of mountains

deep in the Nevada desert,

Area 51 is a top secret military installation

that has long been rumored

to hold evidence of alien technology.

And there are even stories

that a special facility at Area 51

once held a survivor

of the 1953 Kingman UFO crash.

An alien entity known as J-Rod.

DENNETT: J-Rod is an alien who allegedly worked

at Area 51 over a period of years.

And it was J-Rod's mission or duty

to help reverse engineer technology

that was apparently from

the 1953 Kingman UFO crash.

J-Rod was one of the crash survivors

and worked directly with our own government.

NARRATOR: Captain Bill Uhouse, a former Navy pilot

who later worked for the U.S. Air Force

performing experimental testing on aircraft,

was assigned to Area 51 in the mid-1960s,

and he claims that he not only studied the craft

that allegedly crashed in Kingman, Arizona,

but also had direct contact with J-Rod.

We had a long period of introduction into meeting,

you know, an alien.

And I-I called him J-Rod.

That's the name that the linguists gave him.

And he talked, he would talk,

but he'd sound just like...

If you spoke, he'd sound like you.

You know, he's, like one of these, ah, a parrot.

(laughs) But he'd try and answer your question, you know?

Basically, it was only engineering advice

or science advice.

DENNETT: There's also another whistleblower

by the name of Dan Burisch.

And Dan Burisch said that he was hired

as a microbiologist to basically care for J-Rod,

ensuring that he remained healthy.

And, uh, this went on for years and years and years.

NARRATOR: According to Dan Burisch and Bill Uhouse,

J-Rod was housed

in a special underground chamber at Area 51.

And there have been numerous other accounts

of extraterrestrials working with

the United States government.

ALEJANDRO ROJAS: There's a lot of stories

that we worked with the aliens at Area 51.

Or, uh, some say, at a base nearby,

kind of in the desert out there.

And we've been working with them

in underground labs,

and they have been sharing information

for us to enhance our technologies.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the United States government

has met with, and worked with,

entities like J-Rod and other alien visitors

since at least the 1950s?

According to UFO researchers,

there is evidence that extraterrestrials

have not only been held at secret military bases

but have even met face-to-face with the Commander in Chief

inside the walls of the Pentagon.

One of the most detailed accounts

of a presidential close encounter

is the story of an otherworldly visitor

named Valiant Thor.

DENNETT: The story of Valiant Thor

comes from a gentleman by the name of Frank Stranges,

who's a chaplain,

and apparently held a top secret clearance.

As the story goes,

in 1957,

a UFO landed in Virginia

very close to Washington, D.C.

(siren wailing)

Police officers were called to the scene,

and out stepped a human-looking gentleman

who wanted to visit with then President Eisenhower.

He was taken directly to the Pentagon

and was able to arrange a meeting

with President Eisenhower.

In this meeting, he basically stated

that he was very much concerned

about our use of nuclear weapons.

POPE: Just as another country would post an ambassador

to the United States, the theory was that Valiant Thor

was the ambassador from the extraterrestrials.

And he was, from time to time, advising

President Eisenhower and the U.S. government

on policy issues.

This idea that an actual,

physical, extraterrestrial visitor

could potentially be influencing

the course of the world

is a possibility.

I am sure there's envoys out there

that do the same thing,

not just on a planet

but in entire planetary systems.

NARRATOR: Could it be that the United States

has had diplomatic relations with otherworldly beings?

And if so, do they continue even today?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and suggest there is evidence that extraterrestrials

have also attempted to make contact

with the British monarchy.

NARRATOR: Across the United Kingdom,

people gather to pay their respects

to Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip,

the Duke of Edinburgh,

who passed away at the age of 99.

In the months after his death, reports begin to surface

that Prince Philip spent more than half his life

investigating claims of alien close encounters.

In the process, he allegedly amassed

a trove of secret evidence

that's been coined the "Royal X-Files,"

and that has never been viewed by the public.

Prince Philip had a lifelong fascination--

And I would even say more than fascination.

I would say a serious interest in UFOs.

ROJAS: He read all the books.

He was actually secretly

going to the media and saying,

"Hey, the Americans are writing these great books.

You guys need to serialize these."

And he-he convinced them to do that.

POPE: This was not generally known, of course,

because it would have caused something of a-a scandal.

The irony being that Ministry of Defence policy

was to play down the subject of UFOs,

but here were our royal bosses, absolutely fascinated by it.

NARRATOR: In order to escape public ridicule

and provide cover for the royal family,

Prince Philip enlisted the service

of the former Commander of the Royal Air Force,

Sir Peter Horsley, to secretly investigate

reported sightings and encounters.

DENNETT: Prince Philip charged Sir Peter Horsley,

to contact the MOD, the Ministry of Defence,

and provide firsthand reports

of UFO encounters, UAP encounters.

And not only that, his other assistant

brought in firsthand witnesses

to talk face-to-face

with Prince Philip about UFOs.

NARRATOR: In his autobiography titled

Sounds from Another Room,

Sir Peter Horsley recounts meeting a bizarre individual

during his investigations

on behalf of the Prince of Edinburgh.

DENNETT: In this memoir, he talks about

meeting an individual by the name of Mr. Janus.

He met face-to-face with this gentleman,

who was entirely human-looking,

but it became very clear to him from the beginning

that this was not a normal person.

For one thing, he seemed to be able

to read Sir Peter Horsley's mind.

He apparently had telepathic abilities.

And not only that, he began to talk about subjects

such as UFOs,

space travel, even time travel.

And I think the thing that impressed

Sir Peter Horsley most

was that this individual, Mr. Janus,

knew all of Britain's nuclear secrets.

He knew all about where materials were being kept

and all the activity that was going on.

He seemed to know all of it.

Mr. Janus says, "Well, I-I need to have

a meeting with Prince Philip."

And Horsley, he's like, "Well,

you don't just walk in and have a meeting with the prince."

Horsley was a very sophisticated, intelligent man.

But Horsley walked out of that room convinced...

convinced that this was an extraterrestrial.

POPE: And he apparently talked about

some sort of galactic council,

and there being interest in planet Earth,

but there was a genuine prospect of nuclear war,

and apparently that was of concern to Mr. Janus.

NARRATOR: Much like Peter Horsley's account

of his meeting with Mr. Janus,

Frank Stranges claimed that Valiant Thor came to Earth

to warn President Eisenhower about the dangers

of nuclear proliferation.

Many researchers also believe

that the reported 1953 UFO crash

in Kingman, Arizona, was caused by a nuclear test.

And, perhaps not coincidentally,

the number of modern-day UFO sightings

increased exponentially after World War II.

DENNETT: In the late 1940s,

1947, in particular,

it was absolutely undeniable that something was going on.

This is when we started first exploding nuclear bombs,

and in 1947, there was a huge super-wave

of UFO sightings

which swept across the United States and the world.

And this was not one or two sightings.

This was hundreds upon hundreds.

DOLAN: You've got claim after claim of people

from the 1950s onward,

some of them say, "I met these human-looking beings, uh,

"who said they were from another planet,

"and they-they have said to us, uh,

"'Your nuclear technology is dangerous.

Uh, you-you need to be more peaceful.'"

NARRATOR: There have also been a high number

of UFO sightings at nuclear weapons facilities,

including the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state,

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California,

Kapustin Yar in Russia,

and the Malmstrom nuclear missile facility in Montana.

DAVID CHILDRESS: There's tremendous amount of conflict here on planet Earth,

and that would be one reason why the extraterrestrials

would want to contact

leaders from around the world to try to stop

some terrible nuclear war from happening.

NARRATOR: Could it be that extraterrestrials

who have been monitoring Earth

for thousands of years have approached world leaders

to deter them from nuclear proliferation?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and they contend

that such encounters of the fifth kind

don't just happen to prominent political figures.

They can happen to people from all walks of life,

who are then often compelled to share

such warnings with the world.

NARRATOR: Desert Center, California.

November 20, 1952.

Photographer and amateur astronomer George Adamski

is hiking with friends

along the rocky sands of the Colorado desert

when he sees a large saucer-shaped craft in the sky.

According to Adamski,

a voice from the spaceship speaks to him,

telling him to walk off the main road.

Allegedly, uh, the four of them

saw a craft, uh, land

farther out in the desert.

George Adamski, by himself,

then walked over this hill and to the craft,

where he claimed he met with an extraterrestrial.

That extraterrestrial invited, uh, Adamski

ultimately to go on one of the craft at some point.

WILLIAM HENRY: He claimed they took him in a spaceship

out into space and toured other planets,

and along the way, he is educated or schooled

by a thousand-year-old being

he refers to as "the master."

POPE: He believed that they were

enlightened, advanced beings

who were keeping an eye on our development

and were concerned about some of

the turns that the human journey had taken:

pollution of the environment,

development of nuclear weapons.

And so Adamski then went on

to spread his message around the world

because he felt that this was a mission for him.

CHILDRESS: Adamski wrote a number of books about this,

and his photos are still famous photos

that he took of cylindrical cigar-shaped ships

and of flying saucers.

He actually traveled around the world

as a special ambassador.

He even met with the Queen of Holland

and other world leaders.

He was greeted often as

some kind of ambassador from the extraterrestrials.

Most of these contactees will say

they're lectured to in some fashion

about technology and their place in the universe.

It's a message that they're given

to take to other people.

NARRATOR: Do extraterrestrials select certain people

to deliver information to humanity?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and suggest there may even be physical evidence to prove it.

Ulster County, New York.

December 26, 1985.

Best-selling author Whitley Strieber

is celebrating Christmas with his wife and young son

at their cabin.

In the middle of the night,

he is awoken by a disturbing feeling.

I felt that there was something around me.

In other words, there was movement

that shouldn't have been there.

And I opened my eyes,

and I saw these big, black eyes staring at me.

And I had no idea where I was.

It was a little round room.

And I began to scream.

This automatic voice turned on, saying,

"What can we do to help you stop screaming?"

There were these other figures,

dark blue little figures darting around,

and they assaulted me, basically.

It was not easy.

It was a very terrifying experience.

NARRATOR: To process the traumatic event,

Whitley wrote about his close encounter,

which became the basis of his best-selling memoir Communion.

He hoped the experience was behind him.

But in May of 1989,

Whitley had another strange nocturnal encounter.

STRIEBER: I'm on my side, on my right side,

and there's a hand pressing down on my left temple,

pressing it into the pillow in like waves, like this.

And I can't struggle. I can't move a muscle.

I can't see anything.

I am completely immobilized.

After a few seconds, that ends.

And I think, "Was it a dream?"

Then, the next day or the day after, my ear started hurting.

I reach up and I feel this bump here on my ear.

And I thought, "Oh, my God, it's an implant."

WOMAN: Ooh, that looks like a little white thing.

STRIEBER: There was an attempt to remove it.

It failed because the implant went from here

right down into here on its own.

And the doctor pulled out.

Two days later, it went from my ear lobe

back up to where it is to this day.

NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrials have really implanted

some kind of device inside Whitley Strieber's ear?

And if so, why?

According to Whitley, whatever the implant is,

it has had a profound effect on him.

STRIEBER: In 2015,

I noticed a slit opened up in my right eye,

and you could see words racing through it.

But they were like someone was typing very quickly and racing.

And it had something to do with my writing,

because, at the same time,

my ability to do research

changed dramatically and weirdly.

I found that if I just thought about something I needed,

no matter how obscure,

one way or another, it would come to me.

NARRATOR: Since receiving the alleged implant,

Strieber claims to have had regular interaction

with otherworldly beings.

STRIEBER: The visitors are a part of my life now,

very much so.

Uh, I don't think

I would be comfortable working

without knowing that there was...

using the implant, that there was a connection.

Now, what do they want from us?

That is a very big unanswered question.

GEORGE KNAPP: Humans have been interacting with

these beings, wherever they're from,

for eons throughout human history.

I think that, uh, this intelligence,

instead of revealing itself on a global scale,

they've been engaging with people one-on-one.

Maybe they put us on the path where we are now.

Don't know.

They seem to have an ongoing interest in us.

They take direct involvement

with certain bloodlines and certain people.

And the dramatic transformations

that have taken place after people

have had these claimed contacts is very real.

NARRATOR: If close encounters of the fifth kind

are, in fact, taking place,

are alien entities making contact for our benefit

or for theirs?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

both could be true.

Because they say there is evidence

that Earth is being visited

by multiple alien species.

(siren wailing)

NARRATOR: Shortly after 8:00 a.m.,

the National High Tech Crime Unit

arrives at the home

of 36-year-old Scottish computer engineer Gary McKinnon.

They are there to arrest him on behalf

of the United States Justice Department

for hacking into top secret computers

at NASA and the Pentagon.

McKinnon not only admits to the crime

but claims he uncovered evidence that the U.S. government

was working with extraterrestrial beings.

I was obsessed with UFOs.

I was dying to find out the information.

The Internet was a real enabler

for finding out information, um,

by going to places you shouldn't be in,

um, because they were so open.

There were a lot of text files

that had lists of places, installations,

military bases, Air Force bases, Navy sites, NASA sites.

So, there was a lot to go through.

But I did find a gold mine of information.

NARRATOR: According to McKinnon,

he unearthed a secret U.S. military program

that existed entirely in space.

McKINNON: I found the spreadsheet. It was actually titled

in the column, "Non-terrestrial Officers."

As well as officers' names, it had ship names.

None of these were ocean-going ships.

It was astounding.

They're not Navy. They're not in the Army.

And not even Air Force.

So, to me, I was thinking

there must be an off-planet space force,

or space fleet, at least.

NARRATOR: After McKinnon's arrest,

he was told the U.S. government

intended to sentence him to 70 years in prison.

McKINNON: At the time, I thought

six months community service

was all you'd do for a Computer Misuse Act in Britain.

We fought extradition for ten years,

and we actually won the case.

But, unfortunately, today,

the arrest warrant is still live,

and I'm still on the Interpol Red list,

so I can't travel.

NARRATOR: Could it be

that Gary McKinnon's account of what he saw

when he hacked into computers

at the Pentagon and NASA is genuine?

Is the U.S. government engaged in secret operations

beyond Earth?

I think Gary McKinnon is truthful

in that he did see files on secret space programs

and UFO-related material.

Whether that information was legit

or was just sitting there somewhere, we can't say.

But there's no question that he did

what he claimed to have done.

NARRATOR: While there are many who question

the authenticity of Gary McKinnon's account,

other more notable figures

have since come forward with similar claims.

In 2013, former Canadian Minister of National Defence

Paul Hellyer declared that the United States government

and other governments around the world,

are working with organized groups of extraterrestrials.

Why do you say that UFOs are as real

as the airplanes flying over our heads?

Well, because I know that they are.

And they've been visiting this planet for thousands of years.

And there is what is called a federation

of these people, and they have rules.

DOLAN: Paul Hellyer was a former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

and a former Minister of Defence of Canada.

He was able to talk to a lot of important people

within the U.S. and Canadian system,

and it was his opinion,

based on the sources that he had,

that there are many groups that are here visiting us.

NARRATOR: Paul Hellyer is not the only government official

to come forward with alleged knowledge

of a federation of extraterrestrial races.

HYNEK: Recently the former Israeli chief of space security,

Haim Eshed, came out and said that

there is a galactic federation,

and that indeed many world leaders

know of and are in talks with

delegates of the galactic federation.

I don't know what to make of that claim.

But when you have enough of them, a pattern emerges,

and it starts to take on a bit more gravitas

in functioning as bona fide evidence.

CHILDRESS: Dr. Haim Eshed claimed

that the extraterrestrials in this galactic federation

were in contact

with governments around the world.

It's a fascinating idea

and one that may well be true.

NARRATOR: Should the sensational claims made by Paul Hellyer

and Haim Eshed be believed?

That close encounters of the fifth kind are occurring

at the highest levels of government around the world

and with entire factions of extraterrestrial beings.

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and argue that recent revelations from world leaders

may be preparing mankind for a groundbreaking event:

full disclosure.

NARRATOR: In today's world,

where cell phones are equipped

with high-definition cameras

and the Internet makes it possible

to share videos in an instant,

average citizens have become frontline reporters

on the UFO phenomenon.

New images and accounts of unidentified phenomena

are posted online nearly every day,

and UFO researchers

say the proof that extraterrestrials

are visiting Earth is right before our eyes.

But they also suggest the evidence that's been accumulated

by the public pales in comparison

to what the United States government

has had in its possession for decades.

Technology has changed so much over the past 30,

40 years that now it's possible

for regular Joe citizens to be part of this investigation.

The flip side of that is our military

has incredible sensors that watch everything that happens

on and around the Earth.

There's a gigantic storehouse of information somewhere

that the public has never been allowed to see.

TSOUKALOS: World leaders and the governments think

that we, the people, cannot handle the truth.

But in 2017, when The New York Times

talked about the idea that the U.S. government

actually is investigating UAPs and UFOs,

you know, that story came,

and people went about their daily lives. Why?

Just because you understand

that you're not alone in the universe

does not change the fact that you have to go to work,

you have to put food on the table.

And the idea to be afraid of extraterrestrials--

There's nothing we can do anyway,

so why be afraid?

We should not be afraid

because they would have eliminated us

hundreds of years ago,

before we invented nuclear weapons.

NARRATOR: While there has been much speculation

as to whether there are people within the U.S. government

covering up the truth about Earth's interactions

with alien visitors,

some researchers have proposed that

there may be another authority controlling the narrative.

It isn't humans that are holding it back.

It's the extraterrestrial biological entities

who said humans are not ready

for the introduction yet.

And that's what Haim Eshed said,

even in television interviews.

They have said,

"Keep the information down

"until we decide

"that you are technologically advanced enough

to be introduced to us."

NARRATOR: But many UFO researchers believe

that the truth is becoming harder to hide,

and the day may be rapidly approaching

when the public will be introduced

to a profound new reality.

These public hearings

mark a U-turn in U.S. government policy.

We've had decades of debunking and denying

and playing the whole thing down,

and now it's as if they're putting it out there

in front of us all.

And one wonders,

are they preparing us for something?

Are they laying the groundwork

for some big reveal or some huge global event?

It is a one day at a time to walk towards

what ultimately will be complete disclosure.

NARRATOR: Are we on the verge of discovering

that close encounters of the fifth kind

are not hypothetical

but have already taken place?

Will we soon learn, once and for all,

that we are not alone?

Perhaps one day soon, the truth will be revealed,

not through a government agency

but by the extraterrestrials themselves.

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