All language subtitles for teneighty-ancient.aliens.s01e01

NARRATOR:
Reports of UFO sightings

come from all corners
of the globe.

I was taken on board
a 200-foot-diameter spacecraft

in the Mojave Desert
and given...

WOMAN: I saw two great big,
real bright lights

hanging up in the air.

NARRATOR: Most believe
these alien encounters

are a modern phenomenon,

but the fact is, they have been
reported for thousands of years.

MICHAEL CREMO: Practically
every human civilization

have been in touch with
extraterrestrial beings.

In India, Israel.

The Mayans and the Aztecs.

LINDA HOWE: The idea that there
was one or more non-human groups

inspiring us is the truth.

NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world

believe we have been
visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

But what if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so,
where did they come from?

And just who were the visitors?

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR:
Roswell, New Mexico.

This sleepy town
in America's Southwest

was once best known for
its large military air base.

But that changed in 1947...

when a local rancher reported
that a spaceship

crashed on his property.

Several weeks later, the
U.S. Army issued a press release

confirming the existence
of an alien craft.

The next day,
the military changed its story

and announced that what they had
found was a weather balloon.

These conflicting reports sent
shock waves around the world,

and the name "Roswell"
became a pop culture code word

that forever links
extraterrestrial visitation

with enduring mystery.

NICK POPE: Speculation about
why the Roswell crash

would be covered up
is difficult to pin down.

Some people talk about this
in terms of information

that would be shattering
to our worldview.

And one of the real implications
of disclosure is that

some of our most cherished myths

about the origins of
the human race and our history

and archeology
would fall apart.

GEORGE NOORY: Something happened
at Roswell, New Mexico

a long time ago.

People want the truth.

I think there's something
in the human being itself

that is striving, that is hungry
for this knowledge,

in order to answer questions
about our own existence.

NARRATOR: Today,
public opinion polls indicate

more than half the world's
population believes

aliens have either come here in
the past or are coming here now.

But what is it exactly

that makes
so many people believe?

I do think
looking upward makes sense.

The universe is large.

There are things out there
we do not understand.

There is probably
intelligent life somewhere.

ROBERT BAUVAL: People tend to
forget that we're on a planet

that's four and a half
billion years old.

The presence of our civilization
in that vast scale of time...

I mean, if I click my finger,
it wouldn't even be fast enough

to say this is the time
of our civilization.

And to think
that we're the only ones

in this vast period of time,
to me, is absurd.

SARA SEAGER:
Our galaxy, the Milky Way,

has over 100 billion stars.

And in our universe,

we think there are more than
100 billion galaxies.

So if every star had a planet
with intelligent life,

how many alien civilizations
would we have?

ERICH VON DANIKEN: If you take
us as the crown of creation,

or the top of evolution,
we look at ourselves

as the greatest, the biggest.

We say, how incredible, uh,

JENNIFER HELDMANN:
Each step that we take makes us

a little bit less special.

We used to think that we were
the center of the universe,

as humans, and then we realized,

oh, all right,
well, that's not true.

And... But we're the center
of the galaxy, and, like,

well, all right, so we're, like,

two-thirds of the way
out in a spiral arm.

And then, well, at least our
sun, you know, with this... No.

The sun is actually
in the middle,

and the Earth goes around it.

So Earth isn't even the center
of that system, and...

So, the more that we learn,
we sort of, you know...

It's a very humbling science.

NARRATOR: When man first
landed on the moon,

our perspective on the universe
changed forever.

(over radio): Houston, uh,
the Eagle has landed.

BUZZ ALDRIN:
We aliens...

who happened to...

go down the ladder
on July 20, 1969--

we aliens...

were certainly
part of a magnificent race.

I just don't think people have
a grasp for what energy it takes

to go from one star to another.

NARRATOR: This historic event
raised the question:

if humans can successfully
navigate in space

and explore other worlds,
why couldn't beings

from other parts of the universe
have done the same?

And might they have already
come to Earth

hundreds, or perhaps,
thousands of years ago?

VON DANIKEN: I think human past
is more fantastic

than we all believe.

I have come to the idea
that maybe extraterrestrials

were on this planet.

NARRATOR:
Cahuachi, Peru.

2,000 years ago, this ancient
settlement served as

the religious and cultural
capital of the Nazca people.

But sometime around 500 AD,

the Nazca
mysteriously disappeared,

leaving Cahuachi
to fall into disarray.

1,400 years later, in 1910,

anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka
came to Cahuachi

to study the ancient
Nazca civilization.

During a dig, he unearthed
some of the most surprising

and shocking artifacts
he had ever seen.

They were skulls...

with enormous,
elongated craniums.

Where did they come from?

How did they get there?

And were they human?

CHILDRESS: In Peru, we find
these weird, elongated skulls.

And they're bizarre-looking.

I mean, and-and these people
look like aliens.

ROBERT SCHOCH:
One may say, okay, aliens.

But another aspect
that we have to consider

is that skull
and cranial deformation,

forming elongated heads
is a practice that's known

throughout much of
the ancient world.

NARRATOR: In 1870,
the process of skull deformation

was well chronicled by
a German botanist and explorer

named Georg Schweinfurth.

While exploring
the African Congo,

he came in contact with a tribe
called the Mangbetu.

They routinely performed
a ritual of cranial binding

that allowed them to physically
alter the shape of human skulls.

CHILDRESS:
They took infants' skulls

and compressed them
and bound them.

And they forced the cranium out
and elongate it.

And in many cases,
they doubled the size.

SCHOCH:
And a big question is

why was this being done?

It may have been a way to
distinguish the elite, perhaps,

from the everyday people.

May have been a social
stratification type of issue.

Something that also appeals
to me is, that may have been

a way to express physically

and maybe try
to achieve physically

greater levels of consciousness

or higher levels
of mental ability.

TSOUKALOS:
In my opinion, they did this

in order to mimic the gods.

And those gods
were physical beings,

because if they were
just a figment

of our ancestors' imagination,
I don't think

that's a compelling enough
reason to expose your children

to such a ritual
to achieve that type of look.

And in my opinion,
these people were misinterpreted

flesh-and-blood space travelers.

SCHOCH: Some people have
suggested aliens had

elongated skulls,
and apparently,

ancient peoples
are mimicking those skulls.

The old saying is that

imitation is the sincerest form
of flattery.

NARRATOR: Although there have
been many images

that attempt to depict what
aliens might actually look like,

one in particular has come to
dominate the public perception.

It, too, features
an elongated cranium,

and is associated with
an extraterrestrial race

that many refer to as the grays.

POPE:
In terms of entities,

one very common description
are the so-called grays--

three and a half, four feet
tall, essentially humanoid,

but, uh, very spindly with
disproportionately large heads

and huge, black
almond-shaped eyes.

NARRATOR: But would someone
in a primitive society

really want to replicate this
look and deform their skull?

Some archeologists have
a different perspective.

They point to
artistic self-expression

as an explanation
of these customs.

There are all kinds of people

that either worship the body
or use the body as art,

be it a tattoo or a piercing
of some sort, or tribes that,

that put things in their ears
or on their lips to try to,

to try to grow
parts of their body.

Some societies, we know,
practiced binding

parts of the body--
feet or heads--

and tried to make
certain shapes,

and this was done
for whatever reason.

We know today
that this isn't usually

the most healthy thing to do,

but it doesn't mean
people don't do it.

People are always trying

to change their body to make it
look a certain way.

NARRATOR: Whatever the
explanation may be

for these rituals,
they are not just found

in Peru and the African Congo.

Skull deformation
is a global phenomenon.

CHILDRESS:
What's really strange is that

this is found
all over the world.

And this is something
that archaeologists

cannot easily explain,

because, for people
on remote islands,

for people in South America
or Malta or in Africa

to suddenly, independently
do this cranial deformation

like this seems incredible.

I mean, this is something
that had to be learned,

something that was
taught to them.

SCHOCH: We seem to have
basic similarities,

as if there was one civilization
or at least one type of culture

that was influencing people
around the world.

I find it more and more
difficult to believe

what I was taught
as an undergraduate--

that all these different
cultures just coincidentally

came up with the same concepts

independently of each other.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that individual societies

around the world were influenced
by similar events?

And were they imitating
real beings

who visited from other planets?

Some of the most compelling
images of an elongated cranium

can be traced to ancient Egypt
and the depictions

of one of its most
controversial pharaohs.

Could it be that he, too,

was mimicking the look
of extraterrestrials?

Or is there an even more
outrageous explanation?

Could he have been one of them?

Egypt.

Long before the ancient
Egyptians built the pyramids

or even settled along
the Nile River,

they spoke of an era
called Tep Zepi,

or the beginning of time.

According to legends,
Tep Zepi was when sky-gods

descended from the stars
to Earth on flying boats,

and then turned mud and water
into a new kingdom.

BAUVAL:
The word "god,"

according to the ancient
Egyptian, is "netyro."

It means a being
that came from the cosmos.

They are very adamant
about the fact

that their gods had descended
from the stars.

They tell us
that the god Osiris,

who ruled with his consort
and sister-- the goddess Isis--

they were star gods, and in fact
they identify them very clearly.

Osiris was identified as
the constellation of Orion.

Isis was identified as the god
to the star Sirius,

the brightest star in the sky.

There's an interesting point
about this--

is that within
the constellation of Orion

is the so-called
nursery of stars.

The stars in our galaxy
literally were born

in that zone.

And it's really peculiar that
the ancient Egyptians insist

that the birth of star gods
are in this constellation.

They truly believed-- they were
very adamant about this--

that their origins
is in the sky.

SCHOCH: Something that we see
around the world

with ancient civilizations
is that they had

incredible knowledge
of the stars, of the planets,

of the heavenly motions.

The average person
in the ancient world

had way more knowledge
of what’s going on in the skies

than a lot of
well-educated people today.

NARRATOR: As ancient Egypt grew
into a great civilization,

its citizens believed their
pharaohs were sons of Osiris,

and thus, living gods.

Artwork and wall carvings
depicted them as perfect humans.

And while the people worshiped
many different gods,

the pharaoh stood
above them all.

This basic Egyptian religious
belief remained in force

for nearly a thousand years,

until one pharaoh
changed everything.

Who was this heretic?

His name was Akhenaten,

and in every
surviving depiction,

he is shown
with an elongated skull.

Who was he?

According to Egyptian mythology,
he, too, was descended from

the gods who arrived on Earth
at the time of Tep Zepi.

But why do so many still believe
he actually came from the stars?

In 1352 BC,
Akhenaten ascended to the throne

as the tenth pharaoh
of the 18th dynasty.

Almost immediately,
he instituted a series

of radical religious changes,

including a ban on references
to multiple gods.

BAUVAL:
It's a rather strange thing

that he would want to do that
in one sweep,

but he ordered all the-the
iconography of previous gods

to be removed.

He only allowed one emblem,
which was a sun emblem--

literally a sun disk
with curious arms

or rays pointing down.

Why did he do this?

Because, according to
his writings and his poems

that were written
about him later on,

he was visited

by one of those beings
that descended from the sky,

who told Akhenaten,
"This is the way.

I am your god."

NARRATOR: This sun god
was known as Aten.

Akhenaten claimed to be
a direct descendent of Aten.

BAUVAL: Akhenaten,
like any other pharaoh,

regarded himself to be divine.

He was a god.

Not only himself
believed himself to be a god,

but the whole nation
saw him as a god.

Now, the definition of a god

is that he was a descendant
from these celestial beings.

NARRATOR: During his
fourth year as pharaoh,

Akhenaten ordered
the construction

of a new capital city.

He called it Amarna
and dedicated it to the sun.

Akhenaten would spend
the next ten years here,

during which time he instituted
changes in both art and culture,

including how he himself
would be publicly depicted.

CARGILL:
In Egyptian iconography,

Egyptian pharaohs
are depicted as these

triangular-shaped beings--
these broad, strong shoulders

and these very skinny waists.

Now, we look at leaders today
and we know that most leaders

don't have broad shoulders
and skinny waists.

But it was important to depict

the Egyptian kings as having

broad shoulders and skinny
waists-- very, you know--

the epitome of what a king
ought to look like.

That's exactly the opposite
with Akhenaten.

He shows himself
perhaps as he really is...

a rather strange look.

He has a very mystical look.

SCHOCH: If we take Akhenaten's
statues, for instance,

literally, he was a very
strange-looking character.

Sort of combined,
some people would say,

feminine aspects
with masculine aspects,

may have had an elongated skull.

CARGILL: The change in royal
iconography of Akhenaten

showed him as he probably really
was, with a misshapen head,

with a potbelly,
with a sunken chest,

as opposed to
the idealized iconography of

traditional Egyptian artists

that showed this
big, strong pharaoh.

NARRATOR: Akhenaten's wife,
Queen Nefertiti,

and their children
were also depicted

as having elongated skulls.

So why were Akhenaten's and
Nefertiti's heads deformed?

Did they suffer from
a genetic abnormality

or did they deliberately
alter their shape?

Some believe there could be
yet another explanation

behind their strange,
otherworldly appearance.

They look like
they're different

than other human beings.

TSOUKALOS:
Is it possible that Akhenaten

might have been
an extraterrestrial hybrid?

CARGILL:
Ancient alien enthusiasts

look at Pharaoh Akhenaten
of Egypt and say,

"Ah, look at that long head.

"That looks like an alien gray.

"That looks like some kind of
something that's nonhuman

"or some hybrid between
something else

"and something human.

"Must be evidence of

"alien interference,
alien reproduction with humans--

something like that."

BETTYANN BROWN:
I've been to Egypt,

and one of the most stunning
things about seeing

the archeological remains
of ancient Egypt

is that one unique pharaoh,
Akhenaten.

TSOUKALOS: I mean, he's got
a very narrow, pointy face,

high cheekbones,
and a very elongated cranium.

CHILDRESS: The idea
that they were either

looking like extraterrestrials,

or perhaps had
extraterrestrial DNA in them

is a credible idea.

NARRATOR:
Akhenaten ruled for 17 years.

After his reign,
Amarna was abandoned,

and temples to the sun
were destroyed.

Images of Akhenaten
were deliberately defaced.

Ancient Egypt swiftly returned
to its old ways,

worshiping many gods.

Was this a rejection
of Akhenaten's

radical religious belief system

or a cover-up
of his alien identity?

There's been a lot
of theories about why.

Um, if... I mean, the most
extreme is that he somehow

had some sort of
extraterrestrial connection.

If one accepts that conclusion,
then it would explain

why he was literally
put off the reign

and, some say, put to death.

NARRATOR: Some Egyptologists
believe Akhenaten was forced

to abdicate and flee from Egypt

with a group of
his loyal followers.

In 1907, the actual body of
Akhenaten was discovered

in Egypt's Valley of the Kings

by a British archeologist
named Edward Ayrton.

After unearthing
Akhenaten's mummified remains,

he was able to confirm
that, indeed,

the ancient pharaoh's skull
was misshapen and elongated.

CARGILL: Some scholars argue
that he suffered from

some kind of physical
abnormality; he suffered from

a disorder that caused his face
to appear to be long,

or his head actually was longer.

I think with Akhenaten,
we're dealing with

a physical deformation
that wasn't corrected

by the royal artists.

They just depicted him
as he was:

potbelly, sunken chest,
long head.

NARRATOR: Akhenaten was
succeeded by his son,

Tutankhamen, who became the most
renowned pharaoh of all time.

When his tomb was discovered
in 1922 by Howard Carter,

Tutankhamen was also found
to have an elongated skull.

Could he have inherited
alien genes from his father?

Today, much of Akhenaten's life
still remains a mystery.

Did he really change
Egypt's entire belief system

because, as some suggest,
he was a celestial being?

If that’s true,
might there be evidence

of similar entities
coming to Earth?

Perhaps more clues can be found
thousands of miles away

on the other side
of the African continent.

(people singing
in native language)

Mali, in northwest Africa.

Deep in a remote valley
live the Dogon people,

who are the descendants
of a nomadic tribe

that settled here
around 1000 AD.

Just like Akhenaten's followers,
the Dogon had been forced

to leave Egypt because of
religious persecution.

SCHOCH: The Dogon claim a very
long and ancient tradition

and, in my opinion,
maintain some of

the ancient Egyptian
traditions and myths

that have been carried on
right into the present age.

Parts of ancient Egypt
may not have died.

They were carried on,
to this day, among the Dogon.

NARRATOR: But what exactly
are their beliefs?

Dogon mythology holds that
the sky-god Amma created

the first living creature,
known as Nommo.

The legend also says that
shortly after his creation,

Nommo multiplied
into several parts,

one of which
rebelled against Amma.

Amma responded by destroying him
and scattering his ashes

throughout the world.

PETER FIEBAG (translated):
According to the Dogon myths,

a god gave them this knowledge.

He descended from the sky
in an ark, surfing on fire,

and landed in a storm.

TSOUKALOS: Still today,
Dogon celebrates a festival

in the honor of Nommo

and that visitation that
occurred in the remote past.

How do we know this?

For this festival, they have

wooden masks that date back to

a very long time ago,
when this festival began.

FIEBAG (translated): Dogon masks
tell the mystic stories

of their ancestors.

This is a sculpture
of the creator.

They call him Amma.

He is embracing the universe.

This is how
they pass on information

from generation to generation--
by stories carved in masks.

NARRATOR: But could Nommo
have been a real person?

Some see eerie similarities
between the Dogon's legend

and the story of the mysterious
pharaoh Akhenaten.

Akhenaten believed he was
directly descended

from the sun god Aten.

Nommo was said to have been
created by the sky deity Amma.

Is it a coincidence
that both cultures,

although thousands
of miles apart,

shared mythical tales of beings
coming from the skies?

And both Nommo and Akhenaten

were depicted with
elongated heads.

Is it possible
that these legends

were based on real events?

FIEBAG (translated):
The Dogon dwell

in the central plateau region
of Bandiagara.

Their knowledge
is centuries old,

and their priests
have been sharing it

with chosen individuals only.

In the 1920s,
French anthropologist Grialue

and ethnologist Dieterle
visited the tribe

and were invited
to share their secrets.

NARRATOR:
But one secret stood out:

the Dogon claimed that their god
Amma came from a specific star

in the Sirius constellation,

the same place where
the ancient Egyptians believed

their god Osiris was born.

This star, which modern
astronomers refer to

as Sirius B,
the Dogon called Po Tolo.

But what baffles experts is that
the star is so far from Earth,

it's impossible to see
with the naked eye.

BAUVAL: I was very intrigued
by this, by the way.

I mean, the Dogons
should not have known

about the existence
of this star.

Sirius is the second nearest
star from our solar system.

It's eight light-years away.

In fact, it's not even visible
with standard telescopes.

It was first seen,
literally seen,

and photographed in the 1970s.

TSOUKALOS: Modern science
has corroborated

that Sirius B does indeed exist.

Problem is,
the Dogon knew about this

before modern science
corroborated it.

I mean, that's spooky.

NARRATOR: Measurements taken
with the Hubble telescope

in 2003 have confirmed that
Sirius B is what's known as

a white dwarf--
or a partially burnt-out star

with extremely dense mass.

Although it is smaller
in size than Earth,

it's estimated to weigh
eight times as much as our sun.

But how did the Dogon acquire
this ancient knowledge

of astronomy that seems to be
centuries more advanced

than that of modern science?

The mystery is,
how did this story

get passed on down generations

if the story came from a time
before astronomers knew

there was a companion star
to Sirius

which can't be seen
with the human eye?

FIEBAG (translated): This is
the Dogon symbol for Sirius.

When you move it around,
you can see an orbit

around the center
marked by Sirius A.

Sirius B circles around it,
so it is a circular system.

This sign is practically
an astronomic model

that the Dogon
could not have invented

because only Sirius A
is visible.

Sirius B and C are invisible.

However, their description
of the orbit is correct.

One assumption
is that this god, Nommo,

who brought them this knowledge,
could have been

an extraterrestrial
intelligence.

NARRATOR:
Since the early 20th century,

the tribe has been
routinely studied

and researched
by anthropologists.

This has led
many modern historians

to claim that the Dogon
must have learned

about astronomy from Westerners.

CARGILL:
The Dogon mythology is so fluid

that when science
confirms something

that they might have
believed in antiquity,

it might have just been
sheer coincidence,

or it could have been
a conflation.

That is, they heard...

Because it's an oral culture,

and because the mythology
is so fluid,

they heard something that
someone said about this star

in relation to another star,

and they just grafted that
into their mythology.

They grafted that
into their religion.

And then when some reporter,
some subsequent reporter

comes along and says,
"What do you believe?"

they say, "Well, we've thought
this for millions of years."

TSOUKALOS: When critics suggest
that this knowledge was

given to them
by modern ethnologists,

that's simply incorrect,
because we know that the story

goes back
hundreds of years earlier

than any modern ethnologist
ever went there.

FIEBAG (translated):
If it were ever proven

that all this information
is exactly correct,

including the parts
that are still being studied

by astronomers, this would mean
that the Earth had visitors

from outer space
in prehistoric times.

BAUVAL: Either they inherited
that knowledge--

and the question is, from where?

From a previous civilization,

or from some sort of
extraterrestrial civilization?

Or it's a coincidence.

In my view,
it is not a coincidence.

NARRATOR: If the Dogon people
really possessed

this advanced
astronomical knowledge,

were their legends
based on real events?

The ancient Egyptians and Dogon
were far from alone

in their belief in gods
or mystical beings

that came from the sky.

Is there an explanation
for similar myths

shared by ancient cultures
all around the world?

And what does that reveal
as to who these visitors may be?

Perhaps the answer can be found,
not in northern Africa,

but here in the rocks
and canyons

of the American Southwest.

30 miles south
of Gallup, New Mexico,

lies the pueblo of Zuni.

Sheltered from
the desolate high plains,

this adobe city is home
to the Zuni Indians,

one of the oldest indigenous
tribes in North America.

They have inhabited this land
for almost 2,000 years,

and have protected
their secrets even longer.

CHRIS O'BRIEN:
The Zuni are

a very interesting culture,
in that they're one of

the few cultures that really
have not opened up, uh,

to the rest of the world about
their star knowledge traditions.

Most of this type of information

is very closely held
by the natives.

And, um, I really find it
very intriguing that this is

the time period in history where
now we're starting to learn

more and more
about their star knowledge.

NARRATOR: Much of
the Zuni people's history

is etched in the rocks
in the New Mexico desert.

Tribal Elder Clifford Mahooty
and archeologist Dan Simplicio

have studied the Zuni's
secret history firsthand.

They've collected stories
passed down through generations

that are rooted in the belief
that the tribe's

creators and protectors
are supernatural beings

from the sky.

DAN SIMPLICIO: This one's
kind of interesting here.

I would imagine it was created
in last century,

but from this design,
you can see the star figure.

Celestial images
oftentimes are depicted

in a lot of
our cultural petroglyphs.

And this is one of them
where it depicts the star.

It could be the supernova
of the crab nebula.

CLIFFORD MAHOOTY:
Our Zuni mythology

in the prayer system,
in the ritualistic protocols,

talk about these people
that came over here

and told us how to
actually live our lives

as being sky people.

If you listen to a lot of
religious chants and songs

and prayers,
that's all they talk about.

They're talking about space.

They're talking about out there

in the universe
where they came from.

So they depict it
on a rock wall here.

But the actual meaning of it is
somewhere more profound

and more complex than that.

NARRATOR: These drawings are
thought to have been created

around 1200 BC,
yet they appear to depict

modern space travelers
and their vehicles.

If you move back a little bit,
you can see another figure here.

It has a dome.

Has eyes.

Uh, there's something
coming down...

And a nose.

Like a nose. There's a nose,
but it kind of flares out...

I think it was
something to do with

the ancient ones,
when they saw something.

They took as much description
of it to put it on there.

Of course, it's not going to be

exactly what they saw, but
that's as best as they can do

for something that they saw.

CHILDRESS: With all petroglyphs
and things like that,

I mean, they're up to
interpretation.

Sometimes they're just
doodlings of people.

But other times,
they may well be

actual descriptions
and depictions of

some kind of god
from outer space,

some ancient astronaut.

And when you go around, say,
like the Zuni pueblo,

I mean, that's what they'll
tell you those petroglyphs are.

Even the Zunis themselves
call them the spacemen.

This one seems to have two legs
coming out like that.

It has a, you know,
broad diamond-shaped body.

Um, there probably was a better
head that chipped off here.

Well, that's very
different-looking

than humans are.

MAHOOTY: Now usually
they're called UFOs.

But in the Zuni way,

we've always been taught
that they're the keepers

of the upperworld,
which means space.

You know, they're sky people--

beings that are of
the extraterrestrial origin.

And this is still
within our mythology

and our
religious practices today.

NARRATOR:
Like most Indian tribes,

the Zunis call
these sky people kachinas.

According to the Zunis'
creation story, the kachina gods

came down from the heavens
to lead the Zunis to Earth

through a special portal.

MAHOOTY: The sipapu-- that's the
entrance to the fourth world,

or the underworld.

And that's a representation

of where the kachinas
come and go.

And so, according to
the mythologies,

the Zunis were brought forth
into the world of light--

which is where we are at today--
by what I would interpret as

extraterrestrial beings
from the universe.

(people singing
in native language)

NARRATOR:
Every year,

the Zunis participate
in a ceremony known as

the Shalako festival.

Dressed in traditional costumes
to represent the kachinas,

the Indians celebrate the
arrival of the gods on Earth.

(singing continues)

CHILDRESS:
This is a-a figurine of

kachina gods.

And these guys are some gods
from the sky who came down.

Uh, they wear weird helmets.

TSOUKALOS: This one has
a helmet as a head.

And if you look at

the whole body of it,
it's as if

it wears some type of a,
of a suit.

This one here also has
the helmet and the visor.

CHILDRESS: For the Pueblo
Indians, like the Zunis,

these are their-their sky-gods
that every year,

they have special ceremonies.

People put on these
special costumes

and masks to reenact
the coming of the gods.

They really look like
ancient astronauts.

BILL BIRNES: If you look at
the poetry and the legends

and the stories from American
Indian tribes in the Southwest,

they have the legend
of the star people.

The star people came to Earth

and seeded planet Earth,
and they came on flying ships.

If you speak to the elders,
they will tell you that

"a lot of us believe in the
existence of extraterrestrials."

THOMAS MILLS: The Zunis
don't have a written language.

The storyteller comes
and he tells the young children

how it all happened.

All their songs that they do
in their ceremonies

tell the story over and over.

And that's how they pass down
traditions, customs, beliefs.

They tell it in the Indian way.

They use things they understand

to explain things
that they don't understand.

SIMPLICIO: I remember
my grandparents talking about

a craft that flew
and had actually crash-landed

on one of the mesas
east of here.

There's no interpretation
of what an aircraft is,

so the closest thing
that they could interpret as

anything capable of flight

is a bird
or our masked kachina dancers.

MAHOOTY: We are very, very
superstitious people.

It's always been in the history
of Zuni that they have always

been here, even right here
where we're sitting right now,

but you just don't see them.

They're in
a different frequency.

And those are very, very sacred,
and those are very, very secret.

They're out there somewhere.

NARRATOR: For those who believe
that ancient astronauts

came to Earth
thousands of years ago,

prehistoric artwork provides
more clues in what they claim

is a growing body of evidence--

from wall carvings and statues
in ancient Egypt

to tribal traditions
and exotic masks in West Africa

to petroglyphs
in the American Southwest.

All thousands of years old,
they seem to recount

similar stories of visitors
from the skies.

Could the legends of
alien beings visiting Earth

thousands of years ago

have inspired
more traditional beliefs?

Celestial beings
coming down to Earth.

Gods descending from the sky.

Can these events only be found

in the ancient legends
of the Zuni?

Do similar accounts exist
in other cultures

and other religions
across the world?

And if so,
what is the explanation?

TSOUKALOS: We have to remind
ourselves that our ancestors

were highly intelligent.

However, their technological
frame of reference was different

than our technological
frame of reference.

So they didn't have
the vocabulary with which

to describe
or with which to name

certain things that they saw.

So what did they do?

They used words that they were
familiar with in their time,

and so they tried to describe
whatever they witnessed

to the best of their abilities
with their vocabulary.

NARRATOR: Ancient China also
shared some of the same beliefs

that can be found in
Egyptian, Native American

and Dogon legends--

that deities arrived
from the stars.

According to Chinese mythology
dating back to 3000 BC,

when the god named
Huang Di was born,

there was a radiance
from the great star Chi.

Huang Di would later
emerge from the belly

of a fire-breathing dragon to
become China's first emperor.

The origins of the Han Chinese
people start with a story

of a great god
looking down with empathy.

Here were people in poverty,

in a beautiful, rich country,
the landscape profound,

but the people were suffering.

He took pity
and decided to come down.

TSOUKALOS: Huang Di
arrived on planet Earth

in a flying dragon.

He had the power of flight.

Huang Di could be anywhere

within minutes, and he usually
accomplished this by

hopping on his dragon
and flying somewhere.

Now this divine energy
becomes human

and is a great leader--

the Yellow Emperor who rules
and unites the people--

and there is a period
of great prosperity

until his work is done.

NARRATOR: Huang Di
brought order to the chaos,

creating China's first empire.

He is seen as a cultural hero
and is credited

with the invention
of the compass, acupuncture,

and the standardization
of Chinese writing.

One of his greatest legacies
is the Great Wall of China.

YOUNG:
When the land is prosperous,

he decides it's time to go.

And the great yellow dragon
comes back

and he gets back into
the belly of the dragon

and flies off forever.

Now, were these dragons
truly dragons

in a biological nature?

Or were they misinterpreted
types of machines?

Because, as we all know,

dragons are always correlated
with spewing fire

and a lot of smoke.

Whenever we see
a modern rocket take off,

there's all this smoke; and
sometimes the smoke is yellow

and sometimes it's red.

So it's very bizarre
how we have these correlations

between the ancient times
and modern times today.

Mythology is the effort to grasp
what we can't grasp,

to understand what is beyond us.

In the Eastern teachings, the
dragons very often carry people,

sometimes on their back,
sometimes inside their bellies.

So if we think of them as,
as a poet's effort to explain

a vehicle that was
strange to them,

well, those sound like
flying saucers.

So it might just be a problem
with translation,

because, after all,
it's just a word.

It's trying to
describe something

that's very difficult to grasp.

NARRATOR:
4,000 miles west of China,

another tale of celestial beings
influencing civilization

can be found, this time
in what is now modern-day Iraq.

The Babylonian legend
of Enuma Elish

dates back to
the seventh century BC.

The text was
first discovered in 1849

by British archeologist
Sir Austen Henry Layard

while searching the ruins of

the Library of Ashurbanipal
in Nineveh.

The story tells of how
the first humans were created

by an extraterrestrial race
known as the Anunnaki.

TSOUKALOS:
In the ancient texts of Sumeria,

we have descriptions
of these beings

descending from the sky
called the Anunnaki.

The term "Anunnaki" means

"those who from
the heavens came."

It says, word for word,
that these beings descended

in flying vehicles from the sky.

And we can find not only
descriptions of the Anunnaki,

but also depictions.

And we can see them
in statues, in carvings.

So it's all very interesting
to see that those beings

looked like modern-day space
travelers with weird suits.

Some of them wore wristwatches.

They had boots on and helmets
and, above all, wings.

And they were always
described or depicted

in floating above
some "regular people."

So the question is:
who were the Anunnaki?

And according to the
ancient astronaut hypothesis,

they were space travelers
who visited Earth

in the remote past.

NARRATOR: Similar themes
can be found in the legends

of Greek and Roman gods,
which also describe events

that some interpret as
extraterrestrial contact.

Both cultures believed
in powerful gods

who lived in the heavens
and often came down to Earth

to interact with humans.

(thunder cracks)

CHILDRESS: A well-known example
is Zeus and the Greek gods.

And they've come down
from the sky and Mount Olympus,

where they live
in some mountain.

And they're bringing, really,

civilization and sciences
to mankind.

But they have many
human attributes, too,

where, yeah, they, uh, they're
attracted to human women,

uh, they want
to have sex and children

with as many of them
as they can.

And then they go back
into the sky.

THOMAS BULLARD: These ideas
of gods mating with humans

are very commonplace.

Like, Zeus in
the Greek mythology was always

coming down, mating
with mortals and producing

demigods like Hercules
or Helen of Troy, who were,

you know,
exceptionally beautiful,

exceptionally powerful,

unusually gifted in every way.

So, in other words,

you were creating a better race
in-in this sense.

TSOUKALOS: In the ancient
astronaut opinion,

the whole pantheon of gods
that we have in ancient Greece

consists of nothing else
but flesh-and-blood

extraterrestrials who were
misinterpreted as being

these divine creatures
by our ancestors.

CREMO: There is a lot of
evidence showing that

we're not alone in the cosmos

and that our human civilizations
on Earth have been interacting

for long periods of time

with extraterrestrial
intelligences.

NARRATOR: Belief in celestial
beings interacting with humans

is a cornerstone
in several major religions.

In fact, according to
the Bible's Book of Genesis,

God created the first humans,
Adam and Eve.

The Bible also contains
other passages

that describe
strange interactions

between otherworldly beings
and humans.

CARGILL: People believe
messengers of some sort

come down from the heavens.

You know, they came down
and they had sex with humans.

And this is where we produced
giants-- people like Goliath.

So in a technical sense,
they are alien.

They're gods or they're angels;

they're some kind of
superhuman thing.

NARRATOR:
Interpreting these Bible stories

has also led to a certain amount
of debate and controversy.

While most see a single God

directing and influencing
mankind's destiny,

others argue that it is really

a number of gods
that are responsible.

TSOUKALOS: In the Old Testament,
it says very clearly,

"Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness."

Now, grammatically speaking,

that sentence doesn't make
sense, because you have "God"

and then you have "our image."

Well, theologians suggest
that by "our,"

what they meant is the Trinity,
the Holy Trinity.

So basically, if you were to
change the word "god" to "gods,"

then all of a sudden,
the sentence makes sense--

"and then the gods created man
in our own image."

So you have this reference--

"let us create man
in our image."

In several religious texts,
specifically the Hebrew Bible,

which Christians also accept,
and in the Koran,

which Muslims revere as holy,
you have the reference to God

in the plural, and it is
incredibly interesting.

NARRATOR: But do all these
religious scriptures

that tell similar stories

really point to the possibility
that aliens have visited Earth

throughout ancient history?

The fact is, the story of
creation in our own Bible

is the story of creation
in cultures around the world.

The story of the flood, the
evolution of the human species,

the development of language--
all of this points to--

in fact, the Bible says so--
life on Earth came from

contact with
an extraterrestrial life-form.

That's in the Bible.

That's in ancient cultures
around the world.

So I believe the theory of
ancient astronauts is true,

and I believe
there's solid evidence there,

and I believe the harder you try
to refute that evidence,

the more you wind up
against a brick wall--

that ancient astronauts
visited us,

visited Earth thousands
upon thousands of years ago,

and seeded the very civilization
we have today.

NARRATOR: If the believers in
the ancient astronaut theory

are correct, then just who were
these visitors?

And might cutting-edge
astrophysics and biology

help us to uncover
their identity?

On March 18, 1965,

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
stepped outside the Voskhod 2

and became the first human
to walk in space.

He spent 12 minutes
and eight seconds

outside his ship
before returning.

Leonov's survival depended upon
a protective suit that could

keep him alive
where there was neither

atmospheric pressure nor oxygen.

If we need spacesuits,
would aliens traveling to Earth

require the same protection?

Is that what we're looking at

in these ancient carvings
and drawings?

When critics ask, "Well,
why would ancient astronauts

"have to wear astronaut suits

that we're familiar with today?"
the answer is very simple.

Can we go through space
without wearing a type of suit?

Of course not.
We would die.

Because who says that whoever
visited us in the remote past,

that they could breathe in
the atmosphere of planet Earth?

So it's not farfetched
to suggest

that they did, in fact,
wear some type of suit.

NARRATOR: Why might these images
resemble modern astronauts?

If they are aliens,

is it possible they are
similar to humans?

And could they have come from
a planet just like Earth?

At the turn of the 20th century,

a group of British
and German scientists

considered this possibility.

They embraced a theory put forth
by early Greek philosophers:

that all life in the universe
began in one specific place.

This theory is called
panspermia.

Panspermia is the theory
that life formed in one place

and then got spread around
to other places.

In outer space,
in the medium between stars,

we see molecules that are
the building blocks of life.

So it's easy to get
the building blocks of life

to another planet.

For example,
if life formed on Mars,

it could have come here
to Earth...

contaminated Earth
and then started life here.

NARRATOR:
Roughly 3.6 billion years ago,

Mars was warm and wet, much like
the conditions on Earth today.

Biologists believe that because
Mars cooled more quickly

than other planets, life may
have developed there first.

PAUL DAVIES:
Mars is a better candidate

for life during the early part
of the solar system.

Mars rocks are coming here all
the time, and these have been

knocked off Mars by asteroid
and comet impacts.

And we know that
they could convey

any Martian microorganisms
to Earth.

NARRATOR: In August 1996,
a team of scientists

made a stunning announcement.

A Martian meteorite
found in Antarctica

contained evidence
of fossilized life.

The four-pound rock,
designated ALH 84001,

showed the presence
of carbonate globules

excreted by microbes
when they were alive on Mars

3.6 billion years ago.

Earth was no longer alone.

Life had existed elsewhere
in the universe.

DAVIES:
So this cross-contamination

between Mars and Earth,
which 20 years ago,

was regarded as
a rather wild conjecture,

is now pretty much accepted by
the astrobiology community.

NARRATOR: Astrobiologists
studying the origin

and evolution of life
in the universe

embraced the possibility
that life on Earth

began in outer space.

Did modern-day scientists
finally prove

what ancient cultures
have believed for centuries?

BAUVAL:
The common myth or idea

that the origins of humankind
is from the stars is widespread.

Ancient cultures have-- the
ancient Egyptians, the Mayans,

the Aztecs, the Indians
and so forth.

Uh, is intriguing,
and it's probably true.

And I mean it from
an astrophysical point of view.

We do come from the stars.

It's a fact that life on Earth
has been seeded by the coming

of a comet
containing the life matter.

I personally suspect
there is life out there.

In fact, I believe
that we have evidence--

if nothing else,
microbial evidence,

for life extraterrestrially.

NARRATOR:
But if life did land on Earth

from outer space,
was it by accident,

or might it have been
sent here on purpose?

One mainstream scientist
thought so.

British geneticist Francis Crick
is best known

for his collaboration
with James Watson.

Together, they unraveled the
structure of human DNA in 1953.

Less than ten years later, they
were awarded the Nobel Prize

for their groundbreaking work
in genetics.

In the 1960s, Crick became
a proponent of panspermia theory

and took it to a whole new level

with an idea he called
directed panspermia.

GRAHAM HANCOCK: Francis Crick
hypothesized that somewhere,

perhaps on the other side
of the galaxy,

there had been a civilization
of advanced intelligent beings.

And they had found
that their planet

was going to be destroyed.

Perhaps a supernova was going
to go off in their vicinity,

and their planet would be
sterilized of life.

And he asked himself,

"What would an intelligent
civilization do

in that situation?"

Um, well, first of all,
they'd try to figure out

if they could get out of there,

if they could actually
preserve their lives

and the lives
of their descendants.

Perhaps crowd into spaceships
and fly across

interstellar space
until they found

a suitable planet to colonize.

NARRATOR:
But could it actually be true?

Could we really be
the descendants

of an alien race that traveled
here from another world?

POPE:
The ultimate implication of some

exobiological theories
is actually

that we ourselves
are extraterrestrials,

that life on Earth arose because

organic material was
brought here from elsewhere.

BIRNES:
What if we’re the ones,

the descendants of those
who came from another planet?

We weren't created.

We were brought here,
seeded planet Earth as a colony

from some other planet.

So we're colonists
of another race.

And that's why the aliens
look like us.

SCHOCH: In my opinion,
it's not unscientific

to consider the possibility
of ancient astronauts,

alien intervention.

We live in a huge universe.

Now, bacteria versus humanoids--

one may say
that's a big difference,

but in some ways,
it's not a big difference.

Where you have life,

you have the ability
for that life to develop

into what we consider

civilization
or intelligent beings.

NARRATOR: Is it just a
coincidence that modern science

and ancient alien theory have
come to the same conclusion:

that life on Earth
came from the stars?

And if it's possible
that billions of years ago,

an extraterrestrial race
spread out across space,

how would they survive
in their new home?

Could they really be
our missing link?

For thousands of years, mankind
has tried to depict alien beings

who they believe
came from the skies.

Many of those creatures
seem to share

characteristics with humans.

They often have two arms,
two legs, fingers and a head,

just like we do.

Biologists refer
to this basic body shape

as bilateral symmetry.

Bilateral symmetry is, very
simply, you divide something

down the middle into two parts--
and lateral means up and down--

and the two sides are an exact
reflection of each other.

If you fold the thing in half,
all the parts line up.

RUSSELL TUTTLE:
Being bilaterally symmetric

allows you to be streamlined
and to develop a head end,

so you become cephalized.

And that certainly happened
in vertebrates.

Virtually, the mouth
at the end of something

and then you get progressive
development, and that seems to

have led to many, many advances.

DENNIN: So, when you
look at it closely,

you can see a lot of advantages
coming in.

Having the two arms and
the two legs to work together

really gives you great mobility
and balance and speed.

Having eyes
on two sides separated

gives really improved vision
in various ways.

Animals that are
predominantly prey

use their two eyes independently
and get a huge field of view.

Animals that are
predominantly hunters

have them more in the front

and get really good depth
perception, which you need

if you’re gonna land on
the animal you're hunting.

(lion growling)

NARRATOR: If it is true
that aliens resemble humans

in their physical
characteristics,

might there also be
genetic similarities?

Could we even be related?

In 2003,
the U.S. Government announced

that the Human Genome Project
had identified all of the nearly

25,000 genes in the human body.

For the first time,
scientists had a road map

to the genetic makeup of humans.

NARRATOR: In 2006,
genetic researchers

at the University of California
at Santa Cruz

discovered an area of the genome
they called HAR1

that appears to be
unique to humans.

Scientists believe the HAR1 gene
plays a critical role

in the advanced development
of the human brain,

and is a key element that sets
us apart from other animals.

But where did it come from?

Did humans develop
this distinct gene

naturally through evolution?

Or did it land here
from another planet?

Francis Crick, the British
scientist who helped discover

the structure of DNA,
believed that human genes

could not have evolved
by chance.

Crick didn't feel in that period
of roughly 600 million years,

from the formation of the planet
down to the time

when the planet
could first support life,

there was enough time
for DNA to evolve by accident.

It's an enormously
complicated molecule.

Crick gave this analogy:
You would be

more likely to assemble a fully
functioning and flying jumbo jet

by passing a hurricane through
a junkyard than you would be

to assemble
the DNA molecule by chance

in any kind of primeval soup

in five or
six hundred million years.

It's just not possible.

NARRATOR: But if this molecule
could not have

evolved accidentally,
how was it created?

Was it, as some believe,
put there on purpose?

TSOUKALOS:
The question should not be

do the extraterrestrials
look like us

or what do the extraterrestrials
look like,

but do we look like
the extraterrestrials?

Because according to
the ancient astronaut theory,

a long, long time ago,
extraterrestrials came here,

and through a targeted mutation
of our genes,

we "became human."

FIEBAG (translated): Possibly
there's information in our DNA

about whether human evolution
was manipulated or not.

The DNA is almost deciphered,
yet we only understand

five percent of the information
it carries.

TSOUKALOS:
Geneticists have determined

that it only takes
about five percent

to clone a human being,
and that 95%

of that genetic material
that we have in our bodies

is nothing more than
what they refer to

as "geneticjunk."

DENNIN:
Why is everything there?

And there's probably
parts of the DNA

that don't have an obvious
current function.

Maybe they're left over
from something that was used

in the past, kind of like
our appendix is left over.

NARRATOR:
Could this genetic junk

hold the key
to the evolution of humans?

Some people suggest
that decoding our DNA entirely

will unlock startling
information about our origins.

But could it even prove
that aliens played a role

in our development
thousands of years ago?

HANCOCK:
If you hypothetically wanted

to record an eternal message

that could be decoded by
a creature that had eventually

evolved enough intelligence
to decode it,

the place to put that message
would not be on

some monument or in some text,

which might be swept away,

but actually on the DNA
of the creature itself.

(baby cooing)

It's recently been established

that DNA is a recording medium
of almost limitless power.

It would be technically possible
to record the entire knowledge

of a civilization
on the DNA in our bodies.

All you'd need is a way
to access that information.

VON DANIKEN:
I think we have something,

the whole humanity,
in our genes.

Somewhere in our genes,
it is coded

that extraterrestrials were here
thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR:
But the questions persist:

If aliens visited Earth
tens of thousands of years ago,

how did they get here?

When we look to the past
for the answers,

are we looking
in the wrong place?

Should we actually
look forward...

to our future?

Scientists agree that the best
chances of finding alien life

will be on planets
similar to ours,

and descriptions of
extraterrestrials seem to

resemble humans in many ways.

Some ancient astronaut
theorists draw

a surprising conclusion
from these facts,

suggesting that aliens
might actually be human.

It is odd
that many of the descriptions

of aliens are
effectively humanoid,

and this raises
an interesting possibility.

One idea that's been
put forward is that, uh,

these are not
extraterrestrials at all,

but they're time travelers
from the future.

They could be us
from a thousand,

2,000, 10,000 years from now.

Let's assume for a moment
that 10,000 years from now

on this planet,
if we all survive,

that time travel was created;
they've invented it.

Just like the time machine
of H.G. Wells' days,

they can go back
or they can go forward.

So let's assume,
10,000 years from now,

we decide to come back
to see us.

Maybe they have
changed physically.

They look like the alien grays
or whoever they may be.

It could well be that ancient
astronauts might not be

creatures from
other planets at all,

but time travelers
from 2720 in a time machine.

NARRATOR: Time travel
is an essential concept

for science fiction,
but would it be possible

for flesh-and-blood humans

to find a way
to transport themselves

through time
with current technology?

Would this enable us to cover
the vast distances of space?

If I could travel
close to the speed of light,

I could reach the year 3000,
say, in a couple of years.

Have to get very close to
the speed of light for that,

but it's doable, and we know
that this isn't a theory,

this is, this is real physics;

we could demonstrate
these time-warping effects.

So you can reach
the future quicker

by traveling
close to the speed of light.

NARRATOR: The concept of
time travel was first proposed

by Albert Einstein in 1905,

when he published his
Theory of Special Relativity.

Ancient astronaut theory
says that astronauts visited us

a long time ago
from somewhere else.

The technology involved
in doing that,

we would assume would be similar
to what we understand now.

I mean, we know special
relativity is a law of physics.

It holds anywhere
in the universe.

Ancient astronauts would come
all the way here and travel

these large distances
and not age that much,

relative to their home planet.

Because if you’re going close
enough to the speed of light,

you will have slowed down time
enough that when you get back,

hundreds, thousands,
or even millions of years

could have passed.

NARRATOR: One limitation
to this method of travel

is that,
because a spacecraft has mass,

it theoretically cannot reach
the exact speed of light.

The resulting reduction
in velocity

would then dramatically increase

the amount of time needed
to cross the vast universe.

NOORY: Well, there's definitely
many theories about

how extraterrestrials got here,

how their propulsion system
got them to planet Earth.

They're surely not coming here
the way we go out into space.

They'd never get here.

They are finding different ways.

They have either developed
a new form of propulsion,

or they're able
to travel through--

what I've always believed--

wormholes throughout
the universe

that would instantaneously
put them here.

NARRATOR: The idea of wormholes
was first proposed in 1935

by Albert Einstein

and his longtime collaborator
Nathan Rosen.

They began to explore the
possibility that space and time

could literally be bent to
create a time travel shortcut.

DENNIN: Wormholes have
not been detected.

They are a postulated
structure in space

that involve actually taking--

if you want to think of
a sheet of paper--

bending it in half
and connecting the two pieces

that you get together.

A wormhole is thought to do
something like that.

Space gets warped,
and it connects

between two different
parts of space.

You know, there's predictions
about what they would look like;

there's theories about them,
but we haven't detected one yet.

You're not actually ever
traveling faster

than the speed of light;
you're just cutting corners.

You don't actually
have to go light speed

and travel for light-years
to someplace.

You literally go there through a
wormhole and through hyperspace,

and bang, you're there.

DAVIES: If you can have
a wormhole in space,

then it can be turned, in
principle, into a time machine.

And so travel back in time
as well as forward in time

would then be possible.

The problem is:
where do you get your wormhole?

Uh, it's not inconceivable

that wormholes were made
in the Big Bang,

coughed out along with
everything else;

there might be one out there
in the universe we could harvest

and adapt to form
a time machine.

DENNIN:
If you end up discovering

that you could make wormholes,
then that increases the range

that you can explore in space
and that increases

the likelihood
of having two civilizations

at the same time
with the right technology

to communicate with each other.

NARRATOR:
While theoretically possible,

traveling through wormholes
or at the speed of light

is currently impossible for us
here on Earth.

Using modern propulsion methods,
it would take 70,000 years

to reach the nearest star.

Our fastest rockets
are totally puny.

It's really pathetic.

So we're talking about .01%

of the speed of light,
if you’re lucky.

Any object that we can fire
out of the solar system

is going to take
tens of thousands of years

to reach the nearest star.

NARRATOR: Believe it or not,
at 4.6 billion years old,

our solar system is one of
the youngest in the universe.

But if civilizations exist
in other galaxies,

is it possible
that they are more advanced

than those on Earth?

And if so, could they be
ahead of us in their ability

to travel through
space and time?

CHILDRESS:
For extraterrestrials

to come here, through the vast
reaches of space to our planet,

they clearly
have to have technology

that's way in advance
of what we have today.

To go from solar system
to solar system,

rather than going warp speed,
like in Star Trek,

you're really going to travel,
as they do in Star Wars,

where you're jumping
through hyperspace.

Going from a solar system to
solar system is no time at all.

Just because we can't travel
from star to star does not mean

another more advanced society
can't do it either.

I think that's the height
of human arrogance to say,

"Just because
we can't do it, another

more advanced civilization
can't do it either."

So, you know, we have to stop
looking at us that we are

the pinnacle of creation,
'cause we're not.

NARRATOR:
Celestial beings.

Visitors from the skies.

Deities descending from the
heavens to interact with man.

Could these worldwide stories
be the foundation

for the prevailing belief
that something

greater than ourselves,
from beyond our world,

created the universe
as we know it?

Almost all of the great
world faiths are based on

stories of celestial beings
who visit Earth.

Many millions of people
accept these legends

as part of their core beliefs.

And from the earliest
cave drawings

to images at Roswell,
we see artists' interpretations

of extraterrestrials or gods
coming to our planet.

YOUNG: In many traditions, there
is something coming from above.

There's a stairway to heaven
or there's a whirlwind

or an angel descends.

Sometimes the encounter
is quite dangerous.

(thunder rumbles)

As would be appropriate to
something awesome and larger

and more powerful than we are.

Usually, it is memorable.

CHILDRESS:
Many of the myths

are much more specific,
and they really talk about gods

physically coming to Earth--

landing, doing miracles, and
showing the people how to live.

NARRATOR: If visitors did come
from the stars, is it possible

that they actually changed
the way ancient people thought?

Did they provide
an intellectual spark

to prehistoric civilizations?

Could that be the reason
why so many different cultures

could build such large
and lasting monuments?

NOORY: It's almost
as if primitive man

woke up one morning and went,

"Hey, I've got this knowledge
and I know how to make tools

and I'm gonna go
and build all these things."

Nah, I don't think
it happened that way.

I think others came down to
this planet and started teaching

other people, uh, that were
beginning to evolve.

But the one thing I truly
do not believe is that

modern cavemen at the time
basically created

all this knowledge
out of thin air.

TSOUKALOS:
All around the world,

we have concise descriptions
in ancient texts

which say, word for word,
that some beings

came from the sky.

So it's as if this
intellectual Big Bang

or this
Big Bang of knowledge occurred

in various periods of time.

And those various
periods of time most concisely

always correlate with
some type of description

of gods descending from the sky.

HANCOCK: I do think of that
as a very significant

before-and-after moment
in the human story.

And it is not a moment that is
linked to physical evolution.

We've already got the hardware.

It's as though something
happened to our software

around about that time, and
I think it's a very intriguing

moment in the human story.

NARRATOR: For supporters
of ancient alien theory,

the verdict is already in.

They believe that aliens visited

many of Earth's earliest
cultures thousands of years ago.

But is it possible?

Are extraterrestrials
responsible for the sacred

creation myths of
the first human civilizations?

Might they have tampered
with our DNA?

Are humans themselves aliens
from another planet

in the heavens
or even from another time?

While man continues to search
for these answers,

the questions remain.

If they came here,
what was their mission?

We call Earth home, but with
perfect conditions for life,

could it be a beacon,

calling out to
other intelligent civilizations

that may exist in the universe?

CARGILL: I think there is life,
simple life, bacterial life,

microbial life on other planets.

I think
we're going to find that.

And who knows?

Maybe one day we'll find
some other planet

that's capable
of sustaining life,

that has evolved people
over a long period of time,

that are also looking up
at the stars wondering:

is there anybody else out there;
are we the only ones?

HELDMANN: What bigger question
could we ask about ourselves

and our place in the universe?

You know, is there life
elsewhere in the universe,

or are we it?

I mean, I think it's one of
the most fascinating questions,

and we're fortunate enough
to live in a time when we can

address this question
scientifically

and really try
and get at some answers.

NOORY: You can then come up with
a conclusion that something,

one, very strange is happening
on this planet, and two,

if it's coming from
outside of this system,

then we're being visited
by something

that has some intelligence
behind it.

TSOUKALOS:
In the end, the truth wins.

And we've seen this in history,

where scientific theories
or ideas

that have been deemed impossible
turned out to be true.

And so it is my firm conviction

that the same will count
for the ancient alien theory.