All language subtitles for 7o9-ancient-aliens-s01e03-720p-bluray-x264

NARRATOR:
For centuries

mankind believed that life
only existed here on Earth,

but today many scientists agree
that we are not alone.

MICHAEL CREMO: Practically
every human civilization

that has ever existed

tells us we are not alone
in the cosmos.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
A long, long time ago,

extraterrestrials came here,

and through a targeted mutation
of our genes,

we became human.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
We have, in theory,

a worldwide civilization
that has extraterrestrials

interacting with it,

and human beings,
as we are today,

who are possibly the genetic
breeding of these aliens.

NICK POPE:
If we’re being visited,

they've probably always
been here.

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,
why did they come here?

And just what was their mission?

NARRATOR:
On July 20, 1969,

the Apollo 1 1 mission
reached its destination...

and two men-- Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin--

actually walked on the moon.

MAN:
They've got the flag up now,

and you can see the Stars and
Stripes on the lunar surface.

MAN 2:
Beautiful, just beautiful.

NARRATOR:
It was the first time in history

that beings left their home

and traveled through space
to an alien planet.

Or was it?

Were we really the first
creatures in the universe

capable of traveling
to another world?

Given the vastness
of the universe

and the billions of years that
it took to create our galaxy,

is it so hard to imagine
that such a thing

might have happened before,

perhaps thousands of times

and over the course
of millions of years?

BILL BIRNES: The ancient alien
astronaut theory

presupposes that thousands
and thousands of years ago--

even before recorded history--

Earth was visited by astronauts
from another world.

NARRATOR: But if alien beings
did, in fact,

travel to Earth, why?

Did they come to explore,

to plunder, to study,

to hunt, or to breed?

When Armstrong and Aldrin

explored their incredible
surroundings,

they found the moon
a barren landscape.

It seemed to offer little more

than a lifeless oasis
of rocks and dust.

But in 1986,

further testing determined
that the lunar landscape

actually contains
a high amount of helium-3,

an extremely powerful
nonpolluting,

nonradioactive fuel source.

(engines rumbling)

Experts estimate
that a single space shuttle

filled with this material could
satisfy all the energy needs

in the United States
for an entire year.

Think of it.

Armadas of spaceships

mining the moon and other
planets for natural resources.

Could this help explain
why Earth might have served

as a destination for travelers
from other worlds?

BIRNES: We'd go out there
with robot mining crews

and eventually
human mining crews,

mine those planets,
extract the ore.

Ships would come; they'd take
the ore and bring them back.

Well, if we would do it,
why wouldn't extraterrestrials?

NARRATOR: But if alien
excavators did come to Earth--

perhaps thousands of years ago--
wouldn't there be evidence?

Here, in what is now known
as Iraq,

lies what is commonly regarded
by historians and archaeologists

as the "cradle of civilization."

Between 3500 and 1900 BC,

the fertile area between
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

was the home
of the Sumerian people.

TSOUKALOS: The Sumerians
were one of the first cultures

that built actual cities

with streets and a street grid,
almost like New York City,

where you have, you know,
a square street grid.

They invented cobblestones.

They had a sewage system.

They were taught in agriculture.

NARRATOR:
The Sumerians also invented

the first known writing system

by using cuneiform script
on clay tablets.

In the 19th century,

archeologists exploring
the ancient ruins of Nineveh

discovered 22,000
of these clay tablets.

When they were later translated,
the texts described many stories

similar to those found
in the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Virtually every story
that's in Genesis--

the flood story,
Adam and Eve story--

they all have precedence
with the ancient Sumerians.

NARRATOR:
In 1976, author Zecharia Sitchin

published his own translations
of the Sumerian texts

in a series of books called
The Earth Chronicles.

According to Sitchin,

the clay tablets describe
an alien race

known as the Anunnaki
who came to Earth to mine gold.

TSOUKALOS: Zecharia Sitchin
has essentially suggested

that the reason why we were
visited in the remote past

is because the ancient
astronauts' home planet

needed gold for their atmosphere

and that their gold content
in the atmosphere was depleting,

so they came to Earth
in order to mine gold

and bring it back
to their home planet.

NARRATOR:
But why gold?

What are the unique properties
of this precious metal

that might make it important

and worth traveling
through the galaxy for?

I think, for extraterrestrials,

gold would be an important
resource just like it is for us.

If it's at all like our society,

one of the major things
it's going to be built on

is electricity, and gold really
is one of the top conductors,

and its malleability and its
ability to make it into wires,

use it in really small forms
as nanoparticles is going

to make it an incredible
technological resource

for any sort of life-forms
that reach that level

of dealing with electricity
and technology as we do.

One of the exciting directions

is possibly as an energy source

through properties
called thermoelectric effects,

where it can take heat and turn
it directly into electricity.

This would be obviously
a very nice clean energy source.

NARRATOR: With its capacity to
create energy and conduct heat,

some scientists believe gold
may also be an invaluable asset

in the construction
of spaceships.

DENNIN: Gold actually reflects
infrared light.

Infrared is basically light
that's not quite red,

and so you don't see it, but
we interact with it as heat.

The radiation will interact
with your molecules

and make them vibrate faster
and you'll feel that as heat,

so it makes a great heat shield,

partly because
it's so malleable.

You can make it very thin;
it's easy to work with;

and it has great properties for
reflecting and heat protection.

The only metal
that really lasts is gold.

Gold is indestructible.

All gold from ancient times
still exists today.

GEORGE NOORY: If you look
at Zecharia Sitchin's theories--

that E.T.s came down
from another planet

in our solar system,

which is on a 3,600-year
elliptical orbit,

that they were running out of
minerals, and gold specifically,

that they somehow needed
to line their atmosphere with.

These extraterrestrials, they
just first measure our planet.

And they have the instrument
to find out:

where on this planet
do we find raw material?

NOORY: Through
their incredible equipment,

they find a planet
that has this.

It's got gold.

So they decide
"We're going to go there

and we're going to mine."

So they send some expeditions
to planet Earth.

All of a sudden they get here
and the factions begin to say,

"Well, there's a lot
of gold here,

"but we're not digging it out.

What are we going to do?
We need workers."

HORN: The story that came down
to the Sumerians

is that the Anunnaki
were mining gold on the earth,

and the run-of-the-mill workers
complained,

said, "This is really hard work
and we're tired.

We don't want to do this
anymore."

And so they had a big council
and they decided

to create a primitive worker
called an Adamu.

So they look at
what is on this planet,

and that is Homo erectus,

and they say, "Well,
they're not very intelligent

"and they're not going
to listen to us,

so we're going to genetically
alter them."

HORN:
The Anunnaki created humans

as a slave species.

NARRATOR:
According to Zecharia Sitchin,

the Adamu were the first
modern humans.

They were created by
the Anunnaki 450,000 years ago

when they genetically mixed
their DNA

with that of prehistoric man.

VON DANIKEN:
They took one cell

of one of these ancestors of us.

They changed the cell
by an artificial mutation.

They changed the DNA code,

what our genetics
are doing every day.

It's carved in their stone.

This is not something made up.

This is part
of the Sumerian history.

HORN: They believed that the
gods came down and created them,

and they were
their slave species.

They knew that, and they didn't
have any philosophical beliefs

about the purpose of man
or anything.

NOORY:
If you believe Sitchin's theory

that mankind was created
by E.T.s for slave labor,

all of a sudden it makes sense.

And then when you look
at the biblical terms

of what may have happened--
Adam and Eve?

Sure, they may have been
two individuals

back a long time ago,
the beginning of time.

But perhaps Adam and Eve
were the first

of the genetically created
human beings.

NARRATOR: Closer comparisons
between the Hebrew Bible

and the Sumerian texts
reveal many similarities,

not only in their stories,
but also in their language.

"Adam" is Hebrew for "man."

"Adamu" is what the Sumerians
refer to as "first man,"

the Anunnaki slaves.

But do the Sumerian tablets
actually describe an alien race,

a race that conducted mining
operations on a global scale?

♪ ♪

Thousands of miles away,
on the African continent,

ruins of ancient gold mines
have recently been discovered.

The largest concentration
can be found in South Africa,

where some excavations,
according to scientists,

date back some 150,000 years.

They're in areas that have
an abundance of gold right now,

so it's very possible
that they could have mined it.

Now, the big question is,
how do we know

they weren't human beings
that simply did that?

Why the E.T. theory?

NARRATOR:
In many languages in Africa,

the native word for "star"

means "bringer of knowledge
or enlightenment."

Some African cultures believe
that extraterrestrial beings

have been visiting the earth
for tens of thousands of years.

Zulu legends speak of a time
when "visitors from the stars"

came to excavate gold
and other natural resources.

These mines were worked
by "artificially produced

flesh-and-blood slaves
created by the First People."

CHILDRESS: Some ancient mines
in Southern Africa

are thought to be a hundred
thousand years old or older.

If humans weren't doing
that mining

a hundred thousand years ago,
and making metals,

then we would have to assume

it would be extraterrestrials
doing it.

NARRATOR:
Alien slave mines?

Genetically engineered humans?

To believers
of ancient astronaut theory,

these notions
are not far-fetched fantasies

or fairy tales, but facts,

and they point to additional
evidence of alien mining

a halfworld away...
on the American continent.

Peru has long been known
as "the land of gold."

In ancient times, Incan rulers
adorned themselves with it.

And when the Spanish explorers
arrived in the 16th century,

they sent shiploads of their
plunder back home to Spain.

Gold was largely
a valuable commodity

because of being rare and easy
to make jewelry, coinage.

And if you’re looking at,
like, the ancient Incas,

those people are using gold
as a status symbol.

Many cultures thought
it came directly from the gods.

People thought gold was so pure,

so wonderful, it must heal,

and they would actually
occasionally ingest pure gold.

Certainly,
we're discovering more and more,

as we get better at archeology

and as we can look
into these things,

applications
that people have used.

For instance, there is some
evidence that ancient people

had very primitive batteries,

and this would be a place
in which gold would be

very useful because
of its electrical properties

and its conductivity.

NARRATOR: It should not be
surprising, then,

to find archaeological evidence
of ancient gold mines.

But some sites
have recently been discovered

that date back
some 50,000 years.

All throughout areas in Peru,
you see remnants

of what could have been
ancient mining operations.

It's there.

They go down, some cases,
thousands of feet deep.

DENNIN: Gold turns out to be
surprisingly easy to mine for,

even though
it's relatively rare.

There's a lot of common
techniques ancient people used,

and some of them were used, you
know, well into recent times.

A lot of it, you know,
involves using water, often,

to change the properties
of the rock around it.

A lot of heating and freezing,
and the gold will come loose.

NARRATOR:
In addition to gold,

other ancient sites in Peru

provide evidence that they were
once mined for quartz,

hematite,

and red ochre.

DENNIN: They're used
for different things.

Quartz is incredibly common.

It's basically silicone dioxide.

It's kind of like glass.

It's a great mineral; it's hard;

but it can be formed
into pretty sculptures;

you could make quartz statues;

you could probably even use it
for money

before you discovered
minerals and gold.

Hematite and ochre
are much more valuable

because of their iron oxide.

And particularly ochre
is important as a pigment,

so as soon as you're gonna start
having painting,

cave drawings even,
or any sort of art work,

you need to make colors.

And making color
can be a challenge,

and ochre is a great source
of that.

NARRATOR:
Also located in Peru

are the world-famous
Nazca Lines.

While the origins of these
ancient geoglyphs

remain a mystery, the area
in which the lines are located

suggests that a major excavation
took place there,

perhaps hundreds
of centuries ago.

TSOUKALOS: At Nazca, entire
mountaintops have been removed.

I mean,
this all requires machining.

And I'm not talking, you know,

a little wheelbarrow
and-and a pick.

I'm talking sophisticated
machinery,

because we today would also need
sophisticated machinery

in order to achieve such feats.

NARRATOR:
Could the vast flat plain

located in the Nazca Desert
be evidence

of a gigantic mining operation,

one that took place hundreds
of thousands of years ago?

TSOUKALOS: Whoever comes here
in a spaceship,

Nazca would be like a beacon,
as in: "Come here."

Because the moment
you come to Nazca,

you're sort of confronted with
a Cliffs Notes to planet Earth,

where you have all sorts
of raw materials

that exist in that
one particular spot

in very, very abundant
quantities.

NOORY:
I think the Nazca Lines

aren't evidence
of search for gold,

but they're evidence
of some communication

with possibly E.T.s,
or gods, from above.

NARRATOR:
But despite the controversy,

one thing is certain: the plain,

and the lines that scar
the surrounding countryside,

are not natural formations.

But while scientists and ancient
astronaut theorists

remain divided about who,
or what,

created the Nazca Lines,

they are in agreement
about one thing:

the so-called Band of Holes,

located in the Pisco Valley
is a complete mystery.

In the mountains of Peru,

we have what's commonly referred
to as the Band of Holes,

and it is this Band of Holes

that were carved or dug
into the mountainside.

ROBERT M. SCHOCH: It's a bunch
of little, shallow holes,

dug into the ground, and it's
had all kinds of explanations.

Some people say
it was just pot hunters,

you know, looting,
looking for burials.

Some people think it looks like

some kind of machine
was running over the territory.

Some people think it was

some kind of systematic
mining operation.

VON DANIKEN: They need
raw material, be it gold,

be it silver, be it uranium,
whatever; they need something.

And they send something down
like a shuttle.

It can be a robot.

No extraterrestrial is on board.

And this robot just caresses
over the surfaces

and collects and measures raw
material, and disappears again.

NARRATOR: The holes run
about three feet apart

and measure six to seven feet
in depth,

and number in the thousands.

DENNIN: Often we see
regular structures like that

and we assume either a person
or an intelligent life

had to make it, but there's lots
of examples in nature

where the natural processes
lead to large-scale

what we call
"pattern formation."

You see it on a small scale
in animals.

You look at leopards
and zebras--

leopards have spots;
zebras have stripes.

Surprisingly,
on geological scales,

some of the same processes that
give you spots on a leopard

could give you indentations
in the ground

and raised areas
that would look like holes.

It would take a long time
over geological scales,

but we've had a long time,

and that might be
what they're left over from.

NARRATOR: Mainstream
archeologists suggest

the holes were used
to store grain,

but ancient astronaut theorists
reject that notion.

TSOUKALOS: It's a mystery
because who in their right mind

would go ahead
and dig all these holes?

For what?

The other intriguing aspect
about the Band of Holes

is that you can only see it
from the air.

When you stand down there,

all you see is a couple of holes
dug into the ground,

and it doesn't really mean much.

But if you’re up in the air,

there is this long band
with these individual holes

that you can see,
and you can conceivably create

some type of message that can
only be seen from the air.

NARRATOR: But if ancient aliens
came to Earth

searching for gold,
why did they leave?

More gold still exists here, as
do many other valuable minerals.

Could it be that ancient
mining operations

were just the means to another
possibly greater end?

Or perhaps the real alien
mission on Earth

was to hunt the greatest prey
in the universe: Man.

Alamosa, Colorado.

September 7, 1967.

When a three-year-old horse
named Snippy went missing,

her owners grew concerned
and went out looking for her.

Their search yielded a gruesome
and mysterious discovery.

Snippys body
had been mutilated...

(horse neighing)

...almost surgically.

An examination of the carcass

showed that her skin and flesh
had been neatly cut;

her heart and brain
had been removed,

and a formaldehyde-like odor
emitted from the remains.

An autopsy also revealed

that her spinal fluid
had been removed.

The events of Snippys death
stunned the community

and remain shrouded in mystery,
even to this day.

Since the mutilation, an
estimated 50,000 similar events

have been reported
around the world,

most of them involving cattle.

But it was not until about
the middle of the 1970s

that cattle mutilations
really entered into Ufology.

Farmers would come out
and find some prize livestock

that was alive and healthy
the day before

and then it was just
suddenly dead.

And it looked like it had been
cut up in a rather odd way.

That certain parts of the body
looked like they were cut out

in ways that seemed
to be almost surgical.

NARRATOR: Television producer
and UFO investigator Linda Howe

has been tracking the mystery
of animal mutilation

for over 30 years.

HOWE: I began trying to get to
the bottom of what was happening

to all of these animals.

There were horses, cows,
other domestic animals

found with the same pattern
of bloodless excisions.

The law enforcement called them
animal mutilations.

266-some Polaroids,
from so many cases,

and the first thing I felt
was anger.

And then I felt nervous,
and then I felt afraid.

I sat across from sheriffs
who told me,

"Linda, we're not dealing
with predators, disease,

"and satanic cults.

We're dealing with creatures
from outer space."

There are several explanations
for why aliens

would want to experiment
on cows.

One is that they're just looking
for food.

One that they're looking
for some kind of information

about vertebrate organisms.

Another one
is that they're looking

for some kind of genetic
material for some reason.

HOWE: The closest answer
I've ever gotten

was from a man
who had had very upfront,

and close and personal
observations of nonhumans

in his work for the government.

He told me, he said, "The best
answer I can give you, Linda,

is: It's a genetic harvest."

But once you have said, "a
genetic harvest from Earth,"

there's even a bigger question.

Why a genetic harvest
from Earth?

What is being made
with this genetic harvest?

To what end?

NARRATOR:
The answer to these questions

might be found
in our ancient past,

in the bizarre, almost
Frankenstein-like experiments

that were practiced
by early civilizations.

We have ancient descriptions
from Egypt

where it says specifically

that the gods created
these chimeras--

mixed beings, or hybrids.

We find paintings

where you have a human body
with a cut-off head

and a red tube coming out of it,

and next to it, you have just
the head of some animal.

And in the next picture--
'cause they're like...

they look like comic strips
almost--

and in the next picture,
you see the same human body

with the animal head
attached to the human neck.

NARRATOR:
Incredibly,

examples of strange human-animal
hybrid beings

date back to a time even older
than ancient Egypt.

TSOUKALOS: According
to mainstream archaeology,

ancient Sumeria is the earliest
civilization of humankind.

And the interesting part
is the fact

that their earliest writings
are filled with references

of these bizarre beings

that descended from the sky
called the Anunnaki.

Anunnaki means "those who
from the heavens came."

NARRATOR: But is there
any physical evidence

of these human-animal hybrids?

If so, wouldn't we have found
skeletal remains?

The answer may have been found
in Saqqâra, Egypt,

home to that country's
oldest pyramid.

In 1851, French scholar and
Egyptologist Auguste Mariette

explored a deep tomb dedicated
to the sacred Apis bull.

Inside were two sealed
and intact sarcophagi.

But when Mariette opened them,

what they contained
was shocking.

TSOUKALOS:
They opened the sarcophagus

and they didn't find a bull.

Instead, they found
this black mass

of what’s called bitumen,
a type of asphalt.

And inside this stinking mass,
they found the bone fragments

of seven different types
of animals crushed up.

According to
the accompanying texts,

some type of monsters existed

during the time
of the Egyptians.

And so who knows whether or not
the priests

instructed the people to destroy
these beings, to rip them apart,

to crush their bones, and put
them inside this stinking mass,

and put them underneath a lid,

in the sarcophagus,
weighing 80 tons.

I mean, all... in all of Egypt
we can find

mummified remains
of every single animal,

but we find these sarcophagi

that contain
these crushed-up bones.

Doesn't that mean the ancient
Egyptians did not want

for those creatures to ever
return after their death?

NARRATOR: Of course, mainstream
scientists and archeologists

believe ancient Greek
and Egyptian stories

of animal and human hybrids
are just fanciful products

of the imagination.

But are they?

There is this period
in pre-dynastic Egypt,

where these demigods ruled.

We have not found human remains.

We do not know who they were.

But we do have
scientific evidence

that at least the ancient
Egyptians believed firmly

that they ruled.

As to whether they are just
human beings, like you or I;

or whether they come from
somewhere else;

or whether they are a hybrid
being, we have no idea.

NARRATOR: What if
ancient civilizations

possessed the advanced
scientific knowledge

of our own modern day
scientists?

What if they, too, had unlocked
the mysteries of DNA--

cloning and gene-splicing?

TSOUKALOS:
Why is this so fascinating?

Well, because if you look
at this from a genetics aspect,

we're in the process
right now today

of being able to recreate
creatures like that.

I mean, this is Frankenstein.

This is science fiction stuff.

Yet, in ancient Egypt, we have
the exact same descriptions,

the exact same depictions
of some very bizarre,

hybridization program which took
place thousands of years ago.

BIRNES: They are mixing alien,
animal and human DNA,

not just for ten years
or 20 years,

but for thousands and thousands
of years.

And that's why there are
so many alien abductions,

and that's why each generation

is cyclically more advanced
than the next,

until we get to the complete
union of two cultures--

the ultimate hybrid.

HOWE: I think the answer
clearly is,

we're not alone in this universe

and we have nonhuman
intelligences

interacting with this planet

for reasons that are still
unknown to most of us.

It leaves you feeling
a little nervous.

NARRATOR: If alien beings
came here, as some suggest,

to perform strange mutation
experiments on animals,

could they have done the same
on humans?

And if so, why?

Life on Earth comes
in a tremendous diversity

of shapes and sizes.

It can be found from the depths
of the deepest oceans

to the peaks
of the highest mountains.

But the vast array of life-forms
we see today

is only a small portion of what
has existed on this planet

during its millions of years
of history.

In fact, scientists estimate
that 97% of all the species

that have ever lived on Earth
are now extinct.

CREMO: Most scientists today
will tell us

that there have been
six major extinction events

that have occurred during
the history of life on Earth.

The most recent of these
extinction events

was the one that occurred
65 million years ago

and wiped out the dinosaurs.

NARRATOR: Paleontologists
attribute these mass extinctions

to natural causes
such as meteor strikes...

(loud boom)

...floods
and dropping sea levels.

But another theory suggests
that these extinctions

were not caused by nature,
but by alien beings.

HORN: In the ancient Sumerian
texts, they can control weather,

they can cause droughts,
and they did this to humans.

They are capable of producing
their own disasters.

NARRATOR: But were now-extinct
life-forms

actually exterminated in order
to make way for other,

perhaps more docile
or desirable species?

Was the intent to clear the way
for colonization?

Or invasion?

And if so, what sort of
technology would be needed

to effect
such a widespread change?

BIRNES: Some theories say that
we have that technology now,

called scalar technology.

We heat up through high,
electrical impulses,

a certain spot on the water,
and that creates a hurricane.

And by making a path
with that beam,

you can track the hurricane.

Now if we can do that--
and this is hypothetical--

if we can do that,
why can't an alien culture say,

"Let's create an ice age
on planet Earth?"

It will kill off the dinosaurs,
but pave the way

for aliens to implant
human beings on planet Earth.

NARRATOR: Did alien beings
come to Earth in order to stay?

Might they, as some believe,

have seeded it with their own
genetic offspring?

If so, where is the proof?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
point to myths

that describe gods
coming down from the heavens

in order to mate with humans.

TSOUKALOS: Ancient texts
talk about the fact

that whoever visited the earth
in the remote past,

these gods, thought that Earth
women were quite beautiful.

So, in many occasions,
we find stories

where those visitors

essentially mated
with Earth women.

It was misinterpreted,

misunderstood as something
divine that came here.

They were flesh-and-blood
extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
Native American folklore

refers to those beings
who came down from the heavens

to breed with Earth women
as Star People.

NANCY RED STAR: The Star People
are extraterrestrial people.

They are not from this...
this earth.

They visit.

They are star ancestors.

BULLARD: There's a great deal
of interaction between them.

Like some of the American Indian
star husband tales

where some woman sleeping
outside at night looks up at

a star and thinks it's very
beautiful

and would like to go there,
and winds up finding herself

in the morning being pulled up
into heaven

and meeting
with the supernatural being

who was associated
with that star,

and becoming the bride
of the star husband.

NARRATOR: According to
Native American mythology,

the brides of these alien beings
would become pregnant

and give birth to star children.

They would be raised
by the native mother

until the age of six,

when they went to live
with their star father.

Similar stories
of intimate encounters

between celestial beings
and humans

can be found in ancient Hebrew
and Judeo-Christian testaments

often referred to
as the pseudepigraph,

or what many refer to
as the Apocrypha.

ROBERT R. CARGILL:
There are lots of instances

in the pseudepigraph--

these are the books that didn't
make it into the Bible--

where people are visited
by beings

that aren't from this earth.

TSOUKALOS: Before the Bible
became the Bible of today,

there were many additional books

that used to be a part
of the Bible.

They were removed in what was
called the Council of Nicaea

because those books
contained too much information,

dangerous knowledge.

CARGILL: In Genesis 6, where it
talks about these watchers

that are kind of angels
that came down from heaven

and had sex with the women
of the earth.

VON DANIKEN:
These strangers had sex

with beautiful young girls
on our planet.

How can angels have sex?

This is impossible.

In our point, in our view,
angels were something spiritual,

not something who has a body,
and has a feeling of sex.

But they had sex.

Our prehistoric ancestors
could not understand,

and they believe
that these extraterrestrials

are some kind of gods.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
The conception of the Christ.

An angel comes
to the holy mother,

to the Virgin Mary,
and tells her

that she's going to be blessed
by God with a child.

And then, essentially,
she finds herself pregnant.

REV. BARRY H. DOWNING: There is
an angelic reality point

in the New Testament.

And whether it be at the birth
of Jesus, or his resurrection,

we've got the possibility
of other powers

from another world
being involved

from the beginning to the end.

BULLARD:
The more literal version

is the idea that Jesus
is strictly alien,

which, of course,
in a sense, he is as, uh...

You know, even if you take him
as the son of God,

then obviously,
he is not of this earth.

NOORY:
I tend to believe that Jesus

was a very spiritual human being

who understood a lot of things

that we're beginning
to learn today.

But it's also very possible
that he might have been

an extraterrestrial who came
down to teach us things.

That divine intelligence is very
real in some form or fashion.

NARRATOR:
Tales of gods mating with humans

are prevalent in everything
from Greek and Roman mythology

to Native American legends.

In China, at the end
of the fifth century BC,

the country was divided
into seven states,

each ruled by powerful warlords

who battled for territory
and power.

It was during this turbulent era

when the legendary story
of Huangdi first appeared.

YOUNG: A great god
took the form of a dragon,

came down to a hilltop

where a young maiden
was out gathering fruit.

And as this great dragon
came near, the sky darkened.

It was like a storm.

She was terrified,
and she passed out.

When she came awake again,

uh, the sun had come out again,

and the dragon was gone,
and she was pregnant.

NARRATOR: Much like the story
of the Virgin Mary and Jesus,

the story of Huangdi
told of an earthling woman

who would give birth to him--

the legendary
first emperor of China

who ushered in a time
of great change.

Gods deliberately bred
with humans

so that they could produce...

they could get a race
that they could trust

and control a little bit better.

CHILDRESS: In my mind,
legends and-and myths

are based on something real--

while they have been mythified
and distorted

and exaggerated, in many cases--

but there is, in my mind,
some core of truth here.

NARRATOR: Another prevalent
theme in ancient texts,

myths, and religions is that
of a cataclysm of some kind.

Usually, these come in the form
of an intense flood,

fire, or other devastating
catastrophe.

In the Hebrew Bible,
for example,

God punishes mankind for their
decadence and sinful ways.

He sends punishment
in the form of a great flood...

which destroys nearly all
living things on the planet,

except for Noah, his family,

and the animals rescued
aboard his ark.

Similar stories can be found
in numerous ancient texts.

Many of the mythical tales
of most civilizations

include some kind of idea

that there are gods that came
to Earth at some point.

One interpretation has been that
these are literal descriptions

of visitors from space.

Not gods,
but some creatures of...

with advanced technology that
came to Earth in times past,

and either created mankind,
brought culture to the earth,

brought civilization, and then,
for some reason, departed,

usually under
some kind of breach

between mankind and the gods.

NARRATOR: Take the case
of the once-thriving

Mesoamerican cultures
of the Aztecs and the Mayans.

By the year 1500 AD,
they had all but vanished.

But why?

Was there a natural disaster
of some kind?

Or is there another,
more otherworldly explanation?

At some point, it all crashed

in a cataclysmic disaster.

And the world, as they knew it,
came to an end.

And tidal waves
washed across continents.

Areas of the planet
went underwater.

And the megalithic building
that was going on then, too,

also completely stopped.

And it's what we see
at certain areas.

Like in Peru, where giant blocks
of granite have been quarried

and partially moved
to where they were going.

But then it all came
to a sudden, complete halt.

NARRATOR:
For nearly 3,000 years,

the Mayan civilization
thrived in Central America.

Among their
many accomplishments,

the ancient Maya invented
a remarkably complex

and accurate calendar.

According to scholars,

the calendar started
on August 1 1, 31 14 BC.

The first calendar cycle ends

about 5,000 years later
on December 21, 2012.

But why?

Did the Mayans know something
about mankind's future--

something we have forgotten
or chosen to ignore?

CHILDRESS: There's a lot of
excitement being generated now

about the Mayan calendar
ending in year 2012,

and if there is such a cataclysm

or some massive Earth change
that's suddenly going to occur.

And so the idea that ancient
people, like the Mayans say,

were somehow
totally in tune with this

and had knowledge of these kind
of vast cosmic cycles, which

apparently led to cataclysmic
changes on the earth,

that's the kind
of advanced knowledge

that we wouldn't expect them
to have.

And where would they get
that kind of knowledge?

You would think that would have
to come from extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
if we accept the notion

that alien beings left behind
the Mayan calendar

as some type of ancient advanced
warning device,

might they have left other
astronomical instruments

here on Earth?

And if so,
why was it so important

for ancient civilizations
to track the stars?

The stars.

Since the beginning of time,

man has gazed in wonder
at the night sky.

Stars became the stuff
of legends,

home of the gods

and sometimes,
man's final resting place.

It is no surprise then
that ancient man

built monuments dedicated
to these celestial wonders.

When we look at ancient
monuments around the world--

these Mesolithic structures--

we find that many of them
are aligned astronomically

to the sun, to planets,
to stars.

Numerous examples can be listed.

Stonehenge is essentially

an ancient astronomical
observatory.

Yes, it may have been used
for ritualistic purposes.

It may have been used
for religious purposes.

But it's very clear
that it was also used

for astronomical purposes,
for observations.

We're not surprised, whether
it's Stonehenge, pyramids,

or perhaps the Nazca Lines,

that ancient people
understood events

that were going to happen in the
sky, and when they would repeat.

NARRATOR: But why was ancient
man so fixated on the sky?

And why did they construct
elaborate stone monuments

and temples in order to track
the movements of the stars?

Was it simply to help farmers
know when to plant their crops?

Or might there have been
another,

perhaps more profound purpose?

Could they, as some believe,

have been constructed as a type
of extraterrestrial GPS system?

Nabta Playa, Egypt.

500 miles south of Cairo

in Egypt's Nubian Desert
sits one of the oldest

astronomical sites
ever discovered.

In 1974,
archaeologist Fred Wendorf

almost passed it by

before noticing its small stone
artifacts and toppled rocks.

ROBERT BAUVAL:
It's a very strange site.

It's just strange
stone formations,

circles, uh, stone alignments.

Bizarre trigger lines
with strange rocks and others.

NARRATOR:
Later excavations

put the date of the astronomical
device at approximately 5000 BC,

making it close
to 1,000 years older

than the remarkably similar
formation at Stonehenge.

BAUVAL: When they brought
an astronomer there,

they realized that it was
a ceremonial site,

very intensely astronomical.

The intriguing thing
about this site

is that it shows
that they were tracking stars

over thousands of years.

And to track stars
over that period,

they must have have been aware
of what we call "precession,"

which means
they weren't simply astronomers,

or ancient astronomers.

They were very sophisticated
astronomers.

NARRATOR: Could the people
who built Nabta Playa

7,000 years ago have possessed

an advanced understanding
of physics and astronomy?

One that rivals or, perhaps,
surpasses our own?

And why were they tracking
Orion and Sirius?

In 1994,
the mystery of Nabta Playa

took on even greater
significance

when Robert Bauval announced
a surprising discovery

along Egypt's Giza Plateau.

The Great Pyramid contained
four long interior shafts.

Bauval determined that they were
each precisely aligned

with specific stars in the sky.

BAUVAL: The southern ones
aligned to the belt of Orion

and to Sirius,

and the northern ones aligned
to the polar stars.

Again, this is very intriguing.

In terms of construction
engineering,

that's-that's bull's-eye.

As an engineer, I know that it's
one thing building a pyramid.

But it's another thing
building a pyramid

with that kind of precision.

NARRATOR: Bauval also proved
that the three pyramids of Giza

were laid out in the precise
order and position

of the three stars of the
Orion's Belt constellation.

But what exactly
is the significance

of the shaft alignment

and the layout
of the pyramids themselves?

BAUVAL: I mean,
we're deciphering a message.

The question is whether
it is religious

or whether it is
a stellar message.

The fact is that what we have
on the ground

is an image of a constellation

that we know now
is the birthplace of stars.

Literally,
stars are being born there.

And the Egyptians themselves

believed that their gods
had descended from the stars.

NOORY: That could be either a
knowledge of ancient astronomy,

or it could also be a road map

to where these E.T.s
may have come from.

NARRATOR: But why were
the ancients so fixated

on the Orion and Sirius
constellations?

Some believe
the answer can be found

on the other side of the world
in North America.

Cholula, Mexico is home to the
largest pyramid in the world.

More than 3,000 years old,
it is estimated

that it took approximately 1,400
years to complete.

TSOUKALOS: Even though
the Cholula Pyramid

doesn't look like much because
of the overgrown vegetation,

it is in fact the world's
largest monument

ever constructed by human hands.

In fact, the volume
of the Cholula Pyramid--

the whole pyramid complex--
is 4.45 million cubic meters.

The Great Pyramid in Egypt

only has 2.5 million
cubic meters in volume.

So, the Great Pyramid at Giza

is way taller
than the Cholula Pyramid,

but volume-wise,
the Cholula Pyramid is, by far,

the largest man-made structure
ever created on planet Earth.

NARRATOR:
Originally built by the Olmecs

in the third century BC, the
pyramid was later added on to

and used by the Toltecs
and the Aztecs

as a place of religious ritual
and human sacrifice.

But along with its history
of bloodshed,

an examination of the pyramid

reveals that the ancient
cultures of the region

had a remarkable understanding
of astronomy.

CREMO:
It's interesting to consider

what the Aztec people thought
about its origins.

They did not think
it was built by humans, like us,

which is our theory today.

According to the ancient
Aztec tradition,

the Cholula Pyramid was built

by a being
they called a "giant."

If you look at
the Aztec cosmology,

you'll see
that these giant beings

were identified with different
celestial objects.

The one in particular

that is said to have built
the Cholula Pyramid

is identified
with the planet Venus.

NARRATOR: Both the Aztecs
and the ancient Egyptians

charted most of the planets
in the solar system

thousands of years before
European astronomers.

But why?

And even more compelling is the
fact that the two cultures

were thousands of miles
and half a world apart.

CHILDRESS: Mainstream
archeologists are telling us

that all these civilizations
around the world--

in the Americas,
on remote Pacific islands,

in Asia and Africa and Europe--

that they're all disconnected
with each other,

and that there wasn't
some contact with South America,

and Egypt, or any of these
ancient civilizations.

But really, it has to be
the other way around.

All of these ancient
civilizations

were connected in some way.

NARRATOR:
But were these holy sites,

as ancient astronaut
proponents suggest,

really connected to each other?

And if so, why?

Are they evidence
of aliens coming to Earth?

MAN: Whoa, I'm getting a series
of lights right there.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

NOORY: These reports
that we continue to get

from people of E.T. visitations
and craft,

clearly points out to me
that we're being visited.

And we have been visited.

MAN: Oh, there it is--
over to the left.

NOORY: They may have physically
left the planet,

in terms of a civilization,

but they-they're continuing
to come back

and monitor us for some reason.

-MAN: Dude, wow.
-MAN 2: They're back.

-More appeared, bro.
-Yeah.

NARRATOR:
If aliens are watching us today,

what are they waiting for?

Or, as some claim,

have they already left messages
for us in plain view?

90 miles west of London,
in the county of Wiltshire,

the English countryside
remains pretty much as it has

for thousands of years.

Small farms, stone walls,

and rolling green hills
provide inhabitants

with an environment of peace
and stability.

This historic region
is also home

to a large number
of ancient sacred sites,

many built
thousands of years ago.

It's an ancient,
sacred landscape

where most of them occur.

There are monuments
that you know about:

Stonehenge, Avebury,
Silbury Hill.

This is one small area

that seems to be
a manipulated landscape

that was done
thousands of years ago

where sacred rituals
have taken place.

NARRATOR:
But in 1978,

Wiltshire's tranquil landscape
became the focus

of a controversy
that persists to this day.

REPORTER: Today alongside
the tracks of farm machinery,

a new set of circles were found.

No human tracks
lead to the markings.

NARRATOR: There,
carved in fields of wheat,

barley, and rye were elaborate
geometric patterns.

Even more curious was the fact

that much like the famed
Nazca Lines of Peru,

the designs were only visible
from the air.

TAYLOR: When you see it
for the first time,

you go, "What in the world
is that doing there?"

I mean,
it's obviously not natural.

BULLARD: There have been cases
that have been traced back

for hundreds of years--
so-called mowing devil,

where apparently some sort
of a devil

supposedly mowed a field
in a single night.

But they became recognized
as a phenomenon

only when these circles
started appearing

in English wheat fields.

They were very simple things
at first.

And, well... but they kept
occurring year after year,

and each year they seemed to get
a little more elaborate.

One of the early theories

was that there was some kind of
whirlwind that was making them.

But as they became more
elaborate,

they also became associated
with paranormal activity,

particularly UFOs.

Some people said they saw
a light in the field at night.

And some people that... began
to read that as a UFO presence.

ROBERT MOORE:
This circle in a Wiltshire field

is just one of 200 such markings

to have been discovered
in the last six weeks.

To farmers and scientists,

how they're formed or by whom
remains a big mystery.

NARRATOR:
Not surprisingly,

the region became the focus
of intense interest

from UFO enthusiasts
and skeptics,

each offering explanations
as to who

or what was responsible
for this strange phenomenon.

But if in fact,
alien beings from another planet

were responsible
for the crop circles,

why were they making them
in England?

Were they trying to contact us

or were there clues embedded
in the designs?

And was the proximity
to Stonehenge

and other ancient sites
of any particular significance?

So you have the idea
of these earth energies,

and these ancient structures,

and then the crop circles
are appearing around them.

And many of the crop circles
appear to be

some kind of signals
and ancient writing.

The crop circles are calling us
back to a time

before science and spirit
got separated,

when we were whole;
we had a sense of wholeness.

And here, they're landing near
sacred sites

that are from an ancient time

when we did experience
those things.

When I saw
the first photographs, I was...

haunted, actually.

Are these extraterrestrials
doing this?

Are we dealing with somebody

who knows how to bend space
and time?

Our entire relationship with the
universe and quantum physics--

in all of its complexities--

has been pushed hard
by crop formations alone.

CHILDRESS:
Certainly it is one theory

that extraterrestrials
are trying to communicate

in a big way
through popular media.

Crop circles do get in the
newspapers all over the world.

Perhaps that's what they want.

These are being
carefully designed.

They're not accidental--

both, in terms of the shape,
and where they land.

These aren't accidents.

There's a mind behind this
that's making these decisions.

Where is that mind?

What kind of body is it in?

NARRATOR: Scientists struggled
to find an explanation

for the phenomenon,
until in 1991,

two self-proclaimed
British pranksters,

Doug Bower and Dave Chorley,

came forward and proclaimed that
they were the ones responsible.

They showed how they could make
crop circles

in a single night
using some very simple tools.

And at the time, people said,

"Well, that must be
the explanation for it."

NARRATOR: Nevertheless, some
researchers remain skeptical

that a single pair
of elderly men

could have created literally
hundreds of designs

in the dead of night

with little more
than a few boards and some rope.

TAYLOR:
You know, it was very effective.

You still will run into people--

"Crop circles--
oh, forget about them.

"Those two old guys made a...
come on, don't be so naive!

"They-they were done
by those two old guys years ago.

What are you paying attention
to them anymore?"

Very effective
piece of disinformation.

NARRATOR:
During the years that followed

Bower and Chorley's confession,

crop circles continued to appear
in the English countryside

and at various locations
around the world.

Some were inarguably the work
of artists or jokesters.

But after studying soil samples
and grain dispersion patterns

in the disturbed farmland,

researchers concluded
that it would be impossible

for all of these designs
to be man-made.

Well, in what we would consider
to be a mysterious crop circle,

where we can't identify it
being made by people,

the lay is absolutely beautiful,
the lay of the crop.

It's like a million carpet
layers came down,

and put these stalks
of grain down,

right parallel to one another.

It's just a gorgeous thing
to behold.

When the hoaxers make them,

they tend to be sloppy and messy
because they're not...

they haven't got
that same force.

They're doing handmade
manipulation,

which doesn't lay them down
quite as beautifully.

NARRATOR:
In 1991,

noted biophysicist
Dr. William Levengood

put forth
a startling new theory.

After spending ten years
studying crop circle sites

and samples, he concluded
that they were created

by a complex energy system,

which he called
a spinning plasma vortex

that comes down from somewhere
high up in the atmosphere.

HOWE: Biophysicist Levengood
has now analyzed

350-some samples from
crop formations in his career.

Now, if Levengood were sitting
here with me,

he would say, "All I can do is,
I can take you from the ground,

"I can take you
from the crops, up.

"But I can't tell you
what sets in motion

"that spinning plasma vortex
in the first place.

It's still a huge mystery."

The anomalous things
that happen inside crop circles

are in fact
one of the indications

that you're in a so-called
genuine circle

because indeed
the weirdest things happen.

Batteries fail--
brand-new batteries.

People go in with cameras.

Cell phones don't work.

There have been people
who have started reading

all kinds of messages
into these crop circles.

Uh, that they have some kind
of digital significance

that you can read.

There's a kind of numerology,

and there'll be
a kind of message.

People are really reading
something into it.

TAYLOR: In terms of who or what
is delivering them--

we have no way to know that.

We only have science fiction

that tells us
what's coming to visit us.

So, we have to just speculate

about where this might
be coming from.

We have to wait for whatever
the source is

to introduce itself to us.

Are we dealing
with time travelers?

Are we dealing
with spiritual forces

from some dimension
we don't understand?

Are we dealing
with advanced intelligences

that are not even
in this galaxy,

that are from someplace else?

And is this a form
of communication?

The conversations keep getting
more and more complicated.

Crop circles are contact.

We are being contacted.

Just because we don't have
the bodies to shake hands with,

we have the evidence
that the bodies have left us.

I'm absolutely convinced

that crop circles are evidence
of intelligent life.

There is intelligence bombarding
us, winking at us, waving.

NARRATOR: Are these
mysterious crop circles

messages or warnings?

Or might they have another,
perhaps more profound, purpose?

Could they be futuristic clues

guiding us
to our ultimate destiny

or ancient symbols

paving the way
for our ultimate destruction?

Belize, Central America.

In 1924, British adventurer
Frederick Mitchell-Hedges

traveled here
with his daughter Anna

to explore the ruins of the
ancient Mayan city of Lubaantun.

One afternoon Anna climbed to
the top of a crumbling pyramid,

hoping to see the ocean.

It was high noon
and she was at the top,

and the way the sun came in,
the way the rocks had moved

in that there was just
a small opening

and the light from the sun
went through

and it hit the top of the skull,

and she ran down
and she's all excited.

She said "There's someone
in there with a flashlight."

NARRATOR: Anna's father
and others in their party

were too large to fit inside the
small opening of the pyramid,

so they tied a rope around Anna
and lowered her into the hole.

When she came back up,

Anna held the top
of a strange crystal skull.

A second search uncovered
a matching jaw.

The two-piece skull
weighed 1 1 pounds, seven ounces

and appeared to be carved from
a single piece of rock crystal.

COPPENS:
It's the only crystal skull

which is almost
perfectly humanoid.

It's the only crystal skull
which has a detachable jaw,

and when I say
"almost perfectly humanoid,"

the one thing which is missing
is the sutures on the cranium.

It has a perfect cranium.

So it almost suggests that,

even though
it's a human crystal skull,

those who were carving it

somehow felt that this creature
was not born.

It somehow came into this world
perfectly.

NARRATOR:
The skull's appearance

created an immediate sensation
among the local tribesmen.

HOMANN:
When the natives saw it,

it was like their god
had returned.

They all started crying

and kissing the earth
and everything.

They were just so excited, and
Mitchell-Hedges seeing this,

he presented it
to the high priest

and they put it in an altar,
and for 24 hours a day

they burned flames around
the-the crystal skull.

NARRATOR: The Mayan elders
believed that, in ancient times,

13 crystal skulls were buried in
secret places around the world.

Currently it is claimed
that seven have been found.

Four are in private collections

and one each in the British
Museum, the Smithsonian,

and the Quai Branly Museum
in Paris.

All have been the focus
of intense examination,

speculation, and even worship.

SHERRY WHITFIELD: A lot
of natives and a lot of people

working with crystal skulls

say that the high quartz content
skulls

and especially the quartz skulls
themselves

is the highest frequency
or energy or vibration

possible on the physical plane,

and so a lot of native people
kind of worshipped

or took care of these objects
because they knew

that they had
or felt that they had

the highest energy possible
on the earth plane.

NARRATOR:
But what are the exact origins

of these mysterious
crystal skulls?

Since their discovery,
scientific tests have determined

that the two owned
by the British Museum

and the Quai Branly

were not authentic
pre-Columbian artifacts.

Could it be that the Mitchell-
Hedges skull was also a fake?

In the 1960s,
it underwent extensive testing

by art curator Frank Dorland
and the Hewlett-Packard Company.

HOMANN: They used the most
advanced stuff that they had.

They could not find
any marks on it

except for around the jaw

and, I think, a little bit
around the eyes--

the only place they saw tool
marks using their techniques.

At the time, Hewlett-Packard
found that the temperature

always stays
about the same temperature,

no matter if it's in hot
or cold.

It was carved against the lines
of the crystal.

If anybody tried to do that,

it would break
into a thousand pieces.

It's made out of a high level
of electronic crystal,

and they're not really sure
exactly where it came from.

If you listen to the academics,

crystal skulls
are all modern fabrications,

meaning somebody has gone
on there with a wheel

and has carved them as such,

and this is where the big divide
is between established academics

and alternative researchers
like myself,

who feel that the academics
are not using

all the available evidence
to draw their conclusions,

and, in short, we believe

that the academics are wrong
in their conclusions.

NARRATOR: Are these skulls
really ancient artifacts?

And if not,
who or what carved them?

Crystal skulls,
according to certain stories,

yes, they are alien artifacts.

Even some people think
they're made on another planet.

(indistinct whispering)

I think there are links
between crystal skulls

and extraterrestrials,

not necessarily
that they were carved

and created
by extraterrestrials.

I've been told
they were created by humans,

but they were created
specifically

to hold records
from alien civilizations.

NARRATOR:
Could there actually be

some type of coded information
stored inside these skulls?

And if there is,
how could it be retrieved?

WHITFIELD: There is a legend
that there were 13 skulls

and that when the 13 skulls
come together,

then something significant
will change in the world.

TSOUKALOS:
Legends suggest

that there are 12 additional
worlds out there,

planets which are inhabited
by intelligent species.

Now, we belong to those worlds
or to those planets,

and our planet Earth is called
"planet of the children."

They also suggest
that these 13 crystal skulls

that allegedly exist
on planet Earth

were each brought here
from one of those 12 planets...

and the 13th skull

is the one
that apparently contains

all of the information of all
those 12 different worlds.

CHILDRESS: Within each crystal
skull, information is stored,

and in fact IBM has shown
that, too,

that quartz crystal can store
millions of gigabytes

of information, and, in fact,
any quartz crystal

or a crystal skull could hold
much more information

than any computer we have now.

So when these crystal skulls
would be brought together,

they begin to interface
with each other...

...and ultimately a greater
knowledge and information

is condensed and brought to us,

and that's the legend
of the crystal skulls.

NARRATOR: But as ancient
astronaut theorists maintain,

why would visiting aliens

have given the crystal skull
to the Maya?

To what purpose?

COPPENS: The skull is a very
important motif for the Mayans.

When you look around
the Mayan monuments,

you see skulls carved
pretty much everywhere.

They use it for some of the
notations for calendars.

NARRATOR:
And it is the Mayan calendar

that many people refer to

when discussing the possibility
of a new Armageddon.

Are the skulls
somehow linked to this?

The current keeper

of the Mitchell-Hedges skull
believes they are.

We've got 2012
just a few years away.

All these different things
are happening,

the wars, et cetera,
and I think the skulls

are coming forward
to do what they were...

they were made to do.

NARRATOR: But are these skulls
the trigger

that will begin
the dawn of a new era?

Or will they simply be used
as a tool

by some form
of extraterrestrial intelligence

to guide mankind
to its next stage of evolution?

If so, is this intelligence
waiting and watching

for the right moment?

And from where exactly
could it be watching us?

If extraterrestrial beings
do exist in the universe,

where are they?

That was the question posed
by Enrico Fermi,

one of the leading scientists
of the 20th century.

PAUL DAVIES: Shortly after
the Second World War,

the famous physicist
Enrico Fermi,

who was taking part
in the Manhattan Project

to build the atomic bomb,

was talking at Los Alamos
with some friends

about the reports
of flying saucers,

and Fermi suddenly said,

in relation to extraterrestrial
intelligent beings,

"Where are they?"

And he was simply making
the point

that if there was a civilization
somewhere in the galaxy

that had arisen,
say, 100 million years ago,

then they had plenty of time
to spread across the galaxy.

Fermi said, "Gee, if there’s
all of these civilizations

"out there and all of these
planets out there,

where is everybody?"

NARRATOR: The Fermi paradox,
as it became known,

was an attempt to explain
the lack of evidence of aliens

despite the mathematical
probability of their existence.

CARGILL: Up unto this point,
to modern time,

no credible scholar,
no credible scientist

looks at any of the evidence

that ancient alien enthusiasts
put forth and say,

"Yes, this is evidence
of ancient aliens."

No credible scholar does that.

Moreover, the whole
SETI project--

the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence--

it's been going on now
for nearly 50 years.

The fact that we have found
no radio telescope evidence

of extraterrestrials plays
very much into the Fermi paradox

in that it further indicates:

if they’re out there,
why aren't we hearing from them?

And we don't seem to be hearing
from them.

NARRATOR:
But in the 1960s,

MIT astrophysicist John Ball
rebutted Fermi's hypothesis

with a controversial one
of his own: the zoo hypothesis.

The zoo hypothesis says
that we are in a zoo,

or a wilderness area,

that they have essentially
left alone

and are going to leave alone

to allow us to develop in our
own way and at our own rate.

CROWE: Extraterrestrials
have detected us on Earth,

but have chosen
not to come here, not to invade,

but rather to observe us

as we observe
animals in the zoo.

They've thought, "We'll do
a study of those earthlings

and see what sort of people
they are."

Now, why would they do this?

Well, if on the one hand
we have nothing they want,

that's surely true.

And on the other hand,

we aren't able to interfere
with whatever they're doing.

That's also surely true.

They're out there
doing their own thing,

and they're not paying
any attention to us.

And we're not clever enough

to eavesdrop
on whatever they're doing.

That's the predicament we're in.

We have something that is
looking down and monitoring us.

We are on the Petri dish
and we can't get out far enough

to see what's behind those eyes
behind that microscope.

NARRATOR: If aliens are watching
us right now, where are they?

Some believe
they are sitting out in space

in what are called
"Lagrange points,"

named after mathematician
and astronomer Joseph Lagrange,

who discovered them in 1772.

There are five of these points
between the sun,

the earth and our moon.

SEAGER: Lagrange points
are points between two bodies

where the forces
balance equally.

Think of, like, a seesaw when
you have one really heavy person

and one really light person.

There's a kind of balance point
in there,

and that's what
a Lagrange point is.

DAVIES:
Lagrange points

is where we send
some of our own satellites.

And that's a point in space

where you can just sort of sit
there inert

for millions of years
if you had to

without having to worry
about in course corrections.

If you go anywhere else
in the solar system, uh,

then in order to keep pace
with Earth as it orbits the sun,

you've got to continually
change your position.

SEAGER: So people have talked
about Lagrange points

as a place where a spacecraft
might hide out

because you don't have to do
a lot to stay in that spot.

It's sort of equally balanced
and you just get carried along.

TSOUKALOS:
If an extraterrestrial race

would have ever visited
our solar system,

they would have placed a probe
in those specific points

in order to observe us,
to record us, what have you.

So, I mean, this
is not something that

the ancient astronaut theory
has proposed.

This is, you know,
university professors,

astrophysicists
who have proposed this.

NARRATOR: Some argue that
another reason alien beings

have yet to reveal themselves

is because they don't yet
consider us worthy.

This forms the basis of
John Ball's jungle hypothesis.

BALL: The jungle hypothesis
just means

that if you have animals,

such as ants,
that live in the jungle,

no matter how many of them
you have,

their chances of ever having
seen a human being

are very slim.

Not because we're hiding
or anything,

but we just don't have a reason
to go into the jungle

and step on anthills.

So, the idea is that
we are probably related

to advanced
extraterrestrial intelligence

similar to an anthill
might be related to humans.

And the fact
that we've never seen

any extraterrestrial
intelligence

is just we don't have anything
they want.

HOWE: We could actually
shake hands with something

that might have been coming
and going on this planet

for literally thousands,
perhaps millions, of years,

and has kept a distance
during the last age of man

for reasons unknown,

and maybe is waiting for us all
to finally grow up.

CROWE:
One thing that can be said

with a great deal of confidence

is that, if the contact
is initiated by them,

they are going to be
not only superior to us,

but greatly superior to us.

They won't be just beginners
like we are.

They will be far more advanced
than we are.

NARRATOR: Both the jungle
and zoo hypotheses

propose that alien beings
are watching us,

but are, for the time being,
keeping their distance.

But what if they’re not?

What if the alien mission was
to integrate with our society

in a way that avoids detection?

If so, might they be walking
among us right now?

According to the ancient
astronaut theory,

aliens may have come to Earth
for many reasons:

to excavate, to breed,
to conquer,

or simply to explore.

MATTHEW F. DOWD:
Certainly, we want to go out

and find out about things
we don't know about.

We see the moon.

We want to go up to the moon and
find out more things about it;

we see Mars,
we want to go there.

We want to go to Jupiter.
We send out our probes.

So, if aliens
are something like us,

then perhaps they have
that same kind of motivation.

They just want to go learn.

TSOUKALOS:
Just like we exhibit curiosity,

there are other species out
there that have the same trait.

It would be very egotistical
to think

that we're the only explorers
in this galaxy.

I mean, that would be
a very sad statement

to suggest we're the only ones
with a brain

and want to go out there
and explore.

NARRATOR: But while our own
journeys into space

have been brief
and largely exploratory,

could other beings, traveling
millions of miles to Earth,

have stayed?

And, if so,
might they still be among us?

CHILDRESS: Many ancient
astronaut theorists think

this all happened in the past

and the extraterrestrials came
here, did this and did that,

and then they took off
back to their own planet.

But there's a lot of evidence
to show that extraterrestrials

who might have come here in
the past, they've never left.

They have bases somewhere
on the planet

underneath the oceans,
inside mountains.

In South America,
there is very strong beliefs

that many UFOs come out of lakes
and underwater.

And that Lake Titicaca and
other lakes in Peru and Bolivia

and other areas of South America
have some kind of underground,

underwater alien base
associated with them.

If aliens were coming
to our planet,

there seems little doubt

that they would stop at the moon
on their way here.

The moon itself is kind
of the eye in the sky.

NASA says that the moon
is apparently hollow.

During the Apollo missions,

the command module
crashed into the moon...

(bell clangs)

...and the moon rang
like a bell for hours.

There are craters on the moon

which they cannot find
a bottom to,

and it's thought,
by some researchers,

that these bottomless craters
are entrances inside our moon.

The whole enigma of the moon

gets weirder and weirder
the more you know it.

Was the moon actually brought
here from another solar system

and put into orbit
around our planet?

Biologists say
that life on this planet

could never have occurred
without our moon.

And the reason for that

is that the moon creates
the tidal effect.

And without the effect of tides

and this rhythmic motion
on the oceans,

life would never have begun
on this planet.

In my mind,
the evidence is there

that the moon
is a gigantic spaceship...

in orbit around our planet.

It's occupied
by some extraterrestrial race.

In many ways, it's much like the
George Lucas Death Star concept

in Star Wars where they're
building this artificial moon

that's capable, with technology,
of actually destroying a planet.

NARRATOR: But if alien beings
are using the moon

as some sort of satellite
for Earth observation, why?

What would be the purpose?

And where is the proof?

RED STAR: They would like
to see us evolve.

You know,
they are great masters,

great... um, avatars.

They are very high.

And so are we.

And we need to live up
to our potential.

We really need to live up
to our potential for all people.

(angry shouting)

HOWE:
And today, we are living still,

as if we are alone
in the universe

while hundreds and thousands
of people

are seeing unusual craft
in the skies

as they did 5,000 years ago.

And so, in a way, the idea
that the ancient aliens

would finally be coming around
full circle

all the way
into the 21st century...

us trying to push open a truth

that governments have suppressed
in the 20th century,

is really very ironic.

NARRATOR: There are many diverse
and conflicting theories

concerning the idea
that alien astronauts

have been visiting the earth
for centuries.

But perhaps the proof lies in
the most obvious place of all:

right within ourselves.

VON DANIKEN: Somewhere
in our genes it is coded

that extra terrestrials were
here thousands of years ago.

And it takes a certain time

before this message is open
to us, maybe in the brain.

NOORY: I don't believe
extraterrestrials, E.T.s,

ancient astronauts
are the missing link.

I think what they very well
could be,

they may be the beginning
of the link--

the link that helped genetically
alter human beings,

the link that jump-started
our civilization

the way we are today.

It's very possible
they came down here

and saw some creature,
and they said, "You know what?

"We're going to jump-start this.

"It may take another
ten million years

for this thing to become smart
and intelligent."

So they created us.

And we're smart and intelligent
now, aren't we?