All language subtitles for The.Proof.Is.Out.There.S04E05.Beastly.Howls.Holloman.Air.Force.Base.UFO.and.the.Cabin.that.Defies.Gravity.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Tonight on The
Proof Is Out There.

We are watching the skies for
UFOs camouflaged as clouds.

Could aliens have been hiding
in plain sight this whole time?

And maybe
they're not just hiding.

Could they have
negotiated an alliance

with the US government?

Some think these aliens
ended the Cold War.

A haunting
howl in the forest.

When this video hit the
internet, everybody went nuts.

Is a killer
Bigfoot on the loose?

And a mystery on
a Florida beach,

is the Bermuda
Triangle responsible?

The Bermuda Triangle has
claimed so many vessels

through the years, this
could be one of them.

Around the
globe are videos.

What
are those things?

It's moving.

Photos and sounds
that defy explanation.

We don't know
where they come from,

who made them, or
how they operate.

What are they?

Some sort of
bizarre mutation.

What's exciting
is nobody really knows.

Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts
where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that
spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest
sounds and images.

We'll analyze each
one with top experts.

It's a credible case,
it's a credible video.

And pass a
verdict on what it is.

This video was clearly faked.

The proof starts now.

Good evening and welcome
to The Proof Is Out There.

The media has been buzzing
for the past few years

over the government's
release of video

showing unidentified
craft filmed in the skies

by our military.

But many believe that UFOs

have been observing our
military bases for decades,

and that this next
photo proves it.

It's October 16th, 1957.

Ella Louise Fortune,

a nurse at the Mescalero Indian
Reservation in New Mexico,

is driving north on Highway 54

when she sees something
hovering in the sky

over Holloman Air Force
base in Alamogordo.

She happens to have
her camera with her,

so she pulls the car over
and photographs this.

A glowing, white, elongated,
oval-shaped object

is floating above
the desert landscape.

You can see why this
photo caused such a stir.

Just look at how bright it
is, even in broad daylight.

Check out the sharpness
of the edges here, there,

and then you have
this soft wisp.

Is that exhaust?

How would you fake
that if you wanted to?

This photo is a classic
in the UFO community

that most people consider
a genuine photograph

that was not hoaxed.

Not only has
the photo earned a place

in UFO history, it ties into
one of the most astonishing

and durable stories
of the UFO cannon,

allegations that
Holloman Airbase

was the site of an
interstellar summit

where aliens forged an alliance
with the US government.

There's a story that
circulates within UFO circles

that President
Dwight D. Eisenhower

secretly met with aliens,

and this alien gets
shuffled into a back room

and the president has flown in

to specifically meet
with this creature.

So we have a lot of
strange stories out there

of secret meetings
between presidents

and aliens from other planets.

Now, according to some,
during these secret meetings,

President Eisenhower
brokered a deal

to allow the aliens
to abduct humans

in exchange for extraterrestrial
black technology

that would lead to developments
like the B-2 Stealth bomber.

Is the photo we
have here evidence

of that advanced alien tech?

We asked our experts to decide.

We begin with military
aviation expert Tim McMillan.

Is it possible that
white color and shape

match something you'd expect
to see near an Air Force base,

namely a parachute?

Nothing about it is
consistent with a parachute,

in particular, you
don't see a payload.

The shape of it is inconsistent
with what you would expect

for a parachute that is being
weighted down by a payload.

Some have speculated

it could be a balloon or blimp,
but McMillan doesn't see it.

It doesn't resemble any
obvious shape of a balloon.

Also definitely appears
to be extremely bright,

and so it would have to have
some type of light source,

which wouldn't make
sense for a balloon.

Next, we
turn to Rich Hoffman

from the Scientific
Coalition for UAP Studies.

This thing is white
and in the sky.

Could it just be a cloud?

It takes very strong winds

to create that kind of
sharpness to the edges

and creating the
saucer-like look to it

'cause it doesn't even
match what you would expect

with the upper-band
cirrus clouds.

So I don't see this
as a cloud whatsoever.

Instead, Hoffman
believes with some calculations

he can narrow down
the possibilities.

It was roughly
around 10,000 feet,

and roughly they assumed
it was 15 miles away.

You do trigonometry,
you're able to determine

that it's roughly
just over a mile long.

If Hoffman's
numbers are correct,

he says we can eliminate
several other possibilities.

I would never go to
the point of saying that

this is a plane.

The size makes no
sense, it's a mile wide,

and it's not a UFO.

No objects, especially
one a mile long,

would not have gone
undetected by the people

that are positioned there
monitoring that part of the sky.

So what could it be?

Hoffman says
location is the key.

There's one important
thing that you need to know.

Holloman Air Force Base
was to the position

of the witnesses left.

The vast majority of this
area you're looking at

is White Sands Missile Range.

The fact that this is
conveniently positioned

right at 10,000 feet would
probably make it very likely

that it's a missile
test of some sort.

McMillan agrees,

and believes the photo
reveals an important clue.

There appears
to be a contrail

behind the object,

which suggests that
the object is moving

and leaving a vapor trail

that would be consistent
with solid fuel burning.

A large vapor
trail could also explain

why this object
looks a mile long

when in fact, it's much shorter.

The US at the time

was engaged in
significant rocket testing

and especially were in the
height of the space race

between the United States
and the Soviet Union.

There were a
whole variety of missiles

that were being tested.

It could have been
fired from an aircraft

or something that
would've created

a kind of plume of
smoke like this.

But if this
mile-long object

is really just a trail
of missile exhaust,

we continue to ask ourselves,

why do the edges
look so distinct?

Not to mention,

a speeding missile doesn't
match the eyewitness's story.

This thing had to hang
in the air long enough

for Ella to see it, park her
car, get out, and take a photo.

We can't help but feel

we're still missing a
piece of this puzzle.

Our verdict, still an
unidentified object.

Our experts bring
up great points,

but even if the contrail
points to a chemical fuel burn

and the missile range was
a short 30 miles away,

the image itself just
doesn't give us enough info

to definitively call it a
missile or anything else.

That keeps it a UFO
in our book, for now.

We're gonna stay in the
southwest for this next story,

and fast-forward from the
'50s to the present day.

We often look up at clouds

and try to interpret
the strange shapes.

We might see horses, sharks,
maybe even strange faces,

but our next sighting involves
a cloud shaped so bizarre,

the video footage set
social media ablaze.

Take a look.

July 15th, 2022, it's a
clear summer afternoon

as Nisha Higgins is
traveling down the highway

in Tempe, Arizona.

But as she drives
past the airport,

she catches something
floating in the distance

from the corner of her eye.

So she pulls out her
phone and captures this.

Let's zoom in.

A mysterious-looking,
dark, oblong object

appears to be stationary
in front of the clouds.

Honestly, it looks a little like

that 1957 Holloman
Air Force base UFO.

Author Jason Martell agrees

that something here
doesn't seem right.

We can see other
clouds in the vicinity

that are much more
fluffy in nature.

This one seems
almost out of place.

The object raises
enough of a concern

to wonder what
exactly it could be,

but just in general,
looks very UFO-like.

A UFO in
the shape of a cloud?

It may be a possibility.

If we think about
ufology in general,

there's many aspects where
UFOs have used clouds

or meteorological events

to obfuscate what's
really happening.

Social media
sites are littered

with UFO cloud sightings.

In California, Mount Shasta
is frequently blanketed

by strange oblong clouds,

which has prompted
some speculation

that these clouds act
as a UFO cloaking device

hiding alien visitation
in plain sight.

But others argue
these strange shapes

are proof of government
weather manipulation.

The phenomenon
of cloud seeding

is basically using
certain chemicals

that increase condensation
inside the cloud,

that way, also
increasing precipitation.

This combination of chemicals

has been known to cause
rain clouds to form.

We know that no less than
eight states across the US,

Arizona being one of them,

actually use cloud seeding
to mitigate drought.

Hidden aliens,
government weather manipulation

or something else, UFO
clouds are having a moment.

For millennia, oracles
looked to the heavens

and judged the significance
of strange shapes in the sky.

But in this modern space
age, some are asking,

could many of these strange
shapes have been UFOs all along?

Let's see if our
experts can figure out

if this cloud could
be more than a cloud.

First, could there be a
spacecraft hiding in that cloud?

We asked video
analyst Marc D'Antonio.

The ATC, or air
traffic control,

has pretty sophisticated radars,

and right now, there's
virtually no objects

that can go undetected
by airport radars.

A check of FAA
records shows no near misses

in the area that day,

nor were there any
nearby rocket launches.

And while some argue UFOs

might well have radar
cloaking technology,

D'Antonio points out the FAA

isn't the only one monitoring
the skies above Tempe.

If this was an actual craft,

you can bet the folks
from Williams Gateway

or Luke Air Force Base,

where there's lots
of military presence,

would've scrambled
to go check it out.

So if it's not
a secret alien ship,

is it a government weather
manipulation program?

Is this a cloud
seeding project?

The problem with that for me

is that this is an extremely
small, localized cloud.

But a cloud seeding operation
is a vast operation,

you're not gonna cloud-seed
right in this one little spot.

I don't see any way

in which this could be
weather manipulation actually.

Okay, so if it's
not artificial weather,

could it be natural?

According to meteorologist
Juan Hernandez,

the clue in the video is the
surrounding Arizona terrain.

If we take a closer look
down towards the ground,

we notice that there
is some terrain.

So this is the Tempe area,

which is surrounded by
mountains on the north side

and the eastern side.

These mountains,

or specifically the
cold gusts of wind

that run up into them, collide
with the moist atmosphere,

creating lenticular clouds

that could look
a little or a lot

like hovering flying saucers.

The wind cannot flow
through the mountain,

it must either flow
around the mountain

or on top of the mountain.

That upcurrent creates
a standing wave of cold air

which then collides
with moisture

and forms this unique,
saucer-shaped cloud.

But why does it appear
to stay stationary

like an ominous
hovering spacecraft?

Although the wind
is quickly moving,

lenticular clouds
oftentimes look stationary

because that's the
right condition

for the atmosphere
to condensate.

After all, the perfect
lenticular cloud conditions

are created by unmoving terrain,

so these clouds tend
to form and dissipate

in those perfect,
stationary spots.

And they oftentimes
look fairly ominous

so I can see why someone
would mistake this for a UFO.

Our verdict, lenticular cloud.

We agree with Juan Hernandez

that this is an extraordinary
looking natural phenomenon,

but if you happen
to have your camera

and get footage of a massive
UFO drifting over your town,

be sure to send it our way.

We've all seen psychic
mediums on talk shows

claiming to communicate
with the dead.

But what if instead of on TV,

it was happening live right
before your very eyes,

and what if the
medium was an infant?

Strap on your Pampers
and check this out.

It's December 2021 in the
suburbs of Akron, Ohio.

22-month old Evelyn
Witt, known as Evie,

is in her highchair
when her mom, Tana,

hears something odd
and starts filming.

Who are you talking to?

The video shows that
no one else is in the room

with little Evie, but she
seems to be having a chat-

With an
invisible uncle.

Who are you talking to?

Tana wonders

if the toddler is
saying the word, uncle.

Who are you talking to?

Evelyn, who are you talking to?

Shh, shh, shh.

That would make
sense since Tana's brother,

Evie's Uncle, Tim,

lived at home with Evie's
grandmother, Debra Henley.

She watches the little
girl during the day.

When I would go to the park,

he'd come with me
so he'd help me.

He would take her on the
swings and down the slide

and he was just a
big part of her life.

What do you think?

Tragically,

one month before Tana
filmed her mysterious video,

Uncle Tim died of an
accidental drug overdose.

So that begs the question,

are we watching little Evie
talking to Uncle Tim's ghost?

She talked a lot about Tim,

and she would say things that
I don't think that she knew

as a young child.

Who else is happy?

- Tim's happy?
- Yeah.

She was talking to him,
I'm almost sure of it.

Author
Alexis Brooks suggests

that young children
potentially have a sixth sense

and are actually able to see
things that others aren't.

There are some
theorists that say

that babies can
actually see beyond

the visible spectrum of
light, and it is said that

the spirit world
essentially lives outside

of that visible spectrum.

In July 2021,
another child went viral

after he began talking
to an invisible presence

while his family was driving

through California's
Sierra National Forest.

This apparent ghost sighting
took place in an area

where a woman named Sandra
Johnson Hughes went missing

a year earlier,

and she looks just like
how the boy described.

There is another
potential source

of supernatural connection

between children and the
spirit world, the pineal gland,

a little understood gland
in the center of the brain

that produces melatonin.

It's been connected

to the mystical third eye,
chakra, of Eastern religions.

Some claim children's pineal
glands have not yet atrophied,

which give them visibility

into a broader
spectrum of reality.

But what is our experts' sense?

First, we ask forensic video
analyst Michael Primeau

to authenticate the footage,

The recording's
structure was analyzed,

and there is specific
metadata in the file

which would have been produced
from the original version.

So there is no
evidence to suggest

that any kind of fabrication
occurred with this interaction.

Who are you talking to?

So the
video is authentic,

but is Evie's apparent
encounter with Uncle Tim?

Can children really see
things adults can't?

Can children see outside the
visible spectrum of light

as some have claimed?

One 2018 study published by
the University of Georgia

showed young people can
detect ultraviolet light

down to a wavelength
of 315 nanometers,

much lower than the
average middle-aged adult.

Still Dr. Ed Hope doubts
this study explains

what we're seeing here.

In general, children's vision

is actually worse
than our vision.

In fact, when you're born,
you only see black and white

and have very limited vision,

and this increases rapidly
in the first six months.

So there will still
be some development

with the eyes and
vision at this age.

Theoretical
physicist Dr. Michio Kaku

adds that Evie is also still
developing her social skills

and her understanding
of object permanence.

So could she be chatting
with an imaginary friend?

Sometimes, their
imaginary friends

are confused with real ones.

It won't be 'til
around age three

that a sense of what
is real and not real

becomes solidified
in their mind.

And realize that she's
only 22 months old.

Who are you talking to?

Then what
do our experts think

is the cause of Evie's
inexplicable interactions

with Uncle Tim?

I think the most
likely situation here

is that Evelyn is
mimicking behaviors

of the family members around her

going through a bereavement.

Kids are like sponges,

and this is a way of Evelyn
dealing with that situation.

Still, Evie
continuously turns back

and addresses the same
exact spot in the room.

Even Dr. Kaku cautions against
jumping to conclusions.

Obviously, she has an
emotional connection,

but the key question is to what?

The danger is that we
impose our understanding

of life and death to children.

Their understanding
of life and death

could be quite different
from those of an adult.

Maybe children can see
another aspect of reality

that we cannot see.

So this is a tough
one, because we witnessed

in real time Evelyn
having conversations

with an invisible
or imaginary entity.

For now, we're saying these
interactions are unexplained.

It's certainly possible

Evie was just imagining
her uncle was there,

but we can't say that for sure,

and the family is convinced

that something
more was going on.

In the meantime,

they urge anyone affected
by substance abuse in Ohio

to contact Hope United.

When you are all
alone in nature,

the most innocuous animal
noises can be unsettling.

Even the sound of a
tiny chipmunk scurrying

through the leaves can feel
like a potential threat.

So imagine being alone
and hearing the shrieks

of what could potentially
be a Sasquatch.

Don't watch this
next story alone.

December 2017, Witset,
British Columbia, Canada.

It's a snowy, overcast day
in this remote village.

Upon hearing something eerie
in the woods behind his home,

a man pulls out his
camera and records this.

Take another listen,

it's a guttural howl
eliminating from the forest.

The witness pans
the camera around,

trying to find where
exactly it's coming from.

Field researcher Cliff
Barackman draws a comparison

with these noises and
the famous Sierra Sounds

recorded in Northern
California in the '70s.

The Sierra Sounds are
singularly important

in the study of Sasquatches.

The sounds represent
a wide variety

of very strange vocalizations

that were emitted from
unseen entities in the woods.

It sounds like people actually
speaking an unknown language.

Important to note,

whatever made the Sierra Sounds
has never been identified.

As with the recent sounds
in British Columbia,

Barackman thinks they
could be the sounds

of Sasquatch communicating.

We believe that Sasquatches
are probably moving about

in kind of loose groups.

Even if they move in
small groups like gorillas do,

Barackman says they
often spread out.

So in the kind of habitat
they like to live in,

they wouldn't be able to
see the other individuals

in their family groups, they
would have to call for them,

whether it's mating
or socialization

or feeding or whatever.

However, some wonder

if these sounds
could be connected

to another recent horror
story from the region.

Between 2007 and 2019 in
the nearby Salish Sea,

20 disembodied human feet
encased in shoes and sneakers

washed up onto the shore.

Some suggest that
this could be evidence

of a killer Sasquatch,
while others think

this could be a serial
killer running amok.

Is this a deranged human
screaming in the wild?

Canada is a vast,
wild wilderness.

Could a serial killer be
loose in the woods of Canada?

It's possible.

The Harrison River Valley
located to the southwest

of British Columbia

is home to the Indigenous
nation known as the Chehalis.

They consider the Sasquatch as
sacred caretaker of the land,

they even use him as a
totem of their nation.

Let's see what our experts think
about this Canadian creature.

Biologist Floyd
Hayes fills us in

on what we would normally find

or hear lurking in these woods.

There are many
species of animals

that communicate by vocalizing.

In general, the sounds
are somewhat correlated

with the body size
of the animal,

with larger animals
producing louder sounds.

The British Columbia wolf is
a subspecies of the gray wolf,

and it lives in this area
and it grows rather large.

It makes very loud
howling sounds.

That leads us
to forensic audio analyst

Dr. Rob Maher, who first
compares this audio

to that of a large wolf.

So we can compare
the sound of a wolf.

So this is a spectrogram
of the wolf howl.

If we look at the
Witset howl sound,

we see more high
frequency information

and the contour is
different than the wolf.

So no exact
match for the local fauna.

But what about a Bigfoot?

Maher brings up the famous
Sierra Sounds for comparison.

The Bigfoot recording
has more energy

in the lower frequency range,

and it's more of a whoop
rather than a shriek sound.

They seem to be two
distinctive types of sounds.

So no Bigfoot.

But what about the idea that
the sounds are connected

to some disturbed serial killer
haunting the Canadian woods?

Maher says no.

Trying to make the sounds

that are up in the
higher range up here

in several thousand hertz,

I'm a little skeptical that a
human could make that sound.

So what could be
making this horrific noise?

Turns out, maybe nothing,
or nothing real, at least.

In the spectrogram, we can
see these vertical dark areas

where the sound disappears
during the recording.

One of the reasons you
might have these dropouts

would be that the audio
had been edited or changed.

It raises a lot of questions

about the integrity
of that recording

and whether it's
really authentic.

Our verdict, with
no exact audio matches

and some questionable
evidence about the recording,

we're going with potential hoax.

And while we didn't find
a Bigfoot this time,

British Columbia's
forests cover an area

of 149 million acres,

the size of France
and Germany combined,

so there's plenty
left to explore.

Coastal erosion
has been a concern

for parts of
Florida for decades,

especially when
big storms strike.

But one Florida town
has recently discovered

that with the disappearance
of sand comes the reappearance

of strange objects
from the past.

It's December 2022 in
Volusia County, Florida.

As the area recovers

from the recent onslaught of
hurricanes Ian and Nicole,

beachgoers near Daytona Beach

stumble upon an anomaly
on the foreshore.

Photos taken from the
air by the county

show two parallel rows

of jagged wooden posts
sticking out of the sand.

A couple of the boards lie
lengthwise connecting the posts,

while others are strewn nearby.

It appears to be a
long buried structure.

Archeologist Chuck Meide,

director of the Lighthouse
Archeological Maritime Program,

heads to the scene to
try to uncover more

of the mysterious object.

We kind of assess the scene,

and it becomes almost like
a crime scene investigation,

we're trying to understand
what's going on.

Chuck and
his team start digging

and discover what looks
like wooden timbers.

We could really begin
to see kind of patterns

in how these timbers
were laid out.

We could definitely tell that
we had frames of a vessel.

So it seems Chuck is
on the scene of a shipwreck,

but what ship is this,
and where is it from?

Journalist Eric Grundhauser
says there are several ideas.

One theory is that
it is the result

of the Bermuda Triangle,

a fabled triangle of
destruction and mystery

that has claimed countless
ships over the years.

Could this
ship have been a victim

of some unexplained
force in the Triangle?

Or is it just an old ship
beached during a long ago storm?

A number of fleets

have been sunk off
the coast of Florida,

vessels carrying huge amounts
of wealth and treasure.

The so-called Shipwreck Trail

that exists in the waters off
the coast of the Florida Keys

contains the remains of
ships like the San Pedro

that sunk in 1733 that contained
a huge amount of wealth.

But maybe
this wrecked ship

was hauling booty
that was looted.

Famous pirates like
Black Beard and Calico Jack

were known to have visited
the Florida coastline,

and a number of pirate ships

also were sunk off
the coast of Florida.

Some were sunk by
natural causes,

others were purposely sunk so
that they wouldn't be taken.

Could the remains
that we're seeing here

be the remains of one
of those pirate ships?

Beyond speculation
about piracy

and the Bermuda Triangle,

rough waters off Florida's
coast can be dangerous

to wooden boats of any kind.

Though wood naturally floats,
leaks between hull planks

can lead to the loss of buoyancy

and even the sinking
of ships in storms.

So what was it that
brought this vessel down?

Let's let our experts
take the helm.

Meteorologist Juan Hernandez
says the amount of sand

that's been displaced suggests
this ship is very old.

Looks like we've lost 10, 15
feet of sand fairly quickly.

Given the potent storm systems

that plague the
Bermuda Triangle,

it's possible that a storm
system led to this shipwreck

and then buried
it for centuries.

It wouldn't be until
another storm came through

that it would be uncovered.

So even if the
ship came from the area

of the Bermuda Triangle,

it likely just ran aground
long ago in a bad storm.

So could this actually be
a real-life pirate ship?

Archeologist Kathy Strain
says it's possible.

Piracy is really well-known
off the coast of Florida.

In it's heyday in 1700s,

there was up to 5,000
different pirates operating

in those waters.

So it's very possible

that we don't know
anything about this boat

because it was stolen.

Chuck
agrees, the fact that

there don't seem to be
any ships reported missing

or stolen in this area

calls into question
the piracy theory.

And here's the thing, his
further research reveals

this wrecked ship likely
sailed after 1800,

the age of piracy had
largely ended by then.

The size of the timbers,
how they were shaped,

how they were joined together,

what types of
fasteners were used,

all of these things really point

to this dating to the 1800s.

By the 1800s, there's
a lot of shipping,

so it's most likely to be a
cargo ship, a merchant vessel.

Chuck says the
continuous tides on the beach

have made it impossible
to uncover much more

than the top of the boat, and
so far, no sign of treasure.

Our verdict, this is likely
a 19th century merchant ship.

Piracy had mostly died down
in the Atlantic by the 1800s

so it's unlikely this
ship was purloined

by the likes of Black
Beard before it went down.

Still, the lack of any
records documenting the loss

of a ship in that
area at that time

means this vessel remains part

of the broader Bermuda Triangle
mystery, at least for now.

Prehistoric Native
Americans left records

of their ancestral
traditions in their rock art.

One symbol found among
their stone carvings

is said to be
connected to a powerful

and mystical ancient being.

Could this rock provide a
bridge to another world?

It's January 2021,

deep in the mountains of
Jackson County, North Carolina.

YouTubers Shane
Simmons and Melody West

have traveled to
a mysterious site

famed throughout the state.

Let's get
out and take a look.

Let's do it.

- You ready for this?
- I'm ready.

At the bottom
of a small hill,

a large, gray, soapstone
boulder emerges,

nestled in the grass.

A lot of
interesting carvings on here.

But up close, it's
clear the curves and cuts

combine to tell
an ancient story.

And when you get down there,

the first thing
you wanna look for

is the seven fingers
of Judaculla.

The legend
claims the seven fingers

are the actual hand print

of an ancient
seven-fingered giant.

Author Alexis Brooks
says the Cherokee people

consider Judaculla
to be a psychopomp,

a being that guided souls
between the material world

and the spiritual one.

The Judaculla giant

is said to be one who
comes from the mountaintop,

has landed on this rock, but
he did so with a purpose.

He was there to
chase off intruders.

But perhaps Judaculla
isn't simply a mystical giant

coming down from the mountains,

but rather an ancient
astronaut visitor

coming from outer space.

Author Jason Martell
says the story goes

that when Judaculla
crashed into the rock,

he may have opened a
portal to other worlds,

perhaps to where he originated.

We know that there's
been a lot of UFO activity

in the area.

It's very possible that this
is some type of a beacon

or a lighthouse,

perhaps opening some type
of lost energy field.

It has even been suggested

that Judaculla, the giant
himself, used this as a gateway

that would allow for
communication even today.

Shane says
this force of energy

is something he felt firsthand.

Touching the rock itself,
it gave a little bit

of a charge, for lack
of a better word,

you just feel something
from the rock.

Stories of powerful giants

can be found in
numerous ancient texts.

From the Greek Gigantes
to the Hebrew Nephilim,

some believe these giants
really walk the earth.

So could Judaculla be a
similar supersized being?

Let's see how our
experts measure up.

Archeologist Dr. Ed Barnhart
considers if this mark

was truly left by
Judaculla, the giant.

Many people believe
that print there

was his actual hand print.

But in actuality, we can see

that it is carved
into the stone.

Barnhart says the
well-defined edges and grooves

that seem to curl up
toward the rock face

prove that it's
been chiseled out

since a hand print impression
like this one made in clay

would be less delineated
and more diffused.

This stone was
probably carved hundreds

and hundreds of years ago.

What's more, Barnhart
doesn't believe the stone

is telling us just one
story, but instead, many.

At 1,500 different carvings,

that's the most on any stone
in all of North America.

The initial carvings
on this stone

could be reaching back
thousands of years ago.

In my experience, rocks that
have this much carving on them

are not done in
a single episode,

they're done repeatedly
over generations.

And NASA
geologist Dr. Bob Anderson

adds that the type of rock

has made it particularly
convenient for petroglyphs.

The rock is made
up of soapstone,

which is a metamorphic rock,
a rock that has been changed,

it's been heated by
pressure and/or temperature.

It actually makes it very soft
and as easy to carve into.

Barnhart says, given
the location of the rock,

it was likely carved during
the Mississippian period,

which lasted from about
800 AD to around 1600 AD,

and saw the development

of some of the most
complex societies

that had ever existed
in North America.

Big, unique pieces of
geology, topography like this

were oftentimes landmarks
along protected trade routes.

Of course, the
Mississippian civilization

were a bunch of
independent city states,

and you didn't want
to accidentally,

without permission,

cross from one
territory to another

because you would
be in big trouble.

So maybe
there's some truth

to the legend of Judaculla,

at least the part about
the rock being used

to scare away intruders
and mark the tribe's turf.

This was a marker

that showed the extent
of what their tribe was

so that people would understand

that they would be
protecting this land.

Before smartphones, before the
internet, before computers,

this is the way that the people

were actually talking
tribe to tribe.

It's just like using Google Maps

that you have on
your cars nowadays.

Our verdict, these
complex markings

were engraved by Indigenous
peoples as a sophisticated map.

While the story of
Judaculla is compelling,

we have no evidence the
markings on this boulder

belong on his list
of accomplishments,

though we still have no
idea why visitors say

the rock seems to have
an other-worldly energy.

We all know they do things
differently in California.

The Golden State has its
own laws on everything

from fuel efficiency
to marijuana,

but does it have its
own laws of gravity?

Follow us into the Redwood
Forest to find out.

It's January 2023

in the beach town of
Santa Cruz, California,

known for its great
surfing and long wharf.

But local YouTuber
Ryan Sonneville

is interested in documenting a
more unusual area attraction,

a strange cabin in
the Redwood Forest

where gravity itself

seems to have joined
the counterculture.

If you live around Santa Cruz

or anywhere in
Northern California,

you probably see people
with the very iconic

Mystery Spot bumper
stickers driving around.

The Mystery
Spot is a small structure

where everything seems
just a little off-kilter,

and where a tour guide
is effortlessly able

to walk up a wall.

Ryan says it feels
very disorienting.

It's pretty immediate
the minute you go into it

that it doesn't feel right,

like you're able
to stand on a bench

and be leaning forward in a way

that you would generally feel
like I'm gonna fall forward.

The Mystery Spot
opened to the public in 1940,

and has perplexed hundreds
of thousands of visitors

from all over the world.

Journalist Eric Grundhauser

says that this
anomaly has resulted

in decades of speculation
about why it is the way it is.

So there are a
number of theories

about why the laws of
gravity and physics

seem to no longer apply
around the vicinity

of the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot.

One theory goes that
aliens came to our planet

and one of their spacecraft
crashed there in the forest,

and that the remains

are somehow causing
gravitational distortions.

Or maybe
the layer of rock

between the earth's crust
and its core is to blame.

Another theory goes,

the Mystery Spot actually sits
on some kind of magma chamber

that is producing a
lower density of mass

so that the gravity above
it in the Mystery Spot

doesn't have the same qualities

that it does elsewhere
on the planet.

With thousands of
visitors each year,

the Mystery Spot calls
to mind PT Barnum's

popular American Museum.

In order to keep
the crowds moving,

Barnum put a sign saying,
"This way to the egress."

Not knowing egress meant exit,

many people followed the sign
in search of a new attraction,

not realizing they were
literally being shown the door.

So what do our experts think
of this crowd-pleasing sight

in Santa Cruz?

Physicist Dr. Matthew
Szydagis says

that electromagnetic effects
from an alien spacecraft

probably wouldn't
be strong enough

to distort gravity like this.

Gravity, when it's distorted,

needs to be distorted due
to extremely strong fields,

so things like a black
hole singularity.

In a black hole, the
pull of gravity is so strong

that even light can't escape.

I can assure you

that if something like
that was in California,

it would've destroyed the state,

if not the entire planet by now.

But what about the
effects of a magma chamber?

Science writer Mick
West investigates.

The idea is that the
movement, the different density

of the magma causes
gravity to be different.

The issue is, the Mystery Spot
lies on the San Andrea's fault

which is between two
continental plates.

That wouldn't allow
buildup of magma,

it would escape
between the plates,

that would only actually
work in the middle

of a continental plate.

So West has a more
even-plained explanation.

This is essentially an
artificial gravity hill.

We don't see any true verticals
anywhere in this spot.

The trees themselves are
more or less vertical,

sometimes trees lean over,

the fences are all
at strange angles,

the floor is always at an angle,

there's no flat ground anywhere.

And so your brain never
knows which way is up.

But Szydagis
has the data to prove

this is just a fun illusion.

I've actually been to
the Mystery Spot myself,

and I was able to
measure the tilt effect

with the digital leveler app.

Has an approximate average
tilt of 17 degrees.

A 17-degree grade,

especially when you disguise
it by clever construction,

can be very hard for the
human eye to perceive.

While it may not be aliens
or gravitational anomalies,

I highly recommend the
Santa Cruz Mystery Spot

as a wonderful place to go.

Our verdict,

we're going to defer to
Professor Szydagis here,

and say this is a well-situated,
tilted optical illusion.

In fact, in the mid 1900s,

so-called anti-gravity
spots like this

became tourist destinations
all across America,

but most of them just
didn't have the pull

to keep folks coming back.

And that's our show for tonight.

Please keep questioning,
keep exploring,

and keep those cameras rolling.