Original subtitles

Tonight, on The Proof Is Out There.

A reconnaissance plane captures an image

that makes UFO history.

Some people have called this the best UFO photo of all time.

Was a deaf nun miraculously cured

by this weeping statue?

The Our Lady of Akita statue has been puzzling us

for more than half a century.

Look out above.

Are aliens targeting SpaceX missions?

This could be an explicit declaration of war.

And there's no way this video is real, right?

The thing is missing its head, but there it is swimming around.

Like, how could that be true?

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.

Our first story tonight takes us back to 1979

when Jimmy Carter was president,

disco ruled the pop charts,

and I had hair.

It was in that same year

that one of Italy's most famous UFO incidents took place,

and more than four decades later,

we're still talking about it.

It's June 18th, 1979.

Pilot Marshall Giancarlo Cecconi

is flying his Fiat G.91 reconnaissance aircraft

outfitted with four cameras.

They're about to come in handy.

Around 11:30 a.m.,

Cecconi receives a radio transmission

indicating the radar crew at Istrana Airfield

has detected an unidentified object at low altitude.

When Cecconi encounters the object,

he uses the aircraft's cameras

to capture some of the most puzzling UFO photos ever taken.

It's this strange, cylindrical-shaped object.

He says it sort of looks like a semi-squashed cigar.

The sides of it are black.

However, the middle section and the top

are a slightly lighter color

and it seems to just be floating in the air.

Now, this object is reportedly 20 to 25 feet long

and around 10 feet wide with a dull, dark surface.

And importantly, the alleged craft

seems completely unaffected by the turbulence thrown

from the plane's formidable jet wash.

When the object begins climbing, Cecconi pursues,

speeding past it as he sets up another photo run.

But when he returns, the object has vanished into thin air.

Strange, sure, but this is nothing new for Italy.

Italy has a long history of UFO reports.

Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch

has recently reiterated Italian claims

that Mussolini had a secret UFO program

which recovered at least one downed craft.

Grusch says that when the Axis fell to Allied forces,

the Allies confiscated the alien craft

and shipped it stateside.

Sound incredible? How about another incident

with a few thousand eyewitnesses?

One of the most famous cases in Italian UFO history

occurred in 1954.

There was a big soccer match in Florence

and a crowd of 10,000 people looked up

and saw these strange objects flying over the stadium.

Some accounts claimed the objects dropped

a glitter-like substance

and others describe the objects as looking like,

you guessed it, a Cuban cigar.

But as MJ Banias points out,

this cigar-shaped sighting has something others may lack.

This case has a lot going for it

from a credibility perspective.

One, you have a fighter pilot who knows the sky.

He knows what should and shouldn't be up there.

All pilots are trained to be aware of their surroundings

and to be on the lookout for something unusual.

Plus, the pilots who flew the Fiat G.91 reconnaissance plane

had very specialized training

to observe, record, and report with critical detail.

Could we have a better witness?

Let's see how our experts do with this one.

Rich Hoffman of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies

begins his evaluation of Cecconi's sighting.

Nobody's had craft that are cylindrical like this

without wings, without any typical structures

that we normally see on aircraft.

But it has positive lift.

There's no propulsion system on it

and yet, it's up in the air.

And as astrophotographer

Andrew McCarthy points out,

it did manage quite a disappearing act.

One of the most peculiar things about this object,

it went from being stationary in midair

to vanishing without a trace.

In order to accelerate out of this area that quickly,

it would've to have some kind of propulsion

that didn't exist in 1979

and certainly doesn't still exist today.

Some have speculated

it could be a secret military test craft,

but McCarthy doesn't see the logic.

You would think if this was some secret military craft,

they would've known what it was

and not sent a fighter pilot to go document it.

So we turn to another theory,

that this object was a solar balloon.

This actually really closely resembles

a solar balloon.

Solar balloons are made with black materials

so that they can absorb the sun's energy

so that they heat up the air and begin to float.

As Hoffman points out,

the balloon theory does also explain

the sudden disappearing act.

When it disappeared off radar,

was that because the balloon blew up and disintegrated?

But one piece of the balloon puzzle

just doesn't fit.

The object's stability

in the face of Cecconi's roaring jet wash.

In order to not be affected by the aircraft's turbulence,

this object would've had to be tethered

from at least three different locations.

That way, it would be stationary in the sky

and not move at all.

Despite being photographed from multiple angles,

not a single tether is visible

in these photographs of this object.

It's really hard to say for sure.

Our verdict? Genuine UFO.

At first glance, everything about these pictures indicates

we are looking at some kind of massive balloon.

But the pilot's testimony

about the object's bizarre stability in the jet wash

poses far more questions than we have answers for.

Now, let's move from the sky to heaven.

Statues of the Virgin Mary that appear to cry

have become pilgrimage sites for true believers.

Are these real acts of God or underhanded hoaxes?

When it comes to our next story,

even official investigators have been left befuddled.

It's the summer of 1973 in the outskirts of Akita, Japan.

42-year-old novice nun Sister Agnes Sasagawa

has just joined a Catholic convent.

When she arrives, the former Buddhist is totally deaf.

That June, she reportedly sees brilliant lights

suddenly coming from the tabernacle

where the chapel's Eucharist is stored.

A couple of weeks later, a cross-shaped wound showed up

on the inside left palm of her hand,

bleeding profusely and causing her a lot of pain.

Then, on July 6th, she actually heard a voice

coming from the Virgin Mary statue.

And how she heard it was profound.

The voice said, "Be patient.

Your deafness will soon be healed."

Later, on the same day that Sister Agnes

miraculously hears the voice with her deaf ears,

the nuns notice what they believe to be blood

flowing from a wound on this three-foot-tall statue

of the Virgin Mary.

On four different occasions,

the act of blood flow repeated itself

from the Virgin Mary statue's right hand.

On September 29th, the day that the blood disappeared,

what the sisters then noticed was sweat that started to emerge

from the forehead and neck of the statue.

It also began to give off this scent of sweet roses.

In Catholicism,

red roses represent Christ's passion

and white roses symbolize the Virgin Mary's purity.

More than a year later, in January 1975,

is when the statue begins to weep.

It's seen crying around 100 times

over the next 6.5 years.

Many Catholics across the world believe

that the tears that come from the Virgin Mary

are said to be crying over the sins of the world.

This is Mary's way of having empathy

for the sins and the sinners.

As Our Lady of Akita had promised,

in 1982, Sister Agnes suddenly and permanently

was cured of her deafness.

What's more, after eight years of in-depth investigations,

the local bishop recognized the supernatural character

of the mysterious events that happened at the shrine.

The entire diocese now venerates the statue.

So, was this all truly an act of God,

or was this something else entirely?

Dr. Ed Hope considers that these strange incidents

could have a natural, biological explanation.

There have been findings that crying Virgin Mary statues

are happening through natural

rather than supernatural events.

Like the materials used to create these statues

may build up condensation

which might cool and then look like tears or even sweat.

There's also been instances of fraud

where people would actually put tears

or blood on themselves.

And Hope adds,

there's also another, more sophisticated way

to pull off a hoax.

One of the other methods to fake this

would be to make a duct system behind

where fluid would be drawn through.

And by making a small incision

near where the tear duct would open up,

it gives the impression

that the tears are coming from the eyes.

But Catholic miracle researcher Michael O'Neill

says a thorough investigation of Our Lady of Akita

has eliminated some of these fraudulent

or accidental explanations.

When investigators looked at this statute,

they tried to rule out internal duct work or a leaky pipe

or somebody sneaking in with an eye dropper

and dropping these tears on the statue.

But this tear started and stopped

with witnesses from the very beginning

at the end of these occurrences.

In addition, the sculptor has confirmed

the statue was made from one solid piece of dry hard wood,

so there are no joints where piping could be added.

O'Neill says scientists also did

a thorough examination of the statue.

Here's a closeup of this weeping statue

of the Virgin Mary.

Scientists have validated as them being human tears

coming from this wooden statue.

O'Neill adds that the other fluids

have also been tested.

They tested the tears, the blood, and the sweat

emanating from the statue.

They found that it was from group AB, group B, and group O.

And in doing so they also identified that it didn't match

that of Sister Agnes Sasagawa,

the mystic who was claiming these experiences.

O'Neill believes it only leads to one conclusion.

I personally consider the supernatural events

that are claimed with Our Lady of Akita in Japan

to be perhaps one of the greatest instances of miracles

that the Catholic Church has ever examined.

Our verdict? We are going to call this a possible miracle.

The obvious explanations have been eliminated.

The local bishop and the estimated 2,000 people

who witnessed the Lady of Akita's tears

certainly think God is involved here.

What about you?

Since its first rocket achieved orbit in 2008,

SpaceX has continued to innovate

and push the boundary of space exploration.

And while CEO Elon Musk hopes to bring humans to Mars

as soon as 2029,

video from one SpaceX mission has raised concerns

about what might await us in the final frontier.

Eject and liftoff.

It's April 23rd, 2021.

SpaceX's spacecraft Endeavour

is on its way to the International Space Station.

12 minutes after liftoff,

the capsule containing four astronauts

separates from the rocket's second stage.

But as the crew back at NASA

applauds the successful uncoupling,

the livestream camera captures something truly shocking.

A foreign object can be seen floating through the gap,

missing the craft by mere seconds.

The object is round, though not a perfect sphere,

and it appears to be black in color

but its details are shrouded in shadow.

It looks like if they hadn't separated

in the nick of time, it would've impacted the spacecraft.

And no one knows what it is.

It's not an object anyone was tracking in orbit,

so no one knew that it was going to be there.

One theory that gains traction

is that the object is some sort of scout UFO

that originally came from a larger UFO.

Basically, the idea is that alien craft

are exploring our planet

and instead of landing with the mothership,

they're launching these small reconnaissance vehicles,

which is not that dissimilar

to how we've explored our own solar system.

Think that's too out there?

Consider that Sean Kirkpatrick,

former Head of the Pentagon's UFO Office,

and Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb

wrote a paper to support the theory.

But what could be drawing the interstellar attention?

Our use of space used to be just scientific exploration,

but now we've got space tourism,

we've got early militarization.

In fact, 2022 saw a record 180 rocket launches.

Some might wonder

whether extraterrestrials are getting concerned

that we're starting to really encroach on their territory.

SpaceX is reportedly involved

in over half of all near misses in space.

Many of all SpaceX's Starlink project,

an unmanned satellite internet network.

But a near miss with a spacecraft

carrying four astronauts?

Now we're talking about human lives.

So is something targeting our spacecraft?

Our experts are on a collision course with the truth.

Before we embrace an exotic theory like alien space probes,

we first ask Tim McMillan if this could be a hostile act

from a rival human military.

As Sci-Fi as it sounds,

he says multiple countries have considered

placing weapons in space.

In the late 1970s,

the Soviet Union did a experiment

with something called the Almaz,

which was putting a 23-millimeter cannon

on one of their satellite systems

to give it an offensive capability.

And in the 1980s,

as part of President Reagan's Star Wars initiative,

was a classified program called Brilliant Pebbles

and the idea behind it was

to place various missile systems in orbit

as a defensive and offensive capability.

But McMillan doesn't think

this foreign object is from a foreign power.

If someone had fired a weapon at the capsule,

we would know,

because a satellite system that's firing

some type of projectiles would certainly be noticeable

to the other space-based sensor systems

that are already in place.

What about another manmade object, a satellite?

It's got none of the physical characteristics

of a satellite, like the large solar sail,

in addition to the fact that satellite systems

are on known trajectory paths

and you certainly wouldn't have run the risk

of an impact from a satellite.

So it's definitely not a satellite.

Taking into consideration

this object's organic shape,

we ask astronomer Marc D'Antonio if it could be a meteor.

This might actually be about the right size for a meteor.

The only problem is that meteors hit the Earth

at thousands and thousands of miles per hour,

and this thing is just lazily floating through the view,

so that wouldn't be the case.

Then could it simply be space junk?

Scientists estimate orbiting the Earth

are about 13,000 pieces of debris

bigger than a soft softball,

100,000 bigger than a penny,

and tens of millions of pieces even smaller than that.

Space is cluttered.

There could come a time when it will be very dangerous

for us to try and leave our planet.

But in this particular case, probably not space junk,

and the reason comes down to the fact that

you can see it passing in front of this,

which is part of the rocket itself.

Phew, that means this is a small, tiny object

that got loose, probably from the inside of the rocket

during the staging process,

where this stage moves away from this stage.

And McMillan says this would explain

the radar omission.

That's one reason that you wouldn't have picked it up

as any type of space junk

is because it actually traveled with the rocket into space.

Our verdict? We are leaning toward rocket debris

that broke off from the second stage,

though we can't say for certain

which piece of the rocket it was.

It's sad to hear that pollution

is becoming a problem in space like it is on Earth.

Thankfully, NASA is well equipped to help spacecraft

dodge most of the debris

with a meticulous catalog of 27,000 objects

in Earth's orbit.

We have all heard the expression,

"running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

But what about swimming around like a fish with no head?

Haven't heard that one?

Well, it might catch on after our next video.

November 2021, Oxbow Lake, Bangladesh.

Recent college grad Rayyan Rafat

is getting ready to go fishing with his family

when he spots something horrifyingly strange

swimming towards him.

He pulls out his camera and records this.

A fish swimming gracefully in the water

completely devoid of its head.

Surprisingly, the creature's acting naturally

and seems to be perfectly fine,

other than the fact that it's been decapitated.

It was quite shocking because we never saw

a headless fish ever in our lives.

Neither did the locals.

How is this fish still alive?

This absolutely creeped us out.

Field researcher Cliff Barackman

takes a look at this baffling footage

that's been viewed over three million times

on social media.

So people would automatically wonder, like,

is this some sort of strange mutant fish

that can live without its head?

There are a lot of different fish in the world

and a lot of these species of fish

can do some pretty amazing things.

The Antarctic toothfish, for example,

can swim through freezing cold water and not die

because they have some sort of natural antifreeze

in their blood.

And the black swallower can actually swallow prey

10 times their size.

So could this be some kind of amazing, undead fish

that can function without a head?

Chickens, cockroaches, snakes, and even turtles

have all been documented to live moments past decapitation.

Well, as crazy as it sounds,

Barackman says the idea that we are looking

at some type of zombie fish

has gained significant popularity online.

Zombies have just really infiltrated our culture

in a lot of ways.

Anything that lives beyond its seeming death,

of course, nowadays, we would say,

"Oh, that's very zombie-like."

According to Barackman,

the fantastical concept that a zombie could be created

by a virus that animates dead flesh

has some roots in reality.

He points to one specific zombie-inducing parasite

that starts its possession cycle in the water.

Euhaplorchis californiensis is a saltwater parasite

that lives in marshes.

It finds a fish and it goes into the brain

and then changes its behavior

to make it swim more erratically.

The fish, which is now under the physical control

of the parasite, makes these erratic movements

in the hope that it will attract a hungry bird

and be swallowed up,

a necessary step for the parasite to spread.

And now the parasite is living inside the bird.

The bird will eventually poop

and the poop will be eaten by snails,

a new host in which to breed.

The snails' offspring finds another fish,

and that is how these animals live.

On a previous episode,

we took a look at a fish's severed head

that was still actively biting

long after it was separated from its body.

Could we be looking at a similar phenomenon but in reverse?

Let's see what's swimming around in our experts' heads.

We first checked in

with our video forensic analyst, Michael Primeau,

to make sure what we're looking at here is real.

We weren't able to identify any particular tool

that had manipulated it

or any evidence that it was manipulated.

From a general point of view, this file appears to be genuine.

There are no inconsistencies or evidence of CGI

that I'm alarmed with.

According to Primeau, whatever this is, it's real.

So we went to biologist Floyd Hayes to see if he thought

we could be looking at some parasite-controlled zombie fish.

This cannot be an example of a parasitic infection

because there's no head for a parasite to infect.

What I think happened is the head was severed by a predator,

or by the propeller blade of a boat,

and it's still able to swim for a while before it dies.

Marine biologist Shea Steingass agrees with Hayes

that this fish definitely encountered some mishap.

But there might be a little more here than meets the eye,

or in this case, eyes.

It appears to be a plecostomus.

Plecostomus, or plecos, are very tough.

We can actually see what appear to be

the eye sockets of this fish.

The brainstem of these animals is actually located

behind the eye sockets,

so as long as it has basic parts of its brain

and central nervous system in place,

it can survive for quite a period of time

until it essentially runs out of calories from eating.

And it still has gills and it still has muscles,

but it probably won't live too much longer

based on what I'm seeing here.

Our verdict? Natural phenomenon,

although a rather macabre one.

Thanks to an intact brainstem,

this fish is still able to swim normally

for a finite amount of time.

And while our friend here

may have become a viral internet star,

it doesn't look like he'll be getting

ahead in life anytime soon.

In July of 2023,

a former military officer testified to Congress

that the US has long had

a secret UFO crash retrieval program.

If true, it means that aliens exist

and that at least one country's military

has access to their technology.

Is there an alien tech arms race going on right now?

Some people think this next video could be proof.

June 12th, 2015.

Quade Mott from Greenwood, Indiana

is taking a leisurely afternoon bike ride.

But when he looks up at the overcast sky,

what he sees shocks him.

Emerging from the clouds is a strange beam of light

that seems to shift erratically.

Let's take a closer look.

The beam doesn't seem to emanate from the ground.

Instead, it seems to be coming from the sky.

The beam ominously pulses and changes direction,

leaving Quade unnerved.

I've never seen anything like it before

and the way it kept moving back and forth,

it looked like almost like a lightning,

but it wouldn't go away,

it just kept moving and stayed like in the same spot.

After seeing the footage,

author Jason MartelL says one theory

is that it's some kind of advanced government tech.

Some people think what we're seeing here

is some type of perhaps a directed energy weapon.

Directed energy weapons are usually

some type of a high-powered system

that allows for sets of energy

to be focused on their target,

completely destroying the target

that it focuses its energy on.

There are three main types

of directed energy weapon systems.

Laser-based, which date back to the 1960s,

radio frequencies such as high-powered microwaves,

and particle beams, which are still in development.

What they all have in common is an ability to attack

with nothing but energy.

However, others have speculated that what we're seeing

is actually extraterrestrials

attempting to communicate with us

using the pulses of the light beam

as a sort of interstellar Morse code.

An author from NASA by the name of Douglas Vakoch

theorized that our first encounter

with some type of an extraterrestrial civilization

would be utilizing some type of a messaging system.

Even Albert Einstein suggested that light rays might be used

as some easily controllable method

to communicate with some type of a non-human

or extraterrestrial intelligence.

These aren't the first strange energy pulses

to have been recorded emerging from cloud cover.

Check out this 2011 video from Singapore.

Watch these pulses here.

Are they random and erratic,

or is it proof of something intentional?

Is this some new terrifying military tech,

or a signal from above?

Let's see what signals our experts sent us.

But first, astronomer and VFX artist Marc D'Antonio

investigates the theory

that we're looking at a powerful directed energy weapon.

A directed energy weapon shoots a beam of particles

in one direction.

They won't necessarily make a beam like you see here.

This is because

the pulses created by directed energy weapons,

like radio frequency systems,

use non-visible types of energy such as microwaves.

You'd see a source and then a result down at the bottom.

You may not see anything in between

of a directed energy weapon.

So this doesn't have the characteristics

of one of those directed weapons.

Some speculate that this could be a searchlight,

like the high-powered spotlights found on police helicopters.

But D'Antonio isn't so sure.

Where would the source of the searchlight be?

It'd be here in the middle of a thundercloud.

If you're flying your helicopter in a thundercloud,

you risk getting your license pulled

because that's a dangerous, irresponsible act.

According to our meteorologist Juan Hernandez,

inside the thundercloud is exactly

where we need to search for answers.

Anytime there is a change in the electrical charges

in the storm, particles of ice that are on top

of the storm are switching back and forth,

causing the light being reflected

to change direction as well.

What we're looking at here is a crown flash.

It's a meteorological optical illusion.

Think of it as a meteorological disco ball.

As the reflective ice moves, so does the reflected light.

The reason we see it wiggling back and forth

is because those ice platelets that are on top of the storm

are changing quite rapidly in direction.

Now, if they shift one way or the other,

the light beam is gonna change direction.

Hernandez looks at the weather in Indiana

from that day and confirms the conditions were perfect

to create a crown flash.

It was a hot, humid day,

which was perfect for thunderstorm development.

Taking a look at the satellite view, we see

those strong thunderstorms across southern Indiana.

Now, all these thunderstorms

likely have crown flashes ongoing.

It's just a matter of whether somebody's there

to see them or not.

Our verdict? Gotta go with crown flash.

No enemy military tech or alien overtures,

just nature putting on an incredible show.

But keep your eye on the skies.

If we do get a pulsing instant message from another galaxy,

we don't wanna miss it.

Some people like to listen to the sounds of nature

in order to calm down and relax,

but I'm pretty confident the forest sounds in our next story

will have quite the opposite effect.

It's September 2018 in the Great Smoky Mountains.

A bird enthusiast is making his way along the trail

when he suddenly hears this.

At first, many listeners assume it's a buzz saw

starting and stopping.

However, there are no known logging operations

happening in the area,

so another theory emerges.

Could it be the trees themselves?

For centuries, stories of living or magical trees

can be found all over the world.

You can find examples in Greek mythology,

where you have creatures like the dryads

who are forest spirits that inhabit every tree.

And even in Arab folklore,

you can find examples of djinns living in trees.

Recent scientific discoveries

have revealed that these legends of vocalizing trees

may have some actual roots in reality.

Recent experiments in Tel Aviv have even shown

that plants that are exposed to painful pressures,

such as damage or dehydration,

can emit sounds.

The results of this experiment

could alter the way that we think about the plant kingdom,

which has, up until now, often been thought of as silent.

In the Smoky Mountains,

hemlock trees are under attack from an invasive pest,

the hemlock woolly adelgid.

Some suggest that perhaps out of desperation,

these plants are attempting to create sounds

for human attention.

Is it possible that this area is trying to communicate

and say, "Help"?

Scientists believe the Smoky Mountains to be somewhere

between 200 and 300 million years old.

Some of the full-grown trees there

are older than half a millennium.

I would imagine if a tree that old could talk,

it would have some pretty fascinating things to say.

But for now, let's listen to our experts.

NASA geologist Bob Anderson confirms

that the hemlock trees in the Smoky Mountains

may actually be screaming for help.

There's research going on

that plants can actually make sound.

The research recently happened in Tel Aviv University

where they recorded a tomato plant

in ultrasonic frequencies.

About up to 16 feet away,

they were still hearing this clicking or popping sound.

It's not a rhythmic sound.

It usually happens when the plant is low on water

or it has stem damage.

Some scientists theorize

that these sounds are being made by air bubbles

forming and bursting in the plant's vascular systems.

And while plants and certain other animals

may hear these sounds, unfortunately, humans can't.

Most plant sounds

are into what we call the ultrasonic rage,

which means that they're very, very high pitched.

Humans cannot hear in the ultrasonic spectrum.

And so if the trees or if any plants

were making that kind of sound,

humans would not be able to pick it up.

And as far as a mechanical sound

such as a buzz saw,

Anderson says no way.

With a manmade sound like a drill or construction,

the sounds are much more consistent

and have a very narrow frequency range.

This sound starts, stops,

goes up in pitch, it goes down in pitch.

The most obvious thing would be that it is biological.

And while Anderson is a geologist

and not a wildlife biologist,

he has an educated guess about which local creature

might be making this noise.

In the video, you can see what appears to be a female elk.

Male elk can make a sound that's very deep and very hollow

that comes out during the mating season.

So I can almost come to the conclusion

that there is a male elk in the area.

Is it possible that this otherworldly sound

is just a mating call from a male elk?

We checked with forensic audio analyst professor Rob Maher.

When the male elk are trying to attract females,

they emit a sound that's referred to as bugling,

and here's an example.

The frequency range of the most energy

in these cases is very similar,

and then the duration is very similar.

And that leads me to the conclusion

the unknown sound that we're hearing

is actually a bull elk bugling.

Making this sound that they would make

to attract the females in that season.

Our verdict? Bull elk mating cry.

So no screaming trees desperate for help this time,

just an obnoxiously loud male elk desperate for love.

Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci once said,

"The eyes are the window of the soul."

But there's a man in Turkey

who's been challenging that notion since he was 12,

and he just might be able to teach Leonardo

a thing or two about painting.

March 2009, Ankara, Turkey.

Artist Esref Armagan is at work in his studio.

He may look like an ordinary painter,

but as the camera films him working,

Esref reveals something extraordinary

about his background.

Astonishingly, Esref's work,

which he's shown painting with his fingers on camera,

seems to display an advanced understanding

of depth and perspective using shading.

He also uses an impressive array of vibrant colors

as seen in these landscapes and still lives.

Esref's many wondrous works of art

raise the question,

how can someone who was born without sight

draw and paint objects they've never seen?

Journalist Erin McCarthy says it has long been established

that blind people can compensate for their lack of sight

with enhanced hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

One example of sensory compensation

is when blind individuals master the skill of echolocation.

There's a blind man named Brian Bushway

who uses echolocation.

He will make these clicking noises

and then use the sound bouncing back

to orient himself within space.

Echolocation is used by animals like dolphins and bats,

so the fact that a human can do this too is pretty cool.

Another theory, could the theoretical third eye,

also known as the mind's eye, be at play here?

The third eye is the sixth chakra

and it is said to be in the middle of the brow or forehead.

In some Eastern religions

like Buddhism and Hinduism,

chakras are thought to be focal points

for different types of energy throughout the body.

The third eye chakra is sometimes referred to

as our sixth sense

and is said to be linked to perception, awareness,

and communication with the spirit world.

Opening up the third eye is said to increase intuition,

spiritual perception, and universal connection,

and helps you access information

beyond what we see with our own eyes.

More than 300 years ago,

philosopher William Molyneux pondered whether a blind person

who was suddenly able to see

would be able to visually identify objects

which they previously knew only by touch.

A study finally answered the question in 2011.

No, blind patients who gained vision

through cataract surgery

could not identify such objects by sight.

So, what can explain Esref's ability?

Let's get our experts' perspective.

First up, Dr. Ed Hope explains why the third eye theory

doesn't pass the test.

We all, in fact, have a third eye,

and this is a small gland right in the center of your head

called the pineal gland.

And it's called the third eye

because it actually has some cells in it

that are very similar to the photoreceptors

at the back of your eye.

Now, the pineal gland's function has nothing to do

with it being a sensory organ.

In fact, it secretes melatonin

to regulate your sleep-wake cycle.

It has no sensory function within humans.

This doesn't rule out

that some people can activate a spiritual third eye.

Yet, Hope believes Esref isn't employing

any extra sensory abilities,

but he's instead just using the senses

that most humans are born with in exceptional ways.

The sensitivity of our touch sensors in our fingers

are second only to our tongue and lips,

and he uses that to feel exactly what he's about to draw.

And then he uses an ability called stereognosis,

which is the idea that we can build pictures in our mind.

And then he's able to translate that through the paint.

In 2004, Harvard University scientists

ran brain and eye scan tests on Esref.

They discovered that his brain's visual cortex

became activated whenever he began painting or drawing,

which theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, identifies

as an astonishing example of human adaptation.

When I saw evidence of what this person can do,

I said to myself,

"It must be an example of neuroplasticity."

The brain basically rearranges itself

so the visual areas are being hijacked

and the sensory areas of touch are expanding.

So this person is using the sense of touch

to compensate for the fact

that the person has no visual instincts.

But what about those realistic colors

and his ability to use shading to portray depth perception?

Kaku says practice makes perfect.

He has to be trained as a child

to understand that the sky is blue and white with clouds.

That this paint here represents yellow.

Yellow in turn represents the color of the sun.

Perspective requires your movement in the third dimension.

For example, the farther you are away, the smaller you are.

Somebody has to teach him that,

and of course it takes time,

but eventually he became a master of both.

Colors are all correct

and the perspectives are all in the right proportions,

and that's how he's able to make these fantastic paintings.

Our verdict? Esref's artistic ability

seems to be the product of neuroplasticity.

He has also managed to hone his skills

with decades of trial and error and training.

But even though he puts his hands on his paintings,

if you ever see one, please don't touch.

And that's our show for tonight.

We always have so much fun putting these episodes together.

Thank you so much for watching,

and altogether now...

Keep those cameras rolling!