All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.Special.Presentation.S02E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
An imperial advisor

who foretold
the end of a dynasty.

A trance-like state of mind,

attained by a mysterious oracle.

And an entire organization
founded on the ability

to predict the future.

There's something about
human nature that compels us

to want to know
what the future will bring.

We use predictions all the time
when it comes to weather

or traffic
or even the stock market.

While most predictions
are simply a best guess

based on experience,

there are those among us
who have the ability

to see the future
in vivid detail.

Who are these mystics

who possess
the power of prediction?

And just how do they tap
into an unseeable realm

to capture details
beyond our reach?

And is the ability to see
the future a special gift

or something
we all are capable of?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
In our modern world,

it might be tempting
to assume that prophecy

is merely an antiquated fantasy
from the past

that has no relevance today.

But the surprising truth
is that millions of people

still rely on psychics,
palm readers

and fortune tellers of all kinds

for guidance about the future.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
People want to know
about the future.

Our hopes get projected
into prophecies,

the things
that might get better.

Our fears get projected
into prophecies,

the things that might go bad.

And various writers and mystics

attempt to tell us
what is coming.

Sometimes they get it right.

MITCH HOROWITZ:
Predictions continue
to garner attention today

because human nature tends
to go in the direction

of something
that it considers beneficial.

And so, when we speak
of prognostication,

or peering into the future,

we at least
have to give credence

to the possibility
that prophecy works.

SHATNER:
Is it possible
that some people do, in fact,

have the ability
to peer into the future?

Well, for thousands of years,
humanity has turned

to so-called prophets
for information

about what the future holds.

So, perhaps a close examination
of some ancient clairvoyants

and their bold predictions
will shed light

on the mysterious power
of prophecy.

Deep in this remote,
mountainous region

lies a small village
called Nantian township.

In the center of the community,
there is a commemorative square,

within which stands
a 15-foot-tall statue

dedicated to an ancient
prophet named Liu Bowen.

DAVID ROBINSON:
Liu Bowen

is one of the most
well-known figures

in all of Chinese history.

He's born in 1311,
he dies in 1375.

He was a close adviser
of the emperor

of the Ming dynasty,
or the Hongwu Emperor.

In the surviving letters
that we have,

the emperor repeatedly
and explicitly refers

to Liu Bowen's ability
to see the future.

DOMINIC STEAVU:
On account of Liu Bowen's access

to this untapped knowledge
about the future,

the emperor was able to

predict where enemy troops were,
when they would strike,

and he was able to defend
or attack them successfully.

Very famously,
there's a story that says

he helped the Ming emperor
secure the throne

and overthrow the Mongols,

who ruled over China previously
for a few hundred years.

So, Liu Bowen
was a very useful adviser,

and he's, uh, seen as a kind of

a cultural hero
nowadays in China.

SHATNER:
Liu Bowen made thousands
of predictions

related to Chinese
affairs of state.

But his most famous prophecy
was of an event that took place

not during his lifetime
but rather

more than 500 years
after his death.

All across China, uprisings
occur against the Qing dynasty.

The Revolution culminates
in the abdication

of the child Emperor Puyi,

and the end
of the Chinese monarchy.

This is one of the most
important events

in all of Chinese history,
because it's the end

of a dynastic system

that had been in play
since at least 221 BC.

So, we're talking about

2,000 years of history
that ends.

And Liu Bowen is credited
with having seen this,

having seen the Revolution
in the 20th century.

SHATNER:
For some, the idea that a man
who lived in the 1300s

could successfully predict
the overthrow

of the last emperor of China
in 1911 might sound impossible.

But many Chinese people
believe that Liu Bowen did,

in fact, do just that.

And as evidence, they point
to a cryptic poem Bowen wrote

that is called
the "Song of Shaobing."

STEAVU:
One of the most
important parts of the song

is it has a line about
one of the last emperors dying

prematurely in his palace,
and this actually occurred.

The penultimate emperor
died as a result

of what was probably poisoning

at a relatively young age
in the palace.

And it happened only a number
of years before the Revolution.

Following this description

of the emperor's
premature death,

there is a line about

the appearance
of a "golden dragon."

Now, the term "golden dragon"
in the Chinese culture

refers to a ruler
who is adored by his people.

And this is, indeed,
what happened

when Sun Yat-sen came to power

as the first
provisional president

of the Republic of China
following the Revolution.

He was the savior and father
of the Chinese nation.

SHATNER:
Because of its parallels

with the events
of the 1911 Revolution,

the ancient "Song of Shaobing"

is considered an authentic
prophecy in Chinese culture.

And in fact, many people believe
that Liu Bowen's predictions

continue to have
relevance today.

ROBINSON:
You can go online, uh,

social media, YouTube,
et cetera, et cetera,

and there are lengthy,
detailed discussions

of Liu Bowen's prophecies

and how they might match
current events.

People read current events
in light of those prophecies,

and he's credited now

with having foreseen
coronavirus.

STEAVU: The prophecy
describes a massive plague

that will ravage China
and the rest of the world.

It mentions
that the brunt of this plague

will occur
in the Year of the Pig

and the Year of the Rat,

and this corresponds
to 2019 and 2020.

The details
are incredibly precise.

ROBINSON:
People revisited
Liu Bowen's prophecies

and they see this reference
to the eruption of an epidemic.

And this seems
to provide answers,

to provide some sense of order,
offer guidance and clarity.

He did foresee this, just
as he's foreseen other things.

SHATNER:
Liu Bowen's predictions

about the future
of Chinese dynastic history

took hundreds of years
to come to fruition.

But if you were looking
for more timely advice

thousands of years ago,
there was actually a place

where people
of all types could go

to consult directly
with the gods.

SHATNER: Here on the slopes
of Mount Parnassus

lies the ruins
of several holy sanctuaries

that were constructed
by the ancient Greeks.

The most famous
of these structures

is the Temple of Apollo.

Built in the 5th century BC,
the Temple of Apollo

was the site
of a sacred ceremony

in which farmers, merchants
and even kings

would come to hear prophecies
about their future

from a high priestess who was
known as the Oracle of Delphi.

The Oracle at Delphi is
a unique individual in the past.

This is a woman who,
through her prophecy,

was able to see the future,

and people are coming to her

and expecting to get information
that helps sway their actions.

So the Oracle at Delphi was
one of the most powerful women

in ancient Greece.

HALE:
Inside the Temple of Apollo,

the Oracle was seated
on a high tripod

and would be open
for consultations,

and people would come
from all over the world.

So, kings would come.

Farmers would come
if they wanted

to know about the next harvest.

Everybody came,
in the ancient world, to Delphi

with a life-changing question,

and she could then prophesize,
give you a sign,

what's the right way to go.

Her magical power to channel

the prophetic gods
was at your service.

SHATNER:
The Oracle of Delphi
reportedly predicted

numerous important events
in the ancient world,

including the rise
of Alexander the Great

and the death
of the Roman emperor Nero.

Many historians believe
a clue to her powers of prophecy

can be found in the writings

of an ancient Greek historian
named Plutarch.

Plutarch wrote three long pieces
about Delphi...

...and Plutarch described
how when the Oracle

was in the trance--
the ecstasy of the prophecy--

this "breath"
came up from Mother Earth,

and Plutarch also said
it smelled sweet like perfume.

And when Mother Earth
is breathing at Delphi,

the Delphic Oracle
goes into an altered state,

and she becomes like
a ventriloquist dummy,

but the ventriloquist
is the wisdom of Mother Earth

spoken through
the Delphic Oracle in Greece.

SHATNER:
What was the mysterious breath

from Mother Earth that gave
the Oracle her prophetic power?

Well, in 2003,

a team led by archaeologist
Dr. John Hale

uncovered evidence
which suggests

that the answer
to this ancient riddle

does, in fact,
lie in the earth itself.

The Temple of Apollo
had been built around

a subterranean cleft.

We wanted to collect some rocks
and see if, by any chance,

that big geological fault
that runs under the temple

released intoxicating gases

that the woman got
into her altered state from.

So, we took our rock samples,

we had them analyzed
in the labs,

and they showed a cocktail
of light hydrocarbon gases:

methane, ethane and ethylene.

Ethylene is what puts
the sweet smell in every flower,

in the grapes you harvest,

in living things
that smell sweet,

and it is one of the most
instantly intoxicating gases

known to humanity.

It's the ethylene that does it.

The woman is seated
on that tripod

directly above the cleft.

And as the gases come up
and she inhales them,

these sweet-smelling gases,
With the first whiff,

she would be
in an altered state,

because it could go straight
through her nasal passages

and into her brain.

HOROWITZ:
The Oracle of Delphi
may have been in a state

of intoxication that would give
visions to the prophetess.

Psychedelic substances

bring about a-a relaxation
of inhibitions,

and there are experiments
that have been done

that have raised
tantalizing questions

about the possibility
of precognition

using what we would call
narcotics today.

SHATNER:
Did inhaling gas

that rose out of the earth

allow the Oracle of Delphi
to see the future?

It's a fascinating possibility.

And in fact,
for thousands of years,

priests, prophets and shamans
from all over the world

have used exotic substances

to unlock prophetic abilities.

One of the best-known examples

is a curious drink
called ayahuasca.

LACY:
Ayahuasca is a brewed concoction

made amongst a number
of Amazonian tribes

and contains a number
of different kinds of plants.

Ayahuasca has been
purported to elicit

feelings of flying,

and shamans use ayahuasca

to have an ability
to see the future,

or to be able to make prophecy.

Ayahuasca is often ingested
in religious ceremonies

in the Amazon basin...

...and used as a sacred,

ceremonial substance,
or sacrament.

It is said to release
the mind into a deeper,

realer state of being,
of vision,

to help somebody
glean information

that they might be
closed off from

under normal circumstances,

in an effort
to foretell the future.

SHATNER:
The fact that ancient cultures
around the world

used mind-altering substances
to enable prophecy

raises a fascinating question.

Did these concoctions

actually help our ancestors
see the future,

as people have believed
for centuries?

HALE:
Anytime you're playing
with intoxicants

and your brain especially
is being affected,

you can't always be sure
what's going to happen.

Delphi shows us
an example of a culture

in which, when they say
there was an external force

coming up out of the rock
that triggered the trance,

we can back that up
with the geology to show people,

"Take these
ancient accounts seriously."

SHATNER:
We'll never know if the power
of the prediction

witnessed in the Oracle
of Delphi

was merely fume-induced fantasy

or the actual ability
to see the future.

What can we learn
about the secrets of the past

by examining the abilities
of modern-day prophets?

SHATNER:
Craig Hamilton-Parker,

an English psychic and medium,

posts a series
of prophecies on his website,

some of them quite ominous
and even oddly disturbing.

I've been a psychic medium
all my life,

in touch with the spirit world
and sometimes make predictions.

And in, uh, 2015,

I decided to put
some predictions on my website.

I said that there'd be
a massive earthquake in Japan.

I wrote that Brexit
would happen, and at the time,

everybody was saying,
"It's never gonna happen,

everybody's going to vote
to remain, there's no chance."

I saw the terrorist attacks
in Nice in my vision

and I put those
in my predictions.

Sometimes I don't like
telling the future.

SHATNER:
Within a year,
the predictions Craig made

came surprisingly

and, in some cases,
frighteningly true.

On April 16, 2016,

Kumamoto, Japan was shaken
by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

50 people were killed and more
than 3,000 people injured.

And then, on June 23rd,

over half of Great Britain
voted to approve Brexit

and leave the European Union.

Finally, on July 14th,

a 19-ton truck
driven by a terrorist

plowed through a crowded
market in Nice, France,

killing 86 people
and injuring over 400.

Of course, not all of Craig's
prophecies ended up happening.

For instance,
he predicted that a gas attack

would take place
in a European city,

but there was no such attack
in Europe that year.

But the fact that he got three
out of four predictions right

led many to believe
that his uncanny ability

to see the future
couldn't have been a mere fluke.

The natural question
that people have is,

"Where does a prediction
come from?"

Where is the so-called psychic
getting this information from?

The first explanation we go to

is that it's some sort
of psychosis,

but that doesn't really hold up

because you can't
turn crazy on and off.

And the fact is,
if you meet most of these folk--

and I've met plenty of them--
they're perfectly ordinary,

everyday, functioning people.

SHATNER:
According to Craig,

his ability to see events
before they happen

is one he was born with.

Since childhood,
he surprised his family

with what he called
"flashes of the future,"

glimpses of things that hadn't
yet come to pass but often did.

And in his early 20s, he decided
to make a journey to India,

where he studied
the writings of ancient oracles

and honed his raw talent.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
So, I became very interested

in this idea that
there's an ancient tradition

that goes back
right through time

over many, many centuries,

maybe back tens
of thousands of years.

For me, seeing the future
is a bit like a dream experience

in many respects.

I use an old technique
from India called trataka,

which I look into a candle,
basically.

You go into a sort
of a state of gazing

and then move
the image of that candle

into the middle
of what we call the third eye.

And you'll see it
as an afterimage

on the back of the eye,

where all these visions
will appear.

I see things-- things I know,
things I don't know.

It's like the universe
knows better than I do.

It gave me this information

and it's kind of my duty
to put it out there.

SHATNER:
In the fall of 2016,
another of Craig's prophecies,

this time about
the U.S. presidential election,

came to pass.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
I kept getting glimpses

of this strange character,

you know, and I thought,
"Who on Earth is this?"

And then, suddenly,
Trump announces himself

in the primaries,
and then I knew,

that's what I'd been seeing.

That was this strange figure
that kept coming into

my meditations

and interrupting, uh,
my thoughts.

Clearly, for me,
Trump was gonna be president,

even though everybody
at this time was saying,

"He don't stand a chance
of ever being president."

But the unconscious
seemed to know better.

SHATNER:
But how is Craig
actually getting

these messages about the future?

Are they really coming
from his unconscious mind?

Precognition is, um,
the scientific term

for things like premonitions,

and it's getting accurate
information about a future event

that you didn't cause.

MICHIO KAKU:
We think that the brain,

no matter how complicated
and nonlinear it is,

is still something
that could be reduced down

to the laws of physics.

Now, that doesn't mean
that the brain can't

imagine the future.

We are genetically hardwired
to have premonitions.

We can't stop it.
It's part of our makeup.

ANNE CLEARY:
The feeling of premonition
might be an example

of how our memories
orient us toward the future.

(horn blaring)

So, current thinking
among memory researchers

is that our memories
are not useful to us so much

for their ability to enable us
to-to recollect the past

as they are useful to us
for enabling us

to navigate
and predict the future.

And from that perspective,
the idea that déjà vu,

which might result
from a memory process,

might be accompanied by feelings
of premonition, fits that.

HOROWITZ:
If somebody has an authentic
intuitive or insightful gift,

and I do think
such things exist,

I think it's a kind of ESP
in which certain individuals

are able to glean information
in anomalous ways,

in ways that go beyond
our ordinary five senses.

NICK POPE:
The Internet, TV talk shows,
and the best seller lists

are full of prophets
and prognosticators

claiming to be able
to divine the future.

And in a number of these cases,

they really seem
to be able to do it.

SHATNER:
If it's true that there are
such things as real psychics,

then where exactly does their
incredible gift come from?

And how can we
better understand it?

According to some researchers,

the explanation doesn't lie
in the distant future,

but rather the ancient past.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
The Bible makes it very clear
that biblical prophets

were not arbitrary individuals,
men or women,

who were just as if
minding their own business,

and then God chose them.

It wasn't like that at all.

It was an internal experience

that the Bible calls
a dream or a vision.

If you do not learn
how to understand dreams,

you will never understand
their message.

It is very clearly said
in the Bible

that prophets
had to go to school

to learn how
to experience and interpret

the spiritual message
which we call prophecy.

And the biblical teachings
of prophecy

were not limited to those
of the religious world.

Many people have been trained
in these techniques,

and we don't even realize it.

SHATNER:
Trained to see the future?

Could such a far-fetched,
but also tantalizing, notion

actually be possible?

I think our generation
is on the precipice

of a great question

about the extra physical
abilities of the mind.

I don't know
that we'll answer it,

but I think it is coming
more and more into focus

that materialism
just doesn't cover

all the bases of life anymore,

and that the mind
has capacities, including

extra physical capacities,
that are measurable,

that are present and that we're
only beginning to understand.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
It's a natural part
of the human condition

to make predictions,

and couldn't it be that
maybe our predictive ability

is far greater
than we've ever imagined?

That maybe every one of us
somehow has a way

of seeing
into the fabric of time.

We just have to trust
that ability.

SHATNER:
If each of us could learn
how to predict the future,

would we accept our fate
or fight to change it?

Are people who have
the power of prophecy

chosen, like
the Bible describes,

or is there a hidden capability

each one of us has that
simply needs to be unlocked?

For a young man
in Selma, Alabama,

it was the ability to receive
remarkable information

while in a deep trance that
would make him world-famous

and earn him the name
the Sleeping Prophet.

SHATNER:
In this small city,
at 21 Broad Street,

stands what looks like
an ordinary brick building.

But curiously,
a historic marker plaque

explains that
this was once the home

of an extraordinary man
named Edgar Cayce.

In the 1920s, people from all
over the country came to Selma

to visit Cayce and seek
information about the future

from the man known
as the Sleeping Prophet.

HOROWITZ:
Edgar Cayce was a man born

in the agricultural south
in the late 1870s,

but as he grew older,
he detected in himself

the ability to enter
into a sleep-like trance state

and be able to perform
what were considered

medically clairvoyant
readings of subjects.

He was said to have the ability

to diagnose and prescribe cures
for different bodily ailments.

In his writings, Edgar Cayce
described the process

as accessing information.

And he would read
that information,

speak it in trance.

(muttering)

Edgar believed that
his abilities were a gift.

But that it wasn't
a power of his own.

He was channeling
a higher power.

YOUNG:
Cayce comes at the time when

there was a strong interest
in fortune tellings of all kind.

For one thing,
there were tea rooms,

in which you could sell tea

and someone could look
at the tea leaves,

usually a fortune teller.

But on the other hand,

Edgar Cayce
is a little different.

The level of prophecy,

the predictions
he's making are-are

way beyond anything
that happens in a gypsy tearoom.

At first,
it was just local people

coming for these consultations,

but gradually over time,
his fame spread,

and Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla,

Woodrow Wilson asked his advice
about what might be coming up.

Edgar Cayce had a series
of readings we call

the World Affairs Readings,

in which he actually predicted

the crash of the
New York Stock Exchange

in 1929.

He also described
the Asian involvement

in the European war
of World War II.

Another fascinating aspect of
Edgar Cayce's readings is that

he foresaw and talked
about the Dead Sea Scrolls

long before
they were discovered in 1947.

He was talking about it
in the '30s and '40s.

And so, Edgar Cayce
had a great deal of success

with his psychic readings.

SHATNER:
Edgar Cayce
is considered by many

to be the best-documented
prophet of the 20th century.

Unlike most of
his contemporaries,

Cayce was widely believed to be
not a showman or an entertainer,

but rather,
a genuine clairvoyant.

But just where
was this information

he prophesied coming from?

Cayce's method to perform
acts of clairvoyance

was to glean information
from what he called the source,

or what he, at other times,
referred to

as the Akashic records.

The concept of akasha
extends back

to ancient Vedic culture,

and according
to Hindu tradition,

it was like an ethereal
hall of records,

in which all events that
ever occurred were imprinted.

And Edgar Cayce said that
this was the record book

that he was using to gain access
to extrasensory information.

SHATNER:
Was Edgar Cayce somehow able
to tap into a universal source

of knowledge that existed
outside of his own mind?

For now, the answer is unclear,

but people continue to read
Edgar Cayce's predictions

in hopes of uncovering
more prophecies

that actually came true.

Edgar Cayce's readings
first started

being recorded
systematically in 1923,

and there are
14,308 surviving readings,

and there are
thousands of readings

that have never been
fully explored.

There's a vast amount
that could be studied

that might have information
about the future.

And it's fascinating
to theorize about.

SHATNER:
Does the answer
to prophetic visions

lie in the subconscious?

In that elusive state
between wakefulness and sleep?

After all,
the fact that we dream

is evidence that our minds
never truly shut off.

But what if this ability
to see the future

could be put to the test

by an institution set up
to rigorously study

this phenomenon?

It just so happens
that such a place exists,

and it's called
the British Premonitions Bureau.

SHATNER:
News organizations broadcast
a series of horrific images

that stun viewers
across the country.

A tidal wave of mud and shale
has swallowed

the small coal mining town
of Aberfan in its entirety.

Of the 144 people
killed by the landslide,

116 are schoolchildren.

And for this
tight-knit community--

many of whom have lived
in Aberfan for generations--

the loss is devastating.

POPE:
One of the first people
to respond to the disaster

is psychiatrist John Barker.

Initially, he arrives to offer
consultation to the survivors.

VIVANCO:
So, when he gets there,
he's interviewing parents

that had lost children.

He was really surprised to hear
that there were premonitions

before it happened.

One boy drew a picture of people

amassed on the hillside,
digging into it.

And he wrote underneath,
"the end."

Also, there was a young girl
who told her mom

about a dream where she said
there was this black mass

over the school,
and she couldn't get in.

Both of these children
later went to school and died.

POPE:
Barker begins to wonder whether
these premonitions could be

used as a sort of
early warning system

that might prevent
future disasters.

So, he asked Peter Fairley,
who ran the science desk

at the national newspaper,
the London Evening Standard,

to consider setting up a program

to collate
people's premonitions.

Fairley not only agreed,

but he set up an entire bureau
to act as a focal point.

Starting in January 1967,
the bureau commences operations.

Reports come in,
and the bureau staff,

they devise an 11-point system
looking for patterns.

SHATNER:
The British Premonitions Bureau,

as it would come to be called,
collected 469 predictions

in its first year.

Unsurprisingly,
many never came true.

But those submitted by two
individuals--

Alan Hencher
and Lorna Middleton--

stood out from the crowd.

POPE:
Alan Hencher and Lorna Middleton

made headlines in March 1967,

when they both predicted
a train accident

just days before a passenger car
derailed, killing 49 people.

Hencher also had a premonition
about a fatal plane crash,

predicting the number
of people who would die.

That kind of accuracy
is staggering.

SHATNER:
For John Barker,
the notion that Hencher

and Middleton's predictions
might allow him to warn people

of disasters ahead of time
was an exciting one.

For the next year,
he sent hundreds

of what he believed
to be credible predictions

to the editors of
the London Evening Standard.

But, in the summer of 1968,

there was one deadly premonition
that he chose to ignore.

One that was shared by both
Hencher and Middleton,

and it involved
John Barker himself.

Around 1:00 in the morning,
Hencher calls Barker.

He's in a panic. He's got
a-a terrible premonition.

He says,
"Do you have a dark car?"

Barker says, "Yes,"
and he tells Barker,

"You have to be careful.
Be very, very careful."

Then Barker asked him,
"What, am I in danger?"

Hencher says, "Yes."

POPE:
Barker wrote a memo
the next day explaining

that Hencher could only explain
that the dark car

was somehow connected to Barker

and a potentially
deadly outcome.

It all seemed pretty vague
and perhaps

that wouldn't have worried
Barker so much

were it not for the fact
that there was another warning

from his other superstar,
Lorna Middleton.

SHATNER:
On August 18, 1968,

less than two years
after he had opened

his Bureau of Premonitions,

John Barker was suddenly rushed
to the hospital.

POPE:
Barker died of a sudden
brain hemorrhage, age 44.

The British Premonitions Bureau
closed down shortly thereafter.

SHATNER:
As for the dark car?

There are many who are convinced
that the answer is simple,

it was the funeral hearse
that conveyed John Barker's body

to its final resting place.

It raises the question,

was Barker's own death
just a coincidence?

Was it self-fulfilling prophecy

or like the rest
of the bureau's predictions,

was fate simply too powerful
to be stopped?

SHATNER:
In the heart of the city
stands the Louvre,

one of the most renowned museums
in the world.

Of the hundreds
of thousands of artworks

contained in its
prestigious galleries,

the biggest attraction
is the Mona Lisa,

which draws roughly ten million
visitors every year.

The Mona Lisa is one
of the many important paintings

created by celebrated
Renaissance artist

Leonardo da Vinci.

But curiously, da Vinci was
much more than just a painter,

he was also a pioneer
who envisioned

futuristic technologies.

Leonardo da Vinci is widely
regarded as the quintessential

Renaissance man
because he did it all.

He was an artist,
he was a gifted engineer,

and he was also
a great craftsman.

So, he had a wide array
of skills

combined with a brilliant mind.

When we think of da Vinci,
we often think about

his sketches
of amazing machines,

and he compiled this
vast collection of sketches

in his notebooks.

He was designing fortifications,
port facilities,

canals, catapults, and tanks.

These sketches
would be completely at home

in the notebook of
an engineering student today.

STEPHEN BULL:
Leonardo certainly had
an amazing imagination,

but one has to say
that Leonardo's ideas

were too advanced for his time,

in the sense that
he was stymied by the lack

of the right materials
in the period.

However, the fact that very few
of the things Leonardo depicted

actually were done shouldn't
really blind us to his genius.

SHATNER:
While most of da Vinci's
concepts were too advanced

to be built in the 15th century,

incredibly,

some traces of his actual
achievements can be seen today.

In Milan, a canal system
designed by da Vinci

has been preserved

and a military stronghold
he constructed in Switzerland

still stands.

But of all
the futuristic machines

envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci,

his most famous designs were in
pursuit of his dream of flight.

For decades,
modern historians have wondered

did da Vinci
actually discover the secret

to soaring through the sky,

centuries before
the invention of the airplane?

Leonardo's understanding
of flight was certainly

a lot deeper than many
of his contemporaries.

He was one of the first people
to study actual bird motion

to try to figure out how birds
flew under their own power.

If you look at Leonardo's flying
machines, the first machines

that he envisions
in his notebooks

are in fact ornithopter designs,
very much like birds

where they flap their wings
to generate the lift for flying.

And then he progressed on
to designs which were

much more like gliders.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
One of the really
fascinating things

about da Vinci's efforts is
he was very creative in thinking

about how humans might
spin things or turn things.

One of the designs
he had was an aerial screw.

And it's a particular structure
like a propeller

to provide lift
and have something fly.

SHATNER:
Leonardo da Vinci's principle
of a single screw

turning a propeller
to create lift

is strikingly similar
to the mechanics

behind the modern helicopter.

And over the years,
engineers have been inspired

to bring da Vinci's
visionary designs

to life through
real-world experimentation.

MATTHEW LANDRUS:
In 1976,

the Gossamer Condor was flown,

and it was the first
human-powered flying machine

with one person operating

this propeller-driven glider,
essentially.

It was the first attempt at what
Leonardo was trying to make.

ADLER:
A crew at the
University of Maryland

used Leonardo's design
for the aerial screw.

The quadcopter design worked,

the air screws actually did
provide enough lift

to lift the quadcopter up.

And so, there is some promise
for a design like that.

So, Leonardo, even today, does
inspire people in their designs.

Was Leonardo da Vinci
simply a genius

who was ahead of his time?

Or were his inventions
the result

of an ability to see the future?

Whatever the case may be,
there's no question

that the unique capability
to perceive what is yet to come

has influenced the world
as we know it

for thousands of years.

Whether it's called
clairvoyance, mysticism,

or prophecy, perhaps one day

we will all be able to access
our psychic potential

and practice
the power of prediction.

But for now,
what the future holds

remains... unexplained.

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