Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Mysterious visitors credited with

jump-starting civilization.

Ancient teachers bestowing wisdom of the cosmos.

And an invisible hand

continuing to guide mankind's advancements.

For nearly two decades,

Ancient Aliens has traveled the globe

exploring towering megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts,

and stories of otherworldly beings

in a quest for evidence

that might reveal the truth of our extraterrestrial origins.

We've been talking about our ancestors being taught

by extraterrestrials for thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Now, we take a look back

through the Ancient Aliens archives

to the show's very origins

to examine the evidence that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

♪ ♪

You know, one of the basic tenets

of the ancient astronaut theory is that

our ancestors had teachers.

And so, the idea is that extraterrestrial visitors

imparted knowledge to our ancestors

in order to jumpstart civilization.

Yeah, and we have evidence for this all over the world.

Nearly every ancient culture has the same story

of gods descending from the sky and imparting knowledge.

Right.

And, of course, this goes back

to the very first civilization

-that we know of, the Sumerians. -Right.

We have 5,000-year-old cuneiform tablets

that tell of these powerful beings called Anunnaki

descending from the sky.

We talked about these otherworldly teachers

way back in 2011 in an episode called

-"Aliens and the Creation of Man." -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Northern Iraq.

Along the east bank of the Tigris River,

opposite the city of Mosul,

lie the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh,

a place originally inhabited by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

Here, in 1842, British archaeologist

Austen Henry Layard unearthed

the ruins of the great library of Ashurbanipal,

a royal archive containing thousands

of clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions.

Dating to 3000 BC, the messages carved into stone

are considered to be the world's first written accounts.

Sumerian tablets are probably one of the oldest, uh,

form of a written record that we have.

They've been translated, and they tell exciting stories

about how gods intermingled with human beings,

and actually had a hand in the creation of human beings.

Whether or not it's just mythology

or if it's fact, no one really knows.

NARRATOR: According to interpretations of the Sumerian tablets,

the gods were called the Anunnaki.

What we're looking at here is a Sumerian tablet

that actually shows the tree of life

flanked by divine beings.

You can see here the Anunnaki on each side.

We also see the winged disc, a symbolic reference

that the Anunnaki had the power of flight.

They actually had necklaces with astronomical references--

a moon, a star, various symbols--

which even could be symbolized as a wristwatch.

Technology being used 6,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: The written accounts etched into stone

suggest the Annunaki were giant beings,

standing eight feet tall,

who came to Earth in search of gold for their home planet.

When the Sumerian gods, the Anunnaki, realized the toll

it was taking to mine the gold themselves,

they decided to fashion a worker being,

a slave to mine the gold for them.

And they explain in the Sumerian creation tales

that this was an arduous process.

So, it's very possible that our genetic evolution

was a process done by the Anunnaki to create us

in their image and after their likeness.

NICK REDFERN: It's almost like these highly advanced creatures

were acting as teachers.

Uh, and certainly, Sumerian culture and mythology

is full of stories of, you know,

receiving visitations from these mysterious higher entities

that, you know, bestowed wisdom

and fantastic ideas and concepts.

And, you know, you have to wonder,

is this just down to myth?

Or was somebody coming down

and really trying to give us a-a push, if you like?

NARRATOR: Ancient chronicles of sky beings creating human life

are common in early cultures found all over the world.

But while mainstream scholars often dismiss this evidence,

might such tangible historical accounts

provide proof of alien intervention in man's evolution,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

The Sumerians are not the only culture that talks about this.

Also, in the Quran it says that language

was given to us by Allah or God.

The Maya Popol Vuh says that language

was given to us by the gods.

The ancient Egyptian texts are saying the exact same thing.

It doesn't matter what ancient culture we look at,

they all say the same,

that language was a gift from the gods.

We should finally come to grips with the idea

that extraterrestrials had something to do

with our development.

NARRATOR: Prior to the use of early systems of writing,

ancient people carved symbolic communication

into stone.

Called petroglyphs,

the oldest date to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

petroglyphs located in the American Southwest

link the prehistoric ancestors

of the Zuni and Hopi tribes with star beings.

(speaking German)

(translated): The first graphic expressions

by humans were petroglyphs.

That means symbols or figures scratched into stone.

The Hopi Indians, for example, scratched petroglyphs

into their rock faces that show people with radiating wreaths,

gods that descend from the sky.

The Hopi Indians say that these beings are kachinas,

beings from space, who came to earth in aircraft,

who were not gods, but who brought them knowledge

from another planet.

We have the same phenomenon in Europe in Val Camonica.

We have it in Asia. We have it in Brazil.

When we look at the fact that, all around the world,

we hear similar legends of people from the stars

coming down and having a profound impact on the people

of this country or that particular culture,

all embroiled in similar time frames.

You know, we're seeing a pattern developing,

and it's difficult to dismiss that that pattern is suggestive.

In our ancient past, creatures came down, interacted with us,

and maybe manipulated us to become the people we are today.

GEORGE NOORY: Why are so many past civilizations

all saying similar things?

I think the simple answer is,

is that the same thing happened, and they know the story.

And the story is that extraterrestrials

came to this planet,

genetically made and manipulated

whatever creatures were here at the time,

and helped jump-start society.

The bottom line is every civilization

talks about the existence of man

through the eyes of a god,

and if you think of the eyes of the god as ETs,

it all makes sense.

NARRATOR: Could it be that humanity's first teachers

were, in fact, extraterrestrial beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and suggest further evidence

of this alien influence can be found

by exploring the remarkable achievements of the Maya.

When it comes to stories about teacher gods,

some of the most fascinating come from

the Maya of Central America.

And they're not just talking about knowledge

of fire and the wheel and other primitive things.

But they're talking about really advanced

-mathematics and astronomy. -Absolutely.

I mean, archaeologists discovered that the Maya were

tracking where planets would appear in the night sky

thousands of years before their time,

-and with great precision. -TSOUKALOS: Right.

And they tracked events that would go on

for tens of thousands of years.

And you have to ask yourself,

how was this possible unless somebody taught them?

And that is exactly what the Maya say.

NARRATOR: Chicago, Illinois.

Housed here, in the Newberry Library,

is the Mayan manuscript known as the Popol Vuh.

Literally translated as "The Book of the People,"

it is a collection of Maya oral histories

passed on through the ages.

Written in the mid-16th century,

this incredible book encompasses a range of subjects,

including those involving Mayan creation myths.

INGA CALVIN: The Popol Vuh talks about the creation of the universe.

It talks about the fact that, in the beginning all was darkness,

there was a primordial sea.

And then these creators, male and female,

spoke the word, and with the word,

the Earth was created and animals were created.

It's sort of like the combination

of the Book of Genesis and the Book of Chronicles

in the Bible.

It's the story of battles between the gods,

and then it connects the creation of the world with

the present day through the kings of the K'iche'.

It's really the only complete Maya creation myth that we have.

PHILIP COPPENS: What they were saying was that a framework was created.

That certain deities manifested themselves physically

and made decisions as to what was going to happen.

In the case of the Mayans, this was the choice

as to where the Mayans were going to live,

as well as the selection of certain sacred sites.

NARRATOR: Throughout the ancient world, there have been numerous

similar myths of otherworldly beings coming to Earth

and interacting with some of the earliest humans.

Most mainstream historians believe these stories represent

only religious and spiritual beliefs.

But is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

that the Popol Vuh, as well as other ancient creation tales,

represents actual evidence of contact

with extraterrestrials in the distant past?

According to the translations of hieroglyphs

found at numerous ancient Mayan cities,

Kukulkan, or the Great Feathered Serpent,

was the god who brought knowledge to the Maya.

When we talk about the Mayan gods, we know that

their most important god to them was the Plumed Serpent,

or Kukulkan.

We see his image all across the Mayan world.

We see it on great carved images on stone.

Kukulkan is often depicted as a plumed serpent,

some would say a dragon or a snake with wings.

That leads some to believe that Kukulkan may have

descended from the sky.

VON DÄNIKEN: Now, the Maya were living in the jungle.

The Maya knew that the snake could not fly.

But this snake, this serpent, could fly.

The oldest Maya histories tell

that Kukulkan was the teacher of young Maya.

He had chosen eight boys in the age between seven and 12,

and he teached these eight boys in mathematics,

in astronomy, in all kind of science.

And later, Kukulkan disappeared

with the promise that he will return in the far away future.

These boys had become the first priests

and the first teachers again for the Maya.

NEWMAN: Some of the legends state that he appeared

along the Gulf Coast on a raft of serpents,

and he spread his high knowledge

through that part of the country.

Even today, in some of the Mayan cultures,

he's revered as this great god that brought all these

teachings and civilization to their part of the world.

And yet, no one knows who he was or where he came from.

NARRATOR: Strangely, depictions of a winged serpent god

can be found all around the ancient world.

In India, the epic text the Mahabharata

details the ancient account of sky beings known as nagas.

Dating as far back as 2500 BC,

the half-human and half-serpent entities

look nearly identical to the Mayan Kukulkan.

And ancient Chinese mythology from the fifth millennium BC

describe flying dragons that are eerily similar

to the serpent god depicted in Mesoamerica.

ANDREW COLLINS: To the peoples that preceded the Inca in Peru,

similar ideas were put upon characters like Quetzalcoatl,

the Feathered Serpent, who was this wisdom bringer,

sometimes said to have come down from the sky world,

and once again, bringing the rudiments

of civilization to the peoples of Central America.

HAWKES: There is a common thread among many ancient cultures

of the Americas when it comes to plumed serpent god.

The Cherokee, for example, believe that time--

their calendar-- is based upon a rattlesnake

that they can see in the night sky,

uh, perhaps a constellation.

So, the idea of a serpent or a snake

or a dragon is common among many ancient cultures,

and not just the Maya or the Mesoamericans.

COPPENS: The snake is the giver of wisdom.

In so many cultures,

it gives the tools of civilization--

working with metals, working with other instruments,

certain knowledge, certain aspects of life.

And that it really gives this knowledge to certain people.

And that he places these people in a position

whereby, from their social position,

they are able to give this to the rest of their culture.

All these cultures were far apart from each other,

sometimes by thousands and thousands of miles.

So, how is it possible that all these societies

came up with not similar but identical stories?

Was it really flying snakes

or gods that were snakes?

Of course not.

It was misunderstood technology.

Some types of vehicles were witnessed that descended

from the sky out of which people came, astronauts,

that instructed people of different cultures

and different societies in certain scientific disciplines.

This is not coincidence.

This is evidence for ancient alien encounters

in the remote past. There is no other way.

NARRATOR: Can the ancient creation myths

and legends of flying serpent gods

really be interpreted as factual accounts

of extraterrestrial visitors,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

And if so, might such celestial travelers

have given the Maya both the tools

and the knowledge to help advance their civilization?

Perhaps further evidence can be found by looking

at the Mayan's very profound connection to the stars.

NARRATOR: In the Mexican state of the Yucatán

lie the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza.

Here, in the tenth century,

the Maya built what has become known

as the El Caracol observatory.

It has four doors on the bottom that can be used

as observation points,

and it had a number of windows up on top,

but most of those have fallen.

We only have two and a half of those left.

But looking at those, we can see that they're-they're definitely

looking at the Sun, probably at the Moon.

There are hints that they could've been

using them for stars and planets.

They were tracking, in particular, Venus,

uh, the phases of the Moon, eclipses.

We know that because we have books

that record these things.

NARRATOR: Most researchers agree that, from 250 to 900 AD,

the Mayans were the most advanced astronomers

of their time.

But why were they observing the cosmos so intently?

And what might they have been looking for?

CALVIN: The Maya were very sophisticated

in terms of what they watched in the heavens

and in the calendars that they kept track of.

The ability to understand that Venus as morning star

and Venus as evening star are the same star

was very rarely done in the history of humankind.

They were oftentimes seen as two different entities.

The idea that they could predict

the cycles of the heavens reflects their sophistication.

VAN STONE: The Maya were one of the only ancient people that invented

a mathematical system that we use,

which is called place value and zero.

And using place value and zero allows you to make

enormous calculations, numbers that are very, very large.

They could probably calculate things

thousands of years into the past.

NARRATOR: Did the Maya develop such mastery of astronomy

and mathematics on their own?

Or is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

that the elite rulers of the Maya had received help

from star travelers?

VON DÄNIKEN: The Maya, for example, had the knowledge

of the planet Venus surrounding our solar system

in such a precise way

that, within 6,000 years, the difference was a few hours.

Now, the Maya itself did not live for 6,000 years.

So, they had no time-- 6,000 years--

to observe if their calculation concerning the Venus rotation

is correct or not,

because they had their information from their gods.

COPPENS: The Mayans could not possibly have developed these systems

on their own because it'd take thousands,

some of them tens of thousands of years of observation.

So, it is clear that they were given to them by aliens

out there who have made contact with the Mayan people.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the most intriguing astronomical accomplishment

of the Maya concerns their understanding

of the slow change in the Earth's rotational axis

in space.

Called precession, it's a process that takes

more than 26,000 years to complete.

But how could the Maya have tracked events

over such an extreme time span?

Is it possible that, like modern scientists,

the Maya had been using knowledge

of the Earth's movement in space to track time?

And if so, for what purpose?

The Maya developed these-these timekeeping skills

by monitoring the movements and predicting the movements

of not just the Sun but the Moon,

Venus, in some cases Jupiter,

Mars, Saturn, some of the constellations.

NARRATOR: Though most people consider the Egyptians

as the ultimate pyramid builders,

ten times as many pyramids

were constructed in Mesoamerica than in Egypt.

But why did the Maya build

so many of their monumental structures

in absolute, precise alignment

with solar, lunar, and stellar events?

Well, it seems as if they were paranoid that,

if they did not do this, something bad would happen.

They were on the fifth epoch,

and each of these earlier epochs they believed

had ended in catastrophe.

And it seemed as if they had to synchronize their rituals,

their events, their games, their activities

with these specific celestial events because, if they didn't,

something bad would happen, and the epoch would end prematurely.

Mayans were absolutely convinced that timing was crucial

because the stars were revealing

when the gods were gonna come back, and obviously,

that meant the gods were coming from the stars.

NARRATOR: But where or from whom did the ancient Maya

learn to accurately track time

by tracing the celestial movements of our solar system

and the universe beyond?

And if ancient cultures received wisdom

from extraterrestrial visitors,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

what other advanced knowledge might they have shared?

When we talk about this advanced knowledge

that the ancients said they received from the gods,

to me, the most impressive has to do with

the human body and medicine.

I mean, we have evidence that they were performing

surgery in ancient Egypt.

Isn't that awesome? Brain surgery, even.

And the ancient Egyptians were very specific in stating

that this knowledge came to them from the celestial deity Thoth.

CHILDRESS: Yeah, but you know,

if I had a surgeon telling me that he had been trained

-by some strange guy with a bird's head... -(laughter)

CHILDRESS: ...I might have second thoughts.

But crazy as it seems, there is archaeological evidence

-that that's what they were doing. -Right.

NARRATOR: Saqqara, Egypt.

Here, across from this towering step pyramid,

lies the physician's tomb,

also known as the tomb of Ankhmahor.

According to archaeologists,

it was built more than 4,000 years ago

for one of the most important officials

of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

I'm taking you inside the physician's tomb,

where you get a glimpse of how they performed

complex medical and surgical operations in ancient times.

But what's amazing about this tomb

is that the physician Ankhmahor

lived 4,300 years ago.

And he performed very complex surgical and medical operations.

We can see here a circumcision

2,000 years before the Bible.

And here, we see a scene of reflexology.

We can see them muscling and flexing the muscles.

Also, here, an amazing operation,

a surgical operation on the hands.

It is even suggested that they may have had

brain surgery removing tumors.

But where did they get the knowledge from?

Well, they say that they got it from Thoth.

The god of wisdom and science,

who brought to them all the knowledge from the gods.

NARRATOR: Known for his abilities in science, magic, and medicine,

Thoth was worshipped for centuries

as the god of wisdom and healing.

According to ancient myth, this divine physician healed

the eye of the Egyptian god Horus after his uncle Set

gouged it out in an epic battle for power.

As a result, the Eye of Horus

became an important symbol of restoration and good health.

But was Thoth only a mythical deity,

as mainstream scholars believe?

Or might he have been something,

or someone, who actually existed?

Ancient Egyptian medicine was anything but primitive.

There are clear examples of energetic medicine

that are beyond our technological capabilities.

It seems as if these technologies were brought in

and were given to them as a complete package,

rather than something that developed out of a society

that, before then, had been extremely primitive.

And the Egyptians themselves

said that Thoth was responsible for this.

NARRATOR: But who or what was Thoth?

Might he have been not a divine being,

but an alien visitor,

one possessing advanced scientific knowledge?

In the Egyptian pantheon of gods, Thoth is the one

with the head of an ibis, but the body of a human being.

He was the Egyptian father of medicine,

meaning he descended from the sky,

and he gave them that knowledge.

NARRATOR: Might Thoth have been not a divine being,

as the Egyptians believed, but an alien visitor

who possessed advanced scientific knowledge?

One from whom the Egyptians learned their ability to heal?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the story

of one of the most advanced surgeons

in the history of India.

Varanasi, India.

500 miles southeast of Delhi.

Located on the banks of the Ganges,

Varanasi is one of the oldest cities on Earth.

A city that, according to legend,

was founded by the gods.

Long known as a center of knowledge and learning,

Varanasi was once home to an ancient physician

by the name of Sushruta,

whom many historians credit with developing the art of surgery.

In ancient India, the early physician

was a guy named Sushruta.

And he was a surgeon and physician

who would do skin grafts, cataract removals,

even early plastic surgery on people.

So once again, we have someone

whose medical knowledge seems so advanced for his time.

NARRATOR: Sushruta is also considered to be the first

practitioner of ayurveda,

one of the oldest known systems of medicine in the world.

According to Hindu legend, Sushruta is said to have

received this knowledge from a god known as Dhanvantari.

Dhanvantari was a high-level god, as we would know them,

who provided all the information

on this complete healing modality

based on an understanding of the physical

and subtle aspects of the body.

And it was passed through to Indian culture in ancient times

and has been preserved and expanded since then.

NARRATOR: Though he is most often depicted as having four arms

and holding medicinal herbs,

the god Dhanvantari was also a shape-shifter.

According to legend, during his journeys to Earth,

he could take on other forms, including that of a bird.

Is it possible that both Dhanvantari

and the half-man, half-bird Egyptian god of healing, Thoth,

were connected in some way?

And if so, how?

HENRY: Whether it's Dhanvantari or Thoth,

we learn of these extraterrestrial divinities

very often being portrayed as bird-like beings

who delivered the knowledge of ancient medicine to Earth.

This tells us that our original knowledge of medicine,

human anatomy, and how to heal the body

came from extraterrestrial sources.

TSOUKALOS: Sushutra was very clear in stating

that he learned this knowledge from the gods.

Who were the gods? Extraterrestrials.

COPPENS: Every culture will tell you that the first surgeon,

that medicine, that healing was a gift of the gods.

And that is extraordinarily interesting

because it really shows that the benefit of mankind

was accomplished through the intervention

and the knowledge of the deities.

NARRATOR: How is it possible that ancient cultures

separated by thousands of miles

shared similar stories about a bird-like creature?

Could it be true, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

that this extraordinary being was actually

a highly-skilled extraterrestrial

from another world?

And might he have traveled across the globe

in an effort to teach early humans the art of healing?

Perhaps more clues can be found in a collection

of mysterious skulls discovered in the ruins

of yet another ancient civilization.

NARRATOR: Northern Turkey. 2010.

While digging at an archaeological site

in the Samsun Province,

archaeologists unearth hundreds of skeletal remains

and ancient skulls dating back more than 4,000 years.

Strangely, 14 of the skulls have large holes,

providing what some scholars believe is proof

that ancient man carried out a remarkably sophisticated

type of brain surgery called cranial trepanation.

NEIL MARTIN: Trepanation is making an opening into the skull.

We do it on a routine basis in today's neurosurgery

to get exposure of the brain,

to remove a tumor or remove a blood clot.

But it was done in ancient times,

probably to repair traumatic brain injuries

from accidents and war injuries.

Ancient cultures did this all over the world;

uh, in Peru, in Europe, in Asia and Africa.

They were literally cutting holes in people's heads,

successfully opening up their skulls,

removing skull material, and then covering it up again.

And the patients were surviving this

and living long lives.

NARRATOR: Even with the delicate

and highly sophisticated tools in use today,

neurosurgery is a complicated and risky procedure,

one involving the body's most complex organ, the human brain.

Today's neurosurgery provides us

with some remarkable new digital tools.

We have what is the equivalent now of a GPS system

that allows us to navigate around the intracranial space.

We also are able to use preoperative imaging now

to create an individual map

of the brain and the brain function.

Those maps are critical to do modern neurosurgery.

NARRATOR: But how could an ancient civilization have learned

such highly advanced methods for operating on a human brain

hundreds of years before such procedures

were even attempted in other parts of the world?

Perhaps the answers can be found

by looking at a collection of human skulls

discovered a century ago near the Peruvian Andes.

Here, at the San Diego Museum of Man,

is an extensive display of pre-Columbian antiquities...

...including one of the largest collections

of skulls in the world.

Dr. Tori Randall, a chief paleoanthropologist,

has spent years studying the ancient practice of trepanation.

TORI RANDALL: These skulls are about 1,000 years old.

They're Incan skulls, and, um, they're special

because they have trepanations,

and you can see from the hole right here

in the head they've had skull surgery performed on them.

It seems likely that a lot of these trepanations

were happening based on warfare or healing

some type of traumatic injury.

They seem to have performed

the actual trepanations in parts of the skull

where there wasn't a lot of cranial musculature,

which would've made it more difficult.

One thing that they used were tumis,

which are usually made out of bronze or copper,

and they're this little curvilinear knife.

This is definitely a very well planned out practice,

very successful, and it happened well before

the advent of modern medicine,

and the fact that so many individuals survived

meant that they were very good at it.

It's remarkable that we see evidence of healing and recovery

and survival in so many of the archaeological specimens,

the skulls that show signs of bone healing.

They must've had a good sense of meticulous technique.

But it had to be a rough ordeal for the individual patient.

NARRATOR: According to Dr. Randall's findings,

the Inca surgeons were also skilled at avoiding

parts of the brain that would've damaged

important nerves and affected motor skills.

What this means is that our ancient ancestors

had extraordinary information about the brain.

It means that they had detailed knowledge about human anatomy

way beyond what we normally attribute to them.

It involves an extraordinary amount

of scientific information.

All over the world, we see skulls

with curious small holes drilled in.

In these ancient cultures, the practice of trepanation

was often said to have been given to them by the gods.

So, it's possible that extraterrestrial technology

had the ability to see into the brain.

NARRATOR: Could the ancient Incan knowledge of brain surgery

have really come from an extraterrestrial source?

And, if so, might ancient alien visitors

have passed on any other medical knowledge?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe further evidence

can be found just a few hundred miles

from where the trepanned Incan skulls were found.

80 miles northwest of the famous Nazca Lines

lies the small city of Ica, Peru.

In 1966, a local physician named Javier Cabrera

acquired several andesite stones unearthed in the desert here.

Stones etched with mysterious depictions

of ancient, pre-Columbian people.

The Ica stones really give a different perspective

on what the locals believed history was all about.

And the Ica stones, what they really spell out,

or indicate at least,

is that history is not the way we know it.

Each of these stones is inscribed

with unusual scenes:

people interacting with what seems to be

prehistoric animals,

people looking through telescopes.

Uh, some of the Ica stones seem to be strange maps

of the world before ours.

And one of the things that the Ica stones depicts

is ancient surgeries.

NARRATOR: Also carved on dozens of these stones

are images of brain surgeries,

cesarean sections,

and even tracheotomies.

But one stone is among the most mysterious.

It is thought to depict two surgeons with a heart

between them, as they appear to be

reconnecting the blood vessels.

Could this really be evidence that ancient man

was capable of transplanting a human heart?

The Ica stones are one of the very few examples

of our ancients actually performing surgery.

CHILDRESS: It seems impossible that ancient people

were doing anything like this.

And therefore, it would seem to be that this is

knowledge and medical knowledge

that's coming from some advanced civilization

of extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

that extraterrestrial beings

taught mankind advanced medical procedures

like cranial trepanation

and heart transplants

in the distant past?

If so, might the lessons have extended beyond medicine?

And could these visitors have also been the masterminds

behind some of humanity's most remarkable architectural feats?

You know, all over the world, we have these massive,

megalithic structures that have stood for thousands of years.

-Right. -CHILDRESS: And some of them are built out of stones

that weigh over 1,000 tons.

-Mm-hmm. -CHILDRESS: And archaeologists do not have

a good explanation for how they moved and built them.

Right. And what's even more bizarre

is that the same construction style

exists over and over again and globally.

And why were pyramids being built by separate cultures?

Again, it seems like there's really only one

logical explanation, and that is

all these ancient builders had the same teachers.

-Right. -HENRY: We covered this

in a 2017 episode called "The Alien Architects."

NARRATOR: Krong Siem Reap, Northwest Cambodia.

Just outside the magnificent ruins of Angkor Wat

stands an ancient pyramid temple

known as Baksei Chamkrong.

While it is a solid rock structure,

and therefore cannot be carbon-dated,

mainstream archaeologists suggest that it was constructed

in the tenth century AD.

9,000 miles away in the Petén Basin of Guatemala

lay the ruins of the Mayan city of Tikal.

Amongst the long-abandoned structures

is a Temple of the Great Jaguar,

which is believed to date back to the eighth century AD.

When you see pictures of these two pyramids

on two different continents,

they're virtually identical.

It's as if the same architect had designed both of these.

NARRATOR: Although the Cambodian pyramid

is much smaller than the pyramid in Guatemala,

the similarities between the specific design features

are uncanny.

Both have an unusually steep slope angle

that we don't see in other pyramids.

They both have a stepped formation.

There's a stairwell going up the middle.

There's a domed area on the top.

There's a little door that goes in,

and there's interior structure that looks the same, as well.

You have the civilization in Cambodia

and the civilization in Mesoamerica.

There are so many parallels, it's incredible.

It's unbelievable that scholars haven't-- until now--

recognized those parallels.

Is it possible that they were working off the same blueprint?

And if so, where did that blueprint come from?

NARRATOR: Could it be that these seemingly unrelated sites,

located thousands of miles apart,

share a common architect?

Cambodian lore attributes the building of Angkor

to Preah Pisnokar,

a being of half-human, half-divine origin.

Preah Pisnokar is the son of the moon goddess and a mortal.

One day, she takes him up to heaven,

where he meets the great high god Indra,

who decides that the boy is to be given special schooling.

At Indra's heaven, he was given instructions.

Instructions about mathematics, engineering, architecture,

all these different scientific disciplines.

HENRY: One very provocative way of looking at this story

is that Indra's heaven is not just a place

in the stars, it is actually a spacecraft,

and that Preah Pisnokar was instructed

by extraterrestrial beings on this craft

in the art of temple making.

NARRATOR: According to ancient astronaut theorists,

an interesting parallel exists

between the Mayan and Cambodian stories.

In the Maya manuscripts,

the god Kukulcan is responsible for their temple architecture.

He was also credited with educating humans

on mathematics, engineering, and science--

the same teachings attributed to Pisnokar.

VON DÄNIKEN: Kukulkan is supposed to have descended from a star.

He's represented as the feathered serpent,

but also, he's represented,

he's a big being with the helmet,

a helmet has rays on it,

and he's sitting on a half-open sort of egg.

He was the teacher, according to Central American mythology.

He definitely is an extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR: Could these two otherworldly architects be one and the same?

And if so, does further evidence

of a master builder exist

in other parts of the world as well?

WILLIAM BRAMLEY: In Mesoamerica, we have the gods associated

with the construction of the pyramids over there.

This reflects the same kind of entity

that the Mesopotamians reported,

that the Egyptians reported as being the architect

that designed the cities, that designed these structures.

So, you have the same pattern

and the same claim happening over and over again

over a span of at least 7,000 years,

where it's the same type of god

planning and directing the construction

of these types of similar buildings.

FREDDY SILVA: We seem to be talking about the same architect that

seems to be crossing different continents at different times.

It's interesting that, when you start looking

at all of these structures

covering many thousands of years,

you begin to see that there's a relationship.

NARRATOR: Pyramids are found by the hundreds

in nearly every region of the world,

including Central America, Mesopotamia, Egypt,

China, and even Antarctica.

And many cultures' most sacred structures

appear remarkably alike.

It is striking that you can travel around the planet,

and you can find structures that are similar in nature.

For example, in China, the Xian altar of heaven,

or the stone circle above Sacsayhuaman in Peru.

WILCOCK: All over the planet, you see tall,

megalithic architecture.

You see cyclopean stone structures as well.

A bunch of primitive people somehow

get motivated all over the world to haul around

these gigantic blocks of stone that could be 20 tons, 100 tons.

And everybody around the world

seemed to be doing the same thing.

CASSARO: There is a kind of a master blueprint

that we see in the architecture,

and it's not in just one or two or three civilizations,

it's in all the civilizations,

China, India, South America, it's there.

BRAMLEY: Archeologists tell us, well,

there was no connection at those times.

There had to be something.

That's too much of a coincidence.

NARRATOR: Are the curious parallels between structures

seen throughout the world truly random,

or do they point to a shared source of advanced knowledge?

Knowledge of an extraterrestrial origin?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and they suggest there's even a written archive

of this otherworldly instruction in India.

Nowhere else on Earth will you find more ancient evidence

of extraterrestrial visitation than in ancient India.

I mean, the Vedic texts are filled with stories

of beings descending from the sky

and imparting knowledge like astronomy,

building techniques, healing medicine, you name it.

Yeah, they even speak about the beginning of the universe

in terms that are strikingly similar to the way

modern scientists speak about the Big Bang.

Yeah, I mean, how would you even have

conceived of something like this 3,000 years ago,

unless you had teachers?

NARRATOR: Chandigarh, India.

This thriving city at the foot of the towering Himalayas

is the capital of India's Punjab state.

It was in this region of northwest India that scholars

believe a series of religious texts called the Vedas

were compiled from oral stories that had been

passed down for centuries.

SUBHASH KAK: The Vedas, according to the Indian tradition itself,

were put together into the final form

about 5,000 years ago.

But these hymns had been circulating

in the Indian region for a long time.

We do know that not a single letter

of the four Vedas has changed,

unlike any other text in the world.

So, there was the belief that the text of the Vedas

should not be tampered with

because they represent the entire cosmos.

YOUNG: In the Hindu lore, the Vedas are not of earthly origin.

They are from mysterious sources,

and they are from before time.

They are from before human history,

and are said to be from before even the gods.

Major figures in modern science

were ardent students of the Vedas.

Bohrs and Schrödinger read arduously.

Oppenheimer could read it in Sanskrit.

Even Einstein and Tesla were known to have read it.

It had a profound influence on modern thinking.

NARRATOR: Inside these ancient tomes

are Hinduism's first stories of creation.

In one Vedic text, called the Rigveda,

creation was said to have begun suddenly and explosively

from an infinitesimal point of pure energy.

TSOUKALOS: It describes this strange cosmic egg

that begins as a single, concentrated point,

and everything expanded

from this single concentrated point to form the universe.

Now, if you look at this from a modern perspective,

this actually reflects modern science's Big Bang theory,

where the universe began as a singularity

and it expanded to form the universe as we know it today.

To me, the similarities are astounding.

WILCOCK: It's not like this idea was just banging around

for anybody to see.

It was a concept that our scientists didn't start

to embrace until the 20th century.

And yet, it was already there in these texts

that are at least 3,000 years old, if not much older.

KAK: What is remarkable in the Vedas is that they were able

to come to an understanding,

which is very similar to the understanding

that modern science has reached

through the intuitions of our great contemporary scientists.

NARRATOR: Is it really possible that the Hindu creation story

from the Rigveda is evidence

that people living thousands of years ago

may have had knowledge of the precise

scientific process involved in the creation of the universe?

A process modern scientists are only just

beginning to understand?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and believe that further proof can be found

in another early creation story,

the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: One of the first phrases in Genesis, "Let there be light."

And this is like the moment of the Big Bang.

The whole universe began effectively as light, as energy.

We're speaking of moments of existence

that humans would experience just as a great flash of light.

And in that sense, the story of Genesis

in the Bible and science converge.

YOUNG: We have, in this verse,

the description of the very first light.

The light out of which all things came.

The light which led, finally, to matter, to things of substance,

to the universe itself.

In current scientific theory,

fractions of a second after the Big Bang,

the Higgs field transformed what had been

particles of light into mass.

Matter into creation itself.

We have very strong parallels with the scriptures.

First, light, and then, matter.

NARRATOR: Similar descriptions of the universe beginning

from a single point of light

can be found in cultures throughout the ancient world,

from Egypt to China and to the American Southwest.

YOUNG: In the Egyptian creation narrative,

the very first god was Atum.

He emerged from the darkness to create Egyptian civilization.

The Sumerian, the Egyptian, the Norse.

Something emerges out of darkness.

Order emerges out of chaos.

Wh-Where there was no form, form begins.

There is something about these stories that is beyond

any one of them that seems to allude to a greater reality.

NARRATOR: But how is it that the ancient world's most sacred texts

all describe creation in much the same way

as our current scientific theory?

And where did our ancestors get this seemingly

advanced understanding of the origins of the universe?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answers may lie

in the stories of the man who compiled the Vedic texts

in written form, a mysterious sage named Veda Vyasa.

In the Hindu mythologies, Vyasa is believed

to be a reincarnation of the god Vishnu,

and that Vishnu specifically took on a human embodiment

to be able to write down these classic texts.

This sage, Vyasa, who is the author

of the Vedas, was said to be an immortal.

And, ultimately, one of the gods himself.

TSOUKALOS: Some have suggested that Vyasa came to Earth

to record and impart this Vedic knowledge to mankind.

Now, could it be possible that he was in fact

an extraterrestrial who came here with the direct mission

to bring knowledge to mankind

and guide them in their understanding

of science and physics?

NARRATOR: Could Veda Vyasa really have been an extraterrestrial?

And might he have educated mankind

about the workings of the universe thousands of years

before modern science began its quest for answers?

And if so, why?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe further evidence

can be found in the stories of a Greek scientist

2,500 years ahead of his time.

NARRATOR: The Thracian coast, Greece.

At the northern end of the Aegean Sea

lie the ruins of an ancient metropolis.

2,500 years ago,

Abdera was a thriving seaport and trading center.

It was a wealthy hub of commerce between empires,

and the home of one of history's greatest thinkers, Democritus.

Democritus was a Greek philosopher

in the fifth century before the Common Era.

He was not just a philosopher, but a scientific theorist.

In fact, his great gifts have led him

to be revered as the father of modern science.

NARRATOR: Democritus was born to a wealthy family

and educated by Persian magi,

learned priests who were said to control the fates.

It was believed that he was trained by the magi,

these priests of the east,

and that he also traveled to Egypt and to Babylon

and studied with the secret masters

who had these ancient wisdom teachings

hidden in their lineage.

RICHARD RADER: Democritus traveled quite a bit.

And through his travels, learned, uh, quite a lot.

Traveling east through what we call the ancient Near East,

studying with the magi,

and studying with Chaldeans who were known

for their magical, mysterious learnings

and their magical, mysterious knowledge, as well.

NARRATOR: Through his travels and his interactions with people

said to have "mysterious knowledge,"

the young philosopher and mathematician came up with

a radical theory concerning all matter in the universe.

Democritus theorized that everything--

people, plants, stone and sun--

were made of the same stuff,

tiny particles he called "atomos."

SABINA MAGLIOCCO: He developed an early version of the atomic theory.

It is an early theory of everything in the world being

made up of these very, very small,

uh, invisible particles, which Democritus then called atoms.

ROBERT CARGILL: Democritus argued that there's a fundamental building block.

Even though we couldn't see them, that was the theory.

The philosophical theory that was in ancient Greece.

This is, this is long before science.

MICHAEL DENNIN: When Democritus was talking about atoms,

it's amazing how close he got to what we really know.

What he was motivated by was the idea that,

if you cut something up,

the pieces still have the same properties.

And so, he just did the thought experiment, "Well,

"if I keep cutting it smaller,

"then eventually, I'll have the smallest possible piece,

and that's the atom."

And, that's what gives it its properties.

That's basically our picture of matter now,

that smallest piece is the protons, neutrons,

and the electron that make up the atom.

NARRATOR: What Democritus articulated 2,500 years ago

is remarkably similar to today's Standard Model of physics,

the basis of our search for the Higgs boson, or God particle.

But how could Democritus have known about the atom

and the forces that govern it?

Could it be that Democritus had access to advanced

and perhaps even extraterrestrial information

about the quantum realm?

Some ancient astronaut theorists believe that the answer may lie

in an even more radical suggestion

Democritus made about the cosmos.

TSOUKALOS: In his writings, Democritus proposed that there are

many worlds and that these worlds even sustained life.

Now, could it be that by other worlds

he was maybe even referring to parallel universes?

DENNIN: As we fast forward from Democritus

to the more current era,

where the idea of parallel universes have really taken off

is the multi-universe view,

where all possible universes has occurred.

This is very similar to Democritus' idea

of making all possible universes.

But now they're very much next to each other,

parallel in space as well as occurring in time.

NARRATOR: Some cosmologists today believe our universe is one of many,

and that the God particle

could lead us to discovering these other universes.

Is it possible that Democritus

had knowledge of this 2,500 years ago?

And might that information have come to him not only from

a different world, but perhaps a different universe?

MARTELL: Democritus claimed to communicate

with what he thought were parallel worlds.

He sometimes would exercise his energy by going into places

of the dead and would receive what he thought were voices

and information which would predict the future.

TSOUKALOS: Some accounts of Democritus describe him as having access

to magical powers with which he could control

the weather and predict natural disasters.

He also allegedly communicated with what

he referred to as other worlds.

And he described images and voices

that came to him giving him all sorts of information.

WILCOCK: Is it possible that the priests of the magi,

the priests of the Egyptian mystery schools,

and the priests of Babylon taught him some form

of ancient practice that allows the human body

to become an instrument to connect directly

on a telepathic level with extraterrestrial beings?

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK: The more that we draw forth in science,

we're going to discover the truths of the past

that have long been hidden from us.

Yes, mankind has been directed from the beginning.

NARRATOR: But did Democritus truly understand atomic theory

and the concept of multiple universes

all the way back in the fifth century BC?

Or is it possible, as some ancient astronaut theorists

suggest, that he was simply documenting information

passed on to him by more advanced beings?

Perhaps further clues of an otherworldly influence

on our modern world can be found

by examining the extraordinary achievements

of one of the 20th century's greatest minds.

You know, we've been talking about ancient people

being taught by extraterrestrials

for thousands of years,

but what's so fascinating is that, also in modern times,

there seem to be these bursts of productivity out of nowhere.

Yeah, and there are these stories

of people receiving special knowledge

or having, uh, certain revelation that led

to a new discovery.

And a lot of this has to do with meditation.

And we have examples of this, like with Steve Jobs

or even Nikola Tesla,

and Albert Einstein would have these sudden epiphanies.

Right, so you have to ask the question,

are certain people receiving information

from extraterrestrials? But in a different way

than our ancestors did thousands of years ago?

NARRATOR: Principe island.

140 miles off the west coast of Africa.

May 29, 1919.

During a rare total solar eclipse,

astrophysicist Arthur Eddington

photographs the deflection of starlight

around the darkened sun

to try and prove Albert Einstein's much-disputed

theory of general relativity.

DENNIN: The theory of general relativity says light

will bend in a gravitational field.

So, when the eclipse blocks out the sun,

the stars close to the sun can now be seen.

And if the light bends,

they'll be in a slightly different position.

Einstein was exactly right.

The light bent just as much as he predicted it would bend.

Newspapers around the world had headlines

saying Einstein's theory was vindicated.

And in fact, space and time were a lot stranger

than we had imagined.

NARRATOR: In his lifetime, Albert Einstein was a worldwide celebrity,

whose name personified the word genius.

His groundbreaking discoveries

redefined Isaac Newton's laws of physics and created

a completely new understanding of how the universe works.

HOOPER: Before Einstein, physicists viewed space and time

as simple, unchanging, static ideas

that objects existed in and that events took place in.

According to Einstein, the existence of matter

and energy in space can change its shape.

It can warp time. It can distort it.

And his theory of relativity

totally upended everything we thought about

these most fundamental of physical concepts.

TSOUKALOS: Before his theory of relativity,

our understanding of space was equivalent

to a time when we believed the Earth was flat, essentially.

Einstein's theory of relativity expanded

our understanding of the universe on that level.

DENNIN: Albert Einstein was a genius.

And his genius was looking at this stuff,

and just thinking about it from a completely different angle.

And that's what really allowed him to make

huge progress in areas that other people

hadn't been able to make up to that point.

NARRATOR: But what was the origin

of Einstein's revolutionary scientific breakthroughs?

Was it a product of his innate gifts?

Or might it have come from somewhere else?

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany.

As a child, he displayed an unusual interest

in the less tangible forces of the world.

His father, when he was ill one time, showed him a compass.

And Einstein, as a child, was so amazed.

Here there was this invisible force

that caused the compass needle to point,

and that sparked his imagination.

What is that? How does that happen?

So, this is sort of the beginning

of things that made him realize that what we saw

in the world had sort of a mysterious connection.

NARRATOR: This curiosity led young Einstein to a physics degree

from the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zurich.

It was during this time, that something remarkable

happened to Albert Einstein.

Something, which suggests that Einstein

was communicating with a realm outside our galaxy.

A realm that some ancient astronaut theorists

believe may be designed by extraterrestrials.

DOC BARHAM: Albert Einstein was very adept in putting himself

into altered states of consciousness

through what he called his thought experiments,

which were a kind of, uh,

three-dimensional metaphorical reverie.

This was the kind of thing of putting himself into a place

that most of us won't go, and exploring that space...

...so that he could receive very, very novel and new ideas.

Thought experiments enable you to

visually or geometrically approach a problem

that maybe mathematically might be difficult.

For example, Einstein liked to think about

what it would be like from a first-person perspective

sitting on a beam of light moving through space.

What would you see from that perspective?

He had all sorts of-of different visual ways

of thinking about physics.

NARRATOR: In 1905, after immersing himself in these thought experiments,

Einstein authored four papers that would redefine

mankind's perception of the universe in multiple ways.

HOOPER: Included in that year, was a paper, which, essentially,

proved that atoms were real entities that really existed.

That was a very controversial idea at the time.

In that year, he published a paper

on what's called the photoelectric effect.

Everybody believed that light was a wave.

Einstein, he said, "No, light really acts like a particle,

and it comes in little discreet packets."

These particles of light eventually led Einstein

to the notion of the stimulated emissions, so we have lasers.

We use lasers for everything from, uh, eye surgery

to cutting metals.

One of his papers included the equation E=mc^2.

It said you could create mass, you could destroy mass,

and it gave us an idea of how mass

might come into existence in the first place.

DENNIN: Einstein showed that mass can be converted

into useful kinetic energy.

And so, this is the basis of the energy we get

out of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

HOOPER: And another paper he published that year

became the beginning of his theory of relativity.

This was an amazing array of things to do

for scientists in an entire career.

The fact that Einstein did it all in one year

is virtually miraculous.

BARHAM: To get a sense of how dramatic those papers were,

imagine if someone came up to you and said,

"Everything that you know about space

and time and matter and energy is wrong."

And then they would give you all the math and all the explanation

of why everything that you know is totally wrong.

It's often referred to as the annus mirabilis papers,

which basically means the miracle year or wonderful year.

NARRATOR: What was the source behind Einstein's incredible insight

about the laws of physics?

Is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists contend,

that Einstein's ability to enter altered states of consciousness

connected him to an extraterrestrial world?

One that allowed him to access information

about the inner workings of the universe?

CHILDRESS: Einstein said that, when he first developed

the concept of relativity,

it was like a storm going off in his head.

And this would show that he had a different kind

of a brain, and his brain was wired

in a different way than normal human beings.

MARTELL: Albert Einstein was known to spend hours on end

sitting in a chair, formulating an idea

or a thought to its inception.

Now, was he tapping into some type

of advanced field of knowledge?

It's very possible Einstein used

this type of technology to a certain level.

COPPENS: When we look at history and we look at the people themselves

who are the-the giants on whose shoulders we stand,

what they are saying is that this information wasn't theirs,

but that something beyond them, something which was larger,

something which was divine,

allowed them to receive this information

and give it to the world.

All the knowledge of the universe exists

in the cosmos.

And maybe Einstein was able to access that knowledge.

That he was more in tune with this what I would

even refer to as a metaphysical world.

That he had this direct access.

He didn't know how he did this,

but his being knew it, his essence.

That through his being, he was able to unlock

the secret of the universe.

NARRATOR: Did Albert Einstein's use of thought experiments

grant him access to an extraterrestrial realm,

as some ancient astronaut theorists believe?

If so, where might this field of knowledge exist?

Perhaps answers can be found in Asia,

within the pages of an ancient Hindu text.

You know,

from ancient Hinduism known as the Akashic record.

And it's this idea that all the knowledge of the universe

is there for someone who knows how to tap into it.

Yeah, it's like a metaphysical version of the cloud,

and this is really interesting in light of

people claiming to get information during meditation.

Maybe this is how they access this Akashic record.

Right, and if this is true and the Akashic record exists,

my question is did the extraterrestrials

teach some of our ancestors how to access this?

Now, we actually covered this on an early episode

of Ancient Aliens in 2013 named "The Einstein Factor."

NARRATOR: Angkor, Cambodia.

Here in the northwestern jungle

stands the largest Hindu temple in the world, Angkor Wat.

Built in the 12th century,

the temple's design is meant to represent Mount Meru,

a mythical mountain that exists in the cosmos that the Hindu

believed was the center of the metaphysical universe.

Numerous stone carvings adorn the walls of the temple,

depicting scenes from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.

Within the pages of this ancient text of Hindu mythology,

there is a description of a non-physical plane

of existence in the universe called the Akashic record.

BARHAM: Akasha is actually a Sanskrit word,

and the Akashic record is a term,

uh, that basically, the idea behind it is that

all of the information in the universe is pre-existing,

and an individual can actually tap into that information.

COPPENS: Our ancestors began to look more into this,

and the Akashic records came about.

Basically, the notion is this, that somehow,

all the information, not just from mankind,

but everywhere in the universe, is somehow accessible.

Some cultures actually say that this information

really is a gift of the gods, that they left this

somehow behind for us to use at our own will.

And we are able to download this information

from this other realm, this hall of records,

whatever you want to call it.

An interesting thing to correlate

with the Akashic Record might be from Star Wars-- the Force.

Some type of cosmic energy that's omnipresent,

and we have the ability to tap into this.

This is something very new in our own sciences,

trying to discover and understand

this field of knowledge.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Albert Einstein's method

of meditation, which he called his thought experiments,

was actually connecting him to the Akashic record?

Could the Akashic record be the source of inspiration

behind the world's geniuses?

If so, how could such a metaphysical

plane of knowledge exist?

Perhaps the answer can be found

in one of Albert Einstein's many theories.

In 1935, Albert Einstein published

a paper describing quantum entanglement.

It theorized that, if a particle is split into two parts,

both remain linked to one another,

even when separated over vast distances.

The experiments showed that two particles separated

in space and time demonstrated a connectivity.

If you changed the spin of one particle,

the other particle would actually

change its spin as well.

In other words, if something happens to one,

the other responds

in the same or an equal and opposite manner.

And this occurs instantaneously.

So, it's a form of instantaneous communication.

It's what Einstein referred to as

spooky communication at a distance.

What we have to remind ourselves is that

we are made of stardust.

Our whole body consists of material

that has been here since before the beginning of time.

And these particles that we consist of,

each and every particle contain the knowledge of the universe.

COLLINS: It's not only real, but it can explain to us

so much weirdness in this world,

which we still don't understand and call paranormal.

And this would include the idea of telepathy and remote viewing.

NARRATOR: Remote viewing is the practice of using deep concentration

to visualize locations or objects beyond sight and sound.

Starting in the 1970s,

the United States initiated a program

called Project Stargate to train individuals...

...to access a higher realm of knowledge.

Using controlled scientific settings,

remote viewers attempted to sense unknown targets

and then record their impressions on paper.

COLLINS: The U.S. government have funded

remote viewing programs, as did the Soviets,

as have various other governments around the world.

Remote viewing exercises have taken place

for people to try and observe that which is on the Moon...

...on Mars.

And these are proper scientific programs, with accuracy.

BARHAM: The U.S. military remote viewing program

has scientific protocols for how to do this.

There are really specific techniques where an individual

can put out a question or a query.

And if they are in that altered state of consciousness,

they will receive information.

If you read the biographies of famous geniuses

and things like that, each one of them has

their own description for how to do this.

MARTELL: Why would the government spend millions of dollars

in all these advanced studies in areas like

remote viewing unless there is some type of valid need

to experiment with these types of technology?

If we think about the fact that we're all pretty much

made of the same elements in the universe,

is there maybe some atomic level of energy

that allows us to communicate and tap into

knowledge that we're now starting to rediscover?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that remote viewers

were attempting to replicate the meditative techniques

behind Albert Einstein's thought experiments?

Can this explain how remote viewers

might possess the capability to transcend both sight and sound?

Could Einstein's thought experiments be the inspiration

behind the incredible breakthroughs of Socrates,

Nikola Tesla, and other geniuses throughout history?

All these different geniuses-- Ramanujan, Tesla, Socrates--

according to their own diaries

always said that they were in communication

with some type of otherworldly entities.

So were all these people just crazy or is it possible

that the universe is far more complex than we think?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that mankind's greatest minds

had the ability to access a realm of knowledge

left behind by otherworldly beings?

Could this be evidence that the Akashic record

actually exists, just as the ancient Hindu believed?

And if a select few have the power

to tap into this alien realm,

does this mean that the extraterrestrials

who created it continue to shape human knowledge?

Personally, I think the ultimate goal

of the extraterrestrials having assisted us all this time is

for us, one day, to reach other planets.

To become a interstellar civilization ourselves.

Yeah, it's like they want us to be like them

and have knowledge and science and be able to go to the stars

and be, you know, an interstellar civilization.

They're teaching us so we can become the teachers.

Exactly.

HENRY: We will fan out, migrate into other worlds,

and we'll do exactly for these other worlds

what they've done for us.

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