Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Commandments decreed

by otherworldly powers,

sacred visions that altered the course of history...

and chosen messengers among us

guided by an unseen hand.

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.

When we look back on human history,

we find this incredible lineage of messengers,

but today we call them contactees.

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.

♪ ♪

When you study ancient cultures, there are so many stories

of messengers imparting information

from the gods to humanity.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Yeah, and what's even

more fascinating is that many of these ancient cultures

tell identical old stories.

So you have to ask yourself, "How was this possible,

"unless we are talking about a physical encounter

with extraterrestrials?"

WILLIAM HENRY: Yeah, and some of the most

incredible accounts

are in the Bible's Old Testament.

We talked about these biblical messengers

back in 2013

in an episode of Ancient Aliens called

"Prophets and Prophecies."

NARRATOR: Gebel Khashm et-Tarif, Egypt.

This mountain rising out of the Sinai desert

is believed by some to be the site of two

of history's most important divine encounters:

the peak where the biblical patriarch Moses

encountered the burning bush

and the place where Moses later received

the Ten Commandments from God.

But what was the true nature of Moses' divine encounter?

Was he a normal human randomly chosen

to deliver the word of God?

Or did he possess a special gift?

An inherent ability to communicate

with otherworldly forces?

JONATHAN YOUNG: Mystical literature from all over the world

has accounts of visitations from angels, gods,

some kind of supernatural creatures

that interact and interfere,

that represent some powers beyond our understanding.

PHILIP COPPENS: We see this in the Bible with Moses.

He is just one of several examples of leaders

who are guided by divine guidance,

who really are getting the help of the gods

into getting to their goal.

NARRATOR: In addition to stories of the prophet Moses,

the Hebrew and Christian testaments

also feature similar accounts of numerous other prophets,

including Elijah,

Isaiah,

Noah,

Abraham,

Enoch

and Jesus.

RICHARD RADER: Prophets are a major element

in almost all ancient societies.

These were people who functioned sort of as liaisons

between, um,

the-the mortal world and the immortal world,

between the gods and the humans.

WILLIAM FULCO: They have a message, which is a communication from God,

but what's very interesting about that,

it's not just a message.

It's-- the presence of God is felt to be

in the words of the prophet himself.

So the one who hears a prophet

actually is encountering the presence of--

presence of God, and not just a message from God.

RADER: So, if you have a prophet who is an authority figure

in your community and he says, "This god is upset about this.

"You need to do X, Y or Z to placate, uh,

this god or goddess," um, you did it.

NARRATOR: But was the source of these prophetic messages

truly of a divine nature?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

there is perhaps another possible explanation

as to who or what may have been contacting

these prophets of the ancient past.

COPPENS: What we're beginning to realize

is that this is not religious, but that these are people

who have had anomalous experiences with entities

and that this is contact with a nonhuman intelligence.

CHILDRESS: Prophets and prophecies are evidence

that these higher beings are instructing us

to help create civilization for us to move forward

and even to give us some warning of the future.

"This is what's gonna happen, you need to get ready."

NARRATOR: Is it really possible that extraterrestrial beings

made contact with the ancient prophets?

Perhaps the answers can be found

by looking further into the story of Moses,

as written more than 3,000 years ago

and chronicled in the Hebrew Testament's Book of Exodus.

Moses's first encounter with God

occurs in the, uh, in the third chapter

of the Book of Exodus.

Moses encounters a burning bush,

and God speaks to him out of this burning bush.

And Moses is given a mission.

And the mission is to liberate the Hebrews indentured in Egypt.

TSOUKALOS: The idea of the burning bush is very interesting to me

because things like burning bushes

really don't exist, especially

if they, all of a sudden, give instructions.

So we have to ask ourselves, what did our ancestors describe?

And so the burning bush idea

could have been a technological creation

which Moses described as a burning bush.

NARRATOR: Might the burning bush, as described by Moses,

really have been an extraterrestrial device?

A machine?

Or perhaps even a type of spacecraft?

If so, then with whom or with what

was Moses really communicating?

Perhaps more clues can be found in the story

of another, equally mysterious close encounter.

Tell el-Dab'a, Egypt.

Some scholars and researchers believe that it was here,

in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta,

where the Israelites began their exodus

and where Moses had his second divine encounter,

this time with an incredible object in the sky.

They were met partway, uh, toward their destination

by what I would call a biblical UFO.

In Exodus chapter 13, verses 21 and 22, it says,

"The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud

"and by night in a pillar of fire.

The pillar did not depart from before the people,"

meaning that it was always there.

FULCO: Well, what the Bible tells us

is that it is the presence of God manifesting himself

in a dramatic way, accompanying the Israelites.

TSOUKALOS: The question has always been asked,

"Well, what was that cloud of fire? What is it?"

Is it God, or as the ancient alien theory suggests,

it could have been some type of a craft,

a beacon that they had to follow.

PATRICK COOKE: The Hebrew people, they were following the object,

and it makes it very clear that whenever the object

was on the ground, the people stopped and camped.

When it was taken up, they broke camp and they moved forward.

The object was leading them.

DOWNING: And the description of a pillar of cloud and of fire,

a pillar is cylindrical in shape and perhaps quite hard or solid.

This is very similar to UFOs that are reported now.

The flying saucer types are more famous,

but the cylindrical-shaped UFOs are very common,

and they can be very large.

Up to a half mile in length, perhaps.

Some students of UFOs think these are mother ships,

and the fact that it's a cloud by day,

uh, suggests, as in modern UFOs,

that there's some type of halo effect around the UFO.

NICK REDFERN: If we look at it in that context,

perhaps the ancients would have described

a gleaming UFO in the day

as a, as a cloud, a bright cloud.

And they would have described a brightly lit UFO at night

as a fiery pillar.

NARRATOR: Was this strange pillar of fire and cloud

really a physical manifestation of God?

Or was it an advanced technological device

of an otherworldly origin?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

further clues may lie in the story

of Moses' final divine encounter

on the summit of Mount Sinai.

COOKE: Moses receives a message

from God that he is going to land on Mount Sinai.

So he gathers the nation of Israel around the mountain.

This huge, bright glowing cloud lands on Mount Sinai.

FULCO: And it's quite spectacular because it's surrounded

by all sorts of preternatural phenomenon,

of the sounds of trumpets and-and clouds and fire.

DOWNING: And the Jewish people are told

to stay at the bottom of Mount Sinai.

But Moses is authorized-- and you might even say protected--

by the pillar of cloud and of fire

so that he can go up there, uh, and everybody else can't.

NARRATOR: According to the biblical texts,

Moses ascends the mountain and enters the glowing cloud.

There, he communes with the almighty God,

the Creator of the universe.

And after 40 days, he returns,

carrying the Ten Commandments.

But for ancient astronaut theorists,

the story of what happened on Mount Sinai

may, in fact, offer compelling evidence

of a very different type of encounter.

REDFERN: Moses, going up with God, being gone for 40 days,

it sounds very much like the contactee experience today,

where contactees are given rules and regulations

and ideas to follow,

you know, in terms of elevating the human race.

DOWNING: The commandments that are given go against

our very animal nature, because to some extent

what the bible says is that God

would will to give divine power to humans

if we could handle it.

But the problem is that we don't have the ethics to handle it.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

The Ten Commandments are a start toward handling divine power.

And the prophets were picked to be the spokespersons

for powers that were trying to rule the world

through rules and regulations, commandments

that would bring about moral obedience,

which is superior to following our animal instincts.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Moses's encounter on Mount Sinai

was not with the almighty God

but with some sort of extraterrestrial messenger?

One that deliberately sought

to guide and govern human behavior?

Ancient astronaut theorists say that such a profound

and controversial notion is possible

and claim additional evidence can be found

in the story of yet another Old Testament prophet,

one whose teachings were almost entirely erased

from the holy record.

The story of Moses is an extraordinary example

of E.T. contact in the Bible.

But we've also got to talk about the apocryphal texts,

stories that were either left out or removed from the Bible.

Right, for example, the Book of Enoch,

which served as a major source of inspiration

for Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods?

Because in it, it is described how Enoch

is taken into the skies in physical form

inside a fiery chariot.

Yeah, right, and he delivers knowledge from heaven to Earth.

And in ancient astronaut theory,

this knowledge is coming from some kind

of extraterrestrial source.

NARRATOR: The Tigray highlands, Ethiopia.

Here, 7,000 feet above sea level

and clinging to the side of a mountain,

stands the Abba Garima Monastery.

This church is home to one of Christianity's most ancient

and spectacular treasures, the Garima Gospels.

Consisting of two beautifully illustrated volumes,

it has been dated to the sixth century AD,

making it one of the oldest and most complete Bibles on Earth.

YOUNG: There is the very earliest Christian churches in Ethiopia.

So there is this strong connection to the ancient roots

of Western civilization, Western religion in Ethiopia.

NARRATOR: Ethiopia's biblical connections

date back nearly 3,000 years.

In the tenth century BC,

King Solomon, the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem

and the keeper of the Ark of the Covenant,

was visited by Queen Makeda of Ethiopia,

also known as the Queen of Sheba.

YOUNG: The Queen of Sheba, it is said, had a relationship

with Solomon and had a son.

When he came of age, he wanted to meet his father,

and his mother blessed this journey

up to Israel to meet Solomon, and he stayed for some time.

And then some, uh, leaders of the Jewish nation

went back with him to Ethiopia.

Because of this connection between the Queen of Sheba

and Solomon, there's a large Jewish population in Ethiopia.

There are many returnees to the Holy Land, to Israel,

from Ethiopia and other nearby areas in Africa.

Ethiopia is an unusually holy place.

NARRATOR: Curiously, the Bible used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

differs from that of other Christian denominations.

Its version of the Old Testament

includes a controversial text known as the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch, a very, very interesting,

very ancient document which, uh, is only found

in the language of Ge'ez,

which is a sort of Ethiopian early language,

and has over a hundred chapters in the full form.

So, within the Ethiopian Church,

Enoch is considered an, uh, canonical text.

In other Christian traditions, it is not.

NARRATOR: The author of the book, according to the text,

is the Jewish patriarch Enoch,

the great-grandfather of Noah.

Enoch is a biblical figure

mentioned in the Book of Genesis chapter five.

What's interesting about Enoch is, a tradition arose

that he never died.

And this is because in Genesis 5:24,

the text says that Enoch "walked with God"

and then was no more because "God took him."

NARRATOR: But where the Hebrew Bible only mentions Enoch briefly,

the Book of Enoch, which consists

of more than 100 chapters, greatly expands on his story.

In it is a curious passage that details

Enoch's ascent to heaven.

ERICH VON DÄNIKEN: According to the book of Enoch,

he says he was 12 years old.

The whole community of his village wanted to sleep.

But then they hear the noise in the sky.

Two angels came down from the sky.

One of the two beings said to Enoch,

"Don't be afraid, human."

Then they went up to the so-called heaven.

HENRY: And in the Book of Enoch, we learn

Enoch himself is taken into the heavens in a fiery chariot.

VON DÄNIKEN: Enoch goes up to the so-called sky,

and there Enoch sees something over the Earth

which he cannot describe.

He has no word like "spaceship" or something.

He says it looked like houses of crystal.

TSOUKALOS: It is described that he sees planet Earth underneath him.

He actually describes his arrival.

How he has to walk through these different rooms,

where he sees jewels and he sees shiny surfaces

and blinking lights.

It is an eyewitness account.

It's "I, Enoch, did this.

I, Enoch, saw that."

The Book of Enoch is one of the first abduction accounts

written down by a fellow human being.

NARRATOR: Does the Book of Enoch

really describe an actual abduction event?

One that took place thousands of years ago?

And if so, might this incredible close encounter

be documenting communication with otherworldly beings?

CARGILL: Enoch-- he was said to be at the right hand of God.

In fact, Enoch was said to be God's scribe in later tradition.

So God would decree things, and Enoch was the one

who recorded everything that went on.

So Enoch was the keeper of all knowledge of heaven.

HENRY: This is one the reasons why the Book of Enoch

is so controversial.

He's taken up into the heavenly realms,

to the throne of God, where he is given

powerful universal knowledge by angelic beings,

or extraterrestrial beings.

NARRATOR: As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the Book of Enoch is one of the most compelling texts

ever written documenting extraterrestrial visitation...

...but it is far from unique.

They say that similar encounters were documented

by many other ancient cultures, lending support to the notion

that Enoch's experiences were genuine.

We can find ancient texts that speak of people

ascending to heaven and then coming back down.

For example, in ancient Greece, you have the story of Ganymede,

that was taken up by Zeus's eagle.

Also, in ancient China

and in ancient Sumeria

and also in ancient Egypt

are there stories of people having been visited

or having gone up to the sky to visit

with the so-called gods, lowercase "G."

NARRATOR: While these other accounts tell a similar story,

none contain the incredible detail

found within the Book of Enoch.

And some researchers believe

that it was because of this controversial content

that the text was omitted from most versions of the Bible.

Not only d-do these texts infer quite strongly,

uh, the possibility of extraterrestrial life,

but they also show a very different side of God.

This type of information, these type of texts,

this could not be put into the Bible.

TZADOK: The sages of the time considered

the teachings of the Book of Enoch,

if you will, too hot to handle.

And therefore, it fell along by the wayside,

concealed and hidden.

NARRATOR: Is it possible the teachings of Enoch reveal

that not all angelic encounters were of a divine nature?

Is this the secret that has been kept alive

in the Ethiopian version of the Bible?

For ancient astronaut theorists,

the Book of Enoch lies at the heart

of an extraterrestrial agenda

that has been shaping human history for thousands of years,

and they suggest that nowhere is this more evident

than in the book's descriptions of beings called the Watchers.

NARRATOR: London, England.

1604.

To end a dispute in the Anglican Church,

King James I orders the creation of a standardized English Bible.

Today, more than four centuries after its creation,

the King James Version

remains the most famous Bible in history

and one of the most published books of all time.

Interestingly, while it contains 66 books,

the Catholic Bible has 73,

and the Ethiopian Orthodox version is comprised of 81.

But why were so many texts,

including the Book of Enoch, edited out?

There has always been accepted literature,

which becomes the foundation of orthodoxy.

And then there's other literature

that the accepted orthodoxy rejects.

Books that don't make it into the collection of the Bible,

both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament,

are the Apocrypha.

JULYE BIDMEAD: The word "apocrypha" means "hidden things,"

and that's probably from

the ancients hiding these texts away from the general public

because they could be dangerous.

NARRATOR: Dangerous?

Is it possible that the Book of Enoch was omitted

because it exposed truths about human history

that were considered too risky for the public to know?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest insight can be found

by examining a passage in the Old Testament.

We know from the Book of Daniel in chapter four

that there is a group of angelic entities

whose job, whose role it is as ordained by God

to direct the affairs of humanity.

These angelic forces look over our world

and control the direction of civilization.

NARRATOR: While this passage is brief,

these beings serve as the primary focus

of the Book of Enoch,

where they are described as divine overseers

known as the Watchers.

VON DÄNIKEN: Enoch calls them, in the English version,

guardians of the sky or watchers of the sky.

In the German version, they are called angels.

No. It was simply another time.

Now we have a new time.

Now we must translate it with new words.

Change the word of "angel,"

trash it out, and write "extraterrestrial."

TZADOK: These angels were not spiritual beings.

They were physical beings.

That is something very clear

about the identity of biblical angels.

They're not of this world,

and therefore they are not terrestrial.

And therefore they are extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR: According to the Book of Enoch,

a total of 200 Watchers descended to Earth.

Enoch gives us some of the names,

but we know they were ruled by Samyaza

and Aza-- Azazel.

Azazel was later known as Lucifer.

HUGH NEWMAN: The Watchers had a very bright appearance,

and one of their names was "the Shining Ones."

And even Enoch,

when he wrote about them,

he even said he could barely look at them

because they were so bright.

NARRATOR: As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the idea that the Watchers were alien visitors

is most strongly corroborated

by the stories of the prophet Elijah.

TZADOK: Aside from Enoch,

there was one other we know from the Bible

who did ascend to heaven in chariots of fire,

whatever that is meaning.

And this of course is the famous prophet Elijah.

Elijah was a powerful, powerful prophet

who had abilities apparently far beyond those of other prophets.

HENRY: Elijah possessed

a power cloak or a garment

that gave him the-the ability to heal the sick

and even to raise the dead.

And then one day he used that power cloak or garment

to ascend upon a fiery chariot.

A chariot of the gods.

And when Elijah ascended,

there were 50 prophets that witnessed his ascension.

TZADOK: The Bible calls it "chariot of fire."

But what is this chariot? Was it

some type of a technological transportation device,

which in ancient times would not have been understood

as anything else but a chariot of fire?

NARRATOR: Curiously, while the idea of the soul ascending to heaven

is a key component of Judeo-Christian traditions,

there are a number of instances in the Bible

where it is said that a person ascends bodily.

In addition to Enoch and Elijah,

this is also the case with both Jesus and his mother Mary.

But why?

If heaven is a spiritual realm,

why is it written that certain individuals ascended bodily?

Neither Enoch nor Elijah ever claimed that they were prophets.

It was the biblical writers later

who claimed that they're prophets.

The reason of why Enoch ended up being called a prophet

is because of the experiences he had.

He was taken up into space by extraterrestrials.

And we have a similar story with Elijah.

Enoch, Elijah--

it-it's all part

of the big concept of misunderstood technology.

NARRATOR: If the Watchers were in fact extraterrestrials,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

did they have an agenda for humankind?

And if so, were certain individuals chosen to serve

as their messengers?

Perhaps further clues can be found in the divine guidance

given to an ancient Babylonian leader.

One of the oldest accounts

of an otherworldly messenger

is that of the Babylonian king Hammurabi.

I mean, we're talking about a story

that's over 3,700 years old.

HENRY: Right.

And Hammurabi devised

the world's very first legal system,

which he claimed was dictated to him by a god.

- Mm-hmm. - And then, in Egypt,

the pharaoh Akhenaton receives

messages that leads to him

dramatically altering Egyptian religion.

CHILDRESS: Yeah.

And in Akhenaton's case,

that messenger is a god

depicted as a disc in the sky.

NARRATOR: The Louvre. Paris, France.

This historic museum houses

perhaps the most significant legal text in the ancient world.

This stele features the Babylonian god Shamash

talking to King Hammurabi,

and below them, carved in cuneiform text,

are the laws they gave to their people.

It is called the Code of Hammurabi.

McVEIGH: Hammurabi, without a doubt,

was one of the great geniuses of the ancient world.

And of course he's famous

not just for being the ruler of ancient Babylonia

but for coming up with what is called the Code of Hammurabi,

which was the first written legal record.

YOUNG: It's a primitive document compared to what we have now,

but he had a whole system of order

and how taxes were collected and various civil principles

and the rather famous punishment

an eye for an eye,

which has been modified over the years,

but that he had a system.

NARRATOR: The Code of Hammurabi begins with a prologue

in which the king boasts of his great deeds.

But he also writes that the code itself

was dictated to him by the Babylonian god Shamash.

YOUNG: The great King Hammurabi went into a trance,

and God began dictating this incredible document

and channeling it through the great King Hammurabi,

who was speaking it in a voice very unlike his own,

language unlike his own.

It's all coming from God.

And then, when Hammurabi wakes up from his trance,

the scribes read it back to him

and he has no memory of dictating it.

It all came from God.

And it is brilliant.

An important part is

that Hammurabi did not claim authorship.

He knew this was not of his making,

of his intelligence.

DAVID WILCOCK: The system of law that comes through the Code of Hammurabi

is so intrinsic

to the basic moral understandings

of how to run a society that much of it

is still preserved in some form in our modern-day legal system.

This suggests that the Code of Hammurabi comes

from a very advanced point of origin.

NARRATOR: The story behind the Code of Hammurabi is not unique.

In the ancient world, moments of genius,

including basic religious beliefs

and scientific principles,

from Greece and Rome to India and China,

were often said to have been inspired by divine voices.

Think about it-- Moses, Abraham,

Noah, the prophets, Jesus--

a lot of the laws, the rules, the customs,

the traditions that we have are based upon individuals

claiming to have been told something by a deity.

And it's not just the Judeo-Christian tradition.

I would argue that, in every culture,

you've got a lot of laws that are essentially traced back

to people claiming to have been told something

by a being who's not of this world.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the course of human civilization

has been determined

not by history's most profound thinkers

but by some external force that was guiding them?

The ancients were convinced they knew the answer.

In fact, the Latin word "genius"

is where the term "genie,"

or "supernatural creature," comes from.

In the ancient world, the idea of genius

had much more autonomy than our modern view.

The genie, which had a life of its own,

a kind of spiritual daemon, entered you.

You had a relationship with the genie,

and it was really the source of the brilliance.

You were a channel. You were a host.

You were involved, but it was not as personal

and the ownership wasn't as great.

SABINA MAGLIOCCO: The Greeks believed that they were inspired by the Muses.

So what caused a musician to come up with a new tune?

What caused a writer to come up with a new story?

It was the spirit of a Muse that went inside the person

and caused that person to become creative.

And we see that in the word "inspire"--

"in spirit."

When we are inspired,

we are filled with spirit

and we create those things.

NARRATOR: In Alexandria,

Egyptians founded what would become

the greatest library in the ancient world

by erecting a temple to the Muses

and asking them to fill their library with wisdom.

TSOUKALOS: When we say that "I'm looking for my muse,"

you are looking for the key

with which to unlock this kingdom of creativity

that resides within each and every living being.

Is it possible by reaching this altered state of consciousness

to come in contact with beings or with entities

that are of those different realms?

I think that this is possible.

NARRATOR: Could it be that the forces of inspiration

that the ancients attributed to the gods

really did emanate from an otherworldly source,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

In the ancient world, it was really believed

that people were influenced from outside

to have special thoughts,

to have special inspiration

and-and, uh, genius-type ideas,

and it was coming from outside of you.

So you have to wonder if these-these ideas

aren't possibly some kind of thoughts

that are being projected into your mind,

possibly by extraterrestrials.

HENRY: Perhaps behind all of this

is a belief that people were directly influenced

by extraterrestrial beings

who gave them immense inspiration

or profound knowledge

that then they were able to share with others.

NARRATOR: Could it be that mankind

has received ongoing inspiration from otherworldly forces?

And if so, were these messages intended

to covertly shape our world?

Perhaps further evidence can be found by examining

the curious connection between a heretic pharaoh

and a mysterious disc in the sky.

NARRATOR: Luxor, Egypt.

Along the east bank of the Nile River

lie the ruins of the Karnak Temple Complex,

dating to the 32nd century BC.

Here, in ancient Egyptian society,

the pharaohs were considered perfect humans

to be worshipped above all others as supreme living gods.

This religious hierarchy was in place for over a thousand years,

until one pharaoh came into power and changed everything.

His name was Akhenaton.

According to legend,

Akhenaton descended from the stars.

And when he came to power,

the worship of multiple gods ended.

The pharaoh replaced the old deities with a single sun god

that some believe had interacted with

and gave birth to Akhenaton.

This god was called Aten.

What we have with Akhenaton is a very brief period of time

when Egypt radically departs from its standard behavior.

We see Akhenaton is becoming obsessed,

saying that he can contact the gods.

Also, he is remodeling the way he looks--

not physically but on his monuments.

TSOUKALOS: Akhenaton looked very odd.

And the other statues that were created during that time

all featured elongated heads,

bizarre bodies, and chicken legs.

The whole reign of Akhenaton leads us to think

that he had contact with extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Akhenaton's wife Queen Nefertiti

and their children were also depicted

with similar elongated heads.

But might there be a specific reason why the pharaoh

and his descendants were illustrated in this way?

COPPENS: Clearly, Akhenaton and various other people

were confronted with deities who had these elongated skulls.

And so they reshaped their heads,

because this somehow would bring them closer to the gods

and maybe even in contacting or being amongst the gods.

NARRATOR: Could the sun god Aten

have been an alien being that visited Earth,

as some ancient astronaut theorists contend?

Or is it possible that Akhenaton himself

had an extraterrestrial origin?

Might Akhenaton have received messages from Aten?

Messages that would have had a profound effect

on Egyptian society during the pharaoh's reign?

TSOUKALOS: They visited him.

He had actual physical contact with them.

And so that was the reason why

he instituted this one-god rule.

And another theory is also that Akhenaton himself

was in fact half human,

half extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR: Akhenaton ruled for 17 years.

But upon his death,

the magnificent city he built to the sun god

was partially destroyed...

...and his mysterious depictions were defaced or obliterated.

Aten, the god who some believe

may have delivered messages to the pharaoh,

was also virtually erased from the records.

Is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists contend,

that the pharaoh's relationship with extraterrestrial beings

was covered up for nearly 1,000 years?

JASON MARTELL: All the other pharaohs left wall descriptions and--

describing their glory and brilliance.

But for some reason, around Akhenaton,

it was all scribbled out,

as if to hide them, like an ancient cover-up.

NARRATOR: Might the defacement of Akhenaton's legacy

have been an attempt to conceal his contact

with an extraterrestrial presence?

Or could it be that his erasure was orchestrated

by the priesthood,

acting on the will of Egypt's ancient gods

seeking to reclaim their authority?

Perhaps further evidence of this unseen influence

can be uncovered by examining a profound religious revelation

that altered the course of history.

You know, we have been talking about ancient stories

from well over 2,000 years ago,

but there are more recent accounts

- of otherworldly messengers. - Yeah.

And some of these were major world-changing events.

Like the account of the Roman emperor Constantine.

He sees what he interprets as a sign from the heavens, and

as a result he converts the Roman Empire to Christianity.

Right. And we have stories like that

also here in the United States.

The Mormon Church was founded

after a visit by a so-called otherworldly messenger.

We talked a lot about these modern encounters

in an episode called "Alien Encounters."

NARRATOR: Rome.

October 27, 312 AD.

Just north of the city,

the emperor Constantine

leads his troops toward the Milvian Bridge

and a decisive battle with Maxentius to reclaim his throne.

At stake is control over the western part

of the vast Roman Empire.

According to an account from the historian Eusebius,

on the eve of the battle,

Constantine looks up into the sky...

...and sees what he believes is a divine vision.

Constantine and his followers

saw in the sky what their chroniclers say

was a huge white fiery cross.

Now, his followers didn't know what to make of this.

But Constantine decided

that this was the Christian cross.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN: Constantine feels

after viewing this extraordinary sign from the heavens,

this lighted cross in the sky,

that he will go forth the next day

and he will conquer the Roman Empire.

And this is exactly what he does.

♪ ♪

This vision becomes one of the crucial turning points

in human history.

NARRATOR: After winning the brutal Battle of Milvian Bridge,

Constantine consolidates his power

and begins a campaign of religious tolerance

across the empire,

and he himself converts to Christianity.

But what exactly did Constantine see in the sky

that ended up changing the course of Western civilization?

Was it a divine vision or something else?

TSOUKALOS: Don't we all

see crosses up in the sky when we look at planes?

Because you have lights on the sides and at the front.

And if you have a little bit of light shining on it,

sometimes they look like crosses.

So we have to ask ourselves, is it possible

that this was absolutely no Christian symbol at all

but that it was adapted over time

after something that was witnessed up in the sky.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that extraterrestrials

were responsible for Constantine's vision?

Ancient astronaut theorists say one compelling piece of evidence

that aliens have tried to manipulate mankind

through religious visions still exists today.

Mexico City.

December 1531.

According to an account called the Nican Mopohua,

published in the Aztec language of Nahuatl...

...a peasant named Juan Diego

was walking in the countryside when he heard a beautiful voice

singing on the other side of a hill.

Diego climbed the hill and saw an angelic vision...

...a woman in white garments that shone like the sun.

And she said to him,

"Juan Diego, I am the Virgin Mary,

"and I'm asking you to build a sanctuary for me here

on this hill."

Well, Juan Diego fell to his knees in awe

and he said, "Great lady, I will do as you desire."

NARRATOR: But according to the story,

Juan Diego couldn't convince the local bishop

that he had actually seen the Virgin Mary.

So he went back to the hill,

where he again saw the vision.

MAGLIOCCO: He says, "Lady, please give me a sign,

"because nobody believes me when I tell them

that I have seen you."

And she says, "Juan Diego, take off your cloak."

And he does. He takes off his cloak,

and she fills his cloak with roses.

PASTOR BRETT PETERSON: He took the roses to the bishop, and the bishop

fell down on his knees,

because it wasn't the roses

as to why he believed the story from Diego,

but inside the tilma was a painting of the Virgin Mother.

And the bishop believed and they built the church on that hill.

NARRATOR: This cloak still exists today.

And despite its frail fabric,

it has reportedly remained in pristine condition

despite the cruel ravages of time.

Right now you can go to the church

and see the tilma hanging there.

And it has not degraded

over the 400-plus years that they've had it.

It's been through a fire.

It's been through an explosion

where purportedly an iron cross was twisted from the explosion,

but the tilma right next to the cross was still fine.

NARRATOR: Could the sacred image on the cloak

really be evidence of a visitation by the Virgin Mary?

Or might it have a different otherworldly explanation?

In addition to the tilma inexplicably enduring

for hundreds of years,

those who have studied it

have found other unexplainable qualities.

Most bizarre of all are the eyes of the image.

Approximately seven to eight millimeters wide,

what we see inside those eyes

is a highly enigmatic mystery,

because it appears that there are characters in the eyes,

the faces of the people who were there at the time

that the tilma was unveiled by Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531.

NARRATOR: But if Our Lady of Guadalupe

really does have otherworldly origins,

did it come from a heavenly realm or somewhere else?

Not only do ancient astronaut theorists believe

Juan Diego's vision was an extraterrestrial encounter,

but even some members of the church claim

that it was something other than a religious experience.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is definitely a heavenly visitor.

In my opinion, though, what her story said

disagrees with what the Bible says.

- (bell tolling) - In fact, she said she would protect

the people that worship at the church.

What that does is really deify Mary,

when the Bible is very clear

that only God can protect those that serve him.

And so any otherworldly being that demands worship or respect,

it cannot be a-an angel from God.

Juan Diego may have witnessed not just an apparition

but an actual live extraterrestrial,

appearing through some sort of advanced technology,

whose mission was to impart spiritual faith

and a thirst for the divine.

(bell tolls)

NARRATOR: Could it be that some of history's most significant

religious visions have actually been produced

by alien beings carrying out a secret mission?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and believe further proof of this extraterrestrial hand

can be found in the messages given to a Latter-day prophet.

NARRATOR: Manchester, New York.

September 21, 1823.

(crickets chirping)

As he settles into bed, a 17-year-old farmhand

named Joseph Smith begins to say his prayers.

Suddenly, without warning,

an overpowering light envelops his room

and a robed figure appears.

According to Smith's account,

"not only was his robe exceedingly white,

but his whole person was glorious beyond description."

Speaking from the center of the light,

the angel, whose name is Moroni, sends Smith on a quest

for several sacred texts hidden near a local tree.

GREGORY BEIRICH: Upon, uh, locating the tree,

Joseph dug and indeed found the texts,

but they recorded a language which he could not read.

A second visitation from Moroni

told Joseph Smith where he could find

what we might call a device of some kind

that would allow him to read the texts.

TSOUKALOS: Joseph Smith was given

this translating stone, the Urim and the Thummim,

with which he was able to not only write down this text...

...but also to-to be able to translate it.

BEIRICH: He then translated the texts into English,

which become the Book of Mormon.

And it depicts, among other things,

that after Jesus ascended into heaven,

he came to the Americas

and ministered to the Native peoples here...

...to convert them to his way of life

and that, at some point,

the texts that become the Book of Mormon

are deposited here so that Joseph Smith could find them.

NARRATOR: Seven years later, Smith publishes these texts

as part of the Book of Mormon,

establishing the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints,

a denomination with more than 15 million followers today.

Many religions worldwide

have been founded with the help of angels.

Whether they're representatives of Christian,

Muslim or Buddhist gods,

these apparitions are thought to be a way

the gods intervene on Earth with humans.

MAGLIOCCO: Angels, when they appear

in religious legends and in myths,

generally are messengers

between the heavenly realm and the human realm.

PETERSON: Throughout the Bible, we have stories

of angels and demons appearing to mankind.

In fact, Paul says

that, "You be careful how you entertain strangers,

because some of you entertain angels unaware."

The Bible is very clear that angels

can take on human form

and appear in the likeness of man.

NARRATOR: But ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that sometimes these heavenly visions and apparitions

may not actually be angels sent by an omniscient god.

And curiously, the so-called angel

that led Joseph Smith to the sacred texts

that would become the Book of Mormon

did not profess to have heavenly origins,

but claimed to be from another part of the universe.

WILCOCK: Now, Moroni did not say that he was an angel.

He said that, at one time, he had lived on Earth

but that now he came from the Pleiades star cluster.

And he said there were many others like him.

When we look at the background of the Book of Mormon,

we see some very interesting parallels

to what could be an extraterrestrial tale.

This angel Moroni that appears to Joseph Smith...

...seems to be more than just chance.

It's very possible that Joseph Smith

was interacting with a type of extraterrestrial.

WILCOCK: These extraterrestrials may be giving these messages

to world leaders and to prophets and seers and mystics

to let us know that we are the product

of an extraterrestrial interbreeding

and an ongoing contact

with these other people who were not born on Earth.

And we have lost touch with that history

only because we refuse to believe the truth

that is recorded in our historical books

and see what's right in front of our faces even now

with the encounters that are happening in the modern world.

NARRATOR: But if an extraterrestrial being

really did inspire Joseph Smith to found the Mormon Church, why?

Joseph Smith's encounter ultimately led the Mormons

to migrate west to establish a new holy land in Utah,

which has led some to speculate that aliens, once again,

were guiding the course of humanity.

Moroni let Joseph Smith know that he would be the prophet

and he would lead his people to the new Jerusalem.

WILCOCK: Mormonism is another example, potentially,

of an extraterrestrial influence

steering the course of our humanity

and helping steer the outcome

of historical events here on Earth.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Joseph Smith,

the founder of the Mormon religion,

was guided by an extraterrestrial being?

And if so, was this alien encounter

another attempt to guide us into a more enlightened age?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

but also suggest that humanity may be caught in the middle

of conflicting alien agendas.

Most of the stories of otherworldly messengers

speak of beings that are here to deliver knowledge

to help humanity.

But then you also have the stories

of the less benevolent beings

that are often referred to as the trickster gods.

CHILDRESS: Yeah, right, like

the Muslim stories of the jinn.

They are these strange,

shape-shifting beings that whisper instructions to people,

often with a negative outcome.

Right, and what's fascinating there

is that the ancient texts say that these jinn were neither

of the earthly realm nor the heavenly realm.

So, according to the ancient astronaut theory,

that means they were of the extraterrestrial realm.

NARRATOR: Muscat, Oman.

Here, on the shores of the Arabian Sea,

lies one of the world's ten largest caves, Majlis al Jinn,

or "Meeting Place of the Jinn."

According to Islamic texts,

the jinn are beings from a higher realm,

but they are not angels.

They have free will and they disobey Allah,

just as the Watchers are said to have disobeyed God

in the Book of Enoch.

And many Muslims believe this 14-acre cavern

is still inhabited by these otherworldly beings.

In Islam, there is a class of beings known as jinn.

The jinn are angelic and yet

they are not of the ethereal realm.

They are of the earthly realm.

They're neither good nor evil, they're shape-shifters.

They can help you, they can also trick you.

HENRY: They are supposed to have had magic abilities,

supernatural powers.

And humans greatly feared the jinn.

They're just exiled beings

who crossed over a forbidden boundary

and now find themselves trapped in the Earth plane.

NARRATOR: In the Islamic texts,

the jinn appear only when they want to be seen,

often influencing humans

by whispering instructions to them while invisible.

In order to understand the nature of these entities,

we must understand that, in many ways,

they are the intermediary race.

Like human beings, they eat and drink.

Like human beings, they sexually procreate.

But like the angels, they can shape-shift,

fly and know the future.

NARRATOR: Stories of encounters with the jinn

can be found throughout the Muslim world.

But could they be true?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and claim that further evidence can be found

with the stories of similar strange beings

found all over the world.

In Africa, there are stories of the orisha,

demigods who came down from the sky

that are said to speak every language

and secretly influence events on Earth.

In Japan, the tengu are birdlike creatures

that are said to hide out in the mountains

and change form to manipulate humans.

But if otherworldly beings were active on Earth

hundreds of years ago,

could they still be among us even to this day?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and for proof they suggest we look no further

than recent accounts of alien abductions.

January 25, 1967.

South Ashburnham, Massachusetts.

30-year-old Betty Andreasson is in her kitchen after dinner

while her mother, father and seven children

are in the living room.

Suddenly, the power goes out...

...and when it comes back on a moment later,

a beam of red light shoots through the window.

BETTY ANDREASSON LUCA: We saw a flashing reddish orange light

coming through the pantry window.

Five beings entered my home right through the wooden door.

They had large black eyes,

tiny nose, thin slit mouth, tiny holes for ears,

a large, bulbous head.

And I was quite shocked,

wondering who-who or what is this, you know?

At that point, I was taken up into the craft.

Betty ends up going with them

to some place that she thinks is their world.

And she said it was more vivid than life itself.

Betty Andreasson's reports are very detailed and thorough.

There's lots and lots of specific drawings that she makes

of technology on these ships.

This is before the era

that anybody was talking about this stuff,

so it was a totally unique experience for her.

NARRATOR: A devout Christian, Andreasson describes

her abduction as a religious experience.

The only thing I could think of, that they must be angels

for them to be able to pass through the door like that

and to take me through that door the same way.

But for ancient astronaut theorists, this encounter

is most significant because of how

these strange beings identified themselves.

They said that they were the Watchers.

June 1, 1990.

UFO investigator Raymond Fowler publishes The Watchers,

an unprecedented inside look at the Betty Andreasson case.

After years of hypnosis, psych exams and interviews,

Fowler concludes that the strange beings

Andreasson encountered

that called themselves the Watchers

were the same entities

that are commonly identified today as Grey aliens.

It's very interesting, this word "Watchers,"

because when you talk with so many people,

you begin to hear patterns.

And even if you're not sitting across

from a man or a woman or a child

who says, "I was taken by a Watcher,"

what you hear is, the abductees knew

that they were dealing with something

that knew everything about them.

Again, the Watcher idea, whether you use that name or not.

NARRATOR: According to Betty's account,

the extraterrestrials who took her aboard their craft

subjected her to medical examination.

And I was floated to a table.

And as he was examining me,

he-he said they were gonna have to measure me physically.

And at that point, they started

to take this needle-like thing

and thrust it into my navel.

And I could feel it going round and round inside me.

NARRATOR: As incredible as Betty Andreasson's

abduction story sounds, it is not unique.

Many alleged alien abductees give very similar accounts.

In 1961,

Betty and Barney Hill of Lancaster, New Hampshire

made one of the earliest alien abduction reports

when they claimed that they had been taken aboard a ship...

...placed naked on examination tables,

and probed by what they described as Grey aliens.

Linda Porter of Covina, California

reported that in 1963,

she, too, was taken aboard a ship...

...where she witnessed strange-looking creatures

examining humans held in states of suspended animation.

But if these accounts are true,

what is it that's being done to these abductees?

Watchers have two key areas of interest

as it concerns humanity.

One is genetics and the other is technology,

and both are found in the phenomena

of alien abductions.

So, one idea would be that the purpose of the abductions

is to continue to tweak the human body

to assist humanity in climbing

the evolutionary ladder, so to speak.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Watchers

that were described in the Bible and the Book of Enoch

really are responsible

for the modern alien abduction phenomenon?

Some ancient astronaut theorists suggest

it is possible that modern alien abductions

are not the work of those same Watchers

that survived the great flood

but that instead they are carried out

by another group of extraterrestrials.

All of the people that I've interviewed,

they would tell you the same thing.

These Watchers, they're not all of the same mind.

There seems to be conflict about

what the future of humanity on this planet will be.

TZADOK: Legends teach us that Watchers fight

amongst themselves

and that they will each manipulate segments of humanity

so as to express their own agendas,

and therefore, it is they who influence nations

to go to war and to fight

for their purposes, not necessarily

for our own betterment.

CHILDRESS: And you have to wonder

if many of the modern-day abductions,

such as Betty Andreasson...

...are really extraterrestrials who are the Watchers.

NARRATOR: Betty Andreasson came to believe

that she had been chosen

to deliver a message to the world

revealing that beings called the Watchers

have been observing and guiding humankind

since our very beginnings.

If Andreasson was selected to carry such a message,

could there be others?

Perhaps further clues can be found

by examining the accounts and revelations

of another extraterrestrial contactee.

A basic premise of the ancient astronaut theory

is that extraterrestrials had a hand

in the development of humans

thousands of years ago.

But I think it's also possible that they monitored our progress

all this time and maybe

every once in a while they would, you know,

nudge us in the right direction.

Right, and we have thousands

of modern-day reports

of what are thought to be encounters with alien beings.

And very often,

the people report that these beings

have messages that they want to relay to humanity.

Right. And some people say that the extraterrestrials

are trying to warn us about atomic weapons

or to take better care of the Earth.

We talked about this in a 2023 episode called

"Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind."

NARRATOR: Desert Center, California.

November 20, 1952.

Photographer and amateur astronomer George Adamski

is hiking with friends along the rocky sands

of the Colorado Desert

when he sees a large saucer-shaped craft in the sky.

According to Adamski,

a voice from the spaceship speaks to him,

telling him to walk off the main road.

Allegedly, uh, the four of them

saw a craft, uh, land

farther out in the desert.

George Adamski, by himself,

then walked over this hill and to the craft,

where he claimed he met with an extraterrestrial.

That extraterrestrial invited, uh, Adamski,

ultimately, to go on one of the craft at some point.

HENRY: He claimed that they took him in a spaceship

out into space and toured other planets,

and along the way he is educated or schooled

by a thousand-year-old being

he refers to as "the Master."

NICK POPE: He believed that they were

enlightened, advanced beings

who were keeping an eye on our development

and were concerned

about some of the turns that the human journey had taken.

Pollution of the environment, development of nuclear weapons.

And so Adamski then went on

to spread his message around the world

because he felt that this was a mission for him.

CHILDRESS: Adamski wrote a number of books about this,

and his photos are still famous photos

that he took of cylindrical, cigar-shaped ships

and of flying saucers.

He actually traveled around the world

as a special ambassador.

He even met with the queen of Holland

and other world leaders.

He was greeted often as some kind of ambassador

from the extraterrestrials.

Most of these contactees will say

they're lectured to in some fashion

about technology and their place in the universe.

It's a message that they're given

to take to other people.

NARRATOR: Do extraterrestrials select certain people

to deliver information to humanity?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and suggest there may even be physical evidence to prove it.

Ulster County, New York.

December 26, 1985.

Best-selling author Whitley Strieber

is celebrating Christmas with his wife and young son

at their cabin.

In the middle of the night,

he is awoken by a disturbing feeling.

I felt that there was something around me.

In other words, there was movement

that shouldn't have been there.

And I opened my eyes,

and I saw these big, black eyes staring at me.

And I had no idea where I was.

It was a little round room.

And I began to scream.

This automatic voice turned on, saying,

"What can we do to help you stop screaming?"

There were these other figures,

dark blue little figures darting around,

and they assaulted me, basically.

It was not easy. It was a very terrifying experience.

NARRATOR: To process the traumatic event,

Whitley wrote about his close encounter,

which became the basis of his best-selling memoir Communion.

He hoped the experience was behind him.

But in May of 1989,

Whitley had another strange nocturnal encounter.

STRIEBER: I'm on my side, on my right side,

and there's a hand pressing down on my left temple,

pressing it into the pillow in, like, waves, like this.

And I can't struggle, I can't move a muscle,

I can't see anything.

I am completely immobilized.

After a few seconds, that ends.

And I think, "Was it a dream?"

Then, the next day or the day after, my ear started hurting.

I reach up and I feel this bump here on my ear.

And I thought, "Oh, my God, th-- it's an implant."

WOMAN: Ooh, that-- look at that white thing.

STRIEBER: There was an attempt to remove it.

It failed because the implant

went from here right down into here on its own.

And the doctor pulled out.

Two days later, it went from my ear lobe

back up to where it is to this day.

NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrials have really implanted

some kind of device inside Whitley Strieber's ear?

And if so, why?

According to Whitley, whatever the implant is,

it has had a profound effect on him.

STRIEBER: In 2015,

I noticed a slit opened up in my right eye,

and you could see words racing through it.

But they were like someone was typing very quickly and racing.

And it had something to do with my writing,

because, at the same time,

my ability to do research

changed dramatically and weirdly.

I found that if I just thought about something I needed,

no matter how obscure,

one way or another, it would come to me.

NARRATOR: Since receiving the alleged implant,

Strieber claims to have had regular interaction

with otherworldly beings.

STRIEBER: The visitors are a part of my life now.

Very much so.

Uh, I don't think

I would be comfortable working

without knowing that there was...

using the implant, that there was a connection.

Now, what do they want from us?

That is a very big unanswered question.

GEORGE KNAPP: Humans have been interacting

with these beings, wherever they're from,

for eons, throughout human history.

I think that, uh, this intelligence,

instead of revealing itself on a global scale,

they've been engaging with people one-on-one.

Maybe they put us on the path where we are now.

Don't know.

They seem to have an ongoing interest in us.

They take direct involvement

with certain bloodlines and certain people.

And the dramatic transformations that have taken place

after people have had these claimed contacts

is very real.

NARRATOR: Could modern-day extraterrestrial contact cases,

like those of George Adamski and Whitley Strieber,

be linked to the same strange phenomena

reported by ancient biblical prophets and leaders?

Are modern contactees

the latest in a long line of chosen messengers?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining

the Vatican's growing interest in UFOs.

When we talk about messages from alien visitors,

a lot of people believe that this information

is actually being hidden by the Vatican.

TSOUKALOS: Oh, absolutely.

In fact, we know that the Vatican

contains a secret archive

in which they store ancient texts

that are millennia old.

HENRY: Yeah, and recently,

the Vatican has totally embraced the possibility

of intelligent life in the universe.

So maybe the Vatican knows a lot more

about what messages were conveyed to our ancestors

- than we do. - Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: The Vatican.

Vatican City, Italy.

In the 17th century, Pope Paul V

ordered select documents of the Catholic Church

moved from the Vatican Library

and closed to outsiders until 1881.

Today, the Vatican Secret Archives

are closely guarded,

and some researchers believe

they contain revelations so explosive

that they threaten the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

You have to wonder

if the secret library at the Vatican,

which they acknowledge exists,

doesn't have records or chronicles

about extraterrestrial contacts

that the Catholic Church has recorded

and knows happened...

...but is keeping a secret.

NARRATOR: According to researchers,

the Vatican Secret Archives holds hidden evidence...

connected to the Miracle of Fátima.

It was here in 1917

that three children claimed to have received messages

from what some Catholic theologians believe

was the Virgin Mary.

HOWE: In Fátima, children saw an apparition

they said was the Virgin Mary...

...and 70,000 people came to this same sheep pasture.

And people said that they saw a spinning silver disc.

The Catholic Church, for a very long time,

would not acknowledge what was happening

with the children or Fátima.

VON DÄNIKEN: The extraterrestrials give to the children

a telepathic message saying,

"You are not alone on this planet."

"We are here. We have been here some thousands of years ago.

"We observe you.

"Please prepare mankind

that we will return again."

All this story of Fátima went to the Vatican.

NARRATOR: But is it possible,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend,

that the Catholic Church censored the messages

that were received in Fátima?

TSOUKALOS: The kids were given three messages,

and the pope refused to release the third message.

The third message apparently talks

about extraterrestrial life.

Now, that is sensational,

because, to me, to deny

the revelation of that particular message.

And that is exactly what the pope did.

And I wonder why.

NARRATOR: Some contend that the Miracle of Fátima

is one of many events that describe visitations

from extraterrestrial messengers.

Researchers also point to the voices described

by Joan of Arc,

visions received in Lourdes by Bernadette Soubirous,

and countless stories depicted in the Hebrew Bible

in which similar events are described.

Perhaps the Vatican knows far more

about life in the universe than they have acknowledged.

But does a belief in alien life

question the omnipotence of a supreme being?

TSOUKALOS: Of course the Vatican knows

about extraterrestrial life.

But to suggest that "because extraterrestrials exist,

that means there is no God" is total nonsense.

NARRATOR: Safford, Arizona,

130 miles northeast of Tucson.

The Mount Graham International Observatory.

Here, the Roman Catholic Church

quietly operates a massive telescope

that scans the heavens day after day,

as does another telescope in Rome.

What do they expect to find?

CHRISTOPHER CORBALLY: We're doing all kinds of research work

into various aspects of the heavens.

So, from the very nearest around planets nearby...

...our own solar system

out through to our galaxy,

galaxies beyond that,

and then the universe as a whole.

NARRATOR: Might the Catholic Church

be monitoring our cosmic neighbors

and preparing for the day when science and governments

acknowledge their existence?

The Vatican Observatory, uh, on Mount Graham,

is very near the San Francisco Peaks,

which is the sacred mountain to the Hopi and Zuni Indians,

where the sky people come and go from.

I find it very interesting that the Vatican

should have an observatory

right at this very sacred and crucial spot,

also well-known as a corridor for UFO activity.

HOWE: If you are a Vatican, a government,

and you have secret knowledge

that there's other life in the universe,

they're going to be forced into public statements

consistent with the Catholic view of the divine.

NARRATOR: In 2008,

the Vatican stunned the world when it announced

that the possibility of extraterrestrial life

was not in conflict with Church teachings.

Might they know something we don't?

Do you think they came forward

with such a statement out of thin air, willy-nilly?

No. There was a deliberate calculation

behind releasing such a statement.

All you have to do is open your eyes,

and it becomes quite clear we've been visited,

and the Vatican knows that.

The Vatican does not have a specific stance

on extraterrestrial life.

If extraterrestrial life was found,

then the Church would react

as it does with any data:

"What's about it to learn?"

A living experience would be

the experience of extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Might the growing accounts

of messages shared with a select few here on Earth

have prompted the Vatican to begin acknowledging

other life in the universe?

And if extraterrestrials are delivering messages to humans,

could they be signaling a reunion

with our ancient ancestors?

If so, perhaps the otherworldly guidance

passed down through the ages

was never meant for our salvation

but to ready us for their return.

We find this incredible lineage of messengers,

from Hammurabi to Akhenaton, Moses to Enoch.

We think of them as prophets, but they're messengers.

But today we call them contactees.

Yeah, right, and you have all of these messengers

of God from ancient times,

but their messages are so similar

to the modern contactees.

It seems like the same message.

Well, yeah, and I mean, the basic, uh, tenet

of the ancient astronaut theory

is that it was not an encounter with God,

it was an encounter with an extraterrestrial

in possession of a spaceship.

And the message that they received is,

one day the extraterrestrials will return.

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