Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Festering disease.

MILTON WAINWRIGHT, PH.D.:

Everything was going on okay one

minute, and then all of a

sudden, people are kind of

rotting in front of you.

NARRATOR: Raging pestilence.

RICHARD RADER: The civilized

world went out the window.

NARRATOR: And death of almost

unspeakable agony.

GEORGE NOORY: Are we the

laboratory of the universe?

NARRATOR: But what if the

source of all this very human

suffering has a strangely

non-human origin?

JEFFREY GALPIN, MD: It would

be narrow-minded to accept

viruses wouldn't occur in other

planets around the universe.

PHILIP COPPENS: Is there

somebody who has the technology

to actually send things to

Earth, and are part of

intergalactic warfare?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: To suggest

that ETs would come here and

annihilate us in the way we see

it in the movies... why go

through all the trouble when all

you have to do...

is release a toxin into the air?

NARRATOR: Millions of people

around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by

extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?

And could they even be the

source of our deadliest

epidemics?

Advertise your product or brand here contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today

NARRATOR: Portugal.

October 13, 1917.

During what had been a bright

and cloudless day...

(booming thunder)

...the skies suddenly turned

dark and foreboding.

For those who were there to

witness it, their world was

about to turn upside down.

Three children had claimed to

see what they believed was the

Virgin Mary.

She promised to give the people

a sign from God.

CHRIS PITTMAN: Perhaps as

many as 100,000 people watched

as the sun seemed to change into

an opaque spinning disc in the

sky.

PHILIP IMBROGNO: During those

manifestations, the children

were told that God was very,

very angry with the world, and

that there would be punishment.

NARRATOR: The incident near

the small village of Fatima was

labeled a miracle by some, and

a hoax by others.

But to ancient astronaut

theorists, the event is

considered an extraterrestrial

encounter.

COPPENS: In Fatima, we see

mysterious events happening.

But we do not really know

whether we are dealing with a

religious phenomenon, or whether

we are dealing with an

extraterrestrial UFO kind of

phenomenon.

We know that the apparition

didn't really identify herself

as who she was.

It's within the context of

religion that she is named the

Virgin Mary.

The question is, if she's not

the Virgin Mary, then who is

she?

NARRATOR: Perhaps even more

bizarre is the fact that less

than one year after the event,

an estimated 50 million people

were dead, victims of the worst

plague in recorded history.

Could this deadly pandemic,

known as the Spanish influenza,

have been somehow connected to

the incidents at Fatima?

DAVID CHILDRESS: it's quite

possible that many of the

plagues really occurred because

alien beings came here and

brought with them microbes and

bacteria and diseases.

NARRATOR: Disease has been

responsible for more deaths than

every war in human history

combined.

And right from the start, we

have looked for an answer...

in the heavens.

ADRIENNE MAYOR, PH.D.: In

antiquity, when pestilence or

plague would strike, it was very

mysterious and frightening.

(thunder rumbling)

Of course, people did try to

explain it.

The easiest way to imagine

disease was like a shower coming

down from the sky, perhaps sent

by an angry or wrathful god.

RADER: In the mythological

imagination, plagues were always

the result of the gods being

angry or upset with us.

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR: Examples abound in

the ancient world of diseases

being linked to the gods.

In ancient Egypt, the god of

disease was called Seth.

And the Hittites called their

plague god lrra.

MAYOR: The name means "fire"

or "burning..."

...and this was their way of

explaining raging fevers

that were something like

wildfires sweeping through

the land.

RADER: There was a

conception of plague as a

physical ailment, something that

attacks the body, but lots of

physical ailments were conceived

of as the result of supernatural

intervention.

NARRATOR: The ancient Chinese

also connected plagues and

diseases to the supernatural,

and took it one step further.

They kept meticulous records

about when there were outbreaks

of disease and actual

celestial events.

WILLIAM BRAMLEY: They

connected reports of unusual

comets, things that we today

would call UFOs, to outbreaks

of plague.

So this has been universal.

It's not just been a few places.

It's not just been a few

plagues.

It's actually been very

consistent throughout history.

CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE,

PH.D.: So many different ancient

cultures right across the world

had this point of view that

plagues were caused by things

that happened in the skies.

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR: Greece. 430 B.C.

Athens is at war with Sparta.

The battles are brutal and

bloody.

But the war casualties pale in

comparison to the scenes

of horror...

when plague descends

on the people.

GALPIN: They were thirsty

beyond thirst.

They turned red.

They vomited.

They had terrible diarrhea.

Their fingers, at times, turned

black.

Their bodies were ravaged.

RADER: Graves are being

stacked with 12 to 15 bodies,

and when that fails, they're

just simply left onto the

street... dead, putrid,

decomposing bodies all over the

city, thousands of people.

NARRATOR: But was the Plague

of Athens some biological

consequence of the war?

Or something else?

Something... not of this Earth?

(whirring)

RADER: The civilized world

went out the window as soon as

this plague hit.

You can certainly correlate

plagues, epidemics, disease with

the decline and fall of various

empires.

NARRATOR: As far as the

ancient Greeks were concerned,

the plague was very likely a

curse from the gods.

NOORY: The wrath of God could

very well have been the wrath of

ETs who wanted to control us,

manipulate us, change us.

And they did so in a very

deliberate, evil way.

(people screaming)

NARRATOR: In the middle of

the sixth century, another virus

nearly succeeded in wiping out

most of humanity...

the Justinian Plague.

GALPIN: There aren't really

good records back then of how

many millions of people died,

but a significant percentage of

the world died.

WAINWRIGHT: You know,

everything was going on okay one

minute, and then all of a

sudden, people are kind of

rotting in front of you.

Wow. Where has this come from?

NARRATOR: Like the Plague

of Athens, the Justinian Plague

was accompanied by multiple

reports...

of strange sightings in the sky.

IMBROGNO: People reported

seeing strange objects in the

sky... that they called "glowing

gold shields," and visions of

bronze ships in the sky and

headless creatures.

TSOUKALOS: And whenever

these events took place...

in the middle of daylight,

by the way... people fell ill.

And something would be witnessed

again, up in the sky, and there

would be another outbreak.

NARRATOR: According to

modern-day astronomers, at the

time of the Justinian Plague,

there was an unusually high

concentration of

cosmic activity.

WICKRAMASINGHE: Islamic

literature of the day was very

clear in stating that the skies

were darkened on many occasions

and people were frightened by

meteor storms and comets

impacting the Earth.

There's also direct evidence,

I think, from a subject called

dendrochronology... thicknesses

of tree rings... an indication of

the amount of light that we

receive during the summer

months.

For the period from 530 to 550,

or thereabouts... A.D... we find

that the tree-ring thicknesses

almost vanish...

showing that the skies were

really darkened.

That's, again, consistent with

comets breaking up, meteors

breaking up in the sky.

So one has to then speculate if

these dust particles that were

darkening the skies also

contained viruses and bacteria.

COPPENS: ls there somewhere,

out there in deep space, where

somebody has the technology to

actually send over things to

Earth, so that what looks to be

a normal mechanism of delivery,

actually becomes a very

high-tech method of delivery,

and we have no idea that we are

part of an intergalactic

warfare.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: The connection

between deadly plagues and

phenomena in the sky appears

frequently throughout

ancient histories.

Most scientists today call it

superstition.

3,000 years ago, they called

it fact.

But might an ancient sculpture

discovered in 19th century

Egypt prove that our ancestors

knew more than we give them

credit for?

NARRATOR: Naqada, Egypt.

1897.

A treasure trove of ancient

artifacts sees the light of day

after being entombed for 6,000

years.

Among the findings is this

statue of what looks like a

bearded man.

It is dubbed "MacGregor Man,"

for the Reverend William

MacGregor, in whose antiquities

collection it once resided.

TSOUKALOS: In Egyptology,

this ancient statue is referred

to as "the bearded man."

However, if you look a little

bit closer, you can see that

what he's wearing on his head,

and what extends from his chin,

is not necessarily a beard, but

it looks like a skullcap.

His entire body seems to be

inside some type of an overall,

some type of a suit, because

even where his cuffs are, there

is no shirt opening.

No matter from what angle, it

looks like a guy inside a hazmat

suit.

NARRATOR: Other figures found

at Naqada also have pointed

beards that extend from the

chin, but without any hood.

Adding to the mystery is the

fact that Naqada was believed

to be the ancestral home of

Seth, the Egyptian god of

plague.

PITTMAN: We don't know

whether these things were

depictions of some kind of

realistic apparatus that was

used to protect perhaps

extraterrestrials from very

dangerous chemicals, diseases

that they were spreading across

humanity.

BILL BIRNES: if you were an

extraterrestrial visitor, you'd

wear something to protect

yourself from the bacteria and

the viruses that were rampant.

That's one reason for the hazmat

suits.

Another reason would be not to

protect yourself, but to protect

the population you were

visiting.

TSOUKALOS: Whatever the

Bearded Man wears around his

hips, to me looks more like some

type of a technological

device than what Egyptology

suggests.

Egyptology suggests that he is

wearing a penis sheath.

Now, to me, it is clear that

whatever is attached to his

front of his belly is anything

but a penis sheath.

Is it possible that this is a

carving of a potential

extraterrestrial?

NARRATOR: But among

antiquities, Macgregor Man

is not alone.

Throughout the world, there are

scores of ancient carvings and

figurines that seem to depict

otherworldly creatures in what

some claim is astronaut-type

clothing.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: Central

America is full of these suits.

You really have beings chiseled

in stone which have helmets on.

Out of the helmet you have

something like a trunk coming

up, and in some cases you see,

on the shoulder of the helmet,

something like a tank.

NARRATOR: But strange

depictions of cloaked figures

wearing what appear to be

breathing apparatuses aren't

limited to the ancient world.

In 1347, ships full of Italian

sailors died suddenly... after

being covered in oozing black

boils filled with blood and pus.

The disease spread rapidly

throughout Europe... and soon

had a name... the Black Plague.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The Black

Plague was widely seen as an

act of God for the sinfulness

of the people.

(thunder crashes)

WAINWRIGHT: What you get is

a slow, lingering, painful

death.

And, uh, that's what...

(chuckles) is nasty.

And it completely decimates

populations.

NARRATOR: Within five years,

this previously unknown

disease had wiped out nearly

one-third of Europe...

the equivalent, in today's

numbers, of more than

300 million dead.

And just like previous

epidemics, the outbreaks of

plague were accompanied by

sightings of strange aerial

phenomena.

IMBROGNO: People saw strange

bronze ships spreading a mist

around the entire area, and

shortly after that, people began

to become very sick and die.

NARRATOR: Bronze ships,

just like those reported

during the Justinian Plague

800 years earlier.

But what natural phenomenon

could appear in the sky that

would fit such a description?

And what was the mysterious mist

that people saw floating down

from the sky?

IMBROGNO: if you ask a

historian today, they would say

that they were hallucinating

because of the illness.

But how do you get thousands of

people hallucinating the same

thing?

NARRATOR: One of these

supposed hallucinations featured

reports of mysterious cloaked

figures spraying mist on the

ground.

It was this report that gave

rise to rumors of a black-hooded

messenger of death, later known

as the Grim Reaper.

PITTMAN: In one case, the

chronicle recounts a group of

men mowing down wheat, and their

scythes were making, uh, loud

swishing sounds, but not

actually cutting down crops.

We can imagine that maybe what

was perceived in medieval times

as scythes, making swishing

sounds, were perhaps some kind

of wand shooting some kind of

aerosol into the air, that was a

pathogen that made so many

people sick.

IMBROGNO: People reported a

number of strange beings that

would spray onto the wheat, and

shortly after that, the Black

Death occurred.

And maybe our idea of the Reaper

was extraterrestrial in origin.

NARRATOR: Mysterious plagues

accompanied by extraterrestrial

sightings.

And gruesome deaths preceded by

ominous apparitions.

But were those strange metallic

objects seen in the skies over

Europe really misunderstood

cosmic events... like meteors and

comets... as most mainstream

scientists believe?

TSOUKALOS: In 1731, there

were UFO sightings over England,

Ireland and Romania, and they

predated the worldwide flu

epidemic of 1732.

IMBROGNO: People saw a red

object in the sky, and at times,

this object generated so much

heat that people had to take off

their shirts.

I mean, they were just glowing

up there in the sky.

Later on, a plague broke out.

BRAMLEY: What people called

comets back in those days,

we would not call comets today,

because anything that moved in

the sky that was unusual, that

was bright, they would call a

comet.

For example, in the Chronicle

of Marvels. by Conrad

Lycosthenes, which was published

in the 1500s, he talked about a

comet that was seen in Arabia in

the 1400s.

But when you look at the

woodcut, it looks like a

rocket ship.

(engines roaring)

NARRATOR: But if alien

invaders really have been coming

to Earth and spreading disease

and plague over the centuries,

why?

To kill us?

To strengthen us?

Or is it simply to reduce our

numbers?

NOORY: Why would you drop a

virus down on this planet?

Are you trying to build up our

immune system?

Are you trying to wipe us out?

Are we the laboratory of the

universe?

"Let's see if this bug wipes out

this civilization in order to

protect ourselves."

All possibilities.

NARRATOR: if

extraterrestrials do have a

sinister agenda, why not just

attack our planet with a weapon

of mass destruction?

TSOUKALOS: Why go through

that trouble if all you have to

do is release a toxin into the

air, a plague, some type of

virus?

It's way more efficient.

NARRATOR: But there is

another theory.

One more incredible than tales

of bronze spaceships and grim

reapers.

Because it is a theory so simple

and so potentially devastating,

it has mainstream scientists

scratching their heads and

running for cover.

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR: 1540.

The Rio Grande Valley.

When Francisco Coronado and the

Spanish first explored the area

that is now New Mexico, they

brought with them a devastating

weapon they did not even realize

was part of their arsenal...

disease.

Smallpox, chicken pox, and

measles spread through the

indigenous peoples far faster

than the Conquistadores

themselves could actually

travel.

MICHAEL B.A. OLDSTONE, M.D.:

Viruses and bacteria have caused

severe plagues that have really

changed the course of history.

So when the Conquistadores came

over to the New World, they

inadvertently carried smallpox.

They were immune to it, but the

Native Americans had never seen

smallpox, and they were

devastated.

That led to the Conquistadores,

with 900 or so soldiers, who

were able to destroy the Aztec

Empire.

COPPENS: Hundreds of

thousands of people, maybe even

a million or more people, died

simply because they were exposed

to the viruses of the white man.

NARRATOR: The native

populations in the American

Northeast suffered a similar

fate when the European colonists

first arrived on their shores.

The islands of the South Pacific

also had their populations

decimated by Captain James Cook

and his crew.

GALPIN: Are we like these

other places, where if we get

something we haven't seen

before, could it wipe us out too

quickly for us to react?

The War of the Worlds was a

beautiful story in the sense

that, at the very end, the

common cold killed the aliens.

Because it's too hard to believe

the other thing could happen,

that the alien sneezed on us,

and they didn't have to do

anything more than that.

Why is that any more farfetched?

NARRATOR: For many ancient

astronaut theorists, the

possibility of alien diseases

being transmitted in much the

same way is a distinct

possibility.

NOORY: My take is, if we've

had diseases since the beginning

of time, and we've had

visitations, it's very possible

that they accidentally brought

these diseases to us.

NARRATOR: Here on Earth,

viruses often thrive in new

environments.

Could the same be true of

viruses entering our planet from

another world?

And if extraterrestrial viruses

do exist, could they survive the

interstellar journey to Earth?

Many scientists believe the

answer can be found in

microscopic organisms called

extremophiles.

WAINWRIGHT: An extremophile

is an organism that can survive

extreme conditions... high

temperatures, low temperatures,

high pressure, low pressure and

so on.

Now of course, the term is based

on humans, what we find extreme.

But from its perspective, we are

extremophiles.

You know, we live in oxygen,

which is poisonous to this

anaerobic organism.

So if it was studying us, it

would say, "Hey, them humans are

amazing extremophiles.

They can breathe oxygen."

SARA SEAGER, PH.D.: Life has

been found in almost every

single environment on Earth.

And this is so exciting, because

other planets have conditions

very different from Earth's.

And it gives us hope that if

life can exist on almost any

single condition on Earth, that

it can also live on another

planet.

NARRATOR: Space.

2007.

A bacteria-ridden chunk of rock

is strapped to the outside of

the international Space Station.

After 18 months in the hostile

environment of space, the rock

is retrieved.

SEAGER: And one colony of

bacteria actually survived.

And the international Space

Station is in low Earth orbit.

It's going into orbit day and

orbit night.

It has wild temperature swings.

It gets cosmic radiation, and

the vacuum of space, and the

life still survived.

NARRATOR: Though many

scientists still reject the idea

of microscopic forms of life

existing in space, even NASA

takes great precautions in

protecting people from any

potential alien contamination.

IMBROGNO: When the

astronauts went to the moon,

they were in two weeks of

isolation, because the idea of

dormant viruses on our moon's

surface was taken very

seriously.

BIRNES: In the same way

that ancient aliens might have

come to planet Earth in hazmat

suits to protect themselves,

and us, from contamination,

so NASA does that

very thing today.

NARRATOR: In 2006 and 2008,

biologists on board separate

space shuttle missions made

a frightening discovery.

Salmonella bacteria exposed to

zero gravity actually got

deadlier by as much as 700%.

WICKRAMASINGHE: it's

interesting that what they found

was that, at zero gravity, there

were mutations in the culture

that led to a huge increase in

virulence of the salmonella

super bug.

They do the best in terms of

their mission to self-replicate

under zero gravity.

To me, it is another indication

that bacteria are space

travelers.

BRAMLEY: What you have is

this risk that if you are

bringing in viruses or elements

from outer space, it could

become a much more deadly form

of that same germ than if it

had developed on Earth.

NARRATOR: The ability of

viruses to evolve and mutate

at an incredibly rapid rate was

also at the root of the

deadliest pandemic in recorded

history... the same one that

followed the Fatima event in

Portugal: the Spanish influenza.

GALPIN: We don't know where

it came, why it left.

It made World War I look puny.

No weapons, cost of armaments,

nobody had to raise the level

for defense.

It killed with little effort.

LAN LIPKIN: Thinking in terms

of today's numbers, the 50 to

100 million people who died

during the course of that

outbreak would represent perhaps

300 to 400 million in today's

terms.

WAINWRIGHT: it was a normal

influenza, but it changed.

It was mutated.

We had a pandemic flu that was

killing young people.

They were dropping dead like

flies.

BRAMLEY: Scientists more

recently have come up with this

theory that, yeah, it must've

come from space.

It opens the possibility that

there is a UFO connection.

Perhaps they are managing us in

a very brutal fashion.

NARRATOR: The Spanish

influenza eventually

disappeared just as quickly as

it had arrived, fading away

completely just a year later in

1919.

Scientists believe it had

mutated to the point it was

no longer harmful to humans.

But how did this incredibly

deadly virus strike

simultaneously all over the

globe?

Could it have had any connection

to the strange events at Fatima,

and the dire predictions

communicated to three children,

supposedly from a heavenly,

or what some would call an

extraterrestrial, source?

NARRATOR: September 15, 2007.

Residents of Carancas, Peru,

watch in fascination as a

gigantic fireball streaks across

the sky.

There is a loud explosion...

(explosion thunders)

...and a crash that shakes the

ground violently.

Something large and mysterious

has fallen to Earth, causing a

crater that scatters debris for

nearly a mile in every

direction.

Fascination turns to fear when,

just a few days later,

hundreds of people become

strangely and violently ill.

PITTMAN: An extraterrestrial

fireball impacted the grounds

near Carancas in Peru.

This impact sickened a great

many people in that area.

CHILDRESS: That was never

explained by authorities, who

couldn't really have an answer

for why a meteorite strike would

cause all these people

to get sick.

Meteorites are thought to be

very clean and without bacteria

or noxious gases.

NARRATOR: Does this event

suggest that microbes and other

living organisms, not of this

Earth, exist elsewhere in

the universe?

GALPIN: it would be

narrow-minded to accept that all

of our trillions of bacteria

and viruses are so unique,

since they occur everywhere in

every part of this world,

that they wouldn't occur

in other planets and other

systems around the universe.

NARRATOR: The Stardust

mission.

2006.

A NASA spacecraft plunges

through the tail of comet

81P-Wild...

collecting comet particles on

blocks of a sticky material

called aerogel.

The findings stun even the most

cynical scientists.

SEAGER: The Stardust

detector came back to Earth,

the particles collected were

studied in detail, and many

organic compounds were found,

including the amino acid

glycine, which is a building

block for life.

NARRATOR: Might asteroids

and meteors really be the

delivery system for alien

microbes and other

extraterrestrial life-forms?

Could strange germs and deadly

diseases be the result of

biological hitchhikers in space?

WICKRAMASINGHE: if you look

at the historical records...

plagues come suddenly,

from almost nowhere.

So I think comets are the

natural carriers that one could

look to as being the source of

these epidemics.

Comets were feared by almost all

ancient civilizations...

as bringers of pestilence and

death.

But were they really primitive

superstitions?

NARRATOR: In the 1960's,

Nobel Laureate Harold Urey

developed a new field of science

called cosmochemistry.

He theorized that meteorites

contained the fossilized remains

of space bacteria.

WICKRAMASINGHE: it was

dismissed almost instantly by

a huge establishment of American

meteoritic scientists.

There's no way, they argued,

that life could be inside a

comet, and so it was sort of...

essentially swept under the rug.

NARRATOR: In 1996, NASA

researchers, led by David McKay

of the Johnson Space Center,

announced that another space

rock found in Antarctica...

meteorite ALH84001...

contained the fossilized

remains of life on Mars.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: it must be

confirmed by other scientists,

but clearly, the fact that

something of this magnitude is

being explored is another

vindication of America's space

program and our continuing

support for it, even in these

tough financial times.

NARRATOR: Even as recently

as March of 2011, NASA scientist

Richard Hoover published

evidence of life found in

meteorites.

WICKRAMASINGHE: Richard

Hoover found really stunning

images of microscopic organisms

resembling modern organisms.

This was published in March of

2011 in the Journal of

Cosmology, and it's caused the

biggest rumpus in science that I

recall in my entire career.

High officials of NASA were

livid, because here was this guy

at Marshall Space Flight Center

trying to overturn a paradigm.

BIRNES: if alien bacteria

has entered the Earth's

atmosphere, could it have been

sent here deliberately?

Well, the answer is yes.

If they were trying to invade

a planet, they would do it by

putting their own bacteria on

pieces of rock and making sure

that landed on planet Earth, and

in so doing, create a series of

violent epidemics that would

wipe out the planet's

population.

NARRATOR: Kerala, lndia.

2001.

A cosmic bang...

a massive explosion in

the atmosphere, and then...

(thunder cracks)

...a downpour of red rain.

It is eerily reminiscent of

ancient myths and stories about

blood coming down from the sky.

Homer writes in The Iliad about

a blood rain foreshadowing

slaughter in battle.

Gregory of Tours witnessed a

blood rain before the outbreak

of the Justinian Plague.

And in 14th century Germany,

a shower of blood reportedly

preceded the Black Death.

RADER: it is like the human

world seeing the effect of the

immortal world.

The gods are so affected by our

lives that they are willing to

change the laws of the physical

world so that something we

experience as rain, in fact,

comes down as blood.

NARRATOR: After the incident

in Kerala, biologist Dr. Godfrey

Louis is able to collect samples

of the strange red liquid.

WICKRAMASINGHE: He collected

the rain as clean as possible,

and it was discovered that they

contained cells that looked like

living cells.

WAINWRIGHT: So it's some kind

of organism.

Now where's it come from?

Does it come from space or does

it come from Earth?

This is the big question.

Because, of course, the

meteorite bang immediately puts

it into the realms of mystery,

space.

NARRATOR: To date, there have

been no verifiable reports of

illness connected with the blood

rain in Kerala... but if meteors

and other falling objects from

space really do contain deadly

bacteria, is it simply an

accident...

or is it possible that what

we think of as natural

phenomena are really part of

another, perhaps more insidious

plan?

NARRATOR: In 2001, Mary

Leitao, a former hospital lab

technician in Boston, discovers

red, blue, black, and white

fibers in sores under her

two-year-old son's lip.

Eight different doctors are

unable to find any disease,

allergy, or anything unusual

that might be causing her son's

condition.

Today this condition has a

name... Morgellons disease...

and according to the Morgellons

Research Foundation, it has

affected more than 12,000

families from all 50 states and

15 other countries.

CLIFF MICKELSON: No one knows

what Morgellons is.

It appears to be a brand-new

arrival on the medical scene.

To have Morgellons disease is to

live a waking nightmare without

end.

RANDY WYMORE: To the best of

my knowledge there have been no

cures of Morgellons, and I think

partly that's because we don't

know what the cause is.

A physician who's trying to

treat a patient with Morgellons

is pretty much just shooting in

the dark.

NARRATOR: Sufferers of the

mysterious disease complain of

neurological problems similar to

multiple sclerosis and massive

oozing skin rashes that seem to

have a life of their own.

MICKELSON: The overt

dermatological symptoms would be

open sores on the skin... usually

round, volcanic, almost,

looking in nature.

WYMORE: Most people with

Morgellons have crawling

sensations in their skin.

Sometimes they describe it as

almost as though something is

inside there, biting or

stinging.

NARRATOR: inside the lesions,

sufferers have discovered

colored fibers, like those found

on Mary Leitao's son.

WYMORE: You wouldn't believe

how many dermatologists I've

gotten phone calls and e-mails

from, saying, "Sorry, humans

don't grow red and blue fibers."

Well, as a physiologist, I'm

quite aware of that fact, but it

doesn't change the fact that

these fibers are present, and

this mystery is, well, where are

the fibers coming from?

Is there a microorganism that is

producing these fibers?

We have absolutely no idea.

MICKELSON: The university

forwarded a number of samples to

the Tulsa Crime Lab, who ran

them through their database, the

FBI database, were unable to

find any match.

WYMORE: The Earth is being

bombarded by tons of debris from

outer space every year, and so,

is it possible that an organism

that we wouldn't recognize came

down with that debris, and

that's the cause of Morgellons?

Well, I just try and stay open-

minded.

We can't really say yes, we

can't say no.

NARRATOR: But what is the

cause of Morgellons disease?

Is it simply an Earth-based

mutation of a known virus?

Or does it have other, perhaps

interplanetary, origins?

GALPIN: if we look at

something that came from a

distant planet, so different

that it can do anything from

make us better, make us the

same, or in the long run, create

a new disease, or maybe it

doesn't produce disease...

because diseases don't just

produce fever, headache... they

may change our thought

process, our reality, how we

move, how we think, how long we

live, even our emotions.

NARRATOR: Living microbes in

outer space.

Bacteria capable of mutating and

becoming more powerful in zero

gravity.

Comets carrying deadly, alien

life-forms.

Could humankind be at the mercy

of extraterrestrial forces that

are invisible to the naked eye?

LIPKIN: The best estimates

that I've heard of the number of

bacteria in the world is

somewhere in the range of five

followed by 30 zeros.

It's a staggering number.

We're discovering more and more

all the time.

GALPIN: The real question

exists, who's really leading the

world... us or the trillions and

trillions of viruses that we

walk upon and may be playing

much more of an intimate part of

our lives than we had ever

thought?

COPPENS: Is it possible that

we are somehow being prepared

for something, which is going to

affect Earth as a global

civilization?

Is, somehow, it very important

that we are strong enough so

that we will be able to cope

with something which might be

coming our way?

GALPIN: The more you know all

the details, the more

frightening the thoughts are

about what's coming next.

The clock begins when the

disease hits, and we don't know

how much time the clock is

giving us.

That's the fear of the future.

NARRATOR: For thousands of

years, we have wondered if we

are alone in the universe, but

could alien life-forms have been

among us all along?

If countless strains of deadly

bacteria are coming to Earth

from other worlds, is this the

proof we need that there is life

on other planets?

Could it be only by coincidence

that these life-forms have made

contact with us in the form of

plagues and epidemics, or is

there another, perhaps alien,

intelligence at work...

an intelligence which seeks to

reduce our numbers or maybe

prepare us for something?

If so, what and when?

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Captioned by

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access.wgbh.org

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