All language subtitles for ancient.aliens.s06e08.mysterious.relics.720p.hdtv.x264-dhd-sample.eng

NARRATOR: A mysterious cloth
bearing a divine image.

WILLIAM HENRY: It represents the
supernatural transformation of a human.

NARRATOR: Gold hats worn by
strange, mystical beings.

MIKE BARA: The wearing of a
golden hat would tend to amplify

the signal that you were
getting from higher-up beings.

NARRATOR: And powerful stones
believed to have otherworldly origins.

PHILIP COPPENS: It is said
that every wish was granted.

NARRATOR: Could these mysterious
objects simply be the

targets of human imagination?
Or are they evidence of

something even more profound?

DAVID CHILDRESS: We have to wonder if
possibly all of these metallic books...

aren't part of some
extraterrestrial library.

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 if so, might the evidence be

found in the world's most
mysterious relics?

♪

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NARRATOR: The White House,
February 11, 2013.

President Barack Obama presents
a Medal of Honor to Army Staff

Sergeant Clinton Romesha for his
courageous actions during the

deadly battle of Kamdesh
in Afghanistan.

(applause)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: These

53 Americans were surrounded by
more than 300 Taliban fighters.

If you seek a measure of that
day, you need to look no further

than the medals and ribbons
that grace their chests.

NARRATOR: This tradition of
honoring brave soldiers by

decorating their chest with
medals dates back to at least

the second century B.C., when
the ancient Roman military used

sculpted discs of metal to
reward superior acts of service.

But why?
What is it about the properties

of metal that make them chosen objects
of adornment and commemoration?

COPPENS: The tradition
of adorning people

with metal really goes
back thousands of years.

In the case of the Bible, we
have stories about how the

priests actually had to wear
certain metals before they were

able to enter the Holy of Holies
and make contact with the divine.

Today, we are confronted
with symbolism.

Our heroes are given pins and
medals because somehow we set

them apart as great people who
somehow have superseded the

human race, but in the past,
this was to be taken literally.

NARRATOR: Do certain metals
actually enhance mankind's

ability to connect with divine,
or some would say,

extraterrestrial forces?
And is this the reason why gold,

platinum and silver jewelry,
along with other metal

adornments and relics, have been
so prized throughout human history?

COPPENS: Definitely
the belief is that

we hold the relic there,
because the relic is

linked either to a deity
or to something magical.

RICHARD RADER: Relics can
be any number of things.

Pieces of wood, bits of statues,
literally anything can

be a relic if it has been kind
of invested with a divine power.

And that means you have a piece
of the god, and therefore a

piece of the god's power with you.

ALAN BUTLER: It seems to have
always been the case with human

beings that they've wanted
to possess items which they

thought were, uh, either from
the gods, to do with the gods,

or in some way associated
with the gods.

NARRATOR:
Berlin, Germany, 1996.

The Museum of Prehistory and
Early History acquires a

glittering artifact from an
anonymous Swiss collector.

A tall, cone-shaped hat crafted
from a thin sheet of pure gold,

and embellished with dozens of
sun and moon symbols.

It is one of four that have been
unearthed at various sites

throughout Europe, and is
believed by historians to date

back as far as 1000 B.C.

JONATHAN YOUNG: What is so
important about them is that

they indicate that there
was a common culture.

The images on them represent
astronomy, the study of the stars.

They also have complicated
mathematical implications,

suggesting a level of
philosophical development that's

very advanced for what we thought
was available at that time.

NARRATOR: German researchers
carefully studied the symbols on

the golden hat, and concluded
they represent a complex

mathematical table.
One that can accurately

calculate the long-term cycles
of the sun and the moon.

But how could such ancient
people have been able to make

such advanced and highly sophisticated
astronomical predictions?

ANDREW COLLINS: The suggestion
is that they belonged

to what might be referred to as
oracles, people that could fall

into an altered state and prophesize.

Could come up with statements
relating to the future or

otherworldly situations.

NARRATOR: Though most
mainstream scholars believe

these mysterious hats were worn
by king-priests during religious

ceremonies, ancient astronaut
theorists have another, even

more astounding theory.

BARA: The golden hats are kind
of interesting, because if

gold is something that actually
enhances your connection with

energies and higher-up celestial
beings, then the wearing of a

golden hat, especially in a
conical shape, would tend to

amplify the signal that you
were getting from on high.

So, it seems to me that ancient
cultures logically would build

them to get connected with the
gods who had perhaps left them

behind and gone back to
their celestial birthplace.

COPPENS: In the case of the
golden hats, what we're seeing

there is that all of this
technology seems to have been

part of a larger framework,
whereby once again it seems this

is a civilization which made
contact with the gods.

CHILDRESS: But we just don't
know who would have made these

or why, and they're so
incredibly unusual and tall.

Perhaps the extraterrestrial
gods were wearing some kind of

conical hat like this.

NARRATOR: Could the so-called
king-priests of the ancient past

have been otherworldly visitors,
utilizing metal's unique

properties? If so,
might additional evidence

be found of other ancient
peoples using metal relics for

advanced, even
metaphysical purposes?

Khirbet Qumran, Israel, 1952.
Hidden deep in a cave on the

desert cliffs, archaeologists
discover a mysterious

2,000-year-old manuscript
written on a sheet of copper.

Known as the Copper Scroll, this
mysterious relic was found at

the same site as the ancient
religious writings known as the

Dead Sea Scrolls.

JOHN DESALVO: All the Dead Sea
Scrolls that have been found

were written on either,
uh, leather or papyrus.

The Copper Scroll is the only
one made of copper.

You got to keep in mind, copper
was valuable, and to hammer out

a whole scroll would take a lot
of time and a lot of technique,

so it has to be very important.
NARRATOR: Scholars examining

the language on the Copper
Scroll agree it is unlike

anything found in other
texts of the period.

FATHER WILLIAM FULCO:
The script that's on it is-is a

little different, but it's not
just in Hebrew; it's in...

or Aramaic.

It also has Greek, uh, letters on it.

So it's quite peculiar.
The thing that makes the Copper

Scroll so fascinating is that it
mentions hidden treasures.

DESALVO: The Copper Scroll
lists 64 locations in Jerusalem

and around that area that
buried treasure is located.

Maybe the key is, in the 64th
location, it says there's

another copper scroll that will
help explain the rest of it.

Because we haven't found the
treasure yet, I somehow suspect

there could be another code within this
treasure map, a code within a code.

NARRATOR: What is the origin
of the mysterious Copper Scroll?

And at is its true purpose?

Mainstream scholars and
archaeologists have been puzzled

by these questions for more than
half a century.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Maybe the
Copper Scroll is missing a piece.

Many times with treasure maps,
you need a second piece in order

to complete the entire map, so
who knows if there's a piece missing?

CHILDRESS: It seems to be an
oddball... artifact.

And it's written in metal.

And you have now the stories of
other ancient books supposedly

written in sheets of gold.
Joseph Smith, Jr., who began

the-the Mormon Church, he
claimed also to have been shown

gold-plated books.
So we have to wonder if possibly

all of these metallic books
written in copper or gold plates

aren't part of some
extraterrestrial library.

NARRATOR: Could the
mysterious Copper Scroll have

extraterrestrial origins?
And is the fact that it is made

of copper evidence of a
connection between metal objects

and otherworldly beings?
yes and believe further proofsay

can be found by examining the
similarly strange properties

attributed to other mysterious
relics found all over the world.

NARRATOR: Bulgaria's Black
Sea Coast.

July 2010.
Here, in the ruins of a medieval

church on St. Ivan Island, six
small human bone fragments are

discovered inside a marble hagus.

Through radiocarbon dating and
DNA testing of one knucklebone,

scientists conclude that the
bones are from the first

century A.D. But what
is even more incredible

is the belief by many that the
bones are actually those of

St. John the Baptist.

KATHLEEN MCGOWAN:
In Christianity, John the Baptist

is specifically important
because he is known as the

forerunner, the precursor, the one
who comes before the Messiah.

And in the stories of John the
Baptist, he becomes extremely

important for Christians because
he announces that a greater

messiah is coming after him.
And the legends around John's

bones were always legends of
extreme power.

John was a prophet.

NARRATOR: Now on tour in
churches throughout Bulgaria,

tens of thousands of the
faithful come to visit, pray

and even worship these tiny
bone fragments. But why?

What is it about ancient bones...
even those thought to have

belonged to a saint... that
compel people to come and visit them?

Could it be they possess some
mystical or otherworldly power?

MCGOWAN: The idea of saints'

bones and relics having power is
something that goes back to the

very early days of Christianity.
And certainly in the latter part

of the Dark Ages and the Middle
Ages, they became very big

business.
If you had saints' relics in

your church or in your
cathedral, you could bring in a

lot of pilgrims who would also
There was a strong belief by the

nobility and the royalty that
the bones of these saints

actually did contain
some kind of power.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: Humans
always want to worship their

celebrities, their kings.

Whatever was linked with
mysteries, humans worshipped it.

So, in antiquity, it entered
already into altars.

When a high priest died, part of
his body, part of his bones, was

sometimes separated, brought
to different countries.

And everyone worshipped
the bone in an altar.

That's still happening in
Christianity.

NARRATOR: Kushinagar, India.
483 B.C.

Siddhartha Gautama, the great
spiritual teacher upon whom

Buddhism is founded, dies.
According to legend, after

Buddha was cremated, several
small pieces of his body

remained intact and were
retrieved from the ashes.

JUDY HO: After his cremation,
the ashes were fought over by a

lot of his disciples.

And finally, they resolved to
the problem by dividing, um,

them into eight different parts.

When the Buddha's ashes were
divided... and there's a claim

that there's a tooth found
there... it was considered...

it was very valuable.
Right away, when the tooth was

given to a king, the relic...
the tooth relic itself... became

associated with the
power of kingship.

And it is believed that the
king who possesses the tooth

will be able to rule properly
and there will be peace and

prosperity in his kingdom.

NARRATOR: Could such
a tiny but tangible

relic from the mouth of
the dead Buddha really

have such power?
Is a physical link to a holy and

venerated leader really a means
of connecting to the afterlife

and, even more profoundly,
some divine life force?

HO: The worship of relics,
actually, is as old as the

Buddhist religion itself and
many other religions, too.

The Buddha himself approves of
the worship of relics because

he believes that his followers
need something very concrete to

remind them of his presence
and his teachings.

The relics are supposed to be
actually the essence of the

saints. So, in a way,
the relics are the

saints themselves, so they have
the powers of the saints.

COLLINS: The importance here
is: Why is it that objects like

this can gain such an
incredible spiritual value?

And, quite clearly, it's to do
with the-the psychology of the

importance of-of individuals
like the Buddha, who is seen to

be personifications of God or
the gods themselves and that

just to own this or to have some
part of it imbues you with the

same power as the gods themselves.

CHILDRESS: So you have to
wonder just why these relics

are so important.

We give them power, these
bones and these teeth.

But what they are...at least
in a scientific manner... is a piece

of DNA from the Buddha himself.

DANIKEN: I think they knew
that in a far future, the gods,

the extraterrestrials,
would return again.

And some of these gods may have
said to one of his darlings on

planet Earth, "If we find your
body or your cells are still

existing, then we are able to
reconstruct your body."

NARRATOR: Cloning dead saints
using DNA from their relics?

Could this incredible notion be
one of the reasons why bone

fragments and other human
remains have been so prized

throughout the centuries?
And might this now very real

scientific possibility be
connected to ancient religious

notions of rebirth and
resurrection?

Perhaps the answers can be found
in another mysterious relic that

some believe depicts the greatest
religious figure of all time.

The Cathedral of Turin,
Northern Italy.

Here lies the sacred relic known
as the Shroud of Turin, a large

piece of linen which, when
photographed, bears the eerie

image of what appears
to be a crucified man.

DESALVO: The Shroud of Turin
is a piece of ancient linen

cloth, measures about 14 feet
long by three and a half feet

wide, and what's so important
about this cloth is, there's a

very faint imprint of a human
being on the cloth who appears

to have been crucified,
which matches the biblical

descriptions of Jesus Christ.

So, many believe that this
shroud, this relic, is the

actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ,
and bears the wounds of crucifixion.

FULCO: The Shroud of Turin has
such a fascinating history,

and the question is: Is it authentic?

Those who are against it say,
no, this could easily have been

a fake, and a body would never
have left such an image and so on.

The chemicals of an embalmed body
would not have done such a thing.

But the people who say that are
not able to explain how the

figure did get there.
It's not painted.

It doesn't seem to be a pigment
that's applied to the cloth.

DESALVO: The shroud has been
studied, actually, by some of

the top scientists and
researchers in the world.

And with all the scientific
knowledge and equipment, we

still do not know how the image
of the shroud was produced.

McGOWAN: And this is what I think
continues to fascinate us about it.

Regardless of what you believe,
whether you are a Christian and

a believer and bieve that this
is the image of the resurrected

Christ, or if you just believe
that there is some other

extraordinary metaphysical event
that causes this, you have to be

fascinated by the fact that this
extraordinary relic could not

have been created by any means that
in the 21st century we can identify.

NARRATOR: Could the Shroud of
Turin really be a divine relic?

Tangible evidence of the
existence of an almighty power?

HENRY: And in 2011, Italian
scientists were able to prove

that the Shroud of Turin was
created by a supernatural

flash of light, an
unearthly flash of light.

In my opinion, the Shroud of
Turin is proof that Jesus

transformed himself into a being
of light, and projected himself

through the Shroud of Turin.

NARRATOR: Does the Shroud of
Turin actually contain an image

of the crucified Jesus?
Or could this sacred object be

something else?
Might it, in fact, be evidence

of an incredibly advanced,
otherworldly technology?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining another, even more

perplexing, ancient artifact.
One found on a land known as the

Emerald Isle.

NARRATOR: Southern Ireland.
Here, approximately five miles

northwest of the small city of
Cork, lies the Blarney Castle.

Built more than 500 years ago,
this nearly 90-foot-tall

fortress houses the world-famous
Blarney Stone, a relic that more

than 300,000 people
come to kiss each year.

YOUNG: It is not in a
convenient location.

It's in the castle wall
high up on the outside.

So, to kiss it, you've got to
dangle over or sneak around so

that you're really at some peril
of falling a very great distance.

SABINA MAGLIOCCO: According
to legend, it grants whoever

kisses it the power to speak in
an articulate and charismatic

way and to flatter and
blandish in any circumstance.

DAVID WILCOCK: Here you have a
stone that has been kissed and

revered by probably
millions of people.

Blarney is the gift of gab, and
so the idea is that somehow

kissing this stone gives you the
ability to talk better or to

somehow amplify
your verbal prowess.

NARRATOR: Composed of a
single block of bluestone...

the same material used
at Stonehenge...this stone relic's

magical powers are widely
renowned.

But could a stone
really have such power?

One that could actually affect
an individual's power of speech?

YOUNG: And the story is, in
the 15th century, Cormac

MacCarthy had a court case
coming up, and he was concerned

about this and called upon the
goddess Cliodhna, the Queen of

the Banshees, to help him find
the right words and present a

good case.
She did.

She said, "Listen, on your way
to court, kiss the first stone

you see, and you'll be eloquent,
you'll find the words."

And he did this.
He went to court, he was very

persuasive, and won his case.
On his way home, he picked up

that rock and carried it back,
and had his workman fashion it

into a stone and set it
into the wall of his castle

where it is still to be found.

WILCOCK: When you look at
Irish mythology as a whole,

it starts to become
pretty obvious

that these people such as
Cliodhna were not ordinary

earthborn humans, but were,
in fact, most likely

extraterrestrial humans, who
came to the earth and shared

their technology.
And Blarney being the gift of

gab, the gift of talking more
eloquently, is something that

may have been impregnated into
the stone by an extraterrestrial

technology using energetic means
that we're not now aware of.

NARRATOR: Is it possible, as
ancient astronaut theorists

suggest, that the Blarney Stone
is actually evidence of some

ancient and otherworldly power?
Technology that helps to prove

that ancient man was in direct
contact with highly-developed

beings from another
part of the galaxy?

If so, might the character known
in Irish folklore as the goddess

Cliodhna, actually have
been a celestial traveler?

Perhaps more clues can be found
by investigating another

mysterious stone relic,
located just 160 miles away.

County Meath, Ireland.
On top of this mound, known as

the Hill of Tara, lies the Lia
Fáil, or Stone of Destiny...

one of four magical treasures said
to have been brought to Ireland

by mythical deities called
the Tuatha De Danann.

YOUNG: The Lia Fáil was a
stone that was considered

magical. All of the
kings of Ireland, up

until the fifth century of the
common era, were said to have

been crowned on this.
It seemed to know who the true

king was. They say,
if the true king put

his feet up on it, it
would roar with delight.

It also had the power to give
strength to the leader, to help

him solidify his rule, and, in some
cases, to heal, if that was necessary.

NARRATOR: To mainstream
scientists and archaeologists,

this stone relic represents nothing
more than the coronation stone

of Ireland's ancient kings.

But according to Irish mythology,

the Hill of Tara was also a sacred
dwelling place for the gods.

MAGLIOCCO: The Hill of
Tara is a mound and,

like many mounds in Ireland,
like many of these

sádhe mounds, it is allegedly
the entrance to the realm of the

sádhe, or these
otherworldly people.

The word sádhe means both
the people themselves, the

otherworldly people, and the mounds
in which they are said to dwell.

And the Hill of Tara is allegedly
an entrance to the other world.

YOUNG: The Hill of Tara is considered
the sacred center of Ireland.

The kings ruled from there for

many centuries in ancient and
in, uh, early history.

And this was considered a sacred
portal to another dimension, to

the other world, so it had more
than the authority of kingship.

It had the authority of the
supernatural.

CHILDRESS: In Irish mythology,
the Tuatha De Danaan

were gods who had magical powers.

They arrived from the landof
the west, these mythical lands

of the gods.
They were said to come in these

dark clouds, which then landed
in the mountains of Ireland.

And when they came, there were
three nights and three days of

darkness. So you have
to ask yourself what

kind of power they had, and were
they some kind of celestial

visitors arriving in UFOs?

WILCOCK: Maybe the
extraterrestrials found

a way to help society
make advancements,

including the selection
of a virtuous leader.

It's entirely possible that this
stone is not just something that

was coming out of a mythology,
that the Lia Fáil was an

engineered device, that those
leaders were able to be

assessed by the stone and even
maybe see into their destiny,

see into their future.

NARRATOR: Might the Lia Fáil,
a stone relic imbued with power

like the Blarney Stone, really
be evidence of highly advanced

knowledge brought to mankind
by the so-called gods?

And do these sacred objects
provide proof of ancient man's

extraterrestrial connections?
Perhaps the answers can be

found by examining strange and
unusual relics fallen from the sky.

NARRATOR: Valley of the
Kings, Egypt.

November 1922.
Archaeologist Howard Carter

discovers King Tutankhamun's
tomb, containing a treasure

trove of artifacts.
Among them is King Tut's

magnificent breastplate with a
yellow jewel as its centerpiece,

a jewel created as the result
of a meteorite impact.

GEOFFREY NOTKIN: In Egyptian
culture, there was a fascination

with Libyan desert glass.

And while it's not actually a
meteorite, Libyan desert glass

is the product of a meteorite impact.

Millions of years ago, an
enormous meteorite crashed into

what is today the Egyptian
desert, and the heat and

pressure of that impact melted
the sand in the desert, forming

a beautiful yellow impact glass.

ROBERT BAUVAL: And it crystallizes
the sand; it forms glass.

And you get these wonderful,
almost like jewel stones you get.

And they clearly imagined these
stones to be celestial, to have

been created by the impact of a star.

And therefore they were
given cosmic meaning.

NARRATOR: Humans have long
had a fascination with

meteorites and have fashioned many
tools and spiritual objects from them.

But why?

YOUNG: There are many
magical stories of meteors,

meteorites and meteor showers.

Aeschylus in Prometheus Unbound

talks about an angry Zeus
throwing rocks down at the Earth.

In the Aeneid, Virgil
speaks of meteors.

He describes a meteor shower as
indicating Troy is about to fall.

Such folk liefs about meteors,
shooting stars, meteorites were

common in the ancient world,
where, clearly, a piece of stone

from the heavens is
worshipped as a divine item.

TSOUKALOS: The reason why
they were so important was

because they inherently had
the power of the gods in them

because they were already
forged in the universe and they

descended from the sky.

NARRATOR: Meteoric gemstones
like Libyan desert glass have

been venerated throughout history.

But one particularly mysterious
green gemstone could be the

most sought-after relic of all time.

NOTKIN: Moldavite is the
name given to a green impact

glass of extraordinary beauty
and rarity that's only found in

one small region of
the Czech Republic.

It's very old.

HENRY: Metaphysically,
moldavite creates thistrange

pulsating energy field that amplifies
human thoughts or intention.

If you're a loving or
compassionate person, it will

amplify that, or it can bring
chaos if your thoughts and

energy and emotions are chaotic.

NARRATOR: According to some
legends, the Holy Grail, the

cup from which Jesus and his
apostles drank during the Last

Supper, was carved from a green
gemstone that had fallen to

Earth from the heavens.

YOUNG: It is said that there

was discord in the heavens
involving Lucifer, and a stone

dropped. It was a
stone that at one time

had been the center of Lucifer's
crown when he was an important angel.

It dropped to Earth.

It was then a piece of Heaven on
Earth and had great power and

was greatly venerated.
It was carved into the Holy

Grail, which was not made of
metal but of this beautiful

emerald, a precious
stone from Heaven.

NARRATOR: Could the green
gemstone that supposedly fell

from Lucifer's crown have been
made not of emerald but of

moldavite?
Perhaps more evidence can be

found in the legends of another
sacred stone that fell from the

sky more than 4,000 miles away.

Yumbulakang Palace, Southern Tibet.

Here, according to legend,
the 28th king, Lha Thothori

Nyantsen, obtains a magical
jewel called Cintamani.

It is said to be one of four
revered relics that fell from

the sky in a chest.

NOTKIN: The Cintamani Stone

is a fascinating myth that could
well have meteorite

associations.
It describes a jewel that's

meant to have enormous
properties that it can bestow

upon its owner, and there are
legends that some of the

greatest warriors and leaders in
all of history, including King

Solomon, owned this jewel, that
it was passed from one great

ruler or leader to another.

COLLINS: In both Hindu and
Buddhist tradition, um, there

are stories relating to a
so-called wishing jewel.

And it wielded great power.
It had a-a connection between

this world and the next, that it
could be used to interact, uh,

not just with other worlds but
the center of the universe itself.

COPPENS: It is said that

whoever possessed the Cintamani
stone was able to control

destiny, that every wish was granted.

Now, a stone or an object which
is able to change reality, truly

that is something which is a
piece of technology, and how our

ancestors got this is a gigantic
question mark, which fortunately

our ancestors have answered for us.

Their answer is that this came
from the sky, that it was given

to us by the gods, and that it
played a role in this exchange

between us and the divine.

NARRATOR: Could the legends
of the Cintamani stone be based

on fact? If so,
might this otherworldly

stone, as well as other sacred
and mysterious relics, hp

forge a connection between
mankind and extraterrestrial

forces? Ancient astronaut
theorists say

yes, and believe the ultimate
proof can be found in one of the

most sacred objects in the world.

NARRATOR: Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

50 miles from the Red Sea,
this is Islam's holiest city.

It was here in 2000 B.C.
that Muslims believe the prophet

Abraham built the Kaaba, a
cube-shaped structure that draws

millions of pilgrims each year.
But just what is it about this

building that is so sacred?
And why do so many people line

up to touch it?

ROBERT MULLINS: On the eastern
side of the Kaaba is a

meteorite stone which is embedded
in the corner of the Kaaba.

Now, according to Muslim belief,
this meteorite stone was sent

from heaven to Adam and Eve.
And that stone was used to build

the first temple.

And this really makes Mecca the
most holy place to Muslims.

CHILDRESS: Muhammad himself threw
out all of the other gods,

the deities and statues.

But he retained the one strange
thing that was there: the black

stone, the extraterrestrial
object that's still worshipped

today at Mecca.
So, you have to wonder why

Muhammad specifically chose that
object as part of his religion

that would remain, as
part of the Muslim faith.

It would have to be some memory
of an extraterrestrial event.

NARRATOR: Might the black
stone of Mecca and other sacred

relics really possess great power?

Could they be gateways, not only
to ancient knowledge, but to

other worlds and even
other dimensions?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining what many believe

to be the most sacred and
powerful of all the Earth's

mysterious relics: the
cross of Jesus Christ.

NARRATOR: Jerusalem.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

According to some researchers,

this sacred site is the place
where the crucified Jesus was

buried, and after three days,
rose from the dead.

And it was near here, in 326
A.D., that the remains

of a relic thought to be Jesus's cross
were discovered by a Roman empress.

MAGLIOCCO: Empress Helena was
the mother of the emperor

Constantine, and she was an
early convert to Christianity.

According to legend, she
journeyed to the holy land to

found a number of churches
there, and when she was there

she was drawn to the-the Hill of
Calvary, where Jesus was

allegedly executed.
And she had the pagan temple

which she found there torn down,
and in the rubble of that

temple, she allegedly discovered
the true cross, the cross where

Jesus was crucified.

YOUNG: She found three crosses.
Well, Christ was crucified with

two thieves, so three crosses
might be the right artifacts.

But to test them, she brought a
woman with terminal disease,

very near death, to touch the crosses.

She touched the first two and
her condition was unchanged.

When she touched the third
cross, she was miraculously

healed, and Helena declared that to be
the true cross upon which Christ died.

REV. MICHAEL J.S. CARTER:
The true cross, it's sacred.

Sacred to many, many, many people.

And people collect these, or
like to say that they... they

may have pieces of this cross,
because it brings them closer to

the one they love, or their Lord
and Savior, call it what you will.

Literally hundreds of Christian
churches lay claim to the fact

that they have pieces of the
actual cross that Jesus died on.

MAGLIOCCO: Like many relics
or pieces of saints' bodies, the

true cross where Jesus was
crucified was believed to have

all kinds of miraculous powers,
including healing powers and the

power to grant, um, salvation.
So if you were to touch or own a

relic of the true cross, a piece
of the true cross, some of that

power that Christ had would
transfer itself to you through

the power of touch.

CHILDRESS: It's a fascinating
thought that relics like the

true cross could contain some
divine energy that will heal

people, even raise
them from the dead.

So is it possible that they are
some kind of extraterrestrial

artifacts with some kind of power
in them that we don't understand?

NARRATOR: Could fragments of
Jesus's cross,

like other ancient stones and relics,

really have harnessed strange
extraterrestrial energy?

Could legends concerning mysterious
healing powers really be true?

CARTER: It's very human for
people to want to possess,

whether it's a piece of cloth,
a stone, uh, a follicle of hair...

to posses an object that means
something to them,

an object that can perhaps
help them in their life.

Could these relics assist us
in-in invoking otherworldly power?

I think we need to be open.
We need to be open to that

possibility. Clearly,
our ancestors thought so.

COLLINS: Well, ancient relics
were very important to many

different ancient cultures, um, just
as they still are today to religions.

And the reason for this is that
it was believed that they were

access points to otherworldly
environments wherein the gods,

the spirits, the immortals dwelled.

HENRY: Throughout history, we
find that some of our most

powerful figures, our most powerful
leaders, have gone on relic quests.

They're looking for the Holy Grail, the
Spear of Destiny, the Key of Life.

And the belief is that if we can
acquire these relics, we will

acquire powers beyond
human comprehension.

Powers that originally came from
the gods that will make us more

godlike if we can get
our hands on them.

COPPENS: The relic tradition,
this tooth from a-a deity, the

bone from a saint, all of these
aspects really tie in that

somehow, this deity, this saint
is able to link us mere mortals

to the realm of the divine.

NARRATOR: Sacred bones...
golden hats...

and fragments of sacred objects
thought to possess healing

properties.
Is it possible that these

ancient and mysterious relics
help to prove that

extraterrestrials not only
visited Earth in the ancient

past, but remain strangely
connected to us throughout space

and time? Perhaps
the truth of mankind's

origins has been right before
our eyes for hundreds and

thousands of years, in fabric,
metal and stone, and in the DNA

of holy saints and martyrs, who
someday, thanks to modern

science, may even rise again.

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