All language subtitles for The UnXplained s02e02_English

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Powerful prophets

that can predict the fall
of empires.

[bomb whistling, explosion]

Disturbing dreams...
that envision deadly crimes.

And nightmare visions
from which victims...

never wake up.

Can people really see
the future?

Receive messages
from across time and space?

For centuries, seers
and prophets have come forward

offering dramatic visions
of mankind's destiny.

But what happens

when the predictions turn...
deadly?

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

♪

Craig Hamilton-Parker,
an English psychic and medium,

posts a series of prophecies
on his website--

some of them quite ominous
and even oddly disturbing.

I've been a psychic medium
all my life,

in touch with the spirit world,
and sometimes make predictions.

And in 2015, I decided to put
some predictions on my website.

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

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

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

Everybody's gonna vote
to remain. There's no chance."

I saw terrorist attacks
in Nice in my vision,

and I put those
in my predictions.

Sometimes I don't like
telling the future.

SHATNER:
Within a year,

the predictions
Craig made came surprisingly,

and in some cases frighteningly,
true.

On April 16, 2016,

Kumamoto, Japan was shaken
by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

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

And then, on June 23,

over half of Great Britain voted
to approve Brexit

and leave the European Union.

Finally, on July 14,

a 19-ton truck
driven by a terrorist plowed

through a crowded market
in Nice, France,

killing 86 people
and injuring over 400.

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

For instance, he'd predicted

that a gas attack would take
place in a European city,

but there was no such attack
in Europe that year.

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

led many to believe
that his uncanny ability

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

The natural question
that people have is,

"Where does a priction
come from?

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

The first explanation
we go to is

that it's some sort
of psychosis,

but that doesn't really hold up

because you can't turn crazy
on and off.

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

and I've met plenty of them,

they're perfectly ordinary,
everyday functioning people.

SHATNER:
According to Craig,

his ability to see events
before they happen

is one he was born with.

Since childhood,
he surprised his family

with what he called
"flashes of the future,"

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

And in his early twenties,
he decided

to make a journey to India,
where he studied the writings

of ancient oracles,
and honed his raw talent.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
So I became very interested

in this idea that
there's an ancient tradition

that goes back
right through time

over many, many centuries, maybe
back tens of thousands of years.

For me, seeing the future is
a bit like

a dream experience
in many respects.

I use an old technique
from India called "Trataka,"

which, I look into a candle,
basically.

You go into a sort of a state
of gazing,

and then move the image
of that candle

into the middle
of what we call "the third eye."

And you'll see it
as an afterimage

on the back of the eye,

where all these visions
will appear.

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

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

It gave me this information,

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

SHATNER:
In the fall of 2016,

another of Craig's prophecies--

this time about
the U.S. presidential election--

came to pass.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
I kept getting glimpses of

this strange character,
you know.

And I thought,
"Who on Earth is this?"

And then suddenly,

Trump announces himself
in the primaries,

and then I knew
that's what I'd been seeing.

That was this strange figure

that kept coming
into my meditations

and interrupting,
uh, my thoughts.

Clearly, for me,
Trump was gonna be president,

even though everybody
at this time was saying,

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

But the unconscious seemed
to know better.

SHATNER:
But how is Craig actually
getting these messages

about the future?

Are they really coming
from his unconscious mind?

Precognition is, um,
the scientific term

for things like premonitions.

And it's getting
accurate information

about a future event
that you didn't cause.

MICHIO KAKU:
We think that the brain,

no matter how complicated
and non-linear it is,

is still something
that could be reduced down

to the laws of physics.

Now that doesn't mean that the
brain can't imagine the future.

We are genetically hardwired
to have premonitions.

We can't stop it.

It's part of our makeup.

ANNE CLEARY:
The feeling of premonition

might be an example

of how our memories orient us
toward the future.

[tires squealing, thud]

So, current thinking among
memory researchers is

that our memories are not useful
to us so much

for their ability to enable us
to recollect the past

as they are useful to us
for enabling us

to navigate
and predict the future.

And from that perspective,
the idea that déjà vu,

which might result
from a memory process,

might be accompanied by feelings
of premonition, fits that.

HOROWITZ:
If somebody has

an authentic intuitive
or insightful gift--

and I do think
such things exist--

I think it's a kind of ESP

in which certain individuals
are able to glean information

in anomalous ways,

in ways that go beyond
our ordinary five senses.

NICK POPE:
The Internet, TV talk shows,

and the best-seller lists

are full of prophets
and prognosticators

claiming to be able
to divine the future.

And in a number of these cases,

they really seem
to be able to do it.

SHATNER:
If it's true

that there are such things
as real psychics,

then where exactly does
their incredible gift come from,

and how can we better
understand it?

According to some researchers,

the explanation doesn't lie
in the distant future,

but rather, the ancient past.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
The Bible makes it very clear

that biblical prophets

were not arbitrary individuals,
men or women,

who were just as if
minding their own business,

and then God chose them.

It wasn't like that at all.

It was an internal experience

that the Bible calls a dream
or a vision.

If you do not learn
how to understand dreams,

you will never understand
their message.

It is very clearly said
in the Bible

that prophets had
to go to school

to learn how to experience

and interpret the spiritual
message which we call prophecy.

And the biblical teachings
of prophecy were not limited

to those of the religious world.

Many people have been trained
in these techniques,

and we don't even realize it.

SHATNER:
Trained to see the future?

Could such a farfetched
but also tantalizing notion

actually be possible?

I think our generation is on the
precipice of a great question

about the extra-physical
abilities of the mind.

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

but I think it is coming

more and more into focus

that materialism
just doesn't cover

all the bases of life anymore,

and that the mind
has capacities,

including
extra-physical capacities,

that are measurable,
that are present,

and that we're only beginning
to understand.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
It's a natural part

of the human condition
to make predictions.

And couldn't it be that maybe
our predictive ability

is far greater
than we've ever imagined?

That maybe every one of us
somehow has a way

of seeing
into the fabric of time?

We just have
to trust that ability.

SHATNER:
If each of us could learn

how to predict the future,
would we accept our fate,

or fight to change it?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by studying the prophecies
of the man who is considered

one of the greatest prophets
of all time--

Nostradamus.

SHATNER:
Astrologer and physician

Michel de Nostradamus
publishes a volume

of four-line poems,
called "quatrains."

Readers at the time are confused

by the author's use
of multiple languages,

word puzzles,
and what was even then

considered antiquated syntax.

But perhaps even more baffling
is the volume's title,

Les Propheties--
The Prophecies.

HOGUE:
Nostradamus had become

initially famous
as an almanac writer.

You've got to understand
that this is

during the time
of the printing revolution,

and he was one of its first
best-selling authors.

And then he embarked
on a history of the future,

which would look at everything

up to the year 3797 AD,

nearly 1,800 years from now,
and beyond.

SHATNER:
The Prophecies
was initially met

with outright skepticism
and derision.

Many believed Nostradamus
to be either a fraud

or mentally ill,

possibly both,

likely due to the fact
that one of his verses

scandalously foretold
of a particularly gory death

for Henry II,
the king of France.

HOGUE:
Nostradamus made a prediction

about Henry II dying
in a jousting accident.

-[neighing]
-Quatrain 35

read that a young lion
would face the old

in traditional combat.

He shall be pierced

through a gilded cage.

Two wounds made one.

The joust happened exactly
as he foretold it.

Both men had lions
on their shields.

Large shards went through
the gilded visor of the king.

One penetrated his forehead
into his brain,

the other in between his eye
and socket,

destroying his eye.

And he died of infection
of the brain ten days later,

an agonizing death.

SHATNER:
After the king's death,

Nostradamus' reputation as a
seer of the future grew rapidly,

which was, at the time,

not necessarily a good thing.

It is well-known
that Nostradamus concealed

the nature of his prophecies,

which, at that time,
was very politically incorrect

and could have gotten him
in a lot of trouble.

He would come into
great conflict with the church

if he p-put himself
on a pedestal and be like

Noah or Moses
or people like this.

SHATNER:
Despite the controversy,

The Prophecies
eventually became

one of the most widely read
books in the world.

It both astounded and terrified
readers with its predictions

about dreadful events to come.

-[whispering]
-Is it possible

Nostradamus received
his prophetic visions

because he was in touch
with a higher power?

It's an interesting theory

and could help explain
how Nostradamus was able to see

and know things that
would not happen for centuries,

things he was trying
to warn us about.

-[whistling]
-[explosion]

1942.

With World War II

wreaking havoc throughout Europe
and the Pacific,

it wasn't only the latest news

from the front lines
making headlines

but also Nostradamus

and his prophecy centering

on the rise of a man
named Hister.

HOGUE:
What triggered
his international fame

was a reference five times
in his prophecies

about a man named Hister

with a Gothic "S,"

which has a "T" crossed.

Another push, push,
nudge, nudge, perhaps,

in his work.

Hister is the ancient name
of the river Danube.

Adolf Hitler grew up
on the river Danube.

Nostradamus had a pattern
of using a place as a person.

The river is a code,

and the things
that are said in the other parts

of the prophecies indicate
that it's a man.

The man who's called
the captain of greater Germany.

SHATNER:
Is it possible

Nostradamus predicted the rise

of one of the most evil men
in history?

According to many who
have studied these quatrains,

the answer is yes.

And as evidence,

they point
to other things he foresaw,

things that a person who lived
and died in the 16th century

could never know
would one day exist.

This happened many times for me,

when I want to just slap
the book shut

and say, "Oh, come on."

And then names
suddenly come out.

A man named de Gaulle
will lead France three times.

And it's factually true.

Charles de Gaulle
led the free French,

led the provisional government

and then, finally,
in his final years,

was president of France--
three times.

And that's one of hundreds
of things I can cite.

How does he do this?

HOROWITZ:
Nostradamus is one
of the most enduring names,

perhaps the most enduring name,

in post-biblical prophecy.

His quatrains have been applied
to hundreds upon hundreds

of events throughout history,

and people continue to feel
that they can learn

what's around the next corner
by studying his quatrains.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
Nostradamus fascinates us,

because it's perhaps part
of our fear instinct, isn't it?

When we're in difficult times,
we turn to the seers,

we turn to the prophets
to try to find out can they give

some insight into
these chaotic times we live in,

particularly in today's time.

SHATNER:
If it's true

that Nostradamus was able
to predict so many things

with such incredible accuracy,

why aren't we scouring his works

in order to prevent
the next natural catastrophe

or world war?

Perhaps because,

as scholars of Nostradamus
have to admit,

of the thousands
of prophecies he made

over the course of his life,

only a small fraction
have actually come true.

And even his seemingly
accurate predictions

have been questioned.

HAMILTON-PARKER:
We kind of have a double problem
with Nostradamus in some ways,

because some of the predictions
are a bit vague

and people can project all sorts

of things
into these vague predictions

and then relate them to
something that's happening now.

But, also,
sometimes they take

two completely unrelated
sentences,

put them together,
and it seems to relate

to something we have today.

KAKU:
The brain is a pattern-seeking
learning machine.

It constantly sees patterns,

even when they're not there.

Um, in fact, there's a name
for it, apophenia.

We can't help it,
because sometimes we were right.

Then we make leaps of logic.

What does he mean?
What did he really mean by that?

And then we try
to make sense of it,

because that's what
the brain does.

SHATNER:
Are Nostradamus' predictions

merely the ramblings
of a madman,

which people
deliberately interpret

in order to fit history
after the fact?

As with anything,

it all depends on who you ask.

HOGUE:
What makes Nostradamus
so relevant today

is that he's found a way

through his obscurity
to make everybody a sleuthsayer,

a detective.

He understood
that it would keep him topical

for four and a half centuries.

He even said that,
"When I'm dead,

I will be far more famous than
I ever was while I'm alive."

SHATNER:
For skeptics,

the enduring mystery
of Nostradamus

is nothing more than a testament

to the power
of wishful thinking.

-[sirens wailing]
-But others insist

that if we paid closer attention
to his prophecies,

we might have been able
to prevent

one of the greatest tragedies

of the last one hundred years,

9/11.

[shouting]

MAN:
Whoa, whoa!

SHATNER:
19 terrorists overwhelm
the flight crews

of four passenger planes

and send each of them crashing
into prearranged targets.

-[sirens wailing]
-[screaming]

MAN:
Get out of here! Get out!

SHATNER:
They are chosen to inflict

massive casualties and cripple
the morale of the United States.

[screaming]

It is a tragedy
that has become a permanent part

of our collective consciousness

and a day
that forever changed the world.

But had the event
been predicted?

-[siren wailing]
-And if so,

could it have been prevented?

"I'm gonna die soon,
and it's gonna be a plane crash

or a car accident."

That's what my sister told me

about two weeks
before the planes crashed

into the towers on 9/11.

My sister and I
were super, super close.

She was eight years older
than me,

so she was like a second mom.

My mom and my sister
and I were all very close,

like a warm family.

Marisa had a job
at Cantor Fitzgerald,

which occupied the top floors
of Tower One.

On the eve of September 11...

September 10
is my mom's birthday,

and we all were invited
by my sister

to Windows on the World,
the top of Tower One.

And, um,

you know, everything I talked
to her about that night

was kind of like she was talking
to me for the last time,

in a weird way.

And I thought back, you know,

a few weeks before
when she said,

"I know I'm gonna die,
and it's gonna be soon."

And, uh, she started to cry.

And I said,
"How do you know that?"

She said, "Just trust me.
I know I'm going to."

Never in a million years
did I think

a plane was about to smash
right into where we were sitting

just about 12 hours later.

Everyone died
that was at Cantor,

because the plane hit perfectly.

My sister was, um...

one of those people.

SHATNER:
Since 2001,

hundreds of accounts
similar to Marisa DiNardo's

have surfaced,

all of them suggesting that,

in the days and weeks leading up
to the tragic event,

many of the 9/11 victims

had dreadful premonitions

about some sort
of deadly catastrophe.

DINARDO:
I remember hearing

about a story
where a man had a dream

of a plane hitting a building

a few days before 9/11.

I also remember reading
about a woman

that was sitting
at the PATH station

and had this vision

of the World Trade Center
falling on her.

It was the same week
that 9/11 happened.

There was, um, another story

of a man that didn't want to get

on to one of the flights
because of a-a dream

or-or a premonition that he had.

SHATNER:
According to some experts,

these premonitions,
unlike predictions made

by so-called
"professional prophets,"

are a part
of an innate, biological

early-warning system

that all of us possess.

Usually intuition is more
of a gut feeling or a feeling

that you just knew something,
and it typically results

from pattern recognition,
or our mind's ability

to very quickly decipher
patterns in the environment.

And because we usually
can't articulate the basis

of our gut feeling
or how we just knew something,

it can often feel
like ESP or a sixth sense

or like we had
a successful premonition.

SHATNER:
If humans do have

an instinctual danger sense,
designed to help us

anticipate what's
around the corner,

could that explain
how so many people

seemed to know
the 9/11 attacks were coming?

There are some who believe the
answer may be found by examining

a strange occurrence that
happened on that fateful day.

HOROWITZ: There was
a paranormal research lab

at Princeton University

that placed a number
of machines around the world,

referred to
as random number generators.

A random number generator
is actually

a machine that you use
all the time.

It spits out
a random pattern of numbers.

And it's used to create
passwords for Web sites

or safes or any number of
devices that need to be secure.

There are million-to-one odds

against any patterns showing up

in the data that comes out
of a random number generator.

What the Princeton
researchers found

was that when the tragedy
of 9/11 occurred,

these random number generators
demonstrated

an interruption
in the random pattern.

They demonstrated symmetry
where there shouldn't be any.

SHATNER:
Patterns created by machines

programmed to avoid them?

There are many who believe that
the so-called "computer glitch"

that occurred at the same
time as the 9/11 attacks

was no mere coincidence.

And according
to researchers familiar with

the Princeton incident, certain
events, such as catastrophes,

actually have tangible,
measurable effects

not only on humans,
but on electronic devices.

Could it be that major events
that have a huge effect

on history maybe act like
a sort of a bomb of some sort?

That send ripples through time,

both forward in time
and backwards in time?

And people see this, we see it
like a light on the horizon.

We see parts of it,
but not all of it.

We get the energy
from the future

reaching back to us
here in the past.

I believe that there is

certainly a higher power,

an energy or whatever
you want to call it

'cause I really do feel
with every sense of my being

that my sister knew
and that she was going.

I mean, how else can you explain
the things she said

and, uh, what she knew.

Could the horrifying
attacks of September the 11th

have been prevented,

not by law enforcement,
but by those who literally

saw it happen in advance?

There are those who believe
that not only is the answer yes,

but that the ability to predict
the future can be harnessed

in an effort to ensure

mankind's destiny.

SHATNER:
News organizations broadcast

a series of horrific images that
stun viewers across the country.

A tidal wave of mud and shale
has swallowed the small,

coal-mining town
of Aberfan in its entirety.

Of the 144 people
killed by the landslide,

116 are schoolchildren.

And for this
tight-knit community,

many of whom have lived
in Aberfan for generations,

the loss is devastating.

POPE:
One of the first people

to respond to the disaster
is psychiatrist John Barker.

Initially, he arrives

to offer consultation
to the survivors.

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

parents that had lost children.

He was really surprised to hear
that there were premonitions

before it happened.

One boy drew a picture of people
amassed on the hillside,

digging into it, and he wrote
underneath, "the end."

Also, there was

a young girl who told
her mom about a dream where

she said there was
this black mass over the school

and she couldn't get in.

Both of these children
later went to school and died.

POPE:
Barker begins to wonder whether

these premonitions could be used

as a sort
of early warning system

that might prevent
future disasters.

So he asked Peter Fairley,
who ran the science desk

at the national newspaper,
the London Evening Standard,

to consider setting up a program

to collate people's
premonitions.

Fairley not only agreed,
but he set up

an entire bureau
to act as a focal point.

Starting in January 1967,

the bureau commences operations.

Reports come in,
and the bureau staff--

they devise an 11-point system,
looking for patterns.

Five points for unusualness,
five points for accuracy,

and one point for timing.

SHATNER:
The British Premonitions Bureau,

as it would come to be called,

collected 469 predictions
in its first year.

Unsurprisingly,
many never came true.

But those submitted
by two individuals--

Alan Hencher
and Lorna Middleton--

stood out from the crowd.

POPE:
Alan Hencher and Lorna Middleton

made headlines in March 1967

when they both predicted
a train accident

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

Hencher also had a premonition
about a fatal plane crash,

predicting the number of people
who would die.

That kind of accuracy
is staggering.

SHATNER:
For John Barker,

the notion that Hencher
and Middleton's predictions

might allow him to warn people
of disasters ahead of time

was an exciting one.

For the next year, he sent
hundreds of what he believed

to be credible predictions

to the editors of
the London Evening Standard.

But in the summer of 1968,

there was one deadly premonition
that he chose to ignore.

-[phone ringing]
-One that was shared

by both Hencher and Middleton,

and it involved
John Barker himself.

VIVANCO:
Around 1:00 in the morning,

Hencher calls Barker.

He's in a panic.

He's got
a-a terrible premonition.

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

Barker says, "Yes."

And he tells Barker,
"You have to be careful.

Be very, very careful."

Then Barker asks him,
"What? Am I in danger?"

Hencher says, "Yes."

POPE:
Barker wrote a memo the next day

explaining
that Hencher could only explain

that the dark car was somehow
connected to Barker

and a potentially
deadly outcome.

It all seemed pretty vague,

and perhaps that wouldn't
have worried Barker so much

were it not for the fact
that there was another warning

from his other superstar
Lorna Middleton.

[siren blaring]

SHATNER:
On August 18, 1968,

less than two years
after he had opened

his Bureau of Premonitions,

John Barker was suddenly rushed
to the hospital.

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

The British Premonitions Bureau
closed down shortly thereafter.

SHATNER:
As for the dark car?

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

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

to its final resting place.

It raises the question,
was Barker's own death

just a coincidence?

Was it self-fulfilling prophecy,

or like the rest
of the bureau's predictions,

was fate simply too powerful
to be stopped?

Was the leader of
the British Premonitions Bureau

literally scared to death
by other people's visions?

Perhaps. But does the ability

to see the future mean
our lives are preordained?

Or is it possible
that by knowing the future,

we can change
and even improve... our destiny?

Maybe we'll find out the answer
by investigating

yet another form
of prognostication...

dreams.

SHATNER:
Cognitive neuroscientist
Julia Mossbridge settles

into bed after a long day.

It's a night's sleep
that begins like any other...

until she experiences a strange

and disturbing dream.

MOSSBRIDGE:
This dream was horrible.

I was taken

to someplace in the Middle East.
I didn't know where.

I met this man.

He shows up sometimes
in my dreams.

He's like a guide.

There was this outdoor building.

It was mosque-like

in that it was
built out of stone

and there were breezeways.

It was the middle of the day.
People are praying.

SHATNER:
In the confusing fog
of her dream,

Julia pieces together
an unsettling picture.

It seems that her guide
is desperately trying

to warn her of something
that is going to happen.

Something dire.

MOSSBRIDGE:
And he's showing me this event.

There was rubble
because there was

a terrorist explosion
when people were praying.

And he showed me this writing.

It was Arabic.

There was the letters
for "I" and "S,"

and I knew that stood
for Islamic State.

SHATNER:
But before she can
awaken herself

from her nightmare, she realizes

he still has one more message
to deliver.

MOSSBRIDGE:
He called the place
we were in Kyuck Kyuck.

He kept saying "Kyuck Kyuck."

And I didn't know
what that meant.

Since I was a kid,

I have had precognitive dreams.

Usually they're describing
an event that happens

the next day,
the next week, the next month.

So, when I woke up,
I wrote it in my dream journal

because that's my habit.
I never had

a precognitive dream
of something horrible

like that on a,
on a major world scale.

It shook me.

During the day,
I got the news report

of a bombing
in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

I figured,
"Oh, that was the Kyuck Kyuck."

I had it almost right
but not quite.

This happened
during noontime prayers.

Responsibility was claimed
by ISIS, Islamic State.

I felt heartbroken
because I saw it happen.

SHATNER:
Dreams have long been known

to reflect
the dreamer's subconscious mind.

Desires, anxieties,

long-forgotten memories
all bubbling to the surface.

But precognitive dreams?

Is it really possible
that dreams,

like the ones
we have every night,

can actually predict the future?

KAKU:
When we take a person
who's dreaming

and put him
in a brain scan machine,

we begin to realize
something very interesting.

Blood flow to the front
of the brain

is turned off for the most part.

Second, blood flow goes to
the emotional part of the brain,

and you start
to have nightmares.

You start to have fears.

You imagine the future
or have a premonition.

Dreams are important
because it allows us

to articulate the fears
and premonitions

that we have
in the unconscious mind,

and then we're able
to evaluate it

with the conscious mind.

SHATNER:
As unbelievable
as it may have seemed

to her scientific mind,

Julia firmly believed
she had seen the future

before it happened.

Having been
in this position before

and regretting
not doing anything about it,

Julia wasn't going to let
the same thing happen again.

In fall of 2017,

I had another one
of these world stage-type dreams

that felt precognitive

and that did not feel good.

There was a cruise ship.

And there were these cartoon

sort of creatures
on the cruise ship.

I thought, "Oh, no. Disney."

And then, after that,

thwas a bridge structure.

There was this arching--

it was actually
quite beautiful--

this arching bridge structure.

And the concern in the dream

was, that's where
the explosion would happen.

And that scared me.

I'd never seen a bridge
like that.

So I googled

the shape of the bridge,

and the first thing
that shows up

is the Coronado Bridge
in San Diego.

I remembered
that I'd promised myself

that I was gonna go
to authorities

even if I felt stupid.

MULLEN:
I was detailed

to the FBI's
Joint Terrorism Task Force

in San Diego, California.

Julia contacted

somebody within NCIS,

and my boss got word of it

and said,
"Hey, just look into this."

I knew very little,
if anything, about precog.

I was curious.

I knew from the very second
that I started talking to her

that there was no
ulterior motive.

When she gave me the
information, she was

very specific on the location
and the time.

She had actual information and
wanted somebody to run with this

to prevent something
that she saw in a dream.

Most cops don't like
using information

that they can't explain.

And precog is something
that is unexplainable.

But if this is something
that would actually work,

why not give it a try?

The Coronado Bay Bridge in San
Diego is one of the big things

that we try to protect, along
with all of the Navy assets.

There are always threats.

We were able to move
patrol boats

-to provide coverage
around the bridge...
-[siren wailing]

...and nothing happened.

Did nothing happen because
there were patrol boats,

and somebody who was looking
to do something nefarious

against the bridge
basically said,

"I don't want to be caught"?

Or was the attack not even
going to happen?

The simple fact
that nothing happened was,

in my mind, a win.

MOSSBRIDGE:
If you're going to go into this
world and use this talent

to create data that can be used
to prevent something,

sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.

But as long as the bad thing
doesn't happen, good.

SHATNER:
There are those who believe
Julia Mossbridge prevented

a dangerous attack
by seeing the future

and acting on her vision.

And there are skeptics
who question whether

there was any danger
in the first place.

But perhaps both sides
are missing the target.

Because, according to one
incredible theory,

the past, present and future

may actually be the same thing.

SHATNER: The International Data
Corporation publishes a report

which estimates that,
by the year 2022,

over $270 billion
will be spent annually

on a new form of prophecy.

It's called
predictive analytics.

Only this time, the prophets
will be made of ones and zeros

instead of flesh and blood.

Predictive analytics is
a fancy way of saying

"Look at the data and figure out
why things happen."

Very important.

Banks, corporations,
computer companies

spend hundreds of millions
of dollars

sifting through tons of data,

trying to find instances
of causality.

If I raise the price
of a product,

does my profit margin go down?

Will I go bankrupt?

In other words,
corporations constantly try

to predict the future.

That's the name of the game.

You predict it wrong,
you zag when you should zig,

you go bankrupt.

I think predictive analytics
operate very similarly

to how our brains work.

Our minds come equipped to make
predictions about the future

based on our past experiences,

and they operate very similarly.

In fact, machine-learning
algorithms,

the type that carry out
predictive analytics,

are often called
neural network models

because they're designed
to mimic

how neurons work in our brains.

SHATNER:
The idea of advanced computers
pulling information

from the cloud in order
to predict the future

may sound like science fiction.

But in truth
this idea has been around

for thousands of years.

Every culture in history
has had some concept

of a universal mind.

The Greeks used to call it nous,
or a great overmind.

In Vedic tradition,
it's sometimes called Akasha,

or a kind of universal ether.

People like Nostradamus
and any seer

will tune into what we call
the Akashic record.

This is like the memory
of all things.

It's the universal mind.

We enter it by going
into a state of meditation

and connecting with the past,
the present and the future.

One of the great secrets of
the mystical tradition is that

all human souls are one.

So we are part
of a collective whole.

In later psychology,
it has been understood

to be called
a collective unconscious.

In ancient times

it was referred to
as a collective soul,

which is the collective mind
of all humanity,

past, present, future.

MOSSBRIDGE: I think the people
who work in this way,

what they're doing is
they're tapping into

some source of information.

I don't think the question is

"Why are we able to get
information about the future?"

I think the question is
more like,

"Why don't we get more
information about the future?"

A universal mind,

all-knowing
and all-encompassing.

But do we really want
to know everything

before it happens?

Time of our own death, perhaps?

Or the fate of our loved ones?

Or... how about
the end of the world?

Perhaps we're better off
not knowing.

Letting those things remain...

the unexplained.

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