Original subtitles

Simon: Deep in north carolina's

mountain country, there's a mystery playing out --

a series of glowing orbs that no one's ever been able to explain.

Some believe there is a logical scientific explanation.

Wow, that's amazing.

Others say the lights are supernatural.

Easy, hold up, hold up.

My mission is to venture deep into the mountain and woods

and attempt to uncover the source of the lights...

I'm now officially in no man's land.

...And get to the bottom of this remarkable phenomenon...

Oh, oh, oh, look, look, look.

...Whatever it takes.

I'm cliff simon.

I had my first paranormal encounter when I was young,

and I've been fascinated with otherworldly beings ever since.

As a military man, adventurer, and survivalist,

I've explored the far reaches of the physical world.

Now I'm using those skills to investigate the unknown

in places so remote few have dared to venture.

♪

north carolina's brown mountain.

A long low-ridge crest in the foothills

of the blue ridge mountains --

over half a million acres of dense forest,

steep gorges and raging rivers.

Much of it completely unexplored.

Home to a haunting mystery.

It's been reported that there's strange, orb-like lights

that float up out of these woods and hover above the trees

and then vanish without a sound.

♪

and no one's been able to explain what they are.

♪

witnesses report glowing balls of light

dancing in and above the valley

and then suddenly shooting up into the sky.

I'll use my survival skills

to explore this unforgiving landscape in search of answers.

Trekking through these woods by day is dangerous enough.

By night, who knows what I'll encounter.

But I'm determined to see the lights for myself

and uncover any secrets lurking below.

♪

there are dozens of theories, scientific and supernatural,

as to what causes the brown mountain lights --

from balls of lightning to airplane lights,

from phosphorus and gases to wayward ghosts.

But after decades of study, they still defy explanation.

And maybe that's because they aren't from this world at all.

According to cherokee law, the glowing orbs

are the spirits of women searching by torchlight

for their mates slain in battle

more than 800 years ago.

♪

another local legend claims that they are the ghostly relics

of a 19th-century search party that found a murdered woman

and her baby deep in these woods.

♪

I'm determined to uncover

whatever is behind this remarkable event.

But first I want to talk to some folks

who witnessed these lights first hand.

♪

all around these parts, everybody has seen

the brown mountain lights

or knows someone who's seen them

or thinks they have seen them.

Everybody's got a story about the brown mountain lights

and a good explanation for them.

I've got my own theories, and I've got my own story.

Simon: Yeah? I mean, this really happened, too.

You know the difference between a war story

and a fairy tale, don't you?

The fairy tale starts out "once upon a time."

the war story starts out "this ain't no [bleep]"

love it. This ain't no [bleep]

yeah, I agree.

I don't know, it must have been '71 or '72.

There was a group of us

riding around up towards the base of brown mountain,

up one of those old roads up there.

And the trick used to be back then,

you need to take a girl up through there. Sure.

And just as you came over that road,

you made your headlights shine up

and reflect off one of those panes of glass.

And they're, "look, yeah, that's a ghost."

you know and they'd sneak over to you, you know?

You know, this time we did the same thing, bounced up,

showed the lights, and we stopped talking

and then that's when we actually saw some lights

coming down off the top of the ridge.

♪

so were they -- were they, like,

pulsating or colors or...? No, it was a steady,

maybe a little, tiny flicker to it as it moved.

And it didn't look like anything that was a person doing it.

It was there for, you know, a good two or three minutes.

Right. We watched it.

And it was coming along the side of the ridge

before it disappeared.

♪

one theory tossed around at the time

links the strange lights to this region's shady past.

♪

somewhere in here, it used to be.

♪

simon: What is that?

♪

that right there, my friend, is a moonshine still.

Or what's left of one. This is a small one.

But the boiler is the main part.

That's a copper boiler.

Let me wipe some of that off.

A little dirt on there.

Scrub it real good, and you can kind of get an idea

of what I'm talking about.

Back in the early 70's when bill had his sighting,

these hills were dotted with illegal stills.

Cooking up homemade whiskey,

also known as moonshine, under the cover of darkness.

A lot of people think maybe what they were seeing

is the light reflecting off that.

Right. I mean, you know, the light could reflect

off the side of the copper from a fire. Right.

Because you had to have a good fire to make good liquor.

Right. It could be a flashlight

because most of the stuff was done at night.

Even lantern lights could have reflected off that

and that would give kind of that glow

that everybody associates

with the brown mountain lights.

For sure. I mean, I think we should test that.

You got a light?

I mean, that makes a little bit

of a reflection off there.

I suppose it's possible

that dozens of burning fires in the mountainside

could cause a mysterious glow, but I'm not convinced.

The lights bouncing off a copper still wouldn't be strong enough

to move through the entire gorge.

I need to know more about the history of this place.

♪

so I'm headed to the history museum of burke county

in the town of morganton to find out more.

♪

the museum documents day-to-day life in western north carolina

and includes an archive on the brown mountain lights.

The museum has a few paintings here that depict sightings

of the brown mountain lights from people.

Up to now, I've only heard of reports of lights in the sky.

But now it's clear to me they've been seen

closer to the ground.

And at that low altitude, I can eliminate the possibility

that the lights are simply from airplanes.

♪

this is it.

"b.M. Lights."

oh, it says right here that the first known reported sightings

of the lights were from josiah lafayette wiseman,

and he witnessed the lights back in 1858.

♪

this further supports the theory that glowing balls of light

have been spotted on the ridge,

at tree level, in the gorge below

and even at ground level, face-to-face with witnesses.

1922 responding to a general interest in the lights.

Reported phenomenon.

These lights have appeared in many different forms and colors

and are still as great a mystery

as they were the day they were first written about,

over 150 years ago.

The lights were investigated once by the u.S. Weather service

and twice by the u.S. Geological survey.

The smithsonian even conducted an investigation of their own.

But no one could scientifically explain the phenomenon.

You can feel how uneasy everyone must have been at that time,

not knowing what these lights were or not understanding

what was causing them.

♪

word is getting out to the locals

that I'm here investigating.

And another witness has agreed to meet me at the exact spot

where he saw the lights.

So, steve, tell me what happened that morning.

I was 13 years old.

And my dad and I used to come deer hunting.

We had to get to the mountain early

to keep other hunters from following us.

♪

we were sitting in an old 1947 dodge pick-up truck...

...Just killing time, talking.

♪

and my dad said, "I see two lights coming."

♪

and paused and then immediately said,

"I don't know what that is,

but there's no way a vehicle could be in that area."

♪

the lights were hovering in an area

that had no roads, not even a trail.

They were a very light orange in color.

So were they floating in a line?

They were floating along,

kind of raising it up and down.

And they lit up and illuminated the whole area,

inside the truck, all the woods.

And you could see

all the shadows that they were casting.

They looked to be 2 to 3 feet in diameter.

They were perfectly symmetrical.

They looked like a large pumpkin or a basketball,

but they were almost translucent.

So these lights, they kept coming closer to you?

They moved right across in front of us

approximately 50 yards away,

right directly in front of us

and went right across and down into the gorge...

♪

...Until they completely disappeared.

I think I was in such awe of what I'd encountered,

I think I said to my dad,

"just what do you think about that?"

he said, "I think we've been in the woods

with the brown mountain lights."

but as close as I've seen them,

I still couldn't explain to you.

But I know what I saw was real.

♪

well, it's day two here in north carolina,

and I'm still reeling from meeting steve

who gave me his witness account of the brown mountain lights.

I have to admit, I'm more curious now than ever.

Luckily I've tracked down an expert

who claims he recently caught these lights on tape.

And what he is about to show me

is nothing short of mind-blowing.

Watch. This blue one.

It goes through the valley and then darts straight up.

Wow.

Simon: I'm in north carolina,

meeting with a brown mountains lights expert

who's recently captured this anomaly on camera.

Hey, dean! What you got here?

Dean warsing is a paranormal investigator who's spent years

trying to document the lights.

Warsing: This is a video I took right here

of brown mountain.

Dean shot this footage with a night-vision camera,

so most of the lights are glowing green.

You see this luminous form here?

Yeah. Kind of stationary.

That's a traditional brown mountain light.

Simon: Whoa! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

See how it's not discharging.

It's just kind of hanging there.

But watch this blue thing. It goes through the valley

and then darts straight up with tremendous speed.

Wow, that's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

♪

what I saw in that footage

was no reflection off a moonshine still.

So far, I've seen historical paintings of these lights,

heard convincing testimony of first-hand encounters...

Woody: They moved right across in front of us.

But I know what I saw was real.

...But nothing indicates the actual source of the lights.

♪

dean seems to think the lights might be paranormal activity.

But first I need to eliminate the possibility

that these are simply headlights,

reflecting in strange ways.

I can see from these local maps there are no roads,

so that eliminates the possibility of cars.

But what about an atv?

I have an idea.

First I'll test whether an atv can create glowing,

floating lights.

Then I want to travel up the mountain

to try to reach the source of the lights.

Dean knows some other investigators

who tried to document the lights

and they have agreed to help me out.

-Hey, guys! -Cliff!

-How are you? -Joshua. Forrest.

Joshua. Forrest.

But there's only one problem.

The place where the lights seem to emerge

is a 200-square-mile area

along a steep and foreboding gorge.

Historically this area is known by indigenous americans as esio,

meaning "river of many cliffs."

there's bear. There's cliffs. There's snakes.

You're gonna be down there at night nonetheless.

I mean, you could make one step, the next thing you know,

you become a statistic.

♪

I'll have to use my military and survival training

to venture where few have dared,

into the unexplored and treacherous woods.

♪

in just the past few years,

an experienced climber plunged to his death here,

a kayaker drowned and a hiker fell from a ledge and died.

People disappear where you are going to go.

They die there.

A lot of people have not found

whatever is causing this phenomenon.

It may be that it doesn't want to be found.

And so if you find it,

it might not be very happy about it.

♪

simon: But before I descend into the gorge

to investigate the source of the lights,

I'm gonna conduct a little experiment

in a more accessible part of the valley.

♪

I'm setting up my camera at a great vantage point.

The valley is directly across from us.

By the time I get down there,

it's definitely gonna be dark.

And I'm gonna do my vehicle headlight testing.

We want to see what the vehicle headlights look like.

Are they gonna be haunting enough

to maybe be mistaken for brown mountain lights?

♪

♪

♪

people have reported the lights, they dance, they move.

So we're gonna see if the headlights of this atv

do the same kind of things.

♪

the camera I set up at the top of the ridge recorded my drive.

I've placed the footage side by side with dean's footage.

My headlights flicker but remain pretty static,

where dean's seem to float up and down the valley.

Not a match.

Nor could atv headlights account

for all those strange sightings before 1960

when these vehicles first came into use.

What I really need is to witness these lights for myself

and then get directly beneath them

to try to figure out their source.

Dean and his team tell me that storms and humidity

seem to make the brown mountain lights manifest much better.

And lucky for us, there's foul weather

moving in tonight or tomorrow.

♪

until then, I'm gonna follow up on another lead

just 5 miles from here.

There's a paranormal researcher

with an interesting theory of his own.

♪

we're not too far from the home of tsul 'kalu,

which is the cherokee name for bigfoot.

There's a lot of people who have disappeared

and we have no idea how.

It's dangerous. It's very dangerous.

Being out here alone is dangerous.

Simon: So you believe

that bigfoot is present in these woods

and is somehow connected

to the brown mountain light phenomenon?

You know, these lights occur

only in specific areas and times.

But that's all we see with the human eye. Right.

How do we know it's not a signal or a beacon

to all these creatures

in a spectrum that we can't see and they can?

I think the lights are a signal

to the cryptids in this area

and perhaps the other animals in this area.

Cryptids are creatures of legend

whose existence has yet to be proven.

And while christian's theory is pretty out there,

there's reason to be very afraid of these woods,

especially at night.

You know, there's people that disappear in this area a lot.

They're never found again.

Sometimes they'll find their remains.

Sometimes they don't. You have to be hyper-vigilant.

Anything in this area's possible.

You have to be careful what you're doing,

especially if the lights are active.

♪

♪

I heard something move. There.

♪

♪

cliff, you see anything?

I'm hearing something at 11:00.

Yeah, me too.

I'm frigging nervous, man.

♪

whoa!

Simon: I'm deep in the north carolina woods,

investigating the mysterious brown mountain lights

with paranormal researcher christian macleod.

Something's coming up that hill.

And something nearby has me on edge.

♪

I think we should get out here. I feel something's watching us.

I can smell the familiar stench of a black bear.

But where is it?

Let's keep eyes and ears open.

♪

let's get the hell out of there. Come on.

We haven't seen any lights tonight,

but I'm just happy to get out of this ravine in one piece.

♪

daybreak ushers in a cloudy, muggy day

up in brown mountain --

the perfect conditions for my investigation.

A few hours before sunset, we meet

at a place called "wiseman's lookout."

storms and the humidity, it seems to make

the brown mountain lights manifest much better.

So that should be the time we target.

The plan is for joshua and forrest

to document the lights from above,

then relay the gps coordinates

so I can investigate from below.

Only problem is to get directly underneath the lights,

I'm going to have to venture into some

of america's most treacherous wilderness.

Brown mountain has a distinct low-lying ridge

that is very tricky to navigate due to its slick rock faces.

To my knowledge, no one has ever attempted

this dangerous mission before.

My surface team will be using state-of-the-art technology

that they invented themselves.

Joshua, you've brought an amazing piece of equipment,

I know, called the opticalizer.

I am going to be scanning the entire brown mountain area.

I have a special pair of binoculars.

Any light that is received with these binoculars

is sent to a computer.

We compare that light

with a database of known lights.

And if we see anything that doesn't match our database,

I will radio you the coordinates.

If you find the source of these lights, we'll get to it.

Okay, let's go.

♪

it's already getting dark and damp

as I move through the gorge with dean

and my cameraman andre.

♪

♪

♪

this is joshua. Do you read me?

Joshua. Read you. Copy.

Okay, what is your current position? Over.

We're just about at the base of brown mountain.

If we begin to see anomalies,

I will send you the coordinates.

Over.

Copy that. Fantastic.

Let me know as soon as you see anything or hear anything. Out.

♪

looks like we've got a bit of weather

rolling up here, cliff. Over.

Oh, man, we're getting dumped on down here.

Definitely some kind of micro-climate going on.

We're making our way slowly, but it's getting really slick.

♪

♪

oh, oh, look, look, look. -Light over there.

Cliff, we have some kind of anomalous light

in the distance straight ahead from us,

right below the top of the ridge.

We're gonna turn on the opticalizer now. Over.

Simon: Joshua, that's perfect. Let me know. Let me know.

We'll start to head up that way.

♪

♪

♪

connor: It's sort of almost a faint glow.

♪

we're gonna have to see if we can catch it again.

But -- 'cause it was pretty brief.

It was pretty fleeting.

Let's see what cliff's status is.

Okay.

Okay, cliff. This is joshua. Do you read me?

Over.

[ static ]

hello, cliff, do you read me?

♪

this is joshua. Do you read me? Over.

[ static ]

♪

simon: I'm deep in the brown mountain woods

waiting for the exact coordinates of a light

the guys saw from above.

♪

I'm using a red light to help me navigate up the steep rock face.

That way, the guys up top won't confuse my beam

for the brown mountain lights.

♪

okay, cliff. This is joshua.

Do you read me?

[ static ]

connor: Sounds like whatever he's near

is interfering with his radio transmission.

Our transmission is breaking up,

and it's getting more difficult to communicate with you. Over.

♪

this is joshua. Do you read me? Over.

♪

♪

listen, cliff, I don't know if you realize this,

but I'm losing contact with you.

Batteries frequently drain

when the brown mountain lights are appearing.

You might notice also interference

on any electronic device.

Simon: Something definitely

is interfering on the walkie talkies.

Simon: What I didn't know is that for the past hour,

my support team up above

has had trouble getting in touch with me.

Brown mountain is made up of layers of quartz and magnetite,

known electrical conductors

that could cause interference with our radios.

Connor: Now I just saw a twinkle straight ahead of us.

You see where it goes up about a 45-degree angle?

-Are you being serious? -I'm being serious.

And then there's a saddle-back

right at the top of the ridge there.

-Yeah. -You might want to let --

oh. Look, look, look, look. That's what I said.

You saw it that time.

I-I -- yeah. I did see it. Right there. Right there.

Start recording. Start recording. I've got it.

You got it?

♪

wow, look at that.

I've got it in my sights. Keep recording.

It's flashing.

♪

190 degrees south on your compass heading.

You're probably gonna have to move.

You've got to really book it if you want to get to the lights.

Over.

We've just got a few obstacles here to negotiate.

♪

simon: I finally get a clear transmission

from our surface team with specific coordinates.

Now the hunt is really on.

Yeah, cliff, hang. Let me check where we're at.

♪

♪

right up that way.

♪

warren: I'm gonna try to get some footage of this.

Alright, it's up right now. Are you getting this?

Okay. Here, hold this, hold this, hold this.

Got you. Oh, there's two of them.

Yeah, there you go, guys.

Look at that.

Alright, I'm recording.

♪

♪

cliff, they almost look they're going over the ridge.

What's your status? Over.

I'm getting to the top of the ridge right now.

♪

♪

190 south.

Okay. You should run right into it. Over.

Ah. Oh, oh, oh. Look, look, look.

Cliff, you must be right on top of it.

You're breaking up. Look, look, look, look.

There it is again.

Okay, listen, listen, cliff.

We have at least two of them now and these are extremely intense.

They are actually hovering over the treetops.

You're very close by.

I mean, I have been up here a lot of times over the years

and I have not seen this kind of intensity.

Oh, oh. -Look at that.

There it is again.

When that thing lit up,

I literally got a glitch on my screen.

Simon: They are coming back over the ridge.

It's like they are looking at me.

We have a huge obstacle in our way.

We're gonna try and negotiate it right now.

But we're heading up towards the lights

on the top of the ridge.

Let's go.

Get up there.

Let's go, dean.

♪

♪

just watch yourselves coming past this.

♪

♪

snake, snake, snake. Easy. Hold on. Hold on.

♪

just stay still a second.

Okay, it's going over the ridge. Let's go.

♪

they're still flaring up.

♪

♪

warren: 190 south. Okay?

You should run right into it. Over.

♪

simon: My gps indicates that I'm closing in on the coordinates,

but there is a huge obstacle before me.

Simon: I'm investigating the brown mountain lights

of north carolina.

My team tells me I'm closing in

on the two lights they have observed.

But there's a problem.

♪

connor: Cliff, this is forrest.

Are you still over there? Can you see anything? Over.

Simon: I see the lights right ahead of me.

I can't get close enough to them.

I'm at an absolutely huge waterfall. Over.

♪

man, we're not getting across this river tonight.

Okay, cliff, you're breaking up on me.

This thing, I think we just lost it.

It's disappeared. I don't see it.

♪

damn it.

It's gone, it's gone.

♪

simon: I refuse to give up.

♪

after a false start last night,

I've gathered the right gear for me

and the crew to cross the waterfall.

But it won't be easy.

Although I'm a trained survivalist

and olympic-qualified swimmer, rappelling across a waterfall

takes a tremendous amount of skill.

And I have more than my life at stake.

I have the lives of my crew in my hands.

But I'm motivated.

This will be my last chance

to get to the source of these mysterious orbs.

I've come this far. I can't stop now.

♪

after a 2 1/2-hour hike,

we're finally back at the waterfall.

♪

I've secured the rope between two sturdy points

on either side of the river.

I will now carefully make my way across, one foot at a time.

♪

it's important that I lean back a little

to apply tension to the line.

One wrong step and the current could pull me downstream.

♪

♪

♪

I'm now officially in no man's land.

And as far as I know, no one has ever stepped foot in this place,

which means all theories are completely open.

I still have some daylight left, so with any luck,

I'll get to the coordinates before nightfall.

♪

♪

the magnetized rocks found here

could potentially throw off my compass.

So I need to reestablish my coordinates the survivalist way.

Making a sundial is my best chance of staying on course.

I've put the machete into the ground,

casting a shadow.

My first mark was right here.

That's where the shadow was.

Now I'm waiting about 20 minutes

for the sun to move west.

♪

what I'm gonna do is put a line

between my first and second mark.

The second mark represents east.

So directly behind me is 180 south.

I'm heading -- my direction is 190 south.

So I'm gonna slightly veer to the right of that,

about 10 degrees

to keep me heading on my 190 south

towards the coordinates to see the brown mountain lights.

♪

♪

I'm right here at 190 degrees south,

and I might be in for a long night.

There might be another rain -- rainstorm.

According to the team, the lights appeared

directly above this spot.

And being here at night so far into the gorge, I can't help

but think about the different legends

of the brown mountain lights,

the bloodshed that took place in the battle

between the cherokee and the catawba,

the skulls of the murdered mother and baby

found in the woods,

not to mention all these accidental deaths.

I don't know if there are spirits trapped here or not.

But it's definitely an eerie feeling.

I've set up a temporary shelter.

Good enough to keep me dry and keep me warm.

I'm setting up a perimeter around it as well

because I don't really know what's around me.

I've already had one close call with something in these woods.

And I don't want to be surprised again.

I'm happier to have a perimeter,

and it's kind of part of my training as well.

♪

they are coyotes and bobcats out here, too.

This setup will alert me in advance

if any predators come calling.

It's basically full of pebbles, making it shake.

It's gonna hit this line,

and I'm gonna hear it instantaneously.

I kind of want to disguise it as much as possible.

♪

got another one hidden right there.

Listen.

[ rocks rattling ]

I'm gonna walk the perimeter.

♪

♪

we all have fear. I have fear.

I have fear right now.

And part of my philosophy is if you fear something,

it gives you adrenaline to make calculated risks.

♪

shh, shh.

I heard something.

♪

♪

I heard something rattling the cans on the perimeter.

♪

get down, get down, get down, get down.

Simon: I'm in north carolina

at what a team of experts believe could be the source

of some recently observed brown mountain lights.

I've set up a perimeter of booby traps all around me.

♪

♪

everything that I've been hearing and seeing,

it could be just right on the other side of that tree.

It's just really thick foliage,

but I know something's back there.

Something's come in here and completely uncovered this.

It walked right over this trip line.

It's moved these twigs

and branches that I had covering it.

♪

there's another one.

This one's been pushed over.

It's been completely out.

♪

I'm starting to think the mountain doesn't want me here.

♪

I'm feeling stalked.

I know something's watching me.

I just want to know what direction it's gonna come.

It's moving around us. It's coming from everywhere.

♪

there's definitely something out there.

I saw movement behind that bush.

I'm trying to scan with the flashlight to see

if I can see a reflection of eyes,

but I'm not seeing anything at the moment.

I think this is something really big.

♪

this is something different.

♪

it's not a bear or a coyote or a bobcat.

It doesn't make any sense.

♪

it's a strange feeling.

It's the same feeling I get that I'm being watched.

♪

this is not our territory.

We've got to get out of here.

♪

♪

the next morning, I leave brown mountain with mixed feelings.

I was standing at one of the possible sources

of the brown mountain lights

but couldn't figure out what causes them.

It's a phenomenon that was first sighted

150 years ago,

but the closer I got to the point of origin,

the more mysterious things became.

We captured some incredible video footage

of the lights from a distance.

Oh, there's two of them.

The signals picked up by the opticalizer were analyzed

after we sighted them.

They didn't match any known lights in the area.

When I actually witnessed the lights

and tried to close in on them,

something was messing with our electronics.

Hey, cliff, do you read me?

There must be a connection.

I eventually made it to the source of the lights

but sensed something in the woods.

There's something out there,

something powerful that I can't explain.

For now, whatever is going on here remains a mystery.

♪

♪