Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: Magnificent

monoliths,

mysterious carvings,

And legends of winged creatures

visiting from other worlds.

Have alien astronauts been

visiting the Earth for thousands

of years?

>> GEORGE NOORY:

Extraterrestrials are coming to

this planet, and they're doing

some very strangely evil things.

>> NARRATOR: Or might

mainstream science,

the government, the media,

and even academic institutions,

all be part of an elaborate

conspiracy to keep us from

knowing the truth?

>> SARA SEAGER: There is no

robust evidence that aliens

have ever visited Earth.

>> DAN QUAYLE: We spent some

time looking at this, but there

was nothing conclusive.

>> NARRATOR: But if so, why?

>> PHILIP COPPENS: This

cover-up, this technology,

disappears within the confines

of the military industrial

complex.

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret histories?

Secret discoveries?

Secret lies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

>> NARRATOR: The notion of a

universe inhabited by alien

creatures can be found just

about everywhere in American

popular cultur

Especially in movies,

books,

and on television.

But as far as the mainstream is

concerned, the idea that life

on other planets not only

exists, but has, at any time,

made its way to our planet, is

considered the stuff of science

fiction.

And those who differ with that

conventional wisdom are

subjected to ridicule, scorn

and, in some cases, government

scrutiny.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Just

because we can't travel from

star to star, doesn't mean

another civilization, who is

potentially 10,000, if not

a 100,000 years older than us,

can't do it either.

That's the height of human

arrogance, yet we are saying,

"Oh, this is just nothing but

fantasy."

>> NARRATOR: Could mankind

really have been visited by

alien beings from other worlds?

And might the truth have been

kept secret for centuries?

Roswell, New Mexico.

Here in the flat, thirsty lands

of the American Southwest,

lies a remote city of 50,000

residents.

Once the home of America's

largest Strategic Air Command

base, it has now become ground

zero for UFO-ologists and

believers in all things

extraterrestrial.

Thanks to an incident that

happened on the evening of

July 8, 1947.

(thunder crashing)

>> JULIE SHUSTER: Following a

major thunderstorm, rancher

Mac Brazel came across this

really extensive area of debris,

stuff he had never seen before.

He brought it to the local

sheriff's office.

They both thought it might be

military because in 1947,

Roswell was home to Roswell Army

Airfield and home of 509th bomb

wing.

The base sent Major Jess Marcel,

the intelligence officer, and at

that point it basically became a

military site as they gathered

up every bit of debris they

could find.

>> JIM MARRS: Early on, they

issued an official sanctioned

press release from the Roswell

Army Airfield saying, "We have

captured a flying saucer."

The next day, higher authority

said, "Uh, uh, no, wait, wait,

wait, uh, no, they were wrong.

It was just a weather balloon."

>> COPPENS: Something clearly

landed in 1947.

I've personally spoken with

the Jesse Marcel family, and

they're absolutely convinced

that what they saw was not of

this Earth.

He knew what a weather balloon

was, he knew that this wasn't a

weather balloon.

>> MARRS: They moved in with the

military, they scraped up the

whole area and they have since

tried to act like nothing

had happened.

>> MICHAEL SHERMER: National

Inquirer took the story and ran

with it and that made it even

more popular.

And the moment that happens, you

can start to count, like, the

number of column inches devoted

to a subject.

(camera shutter clicking)

And that's what generates a

myth.

>> NARRATOR: The Air Force added

more twists to the Roswell

mystery beginning in 1994 with a

statement that what crashed at

Roswell came from a top-secret

experiment called Project Mogul.

Three years later, the Air Force

reported that the alleged alien

bodies were in fact dummies

attached to parachutes as part

of a flight test.

>> MARRS: Except that doesn't

make any sense either because if

you're gonna test ejection seats

or cockpits or parachutes or

whatever, you're gonna use a

human-sized dummy, right?

You're not gonna use a four-foot

high, big-headed, alien-looking

creature.

So the whole thing is just, it's

just almost laughable.

>> NARRATOR: The Air Force's

conflicting reports about what

was recovered at Roswell ignited

the flames of a conspiracy

theory that continues to this

day.

But why the changing stories?

What was-- or is -- the

government hiding?

>> MARRS: I think the truth is

that something very unusual

happened at Roswell.

Now how many aliens there were,

and what kind of ship it was,

and where it came from-- we

don't know because they've

covered it up.

They've hidden it away.

>> NOORY: They might think we

can't handle the truth.

They may think that they can't

control us.

There could be all kinds of

causes and reasons for the

suppression.

Maybe they were told not to tell

us.

And so one of the reasons

could very well be why

government does not tell us why

they keep this, this book of

secrets is simply to protect us

from panicking.

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: If there is

evidence, allegedly the

government would want to keep

that a secret, hide it in a

warehouse out in the desert

some place.

>> MARRS: The key motives for

keeping the UFO,

extraterrestrial issue secret

falls into, I think, two broad

categories.

Number one, uh, weaponry.

They view any exotic technology

as possible weapons and

therefore, it's got to be

kept secret.

And number two, any advanced

technology could shake up the

monopolies that the ruling elite

enjoy in this country and so

they've got to keep that secret.

(camera shutter clicking)

>> NARRATOR: But where is the

proof that the government hid

advanced technology found at

Roswell?

>> MARRS: I think a tip off to

the fact that we got a hold of

E.T. technology at the Roswell

crash, is simply for the fact

that up until about 1947, '48,

'49, technological advancement

was one of slow evolution.

But after about 1950, you saw

a literal explosion of

technology.

Fiber optics, night vision,

computerization.

Where did all that come from?

I think we were picking up

technology from some other

outside source.

>> NARRATOR: Might the U.S.

government's advanced weapons

technologies have been the

result of access to

extraterrestrial intelligence?

According to authorities, such

theories are absurd;

the lunatic notions of a

conspiracy-hungry public.

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: In many

ways, the mainstream completely

marginalizes the idea of

extraterrestrials coming here.

They give it no credibility

at all.

And yet, what is so strange

about the idea that

extraterrestrials should

come here?

We know we're probably not

alone in the universe.

And we ourselves are trying to

go to other planets.

Why wouldn't they come here?

>> NARRATOR: For those who

adhere to the audacious notion

that planet Earth is no stranger

to alien visitation, evidence

can be found in historical

events from the ancient past.

And for some, the proof is right

before our eyes.

>> ASTRONAUT: Contact light.

Okay, engine stop.

>> FLIGHT CONTROL: We copy

you down, Eagle.

>> ASTRONAUT: Tranquility Base

here.

The Eagle has landed.

>> NARRATOR: On July 20, 1969,

in what was arguably mankind's

greatest technical achievement,

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became

the first humans in history to

step foot on the moon.

>> ARMSTRONG: That's one small

step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

>> NARRATOR: More than 125

million people watched the event

live on their television

screens, but then for a period

of two nail-biting minutes, the

transmission suddenly went dead.

The official reason was

technical difficulties, but

there are many who believe those

two minutes were recorded but

censored due to the strange

things the astronauts were

reporting back to NASA.

>> JASON MARTELL: Neil Armstrong

and Buzz Aldrin actually saw

things taking place on the dark

side of the moon.

And they were told they were not

allowed to go there.

And these were not Earth-based

technologies.

>> CHILDRESS: Neil Armstrong

allegedly saw a UFO lifting up

out of a crater on the moon.

>> MARRS: Armstrong said, "Wow,

look at the these babies.

They're huge."

And that they were, uh,

ships up there watching them.

>> NARRATOR: UFOs on the moon?

Witnessed by astronauts Neil

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin?

A delusional conspiracy theory?

Or a government cover-up?

Two facts are certain: the world

watched as beings from one world

landed on another,

and a book published just one

year earlier was now flying off

store shelves.

Written by Swiss author Erich

von Daniken, Chariots of the

Gods? made a compelling case

for the notion that many of the

world's ancient archaeological

mysteries had other-worldly

origins.

>> CHILDRESS: The whole idea is

extraterrestrials have been

coming to Earth for thousands

of years.

>> ERICH VON DANIKEN: The best

case worldwide is Nazca.

I was one of the first who was

in Nazca.

Nazca is in Peru about 500

kilometers from Lima.

When you fly over the desert,

you see gigantic lines.

They look like airstrips.

Seen from the air, they give you

the imagination of airstrips.

They look like.

Because they start abruptly,

end abruptly.

>> NARRATOR: Von Daniken's book

also reported findings in the

western United States of cave

paintings of gods resembling

strange creatures from

another world.

And other ancient images could

be found in Italy that bore a

striking resemblance to

astronauts in space suits.

>> VON DANIKEN: We have

worldwide similar cave

paintings.

The so-called gods are

always the one with the helmets

and their halos.

Now, if something happened just

on one continent, let's say,

the Africans would do this,

I would be quiet.

But I clearly can prove that

these so-called gods, with the

helmets and the halos, you

find worldwide... thousands of

of years ago when our

forefathers had no connection

to each other.

So why this?

Because they saw

the same thing.

>> NARRATOR: Within a year of

Neil Armstrong's first walk on

the moon, Chariots of the

Gods? had sold 60 million

copies and had been printed in

32 languages.

It ignited belief in what has

since become known as the

ancient astronaut theory.

But it also sparked controversy,

even derision, from

archaeologists, religious

scholars, academics and even the

mainstream media.

>> VON DANIKEN: Chariots of

the Gods? was on the market in

the German-speaking world in

February, 1968.

About one and a half months

later, it was on top of every

best-selling list.

And it took about maybe three or

four weeks, then the critics

began.

>> SEAGER: It was outrageous.

It collected a bunch of things

and put them together in a way

that was completely outlandish,

yet so compelling that people

wanted to believe it.

And people want to believe that

aliens visited Earth in the

past and that they helped us

with the pyramids and with the

Nazca lines and that ancient

aliens gave us technology.

But the reality is, there is no

robust evidence that aliens have

ever visited Earth.

>> SHERMER: A theory

incorporates a whole bunch of

different hypotheses and facts

and evidence, all converging to

a particular conclusion.

In this case, that we were

visited by aliens in ancient

times and the fact is we

weren't.

There's no, no evidence for this

at all.

>> MAX TEGMARK: If there were

an American book of secrets

about extraterrestrials, it

would say there that the only

species able to colonize our

universe is us.

>> NARRATOR: Nine months after

his book's release, Erich von

Daniken was arrested for fraud,

embezzlement and forgery in

connection with loans he had

secured to finance his research.

A coincidence?

Or a punishment intended to

discredit and even silence his

increasingly popular theory?

>> CHILDRESS: There's a natural

suppression of this idea that

extraterrestrials are here.

And, even if there is

overwhelming evidence for it,

even the governments are going

to want to keep a lid on this.

>> TSOUKALOS: The ancient alien

theory has been looked down upon

by academia for a very long

time, and that's okay, because

we have to understand that

science always has this

status quo.

And it's the status quo

that needs to be maintained.

>> COPPENS: 40 years later, the

questions are still out there,

and some are still being posed.

And science is still coming up

with no answers, because for

40 years, they have been

unwilling to address it.

>> YOUNG: The possible

conspiracy would be there is

such power in these ideas,

revolutionary world-changing

social upheaval could follow if

in fact these all came out.

>> NARRATOR: Could there really

be a global cover-up of ancient

alien activity?

One that shields the public from

a profound knowledge that, if

revealed, could shatter the very

fabric of our civilization?

Even distinguished NASA

astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the

lunar module pilot for Apollo 14

and the sixth man to walk on the

moon, says the answer is...

yes.

>> EDGAR MITCHELL: I think that

the evidence of E.T.s and

aliens being here, which I'm

convinced they have been, are

sufficient evidence in itself.

That they come from some other

place.

>> COPPENS: What we're going to

find is not only that we are not

alone, but also that our entire

history needs to be reanalyzed.

Everything-- what we know about

the past-- all of a sudden has

to become inclusive of visitors

from elsewhere.

>> NARRATOR: In 1974, Sunn

Classic Pictures, an independent

production company specializing

in family-friendly

documentaries, released a

feature film version of

Chariots of the Gods to

theaters across the United

States.

Grossing nearly $26 million, it

helped fuel the flames of a

growing interest in the ancient

astronaut theory.

>> SHERMER: When Chariots came

out, I was in college, and I

remember it was a big pop

culture thing.

I mean, it was a huge story, and

I thought that this would be

fantastic if there was something

to this.

>> TSOUKALOS: For the first time

ever, the idea that

extraterrestrials might have

visited Earth in the remote

past was being popularized.

You have to understand that in

the '70s, the country was in

upheaval, people were

unsatisfied with what was going

on in politics and all this--

very reminiscent of what is

happening today, by the way.

>> NARRATOR: The willingness on

the part of the American public

to embrace many of the film's

audacious claims was due in no

small part to a growing cynicism

and antiestablishment attitude,

one that took root in the era of

Vietnam war protests and the

Watergate scandal, particularly

with the generation known as

baby boomers.

Now everything was being

questioned, especially

organized religion and even the

existence of God.

>> SHERMER: The slow erosion

of mainstream religion and the

rise of new age spiritualities

and that sort of thing, the

alien hypothesis became much

more popular.

There was a more of a receptive

audience for it-- that there are

beings out there coming down

here-- which then finally also

has religious overtones.

>> YOUNG: Von Daniken takes a

very stimulating theological

stance.

He has an explanation for the

gods that both questions and

challenges traditional

explanations of what gods are or

what God is.

>> TSOUKALOS: Chariots of

the Gods? was quite timely

because we ourselves just became

extraterrestrials on the moon.

Space exploration at the time

was huge.

(weapons zapping)

>> NARRATOR: Even more evidence

of the ancient astronaut

theory's growing attractiveness

could be found in popular

culture, primarily in films like

Star Wars, which places its

high-tech world of robots and

lightsabers not in the far

future but "a long time ago

in a galaxy far, far away."

Similarly popular was Battlestar

Galactica, a fantasy adventure

television series which told the

story of a doomed humanoid race

in search of a home planet.

Its use of Egyptian-style

spacesuits and other ancient

iconography seemed to validate

von Daniken's notion that the

people who built the pyramids

may in fact have come to Earth

from other worlds.

>> SHERMER: The idea of there

being extraterrestrials out

there, this is called the

plurality of worlds debate.

It's been around since the

ancient Greeks.

So it's just a small extension

to go from, "They're out there,"

to "They've come here."

>> NARRATOR: But there were

those for whom the idea of

extraterrestrial beings

traveling to Earth and

influencing its history

represented not a far-fetched

theory but the lowest and most

dangerous form of

pseudoscience.

They called ancient astronaut

theory everything from "racist"

and "colonialist" to downright

nonsense.

And these were members not only

of the religious and scientific

communities but of the

presumably more open-minded

world of academia.

>> COPPENS: When Chariots of

the Gods? came out, it created

a revolution because people

either loved it or hated it.

Mostly, the ones who hated it

were the academics because they

somehow felt that this notion

that we had been visited by

extraterrestrial beings was

simply impossible.

Erich von Daniken had to be

wrong.

And what they were confronted

with was the fact that these

questions couldn't be answered

by science.

Science was basically saying

that there was no validity

whatsoever.

>> TODD DISOTELL: Chariots of

the Gods? actually really did

have an effect on me because

when I see what I call outright

bad science, it really gets my

hackles up, and when I listened

and read about and saw

different shows on these

different hypotheses, it often

ended up sort of screaming

matches at the television screen

about, "That's the dumbest thing

I ever heard."

>> TEGMARK: I don't think the

Earth has ever been visited by

any extraterrestrials.

I find it striking how we humans

have again and again

underestimated the technological

capabilities of ancient peoples.

We tend to be a little bit

arrogant and say, "Ah, those

loser Egyptians and Greeks, you

know.

What do they know?"

>> NARRATOR: Is ancient

astronaut theory really as

anti-scientific or preposterous

as its detractors believe it is?

Or could there be another,

perhaps more secret reason for

the mainstream resistance to the

idea that alien visitors have

been coming to Earth for

centuries?

>> YOUNG: Having a new idea of

religion, a new revelation of

sorts is gonna challenge any

established belief system and

the institutions that support

that belief system, that

established economic

interests would be concerned

about the technology, the

advances, that it could disrupt

markets, could disrupt their own

financial interests.

>> NARRATOR: But there is one

branch of the government that is

reportedly very open to the idea

of extraterrestrials in our

midst...

the presidency.

In his first days in office,

President Bill Clinton is said

to have asked two questions:

who really killed President

Kennedy?

And what is hidden at Area 51?

>> BILL CLINTON: If the United

States Air Force did recover

alien bodies, they didn't tell

me about it either, and I want

to know.

>> NARRATOR: The administration

of President George H.W. Bush

also made a secret investigation

into the possibility of alien

visitors on planet Earth.

>> QUAYLE: The alien situation

is very interesting.

We literally spent some time

looking at this, but there was

nothing conclusive that came of

it.

>> NARRATOR: "Nothing

conclusive"?

Can it really be that the

nation's highest office cannot

confirm or deny that alien

visitors on Earth do not exist?

Or... is it possible that the

truth about UFOs and alien

astronauts is being kept

hidden-- even from the

president?

>> NOORY: I think most

presidents have tried to find

out what's going on, and I don't

think they get through the door.

I don't think they're told.

But there's that very high

likelihood that the secret is

here and we don't know about it.

>> COPPENS: Various people in

the Obama administration have

expressed a deep interest in

UFOs.

But in all cases, what we hear

is that somehow the UFO secret

is not something which is to be

shared to the president.

>> MARRS: So that means the

President of the United States

cannot even get to this

information, which I think

should raise the question

in everyone's mind: well, who

does get to this information...

and who exactly are they to keep

it from everyone, including the

president?

>> NARRATOR: The relationship

between the President of the

United States and otherworldly

beings stretches back to the

very founding of the country.

From its earliest days, the U.S.

government has been associated

with signs...

symbols...

and allusions to cosmic contact.

>> CHILDRESS: The Founding

Fathers of America were very

open-minded and forward-thinking

people.

Thomas Jefferson reported seeing

a UFO.

Benjamin Franklin wrote that he

believed in life on other

planets.

Even George Washington had a

portrait made of himself that

has a UFO in the sky.

So, you have this idea of the

Founding Fathers even possibly

being influenced themselves by

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: But why, if the

nation's highest office remains

curious about the possibility of

alien visitors, is the notion

so scoffed at by those in the

scientific community?

Is there a cover-up?

Or do they think mankind is not

yet ready...

to handle the truth?

Perhaps the answer lies in the

Book of Secrets.

>> NARRATOR: On May 13, 2008,

the L'Osservatore Romano,

the semiofficial newspaper of

the Catholic Church in Rome,

published an interview with

Reverend Jose Gabriel Funes,

the Jesuit priest who served as

director of the Vatican's

observatory at Castel Gandolfo,

near Rome.

(beeping)

(camera shutter clicking)

Bearing the headline, "The

Extraterrestrial is my brother,"

Funes made a remarkable and

audacious admission--

that there is no conflict

between believing in God...

and the possibility of

intelligent life on other

planets.

In one swift move, the Roman

Catholic Church had contradicted

centuries of its own teachings.

>> MARTELL: This would really

break the mold of our current

understandings of religion.

And understand that a lot of the

things we thought were mythology

were actually fact.

>> NARRATOR: Why the change in

attitude?

Did the Catholic Church discover

evidence of life on other

planets?

Or might it be the time was

right for the Church to admit

something...

it had known to be true

all along?

>> MARRS: The Vatican has some

of the most advanced telescopes

in the world.

They have some of the most

advanced radio telescopes and

transmission and communication

equipment in the world, and I

think they know the same things

our military-industrial complex

knows, which is this is all very

real, and that eventually it's

gonna come out.

>> TSOUKALOS: I think the reason

why the Vatican came forward and

endorsed the idea of a search

for extraterrestrial life is

because the Vatican wants to be

ahead of the curve.

>> NARRATOR: The Vatican

observatory's announcement also

included plans to explore the

outer planets and their systems,

with a particular concentration

on Saturn's moons,

Titan and Enceladus.

>> CHILDRESS: They said that

they would be involved with the

search for extraterrestrial

life.

So suddenly the Vatican is

saying, "Yes, there's other life

on other planets.

We're gonna be looking

for it, too."

>> NARRATOR: Could Saturn's

moons really hold the key to the

extraterrestrial origins of life

on our planet?

And is the Vatican really

admitting that the Earth's

ancient religions might, in

fact, have extraterrestrial

origins?

Even believers in ancient

astronaut theory remain

skeptical.

>> CHILDRESS: The idea that

the source of ancient religions

might actually be interaction

with extraterrestrials is not an

idea that organized religion

wants to promote.

>> MARRS: What's at stake for

organized religion?

(scoffs): Power and control.

It's that simple.

>> NARRATOR: There are many in

the ancient astronaut community,

however, who claim that many of

the beliefs and teachings that

comprise the world's religions

serve not to contradict the

possibility of alien life, but

to confirm it.

>> TSOUKALOS: One of the biggest

points of reference for the

ancient alien theory are the

sacred books, sacred texts, that

we can find all around the

world.

And those sacred texts, in many

cases, describe people from the

stars descending in some type of

flying machines.

>> NARRATOR: The Vatican's bold

admission that the possibility

of intelligent life in the

universe seemed to validate what

scientists and cosmologists,

like Stephen Hawking, had

believed for centuries.

But it also gave fresh

credibility to another, perhaps

even more controversial theory,

that of intelligent design.

>> TED PETERS: Intelligent

design is a theory, having

been... promoted now for about

two decades, that says

evolutionary development is not

strictly a matter of chance;

that actually, higher organisms

are designed, and designed by an

intelligent designer.

They're not simply accidents of

biological contingency.

>> NARRATOR: Of course, the

notion that the universe, and

all living things, are more

likely the product of a godlike

being or entity was not new--

virtually every religion across

the globe has embraced the

concept for centuries.

But intelligent design was now

being championed by powerful

political and religious

conservatives-- people like

Republican Party activist George

Gilder, whose Discovery

Institute in Washington, DC,

stands at the forefront of what

detractors would call this

"subversive" and

"pseudoscientific" concept.

It was seen by the mainstream as

an attack on the theory of

evolution, and therefore

threatened the integrity of

modern scientific thought.

>> PETERS: Those disciples of

Charles Darwin, who advance

evolutionary theory-- and today

we call it the "neo-Darwinian

synthesis," because genetics

explains variation-- it's

important to note these are

chance events that lead to the

development of new species.

Intelligent design people want

to say it's not just chance,

it's the intervention of an

intelligent designer.

Who is that intelligent

designer?

Well, St. Thomas Aquinas would

say, "We all call that designer

God," but intelligent design

people say, "We have no opinion

on who the designer is."

>> NARRATOR: Do proponents of

intelligent design really have a

secret agenda to undermine

conventional science by

promoting the belief in an

almighty creator, or is it an

ingenious means of bridging the

enormous gap that exists between

those who believe in Charles

Darwin's secular theory of

evolution and those who believe

that mankind might also owe its

very existence to beings from

other worlds?

Perhaps the ultimate answer can

be found in the covert messages

that are being transmitted

throughout our galaxy even as we

speak.

>> NARRATOR: 290 miles north of

San Francisco is an open field

that many scientists believe

could hold the key to contact

with extraterrestrial

intelligence.

(camera shutter clicking)

At the Allen Telescopic Array,

radio receivers and giant

transmitters are part of a

global scientific network called

SETI.

>> TEGMARK: I think that the

goal of the SETI program, the

Search for Extraterrestrial

Intelligence, is extremely

important.

We look at our universe and we

just have to know: are we alone,

or is there anybody else out

there?

>> NARRATOR: Among SETI's

favorite cosmic targets are

areas called Goldilocks zones.

>> SEAGER: The Goldilocks zone

is a zone around a star where

the temperatures are not too

hot, not too cold, but just

right for liquid water to exist.

All life on Earth requires

liquid water, so we believe that

the best way to search for other

planets with life is to search

for planets that have liquid

water, and just as technology

has begun to see planets that

may be able to have life, that

type of planet appears to be

everywhere.

>> TEGMARK: So the million-

dollar question is if we can

find that otherwise decent

planet around a star in its

Goldilocks zone because that's

where we have the greatest

chance of finding

extraterrestrials.

(beeping)

>> NARRATOR: Could there really

be an abundance of livable

planets in the universe, and

might SETI really detect

intelligent life on one of them?

But how?

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: There's two

senses in which you could detect

intelligent extraterrestrial

life.

One is in, in just the noise

that they generate.

(car horns honking)

(overlapping chatter)

(whistling)

If you think about our society,

we now have TV, we have cell

phones, we have all sorts of

technology that radiates out

into space, um, and could in

principle be detected.

(garbled radio transmissions)

(car horns honking)

(bell tolling)

The other is, we have changes in

our atmosphere that we generated

by being on the planet and doing

stuff, that in principle could

be detected.

>> COPPENS: It is very much like

looking for a needle in a

haystack because we're using

radio astronomy.

We're analyzing radio waves in

an effort to try and find out

whether, amongst the millions of

signals which we get on a daily

if not hourly basis from space,

whether somehow in there is an

alien communication.

>> NARRATOR: Could the very

existence of SETI along with

NASA's missions to Mars and

other planets be proof of the

U.S. government's secret belief

in the ancient astronaut theory,

and if so, would we be prepared

in the event of a real-life

close encounter?

>> CHILDRESS: UFO activity has

been going on for thousands of

years, and we have been

monitored and watched since the

beginning of our civilization.

>> MARRS: The U.S. military and

even the United Nations has

stored away some contingency

plans in the event that aliens

should show up, you know, either

benign or otherwise.

They would be remiss in their

job if they didn't have such

contingency plans.

>> NARRATOR: Are there secret

files and covert plans under

lock and key?

Have there been exercises and

other preparation work?

If the truth finally comes out,

might proof of life on other

planets crumble the foundations

of government, religion,

science, and our society, or

would it reassure us by

revealing at last the truth

about our origins?

>> TSOUKALOS: If an American

Book of Secrets existed, then

the chapter on ancient

astronauts would suggest that we

shouldn't look for our origins

on planet Earth but that in fact

our origins... lie out there.

(garbled radio transmission)

>> NARRATOR: Might SETI be on

the brink of an incredible

discovery?

Or are they, as some experts

warn, setting planet Earth up

for a mega-disaster?

>> TEGMARK: Transmitting signals

into space saying, "Hey there,

here we are" is an absolutely

idiotic thing to do.

I mean, seriously you don't

scream in the jungle.

If you were a pig living on an

island of pigs, very happily

doing all your piggly stuff,

would you like for the human

neighbors on the island next to

you to know that you're there?

(pig squealing)

Don't think so.

We humans are newbies on this

stage.

We don't know who's out there.

>> MITCHELL: If they were

hostile and wanted to end the

experiment we call humanity

here, they could do so because

they would have the technology

to do so.

>> NOORY: If this universe is

made up of the same primordial

soup, then you have to assume

that not every being in this

universe is enlightened and

nice.

It's very possible that there's

a sect of extraterrestrials that

are coming to this planet and

they're doing some very

strangely evil things.

>> TSOUKALOS: Dr. Stephen

Hawking suggested that SETI

should stop sending out signals

or searching for signals because

the moment that

extraterrestrials found out that

we are here... they would come

here to destroy us.

(explosions)

>> NARRATOR: Has the United

States government really

conspired with other nations to

hide the facts about mankind's

extraterrestrial past?

Is there really a cover-up, or

is the notion of life on other

planets too bizarre to be

believed?

Perhaps the truth will never be

known until the day when they

return.

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