All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens s17e06 Top Ten Alien Encounters.eng

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: A
UFO sighting over multiple cities.

MAN: I don't know
what the hell that is.

TSOUKALOS: An
extraterrestrial event

that changed the
course of history.

And an alien abduction

witnessed by no
less than six people.

On Ancient Aliens,
we've investigated

dozens of
extraordinary encounters

from among the thousands
that have been reported.

Here's what I consider to be
the most compelling stories:

my top ten alien encounters.

Each one adds to the
growing body of proof

that we have been
visited by extraterrestrials

for thousands of years.

?

People tell me about their
UFO sightings all the time,

and let me tell you, I've heard
some really incredible stories.

In fact, there are
thousands of UFO sightings

reported every year.

Unfortunately, most are
single-witness testimonials

that can't be
corroborated or verified.

But in 1982, along New
York's Hudson River,

there was a flood
of UFO sightings

reported over multiple days
by hundreds of eyewitnesses.

Number ten on my countdown
of the top alien encounters:

The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings.

NARRATOR: Kent, New York.

New Year's Eve, 1982.

Just a few miles from
the Hudson River,

New Year's Eve revelers spot

a gigantic V-shaped craft

throbbing with red,
white and green lights.

As they watch in
amazement, the colors vanish,

replaced by white
lights so bright

they illuminate the ground.

Over the next months,
authorities are bombarded

with hundreds
of similar reports.

MAN: Oh, good God.

- WOMAN: What's that?
- MAN: I don't know.

- WOMAN: It's not a plane.
- MAN: I don't...

I'll be... I'm gonna tell
you something, honey.

I don't know
what the hell it is.

PHILIP IMBROGNO:
Usually, UFOs just appear

to a small number of
people, and they disappear.

In this case,

people were stopped
on the highways.

People were running
out of their houses

watching this enormous
object pass over

the size of a football field.

NARRATOR: The
sightings continued

for more than six years

and became the most widely
reported in American history.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The
Hudson Valley UFO sightings

continued well up to 1988.

It's estimated

that as many as
5,000 people called in

and made reports

of this very large, lit up UFO.

NARRATOR: But why were so
many UFO encounters reported

in this one particular area?

MAN: There are six,

and the lead one
has his three lights on.

Everybody else only has two.

TSOUKALOS: Some
have suggested the reason

why these sightings have
happened at the Hudson Valley

is because they are
on top of a vortex.

Now, what's a vortex?

Well, there are varying
opinions of what that is.

Some have
suggested that they are

magnetic points

that are part of the
Earth's magnetic grid.

They also represent

the combination
of Earth energies

kind of congregating
into one spot,

these telluric currents

and these magnetic
Earth currents.

And, so, one suggestion
is that they create

portal-type effects or vortexes.

Entrances into the otherworld.

NARRATOR: Could the
Hudson Valley UFO sightings

be evidence of a
hidden power vortex

and even a portal
through time and space?

You have places around the world

that are known
for their vortexes.

Stonehenge is said
to have a vortex.

Sedona, Arizona has
a number of vortexes,

and it's famous for them.

And, so, it's thought
that the Hudson Valley

is also a vortex area.

So, you have to wonder
there if these UFOs

have been attracted
to the Hudson Valley.

And still to this day,
no one has come up

with a-a good explanation
of what was happening

in the Hudson Valley
during this time.

MAN: They're heading
north-northwest.

Holy good God.

Just 150 miles east
of the Hudson Valley,

another extraordinary
encounter took place in 1961.

And what makes it so unique

is that it is the first
documented report

of an alien abduction.

My number nine alien encounter:

The Abduction of
Betty and Barney Hill.

NARRATOR: Lancaster,
New Hampshire.

September 19, 1961.

Betty and Barney Hill
are driving late at night

when a large flying
saucer intercepts them

and hovers over their car.

Above them, the Hills
observe otherworldly figures

in the windows of the craft.

Days later, the couple
reports missing time,

and after participating
in hypnotic regression,

they claim to realize

that they were abducted
by extraterrestrials.

Under hypnotic regression...

Separately, by the way,

so they each wouldn't
contaminate the other's story...

Betty and Barney told
the exact same story.

The object hovered over the
car, then landed in front of them,

and they were
yanked out of the car

by these small
four-and-a-half-foot beings

and dragged into a clearing,
where they boarded a spaceship.

KEN STORCH: Betty
pleaded with her captors,

if you will, that...

not to harm her, uh,
as she laid on this table

and experiments
were done on her,

like a needle being
inserted into her stomach.

Barney relates a
number of skin samples

and sperm being taken from him.

JASON MARTELL:
The beings described

by Betty and Barney Hill

fit the classic case of a Grey.

Now, there are
variations to size

and dimensions of these beings,

but they all seem to have
the same characteristics.

Slim, spindly bodies.

Large oval heads.

Large oversized eyes.

NARRATOR: In the years
since their reported abduction,

Betty and Barney
Hill's encounter

has become legendary.

But what was not well-known
was that Betty and Barney Hill

were not the only
members of their family

who have been abducted.

Betty Hill was my
aunt, my mother's sister.

Something that we have
never revealed before

is that my mother had a
close encounter in 1958.

She saw this huge
cigar-shaped craft

hovering over a field.

She had no explanation
for what had happened

as far as she knew.

She had gone shopping,
and she had driven home.

My mother eventually
underwent hypnosis,

and through hypnosis,

she recalled having
been abducted,

as well.

And I also had this uncanny

sort of dreamlike experience

of being taken to a craft.

It appears that this is
generational in my family.

My Aunt Betty was taken,

my mother was taken,

and there's a good chance
that I have been taken, as well.

NARRATOR: Could it be

that extraterrestrial
beings are abducting

not only individuals

but also families?

And if so, why?

NICK POPE: It seems
that specific bloodlines

are involved here.

And if that's the case,

it raises the
intriguing possibility

that the extraterrestrials are
interested in human biology,

that they are monitoring
specific genetic lines

for some purpose.

One of the most
important factors I consider

when it comes to
evaluating a UFO encounter

is how credible is the witness?

And to me, there is no
better expert than a pilot

when it comes to
reporting on a flying craft.

The next encounter on
my list took place in 1947

and helped launch
the modern UFO era.

Number eight: The
Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting.

NARRATOR: Washington state.

June 24, 1947.

Aviator and businessman
Kenneth Arnold

is piloting a private
plane near Mount Rainier

when he suddenly spots
nine fast-moving objects

flying in tandem.

As he was flying
around the mountain,

he suddenly caught sight

of a squadron of
strange-looking objects.

He could not figure
out what they were.

RICHARD DOLAN:
He was able to measure

the speed that they
were going at by...

'cause he knew the distance
between two particular peaks

which were about 15 miles apart.

And he timed the passage
of these objects by the peaks

and came to something
like 1,200 miles per hour,

which, in 1947, was
just not done at all,

anywhere close to that.

He later described the objects

as being somewhat delta-shaped

and flying as if you
were to skip a saucer

across a body of water.

And this gave rise to the term

"flying saucer."

NARRATOR: The U.S. Air Force

formally categorized
Kenneth Arnold's experience

as a mirage, but it emboldened

others to come forward

with their own
unexplainable encounters,

and a flurry of UFO
reports quickly followed.

When you look at the
year 1947, the statistics are

that there were at
least 800 reports

to police and airports

of people saying that they
were seeing something in the sky

and they didn't
know what it was.

It was actually
required that all officers

fill out a form if
they saw anything

that might be regarded
as a UFO or a flying saucer.

And in addition to that,
they were told not to discuss

their sighting or what
was on their report

with anyone.

NARRATOR: Kenneth
Arnold's encounter

marked the beginning
of the modern UFO era,

but there are also those
who believe it gave rise

to a massive
government cover-up.

We became aware in the '40s...

of these extraterrestrial
biological entities

and that the government's
been trying to hide it

for all of these decades...

and that the same
question of intent

and agenda

and exactly who
from where and why

are the same questions today.

On October 13, 1917,
A huge crowd gathered,

over 30,000 people in
a small town in Portugal

witnessed an incredible event

that the Catholic
Church declared to be

of supernatural character.

At the center of the
event were three children

who, for months, had
reported receiving messages

from a lady in the sky.

Number seven on my countdown
of the top alien encounters

is the Miracle of
the Sun at F�tima.

NARRATOR: F�tima, Portugal.

May 1917.

Three young children walking
through a sheep pasture

are stopped in their tracks

by what appears to
be a glowing angel.

As the figure begins to speak,

they believe she is
the holy Virgin Mary

sent to deliver a very
important message.

CHILDRESS: These three children

claimed that they were
visited by the Virgin Mary,

who appeared to them in the sky

and told them that she had

certain prophecies for them

and that over the
next six months,

she would return to
them and give them

these prophecies.

And so on the-the
13th of each month,

these three children

would gather on
this hillside in F�tima,

and, according to
them, the Virgin Mary

would appear to them
and tell them these stories.

NARRATOR: During
one of these visits,

the children claimed that
the apparition told them

she would return
to perform a miracle

on October 13th.

They reported the encounter
to the local Catholic bishop,

and on October 13, 1917,

over 30,000 people
gathered to witness the event.

A huge crowd gathered,

and they said that
they witnessed,

uh, the Sun moving in the sky.

IMBROGNO: They saw
the Sun spinning like a disk

and then coming down
to the planet Earth,

and people got very frightened.

NARRATOR: The incident

was labeled an event
of supernatural character

by the Catholic Church.

But as far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

it was a very different type
of otherworldly encounter.

This whole event took
place for eight minutes,

not eight seconds.

They had time to look it.

It was not the Sun.

It was a UFO because it turned,

it changed its
color all the time.

This object appeared in the
sky in front of the Sun, I believe.

I read all the reports.

And colors of light spread out

from the object to the ground.

To me, it indicates contact

with an extraterrestrial
intelligence.

Encounters reported
by a group of people

can make strange
sightings hard to deny.

And when a UFO
sighting is reported

by thousands of residents
of a major metropolitan city,

in my opinion,

that's about as
undeniable as it gets.

The number six alien encounter
on my top ten countdown:

The Phoenix Lights.

NARRATOR: Henderson, Nevada.

March 13, 1997.

At 6:55 p.m.,

local police receive a report

of a massive V-shaped
object traveling southeast

across the night sky.

Over the next three hours,

the craft is witnessed
by thousands of people

as it journeys down
through Arizona

and into Sonora, Mexico.

With most of the reports
coming from Phoenix

as well as photographs
and video footage,

the incident becomes
known as the Phoenix Lights.

DOLAN: The entire city
of Phoenix was able to see

this half-a-mile-long
display of lights over the city

in a very, very
distinctive pattern.

It was a
triangularish-shaped object

seen very reliably

by quite a large
number of witnesses.

Who's our best witness to that?

The best one?

Governor Fife
Symington of Arizona.

As a pilot and a
former Air Force officer,

I can definitively say that
this craft did not resemble

any man-made object
that I'd ever seen.

BIRNES: He says, "Yeah,
I really did see the UFO."

And he describes
it. He actually was

maybe a hundred feet
away from that flying triangle

and could see through
it and the stars above.

DOLAN: Governor
Symington was a qualified pilot

and in the Air Force
Reserve, as well.

I think he knew
what he was seeing.

But some of these
other witnesses said,

"Yeah, I could've almost
thrown a baseball and hit it,

it was that low over
the... over our heads."

NARRATOR: The
governor of Arizona

described a strange,
triangular UFO

that appeared translucent,

camouflaging itself
amidst the star field above.

BIRNES: They were seen
by hundreds of people.

But when they looked
between the lights,

what they could
see were the stars.

But it wasn't just the night sky
as if there was nothing there.

They were wavy as if
something was getting in the way

of the direct light
from the stars.

So, it's stealth.
It's camouflaged.

NARRATOR: Camouflaged?

Could the descriptions
of the Phoenix Lights

indicate that witnesses
were observing

some type of stealth
alien technology

that, whether
intentional or not,

momentarily revealed itself?

And if so,

could there be far more
extraterrestrial aircraft

in our skies than
we ever imagined?

People think of disclosure

as being the archetypal
landing on the White House lawn.

What if aliens are already here

and then disclosure,

open first contact

is the day when they
reveal themselves?

People often ask me,

"Why aren't there
any UFO sightings

before the 20th century?"

And my answer is,
"Of course there were."

History is filled with
alien encounter stories.

But our ancestors
didn't have the words

like "aliens" and "UFOs,"

and, of course,
this was long before

they had built flying machines.

What their stories describe

is what I call
misunderstood technology,

like this UFO
sighting that took place

in the fourth century AD

and forever altered
the course of humanity.

Number five on my countdown:

Constantine's Vision.

NARRATOR: Rome.

October 27, 312 AD.

At the Milvian Bridge on
the north side of the city,

deposed Emperor Constantine

prepares to reclaim his
throne from Maxentius.

In the sky,

he witnesses what he
believes is a divine vision.

Constantine and his followers

saw in the sky

what their chroniclers say

was a huge, white, fiery cross.

Now, his followers didn't
know what to make of this,

but Constantine decided

that this was the
Christian cross.

At that point, he
made a vow to Christ

that if he won the battle,

he would convert to
Christianity for good,

and he would make Christianity

the state religion of
the Roman Empire.

WILLIAM BRAMLEY:
The vision of Constantine

was extremely significant.

They thought it was
some kind of message.

"Fight this battle and establish
this form of Christianity."

KATHLEEN McGOWAN
COPPENS: Constantine feels,

after viewing this extraordinary
sign from the heavens,

this lighted cross in the sky,

that he will go
forth the next day,

and he will conquer
the Roman Empire.

And this is exactly
what he does.

This vision becomes

one of the crucial turning
points in human history.

NARRATOR: Constantine's
victory at the Milvian Bridge

was the first step
in Christianity

becoming Europe's
dominant religion,

and the world was
changed forever.

But was the cross-shaped object

Constantine claimed
to have seen in the sky

really a sign from God?

Or might it have been some
other extraordinary force?

BRAMLEY: It looked like the
shape of a cross, but the shape

of a cross could have
been airplane-type objects

because the fuselage and
the wings will look like a cross

to somebody who's looking up.

And, of course,
they had no concept

of these things back then.

TSOUKALOS: Now, it was
not just Constantine's vision

because it is described

that the army of Constantine

also saw something
up in the sky.

POPE: This was a pivotal moment.

The adoption of Christianity

as the official religion
really changed the world,

and that's now a large
part of the world we live in.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that a 1,700-year-old
UFO encounter

was responsible for one of
the greatest turning points

in human history?

So, the question is

is this one of the
earliest UFO encounters

that we have on record?

And, in my opinion, yes, it is.

Remember when I said earlier

that the case of
Betty and Barney Hill

was the first alien
abduction ever reported?

Well, that's because
the term "alien abduction"

did not exist
thousands of years ago.

In fact, one of the most
compelling abduction accounts

I've ever read is ancient

and can be found in a
text that might surprise you:

the holy Bible.

Number four on my countdown:

Elijah's Chariot.

NARRATOR: Northern Israel.

The ninth century BC.

According to Old Testament
texts found in the Hebrew Bible,

it was here that
the prophet Elijah

had several encounters
with both angels and God

during which he was
given prophetic warnings

of drought and cataclysm.

One of the most
important, uh, prophets

in-in Israelite tradition,
of course, is-is Elijah.

Elijah predicts some
rough things coming,

and, of course, they do.

There is a very special role

in communicating God's designs

and sometimes his condemnation.

So, Elijah is met with
rather divine-like figures.

NARRATOR: In his
final encounter with God,

it is written that Elijah
is met by a chariot of fire

and horses of fire

that take him up to
heaven in a whirlwind.

PATRICK COOKE:
Elijah's experience

details a spinning object

or a whirlwind
that came over him

and a chariot of fire.

So, the question is

was it the chariot of
fire that was spinning?

Or was it

a beam that came
down and took him up?

It's not a far stretch
to say that this was

an actually, uh, spinning
object that was above him

that took him up into it.

REDFERN: Could the-the fire
have been some sort of engine?

When he's taken
up in a whirlwind,

you know, you only have
to look at, for example,

- when the space shuttle takes to the skies.
- MAN: Four, three, two...

REDFERN: You know,
you have these rumbling,

roaring jet flames,
et cetera, et cetera.

If you look at it
in that context,

you could really place
this into a UFO category.

COOKE: Definitely, these
are, uh, characteristics

that we see of abductions

where people are
taken up into objects.

NARRATOR: Could
it be that a story found

in one of the earliest
books of the Hebrew Bible

is, in fact,

an account of an alien abduction

that occurred
thousands of years ago?

And if so, what might it reveal

about extraterrestrial
intervention on Earth?

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
We see from the biblical record

that mankind has a
purpose and a destiny.

There clearly are
extraterrestrials,

and they are clearly
interacting with us

and guiding us and
directing humanity

towards this predestined end.

When it comes to
alien abduction reports,

most rely on the testimony
of the abductees themselves.

It's very rare for an abduction
to be witnessed by anybody else.

But in this next case, there
were multiple witnesses

who saw the abduction
as it happened.

This is one of the
most fascinating

and famous accounts on record.

Number three on my list of
the top ten alien encounters:

The Travis Walton Abduction.

NARRATOR: The Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest, Arizona.

November 5, 1975.

22-year-old forestry
worker Travis Walton

is driving home after sundown
along with six coworkers

when suddenly, a strange
light appears in the sky.

We'd just finished
a long, hard day,

and it was starting to get dark.

So, uh, we loaded
up our equipment.

We were headed home.

And I noticed, uh,

some little glimmers of light
coming through the trees,

and the light
seemed to be coming

from higher than where
ground level would be.

It was only when we
got to where this light

was crossing the road

that we had an
unobstructed view of the craft.

Allen Dalis in the
back yelled out,

"It's a flying saucer!"

And I said, "Mike, stop."

[tires screech]

It was a clearly visible,

clearly defined metallic object,

a disc, hovering there,
outlined against the sky.

I threw open the door,

thinking I'd get a closer
look before it took off.

As I got closer to it,
the sound it was making,

it was a sound you-you
both heard and felt.

And, uh, the crew said

they could feel the
vibration in the truck.

They said it seemed like
something was about to happen.

[chuckles]: And it was.

That's when this energy hit me.

The crew said that it was
like I'd stepped on a land mine.

Like an explosion

so violent that,
uh, they thought

it, uh, it had killed me.

When this beam of energy hit me,

I felt like a physical blow,

but with a sort of a tingling,
sort of an electric shock

sort of feeling
at the same time.

I don't know whether I came to
soon after I was taken aboard.

But I know I was on

some kind of an elevated
gurney or operating table.

I was looking straight into
the face of this creature,

and I just flipped out.

POPE: He saw these
hideous entities that scared him.

Maybe quite similar
to the modern idea

of the so-called alien Greys.

And he fought, and he panicked.

And then these aliens
seemed to go away,

and then their place was taken

by much more humanlike aliens,

and he calmed down.

WALTON: In the case of
these human-looking ones,

I started to have
serious misgivings

that this was a rescue.

And that's when they put
this mask over my face,

and I just blacked
out real quickly.

POPE: Now, the suspicion here

was that, actually, these
weren't different aliens.

These were the same aliens,

but they were capable
of shape-shifting

into something else
specifically to calm him down.

NARRATOR: Crews
searched everywhere

for the missing forest worker.

But it wasn't until five
days later that Walton

reappeared in a nearby town.

I was lying facedown
outside in the dark,

and there was a light above me.

And I saw the bottom
of the craft there

right before it shot
up into the sky.

NARRATOR: When details of
Travis Walton's close encounter

were revealed to authorities,

they dismissed his account
as a possible hallucination.

But Travis has no doubt

that what he and his
coworkers experienced

was a genuine
extraterrestrial encounter.

WALTON: What no one asked

was, you know, "What
about the rest of the crew?"

How do seven people have
an identical hallucination?

And besides that,

they were given
lie detector tests

by state police,
which they passed.

There's real-life things
that occur out there

that need to be understood.

So, take a look at the
facts a-and then judge.

I don't know the
purpose that they had.

All I know is what
happened to me.

This was unmistakable.

Every now and then, an
encounter is so compelling

that it turns skeptics
into true believers.

That's exactly what
happened in the early 1970s

when a NASA scientist set out

to prove Erich von
Daniken wrong.

But, in fact, he
ended up supporting

one of Erich's
theories so strongly

that he even wrote
a book about it.

Number two on my countdown:

The Wheels of Ezekiel.

NARRATOR: Northeast Syria.

The Khabur River.

According to the Hebrew Bible,

it was here, in the
sixth century BC,

that divine beings
descended from heaven

and made contact

with a Hebrew
priest named Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was by the River Khabur,

and he said a great
whirlwind came toward him.

He described it as
a fire enfolding itself,

and out of the fire

was the color of amber,

which is the Hebrew word

which means "polished
specter of metal,"

which implies that it's
metallic and that it's spinning.

And it lands in front of him,

and suddenly, out
of this whirlwind

come four creatures.

NARRATOR: In the
Bible, the prophet Ezekiel

calls these spiritual
beings cherubims

and describes them as
having four faces, four wings

and skin that shone
like polished bronze.

DOWNING: Ezekiel
says that he was taken up

into the sky and taken
to different places

where he could
see different things.

And then he was told

some of the future things
that were going to come.

This was a huge image of hope

that came to Ezekiel
during his experience.

NARRATOR: But is this the
story of a divine encounter?

Or could Ezekiel's description

of metallic wheels
descending from the sky

in a whirlwind of fire

and strange beings with
skin like polished bronze

point to a different type
of otherworldly contact?

He's got the best
description of a UFO

that's anywhere in the Bible...

because he basically says

that the thing looked like
a wheel within a wheel, uh,

kind of a classic flying
saucer description.

TRAVIS TAYLOR: Ezekiel describes

that the outside of
the wheel doesn't spin.

The inside of the wheel spins.

So, he's telling us
that's the engines.

None of this necessarily
has to be magic.

This could all be technology.

COPPENS: It's
basically the account

of a guy who's been abducted
who has been told certain things

and who's then returned
to the place of origin.

It would be what we
today would describe

as an abduction account.

NARRATOR: Could it be that
the prophet Ezekiel's account

of a heavenly close encounter
might have been something else?

Perhaps one not
involving heavenly beings

but visitors of another
interplanetary nature?

This concept was
put forth to the public

by the ancient astronaut
theory pioneer Erich von Daniken

in his 1968 book
Chariots of the Gods?

And after hearing Erich speak

at a conference
in the early 1970s,

NASA engineer Josef Blumrich

was determined to debunk
his controversial interpretation.

I had a speech at
NASA in Huntsville,

and I spoke about Ezekiel.

And the chief
engineer of that time,

Mr. Joe Blumrich,

came to me and said, "Erich,
this was very interesting.

"But in the Bible,

you will definitely not
find any technology."

But he still said,

"I will read originally
in the Bible Ezekiel."

NARRATOR: Blumrich
set out to find flaws

in von Daniken's theory,

but when he read
the Book of Ezekiel,

he was shocked to
find himself agreeing

with the controversial author.

So much so, in fact,

that he wrote a book called
The Spaceships of Ezekiel

in which he provided a blueprint

for a practical landing module

based on the description
found in the biblical story.

Several years later,

a German structural engineer
named Hans Herbert Beier

also sketched out a blueprint

of the second section
of the Book of Ezekiel

where Ezekiel is told

to construct an
open-topped building

to house the flying chariot.

TSOUKALOS: Hans Herbert Beier

sent the blueprint
to Erich von Daniken.

Within five minutes of
looking at these blueprints,

Erich was on the
phone with Joe Blumrich.

And he said, "Hey, Joe,

can you bring a model of
your spaceship of Ezekiel?"

And then he called
Hans Herbert Beier,

and he said, "Can
you bring a model

of your construction
of Ezekiel's temple?"

Both models were
created to the same ratio.

And guess what?

Ezekiel's spaceship fit
into the temple construction

that Hans Herbert
Beier recreated

according to the
biblical measurements.

NARRATOR: As far as ancient
astronaut theorists are concerned,

the biblical account of Ezekiel

provides conclusive evidence

of an alien encounter.

But more importantly,

it may also reveal that
for thousands of years,

the destiny of humankind

has been directed
by extraterrestrials.

This may be one of the
oldest alien encounter stories,

but for me, it is still
the most compelling.

Written over 3,000 years ago,

it was banned from the Bible

because this ancient
text describes in detail

humankind's
extraterrestrial origins.

My number one alien encounter:

Enoch's Ascent to Heaven
in a Chariot of the Gods.

NARRATOR: Khirbet
Qumran, Palestine.

In 1946,

a collection of
ancient manuscripts

known as the Dead Sea Scrolls

is discovered
hidden in clay jars

deep inside a cave.

Among the manuscripts

is the Book of Enoch,

a so-called lost biblical text.

In the Bible's Old Testament,

Enoch is the seventh
of ten patriarchs

who lived before the Great Flood

and the
great-grandfather of Noah.

But where the Hebrew Bible
only mentions Enoch briefly,

the Book of Enoch,

which consists of
more than 100 chapters,

greatly expands on his story.

In it is a curious passage

that details Enoch's
ascent to heaven.

VON DANIKEN: According
to the Book of Enoch,

he says he was 12 years old.

The whole community of
his village wanted to sleep,

but then they hear
the noise in the sky.

Two angels came
down from the sky.

One of the two
beings said to Enoch,

"Don't be afraid, human."

Then they went up to
the so-called heaven.

WILLIAM HENRY: And in
the Book of Enoch, we learn

Enoch himself is taken into
the heavens in a fiery chariot.

VON DANIKEN: Enoch
goes up to the so-called sky,

and there Enoch sees

something over the Earth
which he cannot describe.

He has no word like
"spaceship" or something.

He says it looked
like houses of crystal.

TSOUKALOS: It is
described that he sees

planet Earth underneath him.

He actually
describes his arrival,

how he has to walk
through these different rooms

where he sees

jewels and he
sees shiny surfaces

and blinking lights.

It is an eyewitness account.

It's, "I, Enoch, did
this. I, Enoch, saw that."

The Book of Enoch is one
of the first abduction accounts

written down by a
fellow human being.

NARRATOR: Does the
Book of Enoch really describe

an actual abduction event?

One that took place

thousands of years ago?

And if so,

might this incredible
close encounter

be documenting communication

with otherworldly beings?

ROBERT CARGILL:
Enoch, he was said

to be at the right hand of God.

In fact, Enoch was
said to be God's scribe

in later tradition.

So, God would decree
things, and Enoch

was the one who recorded
everything that went on.

So, Enoch was the keeper
of all knowledge of heaven.

HENRY: This is
one of the reasons

why the Book of Enoch
is so controversial.

Enoch was the first
human to ascend

to the throne of God,

where he is given powerful
universal knowledge

by angelic beings or
extraterrestrial beings.

NARRATOR: If Enoch
was given information

from extraterrestrial
beings to share with mankind

as ancient astronaut
theorists contend,

what truths about
our otherworldly past

might be waiting to be revealed?

The extraterrestrials want
that in a far future of mankind,

we start to see these things.

We start to translate
these books.

And now we start
to ask questions.

We start to ask, for example,
how can we explain that?

Have we maybe been
visited by extraterrestrials?

And I think it's important
to think in this way,

because these extraterrestrials
have promised to return.

And one day, they will return.

POPE: I was taught not
to believe in coincidence.

I was taught to
look for patterns.

When you have all
these encounters,

these sightings,

these descriptions we have
from biblical times onwards,

it tells you
there's something going on.

Doesn't necessarily tell you
what it is,

but it tells you
there's something there.

Well, that concludes
my list for now.

But considering what is written
in the Book of Enoch,

perhaps, as Erich von Daniken
likes to say,

the most important encounter
of all is yet to come.