All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S18E09.Decoding.the.Dragon.Gods.

NARRATOR:
Throughout the ancient world,

there are tales
of fire-breathing beasts

descending from the sky.

No matter where we go,

we find legends of these beings.

Throughout Asia,
ancient cultures reported

dragons descending from the sky.

We have dragon stories in India,

in Indonesia, in ancient Greece.

NARRATOR: These winged
creatures inspired both fear

and veneration.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN:
The dragon represents

something incredibly powerful

but also incredibly noble.

The dragons are here

to bring something
to their people.

NARRATOR: But could accounts
of dragons be based on real events?

And might the truth
behind this mythical monster

be more incredible
than anyone has imagined?

The dragon that came
from the sky,

the sons of Heaven that
came from those dragons...

are integral to the
foundation of civilization.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

DvX3M
www.opensubtitles.org

NARRATOR:
Shaanxi Province, China.

April 6, 2019.

In the ceremonial courtyard

of the Mausoleum
of the Yellow Emperor,

10,000 people gather to watch
a traditional Dragon Dance.

The dragon dance is
an ancient ceremony

which for thousands of years
has been a representation

of the dragons
coming from the sky

and returning to the sky.

PAUL STONEHILL: This is part
of the Chinese culture,

of the Chinese civilization,

so it's very important for
the Chinese to have this dance.

The Chinese people from the very
little... from toddlers on

know about the dragons.

The dragons are ever present.

Ancient China was a land

where humans lived in tandem
with the divine beings,

with the gods.

And the gods rode upon dragons.

And so for this reason
the dragon became revered

as a sacred symbol
throughout China.

NARRATOR:
Here in Shaanxi,

in what is known
as the Qingming Festival,

the ceremony celebrates
the deity

considered to be the father
of all Chinese people.

The Yellow Emperor,

also known as Huangdi,

is a legendary ruler

who founded Chinese civilization

nearly 5,000 years ago.

DOMINIC STEAVU: the Yellow
Emperor Huangdi is this, uh,

semi-mythical figure
in Chinese history.

He's an originator of Chinese
civilization and culture.

And he is credited
with numerous inventions

that-that came to define
Chinese civilization--

Anything from
domesticating animals

to the calendar

and various
astronomical sciences.

The Yellow Emperor also
crafted a magical caldron,

and one version of the story

has a dragon emerging
from the caldron

and then the Yellow Emperor
jumps on the dragon's back,

and the dragon ascends
up to Heaven.

JUDY CHUNGWA HO:
The Chinese would say

we're the descendants
of the Yellow Emperor.

That's one way of putting
how Chinese believe him to be,

the v-very founder
of Chinese civilization.

In fact, just about everything

that you would think as the
basic elements of civilization

is somehow associated
with the Yellow Emperor.

(speaking Chinese)

TRANSLATOR: We Chinese people
consider ourselves

the descendants of the dragon.

So there should be
a certain connection

between the identities
of the Chinese people

both as the descendants
of the Yellow Emperor

and as the descendants
of the dragon.

NARRATOR: At the end
of the Qingming Festival,

the dragon is released
into the sky,

symbolizing Huangdi's
departure from Earth

to the heavenly realm.

The Yellow Emperor is believed

to have flown up to the sky,

um, and dwell, um,
in the Pole Star

at the very center of the sky.

And there he actually
would live forever.

The idea of a dragon,

a metaphysical being
who looked very real,

had to come from somewhere.

They could not just imagine

a complicated being
like Chinese dragons.

They had to see objects

that were flying
at incredible speeds

and the superior beings
riding on them.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Now,
from the ancient astronaut perspective,

the dragon was never a dragon.

It was a flying craft.

It is only natural

that our ancestors would
describe these things

as living creatures
with fire and smoke.

They had never seen
anything like it before.

- (gong sounds)
- One has to wonder

if Huangdi himself was
misinterpreted

and that he was
an extraterrestrial

and he arrived in
an extraterrestrial craft.

SUN SHILI:
In China, in UFO research,

a dragon is the symbol
of aircraft.

There is a view
that the Yellow Emperor

arrived in the wonderful
land of China

through an aircraft,
and he flew back afterwards.

NARRATOR: Could the story
of Huangdi traveling on a dragon

be an account
of an extraterrestrial

traveling in a spaceship,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

In the modern world,

tales of dragons
are widely considered

to be strictly a product
of the imagination.

But some researchers believe
physical evidence exists

that suggests

the ancient stories
of dragons could be true.

The Baian-Kara-Ula mountains,
Qinghai Province, China.

According to an article
published in 1962

in the German magazine
Das Vegetarisches Universum,

Beijing University
archaeologist Dr. Tsum Um Nui

was leading an expedition
here in 1936

when he and his team came upon

neat rows of graves
inside a cave.

The archaeologists reported
that the graves

contained the corpses of small
creatures resembling humans

but with spindly arms
and legs and huge skulls.

And buried with them were
hundreds of strange stone disks.

There's a fascinating
story in China

where allegedly

a cave was found
with hundreds of disks

and these disks were
about this wide

and it seemed that they had
some type of a groove in them

reminding of modern-day
vinyl records.

And what's interesting

is that allegedly

some of these grooves contained
really tiny types of writing,

hieroglyphics or something.

WILLIAM HENRY: And when
archeologists finally deciphered

or translated this writing,

it told this incredible story

of extraterrestrial beings
called the Dropas

and how they had come
from the stars,

crash-landed on Earth

and were unable
to rebuild a spacecraft

in order to return
to their home.

NARRATOR:
Unfortunately,

after the initial research
in the early 1960s,

the disks, known today
as the Dropa stones,

vanished.

But mysteriously, in 1974,

photographs surfaced

of what were alleged
to be two Dropa Stones

on display at the Banpo Museum
in Xian City, China.

In 1994, a colleague
of mine, Hartwig Hausdorf

and his colleague
Peter Krassa went to China

to ask the whereabouts
of these stone disks.

During the '60s and '70s,

there was a big cultural
revolution in China,

where lots of cultural
relics were, uh, destroyed.

And that's possibly the reason

that two of the more
than 700 stone disks

could have found
their way down to Xian

and to this little museum.

In spring of 1994,

my way led me also into
this little Banpo Museum,

where I got to speak

with the present curator
of the museum.

I showed him the photographs

that were taken
20 years ago in his museum,

and he told me the former
manageress of the museum,

along with the two stone
disks that were on display,

they have disappeared
without any trace,

and up to now, no one knows

where this lady and the two
stone disks have gone.

We can speculate

that most of the stone disks

are still inside those caves

in Baian-Kara-Ula mountains.

NARRATOR: Could there
be additional Dropa stones

still hidden somewhere
in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains?

For ancient astronaut theorists,

another intriguing
aspect of the story

is that the Qinghai Province,

which is home
to this mountain range

has a connection to dragons.

What's interesting
about the Dropa stones

is that the region they were
discovered in is very close

to the Qinghai Lake which has
its patron as a dragon god.

You have the fascinating story

of the Dragon King
of the West Sea,

the Qinghai Lake.

And Qinghai is also
in the same area

where the Dropa stones
allegedly came from.

Now, one of the fascinating
connections here

is that the Dragon Kings were
also said to be cloud breathers.

And one of the things
that we see

in the actual translation
from the Dropa stones

is that the Dropa people
came forth

in their clouds from the sky.

So this idea of
cloud breathers as dragons

and the Dropa coming
from these clouds

seems to be
potentially connected.

Maybe the dragons and the Dropa
are one and the same.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the dragon,

which remains sacred and iconic
in China to this day,

commemorates
an extraterrestrial visitation

that occurred
thousands of years ago

and was allegedly recorded
on the Dropa stones?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining other ancient
traditions all over the world

of dragon gods.

NARRATOR:
Kyoto, Japan.

An imposing statue of a dragon

guards the west gate
of the Buddhist temple

known as Kiyomizu-dera.

It is just one of the many
dragons that adorn the shrine,

and according to temple legends,

every night a dragon
descends from the sky

to drink at the temple's
waterfall.

In Japan, dragons,
sometimes known as naga,

are not only revered as deities.

They are also considered

to be the founders
of Japan's royal family.

It was said in ancient Japan
that the dragon god

lived at the bottom
of the ocean.

His daughter had a daughter,

and her child was Jimmu,
the first Emperor of Japan.

To be descended from a dragon

is to be from the divine
dimension of nature,

but also from the stars.

NARRATOR:
According to legend,

Jimmu, the great-grandson
of the dragon god,

received three divine items
called the Imperial Regalia.

WILLIAM HENRY:
The Imperial Regalia of Japan

was sent
from the heavenly realms.

This was composed of a jewel,
a sword and a mirror

that was utilized by all
the Japanese emperors,

and they're still believed
to exist to this day.

They're considered
to be artifacts

of such incredible power

that ordinary people
are not allowed

to come into contact with them.

TSOUKALOS:
With this celestial mirror,

it is said that he
was able to see

anything that goes on
on planet Earth

without having to go anywhere.

What are we talking about here?

Imagine that you show
your laptop or your cell phone

to your great-great-grandfather

and all of a sudden

you are showing him
a magical mirror

because you can see
anything on a laptop.

I think that the celestial
regalia of Jimmu

are extraterrestrial artifacts

that were collected at the time

when the celestial teachers
referred to as dragons

were here teaching mankind,

in this case
in the area of Japan.

(speaking Japanese)

TRANSLATOR: The ancestors
of the Japanese emperor

were gods...

specifically gods in the sky.

They landed on the Earth,

and are linked to the current
Japanese imperial family.

Which means that their family
is related to extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: While the
dragon is a prominent figure

in East Asian cultures,

many ancient peoples
who archaeologists believe

had no history of contact

also revered this supposedly
mythical flying beast.

Dragons are found throughout
Africa and in ancient Egypt.

They were featured
in the earliest traditions

of Persia, Greece and Rome.

And North American folklore

often spoke
of dragon-like creatures.

The dragon is worldwide

because, again,
in Central America

in Villahermosa,

there's a stone called
the dragon monolith.

You see a man sitting
inside the dragon.

You see the form of the dragon

with this open mouth
like a snake,

and you see the man
is sitting inside.

He has a helmet on.

He uses his hands
to manipulate control.

So the story of the dragon

has come around the world
from China to Central America.

HUGH NEWMAN:
So dragons are found

all over the world
in ancient traditions,

and there's always an element
of extreme power.

They could destroy,

but they could also
become allies.

And they were great teachers,
of very high wisdom,

and have extreme intelligence
as well in some cases.

And yet this became a symbol
of different cultures

and different leaders
around the world,

but was this because
they'd witnessed something

emerging from clouds,
from a fiery kind of sky

and actually this is where

the whole dragon mythos
really came from?

Who were the original dragons?

And why are they always
depicted as flying?

NARRATOR:
For researchers of mythology,

an equally intriguing question

is why so many separate
cultures ended up

calling these flying entities
by the same name.

Many languages use exactly
the same word for dragon,

or something very similar,
at least.

You have got in the Middle East,

the Philistine god

who looks like a dragon

was called Dagon.

In England you've got Dragon.

In parts of Finland
you've got Dragon.

And in Eastern Europe
you've got Dracul.

And then a bit further south,
you've got Dracu.

NARRATOR:
In Basque,

which is unconnected
to any other language,

the word is Dragoi.

In India, it's Dregan.

In Swahili, Dragoni.

And in ancient Greek, Drakon.

GRAHAM PHILLIPS:
They all have similar names.

How can this be?
What's behind all this?

These people were not
in touch with each other.

So, how does this come about?

It's very curious that,
no matter where we go,

we find legends of dragons
with the exact same word

used to describe this
creature or these beings.

It must be that there was
a common source.

And it makes you wonder
if it's possible

that these beings originally
introduced themselves

with this name that is
something like "dragon."

NARRATOR:
What can account

for this supposedly
mythical creature

appearing in dozens
of distinct traditions

throughout the ancient world?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the ubiquity of dragon legends

lends further support
to the notion

that our ancestors
encountered alien vehicles

descending from the sky.

The reason why countless
ancient cultures

have references to dragons

is because many
of these ancient cultures

were visited by the same beings

flying the same craft.

They're seeing the same thing
in all these different places,

and what they're seeing
is of airships

with fire and thunder
and smoke and huge wings,

and so they're describing
them in-in similar ways

in different parts of the world.

NARRATOR:
Could the ubiquity

of dragon worship
throughout the world,

along with the curious
linguistic connection,

provide further evidence
that our ancestors witnessed

something very real
coming down from the sky?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining ancient stone
sculptures from North America

that depict a legendary
flying serpent god

in a humanoid form.

NARRATOR:
Teotihuacan, Mexico.

Dating back to at least
the first century AD,

this ancient complex was once

the largest city in Mesoamerica

with a population of 125,000.

One of the most sacred
temples at the site

is the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent,

an enormous step pyramid

dedicated to the god
Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl,
the feathered serpent,

goes all the way
back to Olmec times,

to the BCE period.

But the first place that we
really see Quetzalcoatl

is in Teotihuacan,

the city just north
of modern Mexico City.

They build a actual pyramid,
a temple of Quetzalcoatl,

right around 250 AD.

So, it's probably Teotihuacan

who really put forward

the idea and the identity
of Quetzalcoatl as a deity

for the rest of Mesoamerica.

Quetzalcoatl was a creator god.

He was associated
with the planet Venus.

He brought the rain.
He brought water.

He brought civilization.
He brought the arts.

This was the creator divinity
for the Aztec culture.

It was a flying serpent.
It was a dragon.

Quetzalcoatl brought peace,
harmony and high wisdom

and very high level
of intelligence

and teaching
to this particular land.

He was often depicted
as a human being as well,

that he arrived
on a raft of serpents

and settled on these lands.

ED BARNHART:
Quetzalcoatl also shows up

in the post-classic Maya city
of Chichen Itza.

But they give him a Mayan name.

They call him Kukulkan,
which is basically

"The holy feathered serpent"
in Maya.

NARRATOR: The ancient
Mayan city of Chichen Itza

lies roughly 900 miles
east of Teotihuacan,

and at its center stands
another massive step pyramid,

this one dedicated

to the Mayan version of
the flying serpent Kukulkan.

In Chichen Itza, there we have
the pyramid of Kukulkan,

and every year
on the 23rd of March,

you see, when the sun
is going up,

some lights and shadows,

lights and shadows
like triangles

climbing down the stairway,

exactly the stairway
where his head is on.

And on the 21st of September
you see the opposite.

Kukulkan disappears,

and it's only made by light
and shadow of the natural sun.

So still today
the message is clear--

God Kukulkan has descended
to the humans.

He teached them
for a certain period,

and then he disappeared again.

So right there we have
living mythology

in a structure
that shows this deity

descending from the sky
in stone.

You wonder if perhaps
a craft landed here

and this light-shadow effect

of a serpent making its way
descending down the staircase,

and then emerging
through a serpent head

is a recollection
of that original event.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that the Pyramid of Kukulkan

was not built to honor
a mythical dragon god

but to commemorate the arrival

of an extraterrestrial
spacecraft?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and suggest this isn't the only
dragon-themed structure

that marks a location
of alien contact.

The landscape of
this small Greek island

is spotted with 25 mysterious
megalithic structures

called dragon houses.

TSOUKALOS: The main
dragon house is at the very top

of one of the tallest
mountains on the island

called Mount Ochi.

Mount Ochi comes
from the word "Ochevare"

which means
to descend and to drive.

And so this is interesting
because, according to legend,

the reason why the dragon house

exists at the top of Mount Ochi

is because Zeus allegedly
descended from the heavens

on top of that mountain.

NARRATOR:
According to local legend,

these stone structures
were built by a giant dragon

to venerate the god Zeus.

In ancient Greece, the word
"dragon" was not only used

to describe a flying monster

but also gods and other figures

that had human-like form

but possessed superhuman powers.

Now, when you put
all this together,

this sounds like
the dragon house

is a meeting place
of Heaven and Earth.

In UFO vernacular,
that would be a landing spot.

TSOUKALOS:
In my opinion,

the dragon was the craft
out of which, then,

the creator people,
or the teachers, emerged.

Our ancestors, basically,

they saw a crew coming
out of an airplane.

NARRATOR: According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

some of the structures
themselves serve as evidence

that this was a place
of extraterrestrial contact.

The dragon house
on top of Mt. Ochi

contains megalithic blocks
weighing up to ten tons

and sits at an elevation
of almost 5,000 feet.

TSOUKALOS:
Archaeologists have a hard time

explaining why
it was even built there

because we are talking

of this gigantic
megalithic structure

with a ceiling
that contains blocks

that are up to ten feet long,

two feet thick,

at an altitude of 5,000 feet.

How was that done?

In my opinion, this was
an extraterrestrial visitation

where Zeus may have
descended in his craft

and built a day camp.

NARRATOR:
Could the stone structures

found in Greece and Mesoamerica

mark the locations

where otherworldly beings
landed on Earth

and ultimately
returned to the stars?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and suggest

these alien visitors
may still be here today,

pointing to legends of dragons

that come not from the sky...

but from under the sea.

NARRATOR:
Nineveh, 1849.

British archaeologist
Austen Henry Layard

and his team uncover a cache
of ancient clay tablets

dating back to at least
the seventh century BC.

The pieces contain some

of the earliest
writings of humankind,

including the Epic of Gilgamesh

and the Enuma Elis,

the Sumerian creation story
centered around a sea dragon.

Ancient Sumeria is
generally considered

the earliest civilization
on Earth,

and their early mythology
involves the Tiamat.

Tiamat comes from the sea.

She's a sea serpent.
She is chaos.

HENRY: Dragons are most
often seen flying through the sky.

However, there are also examples

of dragons that lived
in the water.

For example, in the
Babylonian myth of Tiamat

and then in the Greek myth
we learn of Hydra,

which is referred to as a dragon
that lives in the sea.

NARRATOR: Serpents from the sea
can also be found in Norse mythology,

in the ancient Canaanite
tradition,

as well as the Maori tales
of New Zealand.

But of all the stories

of sea dragons
from across the globe,

perhaps there is none
more well-known

than the Leviathan
of the Hebrew Bible.

Often described as
a gigantic sea creature,

the Leviathan wreaks chaos
on the world.

Leviathan, in Biblical terms,

is considered this sea monster
of behemoth proportions. Huge.

Now, in the Book of Job,

the behemoth all of a sudden
is seen and witnessed.

And the way Job describes it,
it's not a biological entity

that we are familiar with today.

It is described
that it has skin of metal

and ribs made
out of gleaming bronze,

its limbs like bars of iron.

Its back is made
of shields in rows

shut up closely as with a seal.

And then Job even describes

that it is like
some type of an animal,

but what animal breathes smoke
and fire and has glowing eyes?

NARRATOR: Might the
eyewitness account of the Leviathan

found in the Book of Job

actually be a description

not of an underwater creature

but of misunderstood technology,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

In the Book of Job
we have a text line

that says that this
creature's outer skin

consists of two hulls.

So, this description
in ancient biblical times

that we have a double-hull
object is interesting

because we know today
that submarines have two hulls.

And the reason why
they have two hulls is

in order to dive and resurface.

And what happens is you fill
and empty the ballast tanks.

Now, what happens when you
empty the ballast tanks?

The submarine ejects
a whole bunch of air

that makes the whole
surrounding area look

as if the ocean is boiling.

And we have exactly
this reference point in Job

that all of a sudden,
the wake of the Leviathan,

it looked as if
the sea was boiling.

Job describes having seen
this thing also on land.

It begs the question if what
we have here is an example

of a trans-medium craft,

a craft that operates

both on land and in the water.

HENRY: Today we have
videos of UFOs or UAPs

that are coming
and going from the ocean.

We call them trans-medium craft.

Well, this is exactly
what we see

in these ancient myths
about the dragons.

These are supposed to be

dragons
or mythological creatures,

winged creatures
that fly in the air,

but then they also go
into the ocean.

And it makes you wonder,
are these in fact UFOs

that were seen
in the ancient world

that were interpreted
or mythologized as dragons?

I was in the Navy
for nine years,

and we always talked
with each other

about unidentified
submersible objects

that are UFOs
that stay in the water

and then bust out
of the top of the ocean

and off they go.
It's very widespread.

As a matter of fact,
there've been reports

of lights down in the water
following our Navy ships

and then all of a sudden

they bust through
the top of the ocean

and they take off.
They're out there.

And it's entirely possible

that people who witnessed
these things a long time ago

confused them with
creatures or real dragons.

Could the accounts of dragons
emerging from the sea

found in mythologies
around the world

be descriptions of an advanced
technology capable of traveling

not only through the sky
but also through water?

And if so,

might the misinterpreted craft

our ancestors witnessed

be the same UFOs
reportedly seen today?

Ancient astronaut
theorists suggest

the answers may be found
by examining the alignment

of an ancient structure
to a dragon...

in the stars.

NARRATOR:
Northwest Cambodia.

Just outside the city
of Siem Reap

lies Angkor Wat, the world's
largest religious structure,

with each side measuring
nearly a mile long.

Mainstream archaeologists
believe the temple complex

was likely constructed
around the 12th century AD,

but according
to Cambodian legend,

it is far older--

Built in 600 BC

by a half-human
half-divine architect

who traveled between Earth
and the realm of the gods.

TSOUKALOS:
Angkor Wat was built

by none other
than Preah Pisnokar.

His mother is not of this world.

She wants to bring him
to where she comes from.

And so she takes her son

to what's called Indra's Heaven.

According to mythologies,

the center part of Angkor Wat

is a one-to-one replica

of whatever was seen out there.

NARRATOR:
According to some experts,

the layout of Angkor Wat reveals

another intriguing
connection to the cosmos.

In 1996,

author and researcher
John Grigsby

discovered
that the temple complex

appears to align with certain
stars in the night sky.

John Grigsby made
a brilliant discovery.

He noticed that the entire
Angkor Wat complex

is a mirror image
of the Draco constellation.

In Latin, the word
Draco means dragon.

TSOUKALOS:
If you were to take

a constellation map of Draco

and superimpose it
onto a map of Angkor Wat,

there are multiple structures
at Angkor Wat that line up

exactly to the main stars
of the constellation of Draco.

So you have to wonder
what the connection is.

And the answer to that,
in my opinion,

is that if you would like
to show a local population

where you are from...

you have them build something

in the constellation
of where you are from.

To me, those are calling cards

where our teachers
long ago came from.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the story

of Angkor Wat's
celestial origins is true

and that it was
purposely designed

to line up
with the stars of Draco

because this was the ancestral
home of Preah Pisnokar?

Ancient astronaut
theorists point

to the temple's many depictions
of dragon-like creatures

as further evidence

that it has
a profound connection

to the Draco constellation.

DOMINIC STEAVU:
In south Asian traditions,

nagas occupy an important place.

They are considered to be
very powerful creatures.

They are shape shifters.

And nagas share a number
of interesting similarities

with Chinese dragons
more specifically,

so both of them are givers
of knowledge and of wisdom.

HENRY: In the same way
that Kukulkan seems

to represent some sort
of a craft to the Mayans,

we find the same thing
with the naga at Angkor Wat.

They could represent
a craft that is utilized

to transport people
from Earth to Draco.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that dragon traditions
throughout the globe

originated with visitors
coming to Earth

from a planet somewhere
within the Draco constellation?

Curiously, Angkor Wat is not

the only ancient site
that aligns with Draco.

On the other side
of the world, in Ohio,

a Native American serpent
effigy known as Serpent Mound

was positioned
to point to Draco.

And in ancient Egypt,

all pyramids were positioned

to have an entrance passage
geometrically aligned

so that Draco's primary
star, Alpha Draconis...

would be visible at night.

It's interesting to think
that the constellation Draco

may have something to do
with these dragon myths,

with all of these
separate cultures

around the world that are
seemingly unconnected.

Whatever these
flying dragons are,

perhaps they came from a planet

that was from
the star system Draco.

HENRY: Virtually every culture
has a legend about dragons

or dragon beings
that came from the sky.

And what we're uncovering now
is the revelation

that these beings
came from the sky

because they're
of extraterrestrial origins.

Is it possible that today

we're subconsciously tapping
into hidden knowledge,

something that has
always been there

and is part of, like,
the thought sphere of humanity?

NARRATOR:
Could it be

that humankind's long-held
fascination with dragons

has a direct link to the cosmos

and possibly visitors

from the constellation of Draco?

Have stories
and imagery of dragons

persisted in modern times

because of a deep-seated desire

to reconnect with our
extraterrestrial past?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining humanity's
latest endeavors beyond Earth

and the recent launch
of a spacecraft called Dragon.

MAN:
And liftoff.

NARRATOR: Just off the
coast of Panama, Florida,

the latest SpaceX cargo shuttle,
called Dragon, splashes down.

It's really fascinating
what's happening right now

because SpaceX just named
their rocket Dragon.

The Chinese named
their entire rocket fleet

based on ancient Chinese
celestial mythology.

It's called
the Shengzou program,

and Shengzou means
"heavenly chariot."

So, to have all of a sudden

modern cultures refer
to their celestial vehicles

as dragons or heavenly chariot

to me is nothing else
but a repetition of history,

meaning we are not
the first to do this.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The image of
the dragon still excites our imagination.

When Elon Musk decides
to build a spaceship

to lift up to the stars,

he names it Dragon.

So, it's almost like we're
acting out mythology.

We're riding on or in a dragon

back up to the stars.

TSOUKALOS: Clearly,
humankind has had a love affair,

an eternal fascination
with dragons.

And in my opinion,

dragons did not really exist
in a biological form,

but perhaps they were the result

of an incredible event

that happened
a long, long time ago

in our collective unconscious.

It may surprise a lot of people

to know that,
throughout the world,

the dragon is not
a symbol of evil.

It's certainly not in China.

It's a symbol of
good luck and fortune.

In the Middle East,

the serpent brings knowledge
and understanding.

Even today, we have the symbol
of a serpent, a winged snake,

associated with knowledge
on the medical badge.

Virtually every culture
in the known ancient world

has some kind of dragon legend,
every single one of them.

The dragon represents something

incredibly powerful
but also incredibly noble.

HENRY: Dragons are something
that people are obsessed with.

Even today
people still get tattoos

of dragons on their bodies.

And you wonder, why is it?

What is the attraction
with dragons?

Well, for one thing,

dragons symbolize divine
and heavenly power.

But behind that is
the realization

that the dragons ultimately
represent our origins.

They were the great civilizers.

They were the founders
of civilization.

So by connecting ourselves
with the dragons,

we're actually trying to tap
into the original power

of those divine beings.

NARRATOR: Could it be that
traditions of dragons

found all over the world

tell the story of
humankind's true origins?

Is it possible

that our celebration
of these winged beasts

is actually commemorating

ancient contact
with extraterrestrials?

Perhaps we will find the answer

as we send our own dragons
into the sky

and reconnect
with our alien ancestors.

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