All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens s06e17 The Shamans.eng

NARRATOR: They can
control nature...

DAVID WILCOCK: Clouds come
swirling in, lightning is

coming down.

NARRATOR: they can
access other dimensions...

WILLIAM HENRY: This energy
enables them to travel

into the realm of
the spirit beings.

NARRATOR: and connect
with otherworldly beings.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Those
creatures actually existed

in physical form.

NARRATOR: Throughout history,
spiritual leaders known as

shamans have healed, protected,
and advised their people.

But are they simply putting
on elaborate ceremonies?

Or is there something
more to their rituals?

DAVID CHILDRESS: In a sense,
in these shamanistic states,

you're tapping into
extraterrestrial powers.

NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by
extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so, might the evidence
lie with mystical healers known

as the shamans?

sync and corrections by bellows
www.addic7ed.com

NARRATOR: Northern
China, 1211 A.D.

Five years after uniting the
nomadic tribes of Mongolia,

Genghis Khan launches a brutal
invasion against Chinese Jin forces.

Despite being severely
outnumbered, the Mongol army

decimates their enemy in what
is believed to be one of the

bloodiest battles in Genghis Khan's
more than 20 years of conquest.

By the time of his death in 1227,
his empire... covering most

of Asia, Russia, and parts of Europe...
had become the largest in the world.

JONATHAN YOUNG: Genghis
Khan was a great warrior.

He amassed one of the most
awesome armies in the history of

the planet, and he would go
up the mountains to commune

with the sky gods to gain
power for his battles.

NARRATOR: According to
historical accounts, the Great

Khan was also described as
relying on powerful magic to

create severe weather on demand,
like hail storms, hurricanes

and tornadoes to confound
and defeat his enemies.

WILCOCK: They
march into battle.

And the next thing you know,
clouds come swirling in,

lightning is coming down,
rain is falling down, ice is

falling down, chunks
of hail, snow.

The soldiers are not equipped
for this sudden burst of cold.

They're shivering, they're
freezing, they're slipping

and falling on the ice.

And then they get totally wiped out
by the invading Mongolian army.

GRAHAM PHILLIPS: What was
remarkable about Genghis

Khan is that we tend to think
about him today as being this

despotic, mad, cruel ruler.

He was a priest king,
something known as a shaman.

NARRATOR: In Mongolian
culture, certain members of the

tribe were thought to have the
ability to communicate directly

with the gods, accessing
seemingly supernatural powers

and information.

These holy prophets were
commonly known as shamans.

Is it possible that Genghis
Khan, one of the greatest

conquerors in human history,
used his connection with the

divine to build the
massive Mongol empire?

And if so, just what does
it mean to be a shaman?

For thousands of years, in
cultures throughout the world,

shamans have been described
as intermediaries who provide

a link between humans and
otherworldly beings.

Known in some cultures as
medicine men or witch doctors,

they are believed to have the
power to travel to other realms

in order to bring back healing,
wisdom, and guidance to their people.

The word "shaman" originated
with the indigenous people of

Siberia... and means
simply "to know."

RONALD HUTTON: Shamans think
of the universe as being

constructed in different
layers, one on top of each

other, each one containing
a separate world.

One of the skills of the
shaman is to be able to travel

herself or himself between these
different worlds in spirit form.

GRAHAM HANCOCK: Shamans are
people who enter those realms

and negotiate with the intelligent
beings that inhabit those realms.

NARRATOR: But are shamans simply
experiencing hallucinations...

daydreams manifested
in their minds?

Or is it possible that
their visions are real?

Dismissed by some today as
madmen or charlatans, in the

ancient world, shamans like
Genghis Khan often held

positions of great influence.

And ancient astronaut theorists
claim the stories of these

shamans reveal a connection
to otherworldly beings.

Copán, Western Honduras.

In the ruins of this
archaeological site, once a

major Mayan city that thrived
from 400 to 800 A.D., stands

a statue of one of its most
powerful ancient kings,

Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil,
commonly known as 18 Rabbit.

PHILLIPS: Around 2,000

years ago, the Mayan
empire was at its height.

And they had a king by
the name of 18 Rabbit.

The rabbit, to the ancient
Mayans, represented the Moon.

So, basically, 18 Rabbit
was considered to be

an incarnation of the Moon god.

And he is said to have had all
sorts of miraculous powers.

NARRATOR: By the end of his
44-year reign, 18 Rabbit had

erected seven stone pillars,
each depicting him interacting

with the divine.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN: The stela
of Copán shows King 18 Rabbit

standing in the center
of the universe.

But on the side of him is a
portal to another world.

So it would seem to be telling
us that he had access to the

other world as well as being the
commander and chief of this world.

ED BARNHART: Today, we
separate politics and religion.

In the past, especially for the
Maya, that was not the case.

To be the king was to also be
supernatural; to have shamanic ability.

You were not just a king,
you were a shaman king.

And 18 Rabbit, like every other
king in the dynasty of Copán

and in the cities around
them, was a shaman.

NARRATOR: According to Maya
tradition, shaman kings like

18 Rabbit would connect with
otherworldly beings through

a process known as bloodletting.

LOGAN HAWKES: The Mayan king
would put a spine through his hand.

Blood would be collected by the
shaman into a piece of paper.

And it would then be put into
a fire and it would smoke.

And by watching this smoke rise,
the shaman could see what

actions they were supposed to
take according to the will of

the gods revealed in the smoke
that was made by the blood of

the king or the ruler.

BARNHART: The right to
rulership for a Maya king,

the thing that the people
followed him for was his ability

to contact the other world.

Through shamanic ceremonies, he
was able to ask for the favor

of the gods for the people.

HENRY: 18 Rabbit was a
very powerful shaman king.

And you have to ask... is it
possible that these gods

could be extraterrestrials?

And perhaps it was the guidance
of these extraterrestrial beings

that made him such
a powerful leader.

TSOUKALOS: All around the
world we can hear stories of

how shamans state that they
were in communications

with beings from other worlds.

Is it possible that what we see
in the experiences of ancient

shamans is extraterrestrial
human contact?

And this contact wasn't seen as
something dangerous or strange

but rather as a means for moving
humanity forward due to new and

important knowledge received.

NARRATOR: Were kings like
18 Rabbit really communicating

with divine, perhaps even
extraterrestrial, beings?

Was it this otherworldly guidance
that made them so powerful?

But, if so, where did these
ancient shaman learn how to

access these
incredible abilities?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answers can be found

by examining the transformative
and sometimes dangerous process

of becoming a shaman.

NARRATOR: Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
January 27, 2014.

A Peruvian-born shaman leads a
group of participants in an

ancient Andean practice.

Known as a despacho ceremony,

this ritual dates back
thousands of years.

OSCAR MIRO-QUESADA: In Peru,
despachos or (speaks foreign

language), which are offerings,
have existed since the first

pre-Columbian peoples settled
the Andes and coastal areas.

Despacho consists of a ritual
honoring with reverence our

ancestral star relatives in the
cosmos that have been guiding

the evolution of humankind
on planet Earth.

Every time I perform a Pachacuti
ritual, portals are opened,

conduits between the Earth
and the sky are revealed.

(blowing conch)

(bell ringing)

WILCOCK: It is believed that
through ceremonies such as the

despacho, shamans are in fact
able to access these so-called

nonlocal realms of
being in the universe.

That helps to unify those of
Earth with those from the sky.

NARRATOR: If shamans really
are able to access these

so-called nonlocal realms,
how are they doing it?

And who or what has chosen them
to be the ones to communicate

with beings from
beyond our world?

MIRO-QUESADA: I came into
this shamanic tradition as a

result of deep
curiosity as a child.

(speaking foreign language)

I learned from my two primary
mentors in folk healing known as

curanderismo the following:

the spirit world
is here with us.

Let us celebrate through
that portal to the stars.

I was introduced to a universe
in which seen as well as unseen

relatives and allies and
spirit helpers abound.

And forming relationships with
these spirit helpers was the

foundation of my apprenticeship.

NARRATOR: But who are
the spirit helpers?

Are they actual beings who exist
in a realm most of us are unable

to experience?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answer may be found

in the story of a famous
Native American shaman.

Bighorn Mountain range, Wyoming.

Nearly 10,000 feet up, on a
desolate peak that is only

accessible during the brief
summer months, lies a structure

known as the Bighorn
Medicine Wheel.

This massive stone circle
measures over 75 feet in

diameter and contains 28 spokes
representing the lunar cycle.

By studying the astronomical
alignments of the stones,

researchers were able to date
the construction of the site to

approximately 1200 A.D.

Although it is held sacred
by over 60 different Native

American tribes, just who built the
medicine wheel remains a mystery.

BRIAN BURKHART: So, the
Bighorn Medicine Wheel is-is

significant to a lot of tribes
because it has this connection

to a lot of different traditions
in terms of star knowledge and

star power and ceremony.

NARRATOR: According to the
oral tradition of the Crow

tribe, the 19th century leader
Red Plume made a journey to the

medicine wheel as a young man
that shaped his destiny as a

powerful shaman and chief.

BURKHART: The medicine
wheel connect to particular

constellations that are kind of
like vortexes between certain

star energy and certain Earth
energy, and the medicine wheel

seems to be creating some place
that marks the particular spot

at a particular time where those
star energies and Earth energies

and human energy come together.

NARRATOR: During what the
Crow tribe call his "vision"

"quest," Red Plume claimed to
have encountered a mysterious

race of beings he
called "little people."

CHILDRESS: He was visited, he
said, by these little men who

then took him inside the Earth into
some kind of a vortex wormhole.

There, they taught him
secrets of medicine.

(voices whispering)

BURKHART: There are lots of
stories about little people in

Native tradition
across the Americas.

The little people come from
another planet, and they kind of

play around with human beings.

But they're also protectors of them,
teaching them even through

that playfulness.

CHILDRESS: Is it possible
that this medicine man was

actually meeting with
extraterrestrials who then

taught him some medical secrets
and then allowed him to return

back to his people?

(caws)

TSOUKALOS: These stories
didn't originate in our

ancestors' imagination.

There is a core of truth
to all those stories.

And so, those beings, are they,
in reality, of extraterrestrial

origin, something physical,
flesh and blood?

Absolutely.

Those beings are the
progenitors of knowledge.

NARRATOR: Could the stories
of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel

be describing
extraterrestrial contact?

Is this where shamans, like Red
Plume, acquired wisdom from

otherworldly beings?

In cultures throughout the
world, there are stories of

shamanic initiation at the
hands of so-called spirits.

Oftentimes, the process is
described as dangerous.

In fact, many healers are said
to be taken against their will

for this instruction.

SABINA MAGLIOCCO: When
shamans narrate their life

stories, they usually do not say,
"Well, I chose to be a shaman."

The healer does not choose
her or his profession.

They are chosen by the spirits.

DAVID CUMES: The shaman is
usually called and there's some

sort of wound that
the shaman sustains.

It can be any bizarre malady:

being struck by lightning,
epileptic fits, a bad accident,

anything that wounds the person
and enables them to go inward.

It's quite a hardship, you know.

It's not something that anybody
who really knows about it would

readily undertake.

HUTTON: Once the spirits
have got you, you either die or

remain permanently sick
or become a shaman.

There aren't a lot of ways out.

You often go mad for a bit, or
fall sick for a bit, as the

spirits take possession of you.

And then you go through a... a
visionary process in which, for

example, quite often you feel
your entire body being taken

apart and then put
back together again.

And when you're back together
again, you're starting to

acquire the abilities to
travel through time and space.

NARRATOR: Why would so many
of these traditional healers

share this belief that they had
been chosen and physically

changed by spirits?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe more clues can be found

by examining the similarities
between these shamanic

experiences and the stories
of modern day UFO abductions.

HANCOCK: People who believe
they've been abducted by aliens

will speak of implants
being put in their bodies.

Put there by the aliens.

Exactly the same experiences
are reported in much more

traditional cultures,
shamanistic cultures.

The construal there is that this
is being done by the spirits.

And the similarity between the
two experiences are very,

very, very strong and
very, very powerful.

CHILDRESS: Perhaps what's
happening is that you're really

in contact with some kind
of extraterrestrials.

And in a sense, in these
shamanistic states, you're

tapping into what we would almost
call extraterrestrial powers.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
shamans receive their mysterious

powers through alien abductions?

And might this explain why
shamans all over the world claim

to have a connection
to other realms?

Perhaps the answers can be found
in the strange and powerful

visions experienced by
shamans in the Amazon.

NARRATOR: The
Amazon Jungle, Peru.

Stretching from the Andes
mountains to the eastern shores

of Brazil, this rain forest is
home to more than 80,000 species

of plants... many of which
shamans and religious healers

have consumed for thousands of
years as a way to access realms

they say are inhabited
by otherworldly beings.

MAGLIOCCO: In the Amazon, one
of the shaman's jobs... aside

from going to the other world
and speaking with the spirits...

is to find the plants right here
on Earth that can heal the

people of his tribe.

And in the Amazonian belief
systems, each plant in the

jungle has its own spirit.

And one of the shaman's gifts
is that he can communicate with

these plant spirits.

NARRATOR: Originating in the
central Andes of South America,

ayahuasca, meaning "the vine of
the souls," is a psychedelic

brew consisting of two different
types of plants cooked with water.

ROSS HEAVEN: And this is
drunk by the shaman in order to

enter the spirit world to gain
information about diseases, to

foresee the future, um, to carry
out a healing for somebody.

We know some of the history of
ayahuasca because archaeologists

have found artifacts from the
rain forest which date back

three and a half
thousand or 4,000 years.

But those are only the surviving
artifacts that they found.

Potentially, this could go
back to the beginning of time.

NARRATOR: Ayahuasca contains
dimethyltryptamine... or DMT...

one of the most powerful
hallucinogens known to man.

But strangely, this chemical
compound only works when

consumed under
precise conditions.

CUMES: Ingest DMT, it's
inactivated in the intestine by,

uh, by certain enzymes.

So in order to get the DMT to be
activated and to be able to be

absorbed, they had to combine
it with other plants.

HANCOCK: Ayahuasca contains
a mixture of two plants.

There's actually quite subtle
and sophisticated knowledge of

plants goes into the
preparation, 'cause these two

things separately will not work.

You have to mix them together
and let's not forget that

there's 150,000 different species
of plants and trees in the Amazon.

It's really quite an amazing
achievement of ancient

chemistry to bring these two
plants together to produce a

highly psychoactive
visionary brew.

NARRATOR: But how did ancient
people living in the jungles of

Peru over 3,000 years ago, with
tens of thousands of plants to

choose from, figure out that
combining these two particular

plants would produce
these powerful visions?

According to the mythology of the
Achuar people of the Amazon,

their ancestors didn't discover
this on their own, but were

guided by
extraterrestrial beings.

HEAVEN: The shamans
communicated with their spirits,

and were told to go into the
jungle and turn two corners, as

the myth goes, and then they
would find this plant, and they

brought that back to the
village, prepared it in the

appropriate way.

WILCOCK: The oral tradition
says that ayahuasca is a linkage

to the upper world.

And it is entirely possible that
they were given this gift by

their own gods, which may
be extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: If the Achuar
story of how their ancestors

discovered ayahuasca is true,
could they have been guided not

by spirits, but by
extraterrestrial beings, beings

who communicated with them
on another plane of reality?

Between 1990 and 1995,
scientists at the University of

New Mexico administered DMT, the
active ingredient in ayahuasca,

to 60 volunteers and
discovered shocking results.

HENRY: Medical researchers
actually administered DMT to

patients in a controlled medical
setting and they had exactly

the same experiences as those
reported in the jungles of

South America and elsewhere who
are experiencing ayahuasca.

HEATHER BERLIN: Ayahuasca
users typically experience

hallucinations in the visual
form, and a lot of them say that

they see other beings.

And a lot of them say that
they get messages sent to them

from these beings.

HANCOCK: In several cases,
those intelligent entities said

to them roughly the following:

"We're so pleased you've
discovered this technology.

Now we can communicate
with you more often."

Perhaps what we're dealing with
here is intelligent inhabitants

of other dimensions.

NARRATOR: Why would so many
people report such similar

experiences while
using ayahuasca?

Is it possible DMT provides
access to another realm?

HEAVEN: Some shamans believe
that plants like ayahuasca have

an extraterrestrial origin,
that they drifted here as space

spores perhaps and then came to Earth
on comets, started growing here.

And perhaps they
even had an agenda.

Perhaps they are communication
from extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
extraterrestrials gave the

ancients the recipe for this
powerful concoction as a way to

communicate healing
powers with shamans?

And if so, might the very core
of mankind's knowledge about

medicine have come from
an otherworldly source?

Hua Shan Mountain, China.

This 7,000-foot-high peak in the
Shaanxi province is believed to

have been the place where
Shennong, a benevolent emperor

that ruled the area more than
4,500 years ago, was conceived.

According to accounts from the
Han dynasty, Shennong not only

introduced agriculture to
mankind, but also developed a

profound knowledge
of Chinese herbs.

DOMINIC STEAVU: Shennong
pledged that he would venture

out into the world and test
every plant on the planet in

order to determine its benefits
for humans and also to catalog,

uh, the more toxic or dangerous
effects of ingesting these plants.

Sometimes he would ingest, of
course, poisonous plants and he

would suffer poisonings up
to 70 times, uh, per day.

NARRATOR: More than 2,000

years later, Shennong's findings
were compiled in The Divine

Farmer's Herb-Root Classic, a
medical journal that became one

of the foundations
of Chinese medicine.

But just how could this
mysterious being have tested so

many herbs, some even
containing deadly poisons?

CHILDRESS: Shennong was
a quite unusual person.

It's said that he had a
transparent stomach.

And he himself, after ingesting
these poisons, would look into

his own stomach and see how
these poisons were interacting

with himself.

And then he would take
the antidotes for it.

So you have to wonder if he's not
some kind of extraterrestrial.

HENRY: Shennong could, in
fact, have been an astral or

star being who came to Earth to
teach the secrets of healing.

TSOUKALOS: This idea would
explain his strange appearance

and also his ability to
withstand ingesting poisonous

plants without
ever being harmed.

NARRATOR: Might Shennong
have been an alien visitor?

One who traveled to Earth in
order to educate mankind about

medicine and the healing
nature of plants?

And is this proof that ingesting
DMT, a practice that dates back

thousands of years, actually
connects shamans with

extraterrestrial beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists say
yes, and claim further evidence

lies with the supernatural healing
rituals of the San Bushmen.

NARRATOR: The Kalahari
Desert, South Africa.

Here, the native San Bushmen
hold elaborate fireside rituals,

lasting for hours
into the night.

During these ceremonies, their
shamans perform what's known as

a trance dance, through which
they reach an altered state of

being and access
other dimensions.

HENRY: The trance dance is
thought to activate an energy in

their body called "n/um."

And this energy opens a portal
of sorts that enables them to

travel into the spirit world.

And when the Bushmen activate
this energy, they're able to put

their hands in the fire
without being burned.

They can see vast distances and
it's as if in every way, shape

and form, they're transformed
into super powerful beings.

NARRATOR: By accessing the
power of n/um energy, it is

believed that a shaman can
extract illness, see the insides

of the sick and travel out of their
own body to the land of the gods.

CUMES: This n/um, it goes up
the body and then often it goes

out of the crown of the head
and that's usually when the

out-of-body experience occurs and
they travel to the spirit world.

I've seen a Bushman put a coal in
his mouth and he wasn't burned.

They'll put their heads in
the fire, and although their

hair might singe and even catch
fire, their face won't be

burned, so something is happening
with this n/um energy.

They call it boiling energy.

It's almost like there's a
vibrational change in their

whole body and probably
in their DNA in some way.

NARRATOR: Could this so-called
n/um energy really be inherent

in shamans accessed only while
in a sort of dream state?

And is it possible that the
genetic makeup of these medicine

men is what allows them to
access other dimensions?

PHILLIPS: The San Bush-people
have a tradition that

they are the first
tribe ever created.

They're the oldest
people in the world.

DNA tests have shown
that they probably are.

That all other cultures and
all other peoples that spread

throughout the world came,
originally, from where the San

people are now.

WILCOCK: When we look at the
San Bushmen and we see the clear

genetic evidence that they are
the primordial seed of human

civilization and life on Earth
it is possible that their DNA is

especially well equipped to have
this potential to access these

non-ordinary states of
consciousness which may, in

fact, be a key to physically
journeying into them giving

these people the ability to do things
that most of us seemingly cannot.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the San Bushmen have special

knowledge of how to alter their
genetic makeup in order to

access other realms?

A knowledge that is shared
by shamans around the world?

And might this knowledge or power
have been given to them by

alien beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe an undeniable connection

between shamans and
extraterrestrials can be found

in cave paintings that date
back thousands of years.

The Lascaux Caves,
Southwestern France.

Discovered in 1940 near the
village of Montignac, this cave

complex is covered in
Paleolithic paintings dating

back more than 17,000 years.

Anthropologists believe ancient
shamans used these subterranean

chambers to perform sacred
rituals, and curiously, among

the many Ice Age animals that are
depicted on the walls, there

is a strange creature that has the
body of a man and the head of a bird.

HANCOCK: The technical
term for such a creature is a

therianthrope, and that's from
the Greek "therian," which means

wild beast and "anthropos,"

which means man.

Clearly these are not things that
one encounters in everyday life.

The imagery of cave art is best
explained as the experiences

that shamans undergo in
a deep state of trance.

When they return from the trance
state they then depict, on the

cave walls, the visions that
they have seen in this deeply

altered state of consciousness.

NARRATOR: The birdman found
in Lascaux is reminiscent of one

of the Egyptians' most
important gods: Thoth.

It is also consistent with the
depiction of the Sumerian sky

gods, the Anunnaki.

But is it mere coincidence that
these shamans are encountering

the same types of beings while
in a trance that the world's

earliest civilizations
depicted as their gods?

WILCOCK: In all of these
different indigenous cultures

around the world there are
remarkable similarities of what

types of beings people claim to be
meeting when they go out of body.

This suggests that in the dream
plane and in the shamanic state,

there is in fact a real place
that we are going, and real

beings that we are encountering
when we get there.

TSOUKALOS: This is where
the ancient astronaut theory

suggests that they were the same
teachers... the teachers that

went to all the ancient cultures

and brought them the basics for
what we've accomplished today.

HANCOCK: There was a big,
noticeable change in human

behavior around 40,000 years
ago, exactly at the time that

our ancestors begin to manifest
the first amazing, uh, cave art.

And what is clear is that it's
not a coincidence, that at the

moment that the cave art
begins, we also witness in the

archeological record a radical
change in human behavior.

NARRATOR: Could the Lascaux
cave paintings be proof that

Shamans really do communicate
with extraterrestrial beings, as

ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

And if shamans... like those of
the San Bushmen... undergo a

physiological change in order to
make this connection, what might

that change be?

Perhaps the answer can be
found inside the human brain.

NARRATOR: Tepoztlán, Mexico.
October 2011.

Here, just 50 miles from Mexico City...
shamans from all over

North and South America gather
to commemorate the region's long

tradition of shamanic healing.

Throughout the three-day
celebration, these modern-day

medicine men engage in sacred
dances, rhythmic chanting, and

drumming... all methods that shamans
use to connect with other realms.

But why?

Do these practices really effect
a change within the shamans that

allows them to communicate with
beings that are otherwise beyond

our perception?

MAGLIOCCO: In many shamanic
traditions, shamans have special

tools that allow them to
access the spirit world.

Among the most important of
these tools are the shaman's

drum, and/or the
shaman's rattle.

These are rhythm instruments
that beat out a particular

rhythm, that allow the shaman
to enter into trance, and to

journey to the world of spirits.

WILCOCK: We see this rapid,
very steady rhythm on the drum

as being a central tool in
shamans being able to open up

the doors of the mind, giving
voice to the unseen realms of

the cosmos.

(people singing)

NARRATOR: Is it merely
coincidence that shamans all

over the world share the belief
that by repeating certain

rhythmic movements and sounds they
can communicate with other realms?

Or might this ancient practice
produce a real physiological

change in the
shamans themselves?

MAGLIOCCO: There's a
neurological explanation for this.

One of the ways that we can
alter our consciousness is

through rhythmic movement.

So throughout the world you see
many traditions in which people

communicate with the gods by
spinning, by dancing, by doing

something rhythmic.

NARRATOR: At the University
of California in San Francisco,

neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzaley
is performing experiments using

3D gaming technology that
actually track how drumming

effects the human brain.

(rhythmic drumming)

Participants wear virtual
reality goggles, and experience

both visual and
auditory rhythms.

ADAM GAZZALEY: We feel that
if we have a participant learn

how to entrain with different
rhythms through game mechanics,

we can strengthen the rhythms
of the brain and lead to better

performance, better cognition,
better memory, better attention.

And so we're recording, in real
time, what's going on in her brain.

You can have a rhythm going on
that you're listening to, and

your brain has its
own natural rhythms.

The entrainment would be that
they become locked in time such

that they follow each other.

We're sort of at, like, the
gateway of this frontier now.

NARRATOR: Could rhythm and
repetition hold the key to

discovering untapped potential
within the human brain?

Might shamans have been aware of this
connection for thousands of years?

And is the practice of entering
a trance state... still used to

access this power in other spiritual
ceremonies across the world?

Pentecostal faith healers
incorporate music that mirrors

the rhythm of the heart.

Hypnosis is often achieved
through the use of a pendulum.

(priest speaking indistinctly)

Priests performing exorcisms
repeat phrases over and over.

(priest shouts indistinctly)

Even the Catholic Rosary
involves repeating a sequence of

prayers counted out on a string
of beads to communicate with

Almighty God.

HENRY: It seems possible that
the shamans must have understood

something about the brain
that we're only rediscovering

today... and how the drum in
particular can effect the brain.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: It's the
brain who works different with

the shamans than
with normal people.

I always suggested... look at our
brain like a gigantic hole with

big machines in there.

Some of the machines are
running, and others are dead.

Now with the shamans, some of
the machines are running which,

in other brains, they
are not working.

That makes a difference between
the brain of a shaman and the

normal, average people.

NARRATOR: Have shamans
discovered the means to

communicating with extraterrestrials
within the human brain?

And does this suggest that
similar powers might exist

within all of humanity... powers
that we have yet to fully realize?

McGOWAN: As we settle into the
21st century, our craving to

be connected with what we used
to know, what we can know again,

and how unlimited we are as
human beings, is something that

we're all seeking.

And it is through the power of
shamanism, it is with the help

of these intermediaries, that we can
begin to experience this again.

HENRY: The shamans were
always bringing advanced

knowledge and leading
humanity forward.

They represented healing, and
they represented expansion of

our consciousness.

(chanting in native tongue)

CHILDRESS: If these shamans
are really in contact with some

kind of extraterrestrial gods,
then we can see how these E.T.'s

have been purposely guiding
us throughout our history.

In many ways they created us.

And even today, they are still
manipulating and guiding us into

the future.

NARRATOR: Did shamans really
communicate with otherworldly

beings in the distant past?

Is it possible that through
these spiritual mediators,

extraterrestrials were
able to influence mankind?

And might such celestial
command continue even today?

Perhaps one day we will realize
that the key to contact with our

alien ancestors does not lie in
technology that propels us to

the stars... but in
rediscovering abilities

that already exist
deep within ourselves.

sync and corrections by bellows
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