All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S04E02.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

>> NARRATOR: Ancient calendars

forecasting a deadly countdown.

>> ED BARNHART The Maya have

this opinion that what's

happened in the past will happen

again.

>> NARRATOR: A galactic

alignment, triggering a wave of

natural disasters.

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: It's like

having a whole bunch of massive

earthquakes at the same time.

>> NARRATOR: Could our planet

really be headed for extinction?

>> LOGAN HAWKES: These changes

could be life‐changing or they

could be life‐ending.

>> NARRATOR: Or is there another

agenda, one even more profound?

>> PHILIP COPPENS: Each age for

the Mayans was clearly defined.

And it was defined by the gods

returning.

>> 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 evidence of

alien contact help to unlock the

mystery behind the Mayan

prophecies of doom?

>> NARRATOR: Mexico, the Yucatan

Peninsula.

For over 2,000 years,

rain‐drenched jungles and

fertile plains served as the

home of one of the ancient

world's greatest civilizations.

The Maya.

Scholars estimate that between

250 and 900 A. D., the Mayan

population consisted of between

15 to 20 million people

and extended as far south as

Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Archeological evidence suggests

the Maya were one of the first

ancient people to develop a

written language, use modern

mathematical methods, and build

massive, multi‐story celestial

observatories.

All at a time when Europeans

were struggling through the

so‐called Dark Ages.

>> SEAN‐DAVID MORTON: The Maya

are considered one of the great

advanced civilizations with

hyper‐advanced astronomy,

astrology, trigonometry,

architecture, all of these

things while the Europeans were

at the time rolling around in

the mud.

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps the

most amazing Mayan achievement

was their system of charting the

stars and planets in the form of

a calendar.

>> HAWKES: The Mayans were

timekeepers above and beyond all

other things.

Keeping up with time was magic,

it was power to the Mayans.

>> MARK VAN STONE: They were

tracking, in particular, Venus,

the phases of the moon,

eclipses, but they also tracked

precession, which is an

extraordinarily long cycle.

What it means is that every year

on, say, March 15, the Pleiades

rise for the first time in the

sky.

If you wait 72 years, the day of

the rising of the Pleiades will

be one day earlier.

If you wait another 72 years,

it'll be a day earlier still.

And if you wait 26,000 years,

the Pleiades will move back to

that same day.

>> NARRATOR: According to

scholars, the Maya believed that

time, like the stars, moved in

repeating patterns called

calendar cycles and that these

cycles could be used to predict

future events.

One of these calendar cycles,

the Mayan Long Count, lasts for

5,125 years and will end on

December 21, 2012.

But why?

Why did the Maya choose this

date?

And what did they believe would

happen to our world?

Perhaps a clue can be found in

an astronomical phenomenon

located at the center of the

Milky Way Galaxy, an area where

there are no stars.

>> MORTON: The Mayans knew.

Not only did they know where the

center of the galaxy was, but

they understood that it was a

light‐year‐across black hole

that they called the Great Rift.

>> HAWKES: The Maya believed

this was the birth canal of the

universe, and that all things

came from the birth canal of the

universe.

And on December 21, 2012, the

Earth, the sun, and this birth

canal, the Dark Rift, are all in

perfect alignment.

And this only happens every

26,000 years.

>> NARRATOR: Could the fact that

the Maya Long Count calendar

ends on the same day as this

rare alignment in the Milky Way

Galaxy be a mere coincidence?

And did this advanced

understanding of celestial

cycles really come from ancient

Mayan astronomers observing the

stars with only their naked

eyes?

>> HAWKES: The Mayans believed

that this knowledge came to them

from their gods, and their gods

then existed in the stars.

So, is it possible that these

gods could have been

extraterrestrials?

The answer to that question is

yes, it's possible.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:

According to the Maya

themselves, this knowledge was

not something that they came up

with, but it was given to them

as a gift from the gods.

The gift back then was not

material stuff.

It was knowledge.

Knowledge is the currency of the

universe.

>> NARRATOR: But even if the

information pertaining to the

Long Count calendar comes from

an otherworldly or

extraterrestrial source, why

2012?

What is it about this date that

has a special significance?

Researchers believe a clue may

recently have been found among

the ruins of the ancient Mayan

city of Tortuguero.

One that was pieced together

from broken fragments of a panel

of hieroglyphs known as Monument

Number Six.

>> BARNHART: In my

opinion, the one and only clear

reference to the date in the

Long Count that arrives in 2012

is on Tortuguero Monument Six.

>> COPPENS: Basically,

the inscription in Tortuguero

was half destroyed, and

everybody assumed that what it

was saying was that the nine

gods would return on December

21, 2012, but because there was

some destruction on that

inscription, certain things were

implied.

>> NARRATOR: For years,

scholars dismissed the evidence

found at the Tortuguero monument

as a solitary anomaly without

any special significance.

But on November 24, 2011, the

Mexican National Institute of

Archeology and History revealed

to the world the existence of a

second artifact.

A sun‐dried mud brick that was

discovered at the ancient Mayan

city of Comalcalco with an

inscription many believe refers

to an exact date, December 21,

2012.

>> BARNHART: It's one of

thousands of mud bricks that

we've found at Comalcalco.

A very few of them have

hieroglyphs on them.

One of them has a date inscribed

on it, which is very rare, and

it says Four Ahau, Three Konkin,

which is the calendar round date

that's gonna occur in 2012.

>> COPPENS: Well, the Comalcalco

brick is important because it is

verification of an inscription

in Tortuguero.

The brick has shown that the

people who thought that it meant

the nine gods were going to

return were right.

>> NARRATOR: An extraterrestrial

visitation?

One which signals the end of the

world?

For most archeologists and

researchers, the concept is not

just a little far‐fetched, they

consider it to be more a

curiosity than a prophecy.

But one feature of the brick

hieroglyph is not so easy to

dismiss.

The inscriptions on the brick

were apparently carved on the

inner‐facing side, hidden from

view.

>> HAWKES: Why would they write

a date on a brick and then turn

it around so no one could see it

and put it into the wall?

We can only speculate as to why,

but we believe it's because the

ruling king or the priest or

whoever commissioned the

building site at Comalcalco

didn't want that to be public

knowledge.

>> NARRATOR: Why would the Maya

conspire to keep this date

secret?

Was it to avoid global panic?

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: If there is

some kind of...

(loud boom)

...doomsday at the end of the

Mayan calendar, it could be a

combination of...

of pole shifts...

(rumbling)

...of volcanoes and

earthquakes...

and super tidal waves all over

the Earth.

It would be a catastrophic event

for the planet.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible, as ancient astronaut

theorists believe, that the Maya

actually received detailed

astronomical knowledge from

ancient alien visitors?

And could this help explain why

their calendar, which accurately

predicts an extraordinary

galactic alignment, apparently

ends on December 21, 2012?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining the doomsday

prophecies of other ancient

cultures.

For if the Maya were attempting

to warn us of a future

cataclysm, could there be other

evidence that they were not

alone?

>> NARRATOR: December 21, 2012.

According to some researchers

and scholars, this is the day

when the Mayan calendar suggests

the world will come to an end.

(loud boom)

But there is another equally

curious aspect to the Mayan

calendar‐‐ not when it ends, but

when it begins:

more than 3,000 years before the

Mayan civilization even existed.

>> BARNHART: The origin of the

Long Count Calendar‐‐ why they

created day one to be August 13,

3114 BC, is still a mystery.

It's obviously back‐dated.

There were no Maya back then, so

why did they backward project

3,000 years into the past?

Based on the things we have

learned about the Maya, it

should be something

astronomical.

>> HUGH NEWMAN: One of the ideas

about why they back‐dated it to

3114 BC is because some kind

of cataclysm happened then.

Recent research has discovered

an asteroid or multiple

asteroids did hit an area around

Austria in Europe.

(loud booming)

And that could have caused a

blackout of the sky for several

years, and this is, then, when

the calendar began.

>> MORTON: Scientists at Harvard

and Princeton have said that

this massive global worldwide

catastrophe... a mass glaciation

of the planet, occurred when

this age of the Mayan calendar

begins.

This happened not within tens of

thousands of years or hundreds

of years, but within weeks,

within days, literally.

This took everyone by surprise.

>> CHILDRESS: According to the

Mayans, we are coming to the end

of the fifth age.

There have been four

catastrophes before us.

Each one ended up with a

destruction of the Earth.

And now we are just coming to

the end of the fifth age of the

Mayans, which will end now in

December of 2012.

According to the Mayan

predictions, this will also end

in a giant catastrophe.

(loud booming)

>> BARNHART: The Western view of

time is very linear.

When we think about... life...

we see it as this linear

projection heading out into the

future.

For the Maya, they viewed life

very cyclically.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible the

Mayan calendar ends on December

21, 2012 because they expected

that the fifth age of man will

end much in the same way as it

began?

Were they privy to some ancient

knowledge that has been lost in

time?

And if so, can proof be found by

examining similar doomsday

predictions from other ancient

cultures?

>> MORTON: Egyptian time‐coding

in the Great Pyramid of Giza is

telling us that there will be a

series of water‐based

catastrophes between late 2004

through about 2006, and look

what happened.

We have the Asian tsunami, which

kills about 250,000 people.

We have Hurricane Katrina.

(thunder crashes)

And then there's actually this

trough called the "River of

Fire" which is warning us of

some massive cosmic event, maybe

a solar flare or what have you,

that then washes humanity back

into this pit.

>> NARRATOR: In addition to the

eerie similarity between the

Mayan and Egyptian prophecies,

researchers have also noticed a

connection in the doomsday

predictions of the Hopi Indians

of the American Southwest.

>> YOUNG: The Hopi people of the

Native American nations believe

that we are in the fifth age of

man and that this is an age of

purification and that it is near

the end time.

>> MORTON: The Hopi believe that

unless all the people of the

Earth can come down and live

more in harmony with themselves

and with the planet, that

there's going to be a great

destruction coming.

(rumbling)

>> NARRATOR: In India, the

ancient Buddhist and Hindu

astronomical manuscript, Surya‐

Siddhanta, predicts that

mankind will soon reach the end

of the Kali Yuga, the final age

of man.

>> YOUNG: The male divinity,

Kali, that is referred to in the

End of Days of the Mahabharata,

refers to a time of great chaos

and discord, and, depending on

how you read the dating in the

script, we are well into it.

>> NARRATOR: Even the Christian

Bible predicts, in great detail,

a horrific, fiery apocalypse.

>> YOUNG: The Christian writers

on the end of time focus on

certain things: that the Jewish

people return to the Holy Land

and reclaim it, which happened

some years ago; that the nation

thereby established would

finally claim Jerusalem, which

has happened some years ago;

that there would be a great

expansion of the territory until

it was a very large nation.

Finally, it is the claiming of

the temple, which is on Temple

Mount, which is holy in Islam.

But it must be taken and

restored to its original

condition.

It is that place that the

Messiah will actually come to

rule the Earth before the End of

Days.

>> COPPENS: The idea that we are

living in end times, not

necessarily the end of the world

but the end of a world, is quite

global.

>> NARRATOR: While most ancient

doomsday prophecies only broadly

suggest the timing of the

so‐called End of Days...

the Maya prediction boldly

points to an exact date.

Their Long Count Calendar comes

to a decisive end on Friday,

December 21, 2012, a date that

many scientists and astronomers

agree will coincide with an

extremely rare alignment of

celestial bodies in the

Milky Way Galaxy.

But how could the Mayan calendar

be so accurate?

>> BARNHART: It is a true thing

to say about the Maya that they

created the most elaborate

calendar system of any culture

in the world.

They had a solar calendar, but

before that, they had the

sacred calendar.

When you look at the ratio

between those two, you get

365.2422 days for an actual

year.

The atomic clock says that it's

365.2420, but they admit that

at the fourth decimal point,

they could be plus or minus

five wrong.

So we're not sure who's more

accurate.

Is it the Maya, or is it the

atomic clock?

>> NEWMAN: The sophisticated

way the Maya track time is...

is incredible, even by today's

standards.

It's almost like they had

sophisticated computer

technologies or programs that

could somehow run it.

And even today, we're just

catching up and trying to

understand how they managed to

do such an amazing job way back

in prehistory.

>> NARRATOR: The third Maya

calendar, known as the Long

Count, measured time in cycles

of 394 years or 144,000 days.

>> GERARDO ALDANA: The Long

Count is really just like an

odometer in your car.

It just ticks off days.

It counts one, two, three, all

the way up to 144,000, which we

call bak'tuns.

>> NARRATOR: The Maya Long Count

calendar also measured time in a

series of 13 bak'tun cycles,

totaling 5,125 years.

According to scholars, the dates

stretch from August 11, 3114 BC

to December 21, 2012.

And there, inexplicably,

it stops.

Why were the Maya tracking

celestial events in cycles of

over thousands of years?

Was it simply, as some scholars

suggest, because they could?

Or did they, as ancient

astronaut theorists believe,

create the calendar as a way of

marking time until the return of

otherworldly visitors, beings

that were believed by them to

be gods?

>> COPPENS: Some calendar

systems from the Mayans, today,

science has no idea about what

they are based on, but we just

know that they exist for a

specific reason.

So it is clear that they were

given to them by an intelligence

who knew what these calendar

rounds represented.

And so, what we are seeing is

that the Mayans are working with

tools, technology, calendar

systems, which were specifically

engineered because they had

been told that when certain

things in the skies looked a

certain way, then the gods

would return.

>> GEORGE NOORY: The Mayans were

incredible at what they did.

The big question is: how did

they know this?

You have to say to yourself,

perhaps civilizations might be

much older than we think and

they passed down knowledge

for hundreds and hundreds of

thousands of years, or somebody

came down and taught them.

>> NARRATOR: Did the Maya create

the Long Count Calendar to warn

us of a deadly cataclysm?

Or were they simply intending to

inform us of the day which will

signal the return of their gods?

But who‐‐ or what‐‐ were these

gods?

And what is their agenda?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, the answer can be

found in the stars.

>> NARRATOR: Tikal.

Northern Guatemala.

Located within the dense

tropical jungles of Central

America, this archaeological

site was once one of the great

urban centers of the Mayan

civilization.

Here, along the Grand Plaza, the

Maya built seven pyramid‐shaped

temples aligned to mimic the

constellation Pleiades.

>> HAWKES: They called it the

Seven Sisters because it

consisted of seven bright stars.

They also believed that the

Pleiades was at the center of

all fixed stars, so when they

looked at the Pleiades, they

believed that that may have been

the center of all creation, and

they believed that they came

from the center of that

creation, or, simply put, they

came from Pleiades.

>> CHILDRESS: Why would the

Mayans go through such a

tremendous effort to recreate

a mirror image of the stars on

the ground?

Why would they do that unless

they wanted to contact the

extraterrestrial gods who had

originally given them the

information?

>> HAWKES: Pleiades was not

only important to the Maya;

it was also important to

Native Americans.

The Cherokee, for example, the

Hopi, believe that they

descended from star beings that

came from the Pleiades star

cluster.

>> NARRATOR: According to

scholars, the Maya believed

that powerful gods descended to

Earth from the stars, including

a feathered serpent known

as Kukulkan.

>> CHILDRESS: According to Mayan

legend, Kukulkan was the winged

serpent, some serpent god who

could fly.

>> COPPENS: Kukulkan, by the

Maya, is depicted in a number

of ways.

Sometimes he is human.

Sometimes he is a serpent.

Sometimes we see him emanating

from a serpent's head.

We know that there is no way

that a human being can emerge

from a physical serpent, so the

serpent must stand for something

else‐‐ either a construction or

a device.

Now, because we know Kukulkan is

a deity, we also definitely need

to consider that this device is

somehow a ship and Kukulkan

emerges from within the confines

of the ship to the outside world

and reveals himself as a deity

to the people.

>> HAWKES: Kukulkan was the

creator of all life who led the

Maya into an age of scientific

advancement, and advancement

of art and architecture.

According to ancient Maya

mythology, Kukulkan left the

people and said he would return

one day, and many scholars

believe that the ending of the

Maya calendar, on December 21

this year, will mark the return

of Kukulkan.

>> NARRATOR: 400 miles north of

Tikal, in the ancient Maya city

of Chichen Itza, stands a

uniquely designed pyramid, built

by the Maya to honor Kukulkan.

>> TSOUKALOS: Unlike most of the

pyramids all around the world,

the platform pyramid we can find

at Chichen Itza is not directed

in a north‐south or east‐west

direction, but it's a little

bit off.

There is a specific reason for

that, and that is, during the

spring and fall equinox, a

shadow play is cast upon the

side of the pyramid signifying

the descent of Kukulkan, the

extraterrestrial descending from

the sky, staying a while on

Earth, and then ascending

towards the heavens.

What we have here is an example

of living mythology.

So my question is: what did

they mean when they talked

about this deity that descended

from the sky?

>> NARRATOR: Why was it so

important to the Maya to build

such an elaborate temple to

honor Kukulkan?

Did they really expect this

serpent god to ascend to the

heavens and then descend to

Earth?

Or could Kukulkan be something

even more incredible?

Something not of this world?

>> TSOUKALOS: If you look up in

the air today, and you watch

a plane, it leaves behind this

plume of smoke as it travels

across the sky and you've got

the snake's tail wiggling at

its backside.

So if you look at it from that

perspective, that can be

described as a flying snake.

And in my opinion, that was

nothing else but a description

of some type of an

extraterrestrial craft that

descended from the sky out of

which the gods, lower case "g,"

emerged and taught them in

various disciplines.

>> VON DANIKEN: The message is

clear.

God Kukulkan descended to the

humans.

He was a certain time among the

humans.

He was the teacher of the humans

and then he disappeared again,

but with the promise to return

one day to the humans.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible, as some ancient

astronaut theorists suggest,

that Kukulkan was, in fact,

a flying spacecraft,

engineered and piloted by

otherworldly visitors?

And, if so, could this explain

the frequent depictions of this

ancient Mayan god as having a

face appearing out of a

serpent's head, similar to

that of a pilot operating a

vehicle?

According to researchers, clues

to the connection between the

Maya and otherworldly beings can

also be found in the Mayan

manuscript known as the Popul

Vuh, meaning "The Book of the

People."

It is a collection of the only

known Maya oral histories still

surviving.

Translated and written in the

mid‐16th century, this book

encompasses a range of subjects,

including Mayan creation myths.

>> ED BARNHART: The Popul Vuh

begins with nothing.

There's nothing there.

There's a watery surface, but

there's no sky.

There's no land.

The gods emerge out of this

water.

They begin with nothing.

And the gods decide to make

people.

Coming right out of one of the

most seemingly inhospitable

places for civilization to

sprout, comes this culture,

the Maya, who create this

collection of independent

city states and build pyramids.

They develop a written language

and a mathematical system.

They grow up into this forest

there, reaching populations into

the multimillions.

>> TSOUKALOS: In the Popol Vuh,

it clearly states that life was

brought here by the gods and

that those gods came from outer

space.

It doesn't say that they came

from inner Earth.

It also doesn't say that they

came from another continent or

another land.

But it states specifically

that they descended from the sky

and essentially brought

knowledge to planet Earth.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: What you have

in the Popol Vuh is very much

like a manual.

It is something that you want to

give to the people and say, this

is what we, our ancestors, have

decided together with the gods,

and this is really what you

should keep in mind for the next

few centuries up until the

moment in time when the gods

return.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible‐‐ as ancient astronaut

theorists believe‐‐ that the

Maya god Kukulkan was an

extraterrestrial entity?

One that is destined to return

one day from the stars?

And, if so, does it suggest that

there may be truth to another

Mayan legend, one that predicts

that our time on Earth may be

running out?

>> NARRATOR: Monument Number

Six.

It is on this stone tablet, on

which are carved a series of

ancient Mayan hieroglyphs, which

according to scholars

ominously predict a cataclysmic

event on December 21, 2012.

>> BARNHART: This is a long

monument that talks about the

lifetime of a particular king.

But at the end of it, it goes

forward into the future, takes

this big leap from the 600s AD

up to 2012.

It definitely says Four Ahau,

Eight Konkin arriving the 13th

bak'tun or 400‐year period.

But then there are only three

more glyphs and they are eroded

and broken partially.

>> NARRATOR: Some scholars

believe that the eroded glyphs

on Monument Six suggest that

Bolon Yokte‐‐ a god similar to

Kukulkan‐‐ will return at the

end of the Mayan calendar.

>> VON DANIKEN: The Mayan

specialists can read it "will

descend from heaven god Bolon

Yokte."

Bolon Yokte was one of the Maya

gods who was present with the

creation of man.

So they say, "Will descend, god

Bolon Yokte."

So some gods, some

extraterrestrials, were

expected to return.

And definitely, some of the gods

will return.

There is absolutely no doubt.

>> TSOUKALOS: Who was this

Bolon Yokte?

According to the documents that

have survived, and they're only

fragmentary, he was always

described as someone with great

powers, who had the capacity of

flight and who had incredible

knowledge about the universe.

>> BARNHART: The God Bolon Yokte

is not a very well understood

god.

Sometimes he's associated with

texts that talk about the

beginning of creation back in

3114 BC.

And we see him in some context

that seemed to be connected with

war.

>> TSOUKALOS: Bolon Yokte was

also described as being very

tall and very shiny, glowing.

Is it possible that what we

have here is a description of an

ancient alien?

And the answer is yes.

>> NARRATOR: But while there is

much mystery surrounding the

legend of Bolon Yokte,

researchers say the ancient

Maya believed this entity had

visited their ancestors

before‐‐ thousands of years in

the past.

>> TSOUKALOS: There is another

reference to Bolon Yokte

at Palenque in Temple 14,

where it is clearly stated that

Bolon Yokte appeared on Earth

over 900,000 years ago.

Why would anyone in their right

mind record a date that goes

back over 900,000 years ago?

Well, something happened.

Something very significant.

And according to the ancient

texts, that is when Bolon Yokte

descended to Earth from the sky.

>> NARRATOR: Similar stories

suggesting that the Maya were,

in some way, connected to

otherworldly beings can be

found in an ancient Maya text

known as the Chilam Balam...

a collection of oral histories

passed down through the ages.

>> VON DANIKEN: The Chilam Balam

books were written between

the 16th and the 18th centuries,

when the Spanish conquerors were

already there.

First, the Spanish arrived.

They found hundreds of Maya

writings.

They destroyed them all.

But then some of the priests

escaped and they start to write

up their old knowledge.

That's the reason how the Chilam

Balam books came to existence.

>> BARNHART: The name Chilam

Balam is actually the name for

a priesthood who were kind of

the historians of communities

in the Yucatan.

But we have this collection of

books that we call

the Chilam Balams.

These are the books in which we

find this information about how

the Maya believe that what's

happened before will

happen again.

In the opinion of the people

that write the Chilam Balams,

they believe them to be

very accurate.

The Chilam Balam talks about

these 20‐year periods.

"In this 20‐year period, you

could see it was

a bad time for us.

We can expect negative things

to befall us."

And of course, one of the most

negative and bad‐luck times they

have is the arrival

of the Spanish.

And they point to that as, "See?

Clearly in the cycles of time,

we could almost predict that

this calamity was bound to

happen to us at this time."

>> NARRATOR: In the Chilam Bilam

it states that the god Bolon

Yokte will someday return and

battle the deities of heaven in

an epic war of good versus evil.

>> COPPENS: Each age for the

Mayans was clearly defined, and

it was defined by the

gods returning.

And so what we have toy, or in

the near future, is the imminent

arrival according to the Mayan

tradition of these deities.

>> NARRATOR: This prediction of

a final apocalyptic battle

between good and evil as

described in the Chilam Bilam,

can also be found in the

Christian Bible's book

of Revelation.

>> MORTON: It is interesting

that if you look at the last

book of the Bible, it talks

about some great war in heaven

between the Archangel Michael

and the great dragon.

Is there some last great war in

heaven that occurs at

this final age?

>> NARRATOR: If the Maya

prophecy about the return of

Bolon Yokte is true, might there

really be a so‐called battle

between good and evil?

One that will result in the

annihilation of all mankind?

If so, how?

>> NARRATOR: Planet Earth.

Although there are many theories

about its age and origin, one

fact is certain: our planet is

billions of years old.

And mankind's existence on its

surface is relatively recent...

and fragile.

Throughout history, the

biggest threat to mankind has

come in the form of natural

disasters.

But does that mean the world

will end on December 21, 2012?

Recent evidence has shown that

the ancient Mayans possessed

knowledge about the universe

and its fate that we are only

just beginning to understand.

>> CHILDRESS: According to the

Mayans, the world has already

ended four times before this

coming cataclysm.

It ended before in, in fire and

in ice and in water.

This next cataclysm could be

a combination of all that or

even something completely

different.

>> MORTON: Not only did the

Mayans know our place in the

universe, but they also knew how

old the universe was.

The Mayans put the date of the

universe at 16.4 billion years.

Modern science today puts it at

about 14 and a half, maybe 15.

And yet the better our

technology gets the more we

begin to realize that the Mayans

were correct.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible

then, as the Mayans predicted,

that the Earth and sun will

align with a black hole on

December 21, 2012?

And if so, will such a cosmic

event have dire consequences

for our world?

>> MORTON: The Tibetans believe

that the sun is a lens...

that it activates and amplifies

things behind it or things

coming in front of it.

If that's the case, on December

21, you have an energy that's

coming from the center of the

galaxy that comes from

the dark rift... that comes

comes from the womb of the

galaxy, if you will, that is now

gonna be amplified by the sun,

that is going to have some kind

of effect on humanity.

>> NOORY: I think the Mayans had

an understanding of

celestial mechanics.

They understood that the sun was

going through change.

And so my belief is that

something will happen

with the sun.

>> HAWKES: Well, we know from

past experience that solar

flares can interfere with

electronic equipment.

We could see the power grid go

down, for example.

We could see major things

change in modern society that

pretty much would cripple us.

But if we're talking about

losing that ability for an

extended period of time, I

daresay we'd be talking about a

scenario that would result in

major changes, and quite

possibly some very ill effects.

>> NARRATOR: Some researchers

speculate that the galactic

alignment might change or even

reverse how the Earth spins on

its axis by altering its

magnetic field.

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: A sign of the

magnetic field changing quickly

would mean something has to

happen dramatically to the

angular momentum of the stuff

inside the Earth, which might

also mean something happens

drastically to the spin of the

Earth itself.

And once you change the rotation

of the Earth, you do have a

chance of causing huge effects.

It's like having a whole bunch

of massive earthquakes at the

same time.

>> HAWKES: We talk about a

magnitude seven or a magnitude

eight or a magnitude nine

earthquake as being destructive

beyond imagination.

But what would a magnitude 12

or a magnitude 20 earthquake do?

Could it replace the land with

the sea and the sea

with the land?

We're talking about events that

we've never experienced before.

So some of these changes that

people are talking about that

could occur could be life‐

changing or they could be

life‐ending.

>> NARRATOR: Will the Earth

really be affected by some

strange, powerful astronomical

alignment?

One that will have profound

consequences for all of us?

And if so, might those

consequences come in the form of

death and destruction?

Or might there be another,

perhaps more positive outcome?

>> CHILDRESS: The end of the

Mayan Long Count could mean some

doomsday for planet Earth.

Or on the other hand, perhaps

it is the return of the

extraterrestrial gods as

the Mayans believed.

It's hard to know the future,

what's gonna happen at

the end of 2012.

But it seems that perhaps the

Mayans had some glimpse into the

future that we have yet

to find out.

>> COPPENS: We are living in a

time, specifically a culture,

which really doesn't address the

ancient alien theory that we

are not alone.

It is indeed gonna come for a

global village as a complete

revelation that we are

not alone.

And that is really, I think, a

gift from the Mayans when it

comes to 2012.

>> TSOUKALOS: It is absolutely

correct that a calendar round

is about to end, but that does

not signify the end

of the world.

In fact, the only thing it

signifies is the beginning of

another calendar round

of another period in time.

>> NARRATOR: Could the Mayan

doomsday prophesies

really come true?

Will December 21, 2012 signal

the end of civilization

as we know it?

Or are the dire predictions

nothing more than a myth?

A misinterpretation of an even

greater truth?

Perhaps what awaits us is not

the end of our world,

but a new beginning.

One that will reveal the

celestial origins... of man.

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