All language subtitles for Evidence.of.the.Unexplained.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-BETTY

NARRATOR: In South America
mysterious lights bring panic.

- One crashes and the whole horizon

is lit up by an explosive
green light.

NARRATOR: And then,
the army moves in.

- What are they trying to cover up?

NARRATOR: A close encounter
of the Beatle kind.

LENNON: That's a UFO you know,

but some part of you
doesn't wanna believe it.

- Lennon claimed that
as a child in Liverpool

he had been abducted by aliens.

NARRATOR: And on a remote nuclear
launch site, a sinister visitor.

- Just like that,
one after the other,

it takes these missiles offline.

- If this technology exists,

to turn these nuclear weapons
on and off at will,

the combined might of all the
worlds' militaries

might not be sufficient
to fight off such an invasion.

NARRATOR: Once the stuff
of science-fiction,

now, caught on camera,

finally forcing governments
to reveal what they know.

- UAPs' are unexplained,
but they are real.

- Many of these phenomena have
been sighted in training ranges

but we're very much concerned
about safety of flight.

- So let's just speculate
for one moment that these things,

whatever they are,
are here to do not very good things.

NARRATOR: Impossible engineering,

terrifying encounters,

sinister cover ups.

This is Evidence of the Unexplained.

13th of May, 2020

Mage, Brazil.

It's late at night in this
quiet municipality,

just across the bay from the much
more lively Rio de Janeiro...

..when suddenly, the peace is broken
by something entirely unexpected.

- Thousands of people saw strange
brightly lit objects

in the night sky over the mountains.

- Many start to film
the spectacle on their phones,

uploading the footage
to social media.

NARRATOR: The mesmerising display
bewilders those watching below.

- (speaking Portuguese)

NARRATOR: But then,
according to some locals,

all hell breaks loose.

- Reports claim that Brazilian
army helicopters suddenly arrive

and chase the unidentified flying
objects towards the forest.

One of the UFO's apparently crashes

and the whole horizon is lit up
by an explosive green light.

NARRATOR: At dawn the next day,
things get even stranger.

BELLINGER: The next morning,
when people wake up in Mage,

they find that the entire area
has been cordoned off

by the Brazilian military.

- (explosion)

OHAJAH: Explosions and gunshots are
heard, and a plume of smoke is seen

which seems to come from
the crash site.

There are allegations that
local police and journalists

have been refused entry to the site

and civilian drones that attempted
to film over the area

have been shot down.

NARRATOR: Ever since the infamous
Roswell incident in July 1947,

there have been rumours of
UFO crash sites around the world.

But this is the first time there has
been so much video evidence

connected to a supposed crash.

OHAJAH: What is highly unusual
about this case

is the sheer amount of clear footage
recorded by multiple witnesses

showing these orbs
zig-zagging across the sky.

BELLINGER: It causes
a social media frenzy in Brazil

as does the speed with which these
platforms take down the footage,

with moderators claiming
they're fakes.

OHAJAH: But can this many films
from so many different people

really all be fake?

- Surely there must have been
something out there.

But the question is, what?

NARRATOR: Brazil takes UFOs
very seriously,

unlike many of its counterparts.

The country has officially
acknowledged that UFOs exist

since the 1950s'.

- Indeed, since 2010,
the Brazilian Air Force

has been required by law

to register any sighting
of unidentified flying objects.

- All military and civilian pilots,
as well as air traffic controllers,

have to register all UFO sightings

with the national aerospace
defence command.

NARRATOR: Many Brazilians
are deeply wary of UFOs.

In this country,
unknown flying objects

are rarely seen as friendly
explorers from other planets,

but a deadly menace,

here to do harm to the human race.

MCMAHON: The roots of this mistrust

may date back to something
that happened

in a city in Eastern Amazon
called Colares, back in 1977.

Residents of the city saw UFO's

which they claimed had an almost,
kind of, vampiric quality.

They call them 'Chupa chupas'
or 'suck sucks.'

They said that the craft
sucked blood from their bodies.

And the eminent UFO investigator,
Jacques Vallee,

who looked into
this incident afterwards

also claimed that the locals said

that the craft emitted
some kind of radiation ray

which blasted them and
killed some of the residents.

NARRATOR: The Brazilian military
sent a team to investigate

and declared it a case
of mass delusion.

But, according to a local physician,

there was evidence of a cover up.

- A certain Dr Carvalho

was told to lie to
the traumatised patients

about what had caused
their injuries.

NARRATOR: And 20 years later,
in 1997,

the military officer who led
the investigation

told researchers a very different
story to the official report.

- Colonel Uyrange Hollanda
said that his men had been terrified

and they had seen mysterious objects

both emerging and darting
back into the sea.

In his interview,
the colonel added that

he, "Would soon be turning 70,
if he made it."

And then made the curious comment,

"If I don't disappear before then."

Three months later,
he was found hanging by his belt.

NARRATOR: If there was a cover up
at Colares nearly 50 years ago,

it's perhaps no surprise
Brazilians are unsatisfied

with explanations given
for the events in Mage.

- Sceptics say these bright lights
in the night

were most probably drones,
or skydivers

equipped with pyrotechnics
or even Chinese lanterns.

But if that was the case,

why would the drone operators
or skydivers

not come forward and explain
they were behind the mystery?

MCMAHON: The heavy military presence

evidenced by multiple videos
on social media

where there normally isn't one,
and the repeated denials

by firefighters, police, military,
and the government

rather suggests that
something was going on.

And it was a bit more than a display
of Chinese lanterns

or pyrotechnics.

NARRATOR: Perhaps there was a
strange object in the sky,

but, it was the authorities
that were controlling it.

- Could these glowing orbs
be experimental craft,

part of some top secret mission

devised and authorised by
the Brazilian military?

Is that what all
the secrecy's about?

- But these lights were seen
moving across the sky,

filmed by hundreds,
if not thousands, of witnesses.

NARRATOR: Brazil is
the fifth largest country on Earth,

over 3 million square miles.

And more than 45% of it is covered
in barely inhabited jungle.

If the military were going
to test secret technology

somewhere in the skies
over this country,

the suburbs of Rio De Janerio
seems a strange option.

MCMAHON: The Brazilian media has
reported that both the military

and the authorities have no record

of an unidentified craft
in the area that day.

Nevertheless, there was significant

ground and air operation
which was filmed.

BELLINGER: Could these lights be
craft from another world after all

and the authorities
just keeping quiet

while they investigate
to prevent national hysteria?

- So far, there is no explanation
from anyone.

- What are they trying to cover up?

NARRATOR: March 24th, 1967

Malmstrom nuclear missile base,
Montana, USA.

One of the most heavily guarded
military installations on Earth.

- Within minutes,
you can put a warhead

anywhere on the planet you want.

That is being a crown jewel
for our country,

something that we protect
very carefully.

NARRATOR: America has over 31,000
nuclear missiles

aimed at Soviet targets.

Malmstrom's nukes are hidden
in silos around the base.

- The missiles are typically kept
some distance below the ground

and protected by large blast doors.

They're connected physically
or electronically

to a missile launch control centre.

NARRATOR: It's the early hours
of the morning

and life for the officer in charge
is about to change forever.

MCMAHON: Robert Salas says
that he was on duty

as the Deputy Missile Combat
Crew Commander

in the Launch Control Centre,
of what was known as Oscar Flight.

This is a group of ten
intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Reportedly, one of the topside,
that's above ground staff,

sees what looks like a star
zig-zagging across the sky.

NARRATOR: At a press conference
in October 2021

Bob Salas described
receiving the call

from base security alerting him.

- "Not an airplane sir,

no engine noise,
can't fly that fast,

making 90 degree turns,

stopping on a dime, reversing
course, that kind of thing".

NARRATOR: The description is so wild

that Bob dismisses it as
a false alarm and hangs up.

But a second call quickly follows.

- He was very, very frightened,
I could tell from his voice.

He was shouting
into the phone, screaming

and saying there was
this lighted object,

bright orange, red orange
light pulsating.

Guards all out there
with their weapons drawn,

wanting me to tell
them what to do next.

MCMAHON: Salas makes
the decision to secure the site

and he decides then to contact his
superior officer

at the command site.

But somebody in security,
by this stage, is injured,

and the security team
suddenly terminate the call.

- Bob says that he woke
his commander,

who was on a scheduled sleep period,
and was briefing him,

when the first alarm
klaxon goes off.

Before they can investigate, another
alarm goes off,

then another, and another.

NARRATOR: The alarms signal can mean
only one thing,

all 10 missiles are inoperable
and unstable.

America's arsenal is apparently
at the command

of whatever is piloting this craft
hovering above the base.

Eventually the security staff
reported the craft had taken off

but that wasn't the end
of the nightmare scenario

for the men at Malmstrom.

- Maintenance crews had to work all
day and all night

to bring the missiles
back onto alert.

By which time,
they had not been functioning

for something like 24 hours.

- Different silos geographically
spread around

were all ten of those silos
were brought down offline.

And, yes, it appears that they
were brought offline by a UFO.

NARRATOR: It's a terrifying story,

and Salas has stuck to his account
for over 55 years.

But perhaps in the fraught era
in which they happened,

the events of that night don't need
another worldly explanation.

- Salas was operating during
the height of the Cold War.

- The nuclear arsenal
of the United States

was controlled
by analogue technology,

often in the hands of tired
and frightened men.

- Human and technological errors

could easily have led to
a catastrophic accident.

AUERBACH: On October 25, 1962,

the US nearly went to war
with Russia

after shadowy form was seen

scaling the perimeter fence of
Duluth Sector Direction Centre,

a military installation
in Wisconsin.

- The alarm was sounded that
a possible attack was underway.

- At nearby Volk Field,
the wrong alarm switch was thrown,

and air force pilots scrambled to
launch bombers into the air,

armed with nuclear bombs
to attack Russia.

- The intruder on the fence turned
out to be a bear.

And as for the planes on
a doomsday mission,

a quick-thinking official managed to
drive across the airfield

and stop them taking off.

NARRATOR: Bright lights in the sky
could be mistaken for UFOs

by weary and paranoid soldiers.

Later during the Cold War
in the early 1980s,

very similar experiences
to those at Malmstrom

were being reported over
5,000 miles away

at a missile base in
Soviet-controlled Ukraine.

- Colonel Boris Sokolov claimed

that aliens took over
his silo as well.

NARRATOR: On October 4th, 1982,

multiple witnesses from the base
reported strange lights

and saucer shaped discs
in the skies overhead.

- Sokolov reports that after the
discs were sighted,

they seemed to seize control
of the missile controls.

But unlike what happened
at Malmstrom,

instead of turning them off, they
switched them to launch mode.

- The access codes appeared
spontaneously on the screens,

witnessed by dozens
of terrified servicemen.

NARRATOR: Sokolov says that when the
UFO's suddenly vanished,

the system reset itself to normal.

Armageddon was avoided.

But it seems these
apparent UFO incidents

on both sides of the conflict,

had leaders worried that
there might be a third combatant

entering the Cold War.

ELIZONDO: There was
a secret agreement

between Russia and the United States
in the late sixties saying,

"If you see a UFO,

please call us first
because we want to make sure.

that we don't confuse a UFO
as some sort of mistaken identity

and a provocation for nuclear war."

There is a very, very direct,
very strong link

to UAP's and our nuclear technology

and the development
of our nuclear technology.

The question is, what is it?

MCMAHON: Some experts believe
that it's the intelligence

that's maybe operating
behind these phenomenon

that essentially wants to protect us
from ourselves,

to ensure that we don't end up
incinerating each other

and the planet.

NARRATOR: Perhaps this explains
Pentagon officials

continuing reluctance to discuss
the incident at Malmstrom.

Salas' account of the events,

which he says he reported to
the Department of Defence,

was raised at a Congressional
hearing in Washington

on May 17th, 2022.

- It's also been reported that there
have been UAP observed

and interacting with and flying over
sensitive US military facilities.

NARRATOR: US Congressman,
Mike Gallagher,

wants to hear the views of leaders

from the US intelligence
establishment

on the reported events.

- At the same time, a glowing red
orb was observed overhead,

I'm not commenting on the accuracy
of this, I'm simply asking you

whether you're aware of it and
whether you have any comment

on the accuracy of the report.
- I'll pass that to Mr Bray

- That data is not within the
holdings of the UAP taskforce.

- OK, but are you
aware of the report?

- I have... heard stories-

NARRATOR: The event at Malmstrom
seems to have posed

a direct threat
to national security.

But the taskforce investigating
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,

has no information to offer.

- All I can speak to is what's
within my cognisance

at the UAP taskforce and we have
not looked at that incident.

- Well it's a pretty
high-profile incident.

I don't claim to be
an expert on this but

that's out there in the ether.

You're the guys investigating it,
I mean, who else is doing it?

- If something was officially
brought to or attention,

we would look at it. There are
many things that are out there

that aren't officially
brought to our attention.

How would it officially be brought-
I'm bringing it to your attention.

This is pretty official.

NARRATOR: Congressman Gallagher
places the Malmstrom incident

of 1967 firmly in
the task force's in-tray,

marked 'Urgent'.

- It will finally have to be
officially investigated

and that investigation
publicly acknowledged.

AUERBACH: If this technology exists

to turn these nuclear weapons
on and off at will,

the combined might of all the
world's militaries

might not be sufficient
to fight off an invasion.

- I looked left and there was this
thing about a hundred yards away

I could have hit it with a stone
if I'd threw it.

And you know one part of me
all the time was saying

"That's a UFO, you know,"

but some part of you doesn't
wanna believe it, you know?

NARRATOR: This is the voice of John
Lennon,

a member of one of the world's
most famous bands, The Beatles.

He is describing an extraordinary
close encounter

he claims to have had in 1974

while living with his girlfriend,
May Pang, in New York.

- It's a Friday night,
John and May are in for the evening.

May is ordering a pizza.

- The temperature drops and
May decides to turn off the AC.

- John is lying on the bed, naked,
looking through potential artwork

for his new album,
Walls and Bridges.

NARRATOR: It's a typical evening
for the couple,

who are renting an apartment
on East 52nd Street,

in the heart of Manhattan.

- At 9:00pm, John feels the urge
to go to the window.

- John looks outside and witnesses
something he can't quite explain.

It was a dark craft-like object,

with white lights flashing
on and off underneath the craft

and a red light on the top.

MCMAHON: John yells to May Pang,

and she rushes to join him
immediately on the balcony

to see what all the fuss is about.

May describes seeing something

the size of a Learjet in the skies.

To give you an idea of what that
would have been in terms of scale,

the Learjet 35a in the 1970s

had a wingspan of 39 feet,
six inches.

May also mentioned that
it travelled sideways

and was shaped like
a flattened cone.

- The two stand there naked
for about 10 to 15 minutes

watching this craft.

- It reportedly passes over the
United Nations building

and then shoots across
the East River towards Brooklyn.

- Immediately afterwards, John
Lennon draws a picture

of the conical craft.

NARRATOR: In a radio interview,

he reveals he then sought
a little help from a friend.

I got a friend to call the police
and call the newspapers the next day

to check if anybody else
had seen anything.

And a couple of people had
rung in and seen something

in the same area
at the same time as me.

NARRATOR: But despite Lennon's claim

that others independently reported
a UFO in the heart of the city,

no-one else actually ever comes
forward to confirm the sighting.

- You would think in a population
dense area like New York,

you have a lot of eyewitnesses, you
have a lot of people seeing a UFO.

But first of all,
you've got a lot of light pollution,

and two, you've got high rises.
Right?

When you are in a downtown
metropolitan area,

surrounded by buildings, you can
probably see about 10 degrees worth

of sky at any given time, that's it.

So, it's not really surprising that
someone in an apartment

down the street could see a UFO,

meanwhile you are just a block away
and you see nothing.

- Clearly if it's to be believed,
it's a remarkable encounter.

But historically,
people have questioned

the validity of the story.

NARRATOR: John Lennon may have
genuinely believed he saw a UFO,

but as an objective
paranormal eyewitness,

he is far from perfect.

LOVELL: The incident occurred
in what is famously known as

'Lennon's lost weekend.'

A moniker that he used to describe
his period of introspection

between 1973 and 1975,

when he was separated from Yoko Ono.

- Not only was John Lennon one of
the most famous people

in the world at the time,
he did also have a reputation

for taking mind-altering drugs.

LOVELL: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
or LSD, is synthetic drug

that belongs to a group of drugs
called psychedelics.

LSD is a powerful hallucinogen
that can distort perceptions,

mood and thoughts and also lead
to visual hallucinations

that can appear to distort
space and time.

NARRATOR: In 1974,

Lennon says he was now
favouring alcohol over LSD,

but the effects of LSD
have a habit of returning

when you least expect it.

-Clearly there is always
the question of,

"Well, could this be some sort
of psychedelic flashback?"

As we know, LSD can come back,
and you can have these flashbacks.

- So, the big question is,
was John merely experiencing

one of his famed LSD trips?

NARRATOR: But LSD may unlock more
than just subjective hallucinations.

In 2020, scientists discovered

that mind-altering
chemicals like LSD

appeared to be a different
kind of gateway drug,

potentially providing a portal
to another world.

- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
in Baltimore in the United States,

documented over 2,500 people's
entity encounters

after ingesting
dimethyltryptamine, or DMT,

which is a chemical compound
with mind-bending properties,

very similar to LSD.

NARRATOR: Entities,
small alien or elf-like creatures

would appear to the users
after they'd taken the drug.

And a huge proportion
of the people surveyed

swore these beings were more
than just a figment

of their drug-altered minds.

- 95% of the participants reported
that these entities

were conscious and intelligent.

And 75% of them reported
believing that these entities

continued to exist even after the
effects of the drug had worn off.

NARRATOR: But Lennon insists
he was clean and clear-headed

at the time of the sighting.

- John was very adamant that he saw
this UFO without taking drugs.

It was below rooftop level,

and it was just coasting around
like a tourist, you know?

It was just potluck that I saw it,
if you'll excuse the expression,

and I was straight as a die,

I was straight as a die.

- And his descriptions of the event
over the years

remained pretty consistent.

And furthermore, we also have
May Pang as a witness.

NARRATOR: May Pang's personality
is very different

from her boyfriend, John's.

- She was the stable one
of the relationship,

and she didn't take drink or drugs.

- If it was seen by two eyewitnesses
at the same time,

at the same place, that becomes
a lot harder to just explain away.

Especially if both of them claim
they weren't under the influence

of any type of drug or psychedelic.

NARRATOR: Despite fears
for his credibility,

Lennon was so convinced
by his experience

that he printed "I saw a UFO"

inside his Walls & Bridges album.

LENNON: I almost took it off
the album, at one time I said,

"Pull it off, they're gonna say
he's crazy!" You know?

But I thought, "Look, I saw it."

You know, I don't care
what anybody says.

There it was and nobody can
explain what it was to me,

so I said UFO, you know.

NARRATOR: And the search
for the origin

of Lennon's Manhattan UFO encounter

might not lie in his drug-fuelled
life in 1970's New York,

but in his experiences in
another city, decades earlier.

- In the 20th century, Liverpool was
a hotspot of reported UFO activity.

NARRATOR: The city on
the Mersey where Lennon grew up

was famous for launching some of the
biggest musical acts of the 1960s.

But the local area also had
a darker reputation

for strange and unexplained
occurrences.

- In 1966, police officer
Donald Cameron

reported seeing lights hovering
over St Helens.

- People also reported
weird timeslips

on Bold Street
in the middle of the city.

- In fact, there were so many
supposedly weird things going on

that the local press
speculated that Liverpool

was like a kind of
Bermuda Triangle in itself.

NARRATOR: And 14 years after his
alleged UFO sighting in New York,

May Pang reveals that Lennon
had also spoken about

a more sinister encounter he'd
had while a boy in his home city.

- Remarkably in 1988,
May Pang claims that Lennon,

in an interview with Larry Warren

from the Merseyside Anomalies
Research Association,

claimed that as a child in Liverpool
he had been abducted by aliens.

And as a result of this experience,

he believed for the rest of his life

that he was somehow different
from most other human beings.

NARRATOR: In 1980,
John Lennon was assassinated

by a deranged fan, Mark Chapman,

on New York City's 72nd Street.

It happened just blocks from where
he claimed to have seen the UFO

with May Pang, six years earlier.

But even now, more than 40 years on,

questions about his alleged
UFO encounters persist.

- Was John Lennon just swept up
in the whole mania

in the 1970s around UFOs?

He was, for example, a subscriber
to the British UFO magazine,

Flying Saucer Review.

So, was this just something
that he wished to see,

or was it a genuine UFO sighting?

And for a man like him
to believe in UFOs,

to be fascinated by
extra-terrestrial life,

we have to wonder
why he was so interested.

Did he know something that we don't?

NARRATOR: March, 2022.

John Greenewald of website,
the Black Vault,

puts in a freedom of information
request to find out

what the US government
knows about UFOs.

And this is what he got back.

- This report was released
by the Pentagon,

home of the US Department
of Defence.

- It had previously only been seen
by select members

of the United States Congress.

- Anyone opening the report is
immediately confronted by

the fact that it is
so heavily redacted.

There are black outs everywhere.

- Reading from the report,
it says the following.

"The most common shape described
by military personnel

in their reporting was a 'redacted'.

Several sightings were 'redacted'

and resembled 'redacted' shapes

like a 'redacted' or a 'redacted'."

NARRATOR: The shapes of UFOs are
clearly a closely guarded secret

in the corridors of power.

But why is the US military so wary

of releasing the information it has
on these phenomena?

- Circles, discs, cigars,
tubes, triangles

have been seen in our skies
throughout history.

NARRATOR: In fact, the same shapes
have been appearing

for at least 450 years.

In the 16th century,
the German city of Nuremberg

was a busy and prosperous
medieval metropolis.

But on 14th of April 1561,

the townsfolk wake up to
a sight beyond anything

they had seen or heard before.

- The shapes were described
as globes and tubes.

- They were seen by hundreds,
if not thousands of individuals.

And we're talking about
a time where mankind

did not have any technology
that that could fly.

NARRATOR: A local artist,
fortunately, felt the need

to record the extraordinary event.

His woodcut print shows distinctive,
solid objects in the sky,

saucer shaped circles,
and bizarre tubes.

And these objects are engaged
in a terrifying aerial battle.

- Differently shaped objects
zig-zagged and zoomed

through the sky, sometimes
crashing into each other,

appearing to fight
before crashing to the earth

and leaving a plume of smoke.

- They were described
by eyewitnesses as in some sort of

what appeared to be a dogfight
or some sort of aerial combat.

- The illustration was published
in a broadsheet,

with a text from Hans Glaser,
a woodcutter and printer.

- Translated from the old German,

Glaser describes that after
the aerial battle there appeared-

GADINGER: "Something like a black
spear, very long and thick,

the shaft pointed to the east,
the point pointed west.

Whatever such signs mean,
God alone knows."

NARRATOR: Three types of objects
were seen in the sky that day,

cigar-shaped tubes,
spheres or discs,

and finally, a triangle.

- Glaser reports that such images
have been seen in the sky before,

and they're believed to be
celestial messages from God.

- He's perhaps warning that
God-fearing residents

should take this as a sign to repent
and to beg God to avert his wrath.

NARRATOR: The woodcut is one
of the most controversial

16th century drawings in existence.

Debate still rages about exactly
what happened that morning

in 1561.

- The human eye is fallible.
It's really good at what it does.

But the human eye can
also be fooled.

And that's why we have things
called optical illusions.

AUERBACH: The famous psychoanalyst,
Carl Jung

dismissed the woodcut in 1957.
Saying that what was depicted here

was just an ordinary natural
phenomenon, like a swarm of insects.

Jung argues that ancient peoples
would see gods,

demons, dragons, or monsters.

Whereas in modern times,
we're more likely to interpret them

as being technological products,

the vehicles occupied
by alien beings

with capabilities far beyond
our understanding.

NARRATOR: So, an insect swarm could
perhaps morph in our minds

into something otherworldly,

and so could other
natural phenomena.

- Others have said
the Nuremberg sighting

could be a misinterpretation
of a sun dog.

This is an artefact of sunlight
reflecting off ice crystals

high in the atmosphere.

NARRATOR: But these
explanations don't explain

a remarkable coincidence.

The National UFO
reporting online database,

surveyed over 90,000 reports of
modern-day sightings.

And of discernible shapes,
the sphere, the triangle

and the oval, or cigar,
are the most common,

the very shapes from
the Nuremberg woodcut.

- Is it simply a coincidence

that the objects bear such a
striking resemblance to the objects

that we've photographed and seen
in the 21st century?

NARRATOR: And consistently
through the ages,

UAP's have presented in these
three standard, geometric forms.

- So, why are these
shapes considered

such sensitive information?

- The shape of an object
can tell you a lot

about its performance
characteristics

and its attributes.

It will allow you to understand
its friction, coefficients,

its aerodynamics and ultimately,

its performance capabilities.

These are almost always top secret

in military
and intelligence circles.

NARRATOR: And there's
speculation that the shapes

relate to a secret
advanced technology

that was believed to be
purely theoretical,

gravity wells.

- A gravity well is simply a delta

or a difference in
the gravitational pull

in a localized area.

- The round saucer
is the basic gravity well,

the cigar is two gravity wells
next to each other,

and a triangle
is three gravity wells.

NARRATOR: The concept of gravity
wells as a source of power

is mostly associated with
massive cosmic objects

like our own sun,
pulling on orbiting planets.

But a civilisation
more advanced than our own

could manipulate these forces on
a much smaller scale.

- The more mass you have
in a smaller volume,

the greater that pull is.

You get to a point where
that pull is so sufficient

that space itself is ripped away.

The very fabric of space and time,
think of a zipper,

is literally pulled apart.

NARRATOR: The different shapes
could represent a range of vehicles

from the same civilization,

harnessing this power
for different purposes.

But there could be
an alternative scenario,

the one depicted in
the Nuremberg Woodcut.

ELIZONDO: We definitely know that
there's different shapes of crafts.

Are they piloted
by different factions?

The answer to that question is,
we don't know.

NARRATOR: The battle raging in the
sky over Renaissance Germany

may point to aggressive
clashing civilisations,

squabbling violently
over the planet below.

Humans reduced to mere
helpless onlookers.

Governments might fear
this ancient war

could spark again at any time.

- Perhaps in this depiction of
devastating alien aerial combat

we are seeing the shape
of things to come

NARRATOR: 2018, America.

Late at night, a security camera in
a deserted games room

picks up a strange form followed
by unexplained activity.

First, the pool table comes alive.

Then, the pinball machine.

Evidence, some say,
of a paranormal presence

known as a poltergeist.

- Classic poltergeist activity
includes things moving around,

weird noises, or even
the sound of invisible footsteps.

This sort of thing has been
documented for thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Terrifying
supernatural events like these

are traditionally linked
to ideas of the afterlife

or the spirit world.

But, a leaked slide from a
presentation

by the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace
Threat Identification Programme

to US Military officials
could change everything.

- Slide 9 is really weird.

It seems to link what we call UFOs

to these kinds of
supernatural powers.

NARRATOR: This top secret and
explosive report

was discovered by a blogger,

who released it into the public
domain on August 9th, 2018.

It has since been authenticated
by the former head

of the Advanced Aerospace Threat
Identification Programme,

Luis Elizondo.

- I've got to be very careful

because that is an official
government slide.

That was part of the official
government briefing,

and I don't know how much
I'm allowed to say about it

other than that it is a real slide.

NARRATOR: Slide 9 begins
with talk of,

"The ability to manipulate both
physical and cognitive environments"

and then lists examples.

It's official jargon
for paranormal activity,

or what some would call
ghostly phenomena.

- Well, what is a ghost?

These are things that exist that
aren't in our plain,

in our reality.

Well, some people say
the same thing about UFOs.

- The slide talks about
the penetration of solid surfaces,

remember ghosts
that walk through walls?

NARRATOR: In popular imagination,

UFOs are nuts and bolts spaceships,

piloted by flesh and blood
creatures from other planets.

- But, in many so-called UFO cases

the occupants behave more
like ghosts

than real, solid creatures.

- In 2007, the French Government
released a report

from the town of Cussac, in which
two school children saw a UFO,

a sphere like craft, in which they
saw four black clad individuals

literally passing straight
through its walls.

They literally floated
right into it.

NARRATOR: But, the link between
UFOs and the paranormal

inferred in Slide 9
has been made before.

BELLINGER: In 1995, government
contractor, Robert Bigelow,

set up an organisation called NIDS,

the National Institute
for Discovery Science,

to investigate the
phenomenon of UFOs.

- Researchers who worked
on this programme

say they discovered a link
between UFOs and poltergeists

and they called that
the Hitchhiker Effect.

NARRATOR: The Hitchhiker Effect
is when UFO witnesses

have subsequent
paranormal experiences

that seem to attach to them.

- Those experiences continue
to happen and are recurring.

And there are people who
report that is the case.

NARRATOR: And it's not only the
witnesses themselves

who are affected.

WALTERS: There was a man
called Jim Axelrod

and he said that he observed
strange orbs in the sky in Utah.

And when he returned home
to Virginia, his wife, apparently,

began to see weird ghostly
humanoid figures in the house.

- Then one day, his children
reported that they were downstairs

and looking out the window they saw
a seven-foot-tall wolf-like creature

standing up on hind legs,

staring at them intently

until it ran off at high speed,

still on two legs.
Clearly not normal canine activity.

NARRATOR: These UFO-related
paranormal experiences

seem fantastical but many
are seen by multiple witnesses,

so can't simply be dismissed
as figments of the imagination.

- It implies that this phenomenon
manipulates reality

in such a way to create not just
hallucinations,

but real events.

NARRATOR: But for many, while UFOs'
may now be accepted as real

linking them to paranormal activity
is a step too far.

Instead, scientists
and parapsychologists

have searched for more
conventional causes

behind accounts of the supernatural.

- Chris French, a parapsychologist
at London's Goldsmith college

has said that there is
a logical explanation

for many of these things.
Take noises.

Those can be explained by water
hammering in pipes and radiators.

Weird fires, they can be explained
by regular home electrical faults.

And how about objects being moved
or seeming to be thrown around?

They can be explained
by structural faults,

rats, beetles, birds,

and even seismic activity
like little earthquakes.

- Michael Persinger
at Laurentian University says

infrasound might excite activity
in the brain's temporal lobes.

This could then stimulate the
perception of a ghostly figure.

And a team at the Association of
Pacific Rim Universities

proposed that electromagnetism
could induce effects

that humans could interpret
as supernatural.

NARRATOR: But some experts
believe there is such a branch

of scientific research and behaviour

that could account for genuine
paranormal phenomena.

- Quantum physics studies
the behaviour of reality

at an atomic or subatomic level.

Objects behave differently,
at this level,

to the rest of the physical world.

WALTERS: If you look at Slide 9,
what it seems to imply

is that these spooky effects
observed at quantum level

are being used by
the phenomena we call UFO's.

GADINGER: It's a belief backed up
by University of Cambridge

Nobel prize winner,
Professor Brian Josephson.

He says that paranormal phenomenon
will come to be regarded

the same way as quantum
entanglement is now.

That is, a seemingly impossible idea

that is now accepted
by mainstream science.

NARRATOR: Intriguingly,
Slide 9 concludes

by implying the US Government

already has some understanding

of the mechanisms at work.

BELLINGER: It says
the DOD controls several facilities

where events like these
have taken place.

And sensationally, it also says

that the DOD has actually
been involved

in similar experiments in the past.

- There's a lot... (chuckles)

There's a lot that
we don't understand.

And there's a lot that we should
be trying to understand.

- Who knows what goes on
behind the scenes

at America's top-secret laboratories
and military installations?

Perhaps they don't want us
to find out.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services