Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Life-forms on Earth that defy evolution...

ANDREW COLLINS: The ancients were aware that the octopus is truly

alien to this planet.

NARRATOR: Strange animalistic deities revered by our ancestors.

WILLIAM HENRY: In all these cultures, we have beings manifesting

in these animal forms.

NARRATOR: And elusive beasts hiding on the outskirts of civilization.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE: The Sasquatch disappears in a flash of light.

What in the world are we dealing with?

NARRATOR: Accounts of powerful entities

with animal-like features can be found all around the world.

Could it be that humans are just one species

in a vast extraterrestrial animal kingdom?

GEORGE NOORY: There are all kinds of creatures with

intelligence in this universe.

NARRATOR: There is a doorway in the universe.

Beyond it is the promise of truth.

It demands we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

In one of the strangest alien abduction cases on record,

eight different people report being taken

onto an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Even stranger is the fact that the same eight people were

allegedly abducted again three days later.

Derrel Sims, a former

U.S. intelligence operative, is the first to investigate

these separate cases as a single event.

SIMS: All these people came back with the same identical information.

Exact same story, same location, same entity, same everything.

I was just absolutely amazed

at the clarity of their information.

All these people were kept separate

and apart from each other.

No one had any knowledge of any mass abduction.

NARRATOR: Each of the self-described abductees

reported being taken aboard a small craft

that transported them to a much larger spaceship.

And once inside, they encountered

other abductees that were not human.

They were all led out through this massive hallway.

It looked like a museum.

They seem to have collected

species, animals, people, all kinds of things.

This room that they found themselves in

that was straight out of a science fiction movie

with these glass tubes and glass cases.

And according to their eyewitness reports,

in these glass cases

they saw creatures that they had never

seen before, but also creatures from planet Earth.

NARRATOR: From the start of the modern UFO age,

researchers have gathered compelling accounts

of alien experimentations on human beings.

But is it possible that homo sapiens

are not the only species

with a connection to extraterrestrials?

And might further clues be found by examining

significant flaws in the theory of evolution?

In 1859, biologist Charles Darwin

introduced the world to the theory of evolution

with his book On the Origin of Species.

In it, he proposed that gradual, multi-generational changes,

occurring due to natural selection,

had resulted in the modification of all existing species.

While scientists agree that this process does, in fact,

take place to some extent, in recent years, evidence has

been presented that suggests evolution alone cannot account

for all of the species present in the animal kingdom.

There�s one species of dog,

but look at it from Chihuahuas to Saint Bernards

to bulldogs, everything in between.

And all that has happened in less than

a few thousand years. I mean, this is crazy. This is like

going from this generalized wolf-like creature

into this huge variety of dogs.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: There are fossils of giraffes with short necks,

and then we have the present.

And there�s no intermediate form.

If you suddenly give a giraffe a much longer

neck than it had before,

a lot of things have to change.

Its blood pressure regulation has to change.

It�s got to have a different heart.

It�s gonna be eating different things

with a long neck.

All of that software for the animal has to be rewritten.

And you�re telling me this all happens overnight?

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists propose that if some or

possibly all of the life-forms on Earth cannot be explained

as the product of natural selection or evolution,

it may, in fact, offer proof

of not only intelligent design but also what

they believe to be extraterrestrial intervention.

And they say the overwhelming evidence

can be found by examining the practices

of ancient cultures all over the world.

Manchester, England.

September, 2015.

Researchers from the University of Manchester

use the latest medical imaging technology

to reveal the first look inside

more than 800 mummies from ancient Egypt.

The deceased are not humans,

but crocodiles, cats,

baboons, birds,

and numerous other species,

painstakingly preserved for thousands of years.

When we think of mummies we tend to think

of people being mummified, but we actually find out

is that Egyptians also mummified a tremendous amount

of cats, dogs, alligators.

All sorts of things were being mummified in ancient Egypt.

NARRATOR: The mummification of animals was so pervasive

that in 2015, archaeologists discovered that a catacomb

underneath a temple dedicated to Anubis,

the canine god of the dead,

held a staggering eight million dog mummies.

The dogs were thought to have a direct connection

with Anubis, the lord of the underworld.

That was the jackal-headed god,

so when a dog died it, could carry a message.

NARRATOR: It is believed that as many as 70 million animals

were mummified at sites like this

throughout Egypt, which is roughly the same

as the number of human mummies that have been found.

70 million is just the ones that have been found, right?

Some presumably have gotten lost, have decomposed.

So the fact that there�s that many

means that this practice was widespread,

and also that it continued over a long period of time.

This went on for the whole two to 3,000 years

of ancient Egyptian civilization.

NARRATOR: But why did the ancient Egyptians mummify their animals?

In Saqqara, you see thousands of birds

mummified right next to each other, thousands of them.

The reason that huge amount of animals were mummified in Egypt

was because they believed those animals were sacred.

They are the equivalent to

lighting a candle when you go to a church.

You bring a mummified animal that the god would employ.

Historians believe that the reason for this is that

Egyptian people originally were animist.

In other words, they saw the entire universe

around them as filled with life.

And they attributed deity, divinity to

the animals in their universe.

NARRATOR: But it wasn�t just in ancient Egypt

where animals were so highly revered.

Similar practices of animal worship can be found

among the ancient Sumerians,

the Maya and Aztec of Mesoamerica,

and the Australian aborigines, just to name a few.

If cultures all across the world revered animals

as having a connection with gods that came down from the sky,

could this be evidence that certain Earthly creatures

possess a link to extraterrestrial entities?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and suggest that

some of the planet�s non-human life-forms may even be directly

related to mankind�s ancient alien ancestors.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Luxor, Egypt.

Within the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut,

one of the few female pharaohs of ancient Egypt,

is a carving of the bull god Apis,

depicted with a solar disk above his head.

Although he is little known today among the pantheon

of Egyptian deities, historians suggest Apis was

the very first god to be worshipped in Egypt,

emerging around 3,000 BC.

He was considered to be the creator of humanity.

Animals were so important in ancient Egypt that

one of the creation myths

starts with a bull.

The bull that comes out of nowhere, the bull that comes out

of the sky, that appears in the middle of the endless ocean

is the one that creates humanity.

That bull is the father of all humanity.

In many, many mythic traditions it is an animal

or sometimes the council of animals that creates people.

And different cultures have different

animals that played very, very formative roles.

Sometimes this is a particular ancestor to humankind.

Sometimes it�s an ancestor to a particular tribe

or a group of people.

We find this very commonly in the northwest coast,

Native American groups, where you�d have different clans

that would have different lineages

sacredly founded by different animals.

The wolf clan, the bear clan, the frog clan.

And you can even see this reflected

in their totem poles of those groups.

NARRATOR: Many ancient cultures throughout the world

not only had stories that humans were created by animals

but also depicted their gods with animal features.

YOUNG: Ganesh, the Indian Hindu god,

the one with the head of an elephant,

could intervene and solve problems for the faithful.

The monkey god Hanuman was a bit of a trickster,

but he could be seen interacting with human beings,

walking among us.

In Aboriginal stories from Australia,

the creator of the universe was a rainbow serpent.

Many of the animal gods were described

as descending from the sky.

The Egyptians believed in Thoth, a god with a head of an ibis

who taught science, philosophy and magic.

Khepri had the head of a scarab and played a major role

in the creation of the world.

ROMANY: Most of the gods were depicted with the animal head

and a human body because

ancient Egyptians knew that the head had the wisdom.

NARRATOR: If the ancient stories of flying monkeys

and animal-headed gods

are literal accounts of what our ancestors witnessed,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

is this evidence that humankind was created

by otherworldly beings that are genetically connected

to animals that still roam the Earth today?

Or did the extraterrestrials disguise themselves as animals

to appear more friendly and acceptable to early humans?

HENRY: We could be dealing with extraterrestrials.

Extraterrestrials who chose to incarnate as cats

and dogs and other animals, in order to guide humans

and also to disguise their true form.

to manifest on Earth

in a form that would be perhaps more palatable to humans.

Zeus is one of our most

well-known gods from the Greek pantheon.

And we have Zeus transforming himself into a bull,

which is part of the story of how the people

of Europe were formed, or Europa.

We have Zeus transforming himself into

a swan, Zeus and Leda.

In the traditions of West Africa, the Voudon

traditions, Papa Legba, as he�s sometimes called,

very often appears as a variety of animals.

In the Native American Pawnee culture, the sky god,

the creator god, the great spirit would never

come in direct form, but use animal forms,

many different animals, as a way to communicate with the humans.

NARRATOR: In the Pawnee tradition, young men entering adulthood

would go out on vision quests.

They would isolate themselves from the tribe,

perform ritual prayers, and fast.

Through this process, they would enter a trancelike state

in hopes of communicating with these intelligent animals.

THOMPSON: A bear might come up to you and say hi.

It might be a caterpillar, it might be a squirrel.

But at some point something interacted with you.

Some animal actually interacted with you.

And that was held to be very, very profound in terms of

your own identity, in terms of your own spirituality.

So the idea is that each animal, therefore,

is connected to their own sort of animal spirit.

So that a singular caribou is in part in touch with

this sort of larger caribou spirit.

So, in terms of the vision quest,

you might figure out who your guardian spirit was.

NARRATOR: Similarly, in India, the prophets known as Rishis

would describe animal encounters

after extensive meditation.

And in Mesoamerican and Pueblan cultures,

shamans would use powerful psychedelic plants

to not only communicate with otherworldly creatures,

but in some cases transform into the animals themselves.

In all these traditions,

the encounters are taken very seriously.

These animal energies are very real and tangible,

and the wisdom is extremely valuable.

Some ancient astronaut theorists propose that while

extraterrestrials may disguise themselves as animals,

they may also have a real physiological relation

to certain creatures on Earth.

HENRY: One of the key figures written about

on the ancient Sumerian tablets is Enki,

who they labelled the god of smithcraft and alchemy,

and also suggest as a figure who knew the secrets of human DNA.

For they credit him with the transformation

or fashioning of the human body. Very interestingly, Enki

is portrayed as a half-human, half-serpent being.

He�s referred to as a serpentine god, a reptilian being.

Stories of reptilians appear in many different cultures.

In the Vedic culture, we have the stories of the Nagas.

We have stories of reptilians, of course,

in the Garden of Eden.

We have stories of reptilians in the Mesoamerican cultures,

like the Incas and the Mayans.

Divine serpents are unusually universal.

there are examples from Mesopotamia,

from India, China, Japan

and in the Americas, both South America and Central America.

SALLA: Different cultures refer to reptilian beings as beings that

were helping humanity acquire technologies

at a point in our evolution when we were really starting out.

In early China, the founders were considered to have been

semi-divine and in some cases fully divine beings.

Very often they were

half snake and half human.

The ancient Egyptian god Sobek is a crocodile-like deity

who is credited by the ancient Egyptians

with creating the world.

In portrayals at the temples dedicated to him,

he�s portrayed as a human with the head of a crocodile

who emerged from the original waters of creation

to create humanity.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the many ancient stories of humans beings

created by serpent-like gods are inspired by actual events?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and point to

archaeological evidence that supports this very idea.

In 1923, British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley

excavated one of the oldest agricultural communities

in the world-- the Sumerian city of Ur--

where the ancient Sumer people worshipped the serpent god Enki.

Among the remains, he discovered some unusual clay artifacts,

some dating as far back as 4000 BC.

One of the most amazing

discoveries were the figurines that were uncovered.

They were these humanoid figures with, for all intents

and purposes, heads of reptiles, they look like snake people.

All theories abound as to what these statues represent,

but to me they represent possibly Sumerian gods.

The Anunnaki.

Enki, too, shows these characteristics.

We have to wonder if this isn�t a god that wasn�t

visiting just ancient Sumer

but other cultures around the world as well.

NARRATOR: Do the strange statues unearthed in the city of Ur

represent extraterrestrials

that came to Earth in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest that a similar connection can be found

when examining the ancient stories

of a race of insectoid beings

and their dwelling deep underground.

NARRATOR: Cambridge University, England. 2013.

Using a high-speed camera with intense magnification,

Scientists from the department of zoology record the movement

of a plant-hopping insect called Issus.

Examining the footage, they make a shocking discovery.

The movement of the Issus is powered by mechanical gears.

It is the world�s first evidence

of mechanical gearing in a biological structure.

This natural cog mechanism allows the Issus to make

powerful jumps, with the gear teeth on the opposing

hind legs locking together like those in the gear box of a car,

ensuring almost complete synchronicity of leg movement.

But how did a biological entity develop mechanisms

that appear man-made?

GENE KRITSKY: Insects are essentially evolution�s tinker toy set.

Insects were the first animal group

To evolve the ability to fly on their own power.

Insects have an exoskeleton,

which is almost like a living armor.

NARRATOR: In terms of sheer numbers, insects are by far

the most dominant life-form on Earth, and with over one million

different species, they also remain the most mysterious.

KRITSKY: Insects appeared on the Earth over 400 million years

before humans appeared on the Earth.

They were incredibly successful, well before

the age of the dinosaurs, and a long time before humans.

About half of the living creatures on the planet

belong to the group of insects.

They�ve really found ways to inhabit just about

bout every ecological niche in nature.

They have compound eyes, which, in some cases, they can

see into the ranges that humans cannot, like ultraviolet.

KRITSKY: They have a very sophisticated sensory system

that makes them different from what we can perceive.

For example, insects taste,

smell and feel with the hairs on their body.

When they land on you, they�re smelling you,

they�re tasting you, they�re feeling you.

There are upwards of a million species

of insects evolved so far.

So, we may think of ourselves as being special,

but, in reality, insects are the most successful

animal group that�s ever evolved.

NARRATOR: In the more than 400 million years that insects are believed

to have existed, no bug has thrived more than the ant.

KRITSKY: Ants are among the most successful animal groups

that we see on the face of the Earth.

One out of every four individual animals

on the face of the Earth is an ant.

Ants are incredible insects,

and they�re highly evolved.

NARRATOR: In size and appearance,

ants and humans could not be more different.

But interestingly, in many ways these tiny bugs are

more like us than any other creature in the animal kingdom.

KRITSKY: Ants have a social system where they have a division of labor.

You have a reproductive queen,

you have males that will mate with the queen.

You have sub-reproductives that can

leave the colony and start new colonies.

Then you�ve got a series of workers.

And then there are specialized workers that are soldiers

that can actually protect the colony if they�re under attack.

So, they�re rather intriguing

with regard to their behavior.

NARRATOR: But how is it that the behavior of ants

mirrors that of humans in so many ways?

Is it simply coincidence?

Or could ants and humans be more closely related than we think?

Ancient Greece.

In both Homer�s Iliad and Ovid�s Metamorphoses,

there is a group of warriors known as the Myrmidon,

who are born of mysterious origins.

According to the Ovid, King Aeacus of Aegina pleads

with the god Zeus to repopulate his plague-ravaged country.

That night, he dreams that ants fall

from the branch of a tree and turn into men.

He awakes the next morning

to find his dream has come true.

The story of the Myrmidons is that they were ants

made into warriors.

They were said to have fought with Achilles at Troy,

and they were very effective.

MIKE BARA: The descriptions of the ant people are very, very accurate

in terms of the behavior of the insect, the ant itself.

They were very loyal, they moved together as one,

almost in a hive mentality.

KRITSKY: The Myrmidons were thought to be the first to develop ships,

and to sail under their own power.

This ability to be organized like an army

comes from ants marching in a nice, linear fashion.

The idea about being the first to sail

comes from the ant�s ability to raft.

Ants will get on the surface tension of water and lock legs.

Other ants will climb on top and this little mound of ants

will float around on the surface of water.

In the case of the Myrmidons, these were fierce warriors.

They were well trained, they were organized, just like ants.

These descriptions are so vivid and so accurate in terms

of the ants� behavior that what Zeus seems to have done

is actually some sort of genetic crossbreeding between

humans and insects in order to create this army of ant people.

You�re dealing with an extremely advanced technology

that really, really understands how to use genetic manipulation

to create new species.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Myrmidons depicted

in the ancient Greek stories were actually

some type of ant and human hybrid,

manufactured by an alien being?

Ancient astronaut theorists claim further evidence that ants

may have a connection to extraterrestrials

can be found in stories throughout numerous cultures.

In the Muslim holy book, the Koran,

there is a story of ants speaking like humans.

In parts of Africa, ants are considered to be

the messengers of the gods.

And Native American tribes like the Hopi and Zuni tell stories

of the ant people who emerge from beneath the Earth.

The ant people is a very interesting subject

when it comes to looking at the Hopi belief system.

Ant people, number one, are caretakers of the earth.

NARRATOR: Unlike the Myrmidons of Greek mythology, the ant people

of the Native American stories don�t just behave like ants,

they resemble them as well.

They have spindly arms, they have antenna.

They have elongated skulls.

These are clearly a merging

of the human and the insect.

They are not simply a fable or a parable.

TSOUKALOS: If one explores the question

of insectoid alien life,

then my question is why not?

Because if life is pervasive throughout the entire universe,

then that life comes in all shape, size and color.

So, the idea that insectoid aliens might exist

is very possible to me.

However, I think the idea came from

our ancestors witnessing physical features

that made them look like ants,

or could be best described as ants.

WILCOCK: If we look at the face of an ant,

we look at the head of an ant,

we see large, buggy eyes,

widely spaced on the face,

and a large head.

So, this could be an illustration of people

seeing beings like what we now call the Greys,

and associating it with something

that�s familiar to them.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the ant people that appear

in Native American mythology were really Grey aliens?

Or might they even be human-insect hybrids

engineered by otherworldly beings?

Perhaps the answer can be found in the accounts of

those who claim to have been victims

of alien abductions

by insect-like creatures.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The Kalahari Desert, South Africa.

The indigenous people of this area, called the San,

represent one of the oldest existing populations on Earth,

with a culture that dates back approximately 80,000 years.

According to the origin story of this ancient society,

the first humans were created not by traditional gods

but by insects.

According to the San people,

the origin of humans lies with the praying mantis.

There once was a bee who was asked

by a praying mantis to carry him

across a raging river.

And the bee did so.

He carried the praying mantis across

the river and deposited him on a leaf.

But before leaving, the exhausted bee left an egg

inside the praying mantis, and that egg is

the source of all human beings.

NARRATOR: But where did the San people get the idea

that humans were created by a praying mantis?

Curiously, the San tradition also holds that a praying mantis

gave early humans the gifts of language and fire.

And one of their most important gods, Cagn,

the creator of the world, often took the form of a mantis.

The San people of South Africa had a fascinating theology.

Their god was known as Cagn, and Cagn was a trickster god.

He could shapeshift

and appear in a number of different forms...

...but was very fond of appearing as a praying mantis.

BARA: Cagn has a lot of struggles on the planet Earth.

There were many wars that were fought,

and eventually, he left the Earth by means of

going up into the sky.

DAVID CHILDRESS: Another interesting thing about Cagn

is that it�s said that he created the Moon.

And the San people do their planting because

of phases of the moon.

So, you�ve got to wonder,

is this praying mantis extraterrestrial god

just some mythical figure

or is he really a representation

of some kind of real praying mantis

insectoid alien that�s come to Earth?

NARRATOR: Could the prominence of the praying mantis

in San mythology suggest that their ancestors

actually encountered such beings in the distant past?

Although most anthropologists regard these stories as fables,

some ancient astronaut theorists find it curious

that the praying mantis is also

a recurring image in reports of alien abduction.

Covina, California. 1963.

In this small farming town

on the outskirts of Los Angeles,

17-year-old Linda Porter awakens

to find herself aboard a strange craft.

From what she is able to recall later under hypnosis,

a small creature that appeared to be a Grey alien

led her towards a light-filled room,

where she encountered another type of being-- one much taller

and with the features of a praying mantis.

O�BRIEN: Very stand-alone, very odd case.

The fact that this occurred in 1963 is very intriguing

because it�s before the abduction phenomenon

became popularized.

There have been depictions throughout various

abduction scenarios that include the Grey aliens...

...and this larger, tall "insectesoid" being,

very praying mantis-like.

NARRATOR: Linda Porter claims that

throughout her teens and 20s,

she experienced numerous

other encounters with these alien beings.

But it wasn�t until the age of 45 that she

finally reached out to investigative journalist

Linda Moulton Howe to tell her story.

I received a letter, carefully written,

from Linda Porter.

And this led up to her sending me a whole lot of drawings.

NARRATOR: These drawings appear in Linda Moulton Howe�s book

Glimpses of Other Realities.

One of the drawings was of a praying mantis

about eight feet tall

in a room that was very odd,

had a cylindrical object and sparkles of light.

O�BRIEN: There have been quite a number of different

types of aliens seen, allegedly, by contactees.

But the ones that are really peculiar and very rare

are these very scary, skinny, large,

basically intelligent insects that have been reported.

People have drawn parallels between the aliens that are

reported on board UFOs and insects, particularly bees.

The Greys, for instance, could be equated

in some way to the drone or the worker bee.

The so-called praying mantis-type

could be seen, perhaps, as the queen bee--

larger than the others, more intelligent.

They�re taller than a person, eight or even nine feet tall.

And the Grey aliens may handle the person

who�s being abducted, but in the background,

there�s this praying mantis-type

that seems to be calling the shots.

NARRATOR: According to Porter, she is part of a larger experiment,

one in which these aliens appear concerned with her soul.

HOWE: She said whatever we humans are,

we have an animus, a soul

that is mysterious to them,

and they are trying to find out

where does the soul spirit go

at the moment of death,

and that the non-humans

were studying the recycling

of the souls in and out of containers.

NICK REDFERN: She talked about being shown three cylinders.

Contained in each cylinder was a human being

in kind of, like, a state of suspended animation.

HOWE: Linda Porter came away from her

two or three decades of interaction with these

non-humans, including the, at first,

terrifying praying mantis,

that these are extraterrestrial,

biological entities

that have taken a deep interest in the evolution

of life-forms here,

that they have manipulated DNA

in already-evolving primates,

that they have created a whole

series of different models.

NARRATOR: Might the numerous accounts of mantis-like beings

reported by alleged alien abduction victims,

along with the ancient San story of a praying mantis god

be evidence that an otherworldly race

of insectoids really does exist?

If so, perhaps such beings are not limited only

to the creatures that walk the Earth.

NARRATOR: March 2018. A scientific paper

sparks a sensation in the press.

In it, a team of 33 scientists,

including Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe,

claim that octopuses possess extraterrestrial DNA.

What we find in the octopus genome is just almost uncanny.

It has something like 50,000 genes.

Compare that with the human,

which has something like 25,000 genes.

So, the octopus, in many ways, appears

to be more complex than the human.

Now, how did this complexity manifest itself?

There�s ample evidence to suggest

that it came from outside.

CHILDRESS: As scientists study octopi, they�re amazed at

what they�re finding, and they�re not seeing

a connection to some ancestor of the octopi.

It�s like these creatures were brought here,

in their entirety, and put into our oceans.

KIRSTEN FISHER: The octopus is a really fascinating organism.

The octopus� brain, instead of just being centered

in its head like ours, is actually distributed.

There are these brains in their arms,

as well as the essential brain in their head.

An octopus can certainly manipulate its environment.

It builds its own homes by piling rocks

and shells on top of it.

FISHER: Octopuses are very adept at

camouflaging themselves by changing their color to that

of their surroundings really, really quickly.

I mean, almost it looks instantaneous to us.

It can also manipulate its body

into different shapes to imitate other animals.

NARRATOR: Some scientists have speculated that, in the absence

of humans, the animal best suited

to evolve into the dominant species on the planet

is not another primate but the octopus.

And there is one ability in particular

that suggests the octopus could one day rule the Earth:

it can edit its own genetic code.

ILIFFE: DNA, the double helix,

is like a zipper.

The zipper can be unzipped,

and then another molecule is created

called RNA.

RNA transfers the information

from DNA to proteins.

So, the octopus have the amazing ability to edit

their RNA, thus, they can make new proteins.

NARRATOR: Although this ability isn�t fully understood,

it suggests that the octopus

can rapidly adapt to its environment

far faster than other creatures.

FISHER: What RNA editing does is, essentially,

mediated by changes in the environment,

usually temperature, for example.

NARRATOR: Camouflaging skin?

Tool use?

The ability to edit its own genetic code?

Is it possible that this extraordinary creature,

with three hearts and nine brains,

is not from Earth?

Perhaps evidence can be found by examining mythological

accounts from across the ancient world.

All the way round the world, there are traditions

to do with a creator god in the form of an octopus.

For instance, in ancient Crete,

there are numerous

images and paintings of an octopus

with bizarre large eyes.

In Ecuador, at a place called "Mantas,"

were these bas-relief carvings

of this bizarre octopus deity.

We have to ask ourselves is it possible that the ancients

were aware that

the octopus is truly alien to this planet?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the octopus is related to a race

of extraterrestrials that visited Earth

thousands of years ago?

Or did our ancestors encounter intelligent creatures

that were the result of alien experimentation?

Perhaps further clues can be found

in the accounts of elusive sea monsters

that mysteriously turn up in multiple parts of the world.

Lake Champlain. July 5th, 1977.

While taking a drive along the eastern shore just north

of St. Albans, Vermont, Sandra and Anthony Mansi

pull over to let their two children play in the lake.

As they begin to wade in,

Sandra notices a disturbance in the water

and then something shocking.

And I�m watching out there, and all of a sudden,

I could see turbulence.

Something broke the surface of the water.

And it broke the surface like this,

right here, in the back of the head and the neck.

I went down, and that�s when it turned

to look over its back,

and I snapped the photograph.

NARRATOR: The photograph that Sandra Mansi took that day

is considered by many to be definitive evidence

that Lake Champlain is home to a monster.

Lake Champlain is named for the French explorer

Samuel de Champlain, and in 1609,

he claimed that he saw a strange creature emerging

from the waters while on an expedition.

This sighting was just the first of hundreds,

and for many who believe the stories are true,

Sandra Mansi�s photograph is the ultimate proof

that Champ really exists.

In 1981, the famous photo

was submitted for authentication

to the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona.

The findings from the optical college

in Arizona was that this was an authentic photograph.

It was not tampered. It was genuine.

NARRATOR: Curiously, there have been sightings

of very similar creatures reported all over the world,

like Cressie and Ogopogo in Canada,

the Japanese sea monster Issie,

Mokele-mbembe sighted off the west coast of Africa,

and the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.

KEN GERHARD: One of the most compelling aspects of the mystery

is that descriptions are very similar.

And we�re talking about decades of sightings,

numbering in the thousands.

To me, this indicates that we�re dealing with variations of

the exact same species here, a breeding population worldwide.

NARRATOR: Could the fact that stories of similar sea monsters

are told throughout the world

be evidence that these strange creatures really exist?

And if so, just what are they?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

there is evidence that they may have

extraterrestrial origins.

HENRY: The story of the Loch Ness Monster

reminds me of a, of a UFO sighting that happened

north of Nashville back in the �90s.

A man hears the sound of rain beating down on the roof,

and he goes outside, and it�s a perfectly clear night.

And he looks up in the sky, and he sees a giant UFO that�s

firing at a creature on his deck

that looks like, he calls it the one-footed snorkel monster

because it looked like an elephant�s trunk with one foot.

In his police report, the man described

how the snorkel monster spun itself into

a vortex or a ball of light and disappeared.

One wonders if this is evidence of a portal, that this

creature was opening up,

and, in fact, if this creature and the Loch Ness Monster

are part of the same family of creatures

that travel the world through these portals or gateways.

NARRATOR: Could sea creatures, like Champ and the Loch Ness Monster,

really be ultra-dimensional entities that can travel through

portals allowing them to elude capture?

Some ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest that similar accounts of creatures from other

dimensions can be found in the formidable eyewitness

encounters with the mysterious beast known as...

Bigfoot.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: On the Menlung Glacier, at an altitude of

18,000 feet, British explorers

Eric Shipton and Michael Ward

came across a mile-long trail of unusual footprints.

Not expecting to find humans in this remote

corner of the mountain, the climbers examined

the prints to determine what made them.

To their surprise, the footprints were in the shape

of a large, human-like foot,

one roughly twice the normal size.

The footprints suggest that, in fact,

we�re dealing with a large primate.

One that shares with us the... not only the habit

of walking on two legs, but has some

superficial resemblance in its foot to our footprints.

Uh, only much larger scale, but differ from the other

great apes in the lack of a divergent big toe,

suggesting they�re adapted to a wholly

terrestrial environment, living on the ground.

NARRATOR: Photographs brought back from the expedition

launched a media sensation,

and marked the beginning of the Bigfoot phenomena.

But where do these giant footprints come from?

Could they be a hoax?

Or is there some mysterious unknown creature

living in the remote wilderness?

Since the Mt. Everest discovery, there have been numerous

sightings of large ape-like creatures on every continent,

many clustered in the Pacific Northwest area

of the United States, including Mount Shasta

in Northern California.

In 1979, I was up on the side

of Mount Shasta, on the foothills,

uh, trying to get to the base of the mountain.

It was so dense and so tough.

As we�re standing there, we heard this crashing sound.

Simultaneously, we smelled this awful smell,

I mean, it was foul.

But what was horrifying was whatever it was

was coming at us through this impenetrable hedge.

And then we heard the most blood-curdling combination

of an elephant, uh, trumpeting,

a lion roaring.

(creature roaring)

O�BRIEN: And it was so loud it bounced off the foothills

two miles away.

That was probably the most terrified I�ve

ever been in my life, and-and the next thing I knew,

we were headed down the mountain almost skidding off corners.

HOWE: I had heard from sheriffs

about a rancher in Montana who had gone out to go hunting.

Comes around a ridge, has an eight-foot-tall,

reddish-brown, primate-looking,

long-haired creature standing right in front of him.

Picks up a .30-06 and just fires.

And the creature disappeared in a flash of light.

If the Sasquatch,

when a bullet is shot at it,

disappears in a flash of light,

then what in the world are we dealing with?

And what do they want?

NARRATOR: Could the sheriff�s description

of a being that disappeared in a flash of light

be evidence of an encounter with an interdimensional entity?

Although mainstream scientists consider

the mysterious beast as no more than a modern-day myth,

the number of Bigfoot sightings reported

and photographed continues to steadily increase.

Witnesses generally describe the creatures as huge,

hairy, primate-like beings

that stand erect on two feet.

They have a human-like face and large teeth.

According to the recorded accounts,

the encounters often accompany a high-pitched cry

or an intense sulfur-like smell.

They range in size from, perhaps,

six feet to ten feet tall.

Coloration, the most common description

is of a dark brown fur.

Their names vary from location,

uh, but you have, of course, in America, Bigfoot,

otherwise known as Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest.

Down in Florida, he�s known as the skunk ape.

Down in Australia, we have the Yowie.

NARRATOR: But if a Bigfoot creature really does exist,

how has it remained so elusive?

Researchers point out that accounts of giant,

human-like beasts date back thousands of years.

MAGLIOCCO: Throughout ancient history,

we have a number of legends about giants, about wild men,

about hairy beasts that live at the edge of civilization.

These were humans, you know, people, who were,

however, wild, they were hairy,

they didn�t wear clothes, they lived in the woods,

and yet, in other ways, they had special powers.

All cultures across the world, whether it�s South America,

native American Indians, Europe,

Russia, China, Tibet, Australia--

all these nations have legends and tales

of giant, hairy, wild men.

Now, you know, people say,

"Well, legends are just legends,"

but when you have cultures and countries separated

by oceans all talking about very similar things,

to me, this does suggest that, in times past,

these things were very, very prevalent

and widespread across the world.

NARRATOR: Similar stories emerged much later

with Viking explorer Leif Erikson,

who, in the tenth century A.D.,

wrote of "horrible, ugly, hairy creatures with dark eyes."

Leif Erikson was familiar with the different

types of tribes of an indigenous people.

Now, he spoke very specifically about

these large, hairy creatures with dark eyes

and a very specific scent that they had.

It stood out from all the other cultures that they

interacted with on their travels into the New World.

Could these have been the Sasquatch

that we speak of today? Very possibly.

NARRATOR: Could all these similar accounts found

throughout history and around the world

be proof that Bigfoot is more than just myth?

And is there any evidence that its origins lie

not on Earth but in the stars?

REDFERN: There are a number of cases on record where

Bigfoot is being seen in the same

precise timeframe as UFO activities being reported.

For example, there was a-a big wave of UFO

activity in Pennsylvania in the early 1970s,

and people were actually reporting

these large, shadowy, lumbering,

ape-like creatures walking out of the woods.

In Texas, there�s a road known locally as Ghost Light Road.

And it�s called Ghost Light Road

because people see these weird balls of light

flying through the woods.

Coincidentally, people also have reported

huge numbers of Bigfoot

sight reports in these very same woods.

Bigfoot are intelligent,

they�re very, very secretive and very, very hidden.

They�re able to skirt around civilization.

Perhaps they do have some sort of extra abilities

that allow them to do this, and if so,

where did those abilities come from?

We can�t factor out that, possibly,

Bigfoot are somehow a-an extraterrestrial species.

HOWE: Back in 1980,

I get a letter from a man up in Snohomish, Washington,

famous for the Sasquatch or Bigfoot sightings...

...who said, "I was out at my father�s place...

"...and I hear a sound in the trees

as if wind has come in."

With the trees starting to move comes this silver disc.

And then he sees a beam that comes down to the ground.

In the beam is a tall, shaggy, primate-looking--

he said it looked like a gorilla--

comes down to the bottom,

and the tall creature walks by as if he doesn�t exist.

NARRATOR: If Bigfoot creatures are aligned with extraterrestrials,

as some ancient astronaut theorists believe,

could these strange beings be far more advanced than we think?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining

reported sightings of other elusive creatures

and the mysterious men who protect them.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: February, 2013.

Analyzing data gathered by NASA�s Kepler space telescope,

astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center

for Astrophysics announce that six percent of all

red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-like planets.

Because red dwarf stars burn much longer than our sun,

the discovery raises the possibility

that life on these planets could be much older

and much different than life on Earth.

The environment plays a really pivotal role

in sort of the direction, um, that organisms evolve,

and so you can imagine that evolution played out

on a different planet

might follow the same types of rules, but have completely

different end products, and so it�d look completely different.

WARD: Just go to any other star with planets around it.

Intelligence is going to happen because of crises.

It�s going to happen because you can only survive

with that intelligence, but it could be from a reptile.

That we were reptile equivalent. It could be from a quadruped.

It might be from a mollusk-like creature.

The cause is probably gonna be the same.

The end result, anatomically, totally different.

HENRY: There could be a myriad of different forms that intelligent

life takes throughout the cosmos.

When we look to the earthly record of

otherworldly beings that have visited Earth,

they exhibit different characteristics.

They have bird heads, dog heads, reptilian-type forms.

It�s possible that these are the forms that these beings take

on their home planet, and they might even co-exist

with beings that are even different from them.

Within the field of ufology there are

multiple types of aliens reported.

This includes winged humanoids,

like Mothman, the Houston Batman.

It also includes so-called insectoids, which,

as their names suggest, they look like large insects.

And then we have the reptilians, bipedal reptile-type creatures.

I think it�s highly possible that they�ve adapted

and developed physically in those fashions

in relation to the conditions on their relative home planets.

I think there are all kinds of creatures with

intelligence in this universe that would shock us.

I think your environment determines

what you�re going to end up looking like, eventually.

I think after time, that complexity of who you are

physically adapts to what that planet is.

WILCOCK: If you look at some of the Sumerian illustrations,

you see an avian bird head

on top of a very strong human body.

You look on the Egyptian paintings, and you have a human

with an elongated skull and very green skin.

And there is a one-to-one correlation

between modern sightings that people are reporting,

both from abduction contact experiences,

as well as what we hear from

insider testimony and what we see

in the most ancient records of contact with the gods.

It�s the same people. They never really left.

NARRATOR: Could there be a connection between the strange-looking gods

depicted by ancient civilizations

and these present-day encounters with extraterrestrials?

And might further clues be found in the curious sightings

of an alleged otherworldly creature known as the Mothman?

Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

November 15, 1966.

Two young couples were driving down

a dark road outside of town.

As they passed by an old building,

they were startled by a frightening sight.

They claimed to have seen

a large, uh, winged creature,

Six to seven foot tall, gray in color and two large red eyes.

They said this creature flew over their car

and followed them back into town.

That was the beginning of the Mothman sightings.

NARRATOR: The young couples� harrowing account was picked up

by the local press and incited panic across town.

The legend of the Mothman was born,

and dozens of encounters with the winged monster

would be reported over the next year.

There were over a hundred reported sightings

to the local authorities.

You had some people who, you know,

claimed to have seen it while driving in their car, you had,

uh, other people seeing it in their front yard.

NARRATOR: For the people of Point Pleasant, the mystery

of the Mothman persists to this day.

Where did this monster come from?

Why did it suddenly appear in this small town?

And perhaps most curious of all, why were the first Mothman

sightings followed by a visit from the men in black?

BARA: Some people think he was a being from another world.

The supporting evidence of that is the fact that multiple

witnesses who saw the Mothman were actually intimidated

by what can now be described as men in black.

Men in black typically are only associated with UFO cases.

REDFERN: People described men in black

as looking like cadavers.

They looked like pale-faced zombies

dressed in black suits with black fedoras.

DOLAN: I interviewed Mothman witnesses who did

have men in black experiences.

This was 40 years after the fact at the time,

and they were still clearly traumatized by the event.

I had no reason to disbelieve these people. None whatsoever.

NARRATOR: One resident who claimed to have been visited

by the men in black was Mary Hyre,

a local journalist who reported on the Mothman sightings

for the Point Pleasant Register and The Athens Messenger.

Mary Hyre was just a normal, legitimate

journalist investigating your average stories around town,

and then she was suddenly plunged into

this issue involving the Mothman.

NARRATOR: Mary Hyre had begun investigating

the mysterious incidents in and around Point Pleasant

with a New York-based UFO researcher named John Keel.

REDFERN: John Keel heard about the Mothman story

and decided, "I�m gonna go up there,

I�m gonna see what�s going on."

And when he did so, he hooked up with Mary Hyre.

And the two of them sort of became

like the Mulder and Scully of that era and secured

a great deal of information, interviewed a lot of people.

NARRATOR: These investigations would eventually lead to the popular

book and later Hollywood film The Mothman Prophecies.

But not everyone was pleased with the information Mary Hyre

and John Keel were gleaning from the public about the Mothman.

Mary Hyre was visited by men in black,

uh, who told her to stop writing about the Mothman

and all these strange encounters.

Stop writing about this.

You don�t want to be involved in this.

This is a classic example

of the men in black not just terrorizing and threatening

UFO witnesses, but also journalists as well.

NARRATOR: Was this just a case of the men in black

attempting to cover up a potential alien encounter?

Or might the fact that numerous witnesses

reported being visited

and threatened by these mysterious characters

indicate that they were protecting

an even bigger secret?

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Eight miles north of Point Pleasant

is the McClintic Wildlife Management Area,

a 3,600-acre wilderness known to locals

as "the TNT area."

This former World War II military installation

is believed by many to be the home of the Mothman.

The reason it�s called the TNT area is because they

manufactured explosives and TNT for the war effort.

When the war ended in 1945, the government basically just

deserted that area there.

That�s where the first Mothman sighting took place.

And then you had some people who,

you know, claimed to have seen it

in the TNT area near some of the vacant buildings.

NARRATOR: Within days of the first Mothman sighting in 1966,

residents of Point Pleasant were surprised

by another unexpected visitor

at the TNT area: the U.S. military.

According to reports from locals,

they had barricaded the site

and swiftly turned away anyone who approached it.

While no explanation was

ever given for the military�s

sudden arrival, some researchers believe that

the increased security was used to conceal

an otherworldly hybrid experiment gone awry.

And some claim that these types of animal experiments on Earth

have been going on for thousands of years.

Mosul, Iraq.

1845.

While excavating the ancient ruins

of the Assyrian capital city of Nimrud,

famed English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard

unearths an amazing stone

covered with detailed carvings.

Dating to 825 B.C., the black limestone obelisk

commemorates the deeds of King Shalmaneser III.

Curiously, depicted alongside

his military conquests and various offerings

made to him are strange, hybrid creatures.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is incredibly

fascinating because, as far as hybrid beings are concerned,

what we have here are creatures half-animal,

half-human, some with a-a human head

with, then, an animal body.

And what�s so interesting is the fact

that the artist was very clear in depicting something,

and that is that some of these creatures are held

with a rope and of one even with a chain.

Now, did these creatures

actually walk around here on Earth?

And, frankly, I would not be surprised

if that�s what happened because

the basic tenet of the ancient astronaut theory is

manipulation artificially of genetic material.

NARRATOR: Hybrid creatures abound in mythological traditions

all over the world,

and in many cases, they are part-human.

The ancient Greeks wrote about the centaur,

half-human, half-horse.

In Hindu mythology, the naga are often depicted

as serpentine creatures with human heads,

while the Egyptian god Horus has a falcon head and a human body.

Even in the Koran, the flying horse that was said to have

flown Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem had a human face.

ERICH VON D�NIKEN: By natural evolution,

hybrids can never have existed.

If hybrids existed, then there must be

genetical design behind it.

Our ancestor, in Egypt or elsewhere,

had no genetical designs, but we had the hybrids.

You can prove it in the literature,

you can prove it in the sculptures,

which still exist worldwide, especially in Egypt.

The question which remains is

if extraterrestrials have made hybrids, why? What for?

NARRATOR: Could the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

and countless other depictions around the world

be a physical record that hybrids have existed

throughout history?

And if so, is there an alien

hybridization project that

continues to be carried out even today?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining

our own human experiments.

Moscow, the Soviet Union.

February 1954.

At the Institute of Experimental Clinical Surgery,

organ transplantation pioneer

Vladimir Demikhov conducts a potentially groundbreaking

and highly controversial experiment.

He transplants a dog�s head onto the torso of another dog,

using vascular connections to the host dog�s heart.

The procedure is a success,

and over the next five years,

Demikhov performs several more head transplants.

As far as these experiments are concerned,

what they demonstrated was that scientists

now had the potential to quite literally play God.

By mixing animal DNA, creating,

if you like, sort of chimeras.

NARRATOR: Looking back on Demikhov�s efforts

more than 50 years later,

they seem like the work of a mad scientist.

But surgeons today have gone even further.

In an attempt to prolong human life,

they have begun merging animals

with humans.

In 2003, Chinese scientist Hui Zhen Sheng

fused human cells with rabbit eggs,

resulting in the first human-animal hybrids

created through genetic engineering.

In 2004, researchers at Minnesota�s Mayo Clinic

created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies.

And in recent years,

some scientists have even proposed

that, building upon Vladimir Demikhov�s

experiments with dogs,

transplants of human heads may soon become a reality.

But for ancient astronaut theorists,

all of these animal-human hybrid experiments

are nothing new.

In fact, they are eerily reminiscent of the depictions

of hybrid creatures found on numerous ancient carvings,

like those on the obelisk of King Shalmaneser III,

that seem to show stitches around the necks

of what appear to be human-faced dogs.

I sometimes wonder if what we�re doing now

was also done tens and tens of thousands of years ago,

in different parts of the world,

and possibly that could�ve led to the creation

of these multiple different types of early humans.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that ancient depictions of hybrid creatures

provide evidence that thousands of years ago,

extraterrestrials performed genetic experiments

similar to those being conducted by scientists today?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest it�s even possible

that alien hybrids have existed on Earth

for thousands of years,

completely undetected.

[music playing]

Thousand Oaks, California.

May, 2017.

Ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos

visits the Ventura BioCenter

to examine one of Earth�s most curious creatures:

the bombardier beetle.

This little bug is a marvel of evolution

or, some say, intelligent design.

- Peter, good to see you. - Giorgio, nice to see you.

- How are you? And this is Tom. - All right.

- Hi. Nice to meet you. - Hello, Tom.

Pleasure. How�s it going?

Tom is our insect wrangler,

who�s gonna help us set up a demonstration

on one of the coolest animals on Earth, the bombardier beetle.

That�s fantastic, because, about a year ago,

Erich von D�niken gave me his latest manuscript

for his newest book.

And we all know that there are these multiple

creatures that seem to defy Darwinian evolution.

And one creature that jumped out at me that

I hadn�t heard before was this beetle right here.

WARD: This beetle is fascinating from an evolutionary

point of view, in fact,

it�s been used by many people to suggest that evolution

doesn�t work at all, and the reason is

the enormous complexity of this thing.

This animal is a chemical warrior.

It�s able to shoot out boiling-hot streams

of a really toxic liquid

that has the same sort of mix as rocket fuel.

- TSOUKALOS: That�s amazing. - WARD: And it can shoot

over 500 of these bursts per second.

- Wow. - WARD: But the process happens

so fast, it�s almost in the blink of an eye.

So, we have a high-speed camera over here

that can shoot about 2,500 frames

per second, and with that camera,

we can slow down this process,

and in seeing that process,

we can work out the exact sequence of events.

So, let�s set this up with Tom and watch this take place.

Let�s do it.

Okay, guys, so what I�ve got is

some, uh, non-toxic, very mild adhesive,

and I�m just gonna touch it to the beetle�s back,

and that will suspend him in the air.

We�re gonna give him a little bit

of stimulation with these forceps.

Simulates the predator and makes him feel defensive.

There it was.

NARRATOR: While it is almost imperceptible to the naked eye,

with the high-speed camera,

the beetle can be seen blasting rapid-fire streams

of deadly chemicals directed at any would-be predator.

- TSOUKALOS: Oh, wow! How cool. - WARD: There it goes!

- Projected it in that particular direction. - Right.

You can actually see the squirts,

the mist, the vapor.

The appendage which allows this to happen can rotate.

It can move back and forth, so it can shoot

this in lots of different directions.

Yeah, this is really awesome.

NARRATOR: Dr. Ward has set up a computer-generated model

of the bombardier beetle to show Giorgio the incredible

process that is taking place inside its body.

You�ve got the organs that produce the chemicals,

and two separate chemicals are being made.

We�ve got this hydroquinone,

which is actually a makeup of the organics of the creature.

It�s part of his external skeleton.

The second one is a chemical called

hydrogen peroxide, which is rocket fuel.

Now, if we combine these two together in a chamber,

what we can do is build this chemical material

that�s gonna get really hot and blast out the back

of the bug. So, one of the coolest things

about this whole system, it�s got a one-way valve.

Once this chemical concoction

that�s getting really hot starts reacting,

the last thing you want is having it blast back

into the interior of your body,

so it can direct it, squirts out this super-hot,

super-toxic material into that predator�s face.

TSOUKALOS: And one has to wonder

what was the evolutionary process

of this beetle for that defense mechanism

to even exist?

WARD: Yeah, that�s the critical question.

If evolution takes place step-by-step,

what�s the intermediate?

How does this thing not blow itself up

as it�s experimenting through time?

How do you go from just a garden-variety beetle

- to a super beetle like this? - Mm-hmm.

TSOUKALOS: One has to wonder

if this creature, perhaps,

was brought here in its finished form

or at least the genetic material

for this creature came here as a finished product.

NARRATOR: Could the physiology of the bombardier beetle

be proof that there are animals on this planet

of extraterrestrial design?

The gasses that the beetle emits can

burn the skin of humans, and if the mechanism it holds

within its body was constructed on a larger scale,

it could be a very deadly chemical weapon.

Is it possible that aliens placed certain

creatures on this planet so that humans can

learn from them and recreate their abilities?

FISHER: Throughout the animal kingdom, there are other

organisms that also have tremendous abilities.

The dung beetle is able to pull upwards

of 1,100 times its bodyweight.

The mantis shrimp, they can see things like

polarized light, UV,

infrared light.

Squids and octopus

basically change their-their body coloration

and the patterns and even the texture of their skin

as they move across different substrates,

which is just incredible.

NARRATOR: Many advances in human technology

have been inspired by the animal world,

an approach scientists refer to as biomimicry.

Airplanes were designed to imitate

the winged flight of birds.

Military camouflage evolved out of observing the way squid,

octopuses, and chameleons take on

the appearance of their surroundings.

Sonar used in the navigation of submarines and ships is a skill

taken from dolphins, whales,

and bats who emit sound waves

to locate both prey and predators.

WARD: We have stolen

so many attributes of animals

in the past for our own technologies.

We�re taking on this worldview of what an animal can do

and using technology to rebuild it.

WILCOCK: We�re taking clues from the natural world

in order to develop technologies.

This may be part of a greater hidden extraterrestrial

initiative, perhaps for a seeding

of a technological and human revolution

that we�re just starting to see now.

NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrial beings have intended for mankind

to study the other animals of Earth

in order to advance our technology,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

And if so, is this the continuation

of an experiment that they have been conducting with different

life-forms on the planet for thousands of years?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that

such experimentation continues to this day,

but that it is now being directed by humans.

NARRATOR: Rapallo, Italy. 1988.

While studying marine life off the coast of Italy,

German biology student Christian Sommer

discovers a microscopic species

with an incredible ability:

it never dies.

The animal, a jellyfish called Turritopsis dohrnii,

repeatedly reverts back to its earliest polyp state

and begins its life cycle over and over again.

WILCOCK: Now, there�s something strange going on here.

There�s something that doesn�t appear to happen

in any other life-form that we�ve ever identified

in the millions and millions of different

creatures that live on Earth.

There is no theoretical limit to how much

this creature is able to recycle itself.

That completely defies all known scientific laws

of biology as we now see them.

NARRATOR: Scientists have nicknamed the species

the "immortal jellyfish," and are attempting to unlock

its biological secrets in the hopes that they may hold

the key to increasing the lifespan of humans.

But how did such an incredible creature

come to exist in the first place?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe that extraterrestrials

may still be seeding our planet with new life-forms

to help direct the path of mankind�s evolution.

Is it also possible that what we�re looking at is

a series of ETs that might�ve been visiting Earth

for hundreds of thousands of years

and have been systematically dropping off

some of their favorite creatures from other biological worlds

very similar to our own that have certain special ingredients

so that once we reached a certain level of technology,

we could adapt those qualities into our own life?

NARRATOR: Is humanity still under the influence of animals

introduced to Earth by otherworldly beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and suggest that we are beginning to become

like our alien ancestors,

playing a hand in the evolution of life on Earth.

WARD: One of the cutting edges of biology now is

we are taking human stem cells, putting them

into embryos of animals,

and then hoping that it becomes a human organ itself.

So, this is a lot of experimentation.

We can take a DNA molecule within an animal

and knock out specific genes.

We�ve been able to do that for a while,

but now we�re able to replace them

with specific genes the very first time,

which is unleashing lots of Frankenstein monsters.

Right now, what we�ve seen the most

interesting and, to me, scary

example of this comes from China,

where they have taken a single gene,

inserted it into a beagle, and caused that beagle

to have twice the musculature than it otherwise would have.

These things are like super beagles.

And that begs the question: if you can do it to a beagle,

can you do it to a human? Absolutely.

WILCOCK: This could be the first step

of a revolution in biology

that leads to us starting to have the type of abilities

that are commonly reported in the ancient lore

of extraterrestrial gods visiting Earth.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that mankind is beginning

to reach the level of our alien ancestors,

as ancient astronaut theorists propose?

Do they continue to assist us in this process,

secretly introducing incredible new life-forms on Earth?

If so, are strange and unexplainable animals

found on our planet connected to beings

beyond our world?

And might there be others we have yet to discover?

Perhaps one day soon,

we will find that incredible creatures

of myth and legend are not

the product of the human imagination,

but immigrants to planet Earth

from alien worlds.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0