All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S01E02.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB

>> NARRATOR: Reports of UFO
sightings come from all corners

of the globe.

>> I was taken onboard a
200‐foot‐diameter spacecraft

in the Mojave Desert and given...

>> I saw two great big, real
bright lights hanging up

in the air.

>> NARRATOR: Most believe
these alien encounters are a

modern phenomenon, but the fact
is they have been reported for

thousands of years.

>> MICHAEL CREMO: Practically
every human civilization have

been in touch with
extraterrestrial beings.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: In India,
Israel.

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: The Mayans
and the Aztecs.

>> LINDA HOWE: The idea that
there was one or more non‐human

groups inspiring us is the truth.

>> NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world believe we

have been visited in the past
by extraterrestrial beings.

But what if it were true?
Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?
And if so, where did they

come from?
And just who were the visitors?

(wind whistling)

>> NARRATOR: Roswell,
New Mexico.

This sleepy town in America's
Southwest was once best known

for its large military air base.
But that changed in 1947

when a local rancher reported
that a spaceship crashed on his

property.
Several weeks later, the U. S.

Army issued a press release
confirming the existence of an

alien craft.
The next day, the military

changed its story and announced
that what they had found was a

weather balloon.
These conflicting reports sent

shock waves around the world,
and the name "Roswell" became a

pop culture code word that
forever links extraterrestrial

visitation with enduring mystery.

>> NICK POPE: Speculation about
why the Roswell crash would be

covered up is difficult
to pin down.

Some people talk about this in
terms of information that would

be shattering to our worldview.

>> STEVEN GREER: Almost
everyone's heard about the

so‐called Roswell event,
and one of the real

implications of disclosure is
that some of our most cherished

myths about the origins of the
human race and our history

and archaeology would fall apart.

>> GEORGE NOORY: Something
happened at Roswell, New Mexico

a long time ago.
People want the truth.

I think there's something in
the human being itself that is

striving, that is hungry for
this knowledge in order to

answer questions about our own
existence.

>> NARRATOR: Today, public
opinion polls indicate more than

half the world's population
believes aliens have either come

here in the past or are coming
here now.

But what is it exactly that
makes so many people believe?

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: I do think
looking upward makes sense.

The universe is large.
There are things out there

we do not understand.
There is probably intelligent

life somewhere.

>> ROBERT BAUVAL: People tend to
forget that we're on a planet

that's four and a half billion
years old.

The presence of our civilization
in that vast scale of time...

I mean, if I click my finger, it
wouldn't even be fast enough to

say this is the time of our
civilization.

And to think that we're the only
ones in this vast period of

time, to me, is absurd.

>> SARA SEAGER: Our galaxy, the
Milky Way, has over 100 billion

stars.
And in our universe, we think

there are more than 100 billion
galaxies.

So if every star had a planet
with intelligent life, how many

alien civilizations would we
have?

>> ERICH VON DANIKEN: If you
take us as the crown of

creation, or the top of
evolution, we look at our self

as the greatest, the biggest.
We say, how incredible, uh,

unique we are in the whole
universe.

We forgot to learn modesty.

>> JENNIFER HELDMANN: Each step
that we take makes us a little

bit less special.
We used to think that we were

the center of the universe, as
humans, and then we realized,

"Oh, all right, well, that's not
true." And...

But we're at the center of the
galaxy, and, like, well, all

right, so we're like two thirds
of the way out in a spiral arm.

And then, well, at least our
sun, you know, with this... No.

The sun is actually in the
middle, and the earth goes

around it.
So earth isn't even the center

of that system, and...
So, the more that we learn, we

sort of, you know...
It's a very humbling science.

(rumbling)

>> NARRATOR: When man first
landed on the moon, our

perspective on the universe
changed forever.

>> Houston, uh, the Eagle has
landed.

>> BUZZ ALDRIN: We aliens who
happened to...

go down the ladder on July 20,

1969‐‐ we aliens...
were certainly part of a

magnificent race.

I just don't think people have a
grasp for what energy it takes

to go from one star to another.

>> NARRATOR: This historic event
raised the question: if humans

can successfully navigate in
space and explore other worlds,

why couldn't beings from other
parts of the universe have done

the same?
And might they have already come

to Earth hundreds, or perhaps,
thousands of years ago?

>> VON DANIKEN: I think human
past is more fantastic than we

all believe.
I have come to the idea that

maybe extraterrestrials were on
this planet.

>> NARRATOR: Cahuachi, Peru.

2,000 years ago, this ancient
settlement served as the

religious and cultural capital
of the Nazca people.

But sometime around 500 AD, the
Nazca mysteriously disappeared,

leaving Cahuachi to fall into
disarray.

1,400 years later, in 1910,
anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka

came to Cahuachi to study the
ancient Nazca civilization.

During a dig, he unearthed some
of the most surprising and

shocking artifacts he had ever
seen.

They were skulls with enormous,

elongated craniums.
Where did they come from?

How did they get there?
And were they human?

>> CHILDRESS: In Peru, we find
these weird, elongated skulls.

And they're bizarre‐looking.
I mean, and‐and these people

look like aliens.

>> ROBERT SCHOCH: One may say,
okay, aliens.

But another aspect that we have
to consider is that skull and

cranial deformation, forming
elongated heads is a practice

that's known throughout much of
the ancient world.

>> NARRATOR: In 1870, the
process of skull deformation was

well chronicled by a German
botanist and explorer named

Georg Schweinfurth.
While exploring the African

Congo, he came in contact with
a tribe called the Mangbetu.

They routinely performed a
ritual of cranial binding that

allowed them to physically alter
the shape of human skulls.

>> CHILDRESS: They took infants'
skulls and compressed them and

bound them.
And they forced the cranium out

and elongate it.
And in many cases, they doubled

the size.

>> SCHOCH: And a big question
is why was this being done?

It may have been a way to
distinguish the elite, perhaps,

from the everyday people.
May have been a social

stratification type of issue.
Something that also appeals to

me is, that may have been a way
to express physically and maybe

try to achieve physically
greater levels of consciousness

or higher levels of mental
ability.

>> TSOUKALOS: In my opinion,
they did this in order to mimic

the gods.
And those gods were physical

beings because if they were
just a figment of our ancestors'

imagination, I don't think
that's a compelling enough

reason to expose your children
to such a ritual to achieve that

type of look.
And in my opinion, these people

were misinterpreted
flesh‐and‐blood space travelers.

>> SCHOCH: Some people have
suggested aliens had elongated

skulls, and apparently, ancient
peoples are mimicking those

skulls.
The old saying is that imitation

is the sincerest form of
flattery.

>> NARRATOR: Although there have
been many images that attempt to

depict what aliens might
actually look like, one in

particular has come to dominate
the public perception.

It, too, features an elongated
cranium, and is associated with

an extraterrestrial race that
many refer to as the grays.

>> POPE: In terms of entities,
one very common description are

the so‐called grays‐‐ three and
a half, four feet tall,

essentially humanoid, but, uh,
very spindly with

disproportionately large heads
and huge black almond‐shaped

eyes.

>> NARRATOR: But would someone
in a primitive society really

want to replicate this look and
deform their skull?

Some archeologists have a
different perspective.

They point to artistic self‐
expression as an explanation of

these customs.

>> ROBERT R. CARGILL: There are
all kinds of people that either

worship the body or use the body
as art, be it a tattoo or a

piercing of some sort, or tribes
that, that put things in their

ears or on their lips to try to,
to try to grow parts of their

body. Some societies, we know,
practiced binding parts of the

body, feet, or heads and try to
make certain shapes, and this

was done for whatever reason.
We know today that this isn't

usually the most healthy thing
to do, but it doesn't mean

people don't do it.
People are always trying to

change their body to make it
look a certain way.

>> NARRATOR: Whatever the
explanation may be for these

rituals, they are not just found
in Peru and the African Congo.

Skull deformation is a global
phenomenon.

>> CHILDRESS: What's really
strange is that this is found

all over the world, and this is
something that archaeologists

cannot easily explain because,
for people on remote islands,

for people in South America or
Malta or in Africa to suddenly,

independently do this cranial
deformation like this seems

incredible.
I mean, this is something that

had to be learned, something
that was taught to them.

>> SCHOCH: We seem to have basic
similarities, as if there was

one civilization or at least one
type of culture that was

influencing people around the
world. I find it more and more

difficult to believe what I was
taught as an undergraduate‐‐

that all these different
cultures just coincidentally

came up with the same concepts

independently of each other.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that
individual societies around the

world were influenced by similar
events?

And were they imitating real
beings who visited from other

planets?
Some of the most compelling

images of an elongated cranium
can be traced to ancient Egypt

and the depictions of one of its
most controversial pharaohs.

Could it be that he too was
mimicking the look of

extraterrestrials?
Or is there an even more

outrageous explanation?
Could he have been one of them?

>> NARRATOR: Egypt.
Long before the ancient

Egyptians built the pyramids or
even settled along the Nile

River, they spoke of an era
called Tep Zepi, or the

beginning of time.
According to legends, Tep Zepi

was when "sky‐gods" descended
from the stars to Earth on

flying "boats," and then turned
mud and water into a new kingdom.

>> BAUVAL: The word "god,"
according to the ancient

Egyptian, is "netyro."
It means a being that came from

the cosmos.
They are very adamant about the

fact that their gods had
descended from the stars.

They tell us that the god
Osiris, who ruled with his

consort and sister‐‐ the goddess
Isis‐‐ they were star gods, and

in fact they identify them very
clearly.

Osiris was identified the
constellation of Orion.

Isis was identified as the god
to the star Sirius, the

brightest star in the sky.
There's an interesting point

about this‐‐ is that within the
constellation of Orion is the

so‐called nursery of stars.
The stars in our galaxy

literally were born in that
zone, and it's really peculiar

that the ancient Egyptians
insist that the birth of star

gods are in this constellation.
They truly believed‐‐ they were

very adamant about this‐‐ that
their origins is in the sky.

>> SCHOCH: Something that we see
around the world with ancient

civilizations is that they had
incredible knowledge of the

stars, of the planets, of the
heavenly motions.

The average person in the
ancient world had way more

knowledge of what's going on in
the skies than a lot of

well‐educated people today.

>> NARRATOR: As ancient Egypt
grew into a great civilization,

its citizens believed their
pharaohs were sons of Osiris and

thus, living gods.
Artwork and wall carvings

depicted them as perfect humans,
and while the people worshipped

many different gods, the pharaoh
stood above them all.

This basic Egyptian religious
belief remained in force for

nearly a thousand years until
one pharaoh changed everything.

Who was this heretic?
His name was Akhenaten, and in

every surviving depiction, he is
shown with an elongated skull.

Who was he?
According to Egyptian mythology,

he too was descended from the
gods who arrived on Earth at the

time of Tep Zepi.
But why do so many still believe

he actually came from the stars?

In 1352 BC, Akhenaten ascended
to the throne as the tenth

pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.
Almost immediately, he

instituted a series of radical
religious changes, including a

ban on references to multiple
gods.

>> BAUVAL: It's a rather strange
thing that he would want to do

that in one sweep, but he
ordered all the, the iconography

of previous gods to be removed.
He only allowed one emblem,

which was a sun emblem,
literally a sun disk with

curious arms or rays pointing
down.

>> TSOUKALOS: Why did he do
this? Because according to his

writings and his poems that were
written about him later on, he

was visited by one of those
beings that descended from the

sky, who told Akhenaten, "This
is the way. I am your god."

>> NARRATOR: This sun god was
known as Aten.

Akhenaten claimed to be a direct
descendent of Aten.

>> BAUVAL: Akhenaten, like any
other pharaoh, regarded himself

to be divine. He was a god.
Not only himself believed

himself to be a god, but the
whole nation saw him as a god.

Now, the definition of a god is
that he was a descendant from

these celestial beings.

>> NARRATOR: During his fourth
year as pharaoh, Akhenaten

ordered the construction of a
new capital city.

He called it Amarna and
dedicated it to the sun.

Akhenaten would spend the next
ten years here, during which

time he instituted changes in
both art and culture, including

how he himself would be publicly
depicted.

>> CARGILL: In Egyptian
iconography, Egyptian pharaohs

are depicted as these
triangular‐shaped beings‐‐

these broad, strong shoulders
and these very skinny waists.

Now, we look at leaders today
and we know that most leaders

don't have broad shoulders and
skinny waists, but it was

important to depict the Egyptian
kings as having broad shoulders

and skinny waists‐‐ very, you
know‐‐ the epitome of what a

king ought to look like.

>> BAUVAL: That's exactly the
opposite with Akhenaten.

He shows himself perhaps as he
really is... a rather strange

look.
He has a very mystical look.

>> SCHOCH: If we take
Akhenaten's statues, for

instance, literally, he was a
very strange‐looking character.

Sort of combined, some people
would say, feminine aspects with

masculine aspects, may have had
an elongated skull.

>> CARGILL: The change in royal
iconography of Akhenaten showed

him as he probably really was,
with a misshapen head, with a

potbelly, with a sunken chest,
as opposed to the idealized

iconography of traditional
Egyptian artists that showed

this big, strong pharaoh.

>> NARRATOR: Akhenaten's wife
Queen Nefertiti and their

children were also depicted as
having elongated skulls.

So why were Akhenaten's and
Nefertiti's heads deformed?

Did they suffer from a genetic
abnormality or did they

deliberately alter their shape?
Some believe there could be yet

another explanation behind their
strange, otherworldly

appearance.

>> CHILDRESS: They look like
they're different than other

human beings.

>> TSOUKALOS: Is it possible
that Akhenaten might have been

an extraterrestrial hybrid?

>> CARGILL: Ancient alien
enthusiasts look at Pharaoh

Akhenaten of Egypt and say,
"Ah, look at that long head.

That looks like an alien gray.
That looks like some kind of

something that's nonhuman, some
hybrid between something else

and something human.
Must be evidence of alien

interference, alien
reproduction with humans.

Something like that."

>> BETTY ANN BROWN: I've been
to Egypt, and one of the most

stunning things about seeing
the archeological remains of

ancient Egypt is that one
unique pharaoh, Akhenaten.

>> TSOUKALOS: I mean, he's got a
very narrow, pointy face, high

cheekbones, and a very elongated
cranium.

>> CHILDRESS: The idea that
they were either... looking like

extraterrestrials, or perhaps
had extraterrestrial DNA in

them is a credible idea.

>> NARRATOR: Akhenaten ruled
for 17 years.

After his reign, Amarna was
abandoned, and temples to the

sun were destroyed.
Images of Akhenaten were

deliberately defaced.
Ancient Egypt swiftly returned

to its old ways, worshipping
many gods.

Was this a rejection of
Akhenaten's radical religious

belief system, or a cover‐up
of his alien identity?

>> BAUVAL: There's been a lot
of theories about why.

Um, if... I mean, the most
extreme is that he somehow had

some sort of extraterrestrial
connection.

If one accepts that conclusion,
then it would explain why he was

literally put off the reign and,
some say, put to death.

>> NARRATOR: Some Egyptologists
believe Akhenaten was forced to

abdicate and flee from Egypt
with a group of his loyal

followers.
In 1907, the actual body of

Akhenaten was discovered in
Egypt's Valley of the Kings by

a British archeologist named
Edward Ayrton.

After unearthing Akhenaten's
mummified remains, he was able

to confirm that, indeed, the
ancient pharaoh's skull was

misshapen and elongated.

>> CARGILL: Some scholars argue
that he suffered from some kind

of physical abnormality; he
suffered from a disorder that

caused his face to appear to be
long, or his head actually was

longer.
I think with Akhenaten we're

dealing with a physical
deformation that wasn't

corrected by the royal artists.
They just depicted him as he

was: potbelly, sunken chest,
long head.

>> NARRATOR: Akhenaten was
succeeded by his son,

Tutankhamen, who became the
most renowned pharaoh of all

time.
When his tomb was discovered in

1922 by Howard Carter,
Tutankhamen was also found to

have an elongated skull.
Could he have inherited alien

genes from his father?

Today, much of Akhenaten's life
still remains a mystery.

Did he really change Egypt's
entire belief system because,

as some suggest, he was a
celestial being?

If that's true, might there be
evidence of similar entities

coming to Earth?
Perhaps more clues can be found

thousands of miles away on the
other side of the African

continent.

(men singing)

>> NARRATOR: Mali, in northwest
Africa.

Deep in a remote valley live
the Dogon people, who are the

descendants of a nomadic tribe
that settled here around 1000 AD.

Just like Akhenaten's
followers, the Dogon had been

forced to leave Egypt because
of religious persecution.

>> SCHOCH: The Dogon claim a
very long and ancient tradition,

and in my opinion maintain some
of the ancient Egyptian

traditions and myths that have
been carried on right into the

present age.
Parts of ancient Egypt may not

have died.
They were carried on, to this

day, among the Dogon.

>> NARRATOR: But what exactly
are their beliefs?

Dogon mythology holds that the
sky‐god Amma created the first

living creature known as Nommo.
The legend also says that

shortly after his creation,
Nommo multiplied into several

parts, one of which rebelled
against Amma.

Amma responded by destroying
him and scattering his ashes

throughout the world.

>> PETER FIEBAG (translated):
According to the Dogons' myths,

a god gave them this knowledge.
He descended from the sky in an

arc, surfing on fire, landing in
a storm.

>> TSOUKALOS: Still today, the
Dogon celebrates a festival in

the honor of Nommo and that
visitation that occurred in the

remote past. How do we know this?
For this festival, they have

wooden masks that date back
to a very long time ago, when

this festival began.

>> FIEBAG (translated): Dogon
masks tell the mystic stories

of their ancestors.
This is a sculpture of the

creator. They call him Amma.
He is embracing the universe.

This is how they pass on
information from generation to

generation, by stories carved
in masks.

>> NARRATOR: But could Nommo
have been a real person?

Some see eerie similarities
between the Dogons' legend and

the story of the mysterious
Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Akhenaten believed he was
directly descended from the sun

god Aten.
Nommo was said to have been

created by the sky deity, Amma.
Is it a coincidence that both

cultures, although thousands of
miles apart, shared mythical

tales of beings coming from the
skies?

And both Nommo and Akhenaten
were depicted with elongated

heads. Is it possible that these
legends were based on real

events?

(Fiebag speaking foreign

language)

>> FIEBAG (translated): The
Dogons dwell in the central

plateau region of Bandiagara.
Their knowledge is centuries

old, and their priests have been
sharing it with chosen

individuals only.
In the 1920s, French

anthropologist Grialue and
ethnologist Dieterle visited

the tribe and were invited to
share their secrets.

>> NARRATOR: But one secret
stood out: the Dogon claimed

that their god Amma came from a
specific star in the Sirius

constellation, the same place
where the ancient Egyptians

believed their god Osiris was
born. This star, which modern

astronomers refer to as Sirius
B, the Dogon called Po Tolo.

But what baffles experts is
that the star is so far from

Earth, it's impossible to see
with the naked eye.

>> BAUVAL: I was very
intrigued by this, by the way.

I mean, the Dogons should not
have known about the existence

of this star.
Sirius is the second nearest

star from our solar system.
It's eight light‐years away.

In fact, it's not even visible
with standard telescopes.

It was first seen, literally
seen, and photographed in the

1970s.

>> TSOUKALOS: Modern science
has corroborated that Sirius B

does indeed exist.
Problem is, the Dogon knew about

this before modern science
corroborated it.

I mean, that's spooky.

>> NARRATOR: Measurements taken
with the Hubble telescope in

2003 have confirmed that Sirius
B is what's known as a white

dwarf‐‐ or a partially
burnt‐out star with extremely

dense mass.
Although it is smaller in size

than Earth, it's estimated to
weigh eight times as much as our

sun.
But how did the Dogon acquire

this ancient knowledge of
astronomy that seems to be

centuries more advanced than
that of modern science?

>> SEAGER: The mystery is, how
did this story get passed on

down generations... if the story
came from a time before

astronomers knew there was a
companion star to Sirius which

can't be seen with the human eye?

>> FIEBAG (translated): This is
the Dogon symbol for Sirius.

When you move it around, you
can see an orbit around the

center marked by Sirius A.
Sirius B circles around it, so

it is a circular system.
This sign is practically an

astronomic model that the
Dogons could not have invented

because only Sirius A is
visible, and Sirius B and C

are invisible.
However, their description of

the orbit is correct.
One assumption is that this god,

Nommo, who brought them this
knowledge, could have been an

extraterrestrial intelligence.

>> NARRATOR: Since the early
20th century, the tribe has

been routinely studied and
researched by anthropologists.

This has led many modern
historians to claim that the

Dogon must have learned about
astronomy from Westerners.

>> CARGILL: The Dogon's
mythology is so fluid that when

science confirms something that
they might have believed in

antiquity, it might have just
been sheer coincidence, or it

could have been a conflation.
That is, they heard...

Because it's an oral culture,
and because the mythology is so

fluid, they heard something
that someone said about this

star in relation to another
star, and they just grafted that

in to their mythology.
They grafted that into their

religion.
And then when some reporter,

some subsequent reporter comes
along and says, "What do you

believe?," they say, "Well,
we've thought this for millions

of years."

>> TSOUKALOS: When critics
suggest that this knowledge was

given to them by modern
ethnologists, that's simply

incorrect because we know that
the story goes back hundreds of

years earlier than any modern
ethnologist ever went there.

>> FIEBAG (translated): If it
were ever proven that all this

information is exactly correct,
including the parts that are

still being studied by
astronomers, this would mean

that the earth had visitors
from outer space in prehistoric

times.

>> BAUVAL: Either they inherited
that knowledge, and the question

is, from where?
From a previous civilization, or

from some sort of
extraterrestrial civilization?

Or it's a coincidence.
In my view, it is not a

coincidence.

>> NARRATOR: If the Dogon people
really possessed this advanced

astronomical knowledge, were
their legends based on real

events?
The ancient Egyptians and Dogon

were far from alone in their
belief in gods or mystical

beings that came from the sky.
Is there an explanation for

similar myths shared by ancient
cultures all around the world?

And what does that reveal as to
who these visitors may be?

Perhaps the answer can be found,
not in northern Africa, but here

in the rocks and canyons of the
American Southwest.

>> NARRATOR: 30 miles south
of Gallup, New Mexico lies the

pueblo of Zuni.
Sheltered from the desolate

high plains, this adobe city is
home to the Zuni Indians, one

of the oldest indigenous tribes
in North America.

They have inhabited this land
for almost 2,000 years, and have

protected their secrets even
longer.

>> CHRIS O'BRIEN: The Zuni are a
very interesting culture in that

they're one of the few cultures
that really have not opened up,

uh, to the rest of the world
about their star knowledge

traditions.
Most of this type of information

is very closely held by the
natives.

And, um, I really find it very
intriguing that this is the

time period in history where now
we're starting to learn more and

more about their star knowledge.

>> NARRATOR: Much of the Zuni
people's history is etched in

the rocks in the New Mexico
desert.

Tribal Elder Clifford Mahooty

and archeologist Dan Simplicio
have studied the Zuni's secret

history firsthand.
They've collected stories

passed down through generations
that are rooted in the belief

that the tribe's creators and
protectors are supernatural

beings from the sky.

>> DAN SIMPLICIO: This one's
kind of interesting here.

I would imagine it was created
in last century, but from this

design, you can see the star
figure.

Celestial images oftentimes are
depicted in a lot of our

cultural petroglyphs.
And this is one of 'em where it

depicts the star.
It could be the supernova of

the crab nebula.

>> CLIFFORD MAHOOTY: Our Zuni
mythology in the prayer system,

in the ritualistic protocols,
talk about these people that

came over here, and told us how
to actually live our lives

as beings, sky people.
If you listen to a lot of

religious chants and songs and
prayers, that's all they talk

about.
They're talking about space.

They're talking about out there
in the universe where they came

from.
So they depict it on a rock wall

here.
But the actual meaning of it is

somewhere more profound and more
complex than that.

>> NARRATOR: These drawings are
thought to have been created

around 1200 BC, yet they appear
to depict modern space travelers

and their vehicles.

>> SIMPLICIO: If you move back
a little bit, you can see

another figure here.
It has a dome. It has eyes.

Uh, there's something coming
down...

>> MAHOOTY: And a nose.

>> SIMPLICIO: Like a nose.
There's a nose, but it kind of

flares out...

>> MAHOOTY: I think it was
something to do with the

ancient ones, when they saw
something.

They took as much description of
it to put in on there.

Of course it's not going to be
exactly what they saw, but

that's as best as they can do
for something that they saw.

>> CHILDRESS: With all
petroglyphs and things like

that, I mean, they're up to
interpretation.

Sometimes they are just
doodlings of people.

But other times, they may well
be actual descriptions and

depictions of some kind of god
from outer space, some ancient

astronaut.
And when you go around, say like

the Zuni pueblo, I mean, that's
what they'll tell you those

petroglyphs are.
Even the Zunis themselves call

them the spacemen.

>> SIMPLICIO: This one seems to
have two legs coming out like

that. It has a, you know, broad
diamond shape body.

Um, there probably was a better
head that chipped off here.

Well, that's very
different‐looking than humans

are.

>> MAHOOTY: Now usually they're
called UFOs.

But in the Zuni way, we've
always been taught that they're

the keepers of the upper world,
which means space.

You know, they're sky people.
Beings that are of the

extraterrestrial origin, and
this is still within our

mythology and our religious
practices today.

>> NARRATOR: Like most Indian
tribes, the Zunis call these

sky people kachinas.
According to the Zunis'

creation story, the kachina
gods came down from the heavens

to lead the Zunis to earth
through a special portal.

>> MAHOOTY: The sipapu‐‐ that's
the entrance to the fourth

world, or the underworld.
And that's a representation of

where the kachinas come and go.
And so, according to the

mythologies, the Zunis were
brought forth into the world of

light‐‐ which is where we are at
today‐‐ by what I would

interpret as extraterrestrial
beings from the universe.

(singing in native language)

>> NARRATOR: Every year, the
Zunis participate in a ceremony

known as the Shalako festival.
Dressed in traditional costumes

to represent the kachinas, the
Indians celebrate the arrival

of the gods on earth.

(singing continues)

>> CHILDRESS: This is a‐a
figurine of kachina gods.

And these guys are some gods
from the sky who came down.

Uh, they wear weird helmets.

>> TSOUKALOS: This one has a
helmet as a head, and if you

look at the whole body of it,
it's as if it wears some type

of a... of a suit.
This one here also has the

helmet and the visor.

>> CHILDRESS: For the Pueblo
Indians, like the Zunis, these

are their‐their sky‐gods that
every year, they have special

ceremonies.
People put on these special

costumes and masks to reenact
the coming of the gods.

They really look like ancient
astronauts.

>> BILL BIRNES: If you look at
the poetry and the legends and

the stories from American Indian
tribes in the Southwest, they

have the legend of the star
people.

The star people came to Earth
and seeded planet Earth, and

they came on flying ships.
If you speak to the elders, they

will tell you that a lot of us
believe in the existence of

extraterrestrials.

>> THOMAS MILLS: The Zunis don't
have a written language.

The storyteller comes and he
tells the young children how it

all happened.
All their songs, that they do in

their ceremonies, tell the story
over and over, and that's how

they pass down traditions,
customs, beliefs.

They tell it in the Indian way.
They use things they understand

to explain things that they
don't understand.

>> SIMPLICIO: I remember my
grandparents talking about a

craft that flew and had actually
crash‐landed on one of the mesas

east of here.
There's no interpretation of

what an aircraft is, so the
closest thing that they could

interpret as anything capable of
flight is a bird, or our masked

kachina dancers.

>> MAHOOTY: We are very, very
superstitious people.

It's always been in the history
of Zuni that they have always

been here even right here where
we're sitting right now, but

you just don't see them.
They're in a different frequency.

And those are very, very sacred,
and those are very, very secret.

They're out there somewhere.

>> NARRATOR: For those who
believe that ancient astronauts

came to earth thousands of years
ago, the prehistoric artwork

provides more clues in what
they claim is a growing body of

evidence: from wall carvings
and statues in ancient Egypt

to tribal traditions and exotic
masks in West Africa

to petroglyphs in the American
Southwest.

All thousands of years old,
they seem to recount similar

stories of visitors from the
skies. Could the legends of alien

beings visiting earth thousands
of years ago have inspired more

traditional beliefs?

>> NARRATOR: Celestial beings
coming down to Earth.

Gods descending from the sky.
Can these events only be found

in the ancient legends of the
Zuni?

Do similar accounts exist in
other cultures and other

religions across the world?
And if so, what is the

explanation?

>> TSOUKALOS: We have to remind
ourselves that our ancestors

were highly intelligent.
However, their technological

frame of reference was different
than our technological frame of

reference, so they didn't have
the vocabulary with which to

describe or with which to name
certain things that they saw.

So what did they do?
They used words that they were

familiar with in their time, and
so they tried to describe

whatever they witnessed to the
best of their abilities with

their vocabulary.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient China also
shared some of the same beliefs

that can be found in Egyptian,
Native American, and Dogon

legends‐‐ that deities arrived
from the stars.

According to Chinese mythology
dating back to 3000 BC, when the

god named Huang Di was born,
there was "a radiance from the

great star Chi."
Huang Di would later emerge

from the belly of a fire‐
breathing dragon to become

China's first emperor.

>> YOUNG: The origins of the Han
Chinese people start with a

story of a great god looking
down with empathy.

Here were people in poverty, in
a beautiful, rich country, the

landscape profound, but the
people were suffering.

He took pity and decided to come
down.

>> TSOUKALOS: Huang Di arrived
on planet Earth in a flying

dragon.
He had the power of flight.

Huang Di could be anywhere
within minutes, and he usually

accomplished this by hopping on
his dragon and flying somewhere.

>> YOUNG: Now this divine energy
becomes human and is a great

leader‐‐ the Yellow Emperor who
rules and unites the people‐‐

and there is a period of great
prosperity until his work is

done.

>> NARRATOR: Huang Di brought
order to the chaos, creating

China's first empire.
He is seen as a cultural hero,

and is credited with the
invention of the compass,

acupuncture, and the
standardization of Chinese

writing.
One of his greatest legacies is

the Great Wall of China.

>> YOUNG: When the land is
prosperous, he decides it's time

to go, and the great yellow
dragon comes back and he gets

back into the belly of the
dragon and flies off forever.

>> TSOUKALOS: Now, were these
dragons truly dragons in a

biological nature?
Or were they misinterpreted

types of machines?
Because, as we all know, dragons

are always correlated with
spewing fire and a lot of smoke.

Whenever we see a modern rocket
take off, there is all this

smoke, and sometimes the smoke
is yellow and sometimes it's red.

So it's very bizarre how we have
these correlations between the

ancient times and modern times
today.

>> YOUNG: Mythology is the
effort to grasp what we can't

grasp, to understand what is
beyond us.

In the Eastern teachings, the
dragons very often carry people,

sometimes on their back or
sometimes inside their bellies,

so if we think of them as, as a
poet's effort to explain a

vehicle that was strange to
them, well, those sound like

flying saucers.
So it might just be a problem

with translation because, after
all, it's just a word.

It's trying to describe
something that's very difficult

to grasp.

>> NARRATOR: 4,000 miles west of
China, another tale of celestial

beings influencing civilization
can be found, this time in what

is now modern‐day Iraq.
The Babylonian legend of Enuma

Elish dates back to the seventh
century BC.

The text was first discovered in
1849 by British archeologist Sir

Austen Henry Layard while
searching the ruins of the

Library of Ashurbanipal in
Nineveh.

The story tells of how the first
humans were created by an

extraterrestrial race known as
the Anunnaki.

>> TSOUKALOS: In the ancient
texts of Sumeria, we have

descriptions of these beings
descending from the sky called

the Anunnaki.
The term "Anunnaki" means "those

who from the heavens came."
It says, word for word, that

these beings descended in flying
vehicles from the sky, and we

can find not only descriptions
of the Anunnaki, but also

depictions and we can see them
in statues, in carvings, so it's

all very interesting to see that
those beings looked like

modern‐day space travelers with
weird suits.

Some of them wore wristwatches.
They had boots on and helmets

and, above all, wings, and they
were always described or

depicted in floating above some

"regular people."
So the question is: who were the

Anunnaki?
And according to the ancient

astronaut hypothesis, they were
space travelers who visited

Earth in the remote past.

>> NARRATOR: Similar themes can
be found in the legends of Greek

and Roman gods, which also
describe events that some

interpret as extraterrestrial
contact.

Both cultures believed in
powerful gods who lived in the

heavens and often came down to
Earth to interact with humans.

(thunder cracks)

>> CHILDRESS: A well‐known
example is Zeus and the Greek

gods, and they've come down from
the sky and Mount Olympus, where

they live in some mountain, and
they're bringing, really,

civilization and sciences to
mankind, but they have many

human attributes, too, where,
yeah, they, uh, they're

attracted to human women, uh,
they want to have sex and

children with as many of 'em as
they can, and then they go back

into the sky.

>> THOMAS BULLARD: These ideas
of gods mating with humans are

very commonplace, like Zeus in
Greek mythology was always

coming down, mating with
mortals, and producing demigods

like Hercules or Helen of Troy,
who were exceptionally

beautiful, exceptionally
powerful, unusually gifted in

every way.
So, in other words, you were

creating a better race in, in
this sense.

>> TSOUKALOS: In the ancient
astronaut opinion, the whole

pantheon of gods that we have in
ancient Greece consists of

nothing else but flesh‐and‐blood
extraterrestrials who were

misinterpreted as being these
divine creatures by our

ancestors.

>> CREMO: There is a lot of
evidence showing that we're not

alone in the cosmos and that our
human civilizations on Earth

have been interacting for long
periods of time with

extraterrestrial intelligences.

>> NARRATOR: Belief in celestial
beings interacting with humans

is a cornerstone in several
major religions.

In fact, according to the
Bible's Book of Genesis, God

created the first humans Adam
and Eve.

The Bible also contains other
passages that describe strange

interactions between
"otherworldly" beings and humans.

>> CARGILL: People believe
messengers of some sort come

down from the heavens.
You know, they came down and

they had sex with humans, and
this is where we produced

giants, people like Goliath, so
in a technical sense, they are

alien.
They're gods or they're angels;

there's some kind of superhuman
thing.

>> NARRATOR: Interpreting these
Bible stories has also led to a

certain amount of debate and
controversy.

While most see a single god
directing and influencing

mankind's destiny, others argue
that it is really a number of

gods that are responsible.

>> TSOUKALOS: In the Old
Testament, it says very clearly,

"And then God created man in our
own image."

Now, grammatically speaking,
that sentence doesn't make

sense, because you have "God"
and then you have "our image."

Well, theologians suggest that,
by "our," what they meant is the

Trinity, the Holy Trinity, so
basically, if you were to change

the word "god" to "gods," then
all of a sudden, the sentence

makes sense‐‐ "and then the gods
created man in our own image."

>> CARGILL: So you have this
reference‐‐ "let us create man

in our image."
In several religious texts,

specifically the Hebrew Bible,
which Christians also accept,

and in the Koran, which Muslims
revere as holy, you have the

reference to God in the plural,
and it is incredibly interesting.

>> NARRATOR: But do all these
religious scriptures that tell

similar stories really point to
the possibility that aliens have

visited Earth throughout ancient
history?

>> BIRNES: The fact is, the
story of creation in our own

Bible is the story of creation
in cultures around the world.

The story of the flood, the
evolution of the human species,

the development of language‐‐
all of this points to‐‐ in fact,

the Bible says so‐‐ life on
Earth came from contact with an

extraterrestrial life form.
That's in the Bible.

That's in ancient cultures
around the world.

So I believe the theory of
ancient astronauts is true, and

I believe there's solid
evidence there, and I believe

the harder you try to refute
that evidence, the more you wind

up against a brick wall.
That ancient astronauts visited

us, visited Earth thousands upon
thousands of years ago, and

seeded the very civilization we
have today.

>> NARRATOR: If the believers in
the ancient astronaut theory are

correct, then just who were
these visitors?

And might cutting‐edge
astrophysics and biology help us

to uncover their identity?

>> NARRATOR: On March 18, 1965,
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

stepped outside the Voskhod 2
and became the first human to

walk in space.

He spent 12 minutes and eight
seconds outside his ship before

returning.
Leonov's survival depended upon

a protective suit that could
keep him alive where there was

neither atmospheric pressure nor
oxygen.

If we need spacesuits, would
aliens traveling to Earth

require the same protection?
Is that what we're looking at in

these ancient carvings and
drawings?

>> TSOUKALOS: When critics ask,
"Well, why would ancient

astronauts have to wear
astronaut suits like... that

we're familiar with today?,"
the answer is very simple.

Can we go through space without
wearing a type of suit?

Of course not. We would die.

'Cause who says that whoever
visited us in the remote past,

that they could breathe in the
atmosphere of planet Earth?

So, it's not farfetched to

suggest that they did, in fact,
wear some type of suit.

>> NARRATOR: Why might these
images resemble modern

astronauts?
If they are aliens, is it

possible they are similar
to humans?

And could they have come from a
planet just like Earth?

At the turn of the 20th century,
a group of British and German

scientists considered this
possibility.

They embraced a theory put forth
by early Greek philosophers,

that all life in the universe
began in one specific place.

This theory is called panspermia.

>> SEAGER: Panspermia is the
theory that life formed in one

place, and then got spread
around to other places.

In outer space in the medium
between stars, we see molecules

that are the building blocks of
life.

So it's easy to get the building
blocks of life to another

planet.
For example, if life formed on

Mars, it could have come here
to Earth, contaminated Earth,

and then started life here.

>> NARRATOR: Roughly 3.6 billion
years ago, Mars was warm and

wet, much like the conditions
on Earth today.

Biologists believe that because
Mars cooled more quickly than

other planets, life may have
developed there first.

(whirring)

>> PAUL DAVIES: Mars is a better
candidate for life during the

early part of the solar system.
Mars rocks are coming here all

the time, and these have been
knocked off Mars by asteroid and

comet impacts.
And we know that they could

convey any Martian
microorganisms to Earth.

>> NARRATOR: In August 1996,
a team of scientists made a

stunning announcement.
A Martian meteorite found in

Antarctica contained evidence of
fossilized life.

The four‐pound rock, designated
ALH 84001, showed the presence

of carbonate globules excreted
by microbes when they were alive

on Mars 3.6 billion years ago.
Earth was no longer alone.

Life had existed elsewhere in
the universe.

>> DAVIES: So this cross‐
contamination between Mars and

Earth, which 20 years ago was
regarded as a rather wild

conjecture, is now pretty much
accepted by the astrobiology

community.

>> NARRATOR: Astrobiologists
studying the origin and

evolution of life in the
universe embraced the

possibility that life on Earth

began in outer space.

Did modern‐day scientists
finally prove what ancient

cultures have believed for
centuries?

>> BAUVAL: The common myth or
idea that the origins of

humankind is from the stars is
widespread.

Ancient cultures have...
The ancient Egyptians, the

Mayans, the Aztecs, the Indians
and so forth...

Uh, is intriguing, and it's
probably true.

And I mean it from an
astrophysical point of view.

We do come from the stars.
It's a fact that life on earth

has been seeded by the coming of
a comet containing the life

matter.

>> SCHOCH: I personally suspect
there is life out there.

In fact, I believe that we have
evidence... if nothing else,

microbial evidence, for life
extraterrestrially.

>> NARRATOR: But if life did
land on Earth from outer space,

was it by accident, or might it
have been sent here on purpose?

One mainstream scientist
thought so.

British geneticist Francis
Crick is best known for his

collaboration with James Watson.
Together, they unraveled the

structure of human DNA in 1953.

Less than ten years later, they
were awarded the Nobel Prize

for their groundbreaking work
in genetics.

In the 1960s, Crick became a
proponent of panspermia theory

and took it to a whole new
level with an idea he called

directed panspermia.

>> GRAHAM HANCOCK: Francis Crick
hypothesized that somewhere,

perhaps on the other side of
the galaxy, there had been a

civilization of advanced
intelligent beings.

And they had found that their
planet was going to be destroyed.

Perhaps a supernova was going to
go off in their vicinity, and

their planet would be sterilized
of life.

And he asked himself, "What
would an intelligent

civilization do in that
situation?"

Um, well, first of all, they'd
try to figure out if they could

get out of there, if they could
actually preserve their lives

and the lives of their
descendants.

Perhaps crowd into spaceships
and fly across interstellar

space until they found a
suitable planet to colonize.

>> NARRATOR: But could it
actually be true?

Could we really be the
descendants of an alien race

that traveled here from another
world?

>> POPE: The ultimate
implication of some

exobiological theories is
actually that we ourselves are

extraterrestrials,
that life on earth arose

because organic material was
brought here from elsewhere.

>> BIRNES: What if we're the
ones, the descendants of those

who came from another planet?
We weren't created.

We were brought here, seeded
planet Earth as a colony from

some other planet.
So we're colonists of another

race.
And that's why the aliens look

like us.

>> SCHOCH: In my opinion, it's
not unscientific to consider the

possibility of ancient
astronauts, alien intervention.

We live in a huge universe.
Now, bacteria versus humanoids‐‐

one may say, that's a big
difference, but in some ways,

it's not a big difference.
Where you have life, you have

the ability for that life to
develop into what we consider

civilization or intelligent
beings.

>> NARRATOR: Is it just a
coincidence that modern science

and ancient alien theory have
come to the same conclusion:

that life on Earth came from
the stars?

And if it's possible that
billions of years ago, an

extraterrestrial race spread
out across space, how would

they survive in their new home?
Could they really be our

missing link?

>> NARRATOR For thousands of
years, mankind has tried to

depict alien beings who they
believe came from the skies.

Many of those creatures seem to
share characteristics with

humans.
They often have two arms, two

legs, fingers and a head...
just like we do.

Biologists refer to this basic
body shape as bilateral symmetry.

>> MICHAEL DENNIN: Bilateral
symmetry is, very simply, you

divide something down the
middle into two parts, and

lateral means up and down, and
the two sides are an exact

reflection of each other.
If you fold the thing in half,

all the parts line up.

>> RUSSELL TUTTLE: Being
bilaterally symmetric allows

you to be streamlined...
and to develop a head end, so

you become cephalized.
And that certainly happened in

vertebrates.
Virtually, the mouth at the end

of something and then you get
progressive development, and

that seems to have led to many,
many advances.

(creatures chirping, chittering)

>> DENNIN: So, when you look at
it closely, you can see a lot of

advantages coming in.
Having the two arms and two

legs to work together really
gives you great mobility and

balance and speed.

Having eyes on two sides

separated gives really improved
vision in various ways.

Animals that are predominantly
prey use their two eyes

independently and get a huge
field of view.

Animals that are predominantly
hunters have them more in the

front and get really good depth
perception, which you need if

you're gonna land on the animal
you're hunting.

(lion growling)

>> NARRATOR: If it is true that
aliens resemble humans in their

physical characteristics, might
there also be genetic

similarities?
Could we even be related?

In 2003, the U. S. Government
announced that the Human Genome

Project had identified all of
the nearly 25,000 genes in the

human body.
For the first time, scientists

had a road map to the genetic
make‐up of humans.

>> NARRATOR: In 2006, genetic
researchers at the University

of California at Santa Cruz
discovered an area of the

genome they called HAR1
that appears to be unique to

humans.
Scientists believe the HAR1

gene plays a critical role in
the advanced development of the

human brain, and is a key
element that sets us apart from

other animals.
But where did it come from?

Did humans develop this
distinct gene naturally through

evolution?
Or did it land here from

another planet?
Francis Crick, the British

scientist who helped discover
the structure of DNA, believed

that human genes could not have
evolved by chance.

>> HANCOCK: Crick didn't feel
in that period of roughly

600 million years, from the
formation of the planet down to

the time when the planet could
first support life, there was

enough time for DNA to evolve
by accident.

It's an enormously complicated
molecule.

Crick gave this analogy: You
would be more likely to

assemble a fully functioning
and flying jumbo jet by passing

a hurricane through a junkyard
than you would be to assemble

the DNA molecule by chance in
any kind of primeval soup in

five or six hundred million
years. It's just not possible.

>> NARRATOR: But if this
molecule could not have evolved

accidentally, how was it created?
Was it, as some believe, put

there on purpose?

>> TSOUKALOS: The question
should not be do the

extraterrestrials look like us
or what do the

extraterrestrials look like,
but do we look like the

extraterrestrials?
Because according to the ancient

astronaut theory, a long, long
time ago, extraterrestrials

came here, and through a
targeted mutation of our genes,

we‐‐ quote, unquote‐‐ "became
human."

(Fiebag speaking foreign

language)

>> FIEBAG (translated): Possibly
there is information in our DNA

about whether human evolution
was manipulated or not.

The DNA is almost deciphered,
yet we only understand five

percent of the information
it carries.

>> TSOUKALOS: Geneticists
have determined that it only

takes about five percent to
clone a human being, and that

95% of that genetic material
that we have in our bodies is

nothing more than what they
refer to as "genetic junk."

>> DENNIN: Why is everything
there?

And there's probably parts of
the DNA that don't have an

obvious current function.
Maybe they're left over from

something that was used in the
past, kind of like our appendix

is left over.

>> NARRATOR: Could this "genetic
junk" hold the key to the

evolution of humans?
Some people suggest that

decoding our DNA entirely will
unlock startling information

about our origins.
But could it even prove that

aliens played a role in our
development thousands of years

ago?

>> HANCOCK: If you
hypothetically wanted to record

an eternal message that could
be decoded by a creature that

had eventually evolved enough
intelligence to decode it, the

place to put that message would
not be on some monument or in

some text, which might be swept
away, but actually on the DNA of

the creature itself.

(baby cooing)

It's recently been established
that DNA is a recording medium

of almost limitless power.
It would be technically

possible to record the entire
knowledge of a civilization on

the DNA in our bodies.
All you'd need is a way to

access that information.

>> VON DANIKEN: I think we
have something, the whole

humanity, in our genes.
Somewhere in our genes it is

coded that extraterrestrials
were here thousands of years ago.

>> NARRATOR: But the questions
persist: If aliens visited

Earth tens of thousands of
years ago...

how did they get here?
When we look to the past for

the answers, are we looking in
the wrong place?

Should we actually look
forward... to our future?

>> NARRATOR Scientists agree
that the best chances of finding

alien life will be on planets
similar to ours, and

descriptions of
extraterrestrials seem to

resemble humans in many ways.
Some ancient astronaut

theorists draw a surprising
conclusion from these facts,

suggesting that aliens might
actually be human.

>> POPE: It is odd that many
of the descriptions of aliens

are effectively humanoid, and
this raises an interesting

possibility.
One idea that's been put

forward is that, uh, these are
not extraterrestrials at all,

but they're time travelers from
the future.

>> NOORY: They could be us
from a thousand, 2,000, 10,000

years from now.
Let's assume for a moment that

10,000 years from now on this
planet, if we all survive, that

time travel was created.
They've invented it.

Just like the time machine of
H.G. Wells' day, they can go

back, or they can go forward.
So let's assume 10,000 years

from now we decide to come back
to see us.

Maybe they have changed
physically.

They look like the alien grays
or whoever they may be.

>> BIRNES: It could well be
that ancient astronauts might

not be creatures from other
planets at all, but time

travelers from 2720 in a time
machine.

>> NARRATOR: Time travel is an
essential concept for science

fiction, but would it be
possible for flesh‐and‐blood

humans to find a way to
transport themselves through

time with current technology?
Would this enable us to cover

the vast distances of space?

>> PAUL DAVIES: If I could
travel close to the speed of

light, I could reach the year
3000, say, in a couple of years.

Have to get very close to the
speed of light for that, but

it's doable, and we know that
this isn't a theory, this is...

this is real physics‐‐ we could
demonstrate these time‐warping

effects.
So you can reach the future

quicker by traveling close to
the speed of light.

(whooshing)

>> NARRATOR: The concept of
time travel was first proposed

by Albert Einstein in 1905 when
he published his Theory of

Special Relativity.

>> DENNIN: Ancient astronaut
theory says that astronauts

visited us a long time ago
from somewhere else.

The technology involved in
doing that, we would assume

would be similar to what we
understand now.

I mean, we know special
relativity is a law of physics.

It holds anywhere in the
universe.

Ancient astronauts that would
come all the way here can

travel these large distances
and not age that much, relative

to their home planet.
Because if you're going close

enough to the speed of light,
you will have slowed down time

enough that when you get back,
hundreds, thousands, or even

millions of years could have
passed.

>> NARRATOR: One limitation to
this method of travel is that

because a spacecraft has mass,
it theoretically cannot reach

the exact speed of light.
The resulting reduction in

velocity would then dramatically
increase the amount of time

needed to cross the vast
universe.

>> NOORY: Well, there's
definitely many theories about

how extraterrestrials got here,
how their propulsion system got

them to planet Earth.
They're surely not coming here

the way we go out into space.
They'd never get here.

They are finding different ways.
They have either developed a new

form of propulsion, or they're
able to travel through‐‐ what

I've always believed‐‐ wormholes
throughout the universe.

That would instantaneously put
them here.

>> NARRATOR: The idea of
wormholes was first proposed in

1935 by Albert Einstein and his
longtime collaborator Nathan

Rosen. They began to explore the
possibility that space and time

could literally be bent to
create a time travel shortcut.

>> DENNIN: Wormholes have not
been detected.

They are a postulated structure
in space that involve actually

taking‐‐ if you want to think of
a sheet of paper‐‐ bending it in

half and connecting the two
pieces that you get together.

A wormhole is thought to do
something like that.

Space gets warped, and it
connects between two different

parts of space.
You know, there's predictions

about what they would look like;
there's theories about them, but

we haven't detected one yet.
You're not actually ever

traveling faster than the speed
of light; you're just cutting

corners.

>> CHILDRESS: You don't actually
have to go light speed and

travel for light‐years to
someplace.

You literally go there through
a wormhole and through

hyperspace, and bang, you're
there.

>> DAVIES: If you can have a
wormhole in space, then it can

be turned, in principle, into a
time machine.

And so travel back in time as
well as forward in time would

then be possible.
The problem is: where do you get

your wormhole?
Uh, it's not inconceivable that

wormholes were made in the Big
Bang, coughed out along with

everything else, and there might
be one out there in the universe

we could harvest or adapt to
form a time machine.

>> DENNIN: If you end up
discovering that you could make

wormholes, then that increases
the range that you can explore

in space and that increases the
likelihood of having two

civilizations at the same time
with the right technology to

communicate with each other.

>> NARRATOR: While theoretically
possible, traveling through

wormholes or at the speed of
light is currently both

economically and technically
impossible for us here on Earth.

Using modern propulsion methods,
it would take 70,000 years to

reach the nearest star.

>> DAVIES: Our fastest rockets
are totally puny.

It's really pathetic.
So we're talking about .01% of

the speed of light if you're
lucky.

Any object that we can fire out
into the solar system is going

to take tens of thousands of
years to reach the nearest star.

>> NARRATOR: Believe it or not,
at 4.6 billion years old, our

solar system is one of the
youngest in the universe.

But if civilizations exist in
other galaxies, is it possible

that they are more advanced than
those on Earth?

And if so, could they be ahead
of us in their ability to travel

through space and time?

>> CHILDRESS: For
extraterrestrials to come here,

through the vast reaches of
space to our planet, they

clearly have to have technology
that's way in advance of what we

have today.
To go from solar system to solar

system, rather than going warp
speed, like in Star Trek, you

really are going to travel, as
they do in Star Wars, where

you're jumping through
hyperspace.

Going from a solar system to
solar system is no time at all.

>> TSOUKALOS: Just because we
can't travel from star to star

does not mean another more
advanced society can't do it

either.
I think that's the height of

human arrogance to say, "Just
because we can't do it, another

more advanced civilization can't
do it either," so, you know, we

have to stop looking at us that
we are the pinnacle of creation

'cause we're not.

>> NARRATOR: Celestial beings.
Visitors from the skies.

Deities descending from the
heavens to interact with man.

Could these worldwide stories be
the foundation for the

prevailing belief that
something greater than

ourselves, from beyond our
world, created the universe as

we know it?

>> NARRATOR: Almost all of the
great world faiths are based on

stories of celestial beings who
visit Earth.

Many millions of people accept
these legends as part of their

core beliefs.

And from the earliest cave
drawings... to images at

Roswell, we see artists'
interpretations of

extraterrestrials or gods coming
to our planet.

>> YOUNG: In many traditions,
there is something coming from

above.
There is a stairway to heaven or

there's a whirlwind or an angel
descends.

Sometimes the encounter is quite
dangerous.

As would be appropriate to
something awesome and larger and

more powerful than we are.
Usually it is memorable.

>> CHILDRESS: Many of the myths
are much more specific and they

really talk about gods
physically coming to Earth‐‐

landing, doing miracles, and

showing the people how to live.

>> NARRATOR: If visitors did
come from the stars, is it

possible that they actually
changed the way ancient people

thought?
Did they provide an intellectual

spark to prehistoric
civilizations?

Could that be the reason why so
many different cultures could

build such large and lasting
monuments?

>> NOORY: It's almost as if
primitive man woke up one

morning and went, "Hey, I've got
this knowledge and I know how to

make tools and I'm gonna go and
build all these things."

Nah, I don't think it happened
that way.

I think others came down to this
planet and started teaching

other people, uh, that were
beginning to evolve.

But the one thing I truly do not
believe is that modern cavemen

at the time basically created
all this knowledge out of thin

air.

>> TSOUKALOS: All around the
world, we have concise

descriptions in ancient texts
which say word for word that

some beings came from the sky.

So it's as if this intellectual
Big Bang or this Big Bang of

knowledge occurred in various
periods of time, and those

various periods of time most
concisely always correlate with

some type of description of gods

descending from the sky.

>> HANCOCK: I do think of that
as a very significant

before‐and‐after moment in the
human story, and it is not a

moment that is linked to
physical evolution.

We've already got the hardware.
It's as though something

happened to our software around
about that time, and I think

it's a very intriguing moment
in the human story.

>> NARRATOR: For supporters of
ancient alien theory, the

verdict is already in.
They believe that aliens visited

many of Earth's earliest
cultures thousands of years ago.

But is it possible?
Are extraterrestrials

responsible for the sacred
creation myths of the first

human civilizations?
Might they have tampered with

our DNA?
Are humans themselves aliens

from another planet in the
heavens or even from another

time?
While man continues to search

for these answers, the questions
remain.

If they came here, what was
their mission?

We call Earth home, but with
perfect conditions for life,

could it be a beacon, calling
out to other intelligent

civilizations that may exist in
the universe?

>> CARGILL: I think there is
life, simple life, bacterial

life, microbial life on other
planets.

I think we're going to find that.
And who knows?

Maybe one day we'll find some
other planet that's capable of

sustaining life, that has
evolved people over a long

period of time, that are also
looking up at the stars

wondering: is there anybody else
out there, are we the only ones?

>> HELDMANN: What bigger
question could we ask about

ourselves and our place in the
universe? You know, is there life

elsewhere in the universe,
or are we it?

I mean, I think it's one of the
most fascinating questions, and

we're fortunate enough to live
in a time when we can address

this question scientifically and
really try and get at some

answers.

>> NOORY: You can then come up
with a conclusion that

something, one, very strange is
happening on this planet, and

two, if it's coming from outside
of this system, then we're being

visited by something that has
some intelligence behind it.

>> TSOUKALOS: In the end the
truth wins, and we've seen this

in history, where scientific
theories or ideas that have been

deemed impossible turned out to
be true, and so it is my firm

conviction that the same will
count for the ancient alien

theory.