Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Otherworldly messengers imparting wisdom

to ancient civilizations.

Strange visitations

that altered the course of history.

And extraordinary minds inspired

by an intelligence of cosmic proportions.

For nearly two decades,

Ancient Aliens has traveled the globe,

exploring towering megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts

and stories of otherworldly beings

in a quest for evidence that might reveal the truth

of our extraterrestrial origins.

But what's even more intriguing is the fact

that the original Hebrew word for "angel"

means "messenger."

NARRATOR: Now we take a look back

through the Ancient Aliens archives

to the show's very origins

to examine the evidence that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

? ?

When you look at the entire history of human civilization,

at every turn and in every culture,

you find stories of people speaking

with what are essentially otherworldly beings.

And we have stories from the Bible and ancient mythology

and from the Middle Ages,

with tales of fairy folk and little people

and things like that.

And then, of course, today, we have reports

of encounters with extraterrestrials.

HENRY: Right.

It's really clear that,

from the very beginning, humans have made contact

with beings not of this world.

So are we being guided in some way?

We asked this question on Ancient Aliens

way back in season two

in an episode called "Alien Contact."

NARRATOR: Rendlesham Forest.

Suffolk County, England.

80 miles northeast of London.

During the Cold War,

more than 12,000 American officers and enlisted men

were stationed at two air force bases

on the forest's northern and southern edges,

R.A.F. Bentwaters

and R.A.F. Woodbridge.

Shortly after midnight on December 26, 1980,

military radar detected an unidentified flying object.

And there were civilian reports

of strange flickering lights in the sky.

? ?

Within minutes, military policemen,

including Staff Sergeant James Penniston

and Airman First Class John Burroughs,

were sent into the woods to investigate.

What they encountered

was something the experienced servicemen

had never seen before.

PENNISTON: By the dissipating light,

I started seeing a, uh,

a silhouette of a, uh, triangular craft.

It was, uh, completely black in, uh, color,

except for these occasional, uh, bits of blue and orange light

and yellow light running through it.

There was blue lights.

There was, like, a orange spear above it.

There was a white light that would come out underneath it,

and then there was, like, a misty orange haze.

NARRATOR: In his report,

Sergeant Penniston described the strange craft's dimensions

as roughly six and a half feet tall with nine-foot sides.

He also noted unusual markings--

raised symbols similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

PENNISTON: I was expecting to find, uh, I don't know,

"USAF," something like that.

And what I find is glyphs,

uh, pictorial glyphs, uh, making no sense at all.

Then I was running my hand over the side of the craft.

It was very warm to touch.

NARRATOR: Upon touching the craft,

the 26-year-old serviceman claimed

he received a strange and powerful vision.

PENNISTON: It's ones and zeros and ones and ones, and...

it just makes no sense.

Take my hands off it, it stopped.

And then, um...

Then there was a bright flash of light.

BURROUGHS: And then, at that point,

whatever it was appeared to take-- go up in the air

and take off and go back towards the coast.

And we didn't have any more contact.

NARRATOR: Penniston and Burroughs were ordered

by the deputy base commander to treat the alleged sighting

as if it had never happened.

Still, after three decades,

James Penniston remains haunted by his strange vision.

So much so that he felt compelled

to keep a written record of it.

A record he kept locked away for nearly 30 years.

It's like-like someone was holding a picture up, okay,

of this zeros and ones and...

I-I could see it in my mind's eye, okay?

So I recorded those, one after another.

What do they mean? I don't know.

(indistinct echoing male voice)

NARRATOR: Could the strange numbers from James Penniston's vision

be some type of extraterrestrial code?

If so, Penniston would not be the first to claim

to have received messages from otherworldly visitors.

In fact, history is filled with accounts

of people compelled into action by contact

with what they claim to be an extraterrestrial,

divine or supernatural being.

Abraham,

Mohammed,

and St. Paul are described as having been inspired

by visits from God.

Moses,

Confucius,

and the legendary Cambodian figure Preah Pisnukar

are said to have met strange visitors

who passed along moral codes and philosophies.

WILLIE E. DYE: God chose them because of their integrity,

because of their faith.

Men that were, uh, leaders that God had chosen

to put in certain positions.

People respected those leaders,

and people knew that they were people of God.

According to the ancient astronaut hypothesis,

visions are not divine at all.

They were, in fact, visits by extraterrestrials

where our ancestors thought it was a vision,

but it never was.

The person didn't quite comprehend

that he or she was visited by...

flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the best known example

of a man receiving specific instructions

from an extraterrestrial source

can be found in the story of Moses.

According to the biblical Book of Exodus,

Moses first encountered God in the form of a burning bush.

It was here that he was given his mission:

to deliver the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt

and into the Promised Land.

Later, at Mount Sinai,

after he had safely brought the Jews into the desert,

he was handed the Ten Commandments

as laws given to man directly by God.

Eventually, these moral codes

were the foundation of a whole worldwide religion.

NARRATOR: But to ancient astronaut theorists,

the story of Moses may be interpreted

as not only a divine but also an alien encounter.

According to the Old Testament,

Moses went up on Mount Sinai to meet with "God."

And I quote, "And they saw the God of Israel.

"And there was under His feet, as it were,

"a paved work of sapphire stone,

and it was like the very heavens in its radiating clarity."

And my question is, does something like this exist

or was it some sort of a misunderstood metallic ramp?

But it gets even better.

Moses actually describes Earth seen from outer space.

The quote is,

"Thereupon I saw the whole round of the Earth,

"at once the depth of the Earth

and the vast altitudes of the heavens."

I mean, here he describes Earth as being round.

At the time, that should've not been known,

according to mainstream scientists.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Moses was inspired by a force

not only from the heavens

but from another world?

PHILIP COPPENS: What we're confronted with here are

human beings encountering nonhuman intelligences.

These are encounters with something otherworldly

yet physical.

? ?

NARRATOR: Persepolis, Iran.

Here, 30 miles northeast of the city of Shiraz,

lay the ruins of an ancient capital.

Built by the Persian conqueror Darius

more than 2,000 years ago,

Persepolis was once a mighty city that legend says

was protected by a powerful god named Ahura Mazda.

And etched in stone atop the crumbling remains

of a building called the Tripylon

is a depiction of this ancient god

seated inside a winged disk.

Ahura Mazda was central

to the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism

and the experiences of a prophet named Zarathustra

who lived 2,600 years ago.

Zarathustra was the founder of a religion.

He was in the area near Persia,

of modern day Persia or Iran.

And he had a visitor, Ahura Mazda, a divine encounter

that led to the major form of monotheism in the entire area.

It preceded the Egyptian form of monotheism

and way beyond the Hebrew and then Christian forms.

NARRATOR: According to ancient Zoroastrian texts called the Avesta,

Zarathustra's first meeting with Ahura Mazda

occurred at the top of a mountain

that was shrouded in clouds

and bathed in an eerie light.

YOUNG: Zarathustra carries this idea that there is this one true god.

It is literally the god of truth.

And truth is a great central principle

in the Zoroastrian worldview.

Right and wrong, good and evil, black and white,

a very strong contrast

and you are to identify with the good and search the truth.

NARRATOR: Some researchers believe these divine prophecies provide proof

that the prophet Zarathustra was following commands

from an extraterrestrial being--

one who perhaps came to Earth

to sow the seeds of what is now known as civilization.

COPPENS: When we look at Zarathustra encountering Ahura Mazda,

what we're confronted with here are human beings

who are encountering nonhuman intelligences.

These are indicative of physical encounters.

These are encounters with something,

which is otherworldly, yet physical.

TSOUKALOS: We have to ask ourselves,

were they just a figment of our ancestors' imagination

or did they exist?

COPPENS: These are extraterrestrial or alien entities

who come here and provide

some kind of information exchange and guidance program

between cultures and entities

who are willing to help that culture.

NARRATOR: Is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

that extraterrestrials contacted prophets in the distant past

in order to guide the development

of human civilization?

And if so, might there be more clues found

in the historical accounts of what is perhaps

the most intriguing character in all of ancient Greece?

On the flanks of this 8,000-foot peak

lie the ruins of a marble sanctuary

that was once home to one of history's most famous prophets,

a temple priestess known as the Oracle of Delphi.

RICHARD RADER: The Oracle of Delphi is the most famous oracle

from the ancient world.

There was a temple there

dedicated to the god Apollo.

Apollo is the central god for prophecy.

And a temple was established for Apollo in Delphi,

and that became the seat of the actual oracle

where people would visit.

ROBERT SCHOCH: The Oracle of Delphi was located in the Temple of Apollo,

which would've been, at the time,

the major building structure.

This was the central point.

So the oracle was all-important.

Everything else was there

because of the oracle in the complex.

NARRATOR: Also known as Pythia,

the oracle could be found sitting

on a tall three-legged seat

over an opening in the earth,

where vapors rising from the ground

would put her into a trance.

CHILDRESS: The Oracle of Delphi would basically channel

the god Apollo.

Apollo was really the god of civilization.

He was the god of light. He was the god of prophecy.

And she would become Apollo.

RADER: You can imagine how it is when something supernatural

or superhuman comes into a human body.

It of course creates a fugue state, essentially.

It creates a weird trance.

Nowadays, we have movies about possessions and stuff like that.

It's kind of like that. It's not necessarily demonic.

But any time the supernatural becomes housed

within something natural like a human body,

it is inevitably going to be causing some kind of trance,

some kind of fugue state or something.

NARRATOR: For more than a thousand years,

the oracle and her numerous successors dispensed advice

to everyone from emperors and generals

to poets and politicians.

Prophecy was central to the Greek worldview

and the affairs of state, the planning of battles.

Any important decisions would be taken to the oracle

to be considered,

to get some kind of guidance from beyond ordinary knowing.

RADER: You can come and ask about giving birth to a child.

You can come and ask about crops that you want to plant.

You can come and ask about joining the army.

You can come and ask

about undertaking a military expedition.

The priestess is there to be the liaison.

And, in fact, when people come to the oracle and ask questions,

they specifically ask the priestess,

and she's the one who channels the answer from Apollo

back down to the human beings.

NARRATOR: But just what or whom was the reason

for the oracle's bizarre trancelike state?

One in which, according to contemporary accounts,

she could accurately predict everything from the Trojan War

and the eventual decline of Greek power

to the slaughter of the famed 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.

(clamoring)

Mainstream researchers say

it was most likely due to her inhalation of intoxicating fumes

from various gases seeping out of Mount Parnassus.

But might she, in fact, have been in contact

with an extraterrestrial being?

One whom the ancient Greeks knew as Apollo?

The idea that Apollo was possibly some extraterrestrial

makes sense, because they want us to develop.

They want us to have civilization.

They want us to have technology

and to be like them.

We've always been their pet project, so to speak,

meaning that they helped us become who we are today.

NARRATOR: Were ancient so-called gods like Ahura Mazda and Apollo

really part of an advanced race of celestial beings?

Aliens who used human agents known as prophets

to instruct and steer the course of human civilization?

DAVID WILCOCK: The Bible is the most documented account

of extraterrestrial contact.

TSOUKALOS: "Angel" is

a mistranslation.

The correct translation is "messenger."

? ?

When we talk about angels,

we think of the Bible.

But, you know, there are reports of encounters with angels

with cultures and people all over the world.

And it's not just thousands of years ago,

but people are reporting this even today.

TSOUKALOS: Yeah, and these beings

are almost always described

as having descended from the sky.

But what's even more intriguing is the fact

that the original Hebrew word for "angel"

-means "messenger." -HENRY: Right.

And that's almost always what they're doing--

-delivering messages. -Right.

Now the question is, who exactly are these messengers?

NARRATOR: Angels.

According to a Nielsen survey taken in 2010,

nearly 70% of Americans believe in their existence.

But what are they?

Winged visitors from God, as depicted in the Bible?

Smiling cherubs who peer down at us from billowing clouds?

Or something much, much more?

The concept of angels is obviously very widespread,

uh, and certainly in American culture.

And you find it in Latin culture,

Greek culture,

Babylonian culture.

COPPENS: When we think of angels,

we immediately think to the Bible.

But when you go onto the Internet,

when you read books, you will find that people

have visitations of angels every single day.

NARRATOR: In the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis,

angels first appear as divine beings sent to Earth

as messengers of God.

FULCO: They wanted to have God

interacting with human beings,

but it seemed somewhat undignified to have God,

uh, directly operating,

and so he sent messengers.

TSOUKALOS: The word "angel" is a mistranslation.

In Hebrew, the word for "angel" is "malach."

However, the correct translation is not "angel" at all,

but it is, in fact, "messenger."

In Greek, the word "angelos" is not "angel."

It is "intermediary," "middleman."

And so what do we have in these stories?

We have these intermediaries,

these messengers bringing information from "God."

BILL BIRNES: By definition,

angels are otherworldly.

Angels are extraterrestrial.

They're not from this planet.

So, really, by definition, E.T.s and angels are the same.

Now, our modern conception of E.T.s have changed.

But go back thousands and thousands of years

when angels lived among our biblical ancestors.

They didn't call them E.T.s, they called them angels,

but they knew they were not of this world,

not of this planet.

NARRATOR: But could some of these so-called "messengers of God"

have served another function?

One not so benevolent or benign?

According to the Book of Enoch, the so-called lost biblical text

that was rediscovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls

in the late 1940s,

the first angels to arrive on Earth were the fallen angels.

BIRNES: It was on Mount Hermon

that angels came down from the heavens--

fallen angels-- to inhabit Earth.

They were trying to assume power.

And because of that, they were cast out from heaven

and cast down to Earth.

Now, to me,

this sounds more of a mutiny story,

where extraterrestrials arrived here

and there was a type of rift,

and so they split into two different factions.

And the faction that split off

is what today is referred to as the fallen angels.

GEORGE NOORY: Enoch was a believer in angels,

fallen angels, visitations,

but everything he put in his scriptures

seemed to imply, to me,

extraterrestrial visitation.

From craft that he saw

to mountainsides that they would land,

to them taking him around and telling him things.

NARRATOR: Both in the Book of Enoch and in the Hebrew Bible,

the fallen angels act in direct opposition

to God's will by interbreeding with humans.

In, uh, Genesis 6,

it talks about the-the sons of gods--

"gods," plural--

mating with the daughters of men.

And there was a certain evil connotation to it.

ERICH VON D�NIKEN: How can angels have sex?

Enoch describes of it.

Some of the extraterrestrials stood on Earth,

They had sex with some of our girls.

That is what is written down in Enoch.

It's not my invention.

Enoch never calls them gods.

He calls them "guardian of the skies" or "watchmen."

NARRATOR: According to ancient texts,

the fallen angels not only physically mated

with the women of Earth, they produced offspring:

the Nephilim, a race of giants, similar to those portrayed

in the story of David and Goliath.

But if, as many ancient astronaut theorists believe,

fallen angels were really extraterrestrials

that first arrived in the Middle East,

wouldn't they have also appeared elsewhere in the world?

For proof, researchers point to thousands of carvings

and other depictions of winged guardians,

strange creatures

and other half-man and half-beasts

that commonly appear on ancient walls and artifacts.

There is such an enormous amount of evidence to suggest

that angels are not something which Christianity invented,

but that they were somehow physically present

in all civilizations.

MICHAEL CARTER: Ancient cultures that depicted the gods

as winged creatures are the Sumerians,

the Babylonians,

certainly, the Egyptians.

All of these civilizations

had symbols where there was--

there may have been a winged disc,

or-or there may have been, what we would call today,

probably, a UFO.

I believe they were just letting us know

that these beings flew.

THOMAS BULLARD: In the Middle East, in particular,

there were depictions of supernatural beings with wings.

The demons of Mesopotamia...

...Pazuzu, which had the head of a lion

and the body of the human and the wings of a locust.

They were, primarily, soldiers of the higher gods,

servants of the higher gods.

The higher gods, they depended on these messengers.

They would run back and forth and gather information.

DAVID WILCOCK: The bible may be

the most thoroughly documented account

of extraterrestrial contact

ever in written history here on Earth.

We just simply have not learned

how to interpret and how to identify

the clear and obvious evidence

that the seraphim, the cherubim,

the archangels, the angels,

all of these different hierarchies of beings

described in the Old and the New Testament

literally do refer to visitors who come here.

VON D�NIKEN: Use the word "extraterrestrials" instead of the word of "angel."

Use a word of, uh, "leader of extraterrestrials"

instead of "archangel."

If you change a few words in the old texts--

a few keywords--

you change the sense of the old texts.

NARRATOR: But if, as ancient astronaut theorists maintain,

angels are not ethereal winged beings

but actually flesh-and-blood creatures

visiting us from other planets, why are they here?

And if they are messengers,

just who or what do they represent?

TSOUKALOS: Some say they were deliberately sent here

to watch over man.

LINDA HOWE: Where did they come from?

And if we're dealing

with one or more intelligences,

maybe they have different agendas.

? ?

NARRATOR: Mount Sodom, Israel.

A pillar of rock salt known as Lot's wife

overlooks the southwestern part of the Dead Sea,

near the presumed location of the Biblical cities

of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In both the Hebrew Book of Genesis

and the Islamic Quran,

angels traveled to this spot to warn Abraham's nephew Lot

that God was about to unleash terror upon the world.

And the angel finally says to Lot,

"If you don't come now with your family,"

two girls and the wife, "I cannot help you anymore."

It looks as if a countdown was working

which could not be stopped anymore,

if even the angel cannot stop it.

? ?

TSOUKALOS: Sure enough, they walk away

and there is this mayhem and destruction.

His wife turns around and she turns into a pillar of salt.

Since the ancient astronaut theory

proposes that angels were nothing else

but misinterpreted flesh- and-blood extraterrestrials,

this means that extraterrestrials

did side with certain people.

Were angels-- or extraterrestrials--

interfering with human development?

NARRATOR: But if angels saved Lot and his family

from the wrath of God, is this proof that angels

are more than just otherworldly messengers?

Might they be more actively engaged

in helping their human counterparts?

Even to the extent that they might still be affecting

the outcome of human history?

Once again, ancient astronaut theorists

look to the Book of Enoch for their answer,

and claim to have found evidence in its references

to a race of fallen angels known as watchers.

TSOUKALOS: There is much debate

amongst religious scholars about the fallen angels.

? ?

Some say they were deliberately sent here to watch over man.

And in the Book of Enoch specifically,

we have 20 watchers which are sort of in charge

of all the other angels that are in Enoch's presence.

You have the commanders and the officers

and the lieutenants.

And those 20 deliberately teach Enoch

in various disciplines,

such as meteorology, astronomy,

how to make better swords.

Now, would something like this really happen

in the kingdom of God?

I think the answer is clear.

HOWE: Where did they come from?

What do they want?

And if we're dealing with one or more intelligences

that, maybe they have different agendas,

but maybe there is something out there

that has been an ally

to evolving hominids and we're the latest model.

NARRATOR: In the Bible, angels often appear to humans

as physical entities that can be seen,

heard and even touched.

But today, many people believe angels are present

whether they can see them or not.

According to a 2008 survey

by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion,

55% of all American adults believe

a guardian angel protects them.

The popularity of guardian angels

in, uh, modern culture, I think has to do with the idea

that we want some kind of supernatural protection

in a world where we don't really feel very safe oftentimes.

NARRATOR: The Islamic faith teaches

that every human being has not one but two guardian angels,

one for each shoulder.

These celestial beings are called "writing angels"

because they write down the good deeds and the bad deeds

in each person's life.

The first so-called guardian angel

to appear in Judeo-Christian texts

is the Angel Raphael who was featured in the Book of Tobit,

written sometime between the eighth

and second century BC.

FATHER FULCO: Tobit is off on a very difficult mission.

He's gonna go to Persia to find a wife,

and he runs into all sorts of problems on the way.

So God sends the angel Raphael.

And now we have the angel not just as a messenger from God,

he becomes a guardian angel, he becomes a special protector.

VON D�NIKEN: The idea of guardian angel,

is it just because we wish it,

we believe it, that somebody's protecting us?

Or does it come from the past?

Has it to do maybe something with extraterrestrials?

In the sense

that some extraterrestrials said to some human,

"We protect you. Don't be afraid."

NARRATOR: Other biblical stories

include accounts of angels wielding extraordinary powers.

Angels who are not just guardians

but who intervene in human affairs.

WILCOCK: We're dealing with a directing force

of intelligent beings,

who may even be our progenitors.

TSOUKALOS: Extraterrestrials have helped us

to survive to this day.

? ?

When we talk about stories

of contact with otherworldly beings,

whether they're angels or gods or something else,

they're very often not just relaying messages,

they're giving instructions.

Right, we see this a lot

when some angel or deity

gives instructions, you know,

on how build something.

Or of a cataclysmic event

such as the Great Flood, for instance.

Right, and this essentially supports

the ancient astronaut theory

and the idea that, ultimately,

the extraterrestrials want us to succeed and survive.

We covered this way back in season two of Ancient Aliens.

NARRATOR: If-- as ancient astronaut theorists believe--

extraterrestrial beings have been contacting us

throughout the centuries,

then what are they trying to tell us?

WILCOCK: It appears again and again

that here on Earth we're dealing with something

that could be called the hidden directorate.

A directing force of intelligent beings

who may even be our progenitors

and have been working with humanity

ever since we began evolving on this planet...

...and will intervene at key points

to try to nudge our development in a certain direction.

TSOUKALOS: Why were some of our ancestors told

to construct a building...

...or to build an ark?

Personally, I think

to ensure mankind's survival.

There are stories of malevolent gods,

of malevolent extraterrestrials.

But by and large, the stories that we have from ancient times,

the gods were actually very benevolent.

And these extraterrestrials have helped us

throughout the millennia

to survive to this day.

NARRATOR: One of the oldest and most widespread stories

of divine or unearthly intervention in human events

can be found in the many great flood myths.

There are flood myths all over the world,

not just in the Bible.

You can find them all throughout South America.

You can find them in Native American traditions.

You can find them in the Celtic traditions,

the legend of the Ragnarok, the deluge.

It's in Asia.

Native Africans have flood myths.

So the story of Noah is not an isolated event

that only happens in the Bible.

It's part of a bigger story.

NARRATOR: Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

In the 16th century,

one of the first westerners to see this elaborate temple,

Portuguese monk Ant�nio da Madalena,

described it as "an extraordinary construction

as like no other building in the world."

With each side measuring nearly a mile long,

Angkor Wat remains the planet's largest religious structure.

Although mainstream archeologists believe

Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century

by King Suryavarman II

as a state temple and capital city,

Cambodian legends maintain

it was built as far back as 600 BC

by Preah Pisnokar,

the offspring of a commoner father

and a mother who came from the heavens.

When grown, Preah was said to be abducted up

into a flying palace by a group of otherworldly beings

led by the god Indra.

TSOUKALOS: The message Preah received was

to be a leader for his people and a teacher.

He was taught all these different things

when he was up at Indra's heaven,

this flying palace up in the sky.

When he came back to Earth, after this long education,

Preah was basically the chosen one

to teach his people

in the ways of the world and the universe.

NARRATOR: Six thousand miles northwest of Angkor Wat,

a 15th century French girl also reportedly received

a divine inspiration: to lead men in war.

Orl�ans, France.

In 1429, the city was besieged by the English

during the Hundred Years' War.

The survival of the French military

and government appeared doomed.

Then, 17-year-old Joan of Arc traveled

to Ch�teau Chinon,

where she persuaded the local leaders

that the Saints Michael, Catherine and Margaret

had visited her and told her that her presence in Orl�ans

would inspire the French army to break the siege.

YOUNG: The Joan of Arc story is a fabulous tale of a vision

really affecting history in a practical and concrete way.

France was in bad trouble.

This sensitive soul and very young girl

has the vision of saints that come to her,

and tell her to lead an army and free a city.

She does so.

She also has some prophecy from these visitations

that she is able to end the siege of a major city

and make major contributions to history,

all because these saints came to her in a vision.

NARRATOR: While Joan served primarily as a military figurehead,

she also designed new artillery tactics

and repeatedly outsmarted

the more experienced English commanders.

But did her mysterious visions actually come from heaven?

Or might the French teenager have received,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

a type of advanced extraterrestrial knowledge?

WILCOCK: If this is in fact what was happening,

then it would lead one to conclude

that the hidden directorate decided

that the way the world would turn out,

if this battle had not been won in favor of the French,

would have been an extremely negative outcome for humanity.

So, Joan of Arc was then contacted

by a luminous extraterrestrial being

that could have imparted that information to Joan of Arc

to give her the confidence that ultimately led

her military campaign to victory.

NARRATOR: If extraterrestrial beings have inspired

and affected human events, then is it really,

as some suggest, to help improve humanity?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and as further evidence,

point to strange events that coincided with the founding

of the United States.

CHILDRESS: Washington would meet occasionally

with these mysterious people

that he called "green skins."

CHRIS PITTMAN: It's during these crucial times in human history

that aliens would be interested in interacting with us.

? ?

To me, one of the most fascinating stories

of E.T. contact

has to do with the Founding Fathers.

We have multiple accounts of George Washington

encountering strange celestial beings.

Yeah, and again, this really makes you think

there's an agenda behind these visitations,

like we're being steered in a certain direction.

And, you know, it's documented

that some of the Founding Fathers believed

in extraterrestrial life.

So, there's a sense that, you know, they thought

that there was some otherworldly force

that wanted them to succeed.

NARRATOR: Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,

winter, 1777.

It is the height of the American Revolutionary War.

After several bloody battles against superior British forces,

George Washington's army is in tatters.

STEVEN BULLOCK: Valley Forge is the winter encampment

of the Continental Army, the army which is set up

by the nation to fight the Revolution.

The British have taken Philadelphia.

Washington decides he is gonna headquarter

some 12,000 troops right outside of Philadelphia.

DONALD GRINDE: This is the darkest time of the American Revolution,

when people thought that the United States

was really not going to win.

BULLOCK: Washington is trying to figure out what he's going to do,

and trying to keep the army together.

There's-there's very little money,

there's almost no supplies.

They often don't have shoes.

Lots of stories of things like, uh, bloody footprints

in the snow.

NARRATOR: So severe were the conditions

that Washington wrote, "Unless some great

"and capital change suddenly takes place,

this army must inevitably starve, dissolve, or disperse."

But ultimately, Washington's will to remain

at Valley Forge forced the British to retreat

and proved to be a turning point in the war.

What was it that sustained Washington in these dark hours?

Some believe it was a strange vision he received

during a moment of prayer.

In a moment of absolute misery,

he went off into the woods to pray.

And there in the forest he had this magnificent vision

of a creature garbed in white.

And this creature-- call it an extraterrestrial,

call it a heavenly spirit,

but it was an otherworldly presence--

laid out for Washington the victory

that the Continental Army would have

in the Revolutionary War against the British,

and laid out the history

of the new United States of America.

TSOUKALOS: He sees a map of the United States

and raindrops onto this map,

and cities are popping up

throughout the entire country.

A model of how the United States

would look 100 or 200 years

in the future.

BIRNES: How do we know this?

We know this because an aide to General Washington,

lived to be over 100 years old,

told this story to a newspaper

of our first general having an alien encounter.

NARRATOR: Could George Washington really have had

an extraterrestrial visitation at Valley Forge?

Or was this just a story he told to build up morale?

Ancient astronaut theorists

claim to have also uncovered evidence

that throughout the Revolutionary War,

George Washington himself

may have unknowingly come in direct contact

with extraterrestrials.

One of the strangest stories about George Washington,

uh, which allegedly comes from,

uh, diaries that he kept...

...that Washington would meet occasionally

with these mysterious people that he called "green skins."

Washington sees a green glowing ball

hovering in the tree line,

and out of this, Washington sees these small figures.

What were they?

Were they, as Washington thought they might have been,

small Native Americans in war paint?

One theory is that these were extraterrestrials

observing this cataclysmic event.

George Washington's vision at Valley Forge

during the Revolutionary War

is just one example of a great many stories

that we have about miraculous visions

and apparitions during times of war and bloodshed.

MAN: Fire!

Fire!

PITTMAN: Some people believe that it's during

these crucial times in human history that perhaps

aliens would be most interested in interacting with us.

NARRATOR: Did George Washington really encounter

green-skinned visitors

and witness glowing orbs at Valley Forge?

And, if so, might there be additional evidence

of alien encounters with other Founding Fathers?

April 5, 1800.

The city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Astronomer William Dunbar

reports to then Vice President Thomas Jefferson

that he witnessed a bright glowing light

the size of a large house

hovering 200 yards aboveground.

DERRICK PITTS: It was quite bright,

radiated a tremendous amount of heat

and crashed not so far away.

It destroyed that whole area where it crashed.

However, given the supposed size and speed

with which the object was moving,

it didn't seem to create a crater

of a size that would've been appropriate

for an object like that.

PITTMAN: The details of the sighting report

make it impossible that it could have been a meteor.

It wasn't moving fast enough to be a meteor.

It was something unexplained, something very unusual.

And Jefferson took this report very seriously.

He passed this report on

as he would pass on any other account

of a scientific discovery or a natural observation.

BIRNES: Jefferson was so impressed by the account

that Jefferson, vice president

of the United States, presented this

to the American Philosophical Society.

PITTS: So, who was this American Philosophical Society anyway?

Well, it was founded by Benjamin Franklin

in Philadelphia, and it really was

the intellectual cognoscenti of America at that time.

So, here we have some of the greatest thinkers

here in the United States, all pooled together in one group

that could write, uh, research papers,

write, uh, philosophical papers,

examine all sorts of phenomena from a scientific point of view.

PITTMAN: It's no coincidence

that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin

both believed in extraterrestrial life.

They were men of science,

they were astronomers who studied weather patterns.

And their belief in extraterrestrials

was part of their scientific view

of the world and of the universe.

BIRNES: For Thomas Jefferson

to report a UFO sighting, still remains

the highest public official ever to make a report

of a UFO in American history.

NARRATOR: George Washington's close encounter

with an otherworldly being,

Thomas Jefferson reporting a UFO sighting.

Could these incidents suggest

that the Founding Fathers not only believed

in the existence of extraterrestrials

but actually encountered them?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

similar otherworldly influences

spurred the expansion into America's Western Frontier.

TOK THOMPSON: In Mormonism, various angels and various spiritual beings

live on different planets.

LOGAN HAWKES: Moroni claimed to be from the Pleiades star cluster.

So their Church may have originated not of this world,

but of another world.

? ?

You know, a lot of people may not know this,

but the Mormon Church was founded

after an otherworldly visitation.

Yeah, that's right. Joseph Smith claimed

that he was instructed by a glowing being named Moroni,

and what's interesting is the Mormons believe

there's life on other planets.

So, what that means is that that information

was ultimately coming from this visitor.

Yeah, and so, you have to ask,

was Moroni a spiritual being, or something else?

We covered this in 2011 in an episode called

"Aliens and the Old West."

NARRATOR: Palmyra, New York,

September 21, 1823.

In the upstairs bedroom of a log cabin,

just south of this small, rural village,

17-year-old Joseph Smith had a vision of someone

or something not of this world.

It was late at night, it was dark,

and the room filled with a very, very bright light.

And this personage was floating in midair...

...his feet were off the ground,

and he identified himself as Moroni.

After talking with Joseph Smith

for, for a while, the Moroni seemed

to ascend into the air,

completely leaving the room again dark.

The next morning also, Moroni came back to...

to Joseph Smith to show him the hidden golden book,

which is what we know as the Book of Mormon today.

NARRATOR: According to the Book of Mormon,

Moroni identified himself to Joseph Smith

as a man who lived in America

in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.

But America was not Moroni's home.

He claimed to have much more distant origins.

HAWKES: Moroni claimed to be from the Pleiades star cluster.

So a Church today,

nine million members strong,

believe that their church may have originated,

not of this world but of another world.

NARRATOR: According to Joseph Smith,

not only did Moroni claim to be from another planet,

he also directed him to dig up the golden plates

from the Hill Cumorah,

which scholars believe is a reference

to an ancient Native American mound,

much like the Serpent Mound.

We have since found out

that in burial mounds and other effigy mounds

across the Native American region

we have such plates.

These writing tablets have been found.

And not just in North America but also in South America.

This entity tells Joseph Smith

to go on a physical search for an object,

which we know could have been an archaeological finding.

NARRATOR: But if Moroni was a spiritual or metaphysical being,

why would he give Joseph Smith physical objects

with which to translate the plates?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

Moroni may, in fact,

have been a star being,

an extraterrestrial whose mission was

to pass down to Smith and his followers

the advanced knowledge of the mound builders.

In Mormonism, actually, a lot of their theology

is directly related to this

idea of God and various angels

and various spiritual beings live on different planets.

NARRATOR: Joseph Smith felt

such a strong connection to the Native Americans,

that he believed they could help guide him

to a new holy land, which he called the New Zion.

Although Smith died in 1844,

the victim of mob violence,

his successor, Brigham Young, ultimately led the Mormons

further west to Utah.

In 1849, when the Mormons arrived

in the area of Parowan Gap,

local Ute leader, Chief Walkara,

told them they had entered "God's own house"

and showed them proof in the form of petroglyphs

dating back thousands of years.

TSOUKALOS: All throughout Utah, petroglyphs depict

hunters with bows and arrows going after buffalo,

very ordinary,

daily life occurrences.

But there are also some other depictions,

which are very odd.

And they look like spaceships.

They look like beings with halos.

They look like beings with antenna on their heads,

or beings that wear some type of a suit.

For all intents and purposes,

they look like depictions of spacemen.

NARRATOR: Great Falls, Montana.

October 19, 1865.

Sixth months after the assassination

of President Abraham Lincoln...

(gunshot)

...a fur trapper reports what might be

the first documented UFO crash in the Old West.

In 1865, the Missouri Democrat

reported that a trapper, um,

saw a light traveling through the sky at night.

It flew over his camp, broke apart

and crashed in the forest some miles away.

The next day he tracked it down,

found a large stone imbedded in the side of a mountain.

It was hollow, it was cracked open,

he claimed there were chambers inside of it

and there were hieroglyphic markings on it.

And there was also some mysterious liquid

spilled around the area.

But the newspaper, you know, went so far

as to suggest that these were

meteoric conveyances of aliens from Mercury or Uranus.

So the whole idea of UFO crashes was

explored in the 19th century,

almost a hundred years before Roswell.

NARRATOR: But what makes this story even more intriguing

to ancient astronaut theorists

is the location of the sighting, along the upper Missouri River.

This is the home of the Blackfoot Indians,

a tribe whose ancient legends include strange tales

of star beings visiting the region from other worlds.

The Blackfoot have very profound legends and myths relating

to beings, which quite clearly are said

to have come down from

some kind of sky world to Earth and in these sky vehicles.

And the way that they are described,

these can be modern ideas of flying saucers or UFOs.

NARRATOR: Could the object that the Montana fur trapper

claimed to have found really have been

one of the alien crafts described in Blackfoot legends?

And might the markings have been the same

as what Joseph Smith found on the golden plates?

To some Native Americans,

like Chief Standing Elk of the Yankton Dakota tribe,

star beings are still very much amongst us,

and they are still making contact with humans.

A lot of our relatives that come from the stars,

they speak on a telepathic level.

And there were some that came to me

and showed me a bar with symbols on there.

They talked to me and I understood them

very, very well.

This is a replica of one of the bars

that was in one of the light ships.

And they represent universal laws.

And they're guarded by the star people.

So these are universal laws.

NARRATOR: If the star ancestors of Native American tribes are,

in fact, advanced extraterrestrials,

as ancient astronaut theorists propose,

have they remained in contact with humanity

throughout the ages?

And do they target select individuals

for telepathic communication?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining the account

of a genius mathematician who claimed he was visited

by an otherworldly being.

YOUNG: The visitations lead

to a new possibility, a new plan for humanity.

WILCOCK: All of the science came to him

directly from this goddess,

who appeared to him in dreams.

? ?

You know, it's fascinating how a single individual can have

such a huge influence on human history.

Great thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci,

Plato, Einstein,

the list goes on and on.

And in many cases,

there's a story of contact or communication

with a higher intelligence that influenced them.

Well, this is exactly what my Greek ancestors referred to

when they talked about, for example, the Muses,

who were these goddesses that were known

to impart knowledge,

but also were great inspiration for literature,

inventions, and scientific discoveries.

Yeah, and you know, even in modern times we have people

like Steve Jobs who said they got information

while in meditation.

So you have to ask yourself

whether these people were getting information

from extraterrestrials.

(indistinct singing)

NARRATOR: Billions of people around the world

consider holy books like the Bible

and the Quran to be the word of God.

Hundreds of millions of Hindus view the Mahabharata

as a guide to spiritual enlightenment

handed down by the god Lord Krishna himself.

Each of these holy books contains religious principles

in the form of philosophies, parables and moral codes.

YOUNG: Messages from beyond our ordinary knowledge

seem to come in a variety of forms:

a visitation, a dream,

sometimes an object, a tablet, a golden plate, a book.

And so, it helps.

A book is an ordinary object we are familiar with,

and yet, if it's seen as divinely inspired,

we can take it as more than an ordinary book.

TSOUKALOS: The great majority of mankind today regards the Bible,

the Torah, and the Quran as the word of God.

But is it possible that these books were

nothing else but guiding books

of how we should conduct our lives?

And that these moral codes were, in fact,

given to us by extraterrestrials

whom our ancestors thought were gods?

I don't think the Mahabharata is a work of fiction.

It's an actual history.

And the history given in the Mahabharata

includes not only actions of human beings on Earth,

it also includes actions of extraterrestrials

on other planets and on this Earth,

in interaction with human beings here.

NARRATOR: Cultures all over the world

believe deities and other nonhuman entities

frequently communicated through intermediaries

known as prophets.

In the Koran, it's written that God

has sent over 100,000 prophets throughout history.

Many Native American cultures

believed gods spoke to them through shamans,

much like the oracles of ancient Greece.

An oracle is a person, but a person in some divine state,

an altered state of some kind,

who is able to hear the voices of the gods

and then translate it into accessible human language.

NARRATOR: But could the same phenomenon

apply to Judeo-Christian religious texts?

Might biblical stories of angels and miracles

actually be misinterpretations

of ancient alien contact or inspiration?

YOUNG: The visitations or apparitions come to give some gift

to open the mind, to lead to a new perception,

to lead to a new possibility.

Either a new artistic, uh, take on something,

or a new plan for humanity.

Often, we are trapped in some kind of thinking

that needs to break beyond its known limits,

but we're caught, we are unable to see,

to get a transcendent perspective.

And that is what the visitation makes possible.

NARRATOR: If that is true,

there might be additional evidence of alien contact

by examining breakthroughs in the fields of astronomy,

archaeology and physics.

Or perhaps what is arguably

the most universal of all languages, mathematics.

Cambridge University, England.

February 1913.

Mathematics professor Godfrey H. Hardy

receives a letter containing

complex mathematical theorems and formulas

from 26-year-old Srinivasa Ramanujan of India.

The distinguished scholar is stunned by what he reads.

Hardy looks at these theorems and says,

"My God, we've never seen anything like this.

"This is mathematics of the highest order.

"It's so convoluted and complex

"that nobody could've come up with this by their imagination,

there has to be something here."

NARRATOR: An acknowledged genius

and mathematical prodigy since childhood,

Ramanujan was devoutly religious

and often claimed his breakthroughs

were communicated to him in his dreams

by the Hindu goddess Namagiri.

In the decades since,

his theorems have proved to be invaluable

to those working in cutting-edge fields

like string theory.

WILCOCK: All of the science that we need

to eventually be able to create portals, star gate travel,

hyperdimensional access mechanisms,

levitation, teleportation,

it all needs a mathematical foundation.

And the closest that we have right now

is the Ramaianen equations that we've been able

to decipher so far,

which came to him directly from this goddess,

who appeared to him in dreams.

? ?

NARRATOR: Could Ramanujan have been telepathically receiving

important information that might enable humans

to build a portal or stargate

to other dimensions or alien worlds?

And if so, was this insight

imparted by an extraterrestrial being?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the answer is a resounding "yes."

And they suggest Ramanujan

is just one of many great thinkers

who have received knowledge...

from an otherworldly source.

COPPENS: We have pockets of people

who have received tremendous amounts of information.

YOUNG: We don't know if they're, in fact,

receiving communication from some divine or powerful source.

? ?

NARRATOR: Stockholm, Sweden. 1921.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

awards Albert Einstein with the Nobel Prize in Science

for his groundbreaking contributions

to theoretical physics.

But what separated Einstein from his contemporaries?

How did the 42-year-old physicist

achieve such a seemingly perfect blueprint of the universe?

We see that across time and space we have pockets of people

who have received tremendous amounts of information,

which really have propelled civilization along.

Obviously the question then is, do they have special brains

or is this just something which happens

by concentrating on the right thing

to access this information?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Albert Einstein's practice

of thought experiments

allowed his genetically advanced brain

to receive messages from a metaphysical realm,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

If so, could there be evidence

of other geniuses across human history

whose greatest breakthroughs materialized

through altered states of consciousness?

Athens, Greece.

Outside the Academy of Athens sits a statue of a war hero,

and the founding father of Western philosophy:

Socrates.

? ?

Socrates' contemporaries describe the philosopher

as being strange in many ways,

including spending hours each day

consumed by his own thoughts.

One of the most stunning examples

of Socrates' daydreaming actually happens

while on campaign as a soldier at the siege of Potidaea.

Socrates was caught in the grip of a thought or an idea.

And he remained fixed and thinking silently

for an hour, for another hour, for another hour.

He displayed an extraordinary endurance

that his peers may have found, uh, odd

and suspicious and puzzling.

COPPENS: We often think that a genius is eccentric,

but I think some of their eccentricity

comes from the fact that they really are

in touch with other realities.

In the case of Socrates,

he said that he was able to access a demon.

(growling and hissing)

Now, a demon for Socrates is not some evil creature.

But the ancient Greeks had this subcategory of gods

who really were talking to human beings,

explaining the mysteries of life to us,

explaining why we were here.

NARRATOR: Is Socrates' so-called demon

evidence that the founder of Western philosophy

was mentally unstable?

Or could Socrates' demon be proof

that he was in contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence

that was sending him messages

from a distant realm in the cosmos?

I think it's too easy just to say that, yeah,

Socrates was nuts or that he was schizophrenic,

or that he was hearing voices.

The demon is some kind of messenger

or some kind of bridge between him

and the realm of the metaphysical

that he is trying to attain.

NARRATOR: Did Socrates' practice of deep meditation

connect him to an extraterrestrial intelligence,

as some ancient astronaut theorists contend?

If so, could there be other geniuses with similar claims

that they received information from a higher realm

while in a trance-like state?

DOC BARHAM: In the case of Leonardo Da Vinci,

in his writings he describes

laying down on a bed in his room and taking a candle

and placing the candle at the foot of the bed.

And he would lie down on the bed

and look at the flickering of the flame on the ceiling

and it would put him into a very, very deep state

in which he would be able to imagine

and come up with new ideas.

YOUNG: Puccini said that his great opera, Madame Butterfly,

was from God, that he wrote it down

but it came directly from a divine source.

William Blake, whose entire opus, uh,

his writing and painting, was based on,

uh, repeated angelic visitations.

Brahms said that his music came from something beyond himself.

We don't know if they're, in fact, receiving communication

from some divine or powerful, uh, source

beyond their own skin, or if they may be in touch

with their own unconscious or deeper wisdom

that they're not customarily hearing from.

NARRATOR: In the 1900s, Serbian-born inventor Nikola Tesla

pioneered modern electrical engineering

and was the driving force behind today's wireless technology.

(electricity crackling)

In his writings, Tesla describes his method

of approaching a complex engineering problem.

BARHAM: Nikola Tesla was someone who wrote extensively

about using very, very powerful visualizations.

In fact, he said that he was able

to visualize a motor,

and then actually run research and development, R&D,

on the motor in his mind

so that he could tell where there might be,

for example, mistakes or flaws.

And he would be able to do almost all of that in his mind

in these altered states of consciousness.

COPPENS: Nikola Tesla is a person

who believed in the existence of extraterrestrial beings.

He is a person who really believes

that he can communicate with other galaxies.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the greatest piece of evidence

that Tesla believed he was in communication

with otherworldly beings

can be found in a letter he sent

to the American Red Cross in December of 1900.

In the letter, he writes, "We have a message

"from another world, unknown and remote.

"It reads: 'one,

two, three.'"

COPPENS: Tesla was a genius with certain eccentricities.

Everything he did was in threes.

And it is interesting, I think,

because this is a level of symbolism.

When we realize that so many of our ancestors,

whenever they are talking about communication with the divine

and how the divine downloaded this information to them,

we see this rich layer of symbolism there as well.

NARRATOR: Can it only be coincidence

that many of the greatest minds in human history

claim to have received information

from an otherworldly source?

Or could it be possible that Socrates,

Nikola Tesla, Srinivasa Ramanujan

as well as other geniuses in human history

were using altered states of consciousness

to access an alien realm?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

telepathy is just one of the many mysterious ways

extraterrestrials continue to relay messages

to humanity.

COPPENS: The best way of communicating

with an alien civilization is the binary code.

WILCOCK: The incident could've been them coming back,

finding a person who had the right tuning

to receive the message.

? ?

You know, it's interesting to look at all these stories

of alien messengers essentially shaping human history,

but the even bigger question is, where does any of this lead to?

Because I think we all agree

that this is still going on today.

CHILDRESS: Yes, and all three of us

know people who claim

that they've had contact with extraterrestrials.

So, if this is really happening,

you would think that there's some important reason behind it.

HENRY: Oh, definitely.

One of the most fascinating modern stories of someone

who's claimed to receive alien messages

comes from the famous Rendlesham Forest incident

which we first covered way back in season two.

NARRATOR: October 2010.

For nearly 30 years after their alleged encounter

with an unidentified aircraft in England's Rendlesham Forest,

retired military airmen James Penniston

and John Burroughs rarely spoke to each other

about the incident.

Yet both men remained haunted by their experience.

(chuckles): That was a life-changing event

that happened out there.

You know, and the-the problem with life-changing events?

They affect you for your life.

BURROUGHS: I want to know what it was.

I think there's people out there

in our government have a better idea,

and they could tell us what went on, what happened to us,

but I don't know how to tell you for sure what--

what it was and where it came from.

NARRATOR: Shortly after his reported encounter,

James Penniston had felt compelled to write down

the long and complex numerical sequence of ones and zeros

he claimed he saw when he touched the spacecraft.

But were they really just random numbers?

I was getting this, not from memory,

but this mental picture of these codes written out.

This binary-type code.

So, I tried to suppress it,

but I-I just had this urge to put these down.

COPPENS: We now realize that the best way

of communicating with an ancient civilization

is the binary code.

If we know this, then obviously,

anybody else in the universe will know this as well.

And when we know that our ancestors,

either on their own or with some help from strangers,

knew this as well,

then we realize that, really, the binary code is the best,

if not the only means, of alien communication.

NARRATOR: For three decades,

Penniston kept the mysterious numerical sequence hidden

between the covers of his Air Force notebook.

There they remained, unexamined and undeciphered.

PENNISTON: I was scared to death.

I was sitting there going,

"Okay, there's something wrong with you Jim, you're not right.

"You're not thinking straight.

"This stuff is so bizarre. You can't tell anybody this.

"They'll take your gun away from you.

They'll kick you out."

All those things were in jeopardy.

That's what I was thinking about at that moment,

that if I start telling anybody

exactly what I was thinking, that would be the end of it.

The refusal of the call is probably an experience

all thoughtful people have.

That is, there is some project, some task, some mission.

But we waver, we doubt ourselves

and don't immediately respond to our destiny.

This is not a good thing.

NARRATOR: After eventually leaving the Air Force

and returning to the United States...

...Penniston found he was being haunted

by persistent dreams,

both about his experience in the forest...

...and the meaning of the mysterious

numerical message he received.

PENNISTON: What do they mean? I don't know.

I've never had them analyzed or anything like that.

I mean, we were out there doing our jobs

with a situation that we'd never handled before.

(keyboard clicking)

NARRATOR: In October 2010,

Penniston entrusted his six handwritten pages

of ones and zeros to a computer programmer.

He hoped the apparently random series of numbers

could be translated

into something resembling a readable message.

Could someone write out six pages of binary?

Well, probably not.

Um, they would need some help, or they would have to be

some kind of savant or super-calculator.

I started transcribing it into my computer

to see what I might find.

I thought, "It's not gonna come out to anything."

And then, something that appeared to be

a real message regarding aliens emerged.

NARRATOR: To his astonishment,

after plugging the numbers into a computer,

a fragmentary sentence emerged.

It stated...

..."exploration of humanity

continuous for planetary advance."

Another portion of the message

revealed what appeared to be navigational coordinates.

Could this now decoded series of numbers

actually be the evidence the human race

has been searching for?

Proof that we are not alone?

CISKE: "Exploration of humanity,"

is that for good or for evil?

"Planetary advancement,"

is that advancing the human race,

as many have theorized,

or is that the advancement of some armada

coming to conquer Earth?

NARRATOR: As for the navigational coordinates,

amazingly, they point to the geographic location

of a mysterious sunken island

known in Celtic legend as Hy-Brasil.

It was said to be the home of a civilization

thousands of years ahead of its time.

It is also occasionally referred to as "the other Atlantis."

WILCOCK: Hy-Brasil was believed to be

a mysterious land in which the people living there

had a high degree of civilization.

They used sound technology

and vibrational healing technology.

They were highly ethical, highly moral people,

and they considered everyone over in Europe to be barbarians,

and they did not want to mix with them at all.

They enjoyed the isolation and the seclusion.

NARRATOR: But if the strange binary message

in Penniston's notebook

lists the coordinates of Hy-Brasil,

what does it mean?

WILCOCK: They may be ancient astronauts

and the Rendlesham Forest incident

could've been them coming back,

finding a person who was ready to receive the message

who had the right tuning to receive the message.

To let us know that the people we call the Hy-Brasilians

are still out there and they want us

to be ready to accept in the future

some sort of open congress and communication

between our world and theirs.

NARRATOR: Does the phrase "exploration of humanity

continuous for planetary advance,"

and the strange geographic coordinates

that point to a lost island really provide evidence

that we are being visited and perhaps studied

by visitors from another world?

It's now very clear that the one constant in human history

has been contact with celestial or extraterrestrial beings.

And we're, I think, in agreement

that they're not here to help break us down,

they're here to help us break through.

They're here to take us

to higher levels of-of evolution.

CHILDRESS: Yeah, they can teach us

to do things, but ultimately,

they can't do them for us.

We have to do it.

They want us to do things for ourselves.

TSOUKALOS: Right, and ultimately,

the idea may be that we, too, one day,

will go out there to spread information,

science and knowledge.

And hopefully, we'll be able to join this intergalactic club.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0