1 00:00:03.254 --> 00:00:07.592 [ Man Narrating ] Human corpses preserved for thousands of years. 2 00:00:08.718 --> 00:00:10.404 [ Man ] The ancient Egyptians were convinced... 3 00:00:10.428 --> 00:00:13.556 that the dead could and would reawaken one day. 4 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:17.519 [ Narrator] Strange relics placed on the bodies of the dead. 5 00:00:17.602 --> 00:00:21.773 One of them had images of winged beings. 6 00:00:21.856 --> 00:00:25.944 [ Narrator] And monks buried while still alive. 7 00:00:27.195 --> 00:00:30.740 [ Man #2 ] These funerary rites would be all about humans becoming... 8 00:00:30.823 --> 00:00:34.202 not just like the gods, but gods themselves. 9 00:00:34.285 --> 00:00:38.831 [ Narrator] Mysterious burial rituals and elaborate mummification processes... 10 00:00:38.915 --> 00:00:41.876 have been found on every continent on the planet. 11 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:43.461 But Why? 12 00:00:43.545 --> 00:00:46.506 Were the ancients simply trying to cheat death? 13 00:00:46.589 --> 00:00:50.468 Or could there be another more otherworldly explanation? 14 00:00:50.552 --> 00:00:54.430 [ Man #3] it is possible the mummies were being preserved... 15 00:00:54.514 --> 00:00:57.767 so that they may be reunited with the gods... 16 00:00:58.476 --> 00:01:00.562 that actually started their culture. 17 00:01:01.396 --> 00:01:03.565 [ Narrator] Millions of people around the world... 18 00:01:03.648 --> 00:01:08.611 believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. 19 00:01:08.695 --> 00:01:10.822 What if it were true? 20 00:01:11.823 --> 00:01:16.770 Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history? 21 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:19.497 And if so, might the ultimate proof be hidden... 22 00:01:19.581 --> 00:01:22.125 in the secrets of the mummies? 23 00:01:53.406 --> 00:01:54.657 [ Narrator] Vatican City. 24 00:01:54.741 --> 00:01:57.827 April 2, 2005. 25 00:01:59.245 --> 00:02:01.497 Pope John Paul II dies... 26 00:02:03.410 --> 00:02:06.544 bringing his historic 26-year papacy to a close. 27 00:02:08.254 --> 00:02:10.757 His corpse is chemically preserved... 28 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.552 and transported to Saint Peter's Basilica for public viewing. 29 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:18.222 In a funeral service watched by millions... 30 00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:23.561 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger speaks of the beloved pontiffs soul... 31 00:02:23.645 --> 00:02:26.689 being guided to the eternal glory of Heaven. 32 00:02:28.191 --> 00:02:33.446 His body is then interred in a large, underground tomb beneath the church. 33 00:02:37.283 --> 00:02:43.810 We can see that a great deal of care was taken to preserve Pope John Paul's body. 34 00:02:44.916 --> 00:02:49.754 And the idea is that death, in fact, is just the beginning of this journey. 35 00:02:52.715 --> 00:02:56.511 Many modern funerals, those that take place in Europe and the Americas... 36 00:02:56.594 --> 00:03:01.599 many of the initial ideas actually have their roots in ancient Egypt. 37 00:03:04.102 --> 00:03:07.563 In ancient Egypt, bodies were mummified... 38 00:03:07.647 --> 00:03:10.900 and put into sarcophagi that resemble human beings. 39 00:03:10.983 --> 00:03:14.320 And this is still done today in many religious traditions... 40 00:03:14.404 --> 00:03:16.197 including the Roman Catholic Church. 41 00:03:21.369 --> 00:03:23.788 [ Narrator] Mummification is any process... 42 00:03:23.871 --> 00:03:26.400 used to prevent the decaying of the body... 43 00:03:26.124 --> 00:03:28.751 that naturally occurs after death. 44 00:03:29.794 --> 00:03:35.910 The preserved body of Pope John Paul II is, essentially, a mummy. 45 00:03:35.174 --> 00:03:40.179 And, in fact, modern-day mummies can be found all over the world. 46 00:03:42.807 --> 00:03:48.229 When Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died in 1924... 47 00:03:48.312 --> 00:03:52.650 Russian scientists preserved his body by removing the organs... 48 00:03:52.734 --> 00:03:58.364 and replacing them with a secret system to simulate the movement of bodily fluids. 49 00:04:00.992 --> 00:04:05.788 The process has kept him looking astonishingly lifelike to this day... 50 00:04:05.872 --> 00:04:11.169 and was also used to preserve the bodies of Joseph Stalin and Ho Chi Minh. 51 00:04:13.870 --> 00:04:15.840 North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il... 52 00:04:15.923 --> 00:04:18.551 President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines... 53 00:04:18.634 --> 00:04:20.803 and Chinese emperor Mao Zedong... 54 00:04:20.887 --> 00:04:24.265 also remain preserved in remarkable condition. 55 00:04:24.348 --> 00:04:29.270 But it is not just world leaders who are being mummified. 56 00:04:29.353 --> 00:04:33.858 Any body that is embalmed at a funeral home is, in effect... 57 00:04:33.941 --> 00:04:36.778 undergoing a type of mummification. 58 00:04:36.861 --> 00:04:38.821 But why do so many people... 59 00:04:38.905 --> 00:04:43.242 go to such great lengths to preserve the body after death? 60 00:04:45.536 --> 00:04:48.390 [ Man ] Our ancestors believed in an afterlife... 61 00:04:48.122 --> 00:04:51.501 and that the proper ceremonial rites at time of death... 62 00:04:51.584 --> 00:04:55.379 allowed the departed to travel to the reward, to the next life... 63 00:04:56.881 --> 00:05:00.900 which was often imagined to be in the heavens, the stars... 64 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:04.722 and that this travel allowed the person to come into their full reward. 65 00:05:05.556 --> 00:05:08.768 You have, all over the world, people continue to preserve bodies... 66 00:05:08.851 --> 00:05:12.104 And it's because there is this idea of living forever... 67 00:05:12.188 --> 00:05:16.670 that death is not the end- it's a beginning, it's a transitory state. 68 00:05:18.528 --> 00:05:23.491 For some reason, everyone has this idea that we need the body to live forever. 69 00:05:23.574 --> 00:05:27.495 If people truly believed there was a spiritual essence that infused the body... 70 00:05:27.578 --> 00:05:32.410 that left at the moment of death, they can't justify mummification. 71 00:05:35.378 --> 00:05:38.840 [ Narrator] What can explain the fact that, for thousands of years... 72 00:05:38.923 --> 00:05:41.133 in cultures throughout the world... 73 00:05:41.217 --> 00:05:42.677 people have held a belief... 74 00:05:42.760 --> 00:05:48.683 that the preservation of the body is necessary to transition into the afterlife? 75 00:05:49.809 --> 00:05:53.479 Ancient astronaut theorists believe clues can be found... 76 00:05:53.563 --> 00:05:57.275 hidden beneath the desert sands of Upper Egypt. 77 00:06:03.281 --> 00:06:05.867 The Valley of the Kings. 78 00:06:05.950 --> 00:06:09.620 Located on the western bank of the Nile River... 79 00:06:09.704 --> 00:06:14.830 lies one of the most expansive burial grounds in all of Egypt. 80 00:06:14.917 --> 00:06:20.798 The tombs were constructed between 1539 and 1075 BC... 81 00:06:20.882 --> 00:06:23.384 for pharaohs and other nobility. 82 00:06:26.846 --> 00:06:31.726 To date, 63 tombs have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings. 83 00:06:33.477 --> 00:06:37.815 One of the best preserved is that of Pharaoh Ramses VI... 84 00:06:37.899 --> 00:06:43.863 who ruled from approximately 1145 to 1137 BC. 85 00:06:50.770 --> 00:06:52.246 More than 4,000 years ago... 86 00:06:52.330 --> 00:06:56.208 King Ramses would have started digging this to become his tomb. 87 00:06:56.292 --> 00:06:59.712 Or, as he called it, his “House of Eternity.” 88 00:07:02.890 --> 00:07:06.510 For ancient Egyptians, a tomb wasn't just a place where they would end up dead. 89 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:12.183 A tomb was a place where they would start their eternal life. 90 00:07:17.605 --> 00:07:19.774 [ Narrator] The Egyptians believed that, in death... 91 00:07:19.857 --> 00:07:22.735 the soul would split into several parts... 92 00:07:22.818 --> 00:07:25.446 and begin the journey to the afterlife. 93 00:07:27.310 --> 00:07:28.574 But to make this transition... 94 00:07:28.658 --> 00:07:32.787 it was essential to reunite the soul with the physical body. 95 00:07:35.390 --> 00:07:38.793 And while the Egyptians were not the first to mummify their dead... 96 00:07:38.876 --> 00:07:44.256 no other ancient culture went to such great lengths to preserve the body... 97 00:07:44.340 --> 00:07:47.510 and ensure entrance into the next life. 98 00:07:50.221 --> 00:07:54.475 Ancient Egyptians would put a body that needed to be mummified... 99 00:07:54.558 --> 00:07:56.352 in a dry room. 100 00:07:57.395 --> 00:08:00.982 They would first take out the internal organs... 101 00:08:01.650 --> 00:08:05.403 and they'd pack that body with natron salt to start the drying process. 102 00:08:07.238 --> 00:08:09.699 And then they would remove the brain. 103 00:08:11.701 --> 00:08:15.997 Then they would rinse the body with sweet-smelling oils... 104 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.458 and they cover the entire body in natron salt... 105 00:08:19.542 --> 00:08:23.587 and it would stay that way for about 35 to 70 days. 106 00:08:25.756 --> 00:08:29.176 Once the body was all dried out, they would wrap the entire body... 107 00:08:29.260 --> 00:08:34.432 putting amulets and other special jeweled objects in the linen... 108 00:08:34.515 --> 00:08:38.561 and then once it was completely wrapped and be done. 109 00:08:43.649 --> 00:08:48.195 [ Narrator ] The Egyptians understood the most important factor in mummification- 110 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:49.780 the removal of fluids... 111 00:08:49.864 --> 00:08:55.202 which ensures that bacteria cannot survive and the body will not decay. 112 00:08:57.380 --> 00:09:02.168 Although archaeologists have discovered much about how these mummies were prepared... 113 00:09:02.251 --> 00:09:06.839 the Egyptians left behind no texts or instructions on mummification. 114 00:09:06.922 --> 00:09:13.262 Just how the Egyptians came to create this comp/ex practice remains a mystery. 115 00:09:13.345 --> 00:09:16.515 But they did leave behind extensive records... 116 00:09:16.599 --> 00:09:19.393 regarding their thoughts on the afterlife. 117 00:09:22.813 --> 00:09:25.149 This right here is a very good depiction... 118 00:09:25.232 --> 00:09:29.737 of the journey of the afterlife with King Ramses. 119 00:09:29.820 --> 00:09:32.490 You see him here on a solar barge... 120 00:09:32.573 --> 00:09:36.350 being protected by all the different gods behind him- 121 00:09:36.118 --> 00:09:38.412 goddess Isis and god Osiris. 122 00:09:39.663 --> 00:09:42.374 This right here is god Anubis... 123 00:09:42.458 --> 00:09:45.795 and god Anubis is the god of the mummification. 124 00:09:47.129 --> 00:09:52.593 The most important story in Egyptian mythology is the god Osiris... 125 00:09:52.676 --> 00:09:58.641 how his brother, Seth, coveted his brother's power and killed him. 126 00:09:59.934 --> 00:10:05.106 Then his wife, Isis, in grief, got help from Anubis... 127 00:10:05.189 --> 00:10:09.110 who then helped Isis breathe life back into him... 128 00:10:09.193 --> 00:10:13.489 to survive into the next life with the help of Anubis... 129 00:10:13.572 --> 00:10:17.201 the inventor of embalming and mummification. 130 00:10:18.327 --> 00:10:24.410 The mummification process in Egypt has often been related to, uh, the star Sirius... 131 00:10:24.125 --> 00:10:26.100 which we call the Dog Star. 132 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:31.590 And the mummification rights were overseen by the Egyptian god Anubis... 133 00:10:31.674 --> 00:10:34.176 who was a jackal-headed god. 134 00:10:34.260 --> 00:10:37.960 And so you have to wonder if Anubis... 135 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:41.976 wasn't some real, physical, extraterrestrial god. 136 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:49.660 The ancient Egyptian temple walls are covered with images of transformation. 137 00:10:50.317 --> 00:10:54.155 And what it reveals is that their core sacred science... 138 00:10:54.238 --> 00:10:59.160 was about human transformation or ascension into celestial beings. 139 00:11:00.911 --> 00:11:02.913 So you wonder is it possible... 140 00:11:02.997 --> 00:11:07.918 it's because those who originally taught us the concept came from the stars? 141 00:11:14.133 --> 00:11:18.220 [ Narrator] Could it be that the ancient Egyptians' beliefs about the afterlife... 142 00:11:18.304 --> 00:11:21.765 were influenced by extraterrestrial visitors? 143 00:11:22.766 --> 00:11:27.479 Was it from these visitors that they learned the process of mummification? 144 00:11:27.563 --> 00:11:31.942 And if so, what was their ultimate agenda? 145 00:11:33.152 --> 00:11:36.363 Perhaps the answers can be found in ancient mummies... 146 00:11:36.447 --> 00:11:40.409 that predate the Egyptians by thousands of years. 147 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:53.797 [ Narrator] Arica, Chile. 1983. 148 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:58.385 Workers digging a trench in this coastal city... 149 00:11:58.469 --> 00:12:02.848 just seven miles from the Peruvian border make a remarkable discovery. 150 00:12:05.142 --> 00:12:08.812 They unearth a cemetery containing 96 mummies... 151 00:12:08.896 --> 00:12:12.660 from the prehistoric Chinchorro culture. 152 00:12:14.735 --> 00:12:20.157 Scientists determine that some of the remains date back over 7,000 years... 153 00:12:20.241 --> 00:12:24.286 making these the oldest known mummies in the world. 154 00:12:26.497 --> 00:12:28.332 [ Jeremiah ] The Chinchorro were fishermen... 155 00:12:28.415 --> 00:12:31.835 Who lived along the ocean in Chile and Peru. 156 00:12:33.300 --> 00:12:37.258 And in fact, 4,000 years before the ancient Egyptians started doing it... 157 00:12:37.341 --> 00:12:41.303 the Chinchorro were mummifying their dead in South America. 158 00:12:43.681 --> 00:12:46.850 [ Man ] The Chinchorros would open up the cavity of the body. 159 00:12:46.934 --> 00:12:48.686 They would take out all the organs. 160 00:12:48.769 --> 00:12:54.525 They would put sand and grass and other things inside the body. 161 00:12:54.608 --> 00:12:56.694 They would carefully cover it with mud... 162 00:12:56.777 --> 00:12:59.446 and then they'd make mud masks over their face. 163 00:12:59.530 --> 00:13:04.340 It was a very elaborate system, embalming these things. 164 00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:11.458 [ Narrator] The Chinchorro method of mummification... 165 00:13:11.542 --> 00:13:17.423 is strikingly similar to the process used by the Egyptians thousands of years later. 166 00:13:18.549 --> 00:13:22.636 But why was this strange burial ritual continued... 167 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:27.641 not just in Egypt, but in civilizations across the ancient world? 168 00:13:31.562 --> 00:13:36.817 El Castillo de Huarmey, Peru. January 2013. 169 00:13:39.111 --> 00:13:43.324 Researchers announce that they've discovered an archaeological rarity- 170 00:13:43.407 --> 00:13:49.580 an untouched, 7, 300-year-old royal tomb from the Wan' Empire. 171 00:13:51.415 --> 00:13:53.459 A predecessor to the Inca... 172 00:13:53.542 --> 00:13:56.837 the Wari civilization thrived in central Peru... 173 00:13:56.920 --> 00:13:59.840 between 600 and 1100 AD... 174 00:13:59.923 --> 00:14:02.343 before mysteriously disappearing. 175 00:14:04.678 --> 00:14:10.768 Inside the tomb was a treasure trove of gold, textiles, artifacts... 176 00:14:10.851 --> 00:14:15.814 and 63 mummified women, including three Wari queens. 177 00:14:18.108 --> 00:14:20.778 [ Barnhart] From the three royaled women... 178 00:14:20.861 --> 00:14:26.116 one of them had earrings that had images of winged beings. 179 00:14:29.119 --> 00:14:33.707 These winged, anthropomorphic birds that we see in religious art... 180 00:14:33.791 --> 00:14:38.295 happen from the very earliest art we know of in South America. 181 00:14:40.547 --> 00:14:44.218 And that's something also that you see, uh, at Tiahuanaco... 182 00:14:44.301 --> 00:14:47.471 where winged beings are running towards Viracocha... 183 00:14:47.554 --> 00:14:50.599 in the center of the famous Door of the Sun. 184 00:14:52.142 --> 00:14:58.650 So why are these winged beings, then, on jewelry with the Wari people? 185 00:14:58.148 --> 00:15:00.234 And we find that with Egyptians too. 186 00:15:02.152 --> 00:15:06.615 [ Man ] The Egyptian god Thoth is depicted in Egyptian iconography... 187 00:15:06.698 --> 00:15:09.576 as a half-bird, half-man deity. 188 00:15:09.660 --> 00:15:15.541 And it was Thoth who gave the knowledge of mummification to Isis. 189 00:15:16.708 --> 00:15:20.254 What's interesting is that there are other cultures around the world... 190 00:15:20.337 --> 00:15:25.259 that also have half-bird, half-human beings... 191 00:15:25.342 --> 00:15:27.553 that are treated as gods. 192 00:15:28.595 --> 00:15:33.100 This suggests that there was some global culture... 193 00:15:33.183 --> 00:15:36.103 of extraterrestrial visitors here... 194 00:15:36.186 --> 00:15:40.190 who were teaching this mummification as a technology. 195 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:53.412 [ Narrator] Is it possible that the Wari images of winged gods... 196 00:15:53.495 --> 00:15:57.958 really represent extraterrestrials who came down from the sky? 197 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:02.212 Did they visit not just Peru... 198 00:16:02.296 --> 00:16:05.480 but ancient cultures across the world? 199 00:16:06.300 --> 00:16:09.970 And does the fact that these images are found on Wari mummies... 200 00:16:10.530 --> 00:16:15.642 suggest that this was a science brought to planet Earth by otherworldly beings? 201 00:16:24.401 --> 00:16:27.154 [ Narrator] Utcubamba Valley, Peru. 202 00:16:28.572 --> 00:16:32.659 Perched on a mountain cliff in this isolated region of the Amazon... 203 00:16:32.743 --> 00:16:35.871 stand six massive, clay sarcophagi... 204 00:16:35.954 --> 00:16:39.875 known by locals as simply the “ancient wise men.” 205 00:16:42.127 --> 00:16:45.923 Researchers estimate these eight-foot clay coffins... 206 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:50.511 were constructed between 1100 and 1300 AD. 207 00:16:51.428 --> 00:16:54.223 They were built to house the mummified remains... 208 00:16:54.306 --> 00:16:57.476 of elite members of the Chachapoya tribe... 209 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:01.313 a pre-Columbian civilization of fierce warriors. 210 00:17:01.396 --> 00:17:03.148 [Screaming ] 211 00:17:05.108 --> 00:17:08.695 So we don't know much about the Chachapoyas people, who they were. 212 00:17:09.738 --> 00:17:13.534 They seemed to be very different from the other tribes in Peru... 213 00:17:13.617 --> 00:17:17.746 and just exactly where they had come from and where they went... 214 00:17:17.829 --> 00:17:19.581 is today a complete mystery. 215 00:17:21.875 --> 00:17:25.870 I don't know of any other culture in South America... 216 00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:28.799 that created sarcophaguses or coffins. 217 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:31.718 These coffins were big. 218 00:17:31.802 --> 00:17:34.221 And they were made in the form of humans. 219 00:17:34.304 --> 00:17:38.267 Not unlike the sarcophaguses in Egypt. 220 00:17:40.644 --> 00:17:44.640 The Chachapoya mummies were buried in a fetal position... 221 00:17:44.147 --> 00:17:46.233 and this is interesting. 222 00:17:51.363 --> 00:17:54.700 The fetal position suggests the possibility... 223 00:17:54.783 --> 00:17:58.745 that the mummification rite was going to lead to a new birth. 224 00:18:00.330 --> 00:18:03.125 It's like the idea that there's a new incubation... 225 00:18:03.208 --> 00:18:06.920 and this may explain why we see mummification... 226 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:10.632 not just with the Chachapoya but we also see it in Egypt... 227 00:18:10.716 --> 00:18:15.596 and this mummification technology on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean... 228 00:18:15.679 --> 00:18:20.225 does suggest that these people are after some sort of goal... 229 00:18:20.309 --> 00:18:23.186 that we don't yet understand in modern times. 230 00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:30.444 [ Narrator] Could mummification have been an attempt by the ancients... 231 00:18:30.527 --> 00:18:33.488 to not only preserve the body after death... 232 00:18:33.572 --> 00:18:36.742 but to enable the dead to be reborn- 233 00:18:37.701 --> 00:18:43.290 a technique used by extraterrestrials to achieve power over death. 234 00:18:44.916 --> 00:18:48.795 Perhaps further clues can be found by examining mummies... 235 00:18:48.879 --> 00:18:51.673 made not from the bodies of the dead... 236 00:18:51.757 --> 00:18:55.677 but from the bodies of people buried alive. 237 00:19:03.769 --> 00:19:05.771 [ Narrator] Mount Yudono, Japan. 238 00:19:06.647 --> 00:19:09.650 In the 1,200-year-old Dainichibo Temple... 239 00:19:09.733 --> 00:19:11.818 at the base of this holy mountain... 240 00:19:11.902 --> 00:19:15.489 sitting on an altar within a glass case... 241 00:19:15.572 --> 00:19:21.360 is the mummy of the revered Buddhist monk Daijuku Bosatsu Shinnyokai-Shonin. 242 00:19:22.245 --> 00:19:28.430 Shonin is what is known in Japan as a sokushinbutsu, or a living Buddha. 243 00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:33.799 He died in 1783 at the age of 96... 244 00:19:33.882 --> 00:19:38.470 but shockingly, this is not when the mummification process was started. 245 00:19:38.553 --> 00:19:42.990 It began six years before his death. 246 00:19:47.270 --> 00:19:49.564 This ritual of self-mummification... 247 00:19:49.648 --> 00:19:53.694 was commonly practiced by monks in the Shingon sect of Buddhism... 248 00:19:53.777 --> 00:19:57.739 in northern Japan between the 11th and 19th centuries. 249 00:20:02.994 --> 00:20:08.410 They would willingly embark on a process of self-mortification... 250 00:20:08.125 --> 00:20:10.794 which was tantamount to suicide. 251 00:20:11.712 --> 00:20:14.506 The first phase would last about a thousand days... 252 00:20:14.589 --> 00:20:17.259 and they would begin the self-mummification process... 253 00:20:17.342 --> 00:20:21.179 by embarking on a very rigorous low-calorie diet. 254 00:20:21.263 --> 00:20:23.473 In the second phase of the process... 255 00:20:23.557 --> 00:20:28.610 the practitioner would be imbibing the urushi tea. 256 00:20:28.145 --> 00:20:31.523 Now, the urushi tea is highly toxic. 257 00:20:32.399 --> 00:20:35.527 However, it was believed to lacquer, basically... 258 00:20:35.610 --> 00:20:38.488 the tissues and organs from the inside out... 259 00:20:38.572 --> 00:20:41.575 in order to favor the mummification process. 260 00:20:43.243 --> 00:20:45.162 And because of its toxicity... 261 00:20:45.245 --> 00:20:50.000 the flesh was so poisonous that even maggots would not consume it. 262 00:20:51.668 --> 00:20:55.672 [ Young ] When they were nearly dead, they would go into a small chamber... 263 00:20:55.756 --> 00:20:58.842 just big enough to sit in the lotus position. 264 00:21:00.469 --> 00:21:04.639 It would be sealed up, except for a reed that allowed a little air in... 265 00:21:04.723 --> 00:21:07.434 and inside, the monk had a bell. 266 00:21:07.517 --> 00:21:08.727 [ Bell Rings ] 267 00:21:08.810 --> 00:21:11.480 One day, the bell would not ring... 268 00:21:11.563 --> 00:21:15.275 and the followers would withdraw the reed and seal up the chamber. 269 00:21:19.571 --> 00:21:23.200 After 1,000 days, they would open it to see what had happened. 270 00:21:24.701 --> 00:21:28.872 [Jeremiah ] if the bodies had mummified, they were considered living Buddhas. 271 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:32.501 And they were redressed in sacerdotal robes... 272 00:21:32.584 --> 00:21:36.379 and displayed in special temple halls called sokubutsudo. 273 00:21:37.547 --> 00:21:39.174 If they had not mummified... 274 00:21:39.257 --> 00:21:42.385 an exorcism was performed and they were simply buried. 275 00:21:50.685 --> 00:21:54.940 [ Narrator] Although hundreds of monks tried to attain sokushinbutsu... 276 00:21:55.230 --> 00:21:58.652 only 24 are known to have succeeded. 277 00:21:58.735 --> 00:22:01.279 But why would these devout followers of Buddha... 278 00:22:01.363 --> 00:22:05.867 have endured such pain in order to mummify their own bodies? 279 00:22:07.452 --> 00:22:11.540 One of the central beliefs of Buddhism is reincarnation... 280 00:22:11.623 --> 00:22:13.750 but according to the Shingon sect... 281 00:22:14.918 --> 00:22:18.922 those who successfully complete the self-mummification process... 282 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:20.924 become higher beings. 283 00:22:22.717 --> 00:22:25.178 The idea was they didn't think they were dying. 284 00:22:26.638 --> 00:22:29.432 They perceived this as a state of suspended animation. 285 00:22:29.516 --> 00:22:33.395 It wasn't death for them. It wasn't life. It was somewhere in between. 286 00:22:34.187 --> 00:22:38.942 They needed the body preserved to enter this other dimension of reality... 287 00:22:39.250 --> 00:22:42.779 and to continue life, although it's not life as we would interpret it. 288 00:22:45.115 --> 00:22:47.701 [ Man ] They do not have to be reborn... 289 00:22:47.784 --> 00:22:52.372 because when you become a living Buddha, you have already attained your nirvana... 290 00:22:52.455 --> 00:22:58.545 so that, you know, your body remains kind of immortal in a sense. 291 00:22:58.628 --> 00:23:00.380 [ Steavu ] They were trying to emulate... 292 00:23:00.463 --> 00:23:05.260 these high-ranking or highly-achieving, spiritually speaking, beings... 293 00:23:05.343 --> 00:23:06.845 such as Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. 294 00:23:13.935 --> 00:23:18.481 [ Narrator] Bu! What did it' mean to a Shingon monk to become a living Buddha... 295 00:23:18.565 --> 00:23:20.901 and transition to a higher realm? 296 00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:25.300 Perhaps the answer can be found... 297 00:23:25.113 --> 00:23:29.200 by examining the life of the original Buddha himself. 298 00:23:33.163 --> 00:23:35.874 The historical Buddha was known as Siddhartha Gautama... 299 00:23:37.792 --> 00:23:42.589 and he was born around the mid-sixth century BCE. 300 00:23:42.672 --> 00:23:45.508 He founded the Buddhist tradition... 301 00:23:45.592 --> 00:23:49.471 in which he expounds on the path to enlightenment. 302 00:23:55.180 --> 00:24:00.440 It's very important that the historical Buddha was understood as a human. 303 00:24:00.523 --> 00:24:02.776 That gives every human practitioner... 304 00:24:02.859 --> 00:24:06.738 access to the same level of ability and enlightenment. 305 00:24:07.697 --> 00:24:11.952 However, he also took on some magical powers... 306 00:24:12.350 --> 00:24:14.204 that, in some ways... 307 00:24:14.287 --> 00:24:18.667 brought him much closer to a divine being or semi-divine being... 308 00:24:18.750 --> 00:24:21.419 than to a normal mortal human. 309 00:24:22.300 --> 00:24:25.924 He was known to teleport across the Ganges River... 310 00:24:26.700 --> 00:24:29.678 appearing from one side of the river to the other in the blink of an eye. 311 00:24:31.638 --> 00:24:35.976 [ CHILDRESS ] When you look at the life of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha... 312 00:24:36.590 --> 00:24:40.146 he would appear to be somebody that we would maybe call a “star child”- 313 00:24:40.230 --> 00:24:43.108 part human, part extraterrestrial. 314 00:24:49.197 --> 00:24:51.783 [ Narrator] Is it possible that the first Buddha... 315 00:24:51.866 --> 00:24:54.869 had extraterrestrial origins? 316 00:24:55.745 --> 00:24:58.331 Might the Shingon monks have believed... 317 00:24:58.415 --> 00:25:01.420 that through the process of self-mummification... 318 00:25:02.850 --> 00:25:06.423 they too could be transformed into more advanced beings? 319 00:25:06.506 --> 00:25:11.177 Ancient astronaut theorists believe that further answers can be found... 320 00:25:11.261 --> 00:25:14.681 by examining the story of an Egyptian pharaoh... 321 00:25:14.764 --> 00:25:17.726 with extraterrestrial origins. 322 00:25:26.234 --> 00:25:29.612 [ Narrator] Amarna, Egypt. 1891. 323 00:25:30.780 --> 00:25:34.159 Italian archaeologist Alessandro Barsanti... 324 00:25:34.242 --> 00:25:37.620 explores the tomb constructed for the Pharaoh Akhenaten... 325 00:25:39.122 --> 00:25:41.750 but finds no evidence of his mummy. 326 00:25:46.838 --> 00:25:51.134 What's really interesting is that the Egyptologists were certain... 327 00:25:51.217 --> 00:25:56.140 that they would find Akhenaten behind that tomb... 328 00:25:56.970 --> 00:25:58.641 and they didn't. 329 00:26:02.979 --> 00:26:06.399 [ Narrator] Just what happened to this revolutionary leader after his death... 330 00:26:06.483 --> 00:26:09.486 is as mysterious as the pharaoh himself. 331 00:26:12.739 --> 00:26:17.827 Was he never actually buried in his tomb, or could he have been removed? 332 00:26:19.496 --> 00:26:23.208 Akhenaten ruled from 1353 BC... 333 00:26:23.291 --> 00:26:26.169 until his death 17 years later. 334 00:26:27.670 --> 00:26:30.715 His reign was dominated by controversy... 335 00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:33.635 when he abandoned the pantheon of old Egyptian gods... 336 00:26:33.718 --> 00:26:38.389 and instead demanded that his subjects worship the sun god Aten. 337 00:26:41.476 --> 00:26:46.147 The Aten was something that he saw in the sky between two mountains... 338 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:50.860 that inspired him to create the sacred city of Amarna. 339 00:26:52.195 --> 00:26:55.615 Now the typical view is the Aten must be the sun... 340 00:26:55.698 --> 00:27:00.328 but it is entirely possible that what Akhenaten was seeing... 341 00:27:00.411 --> 00:27:04.374 was, in fact, an extraterrestrial flying craft. 342 00:27:10.922 --> 00:27:14.217 [ Narrator] Did Akhenaten uproot the entire Kingdom of Egypt... 343 00:27:14.300 --> 00:27:17.950 because of an extraterrestrial encounter? 344 00:27:18.888 --> 00:27:22.934 Or could there be an even more profound explanation? 345 00:27:24.394 --> 00:27:27.438 If you compare images of Akhenaten... 346 00:27:27.522 --> 00:27:30.191 to other depictions of pharaohs... 347 00:27:30.275 --> 00:27:33.444 you'll notice that Akhenaten looks very different. 348 00:27:34.863 --> 00:27:38.740 He had this very bizarre, elongated skull... 349 00:27:38.158 --> 00:27:42.412 and he had this weird potbelly and weird arms. 350 00:27:43.913 --> 00:27:48.420 So was he really a human? 351 00:27:49.502 --> 00:27:53.548 Perhaps Akhenaten was not of this earth. 352 00:27:57.218 --> 00:28:01.514 [ Narrator] While archaeologists have yet to uncover the remains of Akhenaten... 353 00:28:01.598 --> 00:28:03.683 ancient astronaut theorists believe... 354 00:28:03.766 --> 00:28:07.187 that depictions of him having an elongated skull... 355 00:28:07.270 --> 00:28:10.356 could be more than just artistic license. 356 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:15.403 Because there are other mummies that do, in fact, have unusual skulls. 357 00:28:20.992 --> 00:28:23.536 Some elongated skulls can be explained... 358 00:28:23.620 --> 00:28:27.749 by the fact that numerous ancient cultures practiced head binding- 359 00:28:28.416 --> 00:28:32.837 a form of body modification where the heads of infants were tightly bound... 360 00:28:32.921 --> 00:28:36.216 to force their skulls to become conical in shape. 361 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.596 But several misshapen skulls appear to defy explanation. 362 00:28:45.990 --> 00:28:49.620 In Peru and Malta, elongated skulls have been discovered... 363 00:28:49.145 --> 00:28:52.899 that are mysteriously missing a sagittal suture- 364 00:28:52.982 --> 00:28:57.487 the fibrous jagged joint found in all human skulls. 365 00:28:58.238 --> 00:29:01.199 [TSOUKALOS ] When you compare some of these elongated skulls... 366 00:29:01.282 --> 00:29:05.495 some have sutures like we have as humans... 367 00:29:05.578 --> 00:29:10.375 and then there are other skulls that do not have the same sutures. 368 00:29:10.458 --> 00:29:16.506 So is it possible that some of them are of actual extraterrestrial origin? 369 00:29:18.700 --> 00:29:22.679 It would not surprise me in the least bit. In the least bit. 370 00:29:28.393 --> 00:29:31.646 [ Narrator] Could the elongated skulls found on certain mummies... 371 00:29:31.729 --> 00:29:34.774 actually be of extraterrestrial origin? 372 00:29:36.901 --> 00:29:41.197 Might they be proof that humans learned the process of mummification... 373 00:29:41.281 --> 00:29:43.283 from alien visitors? 374 00:29:45.159 --> 00:29:47.954 For years, researcher Brien Foerster... 375 00:29:48.370 --> 00:29:52.458 has been studying elongated skulls found in Paracas, Peru... 376 00:29:52.542 --> 00:29:57.460 and recent DNA tests have yielded startling results. 377 00:29:58.798 --> 00:30:01.551 Initial results, though ambiguous... 378 00:30:01.634 --> 00:30:05.847 seem to indicate that partial segments of their DNA... 379 00:30:05.930 --> 00:30:08.808 are not to be found in what is called GenBank... 380 00:30:08.891 --> 00:30:11.477 which is the record of human DNA... 381 00:30:11.561 --> 00:30:14.630 that's been decoded so far. 382 00:30:14.147 --> 00:30:18.776 Astonishingly, the geneticist who's been studying them has said... 383 00:30:18.860 --> 00:30:24.574 that their DNA, at least in some aspects, are not human. 384 00:30:30.790 --> 00:30:33.333 [ Narrator] Might the DNA of the mummified Paracas skulls... 385 00:30:33.416 --> 00:30:38.870 contain the truth about ancient man's contact with extraterrestrials? 386 00:30:39.964 --> 00:30:44.135 Could it be that the mummy of Akhenaten has never been found... 387 00:30:44.218 --> 00:30:47.847 because it was deliberately hidden or destroyed... 388 00:30:47.930 --> 00:30:51.642 to keep us from discovering its alien origins? 389 00:30:52.518 --> 00:30:55.210 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest... 390 00:30:55.104 --> 00:30:57.940 that the most compelling evidence of a connection... 391 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:01.194 between mummification and extraterrestrials... 392 00:31:01.277 --> 00:31:03.404 can be found with the Inca... 393 00:31:04.614 --> 00:31:09.410 who treated the dead as though they were still very much alive. 394 00:31:18.711 --> 00:31:20.129 [ Narrator] Cuzco, Peru. 395 00:31:21.631 --> 00:31:26.260 This sacred city was once the capital of the Inca Empire... 396 00:31:27.178 --> 00:31:29.263 and by the 13th century... 397 00:31:29.347 --> 00:31:32.580 was the center of one of the largest... 398 00:31:32.141 --> 00:31:36.938 and most sophisticated pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. 399 00:31:41.150 --> 00:31:45.710 The Inca were renowned for their proficiency in architecture... 400 00:31:45.154 --> 00:31:51.244 and widely regarded as the most important of their many temple complexes... 401 00:31:51.327 --> 00:31:54.380 was the one known as Qorikancha. 402 00:31:54.914 --> 00:31:59.585 Historical accounts describe it as a magnificent palace of gold... 403 00:31:59.669 --> 00:32:03.890 that housed the most holy objects of worship for the Inca- 404 00:32:04.173 --> 00:32:06.843 the mummies of their dead kings. 405 00:32:10.513 --> 00:32:13.683 [ Barnhart ] That's where the king did his most important rituals... 406 00:32:13.766 --> 00:32:19.355 and where the mummies of the previous Sapa Incas, or kings, were kept. 407 00:32:20.773 --> 00:32:25.361 And those mummies were communicated with on a regular basis. 408 00:32:27.363 --> 00:32:30.283 [ Narrator] Even today, descendants of the Inca... 409 00:32:30.366 --> 00:32:32.785 recreate the centuries-old practice... 410 00:32:32.869 --> 00:32:35.913 of using the mummies in sacred ceremonies. 411 00:32:37.790 --> 00:32:39.935 [ Foerster ] Four times a year they were brought out... 412 00:32:39.959 --> 00:32:42.712 and the living descendants would then consult with them... 413 00:32:42.795 --> 00:32:44.589 about the affairs of state... 414 00:32:44.672 --> 00:32:47.175 as well as what they should do in the future. 415 00:32:49.100 --> 00:32:52.930 It was believed that these mummies could communicate with deities... 416 00:32:53.140 --> 00:32:56.934 or otherworldly beings in this twilight realm... 417 00:32:58.394 --> 00:33:01.481 or in this state between life and death. 418 00:33:02.690 --> 00:33:07.320 They even had people specially trained to take care of the royal mummies. 419 00:33:07.403 --> 00:33:11.157 And some of the duties that these caretakers had... 420 00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:14.160 were interpreting what the mummy wished to say... 421 00:33:14.243 --> 00:33:16.913 arranging meetings with the living and the dead... 422 00:33:16.996 --> 00:33:21.751 and strangely even taking the mummy outside so he could urinate. 423 00:33:28.174 --> 00:33:29.759 [ Narrator] But why would the Inca... 424 00:33:29.842 --> 00:33:33.679 the most advanced civilization in South America at the time... 425 00:33:33.763 --> 00:33:37.934 treat corpses as though they were living, thinking beings? 426 00:33:39.227 --> 00:33:44.815 Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the Incan creation story. 427 00:33:45.733 --> 00:33:48.528 The Incan creation myth describes... 428 00:33:48.611 --> 00:33:51.614 how the world was created by the Ayar brothers. 429 00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:55.952 And the word “ayar” actually means mummy... 430 00:33:57.245 --> 00:34:00.289 so written right into the myth from the very beginning... 431 00:34:00.373 --> 00:34:04.210 is the idea that mummification is of central importance... 432 00:34:04.293 --> 00:34:08.297 to whomever and whatever these gods are. 433 00:34:08.381 --> 00:34:11.300 Is it possible that those mythical gods... 434 00:34:11.384 --> 00:34:16.806 were actually extraterrestrial flesh and blood beings of some kind? 435 00:34:20.476 --> 00:34:24.814 [ Narrator] But if the Ayar brothers really were extraterrestrials... 436 00:34:24.897 --> 00:34:29.235 why would the Inca have used the same term for these alien visitors... 437 00:34:29.318 --> 00:34:31.946 as they did for their mummified dead? 438 00:34:32.989 --> 00:34:35.449 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest... 439 00:34:35.533 --> 00:34:39.579 that the Inca may have witnessed these other-worldly space travelers... 440 00:34:39.662 --> 00:34:42.999 emerging from a state of suspended animation. 441 00:34:45.126 --> 00:34:50.673 What if they were trying to mimic whatever it is they saw? 442 00:34:52.508 --> 00:34:57.555 And so, if someone with no technological knowledge... 443 00:34:58.347 --> 00:35:02.226 witnesses someone who is in suspended animation... 444 00:35:03.394 --> 00:35:06.689 and then they come alive... 445 00:35:06.772 --> 00:35:09.609 they have just witnessed the resurrection of someone... 446 00:35:09.692 --> 00:35:12.278 someone coming back from the dead... 447 00:35:12.361 --> 00:35:15.781 when, in reality, that was never the case. 448 00:35:19.702 --> 00:35:21.787 [ Narrator] Is it possible that the Inca... 449 00:35:21.871 --> 00:35:25.708 witnessed alien visitors coming out of hibernation... 450 00:35:25.791 --> 00:35:29.545 and that this is why they mummified their dead? 451 00:35:30.546 --> 00:35:33.299 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 452 00:35:33.382 --> 00:35:39.960 and claim that this might also explain mummification in other cultures... 453 00:35:39.180 --> 00:35:41.432 most notably the Egyptians. 454 00:35:42.224 --> 00:35:46.604 [WILCOCK ] it's possible that the extraterrestrials who visited Egypt... 455 00:35:46.687 --> 00:35:50.316 would have needed to have some sort of hyperbaric isolation chambers... 456 00:35:50.399 --> 00:35:52.777 to get from their home world to here. 457 00:35:52.860 --> 00:35:56.447 Now, if that is true, then it's also possible... 458 00:35:56.530 --> 00:35:58.407 that the mummification ritual... 459 00:35:58.491 --> 00:36:03.621 actually originated from this long-term hyperbaric storage... 460 00:36:03.704 --> 00:36:08.751 that they were doing with their bodies inside sarcophagus-like chambers. 461 00:36:09.377 --> 00:36:14.757 One idea, certainly, is that human beings and these societies... 462 00:36:14.840 --> 00:36:19.679 were seeing extraterrestrials who were wrapped in certain body suits... 463 00:36:19.762 --> 00:36:22.723 and then they would come back alive. 464 00:36:22.807 --> 00:36:26.185 They were put in a special suspended animation... 465 00:36:26.268 --> 00:36:29.563 that was similar to mummification. 466 00:36:29.647 --> 00:36:35.611 And perhaps, this is why the Egyptians were doing mummification. 467 00:36:38.698 --> 00:36:42.660 [ Narrator] Could mummification really have been an attempt by ancient people... 468 00:36:42.743 --> 00:36:46.330 to imitate extraterrestrial space travelers? 469 00:36:46.414 --> 00:36:47.665 Perhaps. 470 00:36:47.748 --> 00:36:50.543 But ancient astronaut theorists propose... 471 00:36:50.626 --> 00:36:54.422 that there may be an even more profound explanation- 472 00:36:55.470 --> 00:36:59.343 that early humans were not simply imitating alien visitors... 473 00:37:00.469 --> 00:37:04.432 but intended to join them in the future. 474 00:37:11.897 --> 00:37:15.234 [ Narrator ] Juérez, Mexico. 2008. 475 00:37:17.153 --> 00:37:20.865 Just eight miles southwest of El Paso, Texas... 476 00:37:20.948 --> 00:37:23.909 in this notoriously violent border town... 477 00:37:26.412 --> 00:37:29.248 Dr. Alejandro Hernéndez Cardenas... 478 00:37:29.331 --> 00:37:33.544 develops a groundbreaking new technique in forensic science. 479 00:37:33.627 --> 00:37:36.255 By using a secret chemical formula... 480 00:37:36.338 --> 00:37:40.968 he is able to rehydrate the flesh of unrecognizable homicide victims... 481 00:37:41.510 --> 00:37:43.971 including bodies that were mummified... 482 00:37:44.540 --> 00:37:47.433 after years of being dried out in the hot desert climate. 483 00:37:49.977 --> 00:37:51.937 Out of sort of compassion or concern... 484 00:37:52.210 --> 00:37:55.274 for the huge number of unidentified bodies in Juérez... 485 00:37:56.275 --> 00:38:00.988 he figured out a solution that you can place a mummified corpse in. 486 00:38:01.572 --> 00:38:06.827 The corpse becomes recognizable in terms of identifying scars or tattoos. 487 00:38:14.794 --> 00:38:17.797 [ Narrator] The naturally mummified corpses are put in a tank... 488 00:38:17.880 --> 00:38:21.801 that Dr. Cardenas refers to as “The Jacuzzi”... 489 00:38:21.884 --> 00:38:25.387 which holds 60 gallons of his secret' formula. 490 00:38:27.306 --> 00:38:29.433 Over the course of a few days... 491 00:38:29.517 --> 00:38:34.104 the shriveled remains are rehydrated to look almost lifelike. 492 00:38:36.440 --> 00:38:39.401 But as astounding as his formula is... 493 00:38:39.485 --> 00:38:42.196 it's not the first time science has attempted... 494 00:38:42.279 --> 00:38:45.866 to, in some way, restore a mummified body. 495 00:38:49.912 --> 00:38:51.747 In 1968... 496 00:38:51.831 --> 00:38:55.668 Robert Connolly, a researcher from the University of Liverpool... 497 00:38:55.751 --> 00:39:01.131 attempted to virtually regenerate the blood of a completely mummified body... 498 00:39:01.215 --> 00:39:05.886 only this mummy was 3,300 years old. 499 00:39:06.512 --> 00:39:09.932 It was the mummy of Egypt's most famous pharaoh- 500 00:39:10.933 --> 00:39:13.352 King Tutankhamen. 501 00:39:14.562 --> 00:39:19.692 Connolly's method was to combine antigens taken from a skin sample of King Tut... 502 00:39:19.775 --> 00:39:21.902 with his own blood cells. 503 00:39:23.487 --> 00:39:24.989 Connolly is actually type O... 504 00:39:25.720 --> 00:39:27.700 which means you don't have any antigens on your blood cells. 505 00:39:27.783 --> 00:39:31.780 He was actually able to put the antigens from King Tut... 506 00:39:31.161 --> 00:39:33.789 on his sort of clean slate of a blood cell... 507 00:39:35.958 --> 00:39:39.879 so then recreating whatever blood type the mummy had. 508 00:39:39.962 --> 00:39:42.381 You mix those red blood cells with different blood types... 509 00:39:42.464 --> 00:39:43.984 and if it's not the correct blood type... 510 00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:45.902 what you get is sort of clumping of the blood cells... 511 00:39:45.926 --> 00:39:47.806 because there's an immune response against them. 512 00:39:47.887 --> 00:39:49.388 But if it's the correct blood type... 513 00:39:49.471 --> 00:39:51.974 then you don't see any sort of immunological response. 514 00:39:52.570 --> 00:39:53.937 So, in that way, they were able to figure out... 515 00:39:53.976 --> 00:39:56.478 which blood type King Tut possessed. 516 00:39:59.815 --> 00:40:01.525 [ Narrator] Since Connolly's experiment... 517 00:40:01.609 --> 00:40:03.777 scientists have gone even further... 518 00:40:03.861 --> 00:40:08.324 and discovered what they believe is King Tut's true DNA. 519 00:40:10.409 --> 00:40:13.829 Could the next step be an actual resurrection? 520 00:40:15.497 --> 00:40:17.458 Was the preservation of the body... 521 00:40:17.541 --> 00:40:22.460 not just a ritualistic attempt to imitate alien visitors... 522 00:40:22.129 --> 00:40:26.258 but an actual form of suspended animation? 523 00:40:26.342 --> 00:40:31.597 But if so, how could they have foreseen such incredible scientific advancements... 524 00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:33.974 thousands of years ago? 525 00:40:35.517 --> 00:40:39.772 It is possible that the ancient astronauts... 526 00:40:39.855 --> 00:40:43.275 taught the Egyptians that mummification... 527 00:40:43.359 --> 00:40:48.530 was a way of preserving their genetic information in the DNA. 528 00:40:51.367 --> 00:40:55.871 [CHILDRESS ] One of the startling discoveries in the study of mummies... 529 00:40:55.955 --> 00:40:57.790 in Egypt and elsewhere... 530 00:40:57.873 --> 00:41:02.836 is that quite a bit of DNA is actually preserved... 531 00:41:02.920 --> 00:41:06.799 for thousands of years in the mummification process. 532 00:41:07.383 --> 00:41:12.805 This makes it possible to clone ancient mummies... 533 00:41:12.888 --> 00:41:16.580 and, in a sense, bring them back to life. 534 00:41:17.393 --> 00:41:20.938 [WILCOCK] it is possible that, at some point in the future... 535 00:41:21.210 --> 00:41:23.983 if your body had been successfully mummified... 536 00:41:24.660 --> 00:41:26.402 that these ancient extraterrestrials were well aware... 537 00:41:26.485 --> 00:41:32.157 that a clone of who you were before could then be reborn many years later. 538 00:41:32.241 --> 00:41:35.953 And is it possible that with the magnificence of the DNA... 539 00:41:36.360 --> 00:41:38.747 and with all of the information that it contains... 540 00:41:38.831 --> 00:41:41.667 that you might also come back... 541 00:41:41.750 --> 00:41:45.337 with the memories of what you lived... 542 00:41:45.421 --> 00:41:48.966 and who you were and what you knew the last time. 543 00:41:49.883 --> 00:41:51.677 And that may be the purpose... 544 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:56.390 which will actually be used in the future not yet present... 545 00:41:56.473 --> 00:42:00.600 but with a technology that we are very rapidly acquiring. 546 00:42:01.937 --> 00:42:05.357 [ Henry] When the extraterrestrials taught the art of mummification... 547 00:42:05.441 --> 00:42:07.985 did they have it in the back of their mind that... 548 00:42:08.680 --> 00:42:10.612 maybe 5,000 years into the future... 549 00:42:10.696 --> 00:42:13.730 medical science would advance to the level... 550 00:42:13.157 --> 00:42:17.369 where we would be able to extract the DNA from those mummies? 551 00:42:19.288 --> 00:42:21.683 And maybe this is part of the purpose of the mummification... 552 00:42:21.707 --> 00:42:24.100 is to create this time capsule. 553 00:42:28.589 --> 00:42:32.634 [ Narrator] Could our ancestors really have been taught the process of mummification... 554 00:42:32.718 --> 00:42:35.345 by extraterrestrial beings? 555 00:42:35.429 --> 00:42:40.170 Was it their intention that we would eventually develop the technology... 556 00:42:40.100 --> 00:42:43.200 to retrieve the DNA of the ancient mummies... 557 00:42:43.103 --> 00:42:45.355 and restore them to life? 558 00:42:46.607 --> 00:42:51.195 And if we do, might we discover that these human time capsules... 559 00:42:51.278 --> 00:42:54.615 hold the secrets to our very origins? 560 00:42:55.574 --> 00:42:59.912 Perhaps one day, we will truly be able to reanimate the dead... 561 00:42:59.995 --> 00:43:02.498 and from these ancient mummies... 562 00:43:02.581 --> 00:43:06.668 we will learn the truth about our alien ancestors.