1 00:00:02.300 --> 00:00:03.546 Fire! 2 00:00:05.507 --> 00:00:07.270 [ Man Narrating ] A people torn apart'. 3 00:00:07.926 --> 00:00:10.845 [ Man ] Not a household in the North or the South... 4 00:00:10.929 --> 00:00:12.847 was not touched by blood in this conflict. 5 00:00:13.765 --> 00:00:17.602 [ Narrator] A no' the future of a nation hanging in the balance. 6 00:00:17.686 --> 00:00:20.522 [ Man ] That Union, for it to fail... 7 00:00:20.605 --> 00:00:23.191 that meant that the concepts of democracy... 8 00:00:23.274 --> 00:00:25.443 would fail throughout the world. 9 00:00:27.112 --> 00:00:30.365 [ Narrator] The Civil War nearly destroyed the great experiment... 10 00:00:30.448 --> 00:00:33.410 known as the United States of America... 11 00:00:33.493 --> 00:00:36.871 but might there have even been more at stake than we know? 12 00:00:37.747 --> 00:00:40.417 Could it be that the preservation of the Union... 13 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:43.920 was ensured by extraterrestrial beings? 14 00:00:44.921 --> 00:00:48.508 [ Man ] it's possible that extraterrestrials have been visiting America... 15 00:00:48.591 --> 00:00:50.719 since its foundation... 16 00:00:50.802 --> 00:00:53.138 and did steer the outcome of the Civil War. 17 00:00:54.139 --> 00:00:56.391 [ Narrator] Millions of people around the world... 18 00:00:56.474 --> 00:01:00.812 believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. 19 00:01:01.563 --> 00:01:03.565 What if it were true? 20 00:01:04.816 --> 00:01:09.404 Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history? 21 00:01:09.487 --> 00:01:12.365 And if so, might they have even influenced... 22 00:01:12.449 --> 00:01:15.618 the outcome of the American Civil War? 23 00:01:47.984 --> 00:01:49.986 [ Narrator] Jackson County, Missouri. 24 00:01:50.690 --> 00:01:51.780 1831. 25 00:01:52.697 --> 00:01:56.785 Thirty years before the Confederate cannons fired on Fort Sumter... 26 00:01:56.868 --> 00:01:59.621 marking the start of the American Civil War... 27 00:02:00.705 --> 00:02:03.410 Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith... 28 00:02:03.124 --> 00:02:05.919 brought many of his followers here... 29 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:10.480 declaring this location to be the site of the New Jerusalem. 30 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:14.969 He also stirred up controversy with his comments on slavery... 31 00:02:15.530 --> 00:02:18.970 in this long-established slave state. 32 00:02:18.890 --> 00:02:24.896 Joseph Smith, when he takes his Mormon colony to Missouri... 33 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:27.649 he actually makes some statements about slavery. 34 00:02:29.609 --> 00:02:33.238 He thought that the slavery issue would cause discord. 35 00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:36.658 He also came out and said that the slaves... 36 00:02:36.741 --> 00:02:40.203 would eventually rise up against their masters. 37 00:02:44.833 --> 00:02:46.417 [ Narrator] Eight years earlier... 38 00:02:46.501 --> 00:02:50.171 Joseph Smith claimed that a strange figure named Moroni... 39 00:02:50.255 --> 00:02:53.466 came to him in the night, enveloped in light... 40 00:02:53.550 --> 00:02:57.110 and professing to be from the Pleiades star cluster. 41 00:02:59.305 --> 00:03:02.225 It was also Moroni who directed him... 42 00:03:02.308 --> 00:03:06.563 to the golden tablets that would become the Book of Mormon. 43 00:03:08.314 --> 00:03:12.527 Joseph Smith also reported that the angel Moroni continued to visit him... 44 00:03:12.610 --> 00:03:16.614 and three others amongst his congregation also reported similar visits. 45 00:03:19.450 --> 00:03:21.202 [ Narrator] According to Smith... 46 00:03:21.286 --> 00:03:25.123 Moroni appeared to him numerous times over the course of his life... 47 00:03:26.624 --> 00:03:28.543 and in 1832... 48 00:03:28.626 --> 00:03:31.462 he came bearing an ominous prophecy. 49 00:03:32.797 --> 00:03:38.720 On December 25, Smith passed this prophecy on to his flock, stating... 50 00:03:38.803 --> 00:03:41.431 “Wars will shortly come to pass... 51 00:03:41.514 --> 00:03:44.601 beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina... 52 00:03:45.643 --> 00:03:50.640 which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. 53 00:03:50.148 --> 00:03:51.566 [ Horse Whinnies ] 54 00:03:51.649 --> 00:03:56.613 For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States.” 55 00:03:58.323 --> 00:04:02.760 [ Man ] Now, there's some people that say this is a prophecy, this is a vision, by Smith. 56 00:04:03.202 --> 00:04:07.665 Whatever way it was, it really did portend what came about in the 1860s. 57 00:04:09.417 --> 00:04:12.837 [WILCOCK ] What we're seeing is a human-looking being... 58 00:04:12.921 --> 00:04:15.757 with brilliant light coming off of it... 59 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.676 who conveyed an intelligent message to Joseph Smith. 60 00:04:18.760 --> 00:04:21.638 There are some speculations that Joseph Smith... 61 00:04:21.721 --> 00:04:26.392 was, in fact, visited by an advanced extraterrestrial being. 62 00:04:29.228 --> 00:04:33.107 [ Narrator] Did Joseph Smith really receive a prophecy... 63 00:04:33.191 --> 00:04:36.110 that predicted the coming of the Civil War? 64 00:04:37.820 --> 00:04:41.240 A no' if so, how did an otherworldly entity... 65 00:04:41.324 --> 00:04:44.285 Know that the war would begin in South Carolina... 66 00:04:44.369 --> 00:04:47.121 nearly 30 years in advance? 67 00:04:49.457 --> 00:04:52.100 Is it possible that the angel Moroni... 68 00:04:52.850 --> 00:04:54.712 this perhaps extraterrestrial being... 69 00:04:54.796 --> 00:04:57.340 was very concerned about the Civil War... 70 00:04:57.423 --> 00:05:00.802 and that's why it gave Joseph Smith... 71 00:05:00.885 --> 00:05:04.970 an advanced prophetic glimpse into what was coming? 72 00:05:06.724 --> 00:05:10.144 Was this another one of the efforts to intervene... 73 00:05:10.228 --> 00:05:12.605 and to try to steer our history... 74 00:05:12.689 --> 00:05:14.857 towards the most favorable outcome... 75 00:05:14.941 --> 00:05:19.112 perhaps not just for us, but also for the extraterrestrials themselves? 76 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:23.825 [ Narrator] But Joseph Smith is not the only person... 77 00:05:23.908 --> 00:05:27.578 who is said to have been visited by an otherworldly being... 78 00:05:27.662 --> 00:05:31.165 foretelling of a future civil war. 79 00:05:32.875 --> 00:05:37.500 Stories have emerged that during the American Revolution... 80 00:05:37.880 --> 00:05:38.965 in 1777... 81 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:43.219 George Washington had a similar encounter at Valley Forge. 82 00:05:45.263 --> 00:05:48.570 [ Henry] The story is, is that while at Valley Forge... 83 00:05:48.141 --> 00:05:51.477 General Washington had given his men orders not to disturb him. 84 00:05:51.561 --> 00:05:55.189 And suddenly, there's a being standing there. 85 00:05:56.274 --> 00:06:00.194 And this being is described as being extremely luminous. 86 00:06:01.446 --> 00:06:05.867 And next thing we know is this being starts giving Washington a prophecy... 87 00:06:05.950 --> 00:06:08.202 about the future of America. 88 00:06:09.954 --> 00:06:12.999 [ Narrator] According to the story, this luminous being... 89 00:06:13.820 --> 00:06:17.300 not only gave Washington a vision of the future United States... 90 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:22.910 but also warned that the Union would be tested by Civil War. 91 00:06:26.387 --> 00:06:30.725 Is it possible that both George Washington and Joseph Smith... 92 00:06:30.808 --> 00:06:33.644 were visited by extraterrestrial beings... 93 00:06:33.728 --> 00:06:37.940 who somehow knew that the Civil War would take place? 94 00:06:39.525 --> 00:06:42.570 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 95 00:06:42.653 --> 00:06:45.907 and suggest even stronger evidence can be found... 96 00:06:45.990 --> 00:06:48.910 with strange encounters that were reported... 97 00:06:48.993 --> 00:06:52.914 not by lone individuals, but by entire communities. 98 00:06:52.997 --> 00:06:58.200 While UFO sightings were extremely rare before the 1900s... 99 00:06:58.669 --> 00:07:03.700 a number were reported during the final years leading up to the war. 100 00:07:06.761 --> 00:07:09.764 [ Man ] One of the best early UFO encounters... 101 00:07:09.847 --> 00:07:13.351 is from Wilmington, Delaware, from 1860... 102 00:07:13.434 --> 00:07:17.855 where witnesses reported seeing this vast 200-foot-long object... 103 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:19.774 flying through the sky. 104 00:07:19.857 --> 00:07:23.903 And it had like a trail of globes or balls of light behind it. 105 00:07:23.986 --> 00:07:26.656 One of them was actually ejected from the object. 106 00:07:27.657 --> 00:07:29.617 Now, this sounds almost like a rocket. 107 00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:33.538 Certainly, nobody should have been flying a rocket in 1860. 108 00:07:36.415 --> 00:07:39.430 [ Narrator] An even more striking UFO encounter... 109 00:07:39.127 --> 00:07:43.798 was reported in Shreveport, Louisiana, that same year. 110 00:07:43.881 --> 00:07:48.553 A group of people saw an enormous craft 300 yards long... 111 00:07:48.636 --> 00:07:51.347 hovering just above the tallest trees. 112 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:55.810 This thing was described as having a color like a glowing red stove. 113 00:07:55.893 --> 00:07:57.979 And out of the center of this massive object... 114 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:01.732 there were rays, like rays of the sun, that reached toward the sky. 115 00:08:01.816 --> 00:08:06.700 Incredibly, this thing was seen for an hour without changing at all. 116 00:08:07.238 --> 00:08:09.323 People got a very good look at this thing... 117 00:08:09.407 --> 00:08:11.868 and nobody could even hazard a guess as to what it was. 118 00:08:15.790 --> 00:08:18.820 [ Narrator] Less than a month before the start of the war... 119 00:08:18.166 --> 00:08:22.170 another major sighting was reported in New York City. 120 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:24.839 New York at that time was very different. 121 00:08:24.922 --> 00:08:28.676 It was a cramped urban setting before the age of tall buildings. 122 00:08:29.427 --> 00:08:33.389 In that setting, a witness, Mrs. T. Richard Kinder... 123 00:08:33.472 --> 00:08:38.269 looked out of an upper window in her house on Baxter Street... 124 00:08:38.352 --> 00:08:40.354 and she saw an object in the sky. 125 00:08:40.438 --> 00:08:44.859 She described it as luminous, glowing, shaped like a cross... 126 00:08:44.942 --> 00:08:46.569 flying in the air. 127 00:08:46.652 --> 00:08:48.571 Startled, she awoke her husband. 128 00:08:48.654 --> 00:08:50.823 He saw the glowing cross too. 129 00:08:53.576 --> 00:08:56.454 This ongoing presence strongly suggests... 130 00:08:56.537 --> 00:09:00.833 that extraterrestrials were not just taking a backseat approach... 131 00:09:00.917 --> 00:09:02.752 to what was happening on Earth... 132 00:09:02.835 --> 00:09:06.797 but they were actively involved and they were monitoring us. 133 00:09:06.881 --> 00:09:11.177 [ Narrator] How is it that in an era when UFO sightings were rarely reported... 134 00:09:11.260 --> 00:09:13.554 three mass UFO encounters occurred... 135 00:09:13.638 --> 00:09:16.307 within a year of the start of the Civil War? 136 00:09:17.975 --> 00:09:22.647 Is it possible that extraterrestrials really did monitor the United States... 137 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:24.690 during this time? 138 00:09:24.774 --> 00:09:28.569 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 139 00:09:28.653 --> 00:09:32.907 and claim that even stranger than the encounters leading up to the war... 140 00:09:32.990 --> 00:09:36.953 are those that were reported once the fighting began. 141 00:09:44.835 --> 00:09:47.630 [ Narrator] Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. 142 00:09:47.713 --> 00:09:51.175 April 12, 1861. 143 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:57.682 At 4:30 in the morning, Confederate cannons fire on Fort Sumter. 144 00:10:02.645 --> 00:10:06.190 Three days later, President Abraham Lincoln declares... 145 00:10:06.274 --> 00:10:08.651 that an insurrection exists... 146 00:10:08.734 --> 00:10:13.239 and calls for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. 147 00:10:15.658 --> 00:10:18.619 The American Civil War has begun. 148 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:24.875 People on both sides assumed that there would be one great battle... 149 00:10:24.959 --> 00:10:27.545 that would decide everything, winner take all. 150 00:10:29.500 --> 00:10:33.301 One great battle fought somewhere probably between Richmond and Washington. 151 00:10:33.384 --> 00:10:35.386 But that doesn't happen. 152 00:10:36.637 --> 00:10:38.931 People actually came out from Washington... 153 00:10:39.150 --> 00:10:42.643 with picnic baskets and champagne to watch the battle. 154 00:10:44.603 --> 00:10:49.250 But this war would be a horrible war... 155 00:10:50.109 --> 00:10:53.738 a war that no participant would ever forget. 156 00:10:56.157 --> 00:11:01.954 It cost more American lives than all other wars combined. 157 00:11:02.380 --> 00:11:06.830 750,000 people, it is now believed... 158 00:11:06.167 --> 00:11:08.419 perished during the war. 159 00:11:11.756 --> 00:11:14.675 The Civil War was felt everywhere in America... 160 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:19.805 because it is that war that defines what type of nation we're going to be. 161 00:11:22.350 --> 00:11:26.937 [ Narrator] It was not just the future of the United States that was at stake. 162 00:11:27.210 --> 00:11:31.525 This was a War over different' philosophies of go government... 163 00:11:31.609 --> 00:11:35.279 with the fate of a people caught in the cross fire. 164 00:11:36.697 --> 00:11:39.367 And according to ancient astronaut theorists... 165 00:11:39.450 --> 00:11:42.787 there may have been even more at stake than we know. 166 00:11:47.541 --> 00:11:49.418 [ Narrator] New York City. 167 00:11:49.502 --> 00:11:52.755 April 19, 1861. 168 00:11:54.298 --> 00:11:57.218 Responding to President Lincoln's call to action... 169 00:11:57.301 --> 00:12:00.471 the Seventh New York Militia travels by steamboat... 170 00:12:00.554 --> 00:12:03.140 to Annapolis, Maryland. 171 00:12:03.224 --> 00:12:07.812 While en route, they witness a very strange occurrence in the sky. 172 00:12:09.313 --> 00:12:11.774 While these men and sailors were on board... 173 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:15.903 they saw what was described as the moon... 174 00:12:15.986 --> 00:12:18.739 suddenly soaring clear into the sky... 175 00:12:18.823 --> 00:12:21.158 and around it, clearly defined... 176 00:12:21.242 --> 00:12:23.494 three circles of light. 177 00:12:25.246 --> 00:12:27.748 Now, of course, we know that it's not possible... 178 00:12:27.832 --> 00:12:30.668 for the moon to change position in the sky that way. 179 00:12:30.751 --> 00:12:33.754 And looking at this sighting as it was reported... 180 00:12:33.838 --> 00:12:36.841 this would have to be classified as a UFO. 181 00:12:36.924 --> 00:12:41.220 If UFO sightings represent encounters with alien spaceships... 182 00:12:41.303 --> 00:12:44.980 then it seems certain that UFOs were watching over America... 183 00:12:44.181 --> 00:12:46.350 during the Civil War. 184 00:12:49.603 --> 00:12:53.107 [ Narrator] Is it possible that the men of the Seventh New York Militia... 185 00:12:53.190 --> 00:12:57.111 really did have an encounter with some type of alien craft... 186 00:12:57.194 --> 00:13:00.448 just days after the start of the Civil War? 187 00:13:00.531 --> 00:13:03.284 And if so, is it a sign... 188 00:13:03.367 --> 00:13:07.955 that extraterrestrials had an interest in this turning point in our history? 189 00:13:08.956 --> 00:13:12.751 There's an intriguing pattern that we see within UFO reports... 190 00:13:12.835 --> 00:13:16.213 and that's an increase in sightings when wars break out. 191 00:13:16.297 --> 00:13:20.968 First World War, Second World War, Vietnam, the Korean War- 192 00:13:21.510 --> 00:13:23.554 they all had their UFO incidents. 193 00:13:23.637 --> 00:13:27.475 And another example is the American Civil War. 194 00:13:29.590 --> 00:13:32.563 [ Pittman ] it could be that aliens might simply be interested... 195 00:13:32.646 --> 00:13:35.316 in observing historical events. 196 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:39.280 It's also possible that extraterrestrials might be trying to influence... 197 00:13:39.111 --> 00:13:42.823 the course of events or simply to warn people in some way. 198 00:13:45.868 --> 00:13:50.247 [ Narrator] While there were numerous UFO sightings reported during the Civil War... 199 00:13:51.810 --> 00:13:53.751 even more common are stories of soldiers... 200 00:13:53.834 --> 00:13:57.171 encountering strange beings on the battlefield. 201 00:13:59.423 --> 00:14:01.383 It happened all the time in the Civil War... 202 00:14:01.467 --> 00:14:05.554 that soldiers reported seeing ghostly figures or ghosts of famous people. 203 00:14:07.389 --> 00:14:10.518 Soldiers reported seeing all kinds of strange things... 204 00:14:10.601 --> 00:14:12.978 when the heat of battle was on. 205 00:14:17.441 --> 00:14:21.445 [ Narrator] Also reported were bizarre dreams and premonitions... 206 00:14:22.446 --> 00:14:25.115 some of which proved to be prophetic. 207 00:14:26.450 --> 00:14:30.162 One of the most notable was published in a Kansas newspaper... 208 00:14:30.246 --> 00:14:33.499 on March 27, 1862. 209 00:14:34.708 --> 00:14:37.962 According to the account, General George B. McClellan... 210 00:14:38.450 --> 00:14:39.880 chief of the Union Armies... 211 00:14:39.964 --> 00:14:44.718 was visited in his sleep by the ghostly figure of George Washington... 212 00:14:44.802 --> 00:14:50.150 who warned him that Confederate forces were closing in on the capital. 213 00:14:51.160 --> 00:14:53.602 The vision reportedly caused McClellan... 214 00:14:53.686 --> 00:14:56.939 to change his plans and fend off the attack. 215 00:15:01.443 --> 00:15:04.780 There are many soldiers and politicians during the Civil War... 216 00:15:04.863 --> 00:15:07.408 that have premonitions, premonitions of death. 217 00:15:08.701 --> 00:15:13.800 Nathaniel Lyons at the Battle of Wilson Creek actually said... 218 00:15:13.163 --> 00:15:14.665 “Today I will die.” 219 00:15:14.748 --> 00:15:16.417 [ Gunshots ] 220 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:21.130 And he is going to be shot in the chest during the battle... 221 00:15:21.213 --> 00:15:23.480 trying to rally his men. 222 00:15:28.762 --> 00:15:32.600 [ Narrator] But what can explain all of these bizarre incidents? 223 00:15:32.683 --> 00:15:35.603 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest... 224 00:15:35.686 --> 00:15:38.439 that the strange dreams and UFO sightings. .. 225 00:15:38.522 --> 00:15:43.819 Are evidence that extraterrestrials were, in fact, present in America... 226 00:15:43.902 --> 00:15:46.710 during the Civil War. 227 00:15:50.618 --> 00:15:53.221 [ Man ] it would seem that throughout the history of this planet... 228 00:15:53.245 --> 00:15:56.457 certain civilizations and nations... 229 00:15:56.540 --> 00:15:59.627 have been watched very carefully by the extraterrestrials... 230 00:15:59.710 --> 00:16:02.171 and nurtured by them. 231 00:16:04.298 --> 00:16:08.520 And in ancient times, this could well have been the Egyptians... 232 00:16:08.135 --> 00:16:11.138 and the Chinese and the Sumerians. 233 00:16:11.221 --> 00:16:13.974 And really, in our own era... 234 00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:16.810 it's the United States of America... 235 00:16:16.894 --> 00:16:22.660 that is the country that these extraterrestrials are the most interested in. 236 00:16:23.984 --> 00:16:27.154 [ Narrator] Could it be that extraterrestrials took an interest... 237 00:16:27.237 --> 00:16:30.699 in the success of the United States of America? 238 00:16:32.760 --> 00:16:35.245 Ancient astronaut theorists say the answer may lie... 239 00:16:35.329 --> 00:16:39.500 with the man who was tasked with preserving the Union... 240 00:16:39.583 --> 00:16:41.752 Abraham Lincoln. 241 00:16:48.592 --> 00:16:50.594 [ Narrator] Springfield, Illinois. 242 00:16:50.678 --> 00:16:53.347 November 7, 1860. 243 00:16:55.599 --> 00:16:58.185 The morning after hearing the triumphant news... 244 00:16:58.268 --> 00:17:01.313 that he has been elected president of the United States... 245 00:17:01.397 --> 00:17:04.316 Abraham Lincoln wakes up from a deep sleep... 246 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:08.362 and gazes into a full-length mirror in his bedroom... 247 00:17:08.445 --> 00:17:10.864 and has a startling vision. 248 00:17:13.367 --> 00:17:16.328 He saw two images of himself in the mirror. 249 00:17:17.121 --> 00:17:21.208 One face was healthy and well. 250 00:17:21.291 --> 00:17:24.294 The other was a pale, ghostly image of it. 251 00:17:25.796 --> 00:17:27.965 He got up, looked at the mirror... 252 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:29.968 checked it to see if there was something wrong... 253 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:32.845 then he laid down again thinking, well, it's just my imagination. 254 00:17:34.346 --> 00:17:36.765 [ Narrator] Thinking his mind was playing tricks on him... 255 00:17:36.849 --> 00:17:39.685 Lincoln checked the mirror a second time. 256 00:17:39.768 --> 00:17:43.355 Each time, his two faces confronted him- 257 00:17:43.439 --> 00:17:46.240 one five times paler than the other. 258 00:17:47.651 --> 00:17:50.904 Lincoln told his wife Mary about the vision. 259 00:17:50.988 --> 00:17:54.740 [Coleman ] Lincoln relied on Mary quite a bit. 260 00:17:54.158 --> 00:17:58.912 When he told her about the vision, she became deathly afraid... 261 00:17:58.996 --> 00:18:02.820 because she interpreted it to mean... 262 00:18:02.166 --> 00:18:05.586 that he would have two terms as president. 263 00:18:05.669 --> 00:18:08.714 One, he would be healthy and well... 264 00:18:08.797 --> 00:18:13.260 and the second term, he would die in office. 265 00:18:15.262 --> 00:18:19.266 [ Narrator] If the ghostly reflection in the mirror was not a hallucination... 266 00:18:19.349 --> 00:18:21.310 then what was it? 267 00:18:22.853 --> 00:18:25.355 It's not too big of a stretch to think... 268 00:18:25.439 --> 00:18:28.567 that perhaps President Lincoln was somehow influenced... 269 00:18:28.650 --> 00:18:33.113 by otherworldly beings during the course of the war. 270 00:18:33.197 --> 00:18:35.320 It was that important. 271 00:18:35.115 --> 00:18:37.659 It took on immense cosmic significance. 272 00:18:38.702 --> 00:18:42.164 [ Narrator] Was Abraham Lincoln actually able to receive messages... 273 00:18:42.247 --> 00:18:47.252 from an extraterrestrial realm that helped him anticipate the future? 274 00:18:48.295 --> 00:18:51.480 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 275 00:18:51.131 --> 00:18:53.801 and point out that the president himself... 276 00:18:53.884 --> 00:18:57.179 believed he was the instrument of a higher power. 277 00:18:58.550 --> 00:19:00.349 Abraham Lincoln is such a mystery still to us... 278 00:19:00.432 --> 00:19:03.811 even though dozens and dozens and dozens of books have been written about him. 279 00:19:03.894 --> 00:19:06.939 But Lincoln himself was something of a mystic. 280 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:09.399 I think he had a belief in the supernatural. 281 00:19:10.734 --> 00:19:12.861 At least three different times during the war... 282 00:19:12.945 --> 00:19:14.947 he told friends that he had had a dream... 283 00:19:15.300 --> 00:19:18.325 about being on a boat with no rudder... 284 00:19:18.408 --> 00:19:20.536 with no sail, with no tiller. 285 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:22.162 It's adrift. 286 00:19:22.246 --> 00:19:25.666 He is powerless to steer it, and it's heading toward a shore. 287 00:19:27.167 --> 00:19:29.200 [ Coleman ] Every time he had that dream... 288 00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:33.600 something important happened during the war, mainly the battles. 289 00:19:35.500 --> 00:19:37.928 Antietam, Stones River... 290 00:19:38.110 --> 00:19:42.150 Shiloh, Gettysburg. 291 00:19:42.933 --> 00:19:45.769 Lincoln believed he was psychic. 292 00:19:45.853 --> 00:19:47.604 He believed in the paranormal. 293 00:19:48.272 --> 00:19:52.109 He had a strong belief in his own destiny. 294 00:19:56.446 --> 00:19:59.449 [ Narrator] Is it really possible that Abraham Lincoln... 295 00:19:59.533 --> 00:20:04.705 was given premonitions about the war by extraterrestrial beings? 296 00:20:06.623 --> 00:20:10.502 Could he have been chosen because he represented the best hope... 297 00:20:10.586 --> 00:20:14.470 for preserving the Union and ensuring the continuation... 298 00:20:14.131 --> 00:20:16.717 of the great American experiment? 299 00:20:17.551 --> 00:20:23.765 Abraham Lincoln saw the United States as this great experiment in democracy. 300 00:20:23.849 --> 00:20:26.310 That for it to fail... 301 00:20:26.393 --> 00:20:29.354 that meant that the concepts of democracy would fail... 302 00:20:29.438 --> 00:20:31.773 throughout the world. 303 00:20:32.649 --> 00:20:37.290 Lincoln is infused with a desire... 304 00:20:37.112 --> 00:20:38.906 to keep the Union together. 305 00:20:38.989 --> 00:20:40.616 And he himself said... 306 00:20:40.699 --> 00:20:44.244 “lf I could keep the Union together by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. 307 00:20:44.328 --> 00:20:47.789 If I could keep the Union together by not freeing the slaves, I would do it.” 308 00:20:47.873 --> 00:20:52.440 His paramount focus is restoring the Union. 309 00:20:55.500 --> 00:20:57.257 [ Narrator] In addition to his own premonitions... 310 00:20:57.341 --> 00:21:00.520 some say that Lincoln may also have been influenced... 311 00:21:00.135 --> 00:21:04.560 by the visions of a spiritualist named Nettie Colburn. 312 00:21:05.307 --> 00:21:10.620 In December of 1862, during the darkest days of the Civil War... 313 00:21:10.145 --> 00:21:13.440 Nettie became a spiritual adviser for Mary Todd Lincoln... 314 00:21:13.523 --> 00:21:16.610 who was a devout' believer in mysticism. 315 00:21:16.693 --> 00:21:20.405 She claimed to have attended Seances with Lincoln multiple times... 316 00:21:21.156 --> 00:21:25.369 and, while in a trance, claimed to have advised him on the war. 317 00:21:26.620 --> 00:21:29.873 Now, proving that is sometimes difficult... 318 00:21:29.957 --> 00:21:33.430 but in my research, I did find on several points... 319 00:21:33.126 --> 00:21:35.870 Nettie's story does check out. 320 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:40.467 [ Narrator] According to Nettie's autobiography... 321 00:21:40.550 --> 00:21:42.970 otherworldly beings used her... 322 00:21:43.530 --> 00:21:46.848 to communicate with President Lincoln during séances... 323 00:21:46.932 --> 00:21:51.561 and even advised him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 324 00:21:52.562 --> 00:21:55.524 And another mystic, J.B. Conklin... 325 00:21:55.607 --> 00:21:58.944 claimed these voices actually dictated to the president... 326 00:21:59.270 --> 00:22:01.822 a first draft of the historic document. 327 00:22:02.406 --> 00:22:04.491 [Woman ] Things that not only Nettie did... 328 00:22:04.574 --> 00:22:06.469 but other people in the spiritualist movement did... 329 00:22:06.493 --> 00:22:08.620 was they were giving him messages... 330 00:22:08.704 --> 00:22:12.666 about how important the Emancipation Proclamation was. 331 00:22:12.749 --> 00:22:19.172 And it was something that Lincoln took as divine sort of guidance. 332 00:22:19.256 --> 00:22:23.135 And so it appears to have played a role in his decision making. 333 00:22:25.846 --> 00:22:28.557 [ Henry] it's quite possible that at one of these events... 334 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.435 he received messages from otherworldly beings... 335 00:22:31.518 --> 00:22:34.187 possibly even extraterrestrial beings... 336 00:22:34.271 --> 00:22:36.648 in order to preserve the Union... 337 00:22:36.732 --> 00:22:40.527 as part of this immense master plan for humanity. 338 00:22:41.945 --> 00:22:44.239 What that leads us to is the possibility... 339 00:22:44.322 --> 00:22:47.367 that some of the same extraterrestrials that were being seen... 340 00:22:47.451 --> 00:22:51.913 in numerous UFO sightings before and during the Civil War... 341 00:22:52.956 --> 00:22:56.710 were able to form a direct contact to Lincoln... 342 00:22:56.793 --> 00:22:59.870 through Nettie Colburn Maynard... 343 00:22:59.171 --> 00:23:01.590 to give him the messages that he needed... 344 00:23:01.673 --> 00:23:04.801 to be able to steer the outcome of the Civil War. 345 00:23:09.264 --> 00:23:13.600 [ Narrator] Was Abraham Lincoln literally destined for greatness? 346 00:23:14.102 --> 00:23:16.146 Might aliens have been guiding him... 347 00:23:16.229 --> 00:23:19.733 through his dreams and visions during the Civil War? 348 00:23:20.484 --> 00:23:22.986 If so, what was their purpose? 349 00:23:23.987 --> 00:23:28.158 Perhaps the answer can be found with an incredible encounter- 350 00:23:28.241 --> 00:23:29.284 Fire! 351 00:23:29.367 --> 00:23:31.828 At Gettysburg. 352 00:23:37.918 --> 00:23:39.920 [ Narrator] Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 353 00:23:40.300 --> 00:23:43.298 July 2, 1863. 354 00:23:43.381 --> 00:23:46.593 Two years and three months into the Civil War... 355 00:23:46.676 --> 00:23:50.180 337,000 men lie dead- 356 00:23:50.263 --> 00:23:53.160 over 13 times as many casualties... 357 00:23:53.100 --> 00:23:56.937 as the United States suffered during the Revolutionary War. 358 00:23:57.771 --> 00:24:02.442 But after so much bloodshed, neither side has a clear advantage. 359 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:11.159 The majority of the fighting has taken place in the Southern states... 360 00:24:12.119 --> 00:24:14.371 but Confederate General Robert E. Lee... 361 00:24:14.454 --> 00:24:17.332 who is gaining a reputation as being in vincible... 362 00:24:17.415 --> 00:24:22.587 decides to make an aggressive move and advance into Union territory. 363 00:24:23.547 --> 00:24:26.633 [ Lewis] Robert E. Lee decides that he will take the war north... 364 00:24:26.716 --> 00:24:28.385 for a couple of reasons. 365 00:24:28.468 --> 00:24:31.300 Number one: It's gonna relieve pressure on the farmers in Virginia... 366 00:24:31.540 --> 00:24:34.641 who are trying to grow crops, feed themselves, feed the army. 367 00:24:34.724 --> 00:24:36.309 And second, politically. 368 00:24:36.393 --> 00:24:40.147 He knows that there is a lot of pressure on Abraham Lincoln to win this war. 369 00:24:40.230 --> 00:24:43.316 Northern voters, northern politicians are angry... 370 00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:46.236 that this war is carrying on so far. 371 00:24:47.904 --> 00:24:50.323 [ Narrator] If Lee won here, the door to Washington... 372 00:24:50.407 --> 00:24:52.659 and ultimately, victory, was open. 373 00:24:54.244 --> 00:24:56.830 While the Confederates were massing for attack... 374 00:24:56.913 --> 00:25:00.208 reinforcements from the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment... 375 00:25:00.292 --> 00:25:04.838 were called in, commanded by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain. 376 00:25:04.921 --> 00:25:09.676 Chamberlain rushes his troops towards the Little Round Top... 377 00:25:11.344 --> 00:25:14.347 but he comes to a crossroads. 378 00:25:14.431 --> 00:25:19.519 And he said there was an eerie figure in a tri-corner hat... 379 00:25:19.603 --> 00:25:24.357 pointing the way to the Little Round Top, the right road to take. 380 00:25:24.441 --> 00:25:27.777 And he said it looked like George Washington. 381 00:25:29.905 --> 00:25:31.615 [ Narrator] George Washington? 382 00:25:31.698 --> 00:25:35.702 Could this ghostly vision have been merely an illusion? 383 00:25:35.785 --> 00:25:38.380 Although the story sounds incredible... 384 00:25:38.121 --> 00:25:42.375 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton appointed a member of his staff... 385 00:25:42.459 --> 00:25:45.962 to speak with a number of the men who experienced this vision... 386 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:49.132 and it is said that he gathered unwavering testimony... 387 00:25:49.216 --> 00:25:52.219 claiming that the encounter was real. 388 00:26:01.186 --> 00:26:03.396 In the end, the 20th Maine... 389 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:06.566 would repel the Confederate attack on Little Round Top... 390 00:26:06.650 --> 00:26:09.819 and save the day for the Union Army. 391 00:26:09.903 --> 00:26:11.988 So you have to ask yourself- 392 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:16.868 Did extraterrestrials in some way influence this battle... 393 00:26:16.952 --> 00:26:22.415 by disguising themselves as a familiar figure, like George Washington... 394 00:26:22.499 --> 00:26:25.961 and then guiding the troops to a certain position... 395 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.589 where they knew this would turn the tide of the battle? 396 00:26:29.673 --> 00:26:31.716 It would seem that something like this happened. 397 00:26:35.220 --> 00:26:37.347 [ Narrator] Is the story of George Washington... 398 00:26:37.430 --> 00:26:39.891 appearing to soldiers at Gettysburg... 399 00:26:39.975 --> 00:26:42.227 the ultimate proof that alien beings... 400 00:26:42.310 --> 00:26:46.314 really did intervene to influence the outcome of the Civil War? 401 00:26:47.649 --> 00:26:50.318 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 402 00:26:50.402 --> 00:26:53.280 and suggest that the United States of America... 403 00:26:53.363 --> 00:26:58.285 has had a connection with extraterrestrials since its very beginning. 404 00:26:59.661 --> 00:27:02.747 We do have clues that Thomas Jefferson... 405 00:27:02.831 --> 00:27:04.833 and Benjamin Franklin and George Washington... 406 00:27:04.916 --> 00:27:07.850 all believed in extraterrestrial life. 407 00:27:09.796 --> 00:27:12.799 Thomas Jefferson gave a famous lecture... 408 00:27:12.882 --> 00:27:15.552 about the unusual UFO sighting... 409 00:27:15.635 --> 00:27:17.929 by a person named William Dumbarton... 410 00:27:18.130 --> 00:27:20.560 in Baton Rouge in 1800. 411 00:27:21.570 --> 00:27:24.477 Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Poor Richard is Almanac... 412 00:27:24.561 --> 00:27:26.896 about life on other worlds... 413 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:29.482 and, apparently, was a believer in that. 414 00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:36.906 And George Washington had a very famous angelic vision... 415 00:27:36.990 --> 00:27:38.992 at Valley Forge... 416 00:27:40.760 --> 00:27:42.871 and so it would seem that George Washington... 417 00:27:42.954 --> 00:27:45.832 Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin... 418 00:27:45.915 --> 00:27:48.460 were very much believers in extraterrestrials... 419 00:27:48.543 --> 00:27:50.879 and life on other planets. 420 00:27:54.924 --> 00:27:57.635 [ Narrator] Is it possible that extraterrestrials... 421 00:27:57.719 --> 00:27:59.888 have been guiding the course of America... 422 00:27:59.971 --> 00:28:02.182 since it's very beginning... 423 00:28:02.265 --> 00:28:04.309 and intervened in the Civil War... 424 00:28:04.392 --> 00:28:07.896 to ensure that the great experiment would continue? 425 00:28:09.272 --> 00:28:12.942 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest further evidence... 426 00:28:13.260 --> 00:28:17.720 that an otherworldly force was present at this point in history... 427 00:28:17.155 --> 00:28:20.283 can be found by examining a recurring dream... 428 00:28:20.367 --> 00:28:24.871 that Abraham Lincoln had of his own death. 429 00:28:26.390 --> 00:28:30.752 He sees a body on the catafalque wrapped in mourning clothing. 430 00:28:36.925 --> 00:28:40.530 The body is being guarded by Union soldiers. 431 00:28:42.806 --> 00:28:47.352 He asks one of the soldiers, “Who is dead in the White House?” 432 00:28:47.435 --> 00:28:50.647 And one of the soldiers says, “lt's the president. 433 00:28:50.730 --> 00:28:52.649 He's been killed by an assassin.” 434 00:28:56.820 --> 00:28:59.656 [Coleman ] Lincoln's belief that he would rise to greatness... 435 00:28:59.739 --> 00:29:02.750 and then die prematurely... 436 00:29:02.158 --> 00:29:04.536 was something that was of long standing... 437 00:29:04.619 --> 00:29:08.665 and it's a testament to his courage that he fulfilled his destiny. 438 00:29:11.376 --> 00:29:15.422 He believed that he was uniquely suited to become president... 439 00:29:15.505 --> 00:29:19.467 to carry the country through the great crisis of disunion... 440 00:29:20.969 --> 00:29:25.890 and part and parcel with that belief in his destiny to become president... 441 00:29:25.974 --> 00:29:28.226 was his belief that he would be slain. 442 00:29:29.686 --> 00:29:31.980 [ Gunshot] 443 00:29:32.630 --> 00:29:36.651 Abraham Lincoln is said to have had prophetic dreams, visions. 444 00:29:37.986 --> 00:29:40.280 If aliens are coming here to visit Earth... 445 00:29:40.363 --> 00:29:42.740 certainly it seems reasonable to wonder... 446 00:29:42.824 --> 00:29:45.493 if they might have tried to influence the course of events... 447 00:29:45.577 --> 00:29:49.706 through Abraham Lincoln, possibly through his dreams and visions. 448 00:29:53.376 --> 00:29:55.879 [ Narrator] Could it be that extraterrestrials... 449 00:29:55.962 --> 00:29:59.382 were the source of this recurring dream... 450 00:29:59.466 --> 00:30:01.885 and that they were testing Abraham Lincoln... 451 00:30:01.968 --> 00:30:04.888 to see if he would fulfill his destiny... 452 00:30:04.971 --> 00:30:07.849 even knowing that it would lead to an early grave? 453 00:30:09.517 --> 00:30:11.936 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest... 454 00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:14.814 that further clues can be found... 455 00:30:14.898 --> 00:30:19.986 by examining the life of one of the war's most extraordinary soldiers... 456 00:30:20.690 --> 00:30:22.697 Ambrose Bierce. 457 00:30:29.954 --> 00:30:31.873 Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia. 458 00:30:31.956 --> 00:30:34.959 June 23, 1864. 459 00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:39.964 While leading a skirmish line on Confederate troops... 460 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:45.530 Union Army Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce is shot in the left temple by a sniper. 461 00:30:53.978 --> 00:30:57.857 Miraculously, the bullet travels around the side of his skull... 462 00:30:57.941 --> 00:31:00.693 and ends up behind his left ear... 463 00:31:00.777 --> 00:31:03.613 leaving Bierce injured, but alive. 464 00:31:07.659 --> 00:31:09.619 After being shot in the head... 465 00:31:09.702 --> 00:31:12.956 Bierce went on to become one of the most prominent authors... 466 00:31:13.390 --> 00:31:15.208 of the post-Civil War era... 467 00:31:15.291 --> 00:31:18.440 and was a pioneer of science fiction... 468 00:31:18.127 --> 00:31:21.381 influencing such writers as Ray Bradbury. -. 469 00:31:21.464 --> 00:31:24.842 Roald Dahl and Kun' Vonnegut. 470 00:31:24.926 --> 00:31:28.888 But could his genius as a writer have been in some way connected... 471 00:31:28.972 --> 00:31:31.891 to the injury to his head? 472 00:31:32.892 --> 00:31:37.397 In the case of brain injuries, when you suddenly display a new ability... 473 00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:39.983 I'm not so sure that it's something that was there all along... 474 00:31:40.660 --> 00:31:42.151 and you're uncovering. 475 00:31:43.486 --> 00:31:46.823 More so, that it's a new ability, re-circuitry, if you will. 476 00:31:48.992 --> 00:31:52.360 We are all disconnected from our core... 477 00:31:52.120 --> 00:31:55.790 unaware of the greater realm of pure potential... 478 00:31:55.873 --> 00:31:59.919 and Ambrose Bierce may have gotten the right nudge... 479 00:32:00.300 --> 00:32:02.797 to give him an interesting window... 480 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:04.757 into that realm... 481 00:32:04.841 --> 00:32:09.220 allowing him to get closer to it than most of us normally ever do. 482 00:32:14.517 --> 00:32:17.854 [ Narrator] Ambrose Bierce is best known for short stories... 483 00:32:17.937 --> 00:32:22.609 that involve paranormal incidents, strange disappearances... 484 00:32:22.692 --> 00:32:25.320 and incongruencies of time. 485 00:32:27.155 --> 00:32:30.950 One of the most famous is “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”... 486 00:32:31.340 --> 00:32:34.871 in which a Confederate sympathizer is being hanged for treason. 487 00:32:40.752 --> 00:32:42.712 At the moment of the man's hanging... 488 00:32:42.795 --> 00:32:45.965 the rope breaks and he falls into the water below. 489 00:32:50.553 --> 00:32:52.513 Escaping to dry land... 490 00:32:52.597 --> 00:32:55.308 the hero travels through a seemingly unending forest... 491 00:32:55.391 --> 00:32:57.727 to his home 3O miles away. 492 00:32:58.936 --> 00:33:01.939 But once he arrives and runs towards his wife... 493 00:33:02.230 --> 00:33:05.151 he feels a searing pain in his neck. 494 00:33:05.234 --> 00:33:07.945 [ Man ] Suddenly, he was back on the bridge again... 495 00:33:08.863 --> 00:33:13.826 with a noose around his neck, and then he fell, he was executed. 496 00:33:13.910 --> 00:33:16.120 He hung by the neck. 497 00:33:16.204 --> 00:33:17.830 [ Soldier] About, face! 498 00:33:17.914 --> 00:33:22.669 And Bierce was trying to tell us that alternate realities exist. 499 00:33:22.752 --> 00:33:25.254 Alternate worlds. 500 00:33:25.338 --> 00:33:27.924 And we see this pattern all throughout his writings... 501 00:33:28.700 --> 00:33:32.261 where he believed that inter-dimensional travel was a possibility. 502 00:33:34.681 --> 00:33:36.808 [ Narrator] Another short story that Bierce wrote... 503 00:33:36.891 --> 00:33:40.269 for the San Francisco Examiner in 7888... 504 00:33:40.353 --> 00:33:43.356 titled “The Difficulty of Crossing a Field”... 505 00:33:43.439 --> 00:33:46.275 is reportedly based on an actual event... 506 00:33:46.359 --> 00:33:50.863 that occurred in Selma, Alabama, in July of 1854. 507 00:33:50.947 --> 00:33:52.532 [ Ringing ] 508 00:33:52.615 --> 00:33:54.677 [ Hawkes] It was about a plantation owner, a farmer... 509 00:33:54.701 --> 00:33:56.703 who, in the broad daylight, sitting on his porch... 510 00:33:56.786 --> 00:33:58.413 talking to his neighbors... 511 00:33:58.496 --> 00:34:01.833 walked across the road into the field and suddenly disappeared... 512 00:34:01.916 --> 00:34:04.502 with a number of witnesses watching. 513 00:34:04.585 --> 00:34:07.338 So as they walked over to the point where he disappeared... 514 00:34:07.422 --> 00:34:11.884 they could still hear his voice faintly, but they couldn't see him. 515 00:34:11.968 --> 00:34:14.950 He never returned. 516 00:34:18.182 --> 00:34:20.435 [ Narrator] Ambrose Bierce interviewed the locals... 517 00:34:20.518 --> 00:34:22.937 who searched for the lost farmer... 518 00:34:23.200 --> 00:34:26.482 as well as scientists with theories on the disappearance. 519 00:34:27.567 --> 00:34:31.237 One claimed the farmer had entered another dimension. 520 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.954 Is it possible that Ambrose Bierce was, in fact... 521 00:34:40.370 --> 00:34:42.206 contacted by extraterrestrials... 522 00:34:42.290 --> 00:34:45.840 that this is why luminous beings appear in his fiction... 523 00:34:45.168 --> 00:34:48.400 and this is why vanishings appear in his fiction? 524 00:34:49.589 --> 00:34:52.759 [ Narrator] Could it be that the head injury Ambrose Bierce suffered... 525 00:34:52.842 --> 00:34:57.430 allowed him to receive information from an otherworldly source? 526 00:34:58.306 --> 00:35:01.142 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 527 00:35:01.225 --> 00:35:04.437 and suggest the strongest evidence may not be found... 528 00:35:04.520 --> 00:35:07.607 in his stories of strange disappearances... 529 00:35:07.690 --> 00:35:10.485 but with how he disappeared himself. 530 00:35:14.697 --> 00:35:18.618 In December of 1913, Bierce left the country... 531 00:35:18.701 --> 00:35:20.828 and headed to Chihuahua, Mexico. 532 00:35:20.912 --> 00:35:24.373 He was never seen or heard from again. 533 00:35:26.542 --> 00:35:28.836 It's quite interesting to note that he met... 534 00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:31.470 with another famous adventurer-traveler... 535 00:35:31.130 --> 00:35:34.967 an Englishman named Frederick Mitchell Hedges. 536 00:35:35.510 --> 00:35:38.971 Mitchell Hedges was the man who claimed to discover the first crystal skull. 537 00:35:39.550 --> 00:35:42.767 And that's significant because they both were interested in crystals... 538 00:35:42.850 --> 00:35:45.853 and inter-dimensional subjects. 539 00:35:47.396 --> 00:35:50.399 The last letter that we know of he ever sent to anyone... 540 00:35:50.483 --> 00:35:52.151 was to his secretary that said... 541 00:35:52.235 --> 00:35:56.781 “I go tomorrow to a destination of which I may not return.” 542 00:35:58.491 --> 00:36:01.494 And the theory is he may have gone with Mitchell Hedges to the Crystal Cave. 543 00:36:01.577 --> 00:36:05.289 The Crystal Cave being a place that Mitchell Hedges believed... 544 00:36:05.373 --> 00:36:08.709 you could contact beings from another dimension. 545 00:36:10.294 --> 00:36:12.839 [WILCOCK ] it's possible that extraterrestrials said... 546 00:36:12.922 --> 00:36:17.900 “You helped steer the outcome towards a more favorable determination. 547 00:36:17.930 --> 00:36:19.679 In the future, people will be more comfortable with us. 548 00:36:19.762 --> 00:36:22.849 You've set the stage by writing all these sci-fi stories. 549 00:36:24.141 --> 00:36:25.643 Come live with us. 550 00:36:25.726 --> 00:36:27.603 Come to this place, and we'll meet you there.” 551 00:36:33.276 --> 00:36:35.653 [ Narrator] Might the stories of Ambrose Bierce... 552 00:36:35.736 --> 00:36:37.864 and his strange disappearance... 553 00:36:37.947 --> 00:36:41.158 all point to a connection with extraterrestrials? 554 00:36:41.951 --> 00:36:47.206 And if so, were these alien beings simply observing the Civil War... 555 00:36:47.290 --> 00:36:49.667 or might they have even intervened? 556 00:36:50.376 --> 00:36:54.338 Ancient astronaut theorists say the answer might be found... 557 00:36:54.422 --> 00:36:56.632 in Washington, DC... 558 00:36:56.716 --> 00:37:00.386 standing high atop the Capitol dome. 559 00:37:07.810 --> 00:37:09.896 [ Narrator] Washington, DC. 560 00:37:09.979 --> 00:37:13.149 December 2, 1863. 561 00:37:14.108 --> 00:37:18.404 It has been exactly five months since the battle of Gettysburg... 562 00:37:18.487 --> 00:37:23.826 and the tides of the Civil War are beginning to turn in the Union's favor. 563 00:37:26.454 --> 00:37:28.122 At the start of the war... 564 00:37:28.205 --> 00:37:32.209 construction of the giant dome that would sit atop the Capitol Building... 565 00:37:32.293 --> 00:37:34.420 had been halted... 566 00:37:34.503 --> 00:37:39.300 but President Lincoln convinced Congress to provide the funding to finish it... 567 00:37:39.383 --> 00:37:44.180 saying the dome would act as a sign that' the Union would go on. 568 00:37:50.190 --> 00:37:54.230 Upon its completion, a statue was placed on top of it... 569 00:37:54.106 --> 00:37:59.111 with the final section raised to a salute of 35 guns- 570 00:38:00.154 --> 00:38:04.116 answered by the guns of the 12 forts around Washington. 571 00:38:08.371 --> 00:38:10.623 Weighing nearly 15,000 pounds... 572 00:38:10.706 --> 00:38:14.210 and standing 19 and a half feet tall... 573 00:38:14.293 --> 00:38:19.256 this bronze statue features a woman with a Native American-style fringed blanket... 574 00:38:19.340 --> 00:38:21.926 thrown over her left shoulder... 575 00:38:22.900 --> 00:38:24.845 and an elaborate headdress made of eagle feathers... 576 00:38:24.929 --> 00:38:27.980 and ringed with stars. 577 00:38:28.474 --> 00:38:31.310 It is called the Statue of Freedom... 578 00:38:31.394 --> 00:38:33.854 and according to ancient astronaut theorists... 579 00:38:33.938 --> 00:38:37.566 it may represent an extraterrestrial being. 580 00:38:39.485 --> 00:38:42.947 The symbolism they chose is completely and totally cosmic. 581 00:38:43.300 --> 00:38:45.992 A goddess cloaked in stars... 582 00:38:46.750 --> 00:38:50.371 suggesting she's a celestial, or a star being. 583 00:38:51.122 --> 00:38:54.458 [ CHILDRESS ] When you look at it and even have the natives explain it to you... 584 00:38:54.542 --> 00:38:58.671 they say things like, “Oh, yes, these are the star people coming from the sky.” 585 00:39:02.383 --> 00:39:04.844 [ Narrator] Is it really possible that there is a depiction... 586 00:39:04.927 --> 00:39:08.931 of an extraterrestrial standing atop the Capitol dome? 587 00:39:10.725 --> 00:39:13.394 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 588 00:39:13.477 --> 00:39:18.816 and suggest the evidence can be found by looking back to the Founding Fathers. 589 00:39:23.904 --> 00:39:27.283 In the 1730s to the 1760s... 590 00:39:27.366 --> 00:39:30.244 Benjamin Franklin published a series of pamphlets... 591 00:39:30.327 --> 00:39:32.747 he cal/ed The Indian Treaties. 592 00:39:32.830 --> 00:39:35.410 One of the best-selling of these pamphlets... 593 00:39:35.124 --> 00:39:38.961 chronicled the Iroquois creation story of the Sky Woman. 594 00:39:40.337 --> 00:39:43.424 Native Americans believed that the Sky Woman came to Earth... 595 00:39:43.507 --> 00:39:46.520 when there was nothing here but water and animals... 596 00:39:46.135 --> 00:39:49.930 and that she was the mother of the very first human beings. 597 00:39:50.140 --> 00:39:55.561 Native Americans had beliefs in people who lived in space. 598 00:39:55.644 --> 00:39:59.565 Many of the Founding Fathers believed in the plurality of worlds. 599 00:39:59.648 --> 00:40:01.942 And these ideas, these stories... 600 00:40:02.260 --> 00:40:04.695 would have matched up very well with their concepts... 601 00:40:04.779 --> 00:40:08.699 about plurality of worlds and extraterrestrials from space. 602 00:40:12.703 --> 00:40:15.915 And you have to wonder if there wasn't some kind... 603 00:40:15.998 --> 00:40:19.168 of extraterrestrial influence here. 604 00:40:20.419 --> 00:40:24.965 And did they have some connection to these star people? 605 00:40:25.490 --> 00:40:27.718 Was this basically a message for aliens? 606 00:40:31.347 --> 00:40:34.100 [ Narrator] Did Abraham Lincoln and the Union leaders... 607 00:40:34.183 --> 00:40:36.310 erect the Statue of Freedom... 608 00:40:36.393 --> 00:40:39.188 as a tribute to star beings that they believed... 609 00:40:39.271 --> 00:40:41.732 might be watching over the country? 610 00:40:44.527 --> 00:40:47.947 Were they reinstating a symbol of our cosmic heritage... 611 00:40:48.300 --> 00:40:50.908 during the time of our greatest crisis? 612 00:40:51.617 --> 00:40:55.663 And if extraterrestrials really did have a vested interest... 613 00:40:55.746 --> 00:40:57.998 in the outcome of the Civil War... 614 00:40:58.820 --> 00:41:02.753 are they still watching over the great American experiment today? 615 00:41:03.379 --> 00:41:08.300 It really seems that extraterrestrials have been monitoring the United States... 616 00:41:08.384 --> 00:41:10.594 since its very inception. 617 00:41:12.721 --> 00:41:16.559 We've seen this really from the American Civil War... 618 00:41:16.642 --> 00:41:20.200 and right at the very beginning of the American Revolution. 619 00:41:20.104 --> 00:41:24.316 And I think that this is still going on today. 620 00:41:24.400 --> 00:41:26.735 The nurturing of the United States... 621 00:41:26.819 --> 00:41:33.284 as an inclusive, spiritual and technically advanced country... 622 00:41:33.367 --> 00:41:35.995 is very important to the extraterrestrials... 623 00:41:36.780 --> 00:41:38.914 and ultimately for the entire planet Earth. 624 00:41:42.251 --> 00:41:46.500 It's possible that extraterrestrials have been visiting America... 625 00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:48.340 since its foundation... 626 00:41:48.424 --> 00:41:52.303 and have been, in fact, steering the outcome this whole time. 627 00:41:52.386 --> 00:41:54.763 And why might they want to do that? 628 00:41:54.847 --> 00:41:58.642 You would want to see society moving in a direction of greater freedom... 629 00:41:58.726 --> 00:42:01.200 greater openness, greater acceptance... 630 00:42:01.103 --> 00:42:03.856 so that in time, this allows them... 631 00:42:03.939 --> 00:42:08.270 to have a much more warm welcome than they otherwise would have. 632 00:42:09.278 --> 00:42:13.240 There is every reason to believe that extraterrestrials are still watching over us... 633 00:42:13.324 --> 00:42:18.579 and are having a key impact in the events that unfold on Earth today. 634 00:42:23.420 --> 00:42:25.211 [ Narrator] Is it possible that extraterrestrials... 635 00:42:25.294 --> 00:42:29.131 really were present here on Earth during the Civil War? 636 00:42:31.759 --> 00:42:35.950 If so, were they simply passive observers... 637 00:42:35.179 --> 00:42:39.558 waiting to see if our fragile democracy could survive this test? 638 00:42:42.978 --> 00:42:44.897 Or did they take an active role... 639 00:42:44.980 --> 00:42:47.608 in order to preserve the Union? 640 00:42:49.318 --> 00:42:51.528 Perhaps the great American experiment... 641 00:42:51.612 --> 00:42:54.531 is part of a larger cosmic agenda... 642 00:42:54.615 --> 00:42:57.826 and once we fully realize the ideals put forth- .. 643 00:42:57.910 --> 00:43:01.247 By men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln... 644 00:43:01.330 --> 00:43:06.293 we will finally come face-to-face with our alien ancestors.