1 00:00:02,085 --> 00:00:03,495 WILLIAM SHATNER: Shocking injuries... 2 00:00:04,630 --> 00:00:07,340 ...that mirror the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:07,466 --> 00:00:09,626 A deadly disease 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,800 which begins with uncontrollable laughter. 5 00:00:12,930 --> 00:00:17,100 And harmful devices implanted into the human body 6 00:00:17,184 --> 00:00:20,654 by extraterrestrials. 7 00:00:22,189 --> 00:00:26,029 Throughout history, tales of inexplicable maladies 8 00:00:26,151 --> 00:00:28,571 to both the body and the mind 9 00:00:28,695 --> 00:00:33,195 have stirred morbid curiosity and palpable fear. 10 00:00:33,367 --> 00:00:35,657 From mysterious wounds that appear 11 00:00:35,786 --> 00:00:38,076 for no apparent reason 12 00:00:38,247 --> 00:00:40,207 to a peculiar madness that compels people 13 00:00:40,332 --> 00:00:42,082 to dance themselves to death, 14 00:00:42,209 --> 00:00:44,089 are these bizarre afflictions 15 00:00:44,211 --> 00:00:46,091 merely fabrications of the mind? 16 00:00:46,213 --> 00:00:49,013 Or could they arise 17 00:00:49,132 --> 00:00:51,892 from unseen forces 18 00:00:52,010 --> 00:00:54,390 that are beyond our comprehension? 19 00:00:55,472 --> 00:00:58,022 Well, that is what we’ll try and find out. 20 00:00:58,141 --> 00:01:00,141 ♪ ♪ 21 00:01:12,990 --> 00:01:16,370 Every spring, billions of Christians all over the world 22 00:01:16,493 --> 00:01:21,623 gather to observe a solemn day of reverence called Good Friday. 23 00:01:21,748 --> 00:01:23,878 According to Christian tradition, 24 00:01:24,042 --> 00:01:25,422 Good Friday commemorates 25 00:01:25,502 --> 00:01:29,422 the Crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. 26 00:01:29,548 --> 00:01:32,718 This sacred practice has been performed 27 00:01:32,884 --> 00:01:34,594 for nearly 2,000 years 28 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:38,010 and involves attending mass, 29 00:01:38,140 --> 00:01:40,770 the veneration of the cross, 30 00:01:40,892 --> 00:01:44,022 and elaborate processions. 31 00:01:44,104 --> 00:01:48,024 While Good Friday is a somber occasion, 32 00:01:48,150 --> 00:01:51,610 the Crucifixion is a pivotal event 33 00:01:51,737 --> 00:01:55,447 that is at the heart of Christianity. 34 00:01:57,701 --> 00:01:59,331 MONSIGNOR STEPHEN ROSSETTI: When you look at the spirituality 35 00:01:59,453 --> 00:02:01,083 of the Christian faith, 36 00:02:01,246 --> 00:02:05,536 the Crucifixion of Jesus is not only a tragedy of death, 37 00:02:05,626 --> 00:02:08,876 it’s a sign of the sufferings of Jesus. 38 00:02:10,339 --> 00:02:12,629 When we think of the Crucifixion today, 39 00:02:12,758 --> 00:02:16,218 we think of Jesus’ wounds when he was crucified, 40 00:02:16,303 --> 00:02:18,683 which includes the holes in the hands, 41 00:02:18,847 --> 00:02:21,887 in the feet, in the side, 42 00:02:22,017 --> 00:02:24,347 we think of the crown of thorns. 43 00:02:25,312 --> 00:02:28,902 So, there are lots of different, uh, types of wounds. 44 00:02:28,982 --> 00:02:31,992 It reminds us of what Jesus suffered for us. 45 00:02:33,570 --> 00:02:36,360 SHATNER: The Crucifixion is clearly a profound cornerstone 46 00:02:36,490 --> 00:02:38,700 of the Christian faith. 47 00:02:38,784 --> 00:02:41,244 But curiously, for centuries, 48 00:02:41,370 --> 00:02:45,040 people have suffered from a rare and disturbing condition 49 00:02:45,207 --> 00:02:47,877 that is connected to the death of Jesus Christ. 50 00:02:48,043 --> 00:02:51,133 This bizarre affliction is known 51 00:02:51,254 --> 00:02:53,344 as stigmata. 52 00:02:54,466 --> 00:02:56,546 Stigmata occurs when an individual 53 00:02:56,677 --> 00:02:58,297 is marked in a physical way 54 00:02:58,428 --> 00:02:59,888 that represents the wounds 55 00:03:00,013 --> 00:03:01,763 that Christ suffered on the cross. 56 00:03:01,890 --> 00:03:04,730 Most commonly, stigmata happens 57 00:03:04,851 --> 00:03:09,271 in what is referred to as the five wounds of Christ, 58 00:03:09,398 --> 00:03:11,608 which is two in the hands, 59 00:03:11,733 --> 00:03:15,243 two in the feet, and one on the side. 60 00:03:17,864 --> 00:03:19,874 MITCH HOROWITZ: Since the Middle Ages, 61 00:03:19,991 --> 00:03:23,041 there have been untold thousands of cases. 62 00:03:23,203 --> 00:03:26,333 In the strictest terms, stigmata, 63 00:03:26,456 --> 00:03:31,376 although they do involve physical suffering, 64 00:03:31,461 --> 00:03:35,221 are considered a blessing, a privilege. 65 00:03:35,340 --> 00:03:38,970 It’s almost as if the stricken individual 66 00:03:39,094 --> 00:03:42,064 is bearing a holy or divine burden. 67 00:03:42,180 --> 00:03:46,520 SHATNER: How can wounds that mirror those of Jesus Christ 68 00:03:46,685 --> 00:03:50,695 inexplicably appear on ordinary people? 69 00:03:50,814 --> 00:03:53,074 It seems to defy all logic. 70 00:03:54,025 --> 00:03:57,235 But perhaps clues about this phenomenon 71 00:03:57,404 --> 00:03:59,414 can be found by examining 72 00:03:59,531 --> 00:04:03,911 the first documented instance of stigmata. 73 00:04:05,245 --> 00:04:07,365 McGOWAN: The first recorded case of stigmata 74 00:04:07,497 --> 00:04:10,787 occurred with St. Francis of Assisi in 1224. 75 00:04:10,917 --> 00:04:13,587 St. Francis went to the mountains of La Verna 76 00:04:13,712 --> 00:04:15,762 to meditate and to pray. 77 00:04:17,215 --> 00:04:21,005 And then suddenly Francis had a vision of a seraphim. 78 00:04:21,136 --> 00:04:23,806 A seraphim is a particular kind of angel, 79 00:04:23,930 --> 00:04:26,600 a fiery angel with six wings. 80 00:04:26,767 --> 00:04:31,017 And the seraphim held in his possession the crucifix. 81 00:04:31,146 --> 00:04:34,686 His wings were wrapped around Jesus on the cross. 82 00:04:34,816 --> 00:04:38,646 And from this crucifix, this image of Jesus, 83 00:04:38,779 --> 00:04:40,779 came forth these rays, 84 00:04:40,906 --> 00:04:43,656 and these rays penetrated Francis 85 00:04:43,742 --> 00:04:46,412 in the form of stigmata. 86 00:04:46,536 --> 00:04:49,076 Francis’ stigmata was incredibly intense. 87 00:04:49,247 --> 00:04:51,167 Nothing like this had ever happened before. 88 00:04:51,291 --> 00:04:53,251 And not only did he have wounds 89 00:04:53,376 --> 00:04:55,586 that were openly bleeding on his hands, 90 00:04:55,712 --> 00:04:59,172 Francis was quite ill after he received the stigmata, 91 00:04:59,299 --> 00:05:01,629 and he died two years later. 92 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,010 Every day of those two years, he did, in fact, 93 00:05:04,137 --> 00:05:06,137 suffer with stigmata. 94 00:05:06,223 --> 00:05:09,893 SHATNER: Accounts of stigmata are both fascinating 95 00:05:10,018 --> 00:05:11,768 and deeply unsettling. 96 00:05:11,895 --> 00:05:13,565 For many Christians, 97 00:05:13,688 --> 00:05:17,228 they are proof of divine forces at work in our world. 98 00:05:17,359 --> 00:05:20,399 But many experts are skeptical 99 00:05:20,529 --> 00:05:22,699 and insist that stigmata 100 00:05:22,781 --> 00:05:26,491 must have a scientific explanation. 101 00:05:26,618 --> 00:05:29,368 ROSIE FALODUN: In terms of stigmata-like symptoms, 102 00:05:29,496 --> 00:05:31,156 there are some medical conditions that have been 103 00:05:31,289 --> 00:05:33,169 attributed to spontaneous bleeding, 104 00:05:33,291 --> 00:05:35,171 but it’s still very much misunderstood. 105 00:05:36,294 --> 00:05:39,264 One of them would be hemathrodosis. 106 00:05:39,381 --> 00:05:40,881 It’s known as bloody sweat 107 00:05:41,007 --> 00:05:43,297 because when the body is under extreme stress, 108 00:05:43,426 --> 00:05:46,296 the sweat glands tend to become more fragile 109 00:05:46,429 --> 00:05:48,809 and can bleed spontaneously. 110 00:05:48,932 --> 00:05:52,352 It typically manifests as droplets of blood on the skin, 111 00:05:52,477 --> 00:05:56,227 most commonly in the forehead, the arms and the legs, 112 00:05:56,356 --> 00:05:58,896 without any apparent physical cause. 113 00:05:58,984 --> 00:06:02,114 So there are instances where conditions 114 00:06:02,237 --> 00:06:05,367 have been attributed to spontaneous bleeding. 115 00:06:05,490 --> 00:06:06,950 But it can’t be said that they are 116 00:06:07,075 --> 00:06:09,035 the exact cause of stigmata. 117 00:06:10,620 --> 00:06:13,710 HOROWITZ: When a proposed stigmata occurs, 118 00:06:13,832 --> 00:06:17,592 the Vatican typically will do everything possible 119 00:06:17,711 --> 00:06:19,631 to account for the healing 120 00:06:19,754 --> 00:06:22,974 within standard medical protocol. 121 00:06:23,091 --> 00:06:26,221 The Vatican disputes, ignores, 122 00:06:26,303 --> 00:06:29,263 or disproves vastly greater numbers 123 00:06:29,389 --> 00:06:33,519 of miraculous claims than it actually validates. 124 00:06:33,685 --> 00:06:36,405 And so, if the Vatican 125 00:06:36,563 --> 00:06:39,653 is able to verify a stigmata, 126 00:06:39,774 --> 00:06:41,734 they are considered miraculous. 127 00:06:42,819 --> 00:06:45,569 SHATNER: Is it possible that a genuine case of stigmata 128 00:06:45,697 --> 00:06:49,577 is an actual miracle, as the Vatican claims? 129 00:06:51,369 --> 00:06:53,579 Many believe that the best evidence 130 00:06:53,663 --> 00:06:57,793 lies in the story of the most famous case in modern history: 131 00:06:57,918 --> 00:07:01,838 the Stigmata of Padre Pio. 132 00:07:02,005 --> 00:07:04,635 Padre Pio was a Capuchin friar 133 00:07:04,758 --> 00:07:07,428 who in 1918 celebrated mass 134 00:07:07,552 --> 00:07:10,812 and immediately afterwards started bleeding 135 00:07:10,931 --> 00:07:15,021 from the hands and feet, 136 00:07:15,101 --> 00:07:18,731 but there were certain peculiarities about it. 137 00:07:18,855 --> 00:07:20,605 It never scabbed over. 138 00:07:22,692 --> 00:07:26,152 And it gave off a very sweet perfume 139 00:07:26,279 --> 00:07:28,609 which is known as the odor of sanctity. 140 00:07:29,908 --> 00:07:33,698 McGOWAN: When Padre Pio was suffering from his stigmata, 141 00:07:33,828 --> 00:07:35,198 he said that the pain was so extreme 142 00:07:35,330 --> 00:07:36,910 that he thought he might die. 143 00:07:38,166 --> 00:07:41,086 He was embarrassed by the blood 144 00:07:41,211 --> 00:07:45,211 and embarrassed to be showing these marks on a regular basis. 145 00:07:45,340 --> 00:07:47,590 And he was always trying to cover them 146 00:07:47,717 --> 00:07:49,967 with the sleeves of his robe 147 00:07:50,095 --> 00:07:52,185 so that people wouldn’t see the blood. 148 00:07:54,182 --> 00:07:57,232 ROSSETTI: The Vatican’s response to great mystics in the Church 149 00:07:57,352 --> 00:07:59,652 has often been to persecute them, at least initially. 150 00:07:59,771 --> 00:08:01,231 They did that with Padre Pio. 151 00:08:01,356 --> 00:08:04,276 They were skeptical. 152 00:08:04,442 --> 00:08:07,152 At one point, they thought they were self-inflicted. 153 00:08:07,278 --> 00:08:09,238 And so they, uh, silenced him. 154 00:08:10,782 --> 00:08:14,122 They basically shut him away in a monastery. 155 00:08:14,285 --> 00:08:18,785 But thousands of people would go to attend his mass 156 00:08:18,915 --> 00:08:21,915 and line up for confession for days. 157 00:08:23,586 --> 00:08:25,876 ANDREW COLLINS: It was not until long after 158 00:08:26,047 --> 00:08:29,257 Padre Pio’s death in 1968 159 00:08:29,342 --> 00:08:31,642 that the Vatican had relented 160 00:08:31,803 --> 00:08:35,013 and saw him as a genuine stigmatist. 161 00:08:36,099 --> 00:08:38,179 He was finally canonized 162 00:08:38,309 --> 00:08:41,979 and beautified by Pope John Paul II. 163 00:08:42,063 --> 00:08:44,693 This was at the beginning of the 21st century. 164 00:08:44,816 --> 00:08:47,776 Now thousands of pilgrims 165 00:08:47,861 --> 00:08:51,241 come from all over Italy and beyond 166 00:08:51,406 --> 00:08:54,406 to venerate at his tomb every month. 167 00:08:54,534 --> 00:08:56,624 And so his memory 168 00:08:56,703 --> 00:08:59,003 is something that is celebrated 169 00:08:59,164 --> 00:09:03,134 by Catholics in every part of the world. 170 00:09:04,210 --> 00:09:07,420 McGOWAN: When we look at cases of stigmata, 171 00:09:07,547 --> 00:09:09,167 it’s a very profound experience 172 00:09:09,299 --> 00:09:10,719 for those people who are suffering, 173 00:09:10,884 --> 00:09:13,144 and we have photographs 174 00:09:13,261 --> 00:09:15,391 of modern stigmatics quite agonized 175 00:09:15,513 --> 00:09:16,853 with the pain that they had. 176 00:09:16,973 --> 00:09:18,273 It’s very fascinating. 177 00:09:18,391 --> 00:09:20,141 Anything that could represent, 178 00:09:20,268 --> 00:09:22,058 uh, a true communion 179 00:09:22,145 --> 00:09:24,155 with the essence of Jesus Christ 180 00:09:24,272 --> 00:09:28,362 is going to be something that people are interested in 181 00:09:28,526 --> 00:09:30,276 and want to understand. 182 00:09:31,237 --> 00:09:33,067 SHATNER: For the moment, 183 00:09:33,198 --> 00:09:36,238 stigmata remains a controversial and captivating affliction 184 00:09:36,367 --> 00:09:38,787 that offers no easy answers. 185 00:09:39,746 --> 00:09:42,616 But in 16th century France, 186 00:09:42,749 --> 00:09:44,579 another condition emerged 187 00:09:44,709 --> 00:09:46,539 that was no less baffling. 188 00:09:46,669 --> 00:09:49,049 It was a disturbing phenomenon 189 00:09:49,172 --> 00:09:50,802 which led hundreds of people 190 00:09:50,965 --> 00:09:54,295 to dance themselves to death. 191 00:09:54,385 --> 00:09:56,385 (woman groans) 192 00:10:01,851 --> 00:10:04,981 SHATNER: This historic city built along the Rhine River 193 00:10:05,105 --> 00:10:07,695 is known for its stunning network of canals, 194 00:10:07,816 --> 00:10:10,816 remarkable medieval architecture, 195 00:10:10,944 --> 00:10:13,654 and the famous astronomical clock 196 00:10:13,780 --> 00:10:15,660 of Strasbourg Cathedral. 197 00:10:17,158 --> 00:10:20,828 But over 500 years ago, in July of 1518, 198 00:10:20,995 --> 00:10:23,785 this town was the site of one of the strangest 199 00:10:23,873 --> 00:10:25,963 maladies in human history. 200 00:10:26,042 --> 00:10:29,462 It’s known as the dancing plague, 201 00:10:29,504 --> 00:10:32,174 and it started when a townswoman named Frau Troffea 202 00:10:32,340 --> 00:10:36,340 spontaneously burst into dance. 203 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:40,140 Frau Troffea was said to have stepped 204 00:10:40,223 --> 00:10:42,523 outside of her house in the city of Strasbourg 205 00:10:42,684 --> 00:10:45,194 and then began to dance. 206 00:10:45,353 --> 00:10:50,073 And she danced for hours and hours and hours. 207 00:10:50,191 --> 00:10:51,821 And apparently, at first, 208 00:10:51,901 --> 00:10:54,861 eyewitnesses thought that she may have been 209 00:10:54,988 --> 00:10:56,858 trying to irritate her husband, 210 00:10:57,031 --> 00:10:59,531 or that this was some kind of joke. 211 00:10:59,659 --> 00:11:02,539 But then the dance stretched into the evening 212 00:11:02,704 --> 00:11:04,004 and then into the night. 213 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,670 She collapsed. 214 00:11:08,209 --> 00:11:10,379 She got up the next day 215 00:11:10,503 --> 00:11:12,513 and began again. 216 00:11:12,547 --> 00:11:15,007 And at that point, people realized 217 00:11:15,091 --> 00:11:16,881 that a very strange phenomenon 218 00:11:17,051 --> 00:11:18,391 was unfolding here. 219 00:11:19,888 --> 00:11:22,848 PICKNETT: Frau Troffea went on hopping around and dancing 220 00:11:22,932 --> 00:11:26,352 in the heat of the summer, but she wasn’t enjoying it. 221 00:11:26,436 --> 00:11:31,066 She was unfocused, glassy-eyed, dissociated, 222 00:11:31,232 --> 00:11:32,902 and just jerking around and dancing. 223 00:11:33,026 --> 00:11:34,236 And she actually couldn’t stop. 224 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,280 SHATNER: Frau Troffea reportedly 225 00:11:36,446 --> 00:11:38,026 danced for a week straight. 226 00:11:38,114 --> 00:11:40,784 The constant exertion took a toll on her health, 227 00:11:40,909 --> 00:11:44,199 and she was sent to a remote monastery to recuperate. 228 00:11:44,370 --> 00:11:48,790 But strangely, after Frau left Strasbourg, 229 00:11:48,917 --> 00:11:52,247 the dancing didn’t stop. 230 00:11:52,420 --> 00:11:54,760 WALLER: Within about two or three weeks, 231 00:11:54,881 --> 00:11:58,091 dozens more people had been consumed 232 00:11:58,218 --> 00:12:01,218 by this same urge to dance and dance 233 00:12:01,304 --> 00:12:02,934 for hours and days 234 00:12:03,097 --> 00:12:06,307 in an altered state of consciousness. 235 00:12:06,434 --> 00:12:08,734 By the end of August, 236 00:12:08,811 --> 00:12:13,441 perhaps 400 people were all dancing. 237 00:12:13,608 --> 00:12:16,898 In some cases, on and off for weeks. 238 00:12:16,945 --> 00:12:19,825 Their toenails fell off, their feet were lacerated, 239 00:12:19,948 --> 00:12:21,408 their shoes were full of blood. 240 00:12:22,408 --> 00:12:24,788 And then some of them dropped dead. 241 00:12:25,828 --> 00:12:28,458 It was estimated 15 a day dropped dead, 242 00:12:28,581 --> 00:12:31,921 maybe 400 in all over the course of the two months. 243 00:12:32,001 --> 00:12:35,461 It was a terrifying and terrible thing. 244 00:12:35,505 --> 00:12:39,345 What’s so remarkable about these events of 1518 245 00:12:39,467 --> 00:12:43,467 is that we have copies of the memos 246 00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:45,466 sent among the members 247 00:12:45,598 --> 00:12:48,478 of the governing circle of the city. 248 00:12:48,601 --> 00:12:51,981 There are intense debates within the city 249 00:12:52,146 --> 00:12:55,476 as to what is causing this outbreak of dancing. 250 00:12:55,650 --> 00:12:57,030 And they make quite clear, 251 00:12:57,151 --> 00:12:59,321 these people do not want to be dancing. 252 00:12:59,487 --> 00:13:03,277 They are absolutely involuntary. 253 00:13:03,449 --> 00:13:05,949 SHATNER: What could have possibly triggered 254 00:13:06,035 --> 00:13:08,615 such a bizarre and deadly affliction? 255 00:13:08,705 --> 00:13:10,545 At the time, the people of Strasbourg 256 00:13:10,665 --> 00:13:12,835 began to suspect that the dancing plague 257 00:13:13,001 --> 00:13:14,501 was the work 258 00:13:14,544 --> 00:13:17,054 of the devil. 259 00:13:18,339 --> 00:13:21,629 COLLINS: This was something that was seen as a form of possession. 260 00:13:21,718 --> 00:13:23,338 So they started to look 261 00:13:23,386 --> 00:13:26,466 at possible supernatural explanations. 262 00:13:26,556 --> 00:13:28,846 And the first thing that they thought of 263 00:13:28,975 --> 00:13:31,815 was this possibly being instigated 264 00:13:31,894 --> 00:13:33,734 by the devil himself. 265 00:13:33,855 --> 00:13:36,195 And so they tried to purge 266 00:13:36,357 --> 00:13:38,897 every kind of sin from the city. 267 00:13:39,027 --> 00:13:40,237 It didn’t work. 268 00:13:41,863 --> 00:13:43,493 SHATNER: When banning sin failed, 269 00:13:43,573 --> 00:13:45,833 the townspeople wondered if the dancing plague 270 00:13:45,867 --> 00:13:47,697 was not the work of the devil 271 00:13:47,744 --> 00:13:50,084 but rather a Catholic saint 272 00:13:50,246 --> 00:13:52,366 by the name of Vitus. 273 00:13:52,498 --> 00:13:55,578 WALLER: St. Vitus is an important saint 274 00:13:55,710 --> 00:13:58,920 in the late medieval European church. 275 00:13:59,088 --> 00:14:01,668 There was a very strong belief 276 00:14:01,758 --> 00:14:03,838 that there were a number of saints 277 00:14:04,010 --> 00:14:08,010 who could both cure you of a particular disease 278 00:14:08,097 --> 00:14:10,517 and, if you were a sinner, 279 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,020 then they would punish you by inflicting that disease. 280 00:14:14,103 --> 00:14:16,273 St. Vitus was believed 281 00:14:16,397 --> 00:14:18,397 to cause movement disorders, 282 00:14:18,566 --> 00:14:20,436 including compulsive dancing. 283 00:14:20,610 --> 00:14:23,240 So it made complete sense to people at the time 284 00:14:23,404 --> 00:14:25,574 that if anybody was dancing wildly, 285 00:14:25,740 --> 00:14:28,870 it’s because they’d somehow offended St. Vitus. 286 00:14:29,869 --> 00:14:32,579 So what they then do is that they bundle people 287 00:14:32,705 --> 00:14:34,865 into wagons and take them to a shrine 288 00:14:34,957 --> 00:14:36,747 dedicated to St. Vitus 289 00:14:36,918 --> 00:14:41,588 located about 30 miles north of Strasbourg. 290 00:14:41,714 --> 00:14:44,434 Interestingly, they put red shoes on them. 291 00:14:44,467 --> 00:14:48,427 They cover the red shoes in holy oil and holy water, 292 00:14:48,554 --> 00:14:52,814 and they lead them round the shrine in a circle. 293 00:14:52,934 --> 00:14:56,104 And then, we are told, most of the people 294 00:14:56,145 --> 00:14:58,435 recovered their sanity. 295 00:14:58,564 --> 00:15:00,944 So it seems that they cured it 296 00:15:01,067 --> 00:15:04,067 by appealing to the supernatural beliefs 297 00:15:04,153 --> 00:15:05,953 of the people who’d been afflicted. 298 00:15:07,323 --> 00:15:09,913 SHATNER: Was the dancing plague both caused and cured 299 00:15:09,992 --> 00:15:11,792 by a higher power? 300 00:15:11,828 --> 00:15:15,288 While it made sense to people in medieval Europe, 301 00:15:15,415 --> 00:15:18,505 in modern times experts have proposed 302 00:15:18,626 --> 00:15:20,286 a more scientific theory. 303 00:15:20,420 --> 00:15:24,300 They claim that this ghoulish dancing frenzy 304 00:15:24,424 --> 00:15:27,514 was the result of mass psychogenic illness, 305 00:15:27,635 --> 00:15:32,465 or as it’s more commonly known, mass hysteria. 306 00:15:32,598 --> 00:15:34,978 FALODUN: Mass hysteria is when a group of people 307 00:15:35,143 --> 00:15:37,313 are experiencing the same physical symptoms 308 00:15:37,437 --> 00:15:40,147 without a definitive physical cause of those symptoms. 309 00:15:40,314 --> 00:15:42,984 For example, if you’re in a social setting 310 00:15:43,109 --> 00:15:45,649 whereby someone is experiencing a symptom, 311 00:15:45,778 --> 00:15:48,318 you can then believe that that’s also happening to you. 312 00:15:48,489 --> 00:15:51,779 There was an example of a girls’ boarding school 313 00:15:51,826 --> 00:15:54,446 in modern-day what’s known as Tanzania now, 314 00:15:54,537 --> 00:15:57,827 in the 1960s where over a thousand girls 315 00:15:57,957 --> 00:16:00,827 had an outbreak of involuntary convulsions 316 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,050 and uncontrollable laughter. 317 00:16:03,171 --> 00:16:06,511 There can be a host of symptoms for mass hysteria. 318 00:16:06,632 --> 00:16:09,302 However, there’s no definitive scientific answer 319 00:16:09,343 --> 00:16:13,143 for what causes groups to mimic certain symptoms and behaviors. 320 00:16:14,140 --> 00:16:16,730 WALLER: Today the most popular theory 321 00:16:16,851 --> 00:16:21,021 for the 1518 dancing plague 322 00:16:21,147 --> 00:16:24,567 is that this is an example of mass hysteria, 323 00:16:24,692 --> 00:16:26,242 but it’s not always the case 324 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,570 that unusual behavior is mass psychogenic illness. 325 00:16:29,697 --> 00:16:33,197 We’re talking about several hundred people 326 00:16:33,367 --> 00:16:35,907 dancing for days or weeks, some of them dying. 327 00:16:36,037 --> 00:16:40,867 Certainly, medieval peoples had popular theories 328 00:16:41,042 --> 00:16:43,712 that this was direct intervention 329 00:16:43,878 --> 00:16:46,878 from God, saints, or the devil. 330 00:16:47,048 --> 00:16:49,548 And I think that partly it’s because the events 331 00:16:49,717 --> 00:16:55,007 just seemed inconceivable, and so, ultimately, 332 00:16:55,097 --> 00:16:59,887 we will never know what drove this phenomenon. 333 00:17:00,019 --> 00:17:03,059 Was the macabre dance of death 334 00:17:03,189 --> 00:17:06,359 the product of mass hysteria? 335 00:17:06,442 --> 00:17:10,862 Or were the townspeople actually possessed by evil forces? 336 00:17:10,905 --> 00:17:14,745 The truth behind this mystery may be lost to history, 337 00:17:14,867 --> 00:17:18,577 but there’s another strange tale of torment 338 00:17:18,746 --> 00:17:20,616 that has been thoroughly investigated 339 00:17:20,748 --> 00:17:22,288 by modern scientists. 340 00:17:22,416 --> 00:17:25,036 It involves a bizarre condition known 341 00:17:25,211 --> 00:17:28,261 as the laughing death. 342 00:17:33,261 --> 00:17:35,431 SHATNER: This group of tropical islands 343 00:17:35,555 --> 00:17:37,685 located in the southwest Pacific Ocean 344 00:17:37,807 --> 00:17:40,887 is one of the most remote places on Earth. 345 00:17:42,019 --> 00:17:43,899 During the 1970s, 346 00:17:44,021 --> 00:17:47,861 it was discovered that a local tribe, known as the Fore, 347 00:17:47,984 --> 00:17:52,454 was afflicted by a strange and deadly illness. 348 00:17:55,575 --> 00:17:59,245 SCHUTT: The Fore people lived up in the mountains of this island. 349 00:17:59,412 --> 00:18:01,542 There were probably about 36,000 of them 350 00:18:01,664 --> 00:18:04,714 that were spread out across the mountain valleys 351 00:18:04,834 --> 00:18:06,294 in northern, uh, New Guinea. 352 00:18:06,419 --> 00:18:10,049 They lived in 170 different hamlets 353 00:18:10,214 --> 00:18:13,634 with people who spoke six different languages. 354 00:18:13,759 --> 00:18:19,099 When the Westerners started to interact with the Fore, 355 00:18:19,223 --> 00:18:22,853 missionaries and anthropologists found an alarming number 356 00:18:22,977 --> 00:18:25,477 of them were dying of a strange disease 357 00:18:25,605 --> 00:18:27,525 that nobody had really seen before. 358 00:18:28,774 --> 00:18:31,244 One of the symptoms of this disease 359 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:34,530 is something that is known as pathological laughter. 360 00:18:36,657 --> 00:18:39,867 Inappropriate laughter, giggling. 361 00:18:39,994 --> 00:18:41,874 Major magazines and newspapers 362 00:18:41,996 --> 00:18:45,786 called it laughing death. 363 00:18:47,001 --> 00:18:50,341 SHATNER: At the time, experts estimated that the laughing death 364 00:18:50,463 --> 00:18:53,473 killed 200 Fore people every year. 365 00:18:53,549 --> 00:18:56,089 The Fore called the illness kuru, 366 00:18:56,218 --> 00:19:00,138 which translates to "trembling" in their dialect. 367 00:19:00,264 --> 00:19:03,984 The disease was puzzling to scientists, 368 00:19:04,101 --> 00:19:06,521 who could not determine its cause, 369 00:19:06,646 --> 00:19:10,066 and in 1981, Dr. Robert Klitzman 370 00:19:10,149 --> 00:19:14,399 traveled to Papua New Guinea to try and solve the mystery. 371 00:19:14,570 --> 00:19:15,740 When I went there for the first time, 372 00:19:15,863 --> 00:19:17,283 I wasn’t sure what to expect. 373 00:19:17,406 --> 00:19:18,906 But I learned many things. 374 00:19:18,991 --> 00:19:21,741 Initially, it was called the laughing death, 375 00:19:21,869 --> 00:19:23,869 which is sort of a misnomer. 376 00:19:23,996 --> 00:19:27,576 People did engage in what seemed like laughter, 377 00:19:27,708 --> 00:19:30,378 but it really was sort of uncontrollable expressions 378 00:19:30,503 --> 00:19:32,713 and movements that they had. 379 00:19:32,838 --> 00:19:34,758 Kuru causes a number of symptoms. 380 00:19:34,882 --> 00:19:37,092 It is a neurological disease 381 00:19:37,218 --> 00:19:40,218 somewhat similar to Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s. 382 00:19:41,639 --> 00:19:45,599 The symptoms are loss of muscle control over one’s body, 383 00:19:45,726 --> 00:19:48,186 shaking, inability to walk, 384 00:19:48,270 --> 00:19:52,150 and it has mental symptoms as well. 385 00:19:52,274 --> 00:19:55,444 So people may not be able to control their emotions 386 00:19:55,611 --> 00:19:56,951 or what they say. 387 00:19:57,029 --> 00:20:00,119 The disease was terrifying in many ways. 388 00:20:00,241 --> 00:20:03,701 The symptoms usually, from start to the person’s death, 389 00:20:03,828 --> 00:20:07,078 take about a year. It’s invariably fatal. 390 00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:10,497 The Fore people believed that the disease 391 00:20:10,626 --> 00:20:12,036 was caused by sorcery. 392 00:20:13,462 --> 00:20:15,922 So they believed that a sorcerer would take something 393 00:20:16,090 --> 00:20:18,680 that belonged to you and wrap it around a stone 394 00:20:18,801 --> 00:20:21,141 and bury it and cast a spell on it. 395 00:20:21,262 --> 00:20:23,812 And that may sound ridiculous to some of us, 396 00:20:23,973 --> 00:20:26,683 but they’d say, "That’s just magic." 397 00:20:26,851 --> 00:20:29,601 The world in which they lived was this kind of a world. 398 00:20:29,770 --> 00:20:33,320 SHATNER: Was kuru the result of supernatural forces, 399 00:20:33,441 --> 00:20:35,031 as locals believed? 400 00:20:35,109 --> 00:20:36,989 It’s an intriguing notion, 401 00:20:37,069 --> 00:20:41,319 but doctors eventually suspected that the real culprit 402 00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:44,870 was that the Fore participated in the gruesome practice 403 00:20:44,994 --> 00:20:48,664 of consuming human flesh. 404 00:20:51,751 --> 00:20:55,051 HOROWITZ: When Western anthropologists began to study 405 00:20:55,212 --> 00:20:59,342 some of the communities of Papua New Guinea in the 1930s, 406 00:20:59,467 --> 00:21:04,547 they discovered practice of a ritualistic, 407 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:07,850 religious-based funerary cannibalism. 408 00:21:07,975 --> 00:21:12,845 The Papua New Guineans who engaged in cannibalism 409 00:21:12,980 --> 00:21:15,400 saw the consumption of the brain 410 00:21:15,524 --> 00:21:20,154 as a way of imbibing that person’s lifeforce. 411 00:21:20,279 --> 00:21:22,109 It was a devotional practice. 412 00:21:22,239 --> 00:21:25,739 KLITZMAN: When they practiced cannibalism, at one feast, 413 00:21:25,868 --> 00:21:29,618 I calculated that there were 56 people present. 414 00:21:29,747 --> 00:21:31,747 53 of whom then died of the disease. 415 00:21:31,874 --> 00:21:33,924 So it was pretty devastating. 416 00:21:34,043 --> 00:21:39,763 Now, every time someone died, they would consume the brain. 417 00:21:39,882 --> 00:21:41,762 I met people, for instance, who would say, 418 00:21:41,884 --> 00:21:44,304 "Well, I ate a foot" or "I ate a hand," 419 00:21:44,428 --> 00:21:45,468 and they were still alive. 420 00:21:45,596 --> 00:21:50,176 And so the concentration of the kuru 421 00:21:50,309 --> 00:21:54,189 was highest when they would consume the brain. 422 00:21:54,313 --> 00:21:57,073 SHATNER: Perhaps it’s not surprising that eating human brains 423 00:21:57,149 --> 00:21:59,069 is not good for your health, 424 00:21:59,151 --> 00:22:02,201 but how did this practice lead to the bizarre 425 00:22:02,321 --> 00:22:04,951 laughing symptoms of kuru? 426 00:22:05,032 --> 00:22:07,622 Kuru is caused by something called a prion, 427 00:22:07,743 --> 00:22:10,873 an infectious protein that is in all of our brains. 428 00:22:10,996 --> 00:22:15,126 And in roughly one out of every million people or so, 429 00:22:15,292 --> 00:22:17,342 it flips the wrong way. 430 00:22:17,461 --> 00:22:19,171 And when it’s flipped, 431 00:22:19,296 --> 00:22:23,046 it could lead to other proteins 432 00:22:23,175 --> 00:22:26,085 flipping in our brain and forming clumps 433 00:22:26,220 --> 00:22:28,760 that could kill brain cells. 434 00:22:29,890 --> 00:22:32,480 Kuru probably happened because someone 435 00:22:32,601 --> 00:22:36,811 in the Fore group had such a protein flip the wrong way. 436 00:22:36,939 --> 00:22:40,899 And that person was then consumed by other people, 437 00:22:41,026 --> 00:22:44,986 and that led to proteins in their brains flipping. 438 00:22:45,114 --> 00:22:48,664 And when they died, they were eaten, 439 00:22:48,784 --> 00:22:51,244 and the rest is history, continued to spread. 440 00:22:51,412 --> 00:22:56,292 SHATNER: The story of kuru is as fascinating as it is disturbing. 441 00:22:56,417 --> 00:23:00,457 But what’s even more unsettling is that this type of disease 442 00:23:00,588 --> 00:23:03,878 has harmed people not just in Papua New Guinea 443 00:23:04,049 --> 00:23:05,549 but all over the world. 444 00:23:05,676 --> 00:23:10,426 Except we call it mad cow disease. 445 00:23:10,556 --> 00:23:12,426 SCHUTT: In the 1980s, 446 00:23:12,558 --> 00:23:15,938 British cattle became stricken with mad cow disease 447 00:23:16,061 --> 00:23:18,901 because farmers feed them supplements, 448 00:23:19,023 --> 00:23:22,983 and these supplements are made up of dead cows 449 00:23:23,068 --> 00:23:25,148 infected with prion disease. 450 00:23:25,279 --> 00:23:27,859 And then people would consume that. 451 00:23:27,948 --> 00:23:32,078 Eventually, over the course of 15, 16 years, 452 00:23:32,202 --> 00:23:35,872 178 people in the UK died 453 00:23:35,998 --> 00:23:38,748 from what became known as mad cow disease. 454 00:23:38,876 --> 00:23:40,666 FALODUN: Mad cow disease 455 00:23:40,794 --> 00:23:42,884 or neurodegenerative diseases such as kuru 456 00:23:43,005 --> 00:23:46,765 can manifest upwards of 70 years after the ingestion 457 00:23:46,884 --> 00:23:50,224 of some contaminated, um, food or livestock. 458 00:23:50,346 --> 00:23:53,886 And so it’s very unclear as to whether or not 459 00:23:54,016 --> 00:23:55,636 it can happen in the future. 460 00:23:55,809 --> 00:23:59,349 The study of kuru is important for many reasons. 461 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,520 One is, of course, the fact that the symptoms in humans 462 00:24:02,691 --> 00:24:04,611 from eating an infected cow are basically 463 00:24:04,735 --> 00:24:08,115 the same symptoms that we saw with kuru. 464 00:24:08,238 --> 00:24:11,118 So they provided this unique glimpse 465 00:24:11,241 --> 00:24:14,241 on what can cause a disease that’s different 466 00:24:14,411 --> 00:24:17,251 than what anyone had thought before. 467 00:24:18,958 --> 00:24:20,708 The fate of people who fall victim 468 00:24:20,793 --> 00:24:23,673 to the laughing death gives a whole new meaning 469 00:24:23,796 --> 00:24:25,586 to the phrase "You are what you eat." 470 00:24:25,673 --> 00:24:27,633 However, our next story 471 00:24:27,758 --> 00:24:30,588 of inexplicable suffering concerns 472 00:24:30,719 --> 00:24:32,599 not what we choose to consume 473 00:24:32,721 --> 00:24:38,271 but rather what might be surgically inserted inside us 474 00:24:38,394 --> 00:24:41,444 without our knowledge because there are thousands 475 00:24:41,563 --> 00:24:43,063 of individuals who claim 476 00:24:43,148 --> 00:24:45,438 that they were the unwilling recipient 477 00:24:45,567 --> 00:24:49,107 of an alien implant. 478 00:24:55,869 --> 00:24:56,829 SHATNER: A group of experts 479 00:24:56,870 --> 00:24:58,500 from multiple universities 480 00:24:58,622 --> 00:25:01,042 publish a controversial study titled 481 00:25:01,208 --> 00:25:05,338 Unusual Personal Experiences. 482 00:25:05,462 --> 00:25:08,842 The report finds that, according to national polls, 483 00:25:08,966 --> 00:25:11,506 roughly 3.7 million Americans claim 484 00:25:11,552 --> 00:25:14,892 to have been abducted by extraterrestrials, 485 00:25:15,055 --> 00:25:20,515 a phenomenon that is referred to as the UFO abduction syndrome. 486 00:25:20,644 --> 00:25:25,574 But what’s even more startling is that many respondents stated 487 00:25:25,691 --> 00:25:29,241 that extraterrestrials surgically operated on them 488 00:25:29,403 --> 00:25:33,413 and implanted a foreign object into their body. 489 00:25:34,408 --> 00:25:36,028 People who report having implants 490 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,160 have claimed all sorts of physical symptoms. 491 00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:40,575 These implants are not something they want in them. 492 00:25:40,748 --> 00:25:43,748 Some claim very bad headaches from them, 493 00:25:43,876 --> 00:25:46,336 some claim extreme pain at the place 494 00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:49,260 where the implant was inserted in them. 495 00:25:49,381 --> 00:25:50,671 Others will claim incidents of problems 496 00:25:50,758 --> 00:25:53,218 with their vision or their hearing. 497 00:25:53,343 --> 00:25:55,763 Most abductees believe these objects 498 00:25:55,888 --> 00:25:58,058 are used to track them and find them 499 00:25:58,182 --> 00:25:59,182 when they are abducted again. 500 00:25:59,266 --> 00:26:01,346 McMAHON: Skeptics say 501 00:26:01,435 --> 00:26:03,695 these are sometimes shards of glass, 502 00:26:03,854 --> 00:26:06,694 or little bits of metal that have become embedded 503 00:26:06,857 --> 00:26:09,607 for very earthbound, natural reasons-- 504 00:26:09,777 --> 00:26:12,947 a result of an injury, a self-inflicted wound. 505 00:26:13,072 --> 00:26:17,122 But medical studies have shown that those who believe 506 00:26:17,242 --> 00:26:20,872 that they have these alien implants inside them 507 00:26:20,954 --> 00:26:23,044 are utterly convinced. 508 00:26:23,123 --> 00:26:26,793 SHATNER: Beyond the pain and terror caused by discovering 509 00:26:26,919 --> 00:26:31,129 an alleged extraterrestrial object lodged inside their body, 510 00:26:31,298 --> 00:26:33,968 many so-called alien implantees 511 00:26:34,134 --> 00:26:38,224 also suffer from an even more disturbing symptom. 512 00:26:38,305 --> 00:26:43,935 They claim these implants have actually invaded their minds. 513 00:26:44,061 --> 00:26:47,561 BILL BIRNES: The most compelling things about some of these 514 00:26:47,648 --> 00:26:51,148 alien implant reports are the fact that the people, 515 00:26:51,276 --> 00:26:52,316 the hosts, 516 00:26:52,486 --> 00:26:54,816 claim they’re hearing voices. 517 00:26:56,073 --> 00:26:59,913 The earliest mentions of alien implants 518 00:26:59,993 --> 00:27:02,503 were as communications devices 519 00:27:02,621 --> 00:27:06,171 for the creatures that come in the night. 520 00:27:06,333 --> 00:27:09,753 They’re getting messages, and they would say, 521 00:27:09,837 --> 00:27:13,297 "I feel as though there’s another person inside of me." 522 00:27:14,341 --> 00:27:16,341 SHATNER: Is it possible that the remarkable claims 523 00:27:16,510 --> 00:27:20,010 of supposed alien implantees are true? 524 00:27:20,180 --> 00:27:25,100 And if so, then what exactly are these mysterious objects 525 00:27:25,185 --> 00:27:29,145 that are being inserted into people’s bodies? 526 00:27:33,485 --> 00:27:36,025 Podiatrist Dr. Roger Leir 527 00:27:36,113 --> 00:27:38,493 publishes a controversial book titled 528 00:27:38,657 --> 00:27:40,987 The Aliens and the Scalpel. 529 00:27:41,118 --> 00:27:44,328 In his extraordinary account, Dr. Leir reveals 530 00:27:44,496 --> 00:27:47,616 that he has surgically removed foreign objects 531 00:27:47,708 --> 00:27:49,878 from several people’s bodies, 532 00:27:50,043 --> 00:27:52,963 and he firmly believes these objects 533 00:27:53,046 --> 00:27:55,796 were extraterrestrial in origin. 534 00:27:55,883 --> 00:27:58,473 Dr. Roger Leir, who is now deceased, 535 00:27:58,552 --> 00:28:01,052 claimed to have extracted 536 00:28:01,180 --> 00:28:05,850 more than a dozen alien implants from subjects. 537 00:28:06,018 --> 00:28:10,228 He was one of very few people with surgical training 538 00:28:10,355 --> 00:28:14,145 who was willing to extract such claimed objects. 539 00:28:14,234 --> 00:28:16,574 BIRNES: He would have patients coming in, 540 00:28:16,737 --> 00:28:19,407 "Doc, Doc, my foot, there’s something wrong with it." 541 00:28:19,531 --> 00:28:24,411 When he X-rayed it, he would see these strange objects in there, 542 00:28:24,578 --> 00:28:27,158 and the patients would tell the story 543 00:28:27,247 --> 00:28:30,037 of encountering a strange presence. 544 00:28:30,167 --> 00:28:34,377 What Roger discovered is that, in these alien implants, 545 00:28:34,504 --> 00:28:37,594 the body not only did not reject the object 546 00:28:37,758 --> 00:28:40,548 but made it a part of the body. 547 00:28:40,677 --> 00:28:45,007 No artificial object on this planet acts like that. 548 00:28:45,098 --> 00:28:47,598 SHATNER: In 2013, Dr. Leir contacted 549 00:28:47,768 --> 00:28:51,098 acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell. 550 00:28:51,230 --> 00:28:54,270 The doctor wanted to give Corbell unprecedented access 551 00:28:54,441 --> 00:28:58,951 to film his 17th implant removal surgery. 552 00:28:59,112 --> 00:29:00,912 The resulting documentary 553 00:29:01,031 --> 00:29:05,031 is aptly titled Patient Seventeen. 554 00:29:05,118 --> 00:29:07,118 CORBELL: Dr. Roger Leir called me, 555 00:29:07,246 --> 00:29:08,616 and first thing in my mind is, 556 00:29:08,789 --> 00:29:11,619 I thought this was absolute 557 00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:16,300 woo-woo, untangible, ridiculous, ridiculous stuff. 558 00:29:16,421 --> 00:29:19,471 But he says, "Look, I would not have spent 559 00:29:19,591 --> 00:29:21,631 "this much time and effort and money 560 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:23,300 "and my blood, sweat and tears on this 561 00:29:23,470 --> 00:29:26,390 "if there wasn’t something to it. 562 00:29:26,473 --> 00:29:28,813 Just film a surgery." 563 00:29:30,477 --> 00:29:33,307 So I brought my camera, I went in. 564 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:35,320 And what really struck me 565 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,820 was, here’s a guy, 566 00:29:38,944 --> 00:29:41,824 he’s about to get on that operating table 567 00:29:41,989 --> 00:29:45,239 and have his body cut open 568 00:29:45,325 --> 00:29:46,985 to remove a foreign body, 569 00:29:47,119 --> 00:29:51,159 and he doesn’t know what it is. 570 00:29:51,331 --> 00:29:55,671 And I don’t know what he was looking to find other than, 571 00:29:55,794 --> 00:29:58,634 "Hey, maybe there’s an implant made by an alien 572 00:29:58,672 --> 00:30:00,632 that’s in my leg." 573 00:30:00,674 --> 00:30:06,104 Because Patient 17 did have abductive experiences. 574 00:30:14,187 --> 00:30:16,517 CORBELL: After the implant removal surgery, 575 00:30:16,690 --> 00:30:18,440 Dr. Roger Leir wanted to give me 576 00:30:18,525 --> 00:30:22,445 a kind of autonomy on my investigative work 577 00:30:22,529 --> 00:30:25,319 on what it is that he cut out of this man’s leg 578 00:30:25,449 --> 00:30:29,369 by sending it myself to a national laboratory, 579 00:30:29,536 --> 00:30:33,536 getting the raw data, and then reporting that in. 580 00:30:33,707 --> 00:30:35,877 When we got that analysis back, 581 00:30:36,001 --> 00:30:38,551 the isotopic ratios, 582 00:30:38,712 --> 00:30:41,052 which are kind of a good measuring stick 583 00:30:41,214 --> 00:30:43,384 or barometer for things that are 584 00:30:43,550 --> 00:30:45,840 not terrestrially found on Earth, 585 00:30:45,969 --> 00:30:49,059 they were off the charts, 586 00:30:49,222 --> 00:30:52,482 indicating that it was non-terrestrial, 587 00:30:52,559 --> 00:30:55,729 not forged here on Earth. 588 00:30:55,896 --> 00:30:57,396 I can tell you that as a fact 589 00:30:57,522 --> 00:31:00,362 that when you get a sample that reads like that, 590 00:31:00,484 --> 00:31:03,574 it’s worthy of further investigation. 591 00:31:03,737 --> 00:31:06,987 BIRNES: The more we come aware of the presence 592 00:31:07,074 --> 00:31:09,584 that there are UFOs in our skies, 593 00:31:09,701 --> 00:31:13,581 the more we realize that it is quite likely 594 00:31:13,747 --> 00:31:16,247 that there are millions of people on this planet 595 00:31:16,416 --> 00:31:19,586 walking around with alien implants in their feet, 596 00:31:19,711 --> 00:31:22,421 in their hands, have no knowledge of it. 597 00:31:23,548 --> 00:31:26,678 For what purpose? We don’t know. 598 00:31:27,594 --> 00:31:29,894 Could millions of people 599 00:31:30,055 --> 00:31:32,395 have been implanted with alien devices 600 00:31:32,432 --> 00:31:34,392 and not even know it? 601 00:31:34,518 --> 00:31:37,438 Wow. It’s a fascinating theory. 602 00:31:37,562 --> 00:31:40,862 But there’s a much older mystery 603 00:31:40,941 --> 00:31:43,071 that’s no less intriguing. 604 00:31:43,193 --> 00:31:45,363 It concerns an ancient nobleman 605 00:31:45,445 --> 00:31:48,775 who attempted to heal his numerous ailments 606 00:31:48,907 --> 00:31:50,777 with the power 607 00:31:50,951 --> 00:31:53,621 of magical stones. 608 00:32:00,001 --> 00:32:01,841 SHATNER: Atop Salisbury Plain 609 00:32:01,962 --> 00:32:06,722 stands arguably the most iconic ancient structure in the world. 610 00:32:07,801 --> 00:32:09,551 Stonehenge. 611 00:32:09,678 --> 00:32:12,598 Constructed around 3100 BC, 612 00:32:12,722 --> 00:32:15,522 this enigmatic monument 613 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,600 has captured our collective imagination for centuries. 614 00:32:19,729 --> 00:32:22,109 But what most people don’t realize 615 00:32:22,232 --> 00:32:25,572 is that this Stonehenge landscape is also 616 00:32:25,694 --> 00:32:28,494 a massive graveyard. 617 00:32:28,613 --> 00:32:30,323 Throughout the area, 618 00:32:30,449 --> 00:32:33,699 thousands of ancient skeletons have been recovered. 619 00:32:33,827 --> 00:32:37,077 And apparently many of the deceased 620 00:32:37,205 --> 00:32:41,375 suffered from devastating afflictions. 621 00:32:41,543 --> 00:32:44,383 The area around Stonehenge is absolutely littered 622 00:32:44,504 --> 00:32:47,424 with people who have got all sorts of traumas, 623 00:32:47,549 --> 00:32:50,469 from the mundane through to some very serious conditions. 624 00:32:51,553 --> 00:32:53,683 It’s very clear that many of them had 625 00:32:53,805 --> 00:32:56,135 physical injuries that had gone on-- broken arms, 626 00:32:56,266 --> 00:32:57,636 all the usual range of things. 627 00:32:57,767 --> 00:32:59,557 For example, 628 00:32:59,686 --> 00:33:02,516 one of the skeletons of those people, 629 00:33:02,647 --> 00:33:05,477 on his left knee, the kneecap is missing. 630 00:33:05,609 --> 00:33:07,819 There was some kind of trauma. 631 00:33:07,944 --> 00:33:10,244 The second thing which is obviously 632 00:33:10,363 --> 00:33:12,493 wrong with him is that there is an abscess 633 00:33:12,616 --> 00:33:16,826 on his jaw which must have been excruciating in life. 634 00:33:16,953 --> 00:33:21,503 Also, what we can see from recent studies of DNA 635 00:33:21,625 --> 00:33:24,885 is that around about the time that Stonehenge was being built, 636 00:33:25,003 --> 00:33:27,843 there was a plague circulating in the area. 637 00:33:27,964 --> 00:33:30,134 So we have to think of the prehistoric past 638 00:33:30,300 --> 00:33:31,840 that we’re talking about around Stonehenge 639 00:33:31,968 --> 00:33:34,348 as something which is actually very dangerous. 640 00:33:35,597 --> 00:33:38,467 People dying, people being hurt 641 00:33:38,558 --> 00:33:40,478 through these different illnesses 642 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,230 and plagues and diseases. 643 00:33:43,563 --> 00:33:48,153 SHATNER: It’s easy to assume that so many people buried near Stonehenge 644 00:33:48,276 --> 00:33:50,486 suffered from numerous ailments because 645 00:33:50,612 --> 00:33:52,202 they simply lived in ancient times 646 00:33:52,322 --> 00:33:55,282 and did not receive proper medical care. 647 00:33:56,409 --> 00:33:59,579 But according to archaeologists, 648 00:33:59,704 --> 00:34:03,754 the truth may be far more intriguing. 649 00:34:04,709 --> 00:34:07,919 In 2008, an important discovery was announced 650 00:34:08,046 --> 00:34:09,586 regarding Stonehenge. 651 00:34:09,714 --> 00:34:14,304 There was a discovery of a mass of skeletons 652 00:34:14,427 --> 00:34:16,347 buried in the region, 653 00:34:16,471 --> 00:34:20,141 and 50% of these skeletons discovered 654 00:34:20,267 --> 00:34:22,767 had come from somewhere else. 655 00:34:22,894 --> 00:34:25,104 So what does this tell us? 656 00:34:25,230 --> 00:34:27,110 They came here for something. 657 00:34:27,232 --> 00:34:29,362 It’s possible that Stonehenge 658 00:34:29,484 --> 00:34:32,364 could have been used as a healing site, 659 00:34:32,487 --> 00:34:35,527 a type of temple for healing. 660 00:34:36,908 --> 00:34:39,288 SHATNER: Did ancient people travel to Stonehenge 661 00:34:39,411 --> 00:34:41,001 in order to be healed? 662 00:34:41,079 --> 00:34:43,329 And if so, what made them think 663 00:34:43,456 --> 00:34:45,626 that coming to this mysterious monument 664 00:34:45,750 --> 00:34:47,170 would cure them? 665 00:34:47,294 --> 00:34:49,304 Some say the answer can be found 666 00:34:49,462 --> 00:34:52,012 by examining the stones themselves 667 00:34:52,132 --> 00:34:54,012 and, more specifically, 668 00:34:54,134 --> 00:34:58,814 what are known as the bluestones. 669 00:34:58,930 --> 00:35:01,470 DARVILL: Around Stonehenge, the outer structure is made 670 00:35:01,558 --> 00:35:03,138 from essentially local stones. 671 00:35:03,268 --> 00:35:05,188 That’s the things we often see. 672 00:35:05,312 --> 00:35:06,942 But inside Stonehenge, 673 00:35:07,063 --> 00:35:09,193 we have these bluestones. 674 00:35:09,316 --> 00:35:11,396 They’re called bluestones because they do 675 00:35:11,526 --> 00:35:13,646 have a kind of a bluey-greeny color to them 676 00:35:13,820 --> 00:35:17,450 and they also have white spots inside them. 677 00:35:17,574 --> 00:35:20,034 We’ve got a number of strands of evidence which support the idea 678 00:35:20,118 --> 00:35:21,738 that these stones were being used for healing. 679 00:35:21,870 --> 00:35:25,540 One of them is that we know from scientific studies 680 00:35:25,665 --> 00:35:28,245 that those stones come from Southwest Wales, 681 00:35:28,376 --> 00:35:30,166 in what we know as the Preseli Hills. 682 00:35:30,295 --> 00:35:34,975 It’s about 140 miles or so as the crow flies from Stonehenge. 683 00:35:35,091 --> 00:35:36,761 The stones in the Preseli Hills 684 00:35:36,885 --> 00:35:39,895 must have been considered special in some way. 685 00:35:40,013 --> 00:35:42,643 Because we can trace back through folklore accounts 686 00:35:42,766 --> 00:35:45,846 of people using water in association with the stones 687 00:35:46,019 --> 00:35:48,059 to help promote healing. 688 00:35:48,188 --> 00:35:50,818 And so Stonehenge was a place of healing, I’m sure. 689 00:35:50,982 --> 00:35:53,572 We shouldn’t, though, compare it to a modern hospital. 690 00:35:53,693 --> 00:35:54,993 Because medical science back then 691 00:35:55,111 --> 00:35:56,651 was much more to do with belief. 692 00:35:56,821 --> 00:35:58,161 It was much more to do with faith. 693 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:01,409 Stonehenge was all about using belief, 694 00:36:01,534 --> 00:36:03,954 using the power of the bluestones 695 00:36:04,037 --> 00:36:08,667 as the means by which health care was dished out, as it were. 696 00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:12,383 SHATNER: For some, the idea that ancient people 697 00:36:12,504 --> 00:36:14,884 constructed a massive stone monument 698 00:36:15,006 --> 00:36:18,966 for mystical healing purposes may sound far-fetched. 699 00:36:19,094 --> 00:36:21,054 But the profound truth is that, 700 00:36:21,221 --> 00:36:23,061 for thousands of years, 701 00:36:23,223 --> 00:36:26,233 human beings have journeyed far and wide 702 00:36:26,351 --> 00:36:28,521 in search of miracle cures, 703 00:36:28,645 --> 00:36:33,025 and millions of people continue to do so today. 704 00:36:33,983 --> 00:36:36,243 If you want to make sense of Stonehenge 705 00:36:36,319 --> 00:36:40,569 as a healing place, think of Lourdes in France, 706 00:36:40,740 --> 00:36:44,870 where people still come even today 707 00:36:44,994 --> 00:36:48,214 looking for a cure from the Virgin Mary. 708 00:36:48,331 --> 00:36:50,831 Now, you imagine in the Bronze Age, 709 00:36:50,917 --> 00:36:54,497 you would come to Stonehenge to touch the stones, 710 00:36:54,629 --> 00:36:56,259 to say a prayer. 711 00:36:56,423 --> 00:36:59,013 It was the last hope 712 00:36:59,134 --> 00:37:00,934 that they can cure whatever ailment it is 713 00:37:01,052 --> 00:37:02,762 that’s killing them. 714 00:37:03,847 --> 00:37:06,967 McGOWAN: These ancient cultures, particularly in Britain, 715 00:37:07,142 --> 00:37:09,732 were immersed in the traditions 716 00:37:09,853 --> 00:37:12,233 of believing in the power of nature. 717 00:37:12,355 --> 00:37:17,185 And certainly something as majestic as these stones 718 00:37:17,277 --> 00:37:19,277 would be something that could have an energy 719 00:37:19,404 --> 00:37:21,204 that could potentially help them. 720 00:37:22,741 --> 00:37:26,161 SHATNER: It’s fascinating to think that 5,000 years ago 721 00:37:26,286 --> 00:37:28,286 the ancient people of Britain 722 00:37:28,413 --> 00:37:31,213 may have gone to Stonehenge as a last resort 723 00:37:31,332 --> 00:37:34,632 to heal afflictions they didn’t understand. 724 00:37:34,753 --> 00:37:38,843 And curiously, there’s a bizarre malady 725 00:37:38,965 --> 00:37:41,045 occurring in Portugal 726 00:37:41,176 --> 00:37:45,346 that even modern scientists can’t comprehend. 727 00:37:45,472 --> 00:37:49,482 Only, this condition doesn’t harm the living, 728 00:37:49,559 --> 00:37:53,099 but rather the dead. 729 00:38:00,278 --> 00:38:02,198 SHATNER: While there are many bizarre afflictions 730 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:06,200 which attack the living that are utterly confounding, 731 00:38:06,326 --> 00:38:10,616 surprisingly, in this historic and picturesque city, 732 00:38:10,747 --> 00:38:13,537 the same can also be said 733 00:38:13,666 --> 00:38:15,576 for the deceased. 734 00:38:17,629 --> 00:38:19,169 There’s a law in Portugal 735 00:38:19,297 --> 00:38:20,877 that people who are buried 736 00:38:21,007 --> 00:38:25,337 must essentially be exhumed after a few years, 737 00:38:25,470 --> 00:38:28,600 when they’ve decomposed, and whatever remains 738 00:38:28,681 --> 00:38:30,731 is crushed down into a box 739 00:38:30,850 --> 00:38:32,850 and then placed into a wall. 740 00:38:32,977 --> 00:38:34,727 The reason for that 741 00:38:34,854 --> 00:38:37,324 is that there’s a shortage of space 742 00:38:37,398 --> 00:38:39,728 in cemeteries in Portugal. 743 00:38:39,901 --> 00:38:41,361 Here’s the weird thing: 744 00:38:41,486 --> 00:38:45,566 half the bodies brought up have not decomposed. 745 00:38:45,740 --> 00:38:49,080 Uh, many of them have, in effect, come up mummified. 746 00:38:50,119 --> 00:38:53,999 Now, that’s odd because Portugal is a fairly warm, hot country. 747 00:38:54,082 --> 00:38:58,002 You’d expect bodies to decompose faster. 748 00:38:58,127 --> 00:39:02,507 So why the bodies are remaining mummified 749 00:39:02,632 --> 00:39:06,892 and refusing to decompose is something of a mystery. 750 00:39:09,222 --> 00:39:12,102 SHATNER: What could possibly cause so many dead bodies 751 00:39:12,225 --> 00:39:14,145 to be turned into mummies? 752 00:39:14,269 --> 00:39:17,189 It’s a disturbing conundrum, 753 00:39:17,313 --> 00:39:21,073 and, in fact, this phenomenon isn’t limited to Lisbon. 754 00:39:21,192 --> 00:39:24,952 Throughout Portugal, families are unfortunately 755 00:39:25,071 --> 00:39:29,161 discovering that the remains of their loved ones are being... 756 00:39:29,242 --> 00:39:32,542 abnormally preserved. 757 00:39:32,704 --> 00:39:36,004 The fact that bodies are not decomposing 758 00:39:36,124 --> 00:39:38,634 in Portugal is distressing for the people 759 00:39:38,751 --> 00:39:40,421 who are having to dig them up 760 00:39:40,545 --> 00:39:42,055 and then answer the question, 761 00:39:42,171 --> 00:39:43,711 "Well, now what do we do with them?" 762 00:39:43,798 --> 00:39:46,628 If you can’t crush them up and put them in a box, 763 00:39:46,718 --> 00:39:49,048 because they refuse to decompose, what do you do? 764 00:39:49,220 --> 00:39:51,060 Put them back in the ground again? 765 00:39:51,222 --> 00:39:55,392 So this really is a hugely traumatic event 766 00:39:55,518 --> 00:39:59,648 for families who’d lost sons, fathers, mothers, and daughters. 767 00:39:59,772 --> 00:40:02,072 SHATNER: For now, the people of Portugal 768 00:40:02,191 --> 00:40:04,611 continue to worry about the remains 769 00:40:04,736 --> 00:40:06,896 of their dearly departed. 770 00:40:08,323 --> 00:40:11,333 But if history is any indication, 771 00:40:11,451 --> 00:40:14,751 human beings will keep looking upon bizarre afflictions 772 00:40:14,871 --> 00:40:18,291 with both fascination and dread, 773 00:40:18,416 --> 00:40:20,626 as we have for centuries. 774 00:40:21,878 --> 00:40:23,708 PICKNETT: In the 19th century, 775 00:40:23,838 --> 00:40:26,838 millions of people flocked to freak shows 776 00:40:26,966 --> 00:40:31,256 to ogle people with all sorts of bizarre afflictions. 777 00:40:31,387 --> 00:40:34,177 And I think the same mentality is still there 778 00:40:34,307 --> 00:40:36,597 in human beings to some extent. 779 00:40:36,726 --> 00:40:40,436 We think, "How can these people possibly live 780 00:40:40,521 --> 00:40:43,361 with these extraordinary things wrong with them? 781 00:40:43,483 --> 00:40:46,823 How can they bear it?" 782 00:40:46,945 --> 00:40:49,285 And then most of all, we think, 783 00:40:49,405 --> 00:40:51,905 "Awfully glad it’s not us." 784 00:40:53,701 --> 00:40:56,291 HOROWITZ: There’s a mixture of fear and titillation 785 00:40:56,412 --> 00:40:59,542 around our fascination with bizarre ailments. 786 00:40:59,666 --> 00:41:02,496 We’re worried about what might happen to us 787 00:41:02,627 --> 00:41:04,037 and at the same time we’re relieved 788 00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:06,050 that it hasn’t or hasn’t yet. 789 00:41:07,048 --> 00:41:10,628 So we like to dip our toe into circumstances 790 00:41:10,718 --> 00:41:14,308 that remind us of our mortality, 791 00:41:14,430 --> 00:41:16,640 of our fragility, 792 00:41:16,766 --> 00:41:20,186 of what could happen to us but hasn’t. 793 00:41:23,064 --> 00:41:25,324 Perhaps what’s so unsettling 794 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,150 about strange tales of torment 795 00:41:28,277 --> 00:41:31,447 is that it’s unclear how, when, or why 796 00:41:31,572 --> 00:41:34,492 inexplicable afflictions strike. 797 00:41:34,617 --> 00:41:38,907 From harrowing accounts of stigmata 798 00:41:39,038 --> 00:41:41,828 to the disturbing dance of death, 799 00:41:41,958 --> 00:41:44,038 these maladies serve as a chilling reminder 800 00:41:44,168 --> 00:41:46,998 that we could be vulnerable 801 00:41:47,130 --> 00:41:49,590 to enigmatic and harmful forces 802 00:41:49,716 --> 00:41:52,086 that we don’t fully understand. 803 00:41:52,260 --> 00:41:53,930 And at any moment, 804 00:41:54,053 --> 00:41:57,433 we might fall victim to troubling conditions 805 00:41:57,557 --> 00:42:01,137 that remain... unexplained. 806 00:42:01,269 --> 00:42:03,899 CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS