- Tonight, on "The Proof Is Out There",
a worm shaped UFO in the sky.
- The way this thing spins around in the sky
is unlike any aircraft I've ever heard of.
- [Tony] It's no fluke, but is this lake monster
the world's biggest goldfish?
- You've heard of big fish in small ponds.
Well, this is it.
- [Tony] Strange subterranean sounds in an ancient city.
- [Erin] Maybe someone is digging
secret underground tunnels.
- [Tony] And does this mysterious inscription
point the way to one of the holiest relics in history?
- The theory goes that the Shugborough Hall inscription
leads to the location of that lost treasure.
(dramatic music)
- [Tony] Around the globe are videos.
- [Witness] What are those things?
- [Witness] It's moving.
- [Tony] Photos and sounds that defy explanation.
(static buzzing)
- [Kathy] We don't know where they come from,
who made them, or how they operate.
- [Tony] What are they?
- [MJ] Some sort of bizarre mutation.
- [Marc] What's exciting is nobody really knows.
- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.
- I'm Tony Harris and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,
I've followed the facts where they take me.
Now, I'm bringing that spirit of investigation
to the world's strangest sounds and images.
We'll analyze each one with top experts.
- It's a credible case, it's a credible video.
- [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is.
- This video was clearly faked.
- The proof starts now.
(dramatic music)
Good evening and welcome to "The Proof Is Out There."
Everyone knows how much I love our fans,
so when one of them tweeted me a video of a UFO
that interrupted their shopping trip,
let's just say it really wormed its way into my heart.
Take a look.
February 2022, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"Proof" viewer Bruce Lanni is picking up his son
to go to the hardware store.
Their outing gets put on hold when Bruce spots
a long, dark shape hovering high in the sky above them.
- We looked up in the sky and all of a sudden
we saw this kind of anomalous feature
and didn't know really what it is.
- [Tony] Look closer. As Bruce starts filming,
his son Christian provides the color commentary.
- I mean, it took us back,
because at first it was horizontal,
then it turned vertical.
- [Bruce] And it looked between 40 and 60 feet long.
- It was definitely not anything that I have ever seen.
- [Tony] Bruce was quick to reach out to us on Twitter
because as a fan of the show,
he believes there's something else up there.
- Actually, I'm a pretty firm believer in that,
because even if you go back throughout history,
you can see two, three, 4,000 years ago
depictions of objects in the sky that can't be explained.
- [Tony] As author Amy Teitel points out,
almost every ancient culture has tales
of strange, worm-like, flying objects.
- There are a lot of myths in different cultures
concerning worm-like beings,
although sometimes they're more serpents or dragons
that can move through the sky.
- [Tony] UFO investigators wonder if these legends
are how the ancients described UFOs.
In 1561, observers in Nuremberg, Germany,
described an assortment of these objects.
Orbs, crosses, rods, and malleable strips.
At the time, it was interpreted as a sign from God,
but it's been speculated the objects may have been engaged
in some kind of extraterrestrial battle.
In our modern era, when people spot sky worms
or other UAPs, they don't just pray,
they often call the cops.
- [Amy] In April 2022 above Lazy Mountain in Alaska,
there was a sighting of a worm-like object in the sky.
And there were enough eyewitnesses
that police were dispatched to the area
to see whether it was a UFO or a downed plane.
- [Tony] After finding no wreckage,
state officials blamed the phenomenon on the contrail
from a New York bound jetliner.
But this strange object
doesn't appear to have anything to do with a plane.
- The way this thing spins around in the sky
is unlike any aircraft I've ever heard of.
- Let's take a closer look
at that sudden rotation of the object.
It's this counterclockwise motion happening right here
that is really intriguing to us.
If we time it, that's about a 180 degree turn
in less than 10 seconds.
So what kind of estimated 40 to 60 foot craft
could make that speedy move?
Let's see what our experts think.
(tense music)
Aviation analyst Tim McMillan agrees,
there's something strange on Bruce's video.
- It's certainly odd.
It doesn't readily resemble an aircraft, a helicopter,
or any type of object that you would typically see
traveling through the sky
and there's no distinguishable pattern to its flight path.
- [Tony] What McMillan doesn't see is evidence
of any of the dazzling, possibly alien tech
documented in other UFO sightings.
- [Tim] You don't see any extreme speeds
and then right angled turns,
you know, instantaneous acceleration,
abrupt deceleration.
We don't see any of that.
It moves very consistently with something
that is either achieving lift,
or being propelled solely on wind motion.
- [Tony] If the object isn't controlled by aliens in space,
is it possible it's controlled by a human holding a string?
- Whatever this object is, it has a definite orientation
it wants to maintain towards the ground,
so which would suggest there's something
holding it down or a payload that's keeping it that way.
So that would certainly be consistent with a kite.
- If the apparent size of Blake's object
makes the kite theory sound farfetched, consider this.
The world's largest kite
flown in the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar
stretches over 200 feet.
That's large enough to potentially lift
the kite flyer into the air.
- [Tim] You certainly could have a kite
that would be oddly shaped like this,
or perhaps a more conventional kite that has a long tail
that's giving us this appearance.
- [Tony] Video effects designer and astronomer Marc D'Antonio
agrees with many of McMillan's observations,
but he does not agree with the kite theory.
- This could very well be a solar balloon.
Those are long and thin and black like we see here.
And because they're black
and they're absorbing the sun's radiation,
the air inside tends to get warm and it will start rising,
the same principle as a hot air balloon.
And so what people do with these solar balloons
is they hold them out lengthwise,
they let the sun heat it up,
and eventually when it stands up, you kind of push it
a little bit into the air and off it goes up into the sky.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, solar balloon,
or as Blake's son Christian would put it,
"A bleeping solar balloon."
The color, shape, and way it moves seems pretty conclusive.
Now, solar balloons can be dangerous to other aircraft,
so always follow the FAA's guidelines
if you plan to release one.
The goldfish is known and beloved as a common first pet.
Though they often don't live long without proper care
and the right living conditions.
But the creature you're about to see didn't just
outlive the average goldfish, it outgrew them big time.
We're not just gonna need a bigger fishbowl here,
we're gonna need a bigger lake.
It's November of 2022 in Putteville, France.
A man from the UK is fishing at Blue Water Lakes
in the Champagne region.
Fishery manager Jason Cowler is there
when he gets a big bite.
- Hey!
It was amazing, it was mind blowing.
I kept calling it the carrot, it looks like a big carrot.
- [Tony] One of the largest goldfish on record,
found in South Carolina, weighs in at nine pounds,
so this would be more than seven times the size.
- She's probably one of the biggest ones
of her color and size out there.
It is just one of those things, freak of nature.
Yeah, it is quite exciting.
- [Tony] Though we think of goldfish as
small, everyday pets,
bigger versions have been bred throughout East Asia
since around the 9th or 10th century.
And field researcher Ken Gerhard
says the largest specimens became objects of wonder.
- One legend in fact stated
that they were a gift from the gods
and because of this remarkable gold color,
they were often viewed as a sign
of prosperity and great wealth.
- [Tony] Mutant goldfish with unusual characteristics
were so prized that they weren't killed
or eaten when they were caught,
but were instead shown mercy.
- Ancient Buddhist monks would introduce goldfish
into mercy ponds and this was viewed as a good deed
or an act of self purification, called fang sheng.
- [Tony] So while this may not be an act of mercy,
could it be an instance where a pet goldfish was released
into the wild when it outgrew its owner's expectations?
In South Florida, the non-native Burmese python
has become an invasive species ever since pet owners
began releasing them when they got too big.
In fact, in July 2023, a record 19 foot long snake,
that's as long as a giraffe is tall,
was captured in Big Cyprus National Preserve.
But yet another theory is that this giant fish
could be a product of human manipulation.
Consider this. In 2015,
the FDA approved a brand new manmade species of fish
called the AquAdvantage Salmon.
- [Ken] These salmon are genetically engineered
and this is done by introducing super, hyper proteins
into their genetic code.
And the AquaAdvantage Salmon are said to grow twice as fast
as standard farm fed salmon.
So it's not impossible that we could be dealing
with a similar situation here,
where this fish has been exposed
to some type of genetic manipulation.
- Researchers have been able to increase the size
of various fish by transferring a growth hormone gene
from one species to another.
For example, a mud loach developed in Korea
is able to grow 35 times faster than normal.
So what's up with the carrot?
Let's turn to our experts
to filet down this overgrown fish tail.
(tense music)
First forensic video analyst Michael Primeau
determines if this fish story is too good to be true,
despite the digital evidence.
- A high degree of sophistication would be needed
to fabricate these images to recreate
the translucence of this object in the water,
as well as the shadow.
You see the shadow of the individual that's holding it
and as the water changes position as the fish enters,
characteristically, this would be incredibly difficult
to fake, so these images are real.
- [Tony] Marine biologist Dr. Shea Steingass
says released goldfish can be pretty large,
because it's the size of their tank
that limits how big they can get as pets.
They'll keep growing in the wild as long
as they have the right water temperature
and enough food and space.
But Steingass still isn't sure this fish
is a goldfish at all,
because it has other traits that are uncharacteristic.
- Its dorsal fins extend all the way down its back,
whereas goldfish don't really have this feature.
And you see that it has a little feature on its mouth
that looks a little bit like an antenna,
and that's called a barbel.
If this were just a large goldfish, we wouldn't actually
see that particular organ, so we can narrow down
that this is in fact a carp.
- [Tony] The carrot may not be a genetically engineered mutant,
but Steingass says this is a selectively bred hybrid.
- This is actually a hybrid of a leather carp and a koi carp
and both of these species are bred selectively,
and in some cases, koi can sell
for over a million dollars per fish.
- [Tony] Once we tracked down Jason, the fishery manager,
he explained that the fish are stocked
and fed in the pond where the carrot comes from.
So she's been able to grow this large
thanks to the absence of any natural predators.
(tense music)
Our verdict, we're going to say this massive fish
is the product of selective breeding.
It's a hybrid carp rather than an oversized goldfish.
As for whether she has spiritual properties
as the ninth century Chinese monks believed,
we can only say that
the fishermen who caught this mega fish
had enough reverence for her to let her live another day.
(dramatic music)
- The city of Thessaloniki in Greece is more than a town
full of beautiful old buildings and colorful sunsets.
The city also has secret sites, underground networks,
and more than its fair share of allegedly haunted locations.
Did any of that cause the nightly disturbances
that terrified its citizens for over a month?
It's after midnight in early December 2021
and the residents of the Meteora Polichni area
in Thessaloniki, Greece are awakened
by a strange and booming noise.
(rhythmic deep thumping) - (speaking Greek)
(dog barking)
- [Tony] Take a listen to that sound again.
(rhythmic deep thumping)
Residents have described it as deafening and otherworldly
and it can be heard from over a mile away
as it makes the ground shake and tremble.
- (speaking Greek) (rhythmic deep thumping)
- [Tony] Representatives from the Thessaloniki
Water Supply Authority quickly said
the sounds weren't emanating from any sewer system.
Journalist Erin McCarthy says
that's when the citizens began to speculate.
- There are a lot of theories
as to what these sounds could be.
Some have suggested that maybe someone is digging
secret underground tunnels.
- [Tony] You see, 16.5 feet below street level
are the catacombs of St. John,
a vast array of underground tunnels
that many believe are only part
of a huge hidden subterranean network
that's still being extended.
Then, there's the supernatural theory.
McCarthy says that Thessaloniki
is frequently called the City Of Ghosts,
known for its many allegedly haunted locations.
- Some have even wondered,
could this be a ghostly, tortured spirit?
The area actually became one of the most visited spots
for paranormal enthusiasts.
- [Tony] There may be no bigger draw for ghost hunters
than the legendary Longos Mansion,
also known as the Red House.
- It's a huge mansion that was built in 1926
for local industrialist Ioannis Longos.
Almost immediately, really weird things
started happening at the Red House.
Part of the building was destroyed in a fire
and there were reports of paranormal activity.
- [Tony] Many residents have reported strange sounds
and noises from the Red House.
Rumors even spread that it was housing a crypt of vampires.
Perhaps that's the origin of these strange sounds,
or perhaps there's a simple seismological explanation.
- Others have suggested that maybe it's an earthquake.
- So, strange noises in an ancient Greek city.
We've got ghosts, earthquakes,
and secret tunneling as competing theories.
To find out what's really responsible for all the ruckus,
we need our experts to sound off.
(tense music)
First up, geologist Dr. Bob Anderson
considers the seismic theory.
(rhythmic deep thumping)
- Well, the most common sounds that you would get in nature
would be earthquakes or faults or something breaking,
but those kinds of sounds that you hear,
it's very short lived, very quick.
(rhythmic deep thumping) (people speaking Greek)
- This sound is very rhythmic, it's very constant.
It doesn't actually vary very much at all,
which leads me to believe that it's some machinery
down below, whether they are digging tunnels,
or running pipe, or whether there is a power station
or something nearby.
- [Tony] Forensic Audio Analyst, Dr. Rob Maher,
agrees with Anderson that the noises
seem to be mechanical in nature.
- When we look at the time waveform
and the spectrogram for the sound...
(rhythmic deep thumping)
The time between the different sounds varies a little bit,
but they have that relatively rhythmic quality to them.
The fact that they're relatively loud and low frequency
indicates to me there's some mechanical aspect to this.
- [Tony] But what's making the mechanical pounding?
Troubled ghosts, secret excavators?
Maher has his own theory.
- One of the sources of a rhythmic sound like this
could be a plumbing phenomenon known as a water hammer.
(water hammer thumping)
Anyone who might have steam radiators
is familiar with this "whump" sound that happens
due to the flow of those liquids
in the thermal system of the pipe.
- [Tony] When a valve of running water is quickly closed,
the stream slams into the valve
at nearly eight times the pressure,
creating a shock wave through the pipes
that makes the water hammer sound.
And the bigger the pipes, the bigger the sound.
- So that type of sound is what we're hearing here,
but on a much larger scale.
- [Tony] He puts the theory to the test
when he runs a comparative analysis
of the Thessaloniki mystery sounds
and the sounds made
by a residential water hammer in action.
- When we look at this recording of a water hammer
situation in a residence...
(water hammer thumping)
We can see that there is a lot of energy
in this low frequency range down around 100 hertz.
So that mechanical source of the sound is very similar.
(rhythmic deep thumping)
(water hammer thumping)
The characteristics of the frequency range
and the repetition are both consistent
between those two types of sounds.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, water hammer.
Incidentally, we did some more digging
and it turns out that even though representatives
from Thessaloniki Water Supply originally denied
the noise was coming from them,
the president of the Water Authority
later made an announcement that the sound
was coming from routine tuning of the water supply.
So for now, let's just call this water under the bridge.
(dramatic music)
- The imagery of the creature from the "Black Lagoon"
has captivated our imaginations for almost 75 years.
But what if I told you there was a real creature
from a mud lagoon?
August 8th, 2017, north Queensland, Australia.
David White, who runs cruises
in the Daintree River Wildlife Preserve,
is hoping to capture footage of a crocodile
he had spotted earlier in the day,
but instead, he captures something much more disturbing.
A tide pool sits undisturbed,
something sticks out of the water.
Still, it could almost be a rock,
but then, slowly, it begins to descend
straight down into the pool.
It goes down, down, down,
until eventually it sinks under the surface
and out of view, leaving only a tiny bubble in its wake.
Is this a creature, a rock, or something else entirely?
Field researcher Ken Gerhard believes
we could be looking at a famed monstrosity
from the land down under.
- When I think of Australia, I think of the bunyip.
Like many legendary creatures,
the bunyip has various interpretations,
but the most common one is that it is an aquatic creature,
covered in hair with a head like a dog,
very large and powerful.
And the Aboriginal people greatly fear the bunyip
because it's said to come onto the land at night,
and drag its unwilling victims back into the swamp.
- [Tony] Bunyip sightings were reported
in Australia newspapers throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries, dating as far back as 1851,
where it was reported
that a bunyip had killed an Aboriginal man
and had to be speared to death.
- Being that the bunyip legend
is so prevalent throughout Australia,
I think we have to stop and consider the possibility
that what we could be looking at here
might be at the root of this bunyip mythology.
- So the theory suggests that this is in fact
some kind of living thing.
Is it possibly a new discovery?
Australian taxonomists name an average of 1,000 new species
each year, and its estimated that two thirds
of the continent's total species remain undocumented.
Let's see what our experts can discover.
(tense music)
Some have guessed that we're looking at the front tip
of an Indo-Pacific crocodile.
A species prevalent in this region,
but our marine biologist is skeptical.
- I can rule this out entirely as a crocodile,
because I don't see any of the body,
or head features of a crocodilian.
It's not behaving like a crocodile.
It's coming vertically up out of the water.
And we have a little bit of size reference here
when we see the bubble on the surface of the water,
which means whatever this is, it's actually pretty small.
And in addition to that, it actually has pretty smooth skin.
- [Tony] For those same reasons, both size and smoothness,
Steingass thinks this creature contradicts reports
of the legendary bunyip.
- I would probably rule out that this is a bunyip,
especially because the bunyip is said to hunt at night
and this footage was taken during the day.
- [Tony] Then what is it?
- Based on this video and looking at the environment,
I think this is actually a mudskipper.
- [Tony] The mudskipper is a fish
that can spend as much time in air as in the water.
It can grow up to 12 inches in length,
breathes through its skin,
and uses its fins like legs to walk.
But NASA geologist Bob Anderson
says that can't be, because the environment
is just too harsh for most known animals.
- The environment around it, it's very carbonaceous.
There's probably a lot of sulfate,
because the landscape is white, so it's very toxic.
It's not where a reptile, an alligator,
or anything would want to live
because there's no food source for them.
- [Tony] So does that rule out any living organism?
Not exactly.
- If you notice, there's a slight green tint
to the creature,
and so most likely that is a living organism.
That's what we call an algal mat.
- [Tony] An algal mat is a mat of algae
that may grow in water or on rocks in both toxic
and non-toxic environments,
which can balloon up and float to the surface while forming.
- [Bob] In a fish tank, you'll see algae build up
and if you have a pump in there,
you'll see that the algae literally starts to rise,
because the air bubbles get trapped underneath
to lift that mat into the air, release it,
and then the mat goes back down to the bottom.
- [Tony] Makes sense in theory,
but algal mats tend to look like, well, mats.
This thing has a completely different shape.
So what gives?
(tense music)
Our verdict, unknown organic specimen.
While our experts disagree on
what this mysterious mud creature is, they both concur
that it is in fact an organic life form of some sort.
Proving that even in the harshest of environments,
life finds a way.
(dramatic music)
- The relationship between space, time, and motion
is a complex matter.
Astrophysicists say many of these concepts
can be explained with Einstein's theory of relativity,
but this next clip seems to ignore all laws of physics.
It's January 2023 in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
A woman and her young daughter are driving down Lakeshore Road
when the mom sees something strange on the horizon.
A video that they record from their dashboard
shows a large white building straight ahead in the distance.
But check this out.
As they drive closer, all of the trees and houses
along the roadside stay the same size,
while the big building seems to shrink
right before our eyes.
- [Driver] It's getting smaller.
Why was that building so big?
- [Tony] Look, as the car gets even closer
and then rounds the bend in front of Lake Erie,
the mill structure gets so small it nearly disappears
below the top of the guardrail.
Journalist Erin McCarthy believes the real world is real,
but she can see why phenomena like this make people wonder.
- You would assume that the building would get bigger,
not smaller as we approach.
So there's definitely something very strange happening here.
- [Tony] The comment section on this video
is chock full of wild ideas.
Perhaps the most intriguing is that what we are seeing here
is a glitch in the matrix.
- There's a group called the Church of Simulation
and they believe that the entirety of reality
is a simulation that was created by super intelligent beings
and kicked off by the Big Bang.
(explosion booming)
- [Tony] The theory that we are living in a simulation
has gained traction in modern times,
thanks to Swedish philosopher, Nick Bostrom.
Bostrom has proposed that we have simulated
rather than biological minds, created by future advanced,
or perhaps even alien civilizations
who have access to large enough amounts of computing power
to run many detailed simulations.
- [Erin] This has led some people to suggest
that the building getting smaller
as we approach rather than larger
is a glitch in the simulation.
- So, could this strange, shrinking mill on Lakeshore Road
be evidence we're living in a computer simulation?
Is there something especially eerie about Lake Erie?
Let's let our experts take the wheel
and drive this one home.
(tense music)
We check in first with forensic video analyst
Michael Primeau, who runs some tests.
- Through analysis of the metadata.
We know that this is an original camera file,
thus we're able to authenticate the structure of this recording.
Furthermore, additional testing of the specific pixels
in this region did not report any significant changes
in that center area of the image.
- [Tony] So since this recording is the real deal,
could this clip be showing an imperfect simulation
that we're actually living in?
- The whole idea that physical reality itself
is an illusion created by a computer program
is so fantastic.
Think of what it would cost to maintain such a matrix.
Not just one person, but all of reality, all of space time.
All the universe would have to be simulated
in the memory of the matrix, not possible.
- [Tony] At least not possible given the current state
of our abilities, but give AI a million years
of exponential machine learning, and who knows?
Still, Kaku believes it's more likely
that what we're really seeing is not a glitch in the matrix,
but rather a glitch in our brains.
- Our brain automatically assumes
the observer is stationary, is constant,
and reality stems from that fact.
But if you are moving, then you begin to realize, no,
reality as you know it is distorted.
The trees fool you.
If you remove the trees by putting your fingers like this,
then everything is back to normal again.
You begin to realize that that object in the back
is getting larger, not smaller.
And this is nothing but an optical illusion.
- [Tony] Kaku says it has everything to do
with your ability to see the horizon line,
which, when first approaching the mill,
is obscured by the surrounding trees.
As one drives closer to the bay,
more of the surrounding horizon is revealed,
causing one's perception to constantly readjust
and give one the feeling that the mill is shrinking.
And Primeau confirms, the proof is in the pixels.
- When we highlight this area,
this pixel region of width and height on the image,
and travel using the same pixel region
to the end of the recording where the mill is more revealed,
there's less information around it from the landscape.
The box actually fits in a similar size
to what was captured originally at the beginning of the video.
So the optical illusion that the mill is shrinking
is from all of the information around the mill.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, this is a size contrast optical illusion.
The mind is tricked about how big the building is,
because of the comparative size of the objects
that surround it as the car moves closer.
(dramatic music)
- Since the days of King Arthur
and the Knights of the Round Table,
treasure hunters have been on a quest
to find the long lost Holy Grail,
but could a mysterious structure in England
hold the secrets to its hiding place?
See if you can crack this code.
2020, Staffordshire, England.
Historical researcher Andrew Baker
is visiting Shugborough Hall, a centuries old country house
with numerous neoclassical monuments,
but he's here to see just one.
Framed by a pair of columns sits an enigma carved in stone,
The Shepherd's Monument.
- The monument stands by the river
surrounded by trees and by dark shrubs.
So it's eerie and mysterious.
- [Tony] Footage of the marble relief
shows four people gathered around a tomb that reads
"Et In Arcadia Ego."
Below the carb scene is a stone plaque
bearing only the cryptic letters O-U-O-S-V-A-V-V,
flanked by a D and an M.
Andrew says its meaning
is one of the most enduring puzzles in England.
- The idea that there was something
in England that had a coded message on it
might be to do with secret societies treasurer,
who knows what?
It's as if it's been planted there for us to read today.
- [Tony] Historians believe the Shepherd's Monument
was commissioned by the estate's owner,
Thomas Anson, and that it was built sometime around the 1750s.
Beyond that, the details get murky.
- The theory goes that Thomas Anson's brother,
Royal Navy Admiral George Anson, circumnavigated the globe
collecting treasure that was hidden away somewhere.
And that the Shugborough Hall inscription
leads to the location of that lost treasure.
- [Tony] Yet some believe the inscription leads to treasure
even more precious than gold.
- Another theory goes that the Anson family
were members of an organization known as the Priory of Sion,
descendants of the Knight's Templar,
who were rumored to originally be charged
with protecting The Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail is said to be the cup
that was used to serve wine at the last supper,
and collected blood from Jesus during the crucifixion.
- [Tony] Or could the Holy Grail be something else?
According to legend, the Priory of Sion
claimed that Jesus Christ was an earthly,
not a heavenly king whose bloodline traced itself
to ancient France's Merovingian dynasty.
So some believe the Holy Grail is not actually a physical cup,
but rather the Priory's secret knowledge
that Jesus married Mary Magdalene
and had children with her.
One codebreaker has suggested the Shugborough inscription
stands for "Jesus, as deity defy,"
which has been linked to these controversial beliefs.
Many of these theories laid the groundwork
for Dan Brown's wildly popular "Da Vinci Code" franchise.
Professional scholars have dismissed
many of those claims is pseudo history,
but the idea of a secret society protecting a holy bloodline
retains a grip on popular culture.
So it's time to see if our experts
can chisel out the truth.
(tense music)
Archeologist Dr. Ed Barnhart begins with the theory
that George Anson collected treasures from around the world
and that the code is a way to find them.
- What George Anson collected in today's money
would be millions of dollars of wealth.
But if we look at the Shugborough Hall property,
and all of these amazing monuments,
it would appear that most of George's wealth
went into the estate itself.
- [Tony] If Anson spent the lion's share of his fortune,
which seems to be the case,
since his family fell out of prominence,
then maybe this isn't a literal treasure map,
but rather a clue to how the Ansons hid the truth
about the Holy Grail as members of the Priory of Sion.
Catholic miracle researcher Michael O'Neill
says the main problem with that theory
is this supposed secret society didn't actually exist.
- In the 1950s, a French man named Pierre Plantard
started this Priory of Sion
and he attempted to draw a connection
between that secret society and the Knights Templar.
Unfortunately, there was no such connection.
And then in 1993, we see a raid of the apartment of Plantard
where they find all these documentation
and letters between Plantard and his friends
talking about their intentions
to perpetrate this great hoax.
so ah the proof is in the puddin
- [Tony] So if the Priory of Sion
and its connection to the holy grail is completely made up,
then what does this inscription mean?
Barnhart thinks he's found a clue.
- The inscription itself is clearly the initials,
the first letters of a longer statement.
This D and this M are typically on Roman tombs,
and it means Dis Manibus,
which means dedicated to the venerated dead.
So this may be some sort of monument
dedicated to someone who's passed away.
(tense music)
- For us, many unanswered questions
about this inscription remain.
Our verdict is that it's a memorial dedication to someone,
though we're still not really sure who.
We may have to accept that the message
was meant to be kept private
and may stay that way forever.
(dramatic music)
- If a tree falls in a forest
and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Maybe not, but what about a hundred trees?
And what if they could have been knocked down
by a raging Bigfoot?
It's January 27th, 2018,
in Olympic National Park, Washington.
During the middle of the night,
seismic monitors pick up an event
that registers as a small earthquake.
In the morning, park rangers head out to the location
where the readings took place near Lake Quinalt.
And that's where they find this.
Toppled and snapped trees litter the landscape,
blocking the road and damaging utility lines.
Field researcher Cliff Barackman
says park rangers witnessed about 100 trees torn apart
over an area that extends nearly half a mile long.
- This example of one of the snapped trees is staggering.
It is a very large tree.
This trunk is probably four or five feet
in diameter, or more.
Many of these splinters are literally the size
of two by fours.
- [Tony] This tree fall quickly became a local mystery.
What could have caused such awesome damage?
Of course, weather is the most obvious explanation.
- Many believe if the circumstances here
point to some sort of weather pattern.
There are microcosms of unique weather patterns
that are very highly destructive.
- [Tony] Barackman notes that after these pictures
were released, speculation heated up on the internet
that this destruction was the work of a creature
believed to roam the area for centuries,
the Sasquatch.
- Sasquatches, like all other apes,
are known to break and twist trees.
Why would a Sasquatch be breaking trees?
Apes might break things to show how big and strong they are.
- [Tony] And a Bigfoot might show how big
and strong he is to protect his territory.
At least, that's how one story tells it.
In 1924, gold prospectors on Mount St. Helens
allegedly encountered a group
of seven foot tall, ape-like creatures.
They say they shot at the creatures, injuring one,
but that night, they say they paid for it.
The ape men descended on the prospectors' cabin.
throwing boulders and ripping holes in the roof
until daybreak.
So perhaps these territorial Bigfoots are back in action.
But by Barackman's own admission,
nobody has ever seen a bigfoot this angry.
- Something like this would be unheard of.
- Now, Olympic National Park is well known
for strange and paranormal occurrences.
Some say the area is haunted by the Lady of the Lake.
The spirit of a young woman whose oddly preserved body
was found floating in the park's Lake Crescent
three years after she disappeared.
Is what we're seeing here something supernatural,
or is there a more earthly explanation?
Let's see what our experts think.
(tense music)
Could this damage be the work
of one of America's most elusive creatures?
People are often drawn to the bigfoot theory.
And even though anthropology and anatomy professor
Jeff Meldrum is convinced Bigfoot exists,
he's just as convinced these photos
are not proof of the creature's handiwork.
- I do not think these trees were knocked down by Bigfoot.
You look at behavior of animals, they're very goal-oriented.
They don't have a surplus of calories to expend
on frivolous activities like pushing down trees,
even if they were capable of doing that.
Unless there was some motivation or some return,
I don't think attributing this
to Bigfoot activity would be reasonable at all.
- [Tony] Okay, so Dr. Meldrum says
we can rule out a Sasquatch,
but meteorologist Juan Hernandez says
the weather theory has its own challenges.
A microburst is typically accompanied
by heavy thunderstorms,
but radar from that day shows nothing of a kind.
- The storms were not there.
We had what we call stratiform rain that was ongoing.
- [Tony] Microbursts also scatter broken trees
in every direction, these trees fell in one direction.
- That is one of the reasons
that I believe this was not a microburst.
- [Tony] Of course, strong winds can knock down trees
even when there's no rain.
But Hernandez notes that the winds
were coming out of the south and the trees were knocked down
in the opposite direction, so what gives?
- Now, when we compare wind damage,
it could potentially be two different sources.
It could be straight line winds or it can be tornadic winds.
When we're looking for tornado damage, a lot of the trees,
oftentimes they fall in a criss-cross pattern.
Here, we don't have that,
they're all laying down in one direction.
- [Tony] The answer, one of those quirks of science
we love so much on this show.
- There are specific weather patterns
that oftentimes lead to something that is fairly common
in mountainous terrain, and that is rotor circulations.
- [Tony] A rotor circulation is a turbulent airflow pattern
that occurs near mountains or large topographic features.
As stable horizontal airflow encounters a mountain,
it is forced to ascend on the windward side
and descend on the leeward side.
The interaction between the descending air
and the updraft creates a turbulent region
known as the rotor, characterized by
rapidly changing winds and severe turbulence.
Hernandez says that's what knocked the trees down
and the force of those falling trees
was ultimately so powerful,
that's what registered on the park's seismic monitors.
- The conditions were ripe
for the occurrence of a rotor circulation.
We had a stable layer around the peak,
meaning the wind would come up the mountain
and quickly descend because of that stable layer on top.
That wind was allowed to rotate in a valley
where the damage occurred.
It does check all the boxes for conditions
that would promote the development
of a rotor circulation.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, rotor circulation.
Hernandez's analysis has us convinced
that we are looking at a weather event,
but we're still on the hunt
for that definitive evidence of Bigfoot.
So send us anything you have.
And that's our show for tonight, thank you so much for watching.
And as always, keep those cameras rolling.
(dramatic music)