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Legendary weapons reborn
in high-tech arsenals.

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And mythical technologies
rediscovered

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through cutting-edge science.

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For nearly two decades,

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Ancient Aliens
has traveled the globe,

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exploring towering
megalithic structures,

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mysterious artifacts

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and stories
of otherworldly beings

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in a quest for evidence
that might reveal the truth

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of our extraterrestrial origins.

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We're reinventing technology

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today that existed
in the ancient world.

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NARRATOR:
Now, we take a look back

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through
the Ancient Aliens archives

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to the show's very origins

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to examine the evidence
that we are not alone.

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We have never been alone.

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As an ancient
astronaut theorist,

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I find it fascinating

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how many ancient stories
of devices sound

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eerily similar

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-to modern-day technology.
-DAVID CHILDRESS: Yeah.

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You can find detailed
descriptions of flying machines,

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energy beam weapons

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and even acoustic
levitation technology.

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Yeah, so you have to ask,
are the technologies

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that we're developing today

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reinventions of what existed
on our planet

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thousands of years ago?

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We talked about this
in a season two episode

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of Ancient Aliens called
"Alien Tech."

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NARRATOR: In the early morning
hours of November 5, 2005,

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the luxury cruise ship,
the Seabourn Spirit,

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found itself under attack

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by pirates in the waters
off the coast of Somalia.

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But the Somali bandits
were successfully repelled

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by a relatively new

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and formidable
defensive weapon--

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a long-range
acoustic device or LRAD.

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Manufactured
by the LRAD Corporation,

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this sonic device can,

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when focused on a target,
produce a piercing sound

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that can exceed 150 decibels,

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enough to cause
temporary blindness, nausea

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and permanent hearing loss.

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CHILDRESS:
The U.S. Army used
sonic weapons in Iraq.

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They're used in crowd control.

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There are certain types
of low rumbles and signals

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that will affect a person.

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They make you feel sick.

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NARRATOR: The LRAD is currently
used by law enforcement,

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the military
and private security,

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and is considered the ultimate
in sonic weaponry.

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(high-pitched beeping)

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But is the LRAD really
a 21st-century invention?

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Or is there evidence that
similar audio weapons existed

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in ancient times?

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Approximately 17 miles northeast
of Jerusalem

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lies the ancient ruins
of the City of Jericho.

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Here, archaeologists
have uncovered evidence

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of settlements dating back
to 9000 BC.

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According to the Hebrew Bible,

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Jericho is believed
to be where God spoke to Joshua,

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the successor to Moses,

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and instructed him

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to march around the walled city
once every six days

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with seven priests
carrying ram's horns

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and followed
by the Ark of the Covenant--

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the golden chest
containing the Ten Commandments.

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Then, on the seventh day,
under orders by God,

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Joshua and the Israelites
marched around the perimeter

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of the city one last time...

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(ram's horn blowing)

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...but this time,
they blew the ram's horns.

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The walls of Jericho fell,

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and the city was sacked.

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DAVID WILCOCK:
In the Old Testament,

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you see very clear descriptions
in Joshua 6

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about the shofar,

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which is described as a trumpet

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that was used
in the Battle of Jericho

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to actually
bring the walls down.

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(shofar playing)

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NARRATOR:
To religious scholars,

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the collapse of Jericho's walls
was a miracle.

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To most modern-day scientists
and historians,

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the destruction
was most probably caused

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by an earthquake.

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But could it have been
something else?

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Could the Israelites
have possessed

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advanced sound wave technology?

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If so, where did it come from?

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JONATHAN YOUNG:
In the scriptures,

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we have a fascinating story

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about the fall
of the walls of Jericho.

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The armies were told
to circle the wall repeatedly,

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and then finally
blow their horns,

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and down came the walls.

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And we know
there was a powerful presence.

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The Ark of the Covenant,

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this mysterious, sacred item
was with them at all times,

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which, of course,
was part of the event

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and part of the fall
of the walls of Jericho.

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(shofar playing)

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CHILDRESS:
The idea that some kind
of sonic weapon was used

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to destroy these huge,
thick, ancient walls

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to allow the Israelites
to basically take over that city

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is a fascinating one.

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So what kind of technology
were they using?

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It sounds
utterly fantastic to us

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that they could've had some kind
of advanced alien technology.

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It's clearly
what they're describing.

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But there is little doubt

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that the Ark of the Covenant
was a weapon.

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It was described as a weapon,

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famously when the Israelites
crossed over into Canaan,

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and they had to pass by Jericho.

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And it could be
that there was some technology.

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We do not know
what that technology was,

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but there was clearly
an association between the ark

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and the falling down
of the walls,

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and that's the reason
that the ark was sent

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around the periphery
of the city.

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NARRATOR:
According to many
ancient astronaut theorists,

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Moses and the Israelites
acquired a supernatural source

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of energy at Mount Sinai.

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This powerful energy source
was later contained

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in the Ark of the Covenant

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and would have provided
the kind of power necessary

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to amplify Joshua's horns,

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and make them
into a powerful sonic weapon.

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WILCOCK:
What's interesting
about the Battle of Jericho is

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that this particular use
of the shofar

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clearly seems to be
the same thing that we're seeing

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with particle beam technology,

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death ray technology,
thunderbolt technology.

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It very clearly seems

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that once again we have
an extraterrestrial technology

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that the ancient people had
at the ready

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that they could use when needed
for military campaigns.

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NARRATOR:
But even if the Israelites
possessed some sort

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of advanced,
extraterrestrial technology,

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could the amplified sound

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of ram's horns really
bring down stone walls?

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According to scientist
and former astronaut

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Professor Taylor Wang,

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recent research into the field
of physical acoustics suggests

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it is a distinct possibility.

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Jericho, wall breaking apart.

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If you said it has happened,

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caused by acoustic,
caused by sound,

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well, the possibility has

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to be somehow a resonance
is built in that wall.

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May not be the whole wall, maybe
some of the structure material

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when that resonance happens,

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amplitude gets large enough.

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Yes, it could
destroy almost anything.

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Because what the resonance does

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is store enormous amount
of energy.

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So you keep on,
keep on feeding it.

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Eventually,
it shatters everything.

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MICHAEL DENNIN:
When you want to know
how powerful sound is,

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you have to realize
that the basic thing

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that sound is
is a pressure wave.

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And it will come down
to the amount of energy

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you put into your sound wave,
and whether or not

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that particular pressure wave
you generate will couple

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or impact the thing
you're trying to destroy.

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You can make it quite powerful

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'cause you can make
a very high amplitude,

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very large pressures
in the sound.

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It might be at a frequency
or amplitude

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where we no longer
hear it as sound,

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but from a physics point
of view, it is still sound

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because it's a pressure wave
in the air.

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So it can get quite destructive

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if you put enough energy
into it.

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You could also think of it
as a particle weapon

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because you're moving
air around,

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and you would just need
something to focus the sound,

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which we know how to do.

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And so that would give you a
directed energy beam with sound.

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NARRATOR:
But if,

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as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest,

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early civilizations
had been able

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to harness the power of sound
for destructive purposes,

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could there be evidence

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that such technology
might also have been used

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for a more constructive purpose?

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Might it help
to explain the existence

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of mammoth stone structures,

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whose construction has baffled
modern scientists for centuries?

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NARRATOR: Mycenae.

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In the second millennium BC,

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this ancient fortress city
dominated much

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of Southern Greece.

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Here, fortifications were built
in a style known

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as cyclopean masonry--

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where huge limestone boulders
were fitted tightly together

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without the use of mortar.

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The term "cyclopean" refers
to the fact

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that, according
to ancient myths,

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these Mycenaean fortifications
were thought to be the work

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of a strong, one-eyed race
of giants known as the Cyclops.

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PHILIP COPPENS:
When you look
at Mycenae in Greece,

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you're confronted with an
anomalous civilization really.

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It is a city which people
who looked at it said,

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"Only the Cyclops
could have built this."

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The Cyclops is perhaps
not by coincidence,

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a mythical creature.

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So, we really are confronted
with the fact

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that people are saying mankind
could not have built this.

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It has to have been something
above, or other than man,

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00:10:53,042 --> 00:10:54,625
who has constructed these walls.

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And when you look at the fact

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that tons and tons and tons
of stones have been used

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in a way that really
defies almost gravity.

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00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,833
And I think that's why
we have to say

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00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,792
that Mycenae is definitely
beyond human capability

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of that specific time

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and that specific period
in Greek history.

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TSOUKALOS:
In Mycenae, Greece,

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there is what's called
the Treasury of Atreus.

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And right in there,
there is one stone

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that has been hoisted over
the entrance of that treasury,

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and it weighs
an estimated 250 tons.

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It is perfect.
Just unbelievable.

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Now we would have difficulties

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00:11:42,500 --> 00:11:44,875
today moving that stuff around.

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Now, I'm not saying
that we today cannot do it.

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00:11:48,375 --> 00:11:52,792
I'm not saying that,
but if we're struggling

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with our modern technology,

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00:11:55,375 --> 00:11:58,542
is it really logical to suggest

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that our ancestors did this
with pivots,

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and with little ropes,
and with wooden rollers?

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MIKE BARA: You look
at all these ancient structures,

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all over the world.

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00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,542
Mayan structures,
pyramids, Greek temples.

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00:12:15,708 --> 00:12:17,250
You see all of these...
these blocks

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00:12:17,375 --> 00:12:18,625
that are not only enormous.

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It would be impossible
to move them around

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00:12:20,333 --> 00:12:23,250
with anything but even
our best technology today.

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CHILDRESS:
One of the great enigmas

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of the megalithic buildings

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00:12:27,750 --> 00:12:29,833
around the world is
that in many cases,

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00:12:29,958 --> 00:12:31,833
they're built with such large

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00:12:32,042 --> 00:12:35,583
and heavy granite
or basalt stones,

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00:12:35,750 --> 00:12:39,500
even giant cranes
would barely be useful

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00:12:39,708 --> 00:12:43,125
to lift some
of these really large stones.

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Such as the stones
at Baalbek in Lebanon,

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00:12:46,458 --> 00:12:50,833
where you have just
mind-bogglingly huge stones

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that weigh, in some cases,
over a thousand tons.

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NARRATOR:
But just how could
ancient man have built

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00:13:00,625 --> 00:13:03,125
such colossal structures?

255
00:13:03,292 --> 00:13:07,875
Were the stones really moved by
beings with superhuman strength?

256
00:13:10,083 --> 00:13:12,542
Or might the builders
have had access

257
00:13:12,708 --> 00:13:16,833
to an advanced,
perhaps alien technology?

258
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:21,583
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the key might be found

259
00:13:21,750 --> 00:13:23,667
not by studying
the laws of physics,

260
00:13:23,875 --> 00:13:27,417
but by exploring
the interdisciplinary science

261
00:13:27,583 --> 00:13:32,292
of acoustics and the principle
of acoustic levitation.

262
00:13:32,458 --> 00:13:35,083
VALONE:
Acoustic levitation
is another way

263
00:13:35,250 --> 00:13:39,167
that alien civilizations may
have influenced our history.

264
00:13:39,333 --> 00:13:42,333
And there is some evidence
for that,

265
00:13:42,542 --> 00:13:45,000
especially when you look
at some of the research

266
00:13:45,167 --> 00:13:47,708
that's been done
in acoustic levitation

267
00:13:47,875 --> 00:13:49,625
here in laboratories.

268
00:13:49,833 --> 00:13:52,542
(high-pitched tone sounding)

269
00:13:57,250 --> 00:14:01,667
WANG: This system is
an acoustic positioning device.

270
00:14:01,833 --> 00:14:03,042
And what happens inside,

271
00:14:03,208 --> 00:14:05,500
we create
an acoustic force field.

272
00:14:05,667 --> 00:14:09,625
The force field is pushing
everything toward the center.

273
00:14:09,792 --> 00:14:13,417
And the force field can rotate,
the force field can oscillate.

274
00:14:13,583 --> 00:14:15,500
This ball is
a fairly light material.

275
00:14:15,667 --> 00:14:18,333
It's about ten grams, no more.

276
00:14:18,542 --> 00:14:20,250
It's meant to be light.

277
00:14:20,375 --> 00:14:23,833
But if you want to move the very
heavy object, a large object,

278
00:14:24,042 --> 00:14:25,833
what you really have to develop,
in conjunction

279
00:14:26,042 --> 00:14:28,667
with the acoustic
positioning device,

280
00:14:28,792 --> 00:14:30,500
is antigravity device.

281
00:14:30,667 --> 00:14:33,250
Because
acoustic position device,

282
00:14:33,375 --> 00:14:36,750
really meant to fine-tuning
of the force field,

283
00:14:36,917 --> 00:14:39,917
but the system
must be force free.

284
00:14:40,042 --> 00:14:42,125
Otherwise, it won't be budged.

285
00:14:44,083 --> 00:14:47,792
NARRATOR:
But is it possible
that early builders had access

286
00:14:47,917 --> 00:14:49,833
to the kind
of acoustic technology

287
00:14:50,042 --> 00:14:52,875
that would allow
for the transportation

288
00:14:53,042 --> 00:14:56,167
and careful placement
of mega-ton boulders

289
00:14:56,333 --> 00:14:57,833
and stone blocks?

290
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,125
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe

291
00:15:01,250 --> 00:15:03,333
clues can be found in the myths

292
00:15:03,542 --> 00:15:07,208
and tales of magic
handed down throughout time.

293
00:15:07,375 --> 00:15:10,167
TSOUKALOS:
There are many ancient legends
which suggest

294
00:15:10,375 --> 00:15:12,625
that some
of the monuments were built

295
00:15:12,833 --> 00:15:15,208
with the help
of acoustic levitation.

296
00:15:16,208 --> 00:15:22,000
What the local legend
of Stonehenge talks about is

297
00:15:22,208 --> 00:15:25,625
that those big stones
were transported

298
00:15:25,792 --> 00:15:28,792
by way of levitation
by none other

299
00:15:28,875 --> 00:15:31,667
than Merlin, the wizard.

300
00:15:31,875 --> 00:15:35,542
And he had a magical rod
with which he pointed

301
00:15:35,708 --> 00:15:37,333
at the stones,

302
00:15:37,542 --> 00:15:41,833
and they would levitate
and position into place.

303
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,250
It's a very fascinating story
because we know

304
00:15:44,417 --> 00:15:47,125
that some of these stones
have been transported there

305
00:15:47,292 --> 00:15:51,167
from as far away as 200 miles.

306
00:15:51,292 --> 00:15:56,250
And ancient legends are a bridge

307
00:15:56,417 --> 00:16:01,458
to finding what truly happened
in our past.

308
00:16:02,625 --> 00:16:05,833
BARA:
There are lots of stories
of stones being levitated,

309
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,542
all using the power of sound.

310
00:16:07,708 --> 00:16:11,667
It's interesting as you read
these stories of magic,

311
00:16:11,792 --> 00:16:13,833
that you see that they have
to use the chanting.

312
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,542
They have to chant
certain spells, certain words.

313
00:16:16,708 --> 00:16:21,500
Certain vibrational frequencies
seem to create certain effects

314
00:16:21,625 --> 00:16:23,458
in the physical realm.

315
00:16:23,583 --> 00:16:26,583
To me, it makes complete sense
that the use of a technology,

316
00:16:26,750 --> 00:16:31,000
say, a magic wand of some kind,
would be some sort of amplifier.

317
00:16:34,167 --> 00:16:35,833
GEORGE NOORY:
I mean, there's no way

318
00:16:36,042 --> 00:16:38,875
that human beings,
even 100,000 of them,

319
00:16:39,042 --> 00:16:41,000
could pull these things.

320
00:16:41,208 --> 00:16:46,125
They've done experiments
by putting hands around blocks.

321
00:16:46,250 --> 00:16:48,167
You can't get enough hands
in there.

322
00:16:48,333 --> 00:16:51,167
You can't get 200,000 hands
to lift a block.

323
00:16:51,375 --> 00:16:53,667
And once you roll it
with all these people,

324
00:16:53,833 --> 00:16:55,417
how do you move it?

325
00:16:55,583 --> 00:17:01,292
I think the technology had
to do with some kind of sound,

326
00:17:01,458 --> 00:17:04,875
and they were able to just
come up with some antigravity

327
00:17:05,083 --> 00:17:07,125
and just move 'em into place.

328
00:17:08,125 --> 00:17:09,458
NARRATOR:
But did ancient aliens,

329
00:17:09,625 --> 00:17:13,500
using antigravity
and sonic levitation technology,

330
00:17:13,625 --> 00:17:18,208
help early humans build the
ancient wonders of the world?

331
00:17:18,375 --> 00:17:19,917
WANG:
Well, everything's possible.

332
00:17:20,083 --> 00:17:23,458
We have no way
to rule in, or rule out aliens

333
00:17:23,667 --> 00:17:27,583
because human technology is
very primitive at this stage.

334
00:17:27,708 --> 00:17:31,958
And you look at Earth has only
survived four billion years.

335
00:17:32,125 --> 00:17:33,500
But there are planets

336
00:17:33,667 --> 00:17:35,875
billions and billions
of years ahead of us.

337
00:17:36,042 --> 00:17:38,167
Their technology
and their knowledge--

338
00:17:38,375 --> 00:17:41,167
it can be so far ahead of us
that we can't even imagine.

339
00:17:44,542 --> 00:17:46,250
NARRATOR:
If early civilizations

340
00:17:46,417 --> 00:17:51,083
did possess the ability
to levitate large solid objects,

341
00:17:51,250 --> 00:17:53,000
might they also have had access

342
00:17:53,167 --> 00:17:55,833
to other
incredible technologies?

343
00:17:56,042 --> 00:17:59,458
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

344
00:17:59,667 --> 00:18:02,208
and suggest
the evidence can be found

345
00:18:02,375 --> 00:18:05,958
by examining a towering
megalithic structure built

346
00:18:06,125 --> 00:18:07,750
with extraordinary precision--

347
00:18:07,917 --> 00:18:11,042
the Great Pyramid of Giza.

348
00:18:16,667 --> 00:18:18,375
The megalithic structures
of the ancient world

349
00:18:18,375 --> 00:18:19,625
are astounding feats
of engineering.

350
00:18:19,792 --> 00:18:22,875
And many, like the Pyramids
of Giza, are not just enormous,

351
00:18:23,042 --> 00:18:25,958
but they're built
with incredible precision.

352
00:18:26,083 --> 00:18:27,542
Oh, absolutely,
and when you're talking

353
00:18:27,708 --> 00:18:31,250
about moving five-ton
stone blocks and stacking them

354
00:18:31,417 --> 00:18:33,167
hundreds of feet in the air,

355
00:18:33,333 --> 00:18:35,208
that doesn't
just require engineering,

356
00:18:35,375 --> 00:18:38,125
-but also technology.
-CHILDRESS: Yeah.

357
00:18:38,292 --> 00:18:39,583
And some researchers
have suggested

358
00:18:39,750 --> 00:18:41,125
that the pyramids themselves

359
00:18:41,250 --> 00:18:42,958
are technological devices.

360
00:18:43,125 --> 00:18:44,125
We talked about this
in the very first episode

361
00:18:44,292 --> 00:18:46,500
of Ancient Aliens.

362
00:18:48,542 --> 00:18:50,083
NARRATOR:
Of all the ancient structures

363
00:18:50,250 --> 00:18:52,667
located around the world,

364
00:18:52,875 --> 00:18:55,833
perhaps none is more mysterious
or as enduring

365
00:18:55,917 --> 00:18:57,875
as the Great Pyramid at Giza.

366
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,750
At a height of 471 feet,

367
00:19:03,917 --> 00:19:06,125
the Great Pyramid stood
as the tallest structure

368
00:19:06,292 --> 00:19:08,125
in the world
until the completion

369
00:19:08,292 --> 00:19:12,042
of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

370
00:19:12,250 --> 00:19:15,292
But while other pyramids
and temples contain walls filled

371
00:19:15,458 --> 00:19:17,917
with hieroglyphics
describing their purpose,

372
00:19:18,083 --> 00:19:21,208
the Great Pyramid lacks
even a single marking.

373
00:19:21,333 --> 00:19:24,333
What was its function?
Why was it built?

374
00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:28,167
And what secrets
remain hidden inside?

375
00:19:28,375 --> 00:19:29,875
Nobody has been able to explain

376
00:19:30,042 --> 00:19:31,750
the interior design
of this pyramid.

377
00:19:31,917 --> 00:19:34,167
It simply doesn't make sense
according to our logic.

378
00:19:34,292 --> 00:19:37,167
You have narrow tunnels
that you have to crouch.

379
00:19:37,333 --> 00:19:40,875
You emerge in grand galleries
that are nine meters high.

380
00:19:43,083 --> 00:19:45,083
You have chambers
that are made of granite,

381
00:19:45,250 --> 00:19:47,458
where granite doesn't
come from in the area.

382
00:19:47,625 --> 00:19:51,292
You have to ship the granite
by barges 600 miles away.

383
00:19:52,375 --> 00:19:55,000
TSOUKALOS:
It's an anonymous site.

384
00:19:55,208 --> 00:19:56,917
Not a single inscription.

385
00:19:57,042 --> 00:19:59,083
Not a single hieroglyph.

386
00:19:59,208 --> 00:20:01,125
Not a single anything.

387
00:20:01,250 --> 00:20:03,875
It's just there.

388
00:20:07,292 --> 00:20:09,708
DUNN:
Some people speculated
that it was a temple,

389
00:20:09,875 --> 00:20:12,583
and an initiation chamber,
where people would go

390
00:20:12,750 --> 00:20:15,667
to the King's Chamber
and become enlightened.

391
00:20:15,833 --> 00:20:17,708
There are anecdotal reports

392
00:20:17,833 --> 00:20:20,000
about people who have
been inside the pyramid

393
00:20:20,125 --> 00:20:22,000
and have come out
absolutely shaken,

394
00:20:22,125 --> 00:20:24,417
because it was haunted.

395
00:20:30,208 --> 00:20:32,417
Egyptologists believe
that the pyramids were built

396
00:20:32,542 --> 00:20:34,292
to bury the dead pharaoh.

397
00:20:35,542 --> 00:20:37,583
The problem with
the accepted view is the fact

398
00:20:37,750 --> 00:20:40,000
that not a single
dead pharaoh's body

399
00:20:40,167 --> 00:20:41,625
has been found inside a pyramid,

400
00:20:41,750 --> 00:20:44,250
even when the pyramid
was completely sealed,

401
00:20:44,375 --> 00:20:47,583
i.e., not a single grave robber
could've entered it.

402
00:20:49,250 --> 00:20:52,167
The Egyptologists say
it's to conceal the body.

403
00:20:52,292 --> 00:20:54,167
Well, why advertise it?

404
00:20:54,333 --> 00:20:55,667
I mean,
there's nothing more visible

405
00:20:55,875 --> 00:20:57,000
than a pyramid for miles.

406
00:21:01,167 --> 00:21:02,833
And to this day,
you would have thought,

407
00:21:03,042 --> 00:21:05,500
in this modern age,
with all the knowledge we have,

408
00:21:05,625 --> 00:21:07,417
we should be able
to explain this pyramid.

409
00:21:07,583 --> 00:21:09,542
We cannot explain this pyramid.

410
00:21:10,917 --> 00:21:13,500
NARRATOR:
Engineering expert
Christopher Dunn

411
00:21:13,583 --> 00:21:15,250
has been on a personal quest

412
00:21:15,417 --> 00:21:18,125
to unlock the secrets
of the Great Pyramid

413
00:21:18,292 --> 00:21:20,333
since the late 1970s.

414
00:21:20,542 --> 00:21:23,292
According to him,
there are specific clues

415
00:21:23,375 --> 00:21:26,500
in the design and construction
of this mega-monument

416
00:21:26,667 --> 00:21:30,250
that can help answer
exactly why it was built.

417
00:21:31,292 --> 00:21:33,208
DUNN:
When you look
at the Great Pyramid,

418
00:21:33,375 --> 00:21:35,292
and look at the culture
that built it,

419
00:21:35,458 --> 00:21:37,500
they're brilliant,
brilliant engineers.

420
00:21:37,708 --> 00:21:39,042
In fact, a lot of engineers say

421
00:21:39,208 --> 00:21:40,625
we couldn't build
the Great Pyramid today.

422
00:21:40,750 --> 00:21:43,708
And it was built, supposedly,
4,500 years ago,

423
00:21:43,875 --> 00:21:47,292
and it was built
to the precision of a machine.

424
00:21:48,750 --> 00:21:51,292
When I started
to do the research,

425
00:21:51,417 --> 00:21:54,333
and I examined the Great Pyramid

426
00:21:54,500 --> 00:21:57,500
with the eye of functionality,

427
00:21:57,625 --> 00:21:59,417
it was built like a machine,

428
00:21:59,542 --> 00:22:01,583
perhaps it functioned
like a machine.

429
00:22:03,458 --> 00:22:06,000
NARRATOR:
The interior design
of the Great Pyramid

430
00:22:06,125 --> 00:22:08,125
features four inclined
air shafts

431
00:22:08,250 --> 00:22:10,167
emanating
from the King's Chamber

432
00:22:10,292 --> 00:22:12,583
and the lower
Queen's Chamber.

433
00:22:12,750 --> 00:22:14,917
Like the Great Pyramid itself,

434
00:22:15,083 --> 00:22:19,417
their presence and purpose
cannot be easily explained.

435
00:22:19,625 --> 00:22:22,167
The difficulty of building
those shafts is incredible.

436
00:22:22,292 --> 00:22:24,167
It's a bit like
building a chimney

437
00:22:24,292 --> 00:22:25,833
at an incline across a house.

438
00:22:26,042 --> 00:22:27,750
I mean, as a construction
engineer, that is a nightmare.

439
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,792
NARRATOR:
In 2002, a team of engineers

440
00:22:31,958 --> 00:22:34,667
and Egyptologists sent
a small robot

441
00:22:34,875 --> 00:22:36,542
into one
of the air shafts connected

442
00:22:36,708 --> 00:22:38,500
to the Queen's Chamber.

443
00:22:38,625 --> 00:22:42,542
After 65 meters,
a stone door blocked its path.

444
00:22:42,708 --> 00:22:45,625
A hole was then drilled
through it.

445
00:22:45,792 --> 00:22:47,625
On the other side
was a small room

446
00:22:47,750 --> 00:22:51,750
with yet another door
leading further up the shaft.

447
00:22:53,417 --> 00:22:54,917
BAUVAL:
Since the discovery of the door,

448
00:22:55,042 --> 00:22:58,333
we've had every university,
archaeologists,

449
00:22:58,500 --> 00:23:00,667
anthropologists,
every engineer you can think of,

450
00:23:00,833 --> 00:23:04,125
nobody has been able to explain
the purpose of these shafts.

451
00:23:05,375 --> 00:23:07,458
NARRATOR:
But were these shafts ever open?

452
00:23:07,625 --> 00:23:09,208
And if they were,

453
00:23:09,417 --> 00:23:11,458
what might they have
been used for?

454
00:23:12,417 --> 00:23:13,667
DUNN:
The early explorers

455
00:23:13,750 --> 00:23:15,667
that went
into the Queen's Chamber found

456
00:23:15,833 --> 00:23:19,333
that the walls were coated
with a layer of salt.

457
00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:23,458
That kind of gelled
with a theory

458
00:23:23,625 --> 00:23:25,333
that I had developed.

459
00:23:25,542 --> 00:23:28,833
You had a dilute
hydrochloric acid solution

460
00:23:29,042 --> 00:23:30,500
coming down one shaft,

461
00:23:30,708 --> 00:23:35,000
and hydrated zinc
coming down the other shaft,

462
00:23:35,125 --> 00:23:37,833
and when they combined
in the Queen's Chamber,

463
00:23:38,042 --> 00:23:39,250
they created hydrogen.

464
00:23:39,417 --> 00:23:41,542
NARRATOR:
Hydrogen. It is one

465
00:23:41,708 --> 00:23:44,708
of the most powerful
energy sources in the universe.

466
00:23:44,875 --> 00:23:48,875
In the mid-19th century,
it was hydrogen gas

467
00:23:49,042 --> 00:23:51,667
that helped lift some
of mankind's first airships,

468
00:23:51,875 --> 00:23:54,292
called zeppelins, into the sky.

469
00:23:55,292 --> 00:23:59,750
Today, it is used as a fuel
to launch rockets into space.

470
00:24:00,750 --> 00:24:03,333
And if, thousands of years ago,

471
00:24:03,458 --> 00:24:06,667
the Great Pyramid
was actually producing hydrogen,

472
00:24:06,833 --> 00:24:09,000
that would make it one
of the earliest power plants

473
00:24:09,167 --> 00:24:11,083
known to man.

474
00:24:12,375 --> 00:24:13,958
DUNN:
The Giza power plant theory

475
00:24:14,125 --> 00:24:18,667
is essentially the drawing
of energy from the Earth

476
00:24:18,875 --> 00:24:20,750
through the Great Pyramid,

477
00:24:20,875 --> 00:24:25,542
and converting that energy
into microwave energy.

478
00:24:25,708 --> 00:24:28,000
So the chemicals
actually come in

479
00:24:28,125 --> 00:24:30,917
through the shafts
into the Queen's Chamber.

480
00:24:31,083 --> 00:24:34,833
And then they combine and mix,
and hydrogen boils off.

481
00:24:35,042 --> 00:24:37,000
The hydrogen is then
lighter than air,

482
00:24:37,208 --> 00:24:40,208
and it will flow
into all the upper chambers.

483
00:24:40,375 --> 00:24:42,792
The energy from the Earth

484
00:24:42,958 --> 00:24:46,417
is then vibrating
the whole pyramid.

485
00:24:46,542 --> 00:24:50,542
The vibrations are picked up
in the Grand Gallery.

486
00:24:50,708 --> 00:24:54,417
So I proposed the Grand Gallery
was a resonator hall,

487
00:24:54,583 --> 00:24:57,083
and there are 27 pair of slots

488
00:24:57,208 --> 00:25:00,833
that actually go up the length
of the gallery,

489
00:25:00,958 --> 00:25:04,500
and then the resonators were
mounted in there vertically.

490
00:25:04,708 --> 00:25:07,417
CHILDRESS:
Christopher Dunn is theorizing

491
00:25:07,625 --> 00:25:10,125
that with resonating galleries,

492
00:25:10,292 --> 00:25:14,667
the pyramid shot a microwave
out of one of the shafts.

493
00:25:14,833 --> 00:25:17,583
And once you started up
this power plant,

494
00:25:17,708 --> 00:25:19,708
it would've gone on

495
00:25:19,875 --> 00:25:22,417
for years, decades,
even hundreds of years

496
00:25:22,583 --> 00:25:24,875
without stopping,
and creating a microwave.

497
00:25:25,042 --> 00:25:28,375
And that was a usable energy
that could be captured.

498
00:25:29,375 --> 00:25:32,125
DUNN:
Now, we can speculate
where it goes from there.

499
00:25:32,292 --> 00:25:35,000
It could be collected
in the immediate vicinity,

500
00:25:35,208 --> 00:25:37,750
or it could keep
traveling off into space.

501
00:25:37,875 --> 00:25:40,875
We don't know.
That's the mystery.

502
00:25:42,292 --> 00:25:44,042
NARRATOR:
But if the Great Pyramid

503
00:25:44,208 --> 00:25:47,292
was actually a power plant
producing energy,

504
00:25:47,458 --> 00:25:49,583
was it doing it alone?

505
00:25:49,750 --> 00:25:53,833
Or was it part
of a larger network?

506
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,000
And are there any clues
that could tell us

507
00:25:56,167 --> 00:26:00,000
what all of that energy
was being used for?

508
00:26:05,375 --> 00:26:07,458
(buzzing)

509
00:26:07,625 --> 00:26:10,167
NARRATOR:
Perhaps the 20th century's

510
00:26:10,375 --> 00:26:13,500
most influential inventor
was a Serbian-American

511
00:26:13,625 --> 00:26:15,417
named Nikola Tesla.

512
00:26:15,583 --> 00:26:17,958
(crashing, buzzing)

513
00:26:18,125 --> 00:26:20,625
His patents on alternating
electrical currents

514
00:26:20,833 --> 00:26:22,833
and distribution
helped establish

515
00:26:23,042 --> 00:26:25,667
the commercial
electricity industry.

516
00:26:25,875 --> 00:26:30,167
He also made contributions
to robotics,

517
00:26:30,333 --> 00:26:33,208
radar and computer science.

518
00:26:36,958 --> 00:26:40,625
But while Tesla can be credited
for many scientific advances,

519
00:26:40,792 --> 00:26:43,042
one idea that fell short
was his attempt

520
00:26:43,250 --> 00:26:45,667
to create a wireless
electrical grid.

521
00:26:45,875 --> 00:26:47,667
CHILDRESS:
Tesla's project

522
00:26:47,833 --> 00:26:50,583
was to have these towers

523
00:26:50,708 --> 00:26:53,792
around the United States
and around the world.

524
00:26:54,750 --> 00:26:57,292
And they would broadcast
electricity,

525
00:26:57,375 --> 00:26:59,792
like a television station.

526
00:27:03,042 --> 00:27:04,542
ROBERT H. FRISBEE:
Instead of having

527
00:27:04,708 --> 00:27:07,167
to string power lines
all over the place,

528
00:27:07,292 --> 00:27:08,500
you just transmit the energy

529
00:27:08,708 --> 00:27:10,167
through the air,
or through the ground.

530
00:27:12,333 --> 00:27:14,292
(crackling)

531
00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:16,875
FRISBEE:
There were a number
of demonstrations

532
00:27:17,042 --> 00:27:19,708
of this device
for wireless power transmission

533
00:27:19,833 --> 00:27:21,625
during Tesla's lifetime.

534
00:27:21,750 --> 00:27:24,125
So, we know the device worked.

535
00:27:27,583 --> 00:27:31,125
It appears that he was
using the conductivity

536
00:27:31,292 --> 00:27:35,542
of the ground or the air
to carry the electric current.

537
00:27:35,708 --> 00:27:39,708
Basically, in the air,
if you put enough voltage on it,

538
00:27:39,917 --> 00:27:41,542
you'll get an arc across it.

539
00:27:41,708 --> 00:27:43,542
I mean, you see that
all the time

540
00:27:43,708 --> 00:27:46,000
in a fluorescent light bulb.

541
00:27:46,167 --> 00:27:48,750
In the ground, you have water,
minerals, salts

542
00:27:48,917 --> 00:27:51,125
that can also
carry the ions along,

543
00:27:51,292 --> 00:27:54,000
and therefore,
carry the electric current.

544
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:57,708
NARRATOR:
But while Tesla's power towers

545
00:27:57,875 --> 00:27:59,667
proved popular in theory,

546
00:27:59,875 --> 00:28:02,667
the project ended
in financial failure.

547
00:28:03,875 --> 00:28:05,750
But could Tesla's idea

548
00:28:05,917 --> 00:28:08,625
of wireless electricity
have been a rediscovery

549
00:28:08,708 --> 00:28:10,875
of an ancient technology?

550
00:28:16,750 --> 00:28:18,667
CHILDRESS:
I believe

551
00:28:18,833 --> 00:28:21,000
that what Tesla was doing
was trying

552
00:28:21,167 --> 00:28:26,000
to recreate
what was an ancient power system

553
00:28:26,167 --> 00:28:29,000
that was used around the world.

554
00:28:29,208 --> 00:28:33,292
And the way they did this
was the use of obelisks.

555
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,917
Obelisks as monolithic,

556
00:28:43,083 --> 00:28:47,417
granite towers, which are one
solid piece of crystal.

557
00:28:47,542 --> 00:28:52,958
And the obelisks themselves
were cut to special sizes

558
00:28:53,167 --> 00:28:54,792
and tuned like a tuning fork.

559
00:28:56,042 --> 00:28:58,750
NARRATOR: Could these
ancient broadcast towers

560
00:28:58,875 --> 00:29:02,208
really have sent electricity up
into the atmosphere?

561
00:29:02,375 --> 00:29:04,167
And if so,

562
00:29:04,333 --> 00:29:07,083
how was
the electricity generated?

563
00:29:07,250 --> 00:29:10,917
Each of these obelisks
would have required some kind

564
00:29:11,083 --> 00:29:13,500
of generating power station

565
00:29:13,708 --> 00:29:15,833
similar to what we have today.

566
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,875
Electricity is created
by rotating magnetic fields.

567
00:29:20,042 --> 00:29:23,750
So rotating magnetic fields
generate AC power.

568
00:29:23,875 --> 00:29:25,875
The very first power station
was built

569
00:29:26,042 --> 00:29:28,500
by Nikola Tesla
at Niagara Falls.

570
00:29:29,833 --> 00:29:33,125
You've got
to have some sort of power

571
00:29:33,292 --> 00:29:35,750
that's spinning
the rotating fields.

572
00:29:35,917 --> 00:29:37,500
And in this case,
it would be water.

573
00:29:37,667 --> 00:29:40,500
So every obelisk would've had

574
00:29:40,667 --> 00:29:42,208
to have had a power station

575
00:29:42,375 --> 00:29:44,875
similar to like the one
at Niagara Falls.

576
00:29:45,042 --> 00:29:46,583
It's generating power,

577
00:29:46,750 --> 00:29:48,833
but the obelisk itself
is putting the power

578
00:29:49,042 --> 00:29:52,125
into the atmosphere,
making it useable.

579
00:29:52,208 --> 00:29:55,667
And this is similar
to Christopher Dunn's theory

580
00:29:55,875 --> 00:29:59,083
of the Giza power plant
because he believes

581
00:29:59,250 --> 00:30:02,458
that the Great Pyramid was
actually sending

582
00:30:02,625 --> 00:30:04,708
a microwave beam to a satellite

583
00:30:04,875 --> 00:30:08,125
that was in orbit
around the planet.

584
00:30:08,292 --> 00:30:13,792
That satellite then could've
been taking microwave power,

585
00:30:13,958 --> 00:30:17,250
and then, it could transmit it
again, in theory,

586
00:30:17,417 --> 00:30:19,500
to some other location
on the Earth,

587
00:30:19,625 --> 00:30:21,167
such as, say a remote island,

588
00:30:21,375 --> 00:30:24,042
like Easter Island
or something like that.

589
00:30:25,042 --> 00:30:28,750
From some of the descriptions
of ancient flying machines,

590
00:30:28,958 --> 00:30:31,208
it's possible that some form

591
00:30:31,375 --> 00:30:33,958
of power beaming
might have been used.

592
00:30:34,125 --> 00:30:38,167
And in fact,
for a lot of the schemes

593
00:30:38,333 --> 00:30:41,167
that you see, it actually
would make a lot of sense.

594
00:30:41,333 --> 00:30:45,000
Because you could put
the power-beaming station

595
00:30:45,125 --> 00:30:47,250
on a mother ship in orbit.

596
00:30:48,750 --> 00:30:51,292
You're just beaming energy
to the vehicle,

597
00:30:51,417 --> 00:30:54,792
where it's absorbed and turned
into propulsion thrust.

598
00:30:54,958 --> 00:30:56,875
It actually makes a lot of sense

599
00:30:57,042 --> 00:30:59,792
because you're taking
the energy system,

600
00:30:59,958 --> 00:31:02,500
the power system,
off of the vehicle

601
00:31:02,625 --> 00:31:04,958
and locating it remotely.

602
00:31:08,333 --> 00:31:10,042
NARRATOR:
Were our ancestors capable

603
00:31:10,208 --> 00:31:12,708
of these incredible
achievements?

604
00:31:12,917 --> 00:31:15,750
Or might they have come
from another source--

605
00:31:15,917 --> 00:31:18,917
one much more out-of-this-world?

606
00:31:20,042 --> 00:31:22,958
CHILDRESS:
Civilizations were
much more advanced

607
00:31:23,042 --> 00:31:24,375
than we give them credit,

608
00:31:24,542 --> 00:31:28,625
and literally,
as advanced as we are today.

609
00:31:32,292 --> 00:31:34,667
BAUVAL:
In my view, we need
to take this seriously,

610
00:31:34,833 --> 00:31:36,708
simply because
of the scale of the work.

611
00:31:36,833 --> 00:31:38,458
We're looking
at monuments that took,

612
00:31:38,625 --> 00:31:40,667
perhaps, a century to build.

613
00:31:40,833 --> 00:31:44,250
Even today, we have difficulty
in considering such a project.

614
00:31:44,375 --> 00:31:46,833
DUNN:
It just boggles the mind.

615
00:31:47,042 --> 00:31:49,583
And really,
to look at those artifacts

616
00:31:49,708 --> 00:31:52,417
and to go back in time
and say, "How did they do it?"

617
00:31:52,583 --> 00:31:54,208
We are kind of

618
00:31:54,375 --> 00:31:56,917
cracking the lid open
a little bit and looking inside

619
00:31:57,042 --> 00:31:59,375
to try and see just
what happened in our history.

620
00:32:01,042 --> 00:32:02,458
COPPENS:
It's a question

621
00:32:02,667 --> 00:32:03,958
which is a scientific question.

622
00:32:04,083 --> 00:32:05,792
And you constantly have
to ask it.

623
00:32:05,958 --> 00:32:07,708
And the possible answer of

624
00:32:07,875 --> 00:32:10,000
"have aliens visited
in the past"

625
00:32:10,167 --> 00:32:12,042
could be a potential "yes."

626
00:32:15,208 --> 00:32:17,792
TSOUKALOS: We can look
at these ancient monuments

627
00:32:17,958 --> 00:32:19,667
and finally recognize

628
00:32:19,750 --> 00:32:22,375
that all of this stuff was built

629
00:32:22,542 --> 00:32:25,167
as a message for us to see

630
00:32:25,292 --> 00:32:28,667
that our past is way different

631
00:32:28,875 --> 00:32:31,625
than what we're being taught
in school.

632
00:32:33,917 --> 00:32:35,708
NARRATOR:
Could it really be

633
00:32:35,917 --> 00:32:38,125
that our remote past was powered

634
00:32:38,250 --> 00:32:42,000
not by primitive tools,
but by electricity?

635
00:32:42,125 --> 00:32:45,958
And if so, are pyramids
and obelisks what remain

636
00:32:46,083 --> 00:32:48,917
of this forgotten technology?

637
00:32:49,083 --> 00:32:52,250
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

638
00:32:52,458 --> 00:32:55,125
the answer is
a resounding "yes."

639
00:32:55,333 --> 00:32:58,000
And they suggest
there is evidence

640
00:32:58,208 --> 00:33:02,667
that our ancestors had access
not only to wireless power,

641
00:33:02,792 --> 00:33:05,375
but even nuclear energy.

642
00:33:10,625 --> 00:33:11,875
to generateble

643
00:33:11,875 --> 00:33:13,333
massive amounts of energy.

644
00:33:13,500 --> 00:33:16,292
And it's not just in Egypt
where we find evidence of this.

645
00:33:16,458 --> 00:33:18,125
Right. In ancient India,
for example,

646
00:33:18,292 --> 00:33:20,000
you have these mysterious

647
00:33:20,125 --> 00:33:22,083
stone sculptures
known as Shiva Lingams.

648
00:33:22,208 --> 00:33:24,375
And some Hindu scholars
have proposed

649
00:33:24,500 --> 00:33:27,792
that based
on ancient Vedic traditions,

650
00:33:27,958 --> 00:33:29,250
that these might represent
some type

651
00:33:29,375 --> 00:33:31,500
-of nuclear power.
-HENRY: Right.

652
00:33:31,667 --> 00:33:34,208
And there are thousands of
these Shiva Lingam sculptures,

653
00:33:34,333 --> 00:33:35,958
throughout, not just India,

654
00:33:36,125 --> 00:33:37,333
but Asia, as well.

655
00:33:37,500 --> 00:33:39,833
We talked about this
in a 2016 episode called

656
00:33:39,958 --> 00:33:41,667
"Shiva the Destroyer."

657
00:33:43,958 --> 00:33:46,208
NARRATOR: Sirsi, India.

658
00:33:46,375 --> 00:33:50,167
Ten miles outside of this city
in the southwestern state

659
00:33:50,375 --> 00:33:53,375
of Karnataka,
within the river Shalmala,

660
00:33:53,542 --> 00:33:57,417
is one of the country's most
popular pilgrimage sites--

661
00:33:57,583 --> 00:34:00,042
Sahasralinga.

662
00:34:01,542 --> 00:34:04,500
Hidden under these waters
for most of the year

663
00:34:04,708 --> 00:34:08,458
lie stone sculptures
known as Shiva Lingams.

664
00:34:08,625 --> 00:34:11,875
These sacred idols
are representations

665
00:34:12,042 --> 00:34:14,167
of the god Shiva,

666
00:34:14,292 --> 00:34:17,417
and are visible to thousands
of pilgrims once a year

667
00:34:17,583 --> 00:34:20,583
at the festival
of Maha Shivaratri.

668
00:34:22,333 --> 00:34:26,000
Maha Shivaratri is a festival
where Shiva is worshipped

669
00:34:26,167 --> 00:34:28,875
for his great nature.

670
00:34:29,042 --> 00:34:31,958
Maha Shivaratri is usually held

671
00:34:32,042 --> 00:34:34,625
in the end of February
or beginning of March.

672
00:34:34,792 --> 00:34:36,083
During that month,

673
00:34:36,250 --> 00:34:40,042
the water level
of the Shalmala River drops down

674
00:34:40,208 --> 00:34:45,042
so that all the Shiva Lingas
are exposed.

675
00:34:45,250 --> 00:34:47,667
LAYNE LITTLE:
Shiva's depicted
as the Shiva Linga,

676
00:34:47,833 --> 00:34:50,083
as kind of a spherical column,

677
00:34:50,250 --> 00:34:55,208
the flaming pillar that is
the cosmic axis of the universe.

678
00:34:57,208 --> 00:34:58,667
Every Shiva Linga

679
00:34:58,875 --> 00:35:01,083
that's in worship is set
into a yoni.

680
00:35:01,208 --> 00:35:03,417
This is a... a special base,

681
00:35:03,625 --> 00:35:07,500
and it actually serves
kind of a utility of function.

682
00:35:07,708 --> 00:35:10,417
It's a spout
so that when you pour offerings

683
00:35:10,625 --> 00:35:14,333
over the surface of the linga,
they wash over the sacred body.

684
00:35:14,542 --> 00:35:18,958
Images of the Shiva Linga are
found throughout Southeast Asia,

685
00:35:19,125 --> 00:35:21,458
even in parts of East Asia.

686
00:35:21,625 --> 00:35:25,708
Sometimes images of Shiva
as the Lingam also made its way

687
00:35:25,875 --> 00:35:29,375
into China and into Japan.

688
00:35:33,042 --> 00:35:37,625
NARRATOR:
The Shiva Lingam first appeared
over 2,000 years ago,

689
00:35:37,750 --> 00:35:39,375
and there is still debate

690
00:35:39,542 --> 00:35:44,083
over what this shape was
originally meant to symbolize.

691
00:35:44,250 --> 00:35:46,833
But ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

692
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,292
that the icon may represent

693
00:35:49,458 --> 00:35:52,792
an incredibly powerful
technological device.

694
00:35:55,375 --> 00:35:59,458
Paris, France, 1900.

695
00:35:59,625 --> 00:36:03,292
At the Paris Congress
of History of Religions,

696
00:36:03,458 --> 00:36:06,708
Swami Vivekananda,
a scientist and monk

697
00:36:06,875 --> 00:36:10,375
credited with popularizing
Hinduism in the West,

698
00:36:10,542 --> 00:36:14,292
gives a lecture addressing
the meaning of the Shiva Lingam.

699
00:36:15,542 --> 00:36:18,208
HENRY:
For centuries,
Western scholars have assumed

700
00:36:18,375 --> 00:36:21,333
that Shiva Linga has purely
a sexual connotation.

701
00:36:21,542 --> 00:36:23,583
The cylinder
is the male phallic symbol,

702
00:36:23,792 --> 00:36:26,500
and the yoni is
the complimentary female symbol.

703
00:36:26,708 --> 00:36:30,958
Then in 1900, the Hindu scholar
Swami Vivekananda came to Paris

704
00:36:31,125 --> 00:36:34,167
to deliver a major lecture
about Hinduism and symbolism.

705
00:36:34,333 --> 00:36:36,167
During this lecture, he said

706
00:36:36,333 --> 00:36:39,750
that the Shiva Linga actually
symbolizes the coming in

707
00:36:39,875 --> 00:36:45,333
or going out of the divine
manifesting energy of Shiva.

708
00:36:45,542 --> 00:36:47,625
DEEPAK SHIMKHADA:
It stands for energy.

709
00:36:47,708 --> 00:36:50,500
And it has often
been misrepresented

710
00:36:50,625 --> 00:36:53,792
in the West that it is simply
a phallic symbol

711
00:36:53,917 --> 00:36:55,250
of Shiva, which is not the case.

712
00:36:55,375 --> 00:36:57,042
It is obviously a pillar.

713
00:36:57,208 --> 00:37:00,625
"Linga" means "a pillar."

714
00:37:00,833 --> 00:37:02,792
Modern Hindu scholars
have theorized

715
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:04,875
that the Shiva Lingam stone

716
00:37:05,042 --> 00:37:07,625
actually represents
atomic energy.

717
00:37:09,042 --> 00:37:12,792
When we think about this idea
of what atomic energy can do,

718
00:37:12,958 --> 00:37:14,250
how it can be used for good,

719
00:37:14,417 --> 00:37:16,167
but it can be
extraordinarily destructive,

720
00:37:16,333 --> 00:37:18,875
this certainly pertains
to the mythology of Shiva,

721
00:37:19,042 --> 00:37:21,208
who is chaotic energy,

722
00:37:21,417 --> 00:37:23,333
who is a force
for incredible good,

723
00:37:23,500 --> 00:37:25,750
but also a force
for incredible destruction.

724
00:37:29,417 --> 00:37:30,583
NARRATOR:
Is it possible

725
00:37:30,708 --> 00:37:32,625
that this symbol
of Shiva's power

726
00:37:32,792 --> 00:37:36,125
actually represents
atomic energy?

727
00:37:36,250 --> 00:37:39,375
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

728
00:37:39,542 --> 00:37:42,000
and suggest
the proof can be found

729
00:37:42,167 --> 00:37:45,833
by examining
this mysterious shape.

730
00:37:45,958 --> 00:37:48,833
PRAVEEN MOHAN:
The cylindrical structure
of the Shiva Linga

731
00:37:49,042 --> 00:37:51,417
is similar or almost identical

732
00:37:51,625 --> 00:37:54,250
to a modern-day nuclear reactor.

733
00:37:56,625 --> 00:37:59,333
And the groove that
surrounds the base represents

734
00:37:59,542 --> 00:38:03,750
the structures built to dispose
of the polluted water.

735
00:38:05,292 --> 00:38:07,792
In ancient times and even today,

736
00:38:07,917 --> 00:38:10,083
Hindus pour water or milk

737
00:38:10,292 --> 00:38:13,583
on top of Shiva Linga
as a ritual.

738
00:38:13,750 --> 00:38:17,208
Today, we pour water
over the top

739
00:38:17,375 --> 00:38:19,833
of nuclear reactor to cool it.

740
00:38:21,875 --> 00:38:23,625
And interestingly,

741
00:38:23,792 --> 00:38:28,625
most Shiva temples are always
found near water bodies,

742
00:38:28,833 --> 00:38:34,125
like rivers or lakes,
just like nuclear power plants.

743
00:38:34,208 --> 00:38:36,208
So is it possible

744
00:38:36,375 --> 00:38:38,833
that Shiva Linga
actually represents

745
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,833
an ancient nuclear power plant?

746
00:38:45,917 --> 00:38:48,542
HENRY:
In the story of Shiva
and the Shiva Linga,

747
00:38:48,667 --> 00:38:50,875
we're obviously dealing
with some kind

748
00:38:51,042 --> 00:38:52,792
of a universal or cosmic power

749
00:38:52,958 --> 00:38:56,542
that we didn't fully understand
until the 20th century,

750
00:38:56,667 --> 00:39:00,333
with the discovery of nuclear
power and nuclear fission.

751
00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:04,167
These discoveries
that predate modern man

752
00:39:04,292 --> 00:39:06,792
are completely changing
our conception

753
00:39:06,958 --> 00:39:09,208
of the ancient past
and connecting us

754
00:39:09,333 --> 00:39:11,750
to the true history of humanity.

755
00:39:14,208 --> 00:39:16,000
NARRATOR:
Does the Shiva Lingam symbolize

756
00:39:16,125 --> 00:39:20,458
an extraterrestrial technology
that once existed on Earth?

757
00:39:21,667 --> 00:39:25,583
If so, might modern science
be less about invention,

758
00:39:25,750 --> 00:39:28,708
and more about remembrance?

759
00:39:28,875 --> 00:39:31,750
Perhaps further evidence
can be found

760
00:39:31,875 --> 00:39:35,042
by exploring
the technological ambitions

761
00:39:35,250 --> 00:39:37,958
that have propelled us
into space.

762
00:39:44,542 --> 00:39:46,000
If you want evidence
that our modern technology is

763
00:39:46,208 --> 00:39:49,333
reinventing what existed on this
planet thousands of years ago,

764
00:39:49,500 --> 00:39:51,500
just look at all
the ancient accounts of flight.

765
00:39:51,625 --> 00:39:54,167
So many cultures
described flying machines

766
00:39:54,292 --> 00:39:55,708
that you have to believe

767
00:39:55,875 --> 00:39:58,333
our ancestors actually
witnessed these things.

768
00:39:58,542 --> 00:40:01,833
Yeah, you have chariots of fire
described in the Bible,

769
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,375
vimanas in ancient Hindu texts,
and we have

770
00:40:05,583 --> 00:40:08,333
countless stories
of fire-breathing dragons.

771
00:40:08,500 --> 00:40:10,000
Right. And when I hear stories

772
00:40:10,167 --> 00:40:12,708
of fire-breathing dragons,
then my ears perk up.

773
00:40:12,833 --> 00:40:16,542
Because if you witness
a rocket launch

774
00:40:16,667 --> 00:40:19,583
or you see a jet streak
across the sky,

775
00:40:19,750 --> 00:40:23,417
what do you see coming out
of its back? Fire.

776
00:40:23,542 --> 00:40:26,333
NARRATOR:
Merritt Island, Florida.

777
00:40:26,458 --> 00:40:29,167
The Kennedy Space Center.

778
00:40:30,250 --> 00:40:34,500
Six Earth astronauts sit atop
NASA's Endeavor Space Shuttle

779
00:40:34,708 --> 00:40:35,875
headed for orbit.

780
00:40:37,042 --> 00:40:38,750
After countdown,

781
00:40:38,875 --> 00:40:42,042
three main engines, together
with two solid rocket boosters,

782
00:40:42,208 --> 00:40:45,833
provide the thrust to lift
the orbiter off the ground

783
00:40:46,042 --> 00:40:46,958
for its ascent.

784
00:40:48,542 --> 00:40:51,125
ANNOUNCER:
And liftoff
of shuttle Endeavor.

785
00:40:56,042 --> 00:40:58,500
TSOUKALOS:
I urge everyone
to be part, one day,

786
00:40:58,667 --> 00:41:02,208
of a rocket launch because
it is a life-altering moment.

787
00:41:02,375 --> 00:41:05,250
When you stand there,
a few miles away,

788
00:41:05,375 --> 00:41:08,208
you can still feel the power

789
00:41:08,375 --> 00:41:11,708
as that rocket takes off
into space.

790
00:41:13,125 --> 00:41:15,083
The grumbling in your stomach,
the vibrations,

791
00:41:15,250 --> 00:41:17,125
and you can hear the noise.

792
00:41:17,292 --> 00:41:20,208
And it's a truly
magnificent sight

793
00:41:20,375 --> 00:41:22,875
and awe-inspiring.

794
00:41:23,042 --> 00:41:25,333
NARRATOR:
But are manned space flights

795
00:41:25,500 --> 00:41:27,917
really a recent phenomenon?

796
00:41:28,042 --> 00:41:33,750
Or could our ancient ancestors
have witnessed similar events?

797
00:41:35,250 --> 00:41:36,667
NOORY:
There is no doubt

798
00:41:36,875 --> 00:41:39,667
that if we thoroughly
investigate this planet,

799
00:41:39,833 --> 00:41:42,125
they will find that this planet

800
00:41:42,333 --> 00:41:44,500
may have already been
to the Moon

801
00:41:44,583 --> 00:41:49,042
way before we went to the Moon
with a man in 1969.

802
00:41:50,542 --> 00:41:52,208
TSOUKALOS:
The interesting thing is

803
00:41:52,333 --> 00:41:57,292
that we have the exact same
descriptions in ancient texts

804
00:41:57,417 --> 00:41:59,375
and also in oral traditions,

805
00:41:59,542 --> 00:42:03,667
where, whenever
those "gods" appeared,

806
00:42:03,875 --> 00:42:07,125
there was a lot of smoke,
a lot of fire,

807
00:42:07,292 --> 00:42:11,667
a lot of noise,
and the trembling of the ground.

808
00:42:12,708 --> 00:42:14,667
When rockets are taking off,

809
00:42:14,792 --> 00:42:18,625
it's best to stand back
and get out of the way.

810
00:42:18,708 --> 00:42:20,208
And that's a lot of what

811
00:42:20,417 --> 00:42:21,667
the ancient legends
are about, too.

812
00:42:21,833 --> 00:42:24,250
When the gods came and went,

813
00:42:24,417 --> 00:42:26,542
may well have been
just these rockets

814
00:42:26,667 --> 00:42:29,458
or other aerospace vehicles
landing and taking off

815
00:42:29,583 --> 00:42:32,125
and-and making
a lot of smoke and noise.

816
00:42:34,292 --> 00:42:35,792
NARRATOR:
But could early man

817
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:41,000
really have had knowledge
of rocket technology?

818
00:42:41,167 --> 00:42:44,583
To make their case,
ancient astronaut theorists

819
00:42:44,792 --> 00:42:47,917
point to numerous and consistent
descriptions of rockets

820
00:42:48,042 --> 00:42:51,042
found throughout many cultures
of the ancient world.

821
00:42:51,208 --> 00:42:53,125
STEVEN GREER:
When you're dealing with
this subject and you look

822
00:42:53,292 --> 00:42:55,500
at the ancient literature,
you have to look at it

823
00:42:55,667 --> 00:43:00,208
through the lens of:
how was it being experienced

824
00:43:00,417 --> 00:43:02,500
by a civilization
with no foundation

825
00:43:02,708 --> 00:43:05,250
for understanding
the science, the technology?

826
00:43:05,375 --> 00:43:06,667
And so, I think,
in ancient times

827
00:43:06,833 --> 00:43:08,833
there were people
who had encounters.

828
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,667
And-- however, I think the way
they might have been reported

829
00:43:11,833 --> 00:43:13,833
would have been in metaphors.

830
00:43:14,042 --> 00:43:16,042
In ways that would
have made sense to them.

831
00:43:18,708 --> 00:43:21,208
CHILDRESS:
In China, you have these stories

832
00:43:21,375 --> 00:43:24,583
of dragons
flying through the air.

833
00:43:25,542 --> 00:43:28,792
They make a lot of noise,
and smoke comes out of them,

834
00:43:28,958 --> 00:43:31,208
and fire, just like a rocket.

835
00:43:34,667 --> 00:43:37,000
TSOUKALOS:
The first emperor
of China descended

836
00:43:37,125 --> 00:43:39,500
in a fiery dragon

837
00:43:39,667 --> 00:43:41,667
with smoke and fire.

838
00:43:41,792 --> 00:43:43,875
And whenever
that dragon appeared,

839
00:43:44,042 --> 00:43:48,292
the-the earth was quaking
and everyone was afraid

840
00:43:48,458 --> 00:43:51,042
and-and threw themselves
to the ground.

841
00:43:51,208 --> 00:43:53,417
Now, of course,
it wasn't a dragon

842
00:43:53,583 --> 00:43:56,625
in a biological nature,
a living being,

843
00:43:56,750 --> 00:44:00,083
but it was
a misinterpreted machine.

844
00:44:04,208 --> 00:44:06,917
BARA:
If you look at the Greek gods,
they were all described

845
00:44:07,083 --> 00:44:10,125
as flying in
on chariots of fire.

846
00:44:10,292 --> 00:44:12,833
Well, "chariot of fire," to me,
seems very clearly

847
00:44:12,958 --> 00:44:14,333
like it's some sort of rocket,

848
00:44:14,542 --> 00:44:17,208
probably burning its retros
as it lands

849
00:44:17,375 --> 00:44:19,792
somewhere in ancient Greece.

850
00:44:21,708 --> 00:44:24,208
In the Old Testament,
we can read about

851
00:44:24,375 --> 00:44:29,375
a glowing furnace
that descended from the sky.

852
00:44:29,542 --> 00:44:30,917
And sometimes
this glowing furnace

853
00:44:31,125 --> 00:44:34,083
is described
as a chariot of fire...

854
00:44:35,083 --> 00:44:38,000
...or as the glory of the Lord.

855
00:44:38,167 --> 00:44:40,833
So, there are all these
different descriptions,

856
00:44:41,042 --> 00:44:43,750
which, in the ancient astronaut
opinion,

857
00:44:43,917 --> 00:44:46,792
describe ancient rocketry.

858
00:44:48,875 --> 00:44:52,125
NARRATOR:
From 5000 to 2000 BC,

859
00:44:52,250 --> 00:44:55,667
southern Mesopotamia
was home to the Sumerians,

860
00:44:55,875 --> 00:44:58,583
a highly advanced civilization

861
00:44:58,750 --> 00:45:01,875
considered to be among
the first astronomers.

862
00:45:02,042 --> 00:45:05,833
Regarded as one of the oldest
written stories in history,

863
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:07,750
the Epic of Gilgamesh

864
00:45:07,917 --> 00:45:10,792
told of a man's journey
to the heavens

865
00:45:10,917 --> 00:45:13,250
to meet the god Anu.

866
00:45:14,292 --> 00:45:17,000
ERICH VON DÄNIKEN:
The Gilgamesh epic,
which goes back to the Sumerian,

867
00:45:17,167 --> 00:45:20,458
that's a-a piece
where the hero Gilgamesh

868
00:45:20,625 --> 00:45:22,917
flies over the Earth.

869
00:45:24,292 --> 00:45:26,167
And he describes how
the Earth looks from above.

870
00:45:26,375 --> 00:45:29,250
Fascinating. An old story
of the first flight.

871
00:45:30,292 --> 00:45:32,208
JASON MARTELL:
The most ancient civilization
that we have on record,

872
00:45:32,375 --> 00:45:34,833
the Sumerian culture,
has left us evidence

873
00:45:34,958 --> 00:45:37,583
of what's called a Shem.

874
00:45:37,708 --> 00:45:39,500
And this object
looks very similar

875
00:45:39,708 --> 00:45:41,583
to a modern-day space capsule

876
00:45:41,708 --> 00:45:44,083
that we place
on top of a rocket.

877
00:45:45,875 --> 00:45:48,667
And this Shem is where priests
would go into the Shem

878
00:45:48,750 --> 00:45:50,500
to interact with the gods.

879
00:45:50,625 --> 00:45:54,333
Or any time man was ascending
or descending into heaven.

880
00:45:54,500 --> 00:45:56,208
So it's a very interesting term

881
00:45:56,375 --> 00:45:59,667
used from a culture
dating back to 3800 BC

882
00:45:59,875 --> 00:46:01,833
and very clearly matches

883
00:46:02,042 --> 00:46:03,875
the descriptions
of a modern-day rocket.

884
00:46:05,417 --> 00:46:08,208
NARRATOR:
Could early man
have actually possessed

885
00:46:08,375 --> 00:46:11,000
a surprisingly sophisticated
understanding

886
00:46:11,208 --> 00:46:14,750
of what we now call
rocket propulsion?

887
00:46:19,042 --> 00:46:21,083
In the first century AD,

888
00:46:21,250 --> 00:46:24,958
nearly 2,000 years before
the Industrial Revolution,

889
00:46:25,125 --> 00:46:28,917
a Greek mathematician
and engineer named Hero

890
00:46:29,083 --> 00:46:33,958
created a steam-powered engine
he called an aeolipile.

891
00:46:34,083 --> 00:46:36,667
CHILDRESS:
One of the great inventors
of the ancient world

892
00:46:36,833 --> 00:46:39,583
was the famous
Hero of Alexandria.

893
00:46:39,750 --> 00:46:41,583
He invented all kinds of stuff.

894
00:46:41,750 --> 00:46:43,833
He actually invented
what we would describe

895
00:46:44,042 --> 00:46:46,542
as a rocket-type motor.

896
00:46:48,125 --> 00:46:50,167
And, really,
something like this is

897
00:46:50,292 --> 00:46:53,208
the beginnings
of rocket technology,

898
00:46:53,375 --> 00:46:56,667
and we don't know where
Hero got many of his ideas,

899
00:46:56,875 --> 00:46:58,875
but it may well
have come from aliens.

900
00:47:04,208 --> 00:47:05,708
NARRATOR:
John Robert Tindall,

901
00:47:05,875 --> 00:47:08,333
founder of Tindall Vision
Laboratories,

902
00:47:08,500 --> 00:47:12,208
demonstrates a small-scale
replica of Hero's aeolipile.

903
00:47:12,375 --> 00:47:14,000
JOHN ROBERT TINDALL:
Now, a conventional steam engine

904
00:47:14,208 --> 00:47:16,333
that we think of has pistons
that-that get its power,

905
00:47:16,500 --> 00:47:22,000
but aeolipile uses
these, uh, opposing jets.

906
00:47:22,208 --> 00:47:24,833
So it's creating thrust,
and rather than, uh,

907
00:47:25,042 --> 00:47:26,500
thrust in-- like a rocket

908
00:47:26,625 --> 00:47:28,000
would use it
in a linear fashion,

909
00:47:28,125 --> 00:47:30,167
this is causing
a rotational effect.

910
00:47:30,375 --> 00:47:32,333
And there's your, uh,
your steam turbine, really,

911
00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:33,625
working off of thrust.

912
00:47:33,833 --> 00:47:35,875
Now, this is operating
much as it did

913
00:47:36,042 --> 00:47:38,167
in the first century AD.

914
00:47:38,333 --> 00:47:40,167
This is generally
considered to be

915
00:47:40,333 --> 00:47:42,542
the first working steam engine.

916
00:47:42,708 --> 00:47:44,417
It works more like a turbine

917
00:47:44,583 --> 00:47:46,500
than a classic steam engine
with pistons,

918
00:47:46,625 --> 00:47:47,667
but it's very significant

919
00:47:47,833 --> 00:47:50,458
because it really is taking a--

920
00:47:50,625 --> 00:47:52,917
whoa-- a compressed gas-- ha--

921
00:47:53,042 --> 00:47:55,083
and turning it into energy.

922
00:47:55,292 --> 00:47:58,250
Wow! That has a lot
of energy. Steam.

923
00:48:02,125 --> 00:48:04,375
NARRATOR:
The name for Hero's
steam rocket engine,

924
00:48:04,542 --> 00:48:09,042
aeolipile, translates
to "the ball of Aeolus."

925
00:48:09,208 --> 00:48:13,292
In Greek mythology,
Aeolus was the god of the winds.

926
00:48:14,208 --> 00:48:17,167
Is it possible
that Hero drew inspiration

927
00:48:17,333 --> 00:48:20,333
for his invention
from the stories of the gods,

928
00:48:20,500 --> 00:48:23,292
such as those found
in Homer's The Odyssey?

929
00:48:25,208 --> 00:48:27,292
Or might he have had help...

930
00:48:28,542 --> 00:48:30,375
...from the gods themselves?

931
00:48:30,542 --> 00:48:32,833
TSOUKALOS:
Some have suggested
that it was alien intervention,

932
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:36,750
that aliens taught him
how to build this machine.

933
00:48:36,917 --> 00:48:39,167
However, I'm leaning more

934
00:48:39,333 --> 00:48:43,625
towards the idea
that he looked at older texts

935
00:48:43,792 --> 00:48:45,667
from previous generations

936
00:48:45,875 --> 00:48:50,042
and that the source
of the idea

937
00:48:50,208 --> 00:48:53,875
of how to build this
did come from extraterrestrials

938
00:48:54,042 --> 00:48:57,125
but from way before
he was alive,

939
00:48:57,250 --> 00:49:00,042
and he just came across
those texts.

940
00:49:01,167 --> 00:49:02,833
NARRATOR:
But do the descriptions
of rockets

941
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,208
and otherworldly devices

942
00:49:05,417 --> 00:49:08,458
found in ancient texts
and legends

943
00:49:08,625 --> 00:49:11,750
provide evidence
of extraterrestrial encounters

944
00:49:11,875 --> 00:49:13,792
in the distant past?

945
00:49:13,958 --> 00:49:16,500
Perhaps the answer
will be discovered

946
00:49:16,667 --> 00:49:18,375
in an unlikely place:

947
00:49:18,542 --> 00:49:22,625
in the hands
of the U.S. military.

948
00:49:27,500 --> 00:49:29,167
Some of the most
compelling pieces of evidence

949
00:49:29,167 --> 00:49:31,333
we can find
of advanced ancient tech

950
00:49:31,500 --> 00:49:35,083
comes in the form
of descriptions of weaponry.

951
00:49:35,208 --> 00:49:38,250
Because some of the weapons
that the so-called gods

952
00:49:38,417 --> 00:49:42,208
had in their possession
sound eerily similar

953
00:49:42,375 --> 00:49:44,208
to the weapons
that we are developing today.

954
00:49:44,375 --> 00:49:47,500
Yeah, just look at the Sanskrit
texts of ancient India.

955
00:49:47,708 --> 00:49:49,000
They're talking about things

956
00:49:49,083 --> 00:49:51,000
like missiles
that detect heat or motion,

957
00:49:51,167 --> 00:49:53,875
weapons of mass destruction,

958
00:49:54,042 --> 00:49:56,167
-even energy beams.
-CHILDRESS: Right.

959
00:49:56,375 --> 00:49:58,333
And in ancient Greece,
we have accounts

960
00:49:58,500 --> 00:49:59,917
of a giant mirror

961
00:50:00,083 --> 00:50:02,083
that acted like
some sort of death ray,

962
00:50:02,292 --> 00:50:04,292
which sounds a lot
like the technology

963
00:50:04,458 --> 00:50:08,125
that the U.S. military's
developing today.

964
00:50:10,542 --> 00:50:12,208
NARRATOR:
May 2010,

965
00:50:12,333 --> 00:50:14,958
off the coast of California.

966
00:50:15,125 --> 00:50:17,042
A powerful new weapon

967
00:50:17,208 --> 00:50:19,500
shoots down
unmanned aerial drones

968
00:50:19,708 --> 00:50:23,292
during secret testing
carried out by the U.S. Navy.

969
00:50:24,208 --> 00:50:25,875
Firing from a warship

970
00:50:26,042 --> 00:50:28,083
at a distance
of nearly two miles,

971
00:50:28,250 --> 00:50:31,833
a ray of intense laser energy

972
00:50:31,958 --> 00:50:34,000
burns through targets
traveling at speeds

973
00:50:34,125 --> 00:50:36,500
of more than 300 miles per hour.

974
00:50:37,833 --> 00:50:41,875
But is it possible
that such so-called death rays

975
00:50:42,042 --> 00:50:44,000
could have been used before?

976
00:50:44,208 --> 00:50:46,583
Perhaps in ancient times?

977
00:50:47,583 --> 00:50:51,167
I am quite convinced that
there have been, in-in the past,

978
00:50:51,292 --> 00:50:53,083
advanced civilizations on Earth

979
00:50:53,208 --> 00:50:56,167
that did have such things
as the so-called death ray.

980
00:50:57,458 --> 00:50:59,000
Whether it was used as a weapon

981
00:50:59,125 --> 00:51:01,250
or whether it was just
observed being used

982
00:51:01,417 --> 00:51:04,042
is a very, very open question.

983
00:51:05,708 --> 00:51:08,500
NARRATOR:
In 214 BC,

984
00:51:08,708 --> 00:51:11,750
Greeks living
in the Sicilian city of Syracuse

985
00:51:11,875 --> 00:51:16,083
prepared for an attack
by a fleet of Roman warships.

986
00:51:16,208 --> 00:51:19,667
Though outnumbered
by a superior military force,

987
00:51:19,750 --> 00:51:23,958
ancient texts suggest
that Syracuse was well defended

988
00:51:24,083 --> 00:51:27,083
by a mysterious
and powerful new weapon.

989
00:51:28,958 --> 00:51:32,458
Probably the most famous
ancient death ray

990
00:51:32,583 --> 00:51:37,000
was the one that was built by
the Greek inventor Archimedes.

991
00:51:37,167 --> 00:51:40,667
He was able to create
this giant mirror

992
00:51:40,875 --> 00:51:43,167
and parabolic disc

993
00:51:43,292 --> 00:51:47,000
and focus the Sun's rays
on the fleet

994
00:51:47,167 --> 00:51:49,583
and set these ships on fire.

995
00:51:51,792 --> 00:51:54,125
So, here we have what
would be a primitive kind

996
00:51:54,292 --> 00:51:57,167
of death ray that really worked.

997
00:52:00,375 --> 00:52:02,000
NARRATOR:
But how could Archimedes

998
00:52:02,208 --> 00:52:05,042
have conceived
such a formidable weapon?

999
00:52:05,208 --> 00:52:09,375
One far in advance
of any known at that time?

1000
00:52:09,542 --> 00:52:13,667
Researchers suggest the inventor
may have drawn inspiration

1001
00:52:13,792 --> 00:52:16,833
from Greek myths
written nearly 600 years before

1002
00:52:16,958 --> 00:52:19,375
the battle of Syracuse.

1003
00:52:19,542 --> 00:52:22,333
Myths that told
the stories of gods

1004
00:52:22,542 --> 00:52:27,542
that brandished cosmic weapons
of incredible destructive force.

1005
00:52:29,500 --> 00:52:31,083
WILCOCK:
If you look
in the Greek tradition,

1006
00:52:31,208 --> 00:52:33,042
they have
a very clear description

1007
00:52:33,208 --> 00:52:35,292
of Zeus's thunderbolt...

1008
00:52:36,292 --> 00:52:38,125
...which he was able
to point at people

1009
00:52:38,292 --> 00:52:41,625
or at other things
that he wanted to explode,

1010
00:52:41,792 --> 00:52:44,667
hit the button, and what
they described as lightning

1011
00:52:44,833 --> 00:52:47,542
would come out and create
a fierce and terrible explosion.

1012
00:52:48,542 --> 00:52:51,083
When these ancient gods,
like Zeus,

1013
00:52:51,208 --> 00:52:53,417
were to come down
from the sky...

1014
00:52:55,250 --> 00:52:58,625
...in this flurry
of-of thunder and lightning

1015
00:52:58,792 --> 00:53:01,000
and then get out
of their spacecraft,

1016
00:53:01,167 --> 00:53:04,250
they were perceived as gods.

1017
00:53:05,333 --> 00:53:09,208
These ancient aliens
had fantastic technology

1018
00:53:09,375 --> 00:53:12,167
available to them, a technology
that would have seemed

1019
00:53:12,333 --> 00:53:15,625
like magic
to our primitive ancestors.

1020
00:53:15,792 --> 00:53:18,375
So, when these people came
down from the sky,

1021
00:53:18,542 --> 00:53:21,500
and they had
advanced energy weapons,

1022
00:53:21,625 --> 00:53:25,167
they were like gods
to our ancient ancestors.

1023
00:53:25,375 --> 00:53:27,333
TSOUKALOS:
It doesn't matter where you go,

1024
00:53:27,500 --> 00:53:29,875
but the gods were always able

1025
00:53:30,042 --> 00:53:34,167
to create thunder,
create lightning

1026
00:53:34,292 --> 00:53:36,625
in a controlled way.

1027
00:53:37,792 --> 00:53:39,500
In ancient India,

1028
00:53:39,667 --> 00:53:41,208
we have the gods

1029
00:53:41,375 --> 00:53:43,958
holding the dorje
sometimes like this,

1030
00:53:44,125 --> 00:53:47,042
and it looks as if some type
of a directed energy beam

1031
00:53:47,208 --> 00:53:49,708
comes directly out of the front

1032
00:53:49,875 --> 00:53:52,167
to vanquish the enemy,

1033
00:53:52,333 --> 00:53:54,375
to destroy him,
to incinerate him.

1034
00:53:57,167 --> 00:54:02,125
NARRATOR:
But if death ray-type weapons
had been used in ancient times,

1035
00:54:02,292 --> 00:54:05,292
might there be some sort
of tangible proof?

1036
00:54:05,458 --> 00:54:07,833
Perhaps there is.

1037
00:54:08,042 --> 00:54:12,042
Here, scattered throughout
the Scottish countryside,

1038
00:54:12,250 --> 00:54:14,708
can be found
numerous ancient ruins.

1039
00:54:14,875 --> 00:54:18,458
Many appear to have been forts
or other enclosures

1040
00:54:18,625 --> 00:54:21,208
dating back thousands of years.

1041
00:54:21,375 --> 00:54:23,667
Remarkably, they also appear

1042
00:54:23,875 --> 00:54:27,708
to have been subjected
to fire and heat so intense,

1043
00:54:27,875 --> 00:54:32,000
it practically turned
the stone structures into glass.

1044
00:54:32,208 --> 00:54:34,833
It's a process
more scientifically known

1045
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:36,750
as vitrification.

1046
00:54:37,750 --> 00:54:40,250
Here you have
these stone buildings

1047
00:54:40,417 --> 00:54:42,792
in which an analysis
of the outside

1048
00:54:42,917 --> 00:54:46,833
comes to the conclusion
that they were heated

1049
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:50,375
to over 1,000 degrees Celsius
in temperature.

1050
00:54:50,542 --> 00:54:53,417
Conventional fire could not
have reached this heat.

1051
00:54:53,542 --> 00:54:56,833
You needed a sustained burn
at 1,000 degrees Celsius

1052
00:54:57,042 --> 00:54:58,583
for a long period of time.

1053
00:54:58,750 --> 00:55:01,833
Why is it
that it's only these forts

1054
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,000
that have this type of charring,

1055
00:55:04,167 --> 00:55:07,792
where they're actually glazed
like pottery on the outside?

1056
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,333
Why is it that you don't see it

1057
00:55:09,500 --> 00:55:11,042
on the stones
in the surrounding area?

1058
00:55:11,208 --> 00:55:13,542
And even more interestingly,
why is it that so many of them

1059
00:55:13,750 --> 00:55:16,000
are concentrated
into this one little area

1060
00:55:16,167 --> 00:55:17,625
in Northern Scotland?

1061
00:55:17,792 --> 00:55:19,750
I believe this is
very clear evidence

1062
00:55:19,917 --> 00:55:21,958
of death rays being used.

1063
00:55:24,833 --> 00:55:26,750
NARRATOR:
According to Celtic legend,

1064
00:55:26,875 --> 00:55:29,333
there once was
a god named Lugh...

1065
00:55:30,375 --> 00:55:32,875
...also known
as "the shining one,"

1066
00:55:33,042 --> 00:55:36,042
the sun god, and the god of war.

1067
00:55:38,250 --> 00:55:40,250
Like the Greek god Zeus,

1068
00:55:40,417 --> 00:55:43,625
Lugh was said to wield
a mighty magic spear

1069
00:55:43,750 --> 00:55:47,333
not unlike the thunderbolts
of his Greek counterpart.

1070
00:55:48,333 --> 00:55:49,792
YOUNG:
We have many stories
of divinities

1071
00:55:49,958 --> 00:55:52,500
who were powerful figures
who had weapons

1072
00:55:52,708 --> 00:55:55,292
that seem extraordinary,
uh, for their time.

1073
00:55:55,458 --> 00:55:57,833
One was the great, uh,
Celtic divinity Lugh,

1074
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:00,500
who had a spear that could
spit fire and lightning

1075
00:56:00,708 --> 00:56:03,375
and do great damage.
It was an extraordinary weapon.

1076
00:56:03,542 --> 00:56:05,375
We don't have a great deal
of detail about it,

1077
00:56:05,583 --> 00:56:07,833
but it clearly could dominate
any situation that he got into.

1078
00:56:07,958 --> 00:56:09,917
When battle was near,

1079
00:56:10,083 --> 00:56:14,417
Lugh would draw out his spear,
and it roared,

1080
00:56:14,583 --> 00:56:18,500
and then flashes of fire
came out of it

1081
00:56:18,667 --> 00:56:22,250
and it tore
through the ranks of the enemy,

1082
00:56:22,417 --> 00:56:26,375
never tired
of killing and slaying.

1083
00:56:29,208 --> 00:56:32,292
It was one amazing weapon.

1084
00:56:32,417 --> 00:56:34,500
I mean, how else can we explain

1085
00:56:34,625 --> 00:56:37,875
all those numerous
vitrified forts

1086
00:56:38,042 --> 00:56:43,375
where the surface of the stone
is as smooth as glass?

1087
00:56:43,583 --> 00:56:46,417
And these spots
can only be found

1088
00:56:46,625 --> 00:56:51,333
in very concentrated areas
through Northern Scotland.

1089
00:56:51,542 --> 00:56:54,625
Is it possible
that what the Celtic legends

1090
00:56:54,750 --> 00:56:57,708
are describing as Lugh
is, in fact,

1091
00:56:57,833 --> 00:57:01,750
an alien general or other kind
of extraterrestrial leader

1092
00:57:01,917 --> 00:57:04,792
in possession
of a devastating weapon?

1093
00:57:06,167 --> 00:57:10,167
TSOUKALOS:
All these descriptions
of sophisticated weaponry

1094
00:57:10,292 --> 00:57:12,333
sounds almost
like science fiction.

1095
00:57:12,500 --> 00:57:13,792
But is it, really?

1096
00:57:13,958 --> 00:57:16,875
Because we have
those weapons today.

1097
00:57:19,875 --> 00:57:24,792
And I think it is merely
a reinvention of history,

1098
00:57:24,958 --> 00:57:27,542
that all the stuff
that we have today

1099
00:57:27,708 --> 00:57:29,333
has been around before

1100
00:57:29,542 --> 00:57:32,375
and that our past
is not science fiction

1101
00:57:32,542 --> 00:57:34,458
but science fact.

1102
00:57:36,667 --> 00:57:38,583
NARRATOR:
Deadly laser beams.

1103
00:57:39,542 --> 00:57:41,500
Acoustic levitation.

1104
00:57:43,917 --> 00:57:45,667
Antigravity.

1105
00:57:46,667 --> 00:57:49,333
Could these be technologies
that were witnessed

1106
00:57:49,500 --> 00:57:52,667
and even used
by ancient civilizations?

1107
00:57:53,708 --> 00:57:58,792
If so, were they conceived
in the minds of early man?

1108
00:57:59,792 --> 00:58:03,667
Or did they have
otherworldly origins?

1109
00:58:03,833 --> 00:58:06,125
Perhaps further clues
can be found

1110
00:58:06,292 --> 00:58:08,833
by examining godlike powers

1111
00:58:08,958 --> 00:58:12,625
that are now
becoming our reality.

1112
00:58:17,833 --> 00:58:19,833
One thing that's surprisingly
widespread in ancient traditions

1113
00:58:19,958 --> 00:58:22,458
is the idea
of cloaking technology.

1114
00:58:22,625 --> 00:58:25,333
And we have so many stories
of gods or heroes

1115
00:58:25,458 --> 00:58:27,917
having a device
that makes them invisible.

1116
00:58:28,125 --> 00:58:31,125
Yeah, like the ancient
Greek story of Gyges.

1117
00:58:31,292 --> 00:58:33,208
He comes upon this magic ring

1118
00:58:33,375 --> 00:58:34,667
that makes him invisible,

1119
00:58:34,792 --> 00:58:37,458
-then he uses it to become king.
-TSOUKALOS: Right,

1120
00:58:37,625 --> 00:58:40,458
and this likely
would have seemed like magic

1121
00:58:40,625 --> 00:58:42,917
to our ancestors,
but today we know

1122
00:58:43,042 --> 00:58:46,250
it was likely some type
of a tech device,

1123
00:58:46,417 --> 00:58:47,875
because today we are developing

1124
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,875
the exact same
cloaking mechanisms.

1125
00:58:51,042 --> 00:58:53,083
In fact, we covered this
in a season three episode

1126
00:58:53,208 --> 00:58:57,208
of Ancient Aliens called
"Aliens, Gods and Heroes."

1127
00:59:00,292 --> 00:59:03,708
NARRATOR:
Lydia, 716 BC.

1128
00:59:03,875 --> 00:59:08,500
Gyges, a shepherd in
the service of King Candaules,

1129
00:59:08,625 --> 00:59:11,375
becomes the unlikely
successor to the throne

1130
00:59:11,542 --> 00:59:14,917
of this ancient kingdom
in modern-day Turkey.

1131
00:59:15,042 --> 00:59:17,833
But the story
of how this modest servant

1132
00:59:18,042 --> 00:59:22,417
rose from a shepherd to a king
is so fantastic

1133
00:59:22,583 --> 00:59:24,542
that many scholars
and historians

1134
00:59:24,750 --> 00:59:27,833
have dismissed it as mere myth.

1135
00:59:29,375 --> 00:59:30,917
Gyges is out in the field

1136
00:59:31,042 --> 00:59:33,083
and there is
a terrible earthquake.

1137
00:59:37,333 --> 00:59:39,542
He sees a cave open,

1138
00:59:39,708 --> 00:59:42,833
goes into that cave
and sees a gold ring.

1139
00:59:44,375 --> 00:59:45,833
RICHARD RADER:
He just kind of walks
into, like, this chamber,

1140
00:59:46,042 --> 00:59:48,667
which is like a tomb
where he sees a-a dead body

1141
00:59:48,875 --> 00:59:50,625
that's got some jewelry on it.

1142
00:59:50,792 --> 00:59:52,833
So he grabs this ring off of it
because he's a poor man.

1143
00:59:53,042 --> 00:59:54,750
He puts the ring on
and discovers that it gives him

1144
00:59:54,958 --> 00:59:56,958
the power to be invisible.

1145
00:59:57,125 --> 01:00:00,417
Here he has the-the kind
of power a god would have.

1146
01:00:00,583 --> 01:00:02,917
And does he use it well?
Well, actually,

1147
01:00:03,083 --> 01:00:05,042
it's a little questionable
how he uses it.

1148
01:00:06,250 --> 01:00:07,500
He comes up with a plan.

1149
01:00:07,667 --> 01:00:09,833
The next time
he goes to visit the king,

1150
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:13,750
he brings that ring with him,
turns himself invisible...

1151
01:00:14,667 --> 01:00:16,083
...seduces the queen...

1152
01:00:17,750 --> 01:00:19,500
...kills the king,

1153
01:00:19,708 --> 01:00:21,167
takes over the palace.

1154
01:00:22,208 --> 01:00:26,500
COPPENS:
What we have here is, really,
a multilayered legend.

1155
01:00:26,667 --> 01:00:29,208
We have not only
the story of the fact

1156
01:00:29,375 --> 01:00:32,375
that somebody in the past
had the cloak of invisibility

1157
01:00:32,542 --> 01:00:34,542
but actually
that he did not invent this,

1158
01:00:34,708 --> 01:00:37,417
but that this was
a legacy from a race

1159
01:00:37,583 --> 01:00:40,833
who had buried their dead
and that alongside these dead

1160
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:44,125
were artifacts
which were technological.

1161
01:00:45,125 --> 01:00:48,083
What kind of a magical amulet
or technology

1162
01:00:48,250 --> 01:00:49,917
are we talking about here?

1163
01:00:50,833 --> 01:00:52,875
Was this the ring of the gods

1164
01:00:53,042 --> 01:00:54,833
that's described
by the ancient Sumerians

1165
01:00:54,958 --> 01:00:57,750
as the "ring
of cosmic sovereignty"?

1166
01:00:58,792 --> 01:01:01,708
TSOUKALOS:
When I read stories
like Gyges of Lydia,

1167
01:01:01,875 --> 01:01:03,833
who has found this ring

1168
01:01:03,917 --> 01:01:07,583
which gave him the capability
of becoming invisible,

1169
01:01:07,750 --> 01:01:09,833
then there are two things
that I think of.

1170
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:12,833
One, is it just fantasy?

1171
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:15,833
Or do we have
another reference here

1172
01:01:16,042 --> 01:01:19,750
that describes
misunderstood technology?

1173
01:01:19,917 --> 01:01:24,000
Because today
researchers at Duke University

1174
01:01:24,167 --> 01:01:28,000
are trying to develop
an invisibility cloak.

1175
01:01:29,542 --> 01:01:33,208
NARRATOR:
Duke University engineering
professor David R. Smith

1176
01:01:33,375 --> 01:01:35,125
is the director
of the Center for Metamaterial

1177
01:01:35,292 --> 01:01:37,583
and Integrated Plasmonics.

1178
01:01:37,750 --> 01:01:39,292
For the past decade,

1179
01:01:39,500 --> 01:01:43,875
Smith and his team have been
working to create metamaterials,

1180
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:48,000
or artificial materials
that are not found in nature.

1181
01:01:48,208 --> 01:01:51,917
Just as a piece of glass
can control the way light bends,

1182
01:01:52,083 --> 01:01:55,792
Smith has set out to prove
that certain man-made materials

1183
01:01:55,917 --> 01:02:00,167
can actually be constructed
to render objects invisible.

1184
01:02:00,333 --> 01:02:03,000
This is actually
an example of a metamaterial.

1185
01:02:03,208 --> 01:02:06,833
This is, uh, a bunch
of, uh, pieces of circuit board

1186
01:02:07,042 --> 01:02:09,000
all, uh, cut out
and assembled together.

1187
01:02:09,167 --> 01:02:11,375
And on the circuit boards
are little pieces of copper

1188
01:02:11,542 --> 01:02:13,000
that are tiny circuits.

1189
01:02:13,125 --> 01:02:15,458
And each circuit
has a certain response

1190
01:02:15,583 --> 01:02:16,792
to electromagnetic radiation.

1191
01:02:16,958 --> 01:02:18,750
And the combination
of these patterns

1192
01:02:18,917 --> 01:02:21,167
plus the shape, uh,
gives us, uh, something

1193
01:02:21,292 --> 01:02:24,042
that we can call
an invisibility cloak.

1194
01:02:24,208 --> 01:02:25,792
The idea behind the cloak
is that it, uh,

1195
01:02:25,917 --> 01:02:28,000
renders something
inside of it invisible

1196
01:02:28,125 --> 01:02:29,875
and itself invisible as well.

1197
01:02:30,042 --> 01:02:31,667
NARRATOR:
At present,

1198
01:02:31,792 --> 01:02:34,208
the device
only makes objects disappear

1199
01:02:34,375 --> 01:02:36,333
at microwave frequencies,

1200
01:02:36,458 --> 01:02:40,208
but Dr. Smith believes
that soon this technology

1201
01:02:40,375 --> 01:02:42,750
will also be able
to make objects invisible

1202
01:02:42,958 --> 01:02:45,125
to even the human eye.

1203
01:02:46,083 --> 01:02:47,667
SMITH:
Just in the last year or two,

1204
01:02:47,833 --> 01:02:49,542
there have actually been
experiments showing

1205
01:02:49,708 --> 01:02:51,792
certain i-- of
the cloaking ideas transitioning

1206
01:02:51,958 --> 01:02:54,750
to the visible spectrum:
red, green, blue.

1207
01:02:54,917 --> 01:02:57,750
Those experiments
are actually being done now.

1208
01:02:57,875 --> 01:02:59,958
We will have invisibility cloaks
at some point

1209
01:03:00,083 --> 01:03:02,167
that we could wear as humans.

1210
01:03:02,333 --> 01:03:04,500
I definitely think we're gonna
get there because science

1211
01:03:04,708 --> 01:03:06,917
and speculative science
go hand in hand.

1212
01:03:07,083 --> 01:03:09,208
Um, science creates
a base point,

1213
01:03:09,417 --> 01:03:12,500
speculative science pushes it
farther into the future.

1214
01:03:12,667 --> 01:03:15,250
And that's how
technology advances.

1215
01:03:17,375 --> 01:03:20,042
NARRATOR:
An actual cloak of invisibility?

1216
01:03:20,208 --> 01:03:24,250
Though still in development,
researchers in Japan

1217
01:03:24,375 --> 01:03:27,000
have designed
an optical camouflage system

1218
01:03:27,208 --> 01:03:30,958
that makes special reflective
material seemingly disappear,

1219
01:03:31,125 --> 01:03:33,458
including the person wearing it,

1220
01:03:33,583 --> 01:03:36,333
thus bringing us closer
to achieving

1221
01:03:36,500 --> 01:03:39,125
a fully functional
invisibility cloak,

1222
01:03:39,292 --> 01:03:43,208
like the one described
in the story of Gyges.

1223
01:03:45,708 --> 01:03:47,000
Could this mean that other

1224
01:03:47,208 --> 01:03:49,958
seemingly far-fetched
devices of fantasy,

1225
01:03:50,125 --> 01:03:54,500
like flying carpets
and magic wands...

1226
01:03:55,625 --> 01:03:57,583
...are also based on science?

1227
01:03:57,750 --> 01:04:02,375
And if so, might they have
been used in the ancient past,

1228
01:04:02,500 --> 01:04:06,583
perhaps in the hands
of extraterrestrial visitors?

1229
01:04:07,583 --> 01:04:12,167
Just because we are working
on these technologies today

1230
01:04:12,333 --> 01:04:16,125
does not mean
that we are the first.

1231
01:04:17,958 --> 01:04:21,500
Because we find
multiple references

1232
01:04:21,708 --> 01:04:26,000
in ancient texts
that describe devices

1233
01:04:26,125 --> 01:04:30,125
with which you were able
to go invisible.

1234
01:04:31,875 --> 01:04:33,417
DAN DIDIO:
So much of our storytelling,

1235
01:04:33,542 --> 01:04:37,042
deals with the fact
that what we deem to be magic

1236
01:04:37,208 --> 01:04:39,750
can really be science
at a different time.

1237
01:04:40,750 --> 01:04:44,125
NARRATOR:
If legendary tales like
the story of King Gyges

1238
01:04:44,292 --> 01:04:47,500
could be proven to be real,
what does it suggest

1239
01:04:47,667 --> 01:04:51,500
about other fantastic stories
of gods and titans?

1240
01:04:55,583 --> 01:04:57,750
NARRATOR:
Hisarlik, Turkey.

1241
01:04:58,708 --> 01:05:03,625
Within this archaeological site
lie the ruins of Troy,

1242
01:05:03,833 --> 01:05:06,792
a place once thought
by mainstream scientists

1243
01:05:06,958 --> 01:05:09,125
to be no more than myth,

1244
01:05:09,250 --> 01:05:14,583
until Heinrich Schliemann
unearthed its remains in 1871.

1245
01:05:16,042 --> 01:05:19,125
Here in the 12th century BC,

1246
01:05:19,333 --> 01:05:22,917
the ancient Greek city was
the center of the Trojan War,

1247
01:05:23,083 --> 01:05:26,167
a Greek battle
described in Homer's Iliad.

1248
01:05:27,792 --> 01:05:29,667
According to the epic poem,

1249
01:05:29,833 --> 01:05:32,917
the goddess Athena
gives King Diomedes

1250
01:05:33,083 --> 01:05:36,042
the power of divine vision
during the war

1251
01:05:36,208 --> 01:05:39,000
so that he could see
like the gods.

1252
01:05:39,208 --> 01:05:41,167
RADER:
Athena comes down and she wants
to help the Greeks,

1253
01:05:41,375 --> 01:05:42,833
so she finds Diomedes, she says,

1254
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:44,500
"I'm gonna help you out here.

1255
01:05:44,708 --> 01:05:46,833
"So, what I'm gonna do
is strip away this mist

1256
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:48,583
"that's over your eyes.

1257
01:05:48,750 --> 01:05:49,958
"Right, you as a human being,

1258
01:05:50,125 --> 01:05:51,042
"you don't really know
what's going on.

1259
01:05:51,208 --> 01:05:52,583
"You just see battle.

1260
01:05:52,750 --> 01:05:54,167
"But once I strip away
this mist,

1261
01:05:54,375 --> 01:05:55,875
"you're gonna be able to see
what's really going on,

1262
01:05:56,042 --> 01:05:57,167
"which is that, in addition
to a battle going on,

1263
01:05:57,375 --> 01:05:59,708
there are gods fighting."

1264
01:05:59,833 --> 01:06:02,542
YOUNG:
King Diomedes sees that Ares,

1265
01:06:02,667 --> 01:06:06,292
the god of war, is fighting
alongside his enemy Hector,

1266
01:06:06,458 --> 01:06:10,375
and he was not to use
this sight to attack the gods,

1267
01:06:10,542 --> 01:06:13,500
but that is exactly
what he uses it for.

1268
01:06:14,458 --> 01:06:16,375
COPPENS:
The side aspect of this is this.

1269
01:06:16,542 --> 01:06:19,167
It's the question:
did the gods really have this?

1270
01:06:19,333 --> 01:06:22,333
Were they superhuman,
like we want to become?

1271
01:06:22,542 --> 01:06:25,583
Or did they have technology
which enabled them

1272
01:06:25,792 --> 01:06:27,125
to do these kind of things?

1273
01:06:28,958 --> 01:06:32,583
NARRATOR:
Diomedes and the gods' power
of super eyesight

1274
01:06:32,750 --> 01:06:35,167
may seem like pure fantasy,

1275
01:06:35,292 --> 01:06:39,042
but enhanced vision
is also becoming a reality

1276
01:06:39,208 --> 01:06:42,875
thanks to advancements
in spectrometer technology.

1277
01:06:43,917 --> 01:06:48,083
Spectrometers are devices used
to measure properties of light

1278
01:06:48,250 --> 01:06:51,167
over a wider range
of the electromagnetic spectrum

1279
01:06:51,292 --> 01:06:53,458
than is visible
with the human eye,

1280
01:06:53,583 --> 01:06:57,333
and today, just as we are
developing cloaking devices,

1281
01:06:57,500 --> 01:06:59,667
we are also
developing technology

1282
01:06:59,833 --> 01:07:02,333
to see through those devices.

1283
01:07:04,375 --> 01:07:07,708
SMITH:
Technology is driven
by society's needs,

1284
01:07:07,875 --> 01:07:09,500
uh, more than anything else.

1285
01:07:09,667 --> 01:07:12,083
But myths have
a way of inspiring us,

1286
01:07:12,250 --> 01:07:14,833
and, uh, they represent
a part of the imagination,

1287
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:16,875
which we need to even envision

1288
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:19,750
the next generation
of technologies.

1289
01:07:20,792 --> 01:07:25,250
VON DÄNIKEN:
If I dream I could go
to another galaxy,

1290
01:07:25,417 --> 01:07:28,833
I will sooner or later
go to another galaxy.

1291
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:31,125
We are the offsprings
of the gods,

1292
01:07:31,292 --> 01:07:34,000
and all these things
are in our brains.

1293
01:07:34,167 --> 01:07:36,667
We think we are very powerful.

1294
01:07:36,833 --> 01:07:38,458
In practice, we are not.

1295
01:07:38,625 --> 01:07:41,958
But we have technology
to develop the power,

1296
01:07:42,125 --> 01:07:44,333
because we are the sons
of the gods.

1297
01:07:45,375 --> 01:07:47,083
NARRATOR:
Could it really be
that the powers

1298
01:07:47,208 --> 01:07:49,625
once attributed
to the so-called gods

1299
01:07:49,792 --> 01:07:54,333
were, in fact,
misunderstood alien technology?

1300
01:07:55,625 --> 01:07:58,833
Perhaps the answers
can be found not in the past

1301
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:01,000
but in the present,

1302
01:08:01,208 --> 01:08:04,958
as modern-day advances
in science and technology

1303
01:08:05,125 --> 01:08:07,333
give us perhaps
our greatest evidence

1304
01:08:07,458 --> 01:08:11,333
that we have been here before.

1305
01:08:16,958 --> 01:08:19,167
NARRATOR:
The ability to fly,

1306
01:08:19,292 --> 01:08:22,458
to thrive underwater

1307
01:08:22,625 --> 01:08:26,750
and to travel through space
and explore the universe.

1308
01:08:28,250 --> 01:08:30,333
At one time
these were all believed

1309
01:08:30,542 --> 01:08:32,583
to be impossible notions.

1310
01:08:33,625 --> 01:08:38,458
Dismissed as mere
science fiction or myth.

1311
01:08:38,583 --> 01:08:42,333
But mankind's
continued advances in technology

1312
01:08:42,500 --> 01:08:47,042
have made the word "impossible"
almost obsolete.

1313
01:08:47,208 --> 01:08:49,792
In our modern world,
steroids can help

1314
01:08:49,917 --> 01:08:51,792
generate Herculean muscles.

1315
01:08:53,292 --> 01:08:56,708
Titanium joints
can replace and even improve

1316
01:08:56,875 --> 01:08:59,208
upon our own natural ones.

1317
01:09:00,542 --> 01:09:03,375
And even prosthetic gills
are being developed

1318
01:09:03,542 --> 01:09:06,208
so human beings
can breathe underwater

1319
01:09:06,333 --> 01:09:09,125
without the use of air tanks.

1320
01:09:12,375 --> 01:09:16,167
Today, government contractors
like Raytheon Sarcos

1321
01:09:16,333 --> 01:09:19,625
and Lockheed Martin
develop exoskeleton machines

1322
01:09:19,792 --> 01:09:21,667
for the U.S. military.

1323
01:09:26,375 --> 01:09:29,125
When worn,
they can allow soldiers to walk,

1324
01:09:29,333 --> 01:09:33,708
run and lift hundreds of pounds
with virtually no effort.

1325
01:09:35,542 --> 01:09:37,458
DIDIO:
What makes exoskeletons so cool

1326
01:09:37,625 --> 01:09:39,333
is that it's an everyman thing.

1327
01:09:39,500 --> 01:09:42,917
Anybody can p-put one on,
anybody can be the hero.

1328
01:09:43,083 --> 01:09:46,167
You can take a person with
any sort of physical weaknesses

1329
01:09:46,333 --> 01:09:47,833
and make them greater than
the person they're fighting.

1330
01:09:49,500 --> 01:09:52,167
GRESH:
Exoskeletons
would be a prime example

1331
01:09:52,292 --> 01:09:54,875
of something
coming out of comic books

1332
01:09:55,042 --> 01:09:57,000
into mainstream reality.

1333
01:09:57,083 --> 01:10:00,167
And in reality
exoskeletons are becoming

1334
01:10:00,292 --> 01:10:02,875
very popular with the military.

1335
01:10:04,208 --> 01:10:07,083
A soldier can wear
the Raytheon exoskeleton,

1336
01:10:07,250 --> 01:10:09,958
for example,
and lift 200 pounds.

1337
01:10:10,125 --> 01:10:12,042
NARRATOR:
While these modern-day supermen

1338
01:10:12,250 --> 01:10:14,958
may be limited
in their mobility,

1339
01:10:15,125 --> 01:10:17,000
the development of exoskeletons

1340
01:10:17,208 --> 01:10:19,500
represents
an incredible evolution

1341
01:10:19,708 --> 01:10:22,875
in the relationship
between man and machine.

1342
01:10:25,708 --> 01:10:30,167
But did such incredible
technology exist before?

1343
01:10:30,333 --> 01:10:33,875
Perhaps in mankind's
ancient past?

1344
01:10:35,167 --> 01:10:36,667
TSOUKALOS:
Now, is it possible

1345
01:10:36,833 --> 01:10:39,958
that some type
of exoskeleton technology

1346
01:10:40,083 --> 01:10:42,167
was used in the remote past--

1347
01:10:42,292 --> 01:10:44,583
for example,
on the Giza Plateau?

1348
01:10:45,625 --> 01:10:50,000
Imagine the operator of one
of those exoskeleton machines

1349
01:10:50,167 --> 01:10:51,958
coming out of that machine.

1350
01:10:52,125 --> 01:10:56,417
That person has superpowers,

1351
01:10:56,583 --> 01:11:00,750
even though the person
doesn't have any powers at all.

1352
01:11:00,917 --> 01:11:05,708
The person is only operating
sophisticated technology.

1353
01:11:06,750 --> 01:11:10,000
One could argue
that with all the advancements

1354
01:11:10,167 --> 01:11:12,500
we are making today in science

1355
01:11:12,625 --> 01:11:15,000
and all the other
academic fields,

1356
01:11:15,208 --> 01:11:18,417
we are becoming more godlike.

1357
01:11:19,375 --> 01:11:22,042
We are not becoming gods,

1358
01:11:22,208 --> 01:11:25,250
we are not turning
into real superheroes.

1359
01:11:25,417 --> 01:11:29,125
We are only becoming godlike

1360
01:11:29,292 --> 01:11:32,292
because of our technology.

1361
01:11:33,375 --> 01:11:35,458
GRESH:
I think we have
an innate need to, uh,

1362
01:11:35,583 --> 01:11:38,583
push our bodies and our minds
to the utmost limits

1363
01:11:38,750 --> 01:11:40,958
and strive
for superintelligence,

1364
01:11:41,167 --> 01:11:42,917
superstrength

1365
01:11:43,125 --> 01:11:44,750
and other superpowers.

1366
01:11:44,958 --> 01:11:47,708
The reason is that people
have long been fascinated

1367
01:11:47,917 --> 01:11:51,208
with what could be stronger
than humanity itself,

1368
01:11:51,375 --> 01:11:54,458
and if it's not human,

1369
01:11:54,625 --> 01:11:56,417
then it must come
from somewhere else,

1370
01:11:56,583 --> 01:11:59,458
either a god
or an extraterrestrial.

1371
01:12:01,542 --> 01:12:04,417
NARRATOR:
But with all
of his scientific achievements,

1372
01:12:04,625 --> 01:12:08,333
is mankind perhaps making
himself more and more vulnerable

1373
01:12:08,542 --> 01:12:12,208
to what could be
terrible consequences?

1374
01:12:12,417 --> 01:12:15,208
There are many tales
of ordinary mortals

1375
01:12:15,417 --> 01:12:18,000
ascending to, uh, become rulers,

1376
01:12:18,208 --> 01:12:21,708
to become gods, uh, various
positions of enormous power.

1377
01:12:23,708 --> 01:12:27,458
Often, these characters
then become corrupt.

1378
01:12:27,625 --> 01:12:30,000
And-and the stories
stick around and are retold

1379
01:12:30,125 --> 01:12:31,542
over a long period of time,

1380
01:12:31,708 --> 01:12:35,125
long after their sources
have, uh, withered away,

1381
01:12:35,250 --> 01:12:39,917
to teach us that power corrupts,
to be careful what you wish for,

1382
01:12:40,042 --> 01:12:45,083
and to be very cautious
if ever holding great power...

1383
01:12:46,292 --> 01:12:48,583
...because of its ability
to harm.

1384
01:12:49,625 --> 01:12:51,833
DIDIO:
Almost 50% of our stories
are about

1385
01:12:51,958 --> 01:12:54,625
technology run amok
or the dark side of technology.

1386
01:12:55,792 --> 01:12:57,667
Because when you talk
about superpowers,

1387
01:12:57,875 --> 01:12:59,958
when you talk about
all this transformation,

1388
01:13:00,125 --> 01:13:01,917
everything comes at a price.

1389
01:13:02,125 --> 01:13:03,833
And you always have to weigh
whether that price

1390
01:13:04,042 --> 01:13:06,875
is worthy or necessary to make
for the greater good,

1391
01:13:07,042 --> 01:13:08,500
and sometimes it's not.

1392
01:13:08,667 --> 01:13:10,833
Sometimes the price you pay
is just too great

1393
01:13:11,042 --> 01:13:12,375
when you lose your own self.

1394
01:13:14,167 --> 01:13:17,375
NARRATOR:
Are all of mankind's
scientific achievements

1395
01:13:17,542 --> 01:13:20,667
really examples
of emerging technology?

1396
01:13:20,875 --> 01:13:22,708
Or are humans

1397
01:13:22,875 --> 01:13:24,583
finally catching up
to the abilities

1398
01:13:24,750 --> 01:13:28,042
of beings
who have been here before?

1399
01:13:29,625 --> 01:13:32,500
Perhaps only time
and further advancements

1400
01:13:32,625 --> 01:13:35,458
in technology will tell.

1401
01:13:41,042 --> 01:13:43,333
The ancient astronaut theory
proposes that, long ago,

1402
01:13:43,542 --> 01:13:46,583
E.T.s modified the DNA

1403
01:13:46,708 --> 01:13:50,833
of one of our prehuman ancestors
to create humans.

1404
01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:52,500
And so the question is:

1405
01:13:52,708 --> 01:13:55,583
all these cases of modern-day
genetic engineering--

1406
01:13:55,750 --> 01:13:58,708
are they just examples
of alien reinvention?

1407
01:13:58,875 --> 01:14:01,500
It would seem so.
And we're now talking

1408
01:14:01,667 --> 01:14:05,792
about gene-splicing technology
to modify our bodies

1409
01:14:05,958 --> 01:14:07,833
and make them better
for space travel.

1410
01:14:08,000 --> 01:14:11,750
And we're looking at merging
our biology with technology,

1411
01:14:11,917 --> 01:14:14,000
basically to turn ourselves
into cyborgs.

1412
01:14:14,208 --> 01:14:18,500
Maybe this was our alien
ancestors' plan all along.

1413
01:14:18,708 --> 01:14:21,292
One day we would evolve
to jump-start civilization

1414
01:14:21,458 --> 01:14:24,500
on other planets ourselves.

1415
01:14:24,708 --> 01:14:26,500
PAUL VALLE: All right,
you want to go to Mars?

1416
01:14:26,667 --> 01:14:27,833
TRAVIS TAYLOR:
Sure, let's go to Mars.

1417
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:29,375
NARRATOR:
At the Johnson Space Center

1418
01:14:29,500 --> 01:14:30,750
in Houston, Texas,

1419
01:14:30,958 --> 01:14:33,250
aerospace engineer
Dr. Travis Taylor

1420
01:14:33,417 --> 01:14:36,667
meets with Paul Valle,
the project manager

1421
01:14:36,833 --> 01:14:40,042
for the Active Response
Gravity Offload System,

1422
01:14:40,208 --> 01:14:42,542
otherwise known as ARGOS.

1423
01:14:42,750 --> 01:14:45,458
Travis is eager
to experience firsthand

1424
01:14:45,625 --> 01:14:48,667
how space colonists
will be trained

1425
01:14:48,875 --> 01:14:52,042
in order to survive
in reduced gravity environments.

1426
01:14:52,208 --> 01:14:54,250
And now you are on Mars.

1427
01:14:54,417 --> 01:14:55,417
So, this is what Mars is like?

1428
01:14:55,583 --> 01:14:56,875
-Yep.
-I can jump...

1429
01:14:58,042 --> 01:14:59,833
Ah! A lot higher.

1430
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:03,375
So, if I were gonna try
and walk across Mars...

1431
01:15:03,542 --> 01:15:06,583
The ARGOS simulator
was amazing in giving me

1432
01:15:06,750 --> 01:15:08,625
some insight and realizing

1433
01:15:08,792 --> 01:15:11,167
it's not easy
to work on a planet

1434
01:15:11,333 --> 01:15:13,375
that isn't the planet
I came from.

1435
01:15:13,542 --> 01:15:16,500
If I was on Mars or the Moon
or anywhere else,

1436
01:15:16,708 --> 01:15:17,917
I'd have to completely retrain

1437
01:15:18,083 --> 01:15:19,417
my mind and body
for working there.

1438
01:15:19,583 --> 01:15:20,458
Yeah.

1439
01:15:20,625 --> 01:15:22,583
-(chuckles)
-Wow.

1440
01:15:22,750 --> 01:15:24,417
Whoa, getting up
is the hard part.

1441
01:15:24,583 --> 01:15:27,542
So, if any civilizations
have done that,

1442
01:15:27,750 --> 01:15:30,000
they would have had to do
the same type of training,

1443
01:15:30,167 --> 01:15:32,625
or when they got here,
they would be extremely clumsy.

1444
01:15:32,792 --> 01:15:34,250
-Yeah. (laughs)
-(grunts)

1445
01:15:34,417 --> 01:15:35,875
That's almost impossible.

1446
01:15:36,042 --> 01:15:37,500
-Yeah, now imagine doing it...
-Whoa! There we go.

1447
01:15:37,667 --> 01:15:38,917
(both laugh)

1448
01:15:39,042 --> 01:15:40,542
Now imagine doing it
with a space suit,

1449
01:15:40,708 --> 01:15:41,833
-life support.
-Hey, yeah, with the...

1450
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:43,125
-All that.
-Like the Michelin-- yeah.

1451
01:15:43,292 --> 01:15:44,625
You don't realize how much

1452
01:15:44,708 --> 01:15:46,750
you use gravity
to do everything.

1453
01:15:46,917 --> 01:15:48,458
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you don't
realize till it's gone.

1454
01:15:48,583 --> 01:15:49,875
Right.

1455
01:15:51,958 --> 01:15:54,708
NARRATOR:
Although recent NASA footage
of astronauts

1456
01:15:54,875 --> 01:15:56,667
doing somersaults in midair

1457
01:15:56,875 --> 01:15:58,958
and eating floating M&M's

1458
01:15:59,083 --> 01:16:01,500
paints a whimsical picture
of what it's like to live

1459
01:16:01,667 --> 01:16:04,167
in a low-gravity environment,

1460
01:16:04,333 --> 01:16:07,000
the lack of gravity can,
over time,

1461
01:16:07,167 --> 01:16:11,083
have a devastating and profound
impact on the human body.

1462
01:16:13,083 --> 01:16:15,500
What we have to do
when we decide to go to Mars

1463
01:16:15,708 --> 01:16:19,833
is really study all aspects
of human physiology.

1464
01:16:20,792 --> 01:16:22,792
How we're going
to operate in a gravity

1465
01:16:22,958 --> 01:16:25,083
that's much less than the Earth.

1466
01:16:25,292 --> 01:16:28,500
Our body will change
because of that environment.

1467
01:16:28,708 --> 01:16:30,833
We're doing research
in many ways right now,

1468
01:16:31,000 --> 01:16:33,333
studying the effects
of being weightless

1469
01:16:33,500 --> 01:16:35,542
and then coming back
to the Earth.

1470
01:16:35,708 --> 01:16:39,333
NARRATOR:
March 2, 2016,

1471
01:16:39,458 --> 01:16:41,417
Kazakhstan.

1472
01:16:41,542 --> 01:16:43,917
American astronaut Scott Kelly

1473
01:16:44,083 --> 01:16:48,625
returns to Earth after
a record-setting 360-day mission

1474
01:16:48,833 --> 01:16:52,042
aboard the International
Space Station.

1475
01:16:52,167 --> 01:16:55,000
The duration of the mission
was intended to help researchers

1476
01:16:55,125 --> 01:16:57,792
understand how prolonged
periods of time

1477
01:16:57,958 --> 01:17:00,917
in zero gravity
can affect the human body.

1478
01:17:01,958 --> 01:17:06,417
Scott's identical twin brother
Mark, also an astronaut,

1479
01:17:06,542 --> 01:17:08,750
served as a control subject.

1480
01:17:09,750 --> 01:17:11,625
Because of his twin's DNA,

1481
01:17:11,708 --> 01:17:14,042
which is, in theory,
identical to his,

1482
01:17:14,250 --> 01:17:16,625
they could then determine

1483
01:17:16,750 --> 01:17:19,500
what kind of DNA changes
had happened to him.

1484
01:17:19,625 --> 01:17:21,500
And what they discovered
was that

1485
01:17:21,708 --> 01:17:26,375
about seven percent
of his DNA had been altered.

1486
01:17:28,042 --> 01:17:30,208
NARRATOR:
Extensive post-mission lab tests

1487
01:17:30,375 --> 01:17:34,250
confirmed the astonishing
changes that had taken place.

1488
01:17:35,208 --> 01:17:38,375
Genes related
to Scott Kelly's immune system,

1489
01:17:38,583 --> 01:17:41,708
DNA repair,
bone formation networks,

1490
01:17:41,875 --> 01:17:44,667
his bloodstream,
and numerous other systems

1491
01:17:44,833 --> 01:17:46,792
have all been altered.

1492
01:17:49,625 --> 01:17:51,583
The startling results
prompt scientists

1493
01:17:51,750 --> 01:17:54,917
around the world to ask:
what are the implications

1494
01:17:55,042 --> 01:17:58,792
for humans who leave
Earth permanently?

1495
01:17:59,917 --> 01:18:02,500
So, I did a lot
of my early medical work

1496
01:18:02,625 --> 01:18:04,458
and medical research
on how the human body

1497
01:18:04,625 --> 01:18:07,417
adopts to space
as you go up into orbit.

1498
01:18:08,583 --> 01:18:10,458
So, we are gonna
begin to speciate

1499
01:18:10,625 --> 01:18:12,542
and form subspecies of humans

1500
01:18:12,708 --> 01:18:14,167
as we head off
towards the stars.

1501
01:18:14,375 --> 01:18:17,583
Perhaps we should
genetically modify ourselves

1502
01:18:17,708 --> 01:18:20,417
to thrive in outer space.

1503
01:18:21,625 --> 01:18:22,917
We're gonna have
to modify ourselves

1504
01:18:23,083 --> 01:18:24,833
to adjust
to different atmospheres,

1505
01:18:25,042 --> 01:18:29,333
cosmic rays, radiation,
you name it.

1506
01:18:30,792 --> 01:18:32,750
DIAMANDIS:
Do we want to use
gene-editing technology

1507
01:18:32,917 --> 01:18:36,625
to evolve ourselves
and to modify our DNA,

1508
01:18:36,750 --> 01:18:39,500
modify our bodies
to meet the needs of space

1509
01:18:39,667 --> 01:18:42,958
as the human race is moving
irreversibly off the planet?

1510
01:18:45,500 --> 01:18:50,167
Once you have the technology
to completely decode DNA

1511
01:18:50,333 --> 01:18:52,000
and-and recode it,

1512
01:18:52,208 --> 01:18:54,333
you also have
the technology, then,

1513
01:18:54,542 --> 01:18:56,667
to genetically alter

1514
01:18:56,875 --> 01:19:01,250
any human being
or any animal or plant.

1515
01:19:01,417 --> 01:19:04,833
And so, therefore, you're able
to genetically engineer

1516
01:19:04,958 --> 01:19:06,792
a humanoid species

1517
01:19:06,958 --> 01:19:10,917
that will be better adapted
to space travel,

1518
01:19:11,083 --> 01:19:14,833
better adapted to life
on a different planet.

1519
01:19:15,000 --> 01:19:17,750
Extraterrestrials coming here
in the ancient past

1520
01:19:17,875 --> 01:19:21,750
could have easily have done
exactly the same thing.

1521
01:19:22,833 --> 01:19:24,875
NARRATOR:
Could extraterrestrials
in possession

1522
01:19:25,083 --> 01:19:27,333
of this same
DNA-altering knowledge

1523
01:19:27,542 --> 01:19:30,417
have used it to aid
their colonization efforts

1524
01:19:30,583 --> 01:19:33,625
here on Earth
thousands of years ago?

1525
01:19:33,833 --> 01:19:36,167
An idea which once seemed absurd

1526
01:19:36,375 --> 01:19:40,958
now seems remarkably
and eerily plausible.

1527
01:19:41,083 --> 01:19:43,333
TAYLOR:
Could you go back in time

1528
01:19:43,542 --> 01:19:46,000
and look at something
like the prehuman creatures

1529
01:19:46,125 --> 01:19:48,542
and genetically modify them

1530
01:19:48,708 --> 01:19:51,917
and create
what has become Homo sapiens?

1531
01:19:52,083 --> 01:19:53,917
With our technology today,

1532
01:19:54,083 --> 01:19:58,167
we could pick
a near sentient creature

1533
01:19:58,333 --> 01:20:00,417
and start doing
genetic modifications on it

1534
01:20:00,583 --> 01:20:03,458
and create a new sentient race.

1535
01:20:05,500 --> 01:20:08,333
NARRATOR:
In addition to genetically
modifying the human body,

1536
01:20:08,500 --> 01:20:11,000
in order to make it better
suited for space travel

1537
01:20:11,167 --> 01:20:14,208
and colonization,
many experts propose

1538
01:20:14,375 --> 01:20:18,917
that there will also need to be
a merging of man and machine.

1539
01:20:19,958 --> 01:20:22,792
Genetically modified
space colonists, they argue,

1540
01:20:22,958 --> 01:20:25,833
will have to be fitted
with biomechatronic parts

1541
01:20:25,958 --> 01:20:27,792
in order to create a human

1542
01:20:27,958 --> 01:20:33,083
that is smarter, faster,
stronger and more durable.

1543
01:20:34,167 --> 01:20:36,000
LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
I've been talking
with some scientists,

1544
01:20:36,125 --> 01:20:39,500
and they say the next thing
that's going to be coming

1545
01:20:39,667 --> 01:20:42,458
is the cyborg evolution

1546
01:20:42,583 --> 01:20:46,417
of humanity for those
that are going to go into space.

1547
01:20:48,042 --> 01:20:49,750
KAKU:
We have this Hollywood image

1548
01:20:49,958 --> 01:20:51,833
that the aliens are gonna land

1549
01:20:52,042 --> 01:20:54,042
and they're gonna come out
looking somewhat like us.

1550
01:20:54,208 --> 01:20:57,667
And they'll say, "Take us
to your leader, earthman."

1551
01:20:57,875 --> 01:20:59,875
But I think
it could be quite different.

1552
01:21:00,042 --> 01:21:01,500
They could be part robotic.

1553
01:21:01,625 --> 01:21:03,250
Realize that they could be

1554
01:21:03,417 --> 01:21:06,333
thousands of years
more advanced than us.

1555
01:21:07,375 --> 01:21:09,833
TAYLOR:
If there is a culture out there
that's more advanced than us,

1556
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:12,542
they've already built
these robotic bodies,

1557
01:21:12,708 --> 01:21:14,500
why wait for them to come to us?

1558
01:21:14,667 --> 01:21:18,125
We have to become
a huge spacefaring culture,

1559
01:21:18,333 --> 01:21:20,917
a civilization to go out
and answer these questions

1560
01:21:21,083 --> 01:21:24,333
for ourselves instead
of just sitting on our hands

1561
01:21:24,500 --> 01:21:27,292
and waiting for them to give us
the answer someday.

1562
01:21:28,333 --> 01:21:31,333
NARRATOR:
In finding ways
to modify the human body,

1563
01:21:31,417 --> 01:21:36,333
is mankind really going
"where no one has gone before"?

1564
01:21:36,500 --> 01:21:40,333
Or are we simply
fulfilling our destiny,

1565
01:21:40,542 --> 01:21:43,000
one that stretches back
to the very beginnings

1566
01:21:43,167 --> 01:21:46,000
of human life here on Earth?

1567
01:21:47,042 --> 01:21:50,167
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

1568
01:21:50,375 --> 01:21:53,000
the more humans
venture into space,

1569
01:21:53,167 --> 01:21:57,042
the closer they will be to
discovering their true origins.

1570
01:21:57,208 --> 01:21:59,833
Not on Earth
but on an alien world

1571
01:22:00,042 --> 01:22:02,583
far, far away.

1572
01:22:04,542 --> 01:22:07,625
I think that one of the most
important contributions

1573
01:22:07,792 --> 01:22:09,208
of ancient astronaut theory

1574
01:22:09,375 --> 01:22:12,250
is the realization
that we're reinventing

1575
01:22:12,417 --> 01:22:15,333
technology today that existed
in the ancient world.

1576
01:22:15,458 --> 01:22:17,333
You know, and, uh,
King Solomon once said,

1577
01:22:17,458 --> 01:22:19,500
"There's nothing new
under the sun."

1578
01:22:19,708 --> 01:22:22,958
And it's like everything
that we are inventing today

1579
01:22:23,083 --> 01:22:25,167
existed in ancient times.

1580
01:22:25,333 --> 01:22:26,792
TSOUKALOS:
Right, and if the visitors

1581
01:22:26,917 --> 01:22:29,000
from back then
would be able to see

1582
01:22:29,125 --> 01:22:30,667
what we've accomplished today,

1583
01:22:30,833 --> 01:22:33,292
I think they would be
mightily proud,

1584
01:22:33,500 --> 01:22:36,083
because that is exactly
what they wanted.

1585
01:22:37,083 --> 01:22:41,583
For us to achieve
a high level of technology

1586
01:22:41,750 --> 01:22:44,417
to one day leave this planet,

1587
01:22:44,583 --> 01:22:47,792
to go out there,
to explore outer space.

1588
01:22:47,958 --> 01:22:50,667
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