Legendary weapons reborn in high-tech arsenals.
And mythical technologies rediscovered
through cutting-edge science.
For nearly two decades,
Ancient Aliens has traveled the globe,
exploring towering megalithic structures,
mysterious artifacts
and stories of otherworldly beings
in a quest for evidence that might reveal the truth
of our extraterrestrial origins.
We're reinventing technology
today that existed in the ancient world.
NARRATOR: Now, we take a look back
through the Ancient Aliens archives
to the show's very origins
to examine the evidence that we are not alone.
We have never been alone.
As an ancient astronaut theorist,
I find it fascinating
how many ancient stories of devices sound
eerily similar
-to modern-day technology. -DAVID CHILDRESS: Yeah.
You can find detailed descriptions of flying machines,
energy beam weapons
and even acoustic levitation technology.
Yeah, so you have to ask, are the technologies
that we're developing today
reinventions of what existed on our planet
thousands of years ago?
We talked about this in a season two episode
of Ancient Aliens called "Alien Tech."
NARRATOR: In the early morning hours of November 5, 2005,
the luxury cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit,
found itself under attack
by pirates in the waters off the coast of Somalia.
But the Somali bandits were successfully repelled
by a relatively new
and formidable defensive weapon--
a long-range acoustic device or LRAD.
Manufactured by the LRAD Corporation,
this sonic device can,
when focused on a target, produce a piercing sound
that can exceed 150 decibels,
enough to cause temporary blindness, nausea
and permanent hearing loss.
CHILDRESS: The U.S. Army used sonic weapons in Iraq.
They're used in crowd control.
There are certain types of low rumbles and signals
that will affect a person.
They make you feel sick.
NARRATOR: The LRAD is currently used by law enforcement,
the military and private security,
and is considered the ultimate in sonic weaponry.
(high-pitched beeping)
But is the LRAD really a 21st-century invention?
Or is there evidence that similar audio weapons existed
in ancient times?
Approximately 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem
lies the ancient ruins of the City of Jericho.
Here, archaeologists have uncovered evidence
of settlements dating back to 9000 BC.
According to the Hebrew Bible,
Jericho is believed to be where God spoke to Joshua,
the successor to Moses,
and instructed him
to march around the walled city once every six days
with seven priests carrying ram's horns
and followed by the Ark of the Covenant--
the golden chest containing the Ten Commandments.
Then, on the seventh day, under orders by God,
Joshua and the Israelites marched around the perimeter
of the city one last time...
(ram's horn blowing)
...but this time, they blew the ram's horns.
The walls of Jericho fell,
and the city was sacked.
DAVID WILCOCK: In the Old Testament,
you see very clear descriptions in Joshua 6
about the shofar,
which is described as a trumpet
that was used in the Battle of Jericho
to actually bring the walls down.
(shofar playing)
NARRATOR: To religious scholars,
the collapse of Jericho's walls was a miracle.
To most modern-day scientists and historians,
the destruction was most probably caused
by an earthquake.
But could it have been something else?
Could the Israelites have possessed
advanced sound wave technology?
If so, where did it come from?
JONATHAN YOUNG: In the scriptures,
we have a fascinating story
about the fall of the walls of Jericho.
The armies were told to circle the wall repeatedly,
and then finally blow their horns,
and down came the walls.
And we know there was a powerful presence.
The Ark of the Covenant,
this mysterious, sacred item was with them at all times,
which, of course, was part of the event
and part of the fall of the walls of Jericho.
(shofar playing)
CHILDRESS: The idea that some kind of sonic weapon was used
to destroy these huge, thick, ancient walls
to allow the Israelites to basically take over that city
is a fascinating one.
So what kind of technology were they using?
It sounds utterly fantastic to us
that they could've had some kind of advanced alien technology.
It's clearly what they're describing.
But there is little doubt
that the Ark of the Covenant was a weapon.
It was described as a weapon,
famously when the Israelites crossed over into Canaan,
and they had to pass by Jericho.
And it could be that there was some technology.
We do not know what that technology was,
but there was clearly an association between the ark
and the falling down of the walls,
and that's the reason that the ark was sent
around the periphery of the city.
NARRATOR: According to many ancient astronaut theorists,
Moses and the Israelites acquired a supernatural source
of energy at Mount Sinai.
This powerful energy source was later contained
in the Ark of the Covenant
and would have provided the kind of power necessary
to amplify Joshua's horns,
and make them into a powerful sonic weapon.
WILCOCK: What's interesting about the Battle of Jericho is
that this particular use of the shofar
clearly seems to be the same thing that we're seeing
with particle beam technology,
death ray technology, thunderbolt technology.
It very clearly seems
that once again we have an extraterrestrial technology
that the ancient people had at the ready
that they could use when needed for military campaigns.
NARRATOR: But even if the Israelites possessed some sort
of advanced, extraterrestrial technology,
could the amplified sound
of ram's horns really bring down stone walls?
According to scientist and former astronaut
Professor Taylor Wang,
recent research into the field of physical acoustics suggests
it is a distinct possibility.
Jericho, wall breaking apart.
If you said it has happened,
caused by acoustic, caused by sound,
well, the possibility has
to be somehow a resonance is built in that wall.
May not be the whole wall, maybe some of the structure material
when that resonance happens,
amplitude gets large enough.
Yes, it could destroy almost anything.
Because what the resonance does
is store enormous amount of energy.
So you keep on, keep on feeding it.
Eventually, it shatters everything.
MICHAEL DENNIN: When you want to know how powerful sound is,
you have to realize that the basic thing
that sound is is a pressure wave.
And it will come down to the amount of energy
you put into your sound wave, and whether or not
that particular pressure wave you generate will couple
or impact the thing you're trying to destroy.
You can make it quite powerful
'cause you can make a very high amplitude,
very large pressures in the sound.
It might be at a frequency or amplitude
where we no longer hear it as sound,
but from a physics point of view, it is still sound
because it's a pressure wave in the air.
So it can get quite destructive
if you put enough energy into it.
You could also think of it as a particle weapon
because you're moving air around,
and you would just need something to focus the sound,
which we know how to do.
And so that would give you a directed energy beam with sound.
NARRATOR: But if,
as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,
early civilizations had been able
to harness the power of sound for destructive purposes,
could there be evidence
that such technology might also have been used
for a more constructive purpose?
Might it help to explain the existence
of mammoth stone structures,
whose construction has baffled modern scientists for centuries?
NARRATOR: Mycenae.
In the second millennium BC,
this ancient fortress city dominated much
of Southern Greece.
Here, fortifications were built in a style known
as cyclopean masonry--
where huge limestone boulders were fitted tightly together
without the use of mortar.
The term "cyclopean" refers to the fact
that, according to ancient myths,
these Mycenaean fortifications were thought to be the work
of a strong, one-eyed race of giants known as the Cyclops.
PHILIP COPPENS: When you look at Mycenae in Greece,
you're confronted with an anomalous civilization really.
It is a city which people who looked at it said,
"Only the Cyclops could have built this."
The Cyclops is perhaps not by coincidence,
a mythical creature.
So, we really are confronted with the fact
that people are saying mankind could not have built this.
It has to have been something above, or other than man,
who has constructed these walls.
And when you look at the fact
that tons and tons and tons of stones have been used
in a way that really defies almost gravity.
And I think that's why we have to say
that Mycenae is definitely beyond human capability
of that specific time
and that specific period in Greek history.
TSOUKALOS: In Mycenae, Greece,
there is what's called the Treasury of Atreus.
And right in there, there is one stone
that has been hoisted over the entrance of that treasury,
and it weighs an estimated 250 tons.
It is perfect. Just unbelievable.
Now we would have difficulties
today moving that stuff around.
Now, I'm not saying that we today cannot do it.
I'm not saying that, but if we're struggling
with our modern technology,
is it really logical to suggest
that our ancestors did this with pivots,
and with little ropes, and with wooden rollers?
MIKE BARA: You look at all these ancient structures,
all over the world.
Mayan structures, pyramids, Greek temples.
You see all of these... these blocks
that are not only enormous.
It would be impossible to move them around
with anything but even our best technology today.
CHILDRESS: One of the great enigmas
of the megalithic buildings
around the world is that in many cases,
they're built with such large
and heavy granite or basalt stones,
even giant cranes would barely be useful
to lift some of these really large stones.
Such as the stones at Baalbek in Lebanon,
where you have just mind-bogglingly huge stones
that weigh, in some cases, over a thousand tons.
NARRATOR: But just how could ancient man have built
such colossal structures?
Were the stones really moved by beings with superhuman strength?
Or might the builders have had access
to an advanced, perhaps alien technology?
For ancient astronaut theorists, the key might be found
not by studying the laws of physics,
but by exploring the interdisciplinary science
of acoustics and the principle of acoustic levitation.
VALONE: Acoustic levitation is another way
that alien civilizations may have influenced our history.
And there is some evidence for that,
especially when you look at some of the research
that's been done in acoustic levitation
here in laboratories.
(high-pitched tone sounding)
WANG: This system is an acoustic positioning device.
And what happens inside,
we create an acoustic force field.
The force field is pushing everything toward the center.
And the force field can rotate, the force field can oscillate.
This ball is a fairly light material.
It's about ten grams, no more.
It's meant to be light.
But if you want to move the very heavy object, a large object,
what you really have to develop, in conjunction
with the acoustic positioning device,
is antigravity device.
Because acoustic position device,
really meant to fine-tuning of the force field,
but the system must be force free.
Otherwise, it won't be budged.
NARRATOR: But is it possible that early builders had access
to the kind of acoustic technology
that would allow for the transportation
and careful placement of mega-ton boulders
and stone blocks?
Ancient astronaut theorists believe
clues can be found in the myths
and tales of magic handed down throughout time.
TSOUKALOS: There are many ancient legends which suggest
that some of the monuments were built
with the help of acoustic levitation.
What the local legend of Stonehenge talks about is
that those big stones were transported
by way of levitation by none other
than Merlin, the wizard.
And he had a magical rod with which he pointed
at the stones,
and they would levitate and position into place.
It's a very fascinating story because we know
that some of these stones have been transported there
from as far away as 200 miles.
And ancient legends are a bridge
to finding what truly happened in our past.
BARA: There are lots of stories of stones being levitated,
all using the power of sound.
It's interesting as you read these stories of magic,
that you see that they have to use the chanting.
They have to chant certain spells, certain words.
Certain vibrational frequencies seem to create certain effects
in the physical realm.
To me, it makes complete sense that the use of a technology,
say, a magic wand of some kind, would be some sort of amplifier.
GEORGE NOORY: I mean, there's no way
that human beings, even 100,000 of them,
could pull these things.
They've done experiments by putting hands around blocks.
You can't get enough hands in there.
You can't get 200,000 hands to lift a block.
And once you roll it with all these people,
how do you move it?
I think the technology had to do with some kind of sound,
and they were able to just come up with some antigravity
and just move 'em into place.
NARRATOR: But did ancient aliens,
using antigravity and sonic levitation technology,
help early humans build the ancient wonders of the world?
WANG: Well, everything's possible.
We have no way to rule in, or rule out aliens
because human technology is very primitive at this stage.
And you look at Earth has only survived four billion years.
But there are planets
billions and billions of years ahead of us.
Their technology and their knowledge--
it can be so far ahead of us that we can't even imagine.
NARRATOR: If early civilizations
did possess the ability to levitate large solid objects,
might they also have had access
to other incredible technologies?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,
and suggest the evidence can be found
by examining a towering megalithic structure built
with extraordinary precision--
the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The megalithic structures of the ancient world
are astounding feats of engineering.
And many, like the Pyramids of Giza, are not just enormous,
but they're built with incredible precision.
Oh, absolutely, and when you're talking
about moving five-ton stone blocks and stacking them
hundreds of feet in the air,
that doesn't just require engineering,
-but also technology. -CHILDRESS: Yeah.
And some researchers have suggested
that the pyramids themselves
are technological devices.
We talked about this in the very first episode
of Ancient Aliens.
NARRATOR: Of all the ancient structures
located around the world,
perhaps none is more mysterious or as enduring
as the Great Pyramid at Giza.
At a height of 471 feet,
the Great Pyramid stood as the tallest structure
in the world until the completion
of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
But while other pyramids and temples contain walls filled
with hieroglyphics describing their purpose,
the Great Pyramid lacks even a single marking.
What was its function? Why was it built?
And what secrets remain hidden inside?
Nobody has been able to explain
the interior design of this pyramid.
It simply doesn't make sense according to our logic.
You have narrow tunnels that you have to crouch.
You emerge in grand galleries that are nine meters high.
You have chambers that are made of granite,
where granite doesn't come from in the area.
You have to ship the granite by barges 600 miles away.
TSOUKALOS: It's an anonymous site.
Not a single inscription.
Not a single hieroglyph.
Not a single anything.
It's just there.
DUNN: Some people speculated that it was a temple,
and an initiation chamber, where people would go
to the King's Chamber and become enlightened.
There are anecdotal reports
about people who have been inside the pyramid
and have come out absolutely shaken,
because it was haunted.
Egyptologists believe that the pyramids were built
to bury the dead pharaoh.
The problem with the accepted view is the fact
that not a single dead pharaoh's body
has been found inside a pyramid,
even when the pyramid was completely sealed,
i.e., not a single grave robber could've entered it.
The Egyptologists say it's to conceal the body.
Well, why advertise it?
I mean, there's nothing more visible
than a pyramid for miles.
And to this day, you would have thought,
in this modern age, with all the knowledge we have,
we should be able to explain this pyramid.
We cannot explain this pyramid.
NARRATOR: Engineering expert Christopher Dunn
has been on a personal quest
to unlock the secrets of the Great Pyramid
since the late 1970s.
According to him, there are specific clues
in the design and construction of this mega-monument
that can help answer exactly why it was built.
DUNN: When you look at the Great Pyramid,
and look at the culture that built it,
they're brilliant, brilliant engineers.
In fact, a lot of engineers say
we couldn't build the Great Pyramid today.
And it was built, supposedly, 4,500 years ago,
and it was built to the precision of a machine.
When I started to do the research,
and I examined the Great Pyramid
with the eye of functionality,
it was built like a machine,
perhaps it functioned like a machine.
NARRATOR: The interior design of the Great Pyramid
features four inclined air shafts
emanating from the King's Chamber
and the lower Queen's Chamber.
Like the Great Pyramid itself,
their presence and purpose cannot be easily explained.
The difficulty of building those shafts is incredible.
It's a bit like building a chimney
at an incline across a house.
I mean, as a construction engineer, that is a nightmare.
NARRATOR: In 2002, a team of engineers
and Egyptologists sent a small robot
into one of the air shafts connected
to the Queen's Chamber.
After 65 meters, a stone door blocked its path.
A hole was then drilled through it.
On the other side was a small room
with yet another door leading further up the shaft.
BAUVAL: Since the discovery of the door,
we've had every university, archaeologists,
anthropologists, every engineer you can think of,
nobody has been able to explain the purpose of these shafts.
NARRATOR: But were these shafts ever open?
And if they were,
what might they have been used for?
DUNN: The early explorers
that went into the Queen's Chamber found
that the walls were coated with a layer of salt.
That kind of gelled with a theory
that I had developed.
You had a dilute hydrochloric acid solution
coming down one shaft,
and hydrated zinc coming down the other shaft,
and when they combined in the Queen's Chamber,
they created hydrogen.
NARRATOR: Hydrogen. It is one
of the most powerful energy sources in the universe.
In the mid-19th century, it was hydrogen gas
that helped lift some of mankind's first airships,
called zeppelins, into the sky.
Today, it is used as a fuel to launch rockets into space.
And if, thousands of years ago,
the Great Pyramid was actually producing hydrogen,
that would make it one of the earliest power plants
known to man.
DUNN: The Giza power plant theory
is essentially the drawing of energy from the Earth
through the Great Pyramid,
and converting that energy into microwave energy.
So the chemicals actually come in
through the shafts into the Queen's Chamber.
And then they combine and mix, and hydrogen boils off.
The hydrogen is then lighter than air,
and it will flow into all the upper chambers.
The energy from the Earth
is then vibrating the whole pyramid.
The vibrations are picked up in the Grand Gallery.
So I proposed the Grand Gallery was a resonator hall,
and there are 27 pair of slots
that actually go up the length of the gallery,
and then the resonators were mounted in there vertically.
CHILDRESS: Christopher Dunn is theorizing
that with resonating galleries,
the pyramid shot a microwave out of one of the shafts.
And once you started up this power plant,
it would've gone on
for years, decades, even hundreds of years
without stopping, and creating a microwave.
And that was a usable energy that could be captured.
DUNN: Now, we can speculate where it goes from there.
It could be collected in the immediate vicinity,
or it could keep traveling off into space.
We don't know. That's the mystery.
NARRATOR: But if the Great Pyramid
was actually a power plant producing energy,
was it doing it alone?
Or was it part of a larger network?
And are there any clues that could tell us
what all of that energy was being used for?
(buzzing)
NARRATOR: Perhaps the 20th century's
most influential inventor was a Serbian-American
named Nikola Tesla.
(crashing, buzzing)
His patents on alternating electrical currents
and distribution helped establish
the commercial electricity industry.
He also made contributions to robotics,
radar and computer science.
But while Tesla can be credited for many scientific advances,
one idea that fell short was his attempt
to create a wireless electrical grid.
CHILDRESS: Tesla's project
was to have these towers
around the United States and around the world.
And they would broadcast electricity,
like a television station.
ROBERT H. FRISBEE: Instead of having
to string power lines all over the place,
you just transmit the energy
through the air, or through the ground.
(crackling)
FRISBEE: There were a number of demonstrations
of this device for wireless power transmission
during Tesla's lifetime.
So, we know the device worked.
It appears that he was using the conductivity
of the ground or the air to carry the electric current.
Basically, in the air, if you put enough voltage on it,
you'll get an arc across it.
I mean, you see that all the time
in a fluorescent light bulb.
In the ground, you have water, minerals, salts
that can also carry the ions along,
and therefore, carry the electric current.
NARRATOR: But while Tesla's power towers
proved popular in theory,
the project ended in financial failure.
But could Tesla's idea
of wireless electricity have been a rediscovery
of an ancient technology?
CHILDRESS: I believe
that what Tesla was doing was trying
to recreate what was an ancient power system
that was used around the world.
And the way they did this was the use of obelisks.
Obelisks as monolithic,
granite towers, which are one solid piece of crystal.
And the obelisks themselves were cut to special sizes
and tuned like a tuning fork.
NARRATOR: Could these ancient broadcast towers
really have sent electricity up into the atmosphere?
And if so,
how was the electricity generated?
Each of these obelisks would have required some kind
of generating power station
similar to what we have today.
Electricity is created by rotating magnetic fields.
So rotating magnetic fields generate AC power.
The very first power station was built
by Nikola Tesla at Niagara Falls.
You've got to have some sort of power
that's spinning the rotating fields.
And in this case, it would be water.
So every obelisk would've had
to have had a power station
similar to like the one at Niagara Falls.
It's generating power,
but the obelisk itself is putting the power
into the atmosphere, making it useable.
And this is similar to Christopher Dunn's theory
of the Giza power plant because he believes
that the Great Pyramid was actually sending
a microwave beam to a satellite
that was in orbit around the planet.
That satellite then could've been taking microwave power,
and then, it could transmit it again, in theory,
to some other location on the Earth,
such as, say a remote island,
like Easter Island or something like that.
From some of the descriptions of ancient flying machines,
it's possible that some form
of power beaming might have been used.
And in fact, for a lot of the schemes
that you see, it actually would make a lot of sense.
Because you could put the power-beaming station
on a mother ship in orbit.
You're just beaming energy to the vehicle,
where it's absorbed and turned into propulsion thrust.
It actually makes a lot of sense
because you're taking the energy system,
the power system, off of the vehicle
and locating it remotely.
NARRATOR: Were our ancestors capable
of these incredible achievements?
Or might they have come from another source--
one much more out-of-this-world?
CHILDRESS: Civilizations were much more advanced
than we give them credit,
and literally, as advanced as we are today.
BAUVAL: In my view, we need to take this seriously,
simply because of the scale of the work.
We're looking at monuments that took,
perhaps, a century to build.
Even today, we have difficulty in considering such a project.
DUNN: It just boggles the mind.
And really, to look at those artifacts
and to go back in time and say, "How did they do it?"
We are kind of
cracking the lid open a little bit and looking inside
to try and see just what happened in our history.
COPPENS: It's a question
which is a scientific question.
And you constantly have to ask it.
And the possible answer of
"have aliens visited in the past"
could be a potential "yes."
TSOUKALOS: We can look at these ancient monuments
and finally recognize
that all of this stuff was built
as a message for us to see
that our past is way different
than what we're being taught in school.
NARRATOR: Could it really be
that our remote past was powered
not by primitive tools, but by electricity?
And if so, are pyramids and obelisks what remain
of this forgotten technology?
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the answer is a resounding "yes."
And they suggest there is evidence
that our ancestors had access not only to wireless power,
but even nuclear energy.
to generateble
massive amounts of energy.
And it's not just in Egypt where we find evidence of this.
Right. In ancient India, for example,
you have these mysterious
stone sculptures known as Shiva Lingams.
And some Hindu scholars have proposed
that based on ancient Vedic traditions,
that these might represent some type
-of nuclear power. -HENRY: Right.
And there are thousands of these Shiva Lingam sculptures,
throughout, not just India,
but Asia, as well.
We talked about this in a 2016 episode called
"Shiva the Destroyer."
NARRATOR: Sirsi, India.
Ten miles outside of this city in the southwestern state
of Karnataka, within the river Shalmala,
is one of the country's most popular pilgrimage sites--
Sahasralinga.
Hidden under these waters for most of the year
lie stone sculptures known as Shiva Lingams.
These sacred idols are representations
of the god Shiva,
and are visible to thousands of pilgrims once a year
at the festival of Maha Shivaratri.
Maha Shivaratri is a festival where Shiva is worshipped
for his great nature.
Maha Shivaratri is usually held
in the end of February or beginning of March.
During that month,
the water level of the Shalmala River drops down
so that all the Shiva Lingas are exposed.
LAYNE LITTLE: Shiva's depicted as the Shiva Linga,
as kind of a spherical column,
the flaming pillar that is the cosmic axis of the universe.
Every Shiva Linga
that's in worship is set into a yoni.
This is a... a special base,
and it actually serves kind of a utility of function.
It's a spout so that when you pour offerings
over the surface of the linga, they wash over the sacred body.
Images of the Shiva Linga are found throughout Southeast Asia,
even in parts of East Asia.
Sometimes images of Shiva as the Lingam also made its way
into China and into Japan.
NARRATOR: The Shiva Lingam first appeared over 2,000 years ago,
and there is still debate
over what this shape was originally meant to symbolize.
But ancient astronaut theorists suggest
that the icon may represent
an incredibly powerful technological device.
Paris, France, 1900.
At the Paris Congress of History of Religions,
Swami Vivekananda, a scientist and monk
credited with popularizing Hinduism in the West,
gives a lecture addressing the meaning of the Shiva Lingam.
HENRY: For centuries, Western scholars have assumed
that Shiva Linga has purely a sexual connotation.
The cylinder is the male phallic symbol,
and the yoni is the complimentary female symbol.
Then in 1900, the Hindu scholar Swami Vivekananda came to Paris
to deliver a major lecture about Hinduism and symbolism.
During this lecture, he said
that the Shiva Linga actually symbolizes the coming in
or going out of the divine manifesting energy of Shiva.
DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: It stands for energy.
And it has often been misrepresented
in the West that it is simply a phallic symbol
of Shiva, which is not the case.
It is obviously a pillar.
"Linga" means "a pillar."
Modern Hindu scholars have theorized
that the Shiva Lingam stone
actually represents atomic energy.
When we think about this idea of what atomic energy can do,
how it can be used for good,
but it can be extraordinarily destructive,
this certainly pertains to the mythology of Shiva,
who is chaotic energy,
who is a force for incredible good,
but also a force for incredible destruction.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that this symbol of Shiva's power
actually represents atomic energy?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,
and suggest the proof can be found
by examining this mysterious shape.
PRAVEEN MOHAN: The cylindrical structure of the Shiva Linga
is similar or almost identical
to a modern-day nuclear reactor.
And the groove that surrounds the base represents
the structures built to dispose of the polluted water.
In ancient times and even today,
Hindus pour water or milk
on top of Shiva Linga as a ritual.
Today, we pour water over the top
of nuclear reactor to cool it.
And interestingly,
most Shiva temples are always found near water bodies,
like rivers or lakes, just like nuclear power plants.
So is it possible
that Shiva Linga actually represents
an ancient nuclear power plant?
HENRY: In the story of Shiva and the Shiva Linga,
we're obviously dealing with some kind
of a universal or cosmic power
that we didn't fully understand until the 20th century,
with the discovery of nuclear power and nuclear fission.
These discoveries that predate modern man
are completely changing our conception
of the ancient past and connecting us
to the true history of humanity.
NARRATOR: Does the Shiva Lingam symbolize
an extraterrestrial technology that once existed on Earth?
If so, might modern science be less about invention,
and more about remembrance?
Perhaps further evidence can be found
by exploring the technological ambitions
that have propelled us into space.
If you want evidence that our modern technology is
reinventing what existed on this planet thousands of years ago,
just look at all the ancient accounts of flight.
So many cultures described flying machines
that you have to believe
our ancestors actually witnessed these things.
Yeah, you have chariots of fire described in the Bible,
vimanas in ancient Hindu texts, and we have
countless stories of fire-breathing dragons.
Right. And when I hear stories
of fire-breathing dragons, then my ears perk up.
Because if you witness a rocket launch
or you see a jet streak across the sky,
what do you see coming out of its back? Fire.
NARRATOR: Merritt Island, Florida.
The Kennedy Space Center.
Six Earth astronauts sit atop NASA's Endeavor Space Shuttle
headed for orbit.
After countdown,
three main engines, together with two solid rocket boosters,
provide the thrust to lift the orbiter off the ground
for its ascent.
ANNOUNCER: And liftoff of shuttle Endeavor.
TSOUKALOS: I urge everyone to be part, one day,
of a rocket launch because it is a life-altering moment.
When you stand there, a few miles away,
you can still feel the power
as that rocket takes off into space.
The grumbling in your stomach, the vibrations,
and you can hear the noise.
And it's a truly magnificent sight
and awe-inspiring.
NARRATOR: But are manned space flights
really a recent phenomenon?
Or could our ancient ancestors have witnessed similar events?
NOORY: There is no doubt
that if we thoroughly investigate this planet,
they will find that this planet
may have already been to the Moon
way before we went to the Moon with a man in 1969.
TSOUKALOS: The interesting thing is
that we have the exact same descriptions in ancient texts
and also in oral traditions,
where, whenever those "gods" appeared,
there was a lot of smoke, a lot of fire,
a lot of noise, and the trembling of the ground.
When rockets are taking off,
it's best to stand back and get out of the way.
And that's a lot of what
the ancient legends are about, too.
When the gods came and went,
may well have been just these rockets
or other aerospace vehicles landing and taking off
and-and making a lot of smoke and noise.
NARRATOR: But could early man
really have had knowledge of rocket technology?
To make their case, ancient astronaut theorists
point to numerous and consistent descriptions of rockets
found throughout many cultures of the ancient world.
STEVEN GREER: When you're dealing with this subject and you look
at the ancient literature, you have to look at it
through the lens of: how was it being experienced
by a civilization with no foundation
for understanding the science, the technology?
And so, I think, in ancient times
there were people who had encounters.
And-- however, I think the way they might have been reported
would have been in metaphors.
In ways that would have made sense to them.
CHILDRESS: In China, you have these stories
of dragons flying through the air.
They make a lot of noise, and smoke comes out of them,
and fire, just like a rocket.
TSOUKALOS: The first emperor of China descended
in a fiery dragon
with smoke and fire.
And whenever that dragon appeared,
the-the earth was quaking and everyone was afraid
and-and threw themselves to the ground.
Now, of course, it wasn't a dragon
in a biological nature, a living being,
but it was a misinterpreted machine.
BARA: If you look at the Greek gods, they were all described
as flying in on chariots of fire.
Well, "chariot of fire," to me, seems very clearly
like it's some sort of rocket,
probably burning its retros as it lands
somewhere in ancient Greece.
In the Old Testament, we can read about
a glowing furnace that descended from the sky.
And sometimes this glowing furnace
is described as a chariot of fire...
...or as the glory of the Lord.
So, there are all these different descriptions,
which, in the ancient astronaut opinion,
describe ancient rocketry.
NARRATOR: From 5000 to 2000 BC,
southern Mesopotamia was home to the Sumerians,
a highly advanced civilization
considered to be among the first astronomers.
Regarded as one of the oldest written stories in history,
the Epic of Gilgamesh
told of a man's journey to the heavens
to meet the god Anu.
ERICH VON DÄNIKEN: The Gilgamesh epic, which goes back to the Sumerian,
that's a-a piece where the hero Gilgamesh
flies over the Earth.
And he describes how the Earth looks from above.
Fascinating. An old story of the first flight.
JASON MARTELL: The most ancient civilization that we have on record,
the Sumerian culture, has left us evidence
of what's called a Shem.
And this object looks very similar
to a modern-day space capsule
that we place on top of a rocket.
And this Shem is where priests would go into the Shem
to interact with the gods.
Or any time man was ascending or descending into heaven.
So it's a very interesting term
used from a culture dating back to 3800 BC
and very clearly matches
the descriptions of a modern-day rocket.
NARRATOR: Could early man have actually possessed
a surprisingly sophisticated understanding
of what we now call rocket propulsion?
In the first century AD,
nearly 2,000 years before the Industrial Revolution,
a Greek mathematician and engineer named Hero
created a steam-powered engine he called an aeolipile.
CHILDRESS: One of the great inventors of the ancient world
was the famous Hero of Alexandria.
He invented all kinds of stuff.
He actually invented what we would describe
as a rocket-type motor.
And, really, something like this is
the beginnings of rocket technology,
and we don't know where Hero got many of his ideas,
but it may well have come from aliens.
NARRATOR: John Robert Tindall,
founder of Tindall Vision Laboratories,
demonstrates a small-scale replica of Hero's aeolipile.
JOHN ROBERT TINDALL: Now, a conventional steam engine
that we think of has pistons that-that get its power,
but aeolipile uses these, uh, opposing jets.
So it's creating thrust, and rather than, uh,
thrust in-- like a rocket
would use it in a linear fashion,
this is causing a rotational effect.
And there's your, uh, your steam turbine, really,
working off of thrust.
Now, this is operating much as it did
in the first century AD.
This is generally considered to be
the first working steam engine.
It works more like a turbine
than a classic steam engine with pistons,
but it's very significant
because it really is taking a--
whoa-- a compressed gas-- ha--
and turning it into energy.
Wow! That has a lot of energy. Steam.
NARRATOR: The name for Hero's steam rocket engine,
aeolipile, translates to "the ball of Aeolus."
In Greek mythology, Aeolus was the god of the winds.
Is it possible that Hero drew inspiration
for his invention from the stories of the gods,
such as those found in Homer's The Odyssey?
Or might he have had help...
...from the gods themselves?
TSOUKALOS: Some have suggested that it was alien intervention,
that aliens taught him how to build this machine.
However, I'm leaning more
towards the idea that he looked at older texts
from previous generations
and that the source of the idea
of how to build this did come from extraterrestrials
but from way before he was alive,
and he just came across those texts.
NARRATOR: But do the descriptions of rockets
and otherworldly devices
found in ancient texts and legends
provide evidence of extraterrestrial encounters
in the distant past?
Perhaps the answer will be discovered
in an unlikely place:
in the hands of the U.S. military.
Some of the most compelling pieces of evidence
we can find of advanced ancient tech
comes in the form of descriptions of weaponry.
Because some of the weapons that the so-called gods
had in their possession sound eerily similar
to the weapons that we are developing today.
Yeah, just look at the Sanskrit texts of ancient India.
They're talking about things
like missiles that detect heat or motion,
weapons of mass destruction,
-even energy beams. -CHILDRESS: Right.
And in ancient Greece, we have accounts
of a giant mirror
that acted like some sort of death ray,
which sounds a lot like the technology
that the U.S. military's developing today.
NARRATOR: May 2010,
off the coast of California.
A powerful new weapon
shoots down unmanned aerial drones
during secret testing carried out by the U.S. Navy.
Firing from a warship
at a distance of nearly two miles,
a ray of intense laser energy
burns through targets traveling at speeds
of more than 300 miles per hour.
But is it possible that such so-called death rays
could have been used before?
Perhaps in ancient times?
I am quite convinced that there have been, in-in the past,
advanced civilizations on Earth
that did have such things as the so-called death ray.
Whether it was used as a weapon
or whether it was just observed being used
is a very, very open question.
NARRATOR: In 214 BC,
Greeks living in the Sicilian city of Syracuse
prepared for an attack by a fleet of Roman warships.
Though outnumbered by a superior military force,
ancient texts suggest that Syracuse was well defended
by a mysterious and powerful new weapon.
Probably the most famous ancient death ray
was the one that was built by the Greek inventor Archimedes.
He was able to create this giant mirror
and parabolic disc
and focus the Sun's rays on the fleet
and set these ships on fire.
So, here we have what would be a primitive kind
of death ray that really worked.
NARRATOR: But how could Archimedes
have conceived such a formidable weapon?
One far in advance of any known at that time?
Researchers suggest the inventor may have drawn inspiration
from Greek myths written nearly 600 years before
the battle of Syracuse.
Myths that told the stories of gods
that brandished cosmic weapons of incredible destructive force.
WILCOCK: If you look in the Greek tradition,
they have a very clear description
of Zeus's thunderbolt...
...which he was able to point at people
or at other things that he wanted to explode,
hit the button, and what they described as lightning
would come out and create a fierce and terrible explosion.
When these ancient gods, like Zeus,
were to come down from the sky...
...in this flurry of-of thunder and lightning
and then get out of their spacecraft,
they were perceived as gods.
These ancient aliens had fantastic technology
available to them, a technology that would have seemed
like magic to our primitive ancestors.
So, when these people came down from the sky,
and they had advanced energy weapons,
they were like gods to our ancient ancestors.
TSOUKALOS: It doesn't matter where you go,
but the gods were always able
to create thunder, create lightning
in a controlled way.
In ancient India,
we have the gods
holding the dorje sometimes like this,
and it looks as if some type of a directed energy beam
comes directly out of the front
to vanquish the enemy,
to destroy him, to incinerate him.
NARRATOR: But if death ray-type weapons had been used in ancient times,
might there be some sort of tangible proof?
Perhaps there is.
Here, scattered throughout the Scottish countryside,
can be found numerous ancient ruins.
Many appear to have been forts or other enclosures
dating back thousands of years.
Remarkably, they also appear
to have been subjected to fire and heat so intense,
it practically turned the stone structures into glass.
It's a process more scientifically known
as vitrification.
Here you have these stone buildings
in which an analysis of the outside
comes to the conclusion that they were heated
to over 1,000 degrees Celsius in temperature.
Conventional fire could not have reached this heat.
You needed a sustained burn at 1,000 degrees Celsius
for a long period of time.
Why is it that it's only these forts
that have this type of charring,
where they're actually glazed like pottery on the outside?
Why is it that you don't see it
on the stones in the surrounding area?
And even more interestingly, why is it that so many of them
are concentrated into this one little area
in Northern Scotland?
I believe this is very clear evidence
of death rays being used.
NARRATOR: According to Celtic legend,
there once was a god named Lugh...
...also known as "the shining one,"
the sun god, and the god of war.
Like the Greek god Zeus,
Lugh was said to wield a mighty magic spear
not unlike the thunderbolts of his Greek counterpart.
YOUNG: We have many stories of divinities
who were powerful figures who had weapons
that seem extraordinary, uh, for their time.
One was the great, uh, Celtic divinity Lugh,
who had a spear that could spit fire and lightning
and do great damage. It was an extraordinary weapon.
We don't have a great deal of detail about it,
but it clearly could dominate any situation that he got into.
When battle was near,
Lugh would draw out his spear, and it roared,
and then flashes of fire came out of it
and it tore through the ranks of the enemy,
never tired of killing and slaying.
It was one amazing weapon.
I mean, how else can we explain
all those numerous vitrified forts
where the surface of the stone is as smooth as glass?
And these spots can only be found
in very concentrated areas through Northern Scotland.
Is it possible that what the Celtic legends
are describing as Lugh is, in fact,
an alien general or other kind of extraterrestrial leader
in possession of a devastating weapon?
TSOUKALOS: All these descriptions of sophisticated weaponry
sounds almost like science fiction.
But is it, really?
Because we have those weapons today.
And I think it is merely a reinvention of history,
that all the stuff that we have today
has been around before
and that our past is not science fiction
but science fact.
NARRATOR: Deadly laser beams.
Acoustic levitation.
Antigravity.
Could these be technologies that were witnessed
and even used by ancient civilizations?
If so, were they conceived in the minds of early man?
Or did they have otherworldly origins?
Perhaps further clues can be found
by examining godlike powers
that are now becoming our reality.
One thing that's surprisingly widespread in ancient traditions
is the idea of cloaking technology.
And we have so many stories of gods or heroes
having a device that makes them invisible.
Yeah, like the ancient Greek story of Gyges.
He comes upon this magic ring
that makes him invisible,
-then he uses it to become king. -TSOUKALOS: Right,
and this likely would have seemed like magic
to our ancestors, but today we know
it was likely some type of a tech device,
because today we are developing
the exact same cloaking mechanisms.
In fact, we covered this in a season three episode
of Ancient Aliens called "Aliens, Gods and Heroes."
NARRATOR: Lydia, 716 BC.
Gyges, a shepherd in the service of King Candaules,
becomes the unlikely successor to the throne
of this ancient kingdom in modern-day Turkey.
But the story of how this modest servant
rose from a shepherd to a king is so fantastic
that many scholars and historians
have dismissed it as mere myth.
Gyges is out in the field
and there is a terrible earthquake.
He sees a cave open,
goes into that cave and sees a gold ring.
RICHARD RADER: He just kind of walks into, like, this chamber,
which is like a tomb where he sees a-a dead body
that's got some jewelry on it.
So he grabs this ring off of it because he's a poor man.
He puts the ring on and discovers that it gives him
the power to be invisible.
Here he has the-the kind of power a god would have.
And does he use it well? Well, actually,
it's a little questionable how he uses it.
He comes up with a plan.
The next time he goes to visit the king,
he brings that ring with him, turns himself invisible...
...seduces the queen...
...kills the king,
takes over the palace.
COPPENS: What we have here is, really, a multilayered legend.
We have not only the story of the fact
that somebody in the past had the cloak of invisibility
but actually that he did not invent this,
but that this was a legacy from a race
who had buried their dead and that alongside these dead
were artifacts which were technological.
What kind of a magical amulet or technology
are we talking about here?
Was this the ring of the gods
that's described by the ancient Sumerians
as the "ring of cosmic sovereignty"?
TSOUKALOS: When I read stories like Gyges of Lydia,
who has found this ring
which gave him the capability of becoming invisible,
then there are two things that I think of.
One, is it just fantasy?
Or do we have another reference here
that describes misunderstood technology?
Because today researchers at Duke University
are trying to develop an invisibility cloak.
NARRATOR: Duke University engineering professor David R. Smith
is the director of the Center for Metamaterial
and Integrated Plasmonics.
For the past decade,
Smith and his team have been working to create metamaterials,
or artificial materials that are not found in nature.
Just as a piece of glass can control the way light bends,
Smith has set out to prove that certain man-made materials
can actually be constructed to render objects invisible.
This is actually an example of a metamaterial.
This is, uh, a bunch of, uh, pieces of circuit board
all, uh, cut out and assembled together.
And on the circuit boards are little pieces of copper
that are tiny circuits.
And each circuit has a certain response
to electromagnetic radiation.
And the combination of these patterns
plus the shape, uh, gives us, uh, something
that we can call an invisibility cloak.
The idea behind the cloak is that it, uh,
renders something inside of it invisible
and itself invisible as well.
NARRATOR: At present,
the device only makes objects disappear
at microwave frequencies,
but Dr. Smith believes that soon this technology
will also be able to make objects invisible
to even the human eye.
SMITH: Just in the last year or two,
there have actually been experiments showing
certain i-- of the cloaking ideas transitioning
to the visible spectrum: red, green, blue.
Those experiments are actually being done now.
We will have invisibility cloaks at some point
that we could wear as humans.
I definitely think we're gonna get there because science
and speculative science go hand in hand.
Um, science creates a base point,
speculative science pushes it farther into the future.
And that's how technology advances.
NARRATOR: An actual cloak of invisibility?
Though still in development, researchers in Japan
have designed an optical camouflage system
that makes special reflective material seemingly disappear,
including the person wearing it,
thus bringing us closer to achieving
a fully functional invisibility cloak,
like the one described in the story of Gyges.
Could this mean that other
seemingly far-fetched devices of fantasy,
like flying carpets and magic wands...
...are also based on science?
And if so, might they have been used in the ancient past,
perhaps in the hands of extraterrestrial visitors?
Just because we are working on these technologies today
does not mean that we are the first.
Because we find multiple references
in ancient texts that describe devices
with which you were able to go invisible.
DAN DIDIO: So much of our storytelling,
deals with the fact that what we deem to be magic
can really be science at a different time.
NARRATOR: If legendary tales like the story of King Gyges
could be proven to be real, what does it suggest
about other fantastic stories of gods and titans?
NARRATOR: Hisarlik, Turkey.
Within this archaeological site lie the ruins of Troy,
a place once thought by mainstream scientists
to be no more than myth,
until Heinrich Schliemann unearthed its remains in 1871.
Here in the 12th century BC,
the ancient Greek city was the center of the Trojan War,
a Greek battle described in Homer's Iliad.
According to the epic poem,
the goddess Athena gives King Diomedes
the power of divine vision during the war
so that he could see like the gods.
RADER: Athena comes down and she wants to help the Greeks,
so she finds Diomedes, she says,
"I'm gonna help you out here.
"So, what I'm gonna do is strip away this mist
"that's over your eyes.
"Right, you as a human being,
"you don't really know what's going on.
"You just see battle.
"But once I strip away this mist,
"you're gonna be able to see what's really going on,
"which is that, in addition to a battle going on,
there are gods fighting."
YOUNG: King Diomedes sees that Ares,
the god of war, is fighting alongside his enemy Hector,
and he was not to use this sight to attack the gods,
but that is exactly what he uses it for.
COPPENS: The side aspect of this is this.
It's the question: did the gods really have this?
Were they superhuman, like we want to become?
Or did they have technology which enabled them
to do these kind of things?
NARRATOR: Diomedes and the gods' power of super eyesight
may seem like pure fantasy,
but enhanced vision is also becoming a reality
thanks to advancements in spectrometer technology.
Spectrometers are devices used to measure properties of light
over a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum
than is visible with the human eye,
and today, just as we are developing cloaking devices,
we are also developing technology
to see through those devices.
SMITH: Technology is driven by society's needs,
uh, more than anything else.
But myths have a way of inspiring us,
and, uh, they represent a part of the imagination,
which we need to even envision
the next generation of technologies.
VON DÄNIKEN: If I dream I could go to another galaxy,
I will sooner or later go to another galaxy.
We are the offsprings of the gods,
and all these things are in our brains.
We think we are very powerful.
In practice, we are not.
But we have technology to develop the power,
because we are the sons of the gods.
NARRATOR: Could it really be that the powers
once attributed to the so-called gods
were, in fact, misunderstood alien technology?
Perhaps the answers can be found not in the past
but in the present,
as modern-day advances in science and technology
give us perhaps our greatest evidence
that we have been here before.
NARRATOR: The ability to fly,
to thrive underwater
and to travel through space and explore the universe.
At one time these were all believed
to be impossible notions.
Dismissed as mere science fiction or myth.
But mankind's continued advances in technology
have made the word "impossible" almost obsolete.
In our modern world, steroids can help
generate Herculean muscles.
Titanium joints can replace and even improve
upon our own natural ones.
And even prosthetic gills are being developed
so human beings can breathe underwater
without the use of air tanks.
Today, government contractors like Raytheon Sarcos
and Lockheed Martin develop exoskeleton machines
for the U.S. military.
When worn, they can allow soldiers to walk,
run and lift hundreds of pounds with virtually no effort.
DIDIO: What makes exoskeletons so cool
is that it's an everyman thing.
Anybody can p-put one on, anybody can be the hero.
You can take a person with any sort of physical weaknesses
and make them greater than the person they're fighting.
GRESH: Exoskeletons would be a prime example
of something coming out of comic books
into mainstream reality.
And in reality exoskeletons are becoming
very popular with the military.
A soldier can wear the Raytheon exoskeleton,
for example, and lift 200 pounds.
NARRATOR: While these modern-day supermen
may be limited in their mobility,
the development of exoskeletons
represents an incredible evolution
in the relationship between man and machine.
But did such incredible technology exist before?
Perhaps in mankind's ancient past?
TSOUKALOS: Now, is it possible
that some type of exoskeleton technology
was used in the remote past--
for example, on the Giza Plateau?
Imagine the operator of one of those exoskeleton machines
coming out of that machine.
That person has superpowers,
even though the person doesn't have any powers at all.
The person is only operating sophisticated technology.
One could argue that with all the advancements
we are making today in science
and all the other academic fields,
we are becoming more godlike.
We are not becoming gods,
we are not turning into real superheroes.
We are only becoming godlike
because of our technology.
GRESH: I think we have an innate need to, uh,
push our bodies and our minds to the utmost limits
and strive for superintelligence,
superstrength
and other superpowers.
The reason is that people have long been fascinated
with what could be stronger than humanity itself,
and if it's not human,
then it must come from somewhere else,
either a god or an extraterrestrial.
NARRATOR: But with all of his scientific achievements,
is mankind perhaps making himself more and more vulnerable
to what could be terrible consequences?
There are many tales of ordinary mortals
ascending to, uh, become rulers,
to become gods, uh, various positions of enormous power.
Often, these characters then become corrupt.
And-and the stories stick around and are retold
over a long period of time,
long after their sources have, uh, withered away,
to teach us that power corrupts, to be careful what you wish for,
and to be very cautious if ever holding great power...
...because of its ability to harm.
DIDIO: Almost 50% of our stories are about
technology run amok or the dark side of technology.
Because when you talk about superpowers,
when you talk about all this transformation,
everything comes at a price.
And you always have to weigh whether that price
is worthy or necessary to make for the greater good,
and sometimes it's not.
Sometimes the price you pay is just too great
when you lose your own self.
NARRATOR: Are all of mankind's scientific achievements
really examples of emerging technology?
Or are humans
finally catching up to the abilities
of beings who have been here before?
Perhaps only time and further advancements
in technology will tell.
The ancient astronaut theory proposes that, long ago,
E.T.s modified the DNA
of one of our prehuman ancestors to create humans.
And so the question is:
all these cases of modern-day genetic engineering--
are they just examples of alien reinvention?
It would seem so. And we're now talking
about gene-splicing technology to modify our bodies
and make them better for space travel.
And we're looking at merging our biology with technology,
basically to turn ourselves into cyborgs.
Maybe this was our alien ancestors' plan all along.
One day we would evolve to jump-start civilization
on other planets ourselves.
PAUL VALLE: All right, you want to go to Mars?
TRAVIS TAYLOR: Sure, let's go to Mars.
NARRATOR: At the Johnson Space Center
in Houston, Texas,
aerospace engineer Dr. Travis Taylor
meets with Paul Valle, the project manager
for the Active Response Gravity Offload System,
otherwise known as ARGOS.
Travis is eager to experience firsthand
how space colonists will be trained
in order to survive in reduced gravity environments.
And now you are on Mars.
So, this is what Mars is like?
-Yep. -I can jump...
Ah! A lot higher.
So, if I were gonna try and walk across Mars...
The ARGOS simulator was amazing in giving me
some insight and realizing
it's not easy to work on a planet
that isn't the planet I came from.
If I was on Mars or the Moon or anywhere else,
I'd have to completely retrain
my mind and body for working there.
Yeah.
-(chuckles) -Wow.
Whoa, getting up is the hard part.
So, if any civilizations have done that,
they would have had to do the same type of training,
or when they got here, they would be extremely clumsy.
-Yeah. (laughs) -(grunts)
That's almost impossible.
-Yeah, now imagine doing it... -Whoa! There we go.
(both laugh)
Now imagine doing it with a space suit,
-life support. -Hey, yeah, with the...
-All that. -Like the Michelin-- yeah.
You don't realize how much
you use gravity to do everything.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you don't realize till it's gone.
Right.
NARRATOR: Although recent NASA footage of astronauts
doing somersaults in midair
and eating floating M&M's
paints a whimsical picture of what it's like to live
in a low-gravity environment,
the lack of gravity can, over time,
have a devastating and profound impact on the human body.
What we have to do when we decide to go to Mars
is really study all aspects of human physiology.
How we're going to operate in a gravity
that's much less than the Earth.
Our body will change because of that environment.
We're doing research in many ways right now,
studying the effects of being weightless
and then coming back to the Earth.
NARRATOR: March 2, 2016,
Kazakhstan.
American astronaut Scott Kelly
returns to Earth after a record-setting 360-day mission
aboard the International Space Station.
The duration of the mission was intended to help researchers
understand how prolonged periods of time
in zero gravity can affect the human body.
Scott's identical twin brother Mark, also an astronaut,
served as a control subject.
Because of his twin's DNA,
which is, in theory, identical to his,
they could then determine
what kind of DNA changes had happened to him.
And what they discovered was that
about seven percent of his DNA had been altered.
NARRATOR: Extensive post-mission lab tests
confirmed the astonishing changes that had taken place.
Genes related to Scott Kelly's immune system,
DNA repair, bone formation networks,
his bloodstream, and numerous other systems
have all been altered.
The startling results prompt scientists
around the world to ask: what are the implications
for humans who leave Earth permanently?
So, I did a lot of my early medical work
and medical research on how the human body
adopts to space as you go up into orbit.
So, we are gonna begin to speciate
and form subspecies of humans
as we head off towards the stars.
Perhaps we should genetically modify ourselves
to thrive in outer space.
We're gonna have to modify ourselves
to adjust to different atmospheres,
cosmic rays, radiation, you name it.
DIAMANDIS: Do we want to use gene-editing technology
to evolve ourselves and to modify our DNA,
modify our bodies to meet the needs of space
as the human race is moving irreversibly off the planet?
Once you have the technology to completely decode DNA
and-and recode it,
you also have the technology, then,
to genetically alter
any human being or any animal or plant.
And so, therefore, you're able to genetically engineer
a humanoid species
that will be better adapted to space travel,
better adapted to life on a different planet.
Extraterrestrials coming here in the ancient past
could have easily have done exactly the same thing.
NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrials in possession
of this same DNA-altering knowledge
have used it to aid their colonization efforts
here on Earth thousands of years ago?
An idea which once seemed absurd
now seems remarkably and eerily plausible.
TAYLOR: Could you go back in time
and look at something like the prehuman creatures
and genetically modify them
and create what has become Homo sapiens?
With our technology today,
we could pick a near sentient creature
and start doing genetic modifications on it
and create a new sentient race.
NARRATOR: In addition to genetically modifying the human body,
in order to make it better suited for space travel
and colonization, many experts propose
that there will also need to be a merging of man and machine.
Genetically modified space colonists, they argue,
will have to be fitted with biomechatronic parts
in order to create a human
that is smarter, faster, stronger and more durable.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE: I've been talking with some scientists,
and they say the next thing that's going to be coming
is the cyborg evolution
of humanity for those that are going to go into space.
KAKU: We have this Hollywood image
that the aliens are gonna land
and they're gonna come out looking somewhat like us.
And they'll say, "Take us to your leader, earthman."
But I think it could be quite different.
They could be part robotic.
Realize that they could be
thousands of years more advanced than us.
TAYLOR: If there is a culture out there that's more advanced than us,
they've already built these robotic bodies,
why wait for them to come to us?
We have to become a huge spacefaring culture,
a civilization to go out and answer these questions
for ourselves instead of just sitting on our hands
and waiting for them to give us the answer someday.
NARRATOR: In finding ways to modify the human body,
is mankind really going "where no one has gone before"?
Or are we simply fulfilling our destiny,
one that stretches back to the very beginnings
of human life here on Earth?
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the more humans venture into space,
the closer they will be to discovering their true origins.
Not on Earth but on an alien world
far, far away.
I think that one of the most important contributions
of ancient astronaut theory
is the realization that we're reinventing
technology today that existed in the ancient world.
You know, and, uh, King Solomon once said,
"There's nothing new under the sun."
And it's like everything that we are inventing today
existed in ancient times.
TSOUKALOS: Right, and if the visitors
from back then would be able to see
what we've accomplished today,
I think they would be mightily proud,
because that is exactly what they wanted.
For us to achieve a high level of technology
to one day leave this planet,
to go out there, to explore outer space.
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