NARRATOR: Reports of UFO sightings
come from all corners ofthe globe.
I was taken onboard a 200-foot-diameter spacecraft
in the Mojave Desert and given...
WOMAN: I saw two great big, real bright lights
hanging up in the air.
NARRATOR: Most believe these alien encounters
are a modern phenomenon,
but the fact is, they have been reported for thousands ofyears.
MICHAEL CREMO: Practically every human civilization
have been in touch with extraterrestrial beings.
In India, Israel.
The Mayans and the Aztecs.
LINDA HOWE: The idea that there was one or more non-human groups
inspiring us is the truth.
NARRATOR: Millions of people around the world
believe we have been visited in the past
by extraterrestrial beings.
But what if it were true?
Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history?
And if so, where did they come from?
And just who were the visitors?
(wind whistling)
NARRATOR: Roswell, New Mexico.
This sleepy town in America's Southwest
was once best known for its large military air base.
But that changed in 1947...
when a local rancher reported that a spaceship
crashed on his property.
Several weeks later, the U.S. Army issued a press release
confirming the existence of an alien craft.
The next day, the military changed its story
and announced that what they had found was a weather balloon.
These conflicting reports sent shock waves around the world,
and the name "Roswell" became a pop culture code word
that forever links extraterrestrial visitation
with enduring mystery.
NICK POPE: Speculation about why the Roswell crash
would be covered up is difficult to pin down.
Some people talk about this in terms of information
that would be shattering to ourworldview.
STEVEN GREER: Almost everyone's heard about
the so-called Roswell event.
And one ofthe real implications of disclosure is that
some of our most cherished myths
about the origins of the human race and our history
and archaeology would fall apart.
GEORGE NOORY: Something happened at Roswell, New Mexico
a long time ago.
People want the truth.
I think there's something in the human being itself
that is striving, that is hungry for this knowledge,
in order to answer questions about our own existence.
NARRATOR: Today, public opinion polls indicate
more than halfthe world's population believes
aliens have either come here in the past or are coming here now.
But what is it exactly
that makes so many people believe?
I do think looking upward makes sense.
The universe is large.
There are things out there we do not understand.
There is probably intelligent life somewhere.
ROBERT BAUVAL: People tend to forget that we're on a planet
that's four and a half billion years old.
The presence of our civilization in that vast scale oftime...
I mean, if I click my finger, it wouldn't even be fast enough
to say this is the time of our civilization.
And to think that we're the only ones
in this vast period oftime, to me, is absurd.
SARA SEAGER: Our galaxy, the Milky Way,
has over 100 billion stars.
And in our universe,
we think there are more than 100 billion galaxies.
So if every star had a planet with intelligent life,
how many alien civilizations would we have?
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Ifyou take us as the crown of creation,
or the top of evolution, we look at ourself
as the greatest, the biggest.
We say, how incredible, uh,
unique we are in the whole universe.
We forgot to learn modesty.
JENNIFER HELDMANN: Each step that we take makes us
a little bit less special.
We used to think that we were the center ofthe universe,
as humans, and then we realized,
oh, all right, well, that's not true.
And... But we're the center ofthe galaxy, and, like,
well, all right, so we're, like,
two-thirds ofthe way out in a spiral arm.
And then, well, at least our sun, you know, with this... No.
The sun is actually in the middle,
and the Earth goes around it.
So Earth isn't even the center ofthat system, and...
So, the more that we learn, we sort of, you know...
It's a very humbling science.
NARRATOR: When man first landed on the moon,
our perspective on the universe changed forever.
(over radio): Houston, uh, the Eagle has landed.
BUZZ ALDRIN: We aliens...
who happened to...
go down the ladder on July 20, 1969--
we aliens...
were certainly part of a magnificent race.
I just don't think people have a grasp for what energy it takes
to go from one star to another.
NARRATOR: This historic event raised the question:
if humans can successfully navigate in space
and explore other worlds, why couldn't beings
from other parts ofthe universe have done the same?
And might they have already come to Earth
hundreds, or perhaps, thousands ofyears ago?
VON DANIKEN: I think human past is more fantastic
than we all believe.
I have come to the idea that maybe extraterrestrials
were on this planet.
NARRATOR: Cahuachi, Peru.
2,000 years ago, this ancient settlement served as
the religious and cultural capital ofthe Nazca people.
But sometime around 500 AD,
the Nazca mysteriously disappeared,
leaving Cahuachi to fall into disarray.
1,400 years later, in 1910,
anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka came to Cahuachi
to study the ancient Nazca civilization.
During a dig, he unearthed some ofthe most surprising
and shocking artifacts he had ever seen.
They were skulls...
with enormous, elongated craniums.
Where did they come from?
How did they get there?
And were they human?
CHILDRESS: In Peru, we find these weird, elongated skulls.
And they're bizarre-looking.
I mean, and-and these people look like aliens.
ROBERT SCHOCH: One may say, okay, aliens.
But another aspect that we have to consider
is that skull and cranial deformation,
forming elongated heads is a practice that's known
throughout much of the ancient world.
NARRATOR: In 1870, the process of skull deformation
was well chronicled by a German botanist and explorer
named Georg Schweinfurth.
While exploring the African Congo,
he came in contact with a tribe called the Mangbetu.
They routinely performed a ritual of cranial binding
that allowed them to physically alter the shape of human skulls.
CHILDRESS: They took infants' skulls
and compressed them and bound them.
And they forced the cranium out and elongate it.
And in many cases, they doubled the size.
SCHOCH: And a big question is
why was this being done?
It may have been a way to distinguish the elite, perhaps,
from the everyday people.
May have been a social stratification type of issue.
Something that also appeals to me is, that may have been
a way to express physically
and maybe try to achieve physically
greater levels of consciousness
or higher levels of mental ability.
TSOUKALOS: In my opinion, they did this
in order to mimic the gods.
And those gods were physical beings,
because ifthey were just a figment
of our ancestors' imagination, I don't think
that's a compelling enough reason to expose your children
to such a ritual to achieve that type of look.
And in my opinion, these people were misinterpreted
flesh-and-blood space travelers.
SCHOCH: Some people have suggested aliens had
elongated skulls, and apparently,
ancient peoples are mimicking those skulls.
The old saying is that
imitation is the sincerest form offlattery.
NARRATOR: Although there have been many images
that attempt to depict what aliens might actually look like,
one in particular has come to dominate the public perception.
It, too, features an elongated cranium,
and is associated with an extraterrestrial race
that many refer to as the grays.
POPE: In terms of entities,
one very common description are the so-called grays--
three and a half, four feet tall, essentially humanoid,
but, uh, very spindlywith disproportionately large heads
and huge, black almond-shaped eyes.
NARRATOR: But would someone in a primitive society
reallywant to replicate this look and deform their skull?
Some archeologists have a different perspective.
They point to artistic self-expression
as an explanation ofthese customs.
There are all kinds of people
that either worship the body or use the body as art,
be it a tattoo or a piercing of some sort, or tribes that,
that put things in their ears or on their lips to try to,
to try to grow parts oftheir body.
Some societies, we know, practiced binding
parts ofthe body-- feet or heads--
and tried to make certain shapes,
and this was done for whatever reason.
We know today that this isn't usually
the most healthy thing to do,
but it doesn't mean people don't do it.
People are always trying
to change their body to make it look a certain way.
NARRATOR: Whatever the explanation may be
for these rituals, they are notjust found
in Peru and the African Congo.
Skull deformation is a global phenomenon.
CHILDRESS: What's really strange is that
this is found all over the world.
And this is something that archaeologists
cannot easily explain,
because, for people on remote islands,
for people in South America or Malta or in Africa
to suddenly, independently do this cranial deformation
like this seems incredible.
I mean, this is something that had to be learned,
something that was taught to them.
SCHOCH: We seem to have basic similarities,
as ifthere was one civilization or at least one type of culture
that was influencing people around the world.
I find it more and more difficult to believe
what I was taught as an undergraduate--
that all these different cultures just coincidentally
came up with the same concepts
independently of each other.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that individual societies
around the world were influenced by similar events?
And were they imitating real beings
who visited from other planets?
Some ofthe most compelling images of an elongated cranium
can be traced to ancient Egypt and the depictions
of one of its most controversial pharaohs.
Could it be that he, too,
was mimicking the look of extraterrestrials?
Or is there an even more outrageous explanation?
Could he have been one ofthem?
Egypt.
Long before the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids
or even settled along the Nile River,
they spoke of an era called Tep Zepi,
or the beginning oftime.
According to legends, Tep Zepi was when sky-gods
descended from the stars to Earth on flying boats,
and then turned mud and water into a new kingdom.
BAUVAL: The word "god,"
according to the ancient Egyptian, is "netyro."
It means a being that came from the cosmos.
They are very adamant about the fact
that their gods had descended from the stars.
They tell us that the god Osiris,
who ruled with his consort and sister-- the goddess Isis--
they were star gods, and in fact they identify them very clearly.
Osiris was identified as the constellation of Orion.
Isis was identified as the god to the star Sirius,
the brightest star in the sky.
There's an interesting point about this--
is that within the constellation of Orion
is the so-called nursery of stars.
The stars in our galaxy literallywere born
in that zone.
And it's really peculiar that the ancient Egyptians insist
that the birth of star gods are in this constellation.
They truly believed-- they were very adamant about this--
that their origins is in the sky.
SCHOCH: Something that we see around the world
with ancient civilizations is that they had
incredible knowledge ofthe stars, ofthe planets,
ofthe heavenly motions.
The average person in the ancient world
had way more knowledge ofwhat's going on in the skies
than a lot of well-educated people today.
NARRATOR: As ancient Egypt grew into a great civilization,
its citizens believed their pharaohs were sons of Osiris,
and thus, living gods.
Artwork and wall carvings depicted them as perfect humans.
And while the people worshipped many different gods,
the pharaoh stood above them all.
This basic Egyptian religious belief remained in force
for nearly a thousand years,
until one pharaoh changed everything.
Who was this heretic?
His name was Akhenaten,
and in every surviving depiction,
he is shown with an elongated skull.
Who was he?
According to Egyptian mythology, he, too, was descended from
the gods who arrived on Earth at the time ofTep Zepi.
But why do so many still believe he actually came from the stars?
In 1352 BC, Akhenaten ascended to the throne
as the tenth pharaoh ofthe 18th dynasty.
Almost immediately, he instituted a series
of radical religious changes,
including a ban on references to multiple gods.
BAUVAL: It's a rather strange thing
that he would want to do that in one sweep,
but he ordered all the-the iconography of previous gods
to be removed.
He only allowed one emblem, which was a sun emblem--
literally a sun disk with curious arms
or rays pointing down.
Why did he do this?
Because, according to his writings and his poems
that were written about him later on,
he was visited
by one ofthose beings that descended from the sky,
who told Akhenaten, "This is the way.
I am your god."
NARRATOR: This sun god was known as Aten.
Akhenaten claimed to be a direct descendent ofAten.
BAUVAL: Akhenaten, like any other pharaoh,
regarded himselfto be divine.
He was a god.
Not only himself believed himselfto be a god,
but the whole nation saw him as a god.
Now, the definition of a god
is that he was a descendant from these celestial beings.
NARRATOR: During his fourth year as pharaoh,
Akhenaten ordered the construction
of a new capital city.
He called it Amarna and dedicated it to the sun.
Akhenaten would spend the next ten years here,
during which time he instituted changes in both art and culture,
including how he himself would be publicly depicted.
CARGILL: In Egyptian iconography,
Egyptian pharaohs are depicted as these
triangular-shaped beings-- these broad, strong shoulders
and these very skinny waists.
Now, we look at leaders today and we know that most leaders
don't have broad shoulders and skinny waists.
But it was important to depict
the Egyptian kings as having
broad shoulders and skinny waists-- very, you know--
the epitome ofwhat a king ought to look like.
That's exactly the opposite with Akhenaten.
He shows himself perhaps as he really is...
a rather strange look.
He has a very mystical look.
SCHOCH: Ifwe take Akhenaten's statues, for instance,
literally, he was a very strange-looking character.
Sort of combined, some people would say,
feminine aspects with masculine aspects,
may have had an elongated skull.
CARGILL: The change in royal iconography ofAkhenaten
showed him as he probably really was, with a misshapen head,
with a potbelly, with a sunken chest,
as opposed to the idealized iconography of
traditional Egyptian artists
that showed this big, strong pharaoh.
NARRATOR: Akhenaten's wife, Queen Nefertiti,
and their children were also depicted
as having elongated skulls.
So why were Akhenaten's and Nefertiti's heads deformed?
Did they suffer from a genetic abnormality
or did they deliberately alter their shape?
Some believe there could be yet another explanation
behind their strange, otherworldly appearance.
They look like they're different
than other human beings.
TSOUKALOS: Is it possible that Akhenaten
might have been an extraterrestrial hybrid?
CARGILL: Ancient alien enthusiasts
look at Pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt and say,
"Ah, look at that long head.
"That looks like an alien gray.
"That looks like some kind of something that's nonhuman
"or some hybrid between something else
"and something human.
"Must be evidence of
"alien interference, alien reproduction with humans--
something like that."
BETTYANN BROWN: I've been to Egypt,
and one ofthe most stunning things about seeing
the archeological remains of ancient Egypt
is that one unique pharaoh, Akhenaten.
TSOUKALOS: I mean, he's got a very narrow, pointy face,
high cheekbones, and a very elongated cranium.
CHILDRESS: The idea that they were either
looking like extraterrestrials,
or perhaps had extraterrestrial DNA in them
is a credible idea.
NARRATOR: Akhenaten ruled for 17 years.
After his reign, Amarna was abandoned,
and temples to the sun were destroyed.
Images ofAkhenaten were deliberately defaced.
Ancient Egypt swiftly returned to its old ways,
worshipping many gods.
Was this a rejection ofAkhenaten's
radical religious belief system
or a cover-up of his alien identity?
There's been a lot oftheories about why.
Um, if... I mean, the most extreme is that he somehow
had some sort of extraterrestrial connection.
If one accepts that conclusion, then it would explain
why he was literally put offthe reign
and, some say, put to death.
NARRATOR: Some Egyptologists believe Akhenaten was forced
to abdicate and flee from Egypt
with a group of his loyal followers.
In 1907, the actual body of Akhenaten was discovered
in Egypt's Valley ofthe Kings
by a British archeologist named Edward Ayrton.
After unearthing Akhenaten's mummified remains,
he was able to confirm that, indeed,
the ancient pharaoh's skull was misshapen and elongated.
CARGILL: Some scholars argue that he suffered from
some kind of physical abnormality; he suffered from
a disorder that caused his face to appear to be long,
or his head actually was longer.
I think with Akhenaten, we're dealing with
a physical deformation that wasn't corrected
by the royal artists.
Theyjust depicted him as he was:
potbelly, sunken chest, long head.
NARRATOR: Akhenaten was succeeded by his son,
Tutankhamen, who became the most renowned pharaoh of all time.
When his tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter,
Tutankhamen was also found to have an elongated skull.
Could he have inherited alien genes from his father?
Today, much ofAkhenaten's life still remains a mystery.
Did he really change Egypt's entire belief system
because, as some suggest, he was a celestial being?
Ifthat's true, might there be evidence
of similar entities coming to Earth?
Perhaps more clues can be found thousands of miles away
on the other side ofthe African continent.
(people singing in native language)
Mali, in northwest Africa.
Deep in a remote valley live the Dogon people,
who are the descendants of a nomadic tribe
that settled here around 1000 AD.
Just like Akhenaten's followers, the Dogon had been forced
to leave Egypt because of religious persecution.
SCHOCH: The Dogon claim a very long and ancient tradition
and, in my opinion, maintain some of
the ancient Egyptian traditions and myths
that have been carried on right into the present age.
Parts of ancient Egypt may not have died.
Theywere carried on, to this day, among the Dogon.
NARRATOR: But what exactly are their beliefs?
Dogon mythology holds that the sky-god Amma created
the first living creature, known as Nommo.
The legend also says that shortly after his creation,
Nommo multiplied into several parts,
one ofwhich rebelled against Amma.
Amma responded by destroying him and scattering his ashes
throughout the world.
PETER FIEBAG (translated): According to the Dogon myths,
a god gave them this knowledge.
He descended from the sky in an ark, surfing on fire,
and landed in a storm.
TSOUKALOS: Still today, Dogon celebrates a festival
in the honor of Nommo
and that visitation that occurred in the remote past.
How do we know this?
For this festival, they have
wooden masks that date back to
a very long time ago, when this festival began.
FIEBAG (translated): Dogon masks tell the mystic stories
oftheir ancestors.
This is a sculpture ofthe creator.
They call him Amma.
He is embracing the universe.
This is how they pass on information
from generation to generation-- by stories carved in masks.
NARRATOR: But could Nommo have been a real person?
Some see eerie similarities between the Dogon's legend
and the story ofthe mysterious pharaoh Akhenaten.
Akhenaten believed he was directly descended
from the sun god Aten.
Nommo was said to have been created by the sky deityAmma.
Is it a coincidence that both cultures,
although thousands of miles apart,
shared mythical tales of beings coming from the skies?
And both Nommo and Akhenaten
were depicted with elongated heads.
Is it possible that these legends
were based on real events?
FIEBAG (translated): The Dogon dwell
in the central plateau region of Bandiagara.
Their knowledge is centuries old,
and their priests have been sharing it
with chosen individuals only.
In the 1920s, French anthropologist Grialue
and ethnologist Dieterle visited the tribe
and were invited to share their secrets.
NARRATOR: But one secret stood out:
the Dogon claimed that their god Amma came from a specific star
in the Sirius constellation,
the same place where the ancient Egyptians believed
their god Osiris was born.
This star, which modern astronomers refer to
as Sirius B, the Dogon called Po Tolo.
But what baffles experts is that the star is so far from Earth,
it's impossible to see with the naked eye.
BAUVAL: I was very intrigued by this, by the way.
I mean, the Dogons should not have known
about the existence ofthis star.
Sirius is the second nearest star from our solar system.
It's eight light-years away.
In fact, it's not even visible with standard telescopes.
It was first seen, literally seen,
and photographed in the 1970s.
TSOUKALOS: Modern science has corroborated
that Sirius B does indeed exist.
Problem is, the Dogon knew about this
before modern science corroborated it.
I mean, that's spooky.
NARRATOR: Measurements taken with the Hubble telescope
in 2003 have confirmed that Sirius B is what's known as
a white dwarf-- or a partially burnt-out star
with extremely dense mass.
Although it is smaller in size than Earth,
it's estimated to weigh eight times as much as our sun.
But how did the Dogon acquire this ancient knowledge
of astronomy that seems to be centuries more advanced
than that of modern science?
The mystery is, how did this story
get passed on down generations
ifthe story came from a time before astronomers knew
there was a companion star to Sirius
which can't be seen with the human eye?
FIEBAG (translated): This is the Dogon symbol for Sirius.
When you move it around, you can see an orbit
around the center marked by Sirius A.
Sirius B circles around it, so it is a circular system.
This sign is practically an astronomic model
that the Dogon could not have invented
because only Sirius A is visible.
Sirius B and C are invisible.
However, their description ofthe orbit is correct.
One assumption is that this god, Nommo,
who brought them this knowledge, could have been
an extraterrestrial intelligence.
NARRATOR: Since the early 20th century,
the tribe has been routinely studied
and researched by anthropologists.
This has led many modern historians
to claim that the Dogon must have learned
about astronomy from Westerners.
CARGILL: The Dogon mythology is so fluid
that when science confirms something
that they might have believed in antiquity,
it might have just been sheer coincidence,
or it could have been a conflation.
That is, they heard...
Because it's an oral culture,
and because the mythology is so fluid,
they heard something that someone said about this star
in relation to another star,
and theyjust grafted that into their mythology.
They grafted that into their religion.
And then when some reporter, some subsequent reporter
comes along and says, "What do you believe?"
they say, "Well, we've thought this for millions ofyears."
TSOUKALOS: When critics suggest that this knowledge was
given to them by modern ethnologists,
that's simply incorrect, because we know that the story
goes back hundreds ofyears earlier
than any modern ethnologist ever went there.
FIEBAG (translated): If it were ever proven
that all this information is exactly correct,
including the parts that are still being studied
by astronomers, this would mean that the Earth had visitors
from outer space in prehistoric times.
BAUVAL: Either they inherited that knowledge--
and the question is, from where?
From a previous civilization,
or from some sort of extraterrestrial civilization?
Or it's a coincidence.
In my view, it is not a coincidence.
NARRATOR: Ifthe Dogon people really possessed
this advanced astronomical knowledge,
were their legends based on real events?
The ancient Egyptians and Dogon were far from alone
in their belief in gods or mystical beings
that came from the sky.
Is there an explanation for similar myths
shared by ancient cultures all around the world?
And what does that reveal as to who these visitors may be?
Perhaps the answer can be found, not in northern Africa,
but here in the rocks and canyons
ofthe American Southwest.
30 miles south of Gallup, New Mexico,
lies the pueblo of Zuni.
Sheltered from the desolate high plains,
this adobe city is home to the Zuni Indians,
one ofthe oldest indigenous tribes in North America.
They have inhabited this land for almost 2,000 years,
and have protected their secrets even longer.
CHRIS O'BRIEN: The Zuni are
a very interesting culture, in that they're one of
the few cultures that really have not opened up, uh,
to the rest ofthe world about their star knowledge traditions.
Most ofthis type of information
is very closely held by the natives.
And, um, I really find it very intriguing that this is
the time period in history where now we're starting to learn
more and more about their star knowledge.
NARRATOR: Much of the Zuni people's history
is etched in the rocks in the New Mexico desert.
Tribal Elder Clifford Mahooty and archeologist Dan Simplicio
have studied the Zuni's secret history firsthand.
They've collected stories passed down through generations
that are rooted in the belief that the tribe's
creators and protectors are supernatural beings
from the sky.
DAN SIMPLICIO: This one's kind of interesting here.
I would imagine it was created in last century,
but from this design, you can see the star figure.
Celestial images oftentimes are depicted
in a lot of our cultural petroglyphs.
And this is one ofthem where it depicts the star.
It could be the supernova ofthe crab nebula.
CLIFFORD MAHOOTY: Our Zuni mythology
in the prayer system, in the ritualistic protocols,
talk about these people that came over here
and told us how to actually live our lives
as being sky people.
Ifyou listen to a lot of religious chants and songs
and prayers, that's all they talk about.
They're talking about space.
They're talking about out there
in the universe where they came from.
So they depict it on a rock wall here.
But the actual meaning of it is somewhere more profound
and more complex than that.
NARRATOR: These drawings are thought to have been created
around 1200 BC, yet they appear to depict
modern space travelers and their vehicles.
Ifyou move back a little bit, you can see another figure here.
It has a dome.
Has eyes.
Uh, there's something coming down...
And a nose.
Like a nose. There's a nose, but it kind offlares out...
I think it was something to do with
the ancient ones, when they saw something.
They took as much description of it to put it on there.
Of course, it's not going to be
exactly what they saw, but that's as best as they can do
for something that they saw.
CHILDRESS: With all petroglyphs and things like that,
I mean, they're up to interpretation.
Sometimes they're just doodlings of people.
But other times, they may well be
actual descriptions and depictions of
some kind of god from outer space,
some ancient astronaut.
And when you go around, say, like the Zuni pueblo,
I mean, that's what they'll tell you those petroglyphs are.
Even the Zunis themselves call them the spacemen.
This one seems to have two legs coming out like that.
It has a, you know, broad diamond-shaped body.
Um, there probably was a better head that chipped off here.
Well, that's very different-looking
than humans are.
MAHOOTY: Now usually they're called UFOs.
But in the Zuni way,
we've always been taught that they're the keepers
ofthe upperworld, which means space.
You know, they're sky people--
beings that are of the extraterrestrial origin.
And this is still within our mythology
and our religious practices today.
NARRATOR: Like most Indian tribes,
the Zunis call these sky people kachinas.
According to the Zunis' creation story, the kachina gods
came down from the heavens to lead the Zunis to Earth
through a special portal.
MAHOOTY: The sipapu-- that's the entrance to the fourth world,
or the underworld.
And that's a representation
ofwhere the kachinas come and go.
And so, according to the mythologies,
the Zunis were brought forth into the world of light--
which is where we are at today-- bywhat I would interpret as
extraterrestrial beings from the universe.
(people singing in native language)
NARRATOR: Every year,
the Zunis participate in a ceremony known as
the Shalako festival.
Dressed in traditional costumes to represent the kachinas,
the Indians celebrate the arrival ofthe gods on Earth.
(singing continues)
CHILDRESS: This is a-a figurine of
kachina gods.
And these guys are some gods from the skywho came down.
Uh, they wear weird helmets.
TSOUKALOS: This one has a helmet as a head.
And ifyou look at
the whole body of it, it's as if
it wears some type of a, of a suit.
This one here also has the helmet and the visor.
CHILDRESS: For the Pueblo Indians, like the Zunis,
these are their-their sky-gods that every year,
they have special ceremonies.
People put on these special costumes
and masks to reenact the coming ofthe gods.
They really look like ancient astronauts.
BILL BIRNES: Ifyou look at the poetry and the legends
and the stories from American Indian tribes in the Southwest,
they have the legend ofthe star people.
The star people came to Earth
and seeded planet Earth, and they came on flying ships.
Ifyou speak to the elders, they will tell you that
"a lot of us believe in the existence of extraterrestrials."
THOMAS MILLS: The Zunis don't have a written language.
The storyteller comes and he tells the young children
how it all happened.
All their songs that they do in their ceremonies
tell the story over and over.
And that's how they pass down traditions, customs, beliefs.
They tell it in the Indian way.
They use things they understand
to explain things that they don't understand.
SIMPLICIO: I remember my grandparents talking about
a craft that flew and had actually crash-landed
on one ofthe mesas east of here.
There's no interpretation ofwhat an aircraft is,
so the closest thing that they could interpret as
anything capable offlight
is a bird or our masked kachina dancers.
MAHOOTY: We are very, very superstitious people.
It's always been in the history ofZuni that they have always
been here, even right here where we're sitting right now,
but you just don't see them.
They're in a different frequency.
And those are very, very sacred, and those are very, very secret.
They're out there somewhere.
NARRATOR: For those who believe that ancient astronauts
came to Earth thousands ofyears ago,
prehistoric artwork provides more clues in what they claim
is a growing body of evidence--
from wall carvings and statues in ancient Egypt
to tribal traditions and exotic masks in West Africa
to petroglyphs in the American Southwest.
All thousands ofyears old, they seem to recount
similar stories ofvisitors from the skies.
Could the legends of alien beings visiting Earth
thousands ofyears ago
have inspired more traditional beliefs?
Celestial beings coming down to Earth.
Gods descending from the sky.
Can these events only be found
in the ancient legends ofthe Zuni?
Do similar accounts exist in other cultures
and other religions across the world?
And if so, what is the explanation?
TSOUKALOS: We have to remind ourselves that our ancestors
were highly intelligent.
However, their technological frame of reference was different
than our technological frame of reference.
So they didn't have the vocabulary with which
to describe or with which to name
certain things that they saw.
So what did they do?
They used words that they were familiarwith in their time,
and so they tried to describe whatever theywitnessed
to the best oftheir abilities with their vocabulary.
NARRATOR: Ancient China also shared some ofthe same beliefs
that can be found in Egyptian, Native American
and Dogon legends--
that deities arrived from the stars.
According to Chinese mythology dating back to 3000 BC,
when the god named Huang Di was born,
there was a radiance from the great star Chi.
Huang Di would later emerge from the belly
of a fire-breathing dragon to become China's first emperor.
The origins ofthe Han Chinese people start with a story
of a great god looking down with empathy.
Here were people in poverty,
in a beautiful, rich country, the landscape profound,
but the people were suffering.
He took pity and decided to come down.
TSOUKALOS: Huang Di arrived on planet Earth
in a flying dragon.
He had the power offlight.
Huang Di could be anywhere
within minutes, and he usually accomplished this by
hopping on his dragon and flying somewhere.
Now this divine energy becomes human
and is a great leader--
the Yellow Emperor who rules and unites the people--
and there is a period of great prosperity
until his work is done.
NARRATOR: Huang Di brought order to the chaos,
creating China's first empire.
He is seen as a cultural hero and is credited
with the invention ofthe compass, acupuncture,
and the standardization of Chinese writing.
One of his greatest legacies is the Great Wall of China.
YOUNG: When the land is prosperous,
he decides it's time to go.
And the great yellow dragon comes back
and he gets back into the belly ofthe dragon
and flies offforever.
Now, were these dragons truly dragons
in a biological nature?
Or were they misinterpreted types of machines?
Because, as we all know,
dragons are always correlated with spewing fire
and a lot of smoke.
Whenever we see a modern rocket take off,
there's all this smoke; and sometimes the smoke is yellow
and sometimes it's red.
So it's very bizarre how we have these correlations
between the ancient times and modern times today.
Mythology is the effort to grasp what we can't grasp,
to understand what is beyond us.
In the Eastern teachings, the dragons very often carry people,
sometimes on their back, sometimes inside their bellies.
So ifwe think ofthem as, as a poet's effort to explain
a vehicle that was strange to them,
well, those sound like flying saucers.
So it mightjust be a problem with translation,
because, after all, it's just a word.
It's trying to describe something
that's very difficult to grasp.
NARRATOR: 4,000 miles west of China,
another tale of celestial beings influencing civilization
can be found, this time in what is now modern-day Iraq.
The Babylonian legend of Enuma Elish
dates back to the seventh century BC.
The text was first discovered in 1849
by British archeologist SirAusten Henry Layard
while searching the ruins of
the Library ofAshurbanipal in Nineveh.
The story tells of how the first humans were created
by an extraterrestrial race known as the Anunnaki.
TSOUKALOS: In the ancient texts of Sumeria,
we have descriptions ofthese beings
descending from the sky called the Anunnaki.
The term "Anunnaki" means
"those who from the heavens came."
It says, word forword, that these beings descended
in flying vehicles from the sky.
And we can find not only descriptions ofthe Anunnaki,
but also depictions.
And we can see them in statues, in carvings.
So it's all very interesting to see that those beings
looked like modern-day space travelers with weird suits.
Some ofthem wore wristwatches.
They had boots on and helmets and, above all, wings.
And they were always described or depicted
in floating above some "regular people."
So the question is: who were the Anunnaki?
And according to the ancient astronaut hypothesis,
they were space travelers who visited Earth
in the remote past.
NARRATOR: Similar themes can be found in the legends
of Greek and Roman gods, which also describe events
that some interpret as extraterrestrial contact.
Both cultures believed in powerful gods
who lived in the heavens and often came down to Earth
to interact with humans.
(thunder cracks)
CHILDRESS: A well-known example is Zeus and the Greek gods.
And they've come down from the sky and Mount Olympus,
where they live in some mountain.
And they're bringing, really,
civilization and sciences to mankind.
But they have many human attributes, too,
where, yeah, they, uh, they're attracted to human women,
uh, theywant to have sex and children
with as many ofthem as they can.
And then they go back into the sky.
THOMAS BULLARD: These ideas of gods mating with humans
are very commonplace.
Like, Zeus in the Greek mythology was always
coming down, mating with mortals and producing
demigods like Hercules or Helen of Troy, who were,
you know, exceptionally beautiful,
exceptionally powerful,
unusually gifted in every way.
So, in other words,
you were creating a better race in-in this sense.
TSOUKALOS: In the ancient astronaut opinion,
the whole pantheon of gods that we have in ancient Greece
consists of nothing else but flesh-and-blood
extraterrestrials who were misinterpreted as being
these divine creatures by our ancestors.
CREMO: There is a lot of evidence showing that
we're not alone in the cosmos
and that our human civilizations on Earth have been interacting
for long periods oftime
with extraterrestrial intelligences.
NARRATOR: Belief in celestial beings interacting with humans
is a cornerstone in several major religions.
In fact, according to the Bible's Book of Genesis,
God created the first humans, Adam and Eve.
The Bible also contains other passages
that describe strange interactions
between otherworldly beings and humans.
CARGILL: People believe messengers of some sort
come down from the heavens.
You know, they came down and they had sex with humans.
And this is where we produced giants-- people like Goliath.
So in a technical sense, they are alien.
They're gods or they're angels;
they're some kind of superhuman thing.
NARRATOR: Interpreting these Bible stories
has also led to a certain amount of debate and controversy.
While most see a single God
directing and influencing mankind's destiny,
others argue that it is really
a number of gods that are responsible.
TSOUKALOS: In the Old Testament, it says very clearly,
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness."
Now, grammatically speaking,
that sentence doesn't make sense, because you have "God"
and then you have "our image."
Well, theologians suggest that by "our,"
what they meant is the Trinity, the Holy Trinity.
So basically, ifyou were to change the word "god" to "gods,"
then all of a sudden, the sentence makes sense--
"and then the gods created man in our own image."
So you have this reference--
"let us create man in our image."
In several religious texts, specifically the Hebrew Bible,
which Christians also accept, and in the Koran,
which Muslims revere as holy, you have the reference to God
in the plural, and it is incredibly interesting.
NARRATOR: But do all these religious scriptures
that tell similar stories
really point to the possibility that aliens have visited Earth
throughout ancient history?
The fact is, the story of creation in our own Bible
is the story of creation in cultures around the world.
The story ofthe flood, the evolution ofthe human species,
the development of language-- all ofthis points to--
in fact, the Bible says so-- life on Earth came from
contact with an extraterrestrial life-form.
That's in the Bible.
That's in ancient cultures around the world.
So I believe the theory of ancient astronauts is true,
and I believe there's solid evidence there,
and I believe the harder you try to refute that evidence,
the more you wind up against a brick wall--
that ancient astronauts visited us,
visited Earth thousands upon thousands ofyears ago,
and seeded the very civilization we have today.
NARRATOR: Ifthe believers in the ancient astronaut theory
are correct, then just who were these visitors?
And might cutting-edge astrophysics and biology
help us to uncover their identity?
On March 18, 1965,
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stepped outside the Voskhod 2
and became the first human to walk in space.
He spent 12 minutes and eight seconds
outside his ship before returning.
Leonov's survival depended upon a protective suit that could
keep him alive where there was neither
atmospheric pressure nor oxygen.
Ifwe need spacesuits, would aliens traveling to Earth
require the same protection?
Is that what we're looking at
in these ancient carvings and drawings?
When critics ask, "Well, why would ancient astronauts
"have to wear astronaut suits
that we're familiar with today?" the answer is very simple.
Can we go through space without wearing a type of suit?
Of course not. We would die.
Because who says that whoever visited us in the remote past,
that they could breathe in the atmosphere of planet Earth?
So it's not farfetched to suggest
that they did, in fact, wear some type of suit.
NARRATOR: Why might these images resemble modern astronauts?
Ifthey are aliens,
is it possible they are similar to humans?
And could they have come from a planetjust like Earth?
At the turn ofthe 20th century,
a group of British and German scientists
considered this possibility.
They embraced a theory put forth by early Greek philosophers:
that all life in the universe began in one specific place.
This theory is called panspermia.
Panspermia is the theory that life formed in one place
and then got spread around to other places.
In outer space, in the medium between stars,
we see molecules that are the building blocks of life.
So it's easy to get the building blocks of life
to another planet.
For example, if life formed on Mars,
it could have come here to Earth...
contaminated Earth and then started life here.
NARRATOR: Roughly 3.6 billion years ago,
Mars was warm and wet, much like the conditions on Earth today.
Biologists believe that because Mars cooled more quickly
than other planets, life may have developed there first.
PAUL DAVIES: Mars is a better candidate
for life during the early part ofthe solar system.
Mars rocks are coming here all the time, and these have been
knocked off Mars by asteroid and comet impacts.
And we know that they could convey
any Martian microorganisms to Earth.
NARRATOR: In August 1996, a team of scientists
made a stunning announcement.
A Martian meteorite found in Antarctica
contained evidence offossilized life.
The four-pound rock, designated ALH 84001,
showed the presence of carbonate globules
excreted by microbes when they were alive on Mars
3.6 billion years ago.
Earth was no longer alone.
Life had existed elsewhere in the universe.
DAVIES: So this cross-contamination
between Mars and Earth, which 20 years ago,
was regarded as a rather wild conjecture,
is now pretty much accepted by the astrobiology community.
NARRATOR: Astrobiologists studying the origin
and evolution of life in the universe
embraced the possibility that life on Earth
began in outer space.
Did modern-day scientists finally prove
what ancient cultures have believed for centuries?
BAUVAL: The common myth or idea
that the origins of humankind is from the stars is widespread.
Ancient cultures have-- the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans,
the Aztecs, the Indians and so forth.
Uh, is intriguing, and it's probably true.
And I mean it from an astrophysical point ofview.
We do come from the stars.
It's a fact that life on Earth has been seeded by the coming
of a comet containing the life matter.
I personally suspect there is life out there.
In fact, I believe that we have evidence--
if nothing else, microbial evidence,
for life extraterrestrially.
NARRATOR: But if life did land on Earth
from outer space, was it by accident,
or might it have been sent here on purpose?
One mainstream scientist thought so.
British geneticist Francis Crick is best known
for his collaboration with James Watson.
Together, they unraveled the structure of human DNA in 1953.
Less than ten years later, they were awarded the Nobel Prize
for their groundbreaking work in genetics.
In the 1960s, Crick became a proponent of panspermia theory
and took it to a whole new level
with an idea he called directed panspermia.
GRAHAM HANCOCK: Francis Crick hypothesized that somewhere,
perhaps on the other side ofthe galaxy,
there had been a civilization of advanced intelligent beings.
And they had found that their planet
was going to be destroyed.
Perhaps a supernova was going to go off in their vicinity,
and their planet would be sterilized of life.
And he asked himself,
"What would an intelligent civilization do
in that situation?"
Um, well, first of all, they'd try to figure out
ifthey could get out ofthere,
ifthey could actually preserve their lives
and the lives oftheir descendants.
Perhaps crowd into spaceships and fly across
interstellar space until they found
a suitable planet to colonize.
NARRATOR: But could it actually be true?
Could we really be the descendants
of an alien race that traveled here from anotherworld?
POPE: The ultimate implication of some
exobiological theories is actually
that we ourselves are extraterrestrials,
that life on Earth arose because
organic material was brought here from elsewhere.
BIRNES: What ifwe're the ones,
the descendants ofthose who came from another planet?
We weren't created.
We were brought here, seeded planet Earth as a colony
from some other planet.
So we're colonists of another race.
And that's why the aliens look like us.
SCHOCH: In my opinion, it's not unscientific
to consider the possibility of ancient astronauts,
alien intervention.
We live in a huge universe.
Now, bacteria versus humanoids--
one may say that's a big difference,
but in some ways, it's not a big difference.
Where you have life,
you have the ability for that life to develop
into what we consider
civilization or intelligent beings.
NARRATOR: Is itjust a coincidence that modern science
and ancient alien theory have come to the same conclusion:
that life on Earth came from the stars?
And if it's possible that billions ofyears ago,
an extraterrestrial race spread out across space,
how would they survive in their new home?
Could they really be our missing link?
For thousands ofyears, mankind has tried to depict alien beings
who they believe came from the skies.
Many ofthose creatures seem to share
characteristics with humans.
They often have two arms, two legs, fingers and a head,
just like we do.
Biologists refer to this basic body shape
as bilateral symmetry.
Bilateral symmetry is, very simply, you divide something
down the middle into two parts-- and lateral means up and down--
and the two sides are an exact reflection of each other.
Ifyou fold the thing in half, all the parts line up.
RUSSELL TUTTLE: Being bilaterally symmetric
allows you to be streamlined and to develop a head end,
so you become cephalized.
And that certainly happened in vertebrates.
Virtually, the mouth at the end of something
and then you get progressive development, and that seems to
have led to many, many advances.
DENNIN: So, when you look at it closely,
you can see a lot of advantages coming in.
Having the two arms and the two legs to work together
really gives you great mobility and balance and speed.
Having eyes on two sides separated
gives really improved vision in various ways.
Animals that are predominantly prey
use their two eyes independently and get a huge field ofview.
Animals that are predominantly hunters
have them more in the front
and get really good depth perception, which you need
ifyou're gonna land on the animal you're hunting.
(lion growling)
NARRATOR: If it is true that aliens resemble humans
in their physical characteristics,
might there also be genetic similarities?
Could we even be related?
In 2003, the U.S. Government announced
that the Human Genome Project had identified all ofthe nearly
25,000 genes in the human body.
For the first time, scientists had a road map
to the genetic makeup of humans.
NARRATOR: In 2006, genetic researchers
at the University of California at Santa Cruz
discovered an area ofthe genome they called HAR1
that appears to be unique to humans.
Scientists believe the HAR1 gene plays a critical role
in the advanced development ofthe human brain,
and is a key element that sets us apart from other animals.
But where did it come from?
Did humans develop this distinct gene
naturally through evolution?
Or did it land here from another planet?
Francis Crick, the British scientist who helped discover
the structure of DNA, believed that human genes
could not have evolved by chance.
Crick didn't feel in that period of roughly 600 million years,
from the formation ofthe planet down to the time
when the planet could first support life,
there was enough time for DNA to evolve by accident.
It's an enormously complicated molecule.
Crick gave this analogy: You would be
more likely to assemble a fully functioning and flying jumbo jet
by passing a hurricane through a junkyard than you would be
to assemble the DNA molecule by chance
in any kind of primeval soup
in five or six hundred million years.
It's just not possible.
NARRATOR: But ifthis molecule could not have
evolved accidentally, how was it created?
Was it, as some believe, put there on purpose?
TSOUKALOS: The question should not be
do the extraterrestrials look like us
or what do the extraterrestrials look like,
but do we look like the extraterrestrials?
Because according to the ancient astronaut theory,
a long, long time ago, extraterrestrials came here,
and through a targeted mutation of our genes,
we "became human."
FIEBAG (translated): Possibly there's information in our DNA
about whether human evolution was manipulated or not.
The DNA is almost deciphered, yet we only understand
five percent ofthe information it carries.
TSOUKALOS: Geneticists have determined
that it only takes about five percent
to clone a human being, and that 95%
ofthat genetic material that we have in our bodies
is nothing more than what they refer to
as "geneticjunk."
DENNIN: Why is everything there?
And there's probably parts ofthe DNA
that don't have an obvious current function.
Maybe they're left over from something that was used
in the past, kind of like our appendix is left over.
NARRATOR: Could this geneticjunk
hold the key to the evolution of humans?
Some people suggest that decoding our DNA entirely
will unlock startling information about our origins.
But could it even prove that aliens played a role
in our development thousands ofyears ago?
HANCOCK: Ifyou hypothetically wanted
to record an eternal message
that could be decoded by a creature that had eventually
evolved enough intelligence to decode it,
the place to put that message would not be on
some monument or in some text,
which might be swept away,
but actually on the DNA ofthe creature itself.
(baby cooing)
It's recently been established
that DNA is a recording medium of almost limitless power.
It would be technically possible to record the entire knowledge
of a civilization on the DNA in our bodies.
All you'd need is a way to access that information.
VON DANIKEN: I think we have something,
the whole humanity, in our genes.
Somewhere in our genes, it is coded
that extraterrestrials were here thousands ofyears ago.
NARRATOR: But the questions persist:
If aliens visited Earth tens ofthousands ofyears ago,
how did they get here?
When we look to the past for the answers,
are we looking in the wrong place?
Should we actually look forward...
to our future?
Scientists agree that the best chances offinding alien life
will be on planets similar to ours,
and descriptions of extraterrestrials seem to
resemble humans in many ways.
Some ancient astronaut theorists draw
a surprising conclusion from these facts,
suggesting that aliens might actually be human.
It is odd that many ofthe descriptions
of aliens are effectively humanoid,
and this raises an interesting possibility.
One idea that's been put forward is that, uh,
these are not extraterrestrials at all,
but they're time travelers from the future.
They could be us from a thousand,
2,000, 10,000 years from now.
Let's assume for a moment that 10,000 years from now
on this planet, ifwe all survive,
that time travel was created; they've invented it.
Just like the time machine of H.G. Wells' days,
they can go back or they can go forward.
So let's assume, 10,000 years from now,
we decide to come back to see us.
Maybe they have changed physically.
They look like the alien grays orwhoever they may be.
It could well be that ancient astronauts might not be
creatures from other planets at all,
but time travelers from 2720 in a time machine.
NARRATOR: Time travel is an essential concept
for science fiction, but would it be possible
for flesh-and-blood humans
to find a way to transport themselves
through time with current technology?
Would this enable us to cover the vast distances of space?
If I could travel close to the speed of light,
I could reach the year 3000, say, in a couple ofyears.
Have to get very close to the speed of light for that,
but it's doable, and we know that this isn't a theory,
this is, this is real physics;
we could demonstrate these time-warping effects.
So you can reach the future quicker
by traveling close to the speed of light.
NARRATOR: The concept of time travel was first proposed
byAlbert Einstein in 1905,
when he published his Theory of Special Relativity.
Ancient astronaut theory says that astronauts visited us
a long time ago from somewhere else.
The technology involved in doing that,
we would assume would be similar to what we understand now.
I mean, we know special relativity is a law of physics.
It holds anywhere in the universe.
Ancient astronauts would come all the way here and travel
these large distances and not age that much,
relative to their home planet.
Because ifyou're going close enough to the speed of light,
you will have slowed down time enough that when you get back,
hundreds, thousands, or even millions ofyears
could have passed.
NARRATOR: One limitation to this method oftravel
is that, because a spacecraft has mass,
it theoretically cannot reach the exact speed of light.
The resulting reduction in velocity
would then dramatically increase
the amount oftime needed to cross the vast universe.
NOORY: Well, there's definitely many theories about
how extraterrestrials got here,
how their propulsion system got them to planet Earth.
They're surely not coming here the way we go out into space.
They'd never get here.
They are finding different ways.
They have either developed a new form of propulsion,
or they're able to travel through--
what I've always believed--
wormholes throughout the universe
that would instantaneously put them here.
NARRATOR: The idea ofwormholes was first proposed in 1935
byAlbert Einstein
and his longtime collaborator Nathan Rosen.
They began to explore the possibility that space and time
could literally be bent to create a time travel shortcut.
DENNIN: Wormholes have not been detected.
They are a postulated structure in space
that involve actually taking--
ifyou want to think of a sheet of paper--
bending it in half and connecting the two pieces
that you get together.
A wormhole is thought to do something like that.
Space gets warped, and it connects
between two different parts of space.
You know, there's predictions about what they would look like;
there's theories about them, but we haven't detected one yet.
You're not actually ever traveling faster
than the speed of light; you're just cutting corners.
You don't actually have to go light speed
and travel for light-years to someplace.
You literally go there through a wormhole and through hyperspace,
and bang, you're there.
DAVIES: Ifyou can have a wormhole in space,
then it can be turned, in principle, into a time machine.
And so travel back in time as well as forward in time
would then be possible.
The problem is: where do you get your wormhole?
Uh, it's not inconceivable
that wormholes were made in the Big Bang,
coughed out along with everything else;
there might be one out there in the universe we could harvest
and adapt to form a time machine.
DENNIN: Ifyou end up discovering
that you could make wormholes, then that increases the range
that you can explore in space and that increases
the likelihood of having two civilizations
at the same time with the right technology
to communicate with each other.
NARRATOR: While theoretically possible,
traveling through wormholes or at the speed of light
is currently impossible for us here on Earth.
Using modern propulsion methods, it would take 70,000 years
to reach the nearest star.
Our fastest rockets are totally puny.
It's really pathetic.
So we're talking about .01%
ofthe speed of light, ifyou're lucky.
Any object that we can fire out ofthe solar system
is going to take tens ofthousands ofyears
to reach the nearest star.
NARRATOR: Believe it or not, at 4.6 billion years old,
our solar system is one of the youngest in the universe.
But if civilizations exist in other galaxies,
is it possible that they are more advanced
than those on Earth?
And if so, could they be ahead of us in their ability
to travel through space and time?
CHILDRESS: For extraterrestrials
to come here, through the vast reaches of space to our planet,
they clearly have to have technology
that's way in advance ofwhat we have today.
To go from solar system to solar system,
rather than going warp speed, like in Star Trek,
you're really going to travel, as they do in Star Wars,
where you're jumping through hyperspace.
Going from a solar system to solar system is no time at all.
Just because we can't travel from star to star does not mean
another more advanced society can't do it either.
I think that's the height of human arrogance to say,
"Just because we can't do it, another
more advanced civilization can't do it either."
So, you know, we have to stop looking at us that we are
the pinnacle of creation, 'cause we're not.
NARRATOR: Celestial beings.
Visitors from the skies.
Deities descending from the heavens to interact with man.
Could these worldwide stories be the foundation
for the prevailing belief that something
greater than ourselves, from beyond our world,
created the universe as we know it?
Almost all ofthe great world faiths are based on
stories of celestial beings who visit Earth.
Many millions of people accept these legends
as part oftheir core beliefs.
And from the earliest cave drawings
to images at Roswell, we see artists' interpretations
of extraterrestrials or gods coming to our planet.
YOUNG: In many traditions, there is something coming from above.
There's a stairway to heaven or there's a whirlwind
or an angel descends.
Sometimes the encounter is quite dangerous.
(thunder rumbles)
As would be appropriate to something awesome and larger
and more powerful than we are.
Usually, it is memorable.
CHILDRESS: Many ofthe myths
are much more specific, and they really talk about gods
physically coming to Earth--
landing, doing miracles, and showing the people how to live.
NARRATOR: Ifvisitors did come from the stars, is it possible
that they actually changed the way ancient people thought?
Did they provide an intellectual spark
to prehistoric civilizations?
Could that be the reason why so many different cultures
could build such large and lasting monuments?
NOORY: It's almost as if primitive man
woke up one morning and went,
"Hey, I've got this knowledge and I know how to make tools
and I'm gonna go and build all these things."
Nah, I don't think it happened that way.
I think others came down to this planet and started teaching
other people, uh, that were beginning to evolve.
But the one thing I truly do not believe is that
modern cavemen at the time basically created
all this knowledge out ofthin air.
TSOUKALOS: All around the world,
we have concise descriptions in ancient texts
which say, word for word, that some beings
came from the sky.
So it's as ifthis intellectual Big Bang
or this Big Bang of knowledge occurred
in various periods oftime.
And those various periods oftime most concisely
always correlate with some type of description
of gods descending from the sky.
HANCOCK: I do think ofthat as a very significant
before-and-after moment in the human story.
And it is not a moment that is linked to physical evolution.
We've already got the hardware.
It's as though something happened to our software
around about that time, and I think it's a very intriguing
moment in the human story.
NARRATOR: For supporters of ancient alien theory,
the verdict is already in.
They believe that aliens visited
many of Earth's earliest cultures thousands ofyears ago.
But is it possible?
Are extraterrestrials responsible for the sacred
creation myths of the first human civilizations?
Might they have tampered with our DNA?
Are humans themselves aliens from another planet
in the heavens or even from another time?
While man continues to search for these answers,
the questions remain.
Ifthey came here, what was their mission?
We call Earth home, but with perfect conditions for life,
could it be a beacon,
calling out to other intelligent civilizations
that may exist in the universe?
CARGILL: I think there is life, simple life, bacterial life,
microbial life on other planets.
I think we're going to find that.
And who knows?
Maybe one day we'll find some other planet
that's capable of sustaining life,
that has evolved people over a long period oftime,
that are also looking up at the stars wondering:
is there anybody else out there; are we the only ones?
HELDMANN: What bigger question could we ask about ourselves
and our place in the universe?
You know, is there life elsewhere in the universe,
or are we it?
I mean, I think it's one of the most fascinating questions,
and we're fortunate enough to live in a time when we can
address this question scientifically
and really try and get at some answers.
NOORY: You can then come up with a conclusion that something,
one, very strange is happening on this planet, and two,
if it's coming from outside ofthis system,
then we're being visited by something
that has some intelligence behind it.
TSOUKALOS: In the end, the truth wins.
And we've seen this in history,
where scientific theories or ideas
that have been deemed impossible turned out to be true.
And so it is my firm conviction
that the same will count for the ancient alien theory.