NARRATOR: The fruit of a tree that forever alters humanity.
DAVID CHILDRESS: This serpent being offers them some special food to eat,
and suddenly we have a fundamental change.
NARRATOR: A drink that grants everlasting life.
JOSHUA CUTCHIN: This liquid could convey immortality upon
those who consumed it.
NARRATOR: And a nourishing substance
that rains down from the sky.
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: This machine was given to the Israelites
by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: In every religious tradition,
there are foods believed to possess extraordinary power,
and some that are even consumed
by the gods themselves.
The gods ate, the gods drank,
and this is what kept them divine.
NARRATOR: But is it possible that what
our ancestors described as gods
were, in fact, visitors from another world?
And if so, might the food of these gods
reveal a powerful link
to mankind's extraterrestrial origins?
WILLIAM HENRY: These foods were directly introduced into
the human experience in order to awaken us
and to bring us closer to the gods.
NARRATOR: There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is the promise of truth.
It demands we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR: As humanity prepares to travel to other worlds,
one of the biggest challenges facing scientists
is how to provide sustenance
beyond that found on planet Earth.
When we think of the early pioneers, uh,
we think of "living off the land."
You can't do that in outer space.
There's no soil, there's no oxygen,
there's very little of the basic ingredients
that we take for granted on the planet Earth.
So living in outer space
presents a whole new set of challenges.
NARRATOR: Currently, NASA researchers
are experimenting with various possible solutions
to the problem of keeping humans fed during long‐term missions.
BILL BIRNES: For long expeditions in space,
there are really three things we have to do.
One, either bring our food with us,
wherever we go, take the food, wagon train.
Two, terraform a planet,
or find a planet where we can already grow food
that can sustain us.
Or three,
change our own metabolism, so that we can exist
on a whole different kind of food.
NARRATOR: But is it even possible to sustain life
in the vacuum of space?
In recent years, biologists have discovered organisms
on our planet that can thrive in extreme conditions,
like those found in the deepest depths of Earth's oceans.
KIRSTEN FISHER: The prevailing assumption was that there wasn't much life
at the bottom of the ocean.
So this idea that, um, the deep sea,
um, could actually contain life
was pretty phenomenal because I think we had assumed that,
without light, we couldn't have life.
So the existence of whole ecosystems
that are supported by chemical reactions
that don't need light
to generate biomolecules and energy,
I think, was really revolutionary.
NARRATOR: But could the key to mankind's survival on other worlds
be found not in a laboratory
but by studying past accounts of extraterrestrial encounters?
Eagle River, Wisconsin.
April 18, 1961.
Plumber Joe Simonton
is finishing his lunch when he notices
a metallic saucer‐shaped craft
landing just outside his kitchen window.
I raced out to see what it was, and by that time
there was a hatchway opening up in the top of it,
just like the trunk of your car,
and in there there stood a little man‐‐
I'd say a little man about five foot tall‐‐
holding up a jug, and he motioned he wanted a drink,
he motioned for water, so I walked up to him
to get this jug and, uh, I looked at his eyes,
and they were so penetrating that I had to look away.
NARRATOR: Simonton took the container and filled it with water.
When he returned to the flying saucer,
he noticed a second being
with what appeared to be food‐like wafers.
SIMONTON: He didn't say a word, he just reached forward
and he got a handful of 'em, four of 'em,
and he handed down to me, which I have one here yet.
NARRATOR: According to Simonton, the two aliens promptly closed the hatch
and took off.
SIMONTON: Within, uh, two or three seconds,
it was out of sight.
Well, there I stood in the driveway,
wondering what the heck I'd saw, what had happened.
And, uh, if that was their food,
God help them because I took a bite of one of 'em
and it tasted like a piece of cardboard.
NARRATOR: The case immediately garnered the attention
of U. S. government agencies looking into the UFO phenomenon,
including Project Blue Book
and its science advisor, astronomer J. Allen Hynek.
CUTCHIN: Joe Simonton‐‐ this is an interesting case because it has
a level of physical evidence that we don't often see
with a lot of these cases.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE: NICAP,
the National Investigations Committee for Aerial Phenomena,
which was largely CIA back in that period of time,
wants to investigate.
And J. Allen Hynek, who was doing investigations
for the Air Force, he wanted to investigate.
NARRATOR: Hynek obtained samples of the wafers
and requested a full analysis by the
U.S. Department of Health's Food and Drug Laboratory.
The report stated that the wafers consisted
of chemically modified terrestrial plants,
including buckwheat, soybeans, and bran.
But curiously,
not even the tiniest trace amount of salt
was detected in the sample.
HOWE: There was no salt at all
found in this analysis
by NICAP and J. Allen Hynek, and it's puzzling.
MICHAEL DENNIN: One of the interesting things about life on this planet
is it did start in the oceans, and the ocean is salt water.
And so, fundamentally, the water in our bodies,
in our cells, and in‐in pretty much every living thing
has a certain amount of salt concentration
and is ubiquitous everywhere.
NARRATOR: According to scientists,
every cell of every living organism on Earth
contains a trace amount of sodium chloride, or salt.
So could the complete lack of salt
in Joe Simonton's so‐called "alien wafer"
really be proof that it came from an extraterrestrial source?
We see in outer space
thousands of planets with different kinds of chemistries,
so it's definitely possible that you can have an entire planet
with very little salt on it.
BIRNES: What if salt is as poisonous
to those aliens as cyanide is to us?
That's what that alien contact could presuppose,
that we've learned something about what's poisonous to them.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that support
for the Joe Simonton story and the notion that salt
might be poisonous to some extraterrestrials
that have visited Earth
can be found in ancient tales from around the world,
in which salt is used to ward off alien entities.
The salt connection to the Simonton story
is‐is very interesting because it connects to other mythologies
involving demonic beings or fairy beings.
They say that if you pour salt on the ground
in front of a fairy, it has to stop automatically.
Or that you can throw salt over your shoulder
and this will ward off evil spirits.
The Shinto religion uses salt as a protective mechanism.
So for salt to be lacking in these pancakes
is‐is extraordinary
because it‐it links us to these ancient stories
and it actually confirms these ancient stories.
NARRATOR: But if the stories of both the past and present are true
and these alien visitors cannot consume salt,
how have they been able to sustain themselves
in a place where salt is abundant?
Ancient astronaut theorists believe that the answer
to this one simple question may reveal
both an alien agenda on Earth and perhaps
even the purpose behind the creation of humankind.
NARRATOR: The 14th century BC.
According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Exodus,
the prophet Moses helps the Jewish slaves to escape
the tyranny of the pharaoh,
leading them across the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert.
During the exodus phase, you know,
you're wandering in the desert for almost 40 years.
What do you eat?
Well, God provides this substance,
this magical substance.
HENRY: Moses appealed to Yahweh, the Old Testament God,
and Yahweh caused manna, this food of the heavens,
to rain down upon the Israelites.
NARRATOR: But according to ancient astronaut theorists,
the story of the Israelites
receiving manna from heaven is not a story about a magical food
being sent by almighty God,
but one of extraterrestrials using their advanced technology
in order to prevent a group of migrating humans from starving.
We assumed that we were looking at gods in the past.
We didn't know we might be looking at aliens.
(thunder cracks)
NARRATOR: In 1978, linguist George Sassoon
and electrical engineer Rodney Dale
released their book, The Manna Machine.
In it, they propose that the supplementary Hebrew texts
of the Zohar provide surprisingly detailed
descriptions that point to manna being supplied
by a mechanical device.
TSOUKALOS: We have a concise description of it in the ancient Jewish texts
of the Zohar, where they describe the transportable one
with the tanks.
Dale and Sassoon looked at these stories,
and they came out with the idea that this is not
a description of God at all;
it's a description of a machine.
The manna machine was this tower‐like structure,
and it had these two giant tanks and a dispenser.
Manna is the product of that machine,
and it is based on algae cultures.
This manna machine had to be taken apart every Saturday.
And this was the one day that the tribe did not have any food.
The basic proposition by Dale and Sassoon
is that this machine was given to the Israelites
by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Could it be that extraterrestrials
provided technology to the Israelites to sustain them
during their long journey through the desert?
For the answer, ancient astronaut theorists point
to passages describing a pillar of cloud during the day
and a pillar of fire guiding them at night.
CHILDRESS: They're following a light that's guiding them
as they wander for 40 years through these deserts
of‐of the Sinai and Northern Saudi Arabia.
So you have to ask yourself, is it possible
that this pillar of fire is a UFO
that was working with Moses to bring the Israelites
to the promised land?
NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials provided the Israelites
with a food‐dispensing machine,
is it possible that they had been using this,
or a similar technology, to sustain themselves?
Perhaps the same technology as the one that produced
the mysterious salt‐free wafer that Joe Simonton claimed
was given to him by aliens in 1961.
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the answer lies not in the further study
of the so‐called manna machine,
but by looking into other possible
extraterrestrial food sources.
I think there's a definite connection to be drawn
between a lot of the food preparation practice
that we see associated with all sorts of major religions
and the modern UFO phenomena.
If we look back into ancient religions,
one of the things that we find time and again,
no matter which part of the world it is,
is the issue of sacrifice of animals.
Now, the big question is: why was this being done?
Well, I think we could make an interesting scenario if,
for example, the aliens required specific food and liquid items.
HUSSAIN: There are all sorts of religions that have food restrictions.
In the Jewish tradition we have the word "kosher."
What is acceptable food?
In the Islamic tradition, halal‐‐ exactly the same thing.
What food is allowed, what food is acceptable?
And so, for example, when you kill an animal,
you cut the throat, you drain the blood.
You want as little blood there as possible.
CUTCHIN: The handling and management of blood
in kosher and halal practice is especially important
because it is generally considered reserved for God.
STRIEBER: I wouldn't be surprised at all if blood did not play
a big role in their food.
And if people in the past had seen them consuming blood,
it might have become that higher beings had the right
to consume the blood, not human beings.
NARRATOR: Malheur National Forest.
Harney County, Oregon.
July 30, 2019.
A rancher discovers the mutilated carcasses
of five of his prized bulls.
At a loss to explain the deaths, authorities note that
the animals have been entirely drained of blood.
This is in keeping with many similar mutilations
reported around the world.
HOWE: Animals of every type you can think of,
large and small, have been bloodlessly mutilated.
Wild animals, deer, elk, marmots, reindeer,
kangaroos, snakes, all found bloodlessly mutilated.
BIRNES: When cows are mutilated,
one of the things we notice is that they're
completely drained of blood, exsanguinated.
What could that possibly mean?
NARRATOR: According to FBI statistics, the agency has documented
over 10,000 official reports of similar animal mutilations
over the past half‐century.
Investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe began
researching cattle mutilations in the late 1970s.
When I produced A Strange Harvest,
about the animal mutilations,
all of it was a brand‐new landscape for me
as an investigative reporter and TV producer.
And it led me to people who were saying
the perpetrators are creatures from outer space.
And the whole issue of: what are they?
Do they eat? Do they drink?
Are they like us? What?
NARRATOR: During her investigation,
Linda met with a woman from the Las Cruces, New Mexico area
who claimed to have been abducted from the scene
and taken aboard a craft.
Once inside the craft,
the woman encountered extraterrestrial beings.
They led her to a large vat containing dark liquid
with body parts floating in it.
They're all floating in this round container,
and something puts in her head, telepathically,
that it has something to do with sustenance.
NARRATOR: Is there something in both animal and human blood
that is necessary in order to sustain the life
of extraterrestrials visiting planet Earth?
And if so, could finding the answer provide an important key,
not only in our understanding of alien life
but in our search for a means of survival on other worlds?
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the answer might be found by examining
the strange connection between human blood...
and immortality.
NARRATOR: For the ancient Greeks,
this was the home of the gods.
Gods that were very much like humans,
except that they could live forever,
courtesy of a mysterious drink called ambrosia.
HUSSAIN: Ambrosia was literally the food of immortality.
In the ancient world, the gods ate, the gods drank.
And this is what kept them divine.
This is what kept them alive forever,
which is one of the crucial differences between
the divine and the human.
NARRATOR: While ambrosia was reserved for the gods,
the ancient Greek texts also contain stories
of this divine food being shared with select humans
and extending their life spans indefinitely.
We might imagine that it is some sort of a liquid
or, or paste or ointment
that has special properties.
By drinking it, you are extending your life,
and if you drank this ambrosia over many, many years,
you could have a certain sense of immortality, in a way.
NARRATOR: Substances like ambrosia can be found
in numerous ancient traditions.
In China there were stories of the Peaches of Immortality.
The Norse spoke of I unn's apples.
But as far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the ubiquity of this story also provides further evidence
that ancient peoples came into contact
with the same otherworldly beings.
HENRY: Ancient astronaut theorists look at the gods
as extraterrestrial beings, as aliens.
If you're talking about beings that are
traveling the stars for generations,
they're going to need some kind of sustenance
that will sustain them during these voyages.
And that appears to be what ambrosia was.
NARRATOR: Could it be that the ancient stories about ambrosia
and similar elixirs were actually descriptions
of a substance that extraterrestrials used
to facilitate long voyages through space?
And, if so, was it seen as a source of immortality,
not only because of its ability to prolong life
but also because it sustained alien travelers
during thousands of years in space?
Perhaps further clues to the answers can be found
by examining the many accounts of ancient people
living far longer than the average life expectancy today.
HUSSAIN: The biblical life spans are extraordinary.
So the Bible says that Adam lived for 930 years,
that Noah lived for 950 years.
That Methuselah lived for 969 years.
It seems like an odd concept, but you have many records of‐‐
not just in the Bible but all throughout history‐‐
all these other cultures also talk about this, you know.
The Sumerian Kings List,
Chinese masters living to 300 years old into the 1700s.
Even ancient Philippine records talk about these kings
that lived long lives.
It's found all around the world.
Some of the stories that we hear about this drink, ambrosia,
connect to these journeys to the celestial realm.
In fact, Enoch actually describes that before
he was able to go up to the heavens,
he is actually anointed,
and he says it smelled like ambrosia.
But the question is, was he really anointed?
What if ambrosia was something that you had to take in
in order to prepare for a journey to outer space,
and it gave you immortality?
NARRATOR: If ambrosia was an alien substance
that could both extend life and facilitate space travel,
just what was it?
Something that could only be found
or concocted on alien worlds?
Or something that could be found in abundance
right here on Earth?
Santa Clara, California.
June 2016.
Silicon Valley start‐up Ambrosia LLC
obtains approval to begin clinical trials
on an experimental treatment to reverse aging.
Medical researchers inject older test subjects
with blood plasma from young donors
in an effort to improve their health
and extend their life span.
Hundreds of patients sign up to participate,
paying $8,000 for each liter of blood plasma they receive.
The theory is, whether it's true or not,
is that by infusing yourself
with the blood of younger people,
you will gain a longer life, because you won't have,
as the commercial used to say, tired blood or old blood.
You're literally giving yourself a new lease on life.
NARRATOR: Ancient Greek texts connect ambrosia
with divine blood called ichor.
And the concept that blood
can impart immortality is widespread,
found in legends of vampires
and even historical accounts of human blood sacrifice.
Is it possible that blood, and particularly human blood,
has life‐sustaining properties far beyond
our current understanding?
REDFERN: When it comes to the issue
of extraterrestrials and blood, there's one scenario,
the idea that the aliens may actually take blood.
Now, that's not completely out of the question.
The main reason being
it contains iron, proteins, nutrients.
In other words, it'd be the classic important item
for aliens to dine upon.
But we cannot do that without causing extreme damage,
possibly even death, to ourselves.
That sort of suggests, possibly, also,
that blood is an item of the extraterrestrials and not of us.
NARRATOR: Does human blood possess life‐sustaining properties
far beyond its function inside the body?
And, if so, could the substance known as ambrosia
be flowing through the veins of every human?
As far as many ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
the answer is yes,
and they suggest that this profound notion
was first conveyed to humankind more than 2,000 years ago
by a man named Jesus.
NARRATOR: Vatican City.
2019.
Thousands of pilgrims bow their heads as Pope Francis performs
the Liturgy of the Eucharist
and consecrates the offerings of bread and wine.
According to Church historians,
the ceremony's roots lie in the Last Supper Jesus shared
with his disciples
shortly before he sacrificed his life on the cross.
As he passed the bread, Jesus said, "Take this and eat it,
it is my body."
And as he passed the wine, he said, "Drink this,
it is the blood of the covenant."
And out of that moment at a meal grew a great ritual, a ceremony,
a sacrament that is repeated to this day
around the world by millions of people.
NARRATOR: In the Roman Catholic tradition,
during the Mass, the priest is empowered by the prayers
that energize the bread and the wine
such that they become transformed,
or transubstantiated,
into the living presence of the body
and the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation is one of the Catholic Church's
most exalted mysteries.
Catholics are encouraged to believe
that through this miracle, somehow these ordinary wafers
and ordinary wine
become the blood and body of Jesus.
NARRATOR: Could this rite of turning bread and wine
into the body and blood of Jesus
really have otherworldly origins?
BIRNES: Isn't it interesting
that we have numerous traditions around the globe
telling us that blood is the substance reserved for the gods?
Now we have to ask, is there a connection between the ritual
of the Catholic Mass and extraterrestrials?
Maybe it's possible, by imbibing certain bloods,
the extraterrestrials are actually able
to extend their life spans to incredible degrees.
So, when Jesus talked about the "blood of the covenant,"
just maybe Jesus was talking in a symbolic fashion
when he talked about how wine and bread sustains us
but something very, very different sustained him.
That the wine that sustains us
is the parallel of the blood for Jesus.
NARRATOR: If alien beings have been coming to Earth for thousands of years,
is it possible that they have evolved to a point
where they do not physically consume food
in the way that humans do, but are able to draw sustenance
from certain energetic substances, like blood?
And does the ritual of Communion provide a clue
as to how humankind must evolve
in order to become like the gods?
When we think of food, we immediately have that image
of a hamburger, french fries,
and there you are, munching away.
But I'm a physicist.
We realize that the essence of food is energy,
and energy can exist in many, many forms.
So, think of widening your possibilities.
Any time there's a source of energy,
there's a possibility of using it
for food for an alien species.
Myself, I think these things are really possible,
and maybe there is something there.
But at the same time, the story of the Eucharist
being created in the Upper Room
is one of the most profound and beautiful stories I know.
And I prefer to think of it that way, personally.
NARRATOR: For centuries, theologists have debated
the origin and meaning of the Eucharist,
but it is not an entirely unique ritual.
And ancient astronaut theorists suggest that a similar ceremony
established in ancient India
provides further clues as to the nature of alien sustenance.
Soma is this huge thing in the, in the early Indian tradition,
the Rigveda.
The earliest Hindu texts talk about this.
So soma is this drink that gives the people who consume it,
you know, the powers of this god
or the thoughts of this god, the abilities there.
VIEIRA: Soma was brought to humans by Agni the fire god.
The same story you have with the holy wine or the Eucharist.
And it's like somehow we are being helped by‐by these beings
through these different substances.
I find that really fascinating.
HENRY: They have a saying in the Rigveda
that if you drink soma,
you see God and you connect with God.
But they also said it promoted immortality
and longevity as well.
CHILDRESS: Ancient people are drinking this special drink of soma,
and they're drinking the blood of the gods.
And so we look, too, at the Catholic concept
of transubstantiation,
where the body and the blood of Christ
are then in these‐these wafers and‐and wine that we drink.
And you have to wonder if even that is an, is an old relic
of the early soma rituals.
NARRATOR: Is there an extraterrestrial inspiration
behind both the rites of Communion
and the ancient rites of soma?
Were they intended to teach us vital lessons about longevity,
and perhaps point the way to our own future
as a spacefaring people?
And if so, might there be other stories,
of other food substances humans were given to eat or drink
that point to an alien agenda for mankind?
NARRATOR: During an international book tour for Communion,
his best‐selling account of his own alien abduction,
author Whitley Strieber
receives a visit at his hotel room from a mysterious being.
I had a 45‐minute conversation with him.
Then he gave me a glass of liquid to drink.
It was white
and I didn't want to drink it,
but he insisted that I do it.
Somehow or another, I did it.
It was extremely bitter,
and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the morning.
I thought maybe it's some kind of alien potion,
but recently I did some more research on it
and I found that it's, it was in the past called
the milk of nepenthe.
It was first mentioned
in the poet Homer's writings,
then it was known throughout the ancient world.
No one was really sure what it is,
but the symptoms described are just like what I experienced.
Nepenthe is something that makes people forget, as it did me.
NARRATOR: Homer, the legendary eighth century BC Greek poet,
mentions nepenthe in his epic poem The Odyssey.
Plato writes about a similar substance
in his Book X of The Republic.
The drink was said to help humans
fall into profound amnesia
and forget the trauma of their encounters with the gods,
encounters that today we might call alien abductions.
STRIEBER: It was also given to people who had gone to Mount Olympus
and been with the gods,
on their way down, so that they would forget what they had seen
and they would not want to commit suicide.
TSOUKALOS: In Greek mythology, every time it was given to someone
they would forget anything that happened to them
in the last 48 hours.
Now, what's interesting is that modern‐day abductees
talk about the same thing.
So my question is: is it possible that extraterrestrials
are giving substances to people
in order to forget what has happened to them?
NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials have been using some type of drink
to cloud the memories of humans they come into contact with,
what is the purpose?
Is it simply to spare them the trauma of an alien encounter?
Or could it be to hide the fact that they are extracting blood?
Some ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer can be found
by examining the most important moment
of extraterrestrial intervention in human history.
New York City, 1976.
After spending 30 years deciphering
the Sumerian language,
researcher Zecharia Sitchin publishes his book
The 12th Planet.
In it, he proposes
that a race of extraterrestrials known as the Anunnaki
genetically modified ancient primates in the distant past,
turning them into modern humans.
In his books, Zecharia Sitchin dealt at length
with the Sumerian creation stories,
the Atrahasis and others that tell
of these beings, the Anunnaki, putting their image on humanity.
That they genetically altered a proto‐human
to create a new race of beings, Homo sapien.
NARRATOR: According to Sitchin's translation
of the Sumerian cuneiform writings,
the Anunnaki produced the first successful Homo sapiens
around 250,000 BC.
While scholars in the 1970s
dismissed Sitchin's theory,
in the 1980s anthropologists traced the mitochondrial DNA
of all modern humans to a common female ancestor
living in Africa roughly 250,000 years ago.
Geneticists call her Mitochondrial Eve.
TSOUKALOS: We were wise, but now we're even wiser.
Just like that.
And geneticists, to this day, cannot quite figure out,
well, what was that ping, that‐that‐that change
that virtually happened overnight?
So when you have these weird examples
where stuff essentially happens overnight,
I'm suggesting this was done due to an artificial mutation.
NARRATOR: Researchers following in Sitchin's footsteps
have noted a largely overlooked aspect
of the Sumerian cylindrical seal depicting the celebration
of the first successful human experiment.
The scene features a figure stirring a jar
and another holding a flask directed
at their original creation.
Many associate the scene with the biblical account
of the temptation of Adam and Eve.
HENRY: Adam and Eve,
before their encounter with this bright snake,
this talking serpent,
who is equated with Enki in the Sumerian tradition,
this genetic engineer that came from another world
and altered our human DNA,
that before this event, Adam and Eve pretty much lived
like primitive or a primate‐type beings.
NARRATOR: Could the story of Adam and Eve's transformation be a memory
of the moment our genome was altered
by an extraterrestrial race, as proposed by Sitchin?
And, if so, was that alteration done by mechanical gene splicing
in a laboratory, as 21st century technology might do it today?
Or could it have been accomplished
in a far more sophisticated way,
by simply giving our ancestors
some highly advanced alien substance,
designed to transform primates into people?
CHILDRESS: Here's the story of Adam and Eve
living, uh, sort of blissfully in this Edenic garden
and just watching the sunset and having sex
and not doing a whole lot.
And then suddenly this serpent‐being comes to them
and offers them some special food to eat.
And they completely change into what we would call
modern people.
And here we have, through the intake of food,
we have a fundamental change and, in a sense,
an evolutionary leap
from primitive humans to more modern humans
who are more aware of themselves and their surroundings.
NARRATOR: Did extraterrestrials alter life on Earth
to create sentient beings
and then use amnesia‐inducing substances
in order to keep them from knowing the facts
behind their alien origins?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes and suggest
that as humans begin to take their next evolutionary step
into space,
the veil of ignorance will soon
be removed.
NARRATOR: 220 miles above the Earth.
Researchers on the International Space Station
are currently testing an advanced hydroponic system
to make food.
Utilizing artificial light and a water‐based nutrient solution,
the microalgae contained within the unit
takes in carbon dioxide breathed out by the astronauts.
The process allows the microalgae
to quickly multiply and produces a continuous supply
of nourishment on board the craft.
We breathe in oxygen and we get out carbon dioxide,
but in a hydroponic farm,
you have plants growing in liquid
and it takes in the waste products
of human combustion and expels oxygen as a consequence.
That would give you a self‐sustaining ecosystem
to maintain the human body.
NASA is experimenting with hydroponic machines
that enable the astronauts to grow
a kind of microbiological algae
that is reminiscent of the manna from the Old Testament.
Could it be that's our own manna machine?
NARRATOR: As manned missions to Mars are within our grasp,
logistical obstacles, like how to sustain the crew,
must first be overcome.
Could the solution be found not only by altering the substances
we bring with us into space,
but by altering ourselves?
We can conceive of entirely new kinds of life‐forms
based on energy.
So food is the energy that fuels us,
but it's a real possibility that,
as we start to explore outer space,
we may have to genetically modify ourselves
to alter our diet so that we ingest
different forms of energy.
When we look back at these unusual foods of the gods,
you have to wonder if that is not a direction
that we have been meant to go in,
to become a spacefaring race ourselves.
So everything has come full circle here
from ancient times and these unusual foods
of the gods to what we're doing today.
REDFERN: I think this entire phenomenon of aliens,
of food, of mysterious drinks is one of the most important
when it comes to us engaging with them.
And it may well be the case that that is the primary way
in which we can actually have
some sort of communion with them.
NARRATOR: As we evolve into a spacefaring species,
will the concept and function of food
take on a new meaning for humanity?
Perhaps the intriguing evidence of how aliens may have survived
on Earth will provide a road map to our own future.
It will open up new possibilities
and new ways to sustain ourselves
for much longer time spans.
It will allow us to venture deeper into space,
colonize new worlds,
and create new versions of ourselves
as we continue to follow in the footsteps
of our alien ancestors.