Ancient Aliens: The Shocking Theory Behind the Gods (S1)

Video: "Ancient Aliens: The Shocking Theory Behind the Gods (S1)" (History Channel)

Full auto-transcript: Almost all of the great world faiths are based on stories of celestial beings who visit Earth. Many millions of people accept these legends as part of their core beliefs. And from the earliest cave drawings, to images at Roswell, we see artists' interpretations of extraterrestrials or gods coming to our planet. NICK POPE: In many traditions, there is something coming from above, there is a stairway to heaven, or there's a whirlwind, or angel descends. Sometimes the encounter is quite dangerous, as would be appropriate to something awesome and larger and more powerful than we are. Usually, it is memorable. DAVID CHILDRESS: Many of the 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: If visitors 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? GEORGE 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 going to 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 that we're 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 of thin air. GIORGIO A. 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 if this intellectual Big Bang or this Big Bang of knowledge occurred in various periods of time. And those various periods of time, most concisely, always correlate with some type of description of gods descending from the sky. GRAHAM HANCOCK: I do think of that 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 of years 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. If they 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? ROBERT R. 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 of time that are also looking up at the stars wondering, is there anybody else out there? Are we the only ones? JENNIFER 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 some answers. GEORGE 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 of this system, then we're being visited by something that has some intelligence behind it. GIORGIO A. 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.