"NARRATOR:" "He is the personification of evil." "KATHLEEN McGOWAN:" "Satan was the source of torture and death and destruction." "NARRATOR:" "He's the ruler of hell." "JONATHAN YOUNG:" "He grew arrogant." "And he lost his heavenly position." "He was thrown out of the heavens and fell." "NARRATOR:" "And he commands an army of demons united on a vengeable quest:" "to destroy mankind." "REV." "BOB LARSON:" "A demon is a body who accomplishes evil purposes." "You can't have her." "So they can bring about their plan of death and destruction" "NARRATOR:" "But is the character known as the prince of darkness, merely a myth?" "Or could he be something much much more." "DAVID CHILDRESS:" "Satan may well be a person a god, an angel, an E.T." "who's been malign in a sense." "NARRATOR:" "Millions of people around the world believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings." "What if it were true?" "Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history?" "And if so, could evidence be found in centuries-old stories of a fallen angel?" "Could there really be a Satan conspiracy?" "NARRATOR:" "He is called Satan..." "Lucifer... the Devil." "And his name conjures up horrifying images of a horned demon whose sole purpose is to corrupt and destroy mankind." "HENRY ANSGAR KELLY:" "Satan is portrayed as the enemy of God." "Trying to destroy good people, to make good people bad and to, uh, keep them from being saved, keep them from going to Heaven so that they can go to hell, where he's in charge." "McGOWAN:" "Satan has become the catchall for the embodiment of evil." "When we think of Satan, I think there are two different ways that our brains can go." "The first is this almost comical character that rules over the land of flames, the red guy with the horns and the pitchfork." "But then, on the darker side, I think that Satan has become this very, very terrifying, frightening embodiment of evil who causes man to do terrible things, who is the source of torture and death and destruction." "NARRATOR:" "But are these perceptions of Satan correct?" "Is he really the master of all things evil in the universe?" "Lakeland, Florida." "2012." "Hundreds of faithful followers congregate at the Ignited Church to witness the removal of demons from those who believe they're possessed by the Devil." "LARSON:" "You let him go." "All the pain and the hurt you've caused this man, you let him go." "The Devil wants to get even." "How else to hurt the heart of God to the greatest possible extent but to harm the beloved of his creation?" "The height of his creation." "The thing that God loves most:" "humanity, human beings, me, you, every single person on Earth." "NARRATOR:" "In the ritual known as exorcism, a priest or minister performs a sacred rite in order to confront Satan and drive him back to hell." "It is a ceremony that dates back hundreds and perhaps thousands of years and is considered quite controversial, even within the" "Catholic Church." "LARSON:" "I torment you by the blood of Christ." "When I'm battling Satan, there are a lot of mind games going on and it's a bit of a chess match." "You think you have her, don't you?" "Don't you?" "WOMAN:" "Yes." "LARSON:" "You think she's yours, don't you?" "WOMAN:" "Mm-hmm." "LARSON:" "Well, she's not." "So I have to be mentally and spiritually prepared for that." "How long have you had her?" "WOMAN:" "Long time." "LARSON:" "Yeah?" "Well, now it's gonna be a short time." "Torment!" "Torment!" "Torment you." "NARRATOR:" "But just who or what is Satan?" "And why is he determined to corrupt all of humanity?" "Perhaps the answers can be found in the myths and legends that describe Satan's ancient origins." "ADAM BLAI:" "In the beginning, Satan was one of the angels that was created by God before the physical universe was created." "And there was basically a sphere of angels around God, worshiping God." "And Satan at that time was Lucifer or the Day Star." "He was the brightest of the angels." "McGOWAN:" "Satan is actually one of the archangels." "He is one of the high angels, one of the highest ranking, one of the most beautiful, the most beloved." "He is beloved of God." "He is a bringer of light." "KELLY:" "When God created man in his image, he ordered all the angels to, uh, worship his image in this man." "And Satan refused." "He says, "Look, they're mud people." "We're made out of fire." ""And I'm not going to do it."" "And so he gets kicked out." "YOUNG:" "He grew arrogant." "He began to challenge God." "And, for this arrogance, he lost his heavenly position." "He was thrown out of the heavens and fell." "BLAI:" "When Lucifer was cast down, it was instant and abrupt and total." "And he was cast down to Earth to roam here until the end of time." "NARRATOR:" "Although few references are made to Satan in the Hebrew testament, he is depicted as an opposer or accuser and is generally acknowledged to have been the inspiration for the serpent in the Garden of Eden." "BRETT PETERSON:" "One of the great stories in the Bible is" "Adam and Eve in the garden." "You know, we have this picture of a beautiful garden scene and" "Adam and Eve in their innocence just enjoying God and each other in this beautiful creation." "And all of a sudden enters Satan in the form of a snake." "And he finds Eve close to the one thing, the one law God gave mankind." "NARRATOR:" "According to the Book of Genesis, God placed two trees in the garden... the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge... and forbade Adam and Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge." "PATRICK COOKE:" "Satan convinces Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." "And she convinces Adam to do that." "And, of course, we see that suddenly their whole personality changes." "PETERSON:" "Prior to eating of the forbidden fruit," "Adam and Eve were sinless." "It means that the one law that" "God gave them, uh, they had not disobeyed." "Satan himself decided that if he could get them to break that one law, then sin would enter mankind." "And when Adam ate, all mankind from that point on has been selfish, prideful and were genetically given the ability and, really, the desire to rebel against authority and thus obtain the knowledge of good and evil." "NARRATOR:" "But is this story of Adam and Eve really a fanciful account of how evil entered the world?" "Or might there be another, even more profound explanation?" "KENNETH HANSON:" "You can make a case that Eve actually wants to mature." "She wants to grow up." "God wants to keep us in a state of perpetual innocence, infantility perhaps." "Eve decides that knowing everything she can know about this world into which she has been placed is more important even than obeying a particular command of God." "The serpent enables her." "WILLIAM HENRY:" "Satan's wanting to give humanity all this incredible wisdom that maybe can even elevate humankind to the level of gods." "But the Old Testament God Yahweh is saying, "Not so fast." "Humankind are-aren't perhaps "worthy of this knowledge."" "And this becomes then the battle between God and Satan." "NARRATOR:" "Was the serpent's temptation of Adam and Eve really a case of sabotage?" "Was it a deliberate effort to seduce mankind into sinning against its Creator?" "Or might Satan's real purpose have been to encourage mankind to share the fruits of God's wisdom?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe more clues may lie in another book of the Hebrew testament." "Southern Israel." "This dry, sun-blasted desert was once the realm of Edom... an ancient kingdom that some researchers believe was home to the biblical figure, Job." "According to the Hebrew Bible, Job was among the wealthiest men in the kingdom, and owned enormous herds of cattle, sheep and camels." "He was also among the most righteous, making sacrifices to the Almighty God to atone for his transgressions and the sins of his family." "REVEREND BARRY H. DOWNING:" "In the story of Job, Satan is part of the heavenly council of angels." "And then the council meets, and God is at the council meeting." "And basically, he and Satan have a discussion." "WILLIAM FULCO:" "And God says, "You know, look at Job." "He's very faithful."" "And Satan, in charge of quality control, says, "Well, of course." "You know, you give him everything." ""What do you expect?"" "McGOWAN:" "And Satan actually challenges God, and says," ""If Job were tempted, if he no longer had all of these wonderful things that God had given to him, what happens to "him then?"" "Satan convinces God that Job should be tested to see if he is really all that good." "And this is where Satan becomes the first adversary, the first tester of humans." "YOUNG:" "So, it's interesting in this story." "Satan is actually working with God as a kind of member of his staff or his heavenly counsel." "HENRY:" "The divine council of God is very interesting, because we learn that it is composed of various angelic beings, including Satan." "And the idea is that these are advanced beings who carry out" "God's orders and God's wishes from the commands of this council." "It really seems like we're seeing some kind of divine bureaucracy, something like you would see in a corporate or a governmental bureaucracy." "NARRATOR:" "Could our notion of Satan as an evil force be incorrect?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe there is much more to the story... and that the answer may be found, not only in the pages of the Hebrew Bible, but on ancient scrolls." "Scrolls whose origins date back thousands of years." "NARRATOR:" "Qumran, the West Bank." "Here, during a series of excavations beginning in 1949, archaeologists unearth hundreds of ancient scrolls." "They are believed to have been written by a Hebrew sect known as the Essenes more than 2,000 years ago." "Several of the scrolls contain fragments of what has become known as the Book of Enoch, and the account of a rebellion launched by a group of angels called the Watchers." "BLAI:" "One of the most famous parts of the Book of Enoch is a story of the Watchers." "This is a story about 200 angels that were charged with watching over mankind in its early stages, and basically, taking care of us, looking out for us." "McGOWAN:" "The Watchers are a group of angels who are dispatched to watch humans and to help humans." "Now, the Watchers are very interesting, because they are angels who interact with humans." "BLAI:" "And there's a brief reference to this in Genesis." "But the Book of Enoch essentially expands that story and tells a more full story." "This was taken out of the canon of the Bible early in the" "Church's life, but it was in for a period of time." "McGOWAN:" "Once the Watchers begin to interact with humans, they become infatuated with this new species, and they become lustful of this new species." "And all of a sudden, the original idea, the original commands that they were given seem a lot less interesting to them." "BLAI:" "They came to a point where they wanted to take wives and have children, and so they decided to rebel, create bodies, marry and bear children." "(shouting, metallic scraping)" "NARRATOR:" "According to the Book of Enoch, the leader of this rebellion is a Watcher known as Shemyaza or Satanael." "(thunder crackling)" "Could this be the same character we know as Satan?" "PHILIP COPPENS:" "So, what we're seeing in the story of" "Shemyaza and the Watchers is very similar to the story of" "Lucifer in charge of the angels." "In both cases, we're confronted with a hierarchy of a species which is between us and God, the leader of which disagrees with" "God and basically wants to live amongst mankind." "GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:" "When you look at different versions of the Book of Enoch, the one thing that combines all of them is that they talk about the Watchers, the Watchers from Heaven." "And they are the ones who gave knowledge." "And when I look at terms such as "Watchers from Heaven," then personally, I interpret them as possible extraterrestrials." "NARRATOR:" "Do the ancient accounts of Shemyaza's revolt and Lucifer's fall suggest that Satan's efforts to corrupt mankind in the Garden of Eden were actually an attempt to give man forbidden knowledge?" "And might these legends be based, not on myth, but on actual historical events..." "events involving extraterrestrial visitors?" "Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and believe that close examination of the Book of Enoch may point to physical evidence of where Satan's so-called rebellion against God may have actually occurred." "Mount Hermon, Lebanon." "Straddling the border of Syria, this legendary mountain, as described in the Book of Enoch, is the peak where Shemyaza and the Watchers descended to Earth." "BLAI:" "In the Book of Enoch, there's a reference to Mount Hermon." "We see the angels basically descending to Mount Hermon." "So, Mount Hermon was both a place of connection with Heaven and kind of a sally port between Earth and Heaven." "The Watchers, being angels from Heaven, knew the sciences of Heaven." "Samyaza was basically an expert in enchantment and root cutting." "You could think of it as, basically, witchcraft." "The casting of spells, creating magic and using roots to create potions." "McGOWAN:" "The Book of Enoch lists, very specifically, the subjects that are taught to humans by the Watchers, by these angels who begin to share their wisdom with them." "NARRATOR:" "The Book of Enoch describes Mount Hermon as the place where Shemyaza taught humans about magic and medicine." "Other powerful angels passed on knowledge of metallurgy, weapons, astrology, science and even warfare." "SCOTT ROBERTS:" "The Watchers delivered to humanity the forbidden knowledge of God." "All the stories in ancient cultures, cross-cultural, had these tales of beings that would deliver the forbidden knowledge of the gods to humans." "And they were all condemned for it." "McGOWAN:" "The Watchers, through Shemyaza, give us extraordinary tools, which make our lives much, much better on Earth." "So, is Shemyaza really a bad guy, or did he, in fact, liberate humans from ignorance?" "And if Shemyaza actually is the forerunner of Satan, has Satan actually been misrepresented all of these years?" "NARRATOR:" "Is it possible that Shemyaza and the other Watchers were extraterrestrial beings that gave humanity the foundations for civilization?" "Then, if so, how did Satan come to be so misunderstood and misinterpreted by history?" "COPPENS:" "If we equal Shemyaza and Satan, what we're confronted with here is a larger framework which basically tells us that" "Shemyaza, Satan were here to civilize us." "The Watchers were civilizing deities." "They basically helped us to develop our skills of civilization." "And so, what we're confronted with here is basically the conclusion that civilization the way we know it is not something divine, but it's literally satanic." "It was Satan who gave us the tools of civilization." "NARRATOR:" "Was Satan really a civilizing force for early humans, as some ancient astronaut theorists believe?" "And, if so, might further evidence be found by examining other ancient myths and legends?" "CHILDRESS:" "In ancient Sumeria, you have these very curious stories of the Anunnaki." "The Anunnaki were half-god, half-man, who came down from the stars." "They were instructing the Sumerians in various arts of civilization." "They were very strange-looking." "They had elongated heads." "They looked almost like insect-type people." "Or what they call reptilian features in a sense, or a viper visage, as the Watchers were called in the Bible." "HENRY:" "In global cultures, we find constant references to these giant celestial beings coming to Earth and initiating, or instructing humankind." "Satan himself is considered to be a seraphim, which means winged serpent or fiery serpent, but yet the word" ""seraphim" contains the word "ser," meaning serpent, and" ""rephaim," meaning giant." "NARRATOR:" "Was the character we know as Satan really an extraterrestrial being?" "One who broke with his own species in order to live among our distant ancestors?" "Did he, along with other so-called fallen angels, actually break with God, not out of spite or arrogance, but instead to help mankind?" "Perhaps further clues can be found in legends of a flying serpent, and in the story of a Titan who was savagely punished for all eternity." "NARRATOR:" "The Yucatan Peninsula." "Here in the jungles of southern Mexico lie the ruins of the great Mayan city Chichen Itza." "Constructed more than a thousand years ago, Chichen Itza was one of the largest and most powerful cities in the Mayan world." "And dominating the site is the great pyramid El Castillo... a temple built to honor the Mayan serpent god Kukulkan." "HENRY:" "Kukulkan is the name for Satan, or for the winged serpent." "He's always portrayed as a wisdom-bearing being who delivers this cosmic knowledge to humankind." "Often we'll see Kukulkan portrayed as half-human or half-serpent or as a human being coming out of the mouth of the serpent." "This is how Christianity will traditionally portray Satan as a dragon figure or a serpentine-like being." "COPPENS:" "The question is, why is he depicted as such?" "And I think we really can find out that Kukulkan is not unique in this sense." "NARRATOR:" "One of the most powerful gods in the Mayan pantheon, Kukulkan was believed to have descended from the stars." "He is also credited with teaching astronomy, mathematics and agriculture to mankind." "HENRY:" "This is identical to the Christian tradition of Satan being the serpent of the Tree of Knowledge, delivering the forbidden wisdom to humanity." "In the Book of Enoch, we learn of the Watchers who were described as having visages of vipers or the face of a serpent, and delivering this powerful knowledge to humankind." "So, it's possible that what we're seeing in all of these instances is the same figure or representative of the same tribe of angels, the satanic beings or these serpentine-like angel beings." "NARRATOR:" "Are the stories of Satan and Kukulkan really based on the same being, as many ancient astronaut theorists believe?" "And, if so, might this same character also be found in the myths and legends of other ancient cultures?" "COPPENS:" "Satan, as a creature who comes out nowhere to live amongst mankind and teaches, is not something which is limited to the Bible." "We find it in most traditions across the world." "NARRATOR:" "According to the legends of ancient Greece, the Titan known as Prometheus sinned against the gods by stealing the secret of fire and giving it to man." "For his transgression, he was doomed to suffer a gruesome, eternal punishment, by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver, only to have the organ grow back each night so that the eagle could continue to feast on it the next day." "RICHARD RADER:" "He's a god that becomes associated with humans, because he's a champion for humans." "Right, and the mythological stories talk about how" "Prometheus is basically like their representative." "NARRATOR:" "Another such deity was the god Viracocha." "Worshiped by the ancient Inca in the Andes of South America," "Viracocha was a powerful creator god who came to Earth to pass on celestial knowledge." "Like Prometheus, this Incan god was described as a bringer of light, and is depicted in ancient Incan sculpture as holding two lightning bolts and wearing the sun as a crown." "HENRY:" "The Inca describe a luminous being called" "Viracoca or Viracocha who brought knowledge of medicine, astronomy and other advanced sciences." "It's possible that Viracocha is the same as Shemyaza or Satan as a figure bringing this liberating wisdom to humankind that seeks to bring us along the path of advancement and enlightenment." "So you have to ask yourself," ""Why would such diverse cultures have such similar mythologies?"" "COPPENS:" "In the case of Viracocha, what we see is a deity which manifests itself from Earth, lives amongst mankind, gives us sciences, and after a number of years, disappears again." "NARRATOR:" "The ancient Egyptians had cults that worshiped the god Set;" "a divine being who, like Satan, ruled over darkness and chaos." "COPPENS:" "The tradition of civilizing deities who go around civilizing, educating us, is something which we find in all traditions." "Whether they are the great cultures of Egypt, Inca, or the Mayan empires, or smaller cultures elsewhere in the universe." "And so what we're finding is that the story of Satan as a civilizing deity is definitely not unique, but sits within a clear framework across the the entire world." "And it shows you that the importance of Satan is not just something limited to the Bible, but really tells us an awful lot about civilization as a whole." "NARRATOR:" "Could it be that these ancient myths were actually describing the same creature, the fallen angel we now refer to as Satan?" "But how, then, did a creature who is so often credited with bringing mankind knowledge and enlightenment, become thought of as the personification of all things evil?" "ERICH VON DANIKEN:" "The word "Lucifer" comes from Latin." "Mix "lux" "ferre," "making light."" "It's the same as in the Greek mythology, Prometheus, who stole the light from the gods." "It's really a sympathetic idea that all these figures are finally just one figure in different languages." "But they were sympathetic to the humans." "It is quite possible that our religious traditions and those who selected the-the old holy texts some thousands of years ago, they made out an evil figure out of Lucifer and the Devil." "And maybe it was the other way around..." "he was the good one." "COPPENS:" "When we're looking at something like Satan, we're not necessarily talking about morality but we're actually exploring things about our ancestors." "We're exploring mythology." "We're exploring accounts of our ancestors saying that they developed civilization not on their own but with the help of nonhuman intelligences." "And in the case of one such story, we see that that intelligence is Satan." "CHILDRESS:" "In many ways, Satan may well be a person, a god, an angel, an E.T. who's maligned in a sense." "Lucifer is-is Prometheus." "He's the light bringer." "He's the god of hard work." "He's the one who brings us fire." "He's the one who gives us the opportunity to do things ourselves." "NARRATOR:" "If the biblical character of Satan is really based on an extraterrestrial being..." "one who stole technology from his masters in order to benefit early man... then why is he now reviled as a creature of consummate evil?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer may lie not in ancient scriptures but in numerous accounts of demonic possession." "NARRATOR:" "Klingenberg, Germany." "Located 32 miles southeast of Frankfurt, this small city is home to one of the most famous and frightening cases of demonic possession ever recorded." "In September 1973, a young woman named Anneliese Michel began hearing voices that told her she was damned and would rot in hell." "When medical treatments failed, she sought the help of an exorcist." "MICHEL:" "Nein!" "Nein." "(priest speaking German)" "(Michel growls)" "NARRATOR:" "Demonic possession is perhaps the most frightening and visceral of all phenomena associated with Satan." "According to Christian tradition, possession occurs when a demon enters the body, corrupting a person's physical and spiritual being." "YOUNG:" "The belief in demonic possession is widespread." "It seems to show up pretty much all over the planet." "It was believed to be the presence of a satanic energy, a truly dark, terrible evil that could take over a person." "Take over their body, take over their mind." "And they would be acting with no free will, they would be a complete slave to the power of the dark side." "BLAI:" "Demons manifest on Earth to interact with people, to afflict us and tempt us in various ways." "The oppression involves physically wounding us, attacking us, causing effects on our body and our mind." "Possession is when we surrender our lower faculties to them and they take over our body and use it as their own." "And, in rare cases, they can appear visibly to multiple people as supposed human spirits." "NARRATOR:" "Most Christians believe demons are evil incarnations of the other angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion against the Almighty God." "They bear names like Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Moloch and" "Mammon and are dedicated to corrupting the souls of mankind." "ROBERTS:" "Biblically speaking, the demonic comes from the fallen angels." "Those who fell with Lucifer during the great wars in Heaven." "And their purpose is to deceive humanity." "To lead them astray." "To distract them from God." "And there are many castes." "They range from your basic thugs on the bottom all the way up to your... if you will, your intelligentsia that is governing behind the scenes of the affairs of mankind." "BLAI:" "It is essentially... you can imagine a military structure with generals, officers, privates." "There's basically nine levels, which are fallen angels of various ranks serving under each other, ultimately serving Satan." "NARRATOR:" "In many religious traditions there are sacred rites to exorcize these demons from the bodies of the afflicted." "LARSON:" "Let her go." "Let her go." "I come against you again, Satan, by the blood of Christ." "NARRATOR:" "The Reverend Bob Larson is an evangelical minister and exorcist who says he has come face-to-face with the demonic and the truly satanic." "LARSON:" "By the blood of Christ, I torment you, Satan." "(woman grunts)" "You can't have her." "She belongs to God." "I torment you." "I torment you by the blood of Christ." "I torment you!" "I'm here to be an instrument of God to cast out the Devil, to free human souls." "It's not my power that does it." "It's God's power." "I'm simply the instrument that he uses." "But my mission is to get every demon possible out of every possible human being and send them straight to hell." "How long have you had her?" "Give me some oil, please." "I anoint you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." "How long have you had this woman?" "How many generations?" "WOMAN:" "A thousand." "LARSON:" "A demon is metaphysical." "It is invisible." "It's spirit." "Doesn't have a physical body, so a demon can't really do anything evil." "A demon can't start a war, can't pull the trigger of a gun, can't rape anybody." "A demon needs a body to accomplish its evil purposes." "So demons are looking to inhabit human souls so that through the physicality of human beings they can bring about their plan of death and destruction." "NARRATOR:" "According to Larson and other Christian theologians, demonic forces have always been present on Earth and demons are continually traveling to Earth to sow the seeds of ruin." "But where exactly are they coming from?" "Is it hell, or perhaps someplace else?" "LARSON:" "Both the Jewish and Christian scriptures, as well as other religious books that delve into the subject of demonism, never fully describe the nature of their existence, where they operate." "It seems to be in a kind of parallel reality, another dimension, out of our time-space continuum." "They're there, we're here." "Einstein opened a little bit of a door into the possibility of other realms." "We are getting a small glimpse of the reality that exists beyond our understanding." "We just need to know there's another realm out there, and when I do an exorcism, I step in and out of those realms." "I'm in the physical, natural realm, but I'm also invading the realm in which demons operate." "So I step from the physical into the metaphysical." "I don't have to understand what's going on there." "I'm on a simple mission: not to find out everything I can about that world, but to get the demon out of the human soul." "NARRATOR:" "Might devils and demons really be beings from another realm?" "And might that realm not be hell, but an actual extraterrestrial world?" "And are they really malevolent?" "Or might they have another... perhaps even more profound..." "agenda?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answers may be found in the mysterious prophecies of the Book of Revelation." "NARRATOR:" "Megiddo, Israel." "Located 11 miles from Nazareth, this ancient city is mentioned more than a dozen times in the Bible, most prominently in the prophetic Book of Revelation." "According to the religious text, it is outside this city, on the so-called Plains of Megiddo, where the forces of the Almighty" "God will wage a final battle against Satan and the forces of evil." "DOWNING:" "The Book of Revelation is certainly one of the most complicated books in the Bible, and it belongs to a separate set of material that's called apocalyptic." "It is a book that gives visions of the future to come." "PETERSON:" "There's a battle that will take place in a valley in Israel called Megiddo, or Har Megiddo, thus Armageddon... we get the term." "Satan himself will gather the armies of the world to Megiddo to fight Jesus Christ." "BLAI:" "Satan takes on a more physical appearance, uses various technologies to enslave more and more of mankind." "Ultimately he becomes a geopolitical force, basically essentially a dictator of the entire world." "NARRATOR:" "The Book of Revelation further describes that this battle will be fought in Heaven and on Earth." "Angels will descend from the sky, demons will spread out across the land to destroy with fiery swords, and the Almighty" "God will rain destruction down upon Earth." "McGOWAN:" "The Book of the Revelation is really a pretty terrifying document if we're to look at it and think that these things could happen literally." "I mean, when you look at what's happening in the book, we have cataclysms on the Earth." "We have earthquakes." "We have fire raining from the sky." "We have angels doing battle in Heaven." "And then repeatedly, we have Satan coming back." "NARRATOR:" "But could it be that this biblical prophecy isn't a doomsday prediction of cataclysm and war?" "But it has another, even more profound interpretation?" "HANSON:" "The Book of Revelation gives us some of the clearest depictions of what not a few moderns would call extraterrestrial activity." "Think about it." "We have supernatural beings flying through the cosmos blowing trumpets, casting fire upon the Earth." "We have great conflict between light and darkness, good and evil." "There's a cosmic dualism going on here that involves in the end the reassertion of divine authority over those wayward angels who had gone astray so long ago." "NARRATOR:" "Extraterrestrial combat?" "Could the Bible's Book of Revelation really be referring to a galactic war?" "One waged over the ultimate fate of mankind?" "If so, who or what is Satan?" "Is he a demon, the Devil, the personification of evil?" "Or was he, in fact, a benevolent extraterrestrial being?" "One who stole technology from alien beings in an effort to lead early man out of darkness and ignorance?" "If so, then why did Satan become a force for evil?" "Does he seek to punish mankind for siding with our Creator against him?" "Perhaps he is testing us, using alien technology to modify human behavior in ways we have yet to understand." "McGOWAN:" "He's this idea of an adversary, this idea of a liar or a tester combined with this concept of Lucifer, the fallen angel, combined with this leader of the Watchers who also leads a rebellion." "I think that ultimately, what we find is that Lucifer is a conflation, a character who is a composite of all of these different ideas and different characters." "HENRY:" "It's important for us to remember that Satan is part of the class of angels called seraphim." "The seraphim were sent to Earth as benefactors of humankind bringing wisdom." "The churches created this evil monster out of Satan, perhaps even out of thin air, when in reality, Satan's entire mission was about bringing knowledge and wisdom to humanity, and in fact, caring about humanity, not seeking to destroy humankind." "CHILDRESS:" "In a sense, Satan's not such a bad guy." "You cannot have the light without the dark." "You can't have right without wrong." "And we have to learn these things for ourselves." "And ultimately, uh, through choice, wrong and right, we grow and we become who we are." "And ultimately, that is to be like our makers." "To... to become gods ourselves." "NARRATOR:" "Might Satan's reputation as the personification of evil really have been his punishment for giving mankind scientific knowledge?" "If so, might his evil acts really be expressions of revenge against the human creatures that abandoned him?" "Or are the evil deeds associated with Satan really a part of a grand plan?"