"NARRATOR:" "Rockets capable of destroying entire cities..." "Fire that burns underwater..." "And fighter jets that fly without pilots..." "Throughout history, advances in technology have lead to the development of powerful weapons... each more deadly than the last." "GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:" "We go from attaching sharp stones to the ends of sticks, and then all of a sudden, we have actual swords." "DEEPAK SHIMKADA:" "In the" "Mahabharata, 46 different types of weapon are described." "BILL BIRNES:" "They're using air-to-ground missiles, powerful particle beam weapons." "It's astounding to read about events from centuries ago using weapons that are in use today." "NARRATOR:" "But were these lethal weapons the product of human innovation?" "Or were they developed with help from another, more otherworldly, source?" "DAVID CHILDRESS:" "Extraterrestrials may well have given man these weapons." "They want us to be able to advance, and ultimately to be like them." "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 might they have been responsible for the development of mankind's deadliest weapons?" "NARRATOR:" "Earth, 4.5 billion years ago." "Molten-hot magma spews from beneath the ground." "Lightning cracks down in bursts from the sky." "And rivers of lava flow across the land." "Ever since the dawn of time, our planet has been changing... evolving... and ripped apart by the awesome forces of nature." "And it's the harnessing of that nature that has offered mankind its most formidable challenge and greatest accomplishment." "DAVID SOUTHWELL:" "Mankind achieving the ability to manipulate fire is probably the most historical event that ever happened." "When we achieved the ability to master fire, everything changed for mankind." "NARRATOR:" "But how did our ancestors learn to recreate and harness this most volatile... and ultimately essential... of the Earth's elements?" "Was it simply a part of our intellectual evolution?" "Or is it possible that the knowledge came from another, more otherworldly, origin?" "PHILIP COPPENS:" "When we look at fire, we imagine this idea that somehow our ancestors are rubbing some sticks together." "But each culture always says that fire is a gift from the gods." "SOUTHWELL:" "In Native" "American traditions, quite often it's fire was stolen from the world above." "In Maori legends, again, we see the theft of fire from the gods." "In the Greek legends, it's" "Prometheus stealing fire from the gods." "NARRATOR:" "How is it that such similar myths exist about fire being given to man by the gods?" "According to ancient astronaut theorists, this eerie similarity may actually be evidence that gods, or, perhaps, extraterrestrial beings, really do exist." "And, if so, it might also reveal how mankind eventually used fire to create deadlier and more sophisticated weapons." "SOUTHWELL:" "If we are talking about ancient aliens having an impact, where would we expect to see that impact?" "I would expect to see it in metal working." "And do we actually see hard and fast evidence of mankind making sudden huge leaps in metal working?" "Yes, we do." "TSOUKALOS:" "We go from attaching sharp stones to the ends of sticks, and then all of a sudden, we have actual swords." "NARRATOR:" "According to archaeologists, the first human work with metal weaponry began in the Bronze Age, beginning around 3300 BC in the Near East." "PHIL IMBROGNO:" "Most of the swords at one time were either copper or iron." "MICHAEL DENNIN: if you think about it, the ages, we started first with bronze, nickel, softer things that are easier to work with." "The reason we don't have iron as our first example is because it's a much harder material, you have to get much hotter fire to be able to work with it, and it's just a tougher material to" "work with." "RAFAEL KOSCHE:" "They were fighting, bashing each other with these swords." "They wanted a tough sword, which means it was not always very sharp." "When these people were fighting, when they're hacking each other's heads and arms off, they were ripping each other's heads and arms off with blunt pieces of metal." "NARRATOR:" "Approximately 1,000 years after the development of iron came another, even greater, breakthrough: the invention of steel." "IMBROGNO:" "No one really knows when people first started making steel." "Some say it only dates 1000 B.C." "To make a steel sword in ancient times was not an easy task." "You would have to get high-quality iron." "And most of the time they could not get that iron mined from the" "Earth." "And meteorites were obtained, which were pure iron, which made the best steel swords." "And these were considered magic swords." "And they were usually a guarded secret, and villages would have one or two steel swords." "And there's tales about warlords who had one purpose in mind: to find all the steel swords that were made and take them for their army." "There's no doubt that the cultures that were able to obtain steel usually became masters of the world." "(grunting and shouting)" "NARRATOR:" "But where the forging of iron requires a relatively unsophisticated knowledge of metallurgy, the creation of steel is a more complex scientific process." "So who, or what, was responsible for this incredible evolutionary innovation?" "IMBROGNO:" "In the Book of" "Enoch we see some type of interaction between celestial beings and human beings." "What did they give us?" "They gave us steel." "And the legend goes... not only from the Bible and from Enoch, but it goes to Sumerian times... where the gods had steel." "JONATHAN YOUNG:" "The making of the sword is a magical process." "Back in the time before modern metallurgy, the ability to take natural material and make a sword out of it was considered the work of a wizard." "PETER FIEBAG (translated):" "You mustn't look the village blacksmith in the eyes because people are frightened of being killed by his gaze." "The blacksmith isn't allowed to live in the village, because of his magical powers." "NARRATOR:" "The notion of metal working being a dark and magical process was so prevalent in the ancient world that in Greek mythology, even Zeus looked upon his son Hephaestus, the god of metallurgy, with suspicion." "RICHARD RADER:" "Hephaestus is responsible for making armature for the gods." "But the real miracle that he does is for this shield for" "Achilles." "And it's got the whole universe on it." "What's amazing about this thing is that it's not just a static shield:, it's alive." "This is not something that a human being makes." "This is terrifying, this is scary, and this thing will kill you, just in its own kind of metaphysical beauty." "And so he has this weird ability to kind of endow metal with a kind of life of its own." "So Zeus is, in fact, very suspicious of this guy and just tries to get rid of him." "So Zeus picks him up and slings him, and he just falls and falls and falls and falls and falls until he crash-lands on the island of Lemnos." "There is a little city on the island of Lemnos called" "Hephaestia, so there's a place that is named specifically after" "Hephaestus." "NARRATOR: 3,000 years ago," "Hephaestia was one of the most important cities in Greece." "And according to the ancient stories, Hephaestus actually lived here among the people of Lemnos." "The Greeks worshiped this divine blacksmith and built monuments to him." "But could this mythological being have actually been present in ancient Greece?" "And if so, might he have been not a god... but an ancient alien visitor?" "RADER:" "In Greek mythology, you conceive of gods as kind of like human beings." "And we have lots of literature which deals with a whole range of interactions that human beings can have with gods." "TSOUKALOS: it is very clearly stated that the knowledge for making swords was given directly by the gods." "And those gods weren't figments of our ancestors' imagination, but they were physical beings." "NARRATOR:" "Is it really possible that our ancestors' ability to forge metals and make weapons was aided by extraterrestrial beings?" "And might stories of swords imbued with magical powers be something more than mere works of fiction?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer can be found half a world away... in Japan." "NARRATOR:" "Japan." "700 A.D." "Here, according to legend, the sword smith, Amakuni, and his son, Amakura, sealed themselves away in their blacksmith shop in an effort to forge the perfect weapon." "For seven days and seven nights, they prayed to the Shinto gods to guide them." "31 days later, they emerged from their isolation with a curved, single-edged sword resembling no blade ever made before." "KOSCHE:" "At that time, the swords that they used were these double-edged Chinese design, clunky, heavy, unwieldy swords." "And Amakuni started reestablishing and learning everything that he knew about metallurgy, and after about a month, he finally emerged from his forge, and he had this single-edged blade with a curvature to it." "Every sword smith in the area ridiculed him." "Everybody laughed at him." "They thought he was ridiculous, that he didn't know what he was doing." ""That's not the way you do it."" "Well, the next time the emperor went off into battle... when he came back, Amakuni stood on his front porch, and he started counting the blades:" "two, ten, 15, 20, 100, 200 blades... none of them were broken." "And the emperor praised him and said, "You are the greatest sword smith ever."" "Ever since then, they have followed that design." "NARRATOR:" "But what was the secret behind Amakuni's radical new design?" "And what... or who... inspired him to deviate from the one that had been used for more than 1,000 years?" "Was he simply ahead of his time?" "Or could he really have received otherworldly guidance during the seven days and nights he and his son prayed to the Shinto gods?" "(swords clanging, men shouting)" "KOSCHE:" "The history of the" "Japanese sword is a long and varied history all the way back to mythological beliefs that" "Omikami, the sun goddess, gave her grandson a sword when she sent him down to rule over the" "Earth." "NARRATOR:" "According to the beliefs of the samurai, higher beings called kami began human life." "But in order for humans to experience the divine nature of the kami, they must undergo purification rituals, which were always performed when making a new blade." "KOSCHE:" "Before you even begin, you bathe yourself, and you put on clean clothes." "All your assistants give prayers, and they solicit the help from the gods." "And, in fact, there are sword smiths that will actually chant as they're hammering on the blade... because every hammer, as it compacts the metal, is also including their chant into it." "NARRATOR:" "Could the sword maker, Amakuni, and his son," "Amakura, have actually come in contact with the kami?" "And might these Buddhist gods have come not from a spiritual realm, but from an extraterrestrial one, as ancient astronaut theorists believe?" "Might alien beings have chosen" "Amakuni, the greatest sword maker of his time, to hold the knowledge of this new technology?" "COPPENS:" "When you give certain very powerful objects to people, you need to have extremely intelligent people to use them." "And so what we find everywhere is that, even if the gods had given the most extraordinary machine, including fire or any other piece of technology, you would have to have somebody able to operate it... a highly trained" "human being." "NARRATOR:" "Another example of Amakuni's work... the" "Kogarasu Maru blade, the most legendary sword in Japanese history... resides in the" "Japanese imperial Collection." "But modern scholars and scientists have had difficulty in figuring out the secret to its amazing strength." "DENNIN:" "The famous stories are always, of course, the" "Japanese steel used for the samurai blade." "It's been very hard to reproduce because some of these processes can be incredibly sensitive to the exact detail of the temperature." "Some of its features are just its flexibility and the way they were able to fold it over and over and its incredible strength and its resistance to oxidation, which is what you really need to keep something sharp." "NARRATOR:" "Could the fact that modern sword makers have been unable to achieve the same quality as Amakuni's blades be further evidence that he was trained by a more advanced race of beings?" "And might these ancient swords have held some technology we have yet to discover?" "KOSCHE:" "In Shingon Buddhism, the sword has a life of its own." "It's not that the samurai selects the blade." "Is the samurai, more appropriately, good enough for the blade?" "Does the blade choose him?" "NARRATOR:" "ls the philosophy of Shingon Buddhism... that the blade chooses its owner... simply an example of early humans' tendency to project spiritual consciousness onto inanimate objects?" "Or might ancient sword smiths like Amakuni really have possessed some otherworldly knowledge?" "A knowledge that swords, like other deadly weapons, come not from man, but from a divine or extraterrestrial origin?" "According to legend, one such sword may have existed in" "15th-century France... the sword of Joan of Arc." "KATHLEEN McGOWAN:" "When Joan of Arc was arrested and brought to what we now know of as her condemnation trial, her inquisitors were determined to get information about her sword." "Her inquisitors were obsessed with finding out about her sword, and that is because Joan of Arc's sword was reputed to have legendary power, divine power." "Joan claimed that her voices, her angelic voices, led her to this sword." "COPPENS:" "She's said to have found it, as it was, hidden behind an altar dedicated to" "Saint Catherine de Fierbois." "It is said that the sword itself was forged by the archangel" "Saint Michael... and that whoever possessed it was invincible." "McGOWAN:" "And that was certainly true when Joan wielded this sword, carried it with her into the Battle of Orleans." "Which was the decisive battle, which allowed them to put King" "Charles VII on the throne of" "France." "NARRATOR:" "Could Joan of Arc really have been given her invincible sword by extraterrestrials who had an interest in the future of" "France?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe such a thing is not only possible, but likely." "And they point to the legendary story of King Arthur as evidence of their claim." "CHILDRESS:" "King Arthur had two swords." "The Sword in the Stone, that showed that he was to be king, is one sword." "TSOUKALOS:" "When I hear a story about this magnificent sword that's encased in this stone with only the handle sticking out and only King" "Arthur has the capability to pull it out, well, then I start thinking about some type of a biometric security system, where today we now have guns that can only be fired if the handle recognizes your fingerprint." "Is it possible that the Sword in the Stone was calibrated specifically to King Arthur's biometrics?" "I think yes." "I know it sounds crazy, but we're merely saying that what today is being discovered is a rediscovery of what already took place thousands of years ago." "NARRATOR:" "According to the stories of King Arthur, the sword that he is said to have pulled from the stone was never used in battle." "His weapon was the legendary" "Excalibur." "CHILDRESS:" "The Excalibur sword came to him from the Lady in the Lake, where a hand came up and handed him a magical sword." "And according to the ancient chronicles, this sword shone with the light of 30 suns and blinded his enemies." "FIEBAG (translated):" "This sword of King Arthur was said to have radiated lightning and energy when he fought against monsters." "So, we have swords as magical objects, but here also is suspicion that a misunderstood technology could exist." "NARRATOR:" "Although historians still debate whether the stories of King Arthur have a basis in fact, in 1998, archeologists found a sixth-century piece of slate inscribed with his name at his reputed birthplace..." "Tintagel, England." "But if King Arthur really existed, might the legends of his incredible swords also be true?" "And, if so, might that suggest that extraterrestrial visitors did in fact provide humans with weapons not of this world?" "Perhaps the answer can be found in ancient Rome and by examining a legendary battle, one involving a much-witnessed phenomenon in the sky." "NARRATOR:" "Rome." "October 27, 312 A.D." "At the Milvian Bridge on the north side of the city, deposed" "Emperor Constantine prepares to reclaim his throne from" "Maxentius." "In the sky, he witnesses what he will later describe as a cross hovering above him." "He interprets this vision as a sign from the Christian God." "The next day, Constantine and his army bear the image of the" "Chi Rho on their shields and flags, one of the earliest cruciform symbols used by" "Christians." "When they emerge victorious," "Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman" "Empire, and the world is changed forever." "But was the cross-shaped object" "Constantine claimed to have seen in the sky really a sign from" "God?" "Or might it have been some other extraordinary force?" "BRAMLEY: it looked like the shape of a cross, but the shape of a cross could have been airplane-type objects, because the fuselage and the wings will look like a cross to somebody who's looking up." "And of course, they had no concept of these things back then." "PITTMAN:" "There were other signs and portents that were seen around the same time that were described as a crucifix in the sky." "If these were to appear in the sky today, we would describe them quite differently." "TSOUKALOS:" "Is it possible that Constantine, instead of actually having seen a cross floating in the sky, actually saw a type of an extraterrestrial craft?" "Is it possible that Constantine won because the extraterrestrials were siding with Constantine and thus altering mankind's history forever?" "NARRATOR:" "But according to ancient astronaut theorists, even stronger evidence exists that Emperor Constantine had a genuine alien encounter." "Shortly after the Battle of" "Milvian Bridge, he was said to have acquired a powerful new weapon." "Known as Greek fire, it was the most devastating weapon of the time." "And it was said to have been given to Constantine by angels." "IMBROGNO: it was said to burn so violently and so hot, it was said that even in the greatest of rainstorms, the fire would not go out." "And when projected out to sea, when it sunk into the water, it would still burn on the bottom of the ocean." "FIEBAG (translated):" "In one battle, Byzantium was attacked by 1,800 Persian ships." "Only 15 escaped." "All the others were destroyed by the so-called Greek fire." "Prince Igor, who attacked" "Byzantium in the year 941 A.D., attacked with a fleet of 1,000 ships." "Ten ships made it home." "NARRATOR:" "But perhaps even more astounding than the incredible power of Greek fire is the fact that scientists have not been able to reproduce it, even after 1,600 years." "COPPENS:" "Scientists have been trying to identify what Greek fire is for decades, if not centuries." "Nobody has come up with a satisfying answer." "The most logical answer is that it might be somehow petroleum, because it is known that petroleum continues to burn when in contact with water." "NOORY:" "I think it has to do with phosphorus and magnesium." "Because when they are mixed in with water, they tend to explode." "NARRATOR:" "The formula for" "Greek fire was not even known to most of those who used the weapon, as the delivery system required multiple people to operate it." "TSOUKALOS:" "What's interesting about Greek fire is that it only worked when all the different components worked together as one piece." "Each component was operated by a different person, so if somebody was captured, they couldn't give away the quote, unquote, secret of Greek fire." "NARRATOR:" "But what was this mysterious weapon?" "And, more importantly, where did it come from?" "TSOUKALOS:" "One story goes that Greek fire was given to" "Constantine by an angel." "Now angels are supposed to be these friendly creatures that instill peace and love... and all of a sudden, we have this one quote, unquote, angel that gives one of the most sophisticated weapons in mankind's history" "to Constantine?" "Replace the word angel with extraterrestrial and we have a very different story." "NARRATOR:" "Could Greek fire really have been a type of advanced alien technology given to Constantine to ensure the success of the Roman Empire?" "If so, wouldn't there be evidence of extraterrestrial influence during other earthly conflicts?" "FIEBAG (translated):" "Hannibal, who crossed the Alps and attacked Rome, was said to have had a chemical explosive." "We don't know where the knowledge came from in these cases, but there could definitely be a connection to other weapons of the gods." "NARRATOR:" "The explosive weapon Hannibal allegedly used against ancient Rome, in the" "3rd century BC, predated gunpowder by over a thousand years." "And some believe even gunpowder itself may have been a discovery inspired by otherworldly beings back in the 9th century." "Ironically, this deadly invention was discovered by" "Chinese alchemists attempting to create an elixir of immortality." "SUN:" "Alchemy has a long history in China." "And the alchemist Tze had been seeking an elixir for immortality... the medicine, for example, to live forever." "So they were experimenting for many centuries and mixed all kinds of things and it was not until around 850 Common Era, and we have records to show the disastrous impact of this mixing." "NARRATOR:" "Though the Chinese emperors never achieved this elixir for immortality, they ended up with something almost as valuable... a weapon more powerful than anything that had come before." "SUN:" "The Chinese gunpowder technology led to this important political and geographical changes in China, in Vietnam, in" "Southeast Asia." "It led to the, even the rise and the fall of dynasties." "NARRATOR:" "But where did such an incendiary ability come from?" "IMBROGNO:" "Was the formula given to us by extraterrestrials, or did somebody discover it by accident?" "No one really knows." "Gunpowder was made of charcoal, which they burnt trees and ground down the charcoal." "Sulfur they would get from volcanoes, and sodium or potassium nitrate is, you know, not readily available." "So how would they know to get those nitrates and mix them all together in the right proportions?" "NARRATOR:" "Could the formula for gunpowder really have extraterrestrial origins?" "And if deadly technologies like gunpowder and Greek fire really were handed down to humans by an alien race... why?" "Might they have been trying to shape our future?" "And, if so, what other even more powerful weapons might they have had in their arsenal?" "NARRATOR:" "An unmanned aerial vehicle hurtles across the sky." "It travels at supersonic speeds, spitting fire, launching deadly missiles... programmed to seek and destroy." "The effect is devastating... high-tech warfare at its most lethal." "But what could be a page stolen from a U.S. military black project, is actually a description written down over" "2,500 years ago in the sacred Hindu text known as the" "Mahabharata." "COPPENS:" "When it comes to the ancient Indian accounts, they're really eyewitness testimony of the gods fighting." "CHILDRESS:" "When you read the ancient Hindu epics, they talk about horrific weapons... missiles... and atomic weapons... massive laser weapons that are melting and devastating entire cities." "TSOUKALOS:" "I refuse to think that our ancestors came up with these stories out of thin air." "When writing was first invented, they wrote down their history." "The first things that were ever written down, were actual events." "NARRATOR:" "How is it that some of the earliest written accounts of warfare describe sophisticated weaponry that humans wouldn't develop for thousands of years?" "For the answer, Ancient" "Astronaut theorists point to numerous descriptions of deadly weapons found throughout the" "Mahabharata... many strikingly similar to those used by the military today." "One example are the incendiary weapons wielded by Vishnu, which are specially equipped to find their targets." "DEEPAK SHIMKADA:" "Vishnu has a flying guided missile, the Narayanastra." "And once it is launched, it will destroy everything that is moving." "So according to the description, it is a motion-detecting weapon, which is pretty much like our modern weaponry." "There is also a weapon that is heat-seeking." "MAJ." "GEN." "ROBERT E. DICKMAN:" "Heat-seeking is a very effective way of finding something." "You would fire a missile from behind one aircraft, at an aircraft in front of you, specifically targeted against the hot engine." "And then you were able to move off, from behind the airplane and the heat seeker would still be able to find the target." "TSOUKALOS:" "I am aware that there are forces of Nature." "You've got thunder, lightning, earthquakes." "But how would you go from witnessing that to a description of heat-seeking missiles?" "NARRATOR:" "In addition to guided missiles, the Mahabharata is filled with accounts of other sophisticated weapons wielded by the gods." "SHIMKADA:" "In the Mahabharata, 46 different types of weapon are described, and each one has a specific function." "The Pashupatastra is a weapon that actually multiplies into seven different arrows." "So then it hits seven different targets at the same time." "Salva is an anti-god:, he can make his vehicle disappear." "So we're talking about a flying object that is stealth." "He also can put people into sleep." "So we're perhaps talking about nerve gas." "CHILDRESS:" "They talk about weapons that are so high-tech, that it could only be from extraterrestrials." "NARRATOR:" "But of all the weapons described in the Mahabharata, perhaps the most deadly was a device called the Brahmastra: a weapon that the texts warned was never to be used." "SHIMKADA:" "Brahmastra is described as the ultimate weapon." "Once it is launched, it will simply burn everything, so it will incinerate the entire universe." "We're talking about a nuclear blast 100-fold magnitude of the bomb that we have seen or experienced in our own times." "So it would never be used." "And yet, someone was going to make use of that Brahmastra." "And so that's the dilemma that the books talks about in the" "Mahabharata." "India now has a rocket program, and one of their rockets is called Shakti." "Shakti means "goddess energy."" "This is also another divine weapon." "Indians are now sort of going back to their text or their mythology and they're reliving it by their modern technology." "NARRATOR:" "Is it possible that alien beings visiting the" "Earth thousands of years ago dealt with the same issues of nuclear annihilation that humans are dealing with today?" "And might the deadly weapons currently being deployed by the world's military really be recreations of weapons first used on Earth by extraterrestrials in the ancient past?" "Perhaps." "But then it should also be possible to predict mankind's military future by searching through still more ancient texts." "NARRATOR:" "The Tonlé Sap Lake," "Cambodia." "This combined lake and river system has a flow that changes direction twice a year, and the portion that forms the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons." "But this unusual body of water is unique for another reason... it is said to hold the mythical sword of Preah Pisnokar." "SHIMKADA:" "The swordsman in" "Cambodia has a wonderful legend and a story within that culture called Pisnokar." "This is a wizard, a master craftsman." "NARRATOR:" "In Cambodian mythology, Preah Pisnokar is the son of a human man and a woman who came from the sky." "The stories say that he is brought to the sky world where he is taught the technology of the gods, and some have credited him as being the architect behind the world's largest religious shrine, Angkor Wat," "which sits just north of the" "Tonlé Sap Lake." "But in addition to magnificent structures, Preah Pisnokar was also said to have fashioned a sword that made him invincible in battle." "SHIMKADA:" "In the Cambodian legend, he's been credited crafting a sword as thin as a feather." "FIEBAG (translated):" "Preah" "Pisnokar had a sword that could cut stone... and it's reported that he could use this to cut a ceramic jug so finely down the middle that the water only ran out when the two halves fell apart." "NARRATOR:" "According to legend, Preah Pisnokar threw his mighty weapon into the Tonlé Sap" "Lake when it grew too weak to be of use to him anymore, much like Excalibur was given back to The Lady of the Lake in the story of King Arthur." "But how does a sword grow weak?" "According to Ancient Astronaut theorists, the blade had lost its power, and that blade was not made of metal, but of light." "TSOUKALOS:" "Does a sword of fire really exist?" "Well, it does if you think of a type of lightsaber." "Whenever he took it out to cut something with it, it was more blinding than the sun." "SHIMKADA: it was very thin and very bright, emitting light." "From the description of it, it could be a kind of laser type of beam." "DENNIN:" "Lasers... what you want to just think about is a whole bunch of waves all moving together in step." "The light that comes out of a lightbulb is a bunch of random people in a mob running crazy in all different directions, and the laser is all the people marching in orderly fashion." "Everything lines up and basically makes the light that much more powerful and effective." "NARRATOR:" "Could Preah" "Pisnokar really have existed?" "And if so, might the amazing sword he wielded have involved some type of laser technology?" "Is it possible that lightsabers, a work of modern science fiction, actually existed in the ancient past?" "DENNIN:" "So there's two ways to think of a lightsaber that you're trying to make." "One is actually out of a laser beam, and that's very hard to imagine because it's hard to figure out how you would get the endpoint, because light just keeps traveling." "And you would need a way to bend it back on itself." "They make much more sense as a plasma beam." "And a plasma beam is a bunch of very, very energetically charged particles, um, that would glow so you'd get the effect of the lightsaber." "And they're much easier to have an endpoint, because they respond to magnetic fields." "The plasma beam really is energetically charged particles with a lot of energy and pretty much cut through anything." "NARRATOR:" "For ancient astronaut theorists, descriptions of laser-type technology can be found in numerous texts throughout the ancient world." "FIEBAG (translated):" "In China, it's called a yin yang mirror, which could kill opponents with a beam of light." "We have the Maori, whose god defeated rebels with a kind of laser-lightning weapon." "CHILDRESS:" "Stories come to us from ancient India of Rama's arrow, which was some kind of laser weapon." "We have the famous story of" "Archimedes, using some kind of magic mirror to create a laser that set ships on fire." "So it seems that ancient lasers were being used, and that technology probably came from extraterrestrials." "NARRATOR:" "What if the futuristic weapons we believe we have cultivated in our modern day arsenals are really reinventions of something that has come before?" "Could we subconsciously be recreating our ancient past?" "COPPENS:" "What we have is people who are eyewitnesses and, to some extent, victims of a show which is happening above their heads." "And they are trying to explain to people something which was truly on a scale which they couldn't comprehend." "TSOUKALOS:" "Here we are today thinking that we are inventing all these wonderful things, which we are, but it's been here before." "CHILDRESS:" "Extraterrestrials may well have given man these weapons." "They want us to be able to defend ourselves, to advance and ultimately to be like them." "NARRATOR:" "From flaming arrows to heat-seeking missiles, could the evolution of mankind's deadly weaponry really be the result of alien intervention?" "Could extraterrestrial beings have given us technology as a way of accelerating natural selection?" "Or might they have imparted their knowledge with a specific... and perhaps insidious... agenda in mind?" "Some say the answer is right in front of us... or in yet another ancient text or carving waiting to be discovered." "But one thing is certain... it is best we keep looking and be prepared before they return." "Captioning sponsored by" "AE TELEVISION NETWORKS" "Captioned by" "Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org"