"NARRATOR:" "Mass suicides..." "Human sacrifices..." "Unholy rituals..." "MARK MIRABELLO:" "They had ripped vertebrae from his backbone to make a necklace." "And his body parts were put in a cauldron." "NARRATOR:" "Throughout history, people have claimed to have otherworldly knowledge... and have led followers to commit horrific acts of violence." "Are they con men?" "Are they insane?" "Or might the voices in their heads really be of an extraterrestrial origin?" "RICK ROSS:" "Applewhite made the claim that he was chosen to reveal the truth as known to these alien beings." "WILLIAM BRAMLEY:" "They believed that those gods wanted them to commit these acts." "LOGAN HAWKES:" "We have to ask ourselves, are they doing this simply for their own amusement?" "Or, are they possibly leading us in a direction, to attain something that they want?" "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 be behind mankind's deadliest cults?" "NARRATOR:" "San Diego," "California." "March 26, 1997." "In a multi-million dollar mansion in the gated community of Rancho Santa Fe, police make a bizarre and horrifying discovery." "ROSS:" "There were 39 bodies found." "All of them dressed identically, all with the same Nike tennis shoes, all covered in purple shrouds, all with the same haircut." "SHERIFF BILL KOLENDER:" "All indications are that this was a mass suicide." "NARRATOR: 39 neatly arranged corpses." "The final act of devotion to a charismatic leader named" "Marshall Applewhite... and the suicide cult he created known as Heaven's Gate." "MARSHALL APPLEWHITE:" "We do know one thing, we don't care to cling to the life of this body." "BILL BIRNES:" "Applewhite believed that on that particular night, a UFO would appear and the members of" "Heaven's Gate would commit mass suicide and immediately their souls would be beamed up to the" "UFO." "APPLEWHITE:" "We're ready to leave this place." "NARRATOR:" "Marshall" "Applewhite..." "Charles Manson..." "Adolfo Constanzo..." "Shoko Asahara." "Today, cult leaders are often written off as con men, hucksters, or criminally insane." "But in the ancient world, entire empires were also ruled by men who claimed to have direct links to a higher power." "ROSS:" "The Roman Emperor" "Caligula who is perhaps the most infamous, ruthless and sadistic ruler of ancient Rome he would even remove the heads of statues of gods and then place his own head there." "NARRATOR:" "It was a concept that the Romans had inherited from the Greeks and the" "Egyptians." "ROBERT BAUVAL:" "The whole kingship of Egypt rested on the belief that there has been a divine king called Osiris that had come from the sky ruling Egypt with his sister wife, Isis." "And from her was born a male child called Horus." "Every pharaoh believed themselves to be the reincarnation of Horus." "They truly believed this." "PHILIP COPPENS:" "The pharaoh clearly was invoking and convoking the message of the gods to his people." "ROSS:" "It was that authority that built the pyramids:, that built the temple complex at" "Luxor, because the people believed they were serving a god." "NARRATOR:" "But were the ancient kings, pharaohs, and religious leaders merely deceiving their subjects by claiming to have a connection to the gods?" "Or might they have had actual contact with divine or, as some would describe," ""otherworldly" beings?" "DAVID SOUTHWELL:" "When we look at those ancient systems of belief where the ruler, the emperor, the king was not just the divine representative of the gods, but was a god himself, we can see obvious parallels with modern day cults." "MIRABELLO:" "Gods and aliens may indeed be the same except we're using different names." "Is this a spaceman from another planet or is this a god?" "And it's simply our terminology." "NARRATOR:" "While in the hospital recovering from a heart attack in the early 1970s," "Marshall Applewhite professed to have a vision that he and his nurse, Bonnie Nettles, were the so-called, "two witnesses" as described in the New Testament" "Book of Revelation." "After further visions," "Applewhite's story evolved... he told his followers that he and" "Nettles were actually aliens inhabiting human bodies." "ROSS:" "Applewhite made the claim that he was the exclusive means by which a power from outer space would communicate with the world... that he had been chosen to reveal the truth as known to these superior alien beings." "APPLEWHITE:" "Part of our test of faith is our hating this world... even our flesh body enough to be willing to leave it without any proof other than what we have come to know." "NARRATOR:" "Whether the visions" "Marshall Applewhite had were real or imagined, one thing is certain... he believed in them completely." "MIRABELLO:" "He clearly believed his own teachings and in fact, castrated himself surgically because that was part of the teaching." "They believed that highly evolved beings would have no sexual characteristics." "Someone who is a con man is not going to do this." "NARRATOR:" "If Applewhite really was contacted by extraterrestrials, were they the same beings that ancient astronaut theorists say visited earth thousands of years ago?" "But, if so, why would they ultimately betray and deceive him?" "Some believe the answer can be found in the creation story as told by the Sumerians of" "Mesopotamia, the world's oldest known civilization." "BRAMLEY:" "The ancient" "Mesopotamian stories talked about how the ancient ET's really wanted to keep control over the human race." "NARRATOR:" "In Sumerian mythology, the god Enki created humans as a slave race... but his superiors forbade him from giving them knowledge of their true origins, for fear of revolt." "BRAMLEY:" "That was actually the express intent of these extraterrestrials to actually create that kind of ignorance." "It's actually talked about in some of the old creation stories, and that was really what the Biblical Adam and Eve story talked about as well, when Adam and Eve wanted to partake of the fruit, which was" "a symbol for knowledge, but the gods said, "No, you cannot have access to that knowledge."" "NARRATOR:" "According to the ancient Sumerian texts, Enki defies his superiors and hands down this forbidden knowledge to a secret society known as the" "Brotherhood of the Snake." "MIRABELLO:" "The Brotherhood of the Snake was originally an organization by a benevolent alien who wanted to bring us knowledge." "But the other aliens objected, defeated him and, in fact, turned the Brotherhood around until it became a sinister force in history." "So now the Brotherhood of the" "Snake is used to undermine the human race." "NARRATOR:" "According to ancient legend, the gods infiltrated the Brotherhood of the Snake, and the knowledge of their true origin was distorted so that humans would follow false gods and masters." "BIRNES:" "According to the legend, the original Brotherhood of the Snake split up into many different diverse cults, and those cults, in various incarnations, are still fighting one another today." "MIKE BARA:" "So maybe the truth is, we're worshiping the same people more and more, just in a different way, and we're understanding better that they're not necessarily gods:, they're just advanced creatures," "kind of like us, that have been coming here and visiting us for a long time." "NARRATOR:" "Might extraterrestrials really have posed as false gods in order to keep humans under their control?" "And if so, could they have appeared to Marshall Applewhite and manipulated him and his followers into committing a horrific ritual suicide?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is a chilling yes." "And for further evidence, they point to a series of shallow graves and a Mexican drug lord believed to have supernatural powers." "NARRATOR:" "Matamoros, Mexico." "1989." "Police investigating the mysterious disappearance of an" "American college student make a shocking discovery." "On property belonging to drug lord Adolfo Constanzo, they find" "12 bodies buried in a row." "Some have been shot... others hacked to death with a machete." "And one of the graves contains the mutilated body of the missing student, 21-year-old" "Mark Kilroy." "MIRABELLO:" "They had ripped vertebrae from his backbone to make a necklace." "And his body parts were put in a cauldron." "ROSS:" "Constanzo's followers believed fervently in his claims of supernatural power, and it was that power that was the glue that held the cult together and enabled him to murder as many as" "23 or more people." "NARRATOR:" "But what could have inspired such brutal and senseless murders?" "Was it madness?" "Evil?" "Or was Constanzo guided, as he professed to his followers, by otherworldly beings?" "MIRABELLO:" "Adolfo Constanzo practiced what is known as" "Palo sorcery, which is a type of sorcery derived from" "African religions." "ROSS:" "He was a worker of witchcraft who was trusted by drug traffickers to protect them." "He became their miracle worker, and to work his miracles, he created a cauldron in which he would have dismembered parts of human bodies, of brain, all of this to create incantations or spells to protect his sponsors." "He claimed that he could protect them from the police, he could protect them from bullets, and they believed in him." "This culminated in him kidnapping and murdering and mutilating different victims." "NARRATOR:" "According to scholars, Palo Mayombe incorporates traditions and gods from numerous West African religions, but Constanzo claimed a direct connection to" "Kadiempembe, more commonly known by the Yoruban name, Eshu." "BARA:" "Eshu, he's got this very elongated head, he's got the very large eyes." "He looks a lot, in the sculptures of him, like an extraterrestrial." "He doesn't look very different from the modern day grays and" "ETs that we see so commonly." "NARRATOR:" "Was Adolfo" "Constanzo really in touch with an extraterrestrial being?" "If so, what does that say about the good or evil motives of alien visitors?" "JONATHAN YOUNG:" "Eshu was the trickster god." "He can speak all the languages." "He can change form." "He can confuse." "He likes to destroy things." "He also likes to create opportunities." "So he can sneak up on you in any number of ways." "He can be completely devious." "SOUTHWELL:" "He's the master of lies... a god who may tell you the truth three times in a row, but on the fourth time, he's going to lie, and that's the lie that's going to trip you up." "And that he's been setting this course of feeding you truth, giving you help, only to set you up for a fall, maybe for comic effect or maybe for a much more serious effect." "NARRATOR:" "Eshu is also represented in Haitian Voodoo as" "Papa Legba, a god that has been linked to another notorious mass murderer." "YOUNG:" "Papa Legba is Eshu." "This is the Voodoo name for the same energy." "Papa Legba can speak all languages, even the languages of animals, so he channels his energy through dogs, and actually is somewhat fond of that particular species, so he'll more often take that animal form than others." "The terrible serial murderer, the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, said he got his orders from dogs." "One could speculate Papa Legba is speaking through the dog to the sinister end." "NARRATOR:" "Could the homicidal acts of men like Adolfo" "Constanzo and David Berkowitz have really been inspired by some unearthly entity?" "According to ancient astronaut theorists, such an audacious idea is possible, and for evidence, they point to a number of ancient legends and beliefs throughout the world." "SOUTHWELL:" "If you look across mankind's wonderful variety of religious beliefs, there are some archetypal god figures which occur in culture after culture after culture." "They are completely resilient to changes in fortune of empires and history." "One of the most powerful of these gods, which occurs in several cultures across vastly different periods of history, is the trickster figure." "MIRABELLO:" "Trickster gods seem strange to Christians because they appear to be demonic." "But typically, in traditional religions, the gods are amoral." "And they have good and bad qualities, and they can do mischief as well as good." "And among their number is Loki among the Norse gods." "YOUNG:" "Loki was a shape-shifter." "He could be a fish, often a salmon, or a falcon so he could go fly." "He could make himself in any shape he liked, usually for mischief." "HAWKES:" "Among the Native" "Americans, there was the coyote... the great trickster." "In the Anasazi, there was" "Kokopelli." "Among the Aztecs and the" "Mesoamericans, there was" "Tezcatlipoca." "SOUTHWELL:" "Even the Christian idea of Satan is a trickster god." "HAWKES:" "We have to ask ourselves:" "Are they doing this simply for their own amusement?" "Or are they possibly leading us in a direction to attain something that they want?" "BARA:" "It makes sense that a lot of the gods that we consider" ""trickster gods" really weren't gods at all." "They were extraterrestrials that set themselves up as gods." "It's perfectly logical that if you come to a place like the Earth, which is not nearly as advanced, of course you'd set yourself up as a god, or a king, or both." "SOUTHWELL:" "If we look across the whole range of new religions and new cults which have claimed contact with various alien beings, quite often we see a real trickster element at work." "One of my favorite examples of what I would consider to be a trickster god form, in a very modern UFO framework, would be" "Spectra, which was claimed to be an alien intelligence circling the Earth in the early '70s, which was in contact with Uri" "Geller and various other people." "NARRATOR:" "Beginning in 1971, renowned psychic Uri Geller, along with Andrija" "Puharich... a respected scientist and parapsychologist... claimed to be receiving mysterious telepathic messages." "The messages, they said, came from a computer intelligence orbiting the Earth that called itself "Spectra."" "SOUTHWELL:" "It would help them see amazing psychic phenomena." "It would make very accurate predictions, which would seem to come true." "And it was gathering around it a number of people that really believed that Spectra was a very special alien intelligence." "Of course, it then did what many trickster gods seem to do:" "It told them a big lie." "It told them the world was going to end." "And a lot of people said, "Well, it's telling us the world is going to end." "It must be going to end."" "And of course it didn't." "NARRATOR:" "Could Spectra have been a hoax?" "Or might it have been a so-called "trickster god"... purposely sending false messages?" "And might some similar extraterrestrial force or entity have been behind the actions of" "Adolfo Constanzo and others like him?" "SOUTHWELL:" "Quite often in a lot of UFO contactee cults, a lot of information starts off being very, very sensible, appearing to check out, appearing to have a lot of validity." "But it gets stranger and weirder and predictions are made and things are promised, which are going to happen, which don't happen." "We see it throughout the 21st century." "Just as the new form of gods has quite often become alien or inter-dimensional or extraterrestrial, those gods are still going to behave as trickster gods." "Just because they're aliens doesn't mean there's not a trickster element among them." "NARRATOR:" "When on May 6, 1989, Adolfo Constanzo was cornered by the police, he ordered one of his disciples to shoot him." "He was estimated to have murdered anywhere from 20 to 40 people." "But what if a similar deadly cult is allowed to go unchecked for hundreds of years?" "Such a nightmarish possibility did, in fact, happen." "And its victims numbered... not in the dozens or hundreds... but in the millions." "NARRATOR:" "Bangalore, India." "In the private collection of artist Jo Nambiar is a brass medallion made to honor the 18th century Italian sculptor" "Antonio Canova." "The medallion bears the bust of the artist on one side, with his famous work The Three Graces on the other." "It is unique, not only because of the medallion's artistic value, but because it is connected to literally hundreds of murders committed all by one man, known only as "Behram."" "SOUTHWELL:" "When we talk about" "Behram, what we're talking about is a mass murderer." "He was directly responsible or a major participant in more than" "900 murders." "That's a staggering number, and what appalls us and intrigues us even more was, he saw this as an act of religious devotion." "NARRATOR:" "Behram dispatched with all his victims by means of strangulation, using a long strip of silk he wore wrapped around his waist called a ruhmal." "The ruhmal had the Canova" "Medallion sewn into it to add weight to one end, so when thrown, it would easily wind around the intended victim's neck." "But this method of murder was not unique to Behram." "It was also practiced by a network of organized killers, who by the 19th century numbered in the thousands." "They were known as the" ""Thuggee", and by even the most modest estimates, they are history's deadliest cult." "HAWKES:" "Nearly two million deaths have been attributed to this cult, found in mass graves throughout India." "ROSS:" "They were really a band of thieves." "They made their money by attacking people and robbing them on the roadways of India." "Today, we call people often thugs, who are robbers or violent criminals, and this word comes from the Thuggees of" "India." "NARRATOR:" "The Thuggee are believed to date back to the 1300s, and although many have claimed they were no more than bandits, the Thuggee also claimed they murdered their victims for a very specific purpose... to offer blood to the" "Hindu goddess, Kali." "SOUTHWELL:" "Murders were being done in the name of Kali by the" "Thuggee." "There was a definite cult aspect to these murders." "They weren't just about robbery." "This was a devotional act." "DEEPAK SHIMKHADA:" "Kali is the black goddess." "She has sunken eyes, fangs, and she has a very long, lolling tongue." "She wears a garland of human skulls." "And she also holds a severed head, and she holds a machete in one hand." "She's the most powerful goddess there is because she is totally unstoppable when she's angry." "DAVID CHILDRESS:" "The Thuggee cult were wanting to offer blood to Kali." "Because they didn't want to even spill one drop of blood, they would strangle their victims so that Kali would be able to have all of the victim's blood." "NARRATOR:" "Curiously, although" "Kali is a Hindu god, the Thuggee also included Muslims and Sikhs." "HAWKES:" "The Thuggees came from a very diverse background." "So, we see these people, following Kali, who may transcend religion, and they believe that Kali is a goddess that comes from the stars." "This may represent an extraterrestrial." "NARRATOR:" "Could the Thuggee really have been influenced by an otherworldly visitor... one who had been mistaken for a god for centuries?" "And, if so, why would an alien being have a thirst for human blood?" "BRAMLEY:" "When you look at the history of ancient cults and their worship of these human-like extraterrestrial gods, you find atrocities, human sacrifice in the name of those gods." "They believed that those gods wanted them to commit these acts to commit the sacrifices." "NARRATOR:" "Mount Llullaillaco." "Argentina, 1999." "At the top of this 22,000-foot- high volcano, archeologist Johan" "Reinhard discovers the frozen remains of three human mummies... one boy and two girls... all under the age of 16." "Dating back approximately 500 years, they were also surrounded by a number of gold statues, silver, ornate textiles and pottery." "The children had been drugged and left to die on top of the mountain as sacrifices to the" "Inca gods." "HAWKES:" "The Incas would make human sacrifice after a major earth event, like a volcano or maybe an earthquake, and the sacrifice would always be a child between the age of six and" "14 years old... an unblemished child, a perfect child." "TSOUKALOS:" "Slaughtering their own people was the ultimate sacrifice... to kill someone in order to possibly get the gods to return." "And that proved how intense those encounters were thousands of years ago." "NARRATOR:" "For the Aztecs, human sacrifice was so important that they believed it to be necessary for the survival of the entire universe." "MIRABELLO:" "The Aztecs sacrificed because they thought the gods needed blood to maintain the universe." "And without human blood, the universe would die." "At the consecration of one temple, they allegedly sacrificed 20,000 people, in which the persons were taken up to the top of these pyramid-like structures." "They were cut open, the heart ripped out, held up, and then the bodies rolled down the steps." "But we have accounts that there were actually volunteers for this." "HAWKES:" "When we think of these gods that the ancients talked about, or the modern cults talk about, are we to assume that these aliens are wanting us to conduct blood sacrifice?" "Or could that just be our interpretation of what they want?" "NARRATOR:" "Do alien visitors really desire the blood of humans in order to exert power and gain control over the earth?" "There are those who believe the answer is yes, and that there may be a greater, even more insidious agenda." "And the clues can be found by examining cults that don't just call for the death of others, but require the faithful to sacrifice themselves." "NARRATOR:" "North Africa, the fourth century A.D." "Throughout the region, small bands of religious fanatics wielding clubs have been attacking random travelers on the road, while shouting praise to God." "Their hope is to be met with retaliation and ultimately be killed." "These precursors to modern suicide cults are called" "Circumcellions, and their followers purposely seek death so that they may ascend and join" "Jesus in the heavens." "YOUNG:" "The Circumcellions, interestingly, didn't kill themselves." "They tried to provoke other people into killing them, so they were obnoxious." "HAWKES:" "They would waylay travelers on the road and bludgeon them with a stick, hoping to solicit a violent response, because they believed if they died, they would achieve martyrdom." "And they tried so hard to be killed that when it didn't work, they banded together and threw themselves off cliffs and committed mass suicide anyway." "NARRATOR:" "Christian suicide sects like the" "Circumcellions became so widespread that they drove the" "Church to declare suicide a sin in 364 A.D." "But what was it that inspired so many early Christians to martyr themselves?" "In the second century A.D., more than 200 years before the" "Circumcellions, another group was formed called the Gnostics, who are still around today." "GOLDWAG:" "The Gnostic beliefs are that the world we live in wasn't made by God, it was made by lesser beings." "The Archons are celestial beings." "God made them, but they got out of God's control, and they made" "Earth." "This whole world isn't what it seems to be." "And if you have this knowledge, then you can get into a higher world." "BIRNES:" "The Archons were entities that came to Earth to divert the human species to their own ends." "Imagine a group of demonic extraterrestrials that fed on human misery, that are here to this very day with every war, every famine, every plague, every human mishap." "Those were the Archons." "NARRATOR:" "Could it be that some subconscious connection to an extraterrestrial past made groups like the Gnostics and the" "Circumcellions believe in the existence of a world better than their own?" "In Geneva, Switzerland, in 1984, two men, Joseph Di Mambro and" "Luc Jouret, formed a secret society called the Order of the" "Solar Temple." "They preached that nirvana could be found on a planet circling the star Sirius." "ROSS:" "Luc Jouret was a kind of a holistic healer that incorporated bits and pieces of different religions... primarily Christianity, the" "Order of the Templars, claims about extraterrestrials into what became his religious construct." "NARRATOR:" "While Jouret was the figurehead of the group, it was Di Mambro's young daughter, who they called a cosmic child, that was to lead them to the new world." "SOUTHWELL:" "Joseph Di Mambro managed to convince his followers that his daughter" "Emmanuelle was actually a divine being, and that his communication through her allowed him to know that their future on a planet around Sirius was absolutely set." "All they had to do in the end was believe so strongly that they were actually willing to give up their lives." "NARRATOR:" "Jouret and Di" "Mambro preached that the apocalypse was near, and to reach this new planet, they needed to commit suicide and have their souls purified through fire." "ROSS:" "All their bodies were arranged in a network of chalets in France and Switzerland." "And then there were timed explosives that set these chalets on fire." "The bodies were essentially cremated." "(siren wailing)" "NARRATOR:" "After the last wave of suicides in 1997, the death toll increased to 74 people." "But authorities were even more shocked when, that same year, another fanatical group also committed mass suicide for a similar purpose..." "Heaven's Gate." "ROSS:" "When the suicides occurred of Heaven's Gate, it was initially believed that this was just one more installment of the Solar Temple." "It wasn't until later that reports established that this was another cult entirely." "NARRATOR:" "In the late 1980s, at the same time Heaven's Gate and the Order of the Solar" "Temple were gaining followers, yet another cult was formed in" "Uganda called the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten" "Commandments of God." "Their leader, Joseph Kibwetere, claimed he was in direct communication with the Virgin" "Mary through electronics in his home." "SOUTHWELL:" "The way that the" "Virgin Mary was talking through telephones, through the television, bears eerie similarities with the way a lot of extraterrestrial-based cults claim to actually be getting communications from UFOs." "NARRATOR:" "Kibwetere predicted the world would end on December 31, 1999." "But when the date passed without incident, he decided to bring about the end of the world himself." "ROSS:" "He poisoned them." "He threw their bodies down wells." "Finally, more than 500 were locked within a wooden church building that was set on fire." "In the end, more than 750 bodies were recovered." "It was probably the most horrific cult tragedy in modern history." "NARRATOR:" "Three separate cults... all committing mass suicide or murder within a five-year period." "Over 1,000 dead." "And all three cults believed they had received messages from otherworldly beings." "Messages that convinced them that their deaths would transport them into a better life in the heavens." "Coincidence?" "Or might these cult members really have been the recipients of some sort of bizarre extraterrestrial communication?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe that such an incredible notion is possible." "And that the the evidence may be found inside the human brain." "NARRATOR:" "Tokyo, Japan." "March 20, 1995." "Members of the doomsday cult" "Aum Shinrikyo... or the Supreme" "Truth Sect... place packages filled with a deadly sarin nerve agent on five different trains, all racing into the heart of the" "Tokyo underground." "Cult members puncture the sarin-laced packages with sharpened umbrella tips... and their leader's apocalyptic vision nearly comes true when cries for help start to echo throughout the subway." "SOUTHWELL:" "This attack killed 13 people." "It caused great injury to 50 more and temporary blindness and temporary effects to more than" "1,000 people." "NARRATOR:" "After an exhaustive investigation, it was determined that the attacks were carefully and single-handedly orchestrated by Aum Shinrikyo's cult leader," "Shoko Asahara." "GOLDWAG:" "He had visions about the end of the world." "And he decided that he would pull this group together, and he would hasten the end of the world." "ROSS:" "And he was the leader of a cult that was responsible for perhaps the most heinous terrorist attack in Japanese history." "NARRATOR:" "When Japanese officials raided Aum Shinrikyo's research and development facility after the subway attack, they found explosives, a military helicopter, weapons-grade strains of anthrax and Ebola virus." "But the strangest item they seized may also have been the most deadly: a mind control device." "MARTELL:" "Asahara convinced his followers to wear a type of helmet called a PSI helmet." "This stood for "Perfect" "Salvation initiation."" "This helmet supposedly would actually connect electromagnetically to his brain waves and transmit information and thought directly to his followers." "NARRATOR:" "Is it possible that electrical or magnetic impulses can influence something that simulates the feeling of spiritual experience in the human brain?" "According to findings by" "Canadian neuroscience researcher and university professor Dr." "Michael Persinger, magnetic fields can, in fact, affect the brain's temporal lobe." "And he claims to have proven it with experiments involving a device he calls "The God" "Helmet"." "SOUTHWELL:" "Persinger's God" "Helmet is one of the most interesting new developments in neuroscience and the study of neuroscience." "By actually inducing fluctuating magnetic fields in the human brain, these fluctuating magnetic fields have been shown in many, many cases to give people what can only be called a religious experience." "Some have very shamanistic experiences." "Some have experiences which absolutely mirror alien abduction or alien contact." "It has left some people very, very changed." "NARRATOR: if the God Helmet can induce spiritual or otherworldly experiences, could more advanced alien technology have influenced mankind in similar ways?" "In 2005, geneticist Dr. Dean" "Hamer published the results of his experiments testing whether or not human beings are hardwired to believe in God." "After collecting DNA samples and conducting a series of psychological tests on 2,000 people, Hamer examined the correlation between human genes and spirituality." "HAMER:" "We found one particular gene that seemed to match up." "That gene is called VMAT2, which stands for Vesicular" "Monoamine Transporter number 2, but for handiness we just call it "the God gene."" "SOUTHWELL:" "Some people have seized on Hamer's very straightforward ideas about an evolutionary benefit of being capable of believing in gods as saying this may be a sign of alien genetic manipulation." "NARRATOR:" "Might extraterrestrial beings really have exploited mankind's genetic and biological inclination to believe in the existence of a higher power?" "HAWKES: if our DNA is made up of both extraterrestrial and human genetics, then we have to wonder, is it possible then, that an extraterrestrial race could influence us more, because our genetics are made up of them" "as well?" "CHILDRESS: if extraterrestrials have been influencing us, and our spirituality... and then creating these cults... it would seem that extraterrestrials, who have genetically manipulated us, have wanted us to have special brains that would be receptive" "to certain influences." "HAMER:" "The fact that we accept gods as mainstream and think of aliens as just kind of like a weird idea is just because of where we are at this point in time." "And, you know, a thousand years from now it may be just the opposite, and everyone will be going like, "Of course, you believe in aliens, but you don't believe in that God stuff, do" "you?"" "NARRATOR:" "Might aliens have used some sort of electrical or biomagnetic technology to compel cult leaders like" "Marshall Applewhite, Shoko" "Asahara, and their followers, to perform horrific and otherwise insane acts of murder, torture and mass suicide?" "Did these men and women... as did millions of others, going back centuries... merely come into contact with a force they didn't understand, a force they misinterpreted?" "MARTELL:" "Many modern day cults that are led by, let's say, madmen could possibly be misinterpreting events that have taken place throughout history, whether it be things that relate to the Bible or astronomical things happening in the heavens." "NARRATOR:" "But whether cult leaders are misinterpreting extraterrestrial messages or are being directly guided by them, might we someday discover that the other worlds they preach about actually exist?" "And is their ultimate goal to help us or to harm us?" "Captioning sponsored by"