"NARRATOR:" "Winged creatures... carrying messages from the heavens." "Unearthly guardians, entrusted to both observe and protect." "Powerful warriors, bringing about everything from plague to peace." "But are angels merely the product of mankind's imagination... or do they really exist?" "If so, where do they come from?" "L.A. MARZULLI:" "When angels appear, they begin to do things that defy our laws of physics." "JASON MARTELL:" "I don't think they actually had wings." "It was ancient man's way of saying, they had the power of flight." "NARRATOR:" "Are angels really supernatural beings from heaven, or something more?" "GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:" "It's essentially a misinterpreted flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial who visited Earth a long, long time ago." "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?" "If so, might angels really be travelers visiting the Earth from distant planets?" "NARRATOR:" "Angels." "According to a Nielsen survey taken in 2010, nearly 70% of" "Americans believe in their existence." "But what are they?" "Winged visitors from God, as depicted in the Bible?" "Smiling cherubs who peer down at us from billowing clouds?" "Or something much, much more?" "FATHER WILLIAM J. FULCO:" "The concept of angels is obviously very widespread, and certainly in American culture." "And you find it in Latin culture, Greek culture," "Babylonian culture." "PHILIP COPPENS:" "When we think of angels, we immediately think to the Bible, but when you go onto the Internet, when you read books, you will find that people have visitations of angels every single day." "NARRATOR:" "In the Hebrew" "Bible's Book of Genesis, angels first appear as divine beings sent to Earth as messengers of" "God." "FULCO:" "They wanted to have" "God interacting with the human beings, but it seemed somewhat undignified to have God directly operating, and so he sent messengers." "TSOUKALOS:" "The word angel is a mistranslation." "In Hebrew, the word for angel is malach." "However, the correct translation is not angel at all, but it is, in fact, "messenger."" "In Greek, the word angelos is not angel." "It is intermediary, middleman." "And so what do we have in these stories?" "We have these intermediaries, these messengers, bringing information from quote, unquote" ""God."" "BILL BIRNES:" "By definition, angels are otherworldly." "Angels are extraterrestrial." "They're not from this planet." "So really, by definition, ETs and angels are the same." "Now our modern conception of" "ETs have changed." "But go back thousands and thousands of years when angels lived among our biblical ancestors." "They didn't call them ETs." "They called them angels, but they knew they were not of this world, not of this planet." "NARRATOR:" "But could some of these so-called messengers of" "God have served another function?" "One not so benevolent or benign?" "According to The Book of Enoch, the so-called lost biblical text that was rediscovered among the" "Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s, the first angels to arrive on Earth were the fallen angels." "BIRNES:" "It was on Mount" "Hermon that angels came down from the heavens... fallen angels... to inhabit Earth." "They were trying to assume power." "And because of that, they were cast out from heaven and cast down to Earth." "TSOUKALOS:" "Now to me, this sounds more of a mutiny story where extraterrestrials arrived here, and there was a type of rift, and so, they split into two different factions." "And the faction that split off is what today is referred to as the fallen angels." "GEORGE NOORY:" "Enoch was a believer in angels, fallen angels, visitations, but everything he put in his scriptures seemed to imply, to me, extraterrestrial visitation." "From craft that he saw, to mountainsides that they would land, to them taking him around and telling him things." "NARRATOR:" "Both in The Book of" "Enoch and in the Hebrew Bible, the fallen angels act in direct opposition to God's will by interbreeding with humans." "FULCO:" "In Genesis 6, it talks about the sons of gods... gods plural... mating with the daughters of men." "And there was a certain evil connotation to it." "ERICH VON DÄNIKEN:" "How can angels have sex?" "Enoch describes of it." "Some of the extraterrestrials stood on Earth." "They had sex with some of our girls." "That is what is written down in" "Enoch." "It's not my invention." "Enoch never calls them gods." "He calls them guardian of the skies, or watchmen." "NARRATOR:" "According to ancient texts, the fallen angels not only physically mated with the women of Earth, they produced offspring... the" "Nephilim, a race of giants, similar to those portrayed in the story of David and Goliath." "But ancient astronaut theorists suggest the use of the term giants is misleading." "They theorize that the term refers not to the Nephilim's physical size, but to their almost superhuman ability." "TSOUKALOS:" "Were they giants, or is that the wrong word, and the correct word should be extraterrestrial?" "Because then, in my opinion, it makes more sense, because so far, I have not seen an original fossil of a giant bone." "NARRATOR:" "But if, as many ancient astronaut theorists believe, fallen angels were really extraterrestrials that first arrived in the Middle" "East, wouldn't they have also appeared elsewhere in the world?" "For proof, researchers point to thousands of carvings and other depictions of winged guardians, strange creatures and other half-man and half-beasts that commonly appear on ancient walls and artifacts." "COPPENS:" "There is such an enormous amount of evidence to suggest that angels are not something which Christianity invented, but that they were somehow physically present in all civilizations." "REVEREND MICHAEL J.S. CARTER:" "Ancient cultures that depicted the gods as winged creatures are the Sumerians, the Babylonians, certainly the Egyptians." "All of these civilizations had symbols where there may have been a winged disc, or there may have been what we would call today probably a UFO." "I believe they were just letting us know that these beings flew." "THOMAS E. BULLARD:" "In the" "Middle East in particular, there were depictions of supernatural beings with wings... the demons of Mesopotamia;" "Pazuzu, which had the head of a lion and the body of a human and the wings of a locust." "They were primarily soldiers of the higher gods, servants of the higher gods." "The higher gods depended on these messengers." "They would run back and forth and gather information." "DAVID WILCOCK:" "The Bible may be the most thoroughly documented account of extraterrestrial contact ever in written history here on Earth." "We just simply have not learned how to interpret and how to identify the clear and obvious evidence that the seraphim, the cherubim, the archangels, the angels, all of these different hierarchies of beings described in the Old and the New Testament" "literally do refer to visitors who come here." "VON DÄNIKEN:" "Use the word" ""extraterrestrials" instead of the word of "angel."" "Use a word of, uh, "leader of extraterrestrials" instead of" ""archangel."" "If you change a few words in the old texts... a few key words... you change the sense of the old texts." "It's all not coincidence." "It was on purpose." "It's time to wake up to see these things with modern eyes." "NARRATOR:" "But if, as ancient astronaut theorists maintain, angels are not ethereal winged beings but actually flesh and blood creatures visiting us from other planets, why are they here?" "And if they are messengers, just who or what do they represent?" "NARRATOR:" "Mount Sodom," "Israel." "A pillar of rock salt known as" "Lot's Wife overlooks the southwestern part of the Dead" "Sea, near the presumed location of the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah." "In both the Hebrew Book of" "Genesis and the Islamic Koran, angels traveled to this spot to warn Abraham's nephew Lot that" "God was about to unleash terror upon the world." "VON DÄNIKEN:" "And the angel finally says to Lot, "If you don't come now with your family... two girls and the wife..." "I cannot help you anymore."" "It looks as if a countdown was working which could not be stopped anymore, if even the angel cannot stop it." "(thunder crashing)" "(rumbling)" "TSOUKALOS:" "Sure enough, they walk away and there is this mayhem and destruction." "His wife turns around and she turns into a pillar of salt." "Since the ancient astronaut theory proposes that angels were nothing else but misinterpreted flesh and blood extraterrestrials, this means that extraterrestrials did side with certain people." "Were angels, or extraterrestrials, interfering with human development?" "NARRATOR:" "But if angels saved" "Lot and his family from the wrath of God, is this proof that angels are more than just otherworldly messengers?" "Might they be more actively engaged in helping their human counterparts, even to the extent that they might still be affecting the outcome of human history?" "Once again, ancient astronaut theorists look to The Book of" "Enoch for their answer and claim to have found evidence in its references to a race of fallen angels known as watchers." "TSOUKALOS:" "There is much debate amongst religious scholars about the fallen angels." "(choir singing)" "Some say they were deliberately sent here to watch over man." "And in The Book of Enoch specifically, we have 20 watchers which are sort of in charge of all the other angels that are in Enoch's presence." "You have the commanders and the officers and the lieutenants, and those 20 deliberately teach" "Enoch in various disciplines, such as meteorology, astronomy, how to make better swords." "Now, would something like this really happen in the Kingdom of" "God?" "I think the answer is clear." "LINDA MOULTON HOWE:" "Where did they come from?" "What do they want?" "And if we're dealing with one or more intelligences... that maybe they have different agendas, but maybe there is something out there that has been an ally to evolving hominids, and we're the latest model." "NARRATOR:" "In the Bible, angels often appear to humans as physical entities that can be seen, heard and even touched." "But today many people believe angels are present whether they can see them or not." "According to a 2008 survey by" "Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, 55% of all American adults believe a guardian angel protects them." "BULLARD:" "The popularity of guardian angels in modern culture I think has to do with the idea that we want some kind of supernatural protection in a world where we don't really feel very safe oftentimes." "NARRATOR:" "The Islamic faith teaches that every human being has not one but two guardian angels, one for each shoulder." "These celestial beings are called writing angels because they write down the good deeds and the bad deeds in each person's life." "The first so-called guardian angel to appear in Judeo" "Christian texts is the angel" "Raphael, who was featured in the" "Book of Tobit, written sometime between the eighth and second century B.C." "FULCO:" "Tobit is off on a very difficult mission." "He's going to go to Persia to find a wife, and he runs into all sorts of problems on the way, so God sends the angel" "Raphael, and now we have the angel not just as a messenger from God." "He becomes a guardian angel, he becomes a special protector." "VON DÄNIKEN:" "The idea of guardian angel, is it just because we wish it, we believe it, that somebody's protecting us, or does it come from the past?" "Has it to do maybe something with extraterrestrials?" "In the sense that some extraterrestrials said to some human, "We protect you." "Don't be afraid."" "MARZULLI:" "What is the guardian angel guarding us from?" "Why is that guardian angel protecting us?" "And is there more than one?" "The short answer to that is absolutely, yes." "He's guarding us from what?" "The fallen angels." "BULLARD:" "In Judeo-Christian, and Islamic tradition, there's an idea that there will be some kind of final warfare when" "God defeats Satan, once and for all." "That's been interpreted, by some people, to say that, the aliens will come back; they will fight it out again, one final time." "NARRATOR:" "Both The Book of" "Enoch and the New Testament" "Book of Revelation refers to a final cosmic battle of good versus evil." "Other biblical stories include accounts of angels wielding extraordinary powers." "Angels who are not just guardians, but who intervene in human affairs." "But who are these celestial warriors?" "The New Testament's Acts of the" "Apostles tells the story of" "Saint Peter, who was imprisoned in Jerusalem by King Herod in 44 A.D." "CARTER:" "Peter is asleep between two soldiers." "So the angel walks through the wall." "He's a physical being because he touches Peter, tells Peter to wake up, come with me." "He unshackles Peter, and he says to Peter, "Follow me."" "MARZULLI:" "The prison cell opens, Peter walks out, and the first thing he notices, all the guards are asleep." "They get out to the courtyard, this huge prison gate opens by itself and Peter walks out and he's free." "Angel walks with him a little bit longer... (snaps fingers)... he's gone." "NARRATOR:" "Is the freeing of" "Saint Peter an alien encounter story?" "Or is it a true story of heavenly angels commanding otherworldly powers?" "CARTER:" "A lot of the times modern contactees say, "Well, these beings have come to me in my dreams." "They can come through my walls." "All my doors are locked, my windows are shut, and all of a sudden, I open my eyes and there is a being there."" "CREMO:" "Some might say these accounts of visitations by angels are a result of imagination or projection, but" "I take them as actual historical accounts because they're presented that way." "(bell tolling)" "WILCOCK:" "If we look at the case of religion, we can see clear evidence of extraterrestrial human visitors who have come here and have tried to help improve conditions in our civilization." "And they have been consistently trying to help the Earth along, which may, in fact, be leading up to a galactic family reunion, where after a certain point when we're ready, they no longer have to follow the prime" "directive, if you will, and can again show themselves to us." "NARRATOR:" "But whether angels are, in fact, supernatural or extraterrestrial beings, artists have nearly always depicted them as having large, almost bird-like wings." "But where does this notion come from?" "From ancient texts?" "Or from a more mysterious source?" "A source, not from the heavens, but from places thousands of light-years away?" "(bell tolling)" "NARRATOR:" "Rome, Italy." "Stored in the Treasury of Saint" "Peter's Basilica in the Vatican is the Sarcophagus of Junius" "Bassus." "Constructed in 359 A.D., the sarcophagus features what some believe to be the earliest known depiction of winged angels in all of Christianity." "In the centuries that followed, angels were almost always depicted as having wings." "But why?" "Especially since the actual biblical texts rarely describe angels as having bird-like appendages?" "CARTER:" "The vast majority of the stories in the Old" "Testament, angels aren't described as having wings at all." "Some of them, they look human." "When the angel comes to visit" "Abraham, this angel does not have wings." "He looks like a man." "Abraham bows to him, which is interesting." "How did Abraham know?" "If he looks like a human being, what was it that gave Abraham the clue to run over and bow down to him?" "And so there's a supernatural quality, there's a superhuman quality that they acknowledge." "That this was a person who was a little more than human." "RICHARD RADER:" "The concept of the angel as such comes directly out of the Graeco-Roman tradition." "Stories of Hermes and Iris kind of coming down and giving messages, envisioning them as beings like human beings, kind of looking like human beings and being benevolent." "There are plenty of other beings which have these beautiful wings, these kind of forms and shapes." "But all of these beings, however they're conceived of, are a way of telling us that we have a hard time understanding what it is that separates us from them, from the gods." "They have to be these kind of weird beings who have wings." "MARTELL:" "Angels show up in various cultures as probably misidentified technology." "If they saw someone... a human being or a humanoid... flying in the skies, they could only give it a natural review, giving it wings." "I don't think they actually had wings." "It was ancient man's way of saying they had the power of flight." "CARTER:" "The angels that have wings that we're used to seeing depicted in pictures of the" "Bible and what have you, basically the wings say these beings can fly." "So we believe in angels, and the Native Americans talk about the Star People, the Egyptians talk about the gods coming to and from the Earth." "So I believe this is the basis, this is the template for the civilizations of the Earth's religious practices." "I-I believe that." "NARRATOR:" "For centuries, religious tradition has perpetuated the notion of bird-like wings to explain an angel's mode of travel." "But is such a concept even scientifically plausible?" "In 2009, a study at University" "College, London compared classic depictions of winged angels with actual bird physiology." "MICHAEL DENNIN:" "You have to be able to flap down and flap up." "And you really need a separate muscle to do each of these." "On the way down, you're generating the lift." "And you actually, you have to rotate the wing slightly and get a different angle as you come up, and then they actually generate their thrust." "Otherwise if you just went up and down in the same straight pattern, you'd be making lift one way, but when you went back the other way, you'd just push yourself back down." "So when you look at the classic pictures of angels, the wings are centered on their back." "Very close together." "Whereas the birds with the wings on the side can have longer muscles with the great strength that go into moving them up and down." "With the wings on the back, they're gonna look like they're gonna flap more like this than up and down." "NARRATOR:" "Researchers also concluded that angels, given their humanoid interpretation, would be simply too heavy for flight." "DENNIN:" "We're not designed aerodynamically." "And we're quite heavy." "I mean, we're solid bone, solid muscle." "So those two features you have to overcome." "NARRATOR:" "But if angels could not have possessed actual wings, how would they have managed to travel to and from the heavens?" "TSOUKALOS:" "Angels were never described to fly around like" "Superman, but they sort of had a vertical ascent into the sky, or when they descended, it was a vertical descent." "How was that possible?" "NARRATOR:" "In 1953, Bell" "Aerosystems developed the rocket belt, the precursor to today's workable jet pack." "Designed to lift individuals vertically into the air and glide them across the skies, today's jet packs can reach altitudes of over 8,000 feet and travel at speeds of up to" "60 miles per hour." "TSOUKALOS:" "If you look at a modern jet pack, humans are ascending and descending in a vertical position." "Now imagine if that picture was shown to our ancestors." "How would they react?" "Obviously, they will say, "Wow, this creature must be divine." "This creature must be some type of a god because they've got the capability of flight." "They're like birds." "Not even the sky is the limit to them."" "NARRATOR:" "But could a device similar to modern day jet packs really explain how biblical angels were capable of ascending bodily into the heavens?" "Could they have had other methods of flight unfamiliar to our ancient ancestors?" "CARTER:" "Ezekiel talks about a flying chariot." "Ancient Hebrews talk about the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night." "So, clearly, these are physical machines that the angels are using." "The story of Jacob and the angel in Genesis 28 is a classic UFO scenario." "Jacob falls asleep, and in this dream, he dreams that there's angels going up and down a ladder, and this ladder comes from heaven." "TSOUKALOS:" "If you look at, let's say, a spaceship, and it opens its door, and there's a ramp coming out." "I mean, that almost looks like a ladder." "So it is possible that what is described there is nothing else but a technological event that was described as a ladder." "NARRATOR:" "Did our ancestors try to explain an ancient alien technology by suggesting that extraterrestrial visitors were heavenly visitors with bird-like wings?" "If the answer is "yes," the implications are both profound and potentially disturbing." "For if angels are actual visitors from other worlds, then what is their mission?" "Are they simply watching us?" "Or is there, perhaps, a more sinister purpose?" "NARRATOR:" "Temple Mount," "Old City, Jerusalem." "It was here that many biblical stories reportedly occurred, including the binding of Isaac, from Genesis 22." "In this story, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on" "Mount Moriah." "Abraham sets out to obey God's command." "But after binding his son and preparing for the sacrifice, he is stopped at the last minute by an angel." "Conventional interpretations of the story usually conclude that" "God only wanted to test" "Abraham's faith." "But ancient alien theorists suggest the tale has another interpretation." "TSOUKALOS:" "In my opinion" ""God-God" would never ask such a question." "So is it possible that it was a fallen angel, slash, alien extraterrestrial who posed as" "God?" "RADER:" "God never demands human sacrifice." "Human sacrifice is totally anathema to Christianity and it's totally anathema to God as a creator." "The French philosopher Sartre very famously wrote, "If an angel were to tell me I needed to sacrifice my son, I'd ask for some ID."" "COPPENS:" "Maybe somebody else impersonating a god." "And do we then have somebody stepping in to actually prevent this from happening?" "Are we, in fact, maybe confronted with two warring civilizations trying to control what is happening in the stories of the Bible?" "TSOUKALOS:" "Just like there are good people and bad people here on Earth, there is good and bad extraterrestrials out there." "Good and evil permeates the entire universe." "Yin and yang." "There's a balance." "NARRATOR:" "Deep inside the" "Middle Eastern country of Oman, a mysterious cavern lies hidden far beneath the surface." "Called Majlis al Jinn, or" ""meeting place of the jinn," it stretches more than 14 acres underground, and is one of the world's ten largest caves." "Many Omanis still believe this cavern and others like it are actually inhabited by supernatural creatures of" "Islamic folklore called jinn or genies; mystical creatures that are usually invisible to man." "JONATHAN YOUNG:" "One interesting aspect of the jinns is an element of free will." "They're like angels, but we think of angels in the West as under the direct command of the divine powers." "But the jinn can make some decisions for themselves, and some of them are a little contrary or curious in their way of being." "NARRATOR:" "According to" "Islamic theology, genies often reveal themselves to humans with messages, which can be either benevolent or deceptive." "But is it possible that genies actually exist?" "If so, where did they come from?" "TSOUKALOS:" "When we talk about genie, genie in a bottle, it's very interesting because you rub the bottle and then the genie comes out of it, and it fulfills your wishes." "Well, let's look at this from a modern day perspective." "If you have a little container, and you push a button and a hologram comes out, then could that be a genie in a bottle?" "And according to the ancient astronaut theory, that is exactly what happened." "Where extraterrestrials used holograms in order to relay messages." "That is essentially a genie in a bottle." "NARRATOR:" "Like angels, jinn are said to be able to appear and disappear at will, and are sometimes only heard as disembodied voices." "But while some ancient astronaut theorists believe this behavior resembles that of extraterrestrials, others claim that angels, jinn and other supernatural creatures have origins right here on Earth." "They call these beings," ""ultra-terrestrial."" "MARTELL:" "Ultra-terrestrials are possible beings that travel, and visit us, from other dimensions." "We know that, we all vibrate in the three-dimensional space, at a certain frequency." "It's very possible that other beings vibrate, at a higher frequency, and are able to pass more easily into other dimensions." "BULLARD:" "The ultra- terrestrial theory would also explain the folkloric creatures, the angelic creatures, any sort of experience of a strange, supernatural, or alien being, that has occurred throughout history." "NARRATOR:" "But could so-called fallen angels, jinn and other mysterious ultra-terrestrial creatures really help to explain more recent stories of people who claim they are directed toward violent ends by the word of God?" "David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, claimed a demon, who took possession of his neighbor's dog, commanded him to kill." "Herbert Mullin, who committed 13 murders in California in the early 1970s, claimed voices in his head told him he had to make human sacrifices to prevent a cataclysmic earthquake." "Marshall Applewhite, the leader of the UFO cult known as" "Heaven's Gate, inspired a mass suicide based on a vision that led him to believe he was related to Jesus." "RADER:" "Ancient literature is full of characters who are claiming that they have been influenced by gods, angels, extraterrestrial beings, right?" "Which is rather like when" "Charles Manson, or the Son of" "Sam claims, say, metaphysical reasons or theological reasons for what they're doing now." "So it's not a matter of whether we believe them or not." "They very much believe it, and that's what's important." "What matters is that from the ancient world to the modern, there are mysterious forces." "Whether they are fictions or not, we don't have the ultimate answers." "What matters is the similarity." "And those discourses are, to a certain extent, transhistorical." "NARRATOR:" "Angels and demons." "Good versus evil." "But if, as many ancient astronaut proponents maintain, extraterrestrials have been masquerading as angels, jinn and otherworldly creatures for thousands of years, where did they come from?" "Why are they here?" "And could they be all around us in plain sight?" "NARRATOR:" "Mount Hermon, high above the Holy Land." "At 9,230 feet, this mysterious mountain straddles the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel." "Sitting above the Golan Heights," "Mount Hermon has been contested ground among Christian, Hebrew and Islamic faithful for thousands of years." "According to the Synoptic" "Gospels, Mount Hermon is the location of the Transfiguration of Jesus, an event in which" "Jesus was transformed into a radiant, altered state and was seen to be conversing with Moses and the prophet Elijah." "Mount Hermon is also the site where the 200 fallen angels descended to Earth in The Book of Enoch." "But why Mount Hermon?" "Is there a geological significance to that site?" "BIRNES:" "All across the face of the Earth there are particular hot spots, and it could well be that the reason the Middle East is such a hot spot, and the reason there are legends that the Middle East contains star gates, portals to" "other universes." "One theory says that we were populated from the stars in the" "Middle East at the beginning of what we call our own time." "NARRATOR:" "In the occult science of numerology, the number 33 represents the ultimate attainment of consciousness." "Mount Hermon is located at the 33rd parallel north, which is a latitude 33 degrees north of the" "Earth's equator." "Tracing the 33rd parallel to the exact opposite side of the globe directly points to the site of the most famous alleged" "UFO encounter in modern history:" "in Roswell, New Mexico." "MARZULLI:" "If you take the geographic polar opposite from" "Mount Hermon, you wind up in" "Roswell, New Mexico." "Now that's not an accident, folks." "It's not an accident." "Fallen angels are very big on where they show up, what they do, how they do it." "That should send shivers up and down your spine." "NARRATOR:" "But could the global coordinates of the" "Roswell crash site and those of" "Mount Hermon have a special, perhaps secret, significance?" "BIRNES:" "If aliens use the 33rd latitudinal line as a way point, as a landing point for planet Earth, what biblical people saw thousands and thousands of years ago on Mount" "Hermon were entities that came down from the sky." "They called them angels." "We called them extraterrestrials." "VON DÄNIKEN:" "My idea is, these extraterrestrials... they landed at different points." "Why?" "They knew that thousands of years in the far future, the humans would know the geometry of their land." "And of a sudden, they say, "Hey, what's that?"" "These are places linked together." "It's not coincidence." "It was on purpose." "NARRATOR:" "Could the angels that descended on Mount Hermon thousands of years ago, and the aliens who were reportedly seen over Roswell, New Mexico, in" "1947 belong to the same extraterrestrial race?" "And if so, does this mean that angels or aliens have been among us all along?" "Were they left behind to monitor us?" "Or perhaps even guide us into the future?" "WILCOCK:" "Probably the last time that we had any regular interaction with these ETs as a cultural level was during the time of the foundation of Islam." "For whatever reason, these guys seem to have followed a mutual, collective agreement that they'd withdraw from the Earth after the time of Islam, the New" "Testament in the Bible, etcetera, etcetera." "Stay away... but in the meantime, we develop technology, we get all proud of ourselves and think, oh, we're the only game in town here." "Wake up!" "They're all over the place!" "Look at the angels in the Bible!" "These are documented records." "The people that wrote these books didn't think they were myths." "They didn't think they were fake." "They were writing down history." "VON DÄNIKEN:" "The extraterrestrials want that, in a far future of mankind, we start to see these things." "We start to translate these books." "We start to realize that something on Earth in geometry is wrong." "And now we start to ask question." "We start to ask, for example, how can we explain that?" "Have we maybe been visited by extraterrestrials?" "And I think it's important to think in this way." "Because these extraterrestrials have promised to return." "And one day, they will return." "HOWE:" "If we humans are now on, we'll say the cusp of finally having some truth laid out to us about our relationship to other intelligences in the universe, I just hope that we will be looking at aliens... past, present and future... as" "not our killers and not our saviors, but as another intelligence that we will be able to shake hands with and learn something about the cosmos." "NARRATOR:" "But if, and perhaps, when, so-called angels reveal themselves to us in the form of extraterrestrials, would we accept them?" "Perhaps only when we are ready to know the truth about our own origins will that day come." "Captioning sponsored by" "AE TELEVISION NETWORKS" "Captioned by" "Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org"