1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,820 2 00:00:18,820 --> 00:00:20,650 NARRATOR: This radio telescopes scans 3 00:00:20,650 --> 00:00:23,880 the universe for extraterrestrial intelligence. 4 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,585 Who or what sent this unexplained signal? 5 00:00:26,585 --> 00:00:29,480 6 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,259 Is this image of a face on the surface of Mars 7 00:00:32,259 --> 00:00:34,545 a cry for help from a dying planet? 8 00:00:34,545 --> 00:00:38,110 9 00:00:38,110 --> 00:00:40,640 Was this woman abducted by aliens 10 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:43,140 and used as a guinea pig for their medical experiments? 11 00:00:43,140 --> 00:00:45,750 12 00:00:45,750 --> 00:00:50,540 Mysteries from the files of Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001 13 00:00:50,540 --> 00:00:53,300 and inventor of the communication satellite. 14 00:00:53,300 --> 00:00:56,440 Now in retreat in Sri Lanka, he ponders the riddles 15 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,891 of this and other worlds. 16 00:00:59,891 --> 00:01:02,873 [MUSIC PLAYING] 17 00:01:02,873 --> 00:01:27,154 18 00:01:27,154 --> 00:01:28,420 ARTHUR C CLARKE: I'm helping to launch 19 00:01:28,420 --> 00:01:30,910 a new Japanese TV channel. 20 00:01:30,910 --> 00:01:33,690 From my back garden, my contribution 21 00:01:33,690 --> 00:01:36,210 is being beamed thousands of miles 22 00:01:36,210 --> 00:01:39,670 to Japan thanks to tons of satellite equipment 23 00:01:39,670 --> 00:01:41,770 crammed on my roof. 24 00:01:41,770 --> 00:01:43,460 But it won't stop there. 25 00:01:43,460 --> 00:01:47,630 All our radio and TV travels onwards to the far corners 26 00:01:47,630 --> 00:01:49,110 of the universe. 27 00:01:49,110 --> 00:01:52,160 It's an extraordinary thought that intelligent beings 28 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,540 may be watching us out there. 29 00:01:54,540 --> 00:01:58,950 But much weirder is the claim that aliens have come to Earth 30 00:01:58,950 --> 00:02:02,180 and are abducting human beings for peculiar 31 00:02:02,180 --> 00:02:05,780 scientific experiments. 32 00:02:05,780 --> 00:02:07,200 NARRATOR: Howard and Connie Menger 33 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,139 became famous throughout America after claiming 34 00:02:10,139 --> 00:02:12,740 they'd been chosen by aliens who wanted to know 35 00:02:12,740 --> 00:02:15,480 more about life on our planet. 36 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:19,060 They say that in the 1950s, the area near their home 37 00:02:19,060 --> 00:02:21,095 became an intergalactic meeting place. 38 00:02:21,095 --> 00:02:25,260 39 00:02:25,260 --> 00:02:27,800 According to the Mengers, flying saucers 40 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:30,020 brought numerous unearthly visitors 41 00:02:30,020 --> 00:02:34,810 who were able to materialize or vanish at will. 42 00:02:34,810 --> 00:02:36,930 They even took Howard with them on journeys 43 00:02:36,930 --> 00:02:38,930 through the solar system. 44 00:02:38,930 --> 00:02:41,480 Ever since, Howard has tried to discover 45 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,838 the secrets of their spacecraft in the workshop at his home. 46 00:02:44,838 --> 00:02:52,500 47 00:02:52,500 --> 00:02:58,290 This is a poor, low-grade model of an Earth man 48 00:02:58,290 --> 00:03:01,420 who built this trying to simulate what they have. 49 00:03:01,420 --> 00:03:02,980 Let me put it this way. 50 00:03:02,980 --> 00:03:06,000 This is what you'd call a Model T Ford as 51 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,950 compared to their Rolls Royce. 52 00:03:09,950 --> 00:03:11,970 The walls are luminescent. 53 00:03:11,970 --> 00:03:15,600 There is a circular panel of men sitting around watching 54 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:16,920 what we call television. 55 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:20,140 But their monitors, they're far beyond us. 56 00:03:20,140 --> 00:03:26,090 The women were about five, six-- the men ranged over six feet, 57 00:03:26,090 --> 00:03:28,340 very similar to us. 58 00:03:28,340 --> 00:03:30,750 They all had long hair, mostly blond. 59 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:33,550 The women were beautiful. 60 00:03:33,550 --> 00:03:35,040 They had a glow about them. 61 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:35,780 They were angelic. 62 00:03:35,780 --> 00:03:38,450 I keep saying angels, because I think they were angels. 63 00:03:38,450 --> 00:03:42,980 What made me so sure they were aliens? 64 00:03:42,980 --> 00:03:49,170 I think because they came down in a craft unknown 65 00:03:49,170 --> 00:03:50,280 to this planet. 66 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,330 They cancel out gravity. 67 00:03:52,330 --> 00:03:53,170 It's not a jet. 68 00:03:53,170 --> 00:03:54,360 It's not gasoline. 69 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:55,760 It's not explosive in any way. 70 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,070 It's canceling out gravity. 71 00:03:58,070 --> 00:04:00,590 It's an anti-gravity machine. 72 00:04:00,590 --> 00:04:02,750 It could even be a time machine. 73 00:04:02,750 --> 00:04:04,050 They could be time travelers. 74 00:04:04,050 --> 00:04:05,200 They're way ahead of us. 75 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:08,420 76 00:04:08,420 --> 00:04:09,990 NARRATOR: Howard's experiments progressed 77 00:04:09,990 --> 00:04:13,230 from launching simple wings to powering modeled spaceships. 78 00:04:13,230 --> 00:04:16,610 79 00:04:16,610 --> 00:04:20,510 Well, people were saying, how come the ring goes up and comes 80 00:04:20,510 --> 00:04:21,519 right back down again? 81 00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:23,090 Can't you do something to keep it up 82 00:04:23,090 --> 00:04:25,280 there flying around the room? 83 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:27,240 So I did. 84 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:30,720 But the trouble with flying around the room, 85 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:33,720 it would hit you in the head, and it's no control. 86 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,310 And the first model broke against the ceiling. 87 00:04:36,310 --> 00:04:38,590 So I built this, and I tethered it down, 88 00:04:38,590 --> 00:04:42,370 and I had a wooden guide to keep it going where I want it, 89 00:04:42,370 --> 00:04:43,640 not where it wants to go. 90 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,650 And here's a good example of it going up and staying up. 91 00:04:46,650 --> 00:04:54,640 92 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:55,910 A lot of power there. 93 00:04:55,910 --> 00:04:56,610 See? 94 00:04:56,610 --> 00:04:59,350 It wants to take this up with it. 95 00:04:59,350 --> 00:05:02,800 But I believe within the next 10 years, we'll be on Mars 96 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,210 and we'll be going other places. 97 00:05:04,210 --> 00:05:06,910 There will be a movable space station. 98 00:05:06,910 --> 00:05:10,440 And we'll be getting technology in that would be 99 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:12,250 fantastic to people of today. 100 00:05:12,250 --> 00:05:15,300 101 00:05:15,300 --> 00:05:17,460 NARRATOR: Betty Hill claims she and her husband 102 00:05:17,460 --> 00:05:19,350 Barney were abducted while driving 103 00:05:19,350 --> 00:05:22,380 through New Hampshire in 1961. 104 00:05:22,380 --> 00:05:26,240 Her full story was only revealed when she was hypnotized. 105 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,990 She said a spacecraft blocked the road in front of them. 106 00:05:29,990 --> 00:05:34,820 She and Barney were taken aboard by its crew of aliens. 107 00:05:34,820 --> 00:05:40,560 There was one person there who spoke English in a very limited 108 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:44,220 way who kept trying to reassure us that no harm was 109 00:05:44,220 --> 00:05:45,940 going to come to us. 110 00:05:45,940 --> 00:05:48,610 They just wanted to do some simple tests. 111 00:05:48,610 --> 00:05:54,230 Both of our exams were very similar in most parts 112 00:05:54,230 --> 00:05:58,730 in that they were very interested in our eyes, ears, 113 00:05:58,730 --> 00:06:00,620 nose, throat. 114 00:06:00,620 --> 00:06:05,260 They took scraping of our skin sample, of our hair, 115 00:06:05,260 --> 00:06:09,040 and are interested in our feet. 116 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,420 Then with me, they did what they called 117 00:06:11,420 --> 00:06:14,010 testing my nervous system. 118 00:06:14,010 --> 00:06:17,600 And he tried to insert a needle-like instrument 119 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,450 into my navel, which he called a pregnancy test. 120 00:06:21,450 --> 00:06:24,810 And it caused pain, so they stopped doing it. 121 00:06:24,810 --> 00:06:27,260 They did not all look alike. 122 00:06:27,260 --> 00:06:31,530 They ranged in height probably four to five feet. 123 00:06:31,530 --> 00:06:34,440 124 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:38,650 As far as appearance, they had no hair and no protruding 125 00:06:38,650 --> 00:06:40,850 part of the ear. 126 00:06:40,850 --> 00:06:44,600 They had large eyes, small nose, thin slit for a mouth. 127 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,733 128 00:06:47,733 --> 00:06:50,860 They were all basically dressed alike 129 00:06:50,860 --> 00:06:53,200 in a one-piece dark outfit. 130 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,185 Some were wearing jackets, but not all of them. 131 00:06:56,185 --> 00:06:58,750 Some were wearing caps, but not all of them. 132 00:06:58,750 --> 00:07:01,300 133 00:07:01,300 --> 00:07:03,670 If you've been abducted, you know something unusual has 134 00:07:03,670 --> 00:07:05,880 happened, you go to the police. 135 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,090 Every real abduction I've worked with 136 00:07:08,090 --> 00:07:11,990 has gone directly to the police within five hours. 137 00:07:11,990 --> 00:07:17,065 And not only that, these people who think they've been abducted 138 00:07:17,065 --> 00:07:20,860 and haven't are real abductions. 139 00:07:20,860 --> 00:07:25,370 They always take some possession blogging to the person. 140 00:07:25,370 --> 00:07:28,950 About six weeks after our abductions, 141 00:07:28,950 --> 00:07:32,190 Barney and I came home one night, and on the kitchen table 142 00:07:32,190 --> 00:07:35,950 was a pail of dry leaves and my blue earrings 143 00:07:35,950 --> 00:07:38,180 I was wearing that night. 144 00:07:38,180 --> 00:07:40,980 So we knew they knew where we lived. 145 00:07:40,980 --> 00:07:44,200 146 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,740 NARRATOR: At Harvard University, psychiatry Professor John Mack 147 00:07:47,740 --> 00:07:50,710 records and analyzes abduction stories. 148 00:07:50,710 --> 00:07:53,490 To help his subjects recall their experiences, 149 00:07:53,490 --> 00:07:55,875 he uses hypnosis. -Let your body relax. 150 00:07:55,875 --> 00:07:56,860 Just sink inside. 151 00:07:56,860 --> 00:08:00,430 152 00:08:00,430 --> 00:08:02,114 What particularly worries you? 153 00:08:02,114 --> 00:08:04,666 I'm right on the edge of what I'm going to remember. 154 00:08:04,666 --> 00:08:07,160 I'm going to see and-- 155 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,620 JOHN MACK: What persuaded me that I was dealing 156 00:08:10,620 --> 00:08:12,230 with something of extraordinary importance 157 00:08:12,230 --> 00:08:15,970 here is the degree to which the experiences 158 00:08:15,970 --> 00:08:18,510 or the experiencers share so much in common 159 00:08:18,510 --> 00:08:22,040 in what they report has happened to them. 160 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:23,460 And it goes something like this. 161 00:08:23,460 --> 00:08:27,990 The person is in their home, bedroom, in a car, 162 00:08:27,990 --> 00:08:30,000 in a schoolyard in the case of children. 163 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,610 They will hear a humming or experience 164 00:08:32,610 --> 00:08:35,594 a very bright light, which emanates sometimes 165 00:08:35,594 --> 00:08:38,450 from a UFO which they may see. 166 00:08:38,450 --> 00:08:39,830 They feel paralyzed by it. 167 00:08:39,830 --> 00:08:43,309 They may see one or more small, gray beings with large eyes 168 00:08:43,309 --> 00:08:44,500 or more luminous beings. 169 00:08:44,500 --> 00:08:45,740 They're shocked by this. 170 00:08:45,740 --> 00:08:48,920 They don't believe it. 171 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:53,770 There's a drawing here which was made by one of the people 172 00:08:53,770 --> 00:08:55,225 that I've worked with. 173 00:08:55,225 --> 00:08:57,210 They're 3 and 1/2 to 4 feet tall. 174 00:08:57,210 --> 00:09:01,040 They have these large, pear-shaped heads, 175 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,600 these huge, black eyes, which is the most compelling feature, 176 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:08,750 just little slits for nostrils, a tiny hint of a mouth, 177 00:09:08,750 --> 00:09:12,810 no ears, no hair, wearing a single garment, 178 00:09:12,810 --> 00:09:15,730 a tunic, communicating telepathically. 179 00:09:15,730 --> 00:09:20,250 Inside the ship, they are gazed at by these beings. 180 00:09:20,250 --> 00:09:23,930 They are probed with instruments which are very similar 181 00:09:23,930 --> 00:09:26,090 among the different abductees, but not 182 00:09:26,090 --> 00:09:30,240 similar to any medical surgical tools that we have here 183 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:31,600 on Earth. 184 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:33,530 Skin scraping is taken. 185 00:09:33,530 --> 00:09:37,080 Egg is taken from the women, sperm from the men. 186 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:39,260 This they report. 187 00:09:39,260 --> 00:09:41,280 NARRATOR: Under hypnosis, a British policeman 188 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,910 was amazed to find himself recalling a close encounter. 189 00:09:44,910 --> 00:09:48,160 Alan Godfrey was on patrol in the small hours of the morning 190 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,480 in his police car. 191 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:53,380 As I came up the road here, I was 192 00:09:53,380 --> 00:09:58,970 confronted with this diamond-shaped object. 193 00:09:58,970 --> 00:10:06,050 20, 25 meters wide, 40 meters high, huge thing. 194 00:10:06,050 --> 00:10:10,200 The top half of it are dark windows, all dark paneling. 195 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:13,790 It extended the full road here. 196 00:10:13,790 --> 00:10:17,050 It was hovering about five feet off the ground. 197 00:10:17,050 --> 00:10:19,940 The bottom half was rotating. 198 00:10:19,940 --> 00:10:22,000 There was no noise coming from the object, 199 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,760 but the trees were all shaking violently. 200 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,290 I was just totally gobsmacked. 201 00:10:29,290 --> 00:10:30,600 And the next thing I can remember, 202 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:35,480 there was a blinding white light. 203 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:42,680 And I came around again another 200 meters up the road actually 204 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:48,640 driving the police car, because an hour had gone by. 205 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,880 So I decided that I would undergo hypnotic regression. 206 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:56,630 And what I said under hypnosis absolutely amazed me. 207 00:10:56,630 --> 00:11:01,810 I described being taken aboard the craft. 208 00:11:01,810 --> 00:11:05,532 The frightening thing-- to me, anyway-- 209 00:11:05,532 --> 00:11:09,095 was I was absolutely terrified of these small creature type 210 00:11:09,095 --> 00:11:12,551 things with large heads and black eyes. 211 00:11:12,551 --> 00:11:16,496 I described their heads as being a lump shape, a light bulb 212 00:11:16,496 --> 00:11:19,040 shape, with these black eyes. 213 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:20,786 People say you can lie under hypnosis. 214 00:11:20,786 --> 00:11:23,191 Well, I have no reason to lie. 215 00:11:23,191 --> 00:11:24,990 In fact, the only reason I did the hypnotic regression 216 00:11:24,990 --> 00:11:27,130 was for the truth. 217 00:11:27,130 --> 00:11:32,720 And the truth sometimes is very hard to believe. 218 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,200 In Kentucky, Dr. Robert Baker avoids 219 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,310 hypnosis when he interviews people who 220 00:11:37,310 --> 00:11:39,660 claim they've been abducted. 221 00:11:39,660 --> 00:11:42,140 Louise Smith says she and two friends 222 00:11:42,140 --> 00:11:43,960 felt something strange and frightening 223 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,240 had happened to them after a night out. 224 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:50,010 The women's journey home had taken 225 00:11:50,010 --> 00:11:52,800 much longer than they expected. 226 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:54,330 I felt so dirty. 227 00:11:54,330 --> 00:11:57,440 I just felt like-- oh, I felt dirty even though I'd 228 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,900 taken a bath to go out to eat. 229 00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:06,960 And Elaine and Mona said they felt the same way. 230 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:09,580 So I went into the bathroom and I washed. 231 00:12:09,580 --> 00:12:11,900 I proceeded to wash my hands and face. 232 00:12:11,900 --> 00:12:14,670 And when I did, I burned as if I was just-- oh, 233 00:12:14,670 --> 00:12:16,170 it was just real hot. 234 00:12:16,170 --> 00:12:21,390 The night that it happened, we had called a neighbor of mine 235 00:12:21,390 --> 00:12:25,705 over and told him that something had happened 236 00:12:25,705 --> 00:12:26,850 and we didn't know what. 237 00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:28,160 We saw this thing. 238 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,360 We just described we saw this thing. 239 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:32,090 And he said, what thing? 240 00:12:32,090 --> 00:12:36,740 And he said, well, since you're all artists, don't 241 00:12:36,740 --> 00:12:38,550 say it in front of each other. 242 00:12:38,550 --> 00:12:42,350 One go in one room, one into another, and one int another, 243 00:12:42,350 --> 00:12:44,850 and you draw what you saw. 244 00:12:44,850 --> 00:12:47,310 And when we came back, they were almost identical. 245 00:12:47,310 --> 00:12:48,560 ROBERT BAKER: What did you draw? 246 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:49,730 Could you draw it for me? 247 00:12:49,730 --> 00:12:50,430 Yes. 248 00:12:50,430 --> 00:12:51,490 I'd be glad to. 249 00:12:51,490 --> 00:12:56,370 250 00:12:56,370 --> 00:12:57,700 This'll be a rough sketch. 251 00:12:57,700 --> 00:12:58,400 ROBERT BAKER: Sure. 252 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:03,270 253 00:13:03,270 --> 00:13:07,686 What appeared to be hovering over us. 254 00:13:07,686 --> 00:13:12,820 255 00:13:12,820 --> 00:13:17,020 This was a bright light here as if it was silver on top. 256 00:13:17,020 --> 00:13:22,340 And then there was small lights of different colors 257 00:13:22,340 --> 00:13:27,700 all around this way, all around the ship-- 258 00:13:27,700 --> 00:13:29,255 as I call it the ship. 259 00:13:29,255 --> 00:13:32,560 You have any idea-- how big did it appear to be? 260 00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:35,290 Well, I'd say as big as a football field. 261 00:13:35,290 --> 00:13:36,640 That's the way that I described it. 262 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:40,990 A very large, large-- yes. 263 00:13:40,990 --> 00:13:43,130 We didn't know anything what had happened 264 00:13:43,130 --> 00:13:45,300 to us until after hypnosis. 265 00:13:45,300 --> 00:13:49,730 I felt that my head was covered, and then 266 00:13:49,730 --> 00:13:54,280 something hot just began-- felt like it was flowing over me. 267 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:57,540 And I've lived with the fear ever since that they 268 00:13:57,540 --> 00:13:59,770 had made a mold of my face, because I 269 00:13:59,770 --> 00:14:02,992 could feel this coming off. 270 00:14:02,992 --> 00:14:04,780 Did you see anything? 271 00:14:04,780 --> 00:14:07,470 I kept begging, please, let me see something. 272 00:14:07,470 --> 00:14:09,720 And that's when I began to get real agitated, 273 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,360 because I wanted to see where I was at and what was going on. 274 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:19,180 And then when they uncovered my eyes, I remember crying aloud, 275 00:14:19,180 --> 00:14:21,610 I don't want to see anymore. 276 00:14:21,610 --> 00:14:27,430 I had saw him, and around me was these little figures 277 00:14:27,430 --> 00:14:31,780 that was about four to four and a half feet tall. 278 00:14:31,780 --> 00:14:35,730 And they appeared to have hoods on. 279 00:14:35,730 --> 00:14:41,060 But the eyes were very dark, and just piercing dark eyes. 280 00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:44,890 And their hands weren't fingers like ours. 281 00:14:44,890 --> 00:14:48,510 They came down as if to be like-- I had 282 00:14:48,510 --> 00:14:50,995 described it like a bird when you take it 283 00:14:50,995 --> 00:14:52,320 and pull its wing apart. 284 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:57,020 It had little jaggard things like this, 285 00:14:57,020 --> 00:14:59,690 like wings, but it wasn't. 286 00:14:59,690 --> 00:15:03,190 They just flopped around, and they were in gray color. 287 00:15:03,190 --> 00:15:05,400 It's as real to me today as it was 288 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,890 the day of hypnosis when I really discovered 289 00:15:07,890 --> 00:15:09,870 what had happened to me. 290 00:15:09,870 --> 00:15:13,620 But I got a sense of relief out of it knowing that I 291 00:15:13,620 --> 00:15:16,530 was totally under their power. 292 00:15:16,530 --> 00:15:17,840 They had me there. 293 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,250 I had no way of escape. 294 00:15:20,250 --> 00:15:25,420 But through-- they let us go so, that's why I don't have 295 00:15:25,420 --> 00:15:27,810 a complete fear of them, because they 296 00:15:27,810 --> 00:15:31,910 had every opportunity to keep me or to do whatever they wanted. 297 00:15:31,910 --> 00:15:40,180 298 00:15:40,180 --> 00:15:42,900 NARRATOR: As well as questioning Louise about her story, 299 00:15:42,900 --> 00:15:45,430 Dr. Baker investigates the field where the women 300 00:15:45,430 --> 00:15:47,340 say the spaceship hovered. 301 00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:48,415 His report is skeptical. 302 00:15:48,415 --> 00:15:52,480 303 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:54,145 ROBERT BAKER: Well, interestingly enough, 304 00:15:54,145 --> 00:15:58,800 when we talk about any alien abduction, the only way 305 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,250 that people can get to it and at it 306 00:16:01,250 --> 00:16:04,450 is through hypnotic regression, which 307 00:16:04,450 --> 00:16:11,130 is the most unreliable procedure that man has ever invented. 308 00:16:11,130 --> 00:16:15,880 Because once you are in this state of high suggestability, 309 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:18,390 you can't tell the difference between your memory-- 310 00:16:18,390 --> 00:16:22,200 what really happened-- and what you think or imagined happened. 311 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:27,780 I think they had what was called a hypnagogic hallucination. 312 00:16:27,780 --> 00:16:31,920 This means that when you get tired and are falling asleep 313 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:33,540 or int he process of falling asleep, 314 00:16:33,540 --> 00:16:34,870 you see some very strange things. 315 00:16:34,870 --> 00:16:36,370 You see lights coming towards you. 316 00:16:36,370 --> 00:16:38,400 You feel like you're being engulfed 317 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:40,150 by a very bright light. 318 00:16:40,150 --> 00:16:42,810 You faces on the walls. 319 00:16:42,810 --> 00:16:46,760 You see things coming through the walls at you and so on. 320 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:49,150 We should always be wary of stories told 321 00:16:49,150 --> 00:16:51,470 under hypnosis, even to researchers 322 00:16:51,470 --> 00:16:53,750 with the best of credentials. 323 00:16:53,750 --> 00:16:56,370 It's almost impossible to avoid putting ideas 324 00:16:56,370 --> 00:16:59,100 into people's heads or to eliminate 325 00:16:59,100 --> 00:17:01,170 deeply embedded fantasies. 326 00:17:01,170 --> 00:17:03,530 I can gave you an example of my own. 327 00:17:03,530 --> 00:17:07,300 I have a memory-- I think I have a memory-- of something that 328 00:17:07,300 --> 00:17:09,339 happened at an Air Force base that I 329 00:17:09,339 --> 00:17:11,339 was working on during the war. 330 00:17:11,339 --> 00:17:14,930 I seem to see a fighter spiraling down 331 00:17:14,930 --> 00:17:19,660 and crashing, and the pilot just stepping out casually unharmed. 332 00:17:19,660 --> 00:17:23,359 Now, it's very clear in my mind, but I can't 333 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:25,119 really believe that happened. 334 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:26,460 But now after all these years, there's 335 00:17:26,460 --> 00:17:29,290 no way that I can tell whether it was real or a fantasy. 336 00:17:29,290 --> 00:17:37,060 337 00:17:37,060 --> 00:17:39,700 NARRATOR: NASA's Goddard Space Center near Washington 338 00:17:39,700 --> 00:17:41,570 is the workplace of a man with a mission. 339 00:17:41,570 --> 00:17:44,760 340 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,900 Vincent Dipietro lives and breathes 341 00:17:46,900 --> 00:17:49,580 the mysteries of the cosmos. 342 00:17:49,580 --> 00:17:51,660 My main interest and hobby is space. 343 00:17:51,660 --> 00:17:57,360 I collect all sorts of data sheets and pictures 344 00:17:57,360 --> 00:18:00,700 and whatever I can get my hands on about 345 00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:04,020 the planets, specifically about the planet Mars. 346 00:18:04,020 --> 00:18:06,530 I'm so interested in this one place, 347 00:18:06,530 --> 00:18:08,976 because we can actually land there. 348 00:18:08,976 --> 00:18:11,230 And the more I keep investigating this place, 349 00:18:11,230 --> 00:18:14,340 it looks like that at one time, it was very Earth-like. 350 00:18:14,340 --> 00:18:16,260 NARRATOR: From the day he heard rumors of a face 351 00:18:16,260 --> 00:18:19,717 on the Martian landscape, Dipietro was hooked. 352 00:18:19,717 --> 00:18:21,850 VINCENT DIPIETRO: I went over to the National Space Science Data 353 00:18:21,850 --> 00:18:25,830 Center on Goddard and thumbed through their catalogs of press 354 00:18:25,830 --> 00:18:28,550 release photos, and sure enough, found this photo that was 355 00:18:28,550 --> 00:18:32,470 labeled head, H-E-A-D. And sure enough, when I looked at it, it 356 00:18:32,470 --> 00:18:33,690 did look like a face or a head. 357 00:18:33,690 --> 00:18:35,060 That's when I became interested. 358 00:18:35,060 --> 00:18:37,690 I said, OK, now I've seen the picture myself. 359 00:18:37,690 --> 00:18:39,070 Give me the data. 360 00:18:39,070 --> 00:18:41,360 It looked like a face to me. 361 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:44,770 If it looks like a face, maybe it is a face. 362 00:18:44,770 --> 00:18:47,460 And if it is a face, what put it there? 363 00:18:47,460 --> 00:18:48,370 Who put it there? 364 00:18:48,370 --> 00:18:49,560 What did it? 365 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,814 Was it natural? 366 00:18:51,814 --> 00:18:57,770 Was it such a quirk of light that the wind and whatever 367 00:18:57,770 --> 00:19:01,460 climate or weather that was present on Mars 368 00:19:01,460 --> 00:19:05,370 had put all these things in a magic wand and created a face? 369 00:19:05,370 --> 00:19:06,620 Could it have been that, or could it 370 00:19:06,620 --> 00:19:09,430 have been that some outside intervention did 371 00:19:09,430 --> 00:19:14,050 this thing of putting a face or carving this thing or whatever? 372 00:19:14,050 --> 00:19:15,940 And I just had to know. 373 00:19:15,940 --> 00:19:19,290 So that's when I began to go after the scientific data. 374 00:19:19,290 --> 00:19:21,050 It's a large object. 375 00:19:21,050 --> 00:19:23,030 It's undeniably very large. 376 00:19:23,030 --> 00:19:24,270 It's a mile across. 377 00:19:24,270 --> 00:19:28,230 We've designed some computer programs 378 00:19:28,230 --> 00:19:32,280 to actually take the raw data and make pictures of them 379 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,590 and present them on the PC, on the computer. 380 00:19:35,590 --> 00:19:39,390 For instance, if we replace some of the pixels in the eye 381 00:19:39,390 --> 00:19:43,740 cavity-- in the center of the eye cavity, 382 00:19:43,740 --> 00:19:47,830 I've replaced some of the pixels in the very center with red, 383 00:19:47,830 --> 00:19:50,950 and then coming out further with green, and then with blue. 384 00:19:50,950 --> 00:19:56,390 You can see that there is a definite dome or round 385 00:19:56,390 --> 00:20:01,610 shape within the eye cavity, which in my interpretation, 386 00:20:01,610 --> 00:20:04,880 might resemble something that looks like an eyeball. 387 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:06,590 We have so much evidence that this 388 00:20:06,590 --> 00:20:08,170 is not a natural formation. 389 00:20:08,170 --> 00:20:10,410 We found teeth in the mouth area. 390 00:20:10,410 --> 00:20:13,040 We found a hairline that goes all the way around. 391 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,135 We found symmetry of the object. 392 00:20:15,135 --> 00:20:19,450 All of these things say that there's too many coincidences. 393 00:20:19,450 --> 00:20:22,510 I wish I knew who made this thing, but I don't. 394 00:20:22,510 --> 00:20:24,630 I can only speculate. 395 00:20:24,630 --> 00:20:27,590 We're really grasping now for the stars here. 396 00:20:27,590 --> 00:20:31,580 The planet, as we know, used to be much 397 00:20:31,580 --> 00:20:32,840 different than it is today. 398 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:36,070 It had abundant oxygen. It had atmosphere. 399 00:20:36,070 --> 00:20:37,545 It had water. It had oceans. 400 00:20:37,545 --> 00:20:40,400 It had everything that Earth has. 401 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,490 Perhaps the planet was dying. 402 00:20:43,490 --> 00:20:48,660 And this may have been a message to anyone who came from afar 403 00:20:48,660 --> 00:20:51,860 to let them see that there was someone down here, 404 00:20:51,860 --> 00:20:54,480 and please come and help us. 405 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:58,040 Well, the face on Mars is undoubtedly real. 406 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:02,070 It's recorded on computer tapes and photographic film. 407 00:21:02,070 --> 00:21:04,920 But what made this extraordinary formation? 408 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:07,590 The tentacles of alien beings or the vast 409 00:21:07,590 --> 00:21:11,540 sandstorms that rage across the Martian desert? 410 00:21:11,540 --> 00:21:13,950 Here on Earth, there are countless examples 411 00:21:13,950 --> 00:21:16,100 of nature's artistry. 412 00:21:16,100 --> 00:21:18,550 My favorite is Point Bernard Shaw, 413 00:21:18,550 --> 00:21:21,860 a Canadian island shaped just like the profile 414 00:21:21,860 --> 00:21:24,200 of the famous writer. 415 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:28,050 I'm quite certain that the Martian face is just another 416 00:21:28,050 --> 00:21:30,210 of nature's little tricks. 417 00:21:30,210 --> 00:21:32,250 But I hope I'm wrong. 418 00:21:32,250 --> 00:21:35,420 We won't get the final answer until there's a closer survey 419 00:21:35,420 --> 00:21:38,360 by orbiting spacecraft or until men 420 00:21:38,360 --> 00:21:41,540 and women set foot on the surface of the red planet. 421 00:21:41,540 --> 00:21:44,500 422 00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:48,440 NARRATOR: Every 22 seconds, this radio telescope scans 8 423 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,060 million radio channels at once. 424 00:21:51,060 --> 00:21:54,110 It's searching the heavens for signals in the hope 425 00:21:54,110 --> 00:21:57,320 that these will help scientists find intelligent life 426 00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:58,655 somewhere in the universe. 427 00:21:58,655 --> 00:22:01,470 428 00:22:01,470 --> 00:22:05,591 Paul Horowitz could be the man who discovers it. 429 00:22:05,591 --> 00:22:06,990 I'm convinced that there's life out there 430 00:22:06,990 --> 00:22:09,790 and that it's probably transmitting-- 431 00:22:09,790 --> 00:22:13,820 to us specifically, perhaps, or just transmitting generally 432 00:22:13,820 --> 00:22:17,270 in the galaxy waiting for civilizations that reached 433 00:22:17,270 --> 00:22:20,450 technological maturity to look for the signal, to find it, 434 00:22:20,450 --> 00:22:23,190 and to respond on some time scale. 435 00:22:23,190 --> 00:22:25,550 I'm convinced that Earth will establish 436 00:22:25,550 --> 00:22:29,470 contact through these means or something similar some time. 437 00:22:29,470 --> 00:22:32,500 Well, in now almost 10 years of running, 438 00:22:32,500 --> 00:22:36,180 we've found definite signs of intelligent life. 439 00:22:36,180 --> 00:22:39,350 But that intelligent life happens to be Earth-based. 440 00:22:39,350 --> 00:22:44,030 We see many signals each day, each minute from the multitude 441 00:22:44,030 --> 00:22:46,150 of radio transmitters, radars, broadcast 442 00:22:46,150 --> 00:22:48,366 stations, and so on, on Earth. 443 00:22:48,366 --> 00:22:51,670 And the major problem in this business 444 00:22:51,670 --> 00:22:55,600 is sorting through this thicket of signals, 445 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:57,900 these myriad transmissions of intelligent life 446 00:22:57,900 --> 00:23:01,280 on Earth looking for the one weak signal 447 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:03,275 that's propagated 100 light years 448 00:23:03,275 --> 00:23:06,180 from some alien civilization. 449 00:23:06,180 --> 00:23:07,990 NARRATOR: In all the years of searching, 450 00:23:07,990 --> 00:23:11,790 only one signal has come through the weeding out process. 451 00:23:11,790 --> 00:23:17,500 But this tantalizing call from the cosmos was never repeated. 452 00:23:17,500 --> 00:23:21,310 This is some archive data from the 9th to the 11th 453 00:23:21,310 --> 00:23:23,320 of September in 1988. 454 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,750 This is when the strongest signal of our five 455 00:23:25,750 --> 00:23:27,680 years of running came in. 456 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,376 And I'm going to take this data, sort it by signal strength. 457 00:23:31,376 --> 00:23:34,730 And here we see a signal much stronger 458 00:23:34,730 --> 00:23:38,045 than all the noise-- one isolated, strong signal. 459 00:23:38,045 --> 00:23:39,885 Let's take a look at what it looked like. 460 00:23:39,885 --> 00:23:42,525 And now I'm going to display exactly what was on the screen 461 00:23:42,525 --> 00:23:44,172 complete with graphs. 462 00:23:44,172 --> 00:23:46,650 Here's the full 8 million channels. 463 00:23:46,650 --> 00:23:49,400 Here's the different display of the 8 million channels showing 464 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,220 this very strong spike, a blow up showing nothing 465 00:23:52,220 --> 00:23:54,220 but the signal, strong signal. 466 00:23:54,220 --> 00:23:55,990 Any noise nearby is completely suppressed 467 00:23:55,990 --> 00:23:57,380 by the strength of that. 468 00:23:57,380 --> 00:23:59,560 This signal survived all our culling 469 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:01,625 for the tell tales of interference 470 00:24:01,625 --> 00:24:04,780 of transmitters of radars and all that kind of stuff. 471 00:24:04,780 --> 00:24:07,620 We have never once seen one of these signals 472 00:24:07,620 --> 00:24:10,250 say hello a second time. 473 00:24:10,250 --> 00:24:13,530 We are the first generation-- or maybe the second-- on Earth 474 00:24:13,530 --> 00:24:16,210 that even has the technological capability to engage 475 00:24:16,210 --> 00:24:17,565 in this kind of discourse. 476 00:24:17,565 --> 00:24:18,959 You couldn't do this 100 years ago. 477 00:24:18,959 --> 00:24:20,025 We didn't have radio telescopes. 478 00:24:20,025 --> 00:24:21,736 We didn't have microwave receivers. 479 00:24:21,736 --> 00:24:23,504 We didn't have computers. 480 00:24:23,504 --> 00:24:25,100 We'd have to be crazy not to try. 481 00:24:25,100 --> 00:24:29,670 So my feeling is, how can you not do this experiment when 482 00:24:29,670 --> 00:24:32,760 the contact with an extrateresstrial civilization 483 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:34,480 would be the first bridge across 4 484 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,130 billion years of independent life start and evolution? 485 00:24:37,130 --> 00:24:39,940 It will be the end of Earth's cultural isolation 486 00:24:39,940 --> 00:24:41,290 in a very deep sense. 487 00:24:41,290 --> 00:24:43,420 It will be the greatest discovery 488 00:24:43,420 --> 00:24:46,540 in the history of mankind. 489 00:24:46,540 --> 00:24:50,500 When a friend of mine became Deputy Director of the world's 490 00:24:50,500 --> 00:24:54,500 most famous intelligence agency, on his very first day 491 00:24:54,500 --> 00:24:56,970 in office, he gathered his scientists together 492 00:24:56,970 --> 00:25:00,910 and said, boys, what's the truth about these flying saucer 493 00:25:00,910 --> 00:25:02,390 reports? 494 00:25:02,390 --> 00:25:04,080 And they gave him two answers. 495 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,890 One-- we're pretty sure there's lots of intelligent life 496 00:25:07,890 --> 00:25:09,280 out there in space. 497 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,150 Two, we haven't the slightest piece 498 00:25:12,150 --> 00:25:15,660 of evidence for its existence. 499 00:25:15,660 --> 00:25:18,400 If there really were visitors from outer space, 500 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,600 it would be absolutely impossible to cover 501 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:25,270 up such an epoch-making event for more than about 24 hours. 502 00:25:25,270 --> 00:25:27,520 Take it from me-- unless, of course, 503 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,800 you think I'm part of the conspiracy. 504 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,450 [MUSIC PLAYING] 505 00:25:34,450 --> 00:26:02,334