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?
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