NARRATOR: Zombies rising from
their graves...
bloodsucking vampires damned for
all eternity...
and humans trapped in a life-
and-death struggle between
Heaven and hell.
For thousands of years mankind
has told tales of encounters
with strange soulless creatures.
But are these mere myths or are
they beliefs rooted in
scientific fact?
JONATHAN YOUNG: They will
attack, they will drink blood
and disappear without ever being
noticed.
RICHARD RADER: The blood is
the thing that reconnects the
world that we live in with the
world of the dead.
DAVID CHILDRESS: Avatars have
the power to take dead people,
bring them back to life.
What kind of powers would you
have to have to do that?
The powers of an
extraterrestrial?
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 if so, are there
extraterrestrial origins in
earthly stories of the undead?
NARRATOR: Thebes, Egypt.
Along the west bank of the Nile
River lies the Valley of the
Kings.
Here, in 1922, archaeologist
Howard Carter discovered the
3,000-year-old tomb of the
pharaoh Tutankhamun.
DODSON: When Howard Carter
opened the burial chamber of
Tutankhamun, it was the first
time anybody had seen the burial
chamber of a pharaoh.
NARRATOR: Untouched since the
pharaoh's death in 1333 BC,
the tomb was full of the boy
king's earthly possessions.
DODSON: It's very much the
idea of having what you would
have had in your house in this
world with you to be there in
the next world.
And part of this whole idea of
the tomb as a magical machine to
bring you into the next world.
NARRATOR: To help Tutankhamun
on his journey into the
afterlife... the walls and
ceiling of his burial chamber
were decorated with
illustrations from the
Egyptian's sacred Book of the
Dead.
DODSON: The Book of the Dead
was a collection of spells
relating to the transition
between death and rebirth.
The basic idea was to provide
the dead person with what they
needed, magically, to get
through.
Because there were various
trials and tribulations to be
faced before you were reborn
into the next world.
They had to encounter various
demons:
everything from giant
cockroaches to horrendous beings
with knives instead of heads.
All sorts of nightmarish visions
you had to get through.
And one of the things the Book
of the Dead does is to explain
how you deal with these various
demons.
NARRATOR: Inside
Tutankhamun's tomb, the
archaeologist also discovered
a sarcophagus with the young
king's embalmed body, well
preserved with vital organs
removed and sealed in jars.
Like many ancient Egyptians,
King Tut was mummified based on
the belief that upon entering
the underworld, his body would
regain its powers of movement
and speech.
BAUVAL: There seems to have
been a kind of belief that the
stellar or astral aspect of the
dead king maintained a contact
with the tomb, and that the
soul would return back to the
physical body.
NARRATOR: The ancient
Egyptians believed the tomb
was the vessel in which the
deceased's body... attended by
its visiting soul... journeyed to
the world beyond the grave.
COLLINS: We today see the
idea of being placed in a coffin
and put underground as something
like simply the disposal of the
dead or the burial of the dead.
For them, it was far more
than this.
It was like going back to the
primordial womb of a sky goddess
whose name was Nuit.
And she was represented
by the Milky Way.
And by doing that, you'd
eventually, you'll go back to
being a star.
It was believed that the soul
itself could become a star.
NARRATOR: The practice of
preserving a dead body, or
embalming, did not begin with
the Egyptians.
Embalmed human remains have been
found in Chile and Peru dating
to 5000 BC.
But what compelled ancient man
to preserve their bodies
after their deaths?
Did they really believe they
would return to Earth,
body and soul?
If so, what had they seen in
life that would suggest that
such a thing were even possible?
CHILDRESS: Throughout
history, mankind has
consistently believed that when
they died, they would go to
to the stars.
The Egyptians believed
that, too.
You have to ask yourself, "Where
did our ancestors get these
ideas that on our death,
we're being transported
to the stars or to another
world?"
Wouldn't this have come from
extraterrestrials?
TSOUKALOS: The techniques
that were used were given to the
ancient Egyptians by the gods:,
the guardians of the sky.
Who were these guardians
of the sky?
Well, according to ancient
astronaut theorists, they were
flesh and blood
extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Tests on
Tutankhamun's remains confirm
that he was the son of
Akhenaten:, the controversial
Egyptian pharaoh often depicted
with a large misshapen skull.
Like their father, the skulls of
both King Tutankhamun and his
sister Meritaten also appear to
have deformed shapes.
CHILDRESS: Archaeologists
have found that in Egypt, like
Tutankhamun or his sister, who's
this statue here, Meritaten, had
these strange elongated heads.
You have to wonder, were they
trying to imitate
extraterrestrials who looked
like this, or perhaps they, in
fact, were extraterrestrials,
and this is how they naturally
looked.
NARRATOR: On the other side
of the world, in the ancient
city of Paracas, Peru...
archaeologists uncovered
hundreds of mummified remains
dating to 300 BC.
Many contained elongated skulls.
FORESTER: What makes Paracas
unique is that the elongated
skulls are found in great
numbers here dating at least
3,000 years old if not older.
The only other place in the
world that we find these are in
Egypt during the reign
of Akhenaten.
COLLINS: It would seem as if
this type of skull demarked
these people as different to
the local community.
Probably because they believed
they were descendents from
original individuals that
had heads that were elongated
and that were serpent or
viper-like in appearance.
GEORGE NOORY: Ancient
civilizations all around this
planet have always depicted some
of their ancients as being
strange-looking figures.
Long heads, big noses.
Creatures that could be human,
but they sure didn't look human.
NARRATOR: If, as some
researchers suggest, the
practice of elongating skulls
was done to mimic the head shape
of highly intelligent beings
ancient man came in contact
with, then could the belief in
preserving the body for the
journey to the afterlife also
have been based on some
contact with superior beings?
TSOUKALOS: I'm suggesting
that mummification is based on
our ancestors who watched
extraterrestrials getting ready
for a flight through deep space.
One possibility is to be frozen
or to be put into animated
sleep, where you're inside this
quote end quote sarcophagus,
this coffin.
And so our ancestors might have
watched this type of
preparation, and then they
misunderstood this for the gods
dying.
And so our ancestors mummified
themselves in order to be ready
for the return of the gods with
the hopes that the gods would
reanimate them from the dead in
the future.
NARRATOR: Could ancient man
really have had contact with
visitors from other planets?
If so, could they have learned
from them the secrets of life
and death?
Secrets about preserving their
earthly bodies, so that someday
they might walk again?
NARRATOR: The Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Central
Africa.
Stretching across this mystical
land is the world's second
largest rain forest.
Here, according to scholars, the
world "zombie" originated around
500 BC.
According to most archeologists
and language experts, ancient
Africans used the word "nzumbe"
to refer to one's primary
spirit.
They believed that a person has
two souls... once called the
"great angel" and the other
called the "little angel."
SALLIE ANN GLASSMAN: The
little good angel represents
your identity, your ego self.
And upon death, the little good
angel sits by the grave for a
few days and then rises before
God.
The big good angel also sits by
the grave for nine days, and can
be stolen, and you can be made
into a zombie.
The spirits who rule over that
crossroads between life and
death are called the Ghédé.
JERRY GANDOLFO: The Ghédé
spirit is not the spirit of the
graveyard, nor is he the spirit
of death.
He's actually the spirit of the
gateway to the graveyard.
When you die, he opens up the
gateway to the cemetery to let
you pass from life into death.
But also he can open up the
gateway to let you pass back
from death into life.
That's why he is the spirit
who's responsible for zombies.
TOK THOMPSON: In must of the
traditions about zombies,
zombies are called into being or
called back from the grave
unwillingly and it's usually
under the control of a witch
doctor.
The idea is that after the soul
has left the body, you can still
raise this person from the dead.
Therefore, your classical zombie
is actually a soulless animated
corpse.
MAX BROOKS: Most
civilizations have some variety
of an individual coming back
from the dead.
It goes all the way back to the
first civilization in
Mesopotamia.
We have them in ancient Egypt,
we have them in Mesoamerica, you
have them in Central and East
Asia.
NARRATOR: In 300 BC, ancient
Chinese legends began making
reference to horrific zombie-
like creatures called jiang shi.
A name that, when translated,
literally means "stiff corpse."
Supposedly a jiang shi rests in
a coffin by day or hides in dark
places such a caves.
At night these creatures hunt
down family members in an effort
to devour their essence.
CURRAN: Its skin was
decayed.
It had long fingernails.
The thing was actually
brain-dead, but it had an
increased sense of smell and a
great sense of hearing.
NARRATOR: In Norse mythology,
a draugr was a person who
lived a sinful life.
After dying, they would come
back from the dead and haunt the
living.
YOUNG: Many burial practices
grew up to try to control this
possibility of a zombie rising,
the undead coming back.
Gravestones might have
originally been to hold them
down, to keep them from coming
out of the ground.
Various kinds of spiking to hold
the body down or cutting the
body up so it couldn't
reanimate.
Cutting the head off or burning
and distributing the ashes.
All out of a fear that this
creature or this being would
somehow return.
(woman singing in foreign
language)
NARRATOR: Today, stories of
the reanimated dead are most
closely associated with the
Haitian practice of voodoo...
...where, beginning in the
1500s, voodoo priests performed
mysterious rituals in order to
create and control zombies.
BROOK: The voodoo zombie
is essentially harmless unless
it is told to commit acts of
violence.
Most importantly, the voodoo
zombie is an individual.
It is controlled by a master.
It is controlled usually by some
form of supernatural powers.
GLASSMAN: There are a couple
of different kinds.
There's the zombie as the
disembodied spirit, but there's
also that more traditional
concept of a body that has lost
its soul and is just
automatically enslaved and
working for a zombie master.
NARRATOR: But where, or from
whom, does this strange power
over life and death come from?
According to ancient astronaut
theorists, there is evidence of
strange other-worldly entities
that communicate to humans
through intermediaries known as
priests, shamans, witch doctors
or demigods.
THOMPSON: Many different
religions have different ways of
conceiving of specialists who
might be able to intercede in
the cosmos.
So, for instance, among the
Native Americans we find shamans
and shamanism who very often are
held as people who can
intercede between the spiritual
realm and the mundane realm here
on Earth.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: It is
quite possible that some of the
first doctors were the
disciples, the students of some
of the extraterrestrials.
So they had their knowledge
which helped them to be higher
than the rest of mankind.
NARRATOR: Perhaps the most
famous story of an intermediary
reanimating the dead appears in
the New Testament of the
Holy Bible.
According to the Gospel of St.
John, it was here at Al
Eizariya, two miles from
Jerusalem, that Jesus of
Nazareth resurrected a man who
had been dead for four days.
BRETT PETERSON: Jesus was so
moved, the Bible says he wept.
As he looked at the tomb and
was moved by the weeping of Mary
and Martha, he decided to raise
Lazarus from the dead.
So he approaches the entrance
to the tomb and literally
calls out to Lazarus to come
forth from the dead.
In my opinion, there's no
scientific explanation for the
raising of Lazarus.
It seems that Lazarus' soul was
actually reunited with his body:,
that he was just not a walking
dead or the undead, but he
became himself raised from the
dead.
CHILDRESS: So here are
special people who have the
power to take dead people and
bring them back to life.
What kind of powers would you
have to have to do that?
The powers of an
extraterrestrial?
NARRATOR: Could there really
be an extraterrestrial
connection between living humans
and the world of the dead?
Is it possible that human souls
travel through space and time
much as space travelers might?
If so, would this shatter the
belief in the existence
of Heaven?
Or would it be the very proof
mankind has been searching for
for centuries?
NARRATOR: Oaxaca, Mexico.
Situated on a low mountain range
rising above the central plain
lie the ancient ruins of
Monte Albán.
Here, around 100 BC,
researchers believe the Zapotec
Indians worshipped a
bloodthirsty Mayan god with the
body of a man and the head
of a bat.
They called him Camazotz.
SKAL: The iconography is
rather striking:, the image of a
half man, half bat:, a man with
the head of a bat and winglike
cloak spread out with crosses of
bones in the lining.
YOUNG: The Zapotec people in
the Oaxaca area of Mexico
believe that winged creatures,
batlike creatures come in
the night.
They will attack and they will
drink blood and disappear
without ever being noticed.
CURRAN: This is simply a sort
of anthropomorphic bat which
was worshipped by the sacrifice
of libations of blood.
So what they did was they cut
themselves and poured it
into a bowl and offered it
to the god.
ANDREW WYATT: Blood was a
very important substance
to the Mayans.
That is what gave humans life:,
blood and breath was what the
essence of life was.
That's where this k'ul... this
divine essence... resided:, in
blood and in breath.
When you would die, you entered
into the underworld.
It was called Xibalba.
Then, if you defeated the lords
of death, you would then ascend
into the heavens and become one
of the revered ancestors.
RADER: The blood is the thing
that reconnects the world that
we live in with the world
of the dead.
YOUNG: Some of the earliest
archaeological evidence shows
that blood rituals were present
as far back as we can search.
NARRATOR: Legends and myths
of supernatural beings with
traits similar to vampires are a
part of nearly every ancient
culture.
In Hindu folklore, for example,
the vetala was known as an evil
spirit that took demonic
possession of corpses.
The Indian goddess Kali was also
intimately linked with blood
sacrifices.
CURRAN: Kali becomes the
destroyer, and she is portrayed
as a hag-like woman with a
whole number of arms...
...each carrying a sword.
She is the goddess of death
and destruction.
Her eyes are red and she drips
blood from her mouth.
YOUNG: She's known to take
infants from their crib and
drink their blood.
NARRATOR: In North America,
early Cherokees believed in a
bloodthirsty creature that
slaughtered humans, drank their
blood and ate their livers...
known as the U'tlun'ta.
This demon was said to possess
eternal life while feeding
on the living.
CURRAN: The notion of the
thing from the spirit world
traveling through the various
Indian nations was a great fear
among not only the Cherokee but
also the Sioux and Arapaho.
NARRATOR: But who, or what,
are these mysterious creatures
and where did they come from?
Might they be, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe,
extraterrestrial beings
abandoned here on Earth?
In the ancient Jewish Talmud,
the Genesis story set in the
garden of Eden includes
Adam and Eve, but also a woman
called Lilith.
SKAL: In Jewish folklore,
Lilith was the first wife of
Adam.
She was created from the
same earth as Adam, not from his
rib as Eve was.
But she proved to be very
disobedient and uncontrollable
and had to be banished.
NARRATOR: According to the
Talmud, when Lilith refused to
obey Adam, God sent three angels
to convince her to submit to his
authority.
But when Lilith refused for the
final time, God condemned her to
live on Earth for eternity.
In a sense, Lilith was the first
vampire to wander the Earth.
She shared all of the
characteristics of female
vampires.
YOUNG: Lilith had the head
and breasts of a woman, the body
of a snake and the wings of a
bird, which is a terrifying
creature.
MICHAEL COOGAN: In Jewish
tradition, Lilith has been a
kind of night demon against whom
incantations and prayers have to
be offered because she will come
and snatch away an infant
sleeping in its crib, or at
least snatch away its soul
and cause it to die.
NARRATOR: But why are tales
of bloodsucking creatures so
prevalent throughout the ancient
world?
And what is it about blood...
particularly human blood... that
makes it such a vital ingredient
in vampire mythology?
THOMPSON: Unlike the zombie,
the vampire is a soulful corpse.
A corpse where the soul sort of
refused to leave the body.
Very often this is because this
person who died was just so bad
and so evil that they were able
to not go on to the other world
or to Heaven or even to hell, as
the case may be.
SKAL: The vampire is not part
of this world and is not totally
part of the next world.
It is halted in its progression.
And that's why most vampire
legends and stories involve the
releasing of the soul of the
vampire so he can complete the
journey to the other side.
NARRATOR: Might blood and the
unique chemistry of it, serve as
a kind of cosmic fuel?
One that connects the living to
the dead?
The human to the inhuman?
The earthly to the
other-worldly?
YOUNG: The Mayan culture had
a fascinating ritual.
The high king would slice
himself in his male organ to
intentionally bleed, and have a
rather extensive bloodletting
which, of course, would alter
his brain chemistry.
This would lead to an altered
state and a vision which would
indicate the future path for the
nation.
COLLINS: Certainly in a death
state or an altered state, they
had access to other worlds.
So there was a universal belief
in contact with the stars and
that something in the stars came
down and made us in the first
place and that one day we would
go back there.
CHILDRESS: Blood is the life
force of humans and it was very
important to extraterrestrials,
too.
There's something very special
about our blood.
So we have to think that if
these blood sacrifices aren't
some distortion of what was
originally just
extraterrestrials showing us how
important our blood was.
NARRATOR: Might bloodletting,
both the shedding and the
drinking of it, have been, as
some scholars suggest, a chance
to commune with the gods and a
bid to obtain godlike
immortality?
Or did early humans simply
create myths and stories about
undead vampires and zombies as a
means of communicating their
ancestral connection to
extraterrestrial beings?
And if these beings actually
existed, might they not return?
NARRATOR: Judgment Day.
The day of reckoning.
In Judeo-Christian and Muslim
traditions, it is the day at the
end of time, when God will
return and descend upon Earth to
judge the living and the dead
according to the good and evil
of their earthly lives.
Consistent with the most
commonly held beliefs, God's
return will follow a sequence of
events including Armageddon and
the annihilation of all
creatures, the resurrection
of the dead and the reuniting of
all souls with their physical
bodies.
PETERSON: The day of
reckoning is when each man and
woman is going to be held
accountable for every word that
they've said, for every action
that they've done.
Where God will judge the souls
of the living and the dead for
anything that they have done on
this planet.
YOUNG: The Jewish belief is
that, except for a pristine few,
most souls will go into a period
of review, about a year, in
which they go through their
lives and see the things they've
done wrong, learn a thing or two
and then go on to the world to
come.
PETERSON: Now the Muslims, or
Islam, everyone dies and God
raises them all back to life and
there is nothing but judgment
and the good Muslims will be
taken to paradise and the bad
ones will be thrown into outer
darkness.
NARRATOR: Christians believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God, and that he will return to
Earth on the day of reckoning to
pass judgment on all souls, both
living and dead.
It is also the reason why
Christians believe the human
body should be buried and not
cremated after death.
But could the tombs and graves
of the world really open one day
and the dead rise again?
MICHAEL COOGAN: According to
traditional Christian belief,
God creates a human being at the
moment of conception...
by infusing into the newly
formed embryo an immortal soul.
And that fusion of raw material
and soul is what makes the human
person.
That's why at the day of
reckoning there has to be the
resurrection of the dead, so
that humans are restored to
their original unity as body as
soul combined.
PETERSON: This day of
reckoning, we will find the
souls of the departed will be
reunited with their physical
body which will be raised from
the dead and reconstructed,
probably genetically, by God
himself.
NARRATOR: Ancient cultures
throughout time also believed
in the return of their gods
and a day of reckoning.
In ancient Mesoamerica, the
Aztecs believed in feathered
serpent gods that created the
universe, who would return one
day to destroy evil and bring
peace.
COLLINS: In Central America,
Quetzalcoatl the feathered
serpent was this wisdom bringer.
Sometimes said to have come down
from the sky world to spread
this heavenly knowledge and
wisdom and to bring salvation
to the world.
NARRATOR: Dating to 150 BC,
the Dead Sea Scrolls prophesize
that the Sons of Darkness will
be destroyed and the Sons of
Light will live in peace for all
eternity.
And the concept of an omnipotent
god who will return on Judgment
Day also appears in one of the
so-called lost books of the
Bible... the Book of Enoch.
PETERSON: The Book of Enoch
talks about this great judgment
for the unrighteous.
That they will be judged with
fire.
That the Son of man will come
with 10,000 fiery angels and
they will judge mankind.
After the final judgment, the
Bible says the new Heaven is
created, the new Earth is
created and the New Jerusalem
descends from Heaven onto the
new Earth.
The New Jerusalem is this
cubical city 1,500 miles long,
wide and high, made of
translucent gold.
Many people would theorize that
maybe it's some sort of
spaceship, some sort of UFO.
NARRATOR: But could there be
an alien, or extraterrestrial,
origin to the biblical stories
of final judgment?
Might it be, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend, the
day when we are once again
visited by alien beings or
perhaps alien ancestors?
VON DANIKEN: Some thousands
of years ago extraterrestrials
were here.
They created first mankind by an
artificial mutation.
And now when they... they return
and, of course, the judgment
will be, "Have you done what we
were expecting for you?"
And the ones who understand what
happened in the past, they will
not be shocked, because they
knew and they expected all the
time what will happen.
CHILDRESS: In my mind, it's
when the extraterrestrials
genuinely return to our planet
and announce themselves, and
at that point, the humans
who have achieved enlightenment
will join with their brothers...
the extraterrestrials,
ancient astronauts who created
us... and we'll all return to the
stars.
NARRATOR: Is it possible, as
ancient astronaut theorists
propose, that in the end we are
destined to encounter our alien
origins, and if so, is there
really truth to the notion that
our existence does not end with
death?
And is there a world between
life and death?
One which leads to another,
perhaps, extraterrestrial plane?
NARRATOR: April, 1983, Carmel
California.
Along a scenic coastal highway
27-year-old Jessica Haynes was
sitting in the passenger seat of
a friend's car as they headed
north toward San Francisco.
JESSICA HAYNES: So we got to
Scenic Drive, and the last thing
I remember was, "Watch this."
NARRATOR: Suddenly the driver
lost control and slammed into a
tree.
(loud crash)
Jessica's friend sustained only
minor injuries, but Jessica's
body was severely injured.
HAYNES: The next thing I
remember is that I was in an
ambulance.
I could feel there was something
very wrong.
NARRATOR: Nearly dead,
Jessica was rushed into surgery
where she had an extraordinary
experience.
HAYNES: In the evening, I
felt a presence enter the room.
It was a very loving presence.
There was a sense that I could
shift into a different
dimension.
And in telepathy, the voice
said, "if you want to let go, it
will be okay."
I was aware that I would be
leaving my body.
And I said, "Yes."
I was instantly in another
place.
I no longer had a body.
I was now a point of light.
After a while, as I'm
experiencing this and being
this, a light appeared.
And I pulled into the light like
a tractor beam and merged into
it.
It was filled with thousands and
thousands and millions of
sparkling lights.
It was just beautiful.
And I thought, "I'm home, I'm
home!"
There's a sense that Earth,
people, where I'd worked, things
that I'd done, became more and
more of an illusion.
And there are presences on
either side.
Very loving presences.
Not male, not female.
It was very much all energy.
And everything was simultaneous.
So looking at my life again, I
realized I want to get back.
NARRATOR: Like thousands of
other near-death accounts,
Jessica's story featured
elements that were eerily
consistent.
The bright white light, the
notion of a gateway or tunnel,
the presence of loved ones and
a feeling of peace and security.
NOORY: it is uncanny that
these people all seem to talk
about the same thing.
This tunnel, this effect, this
ability to transfer from one
point to the next.
And they all seem to be going
down the same path.
JEFF LONG: The more people
know about near-death
experience, the more they
realize the profound evidence
that underlies the concept that
near-death experiences are real.
NARRATOR: The Greek
philosopher Plato documented the
story of a soldier named Er, who
claimed that when slain in
battle, his soul went forth from
his body and journeyed with many
gods through a tunnel of light
to a mysterious place.
Er was shown by the gods that
good souls were sent up to
Heaven and were gloriously
rewarded.
But the bad souls were sent down
to a realm where they were
first punished, then purified
and then finally resurrected.
RICHARD RADER: What's
interesting is that he says, so
not only seeing the rewards and
the punishments, but seeing how
it is that souls are
reincarnated. This is what's
really radical about this.
It was totally new in the Greek
world... this conceiving of the
soul not only as immortal, but
reincarnated perpetually.
LONG: What's exciting is that
multiple lines of evidence are
pointing to the reality of a
soul.
In other words, there does seem
to be that spiritual, unearthly,
non-physical part of us that
absolutely can transcend and
survive death and go on and
indeed live forever.
NARRATOR: Might these often
reported near-death experiences
really be proof of an afterlife?
Proof that there is an eternal
soul?
That virtue is ultimately
rewarded and evil eternally
punished?
Or might these compelling
accounts provide evidence of
another, much more
extraterrestrial reality?
DOC BARHAM: Based upon a
commonality of this white light
experience, it seems like what
the individual experiences is
simply moving from one state to
another.
And as they do that, they will
move through something that
could be described as like a
wormhole.
NARRATOR: A central tenet of
the Indian traditions of
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism,
is expressed in an ancient
Tibetan text that advises the
living on how to prepare for the
afterworld.
The text suggests concentrating
one's mind on a wormhole through
which the soul can travel to a
cosmic universe.
If done successfully, the soul
is liberated from the cycle of
life and death.
If not, the soul is
reincarnated into the body of a
newborn.
CHILDRESS: it's like we have
an instinctual knowledge that
with our death, our passing
from this existence, that we are
going to this other world.
COLLINS: At the point of
death we could find ourselves at
the other end of the universe.
BARHAM: When we die, most
cultural traditions talk about
traveling from this world to the
next or returning to our
original home.
You could look at it as the
possibility that all of these
places are simultaneously
coexisting.
They would be different layers
of different dimensions
coexisting simultaneously all
together at once.
NARRATOR: In the Law of
Biogenesis, published in 1864,
the chemist and microbiologist
Louis Pasteur proclaimed that
life evolves from preexisting
life, not from inanimate
material.
According to this landmark
theory, life is an unbroken
chain of living organisms that
go all the way back to the
origin of life in the universe.
If true, who, or what, is the
origin for human life?
CHILDRESS: All life on this
planet is interconnected, and
our own lives are connected back
to the primordial lives at the
very beginning of life on this
planet.
NARRATOR: Could the legends
and myths of life beyond death
that sprung from countless
civilizations over thousands of
years have been mere man-made
fabrications, or might the
so-called legends really be
truths that had been passed to
our ancestors by ancient
astronauts?
Perhaps what awaits all humans
is not death, but a profound
knowledge, one that will reveal
the truth of our earthly and
other-worldly origins.
Captioning sponsored by
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
Captioned by
Media Access Group at WGBH
access.wgbh.org