NARRATOR: Superhuman
strength...
Supernatural powers...
And the awesome ability to fly.
Throughout history, mankind has
told incredible tales of gods
and superheroes.
But do we yearn to possess these
extraordinary powers for
another, more profound, reason?
WILLIAM HENRY: implanted
within our DNA is this desire to
become god-like, to fly in the
air, or swim through the ocean
or especially to ascend into the
stars.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Humans
were created according to the
image of God.
So we are part of them.
If the so-called gods had
incredible powers, we have them
in us, too.
NARRATOR: Could ancient
stories of god-like kings and
heroes really have otherworldly
origins?
JASON MARTELL: Many of the
sacred powers given to kings of
the past we know today were more
than likely technology that
ancient man was given from the
actual gods, which we know were
probably extraterrestrials.
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?
Does it help to explain our
continuing fascination with
stories of gods and heroes?
NARRATOR: Greece.
The island of Crete.
On the Lassithi Plateau, over
half a mile above sea level,
lies the Dikteon Cave.
This sprawling complex of
caverns stretches nearly one and
a half square miles, and
archeological finds have shown a
human presence dating as far
back as 6,000 years ago.
Historians believe the first
inhabitants of the area actually
lived inside the cave, and
according to legend, its many
chambers were once home to an
otherworldly being, Zeus, the
Greek god of thunder.
In Greek mythology, Zeus is the
son of Cronus, the king of the
first generation of gods known
as the Titans.
RICHARD RADER: Zeus's father
Cronus is not particularly
excited about giving birth to a
child because he's heard a
prophecy that one of his
children is going to overthrow
him.
So just as soon as his
children are born, he just
swallows them all down.
Now his mother Rhea, who's
Cronus's wife, is distraught
about this.
So what she does is substitute a
rock that she's
wrapped up in swaddling clothes.
Gives it to Cronus, which he
swallows down.
And what she does is hides Zeus
away in a cave.
So he grows up there.
NARRATOR: In Theogony, the
8th-century BC poet Hesiod
describes the cave Zeus was
hidden in as lying in these very
mountains, and specifically near
the city of Lyktos, the location
of the Dikteon Cave.
But the similarities between
this cave and the cave of Zeus
described in Greek mythology go
much further.
PHILIP COPPENS: The ancients
say that when they are talking
about mythology, it is about
unrecorded events of their past.
According to the Greek myths,
the child Zeus was nourished on
a mixture of honey and
milk at the udder of the goat.
Now around 1900 AD, a chamber
of the Dikteon Cave was
identified by locals as
the birthplace of Zeus, and when
archeologists went in
there, they discovered an alter
with the remains of numerous
religious offerings, amongst
them honey and goat milk.
These remains date back 4,000
years, to the exact period in
which the ancient Greek stories
took place.
The question is, is this once
again a coincidence that modern
excavations find remains in
this cave that match up with
what's written in Greek
mythology?
NARRATOR: Also found in
the Dikteon Cave were
numerous artifacts dating back
to what would have been the time
of Zeus's childhood according to
the Greek stories.
Among them was a fragmentary
inscription bearing a hymn...
a hymn dedicated specifically to
Zeus.
Could the Dikteon Cave really be
the cave described in Theogony?
And if actual locations from
Greek mythology really do exist,
could legendary characters and
events also be based on
historical fact?
COPPENS: We think of
mythology as something which has
been invented.
But really, when we look at the
ancient Greeks, they believe
that the War of the Titans
physically happened.
That this was a war, which was
fought in heaven, by the
deities.
NARRATOR: In Greek mythology,
the War of the Titans is a
celestial battle waged by Zeus
and his siblings, known as the
Olympians, against their father
Cronus and the Titans.
The Olympians, who are the
victors in this battle, were the
gods worshipped by the ancient
Greeks.
But according to ancient
astronaut theorists, these
human-like beings may have been
something other than divine, and
this mythical war may have been
an actual historical event.
To support this claim, they
point to the existence of
similar myths and stories told
by different cultures throughout
the world.
COPPENS: When it comes to
warring parties of gods, Greece
is not a stand-alone issue.
We have the same thing in
Ragmornak.
In Norwegian mythology, we have
this idea that the gods fought
amongst themselves as well.
We also have stories from
Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite
accounts where it says that the
wars were fought between gods.
MARTELL: We see this same
story of Titans being overthrown
by a new set of gods in the
Sumerian epics of the Anunnaki
coming here as the original
culture in ancient Iraq.
So these similarities tell of a
warring race of beings that
squabbled amongst themselves
about the rights of various
areas on the Earth.
NARRATOR: What can explain
the similarities of these
ancient war stories that emerged
from all over the world?
Could they all be describing the
same historical events?
And if there is an historical
basis for the legends and
stories, what does that suggest
about the incredible powers and
weaponry supposedly possessed by
the gods?
MARTELL: it's very possible
that the Clash of the Titans
known from the Greek times is
actually speaking of a much
earlier epoch of
extraterrestrials having a type
of battle.
HENRY: The ancient Greek gods
had helmets that made them
invisible.
They had breastplates that made
them impervious to their
enemies' weapons.
They had tridents that shot
thunderbolts:, they had winged
sandals that gave them the power
of flight.
These are all profound examples
of an ancient alien technology
that the Greek gods possessed.
NARRATOR: if mythical gods
and monsters really did exist,
were they, as ancient astronaut
theorists believe,
extraterrestrial beings?
And could this help to explain
the enormous and enduring
popularity of gods, Titans and
other so-called "superheroes"
in today's popular culture?
DAN DIDIO: There's so many
different places where the
characters and superheroes come
from, but naturally, so much of
it is drawn from mythology and
from literature, because those
are such strong bodies of work
and so familiar, and they...
they become the archetypes for
all types of heroes.
JONATHAN YOUNG: The stories
exist partly because we want to
dream of such powers.
We want to imagine what might be
possible if we had unlimited
dominance.
PHILIP COPPENS: We watch
endless amounts of television
and movies which says that
amongst us are a group of people
who are more than just human.
Super humans.
And that somehow these people
are born that way or that
something happens to them, which
triggers this.
But basically, the underlying
subconscious message really is
that we are capable of becoming
gods.
HENRY: implanted within our
DNA is this desire to become
god-like, be it to fly in the
air, or swim through the ocean,
or run super fast, or
especially, to ascend into the
stars.
NARRATOR: Why are human
beings so drawn to stories about
beings with superior abilities
and technologies?
Are they looking for something
larger and more powerful outside
of themselves?
Or perhaps... within?
In Greek mythology, the Titan
Prometheus is often credited
with creating human beings out
of basic materials found on
Earth.
YOUNG: Prometheus was playing
with mud, and made little
figurines out of it.
And Athena was fascinated with
this, and breathed life into
them.
RICHARD RADER: The cynical
read is to say, well, what he
wants is somebody to worship
him, like people worship Zeus.
He created us in his image, and
he gave us all these skills,
culture and technology and
medicines, that makes us what
it means to be a human being.
HENRY: Zeus realized he
couldn't un-create these beings,
but what he could do is limit
them in their capabilities and
restrict them in their capacity
and prevent them from becoming
god-like.
DAVID CHILDRESS: it's as if
the extraterrestrials wanted to
keep us from having all the same
technology that they had.
NARRATOR: In another version
of the story, Prometheus is said
to have stolen a spark from
Zeus' lightening bolt in order
to give humans the gift of fire.
COPPENS: When we are talking
about a god who gives fire to
man, we realize that this is not
the gods, as in the supreme
being, the one.
But clearly somebody else.
An ancient alien.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: We pursued
throughout history to master the
powers of the gods, but the
question is, where did all those
ideas originate?
And the answer is very simple.
Due to extraterrestrial contact
in our remote past.
NARRATOR: Could humans really
be the creation of alien beings
with extraordinary powers?
Do we have a subconscious desire
to reconnect with the so-called
gods of our past by becoming
more like them through
advancements in technology?
Could this explain the origins
of ancient tales of gods and
heroes who were thought to
possess extraordinary powers?
Perhaps the answer can be found
near the Greek valley of Phocis,
and by examining the legend of
The Oracle at Delphi.
NARRATOR: Lydia, 716 B.C.
Gyges, a shepherd in the service
of King Candaules, becomes the
unlikely successor to the throne
of this ancient kingdom in
modern day Turkey.
But the story of how this modest
servant rose from a shepherd to
a king is so fantastic that
many scholars and historians
have dismissed it as mere myth.
YOUNG: Gyges is out in the
field, and there is a terrible
earthquake.
(rumbling)
He sees a cave open, goes into
that cave and sees a gold ring.
RADER: I mean, he just kind
of walks into, like, this
chamber, which is like a tomb
where he sees a dead body that's
got some jewelry on it.
So he grabs this ring off of it,
because he's a poor man.
He puts the ring on and
discovers that it gives him the
power to be invisible.
YOUNG: Here he has the kind
of power a god would have.
And does he use it well?
Well, actually, it's a little
questionable how he uses it.
HENRY: He comes up with a
plan.
The next time he goes to visit
the king, he brings that ring
with him, turns himself
invisible, seduces the queen,
kills the king and takes over
the palace.
COPPENS: What we have here
is really a multilayered legend.
We have not only the story of
the fact that somebody in the
past had the cloak of
invisibility, but actually, that
he did not invent this.
But that it was a legacy from a
race who had buried their dead,
and that alongside these dead
were artifacts which were
technological.
HENRY: What kind of a magical
amulet or technology are we
talking about here?
Was this the ring of the gods
that's described by the ancient
Sumerians as the ring of cosmic
sovereignty?
NARRATOR: According to
legend, a bloody civil war
erupted following the death of
King Candaules.
It ended when Gyges obtained
approval for overthrowing the
throne from the Oracle at
Delphi, a mysterious priestess
whose eerily correct prophecies
were said to come directly from
the Greek god Apollo.
BILL BIRNES: The Oracle of
Delphi, whether it's a prophet
or a soothsayer, had a direct
relationship to the
extraterrestrial being.
The extraterrestrial being
communicated through the priest
who would then interpret that
into a language that the
listeners could understand.
NARRATOR: But was it really a
god who endorsed Gyges reign, or
was Apollo, the son of Zeus, an
extraterrestrial, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend?
Was it, perhaps, the same
extraterrestrial who led Gyges
to find the ring that enabled
him to seize power in the first
place?
And if so, could this be an
example of aliens endowing a
human with god-like powers to
carry out some earthly agenda?
TSOUKALOS: When I read
stories like Gyges of Lydia,
who has found this ring, which
gave him the capability of
becoming invisible, then there
are two things that I think of.
One... is it just fantasy?
Or do we have another reference
here that describes
misunderstood technology?
Because today, researchers at
Duke University are trying to
develop an invisibility cloak.
NARRATOR: Duke University
engineering professor David R.
Smith is the Director of the
Center for Metamaterial and
integrated Plasmonics.
For the past decade, Smith and
his team have been working to
create metamaterials, or
artificial materials that are
not found in nature.
Just as a piece of glass can
control the way light bends,
Smith has set out to prove that
certain manmade materials can
actually be constructed to
render objects invisible.
DAVID SMITH: This is actually
an example of the metamaterial.
This is a bunch of pieces of
circuit board all cut out and
assembled together.
And on the circuit boards are
little pieces of copper that are
tiny circuits.
And each circuit has a certain
response to electromagnetic
radiation.
And the combination of these
patterns plus the shape gives us
something that we can call an
invisibility cloak.
The idea behind the cloak is
that it renders something inside
of it invisible and itself
invisible, as well.
NARRATOR: At present, the
device only makes objects
disappear at microwave
frequencies, but Dr. Smith
believes that soon this
technology will also be able to
make objects invisible to even
the human eye.
SMITH: Just in the last year
or two, there have actually
been experiments, showing
certain of the cloaking ideas
transitioning to the visible
spectrum... red, green, blue.
Those experiments are actually
being done now.
LOIS GRESH: We will have
invisibility cloaks at some
point that we could wear as
humans, and I definitely think
we're going to get there because
science and speculative science
go hand in hand.
Science creates a base point,
speculative science pushes it
farther into the future, and
that's how technology advances.
NARRATOR: An actual cloak of
invisibility?
Though still in development,
researchers in Japan have
designed an optical camouflage
system that makes special
reflective material seemingly
disappear, including the person
wearing it, thus bringing us
closer to achieving a fully
functional invisibility cloak
like the one described in the
story of Gyges.
Could this mean that other
seemingly far-fetched devices of
fantasy, like flying carpets and
magic wands, are also based on
science, and if so, might they
have been used in the ancient
past, perhaps in the hands of
extraterrestrial visitors?
TSOUKALOS: Just because we
are working on these
technologies today does not mean
that we are the first... because
we find multiple references in
ancient texts that describe
devices with which you were able
to go invisible.
DiDIO: So much of our
storytelling deals with the fact
that what we deem to be magic
can really be science at a
different time.
NARRATOR: if legendary tales
like the story of King Gyges
could be proven to be real, what
does it suggest about other
fantastic stories of gods and
titans?
Hissarlik, Turkey.
Within this archaeological site
lie the ruins of Troy, a place
once thought by mainstream
scientists to be no more than
myth until Heinrich Schliemann
unearthed its remains in 1871.
Here in the 12th century B.C.,
the ancient Greek city was the
center of the Trojan War, a
Greek battle described in
Homer's Iliad.
According to the epic poem, the
goddess Athena gives King
Diomedes the power of divine
vision during the war so that he
could see like the gods.
RADER: Athena comes down and
she wants to help the Greeks, so
she finds Diomedes and she says,
"I'm gonna help you out here.
So what I'm gonna do is strip
away this mist that's over your
eyes.
You, as a human being, you don't
really know what's going on.
You just see battle, but once I
strip away this mist, you're
gonna be able to see what's
really going on, which is that,
in addition to a battle going
on, there are gods fighting.
YOUNG: King Diomedes sees
that Ares... the god of war... is
fighting alongside his enemy
Hector, and he was not to use
this sight to attack the gods,
but that is exactly what he uses
it for.
COPPENS: The side aspect of
this is this: it's a question...
did the gods really have this?
Were they superhuman like we
want to become, or did they have
technology which enabled them to
do these kind of things?
NARRATOR: Diomedes and the
gods' power of super eyesight
may seem like pure fantasy, but
enhanced vision is also becoming
a reality thanks to advancements
in spectrometer technology.
Spectrometers are devices used
to measure properties of light
over a wider range of the
electromagnetic spectrum than is
visible with the human eye, and
today, just as we are developing
cloaking devices, we are also
developing technology to see
through those devices.
SMITH: Technology is driven
by society's needs more than
anything else, but myths have a
way of inspiring us and they
represent a part of the
imagination which we need to
even envision the next
generation of technologies.
VON DANIKEN: if I dream I
could go to another galaxy, I
will sooner or later go to
another galaxy.
We are the off springs of the
gods and all these things are in
our brains.
We think we are very powerful.
In practice we are not, but we
have technology to develop the
power because we are the sons of
the gods.
NARRATOR: Might technology be
our way of reconnecting with the
gods, or did the so-called gods
deliberately deny us their
superpowers as a way of
motivating our imaginations and
technological achievements?
Perhaps further evidence can be
found in the heavens at a
Mexican ceremony that
commemorates real-life close
encounters with alien visitors.
NARRATOR: Veracruz, Mexico.
Five men in ceremonial dress
ascend a 100-foot pole.
Once at the top, one of the men
performs a sacred dance while
playing a flute and drum atop a
platform.
The other four men launch
themselves off.
It is a ritual known as La Danza
de los Voladores, or The Dance
of the Flyers.
YOUNG: The ritual has the
leader stand on the top of the
pole... a tiny little platform...
and the four flyers wrap a cable
around that pole and then branch
out and fly around in a pyramid
shape in perfect synchronous
order.
It's a stunning and daring thing
to do.
They are representing the birds.
They are representing the four
cardinal directions.
They are representing the
elements.
Heavily symbolic and mythic, and
it is a powerful ritual.
NARRATOR: The Totanac people
who practice this ceremony today
claim it is a dance that was
invented 500 years ago as a plea
to the gods to end a severe
drought.
But could this ancient ritual
have different, perhaps
otherworldly origins?
TSOUKALOS: What we have here
with the Voladores is 100%
living mythology... something
that describes and illustrates
in front of our living eye the
descent of the gods from a long
time ago.
HENRY: The motif of the gods
descending from the sky is one
of the most ancient stories.
If you go back to the Old
Testament, you have the story of
the sons of God descending from
the sky, and they see the
daughters of men and they create
a race of giants.
In the Book of Genesis, Jacob
sees a ladder ascending into the
heavens with angels ascending
and descending upon this ladder.
Jesus, in the Book of John,
describes the heavens opening
and beings descending upon the
son of man.
NARRATOR: According to
ancient astronaut theorists, the
Voladores ritual is a
reenactment of a close encounter
with alien visitors in the
distant past.
They believe extraterrestrials
descended upon the flat
mountaintops of the Palpa region
in Peru around 500 A.D.,
dropping from their aircraft and
gliding down to Earth in
spiraling circles.
TSOUKALOS: The Voladores
ritual was very technological,
as in, you know, these beings
descending from the sky and the
circle signifying arrival of the
gods.
Where does that flying or
descending gods motif originate?
Our ancestors saw something
because why would you hurl
yourself from a hundred-foot
pole out of nothing, to imitate
a bird?
Birds are not that important.
Something very significant
happened.
NARRATOR: Could an alien
encounter really be the
inspiration for the Voladores
ritual?
And could the Totanac people,
who created the ceremony, really
have been trying to mimic the
ancient gods' power of flight?
As further evidence that early
humans may have encountered
alien visitors equipped with the
power of flight...
ancient astronaut theorists
point to various artifacts
and statues depicting ancient
gods.
One such example is the Mayan
god, Ah-Muzen-Cab, also known as
the flying "Bee God."
Another is the most prominent
god of early Mesoamerican
culture... the winged deity
Quetzalcoatl.
LOGAN HAWKES: The
Mesoamericans believed in the
plumed serpent, or Quetzalcoatl,
which came from the sky,
bringing wisdom, power of the
wind, and also influenced
everything that happened in the
daily life of the Mayans.
In fact, they looked to the sky
for all their answers, from
everything as simple as when to
plant corn, to when to go to
war.
Uh, they believed all answers in
the universe came from the sky
and trying to relate that to
their daily lives.
HENRY: The ancient record are
loaded with fantastic examples
of the gods flying around.
These are the ancient aliens,
and humans are being shown the
ultimate capability of these
gods.
VON DANIKEN: In my eyes,
because we are the sons of the
gods, we are the off springs of
the gods, whatever humans can
dream, whatever humans think,
was once reality in the past or
will be reality in the future.
NARRATOR: July 31, 2003.
The English Channel.
Felix Baumgartner becomes the
first person to cross this
22-mile wide body of water in
free fall using a specially made
fiber wing.
But the Austrian daredevil
is just one of many who have
used wingsuits to simulate
flying by means of a free fall.
ED PAWLOWSKI: A wingsuit
is basically a jumpsuit
that you put on under your rig
and it's designed to actually
make you fly when you exit the
plane.
The material inflates underneath
your arms, in between your legs,
and creates basically an airfoil
that you glide on through the
air.
It's an amazing feeling because
you're actually the pilot and
the plane.
It is total freedom.
You feel as though you're
flying.
Though you are falling, you're
using the air to maneuver your
body.
And the wingsuit helps you
cover a lot of ground as you're
descending.
Some people have been exceeding
two-to-one glide ratio.
For example, three-to-one would
mean for every foot you descend,
you're traveling three feet
forward.
TSOUKALOS: We got these
flying guys that have these
wings attached to their backs,
and they hurl themselves out of
planes, and some even have
rocket engines attached to them.
And so they essentially
themselves become airplanes.
Now imagine showing that to
someone from a hundred years
ago.
That person would be in complete
awe of what they are witnessing,
not understanding that there's
technology involved with this.
VON DANIKEN: Just using our
own body, we cannot fly.
We have no wings.
But, of course, we have the
fantasy and we have the
technology to develop wings that
we can fly.
TSOUKALOS: The pursuit of
flight has been one of the most
sought after quests in all of
mankind's history.
Why?
Because with flight you could
reach, conceivably, the realm of
the gods.
NARRATOR: From the ancient
Greek myth of Icarus, fashioning
wings of feathers and wax, to
modern daredevils, like Felix
Baumgartner, human beings have
been fascinated with, and often
frustrated by, their desire to
fly.
But have birds really served as
mankind's inspiration?
Or something else?
Perhaps something
extraterrestrial.
And if ancient visitors could
fly, what other powers might
they have possessed?
And what abilities might early
man have had and lost?
Perhaps the answer can be found,
not in the skies...
(thunder crashes)
...but deep beneath the sea.
NARRATOR: Cape Sounion,
Greece.
Perched on the headland,
surrounded on three sides by the
sea, lies the ruins of the
Temple of Poseidon, built in
440 BC.
The second son of the Titan King
Cronus, Poseidon was worshipped
throughout Greece almost as much
as his younger brother Zeus.
YOUNG: Poseidon was the god
of the sea.
He was also the god of
earthquakes and, strangely.
Horses.
When Poseidon was in a good
mood, he created new lands out
of the sea.
He gave calm waters for good
voyages.
When he was in a bad mood, he
destroyed ships and brought
storms.
(thunder crashes)
RADER: Poseidon does rule
over the kingdom of the sea.
It is envisioned as a kind of
a place where people live.
And when he comes out of that
place, yes he rides the
spectacular kind of like water
chariot that is driven by
dolphins.
And he holds onto a really big
trident.
NARRATOR: In Greek mythology,
Cronus eats all of his children
except for Zeus, who eventually
rescues his siblings, including
Poseidon, from the belly of his
father.
YOUNG: A potion is prepared
that makes him heave up all the
other siblings of Zeus, and
these become the gods of
Olympus.
NARRATOR: But ancient
astronaut theorists believe this
Greek myth is actually a
metaphor for an extraterrestrial
event.
They believe the notion of gods
being vomited up from the belly
of their father actually
describes mutinous aliens being
expelled from the mother ship.
COPPENS: Any being which is
swallowed up into a living
creature will not be able to
survive for three days.
It will die from suffocation and
will begin to decay.
So what we have here is not a
creature, but something else.
It could've been an object,
which was clearly of a manmade
or extraterrestrial origin.
VON DANIKEN: A mutiny took
place.
Some of the extraterrestrials,
they had sex with wonderful
earthly females, womens.
They were not allowed to do
this.
So, one of these
extraterrestrials who were not
allowed to go back with the
mother spaceship had the name
of Poseidon.
Poseidon fell in love with the
beautiful human girl.
And he made her pregnant.
RADER: Poseidon is married,
all right.
He's got a child.
He's got some grandchildren,
right.
There's a whole caste of sea
nymphs as well.
All of them presumably, like,
live in this place.
YOUNG: Poseidon had the power
of the deep, the unseen place.
If you look out at the sea, you
see a surface, and you're aware
there's a whole world below
that, suggesting powers beyond
that which meet the eye.
NARRATOR: Among the mythical
creatures associated with
Poseidon are the Telchines... a
race of advanced fish children.
These human-like beings could
live both in and out of water.
HENRY: They are masters of
technology and seem to match up
with the fish gods of ancient
Sumeria, who worked for Enki,
the great god of alchemy and
technology and smith craft.
RADER: The Telchines are also
kind of in the shadowy territory
of god, human, monster thing.
They're just these kind of
figures who are not gods, but
who are like human beings.
There's one story about the
Roman version of Zeus, Jupiter,
trying to destroy them.
Now we don't know whether they
are actually all destroyed.
But it's possibly because of
their relationship to magic.
NARRATOR: In Greek legend,
the Telchines were also
metallurgists.
They were said to have created
Poseidon's magical trident and
to have cast the first bronze
statues of the gods of Olympus.
And according to some
historians, the Telchines may
not have been creatures of myth,
but were beings who actually
existed.
RADER: There were people
called Telchines.
We do actually have evidence of
these beings.
They were actual ancient Greeks,
who had specific tasks and
trades, like metallurgy, like
smithing and so on.
So, you could see how it is that
a being like Telchines, that
these things could, in fact, not
just be these mythological
beings, but, like, actual
people.
So the way that we look at the
ancient Greeks and Romans would
have been the way that they
would have looked at the stories
that are being told about the
Iliad.
TSOULAKOS: We've got
the stories of the Telchine, and
they were able to survive
underwater for unlimited amounts
of time.
Now how is such a thing possible
unless you have access to some
type of technology?
An Israeli company is currently
developing a human artificial
gill system that allows humans
to take oxygen from surrounding
water without the need of oxygen
tanks.
You potentially can remain
underwater for unlimited amounts
of time.
All the technology that we are
discovering today is, in fact,
old news.
It's been around before.
NARRATOR: Could the ancient
Greek myths really be based on
actual events?
Were the Telchines early humans
enabled with god-like abilities?
And were these powers really
misunderstood alien technology?
Perhaps the answers can be
found, not in the past, but in
the present.
As modern day advances in
science and technology give us,
perhaps, our greatest evidence
that we are not alone.
NARRATOR: The ability to fly,
to thrive underwater, and to
travel through space and explore
the universe.
At one time, these were all
believed to be impossible
notions.
Dismissed as mere science
fiction or myth.
But mankind's continued advances
in technology have made the word
"impossible" almost obsolete.
In our modern world, steroids
can help generate Herculean
muscles, titanium joints can
replace and even improve upon
our own natural ones.
And even prosthetic gills are
being developed, so human beings
can breathe underwater without
the use of air tanks.
Today, government contractors
like Raytheon-Sarcos and
Lockheed Martin continue to
develop exoskeleton machines
for the U.S. military.
When worn, they can allow
soldiers to walk, run and lift
hundreds of pounds with
virtually no effort.
DIDIO: What makes
exoskeletons so cool is that,
it's an everyman thing.
Anybody can put one on, anybody
can be the hero.
You can take a person with any
sort of physical weaknesses, and
make them greater than the
person they're fighting.
GRESH: Exoskeletons would be
a prime example of something
coming out of comic books into
mainstream reality.
And in reality, exoskeletons are
becoming very popular with the
military.
A soldier can wear the Raytheon
exoskeleton, for example, and
lift 200 pounds.
NARRATOR: But while these
modern day super men may be
limited in their mobility, the
development of exoskeletons
represents an incredible
evolution in the relationship
between man and machine.
But did such incredible
technology exist before?
Perhaps in mankind's ancient
past?
TSOUKALOS: Now is it possible
that some type of exoskeleton
technology was used in the
remote past, for example, on the
Giza Plateau?
Imagine the operator of one of
those exoskeleton machines
coming out of that machine.
That person has superpowers,
even though the person doesn't
have any powers at all.
The person is only operating
sophisticated technology.
One could argue that with all
the advancements we are making
today in science and all the
other academic fields, we are
becoming more god-like.
We are not becoming gods.
We are not turning into real
superheroes.
We are only becoming god-like
because of our technology.
GRESH: I think we have innate
need to push our bodies and our
minds to the utmost limits and
strive for super intelligence,
super strength and other
superpowers.
The reason is that people have
long been fascinated with what
could be stronger than humanity
itself, and if it's not human,
then it must come from somewhere
else, either a god or an
extraterrestrial.
NARRATOR: But with all of his
scientific achievements, is
mankind perhaps making himself
more and more vulnerable to what
could be terrible consequences?
YOUNG: There are many tales
of ordinary mortals ascending to
become rulers, to become gods,
various positions of enormous
power.
Often, these characters then
become corrupt.
And the stories stick around and
are retold over a long period of
time, long after their sources
have withered away, to teach us
that power corrupts, to be
careful what you wish for, and
to be very cautious if ever
holding great power because of
its ability to harm.
DIDIO: Almost 50% of our
stories are about technology
run amuck, or the dark side of
technology, because when you
talk about superpowers, when you
talk about all this
transformation, everything comes
at a price.
And you always have to weigh
whether or not price is worthy,
or necessary to make, for the
greater good, and sometimes it's
not.
Sometimes, the price you pay is
just too great, when you lose
your own self.
NARRATOR: Are all of
mankind's scientific
achievements really examples of
emerging technology?
Is the yearning for superpowers
and heroic feats embedded in our
collective DNA?
Or are humans finally catching
up to the abilities of beings
who have been here before?
And were they gods?
Or, as some believe, alien
ancestors, living thousands of
years ago, but possessing powers
and abilities thousands of years
more advanced?
Perhaps only time and further
advancements in technology will
tell.
Or perhaps it will all be
revealed... when they return.
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Captioned by
Media Access Group at WGBH
access.wgbh.org