Ancient Aliens s14e18 Episode Script
Food of the Gods
1 NARRATOR: The fruit of a tree that forever alters humanity.
DAVID CHILDRESS: This serpent being offers them some special food to eat, and suddenly we have a fundamental change.
NARRATOR: A drink that grants everlasting life.
JOSHUA CUTCHIN: This liquid could convey immortality upon those who consumed it.
NARRATOR: And a nourishing substance that rains down from the sky.
GIORGIO A.
TSOUKALOS: This machine was given to the Israelites by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: In every religious tradition, there are foods believed to possess extraordinary power, and some that are even consumed by the gods themselves.
The gods ate, the gods drank, and this is what kept them divine.
NARRATOR: But is it possible that what our ancestors described as gods were, in fact, visitors from another world? And if so, might the food of these gods reveal a powerful link to mankind's extraterrestrial origins? WILLIAM HENRY: These foods were directly introduced into the human experience in order to awaken us and to bring us closer to the gods.
NARRATOR: There is a doorway in the universe.
Beyond it is the promise of truth.
It demands we question everything we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR: As humanity prepares to travel to other worlds, one of the biggest challenges facing scientists is how to provide sustenance beyond that found on planet Earth.
When we think of the early pioneers, uh, we think of "living off the land.
" You can't do that in outer space.
There's no soil, there's no oxygen, there's very little of the basic ingredients that we take for granted on the planet Earth.
So living in outer space presents a whole new set of challenges.
NARRATOR: Currently, NASA researchers are experimenting with various possible solutions to the problem of keeping humans fed during longâterm missions.
BILL BIRNES: For long expeditions in space, there are really three things we have to do.
One, either bring our food with us, wherever we go, take the food, wagon train.
Two, terraform a planet, or find a planet where we can already grow food that can sustain us.
Or three, change our own metabolism, so that we can exist on a whole different kind of food.
NARRATOR: But is it even possible to sustain life in the vacuum of space? In recent years, biologists have discovered organisms on our planet that can thrive in extreme conditions, like those found in the deepest depths of Earth's oceans.
KIRSTEN FISHER: The prevailing assumption was that there wasn't much life at the bottom of the ocean.
So this idea that, um, the deep sea, um, could actually contain life was pretty phenomenal because I think we had assumed that, without light, we couldn't have life.
So the existence of whole ecosystems that are supported by chemical reactions that don't need light to generate biomolecules and energy, I think, was really revolutionary.
NARRATOR: But could the key to mankind's survival on other worlds be found not in a laboratory but by studying past accounts of extraterrestrial encounters? Eagle River, Wisconsin.
April 18, 1961.
Plumber Joe Simonton is finishing his lunch when he notices a metallic saucerâshaped craft landing just outside his kitchen window.
I raced out to see what it was, and by that time there was a hatchway opening up in the top of it, just like the trunk of your car, and in there there stood a little manââ I'd say a little man about five foot tallââ holding up a jug, and he motioned he wanted a drink, he motioned for water, so I walked up to him to get this jug and, uh, I looked at his eyes, and they were so penetrating that I had to look away.
NARRATOR: Simonton took the container and filled it with water.
When he returned to the flying saucer, he noticed a second being with what appeared to be foodâlike wafers.
SIMONTON: He didn't say a word, he just reached forward and he got a handful of 'em, four of 'em, and he handed down to me, which I have one here yet.
NARRATOR: According to Simonton, the two aliens promptly closed the hatch and took off.
SIMONTON: Within, uh, two or three seconds, it was out of sight.
Well, there I stood in the driveway, wondering what the heck I'd saw, what had happened.
And, uh, if that was their food, God help them because I took a bite of one of 'em and it tasted like a piece of cardboard.
NARRATOR: The case immediately garnered the attention of U.
S.
government agencies looking into the UFO phenomenon, including Project Blue Book and its science advisor, astronomer J.
Allen Hynek.
CUTCHIN: Joe Simontonââ this is an interesting case because it has a level of physical evidence that we don't often see with a lot of these cases.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE: NICAP, the National Investigations Committee for Aerial Phenomena, which was largely CIA back in that period of time, wants to investigate.
And J.
Allen Hynek, who was doing investigations for the Air Force, he wanted to investigate.
NARRATOR: Hynek obtained samples of the wafers and requested a full analysis by the U.
S.
Department of Health's Food and Drug Laboratory.
The report stated that the wafers consisted of chemically modified terrestrial plants, including buckwheat, soybeans, and bran.
But curiously, not even the tiniest trace amount of salt was detected in the sample.
HOWE: There was no salt at all found in this analysis by NICAP and J.
Allen Hynek, and it's puzzling.
MICHAEL DENNIN: One of the interesting things about life on this planet is it did start in the oceans, and the ocean is salt water.
And so, fundamentally, the water in our bodies, in our cells, and inâin pretty much every living thing has a certain amount of salt concentration and is ubiquitous everywhere.
NARRATOR: According to scientists, every cell of every living organism on Earth contains a trace amount of sodium chloride, or salt.
So could the complete lack of salt in Joe Simonton's soâcalled "alien wafer" really be proof that it came from an extraterrestrial source? We see in outer space thousands of planets with different kinds of chemistries, so it's definitely possible that you can have an entire planet with very little salt on it.
BIRNES: What if salt is as poisonous to those aliens as cyanide is to us? That's what that alien contact could presuppose, that we've learned something about what's poisonous to them.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that support for the Joe Simonton story and the notion that salt might be poisonous to some extraterrestrials that have visited Earth can be found in ancient tales from around the world, in which salt is used to ward off alien entities.
The salt connection to the Simonton story isâis very interesting because it connects to other mythologies involving demonic beings or fairy beings.
They say that if you pour salt on the ground in front of a fairy, it has to stop automatically.
Or that you can throw salt over your shoulder and this will ward off evil spirits.
The Shinto religion uses salt as a protective mechanism.
So for salt to be lacking in these pancakes isâis extraordinary because itâit links us to these ancient stories and it actually confirms these ancient stories.
NARRATOR: But if the stories of both the past and present are true and these alien visitors cannot consume salt, how have they been able to sustain themselves in a place where salt is abundant? Ancient astronaut theorists believe that the answer to this one simple question may reveal both an alien agenda on Earth and perhaps even the purpose behind the creation of humankind.
NARRATOR: The 14th century BC.
According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Exodus, the prophet Moses helps the Jewish slaves to escape the tyranny of the pharaoh, leading them across the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert.
During the exodus phase, you know, you're wandering in the desert for almost 40 years.
What do you eat? Well, God provides this substance, this magical substance.
HENRY: Moses appealed to Yahweh, the Old Testament God, and Yahweh caused manna, this food of the heavens, to rain down upon the Israelites.
NARRATOR: But according to ancient astronaut theorists, the story of the Israelites receiving manna from heaven is not a story about a magical food being sent by almighty God, but one of extraterrestrials using their advanced technology in order to prevent a group of migrating humans from starving.
We assumed that we were looking at gods in the past.
We didn't know we might be looking at aliens.
(thunder cracks) NARRATOR: In 1978, linguist George Sassoon and electrical engineer Rodney Dale released their book, The Manna Machine.
In it, they propose that the supplementary Hebrew texts of the Zohar provide surprisingly detailed descriptions that point to manna being supplied by a mechanical device.
TSOUKALOS: We have a concise description of it in the ancient Jewish texts of the Zohar, where they describe the transportable one with the tanks.
Dale and Sassoon looked at these stories, and they came out with the idea that this is not a description of God at all; it's a description of a machine.
The manna machine was this towerâlike structure, and it had these two giant tanks and a dispenser.
Manna is the product of that machine, and it is based on algae cultures.
This manna machine had to be taken apart every Saturday.
And this was the one day that the tribe did not have any food.
The basic proposition by Dale and Sassoon is that this machine was given to the Israelites by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Could it be that extraterrestrials provided technology to the Israelites to sustain them during their long journey through the desert? For the answer, ancient astronaut theorists point to passages describing a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire guiding them at night.
CHILDRESS: They're following a light that's guiding them as they wander for 40 years through these deserts ofâof the Sinai and Northern Saudi Arabia.
So you have to ask yourself, is it possible that this pillar of fire is a UFO that was working with Moses to bring the Israelites to the promised land? NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials provided the Israelites with a foodâdispensing machine, is it possible that they had been using this, or a similar technology, to sustain themselves? Perhaps the same technology as the one that produced the mysterious saltâfree wafer that Joe Simonton claimed was given to him by aliens in 1961.
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer lies not in the further study of the soâcalled manna machine, but by looking into other possible extraterrestrial food sources.
I think there's a definite connection to be drawn between a lot of the food preparation practice that we see associated with all sorts of major religions and the modern UFO phenomena.
If we look back into ancient religions, one of the things that we find time and again, no matter which part of the world it is, is the issue of sacrifice of animals.
Now, the big question is: why was this being done? Well, I think we could make an interesting scenario if, for example, the aliens required specific food and liquid items.
HUSSAIN: There are all sorts of religions that have food restrictions.
In the Jewish tradition we have the word "kosher.
" What is acceptable food? In the Islamic tradition, halalââ exactly the same thing.
What food is allowed, what food is acceptable? And so, for example, when you kill an animal, you cut the throat, you drain the blood.
You want as little blood there as possible.
CUTCHIN: The handling and management of blood in kosher and halal practice is especially important because it is generally considered reserved for God.
STRIEBER: I wouldn't be surprised at all if blood did not play a big role in their food.
And if people in the past had seen them consuming blood, it might have become that higher beings had the right to consume the blood, not human beings.
NARRATOR: Malheur National Forest.
Harney County, Oregon.
July 30, 2019.
A rancher discovers the mutilated carcasses of five of his prized bulls.
At a loss to explain the deaths, authorities note that the animals have been entirely drained of blood.
This is in keeping with many similar mutilations reported around the world.
HOWE: Animals of every type you can think of, large and small, have been bloodlessly mutilated.
Wild animals, deer, elk, marmots, reindeer, kangaroos, snakes, all found bloodlessly mutilated.
BIRNES: When cows are mutilated, one of the things we notice is that they're completely drained of blood, exsanguinated.
What could that possibly mean? NARRATOR: According to FBI statistics, the agency has documented over 10,000 official reports of similar animal mutilations over the past halfâcentury.
Investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe began researching cattle mutilations in the late 1970s.
When I produced A Strange Harvest, about the animal mutilations, all of it was a brandânew landscape for me as an investigative reporter and TV producer.
And it led me to people who were saying the perpetrators are creatures from outer space.
And the whole issue of: what are they? Do they eat? Do they drink? Are they like us? What? NARRATOR: During her investigation, Linda met with a woman from the Las Cruces, New Mexico area who claimed to have been abducted from the scene and taken aboard a craft.
Once inside the craft, the woman encountered extraterrestrial beings.
They led her to a large vat containing dark liquid with body parts floating in it.
They're all floating in this round container, and something puts in her head, telepathically, that it has something to do with sustenance.
NARRATOR: Is there something in both animal and human blood that is necessary in order to sustain the life of extraterrestrials visiting planet Earth? And if so, could finding the answer provide an important key, not only in our understanding of alien life but in our search for a means of survival on other worlds? As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer might be found by examining the strange connection between human blood and immortality.
NARRATOR: For the ancient Greeks, this was the home of the gods.
Gods that were very much like humans, except that they could live forever, courtesy of a mysterious drink called ambrosia.
HUSSAIN: Ambrosia was literally the food of immortality.
In the ancient world, the gods ate, the gods drank.
And this is what kept them divine.
This is what kept them alive forever, which is one of the crucial differences between the divine and the human.
NARRATOR: While ambrosia was reserved for the gods, the ancient Greek texts also contain stories of this divine food being shared with select humans and extending their life spans indefinitely.
We might imagine that it is some sort of a liquid or, or paste or ointment that has special properties.
By drinking it, you are extending your life, and if you drank this ambrosia over many, many years, you could have a certain sense of immortality, in a way.
NARRATOR: Substances like ambrosia can be found in numerous ancient traditions.
In China there were stories of the Peaches of Immortality.
The Norse spoke of I unn's apples.
But as far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the ubiquity of this story also provides further evidence that ancient peoples came into contact with the same otherworldly beings.
HENRY: Ancient astronaut theorists look at the gods as extraterrestrial beings, as aliens.
If you're talking about beings that are traveling the stars for generations, they're going to need some kind of sustenance that will sustain them during these voyages.
And that appears to be what ambrosia was.
NARRATOR: Could it be that the ancient stories about ambrosia and similar elixirs were actually descriptions of a substance that extraterrestrials used to facilitate long voyages through space? And, if so, was it seen as a source of immortality, not only because of its ability to prolong life but also because it sustained alien travelers during thousands of years in space? Perhaps further clues to the answers can be found by examining the many accounts of ancient people living far longer than the average life expectancy today.
HUSSAIN: The biblical life spans are extraordinary.
So the Bible says that Adam lived for 930 years, that Noah lived for 950 years.
That Methuselah lived for 969 years.
It seems like an odd concept, but you have many records ofââ not just in the Bible but all throughout historyââ all these other cultures also talk about this, you know.
The Sumerian Kings List, Chinese masters living to 300 years old into the 1700s.
Even ancient Philippine records talk about these kings that lived long lives.
It's found all around the world.
Some of the stories that we hear about this drink, ambrosia, connect to these journeys to the celestial realm.
In fact, Enoch actually describes that before he was able to go up to the heavens, he is actually anointed, and he says it smelled like ambrosia.
But the question is, was he really anointed? What if ambrosia was something that you had to take in in order to prepare for a journey to outer space, and it gave you immortality? NARRATOR: If ambrosia was an alien substance that could both extend life and facilitate space travel, just what was it? Something that could only be found or concocted on alien worlds? Or something that could be found in abundance right here on Earth? Santa Clara, California.
June 2016.
Silicon Valley startâup Ambrosia LLC obtains approval to begin clinical trials on an experimental treatment to reverse aging.
Medical researchers inject older test subjects with blood plasma from young donors in an effort to improve their health and extend their life span.
Hundreds of patients sign up to participate, paying $8,000 for each liter of blood plasma they receive.
The theory is, whether it's true or not, is that by infusing yourself with the blood of younger people, you will gain a longer life, because you won't have, as the commercial used to say, tired blood or old blood.
You're literally giving yourself a new lease on life.
NARRATOR: Ancient Greek texts connect ambrosia with divine blood called ichor.
And the concept that blood can impart immortality is widespread, found in legends of vampires and even historical accounts of human blood sacrifice.
Is it possible that blood, and particularly human blood, has lifeâsustaining properties far beyond our current understanding? REDFERN: When it comes to the issue of extraterrestrials and blood, there's one scenario, the idea that the aliens may actually take blood.
Now, that's not completely out of the question.
The main reason being it contains iron, proteins, nutrients.
In other words, it'd be the classic important item for aliens to dine upon.
But we cannot do that without causing extreme damage, possibly even death, to ourselves.
That sort of suggests, possibly, also, that blood is an item of the extraterrestrials and not of us.
NARRATOR: Does human blood possess lifeâsustaining properties far beyond its function inside the body? And, if so, could the substance known as ambrosia be flowing through the veins of every human? As far as many ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer is yes, and they suggest that this profound notion was first conveyed to humankind more than 2,000 years ago by a man named Jesus.
NARRATOR: Vatican City.
Thousands of pilgrims bow their heads as Pope Francis performs the Liturgy of the Eucharist and consecrates the offerings of bread and wine.
According to Church historians, the ceremony's roots lie in the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples shortly before he sacrificed his life on the cross.
As he passed the bread, Jesus said, "Take this and eat it", it is my body.
" And as he passed the wine, he said, "Drink this", it is the blood of the covenant.
" And out of that moment at a meal grew a great ritual, a ceremony, a sacrament that is repeated to this day around the world by millions of people.
NARRATOR: In the Roman Catholic tradition, during the Mass, the priest is empowered by the prayers that energize the bread and the wine such that they become transformed, or transubstantiated, into the living presence of the body and the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation is one of the Catholic Church's most exalted mysteries.
Catholics are encouraged to believe that through this miracle, somehow these ordinary wafers and ordinary wine become the blood and body of Jesus.
NARRATOR: Could this rite of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus really have otherworldly origins? BIRNES: Isn't it interesting that we have numerous traditions around the globe telling us that blood is the substance reserved for the gods? Now we have to ask, is there a connection between the ritual of the Catholic Mass and extraterrestrials? Maybe it's possible, by imbibing certain bloods, the extraterrestrials are actually able to extend their life spans to incredible degrees.
So, when Jesus talked about the "blood of the covenant," just maybe Jesus was talking in a symbolic fashion when he talked about how wine and bread sustains us but something very, very different sustained him.
That the wine that sustains us is the parallel of the blood for Jesus.
NARRATOR: If alien beings have been coming to Earth for thousands of years, is it possible that they have evolved to a point where they do not physically consume food in the way that humans do, but are able to draw sustenance from certain energetic substances, like blood? And does the ritual of Communion provide a clue as to how humankind must evolve in order to become like the gods? When we think of food, we immediately have that image of a hamburger, french fries, and there you are, munching away.
But I'm a physicist.
We realize that the essence of food is energy, and energy can exist in many, many forms.
So, think of widening your possibilities.
Any time there's a source of energy, there's a possibility of using it for food for an alien species.
Myself, I think these things are really possible, and maybe there is something there.
But at the same time, the story of the Eucharist being created in the Upper Room is one of the most profound and beautiful stories I know.
And I prefer to think of it that way, personally.
NARRATOR: For centuries, theologists have debated the origin and meaning of the Eucharist, but it is not an entirely unique ritual.
And ancient astronaut theorists suggest that a similar ceremony established in ancient India provides further clues as to the nature of alien sustenance.
Soma is this huge thing in the, in the early Indian tradition, the Rigveda.
The earliest Hindu texts talk about this.
So soma is this drink that gives the people who consume it, you know, the powers of this god or the thoughts of this god, the abilities there.
VIEIRA: Soma was brought to humans by Agni the fire god.
The same story you have with the holy wine or the Eucharist.
And it's like somehow we are being helped byâby these beings through these different substances.
I find that really fascinating.
HENRY: They have a saying in the Rigveda that if you drink soma, you see God and you connect with God.
But they also said it promoted immortality and longevity as well.
CHILDRESS: Ancient people are drinking this special drink of soma, and they're drinking the blood of the gods.
And so we look, too, at the Catholic concept of transubstantiation, where the body and the blood of Christ are then in theseâthese wafers andâand wine that we drink.
And you have to wonder if even that is an, is an old relic of the early soma rituals.
NARRATOR: Is there an extraterrestrial inspiration behind both the rites of Communion and the ancient rites of soma? Were they intended to teach us vital lessons about longevity, and perhaps point the way to our own future as a spacefaring people? And if so, might there be other stories, of other food substances humans were given to eat or drink that point to an alien agenda for mankind? NARRATOR: During an international book tour for Communion, his bestâselling account of his own alien abduction, author Whitley Strieber receives a visit at his hotel room from a mysterious being.
I had a 45âminute conversation with him.
Then he gave me a glass of liquid to drink.
It was white and I didn't want to drink it, but he insisted that I do it.
Somehow or another, I did it.
It was extremely bitter, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the morning.
I thought maybe it's some kind of alien potion, but recently I did some more research on it and I found that it's, it was in the past called the milk of nepenthe.
It was first mentioned in the poet Homer's writings, then it was known throughout the ancient world.
No one was really sure what it is, but the symptoms described are just like what I experienced.
Nepenthe is something that makes people forget, as it did me.
NARRATOR: Homer, the legendary eighth century BC Greek poet, mentions nepenthe in his epic poem The Odyssey.
Plato writes about a similar substance in his Book X of The Republic.
The drink was said to help humans fall into profound amnesia and forget the trauma of their encounters with the gods, encounters that today we might call alien abductions.
STRIEBER: It was also given to people who had gone to Mount Olympus and been with the gods, on their way down, so that they would forget what they had seen and they would not want to commit suicide.
TSOUKALOS: In Greek mythology, every time it was given to someone they would forget anything that happened to them in the last 48 hours.
Now, what's interesting is that modernâday abductees talk about the same thing.
So my question is: is it possible that extraterrestrials are giving substances to people in order to forget what has happened to them? NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials have been using some type of drink to cloud the memories of humans they come into contact with, what is the purpose? Is it simply to spare them the trauma of an alien encounter? Or could it be to hide the fact that they are extracting blood? Some ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer can be found by examining the most important moment of extraterrestrial intervention in human history.
New York City, 1976.
After spending 30 years deciphering the Sumerian language, researcher Zecharia Sitchin publishes his book The 12th Planet.
In it, he proposes that a race of extraterrestrials known as the Anunnaki genetically modified ancient primates in the distant past, turning them into modern humans.
In his books, Zecharia Sitchin dealt at length with the Sumerian creation stories, the Atrahasis and others that tell of these beings, the Anunnaki, putting their image on humanity.
That they genetically altered a protoâhuman to create a new race of beings, Homo sapien.
NARRATOR: According to Sitchin's translation of the Sumerian cuneiform writings, the Anunnaki produced the first successful Homo sapiens around 250,000 BC.
While scholars in the 1970s dismissed Sitchin's theory, in the 1980s anthropologists traced the mitochondrial DNA of all modern humans to a common female ancestor living in Africa roughly 250,000 years ago.
Geneticists call her Mitochondrial Eve.
TSOUKALOS: We were wise, but now we're even wiser.
Just like that.
And geneticists, to this day, cannot quite figure out, well, what was that ping, thatâthatâthat change that virtually happened overnight? So when you have these weird examples where stuff essentially happens overnight, I'm suggesting this was done due to an artificial mutation.
NARRATOR: Researchers following in Sitchin's footsteps have noted a largely overlooked aspect of the Sumerian cylindrical seal depicting the celebration of the first successful human experiment.
The scene features a figure stirring a jar and another holding a flask directed at their original creation.
Many associate the scene with the biblical account of the temptation of Adam and Eve.
HENRY: Adam and Eve, before their encounter with this bright snake, this talking serpent, who is equated with Enki in the Sumerian tradition, this genetic engineer that came from another world and altered our human DNA, that before this event, Adam and Eve pretty much lived like primitive or a primateâtype beings.
NARRATOR: Could the story of Adam and Eve's transformation be a memory of the moment our genome was altered by an extraterrestrial race, as proposed by Sitchin? And, if so, was that alteration done by mechanical gene splicing in a laboratory, as 21st century technology might do it today? Or could it have been accomplished in a far more sophisticated way, by simply giving our ancestors some highly advanced alien substance, designed to transform primates into people? CHILDRESS: Here's the story of Adam and Eve living, uh, sort of blissfully in this Edenic garden and just watching the sunset and having sex and not doing a whole lot.
And then suddenly this serpentâbeing comes to them and offers them some special food to eat.
And they completely change into what we would call modern people.
And here we have, through the intake of food, we have a fundamental change and, in a sense, an evolutionary leap from primitive humans to more modern humans who are more aware of themselves and their surroundings.
NARRATOR: Did extraterrestrials alter life on Earth to create sentient beings and then use amnesiaâinducing substances in order to keep them from knowing the facts behind their alien origins? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes and suggest that as humans begin to take their next evolutionary step into space, the veil of ignorance will soon be removed.
NARRATOR: 220 miles above the Earth.
Researchers on the International Space Station are currently testing an advanced hydroponic system to make food.
Utilizing artificial light and a waterâbased nutrient solution, the microalgae contained within the unit takes in carbon dioxide breathed out by the astronauts.
The process allows the microalgae to quickly multiply and produces a continuous supply of nourishment on board the craft.
We breathe in oxygen and we get out carbon dioxide, but in a hydroponic farm, you have plants growing in liquid and it takes in the waste products of human combustion and expels oxygen as a consequence.
That would give you a selfâsustaining ecosystem to maintain the human body.
NASA is experimenting with hydroponic machines that enable the astronauts to grow a kind of microbiological algae that is reminiscent of the manna from the Old Testament.
Could it be that's our own manna machine? NARRATOR: As manned missions to Mars are within our grasp, logistical obstacles, like how to sustain the crew, must first be overcome.
Could the solution be found not only by altering the substances we bring with us into space, but by altering ourselves? We can conceive of entirely new kinds of lifeâforms based on energy.
So food is the energy that fuels us, but it's a real possibility that, as we start to explore outer space, we may have to genetically modify ourselves to alter our diet so that we ingest different forms of energy.
When we look back at these unusual foods of the gods, you have to wonder if that is not a direction that we have been meant to go in, to become a spacefaring race ourselves.
So everything has come full circle here from ancient times and these unusual foods of the gods to what we're doing today.
REDFERN: I think this entire phenomenon of aliens, of food, of mysterious drinks is one of the most important when it comes to us engaging with them.
And it may well be the case that that is the primary way in which we can actually have some sort of communion with them.
NARRATOR: As we evolve into a spacefaring species, will the concept and function of food take on a new meaning for humanity? Perhaps the intriguing evidence of how aliens may have survived on Earth will provide a road map to our own future.
It will open up new possibilities and new ways to sustain ourselves for much longer time spans.
It will allow us to venture deeper into space, colonize new worlds, and create new versions of ourselves as we continue to follow in the footsteps of our alien ancestors.
DAVID CHILDRESS: This serpent being offers them some special food to eat, and suddenly we have a fundamental change.
NARRATOR: A drink that grants everlasting life.
JOSHUA CUTCHIN: This liquid could convey immortality upon those who consumed it.
NARRATOR: And a nourishing substance that rains down from the sky.
GIORGIO A.
TSOUKALOS: This machine was given to the Israelites by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: In every religious tradition, there are foods believed to possess extraordinary power, and some that are even consumed by the gods themselves.
The gods ate, the gods drank, and this is what kept them divine.
NARRATOR: But is it possible that what our ancestors described as gods were, in fact, visitors from another world? And if so, might the food of these gods reveal a powerful link to mankind's extraterrestrial origins? WILLIAM HENRY: These foods were directly introduced into the human experience in order to awaken us and to bring us closer to the gods.
NARRATOR: There is a doorway in the universe.
Beyond it is the promise of truth.
It demands we question everything we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR: As humanity prepares to travel to other worlds, one of the biggest challenges facing scientists is how to provide sustenance beyond that found on planet Earth.
When we think of the early pioneers, uh, we think of "living off the land.
" You can't do that in outer space.
There's no soil, there's no oxygen, there's very little of the basic ingredients that we take for granted on the planet Earth.
So living in outer space presents a whole new set of challenges.
NARRATOR: Currently, NASA researchers are experimenting with various possible solutions to the problem of keeping humans fed during longâterm missions.
BILL BIRNES: For long expeditions in space, there are really three things we have to do.
One, either bring our food with us, wherever we go, take the food, wagon train.
Two, terraform a planet, or find a planet where we can already grow food that can sustain us.
Or three, change our own metabolism, so that we can exist on a whole different kind of food.
NARRATOR: But is it even possible to sustain life in the vacuum of space? In recent years, biologists have discovered organisms on our planet that can thrive in extreme conditions, like those found in the deepest depths of Earth's oceans.
KIRSTEN FISHER: The prevailing assumption was that there wasn't much life at the bottom of the ocean.
So this idea that, um, the deep sea, um, could actually contain life was pretty phenomenal because I think we had assumed that, without light, we couldn't have life.
So the existence of whole ecosystems that are supported by chemical reactions that don't need light to generate biomolecules and energy, I think, was really revolutionary.
NARRATOR: But could the key to mankind's survival on other worlds be found not in a laboratory but by studying past accounts of extraterrestrial encounters? Eagle River, Wisconsin.
April 18, 1961.
Plumber Joe Simonton is finishing his lunch when he notices a metallic saucerâshaped craft landing just outside his kitchen window.
I raced out to see what it was, and by that time there was a hatchway opening up in the top of it, just like the trunk of your car, and in there there stood a little manââ I'd say a little man about five foot tallââ holding up a jug, and he motioned he wanted a drink, he motioned for water, so I walked up to him to get this jug and, uh, I looked at his eyes, and they were so penetrating that I had to look away.
NARRATOR: Simonton took the container and filled it with water.
When he returned to the flying saucer, he noticed a second being with what appeared to be foodâlike wafers.
SIMONTON: He didn't say a word, he just reached forward and he got a handful of 'em, four of 'em, and he handed down to me, which I have one here yet.
NARRATOR: According to Simonton, the two aliens promptly closed the hatch and took off.
SIMONTON: Within, uh, two or three seconds, it was out of sight.
Well, there I stood in the driveway, wondering what the heck I'd saw, what had happened.
And, uh, if that was their food, God help them because I took a bite of one of 'em and it tasted like a piece of cardboard.
NARRATOR: The case immediately garnered the attention of U.
S.
government agencies looking into the UFO phenomenon, including Project Blue Book and its science advisor, astronomer J.
Allen Hynek.
CUTCHIN: Joe Simontonââ this is an interesting case because it has a level of physical evidence that we don't often see with a lot of these cases.
LINDA MOULTON HOWE: NICAP, the National Investigations Committee for Aerial Phenomena, which was largely CIA back in that period of time, wants to investigate.
And J.
Allen Hynek, who was doing investigations for the Air Force, he wanted to investigate.
NARRATOR: Hynek obtained samples of the wafers and requested a full analysis by the U.
S.
Department of Health's Food and Drug Laboratory.
The report stated that the wafers consisted of chemically modified terrestrial plants, including buckwheat, soybeans, and bran.
But curiously, not even the tiniest trace amount of salt was detected in the sample.
HOWE: There was no salt at all found in this analysis by NICAP and J.
Allen Hynek, and it's puzzling.
MICHAEL DENNIN: One of the interesting things about life on this planet is it did start in the oceans, and the ocean is salt water.
And so, fundamentally, the water in our bodies, in our cells, and inâin pretty much every living thing has a certain amount of salt concentration and is ubiquitous everywhere.
NARRATOR: According to scientists, every cell of every living organism on Earth contains a trace amount of sodium chloride, or salt.
So could the complete lack of salt in Joe Simonton's soâcalled "alien wafer" really be proof that it came from an extraterrestrial source? We see in outer space thousands of planets with different kinds of chemistries, so it's definitely possible that you can have an entire planet with very little salt on it.
BIRNES: What if salt is as poisonous to those aliens as cyanide is to us? That's what that alien contact could presuppose, that we've learned something about what's poisonous to them.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that support for the Joe Simonton story and the notion that salt might be poisonous to some extraterrestrials that have visited Earth can be found in ancient tales from around the world, in which salt is used to ward off alien entities.
The salt connection to the Simonton story isâis very interesting because it connects to other mythologies involving demonic beings or fairy beings.
They say that if you pour salt on the ground in front of a fairy, it has to stop automatically.
Or that you can throw salt over your shoulder and this will ward off evil spirits.
The Shinto religion uses salt as a protective mechanism.
So for salt to be lacking in these pancakes isâis extraordinary because itâit links us to these ancient stories and it actually confirms these ancient stories.
NARRATOR: But if the stories of both the past and present are true and these alien visitors cannot consume salt, how have they been able to sustain themselves in a place where salt is abundant? Ancient astronaut theorists believe that the answer to this one simple question may reveal both an alien agenda on Earth and perhaps even the purpose behind the creation of humankind.
NARRATOR: The 14th century BC.
According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Exodus, the prophet Moses helps the Jewish slaves to escape the tyranny of the pharaoh, leading them across the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert.
During the exodus phase, you know, you're wandering in the desert for almost 40 years.
What do you eat? Well, God provides this substance, this magical substance.
HENRY: Moses appealed to Yahweh, the Old Testament God, and Yahweh caused manna, this food of the heavens, to rain down upon the Israelites.
NARRATOR: But according to ancient astronaut theorists, the story of the Israelites receiving manna from heaven is not a story about a magical food being sent by almighty God, but one of extraterrestrials using their advanced technology in order to prevent a group of migrating humans from starving.
We assumed that we were looking at gods in the past.
We didn't know we might be looking at aliens.
(thunder cracks) NARRATOR: In 1978, linguist George Sassoon and electrical engineer Rodney Dale released their book, The Manna Machine.
In it, they propose that the supplementary Hebrew texts of the Zohar provide surprisingly detailed descriptions that point to manna being supplied by a mechanical device.
TSOUKALOS: We have a concise description of it in the ancient Jewish texts of the Zohar, where they describe the transportable one with the tanks.
Dale and Sassoon looked at these stories, and they came out with the idea that this is not a description of God at all; it's a description of a machine.
The manna machine was this towerâlike structure, and it had these two giant tanks and a dispenser.
Manna is the product of that machine, and it is based on algae cultures.
This manna machine had to be taken apart every Saturday.
And this was the one day that the tribe did not have any food.
The basic proposition by Dale and Sassoon is that this machine was given to the Israelites by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Could it be that extraterrestrials provided technology to the Israelites to sustain them during their long journey through the desert? For the answer, ancient astronaut theorists point to passages describing a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire guiding them at night.
CHILDRESS: They're following a light that's guiding them as they wander for 40 years through these deserts ofâof the Sinai and Northern Saudi Arabia.
So you have to ask yourself, is it possible that this pillar of fire is a UFO that was working with Moses to bring the Israelites to the promised land? NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials provided the Israelites with a foodâdispensing machine, is it possible that they had been using this, or a similar technology, to sustain themselves? Perhaps the same technology as the one that produced the mysterious saltâfree wafer that Joe Simonton claimed was given to him by aliens in 1961.
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer lies not in the further study of the soâcalled manna machine, but by looking into other possible extraterrestrial food sources.
I think there's a definite connection to be drawn between a lot of the food preparation practice that we see associated with all sorts of major religions and the modern UFO phenomena.
If we look back into ancient religions, one of the things that we find time and again, no matter which part of the world it is, is the issue of sacrifice of animals.
Now, the big question is: why was this being done? Well, I think we could make an interesting scenario if, for example, the aliens required specific food and liquid items.
HUSSAIN: There are all sorts of religions that have food restrictions.
In the Jewish tradition we have the word "kosher.
" What is acceptable food? In the Islamic tradition, halalââ exactly the same thing.
What food is allowed, what food is acceptable? And so, for example, when you kill an animal, you cut the throat, you drain the blood.
You want as little blood there as possible.
CUTCHIN: The handling and management of blood in kosher and halal practice is especially important because it is generally considered reserved for God.
STRIEBER: I wouldn't be surprised at all if blood did not play a big role in their food.
And if people in the past had seen them consuming blood, it might have become that higher beings had the right to consume the blood, not human beings.
NARRATOR: Malheur National Forest.
Harney County, Oregon.
July 30, 2019.
A rancher discovers the mutilated carcasses of five of his prized bulls.
At a loss to explain the deaths, authorities note that the animals have been entirely drained of blood.
This is in keeping with many similar mutilations reported around the world.
HOWE: Animals of every type you can think of, large and small, have been bloodlessly mutilated.
Wild animals, deer, elk, marmots, reindeer, kangaroos, snakes, all found bloodlessly mutilated.
BIRNES: When cows are mutilated, one of the things we notice is that they're completely drained of blood, exsanguinated.
What could that possibly mean? NARRATOR: According to FBI statistics, the agency has documented over 10,000 official reports of similar animal mutilations over the past halfâcentury.
Investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe began researching cattle mutilations in the late 1970s.
When I produced A Strange Harvest, about the animal mutilations, all of it was a brandânew landscape for me as an investigative reporter and TV producer.
And it led me to people who were saying the perpetrators are creatures from outer space.
And the whole issue of: what are they? Do they eat? Do they drink? Are they like us? What? NARRATOR: During her investigation, Linda met with a woman from the Las Cruces, New Mexico area who claimed to have been abducted from the scene and taken aboard a craft.
Once inside the craft, the woman encountered extraterrestrial beings.
They led her to a large vat containing dark liquid with body parts floating in it.
They're all floating in this round container, and something puts in her head, telepathically, that it has something to do with sustenance.
NARRATOR: Is there something in both animal and human blood that is necessary in order to sustain the life of extraterrestrials visiting planet Earth? And if so, could finding the answer provide an important key, not only in our understanding of alien life but in our search for a means of survival on other worlds? As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer might be found by examining the strange connection between human blood and immortality.
NARRATOR: For the ancient Greeks, this was the home of the gods.
Gods that were very much like humans, except that they could live forever, courtesy of a mysterious drink called ambrosia.
HUSSAIN: Ambrosia was literally the food of immortality.
In the ancient world, the gods ate, the gods drank.
And this is what kept them divine.
This is what kept them alive forever, which is one of the crucial differences between the divine and the human.
NARRATOR: While ambrosia was reserved for the gods, the ancient Greek texts also contain stories of this divine food being shared with select humans and extending their life spans indefinitely.
We might imagine that it is some sort of a liquid or, or paste or ointment that has special properties.
By drinking it, you are extending your life, and if you drank this ambrosia over many, many years, you could have a certain sense of immortality, in a way.
NARRATOR: Substances like ambrosia can be found in numerous ancient traditions.
In China there were stories of the Peaches of Immortality.
The Norse spoke of I unn's apples.
But as far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the ubiquity of this story also provides further evidence that ancient peoples came into contact with the same otherworldly beings.
HENRY: Ancient astronaut theorists look at the gods as extraterrestrial beings, as aliens.
If you're talking about beings that are traveling the stars for generations, they're going to need some kind of sustenance that will sustain them during these voyages.
And that appears to be what ambrosia was.
NARRATOR: Could it be that the ancient stories about ambrosia and similar elixirs were actually descriptions of a substance that extraterrestrials used to facilitate long voyages through space? And, if so, was it seen as a source of immortality, not only because of its ability to prolong life but also because it sustained alien travelers during thousands of years in space? Perhaps further clues to the answers can be found by examining the many accounts of ancient people living far longer than the average life expectancy today.
HUSSAIN: The biblical life spans are extraordinary.
So the Bible says that Adam lived for 930 years, that Noah lived for 950 years.
That Methuselah lived for 969 years.
It seems like an odd concept, but you have many records ofââ not just in the Bible but all throughout historyââ all these other cultures also talk about this, you know.
The Sumerian Kings List, Chinese masters living to 300 years old into the 1700s.
Even ancient Philippine records talk about these kings that lived long lives.
It's found all around the world.
Some of the stories that we hear about this drink, ambrosia, connect to these journeys to the celestial realm.
In fact, Enoch actually describes that before he was able to go up to the heavens, he is actually anointed, and he says it smelled like ambrosia.
But the question is, was he really anointed? What if ambrosia was something that you had to take in in order to prepare for a journey to outer space, and it gave you immortality? NARRATOR: If ambrosia was an alien substance that could both extend life and facilitate space travel, just what was it? Something that could only be found or concocted on alien worlds? Or something that could be found in abundance right here on Earth? Santa Clara, California.
June 2016.
Silicon Valley startâup Ambrosia LLC obtains approval to begin clinical trials on an experimental treatment to reverse aging.
Medical researchers inject older test subjects with blood plasma from young donors in an effort to improve their health and extend their life span.
Hundreds of patients sign up to participate, paying $8,000 for each liter of blood plasma they receive.
The theory is, whether it's true or not, is that by infusing yourself with the blood of younger people, you will gain a longer life, because you won't have, as the commercial used to say, tired blood or old blood.
You're literally giving yourself a new lease on life.
NARRATOR: Ancient Greek texts connect ambrosia with divine blood called ichor.
And the concept that blood can impart immortality is widespread, found in legends of vampires and even historical accounts of human blood sacrifice.
Is it possible that blood, and particularly human blood, has lifeâsustaining properties far beyond our current understanding? REDFERN: When it comes to the issue of extraterrestrials and blood, there's one scenario, the idea that the aliens may actually take blood.
Now, that's not completely out of the question.
The main reason being it contains iron, proteins, nutrients.
In other words, it'd be the classic important item for aliens to dine upon.
But we cannot do that without causing extreme damage, possibly even death, to ourselves.
That sort of suggests, possibly, also, that blood is an item of the extraterrestrials and not of us.
NARRATOR: Does human blood possess lifeâsustaining properties far beyond its function inside the body? And, if so, could the substance known as ambrosia be flowing through the veins of every human? As far as many ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the answer is yes, and they suggest that this profound notion was first conveyed to humankind more than 2,000 years ago by a man named Jesus.
NARRATOR: Vatican City.
Thousands of pilgrims bow their heads as Pope Francis performs the Liturgy of the Eucharist and consecrates the offerings of bread and wine.
According to Church historians, the ceremony's roots lie in the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples shortly before he sacrificed his life on the cross.
As he passed the bread, Jesus said, "Take this and eat it", it is my body.
" And as he passed the wine, he said, "Drink this", it is the blood of the covenant.
" And out of that moment at a meal grew a great ritual, a ceremony, a sacrament that is repeated to this day around the world by millions of people.
NARRATOR: In the Roman Catholic tradition, during the Mass, the priest is empowered by the prayers that energize the bread and the wine such that they become transformed, or transubstantiated, into the living presence of the body and the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation is one of the Catholic Church's most exalted mysteries.
Catholics are encouraged to believe that through this miracle, somehow these ordinary wafers and ordinary wine become the blood and body of Jesus.
NARRATOR: Could this rite of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus really have otherworldly origins? BIRNES: Isn't it interesting that we have numerous traditions around the globe telling us that blood is the substance reserved for the gods? Now we have to ask, is there a connection between the ritual of the Catholic Mass and extraterrestrials? Maybe it's possible, by imbibing certain bloods, the extraterrestrials are actually able to extend their life spans to incredible degrees.
So, when Jesus talked about the "blood of the covenant," just maybe Jesus was talking in a symbolic fashion when he talked about how wine and bread sustains us but something very, very different sustained him.
That the wine that sustains us is the parallel of the blood for Jesus.
NARRATOR: If alien beings have been coming to Earth for thousands of years, is it possible that they have evolved to a point where they do not physically consume food in the way that humans do, but are able to draw sustenance from certain energetic substances, like blood? And does the ritual of Communion provide a clue as to how humankind must evolve in order to become like the gods? When we think of food, we immediately have that image of a hamburger, french fries, and there you are, munching away.
But I'm a physicist.
We realize that the essence of food is energy, and energy can exist in many, many forms.
So, think of widening your possibilities.
Any time there's a source of energy, there's a possibility of using it for food for an alien species.
Myself, I think these things are really possible, and maybe there is something there.
But at the same time, the story of the Eucharist being created in the Upper Room is one of the most profound and beautiful stories I know.
And I prefer to think of it that way, personally.
NARRATOR: For centuries, theologists have debated the origin and meaning of the Eucharist, but it is not an entirely unique ritual.
And ancient astronaut theorists suggest that a similar ceremony established in ancient India provides further clues as to the nature of alien sustenance.
Soma is this huge thing in the, in the early Indian tradition, the Rigveda.
The earliest Hindu texts talk about this.
So soma is this drink that gives the people who consume it, you know, the powers of this god or the thoughts of this god, the abilities there.
VIEIRA: Soma was brought to humans by Agni the fire god.
The same story you have with the holy wine or the Eucharist.
And it's like somehow we are being helped byâby these beings through these different substances.
I find that really fascinating.
HENRY: They have a saying in the Rigveda that if you drink soma, you see God and you connect with God.
But they also said it promoted immortality and longevity as well.
CHILDRESS: Ancient people are drinking this special drink of soma, and they're drinking the blood of the gods.
And so we look, too, at the Catholic concept of transubstantiation, where the body and the blood of Christ are then in theseâthese wafers andâand wine that we drink.
And you have to wonder if even that is an, is an old relic of the early soma rituals.
NARRATOR: Is there an extraterrestrial inspiration behind both the rites of Communion and the ancient rites of soma? Were they intended to teach us vital lessons about longevity, and perhaps point the way to our own future as a spacefaring people? And if so, might there be other stories, of other food substances humans were given to eat or drink that point to an alien agenda for mankind? NARRATOR: During an international book tour for Communion, his bestâselling account of his own alien abduction, author Whitley Strieber receives a visit at his hotel room from a mysterious being.
I had a 45âminute conversation with him.
Then he gave me a glass of liquid to drink.
It was white and I didn't want to drink it, but he insisted that I do it.
Somehow or another, I did it.
It was extremely bitter, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the morning.
I thought maybe it's some kind of alien potion, but recently I did some more research on it and I found that it's, it was in the past called the milk of nepenthe.
It was first mentioned in the poet Homer's writings, then it was known throughout the ancient world.
No one was really sure what it is, but the symptoms described are just like what I experienced.
Nepenthe is something that makes people forget, as it did me.
NARRATOR: Homer, the legendary eighth century BC Greek poet, mentions nepenthe in his epic poem The Odyssey.
Plato writes about a similar substance in his Book X of The Republic.
The drink was said to help humans fall into profound amnesia and forget the trauma of their encounters with the gods, encounters that today we might call alien abductions.
STRIEBER: It was also given to people who had gone to Mount Olympus and been with the gods, on their way down, so that they would forget what they had seen and they would not want to commit suicide.
TSOUKALOS: In Greek mythology, every time it was given to someone they would forget anything that happened to them in the last 48 hours.
Now, what's interesting is that modernâday abductees talk about the same thing.
So my question is: is it possible that extraterrestrials are giving substances to people in order to forget what has happened to them? NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials have been using some type of drink to cloud the memories of humans they come into contact with, what is the purpose? Is it simply to spare them the trauma of an alien encounter? Or could it be to hide the fact that they are extracting blood? Some ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer can be found by examining the most important moment of extraterrestrial intervention in human history.
New York City, 1976.
After spending 30 years deciphering the Sumerian language, researcher Zecharia Sitchin publishes his book The 12th Planet.
In it, he proposes that a race of extraterrestrials known as the Anunnaki genetically modified ancient primates in the distant past, turning them into modern humans.
In his books, Zecharia Sitchin dealt at length with the Sumerian creation stories, the Atrahasis and others that tell of these beings, the Anunnaki, putting their image on humanity.
That they genetically altered a protoâhuman to create a new race of beings, Homo sapien.
NARRATOR: According to Sitchin's translation of the Sumerian cuneiform writings, the Anunnaki produced the first successful Homo sapiens around 250,000 BC.
While scholars in the 1970s dismissed Sitchin's theory, in the 1980s anthropologists traced the mitochondrial DNA of all modern humans to a common female ancestor living in Africa roughly 250,000 years ago.
Geneticists call her Mitochondrial Eve.
TSOUKALOS: We were wise, but now we're even wiser.
Just like that.
And geneticists, to this day, cannot quite figure out, well, what was that ping, thatâthatâthat change that virtually happened overnight? So when you have these weird examples where stuff essentially happens overnight, I'm suggesting this was done due to an artificial mutation.
NARRATOR: Researchers following in Sitchin's footsteps have noted a largely overlooked aspect of the Sumerian cylindrical seal depicting the celebration of the first successful human experiment.
The scene features a figure stirring a jar and another holding a flask directed at their original creation.
Many associate the scene with the biblical account of the temptation of Adam and Eve.
HENRY: Adam and Eve, before their encounter with this bright snake, this talking serpent, who is equated with Enki in the Sumerian tradition, this genetic engineer that came from another world and altered our human DNA, that before this event, Adam and Eve pretty much lived like primitive or a primateâtype beings.
NARRATOR: Could the story of Adam and Eve's transformation be a memory of the moment our genome was altered by an extraterrestrial race, as proposed by Sitchin? And, if so, was that alteration done by mechanical gene splicing in a laboratory, as 21st century technology might do it today? Or could it have been accomplished in a far more sophisticated way, by simply giving our ancestors some highly advanced alien substance, designed to transform primates into people? CHILDRESS: Here's the story of Adam and Eve living, uh, sort of blissfully in this Edenic garden and just watching the sunset and having sex and not doing a whole lot.
And then suddenly this serpentâbeing comes to them and offers them some special food to eat.
And they completely change into what we would call modern people.
And here we have, through the intake of food, we have a fundamental change and, in a sense, an evolutionary leap from primitive humans to more modern humans who are more aware of themselves and their surroundings.
NARRATOR: Did extraterrestrials alter life on Earth to create sentient beings and then use amnesiaâinducing substances in order to keep them from knowing the facts behind their alien origins? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes and suggest that as humans begin to take their next evolutionary step into space, the veil of ignorance will soon be removed.
NARRATOR: 220 miles above the Earth.
Researchers on the International Space Station are currently testing an advanced hydroponic system to make food.
Utilizing artificial light and a waterâbased nutrient solution, the microalgae contained within the unit takes in carbon dioxide breathed out by the astronauts.
The process allows the microalgae to quickly multiply and produces a continuous supply of nourishment on board the craft.
We breathe in oxygen and we get out carbon dioxide, but in a hydroponic farm, you have plants growing in liquid and it takes in the waste products of human combustion and expels oxygen as a consequence.
That would give you a selfâsustaining ecosystem to maintain the human body.
NASA is experimenting with hydroponic machines that enable the astronauts to grow a kind of microbiological algae that is reminiscent of the manna from the Old Testament.
Could it be that's our own manna machine? NARRATOR: As manned missions to Mars are within our grasp, logistical obstacles, like how to sustain the crew, must first be overcome.
Could the solution be found not only by altering the substances we bring with us into space, but by altering ourselves? We can conceive of entirely new kinds of lifeâforms based on energy.
So food is the energy that fuels us, but it's a real possibility that, as we start to explore outer space, we may have to genetically modify ourselves to alter our diet so that we ingest different forms of energy.
When we look back at these unusual foods of the gods, you have to wonder if that is not a direction that we have been meant to go in, to become a spacefaring race ourselves.
So everything has come full circle here from ancient times and these unusual foods of the gods to what we're doing today.
REDFERN: I think this entire phenomenon of aliens, of food, of mysterious drinks is one of the most important when it comes to us engaging with them.
And it may well be the case that that is the primary way in which we can actually have some sort of communion with them.
NARRATOR: As we evolve into a spacefaring species, will the concept and function of food take on a new meaning for humanity? Perhaps the intriguing evidence of how aliens may have survived on Earth will provide a road map to our own future.
It will open up new possibilities and new ways to sustain ourselves for much longer time spans.
It will allow us to venture deeper into space, colonize new worlds, and create new versions of ourselves as we continue to follow in the footsteps of our alien ancestors.