Ancient Aliens s18e17 Episode Script
The Shining Ones
1
For more than 3,000 years
Ireland has maintained
a connection to ancient magic
and a mystical realm.
We have two parallel worlds,
the human world
and the otherworld.
The rolling landscape
is believed
to possess hidden power.
It is said that
the mounds acted as these
doorways into other realities.
And within these earthen mounds
are said to be powerful beings
known as the Shining Ones.
They are somehow able
to manipulate
their surroundings,
and have the knowledge
of the universe.
Are these Irish legends
more than fanciful mythology?
And if so, could there be
an extraterrestrial connection?
The ancient Irish
were saying that these beings
came from the sky.
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.
Ireland.
This lush, green island
in the North Atlantic
has a history of human activity
dating back
more than 33,000 years.
Numerous cultures
have called Ireland home,
from the early Beaker people
to the Celts and the Gaels,
and the island
has a rich tradition
of folklore that has spread
throughout the world.
But perhaps most notable
is that Ireland boasts
some of the oldest
structures on the planet.
Massive earthen mounds,
many of which date back
more than 5,000 years.
- These mounds are constructed.
- They're not natural hills.
These are
megalithic constructions,
um, involving, in the larger
sites, an enormous
amount of man hours and labor.
These would've been,
when they were made, just very,
very impressive sites.
These mounds were
an ancient earthwork
that had a tunnel
going through it
with stones on either side
and stones on top
and then covered with earth.
Ireland has a tremendous
amount of these mounds,
and these are
some of mankind's oldest
large structures in the world.
And they anchor
all of the land together.
Usually, if you visit one on top
of a hill, you go up,
you find one,
and you can do a line
of sight to the next one.
There was almost a network,
almost across
the entire island
of these sites.
The oldest known writing
in Ireland
dates to the 6th century A.D.,
more than 3,000 years
after the ancient mounds
are believed to have been built.
With no written record
about the mounds' construction,
archaeologists and historians
can only speculate
as to who made them
and for what purpose.
These things were built to go
inside, where, presumably,
very, very important rituals
took place.
We don't know,
but much later on,
these sites would've been
used for gatherings,
for rituals, and sort of
keeping the society together.
These were enormously
long-lived sites
of cultural importance.
It was enormously
long-lived societies
that used these as focal points.
30 miles north of Dublin
in County Meath is Ireland's
largest and oldest mound,
called Newgrange.
The ancient structure
consists of over
200,000 tons of stone
and has a passageway leading
to a central chamber
in which human bone fragments
have been found.
But archaeologists
say Newgrange also has
an undeniable connection
to the cosmos.
Spiral petroglyphs, thought
to symbolize the universe,
are found all around it,
and the passageway and chamber
form a cruciform shape
that researchers believe
is based on
the constellation Cygnus.
At the time Newgrange was built,
it was presumed to be
the largest structure that
mankind had
ever built in the world.
Now, one of the most interesting
things about Newgrange
is it's a celestial alignment.
This is still
very, very popular.
If you go at
the winter solstice,
you have the sun dagger that
it cuts tremendous distance
all the way in to brighten up
the inner chamber.
Newgrange is unique
among Ireland's mounds
in its sophistication,
and was clearly designed
for ritualistic activity.
But according
to ancient Irish texts,
the mounds serve a more profound
and mysterious purpose,
as the dwelling places
of otherworldly beings
traditionally called the sidhe.
The word "sidhe,"
it can mean "the mounds"
and also
can mean "the otherworld people,
the people of the mounds."
In Irish tradition,
it's bad luck to use
the word "sidhe"
to directly refer to these
otherworld people.
So, there are many
different names.
We have the English word
fairy folk, also elves.
Stories of fairies, elves,
and even leprechauns are rooted
in the ancient folklore of what
the Irish called the sidhe.
But for many Irish people,
the sidhe are not merely
mythological figures.
Fairies and leprechauns
and all that sort of stuff,
like, too many people kind of
laugh and joke about it
at times,
but it's knowledge that'd been
passed down for
thousands and thousands
of years.
We have the terrestrial world
and the subterrestrial world,
the human world, and the
superhuman or otherworld.
These worlds exist in parallel.
Occasionally, however,
there is communication
between the two worlds.
The mounds are often referred to
as "fairy forts,"
as are stone circles
and tree clusters
that are considered
the property of the sidhe.
This strong cultural belief
that these features
are the domain
of otherworldly beings
has kept them intact
for thousands of years.
And the Irish say that,
when they are disturbed,
bad luck always follows.
Seán Quinn was
the wealthiest man in Ireland.
He lost everything
because he moved a fairy fort.
He damaged a fairy fort, and he
moved it to another place.
DeLorean car manufacturers,
they came to Belfast, and were
making the DeLorean car
up in Northern Ireland,
and they built the factory
on the site of a fairy fort.
And it all came crashing down,
and the local people would say,
"Well, you know,
what do you expect?"
Ask any Irish person,
"Would you damage a fairy fort?
What would happen if
you damaged a fairy tree?"
If you gave me ten million bucks
and a Cadillac and a helicopter
and a beautiful house on
Sunset Boulevard and said
all I had to do was
chop down a fairy tree,
I'd be handing that money
straight back to you.
I wouldn't do it. No one
I know would do it either.
So, do we believe in
the fairies in Ireland? We do.
While modern-day
representations of fairies
often depict benevolent,
spritely creatures,
traditional Irish notions
of fairies are much different.
They are considered powerful
and sometimes dangerous beings.
You don't want to mess
with the aos sí.
They're not cute,
cuddly little fairies like
we-we typically think of today.
But these are very
extraordinarily powerful people.
Wielders of supernatural powers.
The sidhe, or fairy folk,
are often referred to as
the Shining Ones,
but do accounts
of their luminous
appearance suggest
that they are divine beings?
According to the
ancient Irish stories,
while the fairies have
supernatural abilities,
they are not immortal gods.
The inhabitant of
the sidhe is not necessarily
immortal in the narrative.
Sometimes they're-they're
killed or-or meet with death,
but they never grow old.
And so, if they are
killed or die,
they do so while young.
They're other, uh,
but somewhat humanoid.
Sometimes they're small
and green, they abduct people,
they have, uh, either advanced
technology or ancient magic.
And in many ways
this fairy tradition, uh,
reminds me very much
of the UFO tradition
that we have
in the United States.
When it comes to these dwellings
of the fairy folk,
there's lots of talk about
otherworldly beings
emerging from the mounds.
And also people getting taken
into the mounds
and, like, disappearing.
You hear stories
of lights in the sky
or even lights in the forest
and the woods that you see.
So, could it be possible
that the fairy folk
is a description of
extraterrestrials
back in the day?
There is absolutely an argument
that can make that case.
In our stories
relating to the sidhe,
the fairies,
call them what you will,
all of our stories say that
they came from the sky world.
Is it possible that
modern beliefs of fairies
and elves are based on
real otherworldly beings
that the Irish people
encountered centuries ago
and that may still
inhabit the island today?
And if so,
why are they thought to
dwell within the ancient mounds?
According to legend,
the sidhe did not always
live within the Earth,
and their story begins
with a group of shining beings
who arrived in flying craft.
In Ireland, tales of
the sidhe, or fairy folk,
have been passed down orally
for more than 3,000 years,
and in the 11th century,
many of these stories were
documented in a text called
The Book of Invasions.
According to this medieval
account of Irish history
and lore,
thousands of years ago,
a godlike race of beings called
the Tuatha Dé Danann landed
on a mountaintop in Ireland.
Often referred to
as the Shining Ones,
they are
the ancestors of the sidhe.
All of our stories relate back
to the Tuatha Dé Danann.
For 3000 years, at least,
if not more before that, all of
the stories from mythology are
all related to Tuatha Dé Danann.
They were the Shining Ones.
There is a description
in the mythological material
in the early Irish literature
of the Tuatha Dé Danann
arriving in, uh, cloud ships,
arriving in dark clouds
and landing on a mountain.
There was a long poem
about the arrival of
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
One of the lines says,
"The truth was not known
beneath the sky of stars,
whether they were
of heaven or of earth."
The Tuatha Dé Danann
are not human.
They're demigods.
And not immortal,
not infallible, um,
not like the gods of
monotheistic tradition of any
of the Abrahamic religions.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to be luminous
beings of large stature
who wielded magical powers.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
had an arsenal of very
technological sounding weaponry.
Lugh of the Long Arm,
for example, possessed a spear
that, when he threw it,
he could give a voice command,
and it would automatically
hit whatever target.
Then he'd give
another voice command,
and the spear would
mysteriously return to him.
We have circles of light
that they used to
travel around Ireland upon.
We have another chieftain
named Nuada
who lost an arm in a battle
against the giants,
and they were able
to replace his arm.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to have
a magical cauldron.
They had a cloak
of invisibility.
They had spears
that shot flames out.
The ancient astronaut theory
tries to look at ancient stories
in which magic happens
from a modern perspective
and determine
if that so-called magic
really was some type
of technology.
Then one has to wonder, where
did that technology come from?
Well, uh, there's only
one answer to this,
and that is extraterrestrials.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
another intriguing aspect
of these stories
is how similar they are
to accounts of sky gods found
in other ancient cultures.
The stories of
let's call them aliens
descending from clouds
on tops of mountains
are straight across the cultural
history of, uh, human beings.
Let's start with one
of the earliest ones.
The descent on Mount Hermon
in the Golan Heights.
That's where
the Nephilim came down.
Another,
in the descent of the Anunnaki,
they came from clouds.
We have other stories
in Tibet and other places
where these gods
are coming down,
and they land
on top of a mountain.
The gods of Olympus in Greece
is another example.
The stories of the
Tuatha Dé Danann
in these whirlwinds or clouds
is something that we find
in connection
with deities
in other parts of the world.
For instance,
across the Middle East,
there is the concept of djinn.
These are supernatural beings,
very often associated
with fire and light,
that can appear in whirlwinds
and manifest into physical form.
The fact that we have
countless stories
that are not just similar,
but identical,
leads me to think that
perhaps all these ancient
cultures were visited
by the same extraterrestrials.
According to ancient
astronaut theorists,
the tradition that is most
similar to the Tuatha Dé Danann
is that of the Anunnaki,
the sky gods described
by the Sumerians,
humankind's earliest
known civilization.
What you've got with
the Sumerians is
the beginnings
of-of civilization,
people living together, but also
the beginnings of writing.
You know, it's some
of the earliest written
texts that we have
are texts by these people.
These clay tablets are
5,000 years old
and more, and they
tell of the arrival of the gods,
the Anunnaki,
the pantheon of gods.
The chief was Anu.
This is the sky god
who came along
and created everything.
The term Anunnaki means
"those who from
the heavens came,"
and it refers to beings
descending from the sky,
imparting knowledge.
In the Irish stories,
the Tuatha Dé Danann
were also responsible
for imparting knowledge
to the ancient people.
Tuatha Dé Danann
were the masters
of all of the crafts,
masters of all of the arts,
and they introduced
the knowledge
in the ways of agriculture.
Tuatha Dé Danann would always
interact with the people.
It's the same as the Anunnaki.
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest
the iconography
of the Sumerians and Irish
provides additional evidence
that they encountered
the same otherworldly beings.
Both depicted the gods
as being of giant stature
compared to humans,
both portrayed them in scenes
with hybrid or flying animals,
and both have images of the gods
with horns or antlers
emerging from their heads.
But perhaps
most intriguing of all
is that there appears to be
a linguistic connection
between the Anunnaki
and the Tuatha Dé Danann.
According to some accounts,
the Tuatha Dé Danann's
original name
was the Tuatha Danu.
"The Tribe of Anu," or Danu.
Linguists are
very intrigued by this
because this encodes
the name of Anu,
the high god of the Anunnaki,
for whom they are formed,
and it suggests that perhaps
the Tuatha Dé Danann
are the descendants
of the Anunnaki.
Could the striking similarities
that exist between the stories
of the Tuatha Dé Danann
and the Anunnaki
reveal that Ireland was visited
by the same otherworldly beings
that are described by humanity's
first known civilization
roughly 3,000 miles away?
But if so,
how are they connected
to Ireland's mound dwellers,
known as the sidhe,
or fairy folk?
Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining
mysterious ancient priests
called the druids.
Kent, England
During an excavation
of an Iron Age burial site,
archaeologists uncover
the skeleton of a man
who lived around
the third century BC
and who was wearing
a unique headdress.
Based on the design
of this bronze crown,
many researchers believe
these are the first remains
ever discovered of a druid.
According to Irish legend,
the druids were a class
of ancient Celtic priests
who were in close contact
with the Shining Ones,
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The word for "druid" in Irish
is draíocht,
which literally means "magic."
So there is, uh,
an interconnection
between the Tuatha Dé Danann
and their magic
and the practice of druidry.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to have been
the founders of druidism.
And the druids were said
to have all kinds
of special powers themselves.
And so, it would seem
that the Tuatha Dé Danann
had shown some of their
extraterrestrial technology
to the druids who then
were able to use it themselves.
The druidic religion originated
with the Tuatha Dé Danann,
but they were never allowed
to write down
any of the druidic knowledge.
It was taboo,
because it was so-called
sacred knowledge.
The druids spent
decades in training
to perform
their priestly functions.
These are members
of the inner circle,
as we're told.
The inner circle refers,
ultimately,
to the innermost knowledge
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
the Shining Ones.
They know their secrets and
they can wield their technology.
Portrayals of druids
as mysterious,
shaman-like figures
with mystical powers
has led some scholars
to question
if they truly existed or were
purely mythological figures.
But according to the earliest
accounts of them,
the druids were an integral
part of Celtic society
throughout the British Isles.
There are certain things
we know about the druids,
but of course there's a lot
we don't know,
and this vacuum incited
a lot of romantic speculation
in the 19th century.
And so, we're still carrying
that baggage a little bit.
The swirling robes and so on.
But in Celtic society,
in Gaelic society,
the druids exercised authority
and played
an important role, uh,
in the life of the tribe
and the society.
The druids were the holders
of knowledge.
They held and perpetuated
the knowledge
which was important
to the survival of the tribe.
They held and perpetuated
judiciary knowledge
and things sacred and spiritual.
The druid was
a very special figure,
a priest, perhaps,
a historian, perhaps,
uh, a magician, uh, perhaps,
uh, and many, many things.
These were the learned people
of Celtic society.
They-they formed
a special class.
According to Caesar,
the druids in Gall
had to study 20 years
to become a druid.
And they had many, many roles
to play,
including acting as, uh, jurist
and judges, advisers to kings.
And so, druidism, and the magic
that they were able to employ,
um, is really a-a foundational
part of early Celtic society.
And druids
are not necessarily men.
Uh, we also have a lot
of accounts of female druidry.
And it does seem
to be associated heavily
with the Tuatha Dé Danann.
They didn't just
teach things like astronomy
and, you know,
harmony in nature,
they were working with geomancy,
the placement of ancient sites
across the landscape
called geodesy.
And also
working with Earth energies
and even plant medicines.
So they had a high understanding
of these different
arts and sciences.
The druids were known
to travel far and wide,
seeking out the knowledge
of other cultures.
But they were also said
to interact directly
with the Tuatha Dé Danann,
who shared the secrets of their
so-called magical abilities.
Pliny the Elder, who was
one of the most famous
of the Roman writers
and historians,
he claimed that at a full moon,
druids would meet at a mound,
and they would trace a design
that looked something
like a dragon
on top of the mound,
and this would summon
some sort of lightning
or some phenomenon
that happened in the sky.
I don't think he saw it himself.
He was taking what he knew
from Roman soldiers
that witnessed it.
But apparently,
it frightened a lot of them.
They saw lights in the sky
once the druids
did this dragon ritual,
as it became known.
So it would seem
that the druids knew
of the power
of certain special places.
And perhaps, this is something
that would summon
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
These shining people
who came from the sky.
One of the many magical powers
the druids were said to possess
was the ability
to levitate massive stones,
which they used
to construct some
of the megalithic structures
found throughout
the British Isles.
The most famous of the druids,
of course, was Merlin.
Merlin was said to have
created Stonehenge by taking
an existing stone circle
from Ireland
and bringing it to Salisbury
Plain in Southern England.
And there, using magic powers,
he was able to raise
the stones into position
in the manner
that we see them today.
What is interesting
is that the stones
that built Stonehenge
did come from a long way away.
About 135 miles
away in South Wales.
Somehow, they were moved
to central England,
and the ancients
believed it was Merlin
who was responsible for that.
There are stories that say
that some of those big,
gigantic blocks at Stonehenge
were levitated into place
through magical incantations.
Well, what magical incantations?
Because I don't think
that levitation
can happen just by words.
There has to be some type
of technology behind it.
The idea is that, basically,
this was extraterrestrial
knowledge imparted
by the Tuatha Dé Danann.
When the Romans were here,
they say that the druids
had this power
to build stone circles
of which there were thousands
throughout the British Isles.
Stonehenge, Avebury, Newgrange.
These places, we find
legends attached to the druids
that they were able to float
the stones through the air.
Is it possible
that a secret society
of Celtic priests
who lived more
than 2,000 years ago
had access
to otherworldly technology?
According
to the ancient accounts,
while the druids
were the disciples
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
it would ultimately be a druid
who brought their reign
in Ireland to an end
and drove them underground.
County Kerry, 1700 B.C.
A fleet of ships arrives on
the southern shores of Ireland,
carrying invaders
from the south.
According to early
Irish accounts,
they are aided by a druid
named Amergin
in their conquest of Ireland.
Amergin was seeking revenge
for his great uncle,
who had been killed by the three
kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
These were the sons of Míl,
better known as the Milesians.
The Milesians came out
of the Mediterranean,
probably from Greece or Crete
or Anatolia, modern day Turkey.
And they arrived in Ireland,
and huge battles took place
between the Tuatha Dé Danann
and the Milesians.
Many stories have been
written about these battles,
but according to the most
trusted sources,
the Tuatha Dé Danann
agreed to a truce
to save their beloved Ireland.
They did not come
to the Earth to do warfare.
They came to heal the Earth
and to work with the Earth
and work with Mother Earth
and all of the good energies.
What was agreed upon that, um,
this country will be shared,
there was room enough
for everyone in this country.
And it was agreed
that the Milesians
would live on the ground,
on the earth itself,
but that the Tuatha Dé Danann
would go beneath the earth,
inside mounds of earth
that were known as sidhe.
These acted as these doorways
into a realm
where, forever after,
the Tuatha Dé Danann would live.
It's said that they all
turned sideways into the light
and just disappeared
underground.
The Milesians then took control
of the surface of Ireland.
Modern-day Irish people
are thought to be descendants
of the Milesians.
Legend states that after
the Tuatha Dé Danann
descended below ground,
a mysterious evolution
took place.
Once the Tuatha
went underground,
they evolved over many years
into something known
as the aos sí.
That's better known in later
mythology as the elfen folk.
Elves.
After the Tuatha Dé Danann
entered into the earthen mounds,
or sidhe,
they became beings
that could appear
in physical form
but could equally vanish.
Humans were able
to interact with them,
often when they would see
some kind of light
that would be emanating
from these earthen mounds.
They would go towards them.
And when they were able
to look into these lights,
they could see the Tuatha Dé
Danann, the sidhe, the fairies.
People would be able
to join them in this realm.
Reports of elves and fairies
and little people have been
around in Ireland
as long as people
have lived there.
People saw something.
They saw some types of beings.
People still see
these beings even today.
One location in Ireland
where sightings
of fairies are often reported
is at the Hill of Tara,
which is home to numerous
ancient mounds
as well as a monolith
called Lia Fáil.
Legend states that this monolith
was a gift
from the Shining Ones.
The Lia Fáil
means the "Stone of Destiny,"
and it refers
to a standing stone,
about five feet tall
in County Meath, Ireland.
In the legends of Lia Fáil,
we have the Tuatha Dé Danann
bringing the energy
of this stone
down with them
to this powerful place.
This place of extraordinary
energy and current
because it can interact
with the energy in the land.
The power of the land itself
is the reason
that the Danann come to this
location, the Hill of Tara.
It was said that when
the rightful king of Ireland
came in contact with Lia Fáil,
it would scream out to announce
that this was the rightful
king of all Ireland.
It would then imbue the king
with qualities of strength
and longevity and health,
in order that he might
reign over Ireland
for a very long time.
To this day, ceremonies
take place on the Hill of Tara.
The ancient Irish
associated this stone
with the elven folk
and the fairies,
and people continue
to see them today,
and probably,
we will continue to see them
in the future as well.
If otherworldly beings
called the Tuatha Dé Danann
truly existed
in ancient Ireland,
is it possible that
they are still present today,
now known as the sidhe,
or fairy folk,
who inhabit the thousands
of earthen mounds
found throughout the country?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest that they may occupy
a parallel dimension.
Today, organizations exist
throughout the world
that investigate
potential encounters
with extraterrestrials
visiting Earth.
But long before
these groups existed,
the people of the British Isles
were examining another
type of otherworldly phenomenon.
In the 1920s, something very
strange happened in Ireland.
There were suddenly
mass sightings of fairies.
So much so that a captain,
Quintin Craufurd,
formed what he called
the Society for
the Investigation of Fairies,
which was a very scientific
and serious approach
at collecting data
about these fairy sightings.
Like a modern UFO group today,
their mission was
to study elves,
figure elves out,
what they were doing there,
try to communicate with elves.
And they absolutely believed
that fairies and elves
were real and existed
throughout the British Isles.
People from all walks of life
contacted the organization
reporting encounters with beings
they believed were fairies.
Witnesses described fairies
leading them to buried relics,
walking through solid walls,
and even transforming
into orbs of light.
This society did
important research
up until World War II, when
their records were destroyed.
And then in 1949,
they began doing research again.
Hundreds of members joined
the society in the 1950s,
including Walt Disney.
Now, what's amazing about this
is that in order to become
a member of the society,
you had to declare
an absolute belief
in the existence of fairies.
And who other than Walt Disney
in the modern world
is more closely connected
to fairies?
The idea that you would
actually have
a very serious society
that was looking into fairies,
shows that in the British Isles
and in Ireland,
the whole concept of elven folk
and fairies and leprechauns
is very real
and continues to this day.
In 1969,
French astronomer Jacques Vallée
published a groundbreaking book
on unexplained phenomena
called Passport to Magonia:
From Folklore to Flying Saucers.
In it, he proposed that
historical accounts of fairies
and other strange beings
could be the same phenomenon
that today is interpreted
as extraterrestrial.
Jacques did what I think is one
of the most important books
about the UFO phenomena,
trying to understand,
of all the things
in the sky and on the ground
through history that have either
been painted, photographed,
caught on radar,
what are they and why are they?
Every culture speaks
of the "others,"
whether it be the wee people,
the leprechauns,
or the fairies
or the angels or the demons.
Our brothers in Islam
know them very well,
and they're called the djinn.
And the one thing
that is taught about the djinn
is essentially,
they are energetic beings,
and their place of residence is
in the domains of inner earth.
And this leads us
to ask the question,
if the domains of inner earth
are actually physical
within this dimension
or possibly
in a parallel dimension.
According to Vallée,
the strange beings that humans
have reported encountering
for thousands of years may,
in fact, be interdimensional.
Vallée believes that
from the time of the Big Bang,
if it created one universe,
why couldn't it create
a multitude of universes?
Might there be connections
between the different
universes where elements
from the other universe
cross into our universe,
and where elements of
our universe cross into theirs?
That would explain how people
coming upon the sidhe
might not just see an
underground civilization,
but they might see an
interdimensional civilization.
Could it be that sightings
of fairies
and similar figures described
in other ancient traditions
are encounters with beings
that occupy parallel dimensions?
And if so,
are these the same beings
described today
as extraterrestrials?
There are possible parallels
between the sidhe
or fairies that seem
to be similar to UFO,
uh, accounts.
For example,
seeing strange lights.
Like what's known as,
in Irish and British tradition,
the will-o'-the-wisp.
Um, these fairy lights
that move,
uh, and lead people astray.
When you get
to the 20th century,
and where people were trying
to figure out human abductions,
you start hearing
from people saying,
"Well, they shape-shifted
in front of me."
"There were beams of light
that took us up and down."
"They can disappear, they
can go through windows, walls."
And those are the same verbs
and nouns that were being used
in the centuries before
in Ireland and other places
about fairies and so-called
pretend creatures.
There are stories
and personal experiences
similar to UFO accounts
that have been recorded,
of missing time
where somebody i-is taken
into the otherworld
by the fairies,
and, uh, thinks they've
been there for a few hours,
but it's been a few days
when they return.
Oftentimes, you hear stories
of missing time, of people
disappearing for weeks,
or losing their memory
for significant events,
and frankly,
that is similar to what you hear
from modern-day
UFO abduction stories.
Could it be that the folklore
of cultures all around the globe
is based on
an otherworldly presence
that people
have been encountering
since humankind's
earliest history?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and according to the Irish,
at least once a year,
the veil is lifted
between our realm and theirs.
The Hill of Uisneach, Ireland.
Located 60 miles west of Dublin.
This site has been sacred
to the Irish for centuries.
Each year in early May,
locals gather
at this sacred site
to celebrate
the ancient festival of Beltane.
Dating back more
than 3,000 years,
Beltane and its famous bonfire
provide a link between
modern Christian Ireland
and its pagan Celtic past.
This festival is
the traditional start of summer.
The Celtic peoples
divided the year
into a dark half
and then a bright half,
marked at Beltane.
It was so important
that people understood
precise times of year
for agricultural reasons.
The people working the fields
didn't have
the knowledge of astronomy.
So the fire was a signal,
and they saw the fire.
From the highest point
on Uisneach,
20 counties are visible.
So once the main fire is lit
on Uisneach in a circle,
all of the hills around
light their fires,
and then it spreads and spreads
throughout the whole country.
And it happens instantly.
The fire is a signal
to all of the country
that now is the summertime.
But Beltane,
which is also celebrated
at other ancient sites
throughout Ireland, serves
another, more profound purpose.
Many Irish believe
that during this festival,
it is possible for humans
to peer inside the mounds
into an entirely
different reality.
There's a threshold or boundary
between worlds
that becomes thin.
And human beings can see
into the otherworld
or encounter otherworldly
beings, uh, more easily.
Beltane, or May Day,
is associated very strongly
with the sidhe,
the fairy people,
the Shining Ones.
Through festivals like Beltane,
the people of Ireland
maintain a strong connection
to the traditions of their past,
traditions of shining beings
who came down from the sky
and continue to live on
within the ancient mounds.
When I was growing
up in Ireland,
people, at least in the,
in the rural areas
and Ireland
was very rural at the time
nobody would admit
to not believing in the fairies.
The existence of the fairy folk
was not questioned.
This idea that Ireland
has had this love affair
with leprechauns and fairy folk,
I would ask the question, "Well,
what is the underlying meaning
of this?"
Because stories
of fairy folk go back
at least 3,000 years in Ireland.
In the case
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
it's even earlier.
It's possible
that what we have here
is one of the earliest examples
of ancient astronaut teachers.
I've reached a certain age
in my life now
that it's not about believing,
it's just that
this is the way it is now.
So, do we believe in fairies
and leprechauns in Ireland?
Absolutely, 100%.
Is it possible
that beneath the idyllic
rolling countryside of Ireland,
there are entrances
to a hidden realm
that has been inhabited
by otherworldly beings
for more than 3,000 years?
Could they be the descendants
of extraterrestrials
who were responsible for
the creation of the human race?
Perhaps the whimsical legends
of Ireland
are not so whimsical after all,
but contain profound truths
about an alien presence on Earth
that is still with us today.
For more than 3,000 years
Ireland has maintained
a connection to ancient magic
and a mystical realm.
We have two parallel worlds,
the human world
and the otherworld.
The rolling landscape
is believed
to possess hidden power.
It is said that
the mounds acted as these
doorways into other realities.
And within these earthen mounds
are said to be powerful beings
known as the Shining Ones.
They are somehow able
to manipulate
their surroundings,
and have the knowledge
of the universe.
Are these Irish legends
more than fanciful mythology?
And if so, could there be
an extraterrestrial connection?
The ancient Irish
were saying that these beings
came from the sky.
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.
Ireland.
This lush, green island
in the North Atlantic
has a history of human activity
dating back
more than 33,000 years.
Numerous cultures
have called Ireland home,
from the early Beaker people
to the Celts and the Gaels,
and the island
has a rich tradition
of folklore that has spread
throughout the world.
But perhaps most notable
is that Ireland boasts
some of the oldest
structures on the planet.
Massive earthen mounds,
many of which date back
more than 5,000 years.
- These mounds are constructed.
- They're not natural hills.
These are
megalithic constructions,
um, involving, in the larger
sites, an enormous
amount of man hours and labor.
These would've been,
when they were made, just very,
very impressive sites.
These mounds were
an ancient earthwork
that had a tunnel
going through it
with stones on either side
and stones on top
and then covered with earth.
Ireland has a tremendous
amount of these mounds,
and these are
some of mankind's oldest
large structures in the world.
And they anchor
all of the land together.
Usually, if you visit one on top
of a hill, you go up,
you find one,
and you can do a line
of sight to the next one.
There was almost a network,
almost across
the entire island
of these sites.
The oldest known writing
in Ireland
dates to the 6th century A.D.,
more than 3,000 years
after the ancient mounds
are believed to have been built.
With no written record
about the mounds' construction,
archaeologists and historians
can only speculate
as to who made them
and for what purpose.
These things were built to go
inside, where, presumably,
very, very important rituals
took place.
We don't know,
but much later on,
these sites would've been
used for gatherings,
for rituals, and sort of
keeping the society together.
These were enormously
long-lived sites
of cultural importance.
It was enormously
long-lived societies
that used these as focal points.
30 miles north of Dublin
in County Meath is Ireland's
largest and oldest mound,
called Newgrange.
The ancient structure
consists of over
200,000 tons of stone
and has a passageway leading
to a central chamber
in which human bone fragments
have been found.
But archaeologists
say Newgrange also has
an undeniable connection
to the cosmos.
Spiral petroglyphs, thought
to symbolize the universe,
are found all around it,
and the passageway and chamber
form a cruciform shape
that researchers believe
is based on
the constellation Cygnus.
At the time Newgrange was built,
it was presumed to be
the largest structure that
mankind had
ever built in the world.
Now, one of the most interesting
things about Newgrange
is it's a celestial alignment.
This is still
very, very popular.
If you go at
the winter solstice,
you have the sun dagger that
it cuts tremendous distance
all the way in to brighten up
the inner chamber.
Newgrange is unique
among Ireland's mounds
in its sophistication,
and was clearly designed
for ritualistic activity.
But according
to ancient Irish texts,
the mounds serve a more profound
and mysterious purpose,
as the dwelling places
of otherworldly beings
traditionally called the sidhe.
The word "sidhe,"
it can mean "the mounds"
and also
can mean "the otherworld people,
the people of the mounds."
In Irish tradition,
it's bad luck to use
the word "sidhe"
to directly refer to these
otherworld people.
So, there are many
different names.
We have the English word
fairy folk, also elves.
Stories of fairies, elves,
and even leprechauns are rooted
in the ancient folklore of what
the Irish called the sidhe.
But for many Irish people,
the sidhe are not merely
mythological figures.
Fairies and leprechauns
and all that sort of stuff,
like, too many people kind of
laugh and joke about it
at times,
but it's knowledge that'd been
passed down for
thousands and thousands
of years.
We have the terrestrial world
and the subterrestrial world,
the human world, and the
superhuman or otherworld.
These worlds exist in parallel.
Occasionally, however,
there is communication
between the two worlds.
The mounds are often referred to
as "fairy forts,"
as are stone circles
and tree clusters
that are considered
the property of the sidhe.
This strong cultural belief
that these features
are the domain
of otherworldly beings
has kept them intact
for thousands of years.
And the Irish say that,
when they are disturbed,
bad luck always follows.
Seán Quinn was
the wealthiest man in Ireland.
He lost everything
because he moved a fairy fort.
He damaged a fairy fort, and he
moved it to another place.
DeLorean car manufacturers,
they came to Belfast, and were
making the DeLorean car
up in Northern Ireland,
and they built the factory
on the site of a fairy fort.
And it all came crashing down,
and the local people would say,
"Well, you know,
what do you expect?"
Ask any Irish person,
"Would you damage a fairy fort?
What would happen if
you damaged a fairy tree?"
If you gave me ten million bucks
and a Cadillac and a helicopter
and a beautiful house on
Sunset Boulevard and said
all I had to do was
chop down a fairy tree,
I'd be handing that money
straight back to you.
I wouldn't do it. No one
I know would do it either.
So, do we believe in
the fairies in Ireland? We do.
While modern-day
representations of fairies
often depict benevolent,
spritely creatures,
traditional Irish notions
of fairies are much different.
They are considered powerful
and sometimes dangerous beings.
You don't want to mess
with the aos sí.
They're not cute,
cuddly little fairies like
we-we typically think of today.
But these are very
extraordinarily powerful people.
Wielders of supernatural powers.
The sidhe, or fairy folk,
are often referred to as
the Shining Ones,
but do accounts
of their luminous
appearance suggest
that they are divine beings?
According to the
ancient Irish stories,
while the fairies have
supernatural abilities,
they are not immortal gods.
The inhabitant of
the sidhe is not necessarily
immortal in the narrative.
Sometimes they're-they're
killed or-or meet with death,
but they never grow old.
And so, if they are
killed or die,
they do so while young.
They're other, uh,
but somewhat humanoid.
Sometimes they're small
and green, they abduct people,
they have, uh, either advanced
technology or ancient magic.
And in many ways
this fairy tradition, uh,
reminds me very much
of the UFO tradition
that we have
in the United States.
When it comes to these dwellings
of the fairy folk,
there's lots of talk about
otherworldly beings
emerging from the mounds.
And also people getting taken
into the mounds
and, like, disappearing.
You hear stories
of lights in the sky
or even lights in the forest
and the woods that you see.
So, could it be possible
that the fairy folk
is a description of
extraterrestrials
back in the day?
There is absolutely an argument
that can make that case.
In our stories
relating to the sidhe,
the fairies,
call them what you will,
all of our stories say that
they came from the sky world.
Is it possible that
modern beliefs of fairies
and elves are based on
real otherworldly beings
that the Irish people
encountered centuries ago
and that may still
inhabit the island today?
And if so,
why are they thought to
dwell within the ancient mounds?
According to legend,
the sidhe did not always
live within the Earth,
and their story begins
with a group of shining beings
who arrived in flying craft.
In Ireland, tales of
the sidhe, or fairy folk,
have been passed down orally
for more than 3,000 years,
and in the 11th century,
many of these stories were
documented in a text called
The Book of Invasions.
According to this medieval
account of Irish history
and lore,
thousands of years ago,
a godlike race of beings called
the Tuatha Dé Danann landed
on a mountaintop in Ireland.
Often referred to
as the Shining Ones,
they are
the ancestors of the sidhe.
All of our stories relate back
to the Tuatha Dé Danann.
For 3000 years, at least,
if not more before that, all of
the stories from mythology are
all related to Tuatha Dé Danann.
They were the Shining Ones.
There is a description
in the mythological material
in the early Irish literature
of the Tuatha Dé Danann
arriving in, uh, cloud ships,
arriving in dark clouds
and landing on a mountain.
There was a long poem
about the arrival of
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
One of the lines says,
"The truth was not known
beneath the sky of stars,
whether they were
of heaven or of earth."
The Tuatha Dé Danann
are not human.
They're demigods.
And not immortal,
not infallible, um,
not like the gods of
monotheistic tradition of any
of the Abrahamic religions.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to be luminous
beings of large stature
who wielded magical powers.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
had an arsenal of very
technological sounding weaponry.
Lugh of the Long Arm,
for example, possessed a spear
that, when he threw it,
he could give a voice command,
and it would automatically
hit whatever target.
Then he'd give
another voice command,
and the spear would
mysteriously return to him.
We have circles of light
that they used to
travel around Ireland upon.
We have another chieftain
named Nuada
who lost an arm in a battle
against the giants,
and they were able
to replace his arm.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to have
a magical cauldron.
They had a cloak
of invisibility.
They had spears
that shot flames out.
The ancient astronaut theory
tries to look at ancient stories
in which magic happens
from a modern perspective
and determine
if that so-called magic
really was some type
of technology.
Then one has to wonder, where
did that technology come from?
Well, uh, there's only
one answer to this,
and that is extraterrestrials.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
another intriguing aspect
of these stories
is how similar they are
to accounts of sky gods found
in other ancient cultures.
The stories of
let's call them aliens
descending from clouds
on tops of mountains
are straight across the cultural
history of, uh, human beings.
Let's start with one
of the earliest ones.
The descent on Mount Hermon
in the Golan Heights.
That's where
the Nephilim came down.
Another,
in the descent of the Anunnaki,
they came from clouds.
We have other stories
in Tibet and other places
where these gods
are coming down,
and they land
on top of a mountain.
The gods of Olympus in Greece
is another example.
The stories of the
Tuatha Dé Danann
in these whirlwinds or clouds
is something that we find
in connection
with deities
in other parts of the world.
For instance,
across the Middle East,
there is the concept of djinn.
These are supernatural beings,
very often associated
with fire and light,
that can appear in whirlwinds
and manifest into physical form.
The fact that we have
countless stories
that are not just similar,
but identical,
leads me to think that
perhaps all these ancient
cultures were visited
by the same extraterrestrials.
According to ancient
astronaut theorists,
the tradition that is most
similar to the Tuatha Dé Danann
is that of the Anunnaki,
the sky gods described
by the Sumerians,
humankind's earliest
known civilization.
What you've got with
the Sumerians is
the beginnings
of-of civilization,
people living together, but also
the beginnings of writing.
You know, it's some
of the earliest written
texts that we have
are texts by these people.
These clay tablets are
5,000 years old
and more, and they
tell of the arrival of the gods,
the Anunnaki,
the pantheon of gods.
The chief was Anu.
This is the sky god
who came along
and created everything.
The term Anunnaki means
"those who from
the heavens came,"
and it refers to beings
descending from the sky,
imparting knowledge.
In the Irish stories,
the Tuatha Dé Danann
were also responsible
for imparting knowledge
to the ancient people.
Tuatha Dé Danann
were the masters
of all of the crafts,
masters of all of the arts,
and they introduced
the knowledge
in the ways of agriculture.
Tuatha Dé Danann would always
interact with the people.
It's the same as the Anunnaki.
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest
the iconography
of the Sumerians and Irish
provides additional evidence
that they encountered
the same otherworldly beings.
Both depicted the gods
as being of giant stature
compared to humans,
both portrayed them in scenes
with hybrid or flying animals,
and both have images of the gods
with horns or antlers
emerging from their heads.
But perhaps
most intriguing of all
is that there appears to be
a linguistic connection
between the Anunnaki
and the Tuatha Dé Danann.
According to some accounts,
the Tuatha Dé Danann's
original name
was the Tuatha Danu.
"The Tribe of Anu," or Danu.
Linguists are
very intrigued by this
because this encodes
the name of Anu,
the high god of the Anunnaki,
for whom they are formed,
and it suggests that perhaps
the Tuatha Dé Danann
are the descendants
of the Anunnaki.
Could the striking similarities
that exist between the stories
of the Tuatha Dé Danann
and the Anunnaki
reveal that Ireland was visited
by the same otherworldly beings
that are described by humanity's
first known civilization
roughly 3,000 miles away?
But if so,
how are they connected
to Ireland's mound dwellers,
known as the sidhe,
or fairy folk?
Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining
mysterious ancient priests
called the druids.
Kent, England
During an excavation
of an Iron Age burial site,
archaeologists uncover
the skeleton of a man
who lived around
the third century BC
and who was wearing
a unique headdress.
Based on the design
of this bronze crown,
many researchers believe
these are the first remains
ever discovered of a druid.
According to Irish legend,
the druids were a class
of ancient Celtic priests
who were in close contact
with the Shining Ones,
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The word for "druid" in Irish
is draíocht,
which literally means "magic."
So there is, uh,
an interconnection
between the Tuatha Dé Danann
and their magic
and the practice of druidry.
The Tuatha Dé Danann
were said to have been
the founders of druidism.
And the druids were said
to have all kinds
of special powers themselves.
And so, it would seem
that the Tuatha Dé Danann
had shown some of their
extraterrestrial technology
to the druids who then
were able to use it themselves.
The druidic religion originated
with the Tuatha Dé Danann,
but they were never allowed
to write down
any of the druidic knowledge.
It was taboo,
because it was so-called
sacred knowledge.
The druids spent
decades in training
to perform
their priestly functions.
These are members
of the inner circle,
as we're told.
The inner circle refers,
ultimately,
to the innermost knowledge
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
the Shining Ones.
They know their secrets and
they can wield their technology.
Portrayals of druids
as mysterious,
shaman-like figures
with mystical powers
has led some scholars
to question
if they truly existed or were
purely mythological figures.
But according to the earliest
accounts of them,
the druids were an integral
part of Celtic society
throughout the British Isles.
There are certain things
we know about the druids,
but of course there's a lot
we don't know,
and this vacuum incited
a lot of romantic speculation
in the 19th century.
And so, we're still carrying
that baggage a little bit.
The swirling robes and so on.
But in Celtic society,
in Gaelic society,
the druids exercised authority
and played
an important role, uh,
in the life of the tribe
and the society.
The druids were the holders
of knowledge.
They held and perpetuated
the knowledge
which was important
to the survival of the tribe.
They held and perpetuated
judiciary knowledge
and things sacred and spiritual.
The druid was
a very special figure,
a priest, perhaps,
a historian, perhaps,
uh, a magician, uh, perhaps,
uh, and many, many things.
These were the learned people
of Celtic society.
They-they formed
a special class.
According to Caesar,
the druids in Gall
had to study 20 years
to become a druid.
And they had many, many roles
to play,
including acting as, uh, jurist
and judges, advisers to kings.
And so, druidism, and the magic
that they were able to employ,
um, is really a-a foundational
part of early Celtic society.
And druids
are not necessarily men.
Uh, we also have a lot
of accounts of female druidry.
And it does seem
to be associated heavily
with the Tuatha Dé Danann.
They didn't just
teach things like astronomy
and, you know,
harmony in nature,
they were working with geomancy,
the placement of ancient sites
across the landscape
called geodesy.
And also
working with Earth energies
and even plant medicines.
So they had a high understanding
of these different
arts and sciences.
The druids were known
to travel far and wide,
seeking out the knowledge
of other cultures.
But they were also said
to interact directly
with the Tuatha Dé Danann,
who shared the secrets of their
so-called magical abilities.
Pliny the Elder, who was
one of the most famous
of the Roman writers
and historians,
he claimed that at a full moon,
druids would meet at a mound,
and they would trace a design
that looked something
like a dragon
on top of the mound,
and this would summon
some sort of lightning
or some phenomenon
that happened in the sky.
I don't think he saw it himself.
He was taking what he knew
from Roman soldiers
that witnessed it.
But apparently,
it frightened a lot of them.
They saw lights in the sky
once the druids
did this dragon ritual,
as it became known.
So it would seem
that the druids knew
of the power
of certain special places.
And perhaps, this is something
that would summon
the Tuatha Dé Danann.
These shining people
who came from the sky.
One of the many magical powers
the druids were said to possess
was the ability
to levitate massive stones,
which they used
to construct some
of the megalithic structures
found throughout
the British Isles.
The most famous of the druids,
of course, was Merlin.
Merlin was said to have
created Stonehenge by taking
an existing stone circle
from Ireland
and bringing it to Salisbury
Plain in Southern England.
And there, using magic powers,
he was able to raise
the stones into position
in the manner
that we see them today.
What is interesting
is that the stones
that built Stonehenge
did come from a long way away.
About 135 miles
away in South Wales.
Somehow, they were moved
to central England,
and the ancients
believed it was Merlin
who was responsible for that.
There are stories that say
that some of those big,
gigantic blocks at Stonehenge
were levitated into place
through magical incantations.
Well, what magical incantations?
Because I don't think
that levitation
can happen just by words.
There has to be some type
of technology behind it.
The idea is that, basically,
this was extraterrestrial
knowledge imparted
by the Tuatha Dé Danann.
When the Romans were here,
they say that the druids
had this power
to build stone circles
of which there were thousands
throughout the British Isles.
Stonehenge, Avebury, Newgrange.
These places, we find
legends attached to the druids
that they were able to float
the stones through the air.
Is it possible
that a secret society
of Celtic priests
who lived more
than 2,000 years ago
had access
to otherworldly technology?
According
to the ancient accounts,
while the druids
were the disciples
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
it would ultimately be a druid
who brought their reign
in Ireland to an end
and drove them underground.
County Kerry, 1700 B.C.
A fleet of ships arrives on
the southern shores of Ireland,
carrying invaders
from the south.
According to early
Irish accounts,
they are aided by a druid
named Amergin
in their conquest of Ireland.
Amergin was seeking revenge
for his great uncle,
who had been killed by the three
kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
These were the sons of Míl,
better known as the Milesians.
The Milesians came out
of the Mediterranean,
probably from Greece or Crete
or Anatolia, modern day Turkey.
And they arrived in Ireland,
and huge battles took place
between the Tuatha Dé Danann
and the Milesians.
Many stories have been
written about these battles,
but according to the most
trusted sources,
the Tuatha Dé Danann
agreed to a truce
to save their beloved Ireland.
They did not come
to the Earth to do warfare.
They came to heal the Earth
and to work with the Earth
and work with Mother Earth
and all of the good energies.
What was agreed upon that, um,
this country will be shared,
there was room enough
for everyone in this country.
And it was agreed
that the Milesians
would live on the ground,
on the earth itself,
but that the Tuatha Dé Danann
would go beneath the earth,
inside mounds of earth
that were known as sidhe.
These acted as these doorways
into a realm
where, forever after,
the Tuatha Dé Danann would live.
It's said that they all
turned sideways into the light
and just disappeared
underground.
The Milesians then took control
of the surface of Ireland.
Modern-day Irish people
are thought to be descendants
of the Milesians.
Legend states that after
the Tuatha Dé Danann
descended below ground,
a mysterious evolution
took place.
Once the Tuatha
went underground,
they evolved over many years
into something known
as the aos sí.
That's better known in later
mythology as the elfen folk.
Elves.
After the Tuatha Dé Danann
entered into the earthen mounds,
or sidhe,
they became beings
that could appear
in physical form
but could equally vanish.
Humans were able
to interact with them,
often when they would see
some kind of light
that would be emanating
from these earthen mounds.
They would go towards them.
And when they were able
to look into these lights,
they could see the Tuatha Dé
Danann, the sidhe, the fairies.
People would be able
to join them in this realm.
Reports of elves and fairies
and little people have been
around in Ireland
as long as people
have lived there.
People saw something.
They saw some types of beings.
People still see
these beings even today.
One location in Ireland
where sightings
of fairies are often reported
is at the Hill of Tara,
which is home to numerous
ancient mounds
as well as a monolith
called Lia Fáil.
Legend states that this monolith
was a gift
from the Shining Ones.
The Lia Fáil
means the "Stone of Destiny,"
and it refers
to a standing stone,
about five feet tall
in County Meath, Ireland.
In the legends of Lia Fáil,
we have the Tuatha Dé Danann
bringing the energy
of this stone
down with them
to this powerful place.
This place of extraordinary
energy and current
because it can interact
with the energy in the land.
The power of the land itself
is the reason
that the Danann come to this
location, the Hill of Tara.
It was said that when
the rightful king of Ireland
came in contact with Lia Fáil,
it would scream out to announce
that this was the rightful
king of all Ireland.
It would then imbue the king
with qualities of strength
and longevity and health,
in order that he might
reign over Ireland
for a very long time.
To this day, ceremonies
take place on the Hill of Tara.
The ancient Irish
associated this stone
with the elven folk
and the fairies,
and people continue
to see them today,
and probably,
we will continue to see them
in the future as well.
If otherworldly beings
called the Tuatha Dé Danann
truly existed
in ancient Ireland,
is it possible that
they are still present today,
now known as the sidhe,
or fairy folk,
who inhabit the thousands
of earthen mounds
found throughout the country?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest that they may occupy
a parallel dimension.
Today, organizations exist
throughout the world
that investigate
potential encounters
with extraterrestrials
visiting Earth.
But long before
these groups existed,
the people of the British Isles
were examining another
type of otherworldly phenomenon.
In the 1920s, something very
strange happened in Ireland.
There were suddenly
mass sightings of fairies.
So much so that a captain,
Quintin Craufurd,
formed what he called
the Society for
the Investigation of Fairies,
which was a very scientific
and serious approach
at collecting data
about these fairy sightings.
Like a modern UFO group today,
their mission was
to study elves,
figure elves out,
what they were doing there,
try to communicate with elves.
And they absolutely believed
that fairies and elves
were real and existed
throughout the British Isles.
People from all walks of life
contacted the organization
reporting encounters with beings
they believed were fairies.
Witnesses described fairies
leading them to buried relics,
walking through solid walls,
and even transforming
into orbs of light.
This society did
important research
up until World War II, when
their records were destroyed.
And then in 1949,
they began doing research again.
Hundreds of members joined
the society in the 1950s,
including Walt Disney.
Now, what's amazing about this
is that in order to become
a member of the society,
you had to declare
an absolute belief
in the existence of fairies.
And who other than Walt Disney
in the modern world
is more closely connected
to fairies?
The idea that you would
actually have
a very serious society
that was looking into fairies,
shows that in the British Isles
and in Ireland,
the whole concept of elven folk
and fairies and leprechauns
is very real
and continues to this day.
In 1969,
French astronomer Jacques Vallée
published a groundbreaking book
on unexplained phenomena
called Passport to Magonia:
From Folklore to Flying Saucers.
In it, he proposed that
historical accounts of fairies
and other strange beings
could be the same phenomenon
that today is interpreted
as extraterrestrial.
Jacques did what I think is one
of the most important books
about the UFO phenomena,
trying to understand,
of all the things
in the sky and on the ground
through history that have either
been painted, photographed,
caught on radar,
what are they and why are they?
Every culture speaks
of the "others,"
whether it be the wee people,
the leprechauns,
or the fairies
or the angels or the demons.
Our brothers in Islam
know them very well,
and they're called the djinn.
And the one thing
that is taught about the djinn
is essentially,
they are energetic beings,
and their place of residence is
in the domains of inner earth.
And this leads us
to ask the question,
if the domains of inner earth
are actually physical
within this dimension
or possibly
in a parallel dimension.
According to Vallée,
the strange beings that humans
have reported encountering
for thousands of years may,
in fact, be interdimensional.
Vallée believes that
from the time of the Big Bang,
if it created one universe,
why couldn't it create
a multitude of universes?
Might there be connections
between the different
universes where elements
from the other universe
cross into our universe,
and where elements of
our universe cross into theirs?
That would explain how people
coming upon the sidhe
might not just see an
underground civilization,
but they might see an
interdimensional civilization.
Could it be that sightings
of fairies
and similar figures described
in other ancient traditions
are encounters with beings
that occupy parallel dimensions?
And if so,
are these the same beings
described today
as extraterrestrials?
There are possible parallels
between the sidhe
or fairies that seem
to be similar to UFO,
uh, accounts.
For example,
seeing strange lights.
Like what's known as,
in Irish and British tradition,
the will-o'-the-wisp.
Um, these fairy lights
that move,
uh, and lead people astray.
When you get
to the 20th century,
and where people were trying
to figure out human abductions,
you start hearing
from people saying,
"Well, they shape-shifted
in front of me."
"There were beams of light
that took us up and down."
"They can disappear, they
can go through windows, walls."
And those are the same verbs
and nouns that were being used
in the centuries before
in Ireland and other places
about fairies and so-called
pretend creatures.
There are stories
and personal experiences
similar to UFO accounts
that have been recorded,
of missing time
where somebody i-is taken
into the otherworld
by the fairies,
and, uh, thinks they've
been there for a few hours,
but it's been a few days
when they return.
Oftentimes, you hear stories
of missing time, of people
disappearing for weeks,
or losing their memory
for significant events,
and frankly,
that is similar to what you hear
from modern-day
UFO abduction stories.
Could it be that the folklore
of cultures all around the globe
is based on
an otherworldly presence
that people
have been encountering
since humankind's
earliest history?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and according to the Irish,
at least once a year,
the veil is lifted
between our realm and theirs.
The Hill of Uisneach, Ireland.
Located 60 miles west of Dublin.
This site has been sacred
to the Irish for centuries.
Each year in early May,
locals gather
at this sacred site
to celebrate
the ancient festival of Beltane.
Dating back more
than 3,000 years,
Beltane and its famous bonfire
provide a link between
modern Christian Ireland
and its pagan Celtic past.
This festival is
the traditional start of summer.
The Celtic peoples
divided the year
into a dark half
and then a bright half,
marked at Beltane.
It was so important
that people understood
precise times of year
for agricultural reasons.
The people working the fields
didn't have
the knowledge of astronomy.
So the fire was a signal,
and they saw the fire.
From the highest point
on Uisneach,
20 counties are visible.
So once the main fire is lit
on Uisneach in a circle,
all of the hills around
light their fires,
and then it spreads and spreads
throughout the whole country.
And it happens instantly.
The fire is a signal
to all of the country
that now is the summertime.
But Beltane,
which is also celebrated
at other ancient sites
throughout Ireland, serves
another, more profound purpose.
Many Irish believe
that during this festival,
it is possible for humans
to peer inside the mounds
into an entirely
different reality.
There's a threshold or boundary
between worlds
that becomes thin.
And human beings can see
into the otherworld
or encounter otherworldly
beings, uh, more easily.
Beltane, or May Day,
is associated very strongly
with the sidhe,
the fairy people,
the Shining Ones.
Through festivals like Beltane,
the people of Ireland
maintain a strong connection
to the traditions of their past,
traditions of shining beings
who came down from the sky
and continue to live on
within the ancient mounds.
When I was growing
up in Ireland,
people, at least in the,
in the rural areas
and Ireland
was very rural at the time
nobody would admit
to not believing in the fairies.
The existence of the fairy folk
was not questioned.
This idea that Ireland
has had this love affair
with leprechauns and fairy folk,
I would ask the question, "Well,
what is the underlying meaning
of this?"
Because stories
of fairy folk go back
at least 3,000 years in Ireland.
In the case
of the Tuatha Dé Danann,
it's even earlier.
It's possible
that what we have here
is one of the earliest examples
of ancient astronaut teachers.
I've reached a certain age
in my life now
that it's not about believing,
it's just that
this is the way it is now.
So, do we believe in fairies
and leprechauns in Ireland?
Absolutely, 100%.
Is it possible
that beneath the idyllic
rolling countryside of Ireland,
there are entrances
to a hidden realm
that has been inhabited
by otherworldly beings
for more than 3,000 years?
Could they be the descendants
of extraterrestrials
who were responsible for
the creation of the human race?
Perhaps the whimsical legends
of Ireland
are not so whimsical after all,
but contain profound truths
about an alien presence on Earth
that is still with us today.