[narrator]
For over 2,000 years,
rain-drenched jungles and fertile plains
served as the home
of one of the ancient world's greatest civilizations:
the Maya.
Scholars estimate that between 250 and 900 A.D.,
the Mayan population consisted
of between 15 to 20 million people...
and extended as far south as Costa Rica and Guatemala.
Archeological evidence suggests the Maya
were one of the first ancient people
to develop a written language,
used modern mathematical methods,
and built massive multi-story celestial observatories.
All at a time when Europeans were struggling
through the so-called Dark Ages.
[Morton]
with hyper-advanced astronomy, astrology,
trigonometry, architecture.
All of these things while the Europeans were,
at the time, rolling around in the mud.
[narrator]
was their system of charting the stars and planets
in the form of a calendar.
The Mayans were timekeepers above and beyond
all other things.
Keeping up with time was magic. It was power to the Mayans.
[Stone]
phases of the moon, eclipses.
But they also tracked precession,
which was an extraordinarily long cycle.
What it means is that
every year on, say, March 15th,
the Pleiades...
rise for the first time in the sky.
If you wait 72 years,
the day of the rising of the Pleiades
will be one day earlier.
And if you wait another 72 years,
it'll be a day earlier still.
And if you wait 26,000 years,
the Pleiades will move back to that same day.
[narrator]
the Maya believed that time, like the stars,
moved in repeating patterns, called calendar cycles.
[Morton]
Not only did they know where the center of the galaxy was,
but they understood that it was a light year
across a black hole that they call the Great Rift.
The Maya believed this was the birth canal
of the universe,
and that all things came
from the birth canal of the universe.
And on December 21st, 2012,
the Earth, the sun, and this birth canal,
the dark rift, are all in perfect alignment.
And this only happens every 26,000 years.
[narrator]
ends on the same day as this rare alignment
in the Milky Way galaxy
be a mere coincidence?
And did this advanced understanding
of celestial cycles really come from ancient Mayan astronomers
observing the stars with only their naked eyes?
[Hawkes]
came to them from their gods, and their gods then existed
in the stars.
So is it possible that these gods
could have been extraterrestrials?
The answer to that question is yes, it's possible.
[Tsoukalos]
this knowledge was not something
that they came up with,
but it was given to them as a gift from the gods.
The gift back then was not material stuff.
It was knowledge.
Knowledge is the currency of the universe.
[narrator]
in the United States.
Many of them, like the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni
have stories of otherworldly beings
visiting Earth.
Often referred to as "star beings,"
these alien visitors are said to come down from the sky
to teach mankind.
And in some cases, they're even said to mate
with human women,
resulting in the birth of star children.
[Burkhart]
are quite common in Native culture.
There can be quite a variety
of forms of that sort of thing as well.
But typically, there's a star and a human being
that join together,
and a child is born from that union.
They were then cared for and raised
by the Indian tribes until the age of six,
when the star beings would return
and retrieve the star children...
and leave the entire tribe staring up into the night sky,
wondering what had happened to them and where they'd gone.
That's quite an interesting story in itself,
to give birth to a star child
and then have it taken from you.
There's also the story of some star children
had been left behind
to become interwoven into the tribe.
A lot of them later in life become elders,
even at a very young age.
And that's because they're believed to carry the ability
or the knowledge to heal the Earth.
[narrator]
a tribe of more than 18,000
living on a reservation in northeastern Arizona,
it is the star children
who will ultimately repair
what they call the
meaning a life of corruption and turmoil,
or life out of balance.
[Hawkes]
It's not balanced any longer.
And it's the star children that live among the Hopi
that advise even the elders
on how to put the Earth back into balance again.
[Boylan]
is going to be not only to inherit the Earth,
as the phrase goes, but to reform the Earth.
To remake human society.
[narrator]
it is said that the star children
will prepare humankind
for the arrival of what they call the Blue Star.
And the Kachina, or Star Being,
who will arrive with it.
[lightning crashing]
There's a lot of debate what the Blue Star is.
But when the Blue Star comes...
it will crash to the Earth.
This dwelling place in the sky will crash to the Earth.
And the Blue Star Kachina will take off his mask
in the village plaza.
And that will be the end of the fourth world.
[narrator]
as a house in the sky,
leaving some ancient astronaut theorists to suggest
that this prophecy is a reference
to the impending arrival of extraterrestrial life.
Some Hopi refer to the Blue Star as a house in the sky,
or a dwelling in the ferment
that one day will descend from the stars
amidst a fiery crash.
Now, what does this mean?
To me, what is described here
might be the eventual arrival of extraterrestrial craft.
The day they will return
will change mankind's history forever,
because then the truth will be revealed
to the masses in one instant
for everyone to see.
[narrator]
Located 11 miles from Nazareth,
this ancient city is mentioned more than a dozen times
in the Bible,
most prominently
in the prophetic Book of Revelation.
According to the religious text,
it is outside this city
on the so-called plains of Megiddo
where the forces of the Almighty God
will wage a final battle against Satan
and the forces of evil.
The Book of Revelation is certainly one of the most
complicated books in the Bible.
And it belongs to a separate set of material
that's called apocalyptic.
It is a book that gives visions of the future to come.
[Peterson]
in a valley in Israel,
called Megiddo,
or
Thus, "Armageddon" we get the term.
Satan himself will gather the armies of the world
to Megiddo to fight Jesus Christ.
Satan takes on a more physical appearance.
Uses various technologies
to enslave more and more of mankind.
Ultimately, he becomes a geopolitical force.
Basically, essentially, a dictator of the entire world.
[narrator]
further describes that this battle
will be fought in heaven and on Earth.
Angels will descend from the sky.
Demons will spread out across the land
to destroy with fiery swords.
And the Almighty God will reign destruction
down upon Earth.
[McGowan]
is really a pretty terrifying document
if we're to look at it and think
that these things could happen literally.
I mean, when you look at what's happening in the book,
we have cataclysms on the Earth.
We have earthquakes, fire raining from the sky.
We have angels doing battle in heaven.
And then repeatedly, we have Satan coming back.
[narrator]
isn't a doomsday prediction of cataclysm and war,
but it has another even more profound interpretation?
The Book of Revelation gives us some of the clearest depictions
of what not a few moderns would call
extraterrestrial activity.
Think about it.
We have supernatural beings flying through the cosmos,
blowing trumpets, casting fire upon the Earth.
We have great conflict between light and darkness,
good and evil.
There's a cosmic dualism going on here
that involves, in the end,
the reassertion of divine authority
over those wayward angels who had gone astray
so long ago.
[narrator]
Could the Bible's Book of Revelation
really be referring to a galactic war?
One waged over the ultimate fate of mankind.
If so, who or what is Satan?
Is he a demon? The devil?
The personification of evil?
Or was he, in fact,
a benevolent extraterrestrial being?
One who stole technology from alien beings
in an effort to lead early man out of darkness and ignorance?
If so, then why did Satan become a force for evil?
Does he seek to punish mankind
for siding with our creator against him?
Perhaps he is testing us,
using alien technology to modify human behavior
in ways we have yet to understand.
He's this idea of an adversary,
this idea of a liar or a tester,
combined with this concept of Lucifer, the fallen angel,
combined with this leader of the watchers,
who also leads a rebellion.
And I think that ultimately what we find
is that Lucifer is a conflation.
A character who is a composite
of all of these different ideas and different characters.
It's important for us to remember
that Satan is part of the class of angels
called seraphim.
The seraphim were sent to Earth
as benefactors of humankind, bringing wisdom.
The Church has created this evil monster out of Satan,
perhaps even out of thin air,
when in reality, Satan's entire mission
was about bringing knowledge and wisdom to humanity.
And, in fact, caring about humanity,
not seeking to destroy humankind.
[Childress]
You cannot have the light without the dark.
You can't have right without wrong.
And we have to learn these things for ourselves.
And ultimately, through choice,
wrong and right,
we grow and we become who we are.
And ultimately, that is to be...
like our makers.
To become gods ourselves.