Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 18, Episode 10 - The Time Benders - full transcript

NARRATOR: Extraordinary
accounts of missing time.

BRUCE GERNON: Once the
aircraft penetrated the tunnel,

time started changing instantly.

It only took three
minutes and 20 seconds

to fly a hundred miles.

NARRATOR: Otherworldly
events that seem to alter reality.

JOHN BURROUGHS: It seemed like
everything was going in slow motion,

like everything
was slowing down.

NARRATOR:
Sightings of strange craft

changing location
instantaneously.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
These vehicles are able



to pop in and pop out

of either time or
another dimension.

NARRATOR: Could
extraterrestrials

have mastered the ability
to travel through time?

Is Earth being visited not only
by entities from other planets

but also from the future,
or even the distant past?

Perhaps an alien
civilization in outer space,

thousands of years
more advanced than us,

may be able to time travel.

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: Mount Pion, Turkey.

Here, where the ancient Greek
city of Ephesus once stood,

lie the ruins of
a religious site

known as the grotto
of the Seven Sleepers.

The grotto is thought
to be the location

where, many centuries ago,

a group of seven men
experienced a shift in time.

In the Christian
and Islamic story

of the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus,

we learn the amazing
story of seven warriors

who professed
Christianity in 250 AD,

when it was just beginning
to emerge as a new religion.

The Roman emperor offered
these warriors an opportunity

to recant and to
disavow their Christianity.

Instead, they decide to
sell all their possessions

and go into a cave,
and in response,

the-the emperor decides

to seal this cave with
the Sleepers inside of it.

Several hundred years go by,

and a shepherd
chances upon this cave.

[bleating]

And he breaks down the
wall, and the seven people

inside of the cave have been
sleeping for hundreds of years,

and it's now 300 years later.

And they're still alive,
these Seven Sleepers.

These Sleepers then
go into Ephesus...

and nothing looks the same.

Something they
noticed is that there are

Christian crosses everywhere,

because by now,
Christianity has taken over.

AMIR HUSSAIN: With the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus you think,

"Okay, is it that there's
some miracle here,"

or have they been in a
place where the time line,

you know, has-has
shifted, and so,

what seems 300 years to them

has been a much
shorter amount of time.

NARRATOR: While many
scholars regard this story as fictional,

millions of Christians
and Muslims believe

a true miracle took place,
and that these seven warriors

were transported
into the future.

In fact, hundreds of graves
have been found at the grotto

dating back to
the fifth century,

along with
inscriptions indicating

that people were buried there
because it was considered

a location of great power.

Today, it remains a
popular pilgrimage site,

serving as a testament to
humankind's preoccupation

with one of the most significant
and least understood forces

in the universe: time.

What is time? That's
a great question.

It's a fundamental question.

We all normally live

along the straight line of time,

from the past,
present, to the future.

But the question is, is
there a way around that,

a way to travel through time?

JONATHAN YOUNG:
Time is important to us.

The passage of
time is an item of grief

that we all know is universal.

We have a kind of
longing to defeat time.

HENRY: Why has time
travel stuck around for so long

in human consciousness?

I think this idea that you
can go into the ancient past

or travel into the future
is the ultimate trip.

NARRATOR: The notion of breaking
free from the seemingly inescapable bonds

of time has existed in the
human imagination for centuries.

But modern concepts of
time travel are largely credited

to science fiction
author H.G. Wells,

who, in his 1895 book The Time Machine, speculated

as to how time travel might
be scientifically possible.

MICHIO KAKU: H.G. Wells
began to say to himself,

"If we can move in space,
why can't we move in time?

And that's the beginning of
his novel The Time Machine.

H.G. Wells said it
takes three coordinates

to locate an object in space.

Time, therefore, is
the fourth dimension.

We need four
coordinates to identify

any event in our universe.

ANDREW COLLINS:
H.G. Wells talked about

the idea that space and time
were somehow linked together.

And the protagonist of the
book was able to go, at will,

any time into the future
or any time into the past,

to actually experience
and see what was going on.

NARRATOR: Could humankind
one day be able to travel back in time

or even into the future?

Incredibly, just a decade
after the publication

of The Time Machine,

Albert Einstein proposed a
similar vision of time travel.

HUGH NEWMAN:
H.G. Wells, in 1895,

mentioned the idea of time
and space being connected.

Now, this is interesting,
because Albert Einstein

came up with the
theory of relativity,

where he also proposed that
time and space are connected.

Time used to be thought of
in Newtonian classical physics

as something absolute.

It didn't change,
it was the same

for everybody everywhere.

Einstein came along in 1905,

published a paper
on special relativity,

and demonstrated that
time's actually relative.

Now, in Einstein's theory,

space and time are
linked to each other.

That's why it's
called spacetime.

Whatever you do to
space also happens to time.

A rotating black hole can
cause a twisting of space.

Time is linked to space.

So if I'm twisting
space, I can twist time.

Mathematically,
this has been shown.

I can travel from the
future back into the past.

We haven't been able
to do it yet experimentally,

but it's a real
part of Einstein's

general theory of relativity.

NARRATOR: Is it
possible that spacetime

can be manipulated
to travel into the past?

And if so, how close
is modern science

to achieving such
an incredible feat?

The University of
Connecticut, 2021.

Theoretical physicist and
professor Dr. Ronald Mallett

works closely with a team
of researchers on a project

to realize his lifelong dream:

the creation of a time machine.

By using a mechanism
called a ring laser,

Dr. Mallett believes that he can
manipulate the fabric of space

and time to create a door
that can open to the past.

MALLETT: What I did was I solved

Einstein's gravitational
field equations,

and I was able to show
that a circulating beam

of laser light will cause
a twisting of space.

There is a device,
it's called a ring laser.

All it is is a device
that causes light

to move around in a loop.

You can get it to do that in
a number of different ways.

Bouncing it off
mirrors, for example.

And I was able to show
that a circulating beam

of laser light will cause
a twisting of space.

What I was able to show
further is that if this twisting

of space was strong enough,

it could lead to time
being twisted into a loop.

And these loops in time
could allow for the possibility

of time travel in the past.

This is all anchored
in Einstein's

general theory of relativity.

NARRATOR: While
Dr. Mallett's time machine

may be theoretically sound,

one major hurdle
stands in his way:

harnessing massive
amounts of energy.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
The real constraint

with a time machine
at the moment

is the energy involved,
because you have to bend

the dimension that's time.

KAKU: The energy at
which you can create

a gateway through space and
time is called the Planck energy.

The Planck energy
is a quadrillion times

more powerful than our
most powerful machine,

the Large Hadron Collider.

We're talking about
the energy of a star.

Perhaps an alien
civilization in outer space,

thousands of years
more advanced than us,

may be able to access
the Planck energy.

That cannot be ruled out.

NARRATOR: If
extraterrestrial civilizations

have the technology to traverse
the vast distances of space,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest,

might they have also
mastered the ability

to travel through time?

Perhaps further
clues can be found

by examining incredible
stories of time travel

found in some of the
earliest texts ever written.

NARRATOR: After a
record-breaking 340 days

abord the International
Space Station,

astronaut Scott Kelly returns to
the NASA Johnson Space Center.

The mission was designed
to help researchers

understand the effects
of long-term spaceflight

on the human body.

Scott's identical twin brother
and former astronaut Mark Kelly

remained on Earth to
serve as the control subject.

While Scott was in space,

his immune system
was more active,

his vision deteriorated

and he lost more bone
mass compared to Mark.

But perhaps the most
significant difference

was that for Scott,
time had slowed down.

When they measured the
aging acceleration of Scott Kelly

and Mark Kelly,
the twins, it turns out

that Scott was 0.5
milliseconds younger than Mark.

And so, what's going on here?

TRAVIS TAYLOR: So, that
actually fits with time dilation.

It's a phenomenon that
we have observed to be real,

that the closer you
go to the speed of light,

the more time
slows down for you.

KAKU: According
to Einstein's theory

of special relativity,

the faster you move,
the slower time gets.

So, if you have a telescope
and could look inside

a rocket ship speeding
near the speed of light,

everyone inside that
rocket would be frozen,

moving at a
different rate in time.

Given that the space station
orbits around the planet Earth

at about 17,500 miles per hour,

you can actually calculate
how slow time must be

on the space station.

And so, we can actually measure
this effect in the laboratory.

MALLETT: Imagine, in the future,
when we have rockets that can go

close to the speed of light.

They could find that days,
maybe years had passed

for the people on
board the rocket.

But when they come
back, they would find out

that decades had
passed here on the Earth.

They could come back and find

that they are younger
than their children.

Time travel to
the future is real.

We've seen the baby steps
of it. But it has happened.

NARRATOR: If space travel
has revealed to humankind

the possibilities that
exist for manipulating time,

is it possible that somewhere

in the vast expanse
of the universe,

other intelligent beings
have advanced to the point

where they are able to move
through time as easily as space?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe evidence can be found

in ancient texts
that our ancestors

may have already witnessed

or even experienced
the bending of time.

YOUNG: There's this
wonderful book of stories,

an epic in Hindu
culture, the Mahabharata,

written in the third century
before the Common Era,

but this was writing
down oral traditions

that were much,
much older than that.

And one of the tales
is when King Raivata

goes up into the
heavens and meets God,

the great creator
god Brahma himself.

TSOUKALOS: King Raivata was actually
taken into the heavens in a chariot

to visit this gigantic palace
that was in the celestial realm.

And when King Raivata came
back, much to his surprise,

he did not recognize
a single person

that was in his neighborhood.

In fact, it turns out
that he had returned

hundreds of years later.

Now, how is such a
thing even possible?

CHILDRESS: Here we have

what is perhaps the first story

of time dilation,

where someone has
gone up into space,

in, say, a spaceship, and
all this time has passed.

Which is exactly what Einstein
had talked about in 1905.

Only, this is a story from
thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR: Could King Raivata's
experience be a historical account

of a time dilation event

that occurred
thousands of years ago?

For ancient astronaut theorists,

this possibility
is made stronger

when considering the
fact that similar stories

were told in other
parts of the world...

Like in Egypt, where
ancient hieroglyphs

describe a celestial craft
called the solar barge of Ra.

TSOUKALOS: There are
many references in ancient Egypt

about Ra's solar barge,
which was this vehicle

that they described that
they saw cross the sky.

This solar barge is also known
as the Ship of a Million Years.

NARRATOR: According to an ancient
document known as the Turin King List,

which contains a record
of all Egyptian rulers

up until 1300 BC,

the earliest pharaohs
lived for hundreds

or even thousands of years.

These were the pharaohs
who were said to have journeyed

to the stars on the
solar barge of Ra.

HUSSAIN: You look at
some of these records

from the Egyptians
and you think,

well, okay, if there
is this phenomenon

of time dilation, if these
pharaohs really are travelling

on craft at very high speeds,
then when they come back,

they're still young, the
Earth has aged tremendously,

and so, is that part of it?

Is that how you have pharaohs
that lived hundreds of years?

You see this effect that
we now call time dilation

in various ancient cultures.

TSOUKALOS: There is an
artifact at the Ashmolean Museum

in Oxford, England
that is called

the WB44 Kings List
of ancient Sumeria.

It lists the exact
reigning periods

of all the kings of
ancient Sumeria.

The total is 266,000 years,

and there are crazy
reigning periods

that are recorded
very specifically,

and I think they knew
perfectly well how to record time.

HUSSAIN: You have
these figures in the Bible

that live for
hundreds of-of years.

The oldest figure in
the Bible is Methuselah,

the grandfather of Noah,

and he dies, the Bible
tells us, the age of 969.

NARRATOR: According
to the Hebrew Bible,

Methuselah's father Enoch

left the Earth
in a fiery chariot,

and was 365 years old

when God chose for him to
remain in the heavenly realm.

All other pre-flood Patriarchs

are recorded as living
for more than 700 years.

CHILDRESS: Certainly one way
that they would be able to have

these incredibly
extended lives would be

that they are
traveling through space

and coming back and therefore,

400, 900 years can go by,

and-and t-that's essentially
their age on Earth.

TSOUKALOS: These concepts

should not be described
by our ancestors

because it should have exceeded
their knowledge at the time,

but the fact that
multiple stories exist

where someone wakes
up or gets returned

hundreds of years
after certain events...

that's strange.

NARRATOR: Could these
stories be historical accounts

of ancient people
experiencing time dilation

after traveling aboard
alien spacecraft?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and suggest other accounts,
both ancient and modern,

may reveal that
extraterrestrials

have the ability
to manipulate time

in even more extraordinary ways.

NARRATOR: Royal Air Force Wing
Commander Sir Robert Victor Goddard

is dispatched to inspect
an old, disused airfield

near Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sir Robert Victor Goddard
was flying over an airfield

to survey and see if
the airfield could be used

in the future,

and while he's flying over
it, he noticed there's cracks

in the airfield and
there's grass growing up

and cows are eating
the grass and so on.

He's flying home and
he gets kind of lost,

or turned around
a bit in a storm,

so he decides to fly back to
where he was to get a bearing.

On the return journey, he
encountered very strange, uh,

yellow and brown clouds.

Almost like he entered into
some kind of otherworldly portal.

And he came out of there

and found himself
in bright sunlight.

And going over
the same airfield,

everything was renovated.

And there were aircraft
out there on the tarmac.

But they were painted yellow.

And there were people tending
these aircraft dressed in blue.

NARRATOR: When Goddard landed

and told his
colleagues what he saw,

they insisted it
was not possible,

since RAF planes were
painted silver at that time

and mechanics'
uniforms were tan-colored.

However, just a few years later,

the RAF changed the color
of both their training planes

and mechanics uniforms,
which Goddard witnessed

when he flew over Drem
airfield again in 1939.

He's making another
flight and realizes,

"There are the planes, at Drem.

"They are painting them yellow.

The people have
on blue uniforms."

It is exactly what he
remembered seeing

when he came out from
beyond this yellow cloud

four years before in 1935.

COLLINS: Some
people have suggested

that Victor Goddard's experience

could be extraterrestrial in
nature, and that, just maybe,

he was thrust through time

by a yellow and brown
cloud that he encountered.

There are many examples
of these weird clouds

being encountered in
different parts of the world.

NARRATOR: Ancient
astronaut theorists propose

that an alien civilization
advanced enough

to achieve interstellar travel
may also possess the technology

to create portals through time.

And they suggest further
evidence that such gateways

have been established
here on Earth can be found

by examining the
extraordinary events

that have occurred in
the Bermuda Triangle.

At 3:00 in the afternoon,

pilot Bruce Gernon
departs from Andros Island

bound for Palm Beach,
Florida, just north of Miami.

It's a route that he's flown

many times before
without incident,

but this flight will
be unlike any other.

Since I've been flying
for 47 years now, uh...

I've had a lot of
flights in that area.

But this experience
I'll never forget.

It all started a hundred
miles east of Miami

when I found myself
surrounded by this strange storm.

Time started changing instantly.

And I believe I actually got
to see the fabric of time itself

as I watched the tunnel rotate.

When I reached the other
end, the tunnel collapsed.

And I reached the
shoreline of Miami Beach.

It only took three
minutes and 20 seconds

to fly a hundred miles.

I should have been able to fly
only ten miles, approximately.

Not 100 miles.

HENRY: I think that what
he must have experienced

is perhaps some
kind of a time shift,

or he entered into
an anomalous vortex

that perhaps was some
kind of a time portal.

We don't know, but it's a very
curious example of time travel.

NARRATOR: Could it be

that the route Bruce
Gernon traveled

led him into a
portal through time?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

this incredible possibility
is even more intriguing

because of the area where it
happened, the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle is
really located off of, uh, Florida.

The northern point of it
is the island of Bermuda.

It then goes down to,
essentially, southern Florida,

and then out into The Bahamas.

And this is an area
that has historically

had strange phenomenon.

NARRATOR: While
Gernon was fortunate enough

to have survived his
harrowing experience,

many ships and aircraft
traveling through this region

have disappeared
without a trace.

In one extraordinary case

that occurred on
December 5, 1945,

five Navy Avenger
torpedo bombers,

known as Flight 19, all went
missing at the same time.

All five of their compasses
were not working correctly,

and they had two
navigational instruments

that they could use,
and they were not

- working properly, either.
- [alarm buzzing]

NARRATOR: The planes
disappeared from radar,

and their last communication

consisted of nothing
but eerie static.

[radio static]

The Navy immediately
sent a team to search

for the missing bombers, but
they never recovered any debris.

Is it possible that
the Bermuda Triangle

is subject to
portals or vortexes

that create these mysteries?

What we do know
is that it is a place

of intensive
electromagnetic activity,

and this is something
that we can tell

from the fact that so
many aircraft and ships

experience problems
with their instrumentation.

NARRATOR: Might the Bermuda
Triangle be an electromagnetic hot spot

where portals capable
of manipulating time

open and close?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and they believe that these
portals may help explain

some of the strange,
otherworldly activity

reported in the area.

Many UFO sightings

and m-more modern
UAP, uh, videos

have been released show unusual
flight dynamics and capabilities

of these... whatever they are.

Well, it may be
they're creating portals,

in our universe and in
our time and our space,

that they can move in
and out of, uh, at will.

There's no reason
to, uh, say they can't

until we know what they are.

NARRATOR: Is it
possible that visitors

from other worlds
are utilizing portals

in the Bermuda Triangle

to travel through
time and space?

And if so, do such portals
already exist naturally,

or are they being created

with some type of
extraterrestrial technology?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining the account
of a UFO witness who claims

to have received a
message from the future.

NARRATOR: In Suffolk County,
England, there is a remote forest

in the village of Rendlesham

that has become
famous for being the site

of one of the most extraordinary
UFO encounters ever reported.

And some of those
who experienced it

believe this incident
also involved time travel.

The event occurred
on December 26, 1980.

Airman John Burroughs
was performing

a routine security check
at a U.S. Air Force base

when he received orders

to investigate a
possible downed aircraft.

BURROUGHS: My supervisor
called me on the radio and asked

to meet up with him so we
could check the east gate.

We're driving down the
road leading to the east gate

to check on it when
all of a sudden he saw

some strange
lights in the forest.

So I decided we'll call it in

and let them know something
strange was going on.

They decided to send one
of the security units down.

So it was Sergeant Penniston.

He got down there and he
saw the same strange lights

that we were seeing.

JAMES PENNISTON: So I
could see all these multiple

color lights and
things like that.

And the air felt different.

I don't know how
to really explain that.

But it did feel like
there was electricity

on our skin and hair and stuff.

But that progressively got worse

the closer we
got to the tree line.

And it got more intense.

BURROUGHS: There seemed to be,
like, an electricity-charged atmosphere,

and then, also, there
were points where there...

It seemed like everything
was going in slow motion.

NARRATOR: As the servicemen
approached the strange lights,

Sergeant Penniston
reportedly saw a large craft

just beyond the tree line.

PENNISTON: The craft
was triangular in shape,

measuring about
six to seven feet high,

black in color.

I had come around to
the far side of the craft,

and that's when I
noticed that there was,

you know,
inscription on the side.

You know, it is
about three feet long,

maybe six inches high, um,

and, uh, so I'm expecting
to find, I don't know,

some kind of prototype
stuff, uh, USAF.

I'm-I'm looking for
something very familiar.

Instead of something familiar,

I see these
pictorial-type glyphs.

And got running my hand
over the side of the craft.

I don't know how
to explain this.

It's like someone was
holding a picture up, okay?

I could see it in my mind's eye.

Zeros and ones.

So I recorded those.
One after another.

HESELTINE: When
Penniston touched

the craft, he then said

that he felt a strange
download of information,

uh, to his mind.

And he felt compelled
the next day to write down

a series of zeros and ones,

which we now
regard as binary code.

POPE: Years later,

a computer programmer
took this information,

ran it through a
translation program

and a message emerged.

The message read:
"Exploration of humanity

"continuous for
planetary advance,

"eyes of your eyes,

origin year 8100."

When one sees
"origin year 8100,"

one is forced to speculate,
might we be looking

not just at extraterrestrials,

but time travelers
from the future?

NARRATOR: After the
incident, the U.S. military

conducted a brief investigation,

but allegedly tried to
keep the eyewitnesses

away from the press.

But for Airman Burroughs
and Officer Penniston,

the event wasn't
easy to leave behind.

Both men had lasting physical
effects from the encounter

and even reported
strange dreams.

After the incident, I started
having throat and eye problems.

At one point, my
gums turned white.

I also had vision problems,

and when I went
and saw the doctor,

one of his first questions was,

had I been ever
exposed to radiation?

I've definitely had
dreams about it,

and I still have feelings
about what happened

and what could
happen in the future.

I got out of the
service in 1993.

Then I was out about
maybe three months,

and then, I started getting
these dreams and nightmares.

During the dreams,

I could see that these
were time travelers,

40 to 50,000
years in the future.

I see that their
purpose to come back

was to correct things,
was to fix things.

Something horrible has happened.

Something they have to correct.

But it requires time travel.

It requires going
back into the past.

I never had a feeling of
it being extraterrestrial.

It's always been that they
were simply us in the future.

NARRATOR: Could it be that
the craft reportedly witnessed

by James Penniston
and John Burroughs

came not from a distant star

but from a distant
point in time?

Perhaps further clues can
be found by examining trends

in evolution and what humans
may look like in the future.

MICHAEL MASTERS:
If we look at past trends

in our biological form,

we see that we're
likely to look very similar

to what's most
commonly described

in these instances
of close encounters.

NARRATOR: Butte, Montana, 2019.

Professor of
biological anthropology

at Montana
Technological University,

Dr. Michael Masters publishes Identified Flying Objects.

This groundbreaking book
explores the profound notion

that the UFO
phenomenon may involve

our distant human descendants

traveling backward across
the landscape of time.

MASTERS: One of
the big questions about

backward time travel is
why aren't we inundated

by time tourists if
backward time travel exists?

And the answer
may simply be, we do.

We do see them,
in the form of UFOs,

in the form of
these "alien beings"

that are most likely
traveling backwards

from the human future, using
more advanced technology

and with a more
advanced physical form

than what we have now.

NARRATOR: Dr. Masters points out

that current accounts
of humanoid aliens,

the Greys in particular,
bear a striking resemblance

to what many biologists
predict humans may look like

in the distant future.

MASTERS: If we look at past
trends in our biological form

and in our technology,

we see the same dominant
trends in our morphology.

Our neurocrania have become
enlarged, becoming more rounded.

Our midfacial and lower
facial anatomy has retracted.

If these are to
continue into the future,

we're likely to
look very similar

to what's most
commonly described

in these instances
of close encounters,

where the being have big
heads, small faces, big eyes.

NEWMAN: Many of the
types of aliens, if you like,

or strange beings
that are in these crafts,

they're often taller,
they've got larger heads,

larger eyes, and that
could be a sign of evolution

of our species going thousands

or possibly hundreds
of thousands of years

into the future.

NARRATOR: Could
the so-called Grey aliens

that many people believe
they have encountered

actually be human
time travelers?

According to some
researchers, further evidence

that Earth is being visited by
future humans can be found

by examining accounts of
unidentified flying objects.

MASTERS: If we
look at the craft, too,

they seem to have a form
that indicates the function

of backward time travel.

It's very consistent
with research

since Einstein's paper in 1915,
demonstrating how the rotation

of a massive or highly
energetic disc or cylinder

could create backward
time travel capabilities.

ERICH VON DANIKEN:
Sometimes I ask myself

if UFOs are not time travelers.

It's our own, uh,
people of the future

who study some history
and they send some vehicles

to measure, to observe,
to photograph us.

But they don't
make direct contact.

So I would exclude
nothing, not even time travel.

NARRATOR: But if future
humans have traveled back in time,

are they simply observing
events of the past?

Or could they have a
more profound agenda?

One of the other ideas
relating to this is the idea

that our selves from the future

are actually trying to
help us in some way.

There's some kind
of interaction going on.

They could be
giving us information

about advances in technology.

They could be giving us
information about other planets.

They could be giving
us scientific data

that we need to survive

that they know
about in the future,

but y... we're yet
to get to that point.

COLLINS: Could
they be coming back

to help evolve us in some way,

to help us learn new
technologies and innovations?

Perhaps to steer us
towards their own future.

Maybe these technologies
involve everything

from quantum computers
to nuclear fusion

to AI and even nanotechnology.

All of these are at the
cutting edge of science,

and we are actually
looking for answers

to how to better perfect
these technologies.

MASTERS: If UFOs are craft

from our future, if the beings
seen in association with them

are our distant descendants,

and they crashed into
Roswell, New Mexico in 1947,

it's possible that we've
been reverse-engineering

this technology.

And not just for the purposes
of flying through space

at tremendous speeds

or having antigravity
propulsion systems,

but also, potentially, to figure
out how to travel through time.

We may be eventually
reaching the point

where that technology is ours,
coming back through time again,

where there's this constant loop
through the past and the future.

NARRATOR: If time
travel is possible,

could it be that
Earth is being visited

by both extraterrestrials and
humans from our own future?

Perhaps further
clues can be found

by examining the possibility

that the true nature of time is
much different than we think.

NARRATOR: Housed
at the National Institute

of Standards and Technology

are two atomic clocks
that together serve

as the United States' primary
time and frequency standard.

Around the world, similar
clocks with incredible precision

set the time by which all
of humankind operates.

It is a relentless march
of seconds, minutes, hours

and days determining
when we wake up,

go to work, eat,
sleep, celebrate

- and ultimately, die.
- [monitor beeps]

But what if how we perceive time

is nothing more than
a human construct?

An attempt to quantify
and control a universal force

that modern science hasn't
even begun to understand?

We live in the
fantasy of linear time,

because we have to remember

that all the notions of
time are imposed on reality.

Reality flows in its own way.

We imagine that
our clocks measure it.

We claim to be
able to mark it off

in hours and days and things,

but that's all just
imposed on it.

NARRATOR: Physicists point out

that going by modern
science's linear concept of time,

even the idea of the here
and now is merely an illusion,

since light and sound do
not travel instantaneously.

When you look at a mirror,
you're not really looking

at yourself as you are,
you're looking at yourself

as you were about a
billionth of a second ago.

When you look at the
Moon, you're not really looking

at the Moon as it is now.

You're looking at the Moon
as it was about a second ago.

So when you look
at the Pleiades,

you're looking at the Pleiades
as they were 400 years ago.

NARRATOR: Some of the
stars viewable in the night sky

burnt out long ago,

which, according to
a linear model of time,

means they no longer exist.

They are no longer reachable.

But what if this model
of time is wrong?

TAYLOR: Another
take on time travel is that

when the Big Bang
occurred, all of space and time

and everything is
in it was created.

So all of time is in
the universe already.

For some reason, we can
only experience the now.

NARRATOR: Could it be
that our understanding of time

is limited by how
we experience it?

And might a more
technologically-advanced

extraterrestrial species
or even future humans

have discovered how to
manipulate time and space

to travel both to the
past and to the future?

COLLINS: The idea that we
may simply be dealing with

space people from
other star systems

may not be the full answer.

We could be dealing
with time travelers.

Could these intelligences
have been aiding us?

Perhaps guiding us?

Perhaps controlling the
evolution of humanity?

VON DANIKEN: I rather
am a believer in time travel.

I say nothing will be
impossible for us in the future.

Even if you think
it's completely crazy,

it will happen.

Whatever humans
are able to think,

to calculate, even to fantasize,

will one day become reality.

NARRATOR: Is Earth being visited
by highly-advanced civilizations

that have overcome the
limitations of time and space?

And if so, could they even be
our own human descendants

traveling back from the future?

Perhaps our
notions of time, space

and our place in the universe

are about to be
radically altered.

Only time will tell.