1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 on this edition of Sightings. 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Dramatic new video from Gulf Breeze, Florida 3 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,000 demonstrates why that area has become the world's 4 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,000 greatest UFO hotspot. 5 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Stop! Stop! Stop! 6 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000 Startling first-person accounts of parents 7 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 who communicated with their children 8 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,000 years before they were ever born. 9 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,000 The close-up of a little boy's face appeared 10 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 and he said, 11 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Mommy, I'm coming. 12 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 England's first-person video 13 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000 is everything a medieval castle should be, 14 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 including haunted. 15 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,000 It would be much more extraordinary 16 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,000 to have no spirits floating around here. 17 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Find out how the internet 18 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000 can test your psychic abilities. 19 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000 The intuition about not putting the cartridge in the gun 20 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000 saved my life. 21 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000 And why does the mysterious Mayan calendar 22 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,000 end in the year 2012? 23 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 The mysterious Mayan calendar 24 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 ends in the year 2012. 25 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,000 Welcome to Sightings. I'm Tim White. 26 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000 When Ed Walder snapped the first pictures of a UFO 27 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,000 over Gulf Breeze, Florida in 1987, 28 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,000 skeptics discounted the incident. 29 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,000 There's just another paranormal parlor trick. 30 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:38,000 But since then, the anomalous craft have kept coming. 31 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Hundreds of people have seen them, 32 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,000 and Gulf Breeze is now the acknowledged world capital 33 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,000 for professional investigators and sky watchers alike. 34 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000 But why Gulf Breeze? 35 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000 And why now? 36 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 What is that? 37 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Look, look, look! 38 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Look, look, look! 39 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Yes! 40 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:00,000 Right here! 41 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,000 If you look, you'll see them, because they're there. 42 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 On vacation in 1991, 43 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Carolyn Ken Baker and their daughter, Jennifer, 44 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,000 fell in love with the charm of Gulf Breeze, Florida, 45 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000 and decided to move here. 46 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,000 The Bakers did not know that they were moving 47 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,000 from the Gulf Breeze to the Bay Area. 48 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 They were not allowed to move. 49 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,000 The Bakers did not know that they were moving into 50 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000 UFO Centro, and frankly, at the time, 51 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 they wouldn't have cared. 52 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000 My husband and I often discuss it, 53 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000 and we really can't remember having had a conversation 54 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000 about UFOs in our life. 55 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000 We weren't familiar with anything involving UFOs. 56 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000 We had no interest in UFOs. 57 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,000 I don't even watch science fiction. 58 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 All that changed, however, 59 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000 on a balmy April evening in 1994. 60 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000 Carol was driving Ken to work. 61 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,000 I jammed the brakes on, 62 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 and I was looking out at the side of the car at it, 63 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000 and it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. 64 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000 We couldn't tell if it was three-dimensional, 65 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 but it did look like a sphere 66 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,000 that was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. 67 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,000 And there was some kind of swirling inside of it, 68 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,000 like a gas, and the thing that struck us most 69 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 was it was extremely bright. 70 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,000 I felt it was my civic responsibility 71 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000 to actually report what I saw, because I didn't know what it was. 72 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,000 The first instinct was probably to call the police or the military, 73 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000 and then we thought, well, maybe, you know, 74 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 that's not such a good idea. 75 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 They'll think we're crazy. 76 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000 And someone, where my husband works at the post office, 77 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000 said, well, there's a UFO group in Pensacola. 78 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000 You should call them. 79 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Show me the area where you were. 80 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000 It was then that the bakers had their first contact 81 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000 with the local Pensacola chapter of Mufang. 82 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,000 They filed a sighting report and heard about Shoreline Park, 83 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,000 the now famous spot where thousands of amateur sky watchers 84 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,000 have gathered to scan the heavens 85 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,000 for signs of extraterrestrial spacecraft. 86 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,000 It all started with this photo 87 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,000 and the man who snapped it, Ed Walters. 88 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,000 In 1987, Walters released supposed hard evidence 89 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:57,000 of a craft witnessed by many others, 90 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000 including local Mufang president, Art Hufford. 91 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 By the middle of 1988, there were some 500 witnesses 92 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,000 who had also come forward with UFO sighting reports. 93 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000 So it became a real hot issue in the area. 94 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 And by the middle of January of 1991, 95 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,000 sky watchers had become a seven night a week year round activity. 96 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,000 So we started to go, I guess, in May to Shoreline Park 97 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,000 on a regular basis, maybe, you know, 98 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,000 three nights a week, four nights a week sometimes. 99 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000 And it was August the 12th before we had a sighting 100 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,000 at Shoreline Park, and it was very different 101 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000 to what we had seen. 102 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000 And we've been just at this ever since now. 103 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 It's a consuming interest for both of us. 104 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000 At first, the bakers were simply curious, 105 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,000 but it was not long after their sighting 106 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,000 at Shoreline Park that Carolyn Ken began writing 107 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,000 a weekly newspaper article about the Gulf Breeze UFO phenomenon. 108 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,000 The island newspaper. 109 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,000 I started to ask why, you know, these things were occurring 110 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,000 and nobody wanted to write them. 111 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 The island had published articles in the past, 112 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,000 but there had been nobody that was able to do them. 113 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,000 And I started in November 1994, and for all of 1995, 114 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,000 it was almost a weekly occurrence. 115 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 We had so many sightings. 116 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000 Oh, my God, I just hovered right there. 117 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,000 Then on July 21st, 1995, Ed Walters, 118 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,000 the man who got Gulf Breeze residents searching the skies 119 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000 in the first place, 120 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,000 captured another dramatic UFO appearance on videotape. 121 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:31,000 I thought I saw from my office window 122 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:36,000 that looks out over this sound a very fast UFO, 123 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:38,000 something streaked by. 124 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,000 So I set up the camera, turned it on, went to work. 125 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:47,000 Before I left, I came back in the room, 126 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,000 and by God, there it was. 127 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,000 Whoa, whoa, whoa, there it is, up to the left, coming this way. 128 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,000 So I just spoke aloud as to what I was seeing 129 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,000 as the UFO maneuvered. 130 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,000 Doing a loop, doing a loop. 131 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,000 Didn't get a whole lot of it, but it caught it 132 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,000 as it came in the field of view, 133 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,000 turned, reversed its field, and swung around the left. 134 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000 This UFO looked fake, 135 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,000 so Walters contacted UFO analyst Dr. Bruce McAbee. 136 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,000 Dr. McAbee is a research physicist 137 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,000 under contract to the U.S. Navy, 138 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,000 and is an expert photo analyst. 139 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,000 He is also director of the Maryland chapter of MUFON. 140 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 When Ed Walters first called Dr. McAbee, 141 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000 he explained why this video could not have been faked. 142 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:37,000 As we talked, I noticed down below the UFO, along the tree line, 143 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:44,000 you could see the movement of a shadow that moved with the UFO. 144 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Coming back. 145 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 Doing a loop, doing a loop. 146 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,000 This videotape is very unique because of the fact 147 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000 that that shadow appears on a surface, 148 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,000 which is so far away, it rules out the hopes. 149 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,000 But when Jeff Sainio, staff photo and video analyst 150 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,000 for MUFON International, first saw the tape, 151 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,000 he was far less impressed. 152 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000 My first impression on seeing the video is, 153 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 this is a really poor fake. 154 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,000 I was not impressed at all. 155 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,000 What changed my mind regarding it was a careful frame-by-frame check. 156 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Up here we see the UFO in the enhanced version, 157 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,000 and down here with the background subtraction, 158 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,000 you can see an enhanced version of the shadow, 159 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,000 some of them are clearly. 160 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,000 So that complicates the fakery of this video. 161 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,000 This video is the first time I've ever seen a shadow 162 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,000 of a UFO on videotape. 163 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,000 But then, so much of the video that comes out of golf breeze 164 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,000 is one of a kind. 165 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,000 I think definitely there are certain areas in the world 166 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,000 that seem to have a higher frequency of sightings than others. 167 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,000 I've had two daylight sightings, 168 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,000 and I would say between 100 and 120 nighttime sightings 169 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,000 since the first one. 170 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,000 It is a very hot spot, so to speak, 171 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,000 and I don't know why. 172 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,000 Perhaps the same force that drew the baker's two golf breeze 173 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,000 is also drawing in strange objects from another world. 174 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Because for some reason, regular sky watchers here 175 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,000 are rarely disappointed by their vigilance. 176 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000 Because most of the best UFO photographs and videos 177 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,000 have come from one man, and Walters, skeptics charge 178 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,000 that Walters is faking his famous evidence. 179 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,000 But the jury's still out, because so far, 180 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:33,000 none of his material has been proven to be a fake. 181 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,000 Next, parents communicate with their children 182 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000 years before they're born. 183 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,000 It's entirely possible for the children to contact a father 184 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,000 or a mother before they're conceived. 185 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,000 It's not unusual for prospective parents 186 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,000 to dream about their child before it's born. 187 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,000 Psychologists suggest that it's a natural reaction 188 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,000 to the stress and anxiety of impending childbirth. 189 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,000 However, more and more researchers are beginning to feel 190 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,000 that dreams and visions of the unborn 191 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,000 are proof of a psychic link between mother, father, and child. 192 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:10,000 And if we listen, we may hear the feeling 193 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 and if we listen, we may hear the future. 194 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:27,000 I was just falling asleep one night, like any other night. 195 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,000 And just when I was in that half-awake, half-asleep state, 196 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:34,000 the close-up of a little boy's face 197 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:37,000 appeared right in front of my face. 198 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:40,000 He said, Mommy, I'm coming. 199 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:45,000 And then it just hit me that I'm seeing my son to be. 200 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,000 At the time, writer Theresa Dana wasn't pregnant 201 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,000 or even planning to have children. 202 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:54,000 When I had that vision of my son, 203 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,000 all of the priorities in my life just completely changed. 204 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,000 All I wanted from that moment on was the opportunity 205 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,000 to be his mother and to nurture him 206 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:08,000 and to help him fulfill his purpose for coming. 207 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Theresa shared her life-changing vision 208 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:13,000 in an open letter to a national magazine. 209 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,000 The response was overwhelming. 210 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,000 Theresa found out she was not alone. 211 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Dear Theresa, this is why I believe my children let me know 212 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:23,000 they were on their way. 213 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000 In January 1993, I began to hear a baby crying in my house. 214 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,000 In the fall, I dreamt of a little girl with pigtails 215 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,000 running up to me and smiling. 216 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,000 After that letter was published, 217 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,000 I received letters from people all over the country 218 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,000 explaining very similar instances 219 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,000 where people had seen visions or a dream of a child, 220 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,000 and they have since had those children, 221 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:50,000 and those children look just like the children in their vision. 222 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,000 We're not talking about just one or two cases here. 223 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:58,000 We're talking about what I think is really sort of the front, 224 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:02,000 the leading edge of exploration or of scientific discovery. 225 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,000 Dr. David Chamberlain is the president of the Association 226 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:08,000 for Pre-imperonatal Psychology and Health. 227 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,000 He has devoted the past 20 years 228 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,000 to the study of infant development. 229 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:17,000 The new evidence is overwhelming as far as I'm concerned 230 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 for the great intelligence and wisdom of these babies 231 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,000 long before they should have any at all. 232 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,000 It's entirely possible for the children to exert their influence 233 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:32,000 and make an appearance and contact a father or a mother 234 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,000 before they're conceived. 235 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:38,000 One of the things that brought Aaron and Jeanette Potties together 236 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:42,000 24 years ago was their dream of a home full of children, 237 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,000 but medical complications during the birth of their first daughter, Angie, 238 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,000 forced the young couple to reevaluate their life plan. 239 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:55,000 It was always a traumatic experience for me, 240 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,000 but it made it hard to even consider having another child. 241 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,000 Even though mother and daughter pulled through fine, 242 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,000 it was still something you just don't forget. 243 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Since then, the Pontiuses have had more children, 244 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,000 but each birth has taken its toll on Jeanette. 245 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 After four children, all girls, doctors warned 246 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,000 that another childbirth would be extremely risky, 247 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,000 but then Jeanette had a premonition. 248 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:24,000 I was sitting there looking through this family history. 249 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:29,000 It was a definite clear message to me that we would have a son 250 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,000 and his name would be Michael. 251 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:35,000 Despite what Jeanette felt was a clear message from her unborn son, 252 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,000 her health was failing. 253 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,000 Jeanette's doctors warned her again about the dangers of childbirth 254 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:44,000 and recommended surgery that would prevent Jeanette from having any more children. 255 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 Reluctantly, Jeanette called to schedule the surgery. 256 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,000 As my hand touched the phone, I looked up, 257 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:56,000 and across the room stood this very cute little red-headed boy with the saddest face. 258 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,000 He appeared to be about three years of age. 259 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:02,000 He never said a word, but the message was on his face, 260 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,000 why don't you want me? 261 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,000 I took a step towards where he was. 262 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:11,000 As I did this, he took a step backwards, 263 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:16,000 and as he stepped backwards, he just faded and disappeared, and he was gone. 264 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:23,000 I think these mothers and fathers that are in touch with their babies by one means or another, 265 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:28,000 a vision or a dream, are exercising psychic ability. 266 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:32,000 It's telepathy. It's beyond the ordinary senses. 267 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,000 Although he didn't call it telepathy, Aaron too experienced a strange sense 268 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,000 that his family was incomplete. 269 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,000 Several times at the dinner table, we'd all sit down to have dinner. 270 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,000 I knew there would be the four girls, my wife and I, and I'd say, 271 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,000 well, who's missing? 272 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,000 It was an unconscious thing that I would say. 273 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:58,000 It was never intentional, and I said it several times, I guess, more than I really remember. 274 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,000 But it was the pottiest children who saw Michael most clearly 275 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,000 and claimed to have made contact with their brother. 276 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,000 The next morning after I had seen Michael, I was in my living room, 277 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,000 running down the hall, and she was really excited and in a hurry, 278 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:18,000 and she says, come quick, hurry and come play with Michael before he leaves. 279 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,000 Heather, now 17, vividly recalls that first extraordinary encounter. 280 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:28,000 He was in Indian style and had his arms down on his knees, 281 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,000 and he just had this little smile on his face, 282 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,000 and we ran down the hall along with my mom following us, 283 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:39,000 and by the time we had all gotten in the room, he had just disappeared. 284 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,000 I wasn't scared or anything. 285 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:48,000 I felt that he was there for good reason, not to harm us. 286 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:55,000 The following night, Karen woke up in the middle of the night just hysterical or something. 287 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,000 She explained how she had been laying there in bed, 288 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,000 and she could see this boy over the foot of her bed, 289 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,000 and when we asked her where this boy went, 290 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000 her explanation was exactly this. 291 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,000 She says he didn't hop, he didn't skip, and he didn't jump, 292 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 but he just went up and he disappeared, 293 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:17,000 and she pointed to the ceiling and she said he was gone. 294 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:23,000 Of course, I was a little bit stunned by what she was explaining, 295 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:30,000 and I very carefully asked Karen, I said, what was this boy's name? 296 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:34,000 And she says, Michael. 297 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000 And so I thought, well, I give up. 298 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,000 There must be a boy. 299 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:56,000 And so I finally accepted the idea that we were to have a boy. 300 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:06,000 For the Potious family, listening to their hearts was a gamble that paid off. 301 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,000 Michael Potious was born 15 months later, with no complications. 302 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:16,000 It makes me feel very special and important to be down here, 303 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,000 and I think I'm down here for a very special reason, 304 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:25,000 to do something for somebody or just to be down here to help my family. 305 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:31,000 The little boy that I saw that day is just identical to what our son Michael looked at age three. 306 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,000 His hair, the coloring, the shape of his face, everything. 307 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,000 I believe that these children can make themselves known before they're born, 308 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,000 if it's even necessary. 309 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,000 I think it happens when the parents to be need to be woke up and say, 310 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:50,000 look alive, here we are, we need to be taken care of. 311 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,000 Although Michael believes that he was put on the earth for special purpose 312 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,000 and continues to wonder what that will be, 313 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,000 his parents believe that he's already fulfilled his destiny to be part of a loving family. 314 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:07,000 And since his birth, the visions and dreams have stopped. 315 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:12,000 Next, a rash of sightings in the Lone Star State. 316 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:19,000 Later, the frightening secret of England's chilling ham can be found in the Lone Star State. 317 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:24,000 Here are some of the stories sightings is following in the news. 318 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:29,000 For years, mysterious lights over Marfa, Texas had locals convinced 319 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,000 that they were Grand Central Station for flying saucers. 320 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,000 The Marfa lights have since been explained away as natural phenomenon, 321 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:39,000 but new lights in Texas cannot be written off so easily. 322 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:54,000 In Houston, Texas, in fact, throughout the Lone Star State, 323 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:00,000 an unprecedented wave of UFO sightings have sky watchers here on alert. 324 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:05,000 Wow, that's an ink-o airplane. 325 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:10,000 There is a possibility that what's taking place right now could be the beginning of a large UFO flap. 326 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:15,000 Dale Musser is senior investigator for the Houston branch of the Mutual UFO Network. 327 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:22,000 For the past two years, Musser has seen a dramatic increase in UFO activity in Texas, especially now. 328 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:28,000 Most recently, there have been videotaped sightings in Cleveland, West Columbia and New Braunfels. 329 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:29,000 See it? 330 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:30,000 Yeah, what is it? 331 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,000 I don't know. 332 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000 It's awful hot or whatever it is. 333 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,000 Musser believes that the arrival of these UFOs are part of a pattern of visitation. 334 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:43,000 Figure out the pattern, he says, and we may be able to predict and prepare for future contact. 335 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,000 We have noticed a pattern that does occur. 336 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:55,000 It's very difficult to map out, but what we're beginning to see is that, oh, if you can catch when a flap first starts, 337 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:04,000 that it will go on for several months, and then there will, usually there's a big pause, and almost a year to the day later, there will be another flap. 338 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:11,000 If Musser's theory is correct, the fall of 1997 should be prime time for UFO sightings in Texas. 339 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000 Regardless of what happens, we're going to continue to watch the skies, and we plan to keep our eyes open. 340 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:31,000 In San Diego, California, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the aliens have landed, buried deep inside these innocuous-looking rocks. 341 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:41,000 The rocks come from this crater near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, created after a meteorite the size of Manhattan impacted Earth two billion years ago. 342 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:47,000 Analyzing the rocks at Scripps, Dr. Luanne Becker made a startling discovery. 343 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:55,000 Dr. Becker found carbon, an element of all life on Earth, but the carbon in these rocks may have come from someplace else. 344 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:08,000 The reason that we believe that the carbon in the Sudbury rocks may be extraterrestrial in origin is because we have discovered this rather new form of carbon called fullerines or buckyballs. 345 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:16,000 Buckyballs, because the uniquely shaped molecules, resemble Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. 346 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:27,000 It's literally a soccer ball shaped form of carbon. It's hollow, and it does have the potential to hold other atoms inside of it. 347 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:33,000 Dr. Becker discovered the buckyballs during a routine carbon test on the Sudbury rocks. 348 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:52,000 One of the first indications I had that we had something very interesting was that after I had extracted the rock and concentrated up the solution, I had kind of a nice wine red-colored solution, which typically is characteristic of what fullerines look like. 349 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,000 So that was really pretty exciting. 350 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:09,000 Because these molecules can carry and preserve other elements inside them, buckyballs have been likened to a kind of extraterrestrial Tupperware, carrying oxygen, helium, and other building blocks of life from galaxy to galaxy. 351 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:20,000 There could be potential possibility that life absolutely was facilitated by something that didn't actually originate on the Earth. 352 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Inside the buckyballs, inside the Sudbury rocks, Dr. Becker has found helium that is older than the Earth, older than the Sun, origin unknown. 353 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:39,000 Certainly there might be life on other planets that's something we've always been curious about. Perhaps this too suggests the same sort of scenario. 354 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:49,000 We'll have more stories in the news next time. Now here's what's coming up as sightings continues. 355 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:57,000 A chilling castle certainly was torture as the bloody past of England's Chillingham Castle come back to haunt it. 356 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,000 They got neither food nor water, and they were left to starve to death. 357 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,000 Later, the mystery of the Mayan calendar. 358 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Chillingham Castle on the windswept moors of Northern England is a monument to just how dark the dark ages could be. 359 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:22,000 There's hardly been a renovation since the 1200s that hasn't uncovered at least one twisted, haunting skeleton. 360 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:31,000 The history of Chillingham Castle has been written in blood, and so the legend goes, there are many restless spirits here with unfinished business. 361 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:46,000 It's not a feeling that there's somebody there, it's a feeling that you're not alone, but you're slightly different. 362 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:54,000 I've never seen any ghost, but you don't have to see a thing to believe. You can know a thing is there without seeing it. 363 00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:06,000 This cold and imposing edifice on the border between England and Scotland is Chillingham Castle. 364 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:15,000 Built by the descendants of William the Conqueror, the castle is inextricably bound to the warfare, torture and murderous passion of British history. 365 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:24,000 In a letter dated 1520, even the mighty Spanish Armada is warned to stay away from Chillingham or come prepared to fight to the death. 366 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,000 The family crest reflects the dark and dangerous forces that are the legacy of Chillingham. 367 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000 The Wakefield bat flies over the castle, and real bats fly around within. 368 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:41,000 And even the present day owner, Sir Humphrey Wakefield, admits there is an air of evil here. 369 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:56,000 The atmosphere is right for ghosts in a way. To me, it would be much more extraordinary to have no spirits floating around here after all the excitement and the horror and the glory and the glamour and the history and the heartache that's been here sort of understepped. 370 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:04,000 The castle staff have grown accustomed to the eerie atmosphere of an 800-year-old castle, complete with dungeons and torture chambers. 371 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:18,000 There's quite a lot of eerie places, quite a lot of places that have a funny feel about them, and there's many times you get a certain feeling and a certain part that there's somebody behind you or there's somebody there. 372 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:30,000 These are the skeletons in Chillingham's closet, the real remains of countless enemies who endured torture so unspeakable that the screams of prisoners begging for death could be heard throughout the castle. 373 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:43,000 This dungeon was called the Oobliette, from the French word for forgotten, because that is precisely what happened to prisoners who marked their final days here. 374 00:24:44,000 --> 00:25:02,000 A Chillingham castle no certainly was torture within the walls, and the main one really was, if they were taken prisoner for information, in which case they would be taken into the dungeon above the Oobliette, then it lifted the lid of the Oobliette and threw them down. 375 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:14,000 They'd fall onto dead bodies that had been there for a while, they knew that an Oobliette was to forget, so they were forgotten about, they got neither food nor water, and they were left to starve to death. 376 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:25,000 Tony Cornell is the UK's preeminent ghost investigator and has spent more than 30 years trying to develop the study of spiritual contact into a bonafide science. 377 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:31,000 Siding's asked Cornell to inspect Chillingham for hard evidence of paranormal activity. 378 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:38,000 As for Chillingham, is it haunted? Good question. I don't think there's any doubt about it. Yes, it is. Very haunted. 379 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:46,000 In over 800 investigations, Cornell has searched for scientific methods to quantify decidedly unscientific phenomena. 380 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:54,000 And I think that the scientist attitude that it's rubbish, which a lot of them think it is, is a very unscientific attitude. 381 00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:04,000 If you take the kind of thing we're investigating, apparitions, ghosts, setters, it's been going on pretty well since recorded history. 382 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:15,000 Cornell began his survey with the search for Lady Grey. Her haunting presence has been reportedly felt for more than a century in halls, towers and stairways throughout the castle. 383 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:24,000 She was married to this very able, but curious fellow who went often had a fling with his sister-in-law, who was very pretty. 384 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:33,000 The sister-in-law was called Lady Henrietta Barclay. Poor old Lady Grey was devastated by her husband running off like that. 385 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:46,000 And throughout the centuries, she famously climbed out of that painting, wandered up and down the stairs, moaning and crying and ringing her hands and looking for her husband. 386 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:53,000 I think I've heard the footsteps of Lady Marie about three times in different parts of the castle. 387 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:59,000 And you can hear it's a fairly heavy female footstep. 388 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:06,000 It's not a very dainty little one, but definitely female and not male. 389 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:14,000 And it's accompanied by the swish of material, which I'm very sure is tough at her. 390 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:21,000 Cornell also searched for evidence of the ghostly child known as the Radiant Boy. 391 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:30,000 Childish laughter has been heard, and a child bathed in ethereal blue light has been cited here by residents and staff. 392 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:40,000 In the pink room, the temperature used to drop, and then a bright light started to build up in one corner beside the fireplace. 393 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:45,000 And in the center of the light, you start to make out the shape of a boy. 394 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:57,000 And he was dressed in period garments in sort of apparently blue, silky type of material with knee-bitches. 395 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:04,000 And all he did, he just walked across the room and went through the wall. 396 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Photographing a ghost here should be like shooting fish in a barrel, but Sir Humphrey has no such illusions. 397 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:19,000 It's quite difficult to get Chillingham Castle a ghost to perform when an expert is there. 398 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,000 Because normally I think the spirits shy off and say we don't want to play games. 399 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000 Cornell knows that ghosts don't perform on demand, but he's prepared in case one does during his overnight vigil. 400 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,000 What we want to do is get it on record, get it on other instrumentation. 401 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:42,000 Now, surround myself with equipment. I'll use a tape recorder in case there's any footsteps or sound. 402 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:50,000 I'll use a video camera, which will be switched on by infrared if there's any interference with the infrared. 403 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,000 What I want to do is find out whether there are any cold spots. So I've got to measure the temperature. 404 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:06,000 I shall also try and use some form of electrical detection because the ghosts may be generated by some form of electrical disturbance. 405 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,000 And the whole idea is to put it on record. 406 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:32,000 This investigation was only preliminary, more of a fact-finding mission than a ghost hunt. 407 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:39,000 Cornell now believes it will take much more equipment and an army of volunteers to ferret out the restless spirits of Chillingham Castle. 408 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:46,000 There's no doubt in my mind that this castle's got a lot of genuine hauntings and spirits and ghosts, whatever you want to call them. 409 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:52,000 And I think what we've got to do is come back, spend more time and see if we can get more positive readings. 410 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,000 But I'm absolutely convinced that this castle is worthwhile investigating. 411 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:05,000 Because of the castle's isolated location, the Sightings investigative team was invited to stay at Chillingham overnight. 412 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:11,000 Even though the hospitality was impeccable and our team had investigated dozens of haunted sites just like this one, 413 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:20,000 each member reported feeling very uneasy at Chillingham, unable to sleep, and more than a little relieved when the investigation was over. 414 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,000 Next, a website designed to test your psychic ability. 415 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:30,000 We believe that ESP not only exists, but it's something that everyone experiences in their lifetime. 416 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000 Parapsychology is a controversial science with a short and troubled history. 417 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:46,000 This science of the paranormal has been in and out of favor as many times as Saturday night live. 418 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:51,000 And history will no doubt record the early 1990s as the nader of the parapsychology movement. 419 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,000 Dr. Dean Raiden wants to change all that. 420 00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:02,000 His Consciousness Research Lab at UNLV is designing new scientific tests that could make believers out of us all. 421 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:12,000 Volunteers wanted, experience with ESP, premonition, and the paranormal a plus. 422 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000 Report to Room 114, Consciousness Research Lab. 423 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:23,000 This is where Dr. Dean Raiden and his UNLV team are trying to put the science back into side phenomena. 424 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:31,000 The overall goal of our lab is to try to get a better understanding of the phenomena that people report out there in the real world, 425 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,000 but which are not yet recognized by mainstream science. 426 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:43,000 Dr. Raiden's most recent study concentrates on the two types of ESP that seem to touch the most people, presentiment and precognition. 427 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:50,000 Presentiment is literally a pre-feeling. It's a feeling about something in the future. 428 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:58,000 So for example, you may be going along the road and suddenly you get a bad feeling about the road you're on. 429 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,000 You decide because of that bad feeling to get off the road and try a different route. 430 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:09,000 And later you hear that there was an accident that occurred moments after you left that road and you may have been involved in it. 431 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,000 Pre-cognition is pre-knowledge in which you know what's going to happen in the future. 432 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:23,000 Pre-cognition is a case where you're preparing to cross the street, say, and you put a foot out and suddenly something flashes in your mind 433 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,000 where you get this image of a truck just barreling past you all of a sudden. 434 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:36,000 And in this case you have some message, some knowledge of the future and so you don't cross the street and sure enough the truck suddenly barrels past you. 435 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:43,000 So in the case of presentiment it's the feeling which caused you to make a different decision and precognition. 436 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,000 It's the knowledge or the vision of the future which causes you to make a difference. 437 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:56,000 Claims of seeing or feeling the future are widespread but entirely anecdotal and so easily dismissed by mainstream science. 438 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:01,000 The reason why the evidence goal is to design a test to measure ESP empirically. 439 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:10,000 With the presentiment test what we do is wire up somebody to look at their electrodromal response, also their heart rate and their blood pressure. 440 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:19,000 The subject is then presented with a random sample of shocking or calming photographs with five seconds of black in between. 441 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:36,000 What we're looking at then is during those first five seconds before the person knows what the picture is, does their physiology change differentially such that if they're about to see an emotional target or an emotional picture they're already becoming aroused. 442 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:48,000 Whereas if they're going to see a calm picture they stay calm and the results of these experiments show very clearly that people do get some aspect of their future emotional experience. 443 00:33:49,000 --> 00:34:03,000 Alex Heindl, a curator at UNLV's Museum of Natural History, was asked to participate in a consciousness research lab experiment after he told Dr. Raiden about a chilling psychic experience he had had as a young man. 444 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:17,000 Several years ago I was up visiting the family of my then-fiance and while I was cleaning my revolver, her father asked me if I would take a look at the revolver he had in the house 445 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:33,000 and see if it needed cleaning and I said sure. I opened the cylinder on it and I removed four cartridges from the cylinder, cleaned the gun, I put the four cartridges that had been in it and back in it 446 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:40,000 and in the box there were a number of loose cartridges lying around. One of them was different from the rest. 447 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:53,000 I picked that one up, I started to put it in the fifth empty chamber. When the alarms went off in the back of my head and something was saying don't put that bullet in the gun. 448 00:34:54,000 --> 00:35:03,000 I listened to that warning, I simply closed the revolver up with the four cartridges in it, leaving the hammer resting on an empty chamber. 449 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:16,000 Some weeks later I was up again visiting. I was there when my fiance's father realized that his wife had just filed for divorce, he came home, he was obviously upset. 450 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:29,000 He went in and he got the revolver and he was waving it around. At one point he asked me if I knew that his wife was going to file and I said yes I had known. 451 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:40,000 And at that point he stuck the revolver in my face and pulled the trigger. The cylinder rotated so the hammer fell on the chamber that I had almost put the fifth cartridge in. 452 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:57,000 And had I put it in there you and I would not be having this conversation today. So it's basically my feeling that the intuition about not putting the cartridge in the gun saved my life. 453 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:07,000 I would say in the case of Alex's story that it was presentiment and the reason is that he had a bad feeling but he didn't know what it pertained to. 454 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,000 He knew it had something to do with the bullet and so he acted on that feeling. 455 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:26,000 In order to reach more volunteers like Alex, Jeanine Rebman, a UNLV research fellow, has designed a modified online version of the ESP test performed in the consciousness research laboratory. 456 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:38,000 Our worldwide website has allowed many people in the world to explore our laboratory and take a peek into the research that we're conducting and it helps them understand a little more about ESP. 457 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:50,000 Similar to the CRL program, the online test is based on viewing a series of random photographs. Only this time the subject is asked to describe the picture before viewing the actual image. 458 00:36:50,000 --> 00:37:00,000 And that way we can see if what they recorded about the picture actually matches what the picture is and that's how we test whether they've pre-cognized the picture or not. 459 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:16,000 Over 7000 people from around the world have already participated in consciousness research testing. The website is still operational and soon Dr. Raden's department will begin to compile the data from this first groundbreaking online experiment. 460 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:31,000 We have had so much research that points to the fact that ESP is a legitimate sensory function that we, at least in the field of parapsychology, certainly believe that ESP not only exists but it's something that everyone experiences in their lifetime. 461 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:43,000 If you're interested in participating in UNLV's Internet ESP test, you can access their website on the World Wide Web by typing consciousness research laboratory. 462 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:49,000 Next, why the Maya thought time would run out in the year 2012. 463 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000 At the end of the age there would be a period of chaos and then there would be a period of rebuilding. 464 00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:14,000 Ready or not, here comes the year 2000. But among many millennium watchers, the real fireworks won't begin until the year 2012. That's the magic year the ancient Mayas predicted would transform the world as we know it. 465 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:21,000 But exactly what those changes will be isn't known and 2012 could just as easily be heaven as Armageddon. 466 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:33,000 In the last millennium, a great civilization of scientists, artists and warriors, more than 12 million strong, abruptly abandoned their world. 467 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:44,000 They were the Maya, a people of prodigious vision whose great cities and temples along the present day Yucatan Peninsula were swallowed up by the jungle after an unknown catastrophe. 468 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:51,000 The Maya left behind great civic centers, temples of worship, houses, apartment buildings. 469 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:58,000 They buried great works of art, pottery, plows and this, the crowning achievement of Maya culture, their calendar. 470 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:03,000 To this day it is a puzzle and a passion for modern scholars. 471 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:13,000 The Maya calendar is one of the wonders of the world in the fact that it is so accurate in terms of its counting ability. 472 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,000 To the Maya time was cyclical, so you return and you cycle back. 473 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:26,000 They have one major cycle that started in 3113 BC that is going to come to an end in the year 2012. 474 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:32,000 Arlan and Diane Chase are directors of the Caracol Archaeology Project. 475 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:41,000 For the past 10 years, they have been unearthing many of the lost treasures of the Maya, developing a rare understanding of the ways of the Maya calendar. 476 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:48,000 Because Maya time was cyclical, events were conceived of as potentially repeating themselves. 477 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:53,000 So you have all of these various cycles that fit together. Certain days were considered to be unlucky. 478 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:57,000 Other days were considered to be very good. It's like looking in your horoscope. 479 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:02,000 Well the Maya had that same kind of relationship with the calendar. 480 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:09,000 Certain days were good, certain days were bad, certain years were bad, certain blocks of 20 years were good and bad. 481 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:18,000 Each block of time and its so-called personality, whether good or bad, feast or famine, were the teeth on the cogs of the calendar. 482 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:24,000 In this way the Maya could see not only what day it was or year or 20 year period called a couture. 483 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:32,000 They could also see what was to come, so the demise of the Maya may have been foretold or it may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. 484 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:42,000 Now to some extent you could argue that the Maya collapse itself was a process of the view of Maya time. 485 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:49,000 That they foretold that there was going to be a major problem and they couldn't survive that problem. 486 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,000 The Maya collapse is tied into a cartoon of change called an Eida Howe. 487 00:40:53,000 --> 00:41:01,000 And another Eida Howe, a time of change by earth, fire or water, is coming in 2012. 488 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:08,000 That's also the year, according to the Maya, that a new age begins, a fact of great significance to millennial scholars. 489 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:17,000 In the West we have our own millennial feelings, we're expecting the return of a Messiah, we're expecting everything wonderful that might happen after that, 490 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000 but we're also expecting a sort of judgement day. 491 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:27,000 The Mayans had a similar kind of conception that at the end of the age there would be a period of chaos and then there would be a period of rebuilding. 492 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000 Who knows exactly what's going to happen? 493 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:41,000 Adrian Gilbert is the co-author of the Mayan prophecies and has found astounding parallels between the Maya and the Christian world view of the fate of humankind. 494 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:49,000 We have our flood myth, you know, about Noah and so on, and we also have myths about the destruction of Solomon Gomorrah in our Western tradition. 495 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,000 They had similar sorts of myths. 496 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,000 They believed that the world had been destroyed four times before. 497 00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:02,000 The first time by water, another time by winds, the third time by fire and earth. 498 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:07,000 So it seems like we're coming up for another big change in 2012. 499 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:17,000 While Gilbert stops short of saying 2012 will be the end of the world, he does believe that earth is in for a very bumpy ride. 500 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,000 Well, we seem to be reaching some sort of crescendo, don't we? 501 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:25,000 Our population levels keep rising inextricably. 502 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,000 Our demands on our environment keep rising all the time. 503 00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,000 We're depleting the reserves. 504 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:35,000 I mean, even the fish seem to be fished out of the sea now. 505 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000 We're getting to a point where it seems we can't carry on the way we are. 506 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:47,000 Realistically, what relevance does the Maya culture or Maya calendar in this case have for our civilization? 507 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:51,000 The Maya calendar encompasses the Maya worldview. 508 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,000 We come from a very different worldview. 509 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:57,000 Should their prophecies be the same ones as ours? 510 00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,000 I would doubt that very much. 511 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:07,000 It is Professor Chase's opinion that gloom and doom predictions based on the Maya calendar are little more than New Age musings. 512 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:12,000 But his conclusions based on science and scholarship echo the same sentiment. 513 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:15,000 Learned from the Maya, so history does not repeat itself. 514 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:22,000 The lesson that we learn from archaeology is that the Maya were living on their ecological edge. 515 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:27,000 They've exploited the countryside, their population base is huge. 516 00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:32,000 All it would take is a sudden little imbalance in the system for the system to begin falling apart. 517 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,000 And you throw in warfare. 518 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:44,000 I think that you see that you have a very volatile mix which could have led to their rapid decline in a situation that we consider to be a collapse. 519 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,000 New Age messenger or traditional scientist. 520 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:58,000 What seems most interesting about their interpretations of the Maya prophecy is that both sides have taken different paths to the same end. 521 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:03,000 Although the date December 22nd 2012 is literally etched in stone, 522 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,000 most Maya scholars believe the Maya were offering a warning, not a prophecy. 523 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,000 It's not too late to change the course of history. 524 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:14,000 The Maya seem to be sane, but time is running out. 525 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:22,000 If you've had a paranormal experience, please write to us at Sightings. 526 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:26,000 Sightings can also be contacted at America Online at keyword Sightings. 527 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:30,000 Download images, sounds and quick time clips from Sightings episodes. 528 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:36,000 On the internet, access information about Sightings and the paranormal at sci-fi.com. 529 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:42,000 Until next time, remember, no mystery is closed to an open mind. 530 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:45,000 For Sightings, I'm Tim White. 531 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:52,000 Next on Sci-Fi Dark Shadows. 532 00:44:52,000 --> 00:45:01,000 This is crater number 17. We assume that we've been listed as missing in any search for us ended months ago. 533 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:10,000 Jason London stars in Alien Cargo, Friday at 9pm. Only on Sci-Fi. 534 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:15,000 Sightings is closed to an open mind.