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00:00Among the quiet towns and bustling epicenters around the world,
00:11reports pour in of unusual aerial phenomena.
00:14It shoots high into the air. It's moving in an erratic way.
00:19This is not a terrestrial craft.
00:22Flying discs, hovering orbs, strange biological substances falling from the sky.
00:27To determine what it might have been, you'd have to eliminate all the other possibilities.
00:34The sensational becomes credible once it's crowdsourced.
00:37Thousands of people claim to see these orbs.
00:41UFO hotspots light up on the map.
00:43What's made these places the target of otherworldly attention?
00:47This might be the location of the vortex.
00:50As vessels reappear in the same locations, can we use the earthly to guess at otherworldly motives?
00:56Are these mysterious visitors friends or foe?
01:00And should we fear their return?
01:02All over the world, repeat sightings of UFOs baffle researchers.
01:07UAD are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported.
01:10A pattern begins to emerge.
01:12These sightings are not rare or isolated, they are routine.
01:15What is the meaning behind these hotspots?
01:17I can't go beyond what I've already stated publicly.
01:19Are we being mapped?
01:27July 4th, 2022, 4.30am.
01:33In Bass River Township, New Jersey, two friends return home from a late night drive.
01:39As they look up at the starry night sky, one of them suddenly notices something highly unusual.
01:49Two of the lights are much brighter than the rest, and they've started moving.
01:55The beams move closer, and the friends can see now that they are attached to a strange craft, roughly the size of a car.
02:03They watch in shock as the lights pass over them.
02:09The object then accelerates sharply away, before vanishing into thin air.
02:18Alone again in the dark night, the two friends are left wondering what this surreal aircraft could possibly be.
02:25And could it be linked to news reports of a mysterious device found by police a little over a year earlier?
02:36April 9th, 2021.
02:40Detectives from the New Jersey State Police Department have received a report of an unknown object located deep in the wilderness.
02:47When the police come across this object, they think of it as something which is very strange, potentially threatening.
02:55And the immediate response is to send a bomb squad and a canine unit to make sure that this thing is safe.
03:05Once the object is cleared by the bomb squad, the detectives cautiously approach it.
03:12The label reads, UFO Detector Site Number 448.
03:17The detectives are baffled, but they know this isn't the first strange occurrence to take place in the forests of New Jersey.
03:29New Jersey is not what one associates with mysterious places, but there's an entire stretch of land called the Pine Barrens, which is a genuinely weird area.
03:39The Pine Barrens are a vast stretch of woodland of over a million acres divided into more than a dozen state parks, nature reserves, and preservation areas.
03:50I think that photos of the Pine Barrens don't really do it justice.
03:56You really can't with a space that is so large.
04:00You can't underestimate how spooky a place like that can be.
04:04It's going to produce some pretty interesting stories.
04:07There's a whole tradition in our folklore about mysterious, threatening forests that you might get lost in.
04:17Well, the Pine Barrens takes that to a whole new level.
04:21This is a forest that could suck you in and you'd never be seen again.
04:28Despite its name, the Pine Barrens are actually teeming with life.
04:32To us, it might seem like a barren, inhospitable place.
04:37And yet, these places can actually have dynamic and complicated ecosystems that we've overlooked until now.
04:49The Upland Forest is a dense pine forest, which is really the signature forest area.
04:56The pine trees are intermingled with the oak trees, which are the two hardiest tree species in America.
05:02In the lowlands, dark cedar and hardwood swamps carve through the land,
05:09fed by an intricate natural irrigation system of streams and rivulets leading east to the Atlantic coast.
05:18Some of the rarest plants in the world grow in these enormous forests.
05:22Delicate flowers like the Pine Barren Genshin, Bog Asphodel, and Swamp Pink have been all but eradicated in the rest of the world,
05:32yet bloom happily here, beside carnivorous plants like the Pitcher Plant, Sundew, and Bladderwort,
05:40gorging themselves on tiny insects.
05:42But despite sprawling acres of trees and plants,
05:51the Pine Barrens are known for being an especially hostile environment.
05:57The Pine Barrens are appropriately named, in a sense,
06:01because the soil is inhospitable in terms of turning this into farmland, for example.
06:08For centuries, the Lenape Tribes people inhabited the Pinelands,
06:14cultivating berries and hunting game as they moved through the woods.
06:20But in the 17th century, with the arrival of European settlers,
06:25large swaths of land were cleared to establish farms and homesteads.
06:31For these newcomers, life here would quickly prove near impossible.
06:35The soil is very acidic, it's very difficult for things to grow there,
06:41so the practices that early settlers would have used to survive elsewhere simply would not have worked,
06:46and it very much would have brought them to their knees in terms of being able to survive.
06:54These people eventually gave up, and they left.
06:58And what they left behind were these deserted villages, essentially ghost towns.
07:05Those brave enough to venture into the woods today
07:08can still find the haunting remnants of this struggle for survival.
07:13Some of these deserted settlements have been restored,
07:18and you can go and visit them, and they look very nice.
07:20Others, though, are really quite imposing and tragic ruins.
07:27There are facades from old buildings.
07:30There are some very small ghost towns, long abandoned.
07:34Old ruins that have just crumbled away.
07:38Although these villages now lie completely abandoned,
07:42they stand as a testament to the stories and legends dating back hundreds of years.
07:47It's not at all surprising to me that the Pine Barrens is saturated with ghost stories.
07:54Ruins, in general, invites lots of stories.
07:57We're used to, in our experiences, you see a house, somebody's living in it.
08:02You see an abandoned house, something bad must have happened there.
08:05Why isn't anybody living in it?
08:07And that leads to these ghost stories and other things that go along.
08:11The early colonial period has given us a lot of ghost stories and folklores around the Pine Barrens.
08:20Many of these stories are around labourers, railway workers, mine workers,
08:25who end up in real horrific accidents.
08:28The alleged ghosts wandering the Pine Barrens have on occasion presented as fully formed people,
08:37indistinguishable from the living until they vanish without warning.
08:42But more often, they are more abstract or spectral apparitions.
08:47The ghost stories there are, in many ways, more akin to UFO stories or sightings of orbs of light
08:53that are spectrally floating about through the trees that you just sight through the forest.
08:59Media these days has us imagining ghosts that are very much looking like humans.
09:06Ghosts of the time when these stories first started didn't.
09:10Somebody saw a light, somebody saw an abandoned railway,
09:14heard a story of a person who had recently died there,
09:16put them together, that's got to be the person's ghost.
09:21Among these unfortunate souls is a pilot whose final flight ended abruptly
09:26deep in the New Jersey wilderness.
09:30July 13th, 1928, 3 p.m.
09:36Pine Barrens local John Carr and his family
09:38are walking through Wharton State Forest picking fruit.
09:42As he moves through the trees, John notices something strange.
09:50To his horror, he realizes he is staring at the lifeless corpse of a man lying in the underbrush.
09:59Though he doesn't know it yet,
10:01John Carr has just found the body of one of Mexico's most celebrated aviators.
10:06Emilio Carranza was a dashing Mexican national hero,
10:15a pilot who was compared to Charles Lindbergh,
10:19a star of the 1920s for his daring achievements in the air.
10:25And in 1928, Carranza is paying a visit to the United States.
10:33Carranza engages in a month-long goodwill visit to the eastern U.S.,
10:38finishing in New York City, where he waits for the poor weather to clear up.
10:44Carranza's story turns tragic when he attempts to make his way back to Mexico.
10:48And he takes off in rather mysterious circumstances.
10:52It's not clear why, but he tries to leave in the midst of a very difficult storm.
10:57Taking off in an airplane that size in a thunderstorm,
11:00or anywhere near a thunderstorm, is looking for trouble.
11:03A light aircraft like that, an encounter with a nasty thunderstorm,
11:07just tears his wings off.
11:09When he's flying over the Pine Barrens,
11:12he loses control of the aircraft and crashes and is killed.
11:19And Iz later found his body clutching a flashlight.
11:24And this is because this is allegedly his only source of illumination
11:27in this very difficult storm.
11:31A monument was built to Carranza in the Pine Barrens.
11:36And it is said that if you flash a torchlight at it,
11:39or your car lights, that a light will flash back at you,
11:44the ghost of Carranza.
11:51Renowned Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza's ghost
11:54is said to be one of the hundreds haunting the Pine Barrens.
11:58But these eerie lights are not unique to this remote woodland.
12:03Similar sightings have occurred throughout the state of New Jersey.
12:09November 20th, 1976.
12:13A team of scientists assemble in the forests of Morris County.
12:18They are from Vestigia,
12:20New Jersey's Scientific Anomalies Investigations Team.
12:24For years, local residents have reported
12:27seeing the ghost of a railroad worker
12:29injured on the tracks decades earlier.
12:33He is known as the Hooker Man.
12:35He seems to appear as a kind of large, disc-like light.
12:40And he hovers above old, abandoned railways
12:45moving along the tracks.
12:48The investigation team uses copper wire
12:51to link amplifiers and oscilloscopes to the tracks
12:55to monitor variations in electrical frequency.
12:58With their equipment laid,
13:01they wait for the Hooker Man to appear.
13:03At 10 p.m., their instruments spring to life,
13:10recording dramatic shifts in electrical activity around the tracks.
13:14At the same time,
13:16a bright light emerges in the darkness.
13:19For over two minutes,
13:21the researchers are transfixed
13:23as the would-be ghost glides around them.
13:25The Vestigia experiment was crucial
13:29because it proved that there was this light source
13:32appearing spontaneously in the forest.
13:36It also led some people to speculate
13:38that it was a natural phenomenon
13:40known as the piezoelectric effect.
13:42The piezoelectric effect is a physical process
13:46where you squeeze a crystal
13:48and you get a corresponding electrical effect.
13:52If we place a pressure on that object,
13:56it causes a slight shift in the location
13:59of the atoms within the material.
14:02When we change that pressure,
14:05because all of those atoms are moving ever so slightly,
14:09it creates an electric field
14:11and produces electricity and electrical energy.
14:15In New Jersey,
14:15this unusual occurrence can be traced
14:18to a major geophysical fault line
14:20known as the Ramapo Fault.
14:23Faults occur where we have pressure
14:26from tectonic actions,
14:28basically points where the Earth
14:30is being upthrust or pulled apart,
14:33and there's pressures being generated
14:35along the fault line
14:37that cause it to stick,
14:39but then eventually slip.
14:40And when it does slip,
14:41that's when we get an earthquake.
14:44Now, when we come to these areas
14:46of geological faults,
14:48we can see that they are responsible
14:50not only for seismic events,
14:52which do occur frequently in that area,
14:55but also can be responsible
14:56for other phenomena.
14:59So if we have minerals at a fault
15:02that can act in a piezoelectric manner,
15:05and we have changes in pressure
15:07as a result of changes in forces
15:10along the fault,
15:11potentially we could generate electricity.
15:14If we have conductive materials
15:17in that field,
15:19we potentially could produce a light source.
15:23On further investigation,
15:26the Vestigia team concludes
15:27that the Hookerman lights
15:29appear reliably before local earthquake activity.
15:32But while the piezoelectric effect
15:35may be behind
15:36some of the haunting ghost lights
15:37in the Pine Barrens,
15:39other sightings continue
15:40to defy scientific explanation.
15:44The piezoelectric effect
15:45is going to produce phenomena
15:46at more or less ground level.
15:49They're not going to produce phenomena
15:50in the sky or at a great height.
15:53They're not the kinds of lights
15:55that are stereotypically associated
15:57with UFOs.
15:58The piezoelectric effect
16:01can't explain the decades of reports
16:03documenting sightings
16:05of otherworldly aircraft
16:06and strange beings
16:08in the Pine Barrens.
16:11January 18th, 1978, 3 a.m.
16:16An officer from the Fort Dix army base
16:19near Trenton
16:20drives through the Pine Barrens
16:22to investigate reports
16:23of a low-flying aircraft
16:24that has been detected
16:26moving through the base's airspace
16:28before vanishing into the forest.
16:31Now, the officer scours
16:33the endless pine trees
16:35looking for anything
16:36out of the ordinary.
16:38An hour into his drive,
16:41this officer sees this glow
16:43coming from above
16:45and it seems to be
16:46some kind of alien craft.
16:50He looks down onto the road
16:51in front of him
16:51and into the beam of light
16:53from his headlights
16:54comes what's described
16:56as a textbook grey alien.
16:59Long, slender,
17:00very long arms,
17:02saw him,
17:02chained eyes,
17:03standing directly
17:04in front of him.
17:05He shouts at it
17:07to freeze
17:08and it doesn't
17:09so he then apparently
17:10shoots it dead.
17:12Hours later,
17:17at 8 a.m.,
17:18a specialized clean-up crew
17:20dispatched from
17:21the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
17:23in Ohio
17:23arrives at Fort Dix
17:25to remove
17:26the unknown creature.
17:29Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
17:30is infamous
17:31in UFO history
17:32as being the headquarters
17:34of Project Blue Book,
17:35America's longest-running
17:37systematic investigation
17:39into UFOs.
17:41Following World War II,
17:42we see an increase
17:44of UFO sightings
17:45being recorded
17:46in the U.S.
17:48The term of UFO,
17:49naturally,
17:50it applies to objects
17:51that are not alien.
17:53Any unidentified flying object
17:55is just that.
17:57The post-war era
17:58was explosive
18:00for aviation
18:01of all kind.
18:03Experimentation
18:04that had started
18:04during the war
18:05was going on
18:06with more modern aircraft
18:07and there was
18:08more and more traffic
18:09every day
18:09and the civilian population
18:11was not used to seeing it.
18:13Now, this is significant
18:15because it's also
18:16at the beginning
18:17of the Cold War.
18:18These UFO sightings
18:20become an issue
18:21of national security
18:22because they could be
18:24enemy aircrafts
18:25surveilling the United States.
18:27In 1948,
18:32in an effort
18:32to calm the fears
18:33of the public
18:34and demystify
18:35these objects,
18:37Air Force General
18:38Nathan Twining
18:39establishes the program
18:40that would eventually
18:41evolve into
18:42Project Blue Book.
18:45Respected astrophysicist
18:47J. Allen Hynek
18:48is hired
18:49as its scientific consultant.
18:52Over the next 20 years,
18:54researchers examine
18:55more than 12,600 sightings.
18:59There's a degree
19:00of skepticism
19:01that characterizes
19:02Blue Book.
19:03This is really about
19:04debunking UFO sightings
19:07and when the project
19:08concludes in 1969,
19:10it basically says
19:11there was no evidence
19:13to support
19:14the UFO proposition.
19:15Following years
19:18of sightings
19:18and reports, however,
19:20even the most skeptical
19:21of experts
19:22realized that
19:23these mysterious
19:24aerial phenomena
19:25are real
19:26and in dire need
19:27of further study.
19:29Some of those
19:30involved in
19:31Project Blue Book
19:32said that they felt
19:33pressured
19:33to take a skeptical
19:36line towards UFOs
19:38and it's interesting
19:40to note
19:40that there are
19:41something like
19:42700 Blue Book
19:44cases
19:45that had
19:46no solid conclusion.
19:48In other words,
19:49the cases
19:50are still open.
19:53Project Blue Book
19:54ends in 1969,
19:57nearly a decade
19:58before the surreal
19:59alien sighting
19:59near the Fort Dix
20:00Army Base, Trenton.
20:04This strange incident
20:05may have been
20:06forgotten entirely
20:07were it not
20:08for U.S. Air Force
20:10Major George Feiler,
20:11an intelligence officer
20:13at McGuire Air Force Base
20:14adjacent to Fort Dix,
20:16who recounted the incident
20:18for a 2018 biography.
20:21Feiler has a lifelong
20:23interest in UFOs.
20:25I mean, he claims
20:26to have had his first
20:27encounter age five.
20:29He's told to write
20:30a memo about the case
20:33that this alien
20:34has been brought in,
20:35shot dead, etc.
20:36but he never actually
20:38sees the alien.
20:39He's just waiting
20:40for the cleanup crew
20:42to arrive.
20:44It's always important
20:45for the credibility
20:46of a UFO sighting
20:47to have a first-hand
20:49account of it.
20:50And unfortunately,
20:51that's not really
20:52what we have here.
20:53So he's heard about
20:53this second,
20:54maybe even third-hand.
20:55It's certainly something
20:56to consider
20:57when you're considering
20:58UFO accounts.
20:59Like, where did this
21:00information actually come from
21:02and at what level
21:03of remove?
21:06The exact events
21:08of the allegedly
21:09fatal alien encounter
21:10in the Pine Barrens
21:11of January 1978
21:13remain a mystery,
21:15leaving UFO researchers
21:17and enthusiasts
21:18desperately trying
21:19to disentangle fact
21:21from fiction.
21:22One theory that
21:23has been proposed
21:24to explain at least
21:25some of this unusual
21:26activity in the Pine Barrens
21:27is that it may simply be,
21:29for lack of a better word,
21:30an alien search party.
21:31If we do take it
21:33face value
21:34that an alien was shot
21:36in the Pine Barrens,
21:38well, what would
21:39other aliens have done?
21:40They'd have gone
21:40looking for their
21:42comrade alien.
21:47Mysterious lights
21:48and unidentified
21:49flying craft
21:50continue to disturb
21:52local residents.
21:53But these haunting objects
21:55are far from the only
21:56unusual phenomena
21:58in these forests.
22:01summer, 1990.
22:04A local teenager
22:05eats his dinner
22:06by a small campfire.
22:09He often camps
22:10in these woods
22:11and is used to
22:12the strange sounds
22:13of the forest.
22:14But tonight is different.
22:17He can hear something
22:19big moving through
22:20the trees.
22:22It has been stalking him
22:24for hours now,
22:25but he still hasn't
22:26caught a glimpse of it.
22:31The terrified teenager's
22:33heart pounds as he waits,
22:35listening for any creak
22:37or telltale rustle.
22:38Just as he begins
22:42to relax,
22:44a heavy footfall
22:46lands directly
22:47behind his tent.
22:51This creature
22:52doesn't appear
22:53to be purely animal,
22:55nor is it human.
22:58Could it be both?
22:59The story of the Jersey Devil
23:04is one of my favorites.
23:06It's got a great history
23:07to it.
23:08It's got a great lore.
23:09It continues to this day
23:10in many forms.
23:11It's just wacky.
23:13I love it.
23:14We go back
23:15to the year 1795.
23:18There's a woman
23:18called Mother Leeds
23:20living in very
23:21modest circumstances.
23:24She's about to have
23:25her 13th child.
23:27not uncommon
23:28in those days.
23:29But she's fed up
23:31of bearing children
23:32and she just screams out,
23:34let this one
23:35be a devil.
23:39A few months pass
23:40and she gives birth
23:41and everything seems
23:42fine at first.
23:43But within just a few minutes,
23:45very shortly after,
23:46a change starts
23:47to take place.
23:48The baby starts
23:49to turn into
23:50something else.
23:52It begins to transform
23:54into some kind
23:55of dreadful creature
23:56with the eyes
23:57bulging and wings
23:59and claws.
24:01It then attacks
24:02its own mother
24:03and the midwife
24:05and other people
24:06in the cabin
24:06and the Jersey Devil
24:08has been born.
24:14Each year,
24:16dozens of visitors
24:17venture into
24:17the vast Pine Barrens
24:19in search of
24:20the infamous
24:20Jersey Devil.
24:21but even before
24:24the tale of
24:24the Jersey Devil,
24:26the Pine Barrens
24:27are said to have
24:27been home
24:28to another creature,
24:30not a devil,
24:31but a god.
24:32We have accounts
24:34from the indigenous peoples
24:35with their own stories
24:37associated with the area.
24:39One of the indigenous deities
24:41associated with the Pine Barrens
24:43is known as
24:44the Missing.
24:46The Missing
24:47was a very important
24:48Lenape god
24:49and he was a god
24:50who maintained
24:51kind of the balance
24:53between man and nature.
24:57Missing was a protector god
24:58and a powerful medicine spirit
25:01worshipped to prevent
25:02catastrophic natural disasters
25:05like storms
25:06and earthquakes.
25:06During their tribal ceremonies,
25:10the Lenape would invoke Missing
25:12to keep them safe
25:13from the earth's anger.
25:16Some have theorized
25:17that these ceremonial practices
25:19were some of the first
25:21that the settlers
25:22had seen
25:22and interacted
25:23with the indigenous population.
25:25They hear about the story,
25:26of course,
25:27living there amongst the Lenape,
25:29maybe trading with them,
25:30trading stories,
25:31materials,
25:31and you see
25:33cultural transformations
25:35take place
25:36with the settlers.
25:38The European settlers
25:40took this creature
25:42that had benevolent powers
25:45for the Lenape people,
25:47but they Christianized it
25:49and they Christianized it
25:50in such a way
25:51that they turned it
25:53from benevolent
25:54to malevolent.
25:55They turned it
25:56into a devil.
26:00Over time,
26:02accounts of the Jersey devil
26:04poured in from colonists
26:05living in and around
26:06the Pinelands,
26:08building a truly terrifying reputation
26:09for the elusive creature.
26:12While some of these witnesses
26:14were discounted
26:15for being inebriated,
26:17mistaken,
26:18or simply lying,
26:19many more were taken
26:21extremely seriously.
26:22The credibility of somebody
26:26who belonged to the upper class,
26:29who was viewed as coming
26:30from a good family,
26:32who was probably male,
26:34probably white as well,
26:36their testimony
26:37would have carried more weight
26:39in the community.
26:42In the early 19th century,
26:44near Woodbury,
26:46naval commodore
26:47Stephen Decatur
26:48claimed to have spotted
26:49an enormous pterodactyl-like creature
26:51flying overhead.
26:53He fired a cannonball
26:55directly at the animal,
26:57only for it to ricochet
26:58harmlessly off
26:59its hard,
27:00scaly body.
27:03In 1820,
27:05Joseph Bonaparte,
27:06brother of the former
27:07French emperor
27:08Napoleon Bonaparte,
27:09took up residence
27:10in Bordentown.
27:12One day,
27:14during a hunt
27:14in the nearby forest,
27:16Bonaparte came face-to-face
27:18with a creature he described
27:19as having the head of a horse,
27:21the body of a kangaroo,
27:23and the wings of a bat.
27:25But despite their
27:27presumed credibility,
27:29Decatur and Bonaparte's
27:30descriptions of the beast
27:31don't quite line up.
27:34With the origins
27:35of a lot of these stories,
27:36especially of cryptids
27:37or unknown creatures,
27:39there's always discrepancies,
27:40especially at first.
27:41And so this is the case
27:43with the Jersey Devil as well.
27:44The Jersey Devil
27:45is often described
27:47as a nightmarish combination
27:48of various animals,
27:50from goats,
27:51bats,
27:52and reptiles,
27:53to camels,
27:54kangaroos,
27:55and horses.
27:56Nevertheless,
27:57there are sufficient
27:59commonalities
28:00between their descriptions
28:02to suggest
28:03that they could have seen
28:05the same creature
28:06in the Pine Barrens
28:08or something very odd
28:10that lives out there.
28:11UFOlogists refer to regions
28:19like the Pine Barrens
28:20as areas of high strangeness.
28:23It's a great term
28:25coined by ufologist
28:26Jayon Hynek
28:27to denote areas
28:29or times or places
28:31where, frankly,
28:32strange stuff is going on,
28:34things that just seem
28:35to defy explanation,
28:36and it's often used
28:37to refer to UFOs
28:39and cryptids
28:40in particular.
28:41This is basically
28:43an area of high strangeness
28:44because all these weird,
28:47seemingly inexplicable phenomena
28:49keep recurring
28:50in this area.
28:51In recent decades,
28:53the mysterious ancient creatures
28:55of the Pine Barrens
28:56have been joined
28:57by the more modern phenomena
28:59of UFOs.
29:01Just what are these objects,
29:03and could they somehow
29:04be connected
29:05to the Jersey Devil?
29:07In areas of high strangeness,
29:09there is a kind of occurrence
29:12of UFOs
29:14or UFO-type phenomena
29:15wherever cryptids
29:17have been said
29:18to have been located,
29:20whether it's Bigfoot
29:21or the various sea monsters,
29:23Ogopogo, whatever it is.
29:25But it is only very recently
29:26that people started thinking
29:27that, oh, cryptids and UFOs,
29:29there's a connection.
29:30But before that,
29:31people were investigating cryptids
29:33as a biological phenomena.
29:35One of the most mysterious aspects
29:38of the UFO phenomenon
29:39and the cryptozoological phenomenon
29:42is that there's often no trace
29:44of any of these alleged animals
29:46or these craft,
29:47and there's lots of theories
29:49proposed to account for that.
29:51One of them comes out of the 1960s
29:53by journalist,
29:54paranormal researcher,
29:55John Keel.
29:56In the late 1960s,
29:59Keel devotes an entire year
30:01to investigating reports
30:02of strange creatures
30:04and encounters
30:05with non-human entities
30:06in remote West Virginia.
30:09Despite countless witness accounts,
30:12Keel is left baffled
30:13by the lack of physical evidence
30:15left by any of these phenomena.
30:17He proposes a theory
30:19that may explain
30:20this frustrating discrepancy.
30:22He calls it
30:23the ultra-terrestrial hypothesis.
30:25John Keel uses the idea
30:28of ultra-terrestrials,
30:30meaning that these UFOs
30:32are not from out of this planet.
30:34We don't really know
30:35where they've come from.
30:36They could be within the planet
30:37or maybe from another dimension.
30:39We don't know about anything
30:44beyond our universe.
30:46There is potentially
30:47other universes
30:49or parallel dimensions
30:51out there
30:51that have similar
30:53or potentially differing
30:54properties to us.
30:56Now, when we talk about
30:57parallel universes
30:58or the like,
30:59the thought is
31:00that they would exist
31:00in some higher dimensional space.
31:02That's a really hard thing
31:04for our human brains
31:06to try and conceive
31:07because we exist in 4D space,
31:103D plus time,
31:11because time is also a dimension.
31:13Is it possible they're there?
31:15And if they do exist,
31:16could you travel between them?
31:18Your guess is as good as mine.
31:20This is well beyond the physics
31:22that we understand
31:23at this point in time.
31:25We talk about this idea
31:26of the multiverse
31:27in which each universe
31:29has a different set of laws,
31:31a different set of constraints,
31:32a different set of rules.
31:34You know, it's possible,
31:35maybe,
31:36that there is
31:37a sufficiently advanced civilization
31:38that has developed,
31:40by some measure,
31:41that we don't currently understand,
31:43some process of traveling
31:45through higher dimensions
31:46to go from their universe
31:47to ours.
31:49If this is the case,
31:50it might be a simple matter
31:51of something like a Sasquatch
31:53or a Mothman
31:54just traversing that boundary
31:56to another dimension
31:57and thus leaving nothing behind.
32:01Since the late 1970s,
32:03researchers have continued
32:05to expand on Kiel's work.
32:08In 2022,
32:10a new theory emerges
32:11based on the work
32:13of parapsychologist
32:14Harold Puthoff.
32:16The theory strengthens
32:17the link between UFO reports
32:19and tales of strange,
32:21nightmarish cryptids.
32:23This is an alternative model
32:25that says that
32:26if aliens do exist,
32:27if extraterrestrials do exist
32:29and they have such advanced technology,
32:30then it's also a possibility
32:32that they have the technology
32:35to travel between dimensions,
32:37but even more profoundly
32:38to manipulate our reality
32:40as we know it.
32:42Now, why they do that,
32:43who knows,
32:44but they could be able to do it.
32:46And something like
32:47the Jersey Devil
32:48may be something
32:49that they're projecting
32:51into our reality
32:52to mess with our minds.
32:56One interesting theory
32:57is negative reinforcement,
32:59that they might be trying
33:00to help us
33:01by crafting experiences
33:03for us
33:04that basically keep us away
33:05from certain places,
33:06almost like cautionary tales,
33:08or even like
33:08the original purpose
33:09of fairy tales
33:10is to be wary of the words.
33:14Reinforcement learning
33:15is based on the idea
33:16that when something happens,
33:17there is either a reward
33:19or a punishment
33:20or a bad thing
33:23doesn't happen
33:24if you do this
33:25as negative reinforcement.
33:27You're learning over time
33:28that your action
33:29has a specific outcome,
33:31and that outcome
33:33then feeds back in
33:34to determine
33:34do you want to do
33:35this action again or not.
33:37And the same thing
33:37will happen
33:38if it's a scary story.
33:40You've got a small kid,
33:41so you tell them,
33:41you know,
33:42don't go into the woods at night
33:43because the real reason
33:44they'll get lost
33:45and you don't want them
33:46to get hurt.
33:47But, you know,
33:47you tell them
33:48that there might be beasts
33:49or other things in there,
33:50you scare them
33:51to stay out of it.
33:53So if this is happening
33:54with something
33:55like the Jersey Devil story
33:56going around
33:57trying to keep people away,
33:59it's getting into that fear
34:01to say,
34:02this is a bad place,
34:03don't be there.
34:04It could very well be
34:06a way of keeping people out,
34:07but that would work
34:08only for so long.
34:10You know,
34:11there are always curious people,
34:12and the more you tell people
34:14that a certain place
34:15is prohibited.
34:16At least a certain group
34:18of human beings
34:19is going to be attracted
34:20to that place.
34:23The possibility
34:24that an unknown force
34:26may be driving humans
34:27away from the Pine Barrens
34:29begs the question,
34:30what for?
34:31It may be that a device
34:34like the Jersey Devil
34:36was created
34:37to stop early colonists
34:40from damaging
34:41a pristine environment
34:43like the Pine Barrens.
34:45And in our time,
34:47the Pine Barrens
34:48is a protected reserve.
34:50Is this what the aliens wanted?
34:54Now, another reason
34:56that an alien might do this,
34:58this kind of negative reinforcement
35:00is because they don't want us
35:04going into the woods
35:05and seeing what they're up to.
35:13The Jersey Devil continues
35:15to spark terror
35:16around the Pine Barrens,
35:18leaving locals and visitors
35:19reluctant to venture
35:21into the forest.
35:22But the Winged Devil
35:23isn't the only threat
35:24to the human mind
35:25in these woods.
35:28One aspect of UFO lore
35:30that I find quite interesting
35:31is the physiological responses
35:34that people have
35:35to sightings
35:36and encounters
35:37of various kinds.
35:38It runs the gamut here
35:39from fear,
35:41sometimes frustration,
35:42anger,
35:43to much more benevolent feelings.
35:45And there's a range
35:45of this being experienced
35:47in the Pine Barrens.
35:50One of the most shocking accounts
35:52of extraterrestrial activity
35:54in the Pine Barrens
35:55was reported anonymously
35:57in summer of 2022.
36:01The person wakes up
36:03in the middle of the night,
36:04can't get back to sleep,
36:05has some insomnia,
36:07so they decide to do laundry.
36:12As they enter the living room,
36:14they catch something
36:15out of the corner of their eye.
36:18It looks like a thin,
36:20angular person
36:21with long arms
36:22and a large head
36:23flitting across the room.
36:26But when they turn on the light,
36:29there's nothing there.
36:31Relieved,
36:32they turn towards
36:33the laundry room.
36:35Then,
36:36their heart skips a beat.
36:37They're stopped short
36:39by what appears
36:40to be a hand
36:42reaching around the door.
36:44And they are
36:46kind of floored
36:47with very visceral feelings
36:49of fear,
36:50of danger,
36:51and overcome
36:52with images
36:53of very extreme
36:54graphic violence.
36:57They reel back in shock.
37:00But when they look back
37:02at the door,
37:03the hand is gone.
37:05They enter the laundry room.
37:07Beset by an onslaught
37:09of new,
37:09even more harrowing images.
37:12They see the door
37:14adjoining the backyard
37:15is flown wide open.
37:17The dog is barking viciously
37:19and they witness
37:21a small humanoid creature
37:23running across the lawn
37:25and then disappearing
37:26right over the fence
37:27to the neighbor's yard.
37:30As the images
37:31in their mind
37:32finally fade,
37:33they're left shaken
37:34and deeply disturbed.
37:38All that starts off
37:39with that first waking up.
37:40And the first question is,
37:42were they awake?
37:43The descriptions
37:44follow what you would expect
37:46for what's called
37:47vivid dreaming.
37:48And in vivid dreaming,
37:49you can make decisions
37:50and move places
37:52and do things
37:52and get a sense of
37:54you are experiencing it
37:56because the parts
37:58of your brain
37:58that would make decisions
37:59and choose things,
38:00they are awake enough
38:02for you to have
38:02that conscious memory
38:03of those as well.
38:05And so during that period
38:06in the dream,
38:07you feel like you're awake
38:08and you're doing these things.
38:10But if it wasn't a dream,
38:12what could this strange creature
38:14want in the Pine Barrens?
38:16And was it the cause
38:17of those terrifying visions?
38:21The story is really striking.
38:22It's one of the more dramatic
38:23graphic ones
38:24that I've come across,
38:26but it's actually not
38:27unique or unprecedented.
38:29There have been other stories
38:30like this coming out
38:31of the Pine Barrens.
38:34In 2006,
38:36a family camping
38:37by Lake Absagami
38:38reported loud banging sounds
38:40in the woods
38:41and a circle of strange lights
38:43flying in a low ring formation
38:45over the water.
38:47They described a sinking feeling
38:49in the pits of their stomachs
38:51that lasted for days.
38:53In 2016,
38:56a driver on Route 72
38:58is gripped by an inexplicable terror
39:01when he sees flashing lights
39:03in his rearview mirror.
39:05The light follows him
39:06for what seems like hours,
39:08but when he checks his watch,
39:10he discovers the entire ordeal
39:12has lasted less than a minute.
39:15Feelings of fear,
39:17feelings of anxiety,
39:19lost time,
39:20time dilation,
39:21all of these are associated
39:23with the contact
39:24with extraterrestrials.
39:27This could simply be the case
39:28of people having
39:29what are fairly natural reactions
39:31to them unknown phenomena,
39:34or it could hearken
39:35to other theories
39:37like the ultra-terrestrial model
39:40where they could be,
39:41in essence,
39:42implanting these kinds
39:43of feelings in us,
39:44maybe again as a part
39:45of keeping us away
39:46from key sites
39:48instilling in us fear
39:50of places
39:51where they,
39:52for whatever reason,
39:53think we shouldn't be.
39:57While little is known
39:58about the neurological effects
40:00of UFO encounters,
40:02new research
40:03by Dr. Gary Nolan,
40:05professor of pathology
40:06at Stanford University,
40:08may bring us
40:09a step closer
40:10to an answer.
40:10The investigation of UFOs
40:13is split into a number
40:14of different branches
40:15and you have a range
40:16of people with
40:17quite far-out theories
40:19that are very difficult
40:20or impossible to test
40:21and then you have
40:22the other range
40:23with pretty die-hard scientists
40:25who know what they're talking
40:26about when it comes
40:26to their particular field
40:27and this is the case
40:28with Nolan.
40:30Nolan attracted media attention
40:32in 2012
40:33for his work analyzing
40:35a tiny mummified skeleton
40:37found in Chile's
40:38Atacama Desert.
40:41Because of the features
40:42of this mummified body,
40:45rumors start to swirl
40:46that it could be an alien.
40:49The truth is
40:49it was most likely
40:51a stillborn baby
40:53that possibly had
40:55some very unfortunate
40:56genetic defects.
40:59Now for Nolan,
41:00he becomes
41:01a recognized investigator
41:04of unusual phenomena.
41:06A year later,
41:10a former CIA agent
41:11and an executive
41:12from a large
41:13aerospace company
41:14appear at
41:15Nolan's Stanford laboratory.
41:18They hand him
41:19a stack of brain scans,
41:21the MRIs of pilots
41:23and intelligence agents
41:24who claim to have been
41:25in close contact
41:26with UFOs.
41:29Nolan was tasked
41:30with analyzing them
41:31and carrying out
41:32further testing.
41:33The images of many
41:36of the individuals
41:37show changes
41:38to a region of the brain
41:39called the basal ganglia.
41:42Well, the basal ganglia
41:43are a series of nuclei
41:45in our subcortical regions.
41:48Our prefrontal cortex,
41:49which is where
41:50our decision-making is,
41:51our executive functions,
41:52our personality is,
41:54are heavily connected
41:55to the basal ganglia
41:57as are our motor control areas.
41:59The MRIs showed
42:01stronger connections
42:02between some parts
42:03of the basal ganglia
42:04in pilots that have
42:05experienced UFO sightings.
42:08But are these connections
42:10a cause or an effect?
42:12You can either say
42:14that it's causal
42:15and having a UFO experience
42:18caused the change,
42:19or you could say
42:20that it is, you know,
42:22a predictor.
42:23And so having this
42:24means you're more likely
42:25to interpret an event
42:26as being one of these
42:29UFO experiences instead.
42:32While Nolan doesn't claim
42:34that his research proves
42:35that UFOs exist,
42:37he doesn't shy away
42:38from the possibility
42:40of extraterrestrial life
42:41visiting Earth.
42:43Nolan is a lifelong enthusiast
42:46about UFOs
42:48and claims to have had
42:49his first encounter
42:50aged five.
42:51But his approach
42:53is rigorously scientific.
42:57Being scientific means
42:58not just considering things
43:00which fit into
43:01our picture of the world,
43:02but being open
43:03to changing
43:04our picture of the world.
43:09Gary Nolan's work
43:10is part of a new wave
43:12of UFO research.
43:14In 2022,
43:17the U.S. government
43:18established
43:18the All Domain Anomaly
43:20Resolution Office
43:21to research
43:22unknown aerial objects.
43:26A year earlier,
43:28a Freedom of Information
43:29Act request
43:30to NASA
43:31revealed that
43:32looking for
43:33extraterrestrial life
43:34remains one of
43:35the organization's
43:36top priorities.
43:38And in 2023,
43:41a series of military
43:42officials presented
43:43their own experiences
43:44with UFOs
43:46at a highly publicized
43:47congressional hearing.
43:49With this shift
43:50in the scientific community,
43:52many wonder
43:52what else researchers
43:54might discover
43:55and what these findings
43:56could mean
43:57for those living
43:58in hotbeds
43:59of unusual activity
44:00like the Pine Barrens
44:01of New Jersey.
44:03What people go through
44:04when they claim
44:05to have seen
44:06a UFO
44:07or an extraterrestrial
44:08is something
44:10that we're still
44:10grappling with.
44:12And we could hope
44:13that in the future,
44:15neuroscience
44:15may give us
44:17some new insights
44:18as to what's going on
44:19inside the human brain
44:21when people claim
44:23to have had
44:23an encounter
44:24of the third kind.
44:27One of the things
44:27that continues
44:28to fascinate me
44:29about the UFO phenomenon
44:30is simply
44:30how little we know.
44:32More than 75 years
44:33since the early days
44:35of the UFO phenomenon,
44:36we don't know
44:37that much more
44:37than we did back then.
44:39It's frustrating,
44:40but it's also exciting
44:41that there's probably
44:42much more
44:43that we can learn
44:44from this
44:44if we take it seriously.
44:46Could a new scientific dawn
44:49one day explain
44:50the seemingly
44:51unexplainable?
44:53We'll see you next time.
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