Why do we think we aren’t alone? Extraterrestrial explores tales of alien encounters. Millions of people claim to have seen alien life, but no one can confirm any of it. Is there a more grounded explanation for these incidents, or is there really something lurking out there? Every Tuesday, we’ll examine reports of a different alien occurrence, and land on the most plausible explanation. Extraterrestrial premieres January 29th. Extraterrestrial is a production of Cutler Media and part of the Parcast Network.
In 1961, while returning home to New Hampshire from a trip to Niagara Falls, all american couple, Barney and Betty Hill, were abducted and experimented upon by an alien crew. The effects of the other worldly trip changed their lives forever.
They thought they could return to normal life after their hypnosis sessions with Dr. Benjamin Simon, but in 1966 the news of their abduction reached the media. Thrusted into the spotlight and forced to share their experience with visitors from another world, Barney and Betty Hill would become the grandparents of the UFO phenomenon.
In the shadow of South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains, Elizabeth Klarer met the love of her life. The only problem… he wasn’t from this planet. Her new boyfriend, Akon, was an astrophysicist from the planet Meton in the Proxima Centauri System. The relationship would carry on through the 1950s and 60s, despite the distance.
This timeless intergalactic love story started with a chance encounter at the top of the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa. In 1957, Elizabeth Klarer would be transported to Meton, her alien lover’s home planet. Sadly, the planet could not sustain human life so Elizabeth had to return to Earth, but not before conceiving a child with Akon.
In 1957, an alien spacecraft landed in Alexandria, Virginia. From the craft emerged a Venusian space commander named Valiant Thor. He had come to Earth to speak with President Eisenhower and advise him on all manners of state.
In 1967, Dr. Frank E. Stranges published his autobiography “Stranger at the Pentagon” which detailed his many adventures with the Venusian Space Commander named Valiant Thor. While the book is allegedly factual, this supposed autobiography leaves out many details of Dr. Frank E. Stranges's life. Upon closer examination, Dr. Stranges proves to be much stranger than the spaceman he claimed to have met.
Over the past century, multiple scientists have attempted to answer whether alien life truly exists through mathematical formulas and listening to the deepest recesses of the galaxy. Ultimately, none of these endeavors have yielded results. Since 1950 the Fermi Paradox suggests multiple possibilities: aliens are extremely rare, aliens have evolved at a different pace than humans, aliens are hiding themselves from us, or perhaps...they're already here.
Some creatures defy description. Even those that saw the Mothman couldn't agree if it was a giant bird, a mutated man or...something more. But any citizen who lived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia from 1966 to 1967 will tell you that the Mothman was not the only strange being stalking folks that year.
Rancher Mike Brazel was thrust into the spotlight in 1947, he discovers the remains of an alien spaceship on the outskirts of a remote New Mexico town. The subsequent media frenzy and government cover-up would lead to perhaps the most endearing UFO story of all time.
In 1978, a scintillating National Enquirer article revived the Roswell legend for a new audience. Then, in the 1990s, UFOlogists tracked down fresh clues that could prove the existence of aliens in the infamous New Mexico town.
New Mexico Highway patrolman Gabe Valdez got more than he bargained for when responding to a cattle rancher's call in June 1976. His career was irrevocably altered as he embarked on a decades-long search to find the connection between UFOs and cattle mutilation.
Paul Bennewitz, a UFO researcher living in New Mexico finally received confirmation that the government had come into contact with extraterrestrial life. But later that summer in 1980, he would realize too late that he was being manipulated by sinister forces that sought his destruction.
The hit book of 1953 was “The Flying Saucers Have Landed.” Southern California was enamored with the book's author, who claimed to have met an extraterrestrial. Either he was the most important man to have ever lived, or one of the most successful con artists in history.
In 1953, Orthon the Venusian took his favorite human on a joyride through the cosmos, but back on earth, skeptical forces were closing in. UFOlogist James Moseley aimed to prove once and for all that George was a fraud.
Though John Vasquez had always looked back on his military service with pride, something about his infantry training in Georgia in 1977 had never sat right with him. When he decided to recover his memories from this time period using hypnosis therapy, he realized that his entire battalion had been the victim of alien abduction.
For years, John Vasquez struggled to prove that he had been the victim of alien abduction while serving at a military base in Georgia in 1977. But soon, his story would gain credibility as a second soldier emerged to tell his version of events.
Colorado's San Luis Valley is a place of idyllic beauty, but in September 1967, it was witness to the gruesome death of a beloved horse. Parts of the animal's skin and several of its organs were removed with surgical precision, which some believed could only be the work of other worldly surgeons.
As livestock continued to mysteriously perish in the 1970s American West, U.S. Treasury Agent Donald E. Flickinger believed inmate Kenneth Bankston was the key to stopping this phenomenon. The ultimate culprit may not have been aliens after all, but the devil himself.
Ancient Astronauts have become a cornerstone of science fiction storytelling, but in 1976, researcher Zechariah Sitchin of New York, introduced this concept to the world with his book, the 12th Planet. According to this work, the ancient Sumerian deities were no mere gods, but aliens from a world at the very edges of the solar system.
Zechariah Sitchin found evidence to suggest that aliens meddled in the affairs of the ancient Egyptians, and may have even influenced the stories of the Bible. But back in the 1970s, skeptics began to question his writings.
In Sacramento, California, an unknown aircraft traveled over the city in 1896, filling citizens with awe. A year later, another mysterious aircraft was spotted over Aurora, Texas. This time, the ship crashed, and it left behind the remains of a pilot who was something other than human.
In June 1973, Bill Case and a slurry of UFO organizations such as MUFON and NICAP attempted to exhume a grave in Aurora, Texas that supposedly housed the corpse of an alien visitor. However, there may have been another explanation for the corpse, and the aircraft it crashed in.
Maria Orsitsch had been in psychic communication with aliens since she was a young girl. Her special ability took on a sinister angle when in World War 2, Maria began using her gift to aid the Nazis in constructing their very own UFO.
Vril Society Pt. 2: Nazi Moon Base Jul 9th, 2019 44m 16s In 1884, the Fox sisters sparked a "spirit channeling" movement that inspired mystics, Nazis and UFO believers. Supposed medium Maria Orsitsch was all three of those things. However, illness and an alien-crazed pop culture landscape may well have contributed to her visions.
In December 1980, multiple personnel at Woodbridge Royal Air Force Base were witness to a UFO darting through the forest next to the base. Just a few years later, details emerged as the witnesses claimed they were bullied into silence by the Royal Air Force.
In the years since the Woodbridge Royal Air Force Base UFO sightings of December 1980, the witnesses have stood by their claims. However, some of their stories have become more outlandish. Skeptic Ian Ridpath has worked for decades to prove them wrong.
During the summer of 1969, the Apollo 10 lunar mission orbited the dark side of the moon encountered unfamiliar signals coming from the moon's surface. After the famed Apollo 11 moon landing later that summer, word began to spread that the astronauts had encountered something alien on the moon.
With the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, a plan for a joint mission to the moon between the United States and Russia was cancelled before it began. Decades later, as NASA's documents on the moon landing became declassified, some came to suspect that Kennedy's assassination occurred because he was preparing to reveal to the world the truth about UFOs.
In October of 1973, two men were fishing on the banks of the Pascagoula river in Mississippi, when they saw a pair of strange lights descend on them. Despite the complete lack of physical evidence, this is considered to be among the most believable UFO encounters of all time. The reason? Both men saw exactly the same thing, and in the 46 years since, neither have recanted their story.
After the madness in Pascagoula, Calvin Parker attempted to lay low and live a normal life. But his friend Charlie, who gave out many interviews since the incident, had several repeat encounters. Charlie published a book about his experiences in 1983, but Calvin wouldn't speak out again until 2017, years after Charlie's death. Were both men lying this whole time for publicity? Or did they actually see something that affected their lives forever?
At the end of June 1947, aviator Kenneth Arnold saw nine flying saucers near Mt. Rainier in Washington state and helped spark the UFO craze at the beginning of the Cold War. A month later, he was in Tacoma, WA investigating the UFO sightings of two men near Maury Island. But when Army Intelligence is brought in to help, the investigation turns deadly.
Upon hearing the news of the B-25 crash at Kelso, Kenneth Arnold begins to question what exactly happened at Maury Island in June 1947. As well as his own sanity.
In 1938 in New York City, soon-to-be-acclaimed-filmmaker Orson Welles delivered his infamous broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Many took it seriously and responded in terror. In 1977, up-and-coming filmmaker Steven Spielberg released his uber-realistic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. UFO enthusiasts immediately claimed that Spielberg was channeling the truth behind their beliefs.
If Jimmy Carter and Steven Spielberg wanted the American public to believe that aliens were friendly, Ronald Reagan and James Cameron wanted them to believe that the aliens wanted to destroy us all. Bruce Rux's theories continue into the 80s and beyond, as science fiction films take a turn toward war and violence. But is this a legitimate conspiracy, or a natural trend within the artform? Regardless, Hollywood has a long and sordid history of collaborating with the government.
In 1917, tens of thousands of people watched as the sun arced and dipped through the sky before it dried the area's water and bathed a field in shifting colors of light. While they attributed the strange experience to a divine miracle, today the Miracle of the Sun is considered one of history's first mass UFO sightings.
After tens of thousands of people witnessed the so-called Miracle of the Sun, the Catholic Church tried to suppress and later control testimony regarding the miracle. Along with rumors of alien skulls stored in the Vatican archives, the church's strange behavior has led many to wonder if they're part of a massive alien cover-up.
Did three extraterrestrials crash-land their spaceship on a Missouri farm in 1941? And how far would the government go to cover it up?
In 1941, government forces collected all traces of wreckage from what is widely believed to be an extraterrestrial spaceship crash. A few years later, the U.S. championed major advances in aviation and nuclear technology. Coincidence?
Clifford Stone was a military veteran with a lifelong relationship with extraterrestrial lifeforms, who claimed he was tasked with retrieving downed UFOs in the 1960s. He vowed to protect the aliens he’d been affiliated with his whole life—at all costs if necessary. But would speaking about it invoke persecution and a government cover-up?
In 1990, after over 2 decades of retrieving downed UFOs, Clifford Stone’s military service would end in disgrace. His new mission—to restore his name and inform the public about the government’s massive alien cover-up.
For most of his adult life, Emanuel Swedenborg sought to reconcile his Christian faith with the values of the Enlightenment. And in 1768, he received a revelation from the spirits of dead aliens who explained deep secrets about his religion and the nature of the universe.
fter an other-worldly revelation in 1768, Emanuel Swedenborg would draw the ire of the Swedish Lutheran Church as he tried to publicize what he’d learned. He would also capture the attention—and criticism—of famous philosopher Immanuel Kant.
In what is considered to be the earliest recorded examples of UFOs, strange objects were sighted emerging from the sun in 1561 and 1566. This 16th century celestial phenomena is often interpreted through a religious lens.
what dozens of spectators thought was a plane crash. But no aircraft were reported missing, and as confusion and suspicion mounted, the Canadian government officially labeled the object a UFO.
The mystery of the Shag Harbour Crash haunted the small village for decades. But a 1985 revelation about certain government secrets finally started to point UFO investigators in a new—and alarming—direction.
Legend has it that a strange ship was sighted off the eastern coast of Japan in the early 19th Century. The account resembles some classic tales of Japanese folklore. But it also bears many of the hallmark signs of a UFO encounter.
The most iconic of the alien race, the Greys represent the most widely-recognized pop-culture version of extraterrestrial life. You can see them everywhere, from science fiction novels to movies. Is their appearance always the same due to cultural phenomenon, or is it because they actually exist?
If you enjoy the stories told in Extraterrestrial, check out this episode from our series Conspiracy Theories: The ancient world proved itself capable of remarkable feats of construction. Thousands of years later, historians and archeologists are still unsure of how such marvels were constructed. As our understanding of the capabilities of ancient empires has grown, so has the suspicion that these ancient peoples were assisted by extraterrestrial visitors.
If you enjoy the stories told in Extraterrestrial, check out this episode from our series Conspiracy Theories: The Great pyramid of Giza. The Nazca Lines. The Moai Statues of Easter Island. Long considered engineering feats of ancient civilizations, there are some theories that are still discussed today that these ancient monuments may be the work of extraterrestrial civilizations.