He was an artist
whose paintings have become
priceless masterpieces.
Leonardo
produced some of the world's
most recognizable paintings...
The Mona Lisa, the Last Supper,
the Lady with an Ermine.
He was a genius
whose inventions were centuries
ahead of their time.
He drew construction plans
for tanks, for helicopters,
all sorts of wild things
that came into reality
during our lifetime, right now.
But there are those who believe
that Leonardo da Vinci
was inspired
by an extraterrestrial
intelligence,
that his paintings are embedded
with secret knowledge
and contain codes which,
when deciphered,
will provide the keys
to unlocking the universe.
I think
da Vinci is trying to tell us
that there's
a higher intelligence
that operates in our world.
And so, ladies and gentlemen,
we move to the Leonardo
da Vinci, the Salvator Mundi,
the masterpiece by Leonardo
of Christ the Savior,
previously in the collections
of three kings of England.
New York City.
November 15, 2017.
$370 million.
Back to Francoise's clients...
at $370 million dollars,
ladies and gentlemen.
400.
$400 million!
At a Christie's auction
at Rockefeller Center,
Leonardo da Vinci's
newly authenticated painting
Salvator Mundi
sells for a record-breaking
$400 million.
- Sold.
- The buyer is a Saudi prince,
representing the new
Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.
But why was a member
of the Saudi royal family...
Or anyone... so willing to pay
such an incredible price
for a work of art?
Leonardo da Vinci
has captured the fascination
of so many people.
I really believe he was
way ahead of his time.
But if Leonardo were alive today
and realized
how much his paintings
would go for, he'd go crazy.
It's a lot of money
for a painting.
You ask yourself
if there's another possibility.
There are those who believe
that the Salvator Mundi
is much more than a priceless
piece of Renaissance art.
They believe,
when considered in context
with other examples
of da Vinci's paintings,
that it contains a piece
of a giant puzzle,
one that, when put together,
could reveal
the secrets of the universe.
April 15, 1452.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci,
the illegitimate child
of a nobleman and his maid,
is born in Vinci, Italy.
If you were not entitled
to take your father's name,
your last name just became
the town you came from.
This probably aided
his development.
The fact that he didn't belong
also meant
that he wasn't caught up
in the official version
of reality.
He was free enough
to have his own ideas.
When he was a teenager,
Leonardo settled
in nearby Florence.
At that time,
the city was a cultural mecca,
the beating heart
of a classical revival
known as the Renaissance.
The Renaissance is a resurgence
of new ideas and approaches
and interests
in not only antiquity
but in the reinterpretation
of the human condition.
It reinvents, really,
the culture of the time.
Leonardo received
an informal education
in the studio of the renowned
Florentine painter
Andrea del Verrocchio,
but was also
largely self-taught.
Despite this... Or
perhaps because of it...
He excelled at a staggering
range of disciplines.
Da Vinci was
way ahead of his time
during the period
in which he lived.
He drew construction plans
for tanks...
for helicopters,
all sorts of wild things
that came into reality
during our lifetime, right now.
In March 2018,
author and ancient astronaut
theorist William Henry
traveled to Florence
to learn more
about the Renaissance master.
He was also eager
to find out, firsthand,
if there was any truth
to the theory
that da Vinci hid secret
messages in his paintings.
At the Piazzale Michelangelo,
overlooking the city,
Henry met
with Dr. Michael Kwakkelstein,
who has made it
his life's work to discover
everything there is to know
about Leonardo da Vinci.
I'm so excited to be here
in Florence, home of Leonardo.
Yeah, you look around,
you start to see
that these are what you see
in Leonardo's paintings.
Absolutely.
He took his inspiration
just from those hills,
those trees.
500 years ago, Florence was,
of course, a much smaller city.
- Right.
- So just crossing the Arno
over there,
you see the Ponte Vecchio,
Yes. -Leonardo would find
himself amidst nature
to study the fall of water
or the movement of water,
- to study birds.
- Leonardo created
just a prodigious volume of...
an expl*si*n, really,
of creativity.
What do we have left
of his legacy?
Do we have a lot? A little?
Well, we have a dozen paintings.
Some of these paintings
are unfinished.
Some of these paintings are
in a bad state.
Uh, but we have his notebooks,
his manuscripts...
It's like a map
- of his mind, all these writings.
- Wow.
You've personally been able
to explore those notebooks
- and spent your life...
- I'm still working on it.
It's a life work.
But while Leonardo's genius
was highly regarded
in his lifetime,
he was also highly scrutinized
by the Roman Catholic Church,
which remained
a powerful political force
throughout Italy
and much of the world.
During the Renaissance,
there was a rediscovery
of ancient classical documents
that were stored in monasteries
after the dissolution
of the Roman Empire.
Because of these
new discoveries,
new ideas were circulating,
ideas from great minds
like Plato,
Aristotle and Galen
from the ancient world.
But these great ideas
often did not combine well
with Christianity,
and Leonardo is someone who
represents a point of conflict.
It is this ancient knowledge
that has led many scholars
and ancient astronaut theorists
to suggest that da Vinci,
while Christian,
was also open to a wide range
of spiritual philosophies.
Philosophies which, if revealed,
would have placed him
in opposition
to the strict teachings
of the Catholic Church,
and would have caused him to be
publicly shunned as a heretic.
It's almost certain
that Leonardo had access
to secret knowledge.
Leonardo was actually not,
as a lot of people think today,
some kind of atheist.
Leonardo was a heretic.
He passionately believed
in something that was outside
of the mainstream religion,
and therefore very dangerous.
Florence, Italy. 2002.
Using infrared
diagnostic techniques,
Dr. Maurizio Seracini uncovers
the underdrawing,
or preliminary sketch,
done by Leonardo da Vinci
for his unfinished painting
Adoration of the Magi.
Commissioned in 1481,
the work depicts
the biblical story
of the three wise men visiting
the infant Jesus in Bethlehem.
But by viewing the painting
with this new technology,
it becomes apparent
that Leonardo's original sketch
actually included
many more details
than those that could be seen
with just the naked eye.
The first time
I aimed the camera,
the infrared camera,
to the, uh, to the Adoration,
uh... I felt very privileged.
Because for the first time
in 500 years,
I managed to see probably
the best creativity effort
of Leonardo on a work of art.
And science can help you
to go back,
like if you were
in a time machine,
and I saw dozens of figures...
Fighting horses, uh...
nature, architecture.
And now my eyes alone
could not see them,
because they were covered
by a brownish monochrome
layer of paint...
that later I understood
was not applied by Leonardo.
In the background
of the top left,
you could see a couple of people
sitting in despair
on stairs of a temple in ruins.
Well, aiming the camera
at the scene,
then suddenly a completely
different view came out.
The detail that was painted over
was a scene of a pagan temple
that was rising up through
the ruins of a Christian church.
And this
was considered problematic
during the Renaissance period
with Christianity
as the one and only
true religion.
Upon close examination
of da Vinci's original sketch,
instead of a temple in ruins,
the artist seemed
to be depicting a scenario
in which an Egyptian temple
is being rebuilt.
Most notable is the fact
that one of the temple columns
is capped by a lotus flower,
which in ancient Egypt
represented the so-called,
"Flower of Life."
The Flower
of Life is the information
behind how the universe
was created.
Everything in the universe
is geometric.
Sacred geometry implies that
there is intelligence behind it.
It's believed by mystics
to be a symbol
of advanced super consciousness,
a way of plugging
into the knowledge
possessed
by extraterrestrial beings.
Da Vinci, we can fairly say, was
practically obsessed with it.
And one wonders if da Vinci
actually tapped into
the ultimate cosmic secrets
represented
by the Flower of Life.
Cosmic secrets?
Sacred geometry?
Was Leonardo da Vinci
encoding his paintings
with forbidden knowledge?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes.
And they believe that knowledge
may have been given to him
after direct contact
with extraterrestrial beings.
Recognized as a genius
even in his lifetime,
Leonardo da Vinci has one of the
most thoroughly recorded lives
of all the Renaissance artists.
Da Vinci was such a popular
figure that his life
was documented in great detail.
However, what's interesting is
that there are two years missing
from his existence.
He basically disappeared off
of the face of the earth.
From 1476 to 1478,
Leonardo da Vinci's activities
completely disappear
from the historical record.
The gap occurs when the artist
was between 24 to 26 years old,
just at the point
when he was beginning
to come into prominence.
So what could account
for these missing years?
Ancient astronaut theorists
point to a strange experience
the artist had
while hiking near a cave.
It is one of the very few
autobiographical anecdotes
da Vinci ever made
in his personal journal.
He came across this cave.
And as he stood in front of it,
all of a sudden he felt drawn
to go inside
in order to find out
about the miracle
or the wonderment that's inside.
We don't know what happened
inside this cave,
but it's quite possible
that Leonardo da Vinci
actually encountered
extraterrestrial teachers
who then gave him
certain information.
And it's this knowledge,
perhaps,
that made Leonardo da Vinci
the incredible genius
that he was.
I'm not sure Leonardo da Vinci
went to another world,
but I have a feeling
that this guy, somehow,
through dreaming or going
through some kind of dimension,
was able to see the future,
our future.
Those we call geniuses,
such as Leonardo da Vinci,
are able to discern
and detect these codes
that are coming to them from
these higher levels of reality
and utilize them in their work,
in their art,
in their inventions
to improve this physical world
that we live in.
Unlike other artists,
Leonardo da Vinci
did not have to measure
the ratios and the proportion.
It just came
to him spontaneously.
He was tapping into something
that allowed him
to bring down knowledge
and information,
just like
the ancient cultures did.
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that further evidence
of Leonardo's contact with
extraterrestrial intelligence
can be found
by a close examination
of one of his most
intriguing paintings,
The Virgin of the Rocks.
The Virgin of the Rocks
is really a showpiece
for some of Leonardo's
special techniques,
including sfumato,
which adds this hazy aura.
We see figures emerging
from shadows into spot lighting
in a way that other artists
of his time didn't do.
In March 2018, author and
researcher William Henry
traveled to the outskirts
of London.
There he met with da Vinci
expert Lynn Picknett
in order to get her thoughts
on this unique work of art.
I've just come
from the National Gallery
and experienced
The Virgin of the Rocks.
When you look at it, you're...
you're drawn into it.
- The colors, the setting...
- Mmm. Yeah.
Yeah. -It's almost like it's
just coming out of the wall
and you're stepping into it.
Yeah, and also, there's a sense
of there's something
lurking in it
that we don't really get,
that he's holding back a little.
The Virgin of the Rocks
depicts the apocryphal story
of an early meeting
between the infant Jesus
and the infant John the Baptist
during the time
of the Holy Family's flight
to Egypt.
In this painting,
apparently what we have
is the baby John the Baptist
kneeling to Jesus,
and the Virgin Mary's got
her arm around John the Baptist.
And there's an archangel,
who is Uriel.
And, you know, so far, so
good, you might think.
Except that the children
are with their wrong protectors.
Oh.
I mean, you would expect Jesus
- to be with his mother.
- Mm-hmm.
And it so happens that Uriel
is traditionally
John the Baptist's protector.
Right.
Uriel is... has a big backstory
with informing Noah
about the flood. -Yes.
Archangel of wisdom.
Yeah, yeah. Wisdom is...
Yeah, that's important here.
- A celestial being coming from the heavens.
- Yeah. Yeah.
In one
of the so-called lost chapters
of the Hebrew Bible
known as the Book of Enoch,
the archangel Uriel
guides Enoch,
the great-grandfather of Noah,
through Heaven,
where he is taught
all the secrets and mysteries
of the universe.
Is it possible
that da Vinci knew
of this lost and some would say
forbidden chapter of the Bible
and for this reason
deliberately included Uriel
as a way of sending
a secret message
about what he believed to be
the extraterrestrial source
of his incredible genius?
And there is, as you say,
something very portal-like
about this painting. -Mm-hmm.
We just dropped
a very important word,
as well: the word "portal."
Oh, oh, yes. -It suggests
to me that this painting
is a sort of portal
that he's taking us into,
where something very special
is happening here. -Yes. Yes.
Maybe that explains
why it's such an otherworldly,
- almost dreamlike scene.
- Yeah.
The veil between this world
and the other world.
In his painting
The Virgin of the Rocks,
did Leonardo da Vinci
deliberately plant clues
that were intended
for future generations to find?
Clues that gave insight
into his belief
that much of mankind's knowledge
had profoundly
extraterrestrial origins?
Leonardo was equally fascinated
with backgrounds
as he was with figures
in the foreground,
and one of the things
that's so striking
about Virgin of the Rocks
is this very craggy,
spooky, dramatic cavern
that provides the backdrop
for the figures.
There are almost
no other precedents
for this group of figures
in this sort of location.
Could it be
that Leonardo
deliberately staged this scene
at the mouth of a cavern
in order to draw a link
between the painting
and his earlier experience
in the cave?
And by placing Jesus
with the archangel Uriel,
was he indicating a belief
that the archangel
was actually
an extraterrestrial entity?
Da Vinci's inclusion
of the archangel Uriel,
it makes you wonder if Leonardo
may have had an experience
with the archangel Uriel,
who told him
about humanity's future.
Of the only 15 known paintings
attributed to Leonardo da Vinci,
is it possible
that they all contain evidence
of the artist's belief
in so-called secret
or forbidden knowledge?
And if so,
might they also contain clues
that are intended to reveal
not only da Vinci's
personal beliefs,
but a message
that he was entrusted to convey
to future generations?
Milan, Italy.
Housed in the monastery
of Santa Maria delle Grazie
is one of Leonardo da Vinci's
most iconic paintings:
The Last Supper.
This imposing mural...
More than 15 feet tall
and nearly 29 feet wide...
Depicts the biblical moment
when Jesus tells his disciples
that one of them
will betray him.
It's a very poignant moment.
And the disciples are reacting
to this statement,
many in horror.
To the left
is Saint Bartholomew,
who seems to have leapt
to his feet and hit the table
and is leaning towards Jesus
in shock.
And third from right of Jesus
in the middle is Saint Philip,
who seems to cave in with shock.
What's interesting
about this Last Supper
is it looks like a frozen moment
of action.
If you imagine
you have a remote control
and the scene is on pause
and you were to unpause it,
all this movement would happen.
But at this frozen moment,
you can really study
the actions and reactions
of the people depicted.
As with Leonardo's other works,
many researchers
and ancient astronaut theorists
believe that this painting
contains hidden messages.
When we were writing
Templar Revelation,
I looked at The Last Supper,
and I thought,
"But wait a minute,
that's a woman,
sitting next to Jesus."
Sitting at the right
hand of Jesus is a figure
that has long been assumed
to represent the apostle John.
But unlike the other figures
in the painting,
this one appears to have
strikingly feminine features.
In his own Treatise on Painting,
Leonardo writes that women
should always be depicted in art
with "their heads
looking downwards,
and leaning
a little on one side."
If you look at Jesus sitting
at the center of the table,
leaning like that,
to one side, is the woman
who, with Jesus,
forms a giant "M" shape,
presumably, a clue to her name:
Mary, Mary Magdalene.
In the Bible's New Testament,
Mary Magdalene is identified
as a follower of Jesus
who witnesses
both his crucifixion
and his resurrection,
but she was not reported
to have been a participant
in what is called
the Last Supper.
If that is true,
then why would Leonardo
place her in his painting?
Did the artist have access
to secret knowledge
about the true nature
of the relationship
between Jesus
and Mary Magdalene?
It seems that Leonardo
was trying to point
to Mary Magdalene having
been extremely close to Jesus.
We have them joined at the hip,
we have them wearing
mirror image clothes.
Jesus, as a 30-year-old
Jewish man of the time,
would've been very hard-pressed
to be without a wife.
So, the theory is
that Mary Magdalene
was, in fact, his wife.
But the Catholic church
didn't want Jesus,
as the son of God,
to have a wife.
They wanted him to be celibate,
to be godlike,
and so cast Mary Magdalene
as a prost*tute,
rather than as a woman
of importance.
If Leonardo did indeed
intend to depict Mary Magdalene
as the person sitting next to
Jesus, what makes her inclusion
even more curious is an element
of the story that seems
to have been deliberately
omitted: Jesus's chalice,
otherwise known
as the Holy Grail.
In the Bible, it says one of
the reasons for the Last Supper
was for Jesus to instigate
the communion.
His blood, represented
by the wine on the table,
and his body, which was
to be broken on the cross,
by the broken bread.
Now, there is no great glass,
or indeed, any particular glass
of wine in front of Jesus,
which, in itself,
is an enormous thing.
According to legend,
the Holy Grail
had magical,
life-giving properties.
But there are some who insist
that an actual Grail
never really existed.
Instead, they believe
it was a symbol,
intended to represent
Jesus's divine bloodline.
Many people suggest
that the Holy Grail
was the body of Mary Magdalene,
when she was pregnant with
the child of herself and Jesus.
So this is goddess lore.
The Grail is a womb,
and the true mystery,
the true, sacred story,
is birth.
Human birth is the miracle.
Mary Magdalene,
according to
a number of traditions,
actually was the wife of Jesus.
And she was pregnant
with his children.
And in fact, these children
will be special,
and carrying a special
new type of DNA
for a new type of person
on Earth.
And this is, literally,
the Holy Grail.
Did Leonardo da Vinci
have special,
extraterrestrial knowledge?
Knowledge about mankind's
origins that he encoded
in the form of secret messages
within his paintings?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and also suggest
that within his painting
of The Last Supper
is yet another,
even more profound code.
One that,
when translated, will allow
direct communication
with our alien ancestors.
Lecce, Italy. 2003.
Based on a close examination of
Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks,
musician and scholar Giovanni
Maria Pala begins to examine
one of the artist's most famous
works, The Last Supper,
for evidence that da Vinci
may have hidden
a musical composition
in the now-iconic painting.
One of the intriguing theories
about Last Supper,
that I actually think
has some merit,
is that a scholar found
musical notes.
One of the things
to keep in mind is that
there's no such thing
as an accidental,
or "just for the sake of it"
insertion
in old master paintings.
Each aspect
was carefully decided upon.
Leonardo definitely
was a musician,
and he served the de' Medicis
as a lyre player,
and as a singer
for a number of years.
He played what we would
call the organ.
Well, there was an organ
in the church
where he was painting
The Last Supper.
In March 2018,
William Henry met up with
Giovanni Maria Pala in Florence,
to find out more about
his incredible theory.
Hi. I'm William,
the translator.
Pleasure to meet you, William.
- William Henry. Nice to see you.
- Absolutely.
- William Henry.
- I'm Giovanni.
- Nice to meet you.
- Thank you.
How did you come to find
this evidence
that in his... one of his famous
frescos is a hidden melody?
So the first thing
that really caught my attention
was that this is
the, uh, tablecloth
of the Holy Mass.
Right.
And there are some
vertical lines along here,
and also some horizontal lines,
which prove to be
very important.
And as a musician, the first
thing that came to mind
seeing these horizontal lines,
was a musical pentagram.
Is the musical pentagram
what we today would call
- a sheet of music?
- Yes, that's exactly right.
So how did you
bring this melody to life?
He says you can
see here, the highlighted
is these little pieces
of bread, Right.
Of which there are many
all across the table here.
So he pinpointed the loaves
of bread as being the notes.
And another extremely
important element that he noted
was the lines of the sheet
were exactly aligned
with the hands of the apostles
all across the table.
So the elements that really
gave life to this music
are the loaves of bread
and the hands of the apostles.
Okay.
We have to remember an important
fact that Leonardo
had this peculiarity of writing
from right to left.
So now let's, uh,
let's give it a listen.
* *
People have suggested
that through meditation,
chanting, and through vibration,
essentially,
that you can access
this realm of knowledge.
And this realm of knowledge
is timeless.
Not only does
the sound have the power
to manifest all forms
of phenomena,
it also has the power
to manifest
how one perceives
that very phenomena.
In both Hinduism and Buddhism,
as well Jainism,
even religions such as Sikhism,
you have specific mantras
that are tuned to these deities.
So these mantras are used
both to create
a rapport, connection
with these deities,
to summon them,
to help you manifest them.
The idea that harmonic sounds
or music might be the ideal
means of communication
with extraterrestrial beings
was a key component
of NASA's Voyager program
in 1977.
Originally designed
as a pair of robotic probes
which could collect and send
back important information
about the Earth's sister
planets, Voyagers 1 and 2
each carried a large golden disc
onto which various images
and sounds were recorded.
The disc and its contents
were the brainchild
of famed astronomer Carl Sagan,
who worked closely
with space artist and science
journalist John Lomberg.
I felt that art,
visual arts and music
might be as legitimate a content
of interstellar communication
as math and physics,
which he thought interesting.
If they were to ask me
what to send
to establish communication,
I'd send them music.
The mathematical relationships
that underlie most aesthetics,
and whether you're talking
about intervals in music,
like harmony,
or whether you're talking
about proportion in architecture
or painting,
these things are not things
that we just conjure up
out of our own minds.
They're a reflection
of the beautiful fractal nature
of the universe.
Did you ever see the movie Close
Encounters of the Third Kind?
Uh, si.
The spaceship lands
at the Devils Tower,
and it starts playing tones,
the language of the universe,
and it loops infinitely.
The melody begins with an E.
And it ends with an E as well.
And it can be repeated, um,
pretty much infinitely.
If Leonardo da Vinci
really did encode musical notes
within his painting
of the Last Supper,
what was his purpose?
Was he trying to convey
an important message to humanity
from another world?
Or... was he trying
to teach humanity
the means by which it
can communicate
with its extraterrestrial
ancestors?
It is here, in what some
would call an unlikely setting,
that the world's
most expensive work of art,
Leonardo da Vinci's
Salvator Mundi, will reside.
Established in November 2017,
this architectural marvel
consists of a floating dome
created from a complex
geometric design
of 7,800 interlocking stars
that cast beams of light
into the space below.
Its appearance has been likened
to that of a giant
flying saucer,
and the museum's architect,
Jean Nouvel,
says his goal was
to emphasize the fascination
generated by rare encounters.
The museum
looks like this giant disc
with thousands of stars.
Are they trying
to signal something,
or is it purely
an architectural choice?
But why is
this futuristic museum
considered by many
ancient astronaut enthusiasts
to be the most
appropriate setting
for what others would consider
a traditional depiction
of Jesus Christ?
And what is it
about this 518-year-old
Renaissance painting
that compelled its owner
to pay such a record price?
$400 million is the bid.
And the piece is... sold!
I'm looking forward to seeing
what we've got inside.
During his meeting
with art historian
Dr. Michael Kwakkelstein
at the Dutch University
Institute for Art History
in March 2017,
ancient astronaut theorist
and author William Henry
- Ah, there we go.
- Decided to share his thoughts
concerning da Vinci's
recently discovered masterpiece.
He's got that lion-like gaze,
just very powerful, staring
directly at us. -Mesmerizing.
Mona Lisa smile, slightly.
But it's this crystal sphere
that draws people in.
This, in fact,
is the Cintamani Stone,
the wish-fulfilling gem
of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Cintamani Stone?
A legendary relic that appears
in many examples
of Buddhist art?
But why would Leonardo da Vinci
depict Jesus Christ
holding an orb that features
a Buddhist symbol?
Gemani means "jewel,"
and chinta, in this case,
is referring to "wishes."
It's the jewel
that grants wishes.
If you look at deities
like Ksitigarbha,
he actually is holding it
in his hand,
and it looks like a little orb.
And he can travel
through all the six realms
where various beings dwell.
In Buddhist scripture,
the Cintamani Stone
is often described as
a wish-fulfilling crystal sphere
and is most often seen in
the possession of a Bodhisattva,
or enlightened teacher.
Much like Jesus holding the orb
in the Salvator Mundi painting,
the Bodhisattva
is usually depicted
holding the Cintamani Stone
in the palm of his hand.
But how would a 15th century
Renaissance artist...
A Roman Catholic...
Have known about
a 10th-century Buddhist symbol?
And why would he
have included it
in an otherwise traditional
religious painting?
For William Henry,
a key to the answer
may be found
by noting the presence
of three simple white dots,
or stars,
floating inside
the transparent orb.
We have those triple dots
on that sphere
that symbolize
the three stars of Orion,
indicating that there's
this cosmic connection
that they're trying to make.
Orion?
The constellation that
the ancient Egyptians believed
was the place of origin
for the gods?
And whose three
most prominent stars,
which form what is referred to
as Orion's Belt,
are oriented
in precise alignment
with not only
the great pyramids of Egypt,
but also Teotihuacan in Mexico?
The ancient Egyptians believed
that their gods,
Osiris in particular,
came from Orion.
And that upon his resurrection
from the Earth,
Osiris returned to Orion.
Is it possible that
what this painting is showing
is that Jesus himself
is somehow
from the constellation Orion,
and that that
is ultimately where we,
as a human species, are from?
We have this
very powerful connection
between the resurrection
of Osiris, going to Orion,
and Christ ultimately
returning from Orion.
When we look at Christ holding
this crystalline orb,
it's trying to tell us
that there's a...
a higher intelligence
that operates in our world.
He tapped into it.
But ultimately he's saying,
there's a cosmic intelligence
interwoven within human history.
Is it possible
that Leonardo da Vinci
was in possession
of extraterrestrial knowledge?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answers can be found
by examining the artist's final
and perhaps most prophetic
work of art,
one which many believe
hides a startling portrait.
Amboise, France. 1513.
At Ch?teau du Clos Luc?,
a 61-year-old Leonardo da Vinci
begins work on what will be
his final painting.
Three years later,
he completes his portrait
of an androgynous figure
emerging
from a shadowy background...
Saint John the Baptist.
Picture this painting
in a dimly lit chapel.
Before lighting the candle,
you don't see anything.
- Right.
- You light the candle,
and the light of the flame
illuminates the painting,
and there emerges,
against a dark background,
Saint John the Baptist.
And the pointing upward
to heaven,
saying: I'm from the light,
I'm witnessing to the light.
He's pointing to another realm.
Oh, yes.
This is where divine wisdom
comes from.
This is the source
of everything.
The first words of Saint John
are, "I saw the light.
- I will come to this Earth."
- Wow.
Leonardo was encoding
extraordinary secrets
in his paintings.
He wanted to imbue his work
for the future generations
with his own private message.
His paintings are like
portals to another world,
where the real Leonardo
inhabits.
But whether we're big enough
to accept what he has to say
is quite another matter.
I think he had some very subtle
messages he wanted to convey
to not the people of that time,
but to the people of our time.
And we have to look for it.
Is he talking
about extraterrestrials?
Is he talking about the future?
Investigators
have recently found
some pretty astonishing things
about Leonardo da Vinci's
painting John the Baptist.
And they mirror the image
to create a double image,
and then through
an enhancement process,
they are able to bring out
what seems to be
the face of an extraterrestrial.
It's a pretty unusual thing,
and we know that da Vinci
did use this
mirroring technique.
And so this isn't something
that is so farfetched
that he would do.
Da Vinci is one
of a long line of artists
who have told us, beginning
with the ancient Egyptians
and running through the early
Christians and Tibetans,
that art is a medium,
it's a conduit
through which ordinary people
can connect
with higher-dimensional beings,
even extraterrestrials.
And I think this is
the ultimate message
that Leonardo placed
in the codes
and the symbols
within his paintings.
Did Leonardo da Vinci experience
an extraterrestrial encounter,
one that opened his mind
to what was once considered
forbidden knowledge?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and believe that da Vinci
encoded his works in such a way
that future generations
could learn the truth
about mankind's origins.
And that, when fully understood,
will lead the way
to our ultimate destiny.
13x02 - Da Vinci's Forbidden Codes
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Explores the pseudoscientific hypothesis of ancient astronauts in a non-critical, documentary format.
Explores the pseudoscientific hypothesis of ancient astronauts in a non-critical, documentary format.