NARRATOR: Yekaterinburg,
Russia, July 17, 1918.
Members of the deposed Russian
royal family, Czar Nicholas
and Czarina Alexandra Romanov
and their five children,
are awakened in the
middle of the night
by Bolshevik soldiers.
They are led to the basement
of their safe house.
One after the other,
they are executed.
Rumors spread that their death
was the result of a curse laid
upon them by the
powerful mystic, Grigori
Rasputin, a man who had
been murdered himself a year
and a half prior.
Rasputin wrote an
open letter to Russia.
And within this open
letter, he states,
if I am murdered
by the royal family
or by someone related to the
royal family, within two years,
every member of the royal
family will be dead.
NARRATOR: Just who was
this mysterious figure
known as Rasputin?
And how did he come
to be so infamously
associated with dark powers
from beyond the grave?
[spooky music]
[wind blowing]
Pokrovskoye, Western Siberia.
A comet streaks across the
Russian sky the evening
of January 23, 1871.
This celestial event is
said to have set the stage
for the birth of Rasputin.
From a very early age, Rasputin
displayed what some believe
to be supernatural
powers, including
psychic premonitions and
the ability to heal animals.
And by the time he
reached adulthood,
he would experience
a vision that
would profoundly alter the
trajectory of his peasant life.
One day while
plowing his fields,
Rasputin sees a strange
light in the sky.
And out from the
middle of this light
emerges a vision
of the Virgin Mary.
And she doesn't speak to him.
But he watches her
gesture to the horizon.
And Rasputin takes this to
mean that he is being told
by the mother of god that
he must go and find himself
on a spiritual pilgrimage.
And this begins the huge
shift in Rasputin's life.
NARRATOR: But was
it really the Virgin
Mary that appeared to Rasputin?
Ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
that what Rasputin encountered
was a very different
kind of otherworldly being.
The vision set Rasputin
on his course of then trying
to become a religious
monk, which finally
led him to the czarist family.
This has been a very
consistent thing throughout all
of human history.
People are claiming that
they're being guided.
Well, then you have to ask,
well, who's guiding them?
People have made contact.
And it is clear that there is
a definitive extraterrestrial
involvement here.
We have religiousized
this understanding.
We have developed a mythology,
a legend around something.
And we have not
understood it correctly.
NARRATOR: In 1905, after years
of wandering and developing
a reputation as a healer,
Rasputin was introduced
to the Russian royal family.
The reason why
the royal family
are interested in
Rasputin is the problem
they have with their only son,
Alexis, who is hemophiliac.
It becomes very clear from the
earliest visits to the palace
that Rasputin's
prayers, his gaze,
that psychological
penetration, that he is
able to help stop the bleeding.
Rasputin certainly had a
powerful magnetic presence.
He gained great favor
with the royal family,
the czar's family.
Some felt he was one of the
most powerful people in Russia
at the time.
But he also drew the
attention of powerful rivals.
So he made some major enemies.
Rasputin's behavior certainly
became an area of concern
for the nobility.
He was seen to be debaucherous.
He was involved in orgies.
He was a very,
very heavy drinker.
He was often seen battling
with demons out loud as he
walked through the streets.
NARRATOR: Rasputin's
erratic behavior would earn
him the nickname the Mad Monk.
But might he really
have been functioning
as a vessel for otherworldly
forces, forces he had
little, if any control over?
Rasputin really almost
comes across as really being
a pawn in a much bigger game.
And that's a bigger game that is
connected to extraterrestrials.
And that's one of the
amazing things about it.
