[music playing] What if I told you that
America has its own Stonehenge? These giant stones
suddenly appeared on a hillside outside, of
all places, Atlanta in 1980. The man who had them
built remains anonymous, as does the monument's
true purpose. In fact, other than their
half-million dollar price tag, almost nothing is known
about the stones at all. They're composed of 107
tons of solid granite, and they have coded messages
that are engraved into them in the world's eight most
commonly spoken languages. These rectangular pillars
are also precisely crafted to track astrological
and solar cycles. There are some that
interpret the messages here as a sign of the end of days. Others theorize that
they're a call for genocide on a massive scale. Whatever their messages, I
want to know who built them, why they're located on a
remote hillside in Georgia, and what they really mean. [theme music] I'm Brad Meltzer. I've spent my life
collecting stories. The best includes
signs, symbols, and codes, secret meanings
that are hidden in plain sight. Some have become the
basis for my novels, but I've only scratched the
surface of what's out there. And now, History has
given me the resources to investigate the rest. This is "Decoded." SCOTT ROLLE: What better way
to do something mysterious than to have a granite
monolith rising up in the middle of a field? So how long have we
been driving for Atlanta? SCOTT ROLLE: It's
been about two hours. BUDDY LEVY: Oh. There it is. It's isolated. SCOTT ROLLE: Why here in the
countryside of rural Georgia? BUDDY LEVY: Well, if they
wanted the middle of nowhere for Guidestones, they got it. SCOTT ROLLE: It looks like a
little mini Stonehenge rising up in the middle of
somebody's cornfield. BUDDY LEVY: There's
no corn out there. [laughs] SCOTT ROLLE: I was looking
at the Stonehenge, not the vegetation.
- Scott's a city boy. BUDDY LEVY: Yeah. Hey, Scott, be cool. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: "This
area's under video surveillance at all times." SCOTT ROLLE:
Somebody's watching us. That's a little
creepy, isn't it? Who's watching us? CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
I don't know. Yeah, who's in a control room
somewhere making sure we don't mess with their monuments? SCOTT ROLLE: See the
hieroglyphics up at the top? CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Wow. Look at this. There's a hole--
Mac-- right here-- Buddy-- goes through the thing.
- Oh, wow. You can see right
up through this. Oh, that is very cool. SCOTT ROLLE: Looks like there's
a bunch of different languages. BUDDY LEVY: I just googled this
and we've got English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew,
Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. They're the eighth most
common languages in the world. SCOTT ROLLE: It
seems like-- to me, it seems like a weird
new Ten Commandments. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Is it 10? 10? That's weird. Isn't it? Yeah, good catch. BRAD MELTZER: How and why
the Guidestones were built has never been answered. Here's what we do know. A man using the alias
RC Christian shows up at the Elberton Granite
Finishing Company on a summer day in 1979,
and he tells them he wants to build the
Georgia Guidestones. Now, this guy's got
money-- a lot of money. The only thing he
absolutely demands is that he remain
completely anonymous. To this day, no one has been
able to figure out who he is. The stones were unveiled during
a public ceremony in 1980. They were controversial
immediately. Supporters like Yoko
Ono-- and come on. Of course Yoko Ono
supports them, right-- praise their message
as a stirring call to rational thinking. But opponents attack
them, calling them the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist. The first nine seem to be a
benign call to higher thinking. Don't be a cancer on the earth. Seek harmony. Balance personal rights
with social duties. Avoid petty laws. Resolve international
conflicts in a world court. Protect people with fair laws. Rule with reason. Unite humanity with
a new language. Guide reproduction wisely. But it's the final directive
on the stones that sets off everyone's spider sense. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Maintain
humanity under 500 million in perpetual
balance with nature? BUDDY LEVY: Wow. Now that's interesting. That's a directive? BRAD MELTZER: The
directive makes some believe that the
Guidestones are calling for the mass murder of
billions of innocent people. So Buddy, Mac, and Scott are
meeting with Raymond Wiley, who has researched the
stones for many years. In fact, Wiley's even
written a book about them. I might be able to shed some
light on the story for you guys.
What do you want to know? Who built it? Well, we don't know
exactly who he was. I mean, the biggest clue that
we have is his pseudonym, RC Christian, which seems to
harken back to this guy Christian Rosenkruez, which
would connect this monument to the idea of the Rose Cross
or the Rosicrucian fraternity. SCOTT ROLLE: Does
this particular design have a purpose? Yes. It's designed primarily for
the astrological alignments that the Guidestones mark. So if you'll notice the stones
as they face out this way, those are to mark the sun
rising at the extreme points of its east or west progress. The mail slot, meant to mark the
winter or the summer solstice. A shaft cut through
the center stone marks Polaris any
night of the year. A slit cut through the
top of the capstone will mark perfect noon
time throughout the year. So you've got a calendar,
you've got a compass-- CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Yeah.
RAYMOND WILEY: Mhm. You've got a
translator, a guide. Right. It's a granite
Swiss army knife. RAYMOND WILEY: There you go.
CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: It is. Some people believe that
it's merely a publicity stunt by the granite industry here
to try to bring tourism in, so yeah. They could have done
it so much cheaper. That's expensive.
Yeah, no kidding. It just seems like so well
thought-out for a tourist stunt. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: This, to
us, looks like a modern-day Ten Commandments. And everything on
there, there's nothing to be offended by except
that first one that says we need to limit
population to 500 million. BUDDY LEVY: So with 6 and 1/2
billion people in the world, somehow 6 billion of them
have to be eradicated? There are people that believe
that the Georgia Guidestones represent the plans of
a Malthusian new world order that's going to take
over the Western world. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Yeah. I started looking up some of
those things and thinking, OK, that means like an
oppressive government is gonna start telling me what to do. RAYMOND WILEY: Well, this
is many people's fears, and this is a lot of the
reason why there's been so much vandalism here on the site. Many people have called for
it to be torn down, even from the very beginning. If you try to deface
this, you can go to jail. Yes. If you'll notice the Albert
County Sheriff's Department has some surveillance
cameras set up. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Oh,
that's who's doing that. SCOTT ROLLE: That's who's been--
we thought the Rosicrucians were--
BUDDY LEVY: Right. --keeping an eye on us. Oh, no, they've got
the satellite for that. [laughter] Now I get it. Yeah. SCOTT ROLLE: So what
do you think of that? BUDDY LEVY: There's some
unsettled business for me. One is, who was RC Christian? Is there anything to
find out about him? And is Christian connected
to the Rosicrucian Order? Don't you wonder
what's running through the mind of a person
that conceived of that idea? I have to admit, I
think it's brilliant. I think it kind of is, too. And maybe it won't be needed. But on the off-chance that it
is needed, I've saved humanity. - So you know what, though?
- No, I mean-- There's so much arrogance
in that because the people-- SCOTT ROLLE: Yes. --who are against this
thing are gonna say, well, so are you playing god? We may be talking about
a group of people who are tapped into a knowledge
that modern technology can't get you. You know, I mean,
this stuff is-- will be around after
computers are gone. I don't want computers
to ever be gone. [laughter] I can't live without
my cell phone. If people think that the
Freemasons are fascinating, let me tell you about
the Rosicrucians. Christian Rosenkruez
is said to have founded the secretive Rosicrucian
society in Germany in the early 15th century. But some dispute that the
man even lived at all. Some people say
he's not even real. Some people say he's
more than one person. To the members of the
society, Rosenkruez was a doctor who'd spent
a lifetime gathering what he called sacred knowledge. He formed the Rosicrucians
to pass on the learning to make sure that it
didn't die with him. So at first, all the
members were doctors. Each one took an oath to heal
the sick without payment, to maintain the secrecy
of the fellowship, and to find a replacement for
Rosenkruez before he died. The sacred knowledge is said
to include elements of alchemy and-- just wait for this-- psychic manipulation. Modern Rosicrucians are
believed to have even been able to tap the ultimate
power of the human mind. Some think the sect has
evolved and they now seek to protect
and guide humanity away from its own destruction. Others have accused
the Rosicrucians of being out-and-out evil. To be clear, there are offshoots
of Rosicrucians everywhere. Their main symbol is
this, a cross with a white rose at its center. They call it a Rose Cross. The R and the C from words Rose
Cross undoubtedly represent the founders last
name, Rosenkruez, and some believe are
linked to the R and the C in the Guidestones' benefactor's
pseudonym, RC Christian. Interestingly enough, if you
look at the Georgia Guidestones from above, they do form what
appears to be a Rose Cross. Journalist Van Smith claims to
have proof of the Rosicrucians evil deeds, so Buddy,
Mac, and Scott are now on their way to meet with him. VAN SMITH: The
Georgia Guidestones contain hard evidence
that humanity is currently under a very dire threat from
a small cabal of cultists. Now, the Georgia Guidestones
were built explicitly to survive an apocalypse. I believe that this apocalypse
is going to be manmade. The most controversial
commandment of all on the Guidestones
is the statement to restrict global population
to 500 million people. That would mean 6.5 billion of
us, roughly, would have to go. It's going to occur probably
within the next few years. BUDDY LEVY: The Guidestones
themselves don't look like they're espousing evil. Pretty innocuous. What it really is is
humanity's tombstone. And if you really want hard
evidence that the Rosicrucians can be evil, look at Robert
Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. The Rosicrucians have been
accused of practicing something called assumption,
the psychic ability to take over the minds of other
people, and astral projection. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
Astral projection? The ability to project your
soul outward to distant areas, and even move things with
their minds-- psychokinesis. if anyone was under mind
control, Sirhan Sirhan was. If you read his diary,
it is extremely chilling. This man was rambling
and incoherent for months leading into the
assassination of Bobby Kennedy. It looks like his mind
was completely taken over and he had no control
over his actions. OK. No offense to Van here,
but I've gotta disagree. Sure, Sirhan Sirhan was
technically a Rosicrucian, he became one by mail order. Mail order. I can be a bride by mail order,
so that doesn't count to me. And it doesn't seem as if Sirhan
represented anybody or anything but himself. Look at the historical record. During Sirhan's trial, five
different mental health experts all testified that this guy
was a paranoid schizophrenic. And the idea that the
Rosicrucians were somehow controlling his mind,
mentally manipulating him to shoot Senator Kennedy? That's just preposterous to me. I see this dark cloud
looming over all of humanity just on the horizon. And the evidence that I have
uncovered in the Georgia Guidestones is so
serious that if I had the time and resources,
I would devote my life to uncover these bastards. You're really scared. Yes. The next shoe is going
to fall any day now. Sirhan Sirhan's a Rosicrucian? OK, that's one Rosicrucian
to represent the whole. That's problematic. I don't think for a minute
that Sirhan Sirhan was under some sort of mind control,
which is basically what we were just told. Well, the point is,
some of these groups-- the Rosicrucians, the
Illuminati, the Freemasons-- were interested in
esoteric knowledge. That's given. So this kind of stuff is--
they were thinking about it. OK. Buddy seems pretty intrigued
by the idea, of all things, mind control. You know what my mom used
to say about mind control? Feh. But he's been reading a book
written by the Rosicrucians about how to unleash
the power of his mind. So if we're serious
about finding out what the Rosicrucians
really stand for, sure, I'll play along. Let's test the power
of mind control, because you have no idea where
the truth might be unless you look for it.
- You know what's weird, though? I'm looking at this some of
these titles in the chapters. This is on the mystics
developing your psychic powers. You think this is the stuff
the Rosicrucians believe? Well, he was saying that
this is some of the stuff they really work to
augment in their lives. So check this out. There are a couple of
exercises to increase your psychic ability. I'm gonna be practicing
these because I actually want to work on my pyschic powers. SCOTT ROLLE: This
is gonna be good. OK. This one-- multiply two
two-digit numbers in your head, like 24 times 67. The mental focus it takes
to get the correct answer increases your psychic ability. 24-- 24 times 67.
You just go the 20-- SCOTT ROLLE: Well, the
engineer can do that, right? Yeah. You just go 20 times
60, so you get 1,200. And then you take seven times-- that's really hard, actually.
BUDDY LEVY: Yeah. Here's how I increased
my psychic powers. That's hard, yeah.
[laughter] Google. That's how I increase
my psychic power. - Well, I just use a calculator.
- [laughs] So the Georgia
Guidestones may have been built by a secret society
known as the Rosicrucians. The big question,
though, is why? Some say the
Rosicrucians are evil and that they're planning
to murder billions of people so they can somehow maintain
the world population of 500 million. I do not believe for
one second that's true. Just use common logic. But the question remains, what's
the Rosicrucians' real agenda here? [music playing] On a remote hillside in
Georgia, a giant set of stones are said to be the key to
the future of humanity. Others argue, however, that the
stones are no less than a call to genocide on a massive scale. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Hey, Brad. BRAD MELTZER (ON PHONE):
How's everybody doing? How goes the adventure? CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: It's
getting interesting. BRAD MELTZER (ON
PHONE): I have someone I think you should go speak to. SCOTT ROLLE: OK. BRAD MELTZER (ON PHONE):
The person's name is Reverend Benner, and
she is a Rosicrucian. And this is your chance to
ask the Rosicrucian right to her face. This is your chance
to get your answer. You're gonna meet her--
actually, at all places, I thought it would be great
at the Elberton church. Hello. Hello. SCOTT ROLLE: We want to learn
more about Rosicrucianism, and we understand that
you are a Rosicrucian. Is that correct?
BETTE BENNER: Not exactly. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: So-- If anybody comes
up to you and says, I'm a Rosicrucian, the one thing
you know is that they're not. What we usually
say is that we're students of the philosophy. So what exactly is the
Rosicrucian philosophy? Before the Roman church took
over and decided that Jesus was a god who had become
man, they actually were teaching and believing that
Jesus was a man who became god. And the repercussions
of that are huge, because if Jesus is a
god who became man, then there's really nothing for
us to do but worship him because he's unique. If he is a man who became god,
then we truly can follow him. We truly can do as he
did and greater things, as he said we should. Jesus was one of those.
BETTE BENNER: Absolutely. And there were others. He was probably
the highest initiate we've ever had on this planet. Then he's a template--
BETTE BENNER: Yes. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
--rather than just something to be worshipped.
- Right. When we say we're
gonna worship him, you know, all we have to do
is believe and we're fine. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Right.
We don't have to evolve into-- We believe that faith
without works is dead. BUDDY LEVY: I like that. And if you read in
Revelation, it says, you shall be judged
by your works. Never once says you'll
be judged by your faith. First we're told that
Rosicrucians are evil, and now we're being told
that Jesus was a Rosicrucian. I don't know if it's
true, but it certainly makes me look at Rosicrucians
in a different way. So what are the origins of
the secrecy in Rosicrucianism? Well, because the church was
condemning to death anybody who didn't agree with them. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Because
that sounds what, to them? Sacrilegious? If you have the
capability of connecting with the divine within yourself,
you don't need the Pope. You don't need the church. You become
self-sufficient when it comes to religious teachings. And the Roman church wasn't
about to let go of that, so it really just
drove it underground. One of the reasons we're here
is to learn as much as we can about the Guidestones,
and we wondered, were they built by Rosicrucians? BETTE BENNER: It's possible. It's probably more likely
that it's an individual. Remember, this is a
very individual thing, so it could be somebody
reading Rosicrucian manuscripts and practicing on their own. I kept finding myself
asking the question, who is gonna impose this? CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
That's right. And if it's gonna be
imposed by somebody, that goes way
against our tradition of individual liberty. There are people that
have a different view towards Rosicrucianism than
the one you've just given us. And they believe that
they practice mind control and can control people. Do you have any
feelings about that? Basically, we do talk
about the power of the mind. We teach as you believe,
so shall it be unto you. But as far as using it
to control other people, that would be totally
against our beliefs. Was Sirhan Sirhan
a Rosicrucian? We heard that. We heard that. Not to my knowledge. If he did, he certainly
went astray, didn't he? SCOTT ROLLE: Absolutely. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: So you
mean if he was a Rosicrucian, he was a terrible one.
- Yeah. [laughs] OK Does that look like a
woman who wants to murder 6 billion people to you? She's about as
threatening as Mr. Rogers. As usual, when you actually
go to speak to someone, as opposed to believing what
you read on the internet, they're rarely the boogeyman
they're accused of being. The Rosicrucians seem to be
more about helping people than killing them. But do I agree with everything
that Reverend Bette Benner said? Of course not. But I can tell you one thing. The modern
Rosicrucians don't seem to be mass murderers to me,
but I'm still confused as to why they're so secretive. Does it mean there's another
message we don't know about? Interestingly, one
documentary filmmaker who's been studying
them for decades says the Rosicrucians
built the Guidestones for the good of humanity,
to actually warn us. And Scott's going right now to
find out where this theory is coming from. So are the Rosicrucians
looking to mass murder 6 billion people? Absolutely not. They have knowledge of a
periodic solar catastrophe, and they know that there's going
to be a great loss of life, that there is a solar cycle that
lasts 11,000 to 13,000 years. When the sun goes through
a magnetic reversal and begins emitting
gigantic solar flares, which bake the Earth, and we
know this is true because there were giant forest fires in
North America 13,000 years ago. The great extinctions happened
about 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. And so they built the
Georgia Guidestone. For what purpose? Why would they do that? They're trying to set forth
some rules so that the people who survive this
coming catastrophe can remake the world
in a better way. People then think
that the Rosicrucians are an evil,
satanic group that's trying to destroy the world,
instead of just trying to warn us. So according to Jay
Weidner, the sacred knowledge that the Rosicrucians knew
was that every 13,000 years, the sun shoots gigantic
solar flares at the earth, and that these flares have the
potential to drastically alter the physical makeup
of our planet. He says they built the
Guidestones to warn us of this pending tragedy. Weidner believes they're
also meant as a guide to allow those who survive to
rebuild civilization as we know it. Again, this is theoretically
part of the Rosicrucians' sacred knowledge that
they want to pass on. And yes, it sounds a
bit wacky to me, too. But here's what's scary. A recent study by archaeologists
from universities in the US found that, yes,
13,000 years ago, a cataclysmic event wiped
out most of humanity in North America. But it wasn't solar flares. According to the
study, it was a swarm of comets that rained down
and obliterated everything. If they're really concerned
and the world is in danger, and it sounds like this
is what they believe, why don't they just
come out and say it? You know, have a news conference
and say, here's what's coming. Get prepared. A, you wouldn't believe them. B, all the conspiracy
theorists would say, they're just trying to scare us. The other thing, though, is
what NASA is beginning to find. This periodic solar cycle
is true, and that in 2012, the part of the sun that
emits the largest solar flares is going to be pointed straight
at the Earth like the barrel of a shotgun. Wow. Here's where I'm going to
laying in bed at night staring at the ceiling, terrified. To think that all of this might
actually happen is more than a little scary. But what's worse is this. NASA released a report
earlier this year warning of a major solar
flare increase in 2012. And that doesn't even include
what the Mayan calendar predicts. Trust me, I don't like
relying on prophecies, either, but maybe the Rosicrucians
and their secret society know something that we don't. [music playing] The Rosicrucians Christians
are a secret society that was formed to
gather ancient knowledge from around the world. And one of their predictions
tells of great physical change coming to the planet. As a result, the group built
a giant permanent guide on a hilltop in Georgia for how
humanity can rebuild the earth. The group believes that these
events might be triggered by solar flares, of
all things, which are due to hit the Earth in 2012. On top of that, NASA recently
predicted that the earth would see an increase in solar
flare activity in 2012. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Buddy and Mac are
headed to find out just how precise
these predictions are, and what increased solar
activity really means. Basically, a solar flare is
a magnetic storm on the sun. It's amazing. It looks explosive and big. They are explosive events. That's right. BUDDY LEVY: So
what's the concern? I read briefly about
some kind of report by NASA that there's
some worry about these. There's this phenomenon
called coronal mass ejections. And you get a huge lump
of charged particles in this big plasma blob,
and when those guys impact the earth, they can disrupt
communications and cause damage to the power grid. So if charged particles
are coming at us, what do they do to us? To us personally,
nothing, because the Earth's magnetic field protects us. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: But
they would shut down our electricity,
our cell phones-- Well, OK. For that, you need a
catastrophic coronal mass ejection. But once every 500
to a thousand years, you could get a
catastrophic event which might cause a lot of
damage to the power grid. I don't think it'll be
the end of civilization. I think that's unduly alarmist. So what would these
coronal ejections look like if you were
seeing them from Earth? A giant ball of gas? LORIS MAGNANI: Well,
you wouldn't see it. Charged particles emit light as
they travel in the near vacuum of space like that. BUDDY LEVY: And there's
no way to predict them? LORIS MAGNANI: No. The sun has a cycle of activity. We are heading towards
the normal solar maximum. It comes, on average,
every 11 years, but it can be as short as
seven or as long as 17. If it comes on schedule, it
will be around 2012, 2013. Heard that number a lot. [laughs] What keeps
you up at night? If I were to worry about
things that I can't control, OK, the thing that I
would really worry about is an asteroid. That could come with
very little notice. There'd be almost nothing
we could do about it. And if it was one of
the big ones, now, that's the end of
civilization as we know it. BRAD MELTZER: Now, scientists
are saying that it's possible that a huge asteroid
will hit the earth. That's when I usually yell,
Bruce Willis, save us. The thing is, it might be
thousands or even millions of years in the future
when this accident happens, but it might be sooner. Bruce Willis, save us. So you don't think just
sending Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis up there is enough? Well, that would
be a good idea, but not to save civilization.
- [laughs] Oh, man. That's brutal. OK. What we really need to do now
is uncover the true identity of RC Christian. Who was this guy? When he arrived in
Elberton him back in 1979, everyone said that only
two people met with him. One was the owner of the
granite company and he died. The other was a local
banker, Wyatt Martin, who handled RC Christian's money. The thing is, Martin took an
oath to take RC Christian's real identity to the grave. But there was one other
person who might know who RC Christian really was. His name is Hudson Cohen, and he
was there when the Guidestones were being built. Scott is on
his way to meet him right now. Hudson, I think one of the
reasons this mystery has deepened is because RC Christian
wanted to remain anonymous. And we're trying to figure out
who might have been backing him, and I was doing some
research on the internet. And it looks like maybe
Ted Turner or somebody like that was behind
him financially. Well, everything's possible. Ted Turner's a name
that I have heard associated with it since 1980. I'm a little bit skeptical
about Ted Turner. Yeah. I've heard the Ted
Turner theory, too. It stems from a 1996 interview
with "Audubon" magazine, where Turner said that reducing
the world's population by 95% would be ideal. And this jives perfectly with
the controversial Guidestone commandment to maintain
the world's population under 500 million. But come on. Is so far-fetched to assume that
Ted Turner, as famous as he is, could do this and not
be recognized by anyone. I've met Ted Turner
at Larry King's house. Ted Turner used to
own my publisher. Ted Turner as the
greatest man of all time. Did you ever get to meet
this guy, RC Christian? Yeah, or a man who was
purported to be Mr. Christian. OK. Joe Finley, the owner of
Elberton Granite Finishing Company, and he says, Mr.
Christian is coming to town, and I will introduce you
to him if you promise not to try to get him to divulge
his name or who he represents. So we met at a restaurant. And Mr. Finley came
in with this gentleman who was, I'd say, about 6' 4". He's a pretty tall gentlemen
wearing a sport shirt and a tie. Very nice-looking fella. He had kind of sharp
features, and wearing glasses. And he was bald, about
like me, except he had gray hair on the sides. So we sat down
and began to talk. You know, I used to travel a
lot in the granite business, so I got pretty good
at guessing accents. Now, this guy from the Dakotas
or somewhere in the Midwest. I mean, he obviously
wasn't from New Jersey. Most of the speculation
is not like who he is, but who he represents. Mhm. And I have no idea whether
it be new age or fundamentalist Christian. Somebody's trying to project
a philosophy out there. Do you think there's evil
behind the Guidestones? No. Well, it depends on
who's interpretation. You m bottom m anytime you have
something with a little air of mystery about it, it
attracts people, pro and con, based on what you believe. I've had them tell me ti's
the holiest spot on Earth. Some say it's a place of evil,
that the guides are the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist. You're not buying that. Oh, no. As somebody said,
it's quite a mystery. Mhm. I think basically that's
why it was put here. Somebody wanted to
stimulate curiosity. So Hudson met RC Christian. This is the good stuff. I feel like there's still a
lot of untapped information out there about the Guidestones
and who really built them. [music playing] The Georgia Guidestones sit on
a quiet hilltop near Elberton, Georgia. They contain a message that some
say is a harmless set of ideals for man to live
by, but others say it holds a much more sinister
message, that it's nothing less than a call to murder. The monument's been shrouded
in secrecy because no one knows exactly who built
it, and all signs point to the ultrasecretive
Rosicrucians as the ones who made it. The group positions itself
as enlightened thinkers who are on a mission
to control and harness the powers of the human brain. And Buddy and Mac are now headed
to Georgia Tech in Atlanta to find out just how
possible this might be. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
Brain lab, eh? I've never been to one. That doesn't surprise me. [laughs] Oh, you're funny. We've been doing some
preliminary research on the capabilities
of the human brain-- Yes. --and the possibilities of
the mind and what it can do, in terms of things like
telekinesis and even the word astral projection. I wondered if you could tell
us about your work here. All of those things
sound like science fiction, but actually, we are doing some
of those things in the lab. I don't know about
astral projection, but-- CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Yeah.
BUDDY LEVY: OK. MELODY MOORE JACKSON:
--we are definitely able to use brain signals to
move things, move objects, to be able to communicate. We work a lot with people with
very severe disabilities, so people who are locked in,
who are completely paralyzed and can't speak. So we're giving them ways to
control their environment, like to turn the temperature
down when they're cold, to be able to communicate again,
since they can't even usually move their eyes, and the
ultimate goal is to rewire the brain so that they learn to
move again, in some instances. Oh, oh, so some of this stuff
that seems pretty far-fetched may not be. Well, we are actually
making some headway towards making some of these
things happen in the lab. The thing that I'm going
to show you today-- one of our most
exciting projects-- is called brain machine
interface, or direct brain interface. And we have right here
a rehabilitation robot used for stroke rehabilitation
in normal clinical settings and things like that. It's also used for research. BUDDY LEVY: I'm game. Can I try this? MELODY MOORE JACKSON:
You sure you want to? I'm sure I want to.
MELODY MOORE JACKSON: All right. Well, we'll be glad
to hook you up. OK.
God bless him. Buddy is always up
for a challenge, and he's also the better
sport because let's be honest, there is no friggin' way they'd
strap me into that machine. And now they're
gonna put him in, and he's gonna actually attempt
to move this robotic arm using only his brain. OK. MELODY MOORE JACKSON: So
just hold it down in front. Just like this?
MELODY MOORE JACKSON: Yeah. BRAD MELTZER: More
specifically, his brain waves. He's being fitted with
a special cap which is injected with electro gel-- LAB AIDE: So let me
know if you feel it. --which sounds
like it can kill you, but it actually helps
conduct those brainwaves. Once Buddy's hooked up,
he focuses his attention on this white dot, which is
meant to be a representation of his arm. Now, that's still
your arm in your mind. BUDDY LEVY: Right. That's my arm in my mind. BRAD MELTZER: Then he tries
to move the white dot to where the red dot is just
by thinking about it. If he can make the
white dot move, the robotic arm
will move, as well. MELODY MOORE JACKSON: Yeah. Yeah. He did it.
CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Wow. MELODY MOORE JACKSON: He did it. He totally did it. Buddy, you're amazing. That's fantastic. He did it. Buddy, you're amazing. Very few people can do
that the very first time. BRAD MELTZER: Buddy wasn't
supposed to be able to do that. In fact, only 20% of
people who try to do it are able to move the dot
at all on their first try. And that also makes you wonder. If 2 out of 10 people
are capable of harnessing their brain power,
are the Rosicrucians actually onto something? Maybe there's something
more going on here. You just performed
artificial telekinesis. How'd it feel? It felt great. [laughter] Good. BUDDY LEVY: Is there anything
in the Rosicrucians guidebook? What's it called? "Secret Wisdom of the"-- "Wisdom of the
Mystic Masters." Anything that we can practice
so we're even better at this when we see Scott? Ooh, here's one. Send me a stream of love. [laughs] Do it. Do it. Send a stream of
love to the sender. OK.
All right. Hold on.
- I'm ready. Go. I'm going to. [laughter] That was weird.
I kind of felt that. - Yeah.
- Gotta love Buddy, right? He is locked in on this
mind control thing, and he is determined
to figure it out. Once he sets his
mind to something, it is impossible to
get him to let go. He is an intellectual pitbull. And he actually has a
shirt that says that. His shirt says,
"Intellectual Pitbull." I felt my stream of love
bouncing back off of me. Well, I was supposed to have
an attitude of indifference. OK, so-- Not eagerness.
Oh, that's easy. I was too eager last time.
- Here we go. Try again.
- OK. [laughs] No-- no laughing. I'm-- OK, go. [laughs] You're
making me giggle. BUDDY LEVY: What
about like this? You're sending me
an astral giggle. I do get a little-- I do get a [laughs]
little something. Maybe it was just
something I ate, though. It's all very,
well, mystifying. Well, we were able to move
these robotic arms with just our minds and our thoughts.
SCOTT ROLLE: You're kidding. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: We harnessed
the power of Buddy's brain. You know, I didn't
think you could-- I really didn't think
you could do that. - [laughs]
- Yeah. - I mean, not that part.
- Thank you. - But does [inaudible]
- That's the thing. Once-- we thought
before we couldn't run a four-minute mile. We thought a lot of things. And so when we start
talking about moving things with your brains,
or mystical powers, it's really anybody's guess
where the boundaries are. So what'd you find
out about solar flares? Thank you. - That was really cool.
- Yeah? BUDDY LEVY: Yeah. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY:
It was scary. SCOTT ROLLE: How?
I mean, I know what-- Well, OK. Imagine if you had
a power outage that covered all of North America
that lasted four months. What would that look like? We start thinking about water
supply, food supply, life support, air
conditioning, heating. There would be death, certainly. I mean, it would be chaos. What did you find out? SCOTT ROLLE: I talked to a
guy named Jay Weidner, OK? And he does believe that
the Rosicrucians were behind the Guidestones,
and the reason they did it is because they are preparing
for this cataclysmic event that's gonna take place, just
like the one you guys are talking about that's coming,
he believes, in 2012, and it's based on solar flares. But this is not just coming
from the Rosicrucians. This is all linked in with
the Mayan calendar, which ends at the same
time, the Rosicrucians believed it would be at
the same time, and all these other completely
separate cultures coming together and
believing that this is all gonna happen at the same time. We heard that the
next maximum solar cycle is right around 2012. Really? CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: That's where
we're most likely to get the-- what is it? BUDDY LEVY: Coronal
mass ejections. SCOTT ROLLE: Really? It's Brad Meltzer. Woo. Hey, Brad. BRAD MELTZER (ON PHONE): How
are my psychic friends doing? [laughter] Good. Very well, thank you. Buddy's getting
more and more psychic. We were able to manipulate
robotic arms with our thoughts. BRAD MELTZER (ON PHONE): This
is just a fascinating point. Apparently, the
Guidestones themselves have been a huge draw for
psychics over the years. When hundreds of psychics say
that this place is where they all hold the prom,
we need to ask why. What do these psychics
know that we don't know? So I found this guy. His name is Dr. James Burton. He apparently understands
the why of it, an important and
vital question for us. Yeah.
Yeah. OK. We'll catch up with
you on that later. BRAD MELTZER (ON PHONE): OK.
Safe travels. Safe travels
through your mind. Psychics, for hundreds
of years, have been saying that we're going
to have a cataclysmic event and it's going to change
life as we know it. It could be asteroids,
a freely-movable crust, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods. Haven't people been saying
that since before Christ? Yeah. The Bible even talks
about Revelations. The Mayan calendar
ending is another one. These cataclysmic events are
going to happen eventually. The theory that Dr.
Burton is talking about is officially called
Earth changes. It was originally
proposed by Edgar Cayce in the early 20th century,
and ever since then, many, including
the Rosicrucians, have adopted its tenants
and philosophies. Here's what the theory holds. It's that the world will soon
undergo a series of natural disasters-- earthquakes,
floods, solar flares-- that could cause major
physical changes to our planet. The effects will be massive
changes to the land masses all around the world. They foresee California, New
York, and parts of Florida being under the sea. They do, however, believe that
there are certain safe zones around the planet. That's the good news. And the area around Atlanta
is in one of those safe zones. Along with six other
places in the United States, this is considered a safe place. I have a map here that
will explain where we're at and the other safe
places in the United States, if y'all would like
to look at that? Definitely would
like to see that. I would like to know where
the other safe places are. OK. If you will see right here-- Hey, what happens
to California? BUDDY LEVY: Oh. And Oregon? So this explains why the
stones were built in Georgia. It seems to me that
the science might also back up what Burton's saying. And I can tell
you, as someone who lives in one of the areas that's
supposed to be underwater, this isn't exactly
good news to me. The United States, as
we've always known it, would no longer exist. I don't care how
cynical you are, this is scary, scary stuff. [music playing] The Guidestones are
massive stone slabs that sit on a hill outside
of Atlanta, Georgia. Their message is said to
be everything from a call to think about how we
interact with our planet to a demand for genocide. We've uncovered that they were
built and placed in Georgia because Georgia is a safe
zone, based on a theory that says much of America will
be destroyed in the very near future. And of course, when you say
controversial things like that, it pisses people off. If you will see right here-- Hey. What happens to California? BUDDY LEVY: Oh. And Oregon? Wait, what's
happening to the blue? JAMES BURTON: The
blue is all water. All of this is falling
into the ocean. Yeah, so what happens to
Los Angeles, and Portland, and Seattle? JAMES BURTON: All of
this is going underwater CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Gone. JAMES BURTON: Yes,
completely under. The Mississippi's flooding,
and parts of Florida, Texas, and New York. CHRISTINE MCKINLEY: Everybody
I know is gonna die. JAMES BURTON: No, no, no. There's plenty of
places that they can go. No, but everybody
I know lives here. What happens?
Does Seattle just sink? JAMES BURTON: Yes, completely.
- Check out the-- Oh, my god. You think that it's
gonna be some sort of natural occurrence,
most likely? Yes. Do you have any
idea about maybe when? I mean, is this tomorrow? December 21, 2012, like
with the Mayan calendar. BUDDY LEVY: Is there any
psychic rhyme or reason to why these particular
places are spared? JAMES BURTON: No. My personal belief
is that the earth is trying to cleanse herself. What has Maine ever
done to the earth? Come on. Oregon's been very well-behaved. That just has to do with
with the way that the land is. Right. So we're paying for
Los Angeles's sins. When you look at the
Guidestones and read them, are you comforted by them? JAMES BURTON: Honestly, yes. I am. I personally like
the messages on them. Do you think that we have
the ability to stop this? No. Mother Earth is much
bigger than we are. She will change what she
needs to change to make things the way they need to be. Like the Guidestones
say, 500 million. I think that's a good
balance with the earth. The earth is really
overpopulated, and it's going to happen
regardless of whether we want it to or not. Got a lot to think about. Definitely. A lot more to think
about than when I got here. I think there's absolutely
no evidence at all that this monument was designed
to advocate the mass murder of 6 billion people. It's not congruent with all
the other lines below that. No, it's talking about
all the good things that mankind can do. And certainly,
wiping out most of us is not going to be
a positive thing. That doesn't usually get us
to an age of reason, does it? Not at all.
Not at all. It is not congruent
with social justice. SCOTT ROLLE: That is
absolutely a good point. So I guess I rail a little bit
against the notion that this is a post-apocalyptic
recipe for rebuilding. - Good.
- I do because I don't-- - Because it scares me.
- It does. Well, and not only
that, I don't think there's enough information here
to get started, other than it's up to us. I find this thing
incredibly provocative. It asks us to look at
ourselves and say, well, what do we think this thing means? I don't really care
who put these here. Whether or not it was the
Rosicrucians, the fact that this installment
these Guidestones are here, got us looking at
Rosicrucians, got us looking at their history,
what their beliefs were, and again, that gets
us back to looking at the origins of human
thought and human belief. And so to me, I'm
glad they're here because it gets you talking. SCOTT ROLLE: Exactly. BUDDY LEVY: OK. BRAD MELTZER: The
Georgia Guidestones were built under a
shroud of secrecy by a person believed to be a
member of a highly secretive Rosicrucian sect. But let's be careful here. Just because one
Rosicrucian may have built them doesn't mean the
Guidestones represent all Rosicrucians. And while conspiracy
theorists would love us to think that the
Guidestones are humanity's tombstone because
they supposedly call for the extermination
of 6 billion people, let me give you a different
theory, a truly historical one. The stones were built in 1979. You know what was
happening then? ? It was the height
of the Cold War. People were terrified
of the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. The United States had their
missiles aimed at Russia, and Russia had
theirs aimed at us. I think RC Christian
built the Guidestones so that if World
War III did happen, humanity would be able to find
its way back to the life we enjoy today. I think the proclamation
about keeping our population under 500 million might have
been made under the assumption we'd be starting humanity
over from scratch. I think that Guidestones were
built by a wealthy man looking to leave his indelible
mark on the world, and I think it's our
loss that he doesn't want to step forward and
take credit for his creation. So let me say it right now, RC. If you're seeing this, this is
your chance to step forward.
When did the history channel run out of history