Brad Meltzer's Decoded (2010) s01e10 Episode Script
Apocalypse in Georgia
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 message is, I want to know who built them, why they're located on a remote hillside in Georgia, and what they really mean.
I'm Brad Meltzer.
I've spent my life collecting stories.
The best include 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.
" -- Captions by vitac -- What better way to do something mysterious than to have a granite monolith, you know, rising up in the middle of a field? How long have we been driving from Atlanta? It's been about two hours.
Oh, there it is.
It's isolated.
Why here in the countryside of rural Georgia? Well, if they wanted the middle of nowhere for guidestones, they got it.
It looks like a little, mini stonehenge rising up in the middle of somebody's cornfield.
There's no corn out there.
[ Laughs .]
I was looking at the stonehenge, not the vegetation.
Scott's a city boy.
He doesn't know.
Yeah.
What? Hey, Scott, be cool.
"This area is under video surveillance at all times.
" Somebody's watching us.
That's a little creepy, isn't it? Who's watching us? I don't know.
Who's in a control room somewhere making sure we don't mess with their monuments? See the hieroglyphics up at the top? Wow.
Look at this.
There's a hole, Mac, right here, buddy.
Goes through the thing.
You can see right up through this.
Oh, that is very cool.
Looks there's a bunch of different languages.
I just googled this, and we've got English, Spanish, Swahili, hindi, Hebrew, arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
They're the eight most common languages in the world.
To me, it seems like a weird, new 10 commandments.
Is it 10? 10? That's weirdIsn't it? Yeah.
Good catch.
How and why the guidestones were built has never been answered.
Here's what we do know.
A man using the alias "r.
C.
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? -- Praised their message as a stirring call to rational thinking.
But opponents attacked them, calling them the 10 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.
"Maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature.
" Wow.
That's interesting.
That's a directive? 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's 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, "r.
C.
Christian," which seems to harken back to this guy Christian rosenkreutz, which connect this monument to the idea of the rose cross, or the rosicrucian fraternity.
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 noontime throughout the year.
So you've got a calendar, you've got a compass, you've got a translator, a guide.
Right.
It's a granite Swiss army knife.
It is.
Some people believe that it's merely a publicity stunt by the granite industry here to try to bring tourism in.
They could have done it so much cheaper.
No kidding.
It just seems like so well thought out for a tourist stunt.
This, to us, looks like a modern-day 10 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.
So, with 6 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.
Yeah, I started looking at some of those things and thinking, "wait -- that means, like, an oppressive government is gonna start telling me what to do.
" 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 elbert county sheriff's department has some surveillance cameras set up.
Oh, that's who's doing that! We thought the rosicrucians were keeping an eye on us.
Oh, no, they've got the satellite for that.
Now I get it.
Yeah.
So, what do you think of that? There's some unsettled business for me.
One is, who was r.
C.
Christian? Is there anything to find out about him? And is r.
C.
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, it saves humanity.
So, you know what, though? There's so much arrogance in that, because the people 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 will be around after computers are gone.
I don't want computers to ever be gone.
I can't live without my cellphone.
People think that the freemasons are fascinating.
Let me tell you about the rosicrucians.
Christian rosenkreutz 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.
For the members of the society, rosenkreutz was a doctor who had 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 rosenkreutz 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 rosy cross.
The "r" and the "c" from words "rosy cross" undoubtedly represent the founder's last name -- rosenkreutz -- and some believe are a link to the "r" and the "c" in the guidestones benefactor's pseudonym -- "r.
C.
Christian.
" Interestingly enough, if you look at the Georgia guidestones from above, they do form what appears to be a rosy 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.
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 man-made.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, no offense to van here, but I've got to disagree.
Sure, sirhan sirhan was technically a rosicrucian, but 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? Okay, 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 a given.
So this kind of stuff -- they were thinking about it.
Okay, 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, 'cause you have no idea where the truth might be unless you look for it.
You know what's weird, though? Looking at some of these titles in the chapters, this is on the mystics developing your psychic powers.
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, 'cause I actually want to work on my psychic powers.
This is gonna be good.
This one -- "multiply two 2-digit numbers in your head, like 24 times 67.
The mental focus it takes to get the correct answer increases your psychic ability.
" 24 times 67.
The engineer can do that, right? Yeah, you just go, "20 times 60.
" So you get 1,200.
And then you take 7 times -- that's really hard, actually.
Yeah, here's how I increase my psychic powers.
That's hard, yeah.
[ Laughter .]
Google -- that's how I 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 at 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? 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.
Hey, Brad.
How's everybody doing? How goes the adventure? It's getting interesting.
I have someone I think you should go speak to.
Okay.
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.
We want to learn more about rosicrucianism, and we understand that you are a rosicrucian.
Is that correct? Not exactly.
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 and we truly can do as he did and greater things, as he said we should.
Jesus was one of those? Absolutely.
And there were others? He was probably the highest initiate we've ever had on this planet.
Then he's a template rather than just something to be worshiped.
Right.
When we say we're gonna worship him, you know, all we have to do is believe and we're fine.
Right, we don't have to evolve into -- we believe that faith without works is dead.
And if you read in revelation, it says, "ye 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, you know, condemning to death anybody who didn't agree with them.
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? 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?" 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, that 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.
[ Chuckling .]
Not to my knowledge.
If he did, he certainly went astray, didn't he? Absolutely.
So if he was a rosicrucian, he was a terrible one.
Yeah.
Okay, 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 boogeymen 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 guidestones.
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 wiedner, 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.
Wiedner 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 U.
S.
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.
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 start laying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, terrified.
To think that all 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.
The rosicrucians 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.
Ticktock, ticktock.
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.
That's amazing.
It looks explosive and big.
They are explosive events.
That's right.
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.
" 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, charged particles are coming at us.
What do they do to us? To us personally, nothing.
It's because the earth's magnetic field protects us.
But they would shut down our electricity, our cellphones.
Okay, for that, you need a catastrophic coronal mass ejection.
But once every 500 to 1,000 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? Well, you wouldn't see it.
Charged particles don't emit light as they travel into the near vacuum of space like that.
And there's no way to predict them? 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 7, as long as 17.
If it comes on schedule, it'll be around 2012, 2013.
[ Sighs .]
I've heard that number a lot.
[ Chuckles .]
What keeps you up at night? If I were to worry about things that I can't control, okay, 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.
Now, a scientist is 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? That would be a good idea, but not to save civilization.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, man! That's brutal.
[ Laughs .]
What we really need to do now is uncover the true identity of r.
C.
Christian.
Who was this guy? When he arrived in elberton back in 1979, everyone said that only two people met with them.
One was the owner of the granite company, and he died.
The other was a local banker, Wyatt Martin, who handled r.
C.
Christian's money.
The thing is, Martin took an oath to take r.
C.
Christian's real identify to the grave.
But there was one other person who might know who r.
C.
Christian really was.
His name is Hudson cone, 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 r.
C.
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 jibes perfectly with the controversial guidestone commandment to maintain the world's population under 500 million.
Oh, come on.
It 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 is the greatest man of all time.
Did you ever get to meet this guy -- r.
C.
Christian? Yeah, or a man who was purported to be Mr.
Christian.
Joe fendley, the owner of elberton granite finishing company -- he says, "Mr.
Christian is coming to town, and I will introduce you to him if you'll promise not to try to get him to divulge his name or who he represents.
" So, we met at a restaurant, and Mr.
fendley came in with this gentleman who was about, I'd say about 6'4".
He's a pretty tall gentleman wearing a sports short and a tie.
A 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.
I used to travel a lot in the granite business, so I got pretty good at guessing accents.
Now, this guy was from the dakotas or somewhere in the midwest.
I mean, he obviously wasn't from new Jersey.
Most of the speculation is not as to who he is but who he represents, and I have no idea whether it be new age or fundamentalist christians.
Somebody's trying to project a philosophy out there.
Do you think there's evil behind the guidestones? No, I don't.
Well, it depends on whose interpretation, you see.
Bottom line -- anytime you have something there's a little air of mystery about, it attracts people -- pro and con -- based on what you believe.
I've had them tell me it's the holiest spot on earth.
Some say it's a place of evil, the guides are the 10 commandments of the antichrist.
You're not buying that? Oh, no.
Somebody said, "it's quite a mystery.
" I think, basically, that's why it was put here, that somebody wanted to stimulate curiosity.
So, Hudson met r.
C.
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.
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 ultra-secretive 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.
Brain lab, huh? Never been to one.
That doesn't surprise me.
Oh, you're funny.
We've been doing some preliminary research on the capabilities of the human brain and the possibilities of the mind and what it can do in terms of things like telekinesis and even the word "astral projection.
" And 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.
Well, I don't know about astral projection, but we are definitely able to use brain signals to move things -- moved 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 toward making some of these things happen in the lab.
The thing that I'm gonna 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.
I'm game.
Can I try this? You sure you want to? I'm sure I want to.
All right.
We'll be glad to hook you up.
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 frigging way they'd strap me in to that machine.
Now they're gonna put him in, and he's gonna actually attempt to move this robotic arm, using only his brain.
Okay.
Just hold it down in front.
Just like this? Yeah.
More specifically, his brain waves.
He's being fitted with a special cap, which is injected with electro-gel Let me know if you feel it.
Which sounds like it can kill you, but it actually helps conduct those brain waves.
Once buddy's hooked up, he focuses his attention on this white dot, which is meant to be a representation of his arm.
That's still your arm, in your find.
Right.
That's my arm in my mind.
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.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He did it.
He did it! Wow! He totally did it.
[ Laughs .]
Buddy, you're amazing.
That's fantastic.
He did it.
Buddy, you're amazing.
Very few people can do that the very first time.
Amazing.
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.
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 did it feel? It felt great.
[ Laughter .]
Is there anything in the rosicrucians' guidebook -- what's it called? "Secret wisdom of the m--" "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.
" [ Inhales deeply .]
[ Laughs .]
Do it! Do it! Send a stream of love to the sender.
Okay.
All right.
Hold on.
I'm ready.
Go.
I'm going to.
[ Laughs .]
That was weird.
I kind of felt that.
Yeah.
Got to 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 pit bull, and he actually has a shirt that says that.
His shirt says, "intellectual pit bull.
" I felt my stream of love bouncing back off of me.
I'm supposed to have an attitude of indifference, not eagerness.
Oh, that's easy.
Here we go.
Try it again.
Okay.
[ Chuckles .]
No laughing.
Okay.
Go.
[ Chuckling .]
I can't do it.
You're making me giggle.
You're sending me an astral giggle.
I do get a little -- I do get a [Laughs.]
Little something, or 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.
You're kidding.
We harnessed the power of buddy's brain.
You know, I really didn't think you could do that.
Yeah.
[ Laughs .]
Thank you.
Yeah, but that's the thing.
We thought before that we couldn't run, you know, a 4-minute mile.
We thought a lot of things.
And so we start talking about moving things with your brain 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? Yeah.
How? Well, okay, 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.
It would be chaos.
What did you find out? I talked to a guy named Jay wiedner, okay? 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? That's where we're most likely to get the -- what is it? Coronal mass ejections.
Really? [ Cellphone rings .]
It's Brad Meltzer.
Ooh-hoo.
Hey, Brad.
How are my psychic friends doing? Good.
Very well, thank you.
Buddy's getting more and more psychic.
We were able to manipulate robotic arms with our thoughts.
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 should 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, the important and vital question for us.
Yeah.
Okay.
We'll catch up with you on that later.
Okay.
Safe travels.
Safe travels -- through your minds.
Psychics for hundreds of years have been saying that we're gonna have a cataclysmic event and it's gonna change life as we know it.
It could be asteroids, 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 -- that 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 tenets 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, and it 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.
I would like to know where the other safe places are.
Okay.
If you will see right here -- hey, what happens to CaliforniaAnd 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.
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.
Hey, what happens to California And Oregon? Wait, what's happening to the blue? The blue is all water.
All of this is falling into the ocean.
Yeah, so, what happens to Los Angeles and Portland and Seattle? All of this is going underwater.
Gone? Yes, completely under.
The Mississippi's flooding, and parts of Florida, Texas, New York.
Everybody I know is gonna die.
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? Yes, completely.
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.
Is there any psychic rhyme or reason to why these particular places are spared? 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 the way that the land is.
Right, so we're paying for Los Angeles' sins.
When you look at the guidestones and read them, are you comforted by them? 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 six 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, you know, 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.
It's not congruent with social justice.
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 -- it scares me.
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, "okay, 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, you know, the origins of human thought and human belief.
And so to me, I'm glad they're here, because it gets you talking.
Exactly.
Okay.
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 six 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 r.
C.
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 that we'd be starting humanity over from scratch.
I think the 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, r.
C.
If you're seeing this, this is your chance to step forward.
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 message is, I want to know who built them, why they're located on a remote hillside in Georgia, and what they really mean.
I'm Brad Meltzer.
I've spent my life collecting stories.
The best include 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.
" -- Captions by vitac -- What better way to do something mysterious than to have a granite monolith, you know, rising up in the middle of a field? How long have we been driving from Atlanta? It's been about two hours.
Oh, there it is.
It's isolated.
Why here in the countryside of rural Georgia? Well, if they wanted the middle of nowhere for guidestones, they got it.
It looks like a little, mini stonehenge rising up in the middle of somebody's cornfield.
There's no corn out there.
[ Laughs .]
I was looking at the stonehenge, not the vegetation.
Scott's a city boy.
He doesn't know.
Yeah.
What? Hey, Scott, be cool.
"This area is under video surveillance at all times.
" Somebody's watching us.
That's a little creepy, isn't it? Who's watching us? I don't know.
Who's in a control room somewhere making sure we don't mess with their monuments? See the hieroglyphics up at the top? Wow.
Look at this.
There's a hole, Mac, right here, buddy.
Goes through the thing.
You can see right up through this.
Oh, that is very cool.
Looks there's a bunch of different languages.
I just googled this, and we've got English, Spanish, Swahili, hindi, Hebrew, arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
They're the eight most common languages in the world.
To me, it seems like a weird, new 10 commandments.
Is it 10? 10? That's weirdIsn't it? Yeah.
Good catch.
How and why the guidestones were built has never been answered.
Here's what we do know.
A man using the alias "r.
C.
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? -- Praised their message as a stirring call to rational thinking.
But opponents attacked them, calling them the 10 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.
"Maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature.
" Wow.
That's interesting.
That's a directive? 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's 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, "r.
C.
Christian," which seems to harken back to this guy Christian rosenkreutz, which connect this monument to the idea of the rose cross, or the rosicrucian fraternity.
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 noontime throughout the year.
So you've got a calendar, you've got a compass, you've got a translator, a guide.
Right.
It's a granite Swiss army knife.
It is.
Some people believe that it's merely a publicity stunt by the granite industry here to try to bring tourism in.
They could have done it so much cheaper.
No kidding.
It just seems like so well thought out for a tourist stunt.
This, to us, looks like a modern-day 10 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.
So, with 6 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.
Yeah, I started looking at some of those things and thinking, "wait -- that means, like, an oppressive government is gonna start telling me what to do.
" 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 elbert county sheriff's department has some surveillance cameras set up.
Oh, that's who's doing that! We thought the rosicrucians were keeping an eye on us.
Oh, no, they've got the satellite for that.
Now I get it.
Yeah.
So, what do you think of that? There's some unsettled business for me.
One is, who was r.
C.
Christian? Is there anything to find out about him? And is r.
C.
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, it saves humanity.
So, you know what, though? There's so much arrogance in that, because the people 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 will be around after computers are gone.
I don't want computers to ever be gone.
I can't live without my cellphone.
People think that the freemasons are fascinating.
Let me tell you about the rosicrucians.
Christian rosenkreutz 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.
For the members of the society, rosenkreutz was a doctor who had 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 rosenkreutz 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 rosy cross.
The "r" and the "c" from words "rosy cross" undoubtedly represent the founder's last name -- rosenkreutz -- and some believe are a link to the "r" and the "c" in the guidestones benefactor's pseudonym -- "r.
C.
Christian.
" Interestingly enough, if you look at the Georgia guidestones from above, they do form what appears to be a rosy 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.
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 man-made.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, no offense to van here, but I've got to disagree.
Sure, sirhan sirhan was technically a rosicrucian, but 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? Okay, 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 a given.
So this kind of stuff -- they were thinking about it.
Okay, 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, 'cause you have no idea where the truth might be unless you look for it.
You know what's weird, though? Looking at some of these titles in the chapters, this is on the mystics developing your psychic powers.
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, 'cause I actually want to work on my psychic powers.
This is gonna be good.
This one -- "multiply two 2-digit numbers in your head, like 24 times 67.
The mental focus it takes to get the correct answer increases your psychic ability.
" 24 times 67.
The engineer can do that, right? Yeah, you just go, "20 times 60.
" So you get 1,200.
And then you take 7 times -- that's really hard, actually.
Yeah, here's how I increase my psychic powers.
That's hard, yeah.
[ Laughter .]
Google -- that's how I 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 at 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? 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.
Hey, Brad.
How's everybody doing? How goes the adventure? It's getting interesting.
I have someone I think you should go speak to.
Okay.
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.
We want to learn more about rosicrucianism, and we understand that you are a rosicrucian.
Is that correct? Not exactly.
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 and we truly can do as he did and greater things, as he said we should.
Jesus was one of those? Absolutely.
And there were others? He was probably the highest initiate we've ever had on this planet.
Then he's a template rather than just something to be worshiped.
Right.
When we say we're gonna worship him, you know, all we have to do is believe and we're fine.
Right, we don't have to evolve into -- we believe that faith without works is dead.
And if you read in revelation, it says, "ye 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, you know, condemning to death anybody who didn't agree with them.
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? 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?" 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, that 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.
[ Chuckling .]
Not to my knowledge.
If he did, he certainly went astray, didn't he? Absolutely.
So if he was a rosicrucian, he was a terrible one.
Yeah.
Okay, 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 boogeymen 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 guidestones.
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 wiedner, 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.
Wiedner 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 U.
S.
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.
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 start laying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, terrified.
To think that all 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.
The rosicrucians 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.
Ticktock, ticktock.
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.
That's amazing.
It looks explosive and big.
They are explosive events.
That's right.
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.
" 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, charged particles are coming at us.
What do they do to us? To us personally, nothing.
It's because the earth's magnetic field protects us.
But they would shut down our electricity, our cellphones.
Okay, for that, you need a catastrophic coronal mass ejection.
But once every 500 to 1,000 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? Well, you wouldn't see it.
Charged particles don't emit light as they travel into the near vacuum of space like that.
And there's no way to predict them? 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 7, as long as 17.
If it comes on schedule, it'll be around 2012, 2013.
[ Sighs .]
I've heard that number a lot.
[ Chuckles .]
What keeps you up at night? If I were to worry about things that I can't control, okay, 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.
Now, a scientist is 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? That would be a good idea, but not to save civilization.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, man! That's brutal.
[ Laughs .]
What we really need to do now is uncover the true identity of r.
C.
Christian.
Who was this guy? When he arrived in elberton back in 1979, everyone said that only two people met with them.
One was the owner of the granite company, and he died.
The other was a local banker, Wyatt Martin, who handled r.
C.
Christian's money.
The thing is, Martin took an oath to take r.
C.
Christian's real identify to the grave.
But there was one other person who might know who r.
C.
Christian really was.
His name is Hudson cone, 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 r.
C.
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 jibes perfectly with the controversial guidestone commandment to maintain the world's population under 500 million.
Oh, come on.
It 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 is the greatest man of all time.
Did you ever get to meet this guy -- r.
C.
Christian? Yeah, or a man who was purported to be Mr.
Christian.
Joe fendley, the owner of elberton granite finishing company -- he says, "Mr.
Christian is coming to town, and I will introduce you to him if you'll promise not to try to get him to divulge his name or who he represents.
" So, we met at a restaurant, and Mr.
fendley came in with this gentleman who was about, I'd say about 6'4".
He's a pretty tall gentleman wearing a sports short and a tie.
A 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.
I used to travel a lot in the granite business, so I got pretty good at guessing accents.
Now, this guy was from the dakotas or somewhere in the midwest.
I mean, he obviously wasn't from new Jersey.
Most of the speculation is not as to who he is but who he represents, and I have no idea whether it be new age or fundamentalist christians.
Somebody's trying to project a philosophy out there.
Do you think there's evil behind the guidestones? No, I don't.
Well, it depends on whose interpretation, you see.
Bottom line -- anytime you have something there's a little air of mystery about, it attracts people -- pro and con -- based on what you believe.
I've had them tell me it's the holiest spot on earth.
Some say it's a place of evil, the guides are the 10 commandments of the antichrist.
You're not buying that? Oh, no.
Somebody said, "it's quite a mystery.
" I think, basically, that's why it was put here, that somebody wanted to stimulate curiosity.
So, Hudson met r.
C.
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.
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 ultra-secretive 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.
Brain lab, huh? Never been to one.
That doesn't surprise me.
Oh, you're funny.
We've been doing some preliminary research on the capabilities of the human brain and the possibilities of the mind and what it can do in terms of things like telekinesis and even the word "astral projection.
" And 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.
Well, I don't know about astral projection, but we are definitely able to use brain signals to move things -- moved 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 toward making some of these things happen in the lab.
The thing that I'm gonna 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.
I'm game.
Can I try this? You sure you want to? I'm sure I want to.
All right.
We'll be glad to hook you up.
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 frigging way they'd strap me in to that machine.
Now they're gonna put him in, and he's gonna actually attempt to move this robotic arm, using only his brain.
Okay.
Just hold it down in front.
Just like this? Yeah.
More specifically, his brain waves.
He's being fitted with a special cap, which is injected with electro-gel Let me know if you feel it.
Which sounds like it can kill you, but it actually helps conduct those brain waves.
Once buddy's hooked up, he focuses his attention on this white dot, which is meant to be a representation of his arm.
That's still your arm, in your find.
Right.
That's my arm in my mind.
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.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He did it.
He did it! Wow! He totally did it.
[ Laughs .]
Buddy, you're amazing.
That's fantastic.
He did it.
Buddy, you're amazing.
Very few people can do that the very first time.
Amazing.
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.
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 did it feel? It felt great.
[ Laughter .]
Is there anything in the rosicrucians' guidebook -- what's it called? "Secret wisdom of the m--" "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.
" [ Inhales deeply .]
[ Laughs .]
Do it! Do it! Send a stream of love to the sender.
Okay.
All right.
Hold on.
I'm ready.
Go.
I'm going to.
[ Laughs .]
That was weird.
I kind of felt that.
Yeah.
Got to 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 pit bull, and he actually has a shirt that says that.
His shirt says, "intellectual pit bull.
" I felt my stream of love bouncing back off of me.
I'm supposed to have an attitude of indifference, not eagerness.
Oh, that's easy.
Here we go.
Try it again.
Okay.
[ Chuckles .]
No laughing.
Okay.
Go.
[ Chuckling .]
I can't do it.
You're making me giggle.
You're sending me an astral giggle.
I do get a little -- I do get a [Laughs.]
Little something, or 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.
You're kidding.
We harnessed the power of buddy's brain.
You know, I really didn't think you could do that.
Yeah.
[ Laughs .]
Thank you.
Yeah, but that's the thing.
We thought before that we couldn't run, you know, a 4-minute mile.
We thought a lot of things.
And so we start talking about moving things with your brain 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? Yeah.
How? Well, okay, 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.
It would be chaos.
What did you find out? I talked to a guy named Jay wiedner, okay? 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? That's where we're most likely to get the -- what is it? Coronal mass ejections.
Really? [ Cellphone rings .]
It's Brad Meltzer.
Ooh-hoo.
Hey, Brad.
How are my psychic friends doing? Good.
Very well, thank you.
Buddy's getting more and more psychic.
We were able to manipulate robotic arms with our thoughts.
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 should 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, the important and vital question for us.
Yeah.
Okay.
We'll catch up with you on that later.
Okay.
Safe travels.
Safe travels -- through your minds.
Psychics for hundreds of years have been saying that we're gonna have a cataclysmic event and it's gonna change life as we know it.
It could be asteroids, 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 -- that 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 tenets 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, and it 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.
I would like to know where the other safe places are.
Okay.
If you will see right here -- hey, what happens to CaliforniaAnd 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.
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.
Hey, what happens to California And Oregon? Wait, what's happening to the blue? The blue is all water.
All of this is falling into the ocean.
Yeah, so, what happens to Los Angeles and Portland and Seattle? All of this is going underwater.
Gone? Yes, completely under.
The Mississippi's flooding, and parts of Florida, Texas, New York.
Everybody I know is gonna die.
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? Yes, completely.
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.
Is there any psychic rhyme or reason to why these particular places are spared? 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 the way that the land is.
Right, so we're paying for Los Angeles' sins.
When you look at the guidestones and read them, are you comforted by them? 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 six 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, you know, 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.
It's not congruent with social justice.
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 -- it scares me.
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, "okay, 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, you know, the origins of human thought and human belief.
And so to me, I'm glad they're here, because it gets you talking.
Exactly.
Okay.
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 six 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 r.
C.
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 that we'd be starting humanity over from scratch.
I think the 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, r.
C.
If you're seeing this, this is your chance to step forward.