1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're looking at this 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,799 single object, an artifact that seems to just defy physics 3 00:00:07,799 --> 00:00:08,439 as we know it. 4 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a story that honestly connects Mayan Jungles, believe 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,079 it or not, to the CIA's top secret psychic spying program. 6 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 1: It really forces you to think about well, about things 7 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,760 like interplanetary knowledge transfer. Sounds wild, doesn't it. 8 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 2: It really does like something straight out of a movie. 9 00:00:26,359 --> 00:00:28,960 But the fascinating part is how much of it is 10 00:00:29,039 --> 00:00:32,560 rooted in, you know, actual reports, scientific tests, things like 11 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:33,240 that exactly. 12 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:35,359 Speaker 1: And we're not starting in some dusty tune. We're starting 13 00:00:35,359 --> 00:00:40,159 somewhere very modern. The research labs at Hewlett Packard High 14 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:41,920 Tech Place right HP labs. 15 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,679 Speaker 2: These are the engineers who basically live and breathe QURTS technology. 16 00:00:45,719 --> 00:00:47,079 They practically invented a lot of it. 17 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: And our source material kicks off with this scene. These scientists, 18 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:55,079 these experts are examining this ancient artifact supposedly what ten 19 00:00:55,119 --> 00:00:56,159 thousand years old. 20 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:58,399 Speaker 2: At least that was the claim. This was the famous 21 00:00:58,479 --> 00:00:59,799 Mitchell Hedge's Crystal skull. 22 00:01:00,119 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: And the whole point today is to figure out why 23 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,760 these top HP scientists just couldn't explain how it was made. 24 00:01:05,879 --> 00:01:06,719 It baffled them. 25 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it was like a scientific puzzle they couldn't solve. 26 00:01:09,799 --> 00:01:13,079 I mean, think about quartz, crystal, It's everywhere in modern tech, right. 27 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: Lolots, computers, communications, exactly. 28 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:17,760 Speaker 2: These guys knew quarts inside and out. They compared the 29 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:21,760 skull to thousands, literally thousands of crystals used in their 30 00:01:21,799 --> 00:01:22,519 own tech. 31 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:25,359 Speaker 1: And right away the results were just confusing. 32 00:01:25,439 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 2: Is that the word utterly confusing? They did this test, 33 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,560 submerged it in benzyl alcohol, used polarized light, standard procedure. 34 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:35,680 Speaker 1: Really okay, what does that test normally show? 35 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 2: It reveals the internal structure, stress, fractures, inclusions, how it 36 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:41,760 was formed, or importantly how it was cut. 37 00:01:41,879 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: And with something supposedly ancient and handcarved. 38 00:01:44,719 --> 00:01:48,239 Speaker 2: You'd expect to see tons of imperfections, right, little flaws, 39 00:01:48,319 --> 00:01:51,799 maybe marks from tools, definitely internal stress from the carving process. 40 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,760 Friction causes heat, heat causes fractures. 41 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:56,519 Speaker 1: But the Mitchell Hedges skull. 42 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:03,239 Speaker 2: Pristine, absolutely flawless. The polarized test showed zero internal stress marks. Zero. 43 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:06,560 Speaker 1: I mean, making something that big out of courts that clear. 44 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:10,479 Speaker 2: That's hard, now, extremely hard, But to do it without 45 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,960 leaving any trace of tooling, any internal strain. That just 46 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,319 shouldn't be possible, not naturally, not with ancient methods. 47 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:24,439 Speaker 1: So it just flew in the face of everything they knew, physics, geology, engineering, optics, 48 00:02:24,439 --> 00:02:25,120 even all of it. 49 00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:28,199 Speaker 2: That's the mystery right there. The source material really hammers 50 00:02:28,199 --> 00:02:32,159 this point. Yeah, the level of precision needed, especially cutting 51 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,719 it against its natural access. We'll get into that more. 52 00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:37,479 It seemed like a technology we don't even. 53 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:39,199 Speaker 1: Have now, let alone thousands of years ago. 54 00:02:39,439 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 2: Right. It felt genuinely impossible. It shouldn't exist. 55 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,199 Speaker 1: So okay, we start with this impossible object, and as 56 00:02:46,199 --> 00:02:48,439 we dig into the legends around it, I mean, the 57 00:02:48,439 --> 00:02:50,439 claims just get bigger and crazier. 58 00:02:50,479 --> 00:02:51,080 Speaker 2: They really do. 59 00:02:51,319 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 1: So our mission, our deep dive here, is to unpack 60 00:02:54,039 --> 00:02:59,439 this whole tangled story, lost technology, alleged messages from space, 61 00:03:00,199 --> 00:03:01,599 even a huge deception, and. 62 00:03:01,599 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 2: Maybe find out that the real potential, the real power, 63 00:03:04,159 --> 00:03:07,000 isn't in some ancient relic after all. Maybe it's closer 64 00:03:07,039 --> 00:03:07,560 than we think. 65 00:03:07,719 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's try to connect the dots here. An 66 00:03:10,039 --> 00:03:14,599 ancient skull from like Central America and Mars and Cold 67 00:03:14,599 --> 00:03:16,759 War psychic spies. That's quite a leak. 68 00:03:16,879 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 2: It is a wild one. Yeah. This is where the 69 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,879 CIA's Project Stargate comes into the picture. Very hush hush. 70 00:03:22,719 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: Program, right, Stargate, that was their their psychic research. You 71 00:03:26,199 --> 00:03:27,960 it wasn't it Remote viewing and all that. 72 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 2: Exactly ran for over twenty years from the early seventies 73 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,360 to the mid nineties. The government poured millions into trying 74 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,800 to use psychics for intelligence. It sounds fringe now, but 75 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:38,800 they took it seriously. 76 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: And when those files finally got declassified, I mean, the 77 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,560 targets were mostly what you'd expect, right, Soviet missile sites, 78 00:03:45,879 --> 00:03:47,120 Chinese subs. 79 00:03:46,759 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 2: Standard Cold War stuff, tracking enemies, finding hostages in the 80 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:51,960 Middle East, military intelligence. 81 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: But then buried in those files was this really weird target. 82 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 2: Extremely weird. It wasn't about earthly enemies. It was about 83 00:04:00,039 --> 00:04:00,759 ancient Mars. 84 00:04:00,919 --> 00:04:01,639 Speaker 1: Ancient Mars. 85 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,240 Speaker 2: Why well, specifically, in nineteen eighty four, they tasked one 86 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:07,520 of their viewers to look at a set of coordinates 87 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,639 on Mars four point eight nine degrees north, nine point 88 00:04:10,639 --> 00:04:12,599 five to five degrees west, just. 89 00:04:12,599 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: Specific coordinates on a dead planet. It shows how far 90 00:04:16,639 --> 00:04:20,279 they were pushing this remote viewing idea, doesn't it. Testing 91 00:04:20,319 --> 00:04:20,920 the limits. 92 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,759 Speaker 2: Absolutely. The sources don't really spell out why those exact 93 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,639 coordinates were chosen. Maybe it was random, maybe not, but 94 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:29,040 they give us the result. 95 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: They use their best guy, right, Joe McMoneagle. 96 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 2: That's him. He was considered their most talented remote viewer. 97 00:04:34,959 --> 00:04:36,839 They asked him to look at that spot, but not 98 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,319 Mars now, Mars in its deep past, like a million 99 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:40,839 years ago. 100 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 1: And what he described seeing, I mean, it's pure science 101 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:44,920 fiction pretty much. 102 00:04:44,959 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 2: He reported seeing these tall, thin beings, very advanced, but 103 00:04:49,759 --> 00:04:54,360 also a civilization that knew it was dying, facing extinction, 104 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:55,480 and their structures. 105 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: This links back to the crystal right directly. 106 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 2: Mcmonagle described seeing these massive towers, huge structures made entirely 107 00:05:02,759 --> 00:05:03,959 of pure crystal. 108 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:04,639 Speaker 1: Wow. 109 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 2: And they weren't just buildings, he said, they were functioning 110 00:05:07,399 --> 00:05:11,360 as like giant computers designed for storing and transmitting huge 111 00:05:11,399 --> 00:05:13,839 amounts of information, maybe even across space. 112 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,040 Speaker 1: So the Martians basically built their world out of technology 113 00:05:17,399 --> 00:05:18,120 using crystals. 114 00:05:18,399 --> 00:05:22,399 Speaker 2: It sounds like it, but they were facing this unavoidable catastrophe. 115 00:05:22,439 --> 00:05:26,279 Their atmosphere is getting stripped away. They knew time was up, so. 116 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: They needed a backup plan, a way to save their knowledge. 117 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,959 Speaker 2: The ultimate Archive, and according to the legend, that sort 118 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,560 of grew out of these viewing sessions. Their solution was 119 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:40,519 thirteen crystal skulls. Okay, to preserve everything, their entire history, 120 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:45,639 their science, all their wisdom, a galactic library basically designed 121 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:46,959 to outlast their planet. 122 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,160 Speaker 1: And there was a system to it, not just thirteen 123 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:50,639 random skulls. 124 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,519 Speaker 2: Highly organized. According to the story, twelve of the skulls 125 00:05:53,519 --> 00:05:57,720 were individual archives. Each one supposedly held the complete history 126 00:05:57,759 --> 00:05:59,959 of a different inhabited world somewhere in the. 127 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:02,600 Speaker 1: Galaxy, a cosmic encyclopedia set. 128 00:06:02,439 --> 00:06:06,319 Speaker 2: Kind of yeah, But the thirteenth skull that was the key, 129 00:06:06,399 --> 00:06:08,839 the master archive. It held the combined knowledge of all 130 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,040 galactic civilizations, including their own Martian ie. 131 00:06:12,199 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: So you needed the thirteenth skull to unlock or connect 132 00:06:14,639 --> 00:06:15,199 all the others. 133 00:06:15,399 --> 00:06:17,600 Speaker 2: That was the idea. It was the central node, the 134 00:06:17,639 --> 00:06:21,040 integrator for this vast library of cosmic knowledge. 135 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,959 Speaker 1: So as their world is literally dying around them, these 136 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,319 Martians create this crystal hard drive of galactic secrets, and 137 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:30,639 then they need someone to give it to. 138 00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:33,040 Speaker 2: Right, So it's the next link in this legendary chain. 139 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:39,480 The Martians needed to pass this incredibly valuable data cash 140 00:06:39,519 --> 00:06:42,199 to another civilization, one that could handle it, and. 141 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: The legend says they picked Atlantis. 142 00:06:44,759 --> 00:06:48,519 Speaker 2: Atlantis, which you know, suggests that Atlantis, if it existed, 143 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,920 must have been incredibly advanced itself, maybe nearly as advanced 144 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,439 as the Martians, or at least worthy of receiving this 145 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:55,639 cosmic inheritance. 146 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,480 Speaker 1: It wasn't just like leaving a package on the doorstep, then, No. 147 00:06:58,639 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 2: Definitely not. This was meant to be a sacred trust. 148 00:07:01,519 --> 00:07:04,800 The story goes that in Atlantis they had specific priests 149 00:07:04,959 --> 00:07:07,480 guardians for each of the thirteen skulls, and. 150 00:07:07,399 --> 00:07:09,040 Speaker 1: They knew how powerful this knowledge was. 151 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:11,759 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they were acutely aware. The sources say they 152 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,360 understood this knowledge could quote destroy worlds if it was 153 00:07:15,399 --> 00:07:17,439 misused or fell into the wrong hands. 154 00:07:17,639 --> 00:07:21,199 Speaker 1: That raises the stakes quite a bit. But then history 155 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:25,399 or myth seems to repeat itself. Atlanta's had its own disaster, right, 156 00:07:25,439 --> 00:07:26,519 the Great Flood. 157 00:07:26,399 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 2: The second extinction event in our story exactly the continent sinks, 158 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:32,720 total catastrophe. 159 00:07:32,199 --> 00:07:34,439 Speaker 1: So the Alantean priest had to act fast. 160 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,839 Speaker 2: Just like the Martians before them. Before the final disaster, 161 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:42,759 they supposedly transported the thirteen skulls out of Atlantis scattered 162 00:07:42,759 --> 00:07:46,759 them across the globe for safety, hiding them in different places. 163 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: Pure distribution, hoping some would survive. 164 00:07:48,959 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 2: Right, And according to the specific Myya legend that our 165 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,360 adventurer Mitchell Hedges was so obsessed with, Yeah, the most 166 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:59,079 powerful skull, the thirteenth one, the master key that was 167 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,279 given directly to the Maya civilization. 168 00:08:01,519 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: Ah okay, so that's the artifact Hedges thought was hidden 169 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:05,319 somewhere in Central America. 170 00:08:05,399 --> 00:08:09,079 Speaker 2: That's the one. And the powers attributed to this skull 171 00:08:09,199 --> 00:08:11,680 in the lore are just incredible. It wasn't just a 172 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:12,639 storage device. 173 00:08:12,879 --> 00:08:13,439 Speaker 1: What could it do? 174 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 2: It could supposedly communicate telepathically. It could answer any question, 175 00:08:17,319 --> 00:08:19,800 but only you know if the person asking how to 176 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:20,279 pure heart? 177 00:08:20,399 --> 00:08:22,279 Speaker 1: And we're talking the big questions, right, where did we 178 00:08:22,319 --> 00:08:25,199 come from? What's the point of the universe exactly? 179 00:08:25,319 --> 00:08:28,759 Speaker 2: The origin of humanity, the purpose of existence, the secrets 180 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,679 behind the Pyramids, Stonehenge, even what really happened to Atlantis. 181 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:34,960 It was like the ultimate cosmic Google. 182 00:08:35,639 --> 00:08:39,559 Speaker 1: So the myth ties this powerful tech to a kind 183 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:41,360 of spiritual readiness. 184 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 2: Very much so there was this prophecy attached to it. 185 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:47,200 When all thirteen skulls were finally brought together again. Ah, 186 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,279 the power of the gods would be unleashed, Humanity's true 187 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:52,679 destiny would be revealed. 188 00:08:52,799 --> 00:08:55,840 Speaker 1: But there was a catch. Wasn't there something about being worthy? 189 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 2: Yes, a crucial catch. The prophecy said the skulls would 190 00:08:59,159 --> 00:09:02,360 only be found when humankind was finally ready, when we 191 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:05,360 were quote worthy, ethically mature enough. 192 00:09:05,399 --> 00:09:07,840 Speaker 1: Maybe so they were meant to stay hidden from millennia, 193 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,600 basically waiting for us to grow up. 194 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,279 Speaker 2: It's a compelling idea, isn't it that the ultimate secrets 195 00:09:12,279 --> 00:09:14,240 are out there, but we can't access them because of 196 00:09:14,279 --> 00:09:16,200 our own well immaturity. 197 00:09:16,279 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 1: Okay, let's jump forward thousands of years past empires rising 198 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,960 and falling, past the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, right into 199 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:24,919 the nineteen. 200 00:09:24,519 --> 00:09:27,559 Speaker 2: Twenties, the Roaring twenties, and this is where Frederick Mitchell 201 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:30,960 Hedges enters the story. Fa Mitchell Hedges quite. 202 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:33,679 Speaker 1: A character from what I gather real life Indiana Jones type. 203 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:36,919 Speaker 2: Absolutely, he was a celebrity in England back then, adventure 204 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:42,519 soldier Explore. His autobiography was called danger My Ally that 205 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:43,240 says a lot. 206 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:45,679 Speaker 1: So he wasn't just some academic. He was out there, 207 00:09:45,799 --> 00:09:47,360 you know, facing down dangers. 208 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:51,039 Speaker 2: Oh, Yeah, captured by tribes, fought wild animals, hacked through 209 00:09:51,159 --> 00:09:54,759 jungles looking for ruins and treasure. He lived it, and 210 00:09:54,799 --> 00:09:55,279 he had. 211 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:58,679 Speaker 1: This specific interest in the Maya. Right, there's sudden knowledge. 212 00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 2: He was obsessed with it. How did the Maya suddenly 213 00:10:01,279 --> 00:10:06,279 develop such sophisticated math, astronomy, these incredible calendars. It seemed 214 00:10:06,279 --> 00:10:09,279 to pop up out of nowhere in the historical record. 215 00:10:09,399 --> 00:10:11,200 Speaker 1: And his theory connected back to Atlantis. 216 00:10:11,279 --> 00:10:14,639 Speaker 2: Yeah, he believed advanced survivors from Atlantis. Maybe those priests 217 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:17,399 we talked about fled the flood, ended up in Central 218 00:10:17,399 --> 00:10:22,399 America and basically jump started Maya civilization by sharing their knowledge. 219 00:10:22,039 --> 00:10:24,279 Speaker 1: Which tied into local stories. He was hearing. 220 00:10:24,159 --> 00:10:27,639 Speaker 2: Perfectly stories from people in British Honduras, which is now 221 00:10:27,639 --> 00:10:32,399 belieze about the Star people. These beings who supposedly appeared 222 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:36,360 taught the early Maya amazing things, left behind some artifacts, 223 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:37,480 and then just vanished. 224 00:10:37,879 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 1: So Hedges had his quest, Yeah, find evidence that these 225 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:44,240 Atlantean teachers maybe find one of those artifacts. 226 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 2: Precisely so, January nineteen twenty four, he gets local guides 227 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,360 heads deep into the Honduran jungle looking for a specific 228 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:53,720 lost city people whispered about. 229 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:55,440 Speaker 1: And this wasn't a walk in the park, no way. 230 00:10:55,639 --> 00:11:01,360 Speaker 2: Weeks of incredibly tough travel, dense jungle, malaria, snakes, the works, 231 00:11:01,799 --> 00:11:04,679 but he kept pushing and eventually his guides led him 232 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,679 to this overgrown area, a huge mound hidden by vegetation. 233 00:11:08,039 --> 00:11:10,600 He starts digging, just scraping away the top soil, and 234 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,320 about six inches down he hit stone, gleaming white stone. 235 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:15,039 Speaker 1: He found it. 236 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 2: He'd found the lost city of Lubantun, which translates to 237 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,759 place of the Fallen Stones. Quite fitting, and. 238 00:11:21,799 --> 00:11:25,080 Speaker 1: The construction there it struck him as unusual. 239 00:11:24,879 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 2: Very unusual for the region. The stones were cut perfectly, 240 00:11:27,279 --> 00:11:30,000 fitted together without any mortar at all, super precise. He 241 00:11:30,039 --> 00:11:31,879 thought it looked like stonework he'd seen. 242 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,919 Speaker 1: In Egypt, which supported his idea of a global advanced 243 00:11:35,919 --> 00:11:37,360 civilization exactly. 244 00:11:37,919 --> 00:11:40,679 Speaker 2: It fueled his theory that there was this worldwide network 245 00:11:40,919 --> 00:11:42,600 long before recorded history. 246 00:11:42,759 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: So they excavate Lubon tune. Yeah, and the big fine 247 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:47,200 comes the main pyramid. 248 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,960 Speaker 2: Right after weeks of clearing rubble, they uncovered this small 249 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,840 dark opening right at the top of the great pyramid, 250 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,480 a shaft leading straight down about forty feet into the 251 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:02,360 pyramid's core Boogie Very and the local workers they flat 252 00:12:02,399 --> 00:12:05,279 out refused to go down. They were terrified, believe the 253 00:12:05,279 --> 00:12:08,360 place was cursed, that something dangerous was in that chamber. 254 00:12:08,519 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: Hedges couldn't persuade them. 255 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:11,480 Speaker 2: Nope, their fear was too real. 256 00:12:11,639 --> 00:12:14,320 Speaker 1: So enter his daughter, Anna, Anna Mitchell Hedges. 257 00:12:14,879 --> 00:12:16,759 Speaker 2: She'd been traveling with him since she was a kid, 258 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,879 about ten. By nineteen twenty four, she's seventeen, and apparently 259 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,960 this all happened on her seventeenth birthday, where so the 260 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:24,799 story goes. 261 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:25,919 Speaker 1: Quite a birthday present, right. 262 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,519 Speaker 2: She was as adventurous as her dad. So with the 263 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,320 workers refusing, Anna says, I'll go wow. They lower her 264 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,519 down into the darkness pitch black. She describes reaching an altar, 265 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,320 digging around in the dirt with her hands in fight. 266 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,399 She comes back up, supposedly holding something wrapped in her shirt, 267 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:46,440 and it's the skull, a human skull perfectly carved from 268 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:49,120 a single piece of flawless quartz crystal. 269 00:12:49,639 --> 00:12:51,759 Speaker 1: The Mitchell Hedges crystal skull, that's. 270 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:55,399 Speaker 2: The one, and later Hedges claimed a local maya elder 271 00:12:55,519 --> 00:12:57,960 told him their high priest used such a skull to 272 00:12:58,039 --> 00:13:01,879 quote will someone to death. So he dramatically named it 273 00:13:01,919 --> 00:13:02,799 the Skull of Doom. 274 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: Okay, so he finds this incredible, possibly deadly artifact. You'd 275 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:09,080 think you'd be shouting about it from the rooftops, right, 276 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:09,759 you would think. 277 00:13:10,279 --> 00:13:13,559 Speaker 2: But strangely, no, he basically packed it away, kept it 278 00:13:13,639 --> 00:13:16,919 pretty quiet for almost thirty years, only mentioned it publicly 279 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:19,559 like once before he died in nineteen fifty nine. 280 00:13:19,799 --> 00:13:22,159 Speaker 1: Weird. So it wasn't until Annae inherited it that the 281 00:13:22,159 --> 00:13:23,120 story really took off. 282 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,480 Speaker 2: Exactly nineteen fifty nine. Anna gets the skull, she takes 283 00:13:26,519 --> 00:13:28,679 it out of storage, and she's the one who starts 284 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:31,960 claiming it has these strange powers. She said it started talking. 285 00:13:31,639 --> 00:13:34,159 Speaker 1: To it talking okay, yeah. 286 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:36,840 Speaker 2: Which led her in nineteen sixty three to contact Frank Dorlund. 287 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:39,960 He was a well respected art restorer but also a 288 00:13:40,039 --> 00:13:43,600 crystal expert based in California. She wanted him to analyze it, 289 00:13:43,639 --> 00:13:44,840 figure out what was going on. 290 00:13:44,759 --> 00:13:46,759 Speaker 1: And Dorlan starts experiencing things too. 291 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,080 Speaker 2: He and his wife. Yeah, this is where the legend 292 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,519 gets really cemented. They reported hearing things when the skull 293 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:57,039 was out of its vault, soft voices, sometimes music, even 294 00:13:57,039 --> 00:14:00,440 what they described as singing, singing from a crystal skull right, 295 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:04,559 and other weird sensory stuff like sometimes the air around 296 00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:07,960 it would smell like apple blossoms, other times like sharp 297 00:14:08,039 --> 00:14:11,360 vinegar Okay, and people looking into the left eye socket. 298 00:14:12,039 --> 00:14:16,480 Some reported getting vivid visions like watching movies of ancient temples, 299 00:14:16,639 --> 00:14:19,399 forgotten rituals just playing out in their minds. 300 00:14:19,519 --> 00:14:22,519 Speaker 1: Wow. Poltergeist activity too, Yeah. 301 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,879 Speaker 2: Reports of objects moving on their own overnight, things getting scattered, 302 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:27,200 classic spooky stuff. 303 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,759 Speaker 1: Sounds completely paranormal. But Dorelyn had a different idea he did. 304 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 2: He wasn't thinking ghosts through magic. He actually believed the 305 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,639 skull was a machine, a highly complex, incredibly advanced piece 306 00:14:36,679 --> 00:14:38,039 of technology. 307 00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: A machine made of crystal. Wow. 308 00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:43,559 Speaker 2: He theorized it interacted with human thought, with consciousness, maybe 309 00:14:43,639 --> 00:14:47,240 through crystallography, like it could pick up electromagnetic signals from 310 00:14:47,279 --> 00:14:51,519 the brain or perhaps convert thoughts into sound or images. 311 00:14:51,399 --> 00:14:53,840 Speaker 1: Which is why he took it to Hewlett Packard for 312 00:14:53,919 --> 00:14:54,759 some hard science. 313 00:14:54,879 --> 00:14:58,799 Speaker 2: Exactly he needed technical validation and those HP tests we 314 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,320 need to dig into why they were so stunning at 315 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,559 the time. Okay, First, the scientists confirmed skull and jaw 316 00:15:05,759 --> 00:15:09,600 carved from one single piece of quartz that alone is 317 00:15:09,639 --> 00:15:11,120 a master work of carving. 318 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,759 Speaker 1: But the really mind blowing part was how it was carved. 319 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,440 Speaker 2: That was the kicker. The axis. See, crystals have a 320 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,360 natural grain and axis. You cut with the axis to 321 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,639 avoid shattering it. It's fundamental, like cutting wood with the 322 00:15:23,679 --> 00:15:27,840 grain precisely. But the HP test apparently showed this skull 323 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,480 was carved against the natural axis of the quartz. 324 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:32,559 Speaker 1: How is that even possible. 325 00:15:32,399 --> 00:15:36,039 Speaker 2: Well with any known tool back then or even now. Really, 326 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:40,480 cutting against the axis generates immense friction and pressure. It 327 00:15:40,519 --> 00:15:43,879 should cause fractures, it should shatter the crystal, especially the 328 00:15:43,919 --> 00:15:44,759 piece that large. 329 00:15:44,879 --> 00:15:46,840 Speaker 1: So to do it successfully you'd need. 330 00:15:46,759 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 2: Some way to counteract the basic physics of the material, 331 00:15:49,799 --> 00:15:53,279 maybe alter its molecular structure while carving. That's way beyond 332 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,039 even our current tech. Firmly in the realm of like 333 00:15:56,759 --> 00:15:57,240 sci fi. 334 00:15:57,519 --> 00:15:59,559 Speaker 1: And dorelynd ran with this, Oh yeah. 335 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:03,159 Speaker 2: He pointed to other physical clues from the microscopic analysis, 336 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,559 evidence of what looked like tiny ribbon prisms inside engineered 337 00:16:07,639 --> 00:16:11,240 light tunnels, the eye sockets shaped like perfect lenses. 338 00:16:11,799 --> 00:16:14,879 Speaker 1: So intentional engineering, not just carving. 339 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 2: That was his argument. Sophisticated design meant to focus energy 340 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,960 or information. He speculated they used ultrasonics or maybe some 341 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,919 kind of crystal resonance tech to shape it molecule by molecule, 342 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:29,000 which would explain the lack of tool marks too. 343 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:32,639 Speaker 1: So the HP tests, combined with Dorelyn's interpretation, made the 344 00:16:32,639 --> 00:16:36,159 skull seem genuinely impossible by earthly standards exactly. 345 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 2: It gave the whole wild legend this veneer of scientific credibility. 346 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,679 Suddenly Martians in Atlantis didn't seem quite so crazy because 347 00:16:43,679 --> 00:16:47,240 the object itself appeared to be proof of non human technology. 348 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: Okay, So the Mitchell Hedges skull, backed by these HP 349 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,759 results in Dorelyn's stories, becomes this huge sensation. 350 00:16:53,679 --> 00:16:57,039 Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it immediately sparks this quest where are the 351 00:16:57,080 --> 00:16:59,960 other twelve skulls from the legend? If one is this amazing, 352 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:01,039 what about the whole set? 353 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,920 Speaker 1: People started looking seriously, not just like New age enthusiasts. 354 00:17:04,519 --> 00:17:08,759 Speaker 2: Yeah, serious researchers. Museum curators started digging into it, trying 355 00:17:08,799 --> 00:17:12,920 to track down any reported crystal skull, especially in established collections. 356 00:17:13,279 --> 00:17:15,200 This really picked up steam in the nineties. 357 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:17,599 Speaker 1: Wasn't there a big one that turned up at the Smithsonian. 358 00:17:17,799 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 2: There was nineteen ninety two a massive, thirty one pound 359 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,720 skull just arrived anonymously in the mail, no note, nothing weird, 360 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,119 very and that prompted doctor Jane Walsh at the Smithsonian 361 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,480 to really lead the investigation into the origins of these things. 362 00:17:33,599 --> 00:17:36,880 Speaker 1: And she found skulls that existed before Mitchell Hedge's claim 363 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:37,519 to find his. 364 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,359 Speaker 2: That was a key breakthrough. Her research uncovered two important 365 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:44,680 skulls that were known long before nineteen twenty four, one 366 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,440 in Paris acquired by a museum there way back in. 367 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 1: Eighteen seventy eight eighteen seventy eight wo. 368 00:17:49,759 --> 00:17:52,759 Speaker 2: And another one in London at the British Museum, acquired 369 00:17:52,759 --> 00:17:55,200 in eighteen ninety seven. It had been sold through Tiffany's 370 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:56,000 the Jewelers, So. 371 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,160 Speaker 1: Crystal skulls were already being traded in the nineteenth century exactly. 372 00:17:59,279 --> 00:18:02,039 Speaker 2: This wasn't something that just appeared with Mitchell Hedges. There 373 00:18:02,079 --> 00:18:04,240 was a market for them decades earlier. 374 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:06,680 Speaker 1: And was there a connection between those early skulls. 375 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,839 Speaker 2: A very important one a French guy named Eugene Bobon. 376 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:12,640 He started out as an archaeologist in Mexico around the 377 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:16,160 eighteen fifties, but realized selling artifacts. 378 00:18:15,799 --> 00:18:18,240 Speaker 1: Was more profitable, so he became an antiquities dealer. 379 00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 2: A major one he set up shot back in France 380 00:18:20,519 --> 00:18:24,079 in eighteen sixty nine. And it turns out Bobon was 381 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,559 the source for both the Paris skull and indirectly the 382 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:31,599 London skull. He basically created the European market for these 383 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:33,559 ancient Aztec crystal skulls. 384 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:35,880 Speaker 1: Okay, so Bobun's the link. How did they figure out 385 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:37,000 his skulls weren't ancient? 386 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:41,160 Speaker 2: Modern science? Doctor Walsh and other scientists got permission to 387 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:45,240 examine the Boben skulls Paris, London and that anonymous Smithsonian 388 00:18:45,279 --> 00:18:47,039 one using electron. 389 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,880 Speaker 1: Microscopes and under the microscope. 390 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:53,319 Speaker 2: Tool marks unistakable modern tool marks, specific grooves, rotational patterns 391 00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:56,359 consistent with industrial grinding wheels used in the late nineteenth century. 392 00:18:56,519 --> 00:18:58,400 Speaker 1: Not ancient hand tools, definitely not. 393 00:18:58,519 --> 00:19:01,119 Speaker 2: These were machine marks from industrial gem cutting. 394 00:19:00,839 --> 00:19:03,400 Speaker 1: And the crystal itself. Was it from Mexico or Central America? 395 00:19:03,599 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 2: Nope. Chemical analysis traced the courts not to anywhere near 396 00:19:07,039 --> 00:19:12,160 the Maya or Aztecs, but to Brazil or possibly Madagascar Brazil. 397 00:19:12,759 --> 00:19:16,359 Speaker 1: How did Brazilian courts end up in skulls sold in Europe? 398 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:17,519 As as tech relics. 399 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:19,960 Speaker 2: Well, you follow the supply chain, it leads straight to 400 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,079 a specific village in Germany, ader. 401 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:23,759 Speaker 1: Oberstein ater Oberstein. 402 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, in the late eighteen hundreds it was the world 403 00:19:26,079 --> 00:19:29,680 center for gem cutting. They had perfected using large water 404 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,359 powered grinding wheels, rotary tools, the exact kind of tools 405 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:35,519 that would leave the marks found on the skulls, and. 406 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: They got quarts from Brazil. 407 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 2: Records show huge shipments of Brazilian courts arriving right there 408 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,319 in eeder Oberstein around the eighteen seventies eighteen eighties. 409 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,880 Speaker 1: Perfect timing, so the picture becomes clear. 410 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:50,920 Speaker 2: Painfully clear. These supposedly sacred ancient artifacts, they were modern fakes, 411 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,039 made in Germany, probably between eighteen seventy and eighteen ninety, 412 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,200 using industrial tools on Brazilian quartz. 413 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,440 Speaker 1: And sold by dealers like Boban who passed them off 414 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,240 as genuine pre Columbian. 415 00:20:01,799 --> 00:20:07,079 Speaker 2: Treasures, exactly cashing in on the Victorian fascination with exotic antiquities. 416 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,640 The whole ancient crystal skull legend. It wasn't born in 417 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,200 Maya temples or on Mars. It was born in a 418 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,039 German workshop and marketed by a clever French. 419 00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:19,079 Speaker 1: Dealer Okay, So the Paris skull, the London skull, the 420 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:24,680 Smithsonian one, all fakes from Boban's network exposed by science, right. 421 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,119 Speaker 2: But the Mitchell Hedges skull, the skull of doom, that 422 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,519 was still the big one, the legend, the one with 423 00:20:29,559 --> 00:20:32,440 the impossible HP test, the amazing discovery story. 424 00:20:32,559 --> 00:20:35,519 Speaker 1: Anna Mitchell Hedges held onto that story tightly, didn't. 425 00:20:35,319 --> 00:20:38,200 Speaker 2: She She did. She always refused to let her skull 426 00:20:38,279 --> 00:20:41,519 undergo the same kind of rigorous modern testing that debunked 427 00:20:41,559 --> 00:20:45,680 the others. She maintained it was different, genuinely ancient, right 428 00:20:45,799 --> 00:20:47,480 up until she died in two thousand and seven. 429 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:48,799 Speaker 1: After she passed away. 430 00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:52,119 Speaker 2: Her husband, Bill Homan, inherited it. He still seemed to 431 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,240 believe the legend, but maybe he wanted to prove it 432 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,839 or silence the doubters. So in two thousand and eight 433 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,119 he finally agreed to let the Smithsonian scientists test it. 434 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,640 Speaker 1: The same kind of test, Yeah, electron microscopes and all. 435 00:21:02,559 --> 00:21:04,359 Speaker 2: That exactly, and the result. 436 00:21:04,279 --> 00:21:06,160 Speaker 1: Guess tool marks bingo. 437 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:09,680 Speaker 2: The Mitchell Hedges skull showed the exact same kind of 438 00:21:09,759 --> 00:21:14,359 characteristic marks from nineteenth century rotary grinding wheels, identical to 439 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:15,160 the other fakes. 440 00:21:15,279 --> 00:21:17,200 Speaker 1: It wasn't impossible, It wasn't ancient. 441 00:21:17,519 --> 00:21:19,759 Speaker 2: It was just another one of a German made carvings, 442 00:21:19,839 --> 00:21:23,960 probably from the same workshops as Bobon's skulls. Skillful carving, yes, 443 00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:28,200 but definitely modern, definitely man made. The impossible object was 444 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:29,880 well possible. 445 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: That just demolishes the whole foundation. And what about Anna's 446 00:21:33,039 --> 00:21:36,160 dramatic discovery story finding it on her seventeenth birthday? 447 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,839 Speaker 2: That completely fell apart under scrutiny too. Turns out she 448 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,079 gave conflicting dates for the discovery all the time, nineteen 449 00:21:43,079 --> 00:21:45,720 twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, 450 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,720 but always insisted it was her seventeenth birthday. It just 451 00:21:48,759 --> 00:21:49,400 didn't add up. 452 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,160 Speaker 1: And her father didn't even discover the city. 453 00:21:51,519 --> 00:21:54,599 Speaker 2: No, lu Bontun was known before him. Doctor Thomas Gone 454 00:21:54,599 --> 00:21:57,279 explored it back in nineteen oh three. Hedges was there 455 00:21:57,319 --> 00:21:59,880 in twenty four, yes, but he didn't discover it in 456 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:00,920 the way annacclaimed. 457 00:22:01,079 --> 00:22:04,599 Speaker 1: But the most damaging thing, how did Hedges actually get 458 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:05,079 the skull? 459 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 2: This is the real nail in the coffin they found 460 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:08,720 the records. He didn't pull it out of a tomb 461 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,200 in nineteen twenty four whenever he. 462 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:11,680 Speaker 1: Bought it, bought it when. 463 00:22:11,599 --> 00:22:15,400 Speaker 2: In nineteen forty three, nineteen years after the supposed discovery, 464 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,680 he bought it at a Sotheby's auction in London. There's 465 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:18,400 a receipt. 466 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,599 Speaker 1: Wow? Okay? And who sold it at auction? Does that 467 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:22,319 connect back? 468 00:22:22,559 --> 00:22:26,279 Speaker 2: It connects perfectly. The seller listed was a London art 469 00:22:26,279 --> 00:22:30,480 dealer named Sidney Bernie. And where did Bernie get it from? 470 00:22:30,559 --> 00:22:32,720 A collection that was previously owned by. 471 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,400 Speaker 1: Drum Roll Eugene Bobon. 472 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,960 Speaker 2: Eugene Boben himself. The Skull of Doom wasn't just like 473 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,359 the other fakes. It was one of the other fakes, 474 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,240 originating from the same nineteenth century source. 475 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: So Hedges bought a known fake, or at least a 476 00:22:46,039 --> 00:22:50,680 modern carving, and then concocted this elaborate discovery story around it. 477 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,119 Speaker 2: It certainly looks that way. He was a known self 478 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:56,759 promoter and adventurer who loved a good story, and sources 479 00:22:56,759 --> 00:22:59,680 suggest he might have borrowed heavily from popular fiction at 480 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,240 the time, like that novel Yeah, a nineteen thirty six 481 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,039 novel called The Crystal Skull by Jack McLaren. It features 482 00:23:06,039 --> 00:23:08,799 a scientist finding a crystal skull that shows the future 483 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:09,960 sounds familiar. 484 00:23:09,599 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: Right, very Okay, so the discovery story is fake. What 485 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:15,559 about all the supernatural stuff, the singing, the smells, the 486 00:23:15,599 --> 00:23:17,599 ghosts that Dorlan reported. 487 00:23:17,319 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 2: Also seems to be let's say, highly embellished, if not 488 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,480 outright fabricated by Dorlan. Jarl made it up, it appears, 489 00:23:24,519 --> 00:23:27,680 so there's evidence he admitted to or at least greatly 490 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:32,240 exaggerated the voices and poltergeist stuff. Ironically, Anna apparently got 491 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:33,079 really annoyed by it. 492 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,359 Speaker 1: Why wasn't the good publicity not if. 493 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,039 Speaker 2: You're trying to sell the skull for a lot of money, 494 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,720 Dorelyn's spooky stories about doom and curses were scaring off 495 00:23:41,759 --> 00:23:44,799 potential buyers. It actually caused a big falling out between 496 00:23:44,799 --> 00:23:45,599 Anna and Dorlyn. 497 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:51,240 Speaker 1: Huh okay. Last piece, the impossible HP tests cut against 498 00:23:51,279 --> 00:23:53,160 the axes molecular alteration. 499 00:23:53,519 --> 00:23:56,160 Speaker 2: That seems to be a case of interpretation being stretched 500 00:23:56,279 --> 00:23:59,400 way beyond the actual data. The initial HP reports were 501 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,039 quite limited. They confirmed it was quartz, a single piece 502 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,240 and yeah, impressively carved for the time, A great feat 503 00:24:05,319 --> 00:24:07,000 of nineteenth century German. 504 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: Craftsmanship, but not impossible technology. 505 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,200 Speaker 2: Not evidence of impossible tech. The truly wild claims cutting 506 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,319 against the axis being impossible altering molecules. That was mostly 507 00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:19,000 Dorelyn's interpretation, fitting the object to his advanced machine theory. 508 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:22,759 HP themselves later clarified they never tested or confirmed any 509 00:24:22,759 --> 00:24:23,799 paranormal aspects. 510 00:24:23,839 --> 00:24:29,279 Speaker 1: So the entire epic saga Martians Atlantis, Maya prophecy thirteen Skulls. 511 00:24:29,039 --> 00:24:32,000 Speaker 2: It's basically a modern myth. It wasn't an ancient Maya 512 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:35,839 or Aztec legend at all. It was largely constructed and 513 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,119 popularized during the New Age boom of the nineteen seventies 514 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:44,279 and eighties, latching onto these intriguing but ultimately fake artifacts. 515 00:24:44,279 --> 00:24:46,599 Speaker 1: Wow, okay, So the whole thing, the skull of Doomed, 516 00:24:46,599 --> 00:24:50,440 the thirteen Skulls legend, it's basically a century long story 517 00:24:50,839 --> 00:24:54,400 built on a foundation of well nineteenth century German fakes. 518 00:24:54,839 --> 00:24:57,720 It's easy to feel a bit deflated. 519 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,079 Speaker 2: Maybe yeah, you hear cosmic conspiracy, ancient aliens, and then 520 00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,680 it turns out to be a Victorian marketing scheme, a 521 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:04,519 bit of a letdown. 522 00:25:04,599 --> 00:25:07,279 Speaker 1: But and this is important, the story isn't entirely pointless, 523 00:25:07,319 --> 00:25:08,960 is it. There's an unexpected twist. 524 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,079 Speaker 2: Here, There really is, because While the legend was a fraud, 525 00:25:11,279 --> 00:25:14,000 the focus of the legend crystal technology. That wasn't a 526 00:25:14,039 --> 00:25:14,799 waste of time. 527 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,119 Speaker 1: At all, because quartz crystal itself, it actually is kind 528 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:18,640 of amazing. 529 00:25:18,759 --> 00:25:21,799 Speaker 2: It really is. Scientifically speaking, it's about as close to 530 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:25,359 a genuine magic material as we have. Forget the fake skulls. 531 00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:27,480 The real substance is incredibly powerful. 532 00:25:27,599 --> 00:25:30,000 Speaker 1: So debunking the myth actually it leads us back to 533 00:25:30,079 --> 00:25:32,759 appreciating the real science exactly. 534 00:25:33,279 --> 00:25:36,960 Speaker 2: Look at what crystals, especially quarts, actually do in modern tech. 535 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:42,440 They're fundamental to so much measuring time with incredible precision, 536 00:25:42,519 --> 00:25:43,240 and watches and. 537 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 1: Computers, communications, radios transmitting. 538 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 2: Signals right manipulating light frequencies. That's the basis for lasers 539 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,839 generating electricity when you put pressure on them, the piece 540 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,119 of electric effect, storing electricity efficiently. 541 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 1: That piece of electric thing that connects back to some 542 00:25:58,079 --> 00:26:01,200 other ancient mysteries, doesn't it like the mid power plant theories. 543 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,960 Speaker 2: It does the idea that certain crystal structures could conduct 544 00:26:05,079 --> 00:26:08,799 or even generate energy with near perfect efficiency that touches 545 00:26:08,839 --> 00:26:12,640 on concepts like zero point energy. The physics isn't crazy, 546 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,920 even if this specific ancient application is speculative crystals do 547 00:26:17,039 --> 00:26:19,359 have amazing energy properties. 548 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:20,680 Speaker 1: And they're used in cutting edge stuff now too. 549 00:26:21,039 --> 00:26:25,240 Speaker 2: Absolutely, quantum computing relies on specialized crystals to hold quantum 550 00:26:25,279 --> 00:26:29,599 states entangled particles. They're looking at self healing materials based 551 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:33,920 on crystal lattices. Some theorists even connect the highly organized 552 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,680 structure of crystals to really out their ideas like consciousness 553 00:26:37,759 --> 00:26:40,759 or even teleportation, though that's way more theoretical. 554 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,559 Speaker 1: Okay, but let's circle back to the original Martian idea, 555 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,920 preserving knowledge forever. If you were an advanced civilization facing extinction, 556 00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:49,799 crystal will be. 557 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,200 Speaker 2: The perfect medium. The science totally backs that up. 558 00:26:52,319 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: Why what makes it so good for long term storage? 559 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:59,759 Speaker 2: It's incredibly durable, harder than steel. It can withstand extreme 560 00:27:00,039 --> 00:27:03,480 keat extreme pressure. It doesn't really corrode or decay over 561 00:27:03,559 --> 00:27:07,240 geological time data encoded in a crystal structure because theoretically 562 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,400 last for billions of years. 563 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: Billions, like longer than the Earth has existed. 564 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,119 Speaker 2: Longer than the current age of the universe. Potentially we're 565 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,440 talking thirteen billion years plus. It's about as permanent as 566 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:18,039 you can get. 567 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: In the storage capacity. Is it actually feasible to store 568 00:27:21,039 --> 00:27:22,000 vast amounts of data. 569 00:27:22,319 --> 00:27:25,920 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it blows conventional methods out of the water. 570 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,160 Scientists recently managed to encode the entire human genome. That's 571 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,559 a massive amount of complex data onto a piece of 572 00:27:33,759 --> 00:27:35,680 crystal smaller than a. 573 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,599 Speaker 1: Coin, smaller than a quarter. Wow. Okay, so apply that 574 00:27:38,599 --> 00:27:41,279 potential to the Mitchell Hedges skull. It was what thirty. 575 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,640 Speaker 2: Pounds of quarts, right, a thirty pound block. If you 576 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:47,440 engineered that purely for data storage using techniques we're only 577 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:51,000 just starting to develop. You're talking about storing exabotites of 578 00:27:51,039 --> 00:27:52,039 information exably. 579 00:27:52,839 --> 00:27:54,200 Speaker 1: That sounds like a lot. Can you put that in 580 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:55,039 perspective for us? 581 00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:59,359 Speaker 2: It's almost incomprehensible and exabit Okay, imagine the full text 582 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:03,440 of every single book ever written, every scientific paper, every journal, 583 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,920 every newspaper, every record now at, every photograph ever taken, 584 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:11,519 every video ever recorded, every song, and then maybe even 585 00:28:11,519 --> 00:28:15,160 the words spoken in every single conversation by every human 586 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:15,880 who ever lived. 587 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:18,440 Speaker 1: All that could fit in a skull size crystal. 588 00:28:18,559 --> 00:28:21,440 Speaker 2: Theoretically, Yes, that's the kind of data density we're talking 589 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,359 about with advanced crystal storage. It's mind boggling. 590 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: So the real magic wasn't the fake skull itself. It's 591 00:28:27,759 --> 00:28:32,000 the potential locked inside the actual material science, precisely. 592 00:28:31,759 --> 00:28:35,480 Speaker 2: The potential that we are now starting to unlock, not Martians, 593 00:28:35,759 --> 00:28:37,480 not Atlanteans us. 594 00:28:37,839 --> 00:28:40,119 Speaker 1: So, when you boil it all down, the legend of 595 00:28:40,119 --> 00:28:43,680 the Crystal Skull, even though it's built on forgery and fantasy, 596 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,119 it still serves a purpose, doesn't it Like a powerful metaphor? 597 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,240 Speaker 2: I think so. Yeah. It's a reminder maybe that the 598 00:28:51,279 --> 00:28:55,359 amazing things described in those myths, interstellar travel, tapping into 599 00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:59,079 universal knowledge, maybe even telepathy or anti gravity, we don't 600 00:28:59,119 --> 00:29:01,519 necessarily need to wait for lost secrets from Atlantis or 601 00:29:01,519 --> 00:29:02,480 messages from Mars. 602 00:29:02,599 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 1: We're capable of figuring this stuff out ourselves. 603 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,200 Speaker 2: We are the capacity for that kind of breakthrough, that 604 00:29:07,279 --> 00:29:10,640 kind of reality bending technology. It isn't hidden in some 605 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:13,599 ancient artifact we have to find. It's inherent in human 606 00:29:13,759 --> 00:29:17,519 ingenuity in scientific discovery. We're building that future right now. 607 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:21,160 Speaker 1: So the ultimate power, the kind the legend attributed to 608 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,640 that flawless ancient skull, it's not. 609 00:29:23,559 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 2: Going to come from finding a relic in a jungle. 610 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:28,680 It's going to come from using the machine that's far 611 00:29:28,759 --> 00:29:33,000 more advanced, far more complex, and ultimately far more important. 612 00:29:32,599 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 1: The one we all carry around with. 613 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,079 Speaker 2: Us exactly, the one sitting right on our shoulders. The 614 00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:40,240 power is in us, and our ability to think, to discover, 615 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,720 to build the universe of knowledge is there for the taking, 616 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,720 not when a prophecy says we're worthy, but when we 617 00:29:46,759 --> 00:29:49,759 apply our own minds rigorously enough to understand it. 618 00:29:50,039 --> 00:29:54,519 Speaker 1: The fascinating journey from impossible artifact to human potential. 619 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,880 Speaker 2: Indeed, the truth was hidden in plain sight all along, 620 00:29:58,000 --> 00:29:59,640 just not in the way the legend suggested. 621 00:30:00,079 --> 00:30:02,119 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into 622 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,160 the many layers behind the skull of doom.