The Why Files: Operation Podcast

The night after Christmas, 1980, was the last time Airman First Class John Burroughs would ever lead a normal life.

He was on patrol at an American-operated Woodbridge Air Force base in southern England. Woodbridge and nearby Bentwaters - called the Twin Bases were rumored to possess nuclear materials. This was the middle of the Cold War, and tensions were high.

The threat of nuclear attack, global escalation, and more, sat heavy on the shoulders of Burroughs and his fellow servicemen. But their job was simple: keep themselves, their nation, and their allies safe.

So, Burroughs conducted his nightly rounds, checking the perimeter for anything that threatened the peace.

Suddenly, a bright light descended from the sky. Then another. Burroughs watched as the lights fell into the forest surrounding the base.

When he and his team arrived to inspect the crash site, they were worried it was a Soviet incursion. But, what they found was far more terrifying than anything the Soviets could think of.

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So, tell me... how do you like being a movie star? I can't imagine your life. You can't walk down the street without being mobbed by adoring fans. You attend power-lunches with your agent. You pose for pictures on the red carpet on your way to collect your third Academy Award. Your life sounds fun.

Wait, what? You're not a movie star? That's not your life? Well, maybe not in *this* universe, but there is a universe out there where your life is exactly as I described.

The "Many Worlds" or "Multiple Universes" theory says that anything that can possibly happen *does* happen. It just happens in a different reality that exists parallel to our own.

There's a reality out there somewhere where you're a best-selling author. There's one where you're a Nobel Prize winning scientist who cured cancer.

There's even a reality out there, where you're an evil dictator plotting to take over the world. And you enforce your will with an army of AI robots that you invented when you were a grad student at Stanford.

Yes, some of these alternate realities are more far-fetched than others. But they *are* all out there.

Scientists know how these realities are formed and people are working on technology to detect them.

But even if we *could* detect alternate universes, there's no way to visit them.

Or is there?

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Here’s the scene. You’re driving down a secluded road. The only lights come from your headlights. The only sounds you hear are crickets and the hum of the engine.

Suddenly, a mysterious orb of light appears in the distance, floating a few feet above the ground. You get the sense that the light is aware of your presence. It darts around, beckoning you closer.

It can’t be another car. There’s nothing around for miles.

As you get closer to the light, it vanishes.

Finally, you arrive at a small town and stop at a diner for a bite. You mention your experience to the waitress.

She smiles and says, “You saw a ghost light”. She tells you the story of someone killed on that dark road many years ago. The light has been seen ever since.

Ghost lights, or spook lights, are seen all over the world. In some places, they’re thought to be spirits of the dead. Other places say they’re portals to another dimension. And others say they’re signals from another world.

Whatever they are, ghost lights are real. They’ve stumped scientists, skeptics... even governments for a long time.

They’re seen by thousands of people every year. There are even cases where people have followed a ghost light into the darkness, never to be seen again.

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Your world is an illusion. Your choices are irrelevant. Your friends, your family, and everyone around you are just manifestations of your mind.

You’re a trapped animal in a cage: a virtual reality created more than 250,000 years ago for a single purpose: to use you as food.

Your emotions are food for those who created the cage. Feelings of happiness and joy are digestible. But those emotions are nowhere near as nourishing as sadness, malice, and especially anger. Pain on a small scale is good, but pain due to war, famine, and pandemics? That’s even better.

You’re born, you grow, and you spend the first third of your life learning how to live in a society that barely knows you exist.

Maybe you get married, have kids, maybe even grandkids.

Then, you die - and the pain ends.

But death is just the beginning. Because now, you get to do it all over again.

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For thousands of years, the world has been captivated by the mystery of Atlantis. The concept of an ancient city hidden beneath the ocean is fascinating.

But what if there was not just a city, but an entire continent buried beneath the waves?

The continent of Lemuria is a massive landmass believed to have sunk in the Indian Ocean after some ancient, catastrophic event.

Atlantis and Lemuria are similar in that they’ve sparked numerous theories, legends and interpretations.

But Atlantis and Lemuria are very different in one way. There’s no proof of Atlantis.

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Early in the morning of January 4th 2012, a strange message appeared on the internet. Just a few lines of text on an image, posted anonymously.

Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test.

There is a message hidden in this image.

Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through.

Good luck.

3301

Many speculated that it was a recruiting tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6, or even the Masons.

But who was really behind it, and what was its purpose? Did it even have a purpose?

Whether it did or not, it didn’t matter. Because when you post a puzzle on the internet looking for “highly intelligent people”, that’s a challenge that’s simply *impossible* to resist.

So, the hunt for Cicada 3301 was on.

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In 1901, Nikola Tesla had the most terrifying experience of his life. As he worked alone in his laboratory at night, he felt a presence.

He created a device to see if he could hear, or pick up any signals from whatever it was that he felt. He called it the “spirit radio”, and it worked.

Tesla wasn’t alone.

Throughout history, famous scientists, who helped shape the technology we used today, have spoken of ghosts and hauntings that shook them to their core.

And while you might think these are nothing more than ghost stories, you’re right.

But there is scientific data that supports the existence of ghosts. Data that has been suppressed… until now.

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Cultures around the world have myths that speak of a mysterious underground kingdom that exists deep within the earth, hidden away from the primitive and violent surface-dwellers: which is us.

Picture a society untouched by time, unscathed by war, and unaffected by natural disasters. A culture thriving in the vast open spaces inside the Earth.

Throughout history, many have looked for physical evidence of its existence, tempted by stories of a peaceful but powerful subterranean civilization with advanced technology and ancient knowledge long forgotten by modern man.

This is the story of the underground Kingdom of Agartha and the explorers who’ve said that - not only is it a real place - but they know where it is.

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September 14th, 1994 was a quiet night in Zimbabwe. Then suddenly, boom! An explosion startled people all over the country. Windows rattled. Doors shook.

Shocked and confused, people sheepishly stepped outside to see what happened. Everything looked fine. They went back inside.

But one woman wasn't satisfied. Cynthia Hind drove around the capital city of Harare, searching for the source of the sound but, nothing seemed unusual.

But back at home, Cynthia's phone rang relentlessly. She was a UFO investigator and witness reports were coming in one after another. The news claimed the sound was a sonic boom caused by a meteor shower. But Cynthia wasn't so sure.

Eyewitnesses near Lake Kariba described bizarre lights in the sky earlier that week. Lights in a row that moved erratically: fast then slow. First north to south. Then east to southwest. Meteors don't do that.

Cynthia suspected there was much more to the story. And two days later, she'd find out that she was right.

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Stanley Kubrick is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Of his 13 movies a few are considered classics in their respective genres. Including the black comedy Dr. Strangelove, the highly-quotable anti-war commentary of Full Metal Jacket, and one of the most disturbing and enduring horror films of all time, The Shinning.

But in 1968, Kubrick released "2001 – A Space Odyssey". This is more than a classic. It's a masterpiece. And widely regarded as one of the best science-fiction films of all time, and probably the most influential.

This collaboration with science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke tells the story of an alien intelligence that visited Earth in the distant past, and left behind artifacts in the solar system.

The movie features groundbreaking special effects, which still hold up today.

In fact, the effects looked so good, that the movie gave the American government an idea.

Billions of tax dollars were invested in the space program but the Soviets were still years ahead of the United States.

NASA desperately needed to get to the moon before Russia, but they knew it was impossible. So they turned to one of the world's best filmmakers for help. Because when it came to the moon: if they couldn't make it, they'd fake it.

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