It's to the best of our knowledge. Could animals have a sense of the sacred?

Jane Goodall has seen chimpanzees in the wild sit quietly, for a long time staring at a waterfall.

You can't help feeling that it must be awe or wonder.

Well, it makes you wonder if our ancestors had similar experiences.

I would bet they did.

So if chimpanzees awe and wonder led to early religion, just how common are these experiences?

Could anyone have them?

Some people, Enlightenment, just hits no matter what they're doing, just driving their car down the street, and suddenly an experience happens to them.

I think that's called Bliss Happens.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm Anne Strange Champs.

This hour, science, chimps, and the deep roots of religious belief.

Plus, what it means for you and me.

Music what it means for you and me. It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anstrain Champs.

Have you ever had an experience you just could not explain?

We were doing field research to basically collect everything we could about the chimpanzee community there.

Wildlife biologist Laura Kiho, this was in Guinea, West Africa.

We were sort of just trundling through the bush, and we stopped at a clearing.

And this guide, Mamadu Alibah, incredibly talented guy, He had found some markings on a tree.

Other local people thought that these were probably just wild pigs or teenagers or something else.

But Mamadu was sure that there was something more to it.

So we put up a camera there for a few weeks to catch what it can and we essentially moved on.

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