As a teenager back in the 70’s my mind was broadened and enriched by the theories of Erich von Daniken. Skeptical about many of the teachings instilled in me, and even by then distrustful of authority for its own sake, like many I had already rebelled against the “Church of my fathers” and at that time von Daniken provided a fill-in for the gap in my ontology that ensued upon that rejection. He, let me rephrase, “had answers” to the questions I was asking, he could account in some rational way for human existence without using God and without using Biblical history. Not only that, but he also found a way to my heart through his arguments against, and oftentimes ridicule of, “vanilla” science and history. After reading Chariots Of The Gods, I was hooked on the sequels. After three books, I was all but convinced – with those cool photos of ancient relics and all – that human beings were indeed influenced by beings from outer space.
Permit me to continue this personal anecdote more than I normally like, as the thought process involved I am certain is not unique to me alone. Many of us have gone the same route. We were initially taught, and not without justification, that God created the world and watches over us. Then as we age as humans on an increasingly complex Earth we begin to question how this godly omnipresence could be possible, making the mistake in thinking that because we don’t know or see how such possibilities occur that they therefore do not. But as we age more we find that, like our perception of Freon gas (among, well,…others), which is mostly colorless, tasteless, and otherwise undetectable, even though we cannot initially perceive it at all, or really comprehend it perceptually in the least, once “inhaled” its existence we no longer doubt. So we continue to grow and seek answers, learning perhaps the same things, but seeing them more objectively.
In seeking the origin of Man, or any such pursuit for ultimate beginnings, the Truth-seeker, meaning you, must scrutinize even the sources of your own past history and acquired beliefs, and determine whether, or to what extent, you are using these formative crayons to color your present understanding. That is, you must start to become aware of how much you yourself are distorting the objects of your own inner (reflection) and outer (sensation) perception.
Books about possible extra-terrestrial meddling in human affairs were under my arm for many years, part of my UFO-Alien, Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle phase, and such ideas I continue to find terribly interesting, a feeling I am sure is shared by millions more, and which explains the present popularity of books, movies, and TV shows dedicated to elucidating and elaborating on this theory.
The primary thesis, evident and persistent in the works of both Sitchin and von Daniken, is that thousands of years ago Earth was visited by “astronauts” from other planets, celestial beings who brought us otherwise pitiful people of the Earth religion and technology. On his current website von Daniken says:
Extraterrestrials visited our Earth many millennia ago. They behaved similar to how current ethnologists behave today. They studied a few languages, visited different tribes, gave suggestions and disappeared … with the promise to return in the distant future. Our Stone Age ancestors could not grasp what happened back then. They wrongfully believed that the extraterrestrials were gods. The supposed [gods]then wandered into our mythology and became the founders of many religions.
This supposition is in fact shared by Sitchin, whom I did not discover until much later, but because of the similarity in their general theories we will discuss both of them together in this chapter.
I think it fair to say von Daniken and Sitchin have spawned a whole new generation of like-minded Truth seekers. Alan Alford and many other contemporary modern researchers of various merit like George Soukalos, Graham Hancock (who has actually argued against ancient astronaut theory, but whose work rather confirms much of it…) and Michael Cremo, have followed a similar path to discovery, and have presented archaeological and textual evidence in support of a general alien influence thesis – some of it, probably needless to say (but, what the heck), more convincing than others. All of these men present theses that are very like a combination of the works of von Daniken and Sitchin and the other men we will encounter very soon.
Archaeological discoveries that display remarkable feats of engineering and advance, perhaps even clear evidence of something like electrical power, are being uncovered at a rapid pace, and serve to show a supposedly primitive humanity with tremendous mechanical abilities. Added to the now famous pyramids and temples and dug up whole cities we already know about, altogether there exists lots of evidence in support of our ancestors being somehow aided in their advance. From stones and tombs of exceptional workmanship either too large to move or, or too big to get to where they are, to perfectly cut right angles and rock carvings, to whole homes and rooms cut into even the hardest granite and underground tunnels that can go a quarter mile deep and miles long, not to mention astrological and mathematical knowledge, evidence of boring by drills and cuttings by saws, new pyramids being found all over the world, underwater statues and cities, and on and on, if our ancestors were not aided from elsewhere, they were, by all evidence a lot more knowledgeable than we are today.
I am slightly surprised there are not more women doing this type of work. Perhaps it is to come. Nevertheless, this new breed of renegade, or pioneering historians (as you are so inclined…), especially regarding work conducive to ancient alien theory, is tremendously popular these days, it is selling lots of books and getting lots of media play. Most of its kind are laymen when it comes to these studies, and most of them had or have other jobs, more like von Daniken and less like Sitchin.
There are many others like them of better or worse mind most of whom I will not mention but want to acknowledge…you know who you are. From the brilliant minds of Nick Pope and Jonathan Young, to the fanatical unsubstantiated drivel peddled by Linda Howe, the Davids – Wilcock and Childress – and the Georges – Tsarion and Noory – as well as the myriad of similar but much even lesser and even more careless thinkers of self-published books and independently produced YouTube videos, all of them will have to be left out for now. While we ought always be looking for evidence, nor have anything against indy theories, we shouldn’t have to strain, and so have to spend a week’s worth of work to find a 3 day wage nugget of gold. Or less obviously, we don’t want to fall for fool’s gold, imitation prostheses for value that has already been discovered and so redeemed. Should new digging reveal substantial nuggets, meaning new evidence, you and I, I am sure, will be the first grab our shovels.
As to who the “pioneer” is, or the first to come up with the Ancient Aliens idea, it is not so important, but pushed we could say that in modern times it must be either von Daniken or Sitchin, and since Sitchin was considered by the standing academia as one of the world’s foremost experts in reading cuneiform, and did lifelong research involving the elucidation and interpretation of ancient art and myths, he is usually given the title of originator, some even going so far as to argue that von Daniken actually stole the ideas of Sitchin.
Sitchin and von Daniken, and so two of the best if not the best “gods are aliens” theorists we know, nevertheless have alike faced scathing criticism that continues to this day. The charges levied against them have ranged from scientific ignorance to shoddy scholarship and the manipulation of evidence, but mostly they have been “debunked” time and again because either 1) their work is seen as insulting, in that it challenges the ingrained belief system of their critics – which, as we have discussed, is like disproving their religion – or 2) because their work is seen as dangerous in that it also threatens many scientific livelihoods. The “commentators” have been critical, and continue to complain today, mostly because if the ancient astronaut theory is ever found to be true, then a huge chunk of the accepted history, and many scientific assumptions, would be shown as little more than hundreds of years of nonsense.
The resentment generated by Sitchin as well as von Daniken is not difficult to see, and what happens when faith gets questioned we have already discussed at some length. Those who work in these disciplines and those who have set the standard history and postulates, as well as those who were taught and believe the standard explanations for human origins, would then be wrong, and much, some would say too much, has been invested to prevent that from happening. Science wants to build on what it has, as is found in jurisprudence and law, when it is sudden revolutions that really set its directions. Should Ancient Alien theories turn out to be true, orthodox believers in the theories such as Evolution and Big Bang would then not only be laughing stocks with a shattered worldview but, important to mention again, many of them would would also be out of a job. It’s no doubt the criticism is overkill.
Erich von Daniken
Erich von Daniken has spent the majority of his life interpreting art and artifacts of ancient origin, as has Sitchin. In these ancient carvings, etchings, and fragments, both see, rather than anthropomorphic gods and figurative tales of human origin, instead the chronology of actual interventions of “aliens” from stars far, far away, or in Sitchin’s case of Nibiru, lifeforms from extremely long-orbited planets in our very own solar system.
As the von Daniken tale goes, and he has put much travel, energy, and first-hand investigation into trying to prove it, extraterrestrial life forms came to Earth some time in the past and instructed human beings about those things which make a civilization: pottery, language, agriculture, technology, science – all these things, according to von Daniken (EvD), were acquired by Earth people from aliens. Otherwise a mostly ignorant species, primitive men and women of Earth saw the advances of the aliens as magical, and so consequently saw these invaders as Gods, rulers because of superiority alone, coming down from the heavens. In tribute to them the early cultures of the Earth have left behind statues, carvings, and writings of praise for “gods” who were, according to von Daniken, really only members of a more technologically advanced society from another planet.
Like most “ancient astronaut” theory the whole scheme requires proofs, and visual proofs are von Daniken’s specialty. He still feels that people will only believe what they can see, and so he continues to cull from old artifacts interpretations suitable to advancing the extraterrestrial influence theory, and by which natural skeptics might use their own eyes to view ancient examples of alien beings, special machines, and anachronistic advanced technology like aircraft and submarines. So adamant and determined has von Daniken been about presenting these visual proofs that he once went overboard and promoted as “evidence” for his theory some remarkable images later proved to be phony, and in fact several of his “proofs” have been proven…to have been fabricated. When confronted with these accusations, von Daniken does not deny them, and like Madame Blavatsky, who was known to fake a seance now and then to keep the till ringing, von Daniken more or less admits he concocts the evidences, to make people believe.
Ancient Aircraft…or Mythical Beasts?
This staging of evidence is not unique to so-called “fringe” theories, as we have seen in prior posts that even “respectable” science, especially in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and astronomy, have also been “busted” on several important occasions. What I want you to pay attention to is the the way the artifact is interpreted, and think about what it is said to be compared to what else it could have been. The half full or half empty glass decision will become necessary, as for many of the examples what they are will depend on how you look at them.
It is, I want to make a point of saying, offensive to hear his ideas downgraded simply because they come from a layman, or because they are different. But really, exposing hoaxed or staged evidence is not necessary to dispute the value of von Daniken’s theories. So much is hazy in EvD’s claims, so many of his interpretations of ancient relics arguable, that many (I do not say all…) of his proofs that rely on even these “hard” evidences can be effectively disputed, or shown to be – known to EvD or not – frauds or hoaxes.
For our purposes here, ancient astronaut theories, even if true, would only help us advance our search for Man’s origin so far. Actually, the idea of people similar to us coming to Earth in ancient times and civilizing us poor humans only begs our question. It would only take us one step closer to our goal because then the question becomes Where did those “really first” humans come from, all those beings allegedly so advanced from us? For our concerns, the reality of beings from elsewhere than Earth would hardly help us at all.
The key note to remember is that the ancient astronaut theory receives little support from science, the very same science that is quick to talk, straight-faced, about all the “possible worlds” like our own. The problem is that while the Carl Sagans and Stephen Hawkings of the astronomy world ooze with such “we are not alone” possibilities, evolutionary theorists would, given such a reality, find their hocus-pocus even further down into the junk pile of scientific baloney. It would be a death blow to Darwinism…and opportunists like the Leakey Foundation. It is borderline hilarious how “normal” science demands proofs, but then loads us with “possibilities” and “could bes” and “maybes” for which there is absolutely no proof at all. von Daniken, shenanigans included, is merely playing the “science game”.
But alas, while I think that the death blows for both Evolution and the Big Bang have been a long time coming, they cannot come from theories like von Daniken’s alone. His thesis is interesting, and remains a real possibility, but the evidence he provides is not quite good enough.
Zecharia Sitchin
In my opinion a more complete theory along the same lines, backed up by more evidence, scholarship, expertise, and intriguing possibility – but which still fails on much the same grounds – is the ancient astronaut theory of Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin, as I have said already, while alive was considered one of a dozen or so people on the planet able to accurately decipher cuneiform. Lately his competence in even these regards has come under fire by those in the same field perhaps not as successful at selling books as Sitchin, see for example the “Sitchin is wrong” website. While I think he may have taken liberties and jumped to some conclusions, his scholarship was honest and his proofs not as marginal or fabricated as some others, like von Daniken, who believe a similar theory. The pictures, carvings, inscriptions, and artifacts he uses are not doctored or fabricated, they are real existing ancient relics anyone can see. While what you look at might not be what Sitchin saw, he nevertheless leaves it to you – as, in fairness, we must say does von Daniken – to draw your own conclusions.
Anunnaki, or Sumerian King?
I enjoyed reading most of the Sitchin books, and while I admire some of the chances he took, especially considering the monkey see-monkey do state of normal science, and while I can understand how several of the antiquities can be interpreted as he suggests, and concur that ancient texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh are very important to human history, I cannot agree, actually find no reason to agree, with his greater thesis that is his “story” of how Man came to be on Earth.
As his story goes, the planet Nibiru, yet to be evidenced, is unknown to us today because it has a huge orbit, one which carries it, at its furthest distance from the sun, a whole solar system’s width beyond even the furthest distance of Pluto, an orbit that takes thousands of Earth years to complete. Its inhabitants, the Anunnaki, Sitchin says, used gold extensively, and Earth provided these people of Nibiru a handy place to mine the same gold their planet, also known as Planet X, had used up. On passing the Earth during one 3000+ year orbit, Nibiru brought some workers here to mine our Earthly gold. After some time the Nibiru workers grew tired of doing this slave-like labor, and so a new plan was called for. It is this tale, and the ensuing events related time and again by Sitchin (like von Daniken, his books often contain repetitive information) that differentiates his own ancient astronaut idea from that of von Daniken.
Alleged Orbit Of Nibiru
How to get the work done now became a problem, since no Nibiru workers wanted to do the hard labor. Sitchin here calls upon the Gilgamesh tale, and some Egyptian, Assyrian, and other Mesopotamian records, and even the Biblical “Man made from the clay of the Earth” tale, to prove his thesis. As it goes, some scientist(s) from Nibiru, female, found a way to merge their advanced DNA with that of the “highest”, or most intelligent, Earth creature at the time. Near Man, Neanderthal Man, it is not entirely made clear by Sitchin which upright creature these Planet X-ers evolved. Anyway, these female scientists supposedly incubated these hybrid creatures within themselves until they were born, and they got what they had hoped…enough advancement so that these (again) pitiful Earth creatures could reason enough to follow simple instructions, you know, such as “dig here”.
But these extraterrestrials, it turns out, got more than they bargained for. Not only had these prior ignorant animals developed, through this genetic impetus, an elementary reason, they had, unbeknownst to the Anunnaki, inherited enough advanced traits, through the DNA manipulation, to actually come to rebel against their creators. Laziness, greed, intelligence – all these undesirable things developed in the “new” species, a Man now a combination of animal and advanced life form. Gilgamesh himself, for example, a supposedly once-living product of this experimentation so-called, said to be three-quarters god, lamented his condition as a “half-breed”, a being not immortal like a large part of his immortal parentage.
Again, though, we have an answer the question as to how this new Man came to know metallurgy, agriculture, architecture, medicine, and so on. By a combination of forcibly instilled genetics and the natural development of these genes in the Earth people, civilized Man came to be. Here from Sitchin, as from von Daniken, we get answers as to how Man might have come to know civilization, but as far as an answer as to where Man himself came from, again we beg the question.
The theories of Sitchin and von Daniken are interesting but likely also in the main incorrect and rely on too many cursory interpretations of existing materials, most of which have already been interpreted quite differently. Let me be clear that this is not to say that the earlier readings are more correct, as the renditions offered by Sitchin and von Daniken may be just as correct as those of their predecessors. But it is one thing to notice and expose problems in prior theorizing, another to offer new explanations, and still a whole other to offer a complete worldview based loosely on the new interpretations. In sum, my analysis is that both Sitchin and von Daniken did good work in exposing prior mistakes and omissions in the deciphering of ancient texts and artifacts. Their offerings have much to contribute and should not be discarded out of hand. However, when it comes to the explanations they offer as to the origin of Man, I think they both go much further than the brunt of their research allows. They jump to too many conclusions. They are useful for us as examples of ideas about human origins that do not rely on either popular science [sic] or established religion, but their conclusions, unfortunately, must be taken with as little a grain of salt as we have come to expect from conventional scientific theory.
Here some more provocative images. Next up, Velikovsky gets a section to himself.
Revised 1-2019
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