The Ancient Alien Question (6 page)

In an issue of
Messenger of Knowledge
(Moscow, 1930, Nos. 5–6), Rynin and Tsiolkovsky spoke out in defense of aliens visiting Earth, with Rynin writing, “The statement that inhabitants of other worlds have not visited our planet is indeed corroborated by the accepted history of all countries. However, if we turn to the tales and legends of hoary antiquity we shall notice a strange concurrence in the legends of lands separated by oceans and deserts. This concurrence is contained in the fact that many legends speak of the visitation of earth by the inhabitants of other worlds in time immemorial. Why not admit that a grain of truth lies at the bottom of these legends?”

Fully 35 years later, the status quo of the scientific community on the Ancient Alien Question remained, which is why von Däniken posed it to a Western audience. Though he was, and is, by far the most popular author in the field, he was neither the first nor the only one to pose this question to a Western audience. Italian journalist and writer Peter Kolosimo received the Premio Bancarella, one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes, for
Non è Terrestre
(
Not of This World
). Published in 1968, it was Kolosimo’s fourth book exploring the mysteries of our planet, the first being
Il Pianeta Sconosciuto
(
The Unknown Planet
), published in 1959.

As mentioned, Carl Sagan, with the help of I.S. Shklovski, devoted a chapter of
Intelligent Life in the Universe
(1966) to arguments that scientists and historians should seriously consider the possibility that extraterrestrial contact occurred during recorded history. They concluded that:

Interstellar travel on par with the rocket technology of the 1960s was within the bailiwick of other extraterrestrial intelligences, and, as a consequence, extraterrestrial visitations to planet Earth should not be ruled out—in fact, they were plausible.

Legends should be seen as reliable sources, and some legends could indeed describe alien encounters.

In
Broca
’
s Brain
(1979), Sagan nevertheless expressed disapproval of von Däniken, arguing that they had seemingly built on his ideas, not as though they were guarded speculations, but as valid evidence of extraterrestrial contact. It seems Sagan did not see the more than 230 question marks in von Däniken’s book.

Sagan posed the Ancient Alien Question after being exposed to reports of hundreds of UFO sightings. One writer, Harold T. Wilkins, combed through ancient literature and legends to find evidence that our ancestors too had seen anomalous objects in the sky. He published on the subject in 1954, with
Flying Saucers on the Moon
. Meanwhile, another British writer, W. Raymond
Drake, went through the same material, scanning it for evidence of ancient aliens. In 1964, Drake published
Gods or Spacemen?
, the title alone clearly showing that the book posed the Ancient Alien Question. Drake said, “I aspired to collect as many facts as possible from ancient literature to chronicle for the past what Charles Fort has so brilliantly done for the present century. I spent many years reading the classics and ancient histories in many languages, and in 1964 published
Gods or Spacemen?
, the first of nine books, wherein I detailed my researches covering most countries of the world, proving, to my own satisfaction at least, that the gods of antiquity were spacemen, who landed and ruled our Earth in a Golden Age, bringing civilization to mankind.”
²

Fully aware of the religious implications of his writings, he felt the need to ascribe to the word
God
at least two meanings: One was for that Supreme Being, the other for the “Space Beings.” He also expressed the hope that “this startling conception could prove the fundamental discovery of our century.” Almost four decades later, in the teenage years of the 21st century, we know this hope did not materialize.

Before Sagan became a household name, von Däniken featured in a number of popular television programs and series.
In Search of Ancient Astronauts
aired in the United States in 1970, and the German television station SAT-1 ran a 25-part television series with von Däniken in 1993. In 2009, the American production company Prometheus convinced The History Channel to commission
Ancient Aliens
, a two-hour special devoted to the Ancient Alien Question. The show has since become a worldwide phenomenon, proving that posing the Question is part of our Zeitgeist. Clearly, among the general public, the Ancient Alien Question
lives
. So what is the reaction of the scientific community? It can best be summarized by quoting from a blog by Monty Dobson, dated January 21, 2011, titled “History Undoctored”:

The recent trend of presenting pseudoscience as a subject worthy of serious consideration is dangerous to our educational system. As a history professor I am confronted each semester by students who believe the fantasy presented by shows such as The History Channel’s
Ancient Aliens
, which perpetuates the notion that extraterrestrials with superior knowledge of science landed on Earth thousands of years ago, sharing their expertise.

This is concerning because the argument is predicated on the insulting premise that people in the past were less intelligent, creative and inventive than we are today. There is an underlying tone of cultural superiority, which implies that ‘ancients,’ who were likely brown, were incapable of independently developing the sophisticated technology and culture we
know
they had without help [emphasis added].

The show’s premise represents a sanitized version of the previous century’s colonial and often racist attitudes.

Dobson is typical of the modern scientist, who accuses anyone posing the Ancient Alien Question of being racist. Mudslinging is after all so much easier than a scientific debate. Isn’t it ironic that he does not realize that his own belief, namely that he “knows” our ancestors did not receive help, is based on the assumption that science has “superiority” over the “pseudoscience,” which is apparently “dangerous to our educational system”? I sincerely hope that the Ancient Alien Question
is
dangerous to the educational system, as well as science. It will be for as long as science ridicules the subject and negates the evidence that suggests that the answer to the Ancient Alien Question is
yes
—We Were Not Alone.

Posing the Ancient Alien Question is not racist, for it was the “people in the past” themselves who specifically said, in their writings, that the path of civilization was not built by them alone, but with the help of gods who contacted them. Civilization, in whichever culture you turn, is seen as a gift of the gods. This is precisely why scientists like Sagan became interested in the Ancient Alien Question. Or, to quote Sagan, “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.”
³
The Ancient Alien Question is a small question for man, but a big question for humankind.

Chapter 2
Ancient Alien Theories

Alien Overlords

Some people believe that the Ancient Alien Question has
an easy and straightforward answer: Yes. They were here.

One such person is David Icke. He was a BBC television sports presenter until, in 1990, a psychic told him that he was a healer, placed on Earth with a mission. On April 29, 1991, he appeared on the popular BBC talk show hosted by Terry Wogan,
Wogan
, and proclaimed he was the son of God. He announced to the British nation that evil had been in control of this planet for the past 12,000 years. He would later add that this evil force was reptilian and that underneath the British Queen Elizabeth II was a reptile in hiding (which we could apparently take quite literally, as per the television series
V
, in which alien beings basically had a human mask, which, if torn, would reveal their scaly reptilian hide). Ever since, Icke has traveled across the world, proclaiming that humankind is enslaved by alien overlords. In recent years most of his presentations and theories have focused on conspiracy theories, including those surrounding the events of 9/11.

Icke is typical of those arguing that the answer to the Ancient Alien Question is almost self-evident: From well- or less-known facts, they create a logical whole, in which some of the holes are either obscured or made evident by pointing out that we are, after all, confronted by a vast conspiracy, and that parts of the evidence by default are hidden from us.

For instance, it is a fact that the 400 richest people in America have as much money as the poorest 150 million Americans. Some of this money is “old money,” and some of it is new. But for Icke, there is far more to it. He argues that there is a network of families who are today in control of the world, and have always been so. They were the elite installed by our alien overlords, and for more than 6,000 years they have ruled planet Earth. This “bloodline” can be traced from Sumer, via Rome, to the European aristocracy. From there, the bloodline was exported across the world through Colonialism and became the core movers of several secret societies. When these colonies attained independence, according to Icke, this was merely on the surface, as the family bloodlines and secret societies kept control over both Europe and its former colonies—or, in short, the entire world.

Icke therefore believes that events like the attacks of 9/11 have been manipulated, if not staged, to centralize power “to the point where humans are little more than controlled clowns,” and throughout his series of books and presentations he compares humans to robots and asks them to rebel and break free from their enslaving, alien-appointed overlords.
¹

As extreme as Icke’s conspiracy theory—for he believes everything is intertwined, so there is really only
one
conspiracy—sounds,
he is neither the first nor the last to air such theories. Indeed, what Icke believes is what a lot of people believe is the truth about the “ancient alien agenda”: In the past, an extraterrestrial race came to this planet and colonized it. At some point, these aliens either left or otherwise removed themselves from the stage, and human manipulators and/or the aliens behind the stage have continued to control humankind, very much like a zoo. That first zoo, it seems, was called the Garden of Eden.

The Gods of Eden

Is there a hidden hand manipulating world events, trying to set humankind against itself, promoting war whenever it can? Author William Bramley felt this was indeed the case, and reported on his findings in his 1989 book
The Gods of Eden
, which is basically about our alleged ancient alien overlords.

The book was advertised as “the chilling truth about extraterrestrial infiltration—and the conspiracy to keep humankind in chains.” Bramley reached this conclusion a few years before David Icke. Though their theories are in essence identical—that an unseen hand was making sure we were fighting ourselves all the time, rather than “spiritually set ourselves free”—Icke opted for sensationalist gimmicks, while Bramley adopted a more phlegmatic approach. He wanted to address the greatest paradox of all: Why do religions preach forgiveness, kindness, and peace, but are at the same time one of the principle contributors to war, division, persecution, and oppression? Something was amiss in Eden, and for Bramley, it was the gods who were saying one thing but doing the opposite.

Bramley’s thesis thus comes in two parts: First, the conspiracy to keep humankind enslaved. How? By continuously having us fight each other and making sure we are constantly either living in fear and/or slaves to something (in our time, mainly monetary debt). His analysis of the international financial world revealed that no one truly knew who pulled the strings and what the real foundation of worldwide economic policy truly was. It involved a number of “National Banks” that were in essence privately owned, which seemed to charge the various countries interest, which resulted in those countries imposing taxes and regulations on its citizens. For what and for whose benefit was never asked, for if asked, the answer would set the whole of humankind free from what was in essence a game devised by a handful of individuals, behind closed doors, somewhere, at some point in time. “Divide and Conquer” was Caesar’s dictum; Bramley saw this as the operating principle across time and across the globe.