The opening scene in the 2012 science fiction horror film Prometheus displays a visually elegant portrayal of a humanoid alien who generates a biogentic reaction with his DNA. With this reaction, life on earth begins. Director Ridley Scott’s said his film was, in part, influenced by Erich von Däniken’s 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods?
Däniken’s book proposes that ancient cultures–technologies and religions—such as those that existed in the Sumerian (3200BC) and Mesoamerica (600BCE) civilizations were influenced by ancient astronauts—extraterrestrials who were welcomed by mankind as gods.
Däniken Background
Erich von Däniken, the world’s most successful non-fiction writer of all time, has written 55 books and e-media on the topic (of ancient astronauts) and has sold over 65 million copies worldwide. His books have been translated into 32 languages.
In his book, Däniken cites the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the Moai of Easter Island as unexplainable phenomenon on Earth unless Ancient Astronaut influences are factored in. Further examples include a medieval map known as the Piri Reis Map—allegedly showing the Earth as it is seen from space—and the Nazca lines in Peru. He believed these were airfield landing strips.
Moai are monolithic statues carved between 1250 and 1500 CE. They stand on the Chilean Polynesian island know as Easter Island. The creation and transportation of the 887 statues leave ancient astronaut theorists with the question: How were the Rapa Nui people able to do this?
As with any good theory that goes against accepted beliefs, and just like Zechara Stitchin, Däniken’s Ancient Astronaut Theory is challenged at very turn, and is, of course, controversial. Especially, his Ancient Astronaut Theory and its connection to the Bible.
Däniken explains it in this way on his website.
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 sometime—however, 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.
He defends his theory by saying: “We live in a world of religious and, unfortunately, often scientific humbugs.”
The Bible and Ancient Astronauts
The Book of Genesis, Chapter 6 verses 1–4, says:
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Who were these sons of God?
Genesis 1:26—
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness
Who is our in the above verse?
Chapter 1 in The Book of Ezekiel reads:
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
Sounds alien-like.
In Chariots of the Gods?, Erich von Däniken suggests that Ezekiel had seen a spaceship or spaceships.
Conspiracy? and Other Ancient Astronaut Theorists
And Däniken was not the first to explore such possible connections between The Book of Ezekiel and extraterrestrials. Morris Ketchum Jessup, an astronomer and ufologist with a Masters in Science, was referred to as “probably the most original extraterrestrial hypothesiser of the 1950s.” He wrote several books connecting references in the Bible to Ancient Astronauts.
Though his death was ruled a suicide, it left some ufologists questioning the suddenness of his passing and asking if perhaps a conspiracy was involved. The day before he was found dead in his car filled with toxic exhaust fumes, he had arranged a meeting with oceanographer and close friend Dr. Mason Valentine to discuss his findings on the Philadelphia Experiment.
Dr. Valentine said that Jessup was well-informed on the Philadelphia Experiment and offered the following information.
According to Jessup the purpose {of the Philadelphia Experiment} was to be accomplished by means of magnetic generators (degaussers). Both pulsating and non-pulsating generators were operated to create a tremendous magnetic field on and around a docked vessel. The results were as astonishing as they were important, although with unfortunate aftereffects on the crew. When the experiment first began to take effect a hazy green light became evident… Soon the whole ship was full of this green haze and the craft, together with its personnel, began disappearing from sight of those on the dock until only its water line was visible. The destroyer was subsequently reported to have appeared and disappeared at Norfolk, Virginia, which may have been the result of a trial invisibility run, involving a related time-warp phenomenon.”
“The Navy had requested him to be a consultant on yet another experiment but that he had refused. He was convinced that the Navy, in seeking to create a magnetic cloud for camouflage purposes in October 1943, had uncovered a potential that could temporarily, and if strong enough perhaps permanently, rearrange the molecular structure of people and materials so that they would pass into another dimension with further implications of predictable and as yet uncontrolled teleportation.” (“Without A Trace” by Charles Berlitz, Pg 164-165, 170)
Even though there were unusual circumstances surrounding Jessup’s death, no autopsy was performed.
Other Ancient Astronaut Theorists include writer Arthur W. Orton, who published Proof of Ezekiel’s ETs—Extreme UFOs of the Bible in 1961.
Most interesting is Josef F. Blumrich who wrote his 1974 book, The Spaceships of Ezekiel, while chief of NASA’s systems layout branch at Marshall Space Flight Center. Originally, he set out to disprove Däniken’s Ancient Astronaut theory but after studying The Book of Ezekiel, Blumrich was convinced Ezekiel had indeed seen a spaceship.
Blumrich reproduced the wheel Ezekiel described—a wheel capable of rotating not only in the forward-backward direction, but also sideways—and patented his design. It became known as the Omni Wheel and is used to today holonomic (robotic) drive systems.
Speaking of Humbugs
I polled my google+ Science Fiction community and said:
The Ancient Astronaut Theory still influences media today.
Results:
26% YES
31% NO
42% IT’S A POSSIBILITY
Hummmm, why belong to a Science Fiction community if you don’t believe the impossible is maybe possible, or at least be open-minded enough to consider the possibilities?
The Probe’s Mission Statement
The Probe is a blog devoted to the exploration of the unexplainable, to finding the truth in occurrences that resemble science fiction, and to researching and reporting on topics that could be flung upon the wall of weird. New posts are featured as often as I can find WiFi, and as often as I have something I think you might find interesting.
I find this highly intriguing since The Creep Mesquite Anthology, composed of four science fiction novellas by me, centers around the involvement of extraterrestrials—space gypsies—into human lives past, present, and future. Before writing the novellas, I was a newbie to the Ancient Astronaut Theory, and even as I wrote the works I was guided, so to speak, to find answers as to why things are the way they are. Like why sometimes you meet a stranger and feel an immediate, unexplainable connection. Or why Mesoamerican cultures worshipped a feathered serpent god known as Quetzalcoatl.
I live in an isolated, rural community in southern Colorado—conservative and rather closed minded. Though I love the area, it’s not a great fit for someone who believes in space travelers, thinks she is host to a Walk-In, and talks to her newly departed grandson. The few friends I have are not fans of science fiction. They prefer romance novels or reality TV. I would enjoy talking to other science fiction lovers, or ghost hunters, or animal lovers, or writers.
Join me here for more close encounters of the alien kind, or ghost kind, or animal kind, or travel kind, and please share your own. Science Fiction or Fact? Doesn’t matter to me. I just like a story that gives me the chills, makes me laugh, makes me think, or makes me imagine.
Sign up to get my weekly, slightly irregular blog posts delivered directly to your email. We are becoming popular. And thank you everyone for supporting me through all my learning of how to do a blog. If you haven’t signed up, better hurry. They’re going fast.
- The Ghost Ship of the Carquinez Strait Urban Legend - August 15, 2024
- Benicia Arsenal Urban Legend - July 18, 2024
- The Crying Boy Painting Urban Legend - June 19, 2024
2 replies on “Unfolding The Ancient Astronaut Theory”
Thank you for this post!
It was “Chariots of the Gods” that, way back in the early ’70s, first caused me to follow Van Daniken’s line of thinking. Since I had by then already come to the point where I do not believe anything just because “the church” says so, and since the Bible has always been my main study, it was easy for me to see the connection, between the Bible and UFO’s, as Van Daniken stated it.
What bothers me a lot is that so many highly educated theologians will not do their own thinking. They think that what they learned in seminary is the only way to interpret anything. Why not at least look at the evidence that is clearly visible?
Hi Ike, thank you for stopping by and commenting. I always enjoy the insightful thoughts you share. And I so agree. Highly educated, but still they appear to take their beliefs from the dark ages. Why not keep an open mind to possibilities?