Is It Time to Stop Ridiculing Ancient Aliens?

Avoiding the reality of the extraterrestrial phenomenon is becoming impossible for the mainstream narrative. It's time to embrace curiosity again.

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If we ever get full disclosure one would have to thank Erich Von Daniken, author of Chariots of the Gods, and the show it spawned on the History Channel. His introduction to this material was the first inkling for many people, although I was intrigued by the possibilities after reading Secrets of the Great Pyramid, by Peter Tompkins.

I was very taken with von Daniken’s book when it came out in 1968, even though he was mocked as a pseudoscientist and had a prior reputation as something of a con man; it seemed clear to me that there were many mysteries on this planet that mainstream science and archeology were getting wrong.

Here is the AI summary of the main points made by Erich von Daniken:

The book put forth the controversial hypothesis that ancient civilizations like the Egyptians, Aztecs, and Incas received help from advanced extraterrestrial beings in building pyramids, monuments, and other ancient structures.

Some of the main pieces of "evidence" presented in the book include:

• Interpretations of ancient religious texts, myths, and artifacts as depicting ancient astronaut visitors. For example, von Däniken claimed the biblical Ezekiel's vision of a flying chariot was a UFO sighting.

• Questions about how ancient civilizations could have constructed massive monuments with primitive technology suggest they had assistance from more advanced beings.

• Observations of similarities between art, artifacts, and architecture in ancient cultures separated by geography, such as pyramid structures in Egypt and Central America. He argued this shows a shared influence.

• Analyses of ancient artifacts that appear to resemble modern aircraft, spacesuits, and technology, which von Däniken claimed represents their extraterrestrial origins.

• Arguments that extraterrestrials may have genetically engineered humans through interbreeding, are evidenced by mythological accounts of gods intermingling with humans.

Though popular, most scholars rejected the book's conclusions as pseudoscientific and speculative. But it brought the concept of "ancient astronauts" into mainstream culture.

A Great Deal More Has Come Out Since Von Daniken’s Book

Many of these concepts – or “proofs” as the AI put it in quotation marks – have been augmented by the series Ancient Aliens on the History Channel, hosted by Giorgio Tsoukalos, a von Daniken protégé, and a team of “ancient alien theorists” for about a decade.

While some of the show’s “theories” take off liberally from what is shown and are far-fetched – using simulations made by computer graphics to illustrate ideas which are sometimes tenuous – the show takes the viewer to many of the actual locations mentioned in the original book – and more. At these amazing sites, it is hard to argue with the reality of what is witnessed.

How does one explain Nan Madol a city of gigantic stone blocks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Ancient Aliens crew went there and just viewing the video footage was extraordinary and mind opening.

Nan Madol

A great example is the giant block at Baalbek featured in the work of Graham Hancock, an Ancient Aliens contributor and author of books similar to von Daniken’s work but also more carefully researched.

I mean seriously – explain this picture. 

The television show has shown other similar monoliths that engineers say, shaking their heads, it would have taken modern day heavy equipment to mine or move, and even our strongest construction tools would not be able to have created much of what is shown from around the planet.

Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from Magic – Arthur C. Clarke

Of course, Ancient Aliens also covered the similarities of the pyramids in Giza, Mexico and Central America, highlighting how all of these structures are also related to creation “myths” of star visitors who brought wisdom to humanity – reminiscent of the Greek Prometheus myth.

Viewing the art and petroglyphs shown by the program from around the world one is struck by the similarities in symbols and motifs from all over the world – as though we weren’t the first ones traveling in the air…

What makes eminent sense to me, however, besides the confluence of myths and the incredible precision of these megalithic monuments, is the idea that the “myths” which often are called symbolic and “primitive” represent the people of the time attempt to describe misunderstood technology.

Especially when one considers the incredible scientific advancement made since the original book was published, we are now much more in a position to understand possibilities like genetic modification, quantum computation and artificial intelligence, any one of which would have appeared as magic to our ancestors if they witnessed something so advanced.

“What If It Were True?” – Ancient Astronaut “Theorists”

And imagine today if in our “reality,” a holographic image turned out to be transdimensional and appeared – discharged passengers – and then disappeared. The Brookings memo which was used by the government to justify secrecy suggested that with such an event, civilization would break down because so many religious beliefs would be instantly brought into question.

Another way of saying that is that our consciousness would be instantly transformed into requiring the acceptance of a far greater and more immense sense of what is real than we had had before.

There are now a host of competitors to Ancient Aliens, some of the same History channel and it seems there is no shortage of unexplained mysteries.

This is particularly true with the recent “rebranding” of UFOs as UAPs by the government in an apparent effort to suggest that they are on top of the situation – and being transparent.

The Lid May Be Coming Off

I find it laughable that NASA added to this theatre by announcing its own “investigation” into the phenomena – NASA which has been to the moon, had cameras in outer space everywhere and muted the transmission from the Moon mission when the astronauts apparently saw an “anomaly.”

We have now seen high government officials from Israel and Canada claim that we are in communication with “aliens” – even that they are in a Federation of sorts. But who is communicating and why are they telling us that they are just beginning another investigation?

My guess is that the truth is very bad news for many “human” governments that must keep their people convinced that they are “in control” here on planet Earth when it is obvious that things are very much out of control.

If and when we get disclosure either from the “authorities” or through some seminal event we can thank open minded narratives like science fiction including Jules Verne and H. G. Wells from breaking through the human hubris of thinking it know so much – and perhaps preparing us for a real transformation of consciousness.

And of course – the Ancient Astronaut theorists.

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(Tom Bunzel was a contributor to Collective Evolution and now writes for The Pulse.  His new book "Conversations with Nobody: Getting to Know ChatGPT" – a book written with AI, about AI and giving a taste of AI, is available on Amazon.)