Flex Mentallo

Von Daniken failed to credit any of these writers. Shortly after Chariots of the Gods was published, he was arrested for embezzlement. He had used his position as manager of the Hotel Rosenhügel in Davos, Switzerland to finance his research while writing the book. He wrote his second book, Gods from Outer Space, while in prison.

Robert Charroux’s One Hundred Thousand Years of Man's Unknown History also made very similar claims to Von Daniken's.

Even the estimable Carl Sagan had speculated that early humans might have come into contact with extraterrestrials in Intelligent Life in the Universe, published just before Chariots of the Gods.

“10:15 P.M. Important discovery. Orrendorf and Watkins, working underground at 9:45 with light, found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature... Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in Necronomicon ."

“Moulton’s plane forced down on plateau in foothills, but nobody hurt and perhaps can repair. Shall transfer essentials to other three for return or further moves if necessary, but no more heavy plane travel needed just now. Mountains surpass anything in imagination. Am going up scouting in Carroll’s plane, with all weight out. You can’t imagine anything like this. Highest peaks must go over 35,000 feet. Everest out of the running. Atwood to work out height with theodolite while Carroll and I go up. Probably wrong about cones, for formations look stratified. Possibly pre-Cambrian slate with other strata mixed in. Queer skyline effects—regular sections of cubes clinging to highest peaks. Whole thing marvellous in red-gold light of low sun. Like land of mystery in a dream or gateway to forbidden world of untrodden wonder. Wish you were here to study.”

The ideas presented in The Morning of the Magicians bear a striking resemblance to HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, in particular the short stories The Call of Cthulhu (1926) and At the Mountains of Madness (1931).

Written by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels, the book tells of ancient prophecies, conspiracies, and a race of giants that once ruled the earth in prehistoric times.

The ground had been prepared for Von Daniken by other writings, notably The Morning of the Magicians, published in 1960.

As though belief in Ancient Aliens were an article of faith.

Many readers were utterly convinced by von Daniken’s claims. Indeed, many seemed to find in his writings confirmation of their pre-existing belief. The book was a phenomenal success.

He said that the Nazca lines were in reality airfields for interstellar craft. This brought the lines to such worldwide prominence that Maria Reiche devoted most of her time and efforts thereafter not to studying the lines but protecting them from tourists.

Von Däniken wrote of being guided through artificial tunnels in Cueva de los Tavos, a cave in Ecuador, where he said he found gold, statues and a library of metal tablets.

For example Von Däniken claimed that the Mayan Sarcophagus of Palenque depicted - not a dead Mayan Monarch as previously believed – but rather a spaceman sitting on a rocket-powered spaceship, wearing a spacesuit.

He argued that religions were in fact reflections of these events.

According to von Daniken, the art of early cultures around the world depicted astronauts, spaceships, and advanced technology.

He wrote that “ancient astronauts” guided the construction of the pyramids, Stonehenge, and the statues on Easter Island.

In 1968 Eric Von Daniken published Chariots of the Gods, in which he claimed to have irrefutable evidence that extraterrestrials had been responsible for founding human civilization.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Carl Sagan

Was God an Astronaut?

Thank you Michael My pleasure Andy.

Thanks for posting this. That painting was so awesome I had to read the wiki... ok interested...then I did a google Image search for H.R. Giger's homage to it, and under the image search I saw Curiator.com pop up a few times, so I then checked that out... It seems like an awesome art sharing website! Im stoked! Sorry for all the rambling, just wanted to say thanks for the rabbit hole man! Many thanks - rambling is always welcome! It was fun to compile an impromptu mini essay on Bocklin in response to your kind words yesterday. In the course of writing this thread I've touched on many things without always going into a great deal of detail. But I am always happy to revisit any unfinished themes...

DOVER BEACH The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand; Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Matthew Arnold

... in order to persuade himself that love transcends death after all...

Who knows? Perhaps Isle of the Dead was Bocklin's own redemption from the despair he surely felt at his young daughter's untimely death...