Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

“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.”

 

 

 

 

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“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 ."

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Von Daniken was later found to have fabricated most of his evidence. For instance he had never been in Cueva de los Tavos, basing his account on the descriptions of a local guide. When challenged he said he had done this to add interest to the book. A geologist examined the area and found no cave systems.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The Sarcophagus of Palenque can be readily interpreted without recourse to ancient aliens.

 

 

 

 

 

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The monarch is wearing traditional Mayan hairdo and jewelry, surrounded by Mayan symbols that can be observed in other Mayan drawings. The right hand is not handling any rocket controls, but simply making a traditional Mayan gesture, that other figures in the sides of the lid also make, and is not holding anything. The rocket shape is actually two serpents joining their heads at the bottom, with the rocket flames being the beards of the serpents. The rocket motor under the figure is the face of a monster, symbol of the underworld.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

“That writing as careless as von Däniken's, whose principal thesis is that our ancestors were dummies, should be so popular is a sober commentary on the credulousness and despair of our times. I also hope for the continuing popularity of books like Chariots of the Gods in high school and college logic courses, as object lessons in sloppy thinking. I know of no recent books so riddled with logical and factual errors as the works of von Däniken.”

Carl Sagan