UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

AI Depiction of Ancient Aliens Influencing Early Civilizations.

Aleksa Vučković

Is there life beyond the stars? This is one of those questions that have existed for centuries, and intrigued societies and great thinkers from the dawn of civilization. “Surely there is someone else out there in the distance,” they thought, and spoke in hushed tones about the mysteries that they could not explain. And so, generation by generation, century by century, the myths of the aliens remained, until a quite peculiar theory was born - the theory of the ancient aliens. Its adherents claim that extraterrestrial beings do exist, and that they visited our planet at the dawn of mankind, influencing its development and creating many ancient relics whose provenance cannot be explained today. These enduring mysteries are a dividing wedge between the scientific world and those who believe in something beyond the stars. But at the end of the day, is there truth to these beliefs?

Ancient Aliens or Ancient Artisans?

The theory of ancient aliens remains quite popular, even in our modern age when we think we have answers for many things around us. Ancient alien theorists claim that there is ample evidence of extraterrestrial visitations, scattered throughout human history. They point out mysterious artifacts, stunning architectural wonders, and traditional myths that - in their view - cannot be explained by the capabilities of ancient societies and civilizations.

But there are many who oppose these ideas, always siding with mainstream society, urging people to observe things from an empirical point of view - if there isn’t sufficient evidence to support it, the theory should be disregarded.

And then there are those who go to the extremes, claiming that we are a freak of nature, and are the only living beings in the universe, and that the places beyond the stars are simply barren.

And so the war of views continues. It has been going on for many decades now. The ancient aliens theory and the concept of extraterrestrials visiting ancient peoples gained major popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. Controversial authors such as Erich von Däniken popularized the idea during this decade. Däniken’s best-selling book, “Chariots of the Gods?”, published in 1968, became a major hit and the theory quickly gained many adherents. The author proposed that many of the world’s best-known wonders are linked to extraterrestrial visitations, such as the enormous Naza Lines in Peru, the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Stonehenge in England, and many others. Without direct proof that they were built by humans - and without an explanation how they would do it in the first place - Däniken quickly pinned them on the aliens.

Von Däniken suggests that the Nazca lines (200 BC– 700 AD) in Peru could be "landing strips" for alien spacecraft.

(CC BY-SA 2.5 es)

Following the release of this book, the ancient alien theory gained momentum. Further books, such as “Gods from Outer Space” and “The Gods Were Astronauts”, as well as a number of documentaries, movies, and popular series all gave their own distinct views on these theories. In time, the theory incorporated claims that not only great structures were alien-made, but also religions, mythologies, and many innovations in history. And most of all, the theory posits that the Gods of ancient civilizations were actually alien beings, misinterpreted as deities by the primitive humans. And so came to be the theory of ancient aliens.

But can it be proven?

Is There Evidence of Ancient Aliens?

Those who staunchly believe that our distant ancestors came face-to-face with beings from outer space often point to what they consider compelling evidence that this is, in fact, true. However, this evidence is often based on the interpretation of texts, ancient artifacts, and major architectural feats. One evidence that they offer is the collection of Nazca Lines in Peru. These enormous geoglyphs, situated in the deserts of southern Peru, can only be seen from a great height. Those believing in ancient aliens claim that these lines were created as “landing strips” or messages for extraterrestrial visitors, exactly because they can only be seen from the air. Could the ancient Nazca people have observed spacecraft high above them, leaving these drawings as a message?

And, of course, the unexplained architectural marvels are always offered as clear evidence of alien visitation. For example, the site of Puma Punku in Bolivia is always mentioned. It is made of enormous stone blocks, some of which weigh well over 100 tons, all of which were carved with incredible precision and fitted precisely without the use of mortar. How was such precision achieved? These theorists say that the stones could not be carved like that, not without the use of very advanced machinery and technology, which could have only arrived from beyond the stars.

Puma Punku Stone Blocks – Bolivia.

(Adwo /Adobe Stock)

Without a doubt, the myths of the Anunnaki are the most frequently offered evidence of extraterrestrial ancients. These ancient Sumerian texts speak of the so-called Anunnaki, a group of deities described as arriving on Earth to create humanity. Ancient alien theorists propose that this is the unopposable evidence that extraterrestrials genetically engineered humans for their own purposes and pushed forward the formation of the world’s first civilizations.

Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, and Enki, three members of the Anunnaki.

(Public Domain)

The same goes for the Great Pyramids of Giza, which are usually the first to pop-up in talks of ancient aliens. The sheer size, perfect alignment with the cardinal directions, and incredible precision with which it was made and aligned with the celestial bodies, could have only been achieved with extraterrestrial assistance.

Science v. Belief: Who Wins?

The ancient alien theory became a proper trend in the recent years, but even so modern science continues to adamantly discredit it, unconvinced. Most scholars simply dismiss these claims, pointing out that they were built upon misinterpretation of evidence, misunderstanding, and underestimating our ancestors. A key counter argument to these theories is simply human ingenuity and ability. Archaeologists have long pointed out that our ancestors were not as primitive or clueless as we might think, and when presented with ample time and workforce, they could have achieved some truly stunning achievements. Are we simply underestimating them?

Many engineers and archaeologists stepped forward and demonstrated the construction techniques that were used to build many ancient structures, such as Stonehenge or megaliths. They all agree that such structures were well within the capabilities of ancient societies. Even though they used rudimentary materials and tools, they were still capable of organizing a massive workforce for their projects and coming up with innovative methods that would make their work easier and feasible.

Sunrise at Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005.

(Andrew Dunn, 2 /CC BY 2.0)

Scholars also try to provide a logical interpretation and explanation of the texts and myths that are commonly seen as connected to aliens. For example, they argue that many of the ancient religious and mythical texts are symbolic or metaphorical, and not literal descriptions of events. And many of the similarities that are shared amongst ancient cultures, such as their ideas, myths, beliefs, gods, and art, are not necessarily explained by extraterrestrial meddling. Instead, we can safely conclude that they were spread through cultural diffusion, through migration, trade, and conquest. There is also the independent invention of the same thing - in completely different cultures. This explains the appearance of pyramids in many ancient civilizations: this is a common architectural form that advanced cultures could have “invented” without anyone’s intervention.

Skepticism and Inquiry

To those who teeter at the edge, not knowing what to believe at the end of the day, it is crucial to offer advice. Sure, the idea of ancient alien visitors and superior high-tech innovations in the neolithic is definitely captivating. But it should still be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, such extraordinary claims require equally extraordinary evidence. However, much of the evidence that ancient alien theorists provide is rooted in speculation, conjecture, assumption, or free interpretation. And it always ends on the note that our ancestors were simply incapable of achieving any great feats, even when presented with ample time and many laborers.

But it is important to note that science bases everything on evidence - and truth is its only driving force. Repeatedly it has proven many things from our history and given explanations for many things that we previously had no knowledge on. From the secrets of the universe to the relics of our past, science seemingly pierced every mystery. But some evidence simply does not exist, even in the scientific world. And that is the evidence that extraterrestrials exist, and that they visited planet Earth in the past.

In the ongoing clash between the scientific world and the adherents of the ancient alien theory, the former always urges the latter to view our ancestors in a different light. To give credit where credit is due, and to understand that ancient humans were great thinkers, and observed the nature around them in a logical and innovative way, which allowed them to come up with many great inventions and creations. The Baghdad battery, the Antikythera mechanism, the hydraulics, navigation, sailing - the list of ancient achievements is never-ending, and the idea of extraterrestrial involvement is completely unnecessary in any of them. That is simply because those that came before us were not so feeble after all.

Antikythera mechanism.

(CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Masters of Past and Future Earth

“If we want to set out on the arduous search for the truth, we must all summon up the courage to leave the lines along which we have thought until now and as the first step begin to doubt everything that we previously accepted as correct and true. Can we still afford to close our eyes and stop up our ears because new ideas are supposed to be heretical and absurd?”

― Erich von Däniken, Chariots of The Gods

When there is something which we cannot explain, we cannot understand, or cannot comprehend at all, we often reach for the stars to find the answers, as if all the truth of the world lies in that distant space. And yet, the answers never come - only speculation, only daydreams, and only imagination. The scientific world fires back with its factual data, the sheer evidence, and the unearthed, tangible history. In it, there are never extraterrestrials. There are only the achievements of mankind, fueled by natural knowledge gathered for hundreds of thousands of years before the emergence of the first civilizations.

Yet even so, there are those things from history that not even science can confirm or explain. There are those creations that defy all sense of reason and logic, leaving us neither amongst the stars nor on the hard ground - but somewhere in between. Where, then, do we search for answers, if not in the great beyond?

Top image: AI image of a flying saucer coming out from clouds on pyramids.
Source: JackBoiler/Adobe Stock

By Aleksa Vučković

Deceased person entering the tunnel with the white light at the end that is so frequently reported during near-death experiences.

Gregory Shushan

According to research by the British neurophysiologist Peter Fenwick, near-death experiences (NDEs) occur in approximately “10% of people who come close to death, or who survive actual clinical death.”

Tens of thousands of accounts have been collected by researchers in the nearly fifty years since the study of NDEs became formalized. Reports are found in both technologically advanced civilizations and in small-scale societies, from ancient times to modern times, in all parts of the world, appearing variously in religious, literary, anthropological, scientific, and medical literature.

Defining the Core of the NDE

While even the most skeptical of researchers acknowledge that there are a number of typical sub-experiences that make up the NDE, they do not always agree on what they are. Various attempts to define the experience by identifying the most consistently recurring elements have not proven wholly successful.

The American psychologist Kenneth Ring, for example, defined the core experience as feelings of peace and well-being, out-of-body experience (OBE), entering darkness, seeing bright light, and entering the light—excluding highly recurrent elements such as meeting other deceased individuals and reaching a border or limit. Others have reduced the supposedly universal core to but two elements, though these differ depending on the researcher: the British philosopher of religion Mark Fox suggested simply darkness and light; the American sociologist James McClenon isolated “seeing other beings and other realms”; while the Australian sociologist Allan Kellehear highlighted journeying to other worlds (usually an idealized mirror image of Earth) and meeting fellow spirits.

Kellehear also pointed out, however, that the OBE may be taken for granted in almost all descriptions, for NDE’ers do not claim that their experiences occurred in the physical body.

Other commonly reported features are “the subjective sense of being dead,” “beautiful colors,” hearing others discuss one’s own death, a loud noise, feelings of joy, a sense of profound wisdom or universal understanding, heightened senses and clarity, the impression of having an ethereal body, acceleration of time and thought, precognition and clairvoyance, telepathic communication with other spiritual beings, a sense of belonging or that one has returned “home,” a life review accompanied by a sense of moral evaluation or self-judgment, being instructed or deciding to return, returning (often reluctantly), and positive effects on the life of the NDE’er.

Heavenly painting from 1504 by Hieronymous Bosch, entitled ‘Ascent of the Blessed’.

(Public Domain)

Perhaps the most useful way of thinking about the experience is that of the American theologian Carol Zaleski, who characterized the NDE as “a catalogue of assorted motifs.” To redefine the “core” of the experience as a changeable collection of possible elements, drawn upon differently by different individuals to comprise the overall experience, prevents the imposition of structure and order where none may exist. It also allows for a purely descriptive consideration of the NDE, because we shouldn’t judge an account based on its content, or whether it measures up to some hypothetical (and mythical) prototype. Instead, we should judge by its context—that is, whether or not the individual was considered to be temporarily dead or near death and reported having undergone various spiritual episodes prior to revival. The nature of those experiences will always vary. In other words, our popular stereotypes about what NDEs are like are not always accurate.

The NDE: Truth or Illusion?

The issue of whether the NDE constitutes evidence for survival after physical death is separate from the question of their impact on beliefs, though it is relevant to the metaphysical theories discussed in chapter 11 of my new book, Near-Death Experience in Ancient Civilizations.

The most comprehensive attempt to explain the NDE in materialist terms has been by the British psychologist Susan Blackmore, who claims that it is the hallucinatory result of a combination of psychological and neurophysiological events and processes of the dying brain.

Painting from 1894 by Finnish artist Anna Sahlsten, entitled ‘Passage,’ showing the spirit leaving the body of a deceased woman.

(Public Domain).

Such perspectives have been criticized for a priori reductionism and for being dismissive of the aspects of NDEs that they cannot explain. There are numerous claims of evidential out-of-body experiences, in which NDE’ers report having seen and heard things while clinically dead—and from places or perspectives impossible from the vantage point of their bodies—that were later independently verified. There are reports of children encountering deceased relatives they had never met and of NDE’ers who discover the death of a friend or relative by meeting them during the NDE. There are even some claims of visions of the future that are later verified. While impressive, such claims are technically anecdotal and without empirical replication in laboratory settings—a criterion for widespread acceptance in the scientific community.

Metaphysical interpretations of the NDE—by which we mean ideas and concepts beyond observable physical reality—have been criticized for a perceived lack of scientific logic and for not being based on evidence gathered in rigorous, controlled testing. However, Fenwick stresses the significance of the fact that NDEs in cardiac arrest cases can occur when the pateint has a flat EEG reading, when there is “no possibility of the brain creating images” and “no brain-based memory functioning,” meaning that “it should be impossible to have clearly structured and lucid experiences.”

These arguments have apparently been bolstered by the research of the British resuscitation expert Sam Parnia. He seems to have shown that consciousness can persist when no brain activity is detectable, actually during the period of clinical death prior to revival. One of his cardiac patients accurately described his own resuscitation, which he claimed to have witnessed while out of body, including the sound of a defibrillator machine. This allowed researchers to pinpoint the time of the event as having occurred during his temporary “death.” In a study conducted in a Welsh hospital, intensive care nurse Penny Sartori found that only patients who had OBEs could accurately describe the process of their resuscitation.

AI-generated image of a man rising to heaven after death.

Whatever the case, in this book we seek neutral ground, adopting the position that whatever their nature, NDEs are part of human experience. This is attested by the fact that accounts of them are found around the world and throughout history. NDEs are not determined by culture, religion, sex, age, or other demographic factors. Though individuals may be influenced by “imagery and metaphor” in popular and religious culture, it has been found that prior knowledge of the NDE actually decreases the likelihood of having one. Nor is there any significant difference between Western NDEs reported before and after 1975, when the phenomenon was popularized and the term coined by the American psychiatrist Raymond Moody.

Near-death experiences in children are largely consistent with those of adults, further demonstrating that it is not mainly a matter of cultural conditioning (though, of course, children are not free of cultural influences—even cartoons can feature afterlife and OBE imagery). NDEs also occur in congenitally blind individuals who nevertheless report visual perception during the experience.

Dr. Raymond Moody, one of the preeminent researchers into the near-death experience, at a workshop in Paris in 2017. Ehabich/CC BY-SA 4.0).

Near-Death Experiences Across Cultures

The issue of universality is controversial in near-death studies, with some researchers emphasizing cross-cultural difference at the expense of similarity.

For example, in his assessment of perhaps the earliest Western NDE account that explicitly claims to be factual (that of Cleonymous of Athens in around 310 BCE), the Dutch historian Jan Bremmer writes that the only similarity between the account and modern NDEs is a “feeling of drifting away.” This is despite clear references to typical NDE elements such as OBE, meeting deceased relatives, moral evaluation assisted by mystical or divine beings, and clairvoyance.

Likewise, in their study of Chinese NDEs, the physicians Feng Zhi-ying and Liu Jian-xun interpreted some common NDE elements as being inconsistent with the (hypothetical) Western model because the descriptions were influenced by cultural and individual idiosyncrasies. For example, sensations of weightlessness and “feeling estranged from the body” must surely be equated with the OBE. “Unusually vivid thoughts,” a feeling that thought has accelerated, a sense of peace and euphoria, and a life review are all standard NDE elements that were reported by their subjects.

Funerary marble base from ancient Greece (410-400 BC), showing scenes of the afterlife in the Elysian Fields, where according to ancient tradition the blessed dead enjoyed the golden fruits.

(Dorieo/CC BY-SA 4.0).

Similarly, the American Buddhist and neuroscientist Todd Murphy writes that there is no being of light in Thai NDEs—despite reports of the Buddha appearing as a star and of encounters with “spiritual lights.” He also states that Thai NDE’ers do not report feelings of bliss, ecstasy, peace, and the like, but rather “pleasantness, comfort, a sense of beauty and happiness.”

Rather than seeing these as analogous emotional states, he sees discontinuity. Even encounters with deceased friends and relatives are classed as dissimilarities because they don’t specifically greet the NDE’ers, but rather instruct them. Murphy’s conclusion that “accounts of Western NDEs would seem to be useless in helping Thais know what to expect at their deaths” is not supported by the Thai references to OBE, traveling in spiritual form to another realm, life review with moral evaluation, encounters with divine and mystical presences, positive emotions, transcendent feelings and an impression of knowing “all the truths of the universe,” visions of the future, deceased relatives, and being instructed to return.

Top image: Deceased person entering the tunnel with the white light at the end that is so frequently reported during near-death experiences.
Source: In5D Esoteric Metaphysical Spiritual Database.

By Gregory Shushan