The Ancient Alien Question

by Philip Coppens

  One day, among other instances, it chanced at [the French city of] Lyons that three men and a woman were seen descending from these aerial ships. The entire city gathered about them, crying out they were magicians sent by Charlemagne’s enemy to destroy the French harvest. In vain, the four innocents sought to vindicate themselves, saying they were their own country folk and had been carried away a short time since by miraculous men who had shown them unheard marvels. Luckily, the Bishop of Lyons pronounced the incident as false, saying it was true these men had fallen from the sky, and what they [the town folks] said they had seen there was impossible. The people believed what their good Bishop said rather than their own eyes and set at liberty the four ambassadors...from the ship.13

  It shows that encounters with strange ships at a time when humankind did not fly is not only found in legends, but is a consistent theme throughout our history, and was a worldwide phenomenon long before 1947.

  The UFO phenomenon has grown since 1947, when the only available evidence was truly unidentified objects that flew, which were sometimes captured on photographs. These so-called CE-I—Close Encounters of the First Kind—led to CE-II (in which the object leaves physical traces), CE-III (in which entities are seen), and CE-IV (the so-called alien abductions). The body of evidence presented by UFO researchers suggests that an alien intelligence is here and is interacting with us, and has been for several decades, if not several centuries. The benign or malign purpose of this interaction depends on the coloring of the individual researcher. For the late professor of psychiatry John Mack, “UFO abductees” displayed genuine trauma when he questioned them, suggesting they had an experience that to them was totally real. Mack believed a genuine phenomenon existed, but that whatever was happening was not as straightforward as extraterrestrial beings somehow breeding with the human species, as UFO researcher Budd Hopkins has proposed, and that is largely the standard theory in the UFO field.

  Some of the UFO research has taken the phenomenon in the direction of the Ancient Alien Question. In The Watchers, UFO researcher Raymond E. Fowler continued his exploration of the intriguing abduction experiences of Betty Andreasson Luca. From this sole woman’s account, retrieved under hypnosis, Fowler felt he could argue for the presence of ET on planet Earth. During one abduction experience, Andreasson noted that she saw a hybrid fetus aborted from a woman’s womb, “and thrust into a waiting tank of liquid close by. It was at this time I learned these gray beings were called ‘Watchers’: caretakers of nature and all natural form. They informed me the reason they’d been collecting seed and fetuses was because man would eventually become sterile.” She would later have encounters with “beautiful, pale blue–eyed extraterrestrials” which she called the Elders, who were apparently in charge of the Watchers, which were their work force, and which loved the human race.

  The abductors’ identification of “The Watchers,” as Fowler noted, meant that these were the same supernatural or extraterrestrial beings encountered in numerous legends, as well as the Bible. The Chaldeans referred to the Watchers as “Ir.” The Egyptian word neter means Watcher. And in the Bible, in Genesis 6:1–4, they are listed as the sons of Gods who “fell” for the Earthly women, descended from heaven, chose women, and had children.

  Gregory Little was most impressed with Andreasson’s revelations and made a study of the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, currently part of the Bible. The Book of Enoch goes into some depth about the interactions humankind had with these Watchers. Little observed that the Book of Enoch noted that there were Watchers present both at the gates of Heaven and Hell—mimicking the Egyptian neters, who also guarded the gates of Heaven and Hell in the Egyptian Afterlife. Interestingly, the guardians of Sheol—Hell—were described as beings “gray of color, small as children, with a shape that is somewhat similar to the human form.” Little observed that this description was not present in the Slavic edition of the book (the most commonly used), but was present in the Hebrew version and was a very good description of “the grays” of UFO abduction lore. Furthermore, Andreasson had described how the Watchers guarded a door. Under hypnosis, she stated how she was shown a “Great Door” and how she was led toward it. The door was an entrance to another world, one of light, of “home,” which she also described as the abode of “The One God,” whom she met—though at this point she was unwilling to give further details.

  Did the Christian Andreasson confabulate stories she might have heard in her childhood and weave them into her claims? Perhaps. But it is clear that she is not the only person who claims to have been abducted. Fowler himself analyzed the Book of Enoch and came upon an intriguing reference on the general UFO abduction phenomenon. In his story, Enoch is home alone, resting in a seat, and falls asleep. Suddenly, he hears talking, though he does not understand what is being said. Two men appear at the end of his feet; they know his name. Enoch wakes up, sees the two men, and is afraid. They tell him not to be afraid, for “you will ascend to Heaven with us.” It is in Heaven that Enoch is brought in front of “the Elders” and the rulers of a “stellar hegemony.” The events described by Enoch are identical to the events reported in standard UFO abductions stories.

  True or not, there are important cultural parallels between the story of Enoch and the modern UFO abduction phenomenon. The Watchers materialized on Earth to have children with female women. The UFO abductors are said to materialize on Earth to abduct people, resulting in pregnancies or a general interest in female genetic material. The consequences of these actions were “giants,” to use the Enochian language, or “hybrid babies,” to use UFO terminology.

  The parallels are there, but what do they mean? Are they ancient legends, adapted to our modern civilization? Or are they genuine events, written down both in ancient and modern times? Is history repeating itself? Or are we merely still intrigued by the same heroic and thrilling stories of our ancestors?

  However intriguing and interesting the parallels between the UFO field and the Ancient Alien Questions are, the problem is that you cannot answer one question with another one. Two enigmas do not make for one reality. But they do suggest that two enigmas might be related, or might even be two aspects of a larger enigma—the Alien Question.

  Answering that question positively can currently only be done if we look at this question from a certain, skewed perspective. It worked well in the popular television series The X-Files, where it was clear that the conspiracy was thousands of years old. But television series like The X-Files and so many others use these phenomena to elaborate and entertain, not to prove.

  With the all-encompassing theories unable to stand up to scrutiny or lacking in evidence, it is clear that one of the greatest questions humankind is posing—Were We Alone?—cannot be answered easily. To paraphrase my friend Stan Hall, “If it was that easy, someone would already have done so.”

  Chapter 3

  Of Gods and Men

  The Protestant bishop James Ussher wanted to provide an accurate history of the Bible, and felt that the best manner in which to do this was to establish an accurate date for Creation. He studied thousands of ancient books and manuscripts, written in diverse languages; by the time of his death, he had a library containing more than 10,000 volumes. After much study, Ussher wrote, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, which beginning of time, according to this chronology, occurred at the beginning of the night which preceded the 23rd of October in the year 710 of the Julian period.” Transposed to our calendar, that was the year 4004 BC.

  Others have concluded that the Bible contains a code. Or several codes. By selecting letters, certain words and phrases are spelled out. For example, using every 50th letter of the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew word for “bible” is spelled out. This technique was popularized by Michael Drosnin in The Bible Code, in which he reported on how computers had successfully been used to find such patterns in the Bible. Drosnin argued that it was exceedingly unlikely that t
hese sequences could have been created by chance. He demonstrated the validity of the code by showing that it wrote of past events that had occurred and made a series of predictions for the future—which proved to be less accurate.

  Ussher and Drosnin are but two examples of hundreds of people who have turned to the Bible for answers. They treat the Bible as infallible, quite often literally as the work of God, even though it is known that the Bible has been changed in time, if only through a series of translations. When the Ancient Alien Question first began to be posed, the Bible was mined for evidence to show that some of the encounters with “God” were actually Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

  The Spaceship of Ezekiel

  Ancient Alien proponents have found places in the Bible where it is clear that something strange is going on. The story of Jonah and the whale is one of the Bible’s better-known “fairy tales.” In the story, Jonah was swallowed up by a whale but lived to tell the tale. Although the creature is commonly thought to be a whale, it is actually written as a “great fish.” And the Bible, in Jonah 2:6, relates how Jonah could walk around in it and breathe and that he even saw “the bottoms of the mountains” while inside this creature—suggesting that it was no creature at all.

  Then there is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The exact locations of the cities are not known, but it is believed they were at the south end of the Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordan. Genesis 19 records that the cities’ inhabitants were so wicked that God rained fire and brimstone on them. Only Lot and his family were spared; they had been forewarned so that they could leave the city. On the evening before the destruction, Lot was visited by two angels who informed him of the upcoming catastrophe. The angels told Lot to flee into the mountains, where he and his family would be safe. They were warned not to look back. Lot’s wife did anyway, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. The following day, Lot did look to the land where once two cities rose, and said, “Why, here thick smoke ascended from the land like the thick smoke of a kiln.” For Matest M. Agrest, a Russian-born ethnologist and mathematician with a PhD from the University of Leningrad, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was caused by a nuclear blast.

  And what to make of this, from 2 Kings 2:11? “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” This is clearly a traumatic experience for Elisha, who remained behind and never saw Elijah again! Modern ufologists would label it a UFO abduction experience, in which a human being is taken by extraterrestrial beings; medieval folklorists would also call it an abduction, but into the faery realm. So who is the abductor? God? Faeries? Aliens?

  The opening chapter of the Book of Ezekiel contains an enigmatic description of a close encounter between the prophet and “the Lord.”

  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 color 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 color 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.

  10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

  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 color 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.

  The vision is one of seven Ezekiel had throughout a 22-year period, from about 593 to 571 BC. Ezekiel had been deported by King Nebuchadnezzar in circa 597 BC to Babylon when he was about 25 years old. He lived in the village of Tel-Abib on the River of Chebar in Chaldea and had been a Temple priest in Jerusalem. All of his visions occurred when Ezekiel was in exile, with his first vision occurring at the age of roughly 35.

  What Ezekiel saw in his visions has remained a subject of intense speculation. Astrologers have claimed to understand the vision as a representation of the zodiac, which they see enforced by the mention of a wheel. The faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle are interpreted as being linked with the fixed signs of the zodiac. But what to make then of the whirlwinds or the creatures that materialized as a flash of lightning, which are clearly not typical of the zodiac? These were precisely the details that inspired Erich von Däniken to include the story of Ezekiel in his book as evidence of possible alien encounters in the Bible.

  Josef Blumrich had received a copy of Chariots of the Gods while working as a NASA engineer at the Marshfield Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He decided to use his 40 years of aerospace engineering knowledge, which included work on Skylab and the space shuttle, to explain how von Däniken had it wrong—for it was clear that the Swiss hotelier had no expertise in the subject area. “It was all rubbish,” Blumrich wrote:

  From the wealth of material supplied by von Däniken, I found, when I came to the description of the technical characteristics of Ezekiel’s vision, a territory in which I could join in the conversation, so to speak, as I have spent most of my life in the construction and planning of aircraft and rockets. So I got a Bible to read the complete text, feeling sure that I would refute and annihilate Däniken in a few minutes.1

  It didn’t quite work out that way. From reading the very first chapter, Blumrich began to change his mind.

  In his 1973 book, The Spaceship of Ezekiel, Blumrich describes how the main body of the spaceship was shaped like an ice cream cone: “It is a rather wide cone with some inward curves—and that main body is carried by four helicopter units.” In 1964, Roger Anderson, an engineer of the Langley Research Center in Norfolk, Va., had designed a vehicle with a similar configuration. Anderson had drawn this type of craft because he had been asked to design a vehicle that could make entries into planetary atmospheres.

  What he achieved was a series of technical drawings, which suggested that Ezekiel had indeed seen a spaceship. Blumrich concluded that the ship Ezekiel had described was almost possible to construct with present-day technology, and that its shape was largely similar to a Gemini or Apollo capsule, with the addition of helicopter-like devices to control flight. From his interpretation of the Book of Ezekiel, Blumrich concluded that Ezekiel flew at least three, if not four times, inside this craft.

  There is a 20-year gap between Ezekiel’s third and fourth encounter, in which he is taken to a temple, which most commentators identify as the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. However, it is clear that Ezekiel was intimately familiar with that temple, yet in his vision does not recognize it. Furthermore, some details of the setting of this temple do not match the landscape
of Jerusalem. Von Däniken is among those who have proposed that Ezekiel was actually taken to a site known as Chavin de Huantar, in northern Peru, whose measurements and location do correspond with Ezekiel’s description. Of course, the most important observation is that it doesn’t matter where Ezekiel was taken; that he might have flown with unknown pilots to any location is the clincher.

  Of equal note for the Ancient Alien Question is that Ezekiel took hundreds of precise measurements of the temple he saw in his vision, which the German engineer Hans-Herbert Beier used to make a detailed model. His conclusion, when incorporating the work of Blumrich, was that the temple was a purely technical construction, to accommodate the housing of the spaceship for maintenance. He believes it was in this “temple” that the nuclear reactor of the spaceship was maintained, and points to Ezekiel’s description of the workers wearing protective clothing, as well as the procedures used in replacing the fuel elements of the craft.

  Historian Walter Webb has created a modern interpretation of Ezekiel’s vision, which, as he describes it, “is a free, imaginative interpretation and as such is purely speculative.”2 This is his reading of the story: Sitting next to the river Chebar in circa 593 BC, Ezekiel saw a bright, fiery cloud of amber color coming out of the north. As it drew closer, he saw four disk-shaped objects, which he described as “wheels,” at least one of which landed near Ezekiel. Four humanoid creatures came out of the craft, each apparently having four “wings,” which could have been a device strapped to their back. The devices enabled the creatures to move about rapidly (“and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning”). That the wings were some type of device is suggested by Ezekiel’s description that “when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great water.” He saw a throne above the ship—a dome-like structure with a pilot’s seat?—with the “likeness of a man” seated in it. This frightened Ezekiel so much that he fell on his face. A voice emanated from the ship telling him to get up. He was then taken aboard the ship and heard the “noise of the wheels...and a noise of great rushing” and was carried to Tel Abib, where his fellow exiles lived and where he sat “astonished among them seven days.”