Sputnik Deutschland interviewed the Swiss scientist and publicist Erich von Daniken, author of the famous film "Memories of the Future", as well as dozens of books and other films dedicated to aliens and their possible visit to Earth.
Von Daniken outlined in an interview his theory of the influence of aliens on the origin and development of humanity, and also spoke about the interest of state security services in his research.
Mr. von Daniken, you have been to almost all countries of the world, discovered ancient tombs and other mysterious places and encountered mysterious phenomena. What is the quintessence of your research?
- The quintessence is still the same: many, many thousands of years ago, aliens visited our Earth. Our ancestors then lived in the Stone Age, they did not understand at all what was happening. They mistakenly believed that these aliens were "gods." But there are no gods, and our ancestors did not know this.
The so-called "gods" behaved exactly the same as ethnologists would behave today: they studied a couple of tribes, learned a couple of languages, and gave a couple of tips. At some point, they said goodbye, promising to return in the distant future. This promise to return has entered all cultures and religions that have existed until today.
And when will these "gods" come again? And why are you so sure of the existence of an alien influence on our Earth, on our highly developed cultures of the past?
“When they come again, ultimately no one knows. It cannot be ruled out that they are already here, but this is a separate topic.
How can you tell the difference between primitive (animalistic) religion and supposed aliens? "Aliens" gave information, and scientific information that our people, who lived in the Stone Age, could not know. For example: here is this "Book of Enoch". In the Bible, Enoch is the seventh patriarch to live after the Flood.
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He was taken with them by aliens, supposedly to heaven - this is a religious point of view. But I believe he was taken to a spaceship. He learns the language of aliens, then he is instructed. And then the (alien) astronomer tells him: “Son of man, look. Do you see the light outside there? You people say it's the moon. But the moon has no light of its own at all. And then he explains to him the phases of the moon, explains why there is a full moon and a crescent moon. This is scientific information. It has nothing to do with primitive religion. This is the difference. Information is transmitted.
In one of my books, I wrote about the Maya Indians. They had two calendars: a normal, earthly calendar with 365 days, with leap years and added hours, and the second, the so-called Calendar of the Gods, which had 260 days. This calendar does not fit anywhere in our world. 260 days are not good for us, given our seasons.
Now a professor from the University of Bonn, an expert on the Maya world, came to me and said: “Mr. von Daniken, you can explain this calendar very simply. Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt. Today it is thousands of rock debris, small and relatively large. If there was a planet, then the period of its revolution around the Sun would be 260 days. " I said, "Thank you, Mr. Professor, I will use it with pleasure."
Why has your work, as you say yourself, always been of interest to the state special services?
- Today there are really many people who claim that they were abducted by aliens. Personally, I always just laughed about this. I thought: all this is understandable from a psychoanalytic point of view. They are all nuts. And then I met with Professor John Mack.
He is a Pultzer Prize winner in the United States, a professor at the elite Harvard University. For two or three evenings we talked face to face with him. He told me: "Mr. von Däniken, I really don't like being watched, but it won't work out any other way." I say: Why is that? All these abductions are nonsense. He replied, “In certain cases, no. Because we found the implants."
People with implants do exist. Naturally, then the question arises: What could it be? Has anyone analyzed this? Of course I did. Chemically, physically - but we did not understand what it is. This is how things stand. And then people really come who claim that they were sent by the state and ask: “Mr. von Daniken, can you tell us the names? Who did you talk to? But I never do that. I must first ask the other side if she agrees. If not, then I just keep quiet.
Let's recall the lost continents of Atlantis and Lemuria, fanned by legends - during your many years of activity, have you found indications of even more ancient highly developed cultures?
- No. The history of Lemuria is an ancient fable, and nothing is proven in it. Although there is a Hopi Indian tribe in the United States, who claims that their ancestors once lived in the Pacific region, and then these islands were flooded, they had to flee, and they ended up in South America, in what is now Chile. From there, according to their stories, they moved north, to the territory of the present United States.
The story of Atlantis first comes to light in Plato, the Greek philosopher. In his dialogues Critias and Timaeus, Plato described intense discussions about Atlantis. And the man who, in this male company, told about Atlantis, referred to a witness who had been in Egypt. The whole story of Atlantis, he says, was recorded on one pillar, and he supposedly learned it by heart.
And the Platonic story of Atlantis, in essence, is quite obvious. Because he gives the exact dimensions: what is the width of the pier? How many ships? What were the houses covered with?
I believe that the existence of Atlantis is quite possible. If this was indeed the case, then it was founded by Poseidon. Poseidon, in turn, was one of the sons of the gods, that is, again, aliens. I think this is quite convincing.
In the event the "gods" return, will aliens visit us with hostile intentions?
- No, not at all. It will be something like an evolutionary leap from the outside. We have evolution, we are the products of evolution - but not only evolution. The earth has never been a closed system. At all times there have been outside interventions. Those who criticize this point of view say: “This is nonsense. How can you imagine such a thing? In the past, we humans have domesticated, for example, cherries. Just vaccinated - you don't need to know anything about genetics for this. And yet a cherry emerged that was better. Something similar happened in the past, at least that's what the ancient texts say.
