08 Jun Indiana Jones of Aliens! An exciting extraterrestrial discussion with the great high-flyer Erich von Däniken
Preliminary remark:
The interview was conducted in German.
You can access the original German interview via the following link.
Original German interview. (Link)
Prologue:
When I think of Erich von Däniken, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Herbert Staudinger (23 March 1881 to † 08 September 1965) always comes to mind at the same time. Why?
Like Erich von Däniken, Staudinger had to fight a great and long battle with the ‘scientific dogmatists’ with his unbelievable theories at the time.
A brief example: ‘When Staudinger gave a lengthy lecture at a conference in 1925, in which he presented his latest evidence for the existence of macromolecules, Niggli burst his collar in the middle. He stood up and shouted into the hall: ‘There is no such thing! *’ (Krüll 1978a, 232; cf. Staudinger 1961, 86).
*Source: https://www.kunststofftechnik.ch/staudingers-makromolekularer-kampf-gegen-wissenschaftliche-dogmatiker/
With regard to Erich von Däniken’s great life’s work, I would also like to add that although his basic theories were fought against, they withstood all the storms.
In my opinion, this fact is best summarised by the wise old Pharisee Gamaliel from the biblical Acts of the Apostles:
‘If this plan or this work is of men, it will perish; but if it is of God, you cannot destroy it’, this is what the man of the high council hurled at those who wanted to censor, or kill, dissenters in anno domini.
Why is it fair to say that Erich von Däniken is such a great high-flyer?
Quite simply:
His highly impressive palmarès reads a bit like someone who has the desire to achieve everything that comes to mind.
Dr h.c. Erich von Däniken, born in Switzerland in 1935, is one of the world’s most successful non-fiction authors. His 46 books, films and TV series have been translated into 32 languages since the world bestseller Memories of the Future (1968). The worldwide circulation of his works is around 70 million copies. Several of his books have been made into films and various television series have been based on his ideas. His research work has been honoured internationally: – Honorary doctorate from the Universidad Boliviana (1975) – Honorary citizenship of the cities of Nazca and Ica (Peru) – Honorary member of the Order Cordon Bleu du Saint Esprit (1987) – Prêmio Lourenço Filho in gold and platinum, Brazil. Erich von Däniken is the editor of nine other books in which authors of the A.A.S. (Research Society for Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI) have published their research findings. The Ancient Aliens series on the American History Channel was based on Erich von Däniken’s ideas and is the channel’s most successful documentary! By July 2023, 205 episodes had been broadcast. Even at the age of 89, EvD continues to inspire audiences around the world at international conferences and on lecture tours in Europe, the USA and Brazil.
It is therefore a great honour and pleasure to be able to conduct this interview with Erich von Däniken.
Fig. 1: In conversation with the convincing Erich von Däniken and the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. (‘Falcon’ was a heavily modified light YT-1300 freighter that belonged to the Corellian Han Solo after numerous changes of ownership).
If you want to know why Erich von Däniken’s cosmos is so successful, which historically proven prophet inspired his theories, which part of the biblical vehicle of God was patented, why he owns ‘The First Watch worn on the Moon. Apollo XI, 1969″, what Pope Francis congratulated him on, what scientific approach he has, why it makes sense and is expedient to examine even unusual theories, which Pharisee from the high council in the Acts of the Apostles basically agrees with his theories, which book he is currently reading, what basic message he is giving us and much more.
The following chapters provide the answers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Interview
2 Brief introduction to the book
3 Why does it make sense to examine even unusual theses?
4 Who was Ezekiel?
5 What is meant by Ezekiel’s chariot of God?
6 What did Erich von Däniken and the NASA engineer Joseph F. Blumrich deduce from it?
7. The ‘biblical’ Ezekiel wheel was patented in 1974
8. Achariot of God or spaceship?
9. Are there any other biblical aids to Ezekiel’s chariot/spaceship?
10. which other well-known people also assume that the extraterrestrials were already here?
11. Conclusion
12. Sources
13 Addendum to Enoch
14. Addendum to Drake equation (Darth Vader scenario), Global Risks Report World Economic Forum
15. Addendum: Homage to Erich von Däniken by Claude Cueni
1. Interview
Preliminary remark:
For Erich von Däniken’s answers, a simple or literal transcription was used, but without gap fillers.
Lars Rominger
Have you worried about the state of the cosmos today?
Erich von Däniken
I’m not always worried about the state of the cosmos, but about the state of the world.
If you look at politics, you could sometimes despair.
It’s just people – people.
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Lars Rominger
Among other things, I took a closer look at your working methods. I came to the conclusion that you derive your theses stringently, professionally and in an exemplary manner from historical data backed up by sources.
In this context, I was particularly struck by the ‘Ezekiel wheel’, for example, which was patented in the USA. Ref: US patent specification no. 3789947 ‘Omnidirectial Wheel’ by Blumrich dated 5 February 1974, referring to the biblical prophet Ezekiel and his descriptions, among other things. I have been thinking about this: If Ezekiel’s descriptions were just ‘figments of the imagination’ then, in my view, you could not derive a valid US patent from his descriptions.
Despite your professional and scientific approach, however, there are still people who try to dismiss your impressive work as pure fantasy.
How do you explain this unreflective behaviour, what does it do to you and how do you deal with it?
Erich von Däniken
First of all, I like the critics! People who disagree with me are neither stupid nor stupid people. They simply haven’t studied the subject. Anyone who looks into the subject seriously will sooner or later come to the same conclusion as me. We have been visited by extraterrestrials. Once again: I love criticism and I like discussing with critics. I’m happy when they disagree with me. If, after a long discussion, people don’t lie to each other, don’t bluff, don’t pull the wool over each other’s eyes, don’t try to fool themselves, but are honest, then I have always learnt something. And every time ‘the other side’ told me: ‘Mr von Däniken, we didn’t know that.’ You just have to talk to each other. Once again: critics are not stupid and are not dumb. They simply haven’t studied the subject matter.
Then there is the spirit of the time.. The zeitgeist is the currently prevailing rationality. The spirit of the time. has always existed. For thousands of years. Every generation lived in its spirit of the time. The spirit of the time is what the masses concede. Let me give you a terrible example: Imagine that the Holy Father, the Pope in Rome, had an encounter tonight with two outsiders. He would have a discussion with them. An interesting conversation. The next morning he tells his prelate that he had a conversation with extraterrestrials last night.
His own people would advise him: Please, Holy Father, don’t go public with this. You will make a fool of yourself. Even if he is pope and is respected and has a high moral value: If the spirit of the time is not ripe, you make a fool of yourself with such a story. You need a hard back and a strong character to go through with it anyway. I know several people, e.g. Prof Harry Ruppe was NASA Director Werner Braun’s right-hand man for many years. Later, the Bavarian government brought Prof Ruppe to Bavaria. There he held the first chair for space technology. Prof Dr Harry Ruppe says to me: ‘Erich, if I came up with your ideas, in my circle, as a professor of space technology. My colleagues would say. Is Harry crazy? What’s wrong with him? I can’t, even as an expert, come up with such things in my own committee if the zeitgeist isn’t ripe. Many other professors tell me that they are very happy that I am doing this, because we can’t do it. We are being shot down. It has to come from outside society to change the zeitgeist, because it hardly ever comes from within. You have to change the spirit of the time. Thank God I am no longer alone. Many international authors write about the same topics as I do. Good people, you know most of them. You meet them at conferences and so on.
Then there’s this international TV series on the History Channel called ‘Ancient Aliens’. They were here in Interlaken around 20 years ago. First on the phone. They really wanted an interview. I said no because I didn’t feel like it, because afterwards they’d let other people have their say, some psychologists and psychiatrists who would then want to make me look ridiculous. I’m not in the mood for such games. But they insisted. To put them off so that they wouldn’t come, I told them. Okay, then the interview will have to take place here in Interlaken in my office and the afternoon will cost 10,000 dollars. I thought to myself: I’ve got rid of them! 4 days later they were in Interlaken. They only wanted to do the one interview. They broadcast it. As a result, they had the highest viewing figures in the USA. Ratings in the USA means advertising. Money. Then they kept filming and filming. They’ve now made over three hundred sequels. The topic is in when you present or serve it to people. They realise: Hello, this isn’t so ridiculous after all.
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Fig. 2: Congratulatory letter from Pope Francis to Erich von Däniken on his 85th birthday.
Fig. 3: In 2018, EvD was ranked twelfth on the ‘Watkins’ Spiritual 100 List for 2018’ behind Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama and nine other “spiritually” influential people around the world.
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Lars Rominger:
Der Standard reports on 12/03/2024 as follows:
FLYING SAUCERS
UFO sightings were often due to secret military tests According to a new report by the US Department of Defence, there is no reliable evidence that extraterrestrial space shuttles and alien bodies are being covered up.
Source: https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000211272/ufo-sichtungen-gingen-vielfach-auf-geheime-militaertests-zurueck
The sobering conclusion:
Human belief!
According to the team, the aim is not to disprove a particular belief, but to use scientific methods to find out where the unusual phenomena come from. British psychologist Chris French also sees a tendency towards UFO sightings and alien abduction stories. He specialises in the belief in the paranormal and is publishing a non-fiction book this month entitled ‘The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure the Paranormal’. In it, he gets to the bottom of the scientific explanations behind a number of mysterious events. However, he also emphasises that the conviction that there are supernatural phenomena, extraterrestrial UFOs and secret government programmes that conceal them is nothing ridiculous, but can reveal a lot about our brains and thinking.
Not only in the case of several supernatural phenomena, but also in the case of many alleged UFO sightings, a sentence that can be found on perhaps the most famous UFO poster gets to the heart of the matter:
‘I want to believe’, ‘I want to believe in it’. (sic, 12.03.2024)
What is your response to such a report?
Erich von Däniken
These are typical psychologists who write such things and have no idea of reality. UFO: There is something out there. Maybe in a few years it can be explained physically. Quite right. Something is manifesting and we have no idea what is happening in the universe. But that’s not enough. There are people who have been in UFOs. They have spoken to them. Prof John E. Mack, a professor at Harvard, writes about this. A whole book ‘Abducted by Extraterrestrials’ that reports that people have been in UFOs. There are people who have implants. All those who claim that this is not true have no proof. They’re just talking heads. They know nothing. They are not informed. If anything, they should act like it: Ask Däniken what he thinks. They don’t have to agree with me, they can have a contrary opinion. And suddenly the preconceptions dissolve. People have been in UFOs. People wear implants. I need to expand on this briefly. Prof Mack heard at Harvard University that there are people who have had contact with extraterrestrials. He thought this was complete nonsense. People who are supposed to have had contact with extraterrestrials. What rubbish! Then he put up a notice at the university asking anyone who believed that they had had contact with extraterrestrials to get in touch. About 8 people responded.
One of them was a lecturer. We filled out questionnaires with them, cross-examined them and at the end they were asked whether they would agree to undergo tomography at the end. All of them agreed and two of them had implants. Then the implants were taken out. I saw the film and had Prof Mack here in Interlaken and asked him about the implants. Prof Mack’s answer: ‘Erich, we have no idea. The thing transmits frequencies, among other things. We have tested it with all kinds of analysis methods. We can’t figure out what kind of technology is behind it. Here’s another quote from him: ‘We are participants in a universe teeming with intelligent life forms from which we have cut ourselves off.’ (Prof Dr John Mack, Harvard University).
People who claim that none of this can be true should first talk to the experts. 50 years ago, the files have been released in the meantime, the American secret service issued an order to all agencies in the world: Everything that has to do with UFOs, people who are in favour of UFOs and believe they have seen UFOs, should be exposed to ridicule. This was an order. This should be ridiculed. You can read the exact sources in my books. Presumably the order was issued because the Americans had built UFOs themselves. Simply with modern technology. They were testing and didn’t want people to write about it. But in addition to the Americans‘ UFO technology, there are still people who have been in such UFOs and wear implants. People are always satisfied with the first answer. Smart and nice people tell me, for example: But Mr von Däniken, these are drones. I could slap them in the face. Drones didn’t exist in the sixties. Most people tend to always take the first easy answer so that they can tick the matter off. People just don’t think enough!
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Lars Rominger
You visited the College of St Michael of the Jesuit Order.
There is an old Jesuit proverb that says: ‘Give me your child for the first seven years and I will give you back the human being. ‘ Everything a child experiences with its parents creates networks between the brain cells of its cerebrum.
How formative was the influence of the Jesuit order on you?
Erich von Däniken
On the one hand very formative, but on the other hand very free. For example, I had to translate the Bible, individual passages. Greek-German. And that’s where my whole story began. The doubt about the story. Hello, something’s not right. I was then and still am today a person of deep faith. I am one of those who pray to God every day. How do I define God? Religion tells us that God is at the beginning of the universe. Now you have to explain where God comes from? Who created God? We have no answer to that. Science says the Big Bang, but where did the Big Bang come from? Whether religion or science, we have no idea how it started. We do not know. The beginning can only be spiritual or mental. If it was material, then there would have to be something spiritual behind it, which in turn created the material. It can only be spiritually driven. There is no other way. And we respectfully say God. We have no idea what God is. I have never lost my dear God, I pray every day and give thanks for the universe. This is all I can do. I have completely lost my Christian faith, the one from school. I have already written about it in certain books. I can’t do anything with Christian philosophy, even though I grew up with it. According to Christian philosophy, there is God. Agreed, he does exist. And according to Christian doctrine, God still creates the universe and holds everything together. Two people in paradise. Adam and Eve. God tells them: You may do anything you want, but you may not do anything. As God, he must be timeless. He doesn’t have to experiment and wait to see how it ends. God knows exactly that they will commit the sin. They promptly do what he already knows beforehand anyway. But then he is offended and chases them out of paradise. The whole descendant family is then stuck with the so-called original sin. To erase this original sin, he sends his own son. The Son is loving, he preaches goodness, kindness, love and gentleness. Comes from each other. A wonderful guy. What do people do? They don’t understand his son. They take him prisoner. They torture him. They slaughter him. And after this atrocity, God is reconciled with mankind. What kind of crazy idea is this? The blood of the innocent for the guilt of the guilty? This is completely crazy! It doesn’t work. I have remained a believer, but I can no longer do anything with the Christianity I was brought up with, although I respect Christians. I also respect Muslims. I respect all those who are convinced of their religion, grew up in it, believe in it for such and such reasons. I don’t try to talk them out of it. Everyone has to come to terms with it themselves.
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Fig. 4: Erich von Däniken likes Johnnie Walker ‘Black Label’. Lars Rominger, who was born and lives in the canton of Zug, tries to get Mr von Däniken interested in Zuger Kirsch.
‘Smoking kept him healthy. As did his daily Scotch. Johnny Walker Black Label. There were supposedly trips where you were only allowed on the plane if you bought a bottle at the airport so you could empty it with Erich over the next few days.’ (‘It’ll make your skin crawl!’ Travelling in Egypt with Erich von Däniken and forty of his fans. NZZ, Gudrun Sachse 27.06.2019).
https://www.nzz.ch/folio/da-bleibt-dir-die-spucke-weg-ld.1623048
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Lars Rominger
Your book ‘Memories of the Future’ was published in February 1968, after 20 publishers had previously rejected it. You are obviously not easily discouraged. Is that the case?
Erich von Däniken
First of all: I come from a catering family and went through the usual stages in the industry. High school, an apprenticeship as a waiter at the sensational Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern, a great place! But I’ve always had this idea of reporting on these phenomena. As early as 1954, I can prove this to you, an article by me entitled ‘Did our ancestors receive a visit from outer space?’ appeared in the Canadian newspaper ‘Der Nordwesten’. However, it was not until 1968 that my first book ‘Memories of the Future ’* was published. I also wrote about this topic in many magazines such as ‘Neues Europa’. To summarise briefly: I enquired about this topic myself via various magazines and newspapers etc. and always wrote a lot about it myself. At some point I became a hotel manager and in a hotel you always have the same or returning guests. I was always chatting at the bar about all sorts of things, including extraterrestrials, of course. One of the guests was Prof Dr Thomas von Randow. He came every year. At the time, he was the science editor of the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’. We sat together at the bar and discussed topics such as extraterrestrials and so on. He realised that I knew a lot about it. Then he said: ‘Erich, you should write a book about it.’. Then I told him: ‘You, I’ve written a book, but I can’t find a publisher. At that point, I had already sent it to many publishers. They all sent it back. Some not at all. If a reply came back, it was with the usual phrases such as not suitable, too polemical, too unscientific, not up to date, etc. Thomas then said to me: Excuse me? The next day, Thomas was in my office and called someone I didn’t know and said to the person I didn’t know: ‘You, I’ve got a young Swiss man in front of me. He has written a completely crazy book. But the guy is not crazy! Do you want to listen to him? Then Thomas hands me the phone and a stranger asks me if I can come to Düsseldorf in the next few days.
So I was allowed to visit the Econ publishing house in Düsseldorf. A huge office with a huge table that was completely empty. The man sitting behind it, the publisher, Erwin Barth von Wehrenalp, reads only about 4 pages, looks a bit puzzled, then looks at me and says: Mr von Däniken, if you are right … and then he said: ‘We can give it a try with a small print run, 2 – 3 thousand copies, because Prof Thomas von Randow recommended it. After that, everything took its course. The 2 – 3 thousand became millions. The Econ publishing house became a millionaire. An incredible story. I ask myself the same question now. Is that controlled? Did anyone help? To change the spirit of the time? It’s also important that, despite all your success, you continue to develop personally. Look: Of course I made mistakes when I was young. As a young person, you’re not self-critical. You are convinced. Hello, you’re right. You’re not critical enough. And you always think you’re right. When critics appear, you get upset about how they behave. Later you learn that some of the critics really were right. And not you. And you become humble. And that’s how you learn to deal with people. You also learn that there is this and that mistake in the book, this will never happen to me again. Not a second time. Criticism and development are important to change the spirit of the time.
*Place 1 in the Spiegel bestseller list from December 9, 1968 to March 2, 1969.
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Lars Rominger
In 2005, together with the musician Norbert Reichart, they released the CD World of Mysteries, which made it to number four on the Swiss Hitparade. Are you musical and what value does music have to you?
Fig. 5: Compact Disc. Erich Von Däniken – World Of Mysteries
Label: United Music GmbH – 903882
Country: Switzerland
Released: 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Dark Ambient
Image source: www.discogs.com
Erich of Däniken
Music is the vibration of the universe. Music is phenomenal. I‚ve always been musical. Of course, I‚ve been singing since I was a boy. You could also say crowed. Later I played the trumpet. I learned to play the piano. Not very good. I‚m still strumming here and there today when I feel like it. I was in the jazz orchestra, later in the classical orchestra. There‚s really nothing going on without music. When I think of the many varied songs that people make, of the choirs, of the songs, of the jubilation, of the hallelujas also of the religions. This is culture, this is human culture, this is enormous. And none of this would work without music. It is impossible to imagine a world without music. It would all be the same or what? Don‚t we have a loud position in our voice? Not high or oblique? Would this planet even exist without music?
Music belongs to man!
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Lars Rominger
The idea that human life or its evolutionary predecessors can be traced back to extraterrestrial influences has been discussed time and again.
Example from the year 1936
One of the oldest clues, in my view, was expressed in H. P. Lovecraft‚s 1936 novel „Mountains of Madness„. Here, an ancient race from outer space once colonized the Earth and created, among other creatures, monkey-like animals.
Fig. 6: H. P. Lovecraft‚s „Mountain of Madness„.
Source: Bookshop Orell Fussli
Example from 1968
Flight 714 to Sydney is a comic book series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, published in 1968. In an underground temple, Tim, after a long search, meets Professor Bienlein and a strange gentleman named Mik Esdanitoff. This turns out to be an intermediary to aliens, who had previously contacted Tim telepathically. Esdanitoff says that the temple complex was built in honor of the aliens, recognizable by depictions of spaceships and astronaut figures. Rastapopulous‚s pursuit is ended by a volcanic eruption that also forces Tim and his friends to flee the temple caves. They are rescued by the aliens, but in a hypnotized state.
Fig. 7: Comic. Hergé. Tim and Struppi. Flight 714 to Sydney
Source: Bookshop Orell Fussli
Example from 2008
The idea was also taken up in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*.
In the film‚s plot, the crystal skull must be returned to its place of origin, a legendary city of pure gold. And so the last of the thirteen crystal skeletons sitting on thrones in the temple has its skull again, and the skulls release their power. The beings want to give people something out of gratitude, and an actor in the film wants all the knowledge in the world. But when the beings feed the knowledge directly into her brain, the actor realizes too late that the sheer amount of knowledge exceeds her mental and physical capacity to absorb so much that she burns alive. The temple begins to collapse, some die in the rubble or are dragged into the portal of the alien beings. Indiana Jones and his friends barely escape and watch a spaceship rise and disappear from the collapsing temple, then the entire valley collapses and is flooded with water.
*Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg.
Fig. 8: Film cover. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Source: Bookshop Orell Fussli
But the most famous example is yourself.
To what do you attribute this?
Are you possibly THE go-between to the aliens?
Erich of Däniken
Indiana Jones, Roland Emmerich. I had him on the phone and then I said to him: Roland, you did a lot of „buying up“ at Däniken. He said, „Yes, I admit it. “ I said, no problem. Roland Emmerich is heavily influenced by my books. With all the TV shows like Star Wars etc. you always have Däniken thoughts behind it. It‚s just that it‚s often not pronounced. Now one wonders, though, I myself am probably not the original. You mentioned the book of Lovecrafts earlier. I only knew the book after my first books were published. When my books were on the market, I received several letters, including from the former Soviet Union, which wrote to me: Herr von Däniken: My father had already had these thoughts. He has already published this in the then Soviet Union. In the United States, there was a former rocket pioneer named Erich Sänger. Also one of Werner von Braun‚s employees. His wife would have written a novel on the same subject. Not inspired by me. Regardless. This brings us back to the spirit of the time. When the spirit of the time is ripe, the fruits fall. I don‚t have to copy, take over or take over from someone else, etc. No, when it‚s autumn, the fruits fall, when it‚s spring, the fruits grow all over the world at the same time. It is always a matter of the zeitgeist. The zeitgeist makes it possible for us to conduct space travel. People are going to the moon. This is reality. But here again the question: Couldn‚t others have already been there? It is always the spirit of the times that makes this possible. You don‚t have to be a genius to do that, you‚ll figure it out sooner or later. And how I came up with it is well known. Very devout Catholic boy, deeply convinced of the good Lord. Like I said, today. As I said in one of our previous discussions, I was in this high school where we had to do Bible translations, among other things. For me, God was something spiritual. And then I learned in the Bible: The God of the Bible is not spiritual. The god of Moses descends on the holy mountain with smoke, fire and quake. The whole mountain is shaking. He uses a vehicle to get from point A to point B. There‚s noise again. The Lord of the Bible was a material God and not a spiritual God. Now I wonder. Hello! Materially, what was that? That‚s when I got doubts. What do other ancient cultures actually say about their beginnings and their religions? Suddenly you read ancient Hindu religions and many more. But hello, basically they‚re all saying the same thing. Just with different names, different heroes, different characters, protagonists, etc. with always the same analogy and storyboard: Someone came down from the sky. There was thunder, there was trembling, Gods influenced people. He has taught people this and that. Disappeared eventually, back in heaven. Before that, however, he promised that he would come back. The promise of the Second Coming is part of all the religions of the world. No matter which sect becomes the respective bringer of salvation, it is transmitted and foretold, will come again. This is not only part of all religions but also of all cultures. About 500 years ago came Franciso Pizarro, this was the Spaniard who discovered South America/Peru. He came to Peru for the first time. He stood on the plank of the ship and his clothes shimmered in the sun. On the beach of the Inca ruler, all well-behaved and intelligent people, all fell on their stomachs. They believed that the long-awaited god (Inti, also Tayta Inti. Quechua: „Father Sun„) had returned. Such events and phenomena occurred and were repeated all over the world. Another example: Hawaii, an island completely enclosed in the Pacific Ocean. What‚s going on? James Cook is coming. The natives are all flying to the ground. They believe the long-awaited God has returned. This is all part of our knowledge. We have misunderstood that. We thought it was God. Or gods. But they were just aliens. They promised they‚d come back. They‚re back by now. But this is a different story.
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Fig. 9: Erich von Däniken repeatedly receives highly unusual, precious and rare gifts.
Here, for example, an Omega Speedmaster. Inscription: „The First Watch worn on the Moon. Apollo XI, 1969. “
„I and some others have had the privilege of being informed from the official side that our planet has already been visited by extraterrestrials and that the UFO phenomenon is real. “
Dr. Edgar Dean Mitchell, US astronaut, sixth man on the moon.
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Lars Rominger:
In your opinion, what is the most important factor for success?
Erich of Däniken
Enforcement.
(In Schwyzerdütsch: „En sture Grind!“) => In Swiss-German: „A stumbling skull!“
But not right-handedness! This is not the same thing.
Perseverance also means: If you‚re wrong. You admit you‚re wrong. Doesn‚t matter.
If you think that the idea is fundamentally correct, then you should stick to it in principle, even if you inevitably make mistakes, but that is part of it.
You can‚t let mistakes make you insecure.
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Lars Rominger:
What book are you reading right now?
I had thought of that question before my visit to Mr von Däniken.
However, when I saw the big „book avalanches“ and other data collections on site (please see the following pictures), the question became unnecessary for me.
Fig. 10: The legendary and great Erich von Daniken in front of one of his many book collections.
Fig. 11: In the office of Erich von Däniken in Interlaken. Books as far as the eye can see.
Fig. 12: The well-read Erich von Däniken in one of his premises in Interlaken.
Fig. 13: Erich von Däniken shows a part of his huge collection of data, which were collected during his research.
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Lars Rominger:
Which quote, message or motto of life would you like to give us?
Erich of Däniken
Do not believe – control!
Because: Faith is not science.
We humans believe something, and that‚s all good.
We believe in another person when we know him and know he is honest and you can‚t control everything.
This is all reasonable. Only faith is not science. If it‚s about something scientific, something that wants to prevail, then it has to be true.
Then I must have checked it first. Is that true? Is that so? And only then can I represent it. I don‚t think so. That‚s why Däniken. Whoever reads Däniken regularly checks and then notices for himself whether it is true or not.
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Fig. 14: Erich von Däniken in front of a wall full of awards and honours. Honor to whom honor is due.
Honorary doctorate of the Bolivian University (1975) – Honorary citizenship of the cities of Nazca and Ica (Peru) – Honorary member of the Order Cordon Bleu du Saint Esprit (1987) – Prêmio Lourenço Filho in gold and platinum, Brazil and much more.
Fig. 15: Some world bestsellers by Erich von Däniken.
His 46 books, films and TV series have been translated into 32 languages since the world bestseller Memories of the Future (1968).
The worldwide circulation of his works is approximately 70 million copies. Several of his books were made into films, and various television series were created according to his ideas.
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2. Short book presentation
Fig. 16: Book „And they were there!“ by Erich von Däniken.
Book title:
And they were there!
Subtitles:
The ultimate proof of extraterrestrial visitation.
Author:
Erich of Däniken
Publisher:
Kopp Verlag
ISBN:
978-3-86445-959-7.
Publication:
31. 10. 2023
Content:
It is abounding – but our clever yet blind astronomers know nothing about it. ‚Why not?«, asks Erich von Däniken. Because nobody‚s dealing with the issue. Science searches for traces of life in meteorites – but does not look at its own front door. Countless traditions tell of teachers from outer space.
In the meantime, Erich von Däniken has presented his proofs for extraterrestrial visits in 46 books. ** This volume contains the best proofs from these 46 books – always supplemented by the latest news!
In the writings of Rigveda – the oldest part of the ancient Indian Vedas – the divine vehicles are dealt with in detail. No different in the Egyptian pyramid texts from the 5th Dynasty. There, „heavenly doors“ open, metal ladders are extended, pharaohs climb the flying vehicles and thunder over the firmament.
Erich von Däniken is reminiscent of extraterrestrial objects in the possession of mankind. For example, the „holy mirror„, which is located in the temple of Ise (Japan) and is wrapped in cloths. Only the Japanese emperors are allowed near him. Or the ark of the covenant of the Israelites. On June 19, 2009, the Patriarch of the Coptic Church confirmed that it was not made by human hands. What more do you want?
Tortuguero is a town in the Mexican state of Tabasco. There is the Mayan monument Numero 6 – that is the official name. On it engraved the message: „The 23rd Baktun 4 Ajaw 3 Uniw (a Mayad date) will be completed, then Bolon Yokte will descend. « This Bolon Yokte was one of those Mayan gods who created Homo sapiens. Those aliens have not only promised to return – they are back. Erich von Däniken investigates the real and false UFO reports and notes: **Extraterrestrials are among us.
And they were there! is a firework of arguments for the impossible. A broadside against a lame science
3. Why does it make sense to examine exceptional theses?
Erich von Däniken‚s book „Und sie waren doch da“ provides the answer himself:
Even in classical Greece it was considered sacrilege to claim that the earth moved around the sun. Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BC) was accused of wickedness and exiled because he proclaimed the sun to be a burning stone. Even Claudius Ptolemy (also called Ptolemy of Alexandria, c. 100–160) still placed the earth at the center of a world system. It was only Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543) who contradicted this – but his work was immediately banned. Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), who proclaimed a new unified world view, was imprisoned by the then Inquisition for seven years and burned at the stake. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who discovered the laws by which the planets revolve around the Sun, was promptly ridiculed. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) did not fare better: After publishing his findings on the orbits of the planets, he was put on trial in 1633 and had to publicly renounce („And it moves!“). “
This is why Erich von Däniken wonders: When will our archaeologists finally admit that the Maya could not have developed their astronomical knowledge themselves?
4. Who was Ezekiel?
Ezekiel or Ezekiel is one of the great prophets of Scripture and the text attributed to him or the book of the same name of the Tanach or the Old Testament. It was created in the 6th century BC in Babylonian exile and describes, among other things, the visions of the „chariot of God„.
5. What is meant by Ezekiel‚s chariot?
The first chapter of Ezekiel describes how the glory of the Lord appears to Ezekiel on his throne chariot, the Merkaba with the cherubim; this is by far the most detailed such description in the Bible. This text plays a prominent role in Jewish Kabbalah, in oral Jewish tradition, and in Christian mysticism.
“I saw a storm wind coming from the north, a great cloud with flickering fire, surrounded by a bright glow. Out of the fire it shone like shining gold. In the midst of it there appeared something like four living creatures. And this was their shape: they looked like men. I looked at the living creatures: beside each of the four I saw a wheel on the ground. The wheels looked as if they were made of chrysolite. All four wheels had the same shape. They were made so that they could be made as if they were made of chrysolite. Their rims were so high that I was startled; they were full of eyes, round about all four wheels. Above the heads of the living beings was something like a hammered plate, dreadful to behold, like a shining crystal, above their heads. Above the plate above their heads was something like a sapphire-like and like a throne. a likeness like a man. ” —Ezekiel 1:4
According to the Mishnah, according to Jewish tradition, it is forbidden to teach a person even in the introduction to the book of Ezekiel unless that disciple is wise and able to understand the subject himself.
In his commentary, the Church Father Jerome compares the eyed wheels from verse 18 with the figure of Argus Panoptes from Greek myths.
It is discussed whether Ezekiel in this chapter describes the observations of strong northern lights, which can be seen even near the equator with strong solar winds, as evidenced by the Carrington event of 1859.
6. What did Erich von Däniken and the NASA engineer Joseph F. Blumrich deduce from this?
It was said to have been the landing craft of an alien spacecraft. A NASA engineer calculated the design details of the reactor-powered vehicle.
The imaginative scout and scout of extraterrestrial astronauts. Erich von Däniken, is drawn, strengthened and helped into the house, namely by an engineer of NASA.
Joseph F. Blumrich. Co-designer of Saturn V and head of the “Project Design” department of the American Space Agency, has written a manuscript to support one of Denmark’s most fantastic interpretations of the Bible with precise technical calculations. The manuscript is published by Danish publisher Barth von Wehrenalp (Econ). Title: “Da tat sich der Himmel auf”. Subtitle: “The spaceships of the prophet Ezekiel and their confirmation by modern technology”.
Blumrich‚s subject is Ezekiel‚s »visions of the carriages of God«. who lived around 600 B. C. In these visions, the prophet met a heavenly messenger, who may be understood as God himself, and received revolutionary instructions, under whose influence the hitherto down-to-earth Jewish religion was transformed into a world religion: the regional God Yahweh became a visionary.
The political background of the Ezekiel Revolution was the subjugation and eventual destruction of the militaristic Solomon Kingdom by the Great Powers of Egypt and Babylon and the beginning of the dispersion of the Jews into non-Palestinian countries. Ezekiel himself was one of the first exiles. 598 BC — Ezekiel was about 30 years old at the time — he was deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had conquered his homeland. Near a Euphrates canal called Chebar, Ezekiel was interned. There he had his first vision of a chariot five years later.
Fig. 17: Josef Franz Blumrich was an aeronautical engineer who moved to the USA in 1959 and was involved in the construction of the Saturn V rocket as part of NASA‚s space program at the Marshall Space Flight Center. He retired in 1974.
Source: Atlantisforschung. de
He saw a „fixed vault“ (in Luther‚s words, „formed like a sky„) floating down in a fiery cloud, carried by four winged beings. The beings had metal feet and a wheel each. On the top of the vault, which Ezekiel usually calls „the brightness of the Lord„, the prophet saw a throne-like structure and on it a „shape. who looked like a human being”. The figure spoke to him.
The experience was repeated twice in a similar form between 593 and 591 and a fourth time occurred about 20 years later. So around 572. Three times Ezekiel took part in a flight of the „vault. “ The third and fourth time around 591 and 572. he felt carried away from the Chebar Canal to Jerusalem. Between the two flights, the temple once built by Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.
In fact, these details have fascinated as well as irritated at all times. Modern painters took Ezekiel‚s account literally and drew technical details, such as the wheels. Modern exegetes, on the other hand, interpreted Ezekiel‚s „view of God“ as a prophetic experience of vocation and the technical details as a psychologically explainable by-product of a sensitive man who, under the impression of a national catastrophe, saw himself confronted with a revolutionary task. Incidentally, the idea of winged beings or fiery chariots of God was quite common at that time.
American psychologists recognized in Ezekiel features of catalepsy (star addiction). The philosopher Karl Jaspers. In 1947 he published a „pathographic study“ on the prophet and tried to interpret his reports as hallucinations of a paranoid schizophrenic.
It was only in the age of the beginning of space travel that there were again writers who took Ezekiel literally. Däniken is one of them. Ezekiel‚s chariot, he suspected in 1968, was a real celestial vehicle: the spaceship of alien astronauts. Inspired by Däniken, Blumrich believes he can provide „the engineering proof for the technical correctness and reality of the spaceships described by Ezekiel. “
Blumrich believes that Ezekiel had to use pictorial comparisons when describing the spaceship. because he lacked any experience in space technology, but he described the components of the spacecraft and their functions with „stunning accuracy. “ The „extraordinary ability of observation“ and the „virtually photographic memory“ of the „reporter“ Ezekiel enabled him, Blumrich, to „translate the Prophet‚s report into the language of the engineers. “
Blumrich assumes that Ezekiel‚s „fixed vault“ was a lander that had been dropped by an alien spacecraft. In 1964, NASA engineer Roger A. Anderson had described how such a lander „suitable for expeditions on celestial bodies with an air envelope“ should look.
It should, according to Anderson, consist of
* a humming-circular central body.
* four main fuselage-bearing helicopters and
* a capsule located on the upper side of the main body for the commander and crew.
According to Anderson, the landing vehicle installations should comprise three main groups:
* Rocket propulsion (reactor, nozzles and cooler).
* Fuel tank, central propulsion of helicopters and
* Units such as air conditioning and recirculation system for the fuel.
Fig. 18: A drawing depiction of the ‚Ezekiel spaceship‚, which Blumrich* reconstructed according to the information in the Old Testament.
Image source: Atlantisforschung. de
Blumrich uses the Anderson model as a control criterion for the »engineering« examination of the Ezekiel report. It is obvious that he identifies the four winged beings described by Ezekiel in the first chapter as the four helicopters of the Anderson model.
Even the fact that Ezekiel saw something between the winged beings, “which looked like burning coals, like torches,” can easily be reconciled with Andersen’s sketch. According to Anderson, the glowing radiator on landing had to be placed between the helicopters. The “torches” mentioned by Ezekiel going back and forth were to be understood as ignitions of the steering missiles of the landing vehicle.
Of the wheels of winged beings Ezekiel says (chapter 1, verse 18): Their figs were occupied with »eyes«. Blumrich interprets these »eyes« as the profiling of rubber tires. (Psychologists, on the other hand, see the mention of »eyes« as a symptom of illness: many paranoid patients feel they are constantly being watched. )
A remark by Ezekiel has long been considered particularly puzzling. according to which each of the wheels was worked „as if one wheel were in the midst of another„, and that each could run in all four directions without turning. According to Blumrich, the process described by Ezekiel can only be explained by the fact that the tube of the wheel could be turned into itself during the rolling motion. Blumrich reconstructed Ezekiel‚s description and filed the result with the U. S. Patent Office — the Book of Prophets, a patent specification.
Blumrich also examines the sound experiences of the Prophet during his three flights and thus locates the central drive and the nozzles. He identifies individual devices with which the spacecraft crew was equipped: »destruction devices«. Measuring instruments“ Loudspeakers and writing instruments.
Blumrich believes he can decipher that at least one other spacecraft operated together with the first spacecraft, that the astronauts had previously deployed ground personnel, that the command capsule was detachable, and that the crew had one-man aircraft.
He even suspects that Ezekiel — after the second landing in Jerusalem — witnessed a dangerous repair. A member of the crew in „linen garments“ (Blumrich: „A protective suit„) received the order: „Bring fire from the space between the wheels, from the space between the cherubim“ (Chapter 10, Verse 6). Blumrich: The crew member „had to approach the glowing surface of the reactor cooler up to about eight meters. “
Engineer Blumrich is well aware that with his book he has exposed himself to the „danger of a reputation and reputation acquired through hard work„. He dared it.
7. The „Biblical“ Ezekiel wheel was patented in 1974
Inspired by the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, whose biblical „chariot of God“ could move forward and sideways on a strange-looking wheel (Ezekiel, chapter 1, verse 16: as if one wheel were in the middle of another), NASA project manager Josef Blumrich developed an over-wheel that was recognized by the US Patent Office. On the outside it is surrounded by six tubular rim segments, which are connected to the wheel hub via spokes. Each of the cylindrical segments should be capable of braking or operating separately — and so bizarre driving manoeuvres are possible even from the stand: sloping forward, simple sideways or even abrupt swiveling manoeuvres. Space gliders and airplanes could land obliquely on flower wheels, cars and lawnmowers could become more mobile, the inventor hopes.
Fig. 19: Extract from U. S. Patent Specification No. 3789947 „Omnidirectial Wheel“ by Blumrich dated February 5, 1974.
Link to the patent specification
8. Chariot or spaceship?
The answer to the question is left to the inclined reader.
9. Are there any other biblical aids for Ezekiel‚s chariot/spaceship?
The book by Erich von Däniken „And they were there!“ confirms that the Bible is teeming with technical equipment. For example, in the 2nd Book of Moses a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites is reported. Moses, Aaron and Hur were stationed on a hill, while down in the field the warriors raged.
«As long as Moses lifted up his arms, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered his arms, Amalek prevailed. But when Moses‚ arms became heavier, they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. While Aaron and Hur supported his arms. One on one side, the other on the other side. “
“Moses obviously had a weapon in his hand that only he could use. After all, he was the favourite of his „lord„, and he supported the Israelites several times against their enemies. Even the much-praised „angels“ did not behave rashly. In the Book of Kings, an „angel“ killed as many as 185,000 Assyrians. „And the next morning they were all dead, all dead. « No battle, no weapons, no chariots, no slaughter. The »Angel« did everything from a heavenly point of view. Amazingly, the same description appears on a wall of the temple in Edfu (Egypt), where a divine being named Hor-Hut destroys the enemies of the Pharaoh from the air. »And after a short time there was no living head left.
10. Which other well-known persons and sources also assume that the extraterrestrials were already here?
„Aliens are among us. There‚s an agreement that allows them to conduct experiments with us. “
Haim Eshed, physicist, head of Israeli space security for 30 years
–—
„At least four different species of extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millennia [. . . ]. Some of the aliens look like us, and they could run down the road, and you wouldn‚t notice. “
Dr. Paul Hellyer, aeronautical engineer, former Minister of Defence of Canada, 23 years in the Canadian Parliament
–—
„Aliens have been on Earth for a long time. “
Prof. Dr. Garry Nolan (Stanford University)
–—
„I am sure of it: sometimes completely unknown objects pass through our airspace silently, displaying flight characteristics that we cannot imitate with our technical means. “
Denis Letty, Major General of the French Air Force, recipient of the Order of the Legion of Honour
–—
„I and some others have had the privilege of being informed from the official side that our planet has already been visited by extraterrestrials and that the UFO phenomenon is real. “
Dr. Edgar Dean Mitchell, US astronaut, sixth man on the moon
–—
„On the evening of March 3, 1997, during my second term as Governor of Arizona, between 8:00 p. m. and 8:30 p. m. , I experienced something that contradicted all logic. A huge, delta-shaped airship that flew silently over Squaw Park in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve [. . . ]. As a pilot and former Air Force officer, I can say with certainty that it “had no resemblance whatsoever to any man-made object. “
Fife Symington, Governor of Arizona from 1991 to 1997
–—
„There is little doubt that some unidentifiable flying objects are real, three-dimensional, massive objects. Physically existent and easily observable. “
Colonel Dr. John Alexander, Project Manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Member of the National Research Council of the USA
–—
„The objective reality of indefinable air phenomena, better known as UFOs, is beyond doubt [. . . ]. The climate of mistrust and disinformation, not to mention ridicule, reveals a surprising form of intellectual blindness. “
Yves Sillard, former Director General of the French Space Agency CNES
–—
„We are participants in a universe teeming with intelligent life forms from which we have cut ourselves off. “
Prof. Dr. John Mack, Harvard University
–—
„Do not forget hospitality, for by it some have entertained angels without knowing it. “
(Religious studies describe angels as intermediaries between God and man. The monotheistic, Abrahamic religions speak of spiritual beings in (winged) Human form.
It is therefore legitimate to classify the angels also in the larger category «extraterrestrial» / extraterrestrial and to list them as a further indication of their existence. )
Bible, Hebrews 13,2
—
11. Concluding words
Picture 20: „The gods love me!“ (Erich von Däniken)
„I know only one God, but this God definitely loves Erich von Däniken too!“ (Lars Rominger)
It was a great honour and pleasure for me to interview the well-read and almost omniscient Erich von Däniken.
I was able to learn a lot from this convincing, sympathetic, eloquent and at the same time humble world star.
Lars Rominger, in June 2024
12. Sources:
– Wikipedia
– US Patent Office
– Erich von Däniken: And they were there! The ultimate proof of extraterrestrial visitation. Kopp Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86445-959-7. Published: 31. 10. 2023.
– Ulrich Dopatka: Lexicon of Pre-Astronautics. Econ, Munich 1982, ISBN 978-3-430-12136-1.
– Markus Pössel: Fantastic Science. About Erich von Däniken and Johannes von Buttlar. Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-499-60259-8.
– Ulrich Magin: Pre-Astronautics. In: Gerald L. Eberlein (ed. ): Kleines Lexikon der Parawissenschaften. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39219-9
– Andreas Grünschloss: When the Gods Land . . . Religious Dimensions of UFO Belief. Berlin 2000.
– Ingbert Jüdt: Aliens in Cultural Memory? The projective reconstruction of the past in the discourse of pre-astronautics. Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8394-0855-1
– Josef F. Blumrich: Then the sky opened / Spaceships Ezekiel Ezekiel. Düsseldorf, Vienna Econ-Verlag. 1973, ISBN: 3430113539
– Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann: The Book of Enoch in complete translation with continuous commentary, detailed introduction and explanatory excursions in Project Gutenberg Jena 1833 (the Ethiopian Book of Enoch)
13. Addendum to Enoch
Enoch or Enoch
According to the Bible, Enoch did not die, but was taken away by God (Genesis 5:18–24 ).
Old Testament
In the Old Testament there is only the brief paragraph about Enoch mentioned in the introduction in Gen 5,18–24. After that, Enoch is the eldest son of Jered and thus a descendant of Set. His father was 162 years old when he fathered him. He himself fathered Methusalem at the age of 65. Afterwards, he is said to have lived for another 300 years and had many more sons and daughters. Then it says in verse 24: “Enoch had gone his way with God, and he was no more; for God had received him. ” His reached age of 365 years, which is small compared to his parents and children, can be seen symbolically: the number corresponds to the number of days in a solar year.
A similar story is found in the Bible in 2 Kings 2:11 with the rapture of Elijah.
New Testament
In the New Testament, Heb 11:5 emphasizes that Enoch was raptured “by faith” and did not have to die, and that before the rapture he received the testimony that “he pleased God. ” Here we see the influence of Pauline theology, with its justification of the believer by faith, not by works of righteousness.
In Jude 1:14, according to the common view, a sentence of Enoch is quoted, which can also be found in the apocryphal Ethiopian book of Enoch (1:9). Enoch, “the seventh after Adam,” had prophesied of future false teachers, and that God would come with many thousands of saints to judge the ungodliness of men. This passage proves that the early Christian congregations received writings that were not canonized by the later church.
Enoch is also mentioned in Lk 3,37 EU in one of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Non-biblical / The apocryphal books of Enoch
Under the name of Enoch exist three apocryphal books, which contain 1. , 2. and 3. Book of Enoch or sometimes also be designated according to the languages in which they are chiefly handed down.
In the first book of Enoch the «Nephilim» are discussed in detail. In the Bible they are described as divine beings of the male sex who coveted human women and they became pregnant by them. The descendants were the giants of antiquity. (Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:32-33).
According to biblical tradition, Enoch was raptured into heaven by God. In the books of Enoch one imagined what Enoch might have seen during his travels to the heavens. The first book of Enoch contains five different sub-books, possibly written by different authors. Several Aramaic and two Hebrew fragments of the 1st Enoch were found in Qumran and can therefore be safely dated to the period between 130 BC and 68 AD.
For the first time can be found in the above-mentioned. 1. Book of Enoch describes a „hell“ in which people are tormented (chapter 21), which is unknown in the Torah. The descriptions of the different heavens and hells, with their angels (especially the fallen ones), also influenced the ideas of the early Church Fathers of the Second World War. 2nd to 4th century. Historians therefore attribute to the books a significant role in the development of the Christian dogma of hell and certain aspects of the doctrine of hell.
Apocryphal writings
After the pseudo-Titus letter, Enoch is commissioned to write down a history of the first humans. With this statement the existence of the books of Enoch can be justified. In the Apocalypse of Paul, Enoch is called the scribe of righteousness. After the ascension of Isaiah, Enoch and others are in heaven, without their fleshly bodies and clothed in new garments; thus, they will receive thrones and crowns only after the coming of the Messiah. After the Revelation of Peter, a false Christ will come. Then Enoch and Elijah will appear and expose him.
14. Addendum to the Drake Equation (Darth Vader Scenario), Global Risks Report World Economic Forum
According to a revised version of the Drake equation (also known as the Green Bank or SETI equation), which incorporates what is known to date about exoplanets, it has been estimated: Assuming the probability that a planet in a habitable zone produces a „technological species“ larger than about 10-24, then, with high statistical probability, humanity is not the only case of a technological species in the observable universe. Astronomer Alexander Zaitsev coined the term Darth Vader Scenario. For some time now, there have been considerations for a planetary defense. For example, the 2019 Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum* concluded that a future discovery of extraterrestrial life is a potential X-Factor that could have profound implications.
Personally, I think that aliens are so culturally advanced and intelligent that they are no longer interested in power and possession, but in peace, common development and preservation, otherwise aliens would have taken over the Earth long ago.
*Global Risks Report 2019, World Economic Forum:
The Global Risks Report 2019 is published against a backdrop of worrying geopolitical and geo-economic tensions. If unresolved, these tensions will hinder the world’s ability to deal with a growing range of collective challenges, from the mounting evidence of environmental degradation to the increasing disruptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The report presents the results of our latest Global Risks Perception Survey, in which nearly 1,000 decision-makers from the public sector, private sector, academia and civil society assess the risks facing the world. Nine out of 10 respondents expect worsening economic and political confrontations between major powers this year. Over a ten-year horizon, extreme weather and climate-change policy failures are seen as the gravest threats.
This year’s report includes another series of “what-if” Future Shocks that examine quantum computing, weather manipulation, monetary populism, emotionally responsive artificial intelligence and other potential risks. The theme of emotions is also addressed in a chapter on the human causes and effects of global risks; the chapter calls for greater action around rising levels of psychological strain across the world.
Source (Link)
15. Addendum: Homage to Erich von Däniken by Claude Cueni
Hommage to Claude Cueni,a gifted writer (Link)
Weltwoche – Article: Karl May of Aliens. Claude Cueni. 10.01.2024 (Link)
Hommage from Claude Cueni to Erich von Däniken
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