It all started in 1968 when Erich von Däniken wrote his now classic book, Chariots of the Gods? Despite its sensational nature, the premise was simple enough: that aliens had visited Earth and influenced ancient civilizations. Not only that, but that there is evidence for this in the archaeological remains. Since the first edition of his book von Daniken has been promoting this message and has inspired others to agree and find even more evidence of ancient alien encounters. You won’t be surprised to hear that there is a fair bit of speculation around the Egyptian pyramids, after all, how could the ancients create such structures without the use of computers, cranes and other modern technology? They must have had help from above! I tend to agree, but think that it was help from angels and not from aliens.

The teachings for the New Church give us a big picture history of humanity. Essentially that, like recorded in other cultures, time can be separated into different ages. In Secrets of Heaven we are told that there is a “most ancient church” that equates with the dawn of humanity, and an “ancient church” that follows and ends with the story of Noah. The most ancients had an open connection to the hereafter, and we see that illustrated in the Adam and Eve story because God is walking in the garden with them. Because of this open connection, they had a clear understanding about the true nature of reality, and were rich in wisdom as a result.

After that time, God becomes more distant because humanity turned away from Him. God does talk to Noah, but not in the same way as with Adam and Eve. While there wasn’t literally a flood that wiped out humanity, the stories through the first 11 chapters of the Bible are written in a symbolic language that was passed down from the wisdom of their ancestors as well as communication with the spiritual realm. Secrets of Heaven puts it this way: “As the ancients had interaction with spirits and angels, they had no other speech than this, which was full of representatives, and in every expression of which there was a spiritual sense. The books of the ancients were also written in this way; for it was the study of their wisdom so to speak and so to write. (#3482)”

We get a couple of important points out of that quote: first that the ancients had contact with spirits and angels, and second that their wisdom consisted of expressing things in a spiritual way. Not surprisingly, Giorgio Tsoukalos, the publisher of Legendary Times magazine and a regular on the program “Ancient Aliens” reads the archaelogical evidence a bit differently. At the Dendera temple complex in Egypt there is a depiction on the wall that normal people think looks like a lotus flower in bloom and from the blossom is light coming out of it. Tsoukalos says that it is in fact a depiction of an ancient light bulb and that the Egyptians were given knowledge of electricity from the aliens. He goes on to say, that “Dendera… was the place where the knowledge of the light giving source was kept.” Well, I tend to agree with him on that! It’s just that the light giving source is God, not a light bulb. He should be able to see this for himself because he then says, “this knowledge was kept by the high priests who were the only ones privy to this type of information because Dendera was the special place where this knowledge was guarded and kept.” Yep, that sounds like a light bulb… priests are known for guarding the secrets of alien technology.

No! The knowledge being kept was the knowledge of how the natural world and the spiritual world are connected. “The wisdom of [ancient Egyptian] times was in fact based on the study of correspondences. That study gave them inner awareness and communication with the heavens. The people who knew the correspondences in that Word were called “the wise” and “the intelligent.” Later they were called “diviners” and “magi.” (Secrets of Heaven 279)” This is the kind of knowledge that would later enable some Egyptians to perform real magic. It also was preserved in “the east” and how the wise men of Christmas story knew how to find Jesus.

Beyond light bulbs, one of the main points of contention regarding the pyramids is the thousands of stone blocks that make up the outer shell. Archaeologists believe that it took 22 years to build the great pyramid, but some astute scholars note that if that was the case it would mean that they would have had to place a stone block every nine seconds! That’s pretty hard to do if you’re having to cut a stone out of a quarry, drag it across the desert and up the side of a large structure. However, there is a simpler explanation. In the early 80s one archaelogist proposed that the pyramids are actually made of ancient concrete. They found all the necessary materials nearby the pyramids and found that with papyrus a person could make the forms necessary to hold the liquid concrete in place. You could create the block in its place and over time the papyrus would disintegrate leaving the structure looking the way it does. But a story like that doesn’t keep you on the TV…

Egypt is not the only place the aliens allegedly visited though. Out in the desert of Peru the natives had such a connection with the gods, er, aliens, that they created artwork for them to enjoy. The designs are shallow lines made in the ground by removing the reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish/grayish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes; more than 70 are designs of animals such as birds, fish, llamas, jaguars, monkeys, or human figures. Other designs include shapes such as trees and flowers. The largest figures are over 200 meters across. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. That they do have religious significance makes sense and also falls in line with the idea that the ancients would have had connection with the spiritual realm. Alien theorists say that these drawings could only be enjoyed from above, and since humans couldn’t fly they must have been drawn for aliens… or for the angels that would visit them from above.

These theories have been out for many years, but just this year I came across one that I’d never heard before, namely that the universe is a computer game designed by aliens! British philosopher Nick Bostrom says he believes that the reality we perceive around us may be the product of a highly-advanced computer program, much like the plot of the Matrix movies. Dr. Bostrom proposed in a paper he wrote that an evolved race of aliens have imprisoned the human-race in what he refers to as a “digital imprisonment.” These aliens, or super-humans, are using virtual reality to simulate space and time, according to Bostrom. Amazingly he’s even got a leading NASA scientist giving him some backing.

He won’t get that from me though. I have no problem with the idea that aliens exist, and I’m even comfortable with the idea that they’ve visited, but I also think that aliens are getting more credit than they deserve. I could go on and on about this, but hopefully you get the idea and next time you hear some crazy story about how aliens have influenced our ancient past, just maybe think that it was angels giving us a helping hand and not the aliens.