Erich von Däniken

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Erich Anton Paul von Däniken

Born April 14, 1935 (1935-04-14) (age 74)
Zofingen, Aargau, Switzerland
Occupation Author

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (born April 14, 1935) is a controversial Swiss author best known for his books which present claims of evidence for extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, most prominently Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Von Däniken is one of the key figures responsible for popularizing the paleocontact and ancient astronaut hypotheses.

Von Däniken is a co-founder of the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association (AAS RA). He developed a theme park called Mystery Park in Interlaken, Switzerland, which opened on May 23, 2003 and closed on November 19, 2006.

His 26 books have been translated into more than 20 languages, selling more than 60 million copies worldwide, and his documentary TV shows have been viewed around the world.

Contents

[edit] Claims of alien influence on Earth

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Building on previous works by other authors (including Italian Peter Kolosimo, who was later critical of von Däniken), von Däniken claimed that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists and has entered the local Solar System in the past, and that evidence of this past contact is abundant. He also claims that human evolution may have been manipulated through means of genetic engineering by extraterrestrial beings.

The evidence that von Däniken has put forward to support his paleo-contact hypotheses can be categorized as follows:

  • Artifacts have been found which are alleged to represent a higher technological knowledge than existed at the times when they were manufactured. Von Däniken maintains that these artifacts have been manufactured either by extraterrestrial visitors, or by humans who obtained the necessary knowledge from them. Such artifacts include the Antikythera mechanism, Stonehenge, the statues of Easter Island, and the Piri Reis map.
  • In ancient art throughout the world, themes are observed which can be interpreted to illustrate astronauts, air and space vehicles, non-human but intelligent creatures, and artifacts of a high technology. Von Däniken also points out details that are similar in the art of unrelated cultures.
  • Origins of religions might be a reaction to contact with an alien race by primitive humans. The humans considered the technology of the aliens to be supernatural and the aliens themselves to be gods. According to von Däniken, the oral and literal traditions of most religions contain references to visitors from "stars" and vehicles traveling through air and space. These, he says, should be interpreted as literal descriptions which have changed during the passage of time and have become more obscure, rather than as symbolic or mythical fiction. One such is Ezekiel's revelation in the Old Testament, which he interprets as a detailed description of a landing spacecraft.

[edit] Popularity

Von Däniken became popular in India during the 1970s, as a result of his books being translated into the Bengali language by the translator Ajit Dutta. School level students were the first major group of his believers in India. Von Däniken subsequently visited the Kashmir region of India to check for the presence of radioactivity in an ancient temple, where he believed that a spacecraft had once landed. This was covered mostly in a critical manner by the Indian media. Major media houses in India referred to von Däniken's trip as a "failure," due to his inability to state the nature of the radioactivity supposedly found in the temple.

An exhibit, Un Monde Insolite, largely based on Däniken's book Chariots of the Gods was opened in Montreal, Canada, for several summers in the 1970s. The exhibit was located in a former pavilion of the Expo 67 exhibition. It featured replicas of various historical artifacts that Däniken claimed were evidence of past alien visitation.

[edit] Criticism

A few scientists, such as Carl Sagan and I. S. Shklovskii, have written about von Däniken's paleocontact and extraterrestrial visitation claims. Although Dr. Sagan did not rule out the possibility of visitation, he insisted that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".[citation needed]

Von Däniken claimed that a non-rusting iron pillar in India was evidence of extraterrestrial influence.[1] However, he admitted in a Playboy interview that the pillar was actually rusty and man-made, and that as far as supporting his hypotheses goes "we can forget about this iron thing."[2] (Von Däniken did not invent the tale of the rust-free iron pillar in India: in 1935 Will Durant inserted the same mistake in Our Oriental Heritage, page 478.) Neither von Däniken, nor any of his publishers have removed this, or any other item of discredited "evidence" from subsequent editions of his books.

Most historians regard Von Däniken's claims as pseudoscience, and are of the opinion that he is drawing far-reaching conclusions from little evidence, and he is disregarding more likely alternative hypotheses, but a large group of followers, some of whom have written books of their own, are of the opinion that his theories are likely to be true.

The general public, however, has sometimes been more responsive. Some of Von Däniken's 26 books have been translated into many languages, with a gross book sales of more than 60 million copies worldwide, and his documentary TV-shows have been viewed in Germany, the United States, and other countries. His influence can also be seen in science fiction, the New Age culture and some modern religions like Scientology.

Furthermore, some have accused von Däniken of racism and European ethnocentrism.[3][4]

Ronald Story published The Space Gods Revealed in 1976, providing an almost page-by-page refutation of the hypotheses and evidence in von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods?.

[edit] Legal troubles

Von Däniken's run-ins with the law started at an early age. In the 1960s, Von Däniken worked in hotels and restaurants across Switzerland, and then he was convicted of fraud, serving a prison sentence for defrauding his boss at one hotel. In 1967, soon after Chariots of the Gods was published he was arrested and charged by Interpol with fraud and tax evasion for non-payment of $14,000.00. On behalf of the prosecution, he was ordered by the Court to undergo psychological examinations. During the investigation, authorities uncovered a large personal debt totaling about $700,000. Von Däniken was found guilty of embezzlement, and he served more than three years in Swiss prisons.[5] Von Däniken stated in the preface of his book Return to the Stars that it was written while he was "in prison on remand". In 1982, that conviction was overturned by the Graubünden cantonal court.[citation needed] During his prison term, Von Däniken wrote his second book: Return to the Stars. His criminal convictions dogged von Däniken, who was at times not permitted visas to enter the United States, or some other countries. That caused him to become a no-show at several speaking engagements, including a so-called "Legendary Times" San Francisco, Calif. seminar in May 2004.

By 1982, after further controversies, Von Däniken could not find a British or American publisher for his 10th book. His books have continued to be published in the German language and are best sellers. In the 1990s and 2000s newer books were published in English. Although in the past several years his theories have made a modest resurgence, a multi-million dollar theme park based on von Däniken's ideas and persona was a financial disappointment, and it was closed in November 2006 due to poor attendance.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Chariots of the Gods (1968)
  • Return to the Stars (1968)
  • Gods from Outer Space (1970)
  • The Gold of the Gods (1972)
  • In Search of Ancient Gods (1973)
  • Miracles of the Gods (1974)
  • According to the Evidence (1977)
  • Signs of the Gods (1979)
  • Pathways to the Gods (1981)
  • The Gods and Their Grand Design (1982)
  • German language books published between 1984 and 1995:
  • The Eyes of the Sphinx (1996)
  • The Return of the Gods—Evidence of Extraterrestrial Visitations (1997)
  • Odyssey of the Gods—An Alien History of Ancient Greece (2000)
  • The Gods Were Astronauts - Revised (2001)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ von Däniken, Erich: Chariots of the Gods?, p.94
  2. ^ Playboy magazine, Volume 21 Number 8, 1974
  3. ^ Feder, Kenneth L. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology Mayfield Publishing Company 1990 3rd ed. ISBN 0-7674-0459-9 p. 195
  4. ^ Flenley, John; Bahn, Paul G. The Enigmas of Easter Island Oxford University Press 2003 ISBN 978-0192803405 p.114 [1]
  5. ^ They came from outer space — and posed for portraits Times Dec 3 2002[2]

[edit] Notes

Regarding personal names: in German, von is a preposition which approximately means of or from and usually denotes some sort of nobility. It is part of the family name or territorial designation, not a first or middle name.

[edit] External links

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