UFOs in Ancient Art: Hidden in Plain Sight
Millions of people believe extraterrestrials visited earth in spacecraft in ancient times and influenced human affairs. They also believe records of these visitations are preserved and seen as UFOs in ancient art. Is it true? Does ancient art preserve proof of ancient contact with alien spacecraft? Or, is something else being shown?
As a co-producer and presenter on History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, and writer and presenter of Arcanum on Gaia, I have a 30-year passion for this question. It has a very interesting history that must be understood to be properly answered.
Paleo contact, or the theory that extraterrestrial visitors came to earth in ancient times, is a hypothesis first put forth in the 1950s by Soviet mathematician Mikhail Agrest. He proposed that rock art, some of which is over 7,000 years old, portrayed alien visitors wearing space suits and helmets, holding high tech tools, and emerging from flying devices.
Conspiracy theorists say Soviet intelligence co-opted the idea and began popularizing it in the 1960s in order to undermine Western civilization and its religions by planting the idea that the events of the bible, especially the miracles, were nothing but flesh and blood extraterrestrial visitors with advanced technology who came to earth to influence human evolution. This psychological operation (PSYOP) was a cover for Russia’s alleged secret space program and its development of advanced aircraft and weapons supposedly derived from recovered extraterrestrial technology.
As conventional anthropologists of the time argued that the gods were imaginary beings and human evolution and development was gradual, paleo contact was quite a controversial idea.
Evolutionary biologist, Steven J. Gould, further rocked the zeitgeist in 1972 with his theory of punctuated equilibrium, which states that great changes in a species happen very rapidly, followed by long periods of stasis where there is little or no change.
The sudden, miraculous, transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens defies the conventional theory of evolution, which states that over the course of millions of years humans evolved from hunter gatherers, to gardeners, to city builders to Mona Lisa painters, to today’s transhumanist technologists. There is a missing link or branch between the more ape-like Homo erectus and modern humans. We share genetics with our ancestors, but our abilities are far greater. Something activated these capabilities. But, what?
Punctuated equilibrium is used to explain it. Some scientists see a powerful connection between our spurts in evolution and asteroid and comet impacts, supernovas, gamma-ray bursts and the strong coupling between our solar system and the galaxy and the evolution of life on Earth.
Why not extraterrestrial visitors, as the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian records claimed? What if, suddenly, the masses realized that we had help from ancient extraterrestrial visitors who came from an otherworldly place beyond human reach and these visitors were a “missing link” that accelerated our evolution? It could have a dramatic destabilizing effect on society, said the famed 1960 Brookings Report. This is why governments and religious institutions covered-up evidence of ancient extraterrestrial contact, say theorists.
Von Däniken and Sitchin Identify UFOs in Ancient Art
No such destabilization occurred when the paleo contact concept gained world wide popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s when it was adopted by Swiss author, Erich von Däniken, and the Russian-born American author, Zecharia Sitchin. Instead, their books proposing an explanation for human origins and evolution involving ancient astronauts sold millions of copies and inspired a generation of believers in ancient contact with extraterrestrials.
The resulting leap of consciousness has led to our current intense era of seeking to understand cosmic visitors and the disclosure movement which seeks the release of all the information the U.S. government has about extraterrestrials, UFOs, and its own alleged secret space program.
Both von Däniken and Sitchin point to ancient art as a repository of evidence of UFO or ancient alien contact. Most of these UFOs in ancient art are sacred or religious in nature. This is quite ironic as a core belief of “ancient astronaut theory” in that there is nothing spiritual going on during these ancient extraterrestrial visitations.
Ancient astronaut theory holds that the “gods” and “angels” of the ancient sacred/spiritual traditions are simply advanced humans with super powers given to them by advanced technology that was indistinguishable from magic to the ancient experiencers. Ancient astronaut theorists claim the aliens brought planes, helicopters, tanks, genetic technology, lasers, nuclear weapons, and computers with them.
These so-called gods came to earth from Sirius, Orion, the Pleiades, Cygnus and other worlds with an intelligent design program in mind.
Depending on which school one subscribes to, this program aims to either uplift humanity to the visitor’s level of spiritual existence (or even to exceed them), or to enslave humanity as workers to mine Earth’s resources. Were the ancient visitors slave masters? Or, were they here for the more spiritually inclined purpose of uplifting humanity and assisting us in our spiritual ascension? Or, could it be both?
The way one chooses to answer these questions determines the eye or perspective from which the UFO art of the ancients is observed, read and/or experienced.
UFO Art: Rocket Ship or Ascension Vehicle?
An important example of ancient UFO art is the sarcophagus lid of the Mayan king Pakal. This venerated king ruled from 603-683 CE. After death, his body was entombed in the extraordinary Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque in the Yucatan Peninsula. A five-ton carved limestone lid sealed his body in the sarcophagus that was hidden deep within his pyramidal temple.
Secreted away for over thirteen hundred years, Pakal’s sarcophagus and its fabulous lid captured the world’s attention when discovered in 1948. Scholars went to work attempting to decipher the meaning of this astounding piece of art. The work was slow as very little of the Maya’s cosmological beliefs were known at that time. No one could not read the rich and elegant Maya symbols until Russian linguists broke the Maya code in 1952. American scholars would have to wait until the end of the Cold War to access these new findings.
In his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, von Däniken proposed that Pakal’s sarcophagus lid holds the key to ancient alien intervention. He inspired millions to see Pakal as an ancient astronaut and his strange ‘throne’ as a mechanical device. Specifically, he compared it to the Mercury rocket used in the first human spaceflight program between 1961 and 1963. The Mercury spacecraft was topped by a small capsule with room for one astronaut. The astronaut stayed in his seat during the flight.
According to von Däniken’s reading, Pakal sits on a chair tilting forward, his foot on a pedal, his hands manipulate the controls and he breathes through a breathing apparatus. He is preparing to journey into space.
Comparing Pakal’s lid to the Mercury spacecraft, one can easily see von Däniken’s points of correspondence and why it became an iconic image of ancient astronaut theory. The symbolism is virtually identical.
Watch Erich von Däniken discuss UFOs in ancient art and religion in this episode of Beyond the Legend:
About the Author
UFO Alien Drone Technology
Between 2006 and 2007, dozens of people in various geographical locations around the United States all reported seeing the same type of UFO. It was about 25 feet in diameter and saucer-shaped, with tentacle-like wires extending about 30 feet into the air. The body of the object was only about two feet thick, too small to be piloted by humans. These objects were nicknamed “dragonfly drones” because of their unusual shapes, patterns of movement and because they seemed to be controlled remotely.
Those who saw the dragonfly drones reported that they would appear, then disappear from sight, only to reappear again, all in a few seconds time. Where did they come from? Could they be aliens spying on Earth? Or were they a part of the government’s secret space program? The mysteries of dragonfly drones caught the attention of Howe.
One day in 2007, Linda Moulton Howe, a long time UFO researcher and documentary filmmaker, opened her email and found she had been sent 12 photos of the objects. It inspired her to find out what they were and where they came from.
Who is Linda Moulton Howe?
Linda Moulton Howe wasn’t always a UFO researcher and filmmaker. She started her career by winning Miss Idaho in 1963 as part of the Miss America Pageant. She entered the contest in hopes of winning a college scholarship, which she did. She went on to graduate cum Laude from the University of Colorado and earned a master’s degree in communications at Stanford University. She has won numerous awards for her work in the UFO field and for her work on television documentaries. She is particularly interested in extraterrestrials and the possibility that our government is working with them to advance technology and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Based on her work in the UFO field, it makes sense that people would send her photos of the aforementioned UFOs. In addition to the photos, the observers also provided verbal descriptions of what they had seen. The photos had all been taken at the Big Basin in the Redwoods in California.
In addition to the description of their size, the people who had seen the objects said they spun in one direction, then changed directions, still spinning.
There was no sound associated with the spinning. Observers also noted that the objects appeared in their sight, then disappeared and reappeared all in a matter of seconds.
Based on her vast experience, Howe knew the photos were authentic and she believed the reports of the witnesses. Shortly after receiving the photos, she received a phone call from a person who said he had secret information about the dragonfly drones. He wouldn’t give his real name and only used the name Isaac.
Government whistleblower Isaac told Howe that in the 1980s he had worked on a secret program in Palo Alto, California, for a government organization called the Commercial Applications Research for Extraterrestrial Technology (CARET) program. His task, alongside a large number of other computer specialists, was to work to incorporate technology learned from aliens into U.S. manufactured drones. Isaac said he had seen the photos and recognized parts he had helped develop using extraterrestrial technology on the underside of the objects.
This, of course, intrigued Howe. She opened communications with Isaac to discover what he knew and to learn as much as she could about the unusual UFO drones others had observed.
Whistleblower Isaac, CARET and Alien Technology
In that phone call to Howe, Isaac told Howe that he was an electrical engineer and computer scientist who had worked for a few years for the Department of Defense (DoD). While he was there, he was selected to work in the government sponsored CARET program, which was housed in a large building in Palo Alto, California.
According to Isaac, he and the other scientists selected for the CARET program worked in a building that, from the outside, looked like an ordinary two-story library. Just like so many other government programs that hide in plain sight, the real work was done several stories underground in the CARET building.
There were between 200 and 300 scientists working in the building. Their mission was to see if, in the Palo Alto atmosphere, the scientists could accelerate the learning of a new computer language or, at least, try and figure out a new language to use in the dragonfly drones.
Each scientist worked in his or her own cubicle with a specific assigned task. They were not allowed to share their information with each other, so Isaac didn’t know what the others did. He studied symbols that they called self-activating software. They tried for 30 days to properly duplicate the symbols, but they couldn’t. He also worked on parts for the dragonfly drones. The main objective of Isaac’s job was to work with alien technology, “figure out how it worked,” and insert it, in its modified form, back “into commercially viable products.” He was never told where the technology actually came from, and he suspects none of the other scientists working on this project were told. They were told only that it was “non-human” technology.
Isaac did know that the reason the UFOs described in the photos appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared was because they were made to be invisible. When the frequencies got jammed, the light around the drones would bend and the invisibility would momentarily flicker.
Isaac claimed he came forward when he recognized the dragonfly drones in the witness reports and photos as the same technology he worked with at the Palo Alto CARET facility. One witness who was contacted by Isaac said that Isaac reassured her she had not seen a UFO drone, but the object she had seen was made in the U.S. He also told her that if the drone had been working properly, it would have been invisible and she never would have seen it. In addition, he claimed that dogs can see these drones even when they’re invisible. Dogs may bark at something, but when we try to see whatever they are barking at, we cannot see anything.
What Do You Think about the Dragonfly Drones?
According to an article in Truthfall, there has not been a dragonfly drone sighting since 2008. What does that mean? Was the UFO dragonfly drone program successful? Are invisible drones with alien AI hovering over us right now? Does the government own or operate them, or have they fallen into private hands? If they do still exist, are they something we need to be worried about, or will they be helpful to us?
