I've found the perfect tv show to watch while I'm curled up in bed with this cold/sinus infection (for which I just got antibiotics this morning): "Ancient Aliens."
Yep, you read that correctly: "Ancient Aliens."
It's a show on H2 (History Channel 2) that explores the ideas of "Alien Astronaut Theorists." Like Chariots of the Gods author Erich von Daniken. They believe that extra-terrestrials have visited Earth in the remote past as well as in the more recent past (and present) and have had notable impact on such things as architecture (particularly tools and techniques, as well as types--you know, for landing strips!), weather (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes were caused by aliens), religion (West African Dogons, Australian aborigines), and genetics (in that they have interbred, evidenced by long-skulled skeletons. Oh, before humans, they interbred with reptiles and created Reptilians). Evidence--in the realm of unexplainable architecture, ancient art, and ancient texts--abounds for them, especially because they take everything so literally: a sculpture of a fantastic lizard means that lizard was real, probably the result of reptile-alien breeding; pictographs of large-eyed figures must mean large-eyed figures, i.e. Gray aliens, lived on earth; rows of boulders visible from the air, such as at Carnac in Brittany, must have been made to be visible from the air, for spaceships; descriptions in the Bible and Vedic texts are all real and not metaphorical, including Ezekial's spaceship-wheel, the "manna machine" from aliens in the desert for 40 years, and the flying Vimanas with mercury. Of course, you've never heard so many maybe-probably-potentially qualifiers and "if-then" subjunctives used in one sentence! And those by investigative journalists and author/publishers of various books and magazines like Legendary Times and The Ancient Alien Question , who believe traditional archaeologists, the government, NASA, Freemasons, and schools don't comprehend or cover up the truth.
How could that not be fun?
These shows have come a long way from the books and shows I was obsessed with in the early 1980s, which were all ESP, Freemasons, Bigfoot, Roswell, Machu Picchu, Nazca lines, Stonehenge, and the pyramids. I followed those with glee and interest, appreciating the non-traditional theories and idea that "the truth is out there." Now there are more remote and less familiar sites--Gobekli Tepe in Turkey and Puma Punku in Bolivia and Carahunge in Armenia, to name a few--and a more coherent theory encompassing it all, namely "alien astronauts." Of course, as much as I enjoy the theories and armchair sightseeing, I don't really believe these ideas. Are there aliens somewhere? Probably. Have they been here? I doubt it--I tend to think if they'd been here, they'd have taken over (and the theorists never convincingly explain "why," even if they have "what" down pat.) Are art and texts proof? I tend to read art and texts much more metaphorically and imaginatively and would be very cautious about reading them as "real" or "true" (a la Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown claiming all descriptions of art in his book are "true." It might be his true reading but belief in something, however strongly held, doesn't make it true or real.) How did they make those buildings? I think we often underestimate the accomplishments of our ancestors, having lost their skills and believing so whole-heartedly in our own superiority to all previous times, and don't need aliens to explain their achievements. That said, I know there are things in history and science that we can't explain, might never understand. I just don't think we need to say aliens are the answer.
So, why? Why "alien astronauts"? Is this an outgrowth of fifty years of Star Trek, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., "The X-Files," and the like? Is this an attempt for otherwise secular people to have something to believe in that is bigger than themselves? Or to have an explanation, any explanation, for Mystery? Is it coincidence that the experts are all middle-aged white men? Is this just the folklore of our era, instead of wicked stepmothers or rogue cowboys? An expression of distrust of government and institutions?
It's great brain candy for a sick day, regardless.
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