Ancient Astronauts and the Tao

Readers of my blog probably know by now that I have a fascination with ancient astronaut theory, the idea that aliens had some sort of influence in humanity's past. Theories range anywhere from aliens creating us to them merely intervening and influencing our civilization through the ages. Evidence supporting these theories is said to exist in many places, from ancient ruins, artifacts, bizarre hieroglyphics and images, and religious texts (i.e. the Bible and the Vedas ). It was while reading one of these texts, the Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (info on the person) a Taoist master, that I found something that may have been overlooked by ancient astronaut theorists.

In the first section of his works called "Free and easy wandering" there is a section where the character Chen Wu tells another character:

"He said that there is a Holy Man living on faraway Ku-she Mountain, with skin like ice or snow, and gentle and shy like a young girl. He doesn't eat the five grains, but sucks the wind, drinks the dew, climbs up on the clouds and mist, rides a flying dragon, and wanders beyond the four seas. By concentrating his spirit, he can protect creatures from sickness and plague and make the harvest plentiful. I thought this was all insane and refused to believe it."

Ordinarily a person probably would have written this off as highly imaginative fiction, however I find it quite interesting. First off is the description of the Holy Man, "...with skin like ice or snow, and gentle and shy..." which bears in my opinion a similarity to the classic gray aliens, minus the large black eyes aspect. Then we come to the fact that, he doesn't eat normal food, and rides a dragon which could be an aircraft of some kind, described in terms familiar to the ancient Chinese. Finally we have the possibility of highly advanced or evolved mental powers in the "...concentrating his spirit..." portion. Overall it screams ancient alien to me.

There is also the possibility that it could even be connected to the Dropa stones story, where a supposed race of alien beings landed near the Chinese-Tibetan border and were unable to leave due to some sort of misfortune. After realizing their predicament, they settled in a system of caves and tried to fit in the natives of the region only to have been all, but wiped out by them. In the end they left behind hundreds of stone discs that show signs of advanced engineering.

All this is of course conjecture, but I feel the account in Chuang Tzu's writings make for compelling evidence of possible alien contact in ancient China and perhaps lends more credence to the Dropa story. Maybe the "Holy Man" is even a Dropa?

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The excerpt from the Complete Writings of Chuang Tzu is from an online translation by Burton Watson.

Unexpected twists and werewolves

Life it seems is constantly throwing unexpected twists at me recently. Sort of annoying because they were not totally unexpected, but I couldn't really do much about them. First off I was demoted at work, while kind of negative thing in the career world, it's sort of a relief because I'm not as stressed now, plus my pay won't be cut to bad. Most annoying however is that my power supply on my desktop decided to kick the bucket, so I'm writing this from my wife's laptop which I have issues with (likes to trick me with it's keyboard). Worst part is that do to a freak accident with gamma radiation, I turn into frothing werewolf when it pisses me off...

Ok...so I'm not really some Incredible Hulk werewolf, but between seeing Twilight New Moon with my wife recently and also Monsterquest's most recent episode (about werewolves as well), I've formulated an idea about paranormal creatures. It's sort of a play on the idea of thoughtforms (physical manifestations of thoughts), or Tulpas (for those more familiar with that term).

This isn't really an original idea, but the theory that Fortean objects or phenomenon, be it animals or UFOs are physical manifestations of thought is actually quite common (heck some believe the world/universe is basically a gigantic thoughtform). However I found myself wondering how many paranormal creatures exist because of a community belief in them, not just from an individual's. Basically the communities themselves believe these to be real, so they become real.

Sadly this post is almost a repeat of one I wrote around year or more ago about gods existing because of belief. Actually it somewhat makes sense. Both the Bible and Koran make it a point to try and make one's beliefs in other gods (besides Allah/Jehovah) falter or be flat out eliminated. It's almost as if the writers of those ancient texts knew that the existence of these gods depended on the amount of belief in them, sort of like in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods in a way.

Anyways expect more on this idea the near future. Also if things fall into place expect to hear about a crazy plan of mine soon as well...something involving a road trip and of course...strangeness...

Gilgamesh Flood Story Part 1: Intro

I've been trying to figure out how to introduce this one because it's not quite the same as paraphrasing something from the Bible. The other problem is the fact it really is so similar to the story of Noah's flood that I swear at times I was reading the same thing with different names. So the best to start I think is to give you all a link to the flood story from the Epic of Gilgamesh: The Great Flood: Gilgamesh (I really suggest reading it because you'll probably be a tad lost later if you don't)

One thing I want to note is that the flood story from this epic is not about Gilgamesh himself, rather it is told to Gilgamesh by the flood survivor named Utnapishtim (I've actually seen TV documentaries get that bit wrong), who is the story's version of Noah. Utnapishtim even builds an equivalent to the Ark which he takes animals on as well (it's not as apparent while reading it, but that is the case), although it is a giant cube apparently with all sides being the same.

Besides the name there are a couple other key differences to this story. For instance there are multiple gods, in particular the Anunnaki whom you should all know from my adventures into the works of Zecharia Sitchin. In fact it is the Anunnaki named Enlil who apparently rashly decides to destroy humanity with a large flood because they have angered him and many of the other Anunnaki.

The other primary difference is that the flooding process itself lasts only 7 days and 6 nights as opposed to the 40 days of Noah's flood. There is also a really cool description process here telling about gods drawing back gates and releasing water, burning the human settlement, and much more. It's almost like reading about a Viking or pirate raid, only the Vikings and pirates are replaced by gods.

Anyways over the coming days I will get more into detail about these differences, as well the similarities, between this and Noah's flood. Like I said, I swear I was reading the same story at times...truly fascinating.

Some thoughts on God and the Annunaki

Recent image captured by NASA
that resembles a giant hand in space.

I've been pondering what I've learned from reading "The 12th Planet", related items from the web, and my general knowledge of Christianity and related religions a lot recently. Mainly on how it all seems to interconnect, almost confusingly, but does.

It would seem to me that somewhere along the line there was a beginning mythology that led to what the Sumerians believed. This later evolved into the various mythologies of the Mid East, only to be reinterpreted into what would become Judaism, by Abraham, who restructured the multiple Gods into the one God and his angels.

The question however remains as to whether the Gods of old were real beings who created us. If the Annunaki, who if according to Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation of Sumerian myth, came from another planet in our solar system is accurate, then things as pertaining to God, are truly odd. Mainly in the fact that we were created as slaves by beings that for the most part are mere mortals like ourselves, just with longer life spans. Secondly in the fact that, from what I've gathered from various things I've read on the web, it would seem that the Annunaki believed in a creator as well, which means there is indeed some sort of God, or at least both the Annunaki and many of us humans believe there to be.

Well before I get anyone lost, what I'm trying to say is that I think the relationships between ancient myth, modern Abrahamic religions, and the concept of Gods and God in general, may be far more complicated then we can imagine. Plus, if you really want to go hardcore into the whole thing, it's my belief that nothing should exist period.

I feel that the mere fact anything, be it the stars, space, Earth, and life in general exists, is definitive proof that there is some sort of creator. Really there should only be a big black void of well...nothing...and it's down right confusing to me to assume that all that we see around us and in the heavens just appeared one day out of nothingness.

As for the creator, I feel he/she/it would had to have come from somewhere as well, but where and how will probably be way beyond our current understanding of time, space, quantum physics, and what have you...simply put, the whole situation is mind boggling.

Nephilim and Neanderthals

While browsing through my favorite blogs the other day, I came across a post over at The Gralien Report about none other then the Nephilim (who I also posted about just recently). Micah (the mind behind The Gralien Report) draws on some inspiration from a post by his friend Nick Redfern and the novel The Descent by Jeff Long and ponders over the possibility of the Nephilim being a species of proto-human. Basically an unknown or primitive species of human.

While reading his post a memory was sparked something I read in the book The Eaters of the Dead (also known as The 13th Warrior) by Michael Crichton. In A Factual Not on Eaters of the Dead (an essay written in 1992 that follows the story) Michael talks about how the story itself came to be, and about the various fictional and nonfictional aspects put into the story.

Now the most interesting part mentioned in his essay, is a segment where he mentions the Wendol (the villains of the story) are a relict group of Neanderthals that survived until the Vikings in the story wiped them out a thousand years ago. He also mentions, that in the decades since he originally wrote Eaters of the Dead (first published in the mid 1970s) some studies done had suggested that perhaps such relict groups Neanderthals may indeed have existed in remote locations. Could such groups of Neanderthals have been the Nephilim?

Not only could they count as being “proto-humans” (albeit not as tall) as Micah puts it, but this very possibility was also gone over in an episode of The Naked Archaeologist called “The Giants of Genesis”. Simcha Jacobovici, the shows host, concludes that the Nephilim are not giants as so many people believe, but perhaps a form of man believed to have been “soulless” (proposed to be Neanderthals in the episode) by the writer of Genesis, and goes to a cave system that shows that perhaps modern humans and Neanderthals lived together. Later in the episode some even more shocking evidence is presented, hinting at the possibility that humans and Neanderthals even mated and gave rise to what may have become the Nephilim in Genesis.

Sumerian myth, the Bible, and Aliens?

The farther I've gotten into "The 12th Planet" by Zecharia Sitchin, the more I find myself interested in the connections between Sumerian myth and the events of the Old Testament of the Bible. Partly because I've always been fascinated by religion and also because I've wanted to know origins of Judaic beliefs, which as most everyone knows is the source for three of today's major relgions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

Yesterday while browsing The Debris Field (which is one of the best places to find the latest and greatest esoteric news by the way) I came across a link to an interesting post over at The Book of Thoth, which is one of the many esoteric/paranormal hubs on the web.

In the post, the author, who goes by the name Anuatlantian, has put together the many connections between Sumerian myth and the Old Testament, side by side (more like above and below, well you'll see what I mean.) and really brought out the similarities. Interestingly, if this guy is right, events in both Sumerian myth and the Old Testament and almost exactly the same, other then some name differences (which seem to translate over).

Of course if these connections are correct, it brings up the question of who the Anunnaki (the deities) of Sumerian myth are, because they are the ones who equal out to being God and the angels of the Bible. Well, the connections are between the Anunnaki, God, and angels aren't really the question as much as, what were they. Were/are they merely a product of myth, or are they possibly extra-terrestrial in origin as Zecharia Sitchin proposes the Anunnaki are in "The 12th Planet" and the rest of his books.

If the E.T. connection is real, then we were all placed here by aliens, but seeing as Zecharia's interpretation of Sumerian language, and translations of other languages have been questioned (although I think he may be at least partly right), I'm really not sure what to think. Doesn't help that I know squat about foreign languages, and that I'm no mythology scholar, but by the time I'm done reading into this stuff, I might be...well depending on how much I read into it.

Anywho, I intend on picking up the books listed as sources by Anuatlantian, excluding the Bible (I already own a couple variants of said tome) and exploring the subject for myself, which I think will prove to be in the word of the great Spock "Fascinating".