Conspiracy Theory Info
Conspiracy Theory Info
Conspiracy Theory Info
com/blog/project-stargate-ancient-aliens-and-cia
A hierarchy of “Ascended Masters,” known as the Great White Brotherhood of Mahatmas, who resided
in Shambhala in Tibet, and which she identified with the Sons of God. According to Theosophical
tradition, their leader is Sanat Kumara, who was the “King of the World.” To Blavatsky, Sanat Kumara
belonged to a group of beings, the “Lords of the Flame,” whom Christian tradition have
“misunderstood” as Lucifer and the Fallen Angels.
In The Lost Lemuria (1904), Blavatsky’s disciple William Scott-Elliot claimed that beings that evolved on
Venus, came to earth and taught the inhabitants of Lemuria the arts of civilization. Ancient Martian
civilization was then promoted by astronomer Percival Lowell, and the science fiction writings of H. G.
Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs. The terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize phenomena
referred by Charles Fort (1874 – 1932), who theorized that old stories of demons could be related to
visitors from other worlds, who may have communicated with ours in the distant past, left behind
advanced technology, or attempted to colonize the earth.
As explained by Bailey, whose prognostications serve as the blueprint for many of the United Nations
leaders, the ascended masters work to oversee the transition to the New World Order and a one-world
religion, founded on Freemasonry, when there will be an "Externalization of the Hierarchy" when
everyone will know of their presence on Earth.
According to the Djwhal Khul, the “master” channeled by Bailey, Freemasonry is very ancient and an
earthly version of an initiatory school that exists on Sirius.[5] Likewise, according to popular writer
Robert Anton Wilson, one of his contacts from secret societies in the US and Europe told him that the
secret of the 33rd degree, the highest rank in American Freemasonry, was that the order was in contact
with beings from Sirius.[6]
MK-Ultra
The modern history of the convergence of occultism, military intelligence and extraterrestrial
contact begins at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, which, according to Wouter
Hanegraaff, in New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular
Thought, after the Hippies, had been the second major influence of the 60s counterculture and
the rise of the New Age movement.[7]
According to the authors of The Stargate Conspiracy, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Esalen,
through a government-funded project, became associated with the channeling of messages of
a group of “extraterrestrials” calling themselves “The Council of Nine.” As the authors point
out, there are numerous occult associations with the number nine, particularly with the
enigmatic Enneagram of Russian agent and charlatan mystic, George Gurdjieff, whose ideas
were influenced by Theosophy, and whose teaching strongly influenced not only Esalen, but
the CIA’s infamous MK-Ultra proram.
The bizarre story of The Nine begins in a private research laboratory in Maine called the Round
Table Foundation, which was also connected with MK-Ultra. It was set up in 1943 to research
the paranormal and run by a medical doctor named Andrija Puharich, the “father of the
American New Age movement.” Puharich also later confessed that his experiments with the
Round Table Foundation were originally inspired by reading the works of Alice Bailey.
As exemplified in the Ancient Mysteries, their ultimate purpose was to achieve communion
with spirits to acquire revelations of hidden knowledge. Typically, these mysteries employed
intoxicants or drugs to induce such trance states, a method which was known to the modern
psychological establishment and the intelligence industry, who sought to make use of them
for their own nefarious plans.
These ideas were inspired by Blavatsky, who claimed that the shamanism of Central Asia,
which she believed was best survived in the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, represented the
purest ancient tradition of magic. These ideas were developed by Gurdjieff, who purported the
existence of a pseudo-Sufi brotherhood in Central Asia, known as Sarmoung.
Gurdjieff believed that the ascetic practices of monks, fakirs and yogis resulted in the
production of psychological substances that produced their religious or mystical experiences.
Instead of the torturous practices of these mystics, Gurdjieff proposed that the man who
knows the Fourth Way “simply prepares and swallows a little pill which contains all the
substances he wants. And in this way, without loss of time, he obtains the required
result.”[8] It was that idea that inspired Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley, a key figure at
Esalen, to become devoted evangelists of the CIA LSD program.
At Esalen, under the influence of the CIA’s MK-Ultra project and inspired by the teachings of
Gurdjieff, shamanism came to be seen as the source of the “perennial philosophy,” where the
beings in the spirit world contacted through the use of entheogens also came to be regarded
as extra-terrestrials.
This notion was popularized by occult influenced scholar, Mircea Eliade, who brought much
attention to the subject in writing Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Eliade argued
that the word “shaman” should not apply to just any magician or medicine man, but
specifically to the practitioners of the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols of Central
Asia, because of their purported connection to Shambhala.
Puharich achieved international recognition as author of The Sacred Mushroom: Key to the
Door of Eternity and Beyond Telepathy, seeing the mushroom as a plant that could separate
consciousness from the physical body. Puharich had been introduced to the visionary potential
of magic mushrooms through Gordon Wasson, sparked widespread interest in psychedelics
when he wrote a 1957 published in Life magazine titled “Seeking the Magic Mushroom.”
Wasson, who was a vice president of JP Morgan and served as a chairman to the CFR, had
close ties to CIA-head Allen Dulles. Wasson and Henry Luce, Skull and Bones member who
founded Life Magazine, were also long time members of the Century Club, a CIA front, along
with John Foster Dulles, Walter Lippmann, and George Kennan. [9]
Wasson was associated with at least six people suspected of being involved in the JFK
assassination, including Henry Luce and C. D. Jackson and expert in psychological warfare
with the CIA who was also key in establishing the Bilderberg meetings. Wasson’s name was
found in the address book that was retrieved from the briefcase of George de Mohrenschildt
after his death. The address book also contained an entry for “Bush, George H. W. (Poppy).”
Wasson was also a good friend with English poet Robert Graves, author of The White
Goddess, a key book for modern Pagans and Wiccans. Graves was also a close friend of Idries
Shah, who served as personal secretary of Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, whose rituals
he formulated with Aleister Crowley. Shah was a close associate of George Gurdjieff’s leading
disciple, former head of British intelligence in Istanbul, John B. Bennett. By founding Octagon
Press, named after Gurdjieff’s Enneagram, Shah popularized his Luciferian version of Islamic
Sufism as the origin of Freemasonry.
Robert Anton Wilson, one of the Esalen Institute teachers, commented on Puharich in his
famous Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, for which Timothy Leary wrote
the foreword, and which deals with Wilson’s experiences when he communicated
“telepathically” with extraterrestrials from the Sirius star system. According to Wilson:
As UFO researcher Philip Coppens suggests, it was likely through his familiarity with Carl Jung
and his theory of “archetypes,” as a euphemism for disembodied spirits, that would have led
Dulles, as head of the CIA, to sponsor experiments like those of Puharich. [11]
Puharich was associated with George Williamson Hunt, among the mid-1950s contactees
known as the “four guys named George.” Hunt had worked with William Dudley Pelley, founder
of the neo-Nazi Silver Shirts, who popularized the idea of near-death experiences, and who
published a major work on extraterrestrials called Star Guests. Pelley, like Hunt, was also
associated with popular contactee George Adamsky, with whom he was involved in the
Theosophical “UFO Religion,” the “I AM” cult. Adamski had an interest in Theosophy that
dated back to the mid 1930s, when he founded what was called the Royal Order of Tibet. In
1952 and 1953, Williamson and his associates supposedly established radiotelegraphic
contact with extraterrestrials, in which they received Morse code messages from “the Planet
Hatonn in Andromeda,” the alleged site of the universal “Temple of Records.” [12]
In 1952, Puharich had brought into his laboratory an Indian mystic named Dr. D. G. Vinod, who
began to channel The Nine or “the Nine Principles,” who would also often recommend the
books of Blavatsky and Alice Bailey. Further séances in 1953 were attended by other members
of Puharich’s Round Table Foundation, including Henry and Georgia Jackson, Alice Bouverie,
Marcella Du Pont, Carl Betz, Vonnie Beck, Arthur M. Young and his wife Ruth.
Arthur M. Young, the designer of Bell Helicopter's first helicopter, was also an influential
occult-influenced philosopher. Young married artist Ruth Forbes of the Boston Forbes family, a
great-granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ruth was also a close personal friend of Mary
Bancroft, devoted student of Carl Jung, and mistress to Allen Dulles and later to Henry Luce.
Ruth Forbes Paine's first husband, George Lyman Paine Jr. was an associate of Trotskyite
James Burnham, a friend of E. Howard Hunt, one of the Watergate “plumbers,” and was also
suspected of involvement in the JFK assassination. Ruth and Paine were also the parents of
Michael Paine, who married Ruth Hyde, and who together became notable after the
assassination of JFK because of his acquaintance with Lee Harvey Oswald. Michael and Ruth
Paine met Oswald and his wife Marina at a party on February 22 1963 where they had been
invited by George de Mohrenschildt. It was Ruth Paine who helped Lee get his job at the Texas
School Book Depository while his wife Marina and child continued to live with her in Irving,
Texas. When the assassination occurred it was the Paines who led the police to where Oswald
hid his rifle, and provided much evidence such as some of the famous photos of Oswald posing
with his rifle, and so forth.
Puharich became best known as the person who brought Israeli Uri Geller, was also at times
in the employ of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Puharich’s study of Geller was supported
by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), headquartered in Menlo Park, California, funded
directly by US intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA. It was SRI which initiated what
came to be known as the Stargate Project, established by the US Federal Government to
investigate claims of psychic phenomena, particularly “remote viewing.”
At first Geller started to channel “Spectra,” an entity which claimed to be a conscious super-
computer aboard a spaceship. When Puharich suggested to him there might be a connection
with the Nine Principles. Through Geller, The Nine claimed to have been behind the UFO
sightings starting with Kenneth Arnold in 1947, and alerted Puharich to his life's mission,
which was to use Geller's talents to alert the world to an imminent mass landing of
spaceships that would bring representatives of The Nine. However, Geller finally turned his
back on The Nine, saying: “I think somebody is playing games with us. Perhaps they are a
civilization of clowns.”[13]
When Puharich had to find other channellers, he joined up with Sir John Whitmore and psychic
and healer Phyllis Schlemmer, who had reportedly also done work for Israeli intelligence.
Schlemmer became the spokesperson for The Nine. She, Puharich and Whitmore then set up
Lab Nine at Puharich's estate in Ossining, New York. The Nine's disciples included multi-
millionaire businessmen, members of Canada's Bronfman family, European nobility, scientists
from SRI, Gene Roddenberry the creator ofStar Trek and influential counterculture guru Ira
Einhorn, who referred to the group of scientists of which he and Puharich were part as his
“psychic mafia.”[14]
A key member of Lab Nine was James Hurtak, who was appointed Puharich’s second-in-
command by The Nine. A former professor Hurtak’s educational background includes a PhD
from the University of California and a second PhD from the University of Minnesota. Hurtak
claimed to belong to a group called the Sons of Light of the Order of Melchizedek, “designed to
change the destinies of the world by occult means,” and that he and Puharich, along with
others with access to “confidential and secret information,” were working to make the public
aware that the people of Earth were soon to be contacted by “highly evolved beings.” [15]
Hurtak was director of the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS), where Willis Harman was
president. Harman, a former consultant to the White House, had also been involved with
Puharich in experiments with Geller. In 1974, he led a study conducted by SRI on how to
transform the US into Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, entitled “Changing Images of Man.”
The report was prepared by a team that included anthropologist Margaret Mead, psychologist
B. F. Skinner, Ervin Laszlo of the UN and Sir Geoffrey Vickers of British intelligence. The
stated aim of the study was to change the image of mankind from that of industrial progress to
one of “spiritualism.” The report stressed the importance of the US in promoting Masonic
ideals, effectively creating the ideal Masonic state.[16]
In 1976, Harman wrote An Incomplete Guide to the Future in which he advocated a society
based on the ideals of Freemasonry. Harman believes that the symbol of the pyramid with the
floating capstone on the Great Seal “indicates that the nation will flourish only as its leaders
are guided by supraconscious intuition,” and he defines this as “divine insight.” [17] This recalls
the words of former Vice President Henry Wallace, who was responsible for the adoption of
the Great Seal, who wrote:
Willis Harman disciple Marilyn Ferguson in The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), who depicts the
counterculture as the realization of H. G. Wells’ The Open Conspiracy, tried to popularize
these ideals by painting the drive to foster New Age doctrines as a spontaneous and positive
development. Cognizant of the degree of their influence, Margaret Mead famously said, “Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's
the only thing that ever has.”
Harman had been president of the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS) in their first remote-
viewing experiments. Founded in 1973, IONS claims it “conducts, sponsors, and collaborates
on leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness, exploring
phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models while maintaining a
commitment to scientific rigor.”
New Egyptology
The Council Nine confessed to being the Elohim of the Old Testament, and claimed to have
visited Earth from the star of Sirius. Their spokesperson was an entity called “Tom” who was
eventually revealed as being Atum, the creator-god of the ancient Egyptian religion, and with
the other nine composing the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. The Nine also described the
“Knowledge of the Book” they had hidden in Egypt 6,000 years ago, during a previous visit to
Earth.
Based on the millennial ideas, the Egyptian legends of Freemasonry and the communications
from the Nine, SRI embarked on a number of projects to investigate the Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza that would shape the evolution of the UFO phenomenon into the myth of
Ancient Aliens.
SRI collaborated on a number of projects investigating the Giza Pyramids with the Association
for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), founded by Edgar Cayce in 1931 to promote his work.
In the 1970s, ARE received a sudden influx of funding from important donors, and is now a
powerful organization which has supported archaeological work in Egypt and elsewhere to try
to find evidence of the lost Atlantean civilization and the Hall of Records predicted by Cayce. [19]
Most important of these was a study headed by D. Joseph M. Schoch, to determine the
possibility of water erosion on the Sphinx. Also conducting work at Giza in the late 1970s
coinciding the SRI’s projects was James Hurtak. In 1977 and 1978, following up on a tradition
found in Masonic lore, Hurtak and a number of colleagues undertook a private expedition to
Giza, where they measured the angles of the shafts of the King’s and Queen’s Chambers to
test the hypothesis that they were aligned with certain stars and constellations, namely Orion
and Draco, and the star Sirius.
One of the most influential books written about the purported “mysteries” of Egypt, is Robert
K. G. Temple's 1976 book, The Sirius Mystery, which presents the hypothesis that the Dogon
people of Mali in west Africa preserve a tradition of contact with intelligent extraterrestrial
beings from the Sirius star-system. Temple’s attention was first drawn to the Dogon by Arthur
M. Young, through a French book called Le Renard pale, which he in turn received from Harry
Smith. Known as a surrealist filmmaker, Smith was a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis of
Aleister Crowley, who he claimed was “probably” his biological father. [20]
Known for experimenting heavily in hallucinogenic drugs, Smith became a hero of the Beat
generation of the 50s and the Hippies of the 60s, and in the last years of his life was financed
by the Grateful Dead. He produced the Folkways anthology, which became an important
influence for such artists as Bob Dylan and received a Grammy in 1991 for his contribution to
the music industry.
Temple's The Sirius Mystery attracted the attention of the CIA, MI5 and the Freemasons.
Temple was approached by Charles E. Webber, 33rd degree Scottish Rite and an old friend of
his family and Mason, who had been high-ranking generations for generations, and asked him
to join the Masons, in order to be able to discuss the book without divulging the order's
secrets. Webber told Temple:
The “mystery” that is central to the book is how the Dogon allegedly acquired knowledge of
Sirius B, the invisible companion star of Sirius A. However, some doubts have been raised
about the reliability of their work, and alternative explanations have been proposed, and the
claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have been challenged. [22]
Government Cover-up?
James Hurtak eventually established himself as a New Age guru, travelling the world giving
workshops on his book of channelled revelations from The Nine, The Keys of Enoch. Hurtak
was also associated with the Human Potential Foundation, founded in 1989 by Senator
Claiborne Pell, who as well was a member of IONS. Also a member of the CFR, Pell was a very
powerful figure in Washington, having served as Chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations
Committee from 1987 to 1994. Pell was also a leading member of the Club of Rome as well as
friend of Aurelio Peccei.[23] Pell was also a close friend of figure Clark Clifford, who was
involved in the BCCI scandal. Pell was mentor to former Vice-President Al Gore, with whom he
shares an avid interest in the paranormal, with both supporting government-funded research
into the matter.
IONS was established by Edgar Mitchell, the sixth astronaut to walk on the moon, who
claimed to have undergone a cosmic consciousness experience on his return flight to earth.
Mitchell briefed then CIA director George Bush on the activities and results of the IONS. [24]
Edgar Mitchell has become one of the chief authorities on the supposed government “cover-
up” of extra-terrestrial contact. Mitchell has publicly expressed his opinions that he is “90
percent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded
since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets”[25] and that UFOs have been the
“subject of disinformation in order to deflect attention and to create confusion so the truth
doesn't come out.”[26] He offered his opinion that the evidence for such “alien” contact was
“very strong” and “classified” by governments, who were covering up visitations in places
such as Roswell, New Mexico. He further claimed that UFOs had provided “sonic engineering
secrets” that were helpful to the U.S. government.[27]
The other major proponents of the “monuments” of Mars and their alleged connection with
ancient Egypt is Dr. Richard Hoagland, who bills himself a former NASA consultant and CBS
News advisor, who has promoted this idea since 1973. In 1971, it was Hoagland who came up
with the idea he passed on the Carl Sagan of equipping the Pioneer 100, the first space probe
to leave the solar system, with a plaque bearing symbolic information about human
civilization, and a diagram indicating the Earth as the third planet from the Sun. He was also
instrumental in the campaign to name the first space shuttle “Enterprise,” inspired by his
friend Gene Roddenbery, creator of Star Trek.
In 1983, Hoagland was working for the SRI on a project concerning the rings of Saturn, and
while studying photos from the Viking archive, found what he believed to be a pyramid
complex near the “face” on Mars, in the Cydonia region. When Hoagland decided to set up a
project to study the features further, he approached the Institute for the Study of
Consciouness, founded by Arthur M. Young, who introduced him to Lambert Dolphin Jr., who
had headed the SRI expedition to Giza in the 1970s. Hoagland and Dolphin then formed the
Independent Mars Mission, with funding from SRI. The American and European Director of
Operations for Hoagland’s Mars Mission were, respectively, David Myers and David Percy.
According to Uri Geller, the Face on Mars had been discovered by remote viewing in the early
1970s.[28] In fact, Hoagland’s interpretation of the “monuments” of Mars comes directly from
The Nine. Hoagland’s writings claim “the Face on Mars” is part of a city built on Cydonia
Planitia consisting of very large pyramids and mounds arranged in a geometric pattern, which
must be trying to “tell us something.” According to Hoagland:
Hoagland described his theories in The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever,
and co-authored the book Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, a New York Times Best
Seller. Hoagland claims that advanced civilizations exist or once existed on the Moon, Mars
and on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and that NASA and the United States
government have conspired to keep these facts secret as explained in the “the Brookings
Report.” Among Hoagland’s other claims are that the US government has covered up the
presence of extraterrestrials, that the Space Agency murdered the Apollo 1 astronauts, that
NASA missions to Mars are a “well documented interest of the Bush family,” [30] and that there
is a clandestine space program which uses antigravity technology reverse-engineered from
lunar artifacts and communicated by secret societies. He goes on to say that NASA is
suppressing knowledge of an ancient civilization on the Moon, and that the advanced
technology of this civilization is lying around on the Moon's surface. [31]
The Magic 12
All related to the communications from The Nine, and the research of the SRI and ARE at Giza
in Egypt, several authors associated with the Ancient Aliens mythos are characterized by
Picknett and Prince, in Stargate Conspiracy, as part of a conspiracy for the “manipulation of
beliefs about the origins and history of human civilization, in particular of beliefs about the
existence of an advanced civilization in the ancient past and its influence on the earliest
known historical civilizations, primarily that of Egypt.”[32] Expressed through a number of
popular pseudo-scientific non-fiction works of a field known as “Alternative Egyptology,” the
best-known names in this conspiracy are Robert Temple, John Anthony West, Robert Bauval
and Graham Hancock, whose works have been instrumental in arousing interest in the
“mysteries” of ancient Egypt.
In 1990, Dr. Zahi Hawass granted a license to John Anthony West and Robert Schoch, known
as the Schoch Project, backed by the University of Boston, where Schoch was a professor. In
1993, West’s work with Schoch was presented by Charlton Heston in a NBC special
called The Mystery of the Sphinx that won West a News & Documentary Emmy Award for
Best Research and a nomination for Best Documentary. Investors in the project included Dr.
Joseph M. Schor, one of two leading members of ARE.
ARE had also arranged a scholarship for Dr. Zahi Hawass at the University of Pennsylvania,
where he gained his PhD in Egyptology, before going on to become Egypt’s Minister of State
for Antiquities Affairs. The project’s main discovery was water erosion on the Sphinx, but it
also undertook seismographic tests to detect the possible existence of chambers beneath the
Sphinx. According to Bauval and Hancock, a total of nine chambers in all were discovered,
which they called the Genesis chamber. Also enthusiastic about these discoveries was Dr.
Zahi Hawass, who suggested they may represent the symbolic “tomb of Osiris.” [33]
Also in 1993, Rudolf Gatenbrink famously sent a robot fitted with a camera to explore shafts in
the pyramid of Giza. Bauval seized upon the opportunity to interpret Gatenbrink’s data to
suggest that the southern shaft of what is called the Queen’s Chamber would have been
aligned to the star Sirius in around 2450 BC, which therefore must have been the date of its
construction. However, Bauval’s claim had nothing to do with the research of Gatenbrink, who
rejected Bauval’s theory, but was rather developed from ideas first proposed by James Hurtak
and derived from Masonic literature dating back at least to the late nineteenth century. [34]
One of the many recurring themes in several of Hancock's works has been an exposition on
the “Orion Correlation Theory” (or OCT). It was the subject of a bestseller, The Orion
Mystery by Robert Bauval, as well as a BBC documentary, The Great Pyramid: Gateway to the
Stars in 1994. The OCT proposes that the layout and formation of the pyramids of Giza
correspond to the stars in the constellation of Orion. This is taken as evidence by the authors
of advanced knowledge of the stars, which could indicate the extra-terrestrial origins of its
builders.
The book that launched Hancock’s career as a bestseller was The Sign and the Seal (1992),
where, following clues found in the Bible, the Grail epic of Eschenbach and the Knights
Templar, he traces the location of the Ark of the Covenant from its supposed source in ancient
Egypt, to Jerusalem, and from there to its final resting place in Ethiopia. In Fingerprints of the
Gods(1995), without stating so explicitly, Hancock attempts to prove the historical accounts
of Theosophy, by attempting to prove that a universal cataclysm took place, presumably the
sinking of Atlantis, and that numerous cultures of the ancient world report the occurrence of
“white gods” who taught them the arts of civilization, the proof of which are the various
enigmatic monuments around the world.
Popularized by the works of Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin, these theories fall into a
category of pseudohistory known as Mayanism, derived originally from Freemasonry and
Theosophy.
The “White Gods” theory is popular amongst White supremacists, Christian Identity groups,
ancient astronaut theorists and pseudoarchaeological and Atlantis writers. White gods
theorists typically make reference to various South American gods supposedly identified as
pale-skinned, blue-eyed and bearded. Typically, accounts of these gods refer to them as
“civilizers” who instructed their societies with various skills.
Notions about extraterrestrial influence on the Maya can be traced to the book Chariots of the
Gods? by Erich von Däniken, whose “ancient astronaut” theories were in turn influenced by
the work of Peter Kolosimo (1922 – 1984) and especially Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels,
the authors of The Morning of the Magicians. These latter writers were inspired by
publications by Charles Fort (1874 – 1932), and by the Theosophically-inspired fantasy
literature of H. P. Lovecraft.[35]However, contributing influences also included notions of lost
continents and lost civilizations, especially as popularized by Jules Verne, and the preeminent
nineteenth century Rosicrucian, Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Notions about extraterrestrial influence on the ancient Maya of South America can be traced
to Chariots of the Gods, by Erich von Däniken, which brought widespread popularity to
ancient astronaut theories. Däniken’s book was an immediate best seller in the United States,
Europe and India, and subsequent books, according to von Däniken, have been translated into
32 languages and together have sold more than 63 million copies. [36] The book’s television
adaptation, In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973), was hosted by Rod Serling of
the Twilight Zone.
To support his theory, Von Däniken makes mention of the chariot of Ezekiel and the “wheel
inside a wheel” as referring to a spacecraft. He also discusses the Ramayana, where the gods
and their avatars travel in flying vehicles, or “flying chariots” called Vimanas.
To acquire an understanding of von Däniken’s sources, we can consider that in his 1970
follow-up to Chariots of the Gods he writes of Blavatsky’s Book of Dzyan, which he
describes, much as H. P. Lovecraft did, as “older than the earth,” and claimed that chosen
people who simply touch the book will receive visions of what it describes, through
“rhythmically transmitted impulses.”[37] Von Däniken quotes from the book at great length,
discussing how its seven stanzas of creation are a perfect account of alien visitation, and
notes, "Mahabharata, Cabbala, Zohar, Dzyan. Identical as to facts that point in one direction.
Are they accounts of things that really happened?"[38]
Hancock has since updated his Ancient Aliens hypothesis by marrying it with the entheogen
thesis, by suggesting that “supernatural” entities such as aliens and fairies are actually
transdimensional beings encountered by human beings under altered states of consciousness,
most likely achieved by ingesting psilocybin mushrooms or ayahuasca. It was through such
“contact,” he proposes, that early human civilizations learned advanced skills from their
encounters with these beings.
These authors started forming expectations about a Giza discovery around year 2000, which
was supposed to herald the Age of Aquarius. These ideas formed the bedrock of Bauval’s
Project Equinox 2000, announced in 1998, and based around a group of twelve authors in
addition to himself, whom he referred to as the Magic 12. It originally included Graham
Hancock, John Anthony West, Andrew Collins, Robert Temple, Michal Baigent, one of the
authors of the Holy Blood Holy Grail, and Christopher Knights and Robert Lomas, authors of
the Hiram Key, which contains a radical hypothesis regarding the origins of Freemasonry,
seeking to demonstrate a heritage through the Knights Templar to the Jerusalem Church and
Pharaoic Egypt.
The Magic 12 were to hold a series of conferences held on the equinoxes and solstices
throughout the year 1999, at locations regarded as the major Hermetic sites of the world, such
as Giza, Alexandria, Stonehenge and San Jose, the headquarters of AMORC.
According to Bauval, the purpose was to perform a global ritual symbolizing the return of the
Hermetic tradition to Egypt. The year’s rituals were to culminate on New Years Eve, when the
12 authors would deliver their “message to the planet” in front of the Sphinx, and which would
mark the “return of the gods” to Egypt.
Hawass, who is also linked to AMORC, had announced that a ceremony of blatant Masonic
symbolism was also to take place, where a gold capstone was going to be placed on the top of
the Great Pyramid, but the event was finally cancelled due to overwhelming protests. Hawass
has received widespread publicity internationally, and was the subject of a reality television
series in the US, Chasing Mummies. But his links to business ventures and the Mubarak
regime have caused controversy. In connection with the awarding of a gift shop contract at
the Egyptian Museum and alleged smuggling of antiquities, he was sentenced to a prison term,
which was later lifted.
Most recently, the pseudo-history of these authors, as well as the ancient astronaut theorists
Zecharia Sitchin and Erich von Däniken, has been popularized in another History
Channel documentary, called “Ancient Aliens.” Although Sitchin taught himself Sumerian
cuneiform, he wrote his books at a time when knowledge of the language was limited. His
ideas have been rejected by scientists and academics for flawed methodology and
mistranslations as well as for incorrect astronomical and scientific claims.
Von Däniken was convicted of several financial crimes including fraud shortly after publication
of his first book, but later became a co-founder of the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI
Research Association (AAS RA), which produces theLegendary Times magazine, published by
Giorgio Tsoukalos, the Consulting Producer for the “Ancient Aliens” series. However,
in Debunking Ancient Aliens, Chris White does an excellent job of not only making evident the
dreadfully poor scholarship demonstrated by many of these authors, but also in several cases,
the very bold mendacity employed in making many of their claims.
Effectively, it would seem, what is being prepared is the revelation of the expected messiah,
known as Maitreya, the Mahdi, St. Germain and Christ, the “King of the Jews” of the Protocols
of Zion, the proposed leader of the New World Order, who will come down to earth in, as the
ancients ignorantly described, a flaming chariot, which in actuality, we are to believe, will be
a flying saucer.
This scenario mirrors allegations presented in 1994 by Quebecois journalist and conspiracy
theorist Serge Monast. Monast claims to reveal a secret plot known as Project Blue Beam,
with the assistance of NASA, to attempt to implement a New Age religion with the Antichrist
at its head and start a New World Order, via a technologically-simulated Second Coming. The
image of God speaking in all languages will appear in a gigantic “space show” with laser
projections of multiple 3-dimensional holographic images worldwide. The project was
apparently supposed to be implemented in 1983, but was postponed several times, first to
1995, 1996, and finally by the year 2000.
The content of this article was taken from my latest book, Black Terror White Soldier: Islam,
Fascism & the New Age where these topics are explored in a broader context.
[1] Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the
Pursuit of UFOs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), pp. 164–167.
[2] Manly P. Hall, An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian
Symbolical Philosophy: Being an Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed within the
Rituals, Allegories and Mysteries of all Ages, (San Francisco H.S. Crocker, 1928), p. 44.
[3] Foster Bailey, The Spirit of Masonry (Tunbridge Wells: Lucis Press, 1957) p. 9.
[4] Robinson, Edgar Cayce’s Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man, p. 79.
[5] Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V: The Rays and the Initiations, p. 418.
[6] James Nye, “Chromosome Damage! A Random Conversation with Robert Anton
Wilson,” Fortean Times, no. 79 (February/March 1995)
[7] Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of
Secular Thought, (Boston, Massachusetts, US: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996), pp. 38–39.
[8] Peter Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous (Harcourt, 1949) p. 50.
[9] Jan Irwin, “The Secret History of Magic Mushrooms,” Gnosis Media.
[10] (New Falcon Publications, 1977) p. 147.
[11] Philip Coppens, The Stargate Conundrum: The US Government’s secret pursuit of the
psychic drug, Chapter 3. Carl Jung and the archetypes, Introduction.
[12] Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, p. 154.
[13] Puharich, Uri: The Original and Authorized Biography of Uri Geller (London: Futura, 1974)
pp. 14-15.
[14] Picknett & Prince, Stargate Conspiracy, p. 173
[15] Jacques Vallée, Messengers of Deception, p. 133.
[16] Picknett & Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p. 319.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid., p. 320.
[19] Robert Bauval, “A Meeting with Dr. Joseph Schor in New York,” posting on Equinox
2000 website, 26 October 1998.
[20] Mike Everleth, “The Underground Film World Of Aleister Crowley.” Bad Lit (February 1,
2009).
[21] Email from Kim Farmer of AFFS (September 24, 1998); cited in Picknett &
Prince, Stargate Conspiracy, p. 35.
[22] Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano. “The Dogon Revisited.”
[23] Anitra Thorhaug, Ph.D. President USA Club of Rome, “Obituary for Claiborne Pell,” USA
Club of Rome
[24] Edgar Mitchell, The Way of the Explorer, (GP Putnam's Sons, 1996), p. 91.
[25] “Edgar Mitchell On The UFO Cover-Up” (subscription fee required). UFO UpDates.
(Octover 11, 1998).
[26] “Edgar Mitchell, Ph.D. – UFO Researchers & People.” UFOEvidence.org.
[27] “Interview on Dateline NBC April 19, 1996.” UFO Evidence. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
[28] Picknett & Prince, Stargate Conspiracy, p. 153
[29] Richard Hoagland, The Monuments on Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever, (Berkeley,
1996), p. 373.
[30] “CSICOP Turns its Eye on Hoagland—And Gets it Blackened in The
Attempt”; enterprisemission.com.
[31] “Is There Liquid Water on Europa?” (Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 6, September
1979)
[32] “The Rise of the Rough Beast” Adapted from a lecture by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince
at the Saunière Society Symposium, Conway Hall, London.
[33] Picknett & Prince, Stargate Conspiracy, p. 91.
[34] Robert Bauval, posting on Egyptnews, August 13, 1998.
[35] Jason Colavito, “An investigation into H.P. Lovecraft and the invention of ancient
astronauts." Skeptic 10.4 (2004).
[36] Kenneth Feder, Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum ,
page 267 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010)
[37] p. 137; cited in Jason Colavito, “Von Daniken, Theosophy, and the Fraudulent Book of
Dzyan,” JasonColavito.com (01-08-2012).
[38] Ibid. p. 142.