Gods from outer space; return to the stars, or evidence for the impossible. Translated by Michael Heron.[1st American ed.].

212 Pages·1970·16.978 MB·English

by  Erich von Däniken

A BANTAMBOOK
BY THE AUTHOR OF
CHARIOTS OF THE CODS?
FOR THE SWHO
ENJOYED THE TV SPECIAL
"IN SEARCH OF
ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS"
^
RLDWIDE BESTS£LL£K!
lyr^
|c-[i)

.
FASCINATING! MIND-EXPANDING! ENTERTAINING!
"As in his Chariots of the Gods?, Daniken once more
strains scientific credulity but intrigues and fascinates
with his bold theories and speculations about mysterious
'visitors' from outer space in ancient and prehistoric
times. Such open-ended possibilities as he proposes
make for absorbing reading."
—Publishers' Weekly
"Von Daniken's book should serve as mind-expander . .
as an inspiration to closer examination and fresh inter-
pretation of existing facts."
—
Lincoln (Neb.) Sunday Journal
"It is a thought-provoking book which is both Informative
and entertaining."
—
Camden (N.J.) Courier-Post
GODS FROM OUTER SPACE
Bantam Books by Eric von Daniken
CHARIOTS OF THE GODS?
GODS FROM OUTER SPACE
GODS
FROM OUTER SPACE
RETURN TO THE STARS
OR
EVIDENCE FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE
by Erich von Daniken
OriginaUy published as
RETURN TO THE STARS
Translated by MICHAEL HERON
ANATIONALGENERALCOMPANY
This low-priced Bantam Book
has been completely reset in a type face
designed for easy reading, and was printed
from new plates. It contains the complete
text of the original hard-cover edition.
NOT ONB WOBD HAS BEEN OMTTTED.
GODS FROM OUTER SPACE
ABantam Book / published by arrangement with
G. P. Putnam's Sons
PRINTING HISTORY
Firstpublished in Germany by Econ-Verlagunder the title
zurOck zu den sternen
Firstpublished in GreatBritain 1970 by Souvenir PressLtd,
under the title return TO the stars
Putnam's Sons edition published April1971
2nd printing . . . May 1971
Condensations by Philadelphia inquirer July 1971
Universe Book Club edition published August 1971
Bantam edition published April 1972
2nd printing
3rd printing
4th printing
5th printing
6th printing
7th printing
8th printing
9th printing
Copyright ©All19r6i8ghbtsyrEecsoenr-veVde.rlag Gmbh.
Translation copyright © 1970 by Michael Heron
and Souvenir Press.
This book may notbe reproduced in whole or in part, by
mimeograph or any other means, without permission.
For information address: G. P. Putnam's Sons,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc., a National
General company. Its trade-mark, consisting of the words "Bantam
Books" and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the United
States Patent Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada.
Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10019.
PUNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Contents
About Erich von Daniken vii
Foreword ix
1 Interstellar Space Flight Is Possible 1
2 On the Track of Life 12
3 A "Sunday**Archaeologist Asks Questions 30
4 Mankind's Storehouse of Memory 46
5 The Sphere the Ideal Shape for
Spacecraft 57
6 The Science Fiction of Yesterday Is
Tomorrow's Reahty 78
7 Conversations in Moscow 91
8 AncientSitesThatDeserveInvestigation 100
9 Easter Island: An Inexhaustible Topic 114
10 To India to Consult the Sacred Texts 123
11 The Perversions of Our Ancestors 143
12 Questions and Still More Questions 163
BIBLIOGRAPHY 167
INDEX 169

About Erich von Daniken
Erich von Daniken is not a scholar. He is an
autodidact, which the dictionary defines as a
manwho is self-taught. Probably this helps explain the
success his first book met witli all over the world.
Completely free from all prejudices, he had to demon-
strate personally that his theses and theories were
not unfounded and hundreds of thousands of readers
were able to follow him along the adventurous road he
took—a roadthat ledinto regions thatwere surrounded
and protected by taboos.
Besides, his fearless questioning of all the previous
explanations of the origin of the human race seems to
have been long overdue. Erich von Daniken was not
the first man who dared to challenge them, but his
questions were more impartial, more direct and more
audacious. In addition, he was able to say exactlywhat
he wanted to say, unlike a professor, for example, who
would have felt boimd to take the opinions of his col-
leagues or the representatives of similar academic dis-
ciplines into consideration. What is more, he came up
with some startling answers.
Men who blimtly ask bold questions that cast doubt
on time-honored, accepted explanations have always
been a nuisance and people have never been over-
fussy about how they silenced them. In the past their
books were banished to secret libraries or put on the
index; today people tryto hush them up or make them
vii
look ridiculous. Yet none of these methods has ever
succeeded in disposing of questions which concern the
reason for our very existence.
Erichvon Daniken has the spontaneity of the enthu-
siast In the summer of 1968 he read articles by
Vlatcheslav Saizev in the Soviet journal Sputnik with
titles such as "Spaceship in the Himalayas'* and "An-
gels in Spaceships." Von Daniken booked a flight to
Moscow on the spot. There Professor Shklovsky, di-
rector of the Radio Astronomic Department of the
Soviet Academy of Science's Sternberg Institute, an-
swered his questions.
The author of Chariots of the Gods? was barely
nineteen years old when his curiosity first drove him
to Egyptwhere he hopedto track down the real mean-
ing of some cuneiform inscriptions. Since his first jour-
ney in 1954, he hops on planes to clear up his theories
thewaywecatch a bus. Thinking on the space scale as
he does, distance means nothing to him so long as the
goal of his journeys provides arguments for the im-
possible.
Wilhelm Roggersdorf
VIII