Table Of ContentTHE
ANCIENT
ALIEN
QUESTION
THE
ANCIENT
ALIEN
QUESTION
A New Inquiry Into the Existence, Evidence, and Influence of Ancient
Visitors
PHILIP COPPENS
Copyright © 2012 by Philip Coppens
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THE ANCIENT ALIEN QUESTION
EDITED AND TYPESET BY KARA KUMPEL
Cover design by Howard Grossman/12E Design
Printed in the U.S.A.
Images on pages 86, 89, 91, 102, 104, 107, 131, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 159, 162, 186, 263,
280, and 281 are © Philip Coppens.
Image on page 145 is © Erich von Däniken, used with permission.
Images on pages 167 and 169 are © The Estate of Stan Hall, used with permission. [website]
Image on page 180 is © Marsyas, made available as part of the Creative Commons License on Wikimedia.
Image on page 183 is © Madman2001, made available as part of the Creative Commons License on
Wikimedia. Image on page 191 is © Wikipedia.
Image on page 205 is © Jon Rolls, used with permission.
Images on pages 208 and 209 are © Hartwig Hausdorf, used with permission.
Images on pages 232 and 238 are © NASA.
Image on page 245 is © Christina Rutz, made available as part of the Creative Commons License on
Wikimedia. Image on page 278 is from 1875 and © The Hearst Museum.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coppens, Filip.
Coppens, Filip.
The ancient alien question : a new inquiry into the existence, evidence, and influence of ancient
visitors / by Philip Coppens.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 978-1-60163-198-5 -- ISBN 978-1-60163-628-7 (ebook)
1. Human-alien encounters. 2. Civilization, Ancient--Extraterrestrial influences.
3. Unidentified flying objects--Religious aspects. 4. Life on other planets. 5. Extraterrestrial beings.
I. Title.
BF2050.C67 2012
001.942--dc23
2011027037
Acknowledgments
I have been posing the Ancient Alien Question for almost two decades
now, and hundreds of people have joined me on my quest for an answer. I
would particularly like to thank Erich von Däniken, Uli Dopatka, and Gene M.
Phillips for inviting me, as a young man in my 20s, to air my side of the debate
at a number of Ancient Astronaut Society World Conferences in the 1990s.
Special thanks, of course, are due to Erich, as he is not only the pioneer in this
subject, but also the man who kindly wrote the foreword for this book, which is
truly a great honor and privilege. I thank Giorgio Tsoukalos for a friendship that
began then, which has grown since, and especially for his unending devotion to
the cause, however hard the going sometimes became.
My drive to answer the Ancient Alien Question was reignited by the
wonderful team at Prometheus Pictures, the producers of Ancient Aliens. Your
professionalism is equal to none and every minute of filming was a joy (yes,
David Silver, that includes the eight-hour wait for a replacement camera in
Rennes-le-Château). However, I need to single out Kevin Burns for his
commitment and vision, as well as Evan Goldstein, with whom my part of the
story began.
This book would not have come about without the vision of Michael Pye at
New Page Books. You and the team at New Page are the engine that made this
book come true.
In my circle of friends, I would like to specifically thank: Paige Tucker;
Jason Gossman; Sarah Symons; Mary Parent; Patrick Ruffino; Patrick Bernauw;
Marc Borms; Chris Norman; Cris Winter; Gerard Lohan; Eileen, Cathy, and
Janeth Hall; Debbie Nicastro; Herman Hegge; Dawn Molkenbur; Tobi and
Gerda Dobler; Marianne Wilson; Theresa Byrne; Cynthia James and Carl
Studna; Gail Heron Sterling; Geoff Potts; JoAnn Parks and MAX; Peter van
Deursen and Anneke Koremans; Isobel Denham; Kelly Cole; Philippe Canal.
Apart from being the best friends anyone could desire, you make life beautiful.
By default, I will have forgotten some, and I sincerely apologize for that!
I thank the research and devotion of the following authors and often friends:
Robert Bauval; Graham Hancock; Greg Taylor; Wim Zitman and Hendrine;
Sam Osmanagic and Sabina; John Major Jenkins; Geoff Stray; Hartwig
Hausdorf; Robert and Olivia Temple; Mark Pilkington; Howard Crowhurst;
Hugh Newman; Andy Collins; David Hatcher Childress and Jennifer; Jeremy
Hugh Newman; Andy Collins; David Hatcher Childress and Jennifer; Jeremy
Narby; Antoine Gigal; Ralph Ellis; Jack Sarfatti; Uri Geller; Joseph Davidovits;
John Ritchie; Duncan Lunan.
Special appreciation to the photographic skill of Rivelino, and the fantastic
photo shoots in the streets and along the canals of Amsterdam.
I would like to thank my thousands of Facebook friends and followers, who
allow me to have a great virtual banter on a daily basis!
Each and every member of the Coppens, Sonck, Harkey, and Smith family,
though I need to specifically mention my parents; my brother, Tom, and his
wife, Kathleen, and my nephews, Daan and Arne; Papa and Mama; as well as
Patrick, Conor, and Shane.
Finally, I thank Kathleen. It is best summed up by Giorgio, who in December
2009, when he saw me again after many years, heard me speak about you and to
you on the phone and concluded that there was absolutely no doubt that I was
totally in love. You changed my life, made me into a new man, and were a
constant source of inspiration throughout the writing of this book, and will
remain so. As fate would have it, the final paragraph of this manuscript was
written on our anniversary. Semper.
Philip Coppens
May 29, 2011
Contents
Foreword by Erich von Däniken
Introduction
Chapter 1: One Small Question for Man, One Giant Question for Humankind
Chapter 2: Ancient Alien Theories
Chapter 3: Of Gods and Men
Chapter 4: Old Buildings, New Techniques
Chapter 5: A Brave New World
Chapter 6: The Best Evidence
Chapter 7: Alien DNA, Earthly Life
Chapter 8: Evidence of Nonphysical Contact
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Foreword
By Erich von Däniken
Dear reader,
From 1953 until 1958, I was a student at the Collège St-Michel in the small
Swiss town of Fribourg. There, among other things, we learned Old Greek and
Latin. Time and again we had to translate texts from the Bible, the Old
Testament, from one language to the other. I read in Genesis: “But when people
started to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born, the sons of God saw
that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as their wives any they
chose.”
I was confused. What “sons of Gods”? My professor said that this referred to
“fallen angels.” What “fallen angels”? I wondered. Later, we translated the
words of the biblical prophet Ezekiel as he described seeing a vehicle come out
of the clouds with a lot of noise. He described the wings of the vehicle, its
wheels, and even its metal legs. My professor believed that this referred to a
vision, and that Ezekiel had described “God in his chariot.”
Doubts gnawed at my beliefs, and, as a 17-year-old, I wanted to know
whether other cultures in ancient times had similar descriptions to those of the
Christian-Jewish tradition. So while my classmates were playing soccer, I sat in
the university library and read...and read...and read. Soon I understood that
many ancient human traditions contained similar reports to the stories in the
Bible, only with other words and other heroes. Could one believe the texts?
At that time I decided to take those texts that had been written in the first-
person, as an eyewitness report, to be true. And there were many. Again and
again I encountered descriptions of “gods” who drove around in the clouds, of
beings who came down to earth with “smoke, fire, earthquakes, noise,” and
selected people who had the privilege of being taken to “heaven” by the “gods.”
There, these people experienced a training program. Even artificial insemination
and changes in the genetic code were reported in the old books I read.
At some point I realized that all these actions were not compatible with the
traditional idea of the “Beloved God.” But when I replaced the word god with
the word extraterrestrial, everything suddenly made sense.
In 1965, I had my manuscript for Chariots of the Gods finished—but found
