Metaphysical Articles: Interesting Articles, Links and Other Media: Erich von Däniken: The Bryce Bond Interview

Erich von Däniken has attempted to make sense of the world's ancient artifacts, fantastic structures and ruins with speculation concerning 'ancient astronauts' and extraterrestrial influences. As a teenager in high school, I read Chariots of the Gods? (1969) and today count eleven of Erich von Däniken's English language books on my bookshelves. His biography at his website reports that his 40 books have sold more than 67 million copies and have been translated into 32 languages. Alternatively, this blog has reported about transcendental sources of communication offering perspectives of humanity's ancient past.

The curiosity aroused by Erich von Däniken's books is vividly communicated in articles found in UFOlogy magazines of the 1970s. A March 1976 lecture by Erich was mentioned by C. S. Schrum in an article of UFOlogy (Summer 1976 edition).

"Up until today, ladies and gentlemen, I ended all my lectures saying there is no conclusive evidence for our working hypothesis of ancient astronauts. I am very happy and proud to announce this is not anymore the case. We now have the conclusive proof for it."

This was the way Erich von Däniken concluded his lecture at the Ancient Astronaut Society meeting held March 13 in Chicago. He was referring to the work of an American astronomer, Dr. Robert Semple [aka Temple], who found that the forefathers of the ancient African Dogan tribe (now located in the Republic of Mali near Timbuktu) recorded a visitation from outer space 5,000 years ago and then set up a religion based on the worship of the tiny companion star of Sirius, known as Sirius B.

Although Sirius is "only" ten light years from Earth and the brightest star in the sky, the existence of its White Dwarf companion star, Sirius B, was not even suspected until the invention of powerful telescopes in the mid-nineteenth century.

The tribal legends describe an ark with a great flame which contained half-fish, half-human creatures, who gave the Dogan their knowledge of astronomy.

Despite von Däniken's optimistic announcement however, the fact remains that this and much of the material unearthed by astroarchaeologists is being steadfastly ignored by most of the scientific community.

Later that year of 1976, an interview with Erich was presented in the November 1976 Cosmic Frontiers magazine. The interviewer was Bryce Bond, who has been the subject of two previous articles at this blog (1, 2). Excerpts from this interview are presented in this post to show the candid perspectives of these two authors. From what I've read about Bryce Bond, it seems unlikely that he would have overlooked informing others about significant (metaphysically revealing) experiences in his life when having an opportunity to discuss them; however, his work as an author and television interviewer is not easily found today and may not even have been preserved in any formal archival collection whatsoever. I am replacing some of the magazine art with better source images that today are readily available online. Some misspelled words have been corrected.

Erich von Däniken: He Believes in Space Men

by Bryce Bond

Our reporter talks to the man who makes the doubter think again.

Erich von Däniken is a 40-year-old Swiss native who, with the publication of three books which have sold an estimated 25 million copies world-wide, has become an international phenomenon. Each of his books, Chariots of the Gods?, Gods From Outer Space, and Gold of the Gods, deals with his theories that the earth was visited in ancient times by astronauts from another solar system who deposited seeds that grew into today's civilization. During a recent discussion with Erich, I asked about this.

He replied, "For myself, there is absolutely no doubt that we have been visited from outer space thousands of years ago. I can't prove it scientifically, but there are a lot of indications, good and bad. Only the future will show which is which."

"What proof do you have that they definitely existed?," I asked.

"As you know, Bryce, we have lots of indications from old books, myths and legends. These are also very convincing archaeological facts. Lastly, I base my theories on personal knowledge and experience." I asked if he meant personal experience in research and investigation, and Erich said, "Yes, personal knowledge with yourself, which you can't explain because you cannot prove it."

"Erich, in your book, Chariots of the Gods?, there are a lot of tantalizing hints. There was one particular one, an etching of an archway near Lake Titicaca, showing an Indian hunched over in a cockpit like a rocket ship."

"This is the stone of Palanque," he replied, "found in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1952 the Mexican archaeologist Rutz discovered the sacred grave deep down in the Temple of Inscription. The tomb was covered by a large stone. Around the stone is a kind of frame which we can't explain, by the way. In the center of it is a man bending forward like a racing motorcyclist—on his nose is an oxygen mask, and he is manipulating some controls with his hands. Four fingers of his left hand look as if he's winding something up. The heel of his left foot is on a pedal with different adjustments. The rear portion is separated from him and we see boxes and circles, and finally we see a leaking flame, like an exhaust, in the rear. Naturally, archaeologists have quite a few explanations for this. When I describe an astronaut, they insist he's an Indian, and what I see as an exhaust they just see as the stylized hairs of the beard of the weather god. Although it looks obvious to me, I have no proof that this is an exhaust, but I would say neither have the archaeologists any proof that it's the stylized hairs of the beard of the weather god. If I look at it with modern eyes, I really don't see glyphics and stylized hairs and an Indian of a sacrificial order." I mentioned that I felt that Erich's books teach people to think, and the person seems to accept or reject ideas according to his or her own way of thinking. They open minds, and prod them to investigate further. He acknowledged that he had created debates all over the world.

I asked Erich if he felt he'd been "guided" into this field, and if he felt he was destined to bring forth certain information, and he replied, "I really don't know. Sometimes I have the feeling that I was, yes but I wouldn't speculate on this." I asked if he'd ever made contact with extraterrestrial life, and if he felt guided by extraterrestrial presence. "All your books are filled with information about extraterrestrials that once existed on earth," I continued, "but have you ever made contact?"

"Many people have written or told me that they are in contact with extraterrestrial beings but whenever I met the people personally, they were never serious. So I really don't know if there is anyone on this planet from another world. On the other hand, sometimes when I wake up in the morning I know things quite clearly, and just have to verify it in a book."

Chariots of the Gods? caption: "Drawing from Val Camonica in Northern Italy shows yet again the extraordinary obsession primitive man had with figures in suits and unusual headgear."

Chariots of the Gods? caption: "Ancient drawing from Tassili in the Sahara."

[Bryce Bond:] ". . . You're spreading enlightenment and making people realize that these ideas do exist, and that man does not function only in the world of the senses."

Erich replied, "My speculation had a good base in ancient books. For example, the Book of Enoch, the Bible and the Sumerian tablets all mention intelligence, and that it has come from outer space to this planet . . ."

[Erich von Däniken:] ". . . I think those visitors who visited this planet left definite proof—a tablet or something—which cannot be destroyed for thousands of years. It would be written, 'We have been here,' stating a definite time and origin, and that we have found and changed this form of life, or that form of life, and so on. There must be a time capsule or whatever—but proof. The question now would be for those visitors to be sure we'd discover such proof, because that's not easy. For example, we know quite clearly that we cannot give the proof to a high priest or a leader because they might have wars in the following generations. The winner would destroy the temples and libraries of the loser, and the proof would be lost forever. Proof is a holy thing, coming from God—so how to preserve it? Another possibility might have been to put it on top of a mountain or somewhere where everyone could see it, but this would not work because it might be found at the wrong time by the wrong people. There's only one possibility left: we must deposit proof on a mathematical, logical base. For example, the mathematically logical point on our planet would be the North or South Pole. Nobody has ever looked there. It could be the Equator—this is a whole chain of points. It could be the Great Pyramid, which is situated in the center of the land mass, making it a logical mathematical point. Also, we have logical mathematical points out in our solar system, such as the point where gravity between earth and moon is zero. This point moves because the moon moves. But even if we have deposited the proof at such a point, the story is not over; now early mankind has to be sure that later generations ask the question, 'Have we been visited from outer space?,' because if nobody asks this question, then nobody will look for the proof at the logical mathematical point. And that's the reason why we find in mankind's past all those indications in Sumerian tablets, in the Bible, and so on. That's the reason they have left tools to our forefathers to create things which we cannot reconstruct today, such as the Ras Baalbeck [ruins]. In later generations, someone should ask, 'Have we been visited from outer space?' And then he should start to seek.

[Bryce Bond:] . . . I told Erich that I was particularly interested in asking him about three areas in the world with which he is familiar. "The first is the Easter Islands, Erich, where those huge monolithic heads stand like sentinels. How do you think they were constructed, and by whom? I've been told recently that these were actual life-size heads of figures who once walked the earth. That would put these men at least 100 feet high!"

"Yes," he said, "there must have been giants. It's absolutely possible, if you believe the Book of Enoch. I have been on Easter Island several times and I know the theories of archaeologists, and I'm familiar with Thor Heyerdahl's books. I know that on the crater in Reraku we have found hundreds of primitive stone chisels, and for Thor Heyerdahl those existing stone chisels were the proof. I have quite other ideas. When I measured the distance, for example, between the nose and the crater, it was more than one and a half meters. When I measured the distance of the length of the unfinished statues there, they measured 32 meters. Still today, we have in the crater in Reraku abut 200 unfinished statues. Now, I had the following idea: when we conquered new continents a few hundred years ago, we often brought the natives presents—we gave them glass beads or tools, knives, pots and so on. Why should it be so daring to believe that foreign visitors from outer space also left our forefathers practical tools as gifts? Now, all tools one day break, and the men who knew how to handle them died . . . and there were still 200 unfinished statues in the crater. Perhaps the natives had the idea to finish the work and started to chisel with primitive tools on the crater night and day for weeks and months. Finally they had to realize that the work couldn't be done with stone chisels and gave up. Maybe that's the reason we find stone chisels there—not because they created with them."

"I think it was said that when these particular statues were constructed, there were very few inhabitants on the island itself, and that these particular chisels made out of stone would not work very well on the volcanic rock."

"Yes, that's true," he agreed. "In regard to the question you asked concerning the size of the heads, I said before that those beings from out of space created intelligence here and experimented with genetics. In the beginning, they got various results from those experiments. The prophet Enoch describes clearly in his book that we had giants on earth. Not only in Enoch, but in the Old Testament. You also find 'the watchmen from the sky' in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Gilgamesh epic from Sumeria. Enoch says in Chapter 14, 'They carried me up into the sky until a wall was before me made of crystal stones and surrounded by tongues of fire. I became afraid and entered one of the fiery tongues and approached the large house built like crystal stones. The walls of this house were like a floor tiled with crystal stones. Its base was also like crystal and its ceiling was like the firmament with stars and lightnings and between them fiery cherubs. One side was a sea of fire and the doors burned like fire.' I think he was up in an orbital station of the model space ship. He comes to the highest, he doesn't say God, he says the highest, which is certainly the commander because we find the same highest in other scriptures. And he hears the voice of the highest: 'Do not be afraid, Enoch. You are a righteous man and writer of righteous things. Go and speak to the watchmen of the sky who have sent you to pray for them. They should really pray for you, and not you for them.'"

[Bryce Bond:] . . . "They all seem like one particular race, because they're all the same."

Erich continued, "It also says, 'Although you were immortal, you have made yourself impure with the blood of women who have had children with the blood of this planet.' It clearly says in the Book of Enoch, 'You have brought forth flesh and blood in the same way as those who are mortal,' and I tell myself you cannot present it clearer in an ancient book of mankind, and the Book of Enoch was written before the Great Flood. That's why if scientists attack me in some way, I just say they don't know enough."

I agreed that I felt scientists had to start going after some of the answers. Then I asked Erich about the pyramids in Egypt, and how they were constructed. "Some people say it was sonic levitation—what is your speculation?"

"Bryce, I really don't know concerning the pyramids. I do know that we have lots of mathematical coincidences which cannot be coincidences. I knew that the Great Pyramid is placed on the center of the land masses, and the Egyptians could not have known this. Several authors of antiquity describe it another way: for example, in his second book of history in Chapters 142 and 143, Herodotus says he has been in Middle Egypt and that the priests showed him 343 statues. Each priest has to make his own statue during his own lifetimes, so there were unfinished statues because each priest died before his own statue was finished. And Herodotus also says that the priests confirmed that these 343 statues represent 11,340 years, and before that the gods from the sky were here and gave the priests the data to construct the Great Pyramids."

At this point, I mentioned that my own esoteric philosophy and research has been getting around to some very deep aspects. I told Erich I wanted to know more about extraterrestrials and communication with other planes of consciousness—other worlds or universes, past and future. "Erich, we have learned some techniques whereby we can project ourselves to other people—perhaps someone who has died. Alexander the Great, for example. We go back to an hour before he passed away and communicate with him. We're just turning the clocks back in time and projecting ourselves to it—physically, now. Everyone can do it. It's just getting attuned to one's self. I think in your books, you have become in tune with these elements and you're getting the information to people who want it. I visited a place in England not far from Stonehenge called Warminster. You fly over Warminster, and you can see it as an exact replica of the Pegasus constellation. There are seven hills—they call them the Kingsborough and Queensborough Ancient Burial Grounds of the Romans. The magnetic flux of the earth is so violently strong there that these extraterrestrial craft appear nightly." Erich asked me if this had been proved, and I said that it had. "Any night you go there, you're going to see something. A friend of mine who is a researcher, Arthur Shuttlewood, has witnessed some of the most fantastic UFO sightings there. He even knows people who are extraterrestrial; he can almost give you proof of these entities themselves—how they appear and disappear instantly. He also has photographs, because you can go there and take pictures of the landing sites."

"I should go there," said Erich. I asked if he were interested in present-day UFO sighting as well as ancient ones, and he replies that he stays informed on the subject through newspapers and publications. When I asked him what his personal speculation was of recent sightings, he replied, "The fact is, I have never met a serious person who says to me they have been in a UFO or have been in contact with extraterrestrials. I don't know, but it would perhaps be possible that what we call a UFO could exist. But I have no experience with it—I have never seen a UFO, so I don't know."

"Well, Erich, you're with a seriously-interested person right now. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you about the famous landing fields in the Peruvian Mountains . . . in the Andes. You know a great deal about them, don't you?"

"I've been there many times. This is a high plateau—the Plateau of Nazca."

[Bryce Bond:] "What are the strange markings you find there? They call them lines—they look like bees or spiders, don't they? Why are they on this plateau?"

Erich said, "I would say that after the gods of heaven or outer space landed directly on this plateau, the natives had the idea they would make offerings to the gods. They created gigantic drawings of birds, spiders, fish and so on, but in such an over-dimensional form that they can only be seen as a whole by beings from a very great height." I asked how they could do the actual drawing when they couldn't see it in perspective, and he answered, "That's one of the questions not answered today. We don't know. In fact. there are many theories and speculations, but nothing proved."

"Have you ever found any mummified remains of an ancient astronaut?"

"Not that I know of," Erich replied. "It might be that such things exist, but if so, then the scientists of that day did not say anything about it. They just tried to find a so-called natural explanation for everything."

I asked Erich how one of his more recent books, Gold of the Gods, compared to an earlier one, Chariots of the Gods?, and what the major differences were between them. He said, "I include new information in Gold of the Gods—especially from ancient books and mythology. In the first chapter I speak about the subterranean tunnel system in Ecuador. I have been down there myself, but I must state clearly that I am not at all the discoverer of these things. I entered a very small side entrance and stayed only six hours. But what I saw there was definitely never hand-made with a stone chisel or primitive tools. Some kind of machine must have been used."

"What was it you saw down there? Could a laser beam have done it?"

"I have speculated in the book about what possibly could have been used, but I don't know. The walls seem . . . well . . . glazed. A laser beam could do it, but not alone. You would need another force . . ."

"To fuse it with tremendous heat. It's just cut out of the rock."

"Have you found any indication of a spiritual aspect in all this?" Erich replied that he definitely had. I also asked if there were any strong indications that these gods from extraterrestrial planetary systems were here for spiritual purposes, and he said that he didn't think so. I asked if he felt these were hostile enemies or positive people who come here.

"Definitely positive. In the majority of cases," he said. When I asked about the few who possibly were not, he added, "I don't know of any in practice, no . . . ."