The Gold of the Gods by Erich von Däniken Read Free Book Online

conventional language of translation by words from our modern conceptual world. The result was staggering. The primeval legends turned into a straightforward technical report! (
Gods from Outer Space
.)
    If we apply the same procedure and simply replace the word “heaven” by the modern concept “universe,” then in the twinkling of an eye the legends and myths of wars between the gods in heaven become gigantic battles in the universe between two hostile camps. In the children’s heaven of religion, of course, no wars took place, in it reigned and still does reign the one and only beneficent and almighty God.
    Yet the Old Testament mentions not just one god, but several gods:
“... Let
us
make man in
our
image, after
our
likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air . . .” (Genesis 1:26).
     
    This plural is mentioned by the monotheistic Moses on another occasion:
“. . . the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair . . .” (Genesis 6:2).
     
    Helene Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), who founded the Theosophical Society in London in 1875, wrote in
The Secret Doctrine
, a work in six volumes, published in 1888:
“One of the names of the Jewish Jehova, ‘Sabaoth’ or the ‘Lord of Hosts’ (Isabaoth) belongs to the Chaldaean Sabaeans (or Tsabaeans) and has as its root the word ‘tsab,’ which means a ‘cart,’ a ‘ship’ and an ‘army.’ So ‘sabaoth’ literally means ‘the army of the ship,’ the ‘crew’ or a ‘squadron of ships.’”
     
    I suspect that several gods had a hand in the creation (= opening up) of the earth, as well as in the “creation” of man. The creation myth of the Quiché Mayas, the
Popol Vuh
, tells us how man was created:
“It is said that those ones were created a shaped, they had no father, they had no moth yet they were called men. They were not be, of woman, they were not produced by creators and Shapers, nor by Alom and Caholom, only by a miracle, by magic were they created and shaped . . .”
     
    The Indian people of the Mayas, whose rather sudden emergence into so-called history is dated to shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, at first lived a very primitive life in the forests, killing game with the most rudimentary weapons. Yet the myths of the
Popol Vuh
are supposed to date from this primitive stage. How could phrases like the following have occurred to such primitive minds: “. . . they had no father, they had no mother . . . they were not born of woman . . . by magic were they created and shaped.”
    It all seems so contradictory and confused that it cannot be explained logically by existing theories. So I should like to stimulate new ideas with the following scenario.
----
     
IF there were wars in the universe, there must have been conquerors and conquered. The victors remained in undisputed possession of their own planet, but the defeated had to flee. They were forced to make for another planet at very short notice in a still intact spaceship. The reserves of energy and food that can be carried in a spaceship last only for a limited time. So the victors had only a definite period, which they knew, in which to wipe out and annihilate the enemy. The smallest advantage of time helped the defeated, because they could profit by time dilatation in their spaceship. (This phenomenon is scientifically proved. In a spaceship traveling just below the speed of light, time passes more slowly than on the launching planet, where it unfolds as usual.) The victors wanted no survivors. If only a couple of survivors reached a safe haven, they would produce offspring and grow into a race which would take revenge for their defeat. (If one couple had a knowledge of molecular biology—and the victors knew this—they could even alter primitive life on the planet that was their goal.) The conquered knew the “mentality” of the conquerors and had the same technical know-how. So in a race against time