“There is a doorway in the universe. Beyond it is the promise of truth. It demands we question everything we have ever been taught. The evidence is all around us. We are not alone. We have never been alone.”
Ever since Eric von Daniken released his speculative book and its subsequent 1970 film Chariots of the Gods, there has been an entire field of study created around something commonly called Ancient Astronaut Theory, the idea is that extraterrestrials have visited many of our ancient civilizations. The theory continues that these visitors had a hand in shaping our development, whether it be through technology or even manipulation of our very DNA. These believers point to a world of evidence to support their claims. There are tons of images from earlier civilizations that could certainly be interpreted as depicting modern devices, concepts, or even spacemen. There is plenty of speculation that some of the knowledge and accomplishments of these peoples could not have been possible without some outside interference. There are even those who believe that aliens best explain our religious beliefs and that God himself was/is an extraterrestrial being. Whatever your own beliefs on the subject, there are certainly some fascinating points to be made. There is no question that the speculations and observations bring up some interesting queries that deserve our attention. This series attempts to document much of this evidence and the beliefs these findings have inspired.
It has actually been a while since we’ve been given a copy of an Ancient Aliens season to review. So you’ll have to excuse me if I’ve somewhat lost my way. It’s actually been close to two years since the last release. Now we’re on season 13, and we’re also getting a complete season this time. It’s an upgrade to be sure. There is still a great discrepancy between the studio-labeled seasons and how they are recorded on places like IMdb and others. According to them we are beyond the 16th season at this point. But let’s take a look at the 16 episodes to be found here on three discs.
Here’s a list of the episodes and some brief info:
The Relics Of Roswell:
This is the kind of episode that is most compelling. While many episodes feature a ton of talking heads, reenactments, and animated graphics I think I like the episodes most that have people go out and do real field work. There’s not a lot of it here, but it’s the most compelling stuff. The show has also discovered that one of its most popular contributors is Giorgio Tsoukalos. He’s the guy with the Don King hair. This season they decided to send Giorgio out into the field to find artifacts still in the ground from the Roswell crash. There are some pretty interesting pieces on display here with interesting properties. We’re also introduced to something called the Russian Roswell high in the Ural mountains.
Destination Chile:
Apparently Chile has the most UFO sightings in the world. Plenty of those desert giants can be found here as well as other structures and symbols that can only be fully appreciated by air in a time when we were thousands of years before the first flight. The terrain here is used to test Martian rovers because it has the closest landscape and properties to the Red Planet.
The Real Men In Black:
While Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith aren’t really a part of this episode, it explores the tales of real black-dressed men who have been reported to visit folks who make claims that might cut a little to close to the “truth”. The episode dovetails into Project Bluebook and other official UFO-type investigations. The episode also folds in sightings of the Mothman and black helicopters. Those of us who remember Ross Perot and his runs for the Presidency will smile at those stories. I’m surprised he wasn’t mentioned here.
The Mystery Of The Stone Giants:
The speculation here goes beyond some of the alien or astronaut images and talks about the special properties of many of these statues throughout the world. Some have magnetic or electrical properties, while some are believed to store data within its materials like an ancient flash drive.
The World Before Time:
This is one of the more compelling episodes that strikes on a theory I have always believed myself. Rather than believe in ancient aliens, I believe it’s likely advanced civilizations have existed on this planet and are now long gone. Of course, they tie it in with ancient aliens, but it’s not necessary to believe that to believe they existed. There are a lot of Biblical references here, particularly those of mass destruction. There’s also the existence of underwater ruins some as much as 2000 feet below the surface.
They Came From The Pleiades:
The show has gone here several times before. The speculation here is that somewhere in that star cluster is the origin of at least some of these ancient alien visitors. Some interesting new stuff here focuses on the discovery in just the last couple of years of the first recorded objects from outside the solar system. The idea is they could be probes of some kind.
The Immortality Machine:
Meet George Van Tassel. He was a guy who claimed to have been in touch with aliens. He ended up living under a giant rock called… wait for it… Giant Rock. It was the largest free-standing boulder in the world until someone decided to use a few sticks of dynamite to make a cozy little home beneath it. It’s way out in the desert. So this guy ends up building a domed structure that he claimed would use magnetic fields to extend your life if you walked through it. He only got it 95% finished before he… you guessed it… died of a heart attack. I guess he didn’t read the warranty carefully. It’s called The Integratron, and researchers are trying to complete it.
The Shapeshifters:
Of course they’ve touched on this subject many times in the past, but it’s one of my favorite themes here. This time they try to link vampires and werewolves to the alien theme. It brings out some cool stuff. It ends up with an examination of human genes and speculation that aliens have been manipulating our genes. What makes this idea so cool is the chilling thought that these aliens or whatever they are can easily hide in plain sight.
The Ultimate Guide To UFO’s:
The episode focuses on the structure, mechanics, and engineering of a flying saucer. We get to see some attempts to build a working model. Some of the science is pretty interesting here as they try to explain why this might have been a good design for alien ships.
Aliens And The Presidents:
Several presidents have reported seeing UFO’s. George Washington told of an encounter with a light that allowed him to see the future of America. Jefferson took down the first official UFO government report. Lincoln reported an experience much like Washington’s just weeks before he died. Carter reported a UFO before he was elected, and Reagan saw one from Air Force One. Apparently Gorbachev claims Reagan approached him and they agreed to mutually defend each other from an alien attack. Speculation here is that Truman signed a treaty with aliens and that Richard Nixon took Jackie Gleason to a Florida base where he saw ships, artifacts, and even an alien body. One guy claims that the military only shares the secrets with Republican presidents because they tend to be more loyal to the military.
The Divine Number:
The next time you’re picking those numbers in the lotto, be sure to include the number 12. These guys are convinced it’s connected to the ancient aliens and has a huge significance in the clues left behind. There are 12 musical notes, 12 apostles, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 months (but only because the Romans considered 13 unlucky), 12 tribes of Jacob, and they claim base 12 would be an optimal mathematics system rather than 10. Nothing too convincing here, but somewhat interesting.
The Lost Kingdom:
Tibet is the focus here. That means Yetis and other cool stuff. Tibet is a natural for this stuff. It’s isolated and hard to reach. There’s 40% less oxygen in the atmosphere, so the natives have adapted to it over the centuries. There was also a village of 100,000 people who vanished overnight. One of the best stories involves a metal statue called Iron Man that was stolen by a Nazi expedition in the 1930’s. It had a swastika on its belly and was made of meteorite materials. Of course, it’s important to remark, and to their credit they do, that the symbol was appropriated from the Hindu traditions and was once a symbol of protection and good.
The Galactic Keyhole:
This is the kind of episode that always has me scratching my head. It examines the thousands of keyhole shapes in monuments and places. The truth is, it’s a very simple shape and could represent anything from people to artistic design. When they show two locations and call them identical, they lose me, because I’m not seeing anything of the kind. It does guest star Rick from The Curse of Oak Island, but I’m not sure exactly why he was there. So there is that.
The Giants Of The Mediterranean:
It’s true that the four earliest civilizations all sprang up around the Mediterranean Sea: the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians. All of them have stories of giants. Now, the show has told us about giants before. The speculation is they are hybrids of alien and humans. They locate tombs that are large enough to fit a giant but really haven’t found any giant mummies.
The Forbidden Bible:
The episode looks at the Dead Sea Scrolls and also the Bookof Enoch, which is part of Holy Scriptures but not included in any Bible except in Ethiopia. Enoch was Noah’s grandfather, and the writings are extensive. They include, according to these guys, the first reported alien abduction. Enoch claims to have been taken to Heaven, and the story is interpreted to be a spacecraft. Enoch also tells a more extensive story of the flood. Here it’s claimed the flood wasn’t created to kill off humans because God was pissed. Instead it was to kill of these creatures and protect humanity. They even have Enoch not the Egyptians building the Great Pyramid at Giza thousands of years earlier than believed.
Impossible Artifacts:
This is kind of a bread-and-butter episode for the show. They look at some things that when found challenged the history of the planet that conventional science has painted. A hammer was found encased in rock over 140 million years old. A mechanical device with gears and levers was found in an ancient Greek shipwreck. It apparently can be used to calculate the position of celestial objects at any given point in the future. There is much more on the idea that data can be imbedded in artifacts and that the secrets of the aliens might have been coded into our DNA to retrieve when we reach a point where we can decode it.
It’s another 16 episodes, and while I don’t believe in a lot of this stuff, I have found myself learning things through watching the show. I do find it incredibly entertaining. It’s one of those shows you almost hate to admit you’re into. It’s worth the look for a few laughs, and will you learn something along the way? “Ancient astronaut theorists give a resounding yes.”
