Return to the Stars: Evidence for the Impossible (22 page)

I suspect that the unknown intelligences did not expend their efforts on a new man purely for altruistic motives. Although it is not yet proved by research, one could assume that the 'gods' suspected the presence on earth of a material that they needed badly and that they looked for it. Was it fuel for their space-ships?

Many references point to the conclusion that the 'gods' received a reward for their help in evolution. Exodus xxv, 2, mentions an offering, a concept it is easy to miss the point of. Expert German translators assured me that offerings could be taken to mean objects that were lifted up or pushed into something. This is what Moses says in Exodus 25:2-7:

'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

'And this is the offering which ye shall take to them; gold, and silver, and brass,

'And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,

'And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood ...

'Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.'

So that no mistake occurred when the offering was brought, the list was specified in detail. We find it in Numbers 31:50-54:

'We have therefore brought an oblation for the LORD what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets ...

'And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD ... was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

'And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold ... and brought it ... for a memorial of Israel before the LORD.'

But the god of Israel would scarcely have demanded hard cash for the good he was doing his earthly children. It also appears from the text that the gifts were not intended for the priesthood, for the priests themselves had to collect and deliver the offering. In addition the proceeds of the collection for the gods was so accurately enumerated that such a niggling reckoning would be unworthy of the real god.

Was the offering the price demanded by the 'gods' for the great amount of intelligent knowledge transmitted?

The old sources give the impression that the 'gods' would not stay on our planet for ever. They carried out their plans and then disappeared for a long time. But they thought out ways of protecting the beings they had created during their absence. As they possessed extraordinary abilities, they probably made use of technology to keep a watch over them.

During the times the 'gods' were away, it was a frequent occurrence for a prophet seeking help and advice to call to his lord—as Samuel describes in Book I, 3:1:

'And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision' (i.e. god did not answer very often).

The new men were not left without protection. Texts speak of 'servants of the gods' who served on earth on higher orders, who protected the chosen ones and guarded the dwellings of the 'gods'. Were these 'servants of the gods' robots?

The Epic of Gilgamesh describes the dramatic battle between Enkidu and Gilgamesh, and the monster Chuwawa, who guarded the dwelling places of the 'gods' successfully and single-handed. The spears and clubs that Enkidu and Gilgamesh rained on him rebounded harmlessly from the 'shining monster', and behind him a 'door' spoke in the 'thunderous voice' of a human being. Clever Enkidu discovered the Achilles heel of Chuwawa, the servant of the gods, and managed to disable him.

Chuwawa was neither 'god' nor man. That emerges from a series of texts that James Pritchard published in Ancient Near Eastern Texts in 1950. The cuneiform text says:

'Until I have destroyed this "man", if it is man, until I have killed this god, if it is a god, I will not direct my steps to the city ... O Lord (addressing Gilgamesh), thou, who hast not seen this thing ... art not stricken with dread, I, who have seen this "man", am stricken with dread. His teeth are like dragon's teeth, his face is like a lion's face ...'

Isn't that the description of a fight with a robot? Did Enkidu find out where the lever was that turned the machine off and so decide the unequal combat in his favour?

Another cuneiform translation by N.S. Kramer also makes me suspect that a 'servant of the gods' was a programmed robot:

'... those who accompanied her, the Inanna (the goddess), were beings who know no food, who know no water; eat no scattered meal, drink no offered up water ...'

Sumerian and Assyrian tablets often mention such beings, who 'eat no food and drink no water'. Sometimes these weird monsters are described as 'flying lions', 'fire-spitting dragons' or 'radiant god's eggs'.

We also meet the guards left behind by the 'gods' in Greek sagas. The story of Hercules tells of the Nemean lion, who had fallen down from the moon and could not be wounded 'by any human weapon'. Another saga describes the dragon Ladon, whose eyes never slept and whose weapons were 'fire and frightful hissing'. Before Medea and Jason could carry off the Golden Fleece, they had to outwit the dragon who was covered with flashing scales of iron and who writhed about, enveloped in flames.

We also find robots in the Bible. What else could the angels have been that saved Lot and his family before Sodom and Gomorrha perished? And what are we to make of the 'arms of god' which lent a helping hand in the battles of the chosen people? Moses tells us of an angel who was helpful on god's orders in Exodus 23:20-21:

'Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

'Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.'

To me it seems only logical that a robot has the name or mind of his constructor 'in him', and also that he can never deviate from his programming.

One thing I always found wonderful as a schoolboy was Jacob's experience as told in Genesis 28:12. When Jacob lay down to sleep at night on one of his journeys, he saw a ladder the top of which reached to heaven and had god's angels climbing up and down it. Had Jacob perhaps surprised the 'servants of god' loading goods into a space-ship? Was Jacob's wonderful experience an eyewitness account?

As a crucial test of my audacious claims, my readers should make the experiment of reading 'robots', as we understand the term today, for dragons whenever they are mentioned in ancient texts. It is astonishing how intelligible the unintelligible suddenly becomes.

I accept the fact that the theories I have expounded will be savagely attacked. Unknown intelligences are supposed to have put an end to bestiality and unnatural sexual practices? A new species of man are supposed to have received the first instructions for a civilised communal life from intelligences? Unknown intelligences, after carrying out their task, are supposed to have vanished into the universe again, but to have left behind overseers of the new men? And these overseers are supposed to have been robots or automatons?

I try to recognise a reality that once existed behind myths, legends and traditions. Here are some incontrovertible facts.

Tibetans and Hindus called the universe the 'mother' of the terrestrial race.

The natives of Malekula (New Hebrides) state that the first race of men consisted of descendants of the 'sons of heaven'.

The Red Indians say that they are the descendants of the 'thunderbird'.

The Incas believed they descended from the 'sons of the Sun'.

The Rapanui trace their origin back to the birdmen.

The Mayas are supposed to be 'children of the Pleiades'.

The Teutons claim that their forefathers came with the 'flying Wanen'.

The Indians believe that they descend from Indra, Ghurka or Bhima—all three of whom drove through the heavens in 'fireships'.

Enoch and Elijah disappeared for ever in a 'chariot of fire'.

The South Sea Islanders say they descend from the god of heaven, Tangalao, who came down from heaven in an enormous gleaming egg.

One core is common to these genealogical stories: 'gods' came, chose a group whom they fertilised and separated from the unclean. They imparted all kinds of modern knowledge to them and then disappeared for a period or for ever.

Karl F. Kohlenberg described what we are now left with in his book Volkerkunde (Ethnology):

'... the riddle of the gods, the riddle of the origin of man, a chaos of traditions, the real meaning of which our limited erudition is still unable to explain.'

May I be allowed one more important allusion to the 'riddle of the gods'. In my first book I mentioned the theory of relativity, the basic rocket formula and time shifts on interstellar flights. We have seen that time for the crew of a space-ship travelling just below the speed of light passes considerably slower than for those who stay behind on the launching planet. Should we regard it as coincidence that the oldest writings, quite independently of each other, constantly emphasise that the units of time applicable to the gods are different from ours?

A human generation was only a 'moment' to the Indian god Vishnu. Each of the legendary emperors of Chinese prehistory was a heavenly ruler, who drove through the sky with fire-breathing dragons and lived for 18,000 terrestrial years. Indeed P'an Ku, the first heavenly ruler, travelled around in the cosmos two million two hundred and twenty-nine thousand years ago, and even our own familiar Old Testament assures us that in the hand of God everything is 'a time and times and the dividing of time' (Daniel 7:25), or as Psalm xc, 4, so magnificently expresses it:

'For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.'

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12 - Questions And Still More Questions

Were outward signs of age-old traditions misunderstood during past millennia?

Were our attempts at interpretation moving in the wrong direction?

Have we made what has always been and still is before our eyes more complicated than it really is?

Were straightforward practical and technical directions given a distorted interpretation in religious and philosophical mysteries?

Are the traditions that have accumulated in myths and religions meant to be far less mysterious and far more practical than was believed for millennia?

Will there be time for us to learn what the scanty relics of human prehistory have to tell us, before the small amount of extant material is finally devoured, scattered and destroyed by bulldozers?

When will archaeologists make a cut a kilometre long through the sandstone cliffs called the Extern Stones in the Teutoburger Forest?

When will a large-scale expedition be completely free to excavate the mystery-enshrouded sites around Marib?

When will underwater radiation investigations with modern apparatus be made in the Dead Sea?

When will archaeologists follow up the long overdue idea of sounding the Chephren Pyramid by doing the same thing under the numerous other pyramids?

When will diggers remove the top layer of Tiahuanaco so that we may learn what secrets are still hidden below it?

How long will lone wolves thirsty for knowledge have to dig in the Sahara without any help or support? When will helicopters be put at their disposal for even short periods to help them investigate the vast territory?

When will a chemical trace analysis of the Plain of Nazca finally be carried out?

For how long must amateur idealists struggle to free the ruins in the jungles of Guatemala and Honduras?

When will deep excavations be made at Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia)?