"One is never deceived, one deceives oneself."
---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
FOR as long as Homo sapiens has been capable of thought, he has feared death. He experiences the cycles of death and rebirth in nature. He sees the stars paling at dawn---and growing bright once more the following night. What lies between death and new life---some mysterious condition of expectation, of looking forward to the next birth? Those who have a conviction that life continues beyond death can find the strength to face death with relative equanimity. Yet fear of death remains; for, as we know from our own experience, hope is a shimmering, elusive thing.
The fear of the individual is also the terror of the masses. Whole nations are afraid of war, of the atom bomb, of the destruction of the environment. Many think with unease and apprehension of the terrible events which are threatened in holy texts: doomsday, or the day of judgement. In the New Testament, Saint Mark announces (13:24-5):
His colleague Luke is even more specific; he even lists the warning signs which will precede the Day of Judgement (21:10-26).
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. . . . And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
The Koran also describes these tumultuous events in no less dramatic terms (Sura 82).
When the heavens show their cracks, the stars are scattered, the oceans mingle with one another; also when the graves turn over and are emptied, then every soul will know what it has done and what it has failed to do.
The day of judgement is even evoked in Gregorian chant, in those simple and yet so wonderful, deeply moving songs which are still sung in Catholic monasteries. The Dies Irae (literally 'day of wrath') is sung during the liturgy for the dead.
At this same time of tumultuous destruction, it is said that the 'judge' of the day of judgement will also appear. In Mark (13:26) we hear:
And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Luke (21:28) adds another sentence: 'And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.'
Of course, it is only the true and faithful who are going to be saved, the devout, blindly believing adherents of the holy scriptures. But if you ask me which holy scriptures, I could not tell you; for every religion in this earthly madhouse believes that only its own holy scriptures reveal the truth. A heavenly judge is prophesied to appear 'on the clouds' to measure the deeds and misdeeds of humanity with an ultimate yardstick. And before the lucky chosen ones are carried off to heaven, the rest of humanity will be whipped, beaten, drawn and quartered.
Saint John gives us the most riveting description of this in his so-called Revelation, the last text contained in the New Testament. We read there that seven seals will be broken open, and that with every seal new plagues will come to afflict mankind. Trumpets will sound, and with every blast terrible events will occur, in which a third of the ocean is turned to blood, a third of all creatures die, and a third of all ships sink.
But still worse is to come when the third trumpet sounds (8:10-11):
And there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
Finally the sun and moon are shrouded in darkness, and people are plagued by all imaginable creatures---locusts, scorpions, etc.---without the relief of being allowed to die. There is no end to the terror: horses with the heads of lions appear on the scene, from whose mouths spew fire, smoke and sulphur.
I have no idea whose brain these nightmares sprang from, or what sort of 'visions' St John suffered. What I do know is that various elements of this apocalypse can be found both in the very ancient texts of Enoch and in the much more recent prophet Daniel (7:1-27).
In contrast to the catastrophes in world history which have occurred up to now, which have been confined to relatively small geographical areas, the apocalypse of Saint John prophesies world-wide destruction from which no one will be safe, and a final reckoning and judgement.
So where have these ideas come from, these images of a terrible reckoning, with a subsequent redemption for the elect? And more particularly, what kind of 'all-merciful' God is it who tortures and kills the unbelievers and then lets them roast in eternal hell-fire?
Human imagination does not come up with only beautiful visions; it is equally capable of evoking ghastly scenes. Angry people wish their enemies in hell, and then proceed to imagine hell in its most lurid form. It is also clear that people seek comfort for their earthly sufferings by hoping for a more beautiful world in which things will be better for them. By extension they may also wish that others---the bad, the unjust, the rich, the atheists etc---will get their come-uppance and have their turn of suffering, while they themselves sip the nectar of the gods and bask in the glories of paradise.
O the world is so unfair
for I fare ill, while well you fare.
The world would be much less perverse
if I felt better and you felt worse.
The worse things are in the world, the more people long for a future golden age in which justice and equality reign. Since 'nothing can come of nothing'---not even a golden age---a king of some kind is needed, a ruler, a risen one, a redeemer, a prophet, someone in other words who has the power to clean up this pigsty and sort us all out. This psychologically understandable desire is responsible for all the resurrections, messiahs and prophets that we have been graced with through the centuries. Let me describe a few astonishing examples.
On 5 January 1945, the 67-year-old seer Edgar Cayce died in Virginia Beach, USA. In a state of trance, the 'sleeping prophet', as he was known, had been able to heal countless people despite never having read a single medical book in his life. In roughly 2,500 'readings', he gave extraordinary pieces of information about the past and the future, as well as about his repeated reincarnations from ancient Egyptian times up to the modern day. Many books have been written about him and his adherents number several million.1
In November 1926, in Puttaparthi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, was born a boy by the name of Satyanarayana Raju. His first name roughly translates as 'divine man'. When he was 14, Satyanarayana Raju was bitten by a scorpion; and on waking from a coma that lasted several days, he asserted that he was the reincarnation of Sai Baba, who had been a great Indian holy man in the previous century. Satyanarayana Raju went public when he was 30 years old, and at the age of 36 founded his own ashram. Today Sai Baba receives people and gives talks at his birthplace, 250 kilometres north-east of Bangalore. His is the largest ashram in India. There is also a university attached to it and an excellent hospital. His adherents are thought to number around 100 million. Countless books have been written about him.2 Each day he accomplishes materialization and miracle healings of all kinds, in front of his followers and also for television cameras. He attributes to himself omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, and proclaims himself to be a reincarnation of Buddha, Krishna, Rama and Christ. The German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that he is also not averse to physical sex.3 He has prophesied his own death for the year 2022, but only so as to be promptly reincarnated in the Indian state of Karnataka.
In Graz, Austria, on 15 March 1840, something strange occurred. The 40-year-old music teacher Jakob Lorber suddenly heard a clear voice commanding him to write. Obediently, though initially rather frightened, he took up his pen and, in the following years, wrote down volume after volume dictated by the voice, which he always sensed to be 'in the region of his heart'. The collected works of Professor Lorber encompass no less than 25 volumes---roughly 10,000 pages in total.4 He described scientific and astronomical details which were not discovered until later; and gave astonishing commentaries on both the Old and New Testaments. His followers number a few hundred thousand people, who are firmly convinced of the truth of his teachings.
Also in the last century, in Qadian, a village north-east of Lahore in what is now Pakistan, the prophet Hazrat Mirza Chulam Ahmad was born. During his life he proved to be a gentle, loving person, gifted at speaking and writing; he founded the Ahmadiyya movement, an Islamic community which still has many followers. Miraculous powers have been attributed to him; his adherents swear that God Almighty had 'woken him to continue the task of all past prophets'. He was thought to be 'the messiah and mahdi for Christians and Muslims', as well as 'the Krishna to Hindus, the Buddha to Buddhists . . . and a redeemer of all humanity'.5
These are just four of many prophet-figures who have appeared within the last 150 years; whatever you may think of them, they achieved astonishing things. Besides such positive prophets and healers, who never harmed anyone, there are a multitude of negative figures: prophets of doom who have been telling us for years that we should all have been dead long ago. From time immemorial the idea of the end of the world has been a continuous theme; the world itself, however, does not adhere to it.
I have no problem in dismissing the prophesies of charlatans, even those who cloak themselves in the guise of science. They are always easy to recognize by their attachment to the present and to particular ideologies. I do not even have a problem with prophets such as Jakob Lorber, Hazrat Mirza Chulam Ahmad, Edgar Cayce or Sai Baba, even if the latter declares himself to be God. Their astonishing abilities and, if you like, their universal knowledge, can be explained by a modern, reasonable, mathematically deduced theory which was formulated by the French atomic physicist Jean E Charon. It runs as follows. Matter and spirit are inseparably united with one another. In every atom, or to be more precise, in every electron, is contained the total intelligence of the universe.6 This explains the knowledge of the prophets, even if they themselves are not aware of where it comes from---a contradiction in itself!
But I do have a problem on a quite different plane: with religions which tell us that on the day of reckoning the unbelievers will be drowned, killed, stabbed, poisoned (by 'bitter water'), shot, squashed by earthquakes or eradicated by other such disasters. But which unbelievers? Those who do not believe in the Catholic dogmas? Those who have had the misfortune to be brought up in a Christian denomination? Those who are unlucky enough not to have been raised in Arabic or Asian lands? Those who are unaware of the teachings of the Koran or of Buddhism or Hinduism? Those who belong to the Shinto religion of Japan? Or those who do not adhere to the Book of
Mormon? It looks like our dear Lord God has made quite a muddle of things one way or another!
Almost all religions await a redeemer of some kind, a saviour, a reincarnating messiah. For Christianity, Jesus Christ is this figure, the saviour who redeemed us, 2,000 years ago, from the ominous weight of original sin; yet who, nevertheless, is supposed to return 'throned in clouds' to judge us. Why is it, though, that Jesus became the Messiah for Christians while his own people, the Jews, did not recognize him as such? This is all so confusing and---hardly surprising---accompanied by thousands of long-winded commentaries, that I must just concentrate on the essentials.
It seems very dubious to elevate Jesus into a Christian or even a Jewish savior---not only because, contrary to the prophesies, no enduring peace came about after him, but also because the reign of the House of David, which was supposed to last for all eternity, died out thousands of years ago! The 'prophetic' Book of Isaiah is translated sometimes into the present tense---'Unto us a child is born'---sometimes into the future---'Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.' The awaited child could, logically, not yet have been born in Isaiah's time. It is therefore helpful to know that the Hebrew script in which the prophetic texts are written is a purely consonantal form, in which there is no grammatical future tense.7 To make reading easier, the vowels were indicated by small dots between the consonants. In the original text there existed the imperfect (continuous past) and the perfect (completed past). There was no future form at all. Therefore translators can interpret as they like, which is how the sequential past becomes---abracadabra---a future possibility!
The scholars, of course, disagree about which passages of Isaiah are genuine. Whenever one expert asserts that the original Book of Isaiah has been subject to wholesale restructuring, addition and deletion, another will declare the opposite. These are theological disputes to which I have become accustomed through the years. Nobody knows the truth, yet no other messianic prophesies have been endowed with such universal significance as Isaiah 9:6 and Daniel 7:27.
The text of Isaiah, subject of so much dispute, tries in several passages to transform Jesus into the Messiah. Since I don't want to bore my readers with Biblical quotations, I'll just list the relevant passages so that anyone who wants to, can look them up in Isaiah: 8:23, 9:1-6, 11:1-10, 35: 4-10, 40:1-5, 42:1-7 and 49:1-12.
As far as I can see there is no proof to be found, however slight, that Jesus was a Messiah: even his name isn't mentioned anywhere. The basis for this statement, though, is a Bible translation that maintains neutrality, not one which inserts the little word 'Jesus' or 'Christ' wherever it feels like it.
Other passages from the Old Testament do not alter this finding. The verses and songs from the Psalms of Solomon, which often mention a future kingdom in Israel, or the House of David, or a longed for saviour and great king, say nothing at all about any Jesus. Even the prophet Daniel must be stretched out of shape to make Jesus into the promised Messiah. But Daniel's words are actually as nebulous as those of his colleagues. The passage usually cited to prove Jesus is meant, is 7:13 onwards. There one can read:
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like the son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every languages dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The prophet Daniel himself says that these visions came in the night as dreams. He sees strange beasts with peculiar horns, and since he does not understand what he sees, some angel or other comes and explains it to him. Of course, why not? All these prophecies---if that's what they really are---make no mention whatsoever of a Jesus.
Whoever wishes, at all costs, to derive a messianic Jesus figure from these vague indications and formulations inevitably comes a cropper when confronted by the historical facts. The life of Jesus was succeeded neither by the appearance of some unique power, nor by a kingdom that lasted for ever. Christian theologians know this of course, which is why they invented a hypothetical 'eternal kingdom' that is supposed to follow the day of judgement. What has not appeared up to now is supposed to appear in the future---anything to keep one's hopes up!
As far as I am concerned, one might as well have done without the controversy about whether Jesus was or was not the Messiah. Of course, I will be accused of ignoring the most important passages that point to Jesus. If you want to search for Jesus as the Messiah in the Old Testament, there are not only passages in Daniel, Solomon and Isaiah which can be interpreted in 20 different ways, but also in Micah, a younger contemporary of Isaiah, and in Ezekiel. In the latter, chapter 34 is often cited, which mentions a future 'flock' which will be ruled by a 'single shepherd' from the House of David. And in Ezekiel 37:21-28, one can read the usual (hopeful) promises about a victorious Israel which will subjugate all other peoples.
. . . This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Behold, I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations . . . My servant David will be king over them . . . I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord Make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.
This is all understandable, though pious, wishful thinking, dreamt up when Israel was having a rough time of it. The Israelites longed for a future time when their kingdom might be resurrected from the 'House of David', and their God would dwell amongst them once more. The Orthodox Jews of today who cause their political leaders such headaches, also cite these passages. I have already suggested that the texts of Ezekiel are a colourful mishmash of editorial revision, packed with additions made by different authors at different periods. How one can derive a messianic role for Jesus from all this is quite beyond my comprehension.
Finally, we are left with the apocryphal books of Enoch, Baruch and the fourth book of Esra, which also announce a 'saviour'. In Enoch, chapters 38-71 are thought of as the 'messianic section'. Here, astronomical dates and secrets are cited, and we hear of the coming the 'Son of Man' (46:3 onwards):
He answered me and spake: This is the Son of Man, who has righteousness, in whom righteousness dwells, and who revealeth all treasures of that which is concealed; for the Lord of spirits hath chosen him . . . This Son of Man whom thou hast seen, will make the kings and the mighty to rise up from their thrones; he will untie the halters from the strong, and crush the teeth of the sinners. He will drive out the kings from their thrones and from their kingdoms . . .
These are, no doubt, promises of a future time and of a future saviour of some kind; yet even if I use a microscope I can't find any mention anywhere in Enoch of a Jesus. It is the same with the apocryphal book of Baruch, and the apocryphal fourth book of Esra: hopes of a Messiah, yes; mention of Jesus, no. At the end of all this confusion, theologians still try to cite the Testaments of the Patriarchs as witness of Jesus' presence in the Old Testament. These Testaments are apocryphal texts and are known to have been revised in the post-Christian era. Finally, there are still the oracular prophecies in the Sybilline Books, which make the mixed salad perfect. But of Jesus there is still no mention.
Whoever beats a path through the desert of theological argumentation will come to recognize in the old texts a hope directed towards the future, a prophesy of some momentous event that is to take place at some time or other. The prophets and apocalyptic writers imagined this event in a variety of ways. The patriarchal prophets clearly envisage the scenario as taking place upon earth, while the apocalypts imagine it somewhere above the earth. The theologian Dr Werner Küppers makes the following telling remark:
The light cast by this hope shines upon a dark background; and in its focal point appears the shifting form of a mysterious figure: a human-like Son of Man, the chosen one of righteousness, the star of peace, the new priest, the man, the Messiah. How are we to understand such a combination---a figure of purely coincidental stature who is more than just man yet also neither angel nor God?8
Jewish theology holds fast to the Messiah as a 'man of human descent';9 he is often depicted not as an individual personality, but as the entire people of Israel itself. Christian theology sees him differently: as a messianic figure equated with the 'son of God'. But both theological versions leave various questions unanswered. Where did the idea of a messiah originate? How old is it? There is not much point in citing prophets like Isaiah, Daniel or Ezekiel when one knows that their texts have been tampered with and rewritten. Neither, for the same reason, can one rely on them for any kind of accurate dating: the idea of a messiah is clearly much older than the prophets. What they have recorded are only the traces in folk memory of an expectation that has existed since the expulsion from paradise. The prophets and their later editors drew upon the traditional wisdom which encompassed the hopes and expectations of a whole people. This hope was already an integral part, perhaps even the central preoccupation, of a race of human beings, before any words were written down. Expectations of being saved and delivered are 'very ancient, long predating the prophets'.10
'The Israelis have bequeathed three gifts to the world,' writes the theologian Leo Landmann, 'monotheism, moral edicts and the true prophets. To this must be added a fourth: belief in the Messiah.'11 This is easy to disprove; many old cultures and peoples had messianic expectations.
In 1919 the theologian H W Schomerns wrote:
The certainty of Christianity's superiority, indeed its absolute validity, over all other religions, strengthens and edifies the Christian populace.12
I think such assertions should be tempered with a knowledge of other religions. One should first read and feel one's way into them; and whoever, after such study, still credits Christianity with absolute superiority, is shutting his eyes and relying on blind faith. Faith is a matter for the individual. Personally I respect the beliefs of every single person. But I think it is wrong to underestimate other religions: they have retained their intensity and fascination for thousands of years---in many cases for longer than Christianity. All religions, whether pre- or post-Christian, contain the idea of redemption. All without exception longingly await the heavenly signs and the promised return of their messiah. The greatest and surely the most dynamic of post-Christian religions is Islam. In the holy book of the Muslims, the Koran, Jesus is honoured as a prophet, but not revered as Messiah or son of God.
Christianity is alone in believing Jesus to be the Messiah and Redeemer. None of the other great world religions adheres to this belief, neither Judaism nor Islam, let alone the religions of Asia.
Now all these world religions had, and still have, their own excellent researchers, thinkers and exegetes. All of them had, and still have, first-rate colleges and places of learning, staffed with armies of multilingual experts. But to me, as a theological layman, it seems astonishing that on the basis of the same material, all these super-intelligent eggheads arrive at wholly different versions of the truth. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all base their exegeses on the same ancient prophets. So how can it be said that exegesis is an exact science? If this were so, surely one might expect them to arrive at similar results. Since this is clearly not the case, I say that no one knows the truth any more. These researchers just serve their own cause, whether they believe in it or not.
Islam also contains the idea of the day of judgement and the final reckoning. Similar to the Revelation of Saint John, the Koran tells us (Sura 21, Verse 105):
Upon the day when We roll up the heavens, as documents are rolled up. As We began the first Creation, so we shall renew it . . .
Or, similar to the trumpets in Revelation, another verse from the Koran (Sura 20, Verse 103) says: 'Upon the day when the trumpet shall sound. Upon that day We shall gather together the guilty, blue-eyed ones.' Sura 17, Verse 59, even remarks that no town will remain standing on the day of punishment and resurrection.
And when is this supposed to happen? That is the secret of Allah (Sura 21, Verse 41):
No, it will come upon them unexpected, so that it casts them into confusion; nor will they be able to defend themselves from it, nor will they be granted any delay.
The Islamic messiah is called 'the Mahdi'. Both the prophet Mohammed and the various imams who followed him proclaimed the return of the Mahdi. The imams---the great teachers of Islam---always held it to be wrong to speculate about the date of the Mahdi's return, for this was a secret known only by Allah. Just as in Judaism and Christianity, the literature about the second coming of the Mahdi fills whole libraries. There is nothing on this subject that has not already been thought and written down by someone. A foreigner once enquired of the fifth imam, al-Baquir, what signs would be witnessed before the Mahdi's return. He replied:
It will happen when women behave like men, and men like women; and when women sit with spread legs upon saddled horses. It will happen when false prophesies are held to be true, and true prophesies are rejected; when men spill the blood of other men for little purpose, when they do indecent acts and scatter and waste the money of the poor.13
According to these criteria, the Mahdi is long overdue. Not to mention that, before the Mahdi comes, '60 false men will appear, who make themselves out to be prophets'. By my reckoning there must have been a good deal more than 60,000 false prophets so far.
The same theological chaos exists in respect of the return of the Mahdi as we find about the Messiah in Judaism and Christianity. The great world religions all expect a messiah, but no one knows when he will arrive. This messiah figure is usually seen in connection with the stars, the firmament and the ultimate reckoning of human deeds. He is supposed to be accompanied by hosts of angels, to possess immense power, and to be throned upon the clouds. Do these beliefs derive from a core of folk memory? Do they recall a primeval promise of 'We will return'?
To make these vague suppositions more concrete and precise, we need to turn to older and other traditions than those of the Koran or the Christian apocalypse.
The little word Avesta comes from Middle Persian and means basic text or instruction. The Avesta contains the complete religious texts of the Parsees, or the modern adherents of Zarathustra. Zarathustra is supposed to have been virginally conceived. Tradition has it that a mountain arrayed in pure light sank down from the skies. From the mountain emerged a young man, who implanted the embryo of Zarathustra into the womb of his mother. Because their religion was older than Islam, the Parsees refused to accept the Koran as their holy book. They emigrated to Iran and India. Although their language, Gujarati, is a modern Indian language, they continue to conduct their worship in the temple language of the Avesta, comparable to the Catholic tradition of holding services in Latin.
The Parsees are in a similar dilemma to the adherents of other religions: only about a quarter of the original texts of the Avesta are still extant. Portions of this ancient Persian religion were retained in cuneiform script, which King Darius the Great (558-486 BC), his son Xerxes (about 519-465 BC) and his grandson Artaxerxes (about 424 BC) ordered to be made. The highest god of this religion is called Ahura Mazda, and he was the creator of heaven and earth.
In the Parsee texts, the fixed stars are ordered in various star groupings, each of which is led by particular 'commanders'. The heavenly hosts are a decidedly military bunch; there are 'soldiers' of the constellations, and also battles conducted throughout the universe. The different stars are praised in the highest terms (Afrigan Rapithwin, Verse 13):
The star Tistrya, the shining, majestic one we praise.
The star Catavaeca, which rules the waters, we praise.
All stars which contain water-seeds, we praise.
All stars which contain the seeds of trees, we praise.
Those stars which are called Haptoiringa, the healing ones, which oppose the Yatus, we praise . . .14
These tributes seem to be more than just ornamentations of pure fantasy, for the Parsees had, from the beginning, some degree of astronomical knowledge. The planets, for example, were known to them as 'simple bodies of round form'. From earliest times the Parsees' temples had honoured the various gods and their places of origin in the universe, in ways which almost prefigured the revolution in astronomical thinking brought about by Galileo Galilei in 1610. In every temple could be found a round model of the planet to which it was dedicated. There were specific kinds of clothing and customs in each temple, depending on the planet it honoured. In the temple of Jupiter, one had to appear in the dress of a judge or scholar; in the temple of Mars, on the other hand, the Parsees wore red, martial dress and had to converse in 'proud tones'! In the temple of Venus one laughed and joked, in the temple of Mercury one was meant to speak like an orator or philosopher. In the temple of the moon, the Parsee priests behaved like childish wrestlers, jumping and rolling about the place. In the sun temple one had to wear brocade and behave 'as befits the kings of Iran'.
The quadriga solis, the four-horse chariot with winged steeds, originates in Iranian folklore;15 in the Parsee version, the gods of particular planets take it in turns to drive the sun-chariot. And in the texts of the Avesta, the heavenly chariot and its drivers are praised in the following terms (Yasna, Chapter 57, Verse 27):
Four steeds,
white, bright, shining,
shrewd, wise, shadowless,
ride through the heavenly regions . . .
faster than the clouds,
faster than the birds,
faster than arrows,
they overtake all
who follow behind them . . .
In these texts the universe abounds in such flying machines. The Parsees also, it almost goes without saying, looked forward to the reappearance of their gods. They believed that 'light-beings'16 would descend from the heavens and save suffering humanity. Zarathustra himself questioned his god Ahura Mazda about the end of the world, and was told there will be a final battle of the good against the corrupt. From the heavens will descend many 'all-conquerors'. These will be immortal and possess knowledge of all things. Before they appear in the skies, the sun will be shrouded in darkness, there will be earthquakes and mighty storms and winds, and a star will fall from heaven. After a terrible battle, in which armies confront each other in hosts, a new, golden age will dawn. Humanity will then become so knowledgeable in the arts of healing that 'they can cure one another, even when close to death'.
This version of 'redemption' does not seem to be all that different from the one we find in other religions, except for the fact that it is these 'all-conquerors', the gods from the starry worlds, who appear as final, long-awaited saviours.
In Hinduism everything is more complicated because of the manifold deities. At the beginning of the four world epochs was an Age of the Gods, the Krtayuga or Devayuga. In all respects this period was perfect, for there existed neither illness nor envy, neither dispute nor neither fear nor pain. In those days, according to Hindu teachings, the aim of all people was fixed solely on the highest Brahma, and even the members of the four castes lived in harmony with one another. Life and human beings themselves were simply perfect. People devoted themselves to an ascetic life and the study of the scriptures. Material desire was unknown. People loved truth and knowledge. There was no injustice, for no one felt any earthly longing. The Bhagavata-Purana, one of the many works of Hindu religion, describes the people of that golden age as content, friendly, patient, gentle and merciful. They were happy because they bore peace within their hearts and were not at odds with anything.
It was therefore a world which we can hardly imagine. Nowadays, of course, we are torn hither and thither by desires and wishes. The idea of an age of absolute happiness uninformed by desires is quite foreign to us. Yet this golden age of Hinduism is, so to speak, only a wish projected into the far distant future. As it was in the 'dream age', so it will be once more in the future. A time of beauty, strength, youth and harmony will return.
Hinduism does not have a 'founding' couple like Adam and Eve; Brahma created 8,000 people at one go---1,000 couples of each caste---who were like the divine beings. These couples loved one another and were united with one another, yet did not produce any children. Only at the end of their lives did these pairs bear two children each; not through sex, but through the power of thought alone. In this way the earth was populated with spiritual beings.
This happy state of affairs lasted until negative spirits, as well as gods of all kinds, introduced chaos and confusion amongst human beings. The gods were seen as hugely powerful and immortal beings, yet in other respects similar to humans, and endowed with individual personalities. Highest of these deities was the 'Prince of the Universe, who ruled over all'.17 The Hindu gods are so many, various and interrelated that I cannot describe them here in greater detail. Suffice it to say that the gods had mastered both air and space travel by means of flying machines of all sorts and descriptions. All these flying objects were of a real, material nature---they were not spiritual, nor did they arise from fantasy or imagination.
Flying apparatus with alarming weapons systems are described in Indian religious texts in great detail, particularly in the Vedas, which are thought to be the most ancient sources of language and religion. The word veda means 'holy knowledge'. One of these texts, the Rigveda, is a collection of 1,028 hymns to the gods. It states in no uncertain terms that these flying machines came from the cosmos to earth, and that the gods came in person to impart knowledge to human, beings. Similar to the Jewish legends, the Hindu texts describe battles among the gods; not, however, in some undefined heaven of spiritual glory, but 'in the firmament', 'above the earth'.
In the 'Vanaparvan', which belongs to the ancient Indian Mahabharata (Chapters 168-73), the dwellings of the gods are described as space settlements, which orbited high above the earth. The same sort of thing can be found in Chapter 3, Verses 6-10, of the Sabhaparva. These gigantic space stations had names such as Vaihayasu, Gaganacara and Khecara. They were so enormous that the shuttle-ships---the vimanas---could fly right into them through mighty gates.
We are not talking about obscure fragments which no one can examine, but ancient Indian traditional texts which are to be found in any large library. In the 'Drona Parva' section of the Mahabharata, page 690, Verse 62, we can read how three great and beautifully built cities revolve around the earth. From these, discord spreads to the people on earth; and also amongst the gods themselves, in a war of galactic proportions (Verse 77).
Siva, who rode upon this most excellent chariot, that was composed of all the forces of heaven, prepared himself for the destruction of the three heavenly towns. And Sthanu, this leader of the destroyers, this thwarter of the Asuras, this fine fighter of immeasurable bravery, drew up his forces in an excellent battle-position . . . When the three towns next crossed each others' paths in the firmament, the god Mahadeva shot them through with a terrible stream of light from the threefold mouth of his weapon. The Danavas were unable to look up into the path of this streaming light, which was ensouled with yuga-fire and contained the power of Vishnu and Soma. While the three settlements began to burn, Parvati hurried there to see the show.18
The gods of Hinduism battled with each other 'in the firmament' like Ishmael (or Lucifer) in Jewish tradition:
Ishmael was the greatest prince of angels in heaven . . . And Ishmael went and united with all the highest armies of heaven against his Lord; he gathered his armies about him and descended with them, and began to seek companions upon the earth.
And what do we read in Enoch? He described the mutiny among the angels, and even listed their names.
This core of tradition---the battle in heaven, the struggle between the gods---is the decisive thing, and is made a farce of by the naive concept of heaven to which the various religions subscribe.
In Hinduism, human beings attain absolute serenity through their own powers, through continual cycles of rebirth during which they improve and cleanse their karma. Yet they are helped in this by the gods, and ultimately by the universal god Brahma. But the Hindus are also familiar with the idea of the gods' return. Vishnu will one day be reborn as Krishna and save the earth from the mess it has got itself into. Where the idea of karma or reincarnation fits into all this is a mystery for westerners. How did the Hindus ever come to believe in a continuous cycle of rebirth, in which they haul their good and bad deeds from one life to the next?
The extraordinarily complex teachings of karma are described in the Jain religion in very precise detail. Jainism is, alongside Buddhism and Hinduism, one of the three major religions of India. Centuries before the arrival of Buddhism, Jainism arose in northern India, then gradually spread throughout the whole subcontinent. Its adherents say that it was originally founded in very ancient times millennia ago. They believe its teachings are eternal and imperishable, even though they may be forgotten for long periods at a time. The Jain religion is encompassed in a whole series of pre-Buddhist texts, which are---there is no other way of putting it---quite extraordinary.
The theological-cum-scientific literature of Jainism contains stories of holy men, songs about the primeval creators, as well as precepts of all kinds. These works are---in a similar way to the Bible---collected together under the umbrella of a single title: Shvetambaras. They are divided into 45 main sections, each with quite unpronounceable names.
The 'Vyahyaprajnaptyanga' presents the whole teaching of Jainism in dialogues and legends. The 'Anuttaraupapatika-dashanga' tells the stories of the primeval holy ones, who rose into the highest heavenly worlds.
In the 'Purvagata' section are scientific books and descriptions. Within this, the 'Utpada-Purva' deals with the formation and dissolution of all the different substances (chemistry). The 'Viryapravada-Purva' describes the forces active in the substance of gods and great men. The 'Pranavada-Purva' examines the art of healing. The 'Lokabindusara-Purva' deals with mathematics and redemption.
As if all that was not enough, there are also the 12 'Upangas', which describe all aspects of the sun, moon, and other planetary bodies, as well as the life-forms which inhabit them. In addition, the 'Aupapatika' tells us how divine existence can be attained. We are also provided with a list of divine kings (Prakirnas, Book 7).
Apart from these writings, there are also supposed to have been books which existed in the deep, primeval mists of time, but which have been lost. But the Jains believe that such writings were passed on orally, from priest to priest, down through the generations. They are not perturbed by their loss, since reincarnations of the ancient prophets continually reappear, who reveal their content anew---to the extent that the times and people are ready to receive such teachings. The content of the lost texts has only survived in fragments, but even these deal with the most astonishing things:
Flying through the air is also described in Sanskrit literature. My book, Der Götter-Schock, deals with this in detail.19
According to the Jain teaching, the epoch in which we live is only one of many. Before our time there were other cosmic periods; and shortly---round about the year 2000---a new epoch is supposed to begin. Such new epochs are always heralded by 24 prophets, the tirthamkaras. The prophets of our time are just being born, or are perhaps already adults. The religious leaders of Jainism believe that they even know their names and other details of their lives.
The first of these tirthamkaras was Rishabha. He dwelt for a staggering 8,400,000 years upon the earth. Rishabha was of giant proportions. All the patriarchs who succeeded him gradually diminished in stature and longevity; however, the 21st of them---whose name was Arishtanemi---still lived for 1,000 years and was ten bow-lengths tall. Only the two last, Parshva and Mahavira, lived to what we would consider a 'reasonable' age. Parshva lived to 100 and was only 9 feet tall, while Mahavira, the 24th of the tirthamkaras, only made it to a mere 72 and was just 7 feet tall.
The Jains place the appearance of their tirthamkaras in such ancient times that it makes one dizzy to think of it. The two last were supposed to have died in 750 and 500 BC respectively, while the successor to Rishabha (the first patriarch) graced the earth for about 84,000 years.
These numbers, which are just set down in front of us, should actually make our myth investigators, and our theologians as well, sit up and take notice. Why? Because we have here, well packaged in religious concepts, a kernel of folk memory that gleams through many holy and not-so-holy books. Let me, very briefly---in telegram style---refresh your memory.
In the ancient Babylonian list of kings (WB 444), ten kings are counted from the creation of the earth up to the flood. These ruled, give or take a year or two, for 456,000 years. After the flood 'the kingdom descended once more from the heavens'20 and the 23 kings which followed ruled altogether for 24,500 years, 3 months and 3 1/2 days.
To the biblical patriarchs are attributed just as unbelievable ages. Adam is supposed to have lived for more than 900 years; Enoch was 365 years old when he rose up into the clouds; and his son Methuselah carried on for 969 years.
It was no different in ancient Egypt. The priest Manetho recorded that the first divine ruler in Egypt was Hephaistos, who also brought the gift of fire. Then followed Chronos, Osiris, Tiphon, Horus and the son of Isis.
After the gods, the race of god-descendants ruled for 1,255 years. And then other kings ruled for 1,817 years. After this, 30 more kings ruled for 1,790 years. Then still 10 others for 350 years. The kingdom of the spirits of the dead and the god-descendants encompassed 5,813 years.21
Such impossible dates are confirmed by the historian Diodor of Sicily, who, 2,000 years ago, wrote a whole library of works consisting of 40 volumes:
From Osiris and Isis until the rule of Alexander, who founded the city in Egypt which is named after him, more than 10,000 years are said to have passed; some say, though, that the period is actually only a little less than 23,000 years . . .22
And as my last witness testifying to such impossible dates, let me mention the Greek Hesiod. In his Myth of the Five Races of Mankind,23 he wrote---about 700 BC---that originally, the immortal gods, Chronos and his companions, created human beings: 'Those heroes of excellent descent, called demi-gods, who in the time before ours dwelt upon the endless earth . . .'
Let us now return to the Jains---who, it has turned out in the meantime, are by no means alone in recording dates of staggering proportions. Many Jain accounts are---seen from the standpoint of modern science---quite revolutionary. Their concept of time, of kala,seems like something formulated by Albert Einstein.
Their smallest unit of time is the samaya. This is the time it takes for the slowest atom to move the distance of its own length. Innumerable samayas form one avalika, and---measurable at last---1,677,216 of these avalikas give us one muhurta, which equates with 48 of our minutes. Thirty muhurtas give us one ahoratra, which is exactly one day and night. Do you get it yet? Multiply 48 minutes (one muhurta) by 30, and you arrive at 1,440 of our minutes, which is exactly the same as the number of minutes in 24 hours. But the time-reckoning of the Jains is thousands of years old, and was originally passed to humans by heavenly beings.
Fifteen ahoratras give---conforming with our time measurement---one paksha, which is half a month; two pakshas are therefore of course one masa, or one month. Two months make one season, three seasons make one ayana, or term. Two ayanas give us one year, and 8,400,000 years make one purvanga. But it continues: 8,400,000 of these purvangas make one purva (=16,800,000 years). The Jains' counting carries on to 77-figure numbers. Beyond this, their time-values are given in terms of specific concepts, similar to our light years, for a distance of 9,500,000,000,000 kilometres.
One might well be tempted to call this crazy idiosyncrasy, if it were not for the fact that the Mayas of Central America operate with similarly staggering numbers, and also relate them to time and the universe in the same way as the Jains in far-distant Asia.
The Jains also took from their heavenly teachers definitions of space which are astonishing, and which in the end---or at last?---render comprehensible its connection with the mysterious idea of karma. I can only give a brief resumé here of this extremely complex and involved doctrine, an understanding of which I gleaned from a book by the theologian Helmuth von Glasenapp.24
In the scientific writings of the Jains, the atom occupies a point in space. This atom can connect with others to form a skandha, which then encompasses several or an immeasurable number of spatial points. Our own science teaches the same: two atoms can form a chain of the smallest proportions; but there are also molecule chains consisting of many millions of atoms. These atom chains give rise to substance and materials of various densities. The Jain teaching distinguishes six chief forms of such chains or connections:
In Jainism, even a shadow or a reflection is considered material, because it is produced by a 'thing.' Even sound is not categorized as 'fine-fine', but as fine materiality, which arises as a result of 'aggregates of atoms rubbing against one another'.
In this teaching, the 'fine-fine' substance is able to permeate everything and therefore have an altering influence on other substances. The substance which penetrates a soul expresses itself as karma---which brings us back to rebirth. Still with me?
It is common knowledge nowadays that every kind of matter---whether a table or a bit of bone---can be reduced to the atomic level. The atom itself consists of sub-atomic particles, one of which is the electron, which oscillates in an unimaginable rhythm of 10 to the power of 23 per second. The matter of this electron would be characterized by the Jains as 'fine-fine'; it can no longer be grasped and, in addition, is immortal. Atoms can enter all possible chains and combinations, but the electron always accompanies them. It acts like the 'spirit within matter',25 similar to a magnetic field or radio wave, which permeates particular substances. Now the thoughts of every life-form influence its deeds. 'The substance of the world is the substance of the spirit,' wrote the English astronomer and physicist Arthur Eddington (1882-1944). And the Nobel prizewinner Max Planck formulated it in these words:
There is no matter as such! All matter arises and is sustained only by virtue of a force which makes atomic particles oscillate.
Our existence is the consequence of a previous act. We would not exist without a prior life which gave rise to us. (And this will not change if, in the future, we learn how to create life artificially.) In other words, every existence is a link in the long chain of previous or future existences. Since our thoughts direct our actions, these actions in turn leaves their traces upon our mind or spirit. One could, for example, describe a magnetic field as mind, but it is one which has an influence on matter. The Jains view what we call 'soul' as the 'fine-fine' materiality of the physical body. This materiality is as untouched by the body as the electron is by the atom nucleus. An electron does belong to the atom, but the two never come into actual contact. The atom can alter its position, join with others to form gigantic molecule chains, and will always be accompanied by electrons---but, strange to say, not the same electrons, for the electron 'leaps' from one atom to another, for example when heat is applied. And in the very billionth of a second in which an electron leaps to a new atom, the place vacated by it is filled by another electron. So we have an eternal, immortal 'fine-fine' activity, an oscillation beyond the material atom.
The Jains see karma in the same way. It does not matter what happens to the body---whether it is burned or eaten by worms---for karma remains immortal. This karma contains all the information about the life-form to which it belongs. During life we think and feel; this thinking and feeling is transposed onto the 'fine-fine' substance of karma, similar to an engraving. When this karma is formed into a new body, it already contains all the information from its previous existence, and continues to do so for all eternity. But since the ultimate aim of life is to attain a condition of absolute serenity---by becoming one with Brahma---karma will lead us towards this goal through a series of countless reincarnations.
This way of thinking is not so far removed from modern philosophy and the discoveries of modern physics. What may astonish us, though, is that such complex theories were taught millennia ago, and by teachers who appeared out of the depths of the universe. The last epoch of the Jains (which was followed by our own times) began around 600 BC with the last of the 24 tirthamkaras. This tirthamkara was called Mahavira; and who was he? A king's son whose embryo was implanted in the womb of his mother, the young queen, by heavenly beings.26 All these heavenly teachers of ancient times are supposed to reappear, born into new bodies. The Jains have many old drawings which depict the 24th tirthamkara, the prophet Mahavira. Above the procession in his honour, portrayed in the engraving shown in the plate section, float five heavenly aircraft.
There is a distinct difference between the Jains' expectations of the return of the gods, and those of Christians, Muslims or Jews. The latter believe that a messiah and highest judge will appear, after which the faithful will enjoy heavenly glory while the unfaithful roast in hell. The Jains do not expect a single saviour, but several at once. The prophets or tirthamkaras continually return, at every epoch. There is no final end of the world after their appearance---not heavenly joy and ambrosia, nor eternal damnation either, but simply a new act in the drama of the universe. The tirthamkaras are less saviours than helpers. They prepare human beings for the next stage and epoch. That is why they are born as human beings (think of the 'son of man' in the prophesies of Enoch); but their substance, their karmic knowledge, derives from the universe. Not earthly but extraterrestrial forces plant the seed or the embryo into the womb. It is also worth remembering that these ideas were current centuries, if not millennia, before the birth of Christ, and that the Jains can therefore hardly have taken the immaculate conception from Christianity---rather the other way around!
It is not surprising if such cosmic teachers as the tirthamkaras were well versed in astronomy and astrophysics. It is from such a source that the Jains derived their---to us incomprehensible---astronomical dates. Their teachings show that they were able to measure the dimensions of the universe. Their unit of measurement was the rajju---the distance which God flies in six months, when he travels at 2,057,152 yojanas a second.
The Jain teachings say that the earth is surrounded by three layers, which are characterized according to their density: dense as water; dense as wind; and dense as a fine wind. Beyond these lie empty space. Our modern science has come to the same conclusion: atmosphere; troposphere, containing nitrogen and oxygen; and stratosphere with the ozone layer. Beyond that is interplanetary space.
People nowadays have increasingly come to hold the view that other life-forms apart from us must exist in the universe. The Jains have always believed this; for them, the whole universe is filled with forms of life which are distributed unevenly across the heavens. It is interesting to note that though they recognize the existence of plants and basic life-forms on many different planets, it is only on a few specific planets that beings exist who are endowed with 'voluntary movement.'27
The philosophers of the Jain religion describe the different characteristics which the inhabitants of various worlds possess. The heavens of the gods even have a name: Kalpas. There one can, apparently, find wonderful flying palaces---moving structures of which whole towns are often composed. These heavenly towns are ranged one above the other in such a way that from the centre of each 'level' the vimanas (divine chariots) can venture forth in all directions. When one epoch ends, and new tirthamkaras are due to be born, a bell sounds in the chief palace of 'heaven'. This bell causes bells to ring in all the other 3,199,999 heavenly palaces. Then the gods gather together, partly out of love for the tirthamkaras, partly out of curiosity. And then, borne on a flying palace, they visit our solar system; and a new epoch begins upon the earth.
In Buddhism, the fundamental idea of redemption appears in a very similar form to Jainism. The Jains, however, were teaching before the arrival of Buddha (560-480 BC). Buddha means 'the awakened one' or 'the illumined one'. Buddha's ordinary name was Siddartha. He came from a noble family and grew up in the lap of luxury in the palace of his father, in the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas. At the age of 29, he had had enough of his rarefied existence. He left home, devoted himself for seven years to the art and practice of meditation, and sought a path of knowledge.
But the gods of folklore, legend and mythology had already been around for a long time in Buddha's day. After his illumination he felt himself to be the incarnation of a heavenly being. He began to preach to his disciples the fourfold path, which could lead all people to buddha-hood, to illumination. Buddha was convinced that the future would bring other buddhas. In his farewell speech, the Mahaparinibbana-Sutta, he speaks of these Buddhas of the future. He prophesied to his disciples that one of them would come at a time when India would be crammed full of people; the towns and villages would then be as densely populated as hen-coops. In the whole of India there would be 84,000 towns; in the town of Ketumati (the modern Benares) would live a king by the name of Sankha, who would rule the whole world, but without force, just through the power of his righteousness. And during the rule of this king, the sublime Metteya (also called Maitreya) would descend to the earth---a phenomenal and wholly unique 'chariot-driver and knower of worlds', a teacher of gods and men: in other words, the perfect Buddha.
Buddha's prophecy of a 'super-Buddha' is similar to the Jain teaching of the return of the tirthamkaras. Buddhism also speaks of the different epochs, which are compared with a turning wheel. The only difference is that in Buddhism these epochs are immeasurably long.
The idea of four---or in Jainism, six---epochs also informs Sumerian-Babylonian mythology. In cultures which are far removed from each other, the same numbers are often found. A professor of religious history, Dr Alfred Jeremias, became aware of such parallels 65 years ago. Here is just one example.28
According to Babylonian accounts, the ancient kings or rulers of heaven ruled for thousands of years. The dates applied to the gods Anu, Enlil, Ea, Sin and Samas are remarkably close to the periods attributed to the yugas or epochs in India:
| Anu | = | 4,320 | Kali- Yuga | = | 432,000 |
| Enlil | = | 3,600 | Kali-Yuga | = | 360,000 |
| Ea | = | 2,880 | Deva-Yuga | = | 288,000 |
| Sin | = | 2,160 | Treta-Yuga | = | 216,000 |
| Sama | = | 440 | Dvapara-Yuga | = | 144,000 |
| Adad | = | 432 | Maha-Yuga | = | 4,320,000 |
There is a reason for the fact that Kali-Yuga appears twice; the Kali-Yuga 'without twilight' is of shorter duration than the Kali-Yuga 'with twilight'. The number of zeros is not important, but the correspondence of the basic digits demonstrates a common original source. The number 4,320,000 of the Maha-Yuga ('great epoch') is identical with that of the third pre-diluvian king En-me-en-lu-an-na, who ruled for 12 sar or 43,200 years. And the number 288,000 of the Deva-Yuga corresponds to the period of rule of the sixth king, En-sib-zi-an-na. He survived for eight sar, or 28,800 years.
In Greece can be found the oldest literary reference to a world epoch, in the writings of the poet Heraclitus. He quotes a period of 10,800,000 years, which corresponds precisely with the second period of the ancient kings of Sumeria---30 sar, or 108,000 years.
These numbers do not have any direct connection with the return of some saviour or other, but they demonstrate the common ground that different traditions share. The only way to explain these correspondences is to assume that there must, at the dawn of time, have been a single original teaching. This common source must lie very far back in ancient times, for otherwise it would be mentioned in historical records.
Psychology does not help me in the slightest in my researches into the idea of the gods' return. I have ascertained that all cultures demonstrated this idea in some form, and that it is always connected with the stars and with saviours who come from beyond the earth; in addition, frequent mention is made of artificial fertilization of an embryo that is brought by the 'gods'. I have no choice but to believe that these ideas have a common origin, and one which is inaccessible to psychology. Of course it is understandable that people might long for a great saviour, king and 'super-Buddha'---when times are bad enough, people wish for all sorts of cloud-cuckoo lands. But this cannot explain the connections and correspondences between all the different traditions. Wishes alone cannot provide such precise accounts in the first person, and all the details of dates and names. Or do people think that Enoch invented the long list of names and functions of the mutineer 'angels'? Or that the idea of measuring the universe with the number 2,057,125 yijanas simply floated down into the head of some dreamer under a fig tree? Psychology is of no more help, either, in explaining the identical dates among different cultural traditions, or the widespread idea that artificial fertilizations and embryo-implants took place. Quite another matter is the way that later religions transformed these concepts in order to glorify their saviours with an immaculate conception---that, certainly, is understandable from a psychological point of view.
Even today, Catholic Christians still believe that Jesus was immaculately conceived by Mary. They have to believe it, for it is a dogma (or article of faith) of the Church. Though to be strictly fair one should add that the opposite cannot be scientifically proved either. How can we actually know whether Jesus, or, if you like, the Indian prophet Sai Baba, did not develop from a cosmic seed? That is, after all, what went on in ancient times: all great gods and god-kings had to have immaculate credentials so as to be thought equal to their predecessors.
The seed which developed into the Accadian king Hammurabi (1726-1686 BC) was said to have been implanted in his mother by the sun-god. Hammurabi later became the greatest law-giver. From him derive the most ancient recorded rules and regulations for ordering human society: the Codex Hammurabi. The stone pillar, over 2 metres high, upon which these laws were engraved was dug up at the beginning of our century in Susa. Today it can be seen it in the Paris Louvre. The Codex Hammurabi consists of 282 paragraphs; according to Hammurabi these were given to him by the god of heaven---in just the same way as Moses received the tablets of the Commandments directly from the hand of God. In the 'foreword' to his rule-collection, Hammurabi expressly says that 'Bel, the Lord of heaven and earth' had chosen him to 'spread justice through the land, to destroy the wicked and to prevent the strong suppressing the weak.'29 And of course the people looked forward to the return of their law-giver.
All that we can, in retrospect, be sure of is that Hammurabi achieved something remarkable, and distinguished himself from all his contemporaries through various unusual deeds. Of course it would be possible to assume that divine origin was attributed to him only after his death---if it were not for the stone pillar which bears his own testimony, written during his life, that he had been chosen by the gods. Should we call the supreme law-giver a supreme liar? That would be like accusing Moses of making up the story of receiving the stone tablets on the holy mountain.
We clever and superior modern people 'know', of course, that the seed of King Hammurabi could not possibly have come from the sun-god. But how do we know it? We were not there, and the skeleton of Hammurabi has never been subjected to genetic research. It is fairly typical of human logic that we reject Hammurabi's claim to having contact with other-worldly beings, while accepting the stories of Moses and other prophets.
The Assyrian king Assurbanipal (668-622 BC), in whose clay-tablet library the Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered, was also immaculately conceived. He was the son of the goddess Ishtar, who suckled him as a baby. Ishtar must have come from other worlds because it says in a cuneiform text: 'Her four breasts lay upon your mouth; you suckled upon two, in two you hid your face.'30 That's right, four breasts---enough to make some of us envious. This King Assurbanipal received the authority for his decisions from the 'divine advice' of the gods Bel, Marduk and Nabu. The last was the omniscient god from whom humanity learnt to write in script. In the Louvre there is a cylindrical relief sculpture upon which Nabu is depicted next to Marduk. Nabu's chief temple was situated in Borsippa and bore the name 'Temple of the Seven Command-Transmitters of the Heaven and the Earth'---strange name.
Was all this just self-aggrandizement on the part of the ruling elite? Did their authority come to depend on the people and priests believing that they were of divine origin? Personally I do not think so. Not every king and founder of religions laid claim to bearing a 'heavenly seed' within him; only some from those undatable mists of time were convinced that they had a quite specific genetic code to pass on. We must not forget that similar stories appear in many different traditions and in various undatable texts---the Egyptians, Enoch, the Jains, and of course the Apocrypha of the Old Testament! The last also speaks of divine teachers, even if they are called 'fallen angels'; and there, as well, in the hidden mists of Jewish tradition, we find an abundance of characters whose seed was not of earthly origin. Of course these things do not find a very receptive audience; people hold them at arm's length. And suddenly Erich von Däniken is said to be in cahoots with a bunch of idiotic racists, as if it was I who had invented the idea of 'heavenly seed' and 'chosen ones'. I cannot be held responsible for such concepts---they come straight out of ancient traditions and texts which are holy for many peoples.
So Noah, the survivor of the flood, for example, was not just anyone. His earthly father is named as Lamech, but in fact Lamech was not his physical father---everyone can read this for himself in the Dead Sea Scrolls.31 It says there that one day Lamech returned home from a journey which had taken more than nine months. Once home he found a baby who did not belong to his family---it had different eyes, different hair-colour and a different kind of skin. Furious, Lamech went to his wife, who swore by all that was holy that she had not slept with a stranger, let alone a soldier or a son of heaven. Worried, Lamech went off to ask his father's advice. This was no other than Methuselah. He had no light to shed on the matter, and so, in his turn, went off to ask his father, Lamech's grandfather. And who was that? Our friend Enoch. He said to his son Methuselah that Lamech should accept the boy as his own son and not be angry with his wife, for the 'guardians of the sky' had placed the seed in his wife's womb. They had done this so that the cuckoo's egg, as it were, should grow into the progenitor of a new race after the flood.
This episode shows that Enoch---who later travelled up to the clouds in a fiery chariot---was already informed about the approaching catastrophic deluge. Who had told him? The 'guardians of the sky'. And who arranged the artificial fertilization of Lamech's wife? The same space travellers.
It is with such examples that I try to illuminate accounts and traditions that are to be found the whole world over, and that have existed for many thousands of years. This divine jet set, these innumerable sons of gods, come leaping out at one from almost every mythology in the world.
The culture of the Tibetans, which grew to greatness in lofty valleys cut off from the rest of the world, is familiar with the 'highest king of heaven' or the 'holy one above'.32 The Tibetans distinguish between a transcendental heaven and the firmament.
The oldest Tibetan kings were called 'heavenly thrones'. They descended from the heavens in the service of the gods, and returned once their rule had ended, without passing through death.
They possessed unimaginable weapons, with which they either destroyed or controlled their enemies. The appearance of some of these weapons has been preserved in folk memory---the 'thunder-hammer', for instance, which is still honoured today in Tibetan temples. There must be more to this than mere fantasy; these 'thunder-hammers' are a reality, even if we cannot imagine how they worked.
The legend about the great Tibetan king Gesar tells that he was assumed by a 'heavenly apparition of light'. Once he had created order in the land he vanished back to his home in the sky, naturally promising to return one day. Like the mysterious primeval rulers of China or the god-kings of ancient Egypt, King Gesar was a teacher of mankind. Like them he was thought of as a 'human-maker', before whose coming human beings still lived like animals. In the royal genealogy of Tibet, the so-called Gyelrap, 27 kings are recorded; 7 of them descended a ladder from the firmament to earth. And even the oldest texts themselves flew down to earth in a box. The great Tibetan teacher with a tongue-twister of a name, Padmasambhava (also known as U-Rgyan Pad-Ma), brought indecipherable texts from the heavens to earth. Before his departure, his pupils deposited these texts in a cave to preserve them for 'a time which would understand them'.33 The same teacher vanished in front of his disciples' eyes and returned to the clouds. He was not, apparently, 'beamed up', but 'a horse of gold and silver appeared', and everyone watched as he took off into the clouds upon this steed. Ring any bells? Enoch and his steed might well have been a close acquaintance!
I am almost embarrassed to add that the holy books of Tibet also make reference to impossible numbers. Four great divine kings are recorded, each of whose life-span amounted to nine million earthly years. Also described are various cosmic dwelling places, reached after long journeys through space. The numbers and periods mentioned remind one strongly of Einstein's theory of relativity---a major difference being, of course, that the Tibetan books Kandshur and Tandshur are thousands of years old.34
But it is not only in the Near and Far East that such ideas were prevalent. In America, the native Indians had very similar legends. The stories of the Wabanaki tribe refer to the teacher Gluskabe, who taught them fishing, hunting, hut-building, weapon-making, medicine, chemistry and of course also astronomy. Before he finished his work on earth and took off for the stars, he promised to return in a far-distant, future time.35 What a surprise!
I have talked about the Maya god Kukulkan in another book.36 In passing I will just cite one quote: 'The people have the firm conviction that he travelled up to the heavens.'37 And for anyone who has not guessed it---he also promised to return.
These fragments of folk memory and religion do not need a Sherlock Holmes to connect them. And personally, I think it is a load of nonsense to say that various peoples all over the globe had taken their expectations of the gods' return from Christian missionaries. What came first for heaven's sake---the Christian or the other texts?
Whichever culture one examines---and there are many more I have not mentioned (such as the Aborigines in Australia, the Chinese, the Incas: remember that the Christian conquerors Pizarro in Peru and Cortes in Mexico were greeted as gods who had returned)---similar or nearly identical legends are to be found. Gods with their return tickets are a world-wide phenomenon, and the examples I have quoted in this chapter are no more than the tip of the iceberg.
But who is supposed to return and when? Christians and Jews await the Messiah, Muslims the Mahdi---which is actually just another name for a messiah figure. The word 'messiah' originally meant 'the anointed one'. It comes from the Hebrew maschiach (christos in Greek), meaning the anointed king; but an earthly king cannot be meant, for, as the famous professor, Dr Hugo Gressmann, wrote, the term 'messiah' precludes the idea of a human being: 'Messiah is the name for divine being, one who is also thought to have existed before there were human beings.'38
Let us look at the common denominator of all these 'messiah' concepts.
According to different religions he is:
In many traditions, the return of the gods is associated with some kind of day of judgement or final reckoning, and with catastrophic natural events. Every religion adds its own colour and interpretation, twists the story a little or a lot to reinforce its own message and assure the salvation only of those who believe in it. But the legends at the core of all these beliefs are far older than particular religions, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist. So let me repeat: who is going to come? Whose judgement should we fear? Who will return with heavenly armies and mighty turbulence in the firmament?
Palaeo-seti philosophy can offer to these questions an answer which accords with all traditions. It is a theory which confirms many texts and solves many separate riddles. But in contrast to religions, palaeo-seti philosophy does not require any faith or belief---just unprejudiced, rational examination of its ideas and propositions; for it is, unlike the messianic expectations of religion, based on logic and reason.
The alien space travellers who dwelt upon the earth thousands of years ago and gave the human race a genetic lift-off---the same space travellers that are recorded in ancient literature as gods, angels, fallen angels, etc.---departed at some point. A few privileged people were allowed to depart with them; they too took their farewells. What was said to those who remained behind, those who would probably have liked to go on such a journey themselves? Here is an imagined farewell dialogue between Enoch and his son Methuselah:
Enoch: It is time my son. They will come at dawn to fetch me.
Methuselah: Father, will we see you again?
Enoch: No. At least, your generation will not. I was told that during my absence several millennia will pass on the earth.
Methuselah: How can that be? Surely death comes to all?
Enoch: True. But other laws of time are at work in the cosmos. When the guardians return after thousands of years, the earth and human beings will have changed.
Methuselah: This is beyond my understanding. But this is what the guardians have told you. And where will you travel to?
Enoch: Do you see the bright stars in the belt of Orion? Now extend that line by 6 feet. There you will see a small star, not so bright, of a yellowish colour. That is the home-sun of the guardians. There is an earth more beautiful than ours. That is where I am going.
Methuselah: Father, you have been chosen to journey to heaven as a living man---I envy you.
Enoch: No, my son, I am not going to heaven. The heaven which men long for is a place of absolute happiness. We can only reach such a heaven after death. I am journeying into the cosmos.
Methuselah: I do not understand the difference between heaven and what you call 'cosmos'. Look up at the glory of the heavens; up there is peace and beauty. The guardians can travel there upon their fiery steeds. Their power is boundless. To us it seems that they are immortal. It must be the same as heaven, even if you call it 'cosmos'.
Enoch: The time of my departure draws close. Do you hear the commotion of the people? They are gathering to hear my farewell words. The guardians have warned me not to allow anyone to approach the place where the fiery steed descends. The same applies to you and your family. And now, son Methuselah, I have explained everything to you and given all the books I have written into your safekeeping. Preserve them. Have them copied many times---and make sure that not a word is altered. Even if you and your sons and grandsons do not understand my words, later generations will, and will be grateful that you altered nothing. The guardians have told me that these books should not remain secret. Therefore give them to the future generations of the world.
However hard Enoch may have tried to make his listeners understand that he was travelling into space and not into heaven, following generations would not have grasped the difference. In later times, those who had themselves not witnessed the visit of the 'gods' would have found little meaning in the texts they read. These beings who had descended in their great-great-grandfather's time must have been divine messengers of God---and so the idea of angels came about. It is human nature to look for sense---to the extent of making up nonsense.
The thinkers and philosophers of each generation, the 'men of wisdom', would---just as in the imagined scenario of the Sacred Berlitz Stone---have subtly altered the texts to make them more understandable. Such wisdom might well think that a passage describing a strange steed that shone, thundered, had four feet and flew should be altered to make clear that a flying horse was meant. Alien beings could easily be called angels, the commander could easily become 'highest', and descriptions of the inside of a spaceship could be seen as the dwelling of angels and the throne of God. In the following comparison of the present Book of Enoch with an imagined original source, I will try to expose this interpretative process.
Imagined source:
This was my experience: first I saw clouds, and then, as we were lifted still higher, I noticed a mist that grew ever thinner and finer. And suddenly we were amongst the stars, yet something also flashed like lightning around us. I was so cramped that they had to lift me from the chair. I walked along a passage until I drew near to a wall which seemed to be composed of glittering stones. I also noticed reddish points of light that flashed up and down this wall. Then I stepped into the star-ship. Inside was as bright and shining as outside, but now the floor was made of tiles, under which shimmered a faint light. The roof was the most beautiful: as though through a transparent dome I saw the starry sky; and guardians who kept arriving and leaving in smaller flying machines, and undertook all kinds of work. Then we had to embark once more, entering a larger starship. Inside it all doors were open, but I saw indescribable configurations of light in front of each door. The guardians explained that these were sensors and door-shields. The centre of the starship was enormous and indescribable. In the very middle, upon a raised platform, stood a seat; and all around, dully shining, a great circle of glass. Upon it I saw a shining sun, and many guardians who were working outside the ship. Upon the seat sat the commander, dressed in a snow-white tunic. I threw myself in front of him on the floor; but he came towards me, spoke words of greeting to me and said: 'So it is you who have the task of spreading order and justice down below?'
From the Book of Enoch (14:8ff, 71:11ff) as it is today:
This appeared unto me: behold, clouds invited me upwards, and a mist drew me on; the course of the stars, and lightning, drove and pressed me, and winds gave me wings and lifted me into the heights. They bore me into heaven. I entered there and drew near to a wall built of crystal stones and surrounded by tongues of flame; and this began to make me afeared. I entered into the tongues of flame and drew close to a great house built of crystal stones. The walls of that house were like unto a floor tiled with crystal stones, and the ground also was of crystal. The roof thereof was like unto the course of the stars shot through with lightning, and fiery cherubim went between . . . and behold, there was another house, greater than that one; all its doorways stood open before me, and it was built of tongues of fire. Its glory and greatness were in all ways such that I cannot describe it unto you . . . I looked thither and descried within a high throne. The shape of that place was of a bracelet; all around it was something like unto the shining sun, and which had the appearance of cherubs . . . The great Majesty sat there; His dress was more radiant than the sun and whiter than driven snow . . . Then did I fall upon my face; my whole body melted and my spirit was transformed . . . He drew close unto me, greeted me with His voice and spoke: Thou art the one, which art born to righteousness.
What a drama when space travellers become angels and cherubim, when officers become archangels, and a commander is made into the 'highest' or---God help us!---into God. What chaos, when simple electric discharges are made into fiery tongues, and a command bridge is transformed into an indescribable glory! It is of course understandable that the commander's seat is made into a high throne, and the commander himself becomes a great Majesty. It is comforting, at least, that our loving God does not slip in through the back door into this piece of text. That would, of course, have been rather unsuitable anyway, since 'he drew close to me, greeted me with his voice . . .' Gods do not usually deign to shake hands with an earthly visitor---that would have been too much even for the exegetes; so they left it as the great Majesty.
The extraterrestrial visitors of Enoch's time were familiar with gigantic interstellar distances. They knew that a journey home and then back to our solar system would take a few thousand years. How could they get human beings to understand this? They would have pointed to the starry sky and said: 'We are going now, but we will return. Write it down in your books, pass on the message to your descendants; all future generations should remember that we will return!' And when human beings asked them when they would return---in months, years or millennia---the ETs themselves would not have known a precise answer. They might well have replied: 'Some time or other we will come back. Be prepared for our return, remember the commandments we have given you, so that we do not have to destroy the human race all over again.'
And if people asked them what recognizable signs would accompany their return, they might well have pointed to the moon and the stars and answered: 'For those upon the night-half of the globe, it will seem that the moon grows dark, that shining stars fall to the earth. For those upon the globe's day-lit half, it will seem that golden mountains crash down from the heavens. The people who are prepared for our return, who expect us, who understand the signs in the sky, will be full of joy. They will dance and rejoice because we will bring a new, more just, order to the earth. But those who have adulterated the texts, who have forced their fellow human beings to believe their versions of the truth, will be overcome with panic. They will be frightened of us and of their own followers. They will hide themselves and call upon their false gods. But it will be in vain, for there are no gods.'
But of course the extraterrestrials were aware that the texts would be tampered with and reinterpreted through the ages. For that reason they left their traces in many different parts of the world, made sure that many different human societies on earth would have a written record of their coming. At some time in the future, global communication would make possible a mutual exchange of these traditions. And then, they hoped, the core of truth at the heart of all these different accounts would emerge. People would have to begin to make comparisons. One and one makes two.
Palaeo-seti philosophy actually turns received wisdom---which generally manifests in one of two opposing ways---on its head. There are basically two kinds of people: the believers and the non-believers. Each group has been differently educated and imbued with different values; but they are in agreement on one thing---the human being is the only intelligent life-form in the universe. The believers think God created the earth in a (symbolic) act of six days, and then rested on the seventh. After God made the plants and animals, he formed man as the crowning glory of creation. Hallelujah! The unbelievers, on the other hand, hold fast to the theory of evolution. In a process lasting millions of years, amino acids formed cells, then simple life-forms, then more complicated life-forms, until---as the high-point of evolution---Homo sapiens appeared. We are the summit of evolution. Hallelujah once again!
In both cases we are seen as the highest form of life---unique in the universe. What should we want extraterrestrials for, even if all the holy books in the world provide us with evidence of their existence?
And here they come! All sorts of different spaceships: multi-storeyed, flat, golden and copper-coloured, smaller vimanas and gigantic structures that look like towns placed one upon another. They pass across the full moon and cause tumultuous disturbances to our oceans. Humanity is terrified, shocked, astonished. That was not what we were expecting, neither the believers nor the non-believers. The Christians will run into their churches and ask the priests: 'Has the day of judgement come?' Muslims will pray to Allah, devoutly wishing that it is the Mahdi who has returned, and that he has at last come to sort out the unfaithful after long ages of waiting. The Jews will go to their synagogues and waylay their chief rabbis, and all Jerusalem will be awash with people, since tradition has taught that the Messiah would descend there. Only the scientists will shake their heads in dismay as they get out their sensors and telescopes and comb the skies, finally having to accept the fact that extraterrestrials have taken up their positions all around the globe.
But the believers, who hold fast to the idea of their own messiah, will lose their grasp of reality; they will not be able to relate their entrenched belief-systems to these new developments. They will be too inflexible to come to terms with the new (and at the same time, ancient) facts which confront them. They will be incapable of altering their ideas to encompass a new global politics and universal religion. So they will become unbelievers---of reality. They will see the extraterrestrials as messengers of the devil, who have only appeared on the horizon in order to shake their faith. They will be bitter and confused, because they are unable to accept the evidence in front of them; and ultimately they will die because they do not understand anything any longer.
The real believers on the other hand---those who can live with the facts that now present themselves, who no longer need any kind of faith because they know---will blossom. Until then, all knowledge was built on the past; to this will now be added a knowledge that comes from the future, the knowledge and know-how of the ETs, who have already overcome the problems which plague us. For them, our future is already the past. Humanity will rush to draw upon their knowledge, like bees sucking honey. 'How did you solve your environmental problems? How did you deal with the dangers of a population explosion? What kind of religion do you have, and upon what is it based? How are your spaceships powered and how does interstellar radio work? How does one heal a cancer tumor and how can life be prolonged? What political system is the most just and how do you punish your criminals?' Thus will we leave the one-way road of knowledge behind us and join the sliproad onto the eight-lane highway. When the universe opens its doors to us, a truly heavenly epoch will begin. But only for the believers---sorry, I mean those who can cope with reality.
This reversal of values, this new philosophical approach to the 'second coming', is within sight. Religions will struggle against it and denounce me as a heretic; they will call me a tempter and pseudo-prophet, refusing to accept that they are the ones who helped keep alive the expectation of the gods' return for thousands of years; that they carved away at their own messiah image---or whatever they like to call their savior---until it fitted nicely into their glass cabinets, like a museum piece. All the glass cabinets of other religions were, of course, considered fit only for smashing. Each religion asserted that its own teachings were superior to all others. I, for one, have never got involved in this one-upmanship. The cap didn't fit, and I couldn't see the point.
We know very little about the real power and genetic technology of extraterrestrials. But they must, at the very least, be a few thousand years ahead of our capabilities, otherwise they---or their ancestors---could not have visited us in the ancient past. The history of modern technology and science teaches us that everything is made continually more perfect, small and effective. Computer technology demonstrates this with more and more microscopic chips, thousands of millions of bytes and continually increasing operation speeds.
For example, in the middle of the 1980s already, any better-quality PC could manage a computation speed of several megaflops (flops = floating point operations per second; megaflops = a million flops). Large computers like the Cray 2 attained gigaflops (a thousand million flops) by the beginning of the 1990s. One year later, ten gigaflops were achieved; and while I type these lines, the 100-gigaflop computer has been announced---the CM 5. The teraflops computer (1 billion flops) is already being developed and people are starting seriously to discuss the possibility of a ten-teraflop computer.
That may well be termed a dizzy speed of progress. But what are ten short years compared with millennia of evolution? A speck in the ocean. What will computers be up to in 50 years' time? They will think for themselves, programme themselves and hold conversations with us. They will be capable of instantaneous, impeccable translation of any language of the world into any other. There will be law computers that will be able to judge a case faster, better and more justly than human beings. Computers will build computers; and instead of the TV screen in your living room, there will be a three-dimensional hologram projection.
In the field of genetics, things have been achieved that biologists of the old school would not even have dared dream about. Within the next 20 years, geneticists will be able---either at the embryo stage, or even before conception---to prevent parents passing on inherited illnesses to their offspring. As long as our laws and ethical codes allow it, they will be able to construct human beings with quite specific characteristics---real works of genetic art. People say that this is 'playing at God'; but they forget that the God (or better, the gods) of the Old Testament created man 'in his image'. He programmed him in the way he wished, and clearly also kept tinkering with his descendants. I hope it is clear by now that this 'God' cannot be the creator of the universe. The geneticists who 'play at God' are no more synonymous with creation and the spirit of the universe than were the 'gods' of the mythologies. A computer may seem divine to an ape---but this does not make it divine.
If such advances can happen in the short span of 50 years, what can be achieved in several thousand years' worth of scientific and technological development? How far have the ETs advanced by now? If they could already predetermine the genetic characteristics of a foetus millennia ago, what are they now capable of? Can they perhaps influence the genetic code from a distance, by means of some invisible ray or beam? Can they gain access to our brains? Did they perhaps insert a code into our genetic make-up thousands of years ago, so that after a predetermined number of generations certain messages would be released into the brain? Is it possible that we contain coded messages and information that are woken by specific stimuli, so that we start to become conscious of them?
Every modern geneticist is familiar with the so-called genetic 'junk'. This refers to apparently useless and pointless sections of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). They seem purposeless because they have neither a proper beginning nor a proper end. Inherited characteristics are usually 'plugged' with a kind of stopper, which only fits onto the right counterpart material. Dr Beda Stadler, professor of genetics at Bern University, compares this with Lego bricks. Our DNA contains approximately 110,000 active genes, between which can be found many fragments of genetic junk. Is it really junk? Or does it have a quite specific task which had eluded geneticists up to now? It is hard to believe that thousands of years of evolution have carried with them so many useless fragments of genetic rubbish.
Even though our knowledge is continually pushing forward its frontiers, we still know next to nothing about its universal context. Yet we continue to behave as though we know it all. I am not in the least put out by the prophets of the Jain religion, the tirthamkaras, nor by the 'super-Buddha'. My theories are not in the least undermined by such phenomena, nor by such people as the living Sai Baba in India, who works miracles. Is it not possible that the coded message has just been activated in him a little too early? We know from experience that human genes only release particular messages after a certain period. A six-year-old boy does not grow a beard, nor is he sexually mature. Body hair and sexual maturity only come about when certain physical stages have been reached; particular hormones are then activated and released by genetic codes and messages. But the code for body hair was present from the beginning---was slumbering in the infant already, was programmed into every cell at the time of conception even. The message was there, but the time for it had not yet arrived.
Is it not possible that 'genetic junk' fulfils the same function in us? Do we carry within us information that requires only a signal---some message or other---to awaken it? Computer technology is already experimenting with atomic switches which introduce single electrons to activate the binary process of 'yes' or 'no'. This astonishing switch---fast as the speed of light---was discovered by the Russian physicist Konstantin Licharev. It is called the single-electron tunnelling effect (SET); its efficacy has since been proved, and it is thought to be a model for the development of ultimate miniaturization in micro-electronics.39 But if an electron can serve as a switch to direct a computer in one way or another, it can surely also awaken an innate genetic code or message.
Palaeo-seti philosophy interprets the idea of the return of the gods as a return of those extraterrestrials who long ago visited our ancestors. To alleviate the shock of this return, prophets are released into humanity to prepare it. Such prophets may have received their knowledge in one of several ways.
I think the fifth possibility the least likely, since we all ultimately descend from the same stock, regardless of whether we mean the symbolic Adam and Eve or our post-diluvian ancestors. The sixth option is not impossible, but still highly speculative.
In the Book of Enoch (39:1) we read:
In these days will descend from the high heavens the elect and holy children, and their race will be joined with that of the children of men.
Is Enoch pointing us to the second possibility in the above list? If so, how did he know? From the 'guardians of the sky'? From whom else? And how do the prophets come to describe those utopian scenes to us in their ancient books? In the Revelation of St John, we read (9:1-3; 7:9-10):
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit . . . And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth . . . And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle . . . And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
And three chapters later, in 12:7-9:
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This book was supposed to have been written by the holy apostle John, but every researcher knows this is not true. The 'secret revelation' does not come from John, but from some editorial team working in the years between AD 90 and 100. Of course they did not just make the text up out of the blue---they were working from older texts. One can find similar descriptions in the Apocrypha, mainly (but not solely) in the Book of Enoch; also in short sections of the Old Testament, in the Book of Daniel for example. This all suggests that there must once have existed an older, original, common source. Someone must originally have written the first text, must also have experienced these frightening visions. Or must he?
I do not dabble much in psychology; I do not value it very highly, and I know that it tells one either everything or nothing---depending on whether one believes in it or not. The following approach seems to me much closer to the truth.
We have all seen films like Star Wars and Star Trek. We know the special effects which can be achieved nowadays in modern films. I imagine that the extraterrestrials have a far more advanced 'vision-technology'. Perhaps they show their films in 3D, without the need for virtual reality headsets. Cinematic technology involving laser holography would conjure perfect illusions.
Now the 'guardians of the sky' had very close connections with Enoch. At the end of their sojourn on earth they even took him with them on their great journey. Why should the ETs not have shown films to some of their favourite earthlings? Human descriptions of these films would easily have turned warring robots into 'locusts . . . like unto horses . . . and they had breastplates', and 'the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots'. And the poor archangel Michael---who of course had no such name in the ETs' film, but was given it by later interpreters---'fought against the dragon'; and at the end of all this, one side wins and the loser is thrown into the depths---as in any film of that sort.
Someone wrote it down; it may well have seemed to him like a vision. Later generations certainly made a 'vision' out of it; and finally, various fragments of this apparent vision ended up in the writings of various prophets. Later on, a group of editors cobbled together the apocalypse and the 'secret revelation', and even made venerable old John responsible for it.
Not all that is to be found in the holy texts has to be vision and revelation. The most likely explanation is often the most banal. All that is needed is to be prepared to look at things from a different point of view.
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5 Marza Mubarak Ahmad, Der verheissene Messias, 1977.
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33 Grünwedel, A., Mythologie des Buddhismus in Tibet und in der Mongolei, Leipzig, 1900.
34 Feer, L., Annales du Musée Guimet: Extraits du Kandjour, Paris, 1883.
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38 Gressmann, H., Der Messias, Göttingen, 1929.
39 Schön, G., 'Die kleinsten elektronischen Schalter---Cluster aus 55 Goldatomen,' in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, April 1994.