Conspiracies: The Facts * the Theories * the Evidence (33 page)

was even a partial false-flag attack, the world we are living in today is based on one of the greatest deceptions ever perpetrated, and it must surely be opened up for true investigation so that healing

can take place and a more positive way forward can be forged for

our civilization.

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CONSPIRACIES

Behind the endless speculation around the more obvious geopolitical
manoeuvres which attract the attention of conspiracy theorists, there
is a deeper suspicion from some quarters that more esoteric agendas
influence the motivations of the al eged puppeteers. Accusations are
rife that knowledge of paranormal activity is being withheld from
the public, especial y concerning extra-terrestrial visitations and the
true origins of our civilization. Could it be that Earth was infiltrated
long ago and seeded with a ruling class that is far from human?

i) exTra-TerresTrial rooTs

The Distraction of Debunking

Of all conspiracy theories, some of the most controversial – and

scorned – are the beliefs that knowledge of mystical powers and

an awareness of the presence of extra-terrestrial visitors have

long been kept secret. It is certainly the case, as we shall see, that those in the higher echelons of influence would appear to have far more interest in ‘paranormal’ and occult areas than has ever been 204

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admitted to. Could an important stratum of our history have been

hidden from us, but privately embraced by those in command?

Some truthseekers believe so, and hold that the routine debunking and public marginalization of such subjects has in truth been a

massive exercise of intentional distraction.

Ancient Astronauts

In 1968, two milestones in popular culture independently picked

up on a theme which would have unexpected consequences for

a particular strand of conspiracy theory decades later: Stanley

Kubrick’s seminal and visionary film
2001: A Space Odyssey

(co-written with Arthur C Clarke) depicted other-worldly artefacts influencing humankind’s evolution in the deep past, stimulating

profound discussions in the new counterculture and conventional

society alike. Erich von Däniken’s bestselling book
Chariots of
the Gods
, meanwhile, also speculated on visitations from ‘ancient astronauts’ in earlier ages, but went for documentary evidence based on prehistoric carvings and artefacts which might depict flying

craft, spacesuited creatures and other potential alien activity. The academic backlash to this reading of history has been savage since, but it quite caught the public imagination at the time and never

entirely fell from view. The many mysteries still surrounding the construction and purpose of the likes of the Nazca line complexes in Peru, or the pyramids in Egypt, have left some still convinced that they were created courtesy of extra-terrestrial intervention.

The furore caused by the discovery of a humanoid stone ‘face’

on Mars by NASA’s Viking mission of 1976, greatly fuelled by

the subsequent conjecture of Richard C Hoagland, reignited the

appetite for ancient astronaut theories, creating a whole industry of new conspiracy theories around them. NASA’s denial that

anything was there other than an amusing piece of simulacra

was met by rebuttals that alongside the face sat a number of

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unexplained artefacts on the Martian plains of Cydonia, including pyramids and apparently artificial constructions, geometrical y

aligned in ways that could not be easily explained away. The

resonance of these alignments with the layout of the Neolithic

Avebury complex in the English county of Wiltshire (where the

majority of Britain’s fiercely debated and mysterious crop circles appear) deepened the speculation.1

When much clearer images from later NASA probes appeared to

reveal the Cydonia ‘monuments’ as little more than disappointing

collections of rocks, with perhaps faint resemblances to faces and objects, aficionados refused to budge, alleging photo manipulation or pointing to the possible effects of erosion in having softened the edges of the artefacts. Claims of further structures being visible on Mars, and even the Moon, gleaned from new and crisper

images, continue to be made by the year.2 Beyond more obvious

possibilities, one line of thinking to explain the suspected faking of the Moon landing photos (
see
chapter 4) has it that NASA was simply unable to show the astonishing reality of what was found

there and had to prepare its own, less shocking, evidence while

official channels quietly carried out their own investigations.

Other discoveries have suggested the possibility of even the

contemporary presence of alien activity around Mars. In 1988,

Russia launched two probes to explore Phobos, one of the curious

asteroid-like Martian moons. The
Phobos 1
probe was lost en route, but when
Phobos 2
managed to arrive safely in 1989, all was well until it attempted to approach Phobos itself. Following the

capturing of one final intriguing image, all transmissions from the probe ceased. The probe’s final view appears to show either a long cylindrical object parked near Phobos or some kind of light beam.

Later analysis of some of
Phobos 2
’s earlier shots of Mars showed a long ‘spindle-shaped’ shadow on the surface, perhaps cast by the

‘cylinder’. Was the probe intercepted by some kind of intelligence?

No one has ever satisfactorily explained what happened to
Phobos
2
, but the above-average failure rate of probes to Mars (eight lost to 206

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date) from Russian, US and international missions has suggested

to some a presence there that sometimes prefers to be left alone, sparking claims of cover-ups.3

Beyond von Däniken, another important adherent to the ancient

astronaut theory was the late Zecharia Sitchin. His controversial interpretations of Sumerian and other Mesopotamian legends,

which tell of the arrival on Earth of god-like beings in ancient

times, have greatly influenced conspiracy theories concerning

extra-terrestrial bloodlines. The Anunnaki – considered by some

to be the same race recorded as the Nephilim in the biblical book of Genesis – were believed by Sitchin to have been alien visitors who came from the planet Nibiru. According to his account of

the ancient texts – much criticized by mainstream historians – the Anunnaki genetical y engineered the human race from primordial

hominids as a slave species, before retreating from Earth when

Nibiru began its long elliptical journey back out to the far reaches of the solar system. However, the extra-terrestrial bloodline that was left, seeded among a certain branch of humankind, ensured

that a ruling elite would continual y resurface from time to time throughout history to reassert its dominance over other humans

in preparation for the eventual return of Nibiru.

For all the criticism Sitchin’s version of events has received,

numerous other myths and legends around the world do appear

to tell tales of godlike beings descending from the skies to

intervene with humankind’s development. Chapter 6 of Genesis,

which describes them as the ‘sons of God’ is quite blatant in its description of the interbreeding that took place:

The sons of God, looking at the daughters of men, saw

they were pleasing, so they married as many as they chose

. . . The Nephilim were on the earth at that time (and even

afterwards) when the sons of God resorted to the daughters of
man, and had children by them. These are the heroes of days

gone by, the famous men.4

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The theme of our genetic evolution being interrupted and altered

has continued even into modern popular culture;
2001: A Space
Odyssey
is prominent amongst the examples.

As for the return of Nibiru (or ‘Planet X’), some theorists

believe this is due to occur sometime soon, warning of

potentially catastrophic effects to our planet as the wanderer

re-enters the inner part of our solar system. Evidence for this

has been shaky to date (and sometimes faked –
see
p. 28), but multiple assertions of astronomical cover-ups have been made

to account for the silence on what would surely be a sensational

development were a new planetary body incontrovertibly known

to be heading our way.

It has been suggested that the upsurge of UFO sightings and

other apparently extra-terrestrial phenomena in recent decades

may herald an advance wave of the returning Anunnaki, and that

the dark-eyed ‘grey’ beings often reported from claimed alien

encounters are the cloned ‘helper’ drones al uded to in Sitchin’s translations. A brief summary of some of the evidence in this area may be helpful.

ii) ufos

Objects in the Sky

Tales of unexplained aerial objects would seem to go back
ad

infinitum
, littering religious and historical texts throughout time (the biblical Book of Ezekiel’s description of ‘wheels within wheels’, for instance). They are general y attributed to hal ucinogenic

experiences or primitive interpretations of astronomical phen-

omena, but others believe that some of the reports are too

specific to be dismissed so lightly. The sky was always looked to as the theatre of the gods, as the development of astrology and its progeny, astronomy, attests, so it could be argued that anything

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seen there might once have been taken as evidence of external

intervention. But some accounts seem very similar to what we

would today refer to as UFOs. Even tales of folk being carried off into the fairy realms, encountering goblins and other elemental

creatures, seem to have resonance with modern alien abduction

stories, now so numerous that some brave explorers of psych ology accept them as a serious phenomenon, whatever their true origin

(as we saw with Professor John Mack –
see
p. 15).

Before the rash of UFO sightings that seemed to proliferate

from the mid-1940s onwards, the previous century had already

seen a number of ‘flaps’ concerning unidentified aerial objects.

In the mid-1880s, a spate of mystery airships were reported in

California, at a time when airship technology was only just in

its infancy. It has been suggested that these may have been early prototypes being tested in secret (as some believe ‘alien craft’ seen today may be covert military technology), but closer links with

the more usual view of UFOs are forged by stories which describe

behaviour far beyond the capability of airships. Accompanying

claims of witnesses interacting with non-human occupants of

the craft also suggest extra-terrestrial connotations. Indeed, 1896

saw the first-ever account of an attempted alien abduction, when

three 7ft-tall creatures were reported to have tried to drag a local colonel onboard a featureless metallic ‘airship’ with pointed ends.5

The general airship scare eventual y died down for a while, put

down to hoaxes or paranoia – something initial y supported by the resurfacing of reports when German Zeppelins started operation

around the First World War. Yet not all the stories could be so

easily explained.

Other aerial phenomena of the early 20th century have been

reinterpreted as UFO activity in more recent times. The claimed

apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, for instance, which saw three shepherd children famously receive

messages of prophecy from a glowing female being, are backed up

by remarkable eyewitness accounts given by thousands of people

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of a huge orb (presumed at the time to be the Sun) performing

extraordinary acrobatics in the skies above the crowds. The

unusual amount of supportive testimony (photos exist which

even purport to show the orb) and the fact that the Vatican took it seriously enough to classify it as an official miracle is impressive, while the descriptions of the whirling, seemingly laws-of-physics-defying movements of the object have reminded modern

observers of behaviour reported in many claimed UFO sightings.

The reported instant drying of rain puddles and wet clothes at the closest pass of the orb is another aspect which has been reported in other ‘close encounters’.6

Towards the end of the Second World War, bomber crews and

airmen from a number of countries reported the presence of

‘foo fighters’, inexplicable glowing spheres which would follow

aeroplanes, never interfering, but seemingly curious. Their ability to swerve rapidly away at any angle was beyond either natural

phenomena or any available technology, although it was feared at

the time that they might be secret devices of the enemy.

Roswell and Other Claimed Close Encounters