Strange Artifacts

I, too, have read Zecharia Sitchin's "The 12th Planet..." and Edgar Cayce's "On Atlantis..." and even Erich Von Daniken's oftimes discredited books on "Ancient Astronauts." Sitchin's theory says Earth was visited by sentient beings from a 12th planet in our solar system and that major advances in Earth culture (such as the domestication of animals, adoption of agriculture, and advances in pottery and metallurgy) were due to the influence of, and human cross-breeding with, advanced alien beings at pivotal times in our past.

I must admit, I find reading "Alternative Theory" like this utterly absorbing and fascinating. I could sit and play "What if....?" with ideas like these all day long.
And sometimes I do, much to the detriment of what I should be doing! I want to believe them because I have such a strong gut reaction for the ideas proposed.
It would make an interesting study, methinks, to learn why these myths endure and so strongly appeal to us over time. However, I cannot "scientifically prove" even one "Alternative Theory" and doubt anyone else can either -- at least not at present. And that is the problem with speculative theories in general -- they cannot be proven to the satisfaction of the scientists among us.... So does that mean they shouldn't be read?

There are many things I believe to be true, that I cannot prove. I have been taught humans started from a primordial pea soup and progressed steadily upward to the present era. While we may have started as primordial pea soup, when I look at my life, at the way I learn; when I look at history... well, it's just not a steady, straight line that always progresses upward. It's more of a spiral and it's moving, but I haven't the slightest idea as to direction. The movement is up and down, forward and backward, and there are plateaus... lots of plateaus. I believe history is more like that. I just don't believe the 20th century is the only "technologically advanced" civilization Earth has ever seen. And I don't believe the Sphinx and the Pyramids were built by organized peasants using greased logs. But can I prove any of this? Nope.

I think the value of "Alternative Theory" lies in the activity towards which they may inspire. If just one of these books or theories, causes an archaeologist or scientist to investigate a single area they otherwise might not have, then they are worth their weight in gold. Think for a minute... the city of Troy was thought to be myth until amateur, Heinrich Schliemann, took the "myth" seriously and discovered the multi-layered city of Troy at Hissarlik in the 1870s. The same is true of the Bible -- some places thought of as "just myth" by scholars are turning out to have existed in fact.

So even if a tiny, obscure portion of one of these books causes one person to investigate an obscure "hunch..." and that "hunch" provides evidence long sought, we might finally get objective "proof" that nonhuman, sentient beings visited the planet in Earth's ancient past.... Perhaps prove an island continent sank under the Atlantic Ocean after some long forgotten catastrophe.... Maybe locate a room under the Sphinx proving the existence of Atlantis. And that's why I love books like Sitchin's, Cayce's, and even Von Daniken's... why I hope people with ideas will keep creating and writing about theories they cannot completely and scientifically "prove." The visionaries among us are like pole stars by which we navigate our imagination to new lands and then, sometimes, if we are lucky, to new realities.... 

I hope they never stop.

© Copyright 1999 Judith Paulson. Permission is hereby granted to electronically transmit or reproduce this article for personal, nonprofit use, on condition that all paragraphs, including this notice, remain intact.