Erich von Däniken

The renowned publicist for ancient astronauts

Name	Erich von Däniken
Age	90
Born	April 14, 1935
Famous for	Being the author of Chariot of the Gods? Believing in the ancient astronaut theory

Erich von Däniken is a Swiss author and researcher who gained international fame for his work on the ancient astronaut theory. He has spent approximately 70 years searching for evidence that extraterrestrial beings influenced ancient structures and myths, particularly in subjects related to gods.

His Early Life and Career

Not much is known about Erich von Däniken’s life growing up, except that he had a strict father and spent his formative years at Collège Saint-Michel in Fribourg, Switzerland. The troubles he got into, on the other hand, were plenty.

• While at Saint-Michel, he “refused to accept the Catholic Church’s interpretations of the Bible” (more on this later). 
• At age 19, he was suspended for four months for “stealing money from an innkeeper and from a camp where he worked as a youth leader.”
• As he was traveling in Egypt, he got involved in a “dubious jewelry deal.” When he came back to Switzerland, he was arrested and served nine months in prison for fraud and embezzlement.
• As he was returning from Vienna, Swiss prosecutors arrested him for “falsifying hotel books” to obtain $130,000, and he was in prison for a year. (He was working as a hotel manager for 12 years at the time of the arrest. In those 12 years, he frequently took vacations around the world to gather material for his first book. The frequent travel aroused the authority’s suspicion of how he could afford it on his meager income.)

After that last arrest, Chariot of the Gods? thankfully became a bestseller across Europe, allowing him to pay the money back. He then left his hotelier career and moved on to become a writer.

The Playboy, a U.S. men’s lifestyle and entertainment magazine, once asked him in a candid interview: Should the fact that you’re a convicted fraud and embezzler influence whether or not people listen to what you have to say?¹

To which he replied:

I really don’t want to go into details, because I don’t think it has anything to do with my work. It’s very easy to say that because a person has been in jail, he’s not serious, and you can’t believe what he says. Personally, I find that way of thinking very arrogant and unfair. … What does my having been in jail, guilty or innocent, have to do with my work?

Looking at today, we can say for certain that no one, whether it’s his avid readers, people in the UFO and scientific communities, or critics, minded his run-ins with the law.

His Belief in the Ancient Astronaut Theory

If I came down to a primitive people, they would look upon me as God. Everything I did would make me God in their eyes, because I could fly, kill animals with a single shot, and so forth.

Erich von Däniken believes that extraterrestrial beings visited Earth, possibly since the time of our Stone Age ancestors. These beings behaved like ethnologists, studying our ancestors’ languages and tribes and offering suggestions.

Because of this, our ancestors mistakenly believed they were Gods, and these encounters became the foundation of many of our myths and religions.

What von Däniken is trying to do is to present evidence that the concept of Gods and their promises of return are misinterpretations of extraterrestrial encounters. His research, as explained in all 49 of his books, is based on conclusive evidence. He doesn’t and never intended to rely on religious and pseudoscientific explanations to prove his theories.

How It All Started

It all started because of religious doubts. That was the power in me to find out “What is God?”

At Collège Saint-Michel, von Däniken once had to study and translate ancient texts from Latin into Greek. As he went through those, he realized that “what was being described there couldn’t be an almighty God.”

He became intrigued about whether other cultures had similar stories. It wasn’t long before he became deeply interested in ancient holy writings and unsolved archaeological puzzles.

The more he learned about these things, the more he began to question the Church’s explanations of the Bible. He began to wonder if the events that took place in these writings were “extraworldly”—that these might’ve been caused by beings from another world.

In all cultures of the world, ominous “Gods” were at work… but not the ones from religion, who wouldn’t need technology as omnipotent beings!

And so started his journey to explore, measure, and compare. He visited sites around the world to look for clues and answers that went beyond what textbooks could explain.

The Evidence He Presents

In his books, von Däniken presented two types of evidence suggesting that visitors from another world have been to Earth.

• Proof by hard facts
• Proof in myths, holy books, legends, etc.

Here are the examples of evidence he presents that could be said to make sense. 

Nazca Lines

When viewed from the air, the Nazca lines on the flatland and in the hills display intricate mathematical diagrams. von Däniken commented that these appear to be airstrips because “they start and end abruptly.”

He theorized that these lines were created after the Nazcas witnessed extraterrestrial beings using advanced technology and mathematics. This theory sparked a widespread study, with some suggesting that it serves as a signal to attract attention, an early example of applied geometry, or a means of communication with the Gods.

El Castillo at Chichen Itza

When von Däniken visited Chichen Itza in 1969, he sought to understand the meaning of its central pyramid, El Castillo. So, he read every possible literature he could find in Central America to learn about it. Almost all of them talked of visitors from outside (to the Maya, the Gods).

To give context, Chichen Itza is one of the places where “the Gods descended to and decreed the fate of mankind.” One of these gods is Kukulkan (also known as Quetzalcoatl or Gukumatz), a winged or flying serpent and the Maya’s main deity.

And the Temple of El Castillo features an intricate light show that only occurs on the spring and autumn equinoxes (March 21 and September 21, respectively). In the early morning on those dates, you can see “triangles of light and shadow moving downward on the stairway.” These triangles are formed due to the nine platforms of the temple. The light show ends once the sun has completely risen.

von Däniken believes that the light show is a clear message that the God Kukulkan, along with the other deities the Maya worship, will return to Earth—into their temple—in the future.

Sarcophagus of Palenque

The tomb of Lord K’inich Janaab Pakal in the Maya city-state of Palenque was first discovered by Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1949. Ancient astronaut theorists believe that Lord Pakal may have been the first ancient astronaut on Earth.

von Däniken came to Palenque because he wanted further proof that his theory was going in the right direction. One thing he looked into was the picture on the lid of Lord Pakal’s sarcophagus. Here’s his interesting interpretation of it:

You see a man bending forward, almost like a racing motorcyclist. He has his nose on some kind of oxygen mask. He uses his upper hand to manipulate the knob. You see his lower hand; he manipulates some controls. He’s sitting on a kind of chair in a sort of capsule.

In other words, he saw a Maya king in a rocket ship, possibly returning to space.

Piri Reis Map

The Piri Reis Map is considered an early world map by the Ottoman cartographer, Piri Reis. von Däniken believes this map accurately shows what Earth looks like from space, “coinciding with a view from Earth from a spaceship in orbit above Cairo.”

However, Playboy interviewer Timothy Ferris pointed out that the map wasn’t “absolutely accurate” as von Däniken believed. In fact, many authors have said that the Piri Reis map contained errors and omissions.

von Däniken replied that he only wrote what information he had at the time. Regardless, he acknowledged these claims, saying he would research them further. If he was wrong, he’ll be “the first to correct it”—that is, at least in his next book, he would say that “this was wrong.”

Great Pyramid of Cheops

von Däniken wasn’t convinced that the Great Pyramid of Cheops was built solely through the manual labor of thousands of slaves using wooden rollers and other devices to transport tons of blocks.

Here’s his argument about it:

The premise	According to archaeologists: – It took 20 years to complete the Great Pyramid – 2.3 million blocks were used in total – Each block weighed a ton or so; 12 tons for some
His position	If they worked 300 days for 13 hours per day, then a stone would be set in place every two minutes. Modern workers probably couldn’t repeat that if asked to build a Great Pyramid today. Note: For him, 300 days were considered too long, as Egyptians only worked four months a year, while the Nile was flooding.

To verify if what he said about the two minutes is true, we calculated it:

We don’t claim to know how ancient Egyptians managed to do this fully; however, if this is true, we respect the work they did—extraterrestrial help notwithstanding.

Another example von Däniken posed was from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. When Herodotus visited Egypt, the priests showed him 340 statues of high priests that represented 11,340 years, and that the Gods from the sky had taught those priests how to build them.

Playboy interviewer Ferris asked him if it was a lot to expect from Herodotus’s and the priests’ accounts, considering it happened a thousand years before the priests’ time. He assented to it; however, the fact that the priests had mentioned 11,340 years meant we weren’t close to understanding Egyptian history, which archaeologists traced back to around 4000 B.C.

His Response to Criticisms

Despite popularity—even starting a wave of Dänikenitis among fans worldwide—von Däniken wasn’t exempt from criticisms and skepticism.

One notable critique came from renowned astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan. He said that von Däniken’s books were filled with logical and factual errors and were written using sloppy thinking. von Däniken also disregarded archeological research and evidence, summing it up in this statement:

Every time von Däniken sees something he can’t understand, he attributes it to extraterrestrial intelligence, and since he understands almost nothing, he sees evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence all over the planet.

However, von Däniken didn’t let their “attack” get to him. He fought back, continuing to write 49 books that had sold 76 million combined copies over a span of 50 years.

I’m the only author who has really frightened the critics. … Other writers sit at home and wait for miracles. I’m making the miracles.

His Contributions to Ufology

Archeology, Astronautics, and SETI Research Association

von Däniken founded the AAS RA because he wanted to find real proof that extraterrestrials once came to Earth millennia ago. Their research will be backed by science; however, they won’t allow themselves to be held back by its existing dogmas or paradigms.

If ever they or other scientists find any evidence, they want to help everyone understand it. They’re also ready to create a research center for “paleo-SETI.”

What’s interesting about AAS RA is that von Däniken didn’t limit its members to the scientific community. Laypeople from other professions can also join the association, provided that they believe in the association’s vision and mission and possess open, inquisitive minds.

Here’s a list of the areas the AAS RA is researching:

Chariot of the Gods? 

von Däniken has written 49 books, but none have ever come close to the popularity and impact of Chariot of the Gods? 

Written and published in 1968, CoG heavily draws upon the theory of ancient astronauts. According to von Däniken, some of the architectures and artefacts in ancient civilizations couldn’t have been built by our ancestors. They had limited knowledge and technology at the time.

Instead, he claimed that extraterrestrial beings guided our ancestors, enlightening them with knowledge. Because of this, many of our ancestors viewed and worshiped them as Gods, giving birth to the legends, myths, and religions we know today.

For readers interested in exploring ancient astronaut theories, UFO sightings, and historical evidence, visit UFO Connect. It is a dedicated UFO research website that features verified UFO documents, eyewitness accounts, and ongoing studies about extraterrestrial encounters.

FAQ

How is Erich von Däniken’s work received?

von Däniken’s works get mixed reactions, depending on the group you ask.

• Most of the scientific community views his work as pseudoscientific and speculative.
• UFO and alternative history fans appreciate his work as one of the pioneers of the ancient astronaut theory.
• The general public considers his work entertaining or thought-provoking.
• The media and pop culture see the significant influence his work has.

What impact has Erich von Däniken had on popular culture?

von Däniken’s ideas have had a significant impact on the genre of alternative history and Ufology. His books (and the ancient astronaut theory) have inspired numerous documentaries, TV shows, and movies, including the popular Ancient Aliens series.

It has come to the point that many now view the ancient astronaut theory as a mainstream alternative to conventional historical explanations.

What is the Ancient Aliens TV series?

Ancient Aliens (2009–present) is a documentary show on the History channel. It draws heavily on von Däniken’s theory that extraterrestrials have possibly visited Earth and influenced our ancient civilizations. The producers have invited von Däniken as a featured expert several times on the show.