Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

Switzerland’s so-called Indiana Jones of ufology, who firmly backed the ancient astronaut theory

Name	Giorgio A. Tsoukalos
Age	47
Born	March 14, 1978
Famous for	His work as a promoter of the ancient astronaut theory

Referred to as a cross between American astronomer Carl Sagan and the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones, Giorgio Tsoukalos started with a very different career path. He was well on his way to becoming the next Howard Cosell when he rediscovered his fascination with the enigmatic phenomenon of extraterrestrials.

The shift was understandably surprising to his colleagues. After all, rarely would people risk their reputation in sports to dabble in ufology. However, Tsoukalos should have seen it coming, especially given how much the subject was a part of his childhood.

Who is this man behind the impressive moniker, Indiana Jones, and how did he bring this fictional character to life?

His Early Life and Career

Giorgio Tsoukalos, born in Switzerland in 1978, is of Greek and Austrian descent. He comes from a long lineage of Greek-Americans on his father’s side and Austrians on his mother’s, and grew up embracing both sides. He was born and raised in Laufenburg, Switzerland, and spends his summer in Greece and winters in Austria.

He studied at the international boarding school Institut Montana before moving on to Ithaca College in New York, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sports and Communications. Immediately after graduating, he became a professional bodybuilding promoter, which launched his flourishing career in sports entertainment.

For six years, he produced and directed the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) San Francisco Pro Grand Prix. With his help, the show became the most significant pro bodybuilding competition in California.

Throughout those years, he had contributed significantly to the industry, having promoted multiple bodybuilding contests worldwide, including:

• Night of Champions
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic
• Olympia Weekend

Giorgio Tsoukalos was known as a laid-back person who enjoyed relaxed sit-down meals with friends, listening to classical music, and participating in outdoor activities like sailing.

He was the embodiment of a sports promoter.

This was why nobody saw it coming: someone who had gradually made a name in the sports industry suddenly focused and dove headfirst into the esoteric world of UFOs. However, if one were to question Tsoukalos directly, he would have claimed that this had always fascinated him, which is also the reason why he quickly became an expert in the field.

His Entry to Ufology

“As a little boy, I wanted to do exactly what I’m doing right now.”

During his interviews, Tsoukalos mentioned that his interest in aliens and extraterrestrials began in childhood, sparked by his grandmother.

This was a dinner table conversation growing up at my house. When I was a little boy, my grandmother introduced me to the topic of Ancient Astronaut as bedtime stories, and so I was exposed to those things at a very early age, and it stuck with me.

Tsoukalos shared that his grandmother, while a devout Catholic, was a very open-minded lady. She would constantly converse with the young Tsoukalos about the possibility of there being more to the world than meets the eye.

It was a good idea, she told me from a very young age, when I was five or six, bedtime stories mixed with Edgar Cayce or Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods.

Tsoukalos carried these opinions as he grew older. By the age of 12, he had developed an interest in extraterrestrial phenomena, with Däniken’s writings having the most significant impact on him.

His Association with the Ancient Astronaut Theory

Following his childhood exposure to and interest in Erich von Däniken’s works and the ancient astronaut theory, Tsoukalos became one of the leading experts in the field. His first involvement was with Legendary Times, “the only magazine to exclusively publish about the ancient astronaut theory,” where he served as an editor and contributed articles to support its validity.

As a believer in the ancient astronaut theory, Tsoukalos was also fortunate to have worked directly with Erich von Däniken. He helped the Swiss ufologist found and run the Archaeology, Astronautics, and SETI Research Association (A.A.S. R.A.).

I decided in 1998, when the person who ran the American Ancient Astronaut Society, Dr. Gene Philips, wanted to retire as he was old … Erich said that he could stop, but that Erich would continue the German version of the organization.

When I heard this was going to happen, I called Erich and Philips and told them I wanted to help. I had to lobby for a year and a half, talking to a lot of people in the ancient astronaut field, asking for a chance and saying I wouldn’t let them down. And here we are.

Giorgio Tsoukalos served as the Director of A.A.S. R.A. for 14 years, overseeing the society’s activities and leading scientific research into the ancient astronaut theory.

His Personal UFO Encounter

One reason Giorgio Tsoukalos has strongly voiced his belief in the existence of UFOs is that he claims to have had a personal experience. This happened on August 8, 2014, when he, along with 26 other people, was attending the Desert Conference.

Tsoukalos recalled that the incident occurred while they were all wearing night-vision goggles to watch the stars near Joshua Tree.

We saw stars inside the Big Dipper, which obviously didn’t belong there. After 10 minutes of observing those two stars, they began to move equidistant from each other up into space, or into the darkness of the night sky.

I wouldn’t talk about this event, but because there were 27 people, we all saw the same thing, so I certainly have no problem talking about it. We know what we saw, and we were all quite sober, so there was nothing weird going on.

Those two things most certainly weren’t meteors, because they were flying up and not towards the Earth. They weren’t satellites because they disappeared into space.

His Beliefs About UFOs

Giorgio Tsoukalos’s beliefs about UFOs are heavily based on Erich von Däniken’s ancient astronaut theory. Like his mentor, he firmly believes that aliens have already visited Earth and has presented several pieces of evidence to support this.

On What He Thinks About the Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox is a well-known concept in discussions of extraterrestrial life. It highlights the apparent contradiction between the probability of their existence and the lack of evidence.

While Tsoukalos recognizes the importance of this observation, he still believes that it also doesn’t disprove anything.

The idea or the suggestion that “if they exist, where are they?” just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t here, because their technological capabilities would allow them to essentially appear invisible to us.

On Why He Thinks the Extraterrestrials Stopped Visiting

There are evident gaps between one UFO encounter and another, and what these moments of “silence” bring is either the belief that they don’t exist or that they have stopped visiting Earth.

They have been observing us the entire time. Perhaps not as involved as they were in our remote past, with guiding us, giving us advice, giving us knowledge, but providing that they did this, it is something they are interested to see how it all worked out.

Tsoukalos strongly believes that they’ve never stopped visiting. Instead, he attributes this lack of incidents to the aliens’ method of observing to see if we have learned from their guidance.

On What He Thinks Is the Most Plausible Proof of Extraterrestrials

After studying multiple monuments said to have been built with the help of extraterrestrials, Tsoukalos believes there’s no single piece of proof of their existence. Instead, people would see how possible the phenomenon is if they look at the overall picture.

In the ancient theory, we are talking about circumstantial evidence. It’s the combination of a whole bunch of pieces that can be regarded as circumstantial evidence. There are no crashed UFOs that are on display anywhere, or no extraterrestrial tools have been found. Those are all items so far that haven’t been discovered.

For him, the lack of evidence doesn’t discredit the extraterrestrials’ existence. He examines all the incidents that have occurred so far and encourages people to do the same, acknowledging that, as a whole, they point to something.

On RH Negative People Being Mixed with Alien DNA

According to the ancient astronaut theory, all of us already have alien DNA within us. Because the theory suggests that, at some point, our human genetic makeup was deliberately changed by a targeted, artificial mutation of our genes.

On the “Cargo Cult” Effect

One theory used to explain the existence of aliens, especially in the context of ancient civilizations, is the cargo cult theory. It is said that what ancient people referred to as gods weren’t actual divine beings but were extraterrestrials visiting them.

Giorgio Tsoukalos sides with this explanation. He believes that, as humanity was once visited by aliens, future generations will also be able to explore other planets.

I believe that just like we will visit foreign planets in the distant future, for the sole purpose of exploration, I think it is an intriguing idea to suggest that our planet, too, might have been part of an exploratory program launched by advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy.

The Belief in UFOs as Schopenhauer’s Stages of Truth

As with every UFO researcher, Tsoukalos was also asked about his views on skeptics. To this, the man was surprisingly very optimistic, sharing that he had encountered people who publicly derided him but were his supporters in private.

He says that, in today’s society, this rejection can stem from multiple practical reasons, such as fear of losing one’s job. Tsoukalos expressed sympathy toward the skeptics and justified their beliefs through Schopenhauer’s stages of truth:

I liken this whole thing to the idea of accepted and unaccepted knowledge. Schopenhauer said that truth goes through three stages:

• First, everybody ridicules you.
• Second, it’s accepted.
• Third, they claim that we knew this all along.

For him, humanity is still in the first stage. This is why more people are skeptical about the extraterrestrial phenomenon, and others show strong resistance to it. In time, he believes that people will learn to acknowledge the truth and openly support it.

“We Will Become Ancient Astronauts on Another Planet”

If we arrive at a planet and there happens to be some sort of humanoid life, but it’s, technologically speaking, not yet advanced. Would we just watch them from afar, or would we go and teach them a few things?

Of course, we’ll first observe them, learn their language and ways, and then introduce ourselves to give help, and then immediately, we will have achieved god-like status.

If we will become ancient astronauts on some other planet in the remote future, then is it not possible that ancient astronauts visited us here on Earth thousands of years ago?

His Work and Contributions to Ufology

Given his moniker as the Indiana Jones of ufology, Giorgio Tsoukalos’s contributions to the field focused on archeological factors.

From 2009 to 2015, he was the star and producer of Ancient Aliens: The Series on The History Channel, where he toured the world in search of evidence of extraterrestrial life. This show became a hit and was known as the most compelling documentary about the phenomenon, and featured top ancient experts like:

• Erich von Däniken
• David H. Childress
• Robert Bauval
• Dr. Steven Greer
• George Noory
• Lina Moulton-Howe
• Graham Hancock
• Rev. Barry Downing
• Dr. Robert Schoch
• Nick Pope

The sites he visited were usually ancient monuments and religious shrines, which, to him, were gripping evidence of the aliens’ existence.

I have never suggested that these ancient monuments were built by aliens. It was 100% human beings under the assistance of extraterrestrials because that is what many of the ancient texts are saying.

Of the many places he visited, here are some of the most compelling ones:

India: Surang Tila Temple

This monument has withstood earthquakes despite being hundreds of years old. Giorgio Tsoukalos believes the construction of the place indicates advanced knowledge, due to:

• The unknown paste used in its walls, which is said to be 20 times stronger than modern cement
• The 80-foot shafts designed to form air pockets that can dissipate the impact of these seismic events

When visiting the place, Tsoukalos was accompanied by Dr. Arum K. Sharma, a known archaeologist of India, who said, “Those who are more advanced on other planets used to visit Earth, and I think they must have given some knowledge to the local people. I think there was a part played by these aliens.”

Japan: Ishi no Hoden

In Japan, one of the country’s oldest and holiest places features an interesting rock formation. This massive rock, said to weigh 500 tons, looks like it’s floating on the water. However, its appearance isn’t what has caught Tsoukalos’s attention; instead, it’s the story behind it.

This is related to one of the first gods that descended from the heavens, who is said to have travelled over the country in a “sky ship made out of a giant rock” which was called Ama no Iwafune or Heavenly Rock Ship.

Japan: Masuda no Iwafune

Another area in Japan showcases an 800-ton rock structure said to have been carved from a single piece of granite, unlike any other rock or architecture in the country. When asked about its purpose, Takeharu Mikami, a fellow ancient astronaut theorist, stated that it was intended to depict the “sky boats” described in ancient Japanese stories.

The rock ship would have come down from the heavens as a vehicle for the gods to descend upon Earth.

Egypt: Serapeum of Saqqara

Deep beneath the deserts of Egypt is a 790-foot-long passageway with a series of alcoves carved into the limestone. These spaces house 24 gigantic stone sarcophagi measuring 13 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, and over 10 ft tall.

According to Ramy Romany, a Cairo native and Egyptologist, these sarcophagi were meant to house the remains of sacred Apis bulls.

The Apis bull is a representation of god Osiris, and there’s something very important to mention: ancient Egyptians didn’t worship animals. Their concept was that the gods sent the animals to be their messengers, and we have to respect them in that way.

The first ever Apis bull was created when a ray of light came down from heaven and struck a cow, which produced the Apis bull.

Italy: Well of Santa Cristina

In Italy, there’s the well of Santa Cristina, which is said to have been built around 1800 BC. What’s incredible about the structure is that it demonstrates excellent masonry skills that archaeologists think couldn’t have been the work of primitive people.

While its exterior looks uneven, inside is the most precisely carved stonework forming a perfect circle, which should have been challenging to shape back in the days.

According to Tsoukalos, this stonework provides evidence for the theory that extraterrestrial giants once lived on the island.

Giorgio Tsoukalos’s Legacy in Ufology

While Giorgio A. Tsoukalos first became known through the popular meme, he still managed to overcome the mockery and became one of the most influential figures in ufology.

Beyond his reputation as the so-called modern Indiana Jones, Tsoukalos’s legacy lies first and foremost in his ability to introduce the ancient astronaut theory to a mainstream global audience. Through his work in Legendary Times and his multiple appearances in documentaries and the Ancient Aliens show, he became a reputable interpreter of the theory.

Many people who explore a UFO archive, review UFO reports, or even decide to report a UFO were introduced to the topic through his explanations. Whether one agrees with him or not, his impact on the public’s understanding of the theory is undeniable.

This cements him as one of the most prominent figures in the community.

FAQ

How did Giorgio Tsoukalos start his career in ufology?

Giorgio Tsoukalos began his career working with Erich von Däniken and later became the publisher of Legendary Times, the only magazine to cover the ancient astronaut theory.

What is Giorgio Tsoukalos’s connection to Erich von Däniken?

Tsoukalos worked closely with the Swiss ufologist as a publicist and promoter, and later as a collaborator within Däniken’s organization, A.A.S. R.A.

Has Giorgio Tsoukalos conducted scientific research?

Tsoukalos isn’t a scientist. His work is mainly rooted in comparative mythology, speculative archaeology, and the interpretation of ancient texts. He has documented these interpretations through Legendary Times and numerous conference presentations.

References