Erich von Däniken - Eyewitness to the Gods: What I Kept Secret for Decades

First published 2015 in German by Kopp Verlag

First English Edition Published by Disinformation Books, an imprint of Red Wheel Weiser

This edition first published in 2019 by New Page Books, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2019 by Erich von Dniken

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Previously published in German in 2018 as Neue Erkenntnisse: Beweise fr einen Besuch von Auerirdischen in vorgeschichtlichen Zeiten; ISBN: 978-3-86445-614-5 by Kopp Verlag.

ISBN: 978-1-63265-168-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Howard Grossman
Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Typeset in Eames Century Modern and Praktika

Printed in the United States of America
LB

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Figures 3.10-3.12: Rudolf Gantenbrink, Munich

Figure 4.5: Photo Wide World, National Geographic, Washington

-5.2: Space Command, Colorado Springs

Figure 5.3: Tatjana Ingold, CH-4501 Solothurn

All other illustrations: Erich von Dniken, CH-3803 Beatenberg/Switzerland

D ear Reader,

What actually inspired me to write a controversial book like Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (Memories of the Future, published in the US as Chariots of the Gods)? Who helped me? How do I know that Jesus, the founder of the Christian religion, did not ascend to heaven? Who taught me that the much-praised original texts do not exist at all? How did I come to have pictures of Jesus's tomb? Is it true that the former director of the Egyptian antiquities administration, Dr. Holeil Ghaly, personally led me into the secret chamber of Pharaoh Sekhemkhet, member of the third dynasty? That as a nineteen-year-old, I experienced something uncanny in the country on the Nile? That the story of the robot Upuaut, who discovered a shaft in the pyramid on March 22, 1993, was already known to me before that date? That Rudolf Gantenbrink, who developed the robot, and I are old friends? Did the highly official antiquities administration, along with the DAI (Deutsches Archoligisches Institut)the German Archaeological Instituteblatantly lie to me?

Is it correct that I wanted to carry out a helicopter expedition on the upper Amazon and was lied to and deceived? That in Brazil, several acquaintances of mine were murdered? Is it true that a Catholic priest states that he has seen tombs of aliens? Why was it me who found out about the so-called Band of Holes in the Pisco Valley of Peru? How did I bribe a Colombian air force general? And why did the old Salesian priest Carlo Crespi in Cuenca, Ecuador, trust me?

Did I actually speak at many universities? How did the Ancient Astronaut Society (AAS) come into existence? In Germany and in the US, there were highly toxic pamphlets put out against my bookwhat has become of them? Who authored them? What were the reasons behind doing so? In 1984, was I actually in the secret American base of the then so-called Space Command? What was going on there? Did I really know NASA's rocket builders personally? From the father of space travel, Dr. Hermann Oberth, to Wernher von Braun? Which scientists, astronauts, and cosmonauts support me?

Why in the world do politicians and judges shamelessly violate their respective constitutions? Do we live in an environment of bought journalists? And what about the eternal UFO stories? Have they not long ago been scientifically refuted? Does not everyone know that UFO believers can only be nutcases?

That's how I begin: people are treated like first-class idiots. From the anti-UFO lobby as well.

Cordially!

Erich von Dniken

____________________

I n which you will learn about the following:

A Haunting at 36,000 Feet Pseudo-Science
Without End Time Machine? A Baffled
Sheriff The Never-Ending Case of B and
B Hill A Visit from Zeta Reticuli
A Desperate Nick Pope Professor with Civic
Courage: A Visit from the Father of Space Travel
A Movie from the Cockpit

November 7, 1986. The Boeing 747, Japan Airlines flight number 1628, flew at an altitude of 36,000 feet on route to Anchorage, Alaska, local time 5:06 pm. Out of nowhere, just a few miles away from the plane, a bright light suddenly flared up. The Japanese captain, his copilot, and the flight engineer assumed it was a military object. But then, in the distance, they saw colorful lights appear, circling around the bright light. When they checked with ground control, they were told nothing had been detected on radar and that their flight path seemed clear.

But the lights grew larger at a frightening pace. The captain asked the control tower in Anchorage for permission to move to a lower altitude. The plane descended 3200 feet, at which point the strange lights disappeared, as if they had been switched off. The crew on the jumbo jet breathed a sigh of relief and requested to climb back to the original altitude, but just then, two lights raced directly toward their plane.

On the jumbo jet's left side, a brown, billowing light appeared, as if a dim lamp had been turned on. For a moment, the captain thought something was on fire. He pressed his forehead against the cockpit window and couldn't believe his eyes: right next to the plane, moving at the same altitude and speed, was a brownish-orange object. Breathless, the pilot described what was going on to the tower in Anchorage. The tower checked the radar and reported that they could detect an enlarged radar echo. Then, something completely mind-boggling happenedthe brown-orange light went out suddenly, as quickly and inexplicably as it had appeared. The three men in the cockpit stared at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. But a moment later, the eerie encounter occurred again, this time on the right side of the plane. At this point, Anchorage radar control also realized that drama was unfolding at 36,000 feet. They reported the incident to the US Air Force and ordered the captain to immediately make the approach to Anchorage...

During the same timeframe as this incident, from mid-October to mid-December 1986, I was on a lecture tour visiting various US universities. I was accompanied by Geraldine, a lovely young lady who had been assigned to me by Bantam Books, my American publisher. She had, in a very professional manner, cleared many obstacles out of my way. One day, after I finished airing a TV show, Geraldine told me that a Japanese airline captain had called the publisher to try to get in touch with me and had requested that I call him back. Geraldine said it sounded as if it was an important matter and, looking at me inquisitively, asked: Are you interested? I nodded, vaguely remembering having read something in a newspaper about an incident involving a Japanese plane.