Erich von Däniken, April 14th 1935 – January 10th 2026.
Pseudo-scientist and bestselling author Erich von Däniken has died at the age of 90. From the 1960s onward, he propagated the far-fetched theory that extraterrestrial beings had visited Earth in prehistoric times and had given the human race a helping hand in its evolutionary development.
The Swiss writer had worked as a cook, waiter, and hotelier and had absolutely no training in archaeology when he first put his wild claims to paper in the book Chariots of the Gods? Released at the beginning of the space age, it became an international bestseller, with millions of copies sold worldwide.
In countless myths around the world, von Däniken saw evidence for his theses. Wasn’t the biblical story in which the prophet Ezekiel was taken away by a mysterious wheel actually a description of a flying saucer? Wasn’t the Ark through which Moses could speak to God a kind of long-distance transmitter? And doesn’t the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah look very much like an atomic explosion?
“I discovered that all cultures have similar stories: machines coming down from the sky amid great fire, gods who fly around,” he once said in an interview with de Volkskrant. Von Däniken saw himself as the genius who was the first to connect all these global clues.
Rock drawing of an astronaut
In fact, all ancient religions could ultimately be traced back to encounters with aliens, von Däniken believed. He cited cargo cults in the Pacific as an example: “Primitive peoples trying to record an encounter with a technologically advanced culture. Just as after World War II, islanders in Polynesia built airplanes and control towers out of wood and reeds because a Western aircraft had once landed there.”
The cover of his book featured a rock drawing of a man with a headdress resembling the visor of an astronaut’s helmet. Millions of readers scratched their heads over it.
Von Däniken also derived further “evidence” from the impressive structures left behind by Stone Age inhabitants of the Earth. The pyramids, Stonehenge, the statues of Easter Island—how could all this have been built without modern technology? Surely an extraterrestrial hand must have been involved.
Link to Dutch article: https://nos.nl/artikel/2597768-erich-von-daniken-overleden-pseudowetenschapper-die-overal-eeuwenoude-aliens-zag
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RIP von Däniken.
He was an inspirator of the work of the spanish journalist JJ Benítez:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Ben%C3%ADtez
When I was in my teens I bought his first book and devoured it (figuratively speaking). His followers were prone to create a kind of cult, with Erich as their saviour. Why? Because he gave explanations of a lot of stuff most people don’t grasp. Aforementioned teen included.
Then, later in life, one gets to understand how easy it is to convince the gullible of crazy (conspiracy) theories. Mind you, “in my teens” means approximately 60 years ago. How disappointing it is to experience the ease with which conmen are still able to convince the gullible.
But for Erich… it paid the bills, didn’t it…
Don’t underestimate people from the past. Unfortunately or fortunately, many things can be explained from a scientific point of view, including the construction of the pyramids. The restoration of Stonehenge did not take that long.