For those of you who are interested in the Fawcett Mystery, which I discussed on Wednesday, I’ve posted a translation of the mysterious Manuscript 512 that I drafted yesterday. Composed in 1754, the text purports to relate the discovery of a massive stone city in the east of Brazil, complete with an arch like that of Constantine, a pointing statue like the Augustus of Prima Porta (though obviously not inspired by it, having been discovered only in 1863) and other heroic images, and massive houses akin to Nero’s Domus Aurea. I faulted author David Grann for omitting much of the detail from the text in describing it in his Lost City of Z (2009), but only after translating the whole text did I realize just how ridiculous the manuscript really is. If you’re interested, Harold Wilkins, a UFO and lost white race theorist, published an English translation of the manuscript in his Mysteries of Ancient South America (1945), but he wasn’t completely familiar with eighteenth century regional Portuguese dialects, so he missed a few details. For example, he translated the word fumines as “smokes” and entered a note expressing confusion over why an abandoned city would have smoke as a “sign” of its civilization. The word, I learned, is a dialect variant of chimines, influenced by fumar (“smoke”), and actually means “chimneys.” The author almost certainly had a European city in mind, much as when Shakespeare mistakenly described ancient Rome as having “chimney-tops” in Julius Caesar. As I learned in the comments below, Mrs. Richard Burton translated the text, unbeknownst to Wilkins (who claimed to be the first), in 1865 and her husband published it in 1869. Anyway, let’s move on to something else. One thing I’ve noted multiple times is how the modern ancient astronaut theory tends to exempt Jesus from being a space alien, unlike all the other gods and heroes of religion and myth. Arthur C. Clarke mentioned the idea in Rendezvous with Rama (1972), where a cult worships Christ as a cosmonaut. But the Catholic Erich von Däniken, for example, told Playboy magazine “I am asked questions by people who say Jesus was an astronaut. That makes me laugh. I’m definitely sure Jesus had nothing to do with astronauts, and I want to say so once and for all.” His version of ancient astronautics, which, as his book Miracles of the Gods showed, made room for Jesus and faith, influenced Ancient Aliens and the semi-spiritual incarnation of the ancient astronaut theory. But this isn’t the only version. As early as the 1950s, the FBI began tracking UFO preachers who claimed that religious figures were really space aliens. For example, George Van Tassel of the Ministry of Universal Wisdom, claimed Yahweh was from Venus, as was Mary. According to a 1960 FBI report, He said that JESUS was born of MARY, who was a space person sent here already pregnant in order to show the earth people the proper way to live. He said the space people have watched over us through the years and have tried to help us. He said they have sent their agents to the earth and they appear just as we do; however, they have the power to know your thoughts just as JESUS did. He said this is their means of communication and many of the space people are mute, but they train a certain number of them to speak earth languages. Now that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t really hit the level of crazy we expect from a really good ancient astronaut theory. That’s why I was so pleased that archaeologist Ken Feder sent me some pages from the May 1977 edition of Official UFO magazine’s Ancient Astronauts special edition, of which I had never heard. I had no idea that there was an ancient astronaut magazine! The cover story that month featured a drawing of Jesus in a NASA space suit and…. well, you’ll be amazed at what the magazine concluded. Unfortunately, I don’t know who wrote the article on Jesus—I’ve asked Feder if he has the article’s cover page and will update this if I get the name—but there are claims in there that are too good not to share. It starts off soberly enough (by ancient astronaut standards) by mining the New Testament for evidence that Jesus was an astronaut. Matthew 28:2-3 the author explains as a human in a white spacesuit descending from a spaceship using a rocket pack: “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.” The angel-astronaut seemed bright because, the author says, he had a search light attached to his helmet. The Resurrection, the author says, was performed on Jesus by astronauts to impress the Hebrews. OK, so far this is just standard ancient astronaut nonsense, albeit applied to Jesus rather than, say, Gilgamesh. But it gets better! In order to set up the climax, I need to introduce two pieces of evidence for consideration. First, former NASA employee Josef F. Blumrich identified the conveyance of God in the Book of Ezekiel as a spacecraft in his 1974 book The Spaceships of Ezekiel, and the resulting design from his “reconstruction” of the spacecraft bore a passing resemblance to the basic design of the Apollo-era Lunar Excursion Modules, known as LEMs. Secondly, in 1968, the Rod Serling-penned Planet of the Apes move proposed that American astronauts, through the magic of physics, could travel through time and end up mixed up in archaeological mysteries, albeit those of the future. With that in mind, let’s proceed to Ancient Astronauts magazine’s conclusions about Jesus: From evidence in the Old Testament we are aware that astronauts came here from a future earth and disguised themselves and their spaceships as a deity. So the Kingdom of God is the kingdom of the spacemen. Since the astronauts’ space vehicle resembles the American LEM and was identified by a NASA engineer, the reader should have no trouble deducing what the Kingdom of God is. It is THE UNITED STATES OF AMERCIA!! Yes! American spaceships landed on earth 4000 years ago! And there you have it! Jesus was American, and America is God’s own Kingdom! It’s almost the perfect synthesis of American fringe history’s obsessions all at the same time. It explains UFOs, glorifies America, and grants a supposedly scientific reason to continue venerating Jesus. It is an Apollo-era cousin to the claim that secret Templar land claims mark America as godly country, and a space age update to the Book of Mormon placing Jesus in America to give divine sanction to Euro-American possession of the land.
I can’t imagine why this claim didn’t take off in the fringe literature. In fact, I can’t see that anyone ever referred to this article again. A missed opportunity indeed!
83 Comments
Graham
8/29/2014 05:23:30 am
I have very vague memories of a 60's comedy series which involved American Astronauts ending up in the Stone Age, which may (And I stress may...) be the origin of such claims.
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Harry
8/29/2014 08:41:43 am
"It's About Time" someone mentioned that show.
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EP
8/29/2014 08:51:37 am
Or at least a human-alien hybrid...
Graham
8/29/2014 08:26:28 pm
What were the years it aired?
Harry
8/30/2014 12:36:35 am
I had to look it up, but "It's About Time" aired for one season in 1966-67 (gives you an idea how old I am that I remember watching it).
EP
9/10/2014 07:56:42 am
How is a guy who thought he was a reincarnation of Jesus related to 1960s comedies, exactly?
Cesar Assis
8/29/2014 05:29:36 am
The first translation of Manuscrip 512 was published by explorer and writer Richard Francis Burton, probably in Explorations of The Highlands of Brazil (1869). I think his wife translated it when they lived in Brazil for some time.
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EP
8/29/2014 06:03:23 am
Cesar, you've been repeating these claims about geological formations. How do they square with the fact that a group of large ancient settlements was found several years ago in the area where Fawcett disappeared?
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Cesar Assis
8/29/2014 07:23:12 am
The earth works of today Xingu Park (where the Fawcetts disappeared in 1925) are known since the arrival of Brazilian explorers, the Villas Boas brothers in the 1940s. Since the 1950s the Brazilian government sent archeologists to study them and concluded that they were not natural formations, but human made.
EP
8/29/2014 07:30:43 am
So let me get this straight. You're accusing a tenured professor of anthropology at a major university of fraud because his findings disagree with a book written by an amateur more than 50 years ago.
spookyparadigm
8/29/2014 08:18:09 am
Villas Boas? In the 1940s?
spookyparadigm
8/29/2014 08:19:44 am
Interesting, had not looked into this case before
EP
8/29/2014 08:22:43 am
Villas-Bôas brothers are the activists. Vilas-Boas is the contactee.
Only Me
8/29/2014 09:23:59 am
Cesar, I followed the link you provided and viewed the photos that were available. Can you explain to me how you know the photos were retouched? Also, have you been to the site or talked with someone who has? If you're going to accuse an archaeologist of manipulating or manufacturing evidence, I hope you realize that is a serious charge that requires serious proof. 8/29/2014 08:06:46 am
Thanks for tat information, Cesar. I wasn't aware of Mrs. Burton's translation in her husband's book, and apparently neither was Wilkins, who claimed he was the first to translate it. I've updated the text accordingly. How interesting that Mrs. Burton got the chimneys right!
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Cesar Assis
8/29/2014 01:59:26 pm
EP
8/29/2014 02:04:19 pm
Could you point out one thing that he "inflates" and provide a better explanation? (Leaving aside the irony of you complaining of anyone inflating anything...) 8/29/2014 06:10:27 am
Interesting remark on the semiotics of the word "smoke" ----
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EP
8/29/2014 06:15:11 am
Your use of words like 'semiotics' and 'archetype'... It reminds me of someone...
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EP
8/29/2014 06:19:47 am
Also, Jesus is obviously Wolverine, everyone knows that:
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Byron DeLear
8/29/2014 06:37:36 am
Hah! Just trying 'to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar' --- and I'm glad EP that some of my words have made a small stake in your neuronal real estate...
EP
8/29/2014 07:06:48 am
Only by association with people you may or may not want to be associated with...
Byron DeLear
8/29/2014 07:36:31 am
Well, just so we're sure (I kinda get ur drift here now, ouch, btw), I get my 'archetypes' mostly from Jung and my 'semiotics' from Chomsky, Eco, and vexillology.
EP
8/29/2014 07:43:29 am
Just out of curiosity, which works of Chomsky have you read?
Byron DeLear
8/29/2014 09:39:38 am
I've followed him pretty closely, have many of his political works in my library, but regarding linguistics, I have Nature and Language, Language and Politics and a I think rare Studies of Semantics... of the poli books, Understanding Power, Profit Over People, and Propaganda and the Public Mind, which I think is a series of transcribed interviews with David Barsamian.
EP
8/29/2014 11:26:46 am
You mean Studies on Semantics in Transformational Grammar? It's not really rare, just expensive if you want to get a new copy.
Dionysus Cassius LONGINUS
9/6/2014 08:51:43 am
G.T had me neo-platonically trapped in ethereal form
Cesar Assis
8/29/2014 06:15:37 am
The lost city of Manuscript 512 was not located in the Amazon, but in the Northeastern state of Bahia, that don’t have anything to do with the Amazon, being thousands of km afar from the place the Fawcetts disappeared.
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EP
8/29/2014 06:23:31 am
But there is like 20 ancient towns in the area where Fawcett was in fact looking, which have only recently been unearthed. I have no idea why he was looking somewhere so far from where Ms 512 told him to look, but people went looking for him where he disappeared. Which is also where the ancient towns were found. The claim about him looking for geological formations is mistaken.
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Cesar Assis
8/29/2014 07:38:09 am
Brian Fawcett, the surviving son, was in Brazil searching for his brother Jack. He flew over the supposed ancient ruins:
EP
8/29/2014 07:41:14 am
Yes, yes. Clearly conclusive evidence that could never be overturned by present-day professional archaeologists. 8/29/2014 08:13:04 am
EP, I'm not sure what you're trying to do here. Fawcett was looking for large stone cities, and his son concluded that he was chasing geological formations. He had no way of knowing there were once (non-stone) medieval-era earthworks in the Amazon (nor would he likely have recognized them had he found them), so the existence by coincidence of such villages doesn't prove that Fawcett went to the area for the right reasons, or was right to believe in prehistoric stone cities.
EP
8/29/2014 08:17:37 am
That is not at all what I'm saying. Whether Fawcett went to the area for the right reasons has nothing to do with whether the findings made in the area recently are genuine, which is what Cesar seems to be questioning. He said above:
EP
8/29/2014 08:26:58 am
Also, it's far from clear that it's a coincidence. Percy Fawcett was likely guided in his search by information from the natives (who appear to be cultural descendents of the Kuhikugu civilization).
Uncle Ron
8/29/2014 09:38:06 am
While reading your translation of Manuscript 512 I was struck by how similar it was to something Lovecraft might have written. I kept waiting for the discovery of a stairway descending into some dark underground labyrinth. : )
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Only Me
8/29/2014 09:51:00 am
That was in one of the parts the worms had eaten :)
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EP
8/29/2014 10:56:06 am
Y'all should look at Gregorio Garcia's The Origin of the Indians of the New World (1607).
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Shane Sullivan
8/29/2014 02:13:39 pm
I thought that too.
Reply
8/29/2014 02:29:35 pm
It is very Lovecraftian, isn't it? I think one of the reasons Lovecraftian fiction was so effective is that it reflected a lot of real life narratives that were more familiar back then than they are today, when accounts of exploration were more widely read.
As Above, So Below
8/29/2014 02:45:16 pm
A recent "Secrets of the Dead" episode on Colonel Fawcett
Only Me
8/29/2014 03:38:38 pm
Actually, Dickey, the Kalapalos tribe were among the last to see Fawcett's party, and assumed they had been killed by local tribes.
As Above, So Below
8/29/2014 07:12:37 pm
"Secrets of the Dead" clearly played up the angle that 8/29/2014 02:27:48 pm
Hiram Bingham in 1911 had read old manuscripts and followed up on folktales.
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Only Me
8/29/2014 03:45:41 pm
Not likely. Manuscript 512 clearly puts the lost city in the interior of Bahia. Fawcett came to believe "Z" was located in Mato Grosso.
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As Above, So Below
8/29/2014 07:21:39 pm
The "Secrets of the Dead" episode talked of he and his wife
Only Me
8/29/2014 07:35:51 pm
In that case, Myth Hunters did a better episode. When Fawcett was forced to stay at home, due to lack of interest and funding, he lamented about his activities during his 24 years of marriage. Between his service in the war and his exploration, he had spent only 10 at home, IIRC. With that much time away, I find it hard to believe they would have a secret code.
Cesar Assis
8/30/2014 12:22:18 pm
Only Me, at some point in the XIX century about twenty tribes of the Upper Xingu River established a peace agreement, now known as pax xinguana. There would be no real war, only ceremonial war. While the Fawcett group was in pax xinguana territory they were relatively safe. When Fawcett was leaving this territory their Indian friends warned that he was entering an area in constant war.
EP
8/30/2014 12:32:15 pm
Cesar, is there any chance of you providing us with an instance of Michael Heckenberger "inflating" his findings? Thanks!
Only Me
8/30/2014 01:03:09 pm
Thanks for the info, Cesar. Yet another reason the "murder angle" doesn't hold true for me. Death from hostile natives, possibly; death from someone wanting his stuff, not so much. Especially when you consider Fawcett made it a point to bring gifts during his explorations.
EP
8/29/2014 05:00:56 pm
Jason, I think I know why you "can’t see that anyone ever referred to this article again." It probably has to do with the fact that Official UFO was published by Myrion Fass:
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EP
8/29/2014 05:04:50 pm
It is really worth the trouble to read all the covers. Myron Fass was fucking awesome! :)
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Clint Knapp
8/29/2014 06:20:53 pm
Ed Koch reveals alien nest under the Empire State Building?! Way more believable than anything AA's peddling these days. Nice artwork all around, though. For a late-seventies UFO spoof rag, anyway.
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EP
8/29/2014 06:47:53 pm
I think their big sensational story was the running gag that aliens destroyed Chester, IL. Some geniuses are still discussing it:
Only Me
8/29/2014 07:24:47 pm
Dear God, I can't stop laughing!
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EP
8/29/2014 07:33:54 pm
They also features stories about their editorial staff's adventures (kidnappings, being imprisoned in a mental hospital, going into vision-inducing coma, having alien glyphs appear on their skin, etc.)
Only Me
8/29/2014 07:42:54 pm
Nah, hands down, it has to be "Space Gods Are Impregnating Earth Women! They Have Fatherless Births!"...as opposed to explosive births from space goddesses being impregnated by earth men :)
EP
8/29/2014 07:47:22 pm
Countrywide Publications gave *negative* fucks!
666
8/29/2014 11:23:25 pm
I've been in touch with Jesus and he told me it's all true
EP
8/30/2014 03:37:50 am
Show us on the doll where Jesus touched you, 666.
Only Me
8/30/2014 12:09:06 pm
@EP
EP
8/30/2014 12:14:54 pm
I believe in Myron Fass! And that polyester fabrics are driving us insane! Countrywide 4 Lyfe! Free Editor-in-Chief Jeff Goodman!
Only Me
8/30/2014 01:05:41 pm
But, EP! Do you...Bo-lieve?!
EP
8/30/2014 01:13:45 pm
No, but I am a Belieber!
spookyparadigm
8/30/2014 06:19:21 am
Some of the covers are hilarious. But generally, what a huge creep. His father honestly worked in the sewers. He apparently decided to replicate that experience in his publishing work.
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EP
8/30/2014 07:31:16 am
Yeah, "Cheerleaders Who Are Wet for Rape!" is kinda going too far. 8/30/2014 09:48:14 am
I assumed it was tabloid level garbage, not an academic treatise! But in tabloid claims, and even satire, underlying subtext is often made into text and tells us something about the people who consume these claims.
EP
8/30/2014 09:58:02 am
I was kidding, just so we're clear :)
terry the censor
8/30/2014 09:34:21 am
I have 21 issues of Official UFO (10 of them are the Ancient Astronauts specials). Owing to their rotten reputation, I have not read them, just looked at the table of contents for articles of interest.
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EP
8/30/2014 09:53:31 am
Terry, could you please list some issues that you think are more serious? Because I have not been able to find a single one that's different in kind from the "Pornstar Having Bigfoot's Love Child!" fare we've been discussing...
terry the censor
8/30/2014 11:27:48 am
> Terry, could you please list some issues that you think are more serious?
EP
8/30/2014 11:49:52 am
Thanks a lot, Terry! This is awesome!
terry the censor
8/30/2014 03:56:25 pm
> One of their issues advertises an interview with von Daniken
terry the censor
8/30/2014 07:07:38 am
> Unfortunately, I don’t know who wrote the article on Jesus
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EP
8/30/2014 08:06:52 am
This is indeed a real person, though I can't find the 1977 pamphlet "Was God a future American spaceship?", so I can't check whether it's the same text as the article in Official UFO.
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EP
8/30/2014 08:41:06 am
Ronald Pokatiloff also writes creepy erotic fiction under the pen name Richard Polk:
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terry the censor
8/30/2014 07:12:47 am
> "It's About Time" aired for one season in 1966-67
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BillUSA
8/30/2014 10:16:43 am
Don't give them any ideas Jason.
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terry the censor
8/30/2014 11:59:51 am
> A sulphuric atmosphere that would easily crush an unprotected human into a puddle of goo would take some explaining.
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EP
8/30/2014 12:11:43 pm
I'm surprised Aetherius Society is still around. Do you have any idea whether Mark-Age is still ticking as well?
terry the censor
8/30/2014 03:46:49 pm
@EP
EP
8/30/2014 03:50:21 pm
They are channeling that stewardess who starved to death waiting for the alien apocalypse or something.
merushka
10/11/2014 07:10:49 am
I'm going to give it to you straight up. Jesus is not an astronaut he was an ordinary angel who was given a position in heaven like a commander trainer of the angels he was very beautiful he became obsessed to the point that he wanted to be God he is Not the son of God an angel he transgressed and blasphemed against the holy spirit the laws of heaven he was exiled kicked out of heaven never to return he was kicked out onto the spirit world within the earth his real name is michael he is a fallen angel he created diff religions to infest himself into the lives of many he is very calculating he is referred to as the morning star revelations he could not have been carried by anyone angels cannot be reincarnated only gods and if u were a god u would not be able to be carried by a female etc woman Gods don't have mothers and fathers they are creators he refers to himself to the prodigal son in the bible he thinks he can't trick his way back into heaven not doable the new world order has been existence for the past 3 thousand years not recently there has been numerous anti christs fallen angels can inhibit humans easily mary was another fallen angel her full name is mary magdelene she instigated him in heaven but they are a lot alike both twisted he wants to stop judgment day he has a sick notion that by stopping judgment day he can build an army overthrow heaven give the fallen redemption an be as god his a sick puppy you do not have to believe me read between the lines he was crucified he is the very devil himself there are no such things as ufo etc all created by him an his kind with the illuminati even john todd himself stated that jesus is in fact the devil they worship anyone that exalts himself above God is an imposter the holy spirit is God there is no trinity if you look at the star of bethlehem an split it into it makes two triangles the eye of horus demon God they are not gods but in their minds they are goodluck with finding the truth the bible wasn't written by god god will speak through ones spirit only the ten commandments are truthful everything else a distorted lie he is worshipped in all religions I was stunned when I discovered the truth but not surprised an no one has been to heaven the only way one can go up is when your dead the pure in heart goes to a spirit plane called the new earth this earth when judgment comes will not be restored too much evil one cannot build something pure and new upon destruction hell doesn't exist yet the lost who died are awaiting their judgment like the fallen angels its like cells underground in a spirit place very evil the earth will become a lake of fire why do you think the floods earthquakes volcanoes the earth is preparing itself to make place for its judgment which will take place soon those who pray pray directly to God whom is the true an only I am God bless
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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