Erich von Däniken Promotes New Swiss-Based Ancient Astronaut Research Group

​By now, most of you have probably heard about the recent paper published in Science identifying a circular depression under the Greenland ice sheet as a crater, likely from a cosmic impact. It was the subject of a lengthy profile on the Science website. Supporters of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis have seized upon this as evidence of the impact of a comet at the start of the Younger Dryas and the impetus for the massive climate change seen at that time. Critics note that the crater has not been securely dated and cannot be definitively tied to the Younger Dryas. They also suggest that it is too small to have been the remains of a climate-changing impact, to which supporters counter that it may be one of many craters from a multi-impact event. No other craters of the right age have been associated with the event.

​For what it’s worth, I think it behooves us to remember that the existence or non-existence of the comet and its role or non-role in created the climate change of the Younger Dryas has absolutely nothing to say about the existence of a lost, Atlantis-like civilization at the end of the last Ice Age. If the comet could leave traces of itself in the earth, so, too, should this lost civilization. Even the Denisovans left a couple of bones in a cave. A civilization worthy of the moniker of Atlantis should have some material remains from the right time period, some pollen from their cultivated crops, some bones from their burials—anything, really. Even a comet couldn’t destroy every last trace. After all, Paleolithic artifacts survived the supposed holocaust.

Meanwhile, Erich von Däniken recently appeared in a new YouTube video to promote a relatively new and awkwardly named research organization, Research of Ancient Mysteries and Anomalies for Reevaluation, which goes by the initialism RAMAR. The organization has been operating for a few years now, but has failed to attract much attention until von Däniken began to promote it on behalf of the three Swiss acolytes of his who run it. RAMAR’s website has very little content, and what it has seems to be translated by machine. (The site apologizes for “bad translations.”) For what it is worth, here is how RAMAR describes itself:

For a conscious humanity Ramar is an interactive platform for mankind and its future generations. Cross science concerned people find here more mysterious facts and questions that can not be conclusively answered by officials. The mysteries of the world and of our “universe” are shown here. Everyone should make his own image and question existing opinions of today’s world view. As complementary medicine also interdisciplinary research is the only solution for a healthy understanding of our history and the knowledge for our further path. Philosophically and factual. Our goal is to provide an informative basis in order to promote the extension of our existing non-dogmatic science. Anyone who understands the history, recognizes himself in it …. That something may be wrong, because it should not be, is not a satisfying answer more. We break old patterns of thinking and lead to new horizons. Always strive for scientific knowledge, scientific to provide the closest answer to the discussion. To draw arguments into consideration that the “scientists” withhold on their own. So a new definition of arguments must now be taken into account – for a united “Terrestrialship”. Only after we are capable to control this kindergarten on mother Gaia, we will be ready for a “contact” with our star brothers …   

​For a man with the wealth and resources of Erich von Däniken—who speaks English, mind you, albeit as a second or third tongue—you’d think that he’d put a little more into helping his supposed “friends” to develop content that might stand a chance of reaching an English-speaking audience effectively.
 
In the video introduction to RAMAR released this month, we see the same combination of grandiosity and incompetence. The video presents what it calls (in their capitalization) “Facts about the worldwide Mysteries,” apparently scripted by someone for whom English is not his first language. Around the 1:30 mark, we are introduced to the three brains behind RAMAR, and their heavy Swiss accents, eccentric style, and intense delivery shows the heavy influence of Giorgio Tsoukalos, on whom they seem to be modeling their presentation—to poor effect. They are imperfect copies, each oddly incomplete in his own way. And what could be a more perfect encapsulation of the threadbare quality of RAMAR’s mission than See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil accusing science of arrogant dogmatism before declaring (in unison!) their video to be “the real X-Files”?
 
“Let’s discover the mysterious facts,” they chant in creepy unison, and like everything else about the video—from the colors to the font choices to the unnecessary justification of the on-screen text, it’s just a little bit off from how professionals would have done it. Frankly, they should have just filmed the video in the original Klingon.
 
After this, von Däniken takes over, identified on screen, ungrammatically, as “Mysteries Bestselling Author.” He repeats a number of silly lies from Ancient Aliens, including the false claim that “every” pyramid at Teotihuacan is perfectly proportioned to represent one of the planets in the solar system, including former planet Pluto. (There are many more than nine pyramids, for one thing.) He talks about Palenque’s supposed “rocket man” engraving, and he speaks of the Nazca “airport,” which he says you “never see” on television—a bizarre claim considering he is a consulting producer on Ancient Aliens, which literally broadcasted these same claims in an episode in which he appeared. 
 
“In RAMAR, the fact is connected with other facts around the world,” von Däniken enthuses. “These three Swiss guys have created RAMAR for the younger generation, not those who still read books. We know the younger generation goes into the internet.” Through its series of tubes, of course.
 
Von Däniken, who used to shill for Tsoukalos’s apparently defunct AAS-RA (a.k.a. Ancient Astronaut Society, a.k.a. Ancient Alien Society), now says that everyone should join RAMAR. “You will be surprised!” he said.