More on the Failed Return of the Ancient Astronauts

Yesterday I wrote about the 1975 Rod Serling-narrated Alan Landsburg documentary The Outer Space Connection, which predicted the return of the ancient astronauts to earth for last Saturday. Due to holiday travel, I was away from my library so I didn’t have access to Landsburg’s book of the same name, on which the documentary was based. So, to follow up yesterday’s post, here is the relevant passage, the final thought on the last page of Landsburg’s book:

“One item of Mayan folklore ran through my mind. It was noted that somehow every five thousand years a civilization ends and a new one begins. […] Is that why the Mayas carefully measured the beginning and end of each cycle? In fact, they marked the very date when the current cycle will end. The cycle began in 3113 B.C.; it will close in the year 2011 A.D. and the date? December 24. That’s right, Christmas Eve, 2011 A.D. Welcome to the outer space connection?”

Or, as the back cover puts it:

“On December 24, in the year 2011, they will return!”

I suppose in 1975 that seemed far enough away to be plausible (Rod Serling’s Night Gallery of 1970-1973 had plenty of predictions about far-off 1999, after all), but today, this seems as silly as all of the midcentury speculation about the “year 2000.”

Oh, and most important: No aliens. This bit of ancient astronaut lore is 100% wrong, another failed prediction in the near-endless list of ancient astronaut myths, fraud, and lies.