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Review of Ancient Aliens S07E11 "Alien Resurrections"

12/5/2014

55 Comments

 
Back in season three, Ancient Aliens devoted an hour to “Aliens and the Undead” (S03E14), which covered zombies, vampires, and so on. Just last week, they gave a good portion of “Secrets of the Mummies” (S07E10) to the idea that the ancient people believed in the resurrection of the flesh. The producers, however, seem to think that their viewers don’t remember any of this and repackage some of the same material as S07E11 “Alien Resurrections,” right down to the claims about entering quantum heaven after death with immortal angel-aliens.
Segment 1
We open in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1991 to review singer-songwriter Pam Reynolds’s aneurysm. Doctors cooled her body and stopped her circulation and brain activity before bringing her back to life. Reynolds then reported having a near death experience where she met angels and her relatives. The narrator wonders whether this proves that the “immortal soul” exists independently of the body. Research by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff is used to suggest that consciousness is a quantum state that exists independent of body itself. Physicists reject this idea, and there is no evidence in favor of the suggestion. But no matter—Jonathan Young of the Joseph Campbell Archives notes that near death experiences are similar across cultures. Rather than following the ideas of David Lewis-Williams that these experiences arise from the similar architecture of the human brain operating in altered states of consciousness, the show instead suggests that near death experiences are the same as the tractor beams that haul abductees aboard UFOs. According to William Henry, UFOs and heaven are the same thing, and accessible through our brains.

So we go to Israel around the ninth century BCE to talk about the prophet Elijah who in 1 Kings 17:21-22 brings back a dead boy by praying and laying atop him three times:
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
Henry tells us that dying and rising gods like Quetzalcoatl and Krishna represent efforts to teach humans how to cross into the UFO-Heaven realm of light. 

Segment 2
This segment opens with a science experiment to test the resurrection potential of microscopic creatures called tardigrades that become completely dehydrated and inert in extreme conditions and can be revived with water. The show likens this to the mummification process for dead human bodies and goes back to the well from last week’s episode about the resurrection of mummified corpses. We review the Egyptian afterlife for the second time in two weeks, and most of this material is very similar to the “Aliens and the Undead” treatment of the same topic back in season three. William Henry falsely claims that the god Ptah was an alien from Sirius who taught the “technology” of resurrection. Sirius was the star of Isis, not Ptah.

Oddly, in this version of the resurrection claim, the show reverses course on the earlier episodes and instead argues that resurrection is spiritual rather than physical, and that the soul instead is a piece of “technology” (in Henry’s words) that is beamed into the sky after death. Ah, but the narrator seems to have anticipated my objection! He briefly notes that “ancient astronaut theorists” also believe that the Egyptians anticipated a bodily resurrection. Thus are the opposites reconciled simply by declaring two contradictory ideas true. If your soul is off on Sirius with Ptah, how can it also be reanimating your desiccated corpse? Does it come back, like the Christian and Islamic souls that will return to the flesh at the Last Judgment but otherwise pass the time in heaven?

Segment 3
For some reason we are discussing efforts to Christianize the Congo in the late 1400s and early 1500s. The Congolese apparently believed at the time that humans have two souls, one which bequeaths personality and the other that animates the flesh. Missionaries report (almost certainly exaggerated) stories that the Congolese “witch doctors”* (the show’s term) use the lesser soul to create zombies from the newly dead. The narrator suggests that the existence of zombies proves that the “witch doctors” and Egyptians are right that the soul exists and has two parts which can be manipulated through powers given to Africans by the sky gods, called orishas, who are aliens. Giorgio Tsoukalos takes the tall headdresses and hairstyles of African art as evidence of “elongated skulls” among the aliens. William Henry tells us that the myth of zombies originate with aliens. Having Erich von Däniken on to talk about Africans mistaking alien doctors for divine supermen is uncomfortable since von Däniken is on record in Signs of the Gods as asking racist questions about Africans: “Was the black race a failure and did the extraterrestrials change the genetic code by gene surgery and then programme a white or a yellow race?” 

(* Note: I originally indicated that witch doctor is a pejorative, but as the comments below show, the term is still used as a technical descriptor of certain types of medicine men, distinct from its pejorative connotation when used to describe quacks.)

Segment 4
This segment takes the opposite tack from the last. We looked at the resurrection of the body without the soul (though without even making an effort at proof), so this time we’re going to look at reincarnation as the resurrection of the soul without the body. David Wilcock believes that reincarnated people have birth marks that graphically depict their death in their previous lives. No examples are given. But if the Hindus are right, as the show suggests, each person would have died hundreds of times and should be completely covered in birthmarks. How does the soul decide which deaths to commemorate with scarring? The show discusses various world reincarnation beliefs and then suggests that there are quasi-magical spirit beings who are also aliens and, something like the resurrection technology from To Your Scattered Bodies Go, have mastered reincarnation to the point that they simply ignore death as they hop from one body to the next, functionally immortal. Would this not also make them functionally gods and therefore make the alien part of the equation functionally irrelevant?  And why do they come to the earth to spend all their time training us (badly) to follow in their footsteps? I guess that is the kind of logic only an immortal alien god understands.

Segment 5
Oh! We’re going to get a little controversial now. In this segment, the show finally brings Jesus into the ancient alien fold. The ufologist Christian preacher Barry H. Downing (from Syracuse, NY, near my hometown, no less) suggests that Jesus’ vision of Moses and Elijah in Matthew 17:3 was a UFO encounter. The Resurrection is now declared to be an extraterrestrial event on the strength of the glowing angel from Matthew 28:3. They don’t quite go far enough to say Jesus was himself an alien, only that his resurrection was attended by aliens. All of these claims are lifted, sometimes nearly verbatim, from a 1977 ancient astronaut article I wrote about back in August, right around the time they would have planned and shot this segment. After this, the show recognizes that the Catholic Eucharist asserts that the bread and wine literally become the flesh and blood of Jesus, and in a kind of icky way suggests that Jesus is “resurrected” at the Eucharist, either physically or metaphysically. The various pundits offer thoughtless reflections on the Eucharist that are fairly close to actual Catholic dogma about entering into spiritual communion with Jesus and becoming of one body with him through the Eucharist, only they want to swap out the divine for a metaphysical and/or quantum alien cannibalism that, like the belief of cannibals everywhere, allows us to absorb the power of the victim.

But: Jesus is an alien! An alien who can possess bread. Since ancient astronaut theorists do not believe in just one alien the way Catholics consider Jesus unique, does this mean that every food has aliens possessing it? What does that mean for the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Is my dinner safe?

Segment 6
Here the show goes all Jurassic Park and repeats material from last week about whether mummies can have their DNA restored so the bodies and souls can be brought back to life. (Souls, of course, are drawn to DNA matches like magnets—or something like that.) The show takes this a step further and claims that the Last Judgment is a technological achievement through which all bodies are resurrected in a shocking genetic engineering and/or cloning event that somehow also involves movement into and out of a spiritual dimension populated by aliens, who are not actual flesh and blood creatures but rather immaterial floating souls. This shit doesn’t make any sense, but it has a vaguely spiritual message that points toward a New Age purpose behind the ancient astronaut theory, and which motivates it.

Seriously, though: Aliens (a) are immortal, (b) are immaterial, (c) control our souls, and (d) nevertheless are forced to inhabit bread at our command. This was one wacky episode that managed to have something to insult skeptics and Christians alike!

55 Comments
EP
12/5/2014 02:59:07 pm

Jason, I think you're being unfair to AA (though, given their and von Daniken's records, I can't really blame you). You ask:

"why is the show using the offensive term “witch doctor” instead of the more proper term “shaman”? Do they want to perpetuate colonialist and racist views of Africans?"

Since when is the term "witch doctor" offensive? Also, I'm pretty sure that it doesn't quite mean the same thing as "shaman". (I suppose it could be offensive to mislabel shamans as witch doctors, and vice versa, but I don't think that's what you're saying...)

Reply
Jeremy J Leveque
12/5/2014 06:35:12 pm

It's a specifically colonialist term, meant to portray African religions as devil-worship and sorcery. Therefore, evil and uncivilized. It's pretty racist.

Reply
EP
12/6/2014 02:16:01 am

That is false. "Witch doctor" is a technical term that is still widely used by anthropologists and other scholars to refer to practitioners of various traditions all over the world. Ditto for "shaman". You may argue that it's racist to mischaracterize a shaman as a witch doctor (or vice versa), but that's not to say that the term itself is racist.

Also, what makes a term "specifically colonialist", exactly? That it was used to refer to certain practices of colonized people? Because that alone certainly wouldn't make it racist...

EP
12/6/2014 02:16:11 am

That is false. "Witch doctor" is a technical term that is still widely used by anthropologists and other scholars to refer to practitioners of various traditions all over the world. Ditto for "shaman". You may argue that it's racist to mischaracterize a shaman as a witch doctor (or vice versa), but that's not to say that the term itself is racist.

Also, what makes a term "specifically colonialist", exactly? That it was used to refer to certain practices of colonized people? Because that alone certainly wouldn't make it racist...

EP
12/6/2014 02:25:41 am

Sorry about the double post...

By the way, you sound like you think that the term "witch doctor" means something like "doctor who is a witch". It does not. It means something more like "doctor who defends from witchcraft".

spookyparadigm
12/6/2014 10:03:22 am

" "Witch doctor" is a technical term that is still widely used by anthropologists"

Could you cite some please? I'd be curious to see some examples.

spookyparadigm
12/6/2014 10:04:38 am

I see your post below. First time I've ever seen anyone use that term in academic writing since WWII.

EP
12/6/2014 10:17:20 am

Other than the names already mentioned, Michael J. Winkelman (do you know him, by any chance?). Winkelman not only uses it (though with caveats about terminological confusion), Irwin Press, from whom Winkelman gets the term "the witch-doctor's legacy", etc., etc.

Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology uses it occasionally and quotes Evans-Pritchard's use of it without any qualms.

What I would like to see is an instance of someone claiming that the term itself (as opposed to its misuse) is offensive...

EP
12/6/2014 10:20:27 am

Also, Michael Gelfand literally wrote a book under the title "Witch Doctor". Not the most recent bit of work, but definitely way after WWII.

spookyparadigm
12/6/2014 11:30:27 am

Given how much even the term shamanism has to be qualified unless one is talking about Siberia, I am honestly surprised by the even vaguely recent use of witch doctor in a non critical fashion (though not the Ember and Ember use so much).

EP
12/6/2014 11:36:38 am

Could you give some examples of where it is qualified? I'm especially interested in cases that aren't just concern about misapplication.

spookyparadigm
12/6/2014 12:13:50 pm

I've seen a number that raise the objections of

The Role of Shamanism in Mesoamerican Art: A Reassessment

Cecelia F.Klein, Eulogio Guzman, Elis aC.Mandell, and Maya Stanfield Mazzi

Abstract:Increasing numbers of scholars are relying on the concept of shamanism to interpret preColumbian artworks without examining its origins and questioning its viability. This essay explores the historical roots of this fields romance with the shaman and offers an explanation of its appeal. We argue that by avoiding such terms as priest, doctor, and political leader, the words shaman and shamanism have helped scholars to other preColumbian peoples by portraying them as steeped in magic and the spiritual. We begin with a look at when, where, and why this reductive representation emerged in preColumbian art studies, suggesting that it originated as an idealist aversion to materialist explanations of human behavior. We then examine the sources and validity of the principal criteria used by PreColumbianists to identify shamanism in works of art and look at some possible reasons for shamanisms popularity among them. We conclude that there is a pressing need to create a more refined, more nuanced terminology that would distinguish, crossculturally, among the many different kinds of roles currently lumped together under the vague and homogenizing rubric of shaman.

2002, Current Anthropology 43(3)

The take at this link

http://books.google.com/books?id=U1ppAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=shamanism+mesoamerica+siberia&source=bl&ots=oBa69I_CkO&sig=AiO79uBdh4epNklUlQCEgK480uo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=o6iDVLXTEsyTyAT6oYH4CA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=shamanism%20mesoamerica%20siberia&f=false

by Staller and Stross is about where I'd sit. The term works for Mesoamerica and more broadly for the Americas, and given the admittedly deep historical tie, this makes sense. But applying the Siberian and somewhat more broadly American use of the term to all sorts of ancient or modern religious participants is problematic and to echo Klein et al up there seems to be a romanticism (especially in the context of outsiders seeking entheogen-fueled alternative spiritualities).

spookyparadigm
12/6/2014 12:20:01 pm

More qualification of the same sort here

http://books.google.com/books?id=pF1OuI9U3kIC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=shamanism+mesoamerica+siberia&source=bl&ots=hZrMaHRjDR&sig=qVSiC_UtDa7pU_MJHfB3JWX0a1E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3qmDVJ7qKsSeyASLtYLABQ&ved=0CFUQ6AEwDzgK#v=onepage&q=shamanism%20mesoamerica%20siberia&f=false

In the Maya context I'm most familiar with, modern or colonial practitioners might have several names in the literature such as daykeeper or <i>hmen</i> or <i>itsat</i> and qualified use of a number of terms for prehispanic individuals or practices (priest, which is also a problematic term) if there was not a direct name from glyphs or similar sources. Shamanism can be discussed by that name in some works, but I would find the use of it just off the cuff and not qualified, unusual.

EP
12/6/2014 12:38:06 pm

I agree completely. Used as off-the-cuff catchalls, these terms are bound to lead to inaccuracies, downright incongruities, and even give offense. Like using "Kabbalah" in the sense of something like "black magic". But that doesn't make these terms intrinsically offensive, any more than "Kabbalah" is intrinsically offensive.

Moreover, while "shaman" is complicated for all kinds of reasons (having to do largely with "altered consciousness" issues), a witch doctor is just, like, an anti-witchcraft care provider :)

EP
12/6/2014 06:32:21 am

In case anyone thinks I don't know what I'm talking about:

"These healers have come to be known as “witch doctors,” a term that is often misunderstood both in Africa and in the wider world. Witch doctors are not witches themselves. That is, they are not evil people who want to harm their neighbors. They are respected members of society whose function is not to harm but to heal. A witch doctor helps those who believe they have been bewitched." (Aloysius M. Lugira, African Traditional Religion, 3rd ed., 2009)

Lugira, incidentally, is an African Studies scholar who has authored works specifically on which religious terms are misapplied and/or offensive to Africans, and why. I think this should put to rest any worries about the term being intrinsically offensive, whatever its provenance.

Jeremy, you wouldn't claim that Lugira is "evil and uncivilized", would you? :)

Reply
Jason Colavito link
12/6/2014 07:02:13 am

That's interesting since in "Death and After-life Rituals" (2011) Canisius Mwandayi says that the term witch doctor is offensive and Richard J. Gehman in "African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective" (1989) says that the term has "negative connotations," is pejorative, and is not favored for most uses. It seems there are two very different views on the term "witch doctor." I've always heard it used in the pejorative, associated with colonialist narratives about primitive savagery.

EP
12/6/2014 07:17:32 am

It is often used in a manner that is bound to be offensive. In the same way in which it is offensive to use "Talmudism" to mean "obscurantism", for example. OED lists a slang use that is offensive in this way. However, the primary meaning is neutral. Indeed, it is a term used to describe someone who does good work, as opposed to working evil magic.

Mwandayi doesn't quite say that the term itself is offensive. He says that applying it to traditional doctors whose practice involves things other than anti-witchcraft remedies is offensive (though even here he speaks of it being a "grey area"). Kinda like calling female doctors "nurses". And Gehman says more or less the same thing (albeit more confusedly, in my opinion).

This is completely in agreement with what I've been saying all along. Moreover, if AA used it to describe, say, priests or wise men, it would be offensive and simply inaccurate (but not because the TERM is offensive!).

Moreover, this is not a term applicable only to Africans. It is subject to terminological confusion, which, however, does not make it intrinsically offensive either. Consider:

"Differences of opinion do not only arise on questions of detail, but even on the basic principles themselves. Such is the case for example with the very concepts shaman and shamanism. What is a shaman? What distinguishes him from the ordinary witch-doctor or nature healer?" (Otto Rank, "Shamanism as a Research Subject", 2014)

PaulN. link
12/6/2014 09:10:57 am

Another problem with the term "Witch Doctor" is the way it has been portrayed in popular media. In movies and comic books (particularly during the 1930's&40's), they were often portrayed as over blown and over dramatized hucksters or boogeymen preying on the simple and naive peoples of their tribes. This would then be contrasted to the wise and civilized missionary, medical doctor, or white explorer (this could include one or more types depending on the script)who was better educated and not intimidated superstitions of any kind.
Oh! the old time movies and serials can be a real hoot sometimes. But don't forget we have our modern versions as well (think Jedi Masters), so don't be too complacent.

EP
12/6/2014 09:27:45 am

PaulN, you are confusing two things: the term itself being offensive (because it's pejorative) and offensive portrayal of the people .

It's like the term "communist". Hollywood portrayals of communists have have been overwhelmingly negative. But surely you don't think that the term "communist" is itself offensive! (This is actually quite analogous to "witch doctor" for another reason. People often misuse "communist" almost as if it was a slur. But that doesn't make the term offensive either.)

Bottom line, present-day anthropologists and scholars in other related fields (including African Studies), have no problem with this term as long as it is not used to misdescribe people. So everyone who thinks it's offensive needs to consider whether they are the ones misapplying it.

EP
12/6/2014 09:28:48 am

Sorry, first sentence of the above post should read:

"PaulN, you are confusing two things: the term itself being offensive (because it's pejorative) and offensive portrayal of the people to whom that term refers."

PaulN. link
12/6/2014 05:19:12 pm

@EP
No, I am not confusing the two. I am merely speaking of the difference between a serious professional (anthropologist foe example) view and the more common, popular media example (think Johnny Weismuller Tarzan).
Growing up in the 50's & 60's, that was the form I was usually exposed to on T.V. Of course it's nonsense, but most people were not that well informed at that time, or they just considered it as Hollywood entertainment. Even today many people would not know the difference, let alone know where term even derives from.

EP
12/6/2014 05:27:48 pm

I don't get it. You said nothing about "serious professional view" in your original comment. Besides, none of this changes the fact that the term itself is not offensive, contrary to what Jason said.

PaulN. link
12/7/2014 04:26:40 pm

@EP
I'm sorry if I confused you, but in my original post I was not referring to "serious professional" usage of the term Witchdoctor. The academic world and the world of popular media (comic books, movies, television) are as different in form as apples are to oranges. Where the academic relies on factual information and studies of his subject, popular media needs no such thing and grinds out its fantasies willy-nilly. The problem comes in that the average individual may not be discerning enough to know the difference. Popular media depends on sensationalizing things in order to sell it's products. A proper portrayal of a witchdoctor in a real context maybe fascinating to a anthropologist, but to most people, it's that social studies class you had to take in high school.

EP
12/7/2014 04:31:47 pm

Would your reasoning apply in equal measure to communists? And where would it leave the term "communist"?

PaulN. link
12/8/2014 09:25:24 am

@ EP
I honestly had to ponder that one for a bit. However the answer would be no. Whereas the term "Witchdoctor" has a fringe cultural connotation for most people; the term "Communist" does not. The term "Communist" has a political as well as a military threat behind it. Growing up in the 50's & 60's the "Cold War" was more than just a name. especially with the imminent threat of thermonuclear annihilation. The media at that time were heavily filled with government propaganda (both fact and fiction) on both sides. The Iron and Bamboo Curtains were real metaphors that restricted the flow of information and ideas. Richard Nixon's attempts at detente in 1973-74 were the first attempt to seriously ease these tensions.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and other failures elsewhere, the term Communism has lost it's edge and no longer commands the fear and respect it once engendered. Now it is pretty much relegated to the pipe dreams of radical Economics and Political Science professors who believe it could still work if done right.
So, no, not the same due to different orders of magnitude.

EP
12/8/2014 09:43:14 am

What you're suggesting sounds kinda ad hoc, I'm afraid. Also, plenty of people associate a "fringe" meaning with 'communist' as well. Some of them even put up anti-Obama billboards. :)

PaulN. link
12/8/2014 02:37:37 pm

It may seem ad hoc to you, but that's more than likely due to the passage of time. If you had lived during that period you might understand (think of trying to explain current events to somebody who was born 10 years after the events occurred).
As for fringe, that means out on the periphery of things. And as far as communists and some of their theories, yeah, they are as far out there as you can get and still be in Earth orbit.

EP
12/9/2014 09:00:33 am

No, I meant your reasoning sounds ad hoc... In any case, it's not a big deal. We don't need to bicker about it.

Uncle Ron
12/6/2014 02:35:10 pm

To quote the famous anthropologist David Seville, "Ooo eee ooo-ah-ah, ting tang, walla-walla-bing-bang".

Reply
PaulN. link
12/5/2014 03:23:55 pm

The second half of the first paragraph appears to have a redundancy. It makes the rest of the paragraph confusing.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
12/5/2014 10:36:36 pm

Part of one sentence got pasted in twice. I've fixed it.

Reply
Only Me
12/5/2014 04:06:59 pm

They finally crossed the threshold, jumped the shark, etc. It must have been decided that after seven years of this garbage, it was safe to do so.

And just when you thought it was safe to visit the bakery! Alien-possessed carbohydrates! Makes me wonder what this holds for the great Oreo cookie conspiracy.

Reply
Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 03:59:13 am

Stay way from Devil's Food!

Reply
Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 04:21:38 am

Sorry, stay *away* from Devil's Food.

spookyparadigm
12/5/2014 05:36:06 pm

So, John Lear.

Reply
EP
12/7/2014 04:25:02 am

What about him? :)

Reply
DTG
12/5/2014 06:31:57 pm

"Aliens (a) are immortal, (b) are immaterial, (c) control our souls, and (d) nevertheless are forced to inhabit bread at our command."

So, how do David Icke's reptillian masters fit into this? Can we win our freedom by forcing them to inhabit bread at our leisure?

Reply
Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 04:19:44 am

Rats. When I read the title, I was hoping to see Winona Rider and Sigourney Weaver battling space monsters.

On a separate note, I've always found it entertaining the way that ancient astronaut theorists and other New Age proponents often talk of specifically-Hindu conceptions of reincarnation so favorably. In those and other Indian traditions, the cycle of death and rebirth is a painful thing from which to be liberated, not a free ticket to wondrous immortality.

Reply
Jean Stone
12/6/2014 08:02:32 am

Yes, but even the most basic level of research beyond 'here's a concept I read about third-hand' seems beyond them most of the time so no surprise there. Of course, if your starting point is that any given figure is an alien, or any given tradition was inspired by aliens, research would spoil the party.

As far as the wider implications of the alien/food link go, clearly it all points to manna being the essence of alien-ness so we must find the Ark of the Covenant that will allow us to create it and commune with our alien overlords. That sounds like it could be an epic crossover with AU. Or maybe we could save all that bother and just eat angel food cake since angels=aliens. Unless it's a sinister marketing ploy on behalf of the Nephilim and the cake is a lie.

Reply
Not the Comte de Saint Germain
12/6/2014 08:39:00 am

Insert Close Encounters mashed-potato joke here.

Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 11:19:26 am

There's gotta be some reason E.T. was so interested in those Reese's Pieces, not to mention ALF and his predatory fixation on cats.

EP
12/6/2014 11:24:04 am

And the aliens in District 9 were obsessed with cat food. Coincidence?

Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 11:42:50 am

*Gasp* You're right!

Do you know what this means!?

Frank and Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are aliens!

EP
12/6/2014 12:07:53 pm

The whole cast of that show is aliens. Like, the whole show makes a lot more sense if you watch it with the assumption that what's happening is something like 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Shane Sullivan
12/6/2014 05:17:13 pm

I think of it as the cast of a cartoon trying to get by in the real world- as opposed to something like Community, which is just a live-action cartoon.

FrankenNewYork
12/6/2014 11:15:00 am

Wouldn't it be more entertaining to write: Giorgio Tsoukalos takes the tall headdresses and hairstyles of African art as justification for his own strangely hypnotic doo.

Reply
steve in SoDak
12/6/2014 12:30:04 pm

"The producers, however, seem to think that their viewers don’t remember any of this and repackage some of the same material"

They know that their viewers remember this garbage, but they also know that these same viewers are mindless robots and will watch the same crap over and over, the same as when they replay the same episodes over and over during marathons on History Channel during the week, just like when Star Wars is on, I'll watch it over and over again even though I know what will happen. Does that make me a mindless robot? Probably, but at least I know that Star Wars is fiction, the true believers of AA think that it's fact though.

Reply
diggz
12/6/2014 01:14:10 pm

This show is literally turning into its own memes.

Egyptians... Therefore aliens.
mummies ... Therefore aliens.
South America... Therefore aliens.
Resurrection... Therefore aliens.

Reply
Only Me
12/6/2014 01:40:24 pm

Hey, Giorgio Tsoukalos is already a meme!

"I'm not saying it was aliens, but....aliens."

Reply
Jase
12/7/2014 05:45:18 am

Hi - I normally come to this website as part of my own researches into the differing subject matter areas. I find Mr Colvaito's annotations of the episodes a great resource as well as my own notes through each show.

I normally laugh at a lot of the comments - naturally everyone has different views and perspectives but I really feel forced into responding to the "witch doctor" comments in regards to being racist and colonial. Before jumping on the left-wing Cultural Marxist view that all the mass media is doing nowadays and throwing the term "racist" at words - I strongly suggest that you use the various etymological resources out on the internet to actually try and understand what words mean.

Witch-doctor has been a term used since around 1718 and was used for "anyone" (black, white, green/grey (alien link) or othewise). Indeed the term "witch" is even older. In a 13th Century bible translation in Exodus the term "witch" was translated for Egyptian midwives who saved the newborn sons of the Hebrews.

I understand that Political Correctness as part of the Frankfurt School theories has been around for generations now but I would like to actually action one point from the Frankfurth School teachings; that of Critical Theory but not in its original form but what I see this blog trying to do which I applaud. Lets not drown in the words are they "right" or "wrong" but lets look at the various theories proposed and criticise them.

That's my rant done. Regardless - keep up the good work Mr Colavito. The "truth" fears no investigation or critical thought.

Reply
EP
12/7/2014 06:04:50 am

"Before jumping on the left-wing Cultural Marxist view that all the mass media is doing nowadays"

Let me guess: You didn't vote for Obama, did you? :)

"I understand that Political Correctness as part of the Frankfurt School theories has been around for generations now but I would like to actually action one point from the Frankfurth School teachings; that of Critical Theory but not in its original form but what I see this blog trying to do which I applaud. Lets not drown in the words are they "right" or "wrong" but lets look at the various theories proposed and criticise them."

Does anyone else find this passage hilarious on, like, seven different levels?

Reply
Jason Colavito link
12/7/2014 06:25:58 am

Your point is well taken, Jase, and it's interesting how the connotations of the term vary so greatly. I think it's probably due to the slang use of "witch doctor" as a pejorative, which frankly is the only way I've encountered it in recent literature. I'll edit the above to reflect the consensus view.

Reply
CHF01
12/8/2014 12:33:14 pm

Well, I guess I'll be the lone guy in the crowed in stating that I thought parts of this episode were thought provoking. The subject of life after death is intriguing and touches close to home for me. My grandfather survived a head on collision with a semi-truck when he was younger. He died, the sheet was being pulled over his lifeless body and he resurrected.

He went into a coma, was in a full body cast and was told by doctors that he'd never walk again. Not only did he survive, he proved the doctor's wrong. He told only his closest friends and relatives about his experiences of death. This episode brought back memories of that and I felt the topic as a whole was well presented. As with every AA show, you take the good with the bad, and learn to ignore some of the nutty, half baked theories.

I listened close to the Jesus is an alien portion of the program, and felt the focus was more on the angels who were at his tomb and what their origins were, than Jesus actually being an alien.

Anyway, I frequent this site regularly and I too appreciate Jason's views on AA topic matter. It keeps me grounded :)

Reply
Sector85
12/9/2014 10:00:41 am

"For some reason we are discussing efforts to Christianize the Congo in the late 1400s and early 1500s."

Woah, woah wait a second. Since when was Westerners trying to convert Congolese, in a a land not known to contemporary Europeans in the MEDIEVAL PERIOD? I'm going to say that it was meant to be 1800s and 1900s and was just a typo, but if the Ancient Alien producers really said that aloud in the episode, then they really need a history lesson.

Reply
EP
12/9/2014 10:10:39 am

Actually, the Kingdom of Kongo was already being Christianized by the Portugese in the late 1400s. It rapidly became Catholic.

Reply

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          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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