Review of Ancient Aliens S08E06 "The Other Earth"

Tonight’s episode of Ancient Aliens, S08E05 “The Other Earth,” wasn’t of too much interest to me since it’s mostly about the question of how many other planets have Earthlike characteristics. If you are an ancient astronaut theorist and already believe humanoid aliens have visited the Earth, the answer is pretty clear that such planets exist and are the home of aliens. Our knowledge of them is of secondary concern. Since I am not a space enthusiast, I had still less interest in the science of looking for other planets that the laws of physics dictate I will never visit.

Oh, and my computer died just before this episode came on, with Windows 8 choosing this evening to have some catastrophic failure that left it unstable, so I am writing this on a borrowed laptop while I am trying to fix my own laptop with only 48 hours left on its Dell warranty. As a result, my comments will likely be briefer than usual.

Segment 1
We open on July 23, 2015, when the Kepler Telescope helped identify an Earthlike planet many light years from earth. This leads to a discussion of what makes for a planet capable of sustaining intelligent life similar to that of the Earth. Scientists apparently feel we will find proof of alien life by 2025, which this show seems not to notice contradicts its own prior claims that elites are so concerned about the panic confirmation of alien life would create that they have suppressed all evidence of aliens. The show briefly mentions the ancient “many worlds” hypothesis and then discusses the Drake Equation, which was a guess at how many civilizations might exist in the universe. It was a favorite of early ancient astronaut theorists in the 1960s. The show wonders then why we have received no radio transmissions from the space aliens. Giorgio Tsoukalos tells us that the aliens don’t need radio signals because they have already given us communications through mythology and art. This leads to a recap of some of the ancient astronaut theory’s greatest hits, all discussed before and long debunked. This includes the Orion Correlation Theory, the Sirius Mystery, and more.

The show then falls back on Zecharia Sitchin’s false claims about BA 243, a Mesopotamian cylinder seal that Sitchin (and now Jason Martell) claimed accurately depicted the solar system. It does not, either in distance, number of planets, or relative size. 

Segment 2
The second segment is about the potential for humans to colonize Mars, including the current effort to train a squad of humans to go die on Mars as a first step toward colonization. This leads to a discussion of whether Mars can be terraformed into something wet and green. This is irrelevant to ancient astronauts, so the show tries to make it relevant by speculating that aliens terraformed the earth. Mike Bara thinks it’s astonishing that Earth got “exactly what it needed” to support human life, though logically speaking it is more like that it only seems that way because we evolved to think these conditions ideal. Bara tells us about round stones that have grooves on them. These ancient rocks are believed to be natural, but Bara tells us that they may really be pods used for panspermia, packed full of bacteria and sent to the earth. No one looks for any evidence that these rocks came from space, which might support such a claim.

Segment 3
The third segment begins with the Sumerian Kish Tablet from 3500 BCE, the oldest known piece of writing. This is introduced only to show how far human came between then and our own technological age. Astrobiologists express awe at our intelligence compared to our physical incompetence and general helplessness in matters aside from intelligence. The show discusses Ellis Silver’s suggestion that human beings evolved on another planet, which he believes explains why we have lower back pain, cataracts, and sunburns. Allegedly our circadian rhythms exactly match the length of a Martian day when we don’t have the sun to guide us. David Childress throws this out the window and instead claims humans are Neanderthal-Grey alien hybrids.

After this, the show supports the claim that Adam and Eve were real, but they mention Jewish legends that Adam and Eve had parents in another realm before falling to earth after eating of the fruit. This story is found in the Zohar, and I found it in the Akhbar al-zaman, too. The narrator tells us that humans are interested in space because we come from space, because apparently cosmic wanderlust is genetic.

Segment 4
The fourth segment begins with a discussion of humanity’s search for other planets with various tools and telescopes, which is said to be a search for transcendence and/or a genetic compulsion to visit the stars. David Childress compares finding other planets to finding the Garden of Eden, and he says Eden might well have been on another planet. Various mythical paradises are alleged to be other planets remembered from journeys space aliens made from them to the Earth, which, if I understand the narrator correctly, is a shithole. The famous story of the Green Children of Woolpit is then told, a medieval legend that is colorful (pun intended) but not especially unusual for medieval legends. Kathleen McGowan Coppens tells us that the children were space aliens, even though the girl child allegedly had viable offspring with a human male. Many other possible explanations could be offered, and space aliens are probably one of the least likely.

Segment 5
The fifth segment discusses the claim that there is a very large quantity of water locked within the Earth’s mantle. The show asks if this means we are wrong about the interior of the Earth. Can the Earth really be hollow? Do aliens come from the Hollow Earth? Has the show been reading the Shaver Mystery? To the last question, we know the answer: They referred to the Shaver Mystery in an earlier episode. Various mythical underworlds are repurposed to support a hollow Earth, and we hear that the Garden of Eden is within the earth from “secret” teachings. I can’t recall an ancient text that says this, though I’ve read many that discuss Eden as being in one of the spheres above the Earth. The history of hollow Earth hypotheses is then discussed, though they neglect to note that John Quincy Adams once tried to send an expedition to enter it. More modern searches are reported, but they then discuss a fictitious claim that Admiral Byrd found the entrance. These claims are false and come entirely from sensationalized newspaper accounts. Childress has been pushing this claim for a while, though previously with subterranean Nazis rather than underground aliens.

Segment 6
The final segment takes us to a physics lab in Lively, Ontario, where scientists are looking for dark matter. Its various proposed properties are discussed, including the question of whether it connects to parallel universes or higher dimensions. David Wilcock says that this dark matter is a “world” and that “people” live in it. The narrator tries to make this make sense by proposing a planet floating in a parallel universe and/or other dimension that communicates with ours through dark matter. William Henry says this is a great thing because it would prove we are part of a cosmic family. Tsoukalos tells us that finding intelligent life would force scientists to reconsider the ancient astronaut theory.