Read Online The Gold of the Gods by Erich von Däniken - Free Book Online Page B

existed for so long. I doubt if they ever would have existed without artificial mutation by extra-terrestrial visitors. So I hazard the claim that the vanquished in a cosmic battle first set the process of becoming man in motion with their knowledge of the genetic code by means of an artificial mutation.
----
     
ON June 5, 1972, the Associated Press, Washington, distributed a news item on the 129-page report of the Committee for Astronomical Research of the American Academy of Science. In the view of these scholars the probability of intelligent extra-terrestrial civilizations existing in the universe has increased considerably during the last seven years. The Academy recommends that attempts by astronomers to discover such distant worlds with intelligent inhabitants should be supported by large government subsidies. Admittedly existing telescopes could already receive radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, but new instruments must be developed capable of picking up signals from inhabited heavenly bodies outside our solar system as well. The committee’s report says literally:
     
“At this very moment radio waves carrying the conversations of beings living vast distances away may be reaching us. Perhaps we could record these conversations if only we directed a radio telescope in the right direction and tuned in to the right frequency.”
     
    Insofar as one can produce indications in support of a theory, I think one should introduce them into a serious discussion. It is not a question of asking for
proofs
. What scientific theory could be built up on proofs from its first conception?
    Nor is it a question of a “substitute religion,” as many critics claim. If my theories smack of a substitute religion, then logically scientific firstborns, whose embryos were theories, must also have been “substitute religions” to begin with. The average man cannot carry out the series of experiments which ought to lead to the proof of a theory. Should he or must he
believe
in scientific theories even if the results of research finally show them to be wrong? I want to stimulate thought with my theories. No more, but also no less. And here I have put forward my new theories, stimulated by indications of how the tunnels in Ecuador and Peru could have originated and when
homo sapiens
may have celebrated his “birth hour.”
    I leave it to the scientific world to answer me.

3: Traces of the Gods in China, Too
     
THE China Airlines Boeing had taken off from Singapore an hour behind schedule and had only made up half an hour when it landed in Taipeh at 1530 hours. And I had arranged a meeting with Mr. Chiang Fu-Tsung, Director of the National Palace Museum, for 1700 hours.
     
    I left my luggage at the Ambassador Hotel in Nanking East Road, hailed a taxi, got in next to the friendly, laughing driver and said: “To the National Palace Museum, please.” The skinny little Buddha next to me smiled, but I had a strong feeling that he had not understood what I said. As he drove along at breakneck speed, I described my destination in all the languages I knew. My Buddha nodded indulgently, put his foot on the accelerator and finally stopped—outside the railway station! He whipped open the door smartly and with a radiant smile pointed to the station, which was obviously not the museum I was looking for. If only I had known a few words of Chinese! I went into the main hall and suddenly I had a brainwave. In the middle of it there was a bookstall with hundreds of postcards on sale showing all the interesting buildings in Taipeh and Taiwan. I bought postcards of all the places I intended to visit during the next few days. My Buddha nodded earnestly when I showed him the beautiful museum building and drove back the same way we had come. The museum was quite close to my hotel!
    I knew that there would be no language difficulties with Mr. Chiang Fu-Tsung, who had studied in Berlin and spoke German.
    I had been told this by Mr. Chi,