Addressing Claims Of Alien Theorists & Believers

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Worth noting: Similarities to fairy encounters

What's very notable about "alien encounters" is that they are extremely similar to fairy encounters as described by early modern magic practitioners. Many involve someone leaving their physical body (remember, astral projection isn't particularly hard) to meet with benevolent beings in another realm. Said beings offer guidance, reassurance, and even assistance to the humans who meet them. While their existence might not be accepted among the mainstream, those who experience them tend to perceive them as fitting within a cosmology that is still fairly similar (though not necessarily identical) to mainstream religious belief. For more information on this topic, I would recommend Emma Wilby's Cunning Folk & Familiar Spirits, which describes mystical encounters as described by early modern folk practitioners put on trial for witchcraft.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying that fairies and aliens are one and the same. Even though people's experiences with them are similar, these experiences originate within very different cultural contexts and the lore attached to each differs substantially. Claiming they are all one and the same thing based on a few broad details about their nature is intellectually dishonest.

I will also not be entertaining the idea that any of these entities are actually demons in disguise. Such a claim cannot be made in good faith if one has the remotest understanding of religious history and understands how the concept of demons has shifted and evolved throughout the years, as well as how demonizing other people's gods and spirits has been a political tactic for ages.

What I am stating is that having experiences with otherworldly beings is nothing new. I am proposing that the exact details of these experiences are shaped by cultural experiences and expectations. Nobody from the early modern period reported any of the beings they spoke to talking about genetics or DNA. None of the beings were reported to come from extrasolar planets, let alone identify themselves as Sirians, Lyrans, Pleiadians, Arcturans, or whathaveyou. Details like these were not reported until the 20th century, when the concept of genetics and extrasolar planets inhabited by other people had become mainstream.

Now of course, people have tried to find evidence of alien encounters in early modern and pre-modern art, myth, literature, and architecture. But the problem is that every time they do this, they inevitably ignore the cultural context and history behind them. They close their minds to the possibilities that ancient people could have developed building techniques they haven't thought of, and could have had complex mystical worldviews rich in myth and symbolism of their own. It's not uncommon to see these people claim that there's just so much we don't know about the pyramids (that cannot be explained by aliens), and yet... well, I'll just link you to This Is How We Know the Egyptian Pyramids Were Built as Tombs. Also, I'm going to suggest you take a look at The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis Is Racist and Harmful.

Claim: Aliens were mistaken for gods in ancient times.

Ancient alien theorists frequently point to, say, Sumerian mythology, Hindu mythology, the Hebrew Bible, or whathaveyou, and claim that the events they describe point to extraterrestrial visits. But there are numerous problems with this. For one thing, they don't really examine the cultural contexts of these texts, let alone consider how they were shaped and influenced by the politics of their time and place. They assume that the versions they have are (more or less) the ultimate, authoritative versions. For example, they don't consider that the reason gods are imagined with chariot-like vehicles in some of the myths they focus on might be because they came from a time when chariots were one of the hottest technologies in warfare and were owned by those in power.

The thing is, people tended to imagine that the gods were in charge of the universe, and therefore, lived and behaved much like their own leaders. It's not deep. There's no hidden meaning or secret history here. It's just human projection. Look into different cultures' mythologies, and you'll find that their gods frequently live and behave in more or less the same way as their own leaders or elders.

They also overlook how ancient people perceived and interacted with the world around them. They don't consider how animistic worldviews shaped people's perceptions of the divine, and how many gods embody the forces of nature; EG, Thor and thunder, Njord and the sea, etc. If anything, they kind of just assume that ancient people were as uninterested and unengaged with the world around them as they are. For example, they often claim that stone structures that align with astronomical events must have been built with extraterrestrials in mind, with little to no regard for how timekeeping would have been useful for agricultural purposes and for scheduling holidays.

You will often hear ancient alien theorists speak as if myths outright describe spacecraft and aliens. But what's really happening here is that they're simply substituting words like "spaceship," "alien," and "extraterrestrial" for whatever these myths actually do describe. For example, they might say that "the extraterrestrial being Thor came down to Earth on a spaceship" when the actual myth says that Thor came down from Asgard on his goat-pulled chariot. And of course, they'll leave out the parts that make it clear that the myths are talking about actual goats, which one would not expect to find on a spaceship.

Claim: Humans were genetically engineered by extraterrestrial aliens.

There are many mythological themes and motifs that alien believers point to as evidence for this, such as stories of gods creating humanity, or gods getting it on with humanity. But the thing is, there's very little in these stories that actually point to genetic engineering.

Gods in mythology create humanity for numerous reasons. Sometimes they're bored or lonely. Sometimes a primordial god just finds her/him/themself pregnant with humanity. Sometimes humanity is the very literal offspring of certain gods, conceived and born in more or less regular fashion because the gods like to get it on. Sometimes it's something else. Myths are diverse, and singling out the motifs that fit your preconceived notions while dismissing the rest is simply dishonest. Sadly, this is standard behavior for alien believers. For every story or detail they focus on as "evidence" of aliens, you can be sure there's a dozen more they've brushed aside and ignored.

Alien believers also conflate sky gods with aliens from other planets, which is absolutely dishonest. For one thing, most cultures' sky gods belonged to a much larger pantheon of gods that were not all associated with the sky, but rather with pretty much every element and aspect of nature as understood by people of the day. It doesn't work to claim that Zeus is a being from space because he's associated with thunderstorms when his very brothers are associated with lower domains - IE, Poseidon with the sea and Hades with the underworld. It doesn't work to claim that Enki must be an alien because he's associated with the sky when he's also the husband of the earth goddess Ninhursag.

Alien believers will sometimes point to Babylonian myths about the gods creating humanity to perform work for them. Once again, people tended to believe the gods lived and behaved like their own leaders. If their kings had servants, then it followed that the gods would like to have servants. Quite frankly, the idea that advanced aliens would need to genetically engineer human workers when they would surely have the means to create robots (which would be much easier to manage and care for) is absurd.

There's also a claim going around that many ancient cultures believed that the gods came from Orion's belt. While I can't say that I've read each and every myth out there, I can say that I've never found this anywhere aside from the Pyramid Texts. If this really is such a common motif, then it shouldn't be that hard to find, even among the relatively limited amount of information available on the Internet. After all, it's easy enough to find many other recurrent mythological motifs, like badass thunder gods armed with a hammer, an axe, or something similar. At the very least, the people who claim it's so very common should be able to cite specific examples, and the fact that they aren't doing this should make us more skeptical.

Worth noting, beings associated with planets and stars were often thought to be the planets or stars themselves. For example, the Norse moon god Máni did not live on the moon. Máni is the moon, just as his sister Sol is the sun.

Entities associated with stars and planets in other ways clearly weren't aliens, either. In the 1575 text Arbatel De Magia Veterum, seven planetary spirits, or "Olympick spirits" are described, each one associated with the seven planets of astrology. With the book describing them as being in command of other spirits, it might be tempting to view them as alien leaders. But when you take a closer look, you find that it's all in line with contemporary demonology and astrology, and couldn't possibly be interpreted as aliens unless you deliberately ignore all of that context.

Anytime you see somebody claiming that various gods and spirits were actually aliens, I encourage you to actually look into the source material they're referencing, as well as try to learn more about the cultural context surrounding that source material. Odds are good that you'll be able to easily see how these texts are not evidence of alien visitations, but instead reflect the particular beliefs and assumptions of a very different time and place, just as our modern notions of aliens reflect our own beliefs and assumptions.

Claim: Humans were created to be genetic libraries for alien races.

There's a common belief that humanity is special because it was created to host and store DNA from numerous alien races. The thing is, this is one of the worst plans a bunch of advanced beings could come up with.

First of all, genetic information is simply just that - information. This means that it's possible to transcribe it into a digital format, then synthesize or 3D print it into chemical form whenever you need it. And this shouldn't be too hard for a bunch of technologically-advanced aliens.

Meanwhile, DNA in living organisms is prone to mutation over time, whether beneficial, detrimental, or neutral. Given enough time, the DNA people would have simply wouldn't be the same DNA you put in them anymore. Thus, living organisms are a very unreliable storage mechanism for DNA.

Additionally, it would most likely be far easier to retrieve genetic data from a digital database than from somebody's body or some genetic detritus left behind in the trash (say, a chewed piece of gum). Now, as alien beings in these belief systems tend to be characterized as semi-godlike beings, I will grant that this suggests they probably have some pretty weird capabilities. Maybe, hypothetically, they could just use their psychic powers to read somebody's genetic code. But even so, it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be just as simple, if not even simpler, for them to create a far more reliable means of information storage.

Of course, the very notion that humans could be used as genetic libraries in the first place assumes that aliens would also have DNA like ours, have the same number of chromosomes as us, and would have comparable enough biochemistry that putting their genes into us wouldn't horrendously mess us up. Now of course, in the universe proposed by many alien believers some amount of biocompatibility isn't necesasarily implausible, since life was supposed to be divinely ordained. Yet at the same time, these aliens are often described as being so wildly different from us in terms of anatomy that one must wonder how we could have much in the way of compatible biochemistry at all. Some aliens are described as avian, some are leonine, and others (such as the Pleiadians) might look human, but have some weird digestive differences going on.

So basically, the claim that we're being used to store alien DNA fails on multiple levels. There's just no need for it, and it's doubtful that we'd be biologically compatible enough for it in the first place.

Claim: Alien races have conflicts and wars with each other.

Pretty much every version of modern alien lore claims that certain alien factions are at war with each other. Such claims can only come from a basic failure to grasp how inherently absurd the very idea of interstellar war is.

So the thing is, most wars are sparked by competition for space and resources, and space contains no shortage of either. Any civilization advanced enough to build intergalactic ships is more than advanced enough to build self-sustaining habitats out of the universe's vast quantities of raw resources. And there's no need to go plundering someone's planet for precious metals when you can simply mine them from asteroids. (It's also easier to mine from asteroids because asteroids don't have powerful gravity wells - it requires far less energy/fuel to get away from an asteroid than it does a larger body like Earth.)

The simple reason alien lore is so full of war and conflict is because it's made up by human beings whose minds are too small to fathom the size of the universe. They are unable to imagine a world in which war does not happen simply because there is no incentive for it. Instead, they project humanity's problems into a situation where they could never apply.

Another claim that pops up is that advanced alien civilizations have destroyed each other with nuclear bombs. This one is also obviously pure projection, because any civilization advanced enough to bop around the universe on a whim would also have the capacity to attack in ways that make nuclear bombs look like water balloons, whether it's lobbing asteroids at the planet or opening a portal between the planet and a nearby star. Thankfully, advanced aliens wouldn't actually have any real reasons to fight each other, but if they did it would almost certainly be extremely brutal and devastating.

Claim: A major change for the better is right around the corner.

A very common belief is that we're on the cusp of a major shift where the enlightened will ascend to a higher existence and the forces of evil will be vanquished. Much of this traces back to Helena Blavatsky's highly questionable teachings. People have been making these kinds of predictions for ages now, and each and every time they fail to manifest. And each time, people simply give it yet another makeover to appeal to people's current fears and beliefs and sell it to a new generation of gullible believers.

If you actually go and look up old writings and transcripts where people claimed to be channeling aliens (Kryon of Magnetic Service is one example), you can find pretty much the same exact claims said back then as are said now. Just about every iteration contains some variant of "Things are rough right now, but that's fine because the Earth is going through a transitional period. Soon it will be over and everything will be fine. You have a special purpose here on this Earth, so hang in there and keep strong."

If these are indeed real messages from real extraterrestrials, then aliens have repeatedly demonstrated themselves either unable or unwilling to transmit accurate or meaningful information. They are either just stringing us along with false promises, or they are refusing to deliver their actual message in non-misleading terms. If these aliens are really as advanced and knowledgeable as they are claimed to be, then we can only conclude that they are deliberately refusing to communicate accurate, unambiguous information to us. One might argue that they are cryptic or vague for the sake of our spiritual growth, but such behavior would be demeaning and infantilizing, and therefore utterly disrespectful to us.

That said, I'm fairly certain that these messages are not from genuine extraterrestrials. If the channeler or medium is operating in good faith, they likely represent their own subconscious desires. If not, they are simply feel-good messages intended to hook clients and keep them paying for more.

If we do believe that aliens are genuinely communicating with us, then we shouldn't accept this treatment from them. Instead, we should demand something of actual substance - something we can actually verify with the same amount of certainty we can verify basically anything else. Even if we assume that a conspiracy is hiding evidence of Atlantis (which is not the case), we can ask the aliens thousands of other verifiable questions. If they are acting in good faith with us, they should be more than willing to answer them. Any petulance, outrage, or refusal whatsoever should be taken as evidence that they are not actually interested in our education or welfare, but are more likely just playing an ego game in which they're getting their kicks from acting smarter and wiser than us.

Claim: Reptilian aliens come from Alpha Draconis.

If scaly-skinned aliens resembling Earth's reptiles just so happened to come from a star located within a constellation we humans happened to decide looked like a dragon, that would be one heck of a coincidence. Not necessarily an impossible one, but it's still something that should make us stop and look at this with a more critical eye.

In fact, Alpha Draconis (also known as Thuban, derived from an Arabic term for snake) is a very interesting star... from an Earth person's perspective. Thuban was was actually our pole star from 3942 BCE to 1793 BCE, which also happens to be when the pyramids were built. And that's another thing that should make us skeptical. Alien believers tend to ascribe a lot of importance to the pyramids, and to anything remotely connected to them. Reptilian aliens just so happen to come from a star located within the constellation Draco, that just so happened to be the pole star at the same time the pyramids were built? Hmm.

The next question we should ask ourselves is, is Alpha Draconis a good star system for life? The answer is, no. At 2.8 solar masses, Thuban is pretty big. Larger stars have shorter lifespans, which means less time for life to evolve. The earliest fossils on Earth go back 3.7 billion years ago, and it was only 900 million years ago that multicellular life developed. Meanwhile, a star as big as Thuban won't last even a billion years.

In other words, people's reasons for thinking that reptilian aliens come from Alpha Draconis is completely anthrocentric. Alien believers didn't bother to ask themselves whether Thuban was even a suitable planet for life; they simply made a connection between dragons and reptiles and ran with it. Unfortunately, such human-centered thinking is just how it goes among alien believers. Even while they claim it's arrogant to believe that we're the only life in the universe, they believe in a universe that revolves around them; a universe in which humanity is so special that numerous alien species have a vested interest in us.

One thing I can say for sure is that the idea of reptilian beings coming and mingling among the humans is neither new, nor rare. And I can also say that it's not what alien believers think it is. For a start, they aren't "lizard people." They're typically serpentine beings, or dragons. (Dragons have always been serpents, not lizards.) Secondly, they don't usually have any grand political designs or anything. Their interests are often of a far more amorous nature, or sometimes just more generally social. Examples are found within Slavic lore, Lithuanian lore, Toba lore, Iroquois lore, and many others.

I know I've written about this before, but the thing about mythological dragons and serpents is that they tend to be associated with things like water, the rain cycle, or cycles of time. For example, European dragons often live in bogs or rivers, while the Ouroboros is associated with eternity, while Quetzalcoatl brings rain. This the kind of thing I mean when I say that alien believers have no regard for historical and mythological context. They pick and choose ideas they like and shoehorn them into their predetermined worldview regardless of their original meanings and connotations.

Unfortunately, modern lore about reptilian aliens has an extremely sinister angle to it: it's repackaged antisemitism. The idea that lizard people drink blood or eat human flesh is just blood libel given a new form. The idea that they are using their shapeshifting powers specifically to infiltrate and take us over is a fantastic spin on the idea that Jews pretend to be "normal" people while infiltrating and destroying civilization. Again, mythological and folkloric dragons are often just amorous or chatty. Those that do cause trouble aren't really depicted as plotters or schemers; more often they end up creating trouble by causing floods, eating livestock, and relatively simple things like that.

Claim: Many ancient civilizations have been wiped away with barely a trace.

Many of these folks believe that Earth hosted an advanced civilization before a global cataclysm that is recollected in the stories like that of Noah's ark and Plato's Atlantis. They also claim that other sundry civilizations existed before they were destroyed in cataclysmic wars and whatnot.

The thing is, if all of these cities actually existed, there would be a substantial amount of stuff we'd be finding. And I don't just mean big stone temples, pyramids, fancy roads, and stuff like that.

These people often seem to imagine that "archaeological evidence" looks like massives buildings and statues. In reality, people always leave behind far more than that. Any grand and glorious civilization is going to leave behind proportionately grand quantities of garbage. If giants really inhabited the Earth, as many claim, we should expect to find their furniture, jewelry, and even their poop. If all of those mysterious underwater stone formations were really the remains of ancient cities, we could expect to see a window or a doorway, and maybe some statues or architectural motifs. We should also find a lot more stuff in general, as we do in places like Atlit Yam and Doggerland.

Some of these people try to claim it's possible for other civilizations to vanish, because our modern civilization could be wiped away and leave no trace. However, this is absolutely ridiculous. Even if many of our actual buildings would crumble relatively quickly, this doesn't mean that everything would just vanish. Our landfills aren't going anywhere, for one thing. Stone quarries would bear telltale indications of deliberate tooling. Window glass might break, but it wouldn't decay; and even if steel and iron beams rust away the rust would largely stay in place. The powdered gypsum in our sheetrock panels wouldn't necessarily go too far even if the actual walls disintegrate, and aluminum siding would remain mostly intact. We have no shortage of decorative pottery and sculptures that could survive for ages. Fine jewelry, being made of durable materials, would also last. The thin outer shells of most vehicles might rust away quickly, but engine blocks, being made of thicker stuff, would survive much longer. Glass bottles would also last indefinitely. Heck, even our campfires could bear witness to our existence many years hence. This is not an exhaustive list of everything that would survive, but is simply just a few examples of things that would show that our civilization once existed.

Meanwhile, we're told that ancient civilizations like Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu loved crystals. Therefore, we should expect to find loads of items carved from various crystals, including jewelry and accessories, art and decor for the home, ceremonial objects, floor tiles, and maybe even dishware. These items would not just vanish. Sure, maybe not all of them would survive completely intact, but if we can find 100,000 year old shell beads we should be able to find a substantial amount of this stuff.

I've met some people who claim that we simply haven't dug deep enough to find the goods. But this is ridiculous for many reasons. First of all, there's the aforementioned shell beads, which just proves that not every site would end up buried under loads of sediment. Geology is much more complicated than that. Heck, if it was, we shouldn't be finding all the dinosaur bones we keep finding, let alone any Permian fossils. Nor should we be finding all these Neolithic settmements we keep finding.

When people say that there's just no evidence of all these ancient civilizations existing, they really do mean it. The idea that advanced civilizations would just up and vanish with little to no physical evidence is absurd, because that simply isn't how it works.

Claim: Old art depicts aliens.

Just about every claim along these lines comes from a failure (and perhaps even a refusal) to acknowledge that symbolism and stylization are a thing. It's basically rooted in the whole idea that art "ought" to be realistic, which is of course a very European point of view. They also often ignore the possibility of ceremonial costume.

One oft-cited "example" of UFOs in ancient art is a set of hieroglyphs that, at first glance, resemble spacecraft and even a helicopter. But in reality, it's a simple case of overlaying hieroglyphs. At one point the original carvings were filled in so new writing could be set in place. Then the fillings fell out, leaving a set of overlaying shapes. If you're at all familiar with heiroglyphics, it's quite easy to recognize this for what it is. You can find more information here. (And of course, if the Egyptians had aircraft, we should expect to find more evidence than a few strange carvings. We should expect to find remains of the aircraft, as well as the places they were constructed and where they were kept.)

Another piece of art people sometimes bring up is The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius. Alien theorists point to the round object in the sky and claim it's a UFO. But when you take a closer look at the disk, you can see that it's a ring of clouds with angels - in other words, it artistically represents the Heavenly host, as also depicted here, here, and here.

One last thing alien theorists sometimes bring up is a piece of Maya artwork supposedly depicting the soul of the recently-deceased King Pakal riding a ship into the sky to meet his alien "gods." In all likelihood, the art actually depicts King Pakal embarking on his journey through the underworld, which was part of Maya spiritual belief. More info on why this art does not depict a spaceship can be found here.

These are just a few examples of how alien believers mislead their audiences. I can promise you that any time they claim something depicts aliens or alien spacecraft, there is something they are overlooking. So anytime you see somebody trying to claim something actually depicts aliens or alien spacecraft, I suggest you take some time to dig into the historical and cultural context of what they're showing you. And make sure it actually comes from the time and place they claim it does, because I've occasionally seen these people get those wrong, too.

Claim: Certain structures could have only been built with alien technology.

To make a long story short, people claim that certain structures couldn't have been built by ancient people with ordinary terrestrial tools because such structures would either only be possible with modern equipment, or still aren't possible with modern equipment.

The problem is, this sentiment usually comes from people who tend to lack imagination. They think it's either "advanced" tools, or nothing. In fact, there's usually a ton of fairly simple tricks and techniques they're overlooking.

As of today, people have in fact figured out how to build Stonehenge using equipment approximate to what would have been available. We might not know exactly how Stonehenge was built, but we do know of techniques that could have been used to build it.

Ancient aliens theorists have claimed that we don't know how the Moai were moved into their positions on Rapa Nui, but in fact, we do in fact have a pretty good idea of how this could be done.

Alien theorists often claim that mainstream science just doesn't know anything about the construction of the pyramids. But this is false. We know that the Egyptian pyramids were built by actual Egyptians and no one else because we found the camp where the workers lived. There is a lot of debate over what kind of ramps were used, because there's basically pros and cons to each. Personally, one my favorite ideas is the inset ramp. We've also found the remains of a ramp at a stone quarry, which demonstrates that the Egyptians knew how to move large, heavy stones. As to how the Egyptian artisans could've carved all those designs inside without the use of artificial lights? They'd just need to do the work before the next layer was added, while the space was still exposed to sunlight.

As a general rule, if you see an alien theorist claiming that mainstream science can't explain or doesn't know something, you should assume that's probably not the case. It may be that there are still some areas we don't fully understand, but odds are good that the alien theorist is vastly overstating how much we don't know.

Claim: Alien structures have been found on other planets.

One claim that's been circulating for years is that NASA found a face on the surface of Mars. If you actually look at the old low-resolution photos, it does indeed appear to be a face. But new, high-resolution images show a more natural-looking hill.

It's also been claimed that pyramids have been found on Mars. But once again, if we take a look at a high-res image of one object claimed to be a pyramid, we can see that it's a natural hill.

This is another object claimed to be a pyramid, which is almost convincing if you don't realize that Mars is essentially covered in basalt, which naturally forms sharp angles on the regular. Additionally, that "pyramid" would have to be pretty tiny (apparently, it's the size of a car), if it was indeed a pyramid.

I've heard people claim that there are pyramids on Venus, but I can't find any photos whatsoever.

Also worth mentioning, many claims of buildings and structures supposedly found on other planets go back to somebody's astral projection experience. Astral projection can definitely give people extremely vivid experiences, but it's not really known for a high record of acccuracy. Without actually being able to send probes with actual cameras to these places, we can't really say that anything has been "discovered."

Claim: Certain objects line up with Orion's Belt, and this is important.

It's been claimed that various objects were built to align with Orion's Belt. Perhaps this is true in some cases, but we also have to acknowledge that Orion's Belt isn't a perfectly complex pattern. It's three stars in a row; not quite in a straight line but still relatively close. Therefore, it wouldn't be particularly unlikely if some objects ended up mirroring Orion's Belt due to happenstance.

One set of objects claimed to align with Orion's Belt are the Great Pyramids. But whether or not they actually do is debatable.

It's worth noting that even if something was intentionally aligned with Orion, we couldn't actually draw any conclusions as to what it meant without determining Orion's significance in that particular culture.

Claim: The Dogon tribe of West Africa knew about Sirius B, which they could only have known about through alien intervention.

The story basically goes that in the 1930's, some white folks were told about Sirius B by Dogon priests. Because Sirius B cannot be viewed without a telescope, it's assumed that the only way they could have known about this star is if aliens came and told them about it.

Here's the thing, though: the existence of Sirius B was speculated as far back as 1844, and was seen through a telescope in 1862. We can't rule out that these people heard about Sirius B from outsiders, including the very researchers who visited them in the 1930's. Worth noting, mythology isn't static. Even if many key details are retained for ages, many critical details can still be altered, especially as people's understanding of the universe grows and evolves.

Next, it's claimed that the Dogon were visited by aliens from Sirius called the Nommos, who gave them knowledge about the cosmos outside of Earth. But from what I can gather so far, the Nommos are not extraordinarily unusual in terms of their depiction. They are primordial mythological beings, and they appear to be depicted as such. According to this, the Nommos were the offspring of the creator god and the very Earth itself, and personified moisture.

Now of course, we can't rule out that some people of the region told it that the Nommos descended from the sky. But again, we have to remember that the Nommos personify moisture. Ergo, we have to consider that they may have been conceived of as rain, not as space aliens. Unfortunately, it's impossible to know just how these stories were told before researchers had the chance to influence these people.

My personal opinion: The biggest clue that it's all fake.

In my own personal opinion, one of the biggest tipoffs that all of of the alien lore of the 20th and 21st centuries is fake as fake can be is how shallow and superficial it all is.

The more you learn about real history and culture, the more you begin to appreciate that everything is mind-bogglingly complicated and there is far more important information than you could possibly ever digest. You learn that you can't assume that two settlements within ten miles of each other worshiped the same gods or even spoke the same language. You discover that social norms can wildly change in a matter of decades. You learn that people told jokes, shared stories, and passed down favorite recipes. You learn that people had so many opinions and would share any of them if given half a chance. You learn that people have wildly different interpretations of the same holy texts, and that most of them make as much sense as any other. You find out that some of the most important archaeological discoveries include graffiti and garbage, because they often tell us the most about how people lived.

But this isn't the case with aliens and the lore and theories surrounding them. Everything is always presented in simple, essentialist terms. Whole entire races of aliens are made to be, by and large, unchanging monoliths. Whole races of aliens are readily classified as "higher" (good) or "lower" (bad). In one way or another, all of them are concerned with cosmic goals and agendas. They are not people; rather, they are simply crude abstractions of people.

They have no culture. They lack genuine art. The music that people allegedly channel from the the "good" aliens largely comprises of soft, soothing sounds and/or invigorating rhythms without actual meaning or sentiment behind them. (Where is the alien equivalent of "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", or "Royals", or "Where Have All The Flowers Gone"?) They have no epic stories, nor any poetry of note. They have no holy texts nor any literature of note that they're willing to share. They have no philosophy that doesn't amount to the shallowest of 20th and 21st century New Age thinking. They have no legends or myths. They have no jokes or riddles. They have no favorite comfort foods nor beloved holiday traditions. The only important moments in their histories are the rise and falls of their civilizations - the events and people between are basically nonexistent.

Ultimately, their existences revolve around us. Earth is supposedly in such dire spiritual straits that we desperately need "higher" aliens to bestow their milquetoast spiritual philosophies upon us. For some reason, "lower" aliens can't seem to find natural resources anywhere else in the universe, despite raw materials being plentiful everywhere. The notion that other beings would be so concerned with us should immediately strike us all as highly suspicious.

One thing you learn when actually studying history is that anything that describes things in simple or black-and-white terms is at best highly biased, and at worst vicious propaganda. You learn that basically every government will paint itself as stalwart bastion of truth and justice, and will smear any of its enemies with any amount of dehumanizing, demonizing propaganda. And this is more or less how alien beings are described. Compare how "higher" beings are typically all loving and have pure intentions, while the "lower" beings are generally all selfish, scheming villains, or the mindless minions thereof. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves what kind of assumptions these myths are being based upon. We have to ask ourselves what this says about our assumptions about each other.

In closing...

I hope I've demonstrated that alien theorists simply cannot be trusted, and that any time they make a claim you should assume they're misleading you in some way. I also hope I've given you a sense of a few things we might should expect to find if aliens really are visiting and interfering with us.

The very unfortunate truth is that modern alien mythology is nothing more than another form of colonial violence. One of its functions is to erase and obfuscate the beliefs and accomplishments of non-white people, and make a mostly white audience feel enlightened and spiritual without actually challenging their prejudices and privilege. It keeps people quiet and complacent within oppressive systems by making them feel like they're really getting somewhere when they are actually going nowhere.

I've written before on how the modern New Age movement has racist origins and how modern alien-focused spirituality is built out of the ideology of eugenics. I implore people to take this seriously, and instead of writing these belief systems off as harmless personal choices, challenge them and educate people about where they come from. I encourage people to engage with old myths and philosophies themselves, instead of taking some racist crank's word for it.

If you genuinely enjoy hearing weird or offbeat history, learning obscure lore, or hearing about the things that people have tried to cover up over the years, then here are some more resources for you to check out:

ESOTERICA: This YouTube channel takes an academic look at the esoteric and occult in philosophy, history, and religion. You'll find everything from the history of Hermeticism to descriptions of necromantic manuals.

Religion For Breakfast: This YouTube channel looks at many religions and philsophies that you likely haven't heard of.

iilluminaughtii: This YouTube channel does deep dives into the histories of everything from bad businesses to historical atrocities, to things that are simply just interesting.

Arith Härger's YouTube channel: This has been one of my favorite resources for learning about pre-Christian Norse and Germanic beliefs. There's even an hour-long video about the druids!

Folklore Thursday: They have folklore!

WikiSource Folk Literature Portal: A place you can start digging into folk literature, though I'd suggest keeping in mind that anything sourced from non-white cultures in books produced by white people might be distorted by white biases and agendas.

These days, more and more info like this is becoming available, and I think if you take a look, you'll find that it's way more interesting and substantial than the twaddle alien theorists are putting out there. I hope you enjoyed this article and learned from it. Please share it with your friends and on your social media, and please consider supporting me on Patreon!