Legacy of the Elder Gods: Journals of the Ancient Ones, #2

Chapter 2

Universal Spores & The Early Cosmos

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Further statements contained in the Book of Dzyan indicate that our present universe may be the eighth one to have been created, as interpreted from Stanza III.1: ...The last vibration of the seventh eternity (universe) thrills through infinitude.  However, it is not made clear what might have happened to those prior universes.  They may have been destroyed by some cascading natural catastrophe or merely 'expired,' having expended their useful life span.

Perhaps such a natural demise may be the result of burnt-out or 'dead' stars, creating ever-expanding blackholes.  Such 'gravity wells' might have eventually engulfed all remaining matter, leaving 'nothingness' in its wake.  Or, the Creative Godhead may have ended the prior creations in order to construct a new, improved, or enhanced model.  The existence of such prior universes may help to explain those structures found in our present universe that date to 15 billion years of age, contradicting the approximate 13.7 billion-year-old origin attributed to our present cosmos.  Such formations may simply be the remnants of a prior universe that either overlapped with or was captured within a portion of our present universe during its earliest creation process.

One assumes that the subsequent universes were evidently based upon the essence of the previous ones, with galaxies clustered and dispersed in patterns similar to past cosmic plans.  Such a conclusion can be derived from Stanza VI.4. in the Book of Dzyan: He builds them in the likeness of older wheels (universes), placing them on the Imperishable Centers.  Evidently subsequent universes somehow utilize the energy content resulting from the conversion of matter to energy within those prior realms.  Stanza VI.4. of the Book of Dzyan states: How does Fohat (the Cosmic Creative Force) build them?  He collects the fiery dust..., perhaps a reference to the energy remnants from a prior universe.

The Creator may have conceived or envisioned into existence an endless sequence of universes, each conditioned by the character of its prior universe, working toward some Divine Plan unknown to humankind.  Such a repetitive process may have been occurring prior to the creation of 'time,' or those creations may have commenced during periods so remote that human consciousness could not comprehend their infinite scope.

Similar levels of ancient cosmological comprehension can be found in numerous other texts.  In Chapter V of The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Enoch is shown: ...the treasure-houses of the snow...and the clouds whence they come out and into which they go.¹  This may refer to the countless number of glistening stars covering the vastness of outer space like snow, which are born in 'clouds,' the stellar nebula nurseries.  Recycling is the eventual fate for stars, supplying elementary particles from which new nebulas are continually formed, and future stars are created.

The teachings of the Egyptian god Thoth contained in the Hermetic texts state: For there were boundless Darkness in the abyss, and water, and a subtile spirit, intellectual in power, existing in Chaos.  But the holy Light broke forth, and the elements were produced from among the sand of a watery essence.²  Note that water consists of the elements of hydrogen and oxygen only, with hydrogen being the first element formed after the Big Bang genesis.

Numerous ancient Sanskrit records also contain astounding cosmological understanding, such as Creation Hymn 10.129. from the Rig Veda.  A translation and commentary by Dr. W. Norman Brown, a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania, identifies the Creator as That One.  Professor Brown's commentary analysis of this controversial hymn is paraphrased in the following: That One existed first, not inspired by another, and spontaneously became reality.  Nothing existed beside That One.  There was only darkness hidden by darkness at the beginning.  That which had the potentiality of becoming was hidden by a shell, and was born through the power of its own heat.  That One became the first seed of mind, creating from desire.  Forces were created, with potential below and emanation above.  There were seed depositors, those gods who came later, after the creation of the universe by That One, the Creator.³

That descriptive translation and commentary seems to imply that a deliberate effort was undertaken to distribute life, or at least the dispersal of those elements that would later result in life formation.  Modern science has concluded that the most fundamental primordial matter, the quarks and leptons that underlie subatomic particles from which stars and planets later formed, were created within the first fractional instant of the Big Bang event.  Those same elementary particles comprise the nature of all things everywhere throughout the universe.  Hence, all matter and life is made from these same basic quark and lepton particles, the essential ingredients of 'stardust.'  Since everything in the universe is comprised of these same fundamental particles, perhaps things are not so different between the farthest remote reaches of our universe as we might first imagine.  For that same reason, perhaps physical life may not be all that different elsewhere in the universe, especially where somewhat similar planetary conditions exist.

Scientists at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, believe that they have confirmed the prevailing theory of the Big Bang genesis.  A total of 350 scientists created a primordial 'soup' or plasma of subatomic particles that they think resemble conditions during the earliest moments of creation.⁴  This unique plasma was observed to contain thousands of free-state quarks that quickly joined to form larger particles.  It was concluded that similar 'creations' of fundamental particles occurred at the time of the Big Bang event.  Those particles would have later combined to form more stable larger particles, around which gaseous nebulas eventually collected, ultimately resulting in the formation of stars.  The CERN experimentation further suggests confirmation of our prevailing hypothesis that is used to explain the Big Bang event.⁵

Similarly, a 'primordial plasma' of complex organic chemicals, the suspected precursors of life, is incubated very quickly after the birth of a star.  According to Sun Kwok, an astronomer with the University of Calgary, Canada, large organic molecules evolve within a few thousand years from chemicals in the cloudlike envelope surrounding certain stars.⁶  Perhaps the universal phenomenon that underlies the composition of all matter shares a similar elemental basis in the formation of life.  If so, it tends to suggest that life formation is not a unique process or event.

Such an original germ or seed, one responsible for the flora and fauna within a solar system, may also be universal in its origin.  After dispersion of such spores throughout the universe, each 'seed' could evolve and develop independently on any contacted world; mutating, adapting, and conforming to the unique environment on each different world encountered.  That would result in an independently unique species, or a variety of loosely connected lifeforms on different worlds.

Evidence suggests that such a universal spore or germ of life apparently existed shortly after the Big Bang birth of the physical cosmos; probably within the first several billion years of our infant universe, as stars and planets first coalesced.  Such spores may be considered 'generic' by their ubiquitous nature, in a manner similar to the elementary particles of quarks and leptons that form the underlying basis for all material reality.  Such spores might drift throughout space on the solar winds, or be transported on exploded debris of dead celestial bodies and rogue comets, or spread by deliberate acts of seeding by a surviving lifeform.  By any means, such spores were evidently dispersed throughout the known cosmos, eventually finding homes on various existing worlds, as well as on new planets that formed many eons later.

Those spores that found homes on planets with suitable environments, ones conducive to nurturing, could then undergo their individual evolutionary process to create their own unique lifeform, based on the particular physical conditions and environment of each host world.  Such basic life would then occasionally mutate in order to accommodate the numerous changes its host world would undergo over eons of time, thereby producing numerous different indigenous species from a single type of universal spore.  Regardless of outcome, all life everywhere in the universe would thus be related through its primordial origin from that one common spore.

Numerous mythological accounts tend to confirm the deliberate seeding of worlds using universal spores.  The Chinese claim that their 'first man' was born from an egg that their god Tien dropped into the waters of Earth from the heavens.⁷  That suggests a certain understanding by primitive people that acknowledged some form of planetary seeding, with such spores delivered from outer space.

Such universal spores were not a one-time occurrence associated with the Big Bang event, but rather a continuous phenomenon.  Earth's primordial history contains evidence of numerous mass extinctions that ended most planetary life.  Yet new and varied 'replacement life' always formed afterward, and continues to form even during modern times.  Such continuously produced new life is always directly affected or influenced by the ever-changing but then-current planetary conditions or environment, thereby shaping each unique creation based upon those existing local surroundings in which such fundamental underlying spores might presently be exposed.

The Urantia Book professes that planets and their animal population do not occur by freak chance, but rather from deliberate acts of 'designed creation' (seeding) by higher attained beings obeying a master plan.⁸  Once such seeding produces a lifeform with an ability to comprehend knowledge and demonstrate their capability for self-determination, certain nurturing 'overseer' beings known as Solitary Messengers reveal themselves and help guide those emerging species.  Such 'overseeing authorities' introduce their 'guidance' by stationing small groups of enlightened beings on those 'primitive planets.'  Those beings then instruct and civilize the young inhabitants for eventual interaction with other worlds.⁹

Astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle of Cambridge University believes that the origins of life on Earth were imported from outside our solar system on massive interstellar comets.  That conclusion is contained in his book, Lifecloud: The Origin of Life in the Universe, a 1978 work co-authored with Chandra Wickramasinghe.  Their hypothesis states that fragments from those distant celestial travelers would have eventually visited our region of space and impacted Earth, along with most of our other planetary neighbors.  Such impacts would have consequently imparted those universal spores of life throughout our solar system, having been frozen and preserved in 'suspended animation' within each comet's icy composition.  Note that the normal temperature of outer space between stars, where negligible effects from radiant heating occurs, is -270 degrees Centigrade, an extreme condition that is quite capable of organism preservation.

Universal spores could have formed 'early life' wherever suitable landing conditions allowed.  Astronomers concluded that more than 100 billion comets transverse through our solar system at any one time.  Those visitors reside mainly in two reservoirs, the Oort cloud and the Kuiper belt.  The Oort cloud forms a spherical shell around our entire solar system at a distance of about one light year.  Our periodic passage through gigantic molecular clouds and galactic spiral arms replenishes the Oort cloud with new comets and other masses, while the smaller Kuiper belt is a flattened, concentric 'annular-band' formation that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune.

The amount of life-forming molecules observed in outer space suggests the seeds of life are everywhere.  These building blocks of life are common in interstellar space, with eight new biological molecules found during 2006 within massive gas clouds that form stars and planets; bringing to 141 the number of different organic molecules found as of that date.¹⁰

Such wide spread dispersion of universal spores around the universe would likely assist or accelerate the formation of life throughout the cosmos.  Such delivery might be the result of errant heavenly bodies such as comets and asteroids that contained the universal spore bacterium, impregnating or 'contaminating' numerous encountered worlds.  Both Professor Fred Hoyle and Dr. Francis Crick, the eminent British biophysicist, embraced this concept, known generally as 'directed panspermia.'  The 19th century mathematician and physicist Lord William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907) also maintained a belief that life did not originate on Earth, but had drifted to our world as spores from remote regions of our universe.¹¹  It is also possible that such spore distribution could have been even more selective and deliberate, dispersed by earlier alien life that had eventually acquired intelligence and progressed to ever-higher advanced levels.

Where deliberate spore transmissions may have occurred, the process could have been performed in progressive, individual steps.  Such stages may have depended on each planet's environmental development.  The universal seed leading to primitive bacterial life may have been subsequently accompanied with more complex 'seeds' billions of years later, as planetary conditions become more ideal, perhaps even as a result or consequence of such earlier life.  Our own earthly development tends to display such inexplicable evolution from one dominant species to another 'new or replacement lifeform,' such as the transition from dinosaurs to humans.

Considering this theory of a universal 'spore of life,' one common to all regions of the cosmos, the simple initiation of life on each different world would have naturally taken numerous different developmental paths on every impregnated planet.  The earliest formation of bacterial life on Earth may well be the result of one or more of those spores finding their way to Earth 3.7 billion years ago.  Humankind may simply be the result of continuous evolutionary forces and acute mutations caused by drastic climatic and environmental changes.

The Early Cosmos

As a result of knowledge acquired from deep space probes; the Hubble telescope; microwave readings; X-ray telescopes; high altitude data collections; and ground-based laboratory studies; a rough portrait of the early formative periods of our universe can be reconstructed.  In the nearly nine billion years that passed since the Big Bang birth of the universe, prior to the formation of our own Solar System, an untold number of suns would have been born, lived their allotted span of existence, and died.  Their expended remains were then converted and recycled into new creations over and over.  Around those earlier stars were an even greater number of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.  Elementary life would have surely formed somewhere within that early cosmos.  As one expands their perspective to accept alternate conditions under which life could evolve, it becomes apparent that a vast array of prior worlds existed that likely contained life in some manner or form.  Such lifeform emergence would have been a continuous process since the earliest times, with new life constantly developing on at least a portion of subsequent planets, a process that apparently continues even during present times.

With reasonably stable environmental conditions occurring on at least a small percentage of the constantly created new worlds throughout the cosmos, ample time would have allowed early primitive life to evolve into more complex forms.  Eventually a small portion of those earliest lifeforms likely would have mutated or evolved into some form of higher intelligent being during some adolescent age of our universe, creating their own form of civilization.  It certainly would not have taken the Creator nine billion years to think of fashioning some form of organic sapient life into beings capable of inhabiting one or more of the many prior formed planets.  Such worlds would have existed long before our solar system and planet Earth could have been a twinkle in the night sky of those inhabited planets, with their locations situated within far distant galaxies.

Those early beings may have had little in common with future creatures such as humankind, not only in appearance, but in multiple other aspects as well.  That may simply be due to the fact that conditions within the universe during its infancy period were quite different from the later conditions of today.  Numerous different lifeforms may have existed on those abundant and vastly scattered worlds, each remaining unknown to any of their other contemporary alien neighbors.  Such creatures would have mutated and struggled with their survival over the ensuing eons, eventually becoming extinct with the demise of their sun, all without acquiring knowledge of any other worlds, or having had contact with those inhabitants.  They lived, died, and were forgotten, never knowing of the vastly larger universe that they shared with other species on numerous different planets.  Even the knowledge of their very existence and ensuing cultures would have evaporated with the demise of their worlds, perhaps never to be discovered by future generations of explorers and archaeologists from subsequently formed planets.

Eventually, such a dead-end cycle of birth and extinction would have changed.  Progress and advancements would have certainly occurred on some of those worlds, eventually allowing civilization to ultimately occur.  At least a few of those civilizations would have finally achieved space travel capabilities.  Eventual exploration of other planets would have transpired, for any number of likely reasons.  Those explorers could have simply been curious, wanting to know what might lie beyond.  Others may have depleted their own planet's resources and ventured into space to find and secure such necessities from alien worlds.  Overpopulation may have required some to seek colonization on other worlds, in order to ease their overcrowded condition.  For whatever reason, space travel would have eventually occurred.  Such travel may have also served as another method of conveying the universal seeds of life, augmenting or perhaps accelerating the 'natural' dispersion process of those spores throughout the universe.

Such a hypothesis possesses a certain degree of credibility.  Probability would dictate that at least some of the early lifeforms would have evolved into sapient beings.  With such a 'headstart' in developing their civilization, scientific knowledge and advancements would eventually also be the expected result, given sufficient time.  One theory contends that discoveries will occur within a culture, predicated solely on their specific level of scientific knowledge, whether or not its people are actually seeking such a discovery.  Thus, advancements simply become self-evident and obvious at various plateaus of development, even if they were not originally being sought.

As the capacity to obtain advanced levels of scientific progress expands, a civilization's ability to eliminate or cure most diseases would also seem a certainty, thereby extending the physical life span for such an advanced species.  That scientific growth would likely also lead to overpopulation of their homeworld, prompting development of space travel in order to seek out 'expansion places' for colonization.  Space travel would thus be a natural extension or evolution resulting from such acquired knowledge, once reaching certain higher levels of achievement.

Such primordial life in the early universe, coupled with their ability for intergalactic space travel, may account for or help explain many of the mysteries surrounding Earth's own ancient past.  Mysteries such as anomalous advanced artifacts found embedded in geological strata during ages when no humans, primitive or otherwise, were thought to have existed.  Or the human fossils that dated to eras long before their ascribed time period, along with the archaic megalithic stone structures that seemingly defy construction, even with utilization of modern land-based equipment.  Such anomalies were disclosed and evaluated in the First Journal of the Ancient Ones, Elder Gods of Antiquity.

In addition to such physical artifacts, an equally mystifying component or factor is revealed from the very advanced cosmological understanding and knowledge possessed by Earth's ancient cultures.  That knowledge is known from ancient texts and celestial alignments incorporated into many ancient monuments.  Such advanced wisdom and capabilities allude to a legacy bestowed upon Earth by unknown beings during remote times.  Those levels of scientific intellect and comprehension would not be self-evident commodities to an emerging species such as primitive humans.  That is apparent from the discernible level of astronomical knowledge and application evidently possessed by numerous ancient cultures, a level that would have required the use of powerful telescopes, chronographs, and the application of advanced mathematics.

Additionally, those ancient human star watchers would have had to compile and document accurate observations of specific celestial occurrences over many thousands of years, all supposedly without the aid of written records.  Their meaningful and analytical conclusions, evidently derived from such empirical observations, would certainly indicate a scientific methodology capable of predicting repetitive occurrences of celestial events, as well as plotting orbits of celestial bodies.  Yet such capabilities and knowledge are vastly beyond the levels ascribed to those very ancient cultures by modern anthropologists and historians.

Chapter 3

Supplied Knowledge

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Since it is quite possible that earlier extraterrestrial life could have actually evolved prior to the formation of Earth, such otherworldly creatures may have developed into very advanced beings that eventually became capable of traveling to our region of space.  Such ancient beings may have visited our solar system and Earth during the remote past, perhaps before the emergence of humanity's earliest ancestors.  Their continuing later visits could have imparted the high levels of knowledge that were apparently possessed by some of our oldest earthly cultures.

Such contact would further explain the numerous anomalous evidence and artifacts that simply do not correlate with the time period in which they were found.  Still other explanations are also possible, such as an unknown civilization from Earth's far distant past that still remains lost to modern man.  Whether such enigmatic relics, fossils, and wisdom represent the legacy from a long lost indigenous civilization of Earth, or knowledge and devices brought to Earth through extraterrestrial intervention, the astronomical and cosmological understanding of our oldest known ancestors was simply amazing.

Such archaic knowledge, as confirmed from ancient texts, reveals a refinement of thought and insight far in advance of levels ascribed to the times during which they originated.  Such achievement seemingly could not have evolved from a primitive Stone Age culture without outside aid or tutor.  The known level of understanding demonstrated by the accomplishments of the Cro-Magnons, along with the medical and scientific knowledge possessed by early Modern man, would have required human observation and subsequent recording of data over many millennia.  Their ancient scientific knowledge, especially concerning cosmology, is only now being equaled by modern science.  That level of comprehension is recognized as extraordinary, based on the time period during which it was conceived and incorporated by those ancient cultures.  Such knowledge simply could not have been developed on Earth by humans through their own efforts without the use of sophisticated scientific equipment, which contradicts our present orthodox theories ascribing the evolution of Homo sapiens and their cultural progression.

That knowledge, along with the advanced inventions and finely constructed structures of ancient societies, can best be explained as inherited 'gifts' from a more advanced culture.  Presumably, such advances could only be second-hand information, imparted as a legacy from some very ancient civilization or species that still remains unidentified and concealed to modern historians.  Based on what little is known of early primitive life on Earth, all indications suggest that those legacies were not developed by indigenous inhabitants.  Logic thus concludes that those advances, which were simply out-of-place for their cultural eras and time periods, were likely inherited commodities bestowed long ago upon our planet.

Most elements of the advanced Egyptian civilization were present from its beginning, indicating such components were not a development but rather a legacy.  The oldest known archaic Egyptians were fascinated and mystified with their own enigmatic ancestors and their much earlier society.  Archaic Egyptians highly valued anything that was considered to be 'old' by their then-present culture, a culture that itself is now regarded as 'ancient' by modern standards.  But those ancient Egyptians collected the even older articles of their long ago predecessors as 'prized possessions,' as if to regain the glory or power from that earlier mysterious period of existence, a time perhaps still vaguely recalled in their memory and oral traditions.

That archaic era, ancient to the Egyptians of the earliest dynastic times, possessed a level of science that could only be categorized as 'magical' by the scientifically illiterate.  Those earliest Egyptians were manipulators of great forces that evidently remained unknown to their later generations.  Or perhaps they were able to create artificial environments in which natural laws of physics could be altered or controlled, allowing fantastic feats to be performed.  The essence of their knowledge or science was subsequently either lost or shrouded in superstition, making it indecipherable to later generations; or perhaps it was gradually distorted, rendering it impotent.

Several competing theories attempt to explain this paradox, which was associated with those most archaic prehistoric humans.  One speculative belief claims that such developments occurred from a vastly older 'lost' human civilization, one whose remains have yet to be discovered on our planet.  Still others credit 'outside' conveyance of such knowledge by intelligent beings that visited our planet during remote epochs of Earth's history.

Such indigenous lost cultures of early Earth have speculatively been located in Antarctica, the Gobi Desert, and numerous island sites that are presently submerged under the seas.  Yet adequate evidence of a permanent indigenous species that could have created such a culture has not been found.  It could be expected that some major remnant of a prior great but lost Earth civilization would have been uncovered by now, if that was the true origin.  But the mere fact that such an advanced lost civilization has not been uncovered does not negate its once possible existence.  The locations of such sites may now exist in some of the most inhospitable areas of our planet, such as at the polar regions, places that may preclude their discovery until possible later climatic changes transpire on Earth to alter its topography.

Common sense would dictate that if indeed a much earlier human society existed, they would also have expanded their high culture to some land that was not completely destroyed, or not now essentially inaccessible.  Such an isolated but reasonably accessible satellite site would seemingly reveal some evidence of their existence.  But new exploration and research tend to discredit any trace of such an early human race and their high culture.  Yet anomalous artifacts do occasionally turn up to indicate that some advanced intelligent beings did indeed interact with Earth during those long ago periods, at least as far back as ten million years.

However, such singular circumstantial evidence tends to point to a very limited exposure with Earth, usually encompassing an inadequate period of time for even a primitive culture to be developed, let alone a highly advanced one.  Such limited or brief exposure more likely indicates a visitor to Earth, with little or no intention of permanent colonization.  Such contact would likely be by explorers, monitors, guardians, or others reflecting similar motivational intentions.  Perhaps such visits were conducted to evaluate the natural resources of planet Earth, while studying its potential for future development and habitation.  Modern humans are striving to conduct similar such explorations or evaluations of our own celestial neighbors, especially Mars and Earth's moon.

Current scientific evidence tends to refute the lost ancient Earth civilization theory.  According to a joint study undertaken by Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley, extinction of a species requires about ten million years to recover and produce anything resembling its original extinct species.¹  Such a conclusion was compiled by James Kirchner, a geologist with Berkeley, and Anne Weil, a Duke biologist, utilizing mathematical techniques developed for complex astrophysics computations, combined with the study of marine fossil databases.  Their findings were published in early 2000 in the journal Nature.²

That ten million year 'time limit' associated with the rate of extinct species recovery is further based on the period of time it takes for the ecosystem to be rebuilt and sufficiently purge the devastating effects caused by its specific extinction-event.  If accurate, such conclusions would require extinction of some lost 'early human' race to have been destroyed between 10.0 and 8.5 million years ago.  Such a time frame is based on the earliest human ancestor, Homo erectus, which first appeared around 1.7 million years ago, or the earliest true human subspecies of c.400, 000 BC, the 'proto-Sapiens.'  The proto-Sapiens is a term introduced in the First Journal of the Ancient Ones, Elder Gods of Antiquity, and is used in this text to identify the earliest but unnamed branch within our Homo sapiens lineage.

Yet the oldest circumstantial evidence of any human society only dates from three to one million years ago.  Hence, some other rational explanation must exist.  If not an indigenous species that sprang into existence on Earth through natural evolution, perhaps an otherworldly 'visiting race' was the source of such an early high culture.  An advanced race of visitors would also be capable of fleeing Earth prior to the devastating effects of any impending cataclysm that would obliterate their culture, leaving only 'hints' of their prior presence on Earth.

If the source of such a diverse ancient legacy was extraneous to Earth, who were those benefactors?  Most ancient legends tell of a time when only the olden gods were on Earth, prior to humankind's existence.  Perhaps the earliest known extensive exploration of Earth is revealed from an apparent ancient global survey and mapping effort conducted sometime before 2.5 million years ago, evidenced by the ancient extant maps that reveal details of a fully ice-free Antarctic continent, a condition that last occurred around 2.5 million BC.³  A subtropical climate is believed to have existed in the Antarctic prior to that time, one with abundant foliage of ferns and deciduous trees.  Evidence of a suspected major Antarctic settlement during that time frame is suggested,⁴ along with traces of a smaller but similar settlement also at Earth's opposite end, near the Arctic North Pole.⁵

A more likely scenario finds otherworldly beings occupying our planet, either as temporary lodging while their homeworld purged the devastating effects of a planetary disaster, or as an unsuccessful attempt at a permanent colonization of Earth.  The small quantity of anomalous artifacts associated with those settlements tends to indicate their very isolated nature and sparse integration with our planet, suggesting that any civilization associated with those sites was probably only temporary in duration.  If such colonies were for the purpose of short-term housing of non-indigenous beings that came to Earth due to cataclysms on their homeworld, that would explain their sudden appearance, followed by their nearly total departure from our planet.

Such a theory would also explain the exceedingly rare but tangible evidence of anomalous humanoid fossils and artifacts found on Earth, such as the partial remains of several inexplicable Homo sapiens discovered in both Ethiopia and Kenya, Africa.  Those fossils include a modern-appearing skull labeled Number 1470 that was determined to be 2.8 million years old, which was found in 1972 by Dr. Richard Leakey in Kenya.⁶  Further evidence is exhibited by shoe sole imprints found in the southwestern deserts of the United States,⁷ as well as in the Gobi Desert.⁸  Fossilized humanoid foot prints found in Nevada⁹ and Tanzania¹⁰ further confirm such visits.  Those periods of otherworldly habitation may have ended when some natural catastrophe engulfed Earth.  Massive Earth changes were known to have occurred between three million and 2.5 million BC, evidenced by the massive volcanic activity and lava flows dated to that time period that covered the entire Western United States,¹¹ which also formed many of the South Pacific islands, including Easter Island.

Chapter 4

Extraterrestrial Life

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Some of the most intelligent people on Earth do not reject the existence of extraterrestrial beings, although they tend to doubt such lifeforms ever visited our planet.  According to a 2001 Parade Magazine article, Stephen Hawking does not believe that Earth has ever been visited by any sapient extraterrestrial beings.¹  Carl Sagan believed that life must exist elsewhere in the universe, but was unsure if any otherworldly beings ever visited Earth.  Marilyn vos Savant, who possesses one of the world's highest IQs, believes it likely that other forms of life exist in the universe, but also doubts that Earth has ever been visited by such extraterrestrial life, due to the lack of credible evidence suggesting such contact.

Dr. Vos Savant claims that we know our planet and its history very well, and thus would be knowledgeable of any evidence confirming such a visitation.  But perhaps we only think we know our planet's history well, while ignoring the more obvious truth.  Although the widely known and accepted 'factual knowledge' of a flat Earth at the center of the universe was promoted over many centuries, it never altered the true structural arrangement or nature of the cosmos.  Such stated beliefs, regardless of their accompanying credentials, do not create factual reality.

Such perceived truths and knowledge emerge from personal beliefs, based on each individual's version and interpretation of facts to which they have been exposed.  Most versions emerge from beliefs based on our limited knowledge of the physical universe, derived through the perceptions of our five senses, as filtered through the process of mental classification leading only to a perceived understanding.  The collected raw data are always 'contaminated' by personal and professional prejudice and bias, perhaps distorting, albeit honestly, one's version of the truth.  Therefore, individual truths may not reflect factual reality, but merely one's own belief and bias.

The underlying factual reality is never altered or adjusted to agree with such incorrect beliefs, regardless of the intellect or credentials possessed by the believer.  Facts and truths are always correct and constant, while beliefs are mere conclusions derived from opinions, hopes, and desires that may be altered by subsequent discoveries and obtained knowledge.  Truth, whatever it may be, continues to be true if one embraces it or not, regardless of its partial agreement or its complete contradiction with any flawed theory or belief.

It is reasonably certain that otherworldly intelligent life does not presently thrive elsewhere within our own solar system, with the possible exception of Mars.  Yet conditions on certain celestial bodies within our solar system may some day, in the far distant future, produce the basis for such life.  That same possibility likewise provides the chance that life could have previously formed on a now-uninhabitable celestial body within our solar system, sometime during the remote past.  NASA's 1989 Galileo mission, which reached orbital contact with Jupiter in 1995, passed close to that planet and three of its moons: Io, Callisto, and Europa.

The regularly erupting Io, Jupiter's large innermost moon, is the most volcanically active body in our solar system.  Its harsh environment, ranging from 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit near its lava lakes, to 280 degrees below zero elsewhere, creates superheated geysers and vast sulfur plains.  Its minimal atmosphere is virtually all sulfur dioxide, making humanlike life a remote possibility.  Io reflects conditions going back to Earth's early years around two billion years ago, and may be a candidate for life development sometime in the far future.²  Europa, the brightest object in our solar system and the fourth largest moon of Jupiter, possesses geological conditions within its slowly changing watery crust that could allow for life formation, even though its surface temperature hovers around 260 degrees below zero.³  It is interesting to note that both of these potentially future 'living' worlds are also neighbors of the asteroid belt.  That debris field contains partial remains of a terrestrial planet that is thought to have been similar to Earth.  That world may have once also been home to the earliest formation of life within our solar system.

It is a certainty that other planets exist throughout the universe.  Six newly discovered planets that orbit neighboring stars, located between 65 to 192 light years from Earth, were confirmed by the end of 1999.⁴  All have been approximately the size of Jupiter, about 318 times Earth's mass.  Another much closer Jupiter-sized planet was discovered in 2000 by the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory, orbiting Epsilon Eridani.⁵  That star is very similar to our own sun, and is only 10.8 light years from Earth.  Two other planets just slightly smaller than the size of Saturn, which is about 95 times Earth's mass, were also discovered and confirmed by March of 2000.⁶  These smaller planets are also gas giants, orbiting stars more than 100 light years away.  Their discovery was the result of new instrumentation added to the Keck telescope in Hawaii, allowing detection of planets that cause only minimal gravitational wobble to their host star.⁷  Even with that updated capability, it would require future instrumentation to be 30 times more sensitive to detect smaller planets, such as ones the size of Earth.⁸

Hence, even though smaller terrestrial planets that might be similar to Earth have not yet been found, that does not mean they do not exist.  Science has simply not yet advanced to the point where it would be able to detect those smaller worlds, but their actual existence has been implied by their effect on the already detected, larger neighboring gas giant planets.  The leading group of planet hunters, the Marcy Team, is led by Geoffrey W. Marcy from the University of California at Berkeley, and includes noted astronomer R. Paul Butler, a scientist with the Carnegie Institute in Washington.  That group believes smaller planets likely exist in those already detected systems, based on their present findings.⁹  By 2005, just over 130 planets had been discovered outside our solar system.¹⁰

Now, more than 200 planets have been found through 2006, making it abundantly clear that extrasolar planets, which are known