I was startled when I read (over my lifetime)

 I was startled when I read…..

        that myths were historical references to actual events in our ancient past as recorded by the ancient Sumerians. 

MOST STARTLED OF MY LIFETIME:

          The past 50 years of my life have been blessed with many !AAAHHAAA! light bulb moments.  Most often, the catalyst stimulating thoughts deep enough to infiltrate the essence of my soul were books.   Being in the presence of books both calms me and excites me.  Walking into a library or book store is my adult version of Christmas --- potential, unopened gifts between every cover.  Pages lined with wisdom, humor, insights, compassion, cruelty, love, violence, breathtaking photos, artistic impressions  and brain stretching science are all evidence of man’s significance in the universe.   All that knowledge and stories just waiting for me to discover!!!

Although the lifetimes of man are brutally brief, the stories we share eternally impact our mortal brothers.  We’ve discussed in class how there is nothing new under the sun, how the stories continuously circulate with only the details modified.   By observational science it becomes apparent that humans NEED the stories we tell.  To what end???  I think the stories provide a continuity, a connectedness to our ancestors, an attachment to our genetic heritage.  In this way, stories eternally link the human race together.

          My earliest memories of my father were of bedtime stories and meteor showers.  Every night my father would read several chapters of a book to me --- not silly kids’ books, but books with intricate plots and deep character development.  Books, like TREASURE ISLAND (which incidentally gave me nightmares), that left me thinking about them all day- eager for my father to continue the storytelling at bedtime.  The purpose of bed time stories was not to put me to sleep, but to expand my imagination.

          

           The books were incremental steps in imagination expansion.  But the first time my dad woke me up to watch a meteor shower, my imagination went super nova.  The magical light skipping across the sky were rocks from space!  Not ‘shooting stars’ but rocks from Space!  That may have been on other planets?!?  That had passed close to the sun, maybe other worlds we didn’t even know about?    What had those rocks seen in their billions of years?  Where had they been? Where did space stop?  Did it stop?  If not, how could something go on forever?  My love for science and things unknown was born in the chill of that early morning at Lake Dangerfield with my dad beside me as the ambassadors of worlds unknown consecrated the night with an awe inspiring  light show.

Of the thousands of books I have read, one compelled me to change my life’s path when it challenged my current belief system and forced me to examine my existence in a new light.  It lead to several other books that were equally insightful and disturbing, but THE 12^TH PLANET by Zecharia Sitchin was the catalyst that spurred me to follow the deeply buried passions my father had inspired in me.

Twenty-two years ago, a friend invited me to a conference where

Dr. John Mack, Harvard professor, referred over and over to the research conducted by Zecharia Sitchin.  Immediately, I purchased all of Sitchin’s Earth Chronicle books.  Innocently, I cracked the cover of THE 12^TH PLANET not realizing my conception of the world would vanish in a consuming combustion.  In its wake, a nebula of knowledge arose that permeates every aspect of my life.

       

   Mr. Sitchin had spent decades in museums across the globe studying and interpreting the ancient cylinder seals and tablets of the Sumerian civilization.  The Sumerian culture “popped up” 6,000 years ago replete with knowledge of our solar system’s history and man’s origins.  They referred to Earth as the seventh planet.  Earth is the seventh planet only if you count from outside the solar system coming in.  (The Sumerians did not strip Pluto’s planet status from him.)  Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth.   Ummmm, we only “discovered” Pluto in the 1930’s.  The Sumerians also knew Neptune was a blue planet covered in icy liquid.  Ummmmm, we only found that out when Voyager went by in the 1980’s.  The Sumerians considered humans to genetically be 2/3 their mother and 1/3 their father.  Ummmm, we only figured out that mitochondrial DNA comes only from your mother in the 1960’s. 

          The Sumerian tablets were filled with familiar stories from the Bible.  The Bible was a very condensed version of elaborate tales recorded by the Sumerians.   Some of the names and details were modified, but the Bible stories children grow up with, such as Noah’s flood, exist as vivid detailed accounts on Sumerian tablets.  When the Sumerians recorded the creation of man (and no, it wasn’t a snake that tempted Eve), the development of agriculture, the flood, Ezekial’s extraordinary travel in a flying chariot, reigns of rulers that lasted 10,000+ years (Biblical book of Kings),  and the origin of our planet they did so as history --- not as myths.  

            However, as time progressed, the history regressed and was relegated to mythological standing.  The creators and rulers the Sumerians referred to as actual entities have now been given the status of “mythological gods.” 

Mr. Sitchin chose to research the most ancient texts known to us as if they were historical documents.  He surmised that records written closer to the origin of the events would be more accurate than the “duplicates” that have been distorted over the millennia.   

          The Sumerians accurately documented scientific knowledge that our scientists have only recently “re-discovered.”  If the Sumerian’s 6000 year old understanding of science exceeded modern human’s knowledge, shouldn’t we take what they have recorded seriously?  Obviously, they knew much more than today’s conventional, standard explanations allow for.   The Sumerians make it very clear where their knowledge came from:  the Annunaki (the Anakim of the Bible) from the planet Nibiru landed on Earth to mine the gold (gold mines have been found in Africa that exceed 100,000 years old).  The gold was needed to suspend in their atmosphere to protect it from the Sun’s radiation.  (A few years ago when scientists were searching for solutions to the ozone hole dilemma, a gold suspension was suggested.)  Truly, nothing is new under the sun.

         

          As I read the history of man in THE 12^TH PLANET, our place in the universe, how and why we were created, my dormant desire to KNOW awakened.  What and who is out there?  Who and what is man, really?  Are there other entities in the universe?  What is the interconnectedness between us all?  Quantum physics postulates that particles once connected maintain their connection even after being separated by several miles.  Everything and everybody was once ONE – before the Big Bang we were ALL ONE compressed single point.  Following the logic of quantum science, we cannot be disconnected.  But, I digress… or progress… but either way, I am getting off topic.    

          I blazed through the first two books of the Earth Chronicles series and then contacted Mr. Sitchin.  After corresponding for six months, I had the opportunity to travel across the globe with him on numerous occasions to study ancient sites, listen to his extensive knowledge, and ultimately call him friend.  (Rest in Peace, my dear, dear friend.  I think of you every day.)  

When I read Mr. Sitchin’s books, the puzzle pieces that had seemed so random before tumbled together to present a picture I understood:  What we modern humans call “mythology” is actually our history.

          PS      Yes, I am an ancient astronaut theorist.  I have been one for 25 years, long before it was “cool” to be one.