Reviewed: History Is Wrong

One of the books I’ve been looking forward to reading this year is Erich Von Däniken’s latest book, History Is Wrong. Here’s a little bit about this book and what I thought of it.

It’s been quite a few years since I last read Erich Von Däniken’s most famous book, Chariots of the Gods, or even Gold of the Gods. He’s actually written twenty-six books, (most of them in German) but those two books are the only ones I’ve previously read. It’s been such a long time that I can’t really recall what my impressions were of them. However, I do recall that they at least challenged me to think of life and the history of our world in a different way.

In general, the theory that extraterrestrials or at least some extraterrestrials were the gods of old is a theory that I’m somewhat comfortable with; I find it a pretty feasible answer. I definitely don’t think that all extraterrestrials are gods though. Moreover, so much of our history has been lost, misinterpreted or changed to suit various institutions own beliefs and aims that a book titled ‘History Is Wrong’ is certainly going to appeal to me. Having said all that, this doesn’t mean that I totally agree with authors/researchers such as Von Däniken on everything they say or write; as is the case with this new book.

History Is Wrong is divided into three chapters: Mysterious Books, Debunking the Debunkers and Natural Science in Nazca. Each chapter is divided into several ’sub-chapters’ if you will and explores a number of topics.

Throughout each chapter Von Däniken spends quite a bit of time trying to explain how he’s been misinterpreted, taken to task on various aspects of his research and in some cases debunked. This is in addition to the second chapter, ‘Debunking the Debunkers’. At times I got the impression that this particular theme was the real central reason for coming out with both a German and an English version of this book; a perceived need to set the record straight. “History has been wrong to me and here’s why,” type of a deal; quite understandable really. However, as he’s the author of a book titled, Arrival of the Gods: Revealing the Alien Landing Sites of Nazca, I don’t think that one can really say, “I never wrote in any of my books that aliens built the ‘landing strips’ in Nazca, or that the site is some kind of ’spaceport’!”. I never read the book, so I can’t confirm the contents one way or another, but the title clearly reads that he’s implying that aliens did use Nazca as a landing strip or spaceport. Unfortunately, that quote was his closing remarks in this book. And I thought it a strange way to end an otherwise intriguing chapter. Actually, to be more specific, he then tacks on a quote that’s been attributed to Paul Valéry: “Those who cannot attack the thought, instead attack the thinker.”

Perhaps, in the above particular case and possibly in others, the problem lays in that Von Däniken’s work suffers from language translation errors. Language is subtle and a translated piece can lack the specific meaning or intent when being translated out of the original language. I think that is something to bear in mind when reading this or any of his other books; and I find it interesting, considering Von Däniken notes himself that many of the religious texts he refers to suffers from the same problem. Although when it comes to the religious texts, sometimes that mistranslation is deliberate.

In summation of my above thoughts, I think the title ‘History Is Wrong’ can be thought of as a double entendre. And there are things in this book that give me pause.

In the first chapter, Mysterious Books, Von Däniken starts out by introducing a document that I’ve long thought to be interesting, the Voynich manuscript. I’m glad that he included a bit on this mystery because it served as a reminder for me to do some research on it, as I’ve been meaning to come up with a post or two about it. Other books he mentions, and writes about, (some more than others) The Book of Adam, The Book of Enoch, a work called the Bayloniaca and a couple of others. The Book of Enoch, along with the Voynich manuscript gets the biggest treatment. Some of it I already knew some of it I didn’t and still other parts caused me to pause and go “hmmm”. It was a most fascinating chapter and one that I’ll find useful as a jumping off point for further reading.

The second chapter, ‘Debunking the Debunkers’, leads off by describing a few passages from his 1972 book, ‘The Gold of the Gods’ and the subsequent ‘worldwide storm of indignation’. Now although I was only about five or so when The Gold of the Gods was first published, I do remember when I was reading it in the 80’s that someone told me that there was some sort of controversy about it. What that controversy was, no one could explain to me other than it had been debunked, so I was really pleased that Von Däniken decided to dredge up the past and write about what happened, his thoughts on the situation and provide some explanations of the events. It explains a lot of things and has yet again given me more things to study up on. It’s a strange and complicated tale but well worth reading. Personally, I think Von Däniken was deliberately set up so that someone could both ride his coat tails and make a lot of money off of him. As for the actuality of this mysterious treasure hoard or metal library that he’s convinced still might exist; I think its well worth looking into.

The second chapter is also the chapter where Von Däniken introduces a theory I don’t think I’ve heard before and one that I have mixed feelings about. The basic gist is as follows. He puts forth the theory that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (aka the Mormon Church) was visited by an extraterrestrial. The gold plates that Smith was supposed to have been shown, which were then transcribed as the book of Mormon are quite possibly, according to Von Däniken the same hidden metal library that he referred to earlier in the chapter and in his book The Gold of the Gods. This is the barest bone description and one simply must read the book and this chapter to see how exactly Von Däniken makes the connections and explains this theory. The theory and the history are curious in some ways and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it all. There are certain aspects of this idea that don’t sit well with me and yet other parts of it, there seem to be possibilities. Once again, a very thought provoking chapter.

The last chapter, Natural Science in Nazca, is the shortest chapter in the book. Despite my earlier remarks about the last statement in it, I did find the chapter interesting. The Nazca lines after all are one of those mysteries that continue to taunt the world. In addition to some of the more familiar information on Nazca, Von Däniken adds some of the questions and research he has pursued; which I found fascinating.

“Nobody should be making final judgments about such a wonderful and mysterious place as Nazca; sooner or later they are all revealed to be preposterous,” Erich Von Däniken says near the end. As for me, my final judgment on his book, History Is Wrong, is that although there are some things I don’t agree with, it was well worth reading, and that it’s given me plenty of subjects to find out more about.