Erich von Däniken, the “Forbidden History” and the Sacred Tradition of the Extraterrestrials

It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Dr. h. c. Erich von Däniken (April 14, 1935 – January 10, 2026), a worldwide best-selling author with over forty books that have sold more than sixty-seven million copies and have been translated into thirty-two languages.

Von Däniken gave countless lectures and participated in debates in public and private forums.

Indeed, his controversial ideas have influenced virtually every cultural expression: Literature, art, history, archaeology, philosophy, and, of course, television and film.

Erich von Däniken’s ideas revolutionized thinking about the origin and development of human history. With the publication of his first book in 1968, Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (“Memories of the Future”), he proposed what is possibly one of the most thought-provoking and extraordinary ideas in historiography: Extraterrestrial visitors arrived on Earth thousands of years ago.

This marks the beginning of the history of Homo sapiens sapiens.

It is the beginning of civilization on the planet.

Erich von Däniken is the driving force behind PaleoSETI historiography –or or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in Antiquity–.

Certainly, in keeping with the Zeitgeist, or “Spirit of the Times”, the religious and scientific communities of the Western world unanimously set about ridiculing and attacking Erich’s brilliant ideas. But all was in vain. For Erich reached the sources of knowledge, allowing for a profound understanding of mankind’s past. He has been a contemporary Skald who has rescued the inherent knowledge of myths –the history of the past– regarding the arrival of extraterrestrials in antiquity and the development of civilization.

The fundamental aspect in this regard has been the communication –against all odds– of the myths and the knowledge they project.

Throughout his valuable studies, Erich von Däniken addressed transcendental fields of knowledge: The origin of mankind and the mysterious development of civilization; the planetary-scale “myths” about the gods of the firmament; the great cyclical catastrophes and the destruction of mythical continents –such as Mu and Atlantis–; the phenomenon of pyramidal constructions on a global scale –and their extraordinary astronomical alignments–; the fascinating ruins of Tiahuanaco-Puma Punku and the field research in the Andean highlands carried out by Arthur Posnansky and Edmund Kiss; the Nazca Lines; the ruins of Baalbek; the amazing vestiges of Nan Mandol and the legend of the Sovereigns of the Sky of Asia and of course, the pre-Christian traditions of Europe and pre-Hispanic America and the imposition of false “history” through religion and science –positioning man at the “center” of everything, whether through ‘creation’ or ‘evolution’– among other fields.

Erich von Däniken, through his work grounded in archaeological, anthropological, historiographical, philosophical, theological, and astrophysical disciplines, sparked a true revolution in thought by reconnecting us with the ancient legend of the gods and their legacy: The foundations of our ancient civilization.