Erich von Däniken was never regarded seriously by the scientific establishment, although his success never waned. Until the end, the author filled vast rooms with his talk about claimed extraterrestrial evidence on Earth. The Swiss novelist has died.
Erich von Däniken had one basic message for his many millions of readers and supporters worldwide, which he reiterated for decades in books, films, and lectures – including here, at the age of 88, in a documentary by the Swiss broadcaster SRF:
Many thousands of years ago, when our ancestors were Stone Age people, aliens landed. Our ancestors didn’t understand anything; they had no knowledge of technology, and they mistakenly believed these aliens were gods.
According to von Däniken, the aliens left permanent imprints in cultures such as the Egyptian pharaohs and the Maya during their journey to Earth. For example, he believed that the enigmatic “Nazca” lines in Peru, located on a high plateau south of the city Lima, were actually landing strips for extraterrestrials.
Even in his old age, the self-proclaimed expert on cosmic phenomena and the founder of so-called “pre-astronautics” enthralled his followers. Von Däniken’s lectures filled big rooms, including one in Switzerland in 2023.
“We had visitors from outer space”
“Why am I standing here at 88 years old, telling these stories with such emotion?” he was wondering. “Because I am persuaded that we have had visits from outer space. They were here thousands of years ago, and they are returning now! And we should ultimately realise this since it is healthy for us.”
The scientific community did not take von Däniken’s theories seriously. Archaeologists called the Swiss amateur researcher a hopeless lunatic and fantasist. In an interview a few years ago, he stated that he had not been concerned by it in a long time and had just risen beyond it. In any case, his success was unaffected by criticism—quite the reverse.
It might possibly have been owing to his skilful mixing of daring theses with genuine scientific discoveries and long-standing riddles of global history.
“Whenever people from an advanced society came together with people from a technologically underdeveloped society, cults arose,” according to his theory. “The undeveloped people could not grasp technology, and in most cases, they thought the technologically sophisticated people were gods. This is, of course, complete rubbish. There are no gods, yet that is how it has been handed down.”
Von Däniken’s debut book, “Chariots of the Gods?” was published in 1968 and became a tremendous hit for the Swiss author, who was born on April 14, 1935, in the canton of Aargau. He was trained as a chef and hotelier before leaving the hospitality sector in 1976 to pursue his interest of extraterrestrial studies full-time.
The amateur researcher became entrepreneur, establishing the “Mystery Park” amusement park in Interlaken as well as the “Research Society for Archaeology, Astronautics, and SETI.” Last November, Erich von Däniken, 90, made a brief visit there and received a standing ovation: “People are beginning to understand that we are right,” he screamed to the audience. “We have been visited by extraterrestrials.”
