Giorgio
Tsoukalos

1) Dear. Mr. Giorgio Tsoukalos, we would like you to describe us briefly what exactly is the A.A.S. R.A. (Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association), its activities and what is your part in it.

I am the Chairman and Head of Research of the A.A.S. RA. and publisher of Legendary Times. The A.A.S. R.A. is an international research organization dedicated to the study of whether or not Extraterrestrials visited Earth in antiquity. The A.A.S. R.A. gathers and publishes information and indications supporting the theory in our official journal, Legendary Times. Legendary Times is the only publication in the world to exclusively report about the Ancient Astronaut theory. The A.A.S. R.A. organizes World Conferences, symposiums, seminars, and adventurous expeditions to many remote places. Membership of the A.A.S. R.A. is open to all. We are an organization comprising  laymen and academics from all walks of life. The A.A.S. R.A.’s official website can be found at: www.legendarytimes.com
Ever since Erich von Däniken’s ground breaking book Chariots of the Gods a popular idea started to revolve around the world: Extraterrestrials visited Earth thousands of years ago. They left traces behind in the form of mysterious, enigmatic monuments, curious artifacts, misunderstood technologies, and especially stunning descriptions of flying machines and other curiosities in ancient texts. The A.A.S. R.A. is operated exclusively for scientific, literary and educational purposes. The A.A.S. R.A. is committed to the exploration, discovery, understanding and preservation of mankind’s mysterious past, and to the pursuit to uncover the Truth.
The articles published in Legendary Times are written by the best and most authoritative researchers in the field. In exclusive articles, the dynamic Quarterly brings the unsolved ‘Mysteries of the World’ closer to the reader. In the pages of Legendary Times the reader will embark on a great worldwide voyage of discovery, and explore the secrets of the past and its hidden truths.

2) The theory of the “Ancient Spacemen” was firstly introduced by the well known writer and researcher Erich Von Daniken. We would like to hear a bit about the “man Daniken” and how you are related to him.
For over 30 years, Erich von Däniken has postulated the theory that Earth has been visited by Extraterrestrials in the remote past. Erich von Däniken, the world's most successful non-fiction writer of all time, has written 28 books on the topic and has sold over 60 million copies worldwide. His books have been translated into 32 languages. Fluent in four languages, Erich von Däniken is an avid researcher and an energetic traveler, averaging 100'000 miles per year to visit remote places of the Earth. This enables him to closely examine the phenomena about which he writes. Together with two planning committees he built a gigantic theme park called "Mysteries of the World" in Interlaken / Switzerland.
Erich von Däniken's latest book is 'The Gods Were Astronauts: Evidence of the True Identities of the Ancient Gods.' In this book Erich von Däniken investigates a mystery that has fascinated humankind for millennia: who, or what, were the gods described in ancient stories? Von Däniken has exhaustively researched and analyzed the great world religions, their myths and belief structures, in an effort to find an answer to this question. His extraordinary conclusion? The gods were not metaphysical beings born of humanity's overactive imagination, but Extraterrestrials who left traces of their presence everywhere on Earth.
Together with his wife Elisabeth, Erich von Däniken today lives in the small mountain-village of Beatenberg in Switzerland (40 miles from Berne, above the city of Interlaken) and he is an active contributor and co-founder of the A.A.S. R.A. / Legendary Times.

3) What is the origin of mankind Mr. Tsoukalos. Were we made out of clay? Are we the result of the natural evolution process as Darwin claimed? Or maybe is there somebody else involved?
No, we were not made of clay. Scientific evidence speaks against that. We are certainly a result of the natural evolutionary process. BUT! And here comes the big BUT: Darwin never (!) claimed for his theory to be the ultimate truth! He said that his theory offered a possibility! Because in the end, as anyone can read in his 'The Origin of Species,' he openly admitted that 'something' is missing. This is where he referred to the infamous 'missing link' - and it is exactly this missing link that the Ancient Astronaut theory fills in. The 'sudden jump' from apeman to modern man happened virtually over night. The Ancient Astronaut theory postulates that Extraterrestrials has given primitive man a gentle push into the right direction.

4) We would like your opinion concerning the great archaeological monuments. What are the origins of monuments such as the pyramids, the ancient temples in geometrical lineup, the dolmens and the menhirs? Why do these monuments exist?
Eventually, mankind will venture into space. I am absolutely certain of this notion, because of all living beings on this planet, there is one specific trait that sets us apart from the animal kingdom: curiosity. We are the only species with a conscious sense for curiosity. We ask questions. By displaying curiosity, the trait of exploration is automatically added to our human repertoire. We always have and always will ask the question: “What’s out there?” Our forefathers asked the same question hundreds of years ago when they were standing on the shores of Spain looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean. Against all the nay-sayers, against the notion that the Earth was but a mere disc, they boarded their magnificent, wooden sail ships and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to find out first hand of what’s “out there.”
The same sense of curiosity and exploration will one day apply for deep space exploration. Why is it that on a clear night we can spend hours on end staring at the starry sky, asking ourselves: “What’s out there?” After seeing countless stars, some people even dare to ask: “Are we alone?” Just seeing these countless, bright stars can possibly only lead to one answer: We are not alone in the universe.
Immediately the critics will shout: “Even if we are not alone, the distances between the stars are way too large for anyone to traverse them!” My answer always has been, and always will be, the same: We must restructure our way of thinking. Yes, I absolutely agree that the distances between the stars are huge indeed. With our current propulsion systems it is impossible to traverse the distance to a distant star in one lifetime.
However, who says that everything has to be achieved in one lifetime? With today’s technology, interstellar space flight is no longer considered to be a piece of fiction. There are already existing blueprints featuring large, self-sufficient generation spaceships which could traverse the gigantic distances between the stars over long periods of time. Not the first crew will arrive at the destination point, but their children’s children’s children. Hence the name generation spaceship.
Let us assume, that 100 or 200 years from now, after finally constructing permanent bases both on the Moon and on Mars, mankind will ultimately venture into deep space to explore  strange, new worlds. Eventually, our generation space ship will reach a planet which hosts some sort of humanoid life. For this argument, let us assume that the civilization we will encounter is technologically inferior to ours. What will we do upon arrival? Will we just watch them from afar, or will we actually help them advance, give them a little push, by teaching them a few things?
I highly doubt that we will just stand there and watch. Our inflated human egos would simply not allow it. We would be extremely anxious to show our “superiority” to the “inferior” civilization.
We would be very determined to teach them, which would show them how advanced we are. In turn, we would achieve instant god-like status! How could it not? We are in posession of “magical” knowledge heretofore unattainable by the natives, and we are willing to share this knowledge with them!
What type of mark would we leave behind? We would leave behind two types of marks. One type will be all the written accounts, reports and traditions which the planet’s inhabitants will eventually write down about us because our visit to their planet had such an impact on them, and their ensuing history. They will write about powerful beings which once descended from the sky and taught them in various disciplines.
The other type of mark will be of a physical nature. I am referring to monuments. What type of material would we use on a distant planet in order to leave something behind, a message possibly, for future generations to solve? Due to obvious payload reasons it would be impossible to bring along massive steel beams. We would have to exclusively rely on the raw materials available at the destination. Consequently, we would use stone, because stone is a universal building material and can last virtually for eternity.
What would we build? Let us assume, we would build a very large structure. Who would build it? We ourselves? I don’t think so. We have traveled millions and millions of miles to arrive at our destination. The civilization we discovered is technologically “inferior” to ours. We then decide to build some sort of monument in order to leave behind some testament of our presence. Ever since our arrival, we are regarded as “gods.” With an obedient work force present, would we really dirty our hands and build the monument ourselves? Of course not. The natives of the planet would be delighted to help their “gods” with their construction plans. They would do anything in order to please us, their “gods.” All we really would have to do is to simply assist them, architecturally speaking, with the calculations and planning, and, technologically speaking, with the necessary machinery.
What will become of our very large structure once we have left the planet behind? The building, most probably, will become a temple. A temple which will be shrouded in great mystery and lore. The coming generations will speak of “gods” who once descended from the sky and taught their forefathers in various disciplines and resided in this temple. These”gods” are now worshipped there. This worship will result in building more and more similar temples in order to please these gods... with everyone praying for their return one day...
Eventually, however, with many generations come and gone, all of these once real stories about strange and powerful beings who once came from the sky are demoted into the realm of legends and mythologies. Why? Ironically, because by now, the civilization on that planet has achieved such technological advancements that they themselves are trying to venture into space, making it absolutely impossible to think that someone else traveled through space before them...!
My question to you now is, dear reader: If such a scenario will eventually be played out by our own species, why could it not be possible, that the exact same scenario has been played out here on Earth thousands and thousands of years ago by extraterrestrials? Well, it is my absolute conviction, that it already has...

5) The next question concerns our country, Greece. What are the great secrets kept in our land. Do you believe that in our mythology there are encoded messages from the past?
Of course. Greek mythology is FULL of references of extraterrestrial visits in antiquity. The gods of mythology, in all likelihood, were NOT spiritual beings, but rather beings of flesh and blood, space travellers who visited Earth thousands of years ago. There are many mysterious references to flying machines and even robots, such as Thalos, and genetically engineered creatures such as the Cyclops, centaurs and griffins. Atlantis is another great mystery which was first mentioned by Plato and then again in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. Let us remember that up until recently, Native Americans, for instance, referred to a train as a ‘fire horse.’ Why? Because they did not have the word ‘train’ in their vocabulary. The same applies to our ancestors. They had no way of calling a flying object by the words ‘aircraft’ or ‘plane.’ They simply did not have the necessary vocabulary.
Let me draw our attention to the Cargo-Cult phenomenon, where “technologically advanced” visitors lived among primitive native tribes for short periods of time and then vanished as quickly as they came. As a result of the advanced technologies of the visitors, the natives thought these humans to be gods and thus began to worship them. Their hope was that through intense worship and sacrifice their “gods” would be pleased and return. Critics now say that these Cargo-Cult phenomena are already 50 years old, and are, consequently, no longer relevant. Really?
I was educated at a Swiss boarding school in the mountains. After the end of Communism, our school received a few new students from the former Soviet Union. I remember sitting in art class: Our assignment was to draw a fantasy castle, a dream castle floating up in the sky embedded in the clouds with shining towers made of gold, magnificent windows and whatever else we could imagine. Everyone was very excited about the project, and we all started to draw like crazy. Everyone, that is, except for our new Russian friends. They just sat there in front of their large, blank sheets of paper. None of them touched their pencils.“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you drawing?” the teacher asked. Their answer was stunning. “What’s a fantasy castle?” they asked. “We’ve never seen one. What does it look like? Since we’ve never seen one we can’t draw it.” What an extraordinary, sobering answer.
With this observation, it is quite clear that if something hasn’t been seen or experienced, such as the gods described in the ancient texts, then it cannot be invented. It is impossible to invent or conjure up something if the basic elements are missing! Nothing happens without initial inspiration. Therefore, all mythologies, legends, tales, whatever, which today are discredited by modern researchers as mere inventions of fantasy and figments of somebody’s imagination, cannot possibly be unfounded inventions or mere fantasy! Something had to be there in the first place to serve as the basic element, and as the initial inspiration to create more!
Similarly, it is absolutely impossible to create, let alone solve, a mathematical equation without mastering the basic mathematical elements! It simply cannot be done. As hard as this is to swallow for our critics, there is no way around this fact.
It is always said that every legend or myth has a true core. It is this kernel of truth that we must attempt to unveil. Local religious traditions, for example, are of great importance in this quest because they are oftentimes still living mythology where tradtions have been kept alive for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is exactly this core that represents the base element. Without a base element, or initial inspiration, nothing is possible. Therefore, if something like this can happen to my Russian friends living in the 20th century, why couldn’t this have happened thousands of years ago with our ancestors?
When the ancient accounts were written, some of which, for example, were later included in the Bible or in other sacred books, writing was a fairly new and revolutionary invention. When the people started to realize that this new invention was a rather powerful tool to preserve knowledge for generations after generations to come, is it really logical to think that the first stories that were put in writing were only figments of their imagination? Of course not! With the invention of the written word, people were able to forever keep a record of the most significant events of their time for the first time in the history of mankind! In a time of great uncertainty and upheaval, when the most important order of the day was raw survival, the very first people empowered with the written word had better things to do than invent fantasy stories. They immortalized what was most significant to them at that very moment in time: their history!
Consequently, if there are intricate and highly detailed descriptions of beings that a long, long time ago descended from the sky in flying vehicles and taught mankind in various academic disciplines, I postulate that science must lend more credence to these accounts than they have been given thus far.

6) Very often, you get in touch with researchers and lovers of the unexplained all over the globe. Do you believe that in the last few years, an awakening takes place worldwide? Does this awakening bring a spiritual revolution? What will be the future of this “revolution”?
Which are today’s most popular TV shows? Among the top rated TV shows are the X-Files, Stargate SG-1, Farscape and reruns of the ever popular Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. What do these TV programs indicate about the Zeitgeist of our time? Over the past 20 years, extraterestrials have become extremely popular. Instead of embracing this newfound curiosity, why is the academic establishment fighting the change in the public’s perception of extraterrestrial intelligence? If TV’s most popular programs revolve around an extraterrestrial premise, doesn’t this indicate that the average TV viewer has started to toy around with the idea that we might possibly not be alone in the Universe? As with every period, there comes a moment in each culture when the Zeitgeist shifts.

We are currently experiencing such a shift in Zeitgeist. Prof. Dr. Campbell is one of today’s most eminent archaeologists. Does he feel threatened by our theory? No. Quite on the contrary. He, albeit cautiously, embraces the basic Ancient Astronaut premise. In fact, Dr. Campbell firmly believes that the probability that we will come across relics of an ancient civilization in our solar system is not zero. The same counts for Prof. Dr. Michio Kaku and fellow A.A.S. R.A. Member Prof. Dr. Allen Tough. All three professors and their fellow scholars must be commended for their courage to publicly accept Ancient Astronaut research and seriously commend it on its merits. They have made significant contributions to our general field of research. They have recognized that the Ancient Astronaut theory is a breath of fresh air in the cobweb-infested realm of present-day archaeology and that we must move forward. Campbell, Kaku, and Tough are a rare breed of extraordinary thinkers who are not afraid to push the envelope to the limits of human comprehension to continually ask “What if...?” The more scientists begin to take our research into consideration, the closer we get to uncovering the mysteries of our cosmic past.

7) Closing, we would like you to tell us what you’ve heard about the unexplained in Greece, a first impression of the website of Gateway Team and a message to the visitors of our website.
I highly recommend Erich von Daniken's book "Odyssey of the Gods" - it is dedicated exclusivley to the ancient mysteries of Greece and a formidable read to anyone interested what happened in ancient Greece.

See, it is obvious that there are several unsolved mysteries all around the world. What is even more astonishing, is the fact that all of these mysteries emerged at approximately the same time! The Pyramid at Giza is a prime example! By the way, and let me be VERY clear about the following: in the Classic Ancient Astronaut camp no one ever disputed that the Egyptians did indeed  build the pyramids! In fact, there is absolutely no question in my mind that the Egyptians really were the builders of the pyramids. Of course they were the builders! However, conventional science teaches us that mankind just came out of the Stone Age before Egyptian culture and without any apparent, gradual evolution in technology mankind built the ancient world’s most remarkable monument? Couldn’t we have received assistance? Assistance from the “Guardians from the Sky,” as they are often referred to in ancient Egyptians texts? The extraterrestrials would have never dirtied their hands in their intention to leave behind a “message” for future generations. Why? They had access to the most obedient work force who would’ve died for their “gods.”
Just like we would be more than determined to leave a clear mark in the history of some other civilization on a somewhere far away planet in the future, the Extraterrestrials which have visited our planet in our past were also more than determined to leave their own mark in history.
Sadly enough, however, we choose to blindly ignore all the glaring signs of such visits which can be found all over the world and it is people like you who are visiting the Metafysiko website that will change the world because we will not rest on our laurels until we have uncovered the truth! And together, it is only a matter of time until more and more pieces of the puzzle fit together. The search goes on! Come search with us!

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