{"id":1484,"date":"2010-05-23T07:21:22","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T07:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:28:59","slug":"daniken-erich-von","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/daniken-erich-von\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e4niken, Erich von"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vonDaniken\"<\/a>Erich von <\/strong>D<\/strong>\u00e4niken <\/strong>(1935-2026)<\/strong> was famous for his ancient astronaut theories. <\/b>However, others, such as W. Raymond Drake <\/a>preceded him. Similarly, George Hunt Williamson (1926-1986), who also wrote of alien visitors, was understandably irked by D\u00e4niken being referred to as “the father of the ‘ancient astronaut’ theory”(g)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

As a young man, I was influenced by D\u00e4niken’s writings and it took time to develop my critical faculties to the point where I could discount his ideas as ‘pure waffle’. I now see him as a guru for the lunatic fringe who cynically presents distorted collections of historical artefacts and data for financial gain. One website(a)<\/sup> recounts his claim that the humble banana is evidence of extraterrestrials visitors.The same source also deals with his lack of truthfulness, which along with one particular blog(c)<\/sup> from Jason Colavito. are both well worth a read. Colavito has also reviewed the racism expressed by von D\u00e4niken(d)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

Von D\u00e4niken had seldom touched on the Atlantis story until his O<\/em>dyssey of the <\/em>G<\/em>ods <\/em>published in English in 2000[<\/sup>273<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. He concentrated his discussion on the work of fellow Swiss writer, Eberhard Zangger<\/a>, who identifies Atlantis with Troy<\/a>. Von D\u00e4niken appears ambiguous about the actual existence of Atlantis, although he seems most reluctant to accept Zangger\u2019s Trojan theory. “Almost anything is possible where Atlantis is concerned. Only Eberhard’s assumption that Atlantis was nothing other than Troy is hard to sustain.”<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Von D\u00e4niken joined the many 2012 opportunists in his 2010 offering, Twilight of the Gods. <\/em>He claimed that 2012 would not see the end of the world, but in fact, the Mayan \u2018prophecies\u2019 relate to the return of the \u2018gods\u2019 in the form of alien astronauts. I hope Von D\u00e4niken meets them and expresses his gratitude for the good living that they have provided him with for nearly half a century.<\/p>\r\n

Jason Colavito<\/a> offers an extensive 7-part critique of \u2018Twilight\u2019(h)(b)<\/sup>. Colavito is also featured in Issue 8 of the English magazine, Explore History, <\/em>which reviews 50 years of ancient aliens, a la <\/em>von D\u00e4niken. The article includes a number of references to Colavito’s criticism of D\u00e4niken’s theories(f)<\/span><\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, offers a highly critical review of von D\u00e4niken’s astronomical knowledge [1842<\/a>.247]<\/sup>. However, in a balanced conclusion, Krupp candidly wrote “it would be very difficult to prove that ancient astronauts did not visit the earth. But evidence for their having been here is not convincing.”<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Some of Daniken’s books are now available as free pdf files(e)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

Von Daniken died January 2026, aged 90.<\/p>\r\n

(a) forgetomori \u00bb Erich von Da<\/a><\/sup>niken: Fraud, Lies and Bananas (archive.org)<\/a>
<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

(b)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/1\/category\/ancient%20astronauts\/1.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(c) <\/sup>https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/1\/post\/2013\/04\/review-of-ancient-aliens-s05e10-the-von-dniken-legacy.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(d)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/1\/post\/2014\/01\/the-astonishing-racial-claims-of-erich-von-daniken.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(e)\u00a0<\/sup>https:\/\/epdf.tips\/miracles-of-the-gods-a-new-look-at-the-supernatural.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(f)\u00a0 <\/span><\/sup>https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/blog\/british-magazine-profiles-erich-von-daniken-interviews-me-as-counterpoint<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n

(g)<\/sup> George Hunt Williamson and the ‘Brotherhood of the Seven Rays’ (bibliotecapleyades.net)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

(h) https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/blog\/reviewing-evds-twilight-of-the-gods-pt-1 <\/a>\u00a0(In 7 parts) {4547P}<\/p>\r\n

(i)\u00a0 http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260111152033\/https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Technology\/wireStory\/erich-von-dniken-swiss-writer-spawned-alien-archaeology-129100696<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erich von D\u00e4niken (1935-2026) was famous for his ancient astronaut theories. However, others, such as W. Raymond Drake preceded him. Similarly, George Hunt Williamson (1926-1986), who also wrote of alien visitors, was understandably irked by D\u00e4niken being referred to as “the father of the ‘ancient astronaut’ theory”(g). As a young man, I was influenced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[187,111,4752,6794,113,215,6983,1266,50,3817,45,6984],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-187","tag-ancient-astronauts","tag-bananas","tag-e-c-krupp","tag-eberhard-zangger","tag-erich-von-daniken","tag-george-hunt-williamson","tag-jason-colavito","tag-lunatic-fringe","tag-racism","tag-troy","tag-w-raymond-drake-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66263,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions\/66263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}