Have We Been Down This Road Before?

I am fascinated by the so-called anomalies that keep turning up in the earth and rock of this ancient planet.

Discoveries like a porcelain coated metallic object (spark plug?), a manufactured wire chain, a common nail, iron tools and concrete pillars and blocks, found deep in the earth or the bottom of the ocean . . . places where they should not be . . . give me an eerie feeling that the human race has been down this path more than once.

I still possess, somewhere in my papers, a copy of an old Argosy Magazine with a picture on its cover and a story inside that astounded me. The magazine documents a piece of solid gold art, excavated in ancient ruins near Mexico City. What is amazing about this artifact, estimated to be thousands of years old, is that it is a perfect replica of a modern, single-seated, jet powered aircraft. The author of the story described the similarity. A skeptic also quoted in the article suggested that the object might be an artist's concept of a winged insect. I might have accepted that accept for the fact that a pilot's cockpit is clearly visible in the middle of the fuselage.

The theory that great civilizations once thrived in the distant past is supported by the old stories passed down by many of the indigenous people still living in isolated corners of the world.

When my wife and I lived for a time with the Navajo and Hopi tribes in Northeast Arizona, we were fascinated by the tribal myths that tell how their ancestors arrived here from earlier worlds.

The Navajo myth is told in a long, beautifully designed mural decorating a circular hallway on one floor of a large building that comprises Dine' College in Tsaile, Arizona. The native legend tells how the Dineh, or "the people," passed through three earlier worlds before emerging in the present world. The Navajo name for this place is "glittering world."

The Hopi share the myth that tells of three earlier worlds. Their stories speak of great heroism on the part of their ancestors who discovered a way to climb from the third world to the present world. The Hopi people believe a few very strong and courageous ancestors emerged to this world from a subterranean place, or inner earth, by climbing through a hole in the ground. The Hopi elders remember this event every time they gather in their sacred place, or kiva. The kiva has no doors or windows and must be entered through a hole in the roof.

The Old Testament Book of Genesis contains stories that suggest the presence of at least one great civilization in the distant past.

Notice in Chapter Four that the first born sons of Adam were farmers. Abel raised sheep and Cain "was a tiller of the ground." After Cain slew his brother and was cast "from the presence of the Lord," verse 17 clearly states that Cain built a city and named it after his first son, Enoch. That was an advanced lifestyle for a people we have long considered second and third generation cave dwellers.

The interesting part of the Genesis story comes in Chapter Six, verse two, when "the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair; and they took them wives of all whom they chose." The story goes on to say "there were giants in the earth in those days. when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

It was at this point that God decided to send the flood and destroy the corrupted human race. Only a remnant of that original race was allowed to survive. Notice the similarities here between the Christian story and the Hopi and Navajo stories. A few survivors of a catastrophic event continued on to replenish the human race.

Genesis 19 contains the story of Lot's escape, with his family, from the corrupted cities of Sodom and Gomorrah before they were destroyed by God. The Biblical myth says God sent fire and brimstone down from heaven. When Lot's uncle, Abraham, "looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." (Gen. 19:28)

Could this have been the detonation of an atomic bomb? Abraham was miles away from the event when he saw this great cloud of smoke rise into the sky. The explosion was powerful enough to destroy two cities.

Consider this ancient epic from India, known as The Mahabharata. It tells of an ancient war between the Vrishnis, obviously the good guys, and the evil Salva. It seems that the Salva flew about in the sky in chariots that carried them anywhere at will. They emerge from a flying city (or mother ship) known as the Saubha. The Vrishnis, headed by a hero named Krishna, use "swift-striking shafts" that flash through the sky and destroy the invading ships. Were these missiles or perhaps lasers?

The battle ends when a great explosion destroys three cities of the Vrishnis and their neighbors, the Andhakas, killing everyone and leaving no building standing. A description of the blast sounds much like a modern nuclear bombing:

"An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousand suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the unknown weapon, the iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas. The corpses were so burnt they were no longer recognizable. Hair and nails fell out. Pottery broke without cause. Foodstuffs were poisoned."

Again, the similarities between this destruction of two communities as described in the Mahabharata, and the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, are interesting. Is it the same story told in two different ways by two different cultures?

The troubling thought here is that we may be living on a planet that has seen the human race evolve over and over again, each time developing great technologies. But each time this happened, the people also used the new technologies to create mass weapons of war. And each time we reached this pinnacle, instead of continuing the natural evolution into something far better, we destroyed ourselves.

So are we in hell? Are we doomed to relive this horror story over and over again until we get it right? Or is there a limit to the number of times we are allowed to keep trying? Whatever the answer, we are rushing once again toward the final hour. There is a nagging sense in my bones that if we fail this time, we may not have another chance.