*****I had previously placed this review on the product for History’s Mysteries – Ancient Aliens (History Channel), only to realize it was the wrong program. So I deleted that one and re-submitted it here as proper.******

This version heavily features Erich von Daniken and his book “Chariot of the Gods”

I’m one to easily give credence to virtually any crazy and insane and far-out theory regardless of evidence. As such, things like this appeal to me.

Without any real evidence, I’m still highly entertained by the conjecture that certain petroglyphs featuring humanoid figures with helmets or sculptures of “men” with helmets and similarly odd things could be linked to aliens having visited earth in ancient pre-history.

It even digs into the Bible, looking to figures such as Enoch who provide vivid details that sound fantastical and supernatural on their own, but when told in the contextual possibility of alien life, sounds entirely like what it could be; a pre-historical man describing alien encounters in the best way he can.

Programs like these draw me to deeper research and theories on ancient aliens found online, and even to discover a very entertaining (though totally BS) “timeline” of Earth history before the great Biblical flood of Noah/Gilgamesh/Etcetera, involving a planet colonized by aliens for resource harvesting, and Homo Sapien being a genetically engineered result of these aliens mixed with Homo Erectus.

If any of this sounds like crazy, kooky, whack-job, ridiculous BS to you, then you are likely of the same mind as the producers of this program.

Either the people who made this went completely overboard in their excitement to present such theories on the History Channel, or they intentionally designed it in such a subtle and sneaky way as to completely discredit all such theories by portraying everything in such a skewed view, that even if you do lend some credence to these theories, you’ll be baffled at how easily these “experts” set themselves up for very crushing and very harsh scientific rebuttal.

For example: The artifacts

The series shows some artifacts including cave paintings of what are supposedly astronauts floating in space, with their legs bent (as if in zero gravity) and helmets and the like, as well as sculptures of bipedal creatures with large helmets that look like oldy-time Scuba helmets, or arguably astronaut helmets.

While these are very interest things, they are far too ambiguous to be directly labeled as “influenced by extraterrestrials” and yet the “experts” and speakers of the series proceed to do exactly that. For one sculpture of a Mayan head, one of the “experts” says “It’s clearly just like modern-day astronauts’ helmets. You see here’s the glass, over his mouth is a breathing apparatus, and down here is the control panel”

The “breathing apparatus” is just some decoration that happens to cover the man’s mouth, and the “control panel” is yet further decoration like an amulet or a pendant or a symbol of some sort. The sculpture itself at first glance looks more like an elaborate Mayan headdress of a chieftain than an astronaut, and to immediately suggest it looks like an astronaut’s helmet implies you are actively seeking an alien-related link.

Another sculpture looks for the life of me like a person with their head stuck in a conical structure, yet they claim right away it’s someone in a rocket ship.

The biggest example of all is the sarcophagus (mispelled?) of Pakal II, called “The Great”. Supposedly he was over 7 feet tall, and as such they presumed he could be one of three things: an unnaturally tall Mayan, a man from a foreign land who became king, or an alien.

Quite frankly, I have only to believe he was a Mayan, as all the sculptures of him are quite traditionally that of a Mayan man, and this is the same program claiming that so-called “aliens” were depicted as strange-looking creatures in helmets.

Back to the Sarcophagus, it’s a very insanely elaborate depiction of Pakal, looking very lazily reclined on a gigantic and elaborate throne, descending into the underworld upon his death.

The “experts” here flip the picture sideways, and begin to see a different image. Where Pakal was laying across a throne, he is now supposedly seated in a cramped seat, with an oxygen mask near his mouth, his hands and feet operating some elaborate controls, and the squiggly things at the bottom of his “throne” become exhaust fire.

The image, they claim, is Pakal in a space ship, blasting off into outer space.

In my honest opinion, this is a lively interpretation, but again it is far too arbitrary to be made on one’s own without actively seeking an alien link, and when flipped sideways, it honestly looks to me more like Pakal is on a bicycle, or perhaps a flying machine operating like a bicycle.

This is made even worse by the fact that they go out and try to see if ordinary people see the same image. They make it very clear just what they expect by showing it to people SIDEWAYS. Considering the program is about “ancient aliens”, it’s obviously clear they want people to see Pakal in a spaceship.

So despite my interest in the subject, and despite my belief that ancient aliens came to earth (but did not deeply interact), the program goes so wildly crazy and whacky into the subject that they seemingly want to discredit the very notion they are presenting by making the “experts” and their theories seem so crazy and one-sided that only a nutjob could believe them.

And I’m only partially a nutjob.

I enjoyed this program even if it’s a little far fetched. I especially liked the megalith discussions, evidence in Peru and ancient map of Antarctica. If nothing else, this show makes you open your mind a little and think of other possibilites.

For people who have so much disbelief & critism about life in the universe and religion. I already knew alot but still this program is so facinating. I watched it about 10 times… JUST BUY IT why am i explaining