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Von Daniken in this book moves on from ancient astronauts to argue that religious visions are in fact merely attempts at communication by extraterrestrials, although it is not very clear whether this is by ESP, or some technological means. Unlike von Daniken's previous books, this one has an extensive bibliography, which however gives no· credit to Jung, Vallee, Keel, or any other writers who have explored the similarities between UFO reports and religious visions, at considerably greater depth.
A great deal of padding seems to have been necessary to stretch out the ideas contained to book length. For instance , there are a couple of pages about the American prophetess Jeanne Dixon, whose relevance to the extraterrestrials is not clear. (Incidentally, anyone with any belief in Ms Dixon should attempt to get hold ot her My Life and Prophecies, published in 1971, and note the total inaccuracy of her predictions for the future that it contains. Odder still is a chapter in which von Daniken denounces orthodox Christianity, pointing to the unreliability of the Gospels, on the grounds that they were not written for a considerable time after the life of Jesus , and contain internal contradictions. It would be interesting to know how he reconciles this chapter with his earlier books, in which far more dubious sections of the Old Testament were taken as literally true simply because they could be wrenched into evidence of ancient astronauts.
- Roger Sandell, from MUFOB New Series 2, March 1976.
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