Many millennia ago, when our ancestors were living in the Stone Age, a giant mother spaceship was circling our planet. Smaller shuttles went down to Earth. The group of ETs acted like ethnologists. They studied some tribes, diligently learned the languages, gave human beings tips and instructions for a regulated future, and finally took leave again with the promise to return in the far distant future. This became the starting point for religions on Earth. Our ancestors had classed the strangers as "gods." These thoughts are not speculation, no kind of hypothesis, or any other kind of theory-they can be proven. Everyone who takes the trouble to study the material reaches the same conclusion. Those who want to, know about it. The consequences of that prehistoric visit affect all of us: our religions, political systems, ideologies, what we are as "human beings," and our present as much as our future. As an insider, as an "old hand" and author of 40 books on the subject, I am just as familiar with the unanswered questions as the critics are. For the latter, the contradictions appear obvious, problematic, and insurmountable. For those in the know, everything has its compelling logic, including those things that appear to be impossible. Are there extraterrestrials at all? What do they look like? Why do they look like human beings? What technology enabled them to bridge the light years? What did they actually want here? Why, given the billions of available planets, did they come just here to Earth? And why did they do so precisely at this point in the course of earthly evolution? Why did they leave their home? What do the ETs gain from contact with us? Do they want to exploit us? Why don't they kill humanity off? And why don't they reveal themselves to the general public? Why play games of hide-and-seek? These are all justified questions. And to each one- without exception!-there is a logical answer. In the meantime, the ETs have started influencing human beings again. I contend that the extraterrestrials were not only here millennia ago, they are here again. They are now and have been for decades. Earth is being observed, studied, and analyzed, and there is contact between the ETs and individual groups of people. Totally insane?In 1966 I wrote my first book, Chariots of the Gods. In the introduction I stated, "Writing this book requires courage- reading it no less so. Because its hypotheses and evidence do not fit into the laboriously constructed mosaic of established conventional wisdom, scholars will put it on the list of those books which it is advisable not to talk about." Meanwhile, 50 years have passed. My introduction from that time still stands today. The Gods Never Left Us is most definitely not a compendium of my previous works. In only very few sections do I have to cross-refer to my previous books, but only so that the reader is not left hanging. That extraterrestrials visited Earth millennia ago and influenced our forebears can be proved. But-and this is the ultimate test of our knowledge-ETs are still at work today. And that concerns us all. Why do they do what they do? What does an extraterrestrial species gain from observing us rather like we observe ants? What have the aliens actually wanted in the millennia to the present day? Can't they leave us in peace? And why do we make it so difficult for ourselves to accept the existence of extraterrestrials? That is what The Gods Never Left Us is about. Erich von Däniken is arguably the most widely read and most-copied nonfiction author in the world. He published his first (and best-known) book, Chariots of the Gods, in 1968. The worldwide best seller was followed by 40 more books, including the recent best sellers Twilight of the Gods, History Is Wrong, Evidence of the Gods, Remnants of the Gods, and Odyssey of the Gods (all published by New Page Books). His works have been translated into 28 languages and have sold more than 65 million copies. Several have also been made into films. Von Däniken's ideas have been the inspiration for a wide range of television series, including the History Channel's hit Ancient Aliens. His research organization, the A.A.S.R.A./legendarytimes.com (Archaeology, Astronautics & SETI Research Association), comprises laymen and academics from all walks of life. Internationally, there are about 10,000 members. He lives in Switzerland but is an ever-present figure on the international lecture circuit, traveling more than 100,000 miles a year.
