The Wisdom and Knowledge of the Ancients
Steve Ruis has challenged me to justify a statement that I made in a recent article, “I think that the ancient sages had far more knowledge than they are given credit for”. Here is the full text of his response:
“This is a truism simply because we have inadequate records of what they knew. Even when the records are voluminous (as in Indian ‘scripture’) it is not easy to evaluate. In most cases our records are quite inadequate. If you are implying that their knowledge exceeded our current total knowledge, which it sounds like you may be implying, then you have to answer the question ‘How did they acquire this knowledge?’ Avoiding the rabbit hole of ancient astronauts, the only way to acquire knowledge is to be taught it or to discover it through observation/experimentation. If it were taught, how did the teacher acquire it? If it were discovered, how was it discovered? It is hard to believe that a small population of sages could acquire more or better knowledge than armies of scientists and philosophers working for centuries”.
These are therefore the questions that need addressing:
- What is the evidence that the ancients had access to sophisticated knowledge? In particular, what is the value of the ‘voluminous’ Indian (Hindu) literature?
- If they did, how did they acquire it?
- Should we so easily dismiss ancient astronaut theory as a rabbit hole — I assume that he means this pejoratively — since this would provide one obvious explanation for any advanced knowledge?
I frequently receive responses from Ruis to my articles. I would describe him as a modernist who favours ‘scientific’, secular explanations; he is therefore suspicious (dismissive?) of anything which suggests spiritual or religious thinking (although I am of course happy to be corrected if he disagrees with this assessment). I therefore accept that he is unlikely to accept much of what follows, but since he asked, without going into great detail, here are a few notes.
Question 1: Did the Ancients Have Access to Sophisticated Knowledge?
We have to divide ancient knowledge into two categories, metaphysical/ cosmological and scientific/technological. In relation to the former, the obvious point to make is that various quantum physicists have found many parallels between their discoveries and ancient Eastern texts. The best-known example is Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics, which contains chapters on Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, and Taoism. In another recent article, I noted a reference to five top scientists who converted to Hinduism (or at least were strongly influenced by it): Werner Heisenberg, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Sagan, Erwin Schrödinger, and Hans-Peter Durr. The website says that Durr “was so influenced by Hinduism that he dedicated 33 years of his life to studying and mastering the Vedas and Upanishads… He once said that when he teaches quantum physics, he feels like he’s giving a lecture on Hinduism’s vedanta philosophy”.
A non-Eastern source of ancient wisdom was Plato who, following the early discoveries of quantum physics, was referenced by Werner Heisenberg, Sir Arthur Eddington, and Sir James Jeans. I wonder why, if (Hindu) Vedantism and Plato are good enough for all these scientists, they are not good enough for Mr. Ruis. I also wonder whether they thought the records were “quite inadequate” and “not easy to evaluate”. I suggest that the more likely explanation is that Mr. Ruis has not studied them in enough depth, (or perhaps is resistant to their conclusions?). Does he have the same scientific qualifications?
Even Carlo Rovelli, who in Helgoland makes no connection between quantum physics and spiritual ideas along the lines of those just mentioned, nevertheless found the writings of the Buddhist Nagarjuna deeply impressive and inspirational.
Quantum mechanics has been described as the most successful scientific theory of all time. Yet the ancients, especially the Hindus, seemed to have the same knowledge, even if it is expressed in different language. I think this suggests that ancient sages did indeed have sophisticated metaphysical knowledge, whatever Ruis may think, which has only been rediscovered by modern science within the last hundred years.
Turning now to the issue of scientific/technological knowledge, I should say in advance that I haven’t read all the following books, and note that they are sometimes dismissed as ‘pseudoscientific’ by those on the other side of the argument. However, anyone who doesn’t believe that ancient civilisations had access to highly sophisticated scientific and technological knowledge, before they dismiss such a claim, should at least have read some of the following books: Worlds Before Our Own by Brad Steiger, Technology of the Gods by David Hatcher Childress, Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, and others by Robert Bauval, Andrew Collins etc.
One of the strongest and widely mentioned pieces of evidence in favour of this theory is the Piri Reis map, named after a Turkish admiral who possessed it, a well-known figure whose historical identity is firmly established. The map shows:
- an ice-free Antarctica
- an uncanny knowledge of South America, including rivers some of which were not charted until the invention of satellites
- the correct position of the Falkland Islands, which were not discovered in modern times until 1592.
The map and its implications were investigated extensively by Charles Hapgood, professor of history and anthropology at Keene State College of the University of New Hampshire. He concluded that there is “irrefutable evidence that the earth had been comprehensively mapped before 4000 BC by a hitherto unknown and undiscovered civilization which had achieved a high level of technological advancement… evidence that cannot be dismissed” ¹.
The map was dated to no later than 4000 BCE, therefore possibly well before the traditional dating of the civilisations of Sumer and Egypt. Even more disconcerting for orthodox thinking was the strong suggestion that the Piri Reis map was based upon aerial photographs.
If we accept this conclusion, especially that the map required aerial photography, the question poses itself: was it humans, was it aliens, (or the perhaps less likely option, humans taught by aliens)? Those are the only options. If the map was indeed based upon aerial photography, who is to say that this was not the work of aliens? That might even be the more likely explanation. Perhaps we should not be so quick to dismiss the ancient alien theory as a rabbit hole.
Given that modern humans only acquired the ability to fly just over a hundred years ago, just before the advent of quantum physics, in the light of the above it is reasonable to suggest that the ancients may have acquired, in the words of Steve Ruis, “more or better knowledge than armies of scientists and philosophers working for centuries”. They seem to have acquired at the very least the same knowledge.
Question 2: How was such knowledge acquired?
The scientific/technological material was presumably acquired the same way as in modern times, in laboratories using the scientific method (whether on this planet or somewhere else). At least, there is no reason to believe otherwise.
With regard to the metaphysical knowledge with parallels to quantum physics, and completely putting to one side the question of any advanced technological society, there are various possibilities. It could well have been acquired during deep meditation — this is after all what Buddhists and Hindus are best known for. Some modern meditators may well have had similar experiences.
Some individuals are lucky enough to have had a spontaneous, uninvited experience of what Richard Bucke called Cosmic Consciousness, the prime characteristic of which is “a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe… Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumination which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence” ².
There is also the strong possibility that psychedelics were involved. In modern times LSD sometimes gives access to cosmic visions — see especially the work of Stanislav Grof. In ancient times there were the Mystery traditions, which offered initiates visions of other dimensions. The best known of these Mysteries are the Eleusinian, where there is a strong suggestion that a psychoactive substance was an ingredient in a potion called kekeon. In Hofmann’s Elixir, LSD and the New Eleusis Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, says: “Participation in the Mysteries led to an experience which could not be described by its external appearance; rather it evoked transformations in the very soul of the initiate… The initiates evidently experienced in vision the congruity of beginning and end, birth and death, the totality of being and its eternal, generative basis. It must have been an encounter with the ineffable, describable only by metaphor, an encounter with the divine” ³. Who can say what metaphysical insights might not be revealed in such moments?
Along the same lines, we have the inner journeys of shamans, who receive teachings from various non-physical entities.
Dreams and visions are another possibility, which may also work for scientific discoveries. A well-known modern example of this is August Kekulé, who had a revelation of the structure of benzene following a dream or daydream of a snake eating its own tail (the mythological ouroboros image).
Question 3: How seriously should we take ancient alien theory?
Here is an outline of the problem: “Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as ‘the greatest riddle in human history’, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers”. Those are the jacket notes from Graham Hancock’s Supernatural, the subtitle of which is ‘Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind’.
Many civilisations, especially indigenous cultures, at various times in history have said that they were taught what they know by ‘gods’. Some writers have interpreted this to mean ancient aliens. After all, if relatively primitive humans witnessed strange beings descending from the skies (heaven) in spaceships, what would you expect them to think given their religious beliefs?
Hancock, however, favours taking the word ‘gods’ literally, and believes that they were entities encountered on inner journeys along the lines of shamans, probably under the influence of psychedelics. As part of his research he himself journeys to the Amazon to take ayahuasca with Indian shamans.
The alternative is that the teachers were actually roaming aliens. One of the most frequently mentioned candidates for an ancient alien civilisation is Sumer (which orthodox thinking believes was indeed the birth of modern civilisation). This was the theory of the controversial scholar Zecharia Sitchin. It is not so well known that the less controversial, and renowned populariser of science, Carl Sagan also subscribed to this theory in the early days of his career, when he wrote a technical and science-based paper advocating it.
In conclusion, here’s an interesting anecdote. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project which developed the first nuclear weapons; he is therefore described as “the father of the atomic bomb”. It is well known that, after witnessing the first nuclear test explosion, he quoted the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Less well known is that he was once asked, “Was the bomb exploded at Alamogordo during the Manhattan Project the first one to be detonated?” He replied, “Well — yes. In modern times, of course.” I’ll leave readers to speculate what he might have meant by that, but one could argue that if anyone knew about such technology existing in ancient times, it would be him. He presumably formed this opinion after reading some of the voluminous but inadequate Indian scriptures that Mr. Ruis refers to.
I hope you have enjoyed this article. I have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, Christianity, politics and astrology. All of those articles are on Medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here). My most recent articles, however, are only on Medium; for those please check out my lists.
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Footnotes:
- My primary source is Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods, chapter 1
2. Cosmic Consciousness, Arkana, 1991, p3
3. edited by Amanda Feilding, The Beckley Foundation, p28
