Erich von Daniken’s foreword informs us that Collins and Little are ‘leading figures in the field of speculative science and explorative archaeology’ who expand upon the questions he posed in Chariots of the Gods back in 1968. Collins’ preface is a dramatic imagining of how 330,000 years ago a near-naked shaman could have been intoxicated by the fumes of a roaring fire and surrounded by chanting men and women. As the shaman dances he concentrates on a ring of small spherical stones and waves a swan wing bone. Soon his soul becomes possessed by the swan spirit sending it towards the rising full moon.
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This is based on Collins’ research into (for which read -'visit to') the Qesem Cave, located near Tel Aviv, Israel. Qesem Cave was more likely a place for butchering and cooking livestock, and the spherical hand-sized balls just as likely used for breaking up bones, whilst a single swan bone and a fire pit is not much proof of shamanic activity.
Putting the cave to one side, the first part of the book ‘All Things are Connected’ is by Little. He points out that Carl Jung not only stated in his 1959 book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky that flying saucers were a powerful archetype but they could actually merge into our physical reality.
From there Little links Native American lore, with visions of the Virgin Mary and UFOs along with the reported experiences of Joan of Arc, psychic Edgar Cayce and contactees. It all comes down to balls of light; or more accurately balls of plasma, that can take on the image of all manner of alien or paranormal beings as they distort and play with the expectations of our own minds. Indeed, Little asserts that such plasmatic emanations have displayed intelligent behaviour and might well be temporary living entities in our own physical reality.
In the second part of the book ‘Contact with the Outside’, Collins reaffirms the role of plasma balls in our ancient history and how they influenced our perception of God or gods. Such phenomena, as originally detailed by Persinger and Lafreniere in 1977 became known as the Earthlight theory. Collins agrees that they are likely to appear at hot spots on our planet like Skinwalker ranch or the vicinity of the Qesem cave, where tectonic strain and intense electromagnetic anomalies bring them literally to life.
Using quantum theory the authors believe these plasma balls represent nonhuman n-dimensional intelligences that exist in a separate reality to our own, and that they have guided our steps in evolution and still shape our destiny to this day.
The authors put forward a detailed and convincing case for the existence of n-dimensional intelligences rather than literal ancient astronauts as posited by von Daniken. But, there had to be a but, does this all stack up?
Collins does ask whether ‘...the unusual behaviour of plasma-based light-forms is merely something of our making, without any kind of basis in scientific reality or…they might play host to some form of sentient consciousness of unknown origin.’ And, we can easily guess his answer.
Collins and Little, much like von Daniken and most UFO authors, make everything fit their particular theory and there is no room for counter-argument. Standing on the shoulders of John Keel they do undermine the conventional ETH, but have they just replaced one pretty pattern of speculation with another one based on an equally sensational series of tenuous links? (YES) They are experts at ‘speculative science and explorative archaeology’ or more aptly we should call it science fiction dressed as fact, as such enjoy.
- Nigel Watson
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