Weaving together fragmented pieces of the human story portrays an extraordinary picture of other beings and other realms, among whom humans are Johnnies-come-lately, apprentices rather than masters. The most advanced ideas of succeeding generations appear to have come from ABs, whether Earth-based or nonterrestrial, this dimension or another. According to the late Lt. Col. Corso and others, the continuing practice of information transfers has contributed to current scientific advancements.

Despite the claims of some, humans have not proven anything definitive about the origins of species nor how early civilizations developed; we do not even know which is the earliest civilization. Whichever one we pick as a starting point, its traditions point to earlier peoples and their receipt of knowledge from ABs. An Inkan shaman in Peru told me the megalithic, so called Incan, ruins in the Andes were constructed by ancient ones who preceded the Inkans. Furthermore, those ancients were taught the techniques by the "Apus" (light beings).

Returning to themes more familiar to Americans, the Jewish Old Testament is replete with stories of ABs communicating higher knowledge to early leaders: Noah learned of the impending flood from one of the gods who was sympathetic to the human plight (Zecharia Sitchin identifies that god as Enki of the Anunnaki, colonists on Earth from Nibiru). The Zoroastrians, Aztecs, Indians, Druids, Scandinavians, and others have similar stories of an AB who came to the rescue of their own Noah-like ancestors. The god Yahweh handed Moses engraved tablets and dictated to him civic and religious instructions for the Israelites. Enoch walked with the gods, and perhaps was a demigod himself. Ezekiel received plans from the gods for the Temple at Jerusalem, walked with them, and even left the Earth with them in a "fiery chariot."

From other traditions we find similar tales. In Indian antiquity (see the Hindu Ramayana) the Nagas, known as the "educators of the world," taught navigation, military principles, and architecture. On the other side of the globe, the Chippewa's Manaboshu (a Noah-like personage at the end-of-the last-ice-age deluge) received instructions from an AB on how to make a good bow and arrow and work with copper. The ancient Frisians of Northern Europe had an AB named Minno as a seer and philosopher. Their Earth-mother Frya also gave them "laws that would result in a good society." In Old Mexico, Zanna, who led the ancestors of the Aztecs from the East to the Yucatan, was considered the "author of civilization" and the source of their alphabet.

The people from whom the Mayans say they descended, according to the Popol Vuh, received "fabulous knowledge" from an AB. The Serpent God, again Enki according to Sitchin, gave to Eve and Adam knowledge from the Tree of Life. Prometheus gave "fire" to the prehistoric Greeks, after stealing it from the heaven inaccessible to humans. A "water spider" who swam to the burning island no human could reach presented the "gift of fire" to the primal Cherokees.

Why is it that not one of these stories has any crucial knowledge resulting from the unaided efforts of humans? Why do they not say "so and so human did it or discovered it?" ABs get the credit for the seminal turning points of all these societies; there is no record of humans being told something they already knew. Such a universal story, given what we know of human egos, gives credibility to the underlying message: Human societies were "jump started" at various points within our collective memory.

Many familiar Greek stories were reworkings of knowledge passed on from the Egyptians. For example, Solon speaks of the goddess who gave proto Greeks cosmology, divination, medicine, and law in the antediluvian era. However, his Egyptian mentors said the AB Thoth gave this knowledge to their ancestors. Thoth was credited with the invention of writing, arithmetic, architecture, surveying, geometry, astronomy, medicine, and surgery. According to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, he possessed all secret knowledge on 36,535 scrolls in a vault in the sky.

Many of the above ABs reportedly came from the heavens (sky), while others allegedly arrived from a mystical land to the East or the West, depending on which side of the Atlantic the civilization was located. The latter, of course, point to the fabled continent of Atlantis. (New research links much evidence on all continents to such a pre-flood reality.) However, when the origin of scientific knowledge is pushed back to Atlantis, we find the Atlanteans reportedly received it from a celestial advisor: Poseidon, the god who ruled the sea on Earth and came from the Pleiades.

Some of these transfusions of knowledge can only be inferred, as in the case of the Bible Code discovered by Israeli mathematicians. Upon learning that the original Hebrew version of the Old Testament has numerical sequence codes (not unlike those used by NSA, DOD, CIA, and others in secret computer codes), they concluded there must have been ABs with prophetic knowledge and computing capacities beyond the Hebrews of the period.

Given the mass of evidence to the contrary, only selectively represented here, it is ignorant arrogance to pretend 20th-century humans embody the most highly developed consciousness ever on Earth. We cannot even be sure our technologies excel others that have preceded us. The ABs involvement in our development generally appears to be benevolent or benign, but there are also indications that they benefit from the transactions. While there is little question about the intervention, whether it is primarily to our advantage needs further examination.

(Paul Von Ward, MPA and M.S., is a researcher and writer in the fields of prehistory, consciousness, and frontier science. His most recent publication is the book Solarian Legacy: Metascience and a New Renaissance. An Oughten House imprint, it is distributed by Medicine Bear Publishing and is available to individuals in bookstores, on www.Amazon.com, or by calling the publisher at 207/374-3831. Paul can be contacted at www.mind.net/solarian.)