A vastly intriguing version of the human saga a thought provoking and very readable interpretation of human events. ForeWord magazine Call them gods, angels, ETs, or spirit entities beings more advanced than humans have influenced our history. They shaped our religions, our genes, our technology, and our cultures. In fact, it appears that they provided the impetus for modern civilization. Paul Von Ward calls them Advanced Beings, or ABs. His review of sacred texts, myths and legends, and contemporary reports shows that all such entities fit into a natural universe. Historical, archeological, and scientific evidence demonstrates that we ve had their help along the way and scientists, religious leaders, and governments continue to ignore or deny it. Why? Von Ward explains that the question of how to deal with the effects of such contacts is at the center of a covert struggle for control of consciousness. He shows how generations have been conditioned to ignore or suppress their experience, despite the fact that every day, thousands still claim contact with a god or another AB. Von Ward says that resolving the religious and ideological divisions requires people, East and West, to reexamine the origins of notions like divine revelation, chosen people, and a supernatural religion. Our very identity and psychological health as a species hangs in the balance. ISBN: 978-1-57174-666-5 U.S. $19.95 5 1 9 9 5 9 781571 746665
This edition first published as Gods, Genes, and Consciousness in 2004 by Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. Copyright 2004, 2011 by Paul Von Ward All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Hampton Roads Publishing. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Originally published as Gods, Genes, and Consciousness in 2004 by Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc, ISBN: 1-57174-379-0. Cover design by Nita Ybarra Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. Charlottesville, VA 22906 www.redwheelweiser.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request ISBN: 978-1-57174-666-5 TCP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed on acid-free paper in Canada
We ve Never Been Alone on how he had been misrepresented for 2,000 years. Such communications from beings more advanced than humans have over time led to many religious movements, some more successful than others. 1 The histories of these religions have been filled with hatred for nonbelievers and bloody struggles among groups of believers. The history revealed in this book suggests that the nature of their Advanced Being-instigated beliefs spawns and nurtures their internecine conflicts. Militants in every religion have continually persecuted heretics, converted heathen and infidels by the sword and economic inducements, and tried to control the minds of millions. On the other hand, many devotees have been inspired to produce great works and noteworthy service to humanity. A built-in set of conflicting institutional values has suppressed initiative and made people psychologically dependent and susceptible to manipulation by demagogues, and yet has simultaneously given comfort, hope, and joy. In the last 50 years, thousands of humans have reported contact with extraterrestrials, or ETs (another name for Advanced Beings). Some say they have been raped by them, abducted and frightened, and even used as parents for hybrid children. Others say the ETs have enlightened them, providing new knowledge and insights useful to humanity. Some have appeared as physical beings, while others have been energetic or light beings. There have been reports of valuable technology provided to humans by some of these ETs. Thousands of people daily serve as channels for voices with messages no different in substance from world religions or the reports of those who have had contact with ETs. People pray to their angels, seek the advice of their spirit guides, and talk with discarnate beings in more dimensions than one can imagine. Some go out of body to meet them. What is all this human communication with nonhuman entities? Why have some of these communications had such significant consequences for human history and others none? Why have the beings themselves and the human reactions to them been so socially divisive? Just who are these disembodied voices and ethereal beings? I call them ABs. The term AB, Advanced Being, refers to any category of nonhuman, conscious entities who may have been involved in human affairs. If you believe in one god, multiple gods, ETs, heavenly messengers, angels, spirit guides, a holy spirit, devils, ascended xii
Preface beings, spirit voices who speak through human channels, higher dimensional conscious entities, something you call your higher self, or any similar phenomenon, you already agree that ABs exist. Have one or more of them affected your life? If the answer is yes, have you ever considered that other ABs may exist? Have you thought about the influence they could have had on other people s lives and in human history? When using the term Advanced Beings, I do not mean to imply that they are more advanced than humans in all respects. This definition simply recognizes reports made by people over several millennia. After communication or contact with such beings, individuals have described them as having powers or technologies stronger or more advanced than our own. These powers may be like those of an angel who can appear and disappear instantaneously, or may involve the use of sophisticated technologies by flesh-and-blood ETs whose spacecraft exceed the current limits of human technology or scientific understanding. An AB may have powers of communication unknown to humans and operate in realms not readily accessible to us. ABs may have the power to unilaterally decide when and how to speak to us, even to choose whether to respond when we ask them to talk with us. None of this means they are necessarily more intelligent or more morally and ethically developed than humans. It means only that they can decide when, as we might put it, to initiate a call or answer the phone. However, whether the ABs take the initiative or we ask them for advice, it would behoove us to test their views against our own knowledge and wisdom. After all, they can only offer their own limited perspectives on a still-evolving universe. Looked at in this way, the question Are we alone in the universe? seems foolish. Scientists still seeking answers to this question mislead themselves if they only tune in on pulsars and distant stars. The answer lies under our feet and in our collective stories: Other conscious beings inhabit the universe, and we have never been alone. The proof lies in self-evident artifacts and human experience. This, the most important story in human history, receives little attention by either academic or popular historians. The nature of the story explains why established scholars fear to investigate it. It calls into question their own and almost everyone else s mental state, raising the specter of self-delusion across all of humanity that has atrophied our emotional and intellectual development. What to do xiii
We ve Never Been Alone about the evidence for other intelligent beings in the universe lies at the center of a covert struggle for control of the structure of human consciousness. Many scholars concerned about the challenges humans face attribute the most critical rift in consciousness to that between science and religion. For instance, philosopher Ken Wilber said in 1998,... take into account that 90 percent of the world s population has a religious outlook based on some kind of mythology God the Father and so on and that the standard scientific view gives these myths as much credibility as they give the tooth fairy.... There s an enormous split between reason and meaning that must be healed. 2 Healing humanity s psychosis will require more than Wilber suggests. A Faustian bargain between science and religion has created the current split in human consciousness. Both must first free themselves of their own blinders before they can be incorporated into a natural and holistic perspective that recognizes the multiplicity and unity of the universe. 3 The bifurcation in human consciousness is more like a species multiple personality disorder combined with a Tower of Babel syndrome. Human society, because of its misunderstandings about contacts with Advanced Beings over the millennia, has developed several incompatible subpersonalities. Some are neurotic, while others are psychotic, and they all babble in different languages. It is no wonder the world situation is what it is today. A divided self is self-destructive, whether it s an individual, a society, or a species. With groups fighting among themselves, it is like a body whose essential organs are warring against each other. Severed from our history, we know not why we fight. Severed from our inherent humanity, we know not why we cannot find love. Severed from our natural world, we know not where to find inner tranquillity and universal peace. This book introduces new concepts to describe these problems and make sense of them. It proposes a way to find common ground among the world s cultures, with their different ideas on gods and their relationship to humans. It holds that the truth is hidden in plain sight. Therefore, the Old Testament, the Vedas, the Greek myths, the Sumerian tablets, and other historical sources are analyzed without prejudgments as to their validity. You will find that I have taken sacred texts and other ancient materials for the purposes of this book as reliable references to the xiv