Panspermia #4 - Peter Occhiogrosso

Mainstream anthropologists maintain that Homo sapiens (that’s us) evolved from a family of primates that had existed for many millions of years. Their lineage comprises our now-extinct fossil ancestors, including Neanderthals and Denisovans, but also orangutans, bonobos, and chimpanzees. What these anthropologists can’t explain, however, is exactly how modern humans emerged from primates who essentially lived in the trees and ate leaves and fruits. All of a sudden, it seems, a branch of the family tree appeared having twice the brain size of their primate ancestors, along with certain genes related to higher psychological ability and functioning.

Materialist scientists largely stand by Darwin’s theory that a long series of gradual changes led to inexplicably complex capacities like the creation of language and, over even more eons, an alphabet based on abstract symbols. Meanwhile, many evolutionary biologists have found Darwin’s theories lacking in credibility. To take just one instance, the development of spoken language requires massive adjustments not only in brain capacity but also physiology. Our nearest living primate relatives, the chimpanzees, can handle simple sign language, but lack the control over their vocal tract muscles to properly configure them for speech. They lack certain genetic factors, like the FOXP2 gene, known to be necessary for proper speech and language development.

This raises the question of whether at some point our primates ancestors might have received some form of genetic manipulation that not only spurred a massive leap in intelligence, but also supplied the genes needed for spoken language. One alternative theory of human evolution that is increasingly popular—but also controversial—has been espoused by the self-taught anthropologist and translator Zecharia Sitchin, who died in 2010. By studying the ancient cuneiform tablets of Sumer and Babylonia that go back as far as 6,000 years, Sitchin theorized that a race of extraterrestrials—called the Anunnaki in Sumerian mythology—visited Earth many thousands of years ago from their home planet of Nibiru. Sitchin claimed that Nibiru is part of our solar system, but for a variety of reasons it follows an elongated elliptical orbit that circles the Sun only once every 3600 years. He speculated that Nibiru last passed by Earth in 556 BC, which means that it would be due to return sometime around 2900. Despite a discrepancy with Sitchin’s own prediction, a variety of observers speculated that we would be in for a “Nibiru cataclysm” (first predicted for 2003, then 2012 and 2017). They believe that the entry of another large planet into our solar system would cause massive climatic and polar upheavals on Earth.

However, archaeologists and academics have rejected Sitchin's ideas as pseudoscience and flawed history, along with mistranslations of ancient texts. If an alien planet passed close to Earth a mere 3000 years ago, wouldn’t it have triggered those same catastrophic evets? And if primitive humans made such an unprecedented leap in capacity through simple genetic programming, wouldn’t they have celebrated and left records of their great leap forward? The entwined double serpent image known as the caduceus—which still serves as the universal symbol of the medical—has often been interpreted as a depiction of the chakra system discovered by the ancient seers of India. But, as depicted in these Sumerian images, they could just as easily be seen as the double helix of DNA, implying that the people of Sumer had been taught the structure of DNA and were aware of the role it played in their own physical and spiritual evolution.