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sembled the flying cones which have been frequently described in the reports of modem UFO witnesses around the globe. Although this sort of evidence is superabundant, it has never been systematically studied by trained scholars. Instead, this material has fallen into, the hands of assorted cultists and students of fringe pseudoscienccs. It has been used to advance belief in everything from lost Atlantis to extraterrestrial visitants from some distant planet. To subscribe to any one of these multitudinous beliefs is to exclude all other possibilities. We should consider every possibility, avoid belief, and accept only the hard facts. Two key facts are already clear: (1) There have always been strange objects in the skies above this planet. They were seen by early man and have been seen constantly ever since, as the Bible and other available records still firmly attest. (2) Somebody mapped the earth before the Ice Age. We have no way of knowing who they were or how they did it. If the Piri Re'is maps were the product of an aerial survey, then perhaps there was an advanced civilization somewhere in the Americas or the Pacific, removed from the random clusters of primitive men. But occasionally the advanced culture dropped in on the cavemen or at least flew overhead. Thus, two cultures may have existed simultaneously. One highly advanced and purposely aloof from the other - the animal-like cave dwellers. It was inevitable that the two cultures should occasionally cross and that the higher group should affect the lower in many ways. At some point in early history the higher culture was either destroyed by a monumental catastrophe or withdrew in some fashion, leaving hardly a trace behind. Sp, our entire record of that superculture comes from the observations of primitive man. Our only evidence is the flimsy overlapping that took place: the residue of the effect of the superculture upon the subculture. Primitive man was profoundly influenced by the sapetculture and guided by it. There are even indications that members of the super-culture actually appeared before primitive man and took over as kings and god-kings to direct his early development Such appearances helped to generate many of man's first religious beliefs. Some 2,500,000 people believe in the Book of Mormon, the Mormon bible, which is purportedly a record of life in North America thousands of years ago. As with all such records from all cul- tures and all religions, there are frequent descriptions of events in which some unknown benevolent group supplied man with direct help in an hour of need. For example, here is how a compass was introduced, presumably, to those long forgotten North Americans: And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness. (1 Nephi 16:10) « One of the most popular theories bandied about in cultist circles is that man was seeded on this planet by some inter-planetary group and that that group has kindly, but remotely, observed and guided our progress ever since. If this were true, they have been doing a lousy Job in recent centuries. We need a lot more help than they have been giving us.