The lost Library of Alexandria, pyramids on Mars¹⁾For Sagan’s video discussion from 1980 on enigmatic landforms see Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, episode 5: “Blues for a Red Planet” at the 25-30 min mark, and pages 129-130 from the companion book Cosmos, by Carl Sagan, Random House, 1980 , alien life in the universe, astroengineering projects of immense scale, the sheer immensity of the “Cosmos” and the concept of multi-verses, were just some of the ideas from Cosmos that inspired and expanded my mind in the year 1980. For several years afterward, the television program Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and it’s companion book Cosmos, became the main science “texts” of my life. Because of this, at the age of 10, my first visions and imaginings of an ancient civilization on Mars, complete with large pyramids and a living bio-sphere with water flowing in the form of rivers and lakes, were planted or, rather “seeded”, (as Sagan’s dandelion ship was a “seed”) in my mind and there, in a fertile soil, deeply submerged into my unconscious.

I recall, in 1980, that I fully thought that an ancient, pyramidal constructing civilization, could have once existed on Mars.²⁾In addition to the places where Sagan discussed enigmatic landforms and pyramids on Mars referenced in  the first footnote above, see also at 48-49 min of  “Blues for a Red Planet” where he says a rover could “cautiously approach the Pyramids of Elysium.” He states that a “new age of exploration would have begun.” We afterward see a dandelion with its seeds and the Sun behind it. A metaphor for the “new age of exploration”.  Remembering now, what that thought was like in my head back then, seems extraordinary and magical. Whatever it was that Sagan did with that dandelion seed, floating in the “light”, it worked. Although, during my pre-teen and early teenage years, I would also immerse myself in such works as John Keel’s Eighth Tower or Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods series of books, or even watch episodes of the Leonard Nimoy hosted television series, In Search Of, I distinctly recall bearing a helpful amount of skepticism, all due, in no small part, to Sagan’s critical influence. Even as late as 1985, when Sagan’s famous Parade magazine article was published on the subject of the “Man in the Moon”,³⁾See Parade magazine from June 2nd 1985 page 12. This article was re-written as chapter 3 “The Man in the Moon and the Face on Mars” for the book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Random House; 1996  I figured I had “outgrown” the need to believe in such things like that. It seems Sagan had inspired me, and at the same time, “educated” me on what was real, and what was “Memorex”. Thus, on that Sunday morning in ’85 when my mom passed the issue of Parade over to me and asked “Have you seen this?”, I dismissed it outright without, I think, even reading the whole article that Sagan had written. He had me already at Nixon appearing as an Egg-plant. So a face on Mars? Hell! Why not? A simple coincidence indeed!

My mom, however, intuitively interested in these types of things, and having been an avid listener of talk radio where many subjects of unusual nature regularly turn up, was already, in 1985, following Richard Hoagland’s research. When his book Monuments of Mars appeared in 1987, she purchased it that same year and I merely scoffed at such a waste of money.

I saw the book one day sitting on a table and thought, “maybe just a little look here”. I liked the fact that Hoagland realized, as did I, that many of Erich von Daniken’s uses of evidence were faulty and just plain hokey. Hoagland’s treatment seemed reasonable and logical enough. But still, it was a long stretch for me at that time to accept ancient ruins on Mars. I also thought, well, if there are ruins on Mars, why not on the Moon? Little did I realize that by February of 1988 I would have already read the entire book and been hooked on wanting to learn all I could about up-coming missions to Mars that would, as per Sagan, “test” the hypothesis.⁴⁾In 1990, Dr. Sagan, in the 10th-anniversary “Update” edition of Cosmos, discusses the “face” and “enigmatic landforms” of Cydonia

 

 

By the autumn of 1988 I had already ordered the “Martian Horizon” which was the first newsletter of what was then called the “Mars Project”. A few years later, the subsequent Martian Horizons newsletter of the “Mars Mission” would appear regularly in the mail. The cover of the first issue from the Fall of 1988 is shown below:

 

 

In the intervening years between 1988 and 1995 I had spoke with Mr. Hoagland on local radio, and had called him up at his place in Wytheville Virginia asking him about the veracity of a letter he sent to Alan Shawn Feinstein concerning the Sierra Leone stamp set which featured a stamp with the “Face on Mars”.  I then purchased the set in 1991. In 1992, I suggested to my mom that she should order a subscription to the new “Martian Horizons” newsletter of the Mars Mission. One of my favorite articles from this time period was that of the Avebury and Silbury connections to Cydonia. My mom’s interest in the subject remained a curiosity, my interest was becoming almost a mission. I was acutely aware of the inherent difficulties with all of this. I even told my mom that I would not be surprised if the Mars Observer, which was scheduled for arrival at Mars in late 1993, would not make it to its destination.

It didn’t.

I happened to catch the middle part of Richard Hoagland’s appearance on Larry King Live in 1993 shortly after the disappearance of Mars Observer. He was mentioning something about a government report that said revealing the truth about Cydonia would destroy civilization. (I would later catch the name of the report, the famous “Brookings” report about peaceful space activities. See also here.) It seemed things were getting weird and unfortunate. I was not happy at all that my prediction of the Mars Observer disappearing came true. Up to then, I figured Dr. Sagan might have been jealous of what Richard found. I then began to realize, that Sagan might very well have known the truth all along. The trap door of conspiracy theory was opened beneath me and that little dandelion seed floating in the “light” went down into the “shadow”…

In the next installment of this series, we will go into those shadows and attempt to light a “candle in the dark.”

Continue to part 3

Back to part 1