Researching for the Fallen Race Trilogy has led me down some very intriguing paths. I'll share one such trail of interest with you in this post.

In the first century a.d., famed Roman statesman Cicero recorded a night during which the sun, accompanied by loud noises, was reportedly seen in the night sky. The sky appeared to split open and reveal strange "spheres." UFOs became so troublesome in the eighth and ninth centuries that emperor Charlemagne of France was compelled to issue edicts forbidding people from perturbing the air and provoking storms. In one episode, some of Charlemagne's subjects were taken up in aerial "ships," shown marvels, and then returned to Earth, only to be put to death by an angry mob. Those troublesome ships were even accused of destroying crops.

UFOs have not only been seen, they have also been worshipped throughout history. The religions of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Americas were dominated by the adoration of humanlike "gods" from the heavens. Many of those "gods" were said to travel about in flying "boats" and "globes." Ancient claims of that kind are today the basis of the modem "ancient astronauts" theory which postulates that a space age race had once visited Earth and had involved itself in human affairs. Some UFO researchers have gone a step further by suggesting that such a space age race had either created or conquered human society many thousands of years ago and that it has been maintaining a watchful eye on its possession ever since.

Charles Fort is perhaps the earliest writer of the twentieth century to seriously suggest that extraterrestrials have been involved in human affairs. Fort supported himself on a small inheritance and spent many years of his adult life amassing reports of unusual phenomena from scientific journals, newspapers, and magazines. The stories he collected were of such events as unusual moving lights in the sky, "rainfalls" of animals, and other occurrences which seem to defy conventional scientific explanation. His first two books, The Book of the Damned (1919) and New Lands (1923), contain a large assortment of UFO sightings and related phenomena from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Fort concluded that Earth skies were hosting an array of extraterrestrial aircraft, which he called "superconstructions."

Fort acquired a small and loyal following during his day. It was not until a third of a century later, however, that the foundation laid by Fort supported a sudden explosion of nonfiction works speculating that an extraterrestrial society had been involved in human affairs. This sudden surge of interest was caused by a media-publicized rash of UFO sightings in the late 1940's and 1950's. One of the first books of that period to discuss ancient UFO sightings was Flying Saucers on the Attack by Harold T. Wilkins. It was published in 1954 by Citadel Press of New York.

Up to this point in time, no intelligent life other than mankind has been proven to exist elsewhere in the universe. The notion of alien intervention in human affairs is generally tolerated when it is expressed as a work of science fiction, but it is often poorly received when suggested as fact. This is understandable. The very idea of it seems, at first blush, to fly in the face of everything we have ever been taught. For centuries, there has been a strong tendency to think of our planet and the human race in very isolationist terms.

For now, I write my trilogy with these thoughts in the back of my mind.

AuthorMelissaSaulnier.com