Frequently Asked Questions

Keywords: UFO, unidentified flying objects, Bible, flying saucers, prophecy, Paleo-SETI, ancient astronauts, Erich von Däniken, Josef F. Blumrich, Zecharia Sitchin, Ezekiel, biblical prophecy, spacecraft, spaceship, NASA, Roswell, aircraft, propellant, extraterrestrial hypothesis, Jacques Vallee, interdimensional hypothesis, Project Blue Book, Condon Report, ancient history, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, Middle East, end times, engines, rockets, helicopters, space travel, aliens, abductions, alien abductions, crop circles, extraterrestrials, astronomy, economics, biology, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Space Shuttle, Apollo, stars, planets, solar system, scriptures, design, fuel tank, aerodynamics, fuels, hydrogen, oxygen, wheels

1)

a) Who are the authors of this site? 

b) Have you ever seen a UFO?

c) Do you believe in UFOs?

d) What is your background in UFOs?
 

2)

Where can I get a copy of the book The Spaceships of Ezekiel?
 

Where can I get the Impact of Science on Society article "The spaceships of the prophet Ezekiel"?
 

4)

How much have you changed Blumrich's material?
 

5)

a) Are the patents genuine?

b) Where did you get them?

c) Doesn't the fact that Blumrich was able to patent the wheel prove his interpretation is correct?
 

6)

Where can I find out more about Josef Blumrich?
 

7)

Is anybody else doing research in this Ezekiel / flying saucer area?
 

8)

9)

What does Jesus have to do with any of this? Ezekiel is in the Old Testament and lived 500 years before Jesus!
 

10)

Are crop circles some kind of alien activity?
 

11)

What do you think of these alleged alien abduction stories?
 

a) What is the difference between the Book of Revelation and the Apocalypse?

b) Why can't I find the Book of Revelation in the Bible? Where is it?

c) Why can't I find the Apocalypse in the  Bible? Where is it?
 

Can you put Chronology of the NASA Marshall Center (22.1Mb) in a ZIP file so it will be smaller to download?
 

What are the  white on red  page numbers?
 

My identity is not important. The material stands on its own—either it can withstand scrutiny or it can't. I have never seen a UFO.  But the issue is whether Blumrich's analysis is correct, not what I believe. I have read extensively about UFOs but I have not done any field investigations. I believe the Interdimensional Hypothesis, more specifically, that the so-called "aliens" are actually demonic spirits, which a number of researchers such as Jacques F. Vallee [Amazon.com, Wikipedia], John A. Keel [Amazon.com, Wikipedia] and Lynn E. Catoe have conjectured. Anyone who studies UFO's thoroughly quickly finds there are all sorts of ties to the occult.

2) Where can I get a copy of the book The Spaceships of Ezekiel?

Basically, it is almost impossible to find a copy. Although loads of people on the Internet mention the book, few have ever actually seen a copy, and far fewer have actually read any of it. When the book was published in 1974 it "hardly made a blip on the radar screen." Few copies were sold and there was only one printing. In the mid-1990's, I contacted the U.S. publisher and asked if they would consider republishing the book, since UFO books were "hot" at the time. The publisher had no record of the book. I sent them a photocopy of the entire book but they were not interested. They referred me to a company that frequently republishes UFO and New Age books but that company wasn't interested either.

3) Where can I get the Impact of Science on Society article "The spaceships of the prophet Ezekiel"?

Like the book, you probably can't get the original article. I had to get it off microfilm at the library of a major university and the microfilm printout is a mess. For the PDF version I reconstructed the entire article as close as possible to the original except for possible coloring and physical size, which I can't tell from the microfiche. The text in each column starts and ends on the same words as the original but the individual lines of text break somewhat differently.

4) Since you disagree with Blumrich, can I assume you have made a lot of changes to his material?

Although I disagree with many of Blumrich's assumptions and conclusions, I have made no substantive changes in his material, only formatting changes necessary to transfer the material from the printed page to a website, e.g., breaking up chapters into Part A, Part B, etc., and adding colors and, in some cases, bolding to make the text easier to follow. Web pages have been manually checked against the book for accuracy several times.  Any words italicized for emphasis within paragraphs are italicized in the book; however, because italics often don't stand out onscreen with the typeface I used, I sometimes added bold to the italics.

Regarding the bracketed page numbers in white typeface and a red background, e.g.,  [p.6]  when I was going through the book line-by-line I decided it makes it easier for me to correlate the book and website if I added page numbers occasionally. The page numbers were randomly chosen for convenience.

I have made two significant notations because obviously nobody is going to read the entire site—Blumrich's basic premise is based on two translation errors in a single 1957 German Bible translation he relied upon when he wrote the original book in German: "round feet" and "vehicular structure". (Unfortunately, one of the English translations Blumrich used to check the German translation had copied the "round feet" mistranslation from the 1957 German version.)

Therefore, whenever I have quoted Blumrich's English translation of the mistranslated German text I have added a "Translation error" notation as follows:

I have omitted Blumrich's two-page Index because all the page numbers are irrelevant, and it is much simpler to access a search engine that lets you limit your search to a single domain (e.g., Google) and do a search than to look something up in an index.

I omitted the Forward (one-third of a page), and the "teaser" page (when you first open the cover), since they add nothing of substance. In both he says he intended to disprove von Däniken's claims about Ezekiel  and wound up agreeing.

The book has four unnumbered footnotes. I turned one of them into a parenthetical comment in the middle of the paragraph but set off by a blue background and set off the other three in comment boxes with a blue background.

In Chapter 3 the publisher accidentally flipped over the "traditional version" negative, putting Ezekiel on the left facing the chariot on the right. I have left that as in the book.  However, the original includes German text, so the "larger image" is correct, with Ezekiel on the right facing the chariot on the left. I don't think anyone claims there is symbolic or theological significance about which way Ezekiel is facing, etc.

In Chapter 4, Part E, the 1974 text says the patent was pending and I changed that to the issuance date, patent number and patent title with a link to the actual document.

In Chapter 7, Part E, Blumrich has an insignificant minor miscitation and misquotation of the Catholic Commentary; I noted the correct cite and quote.

In a few places I have added alternative measurements in parentheses, e.g., where the original says "about 220 nautical miles" I have added "about 220 nautical miles (253 mi/407 km)" since few people can readily convert nautical miles to standard miles or kilometers.

Yes, they are genuine. I got them from the U.S. Patent Office website.

Obtaining a patent definitely does not prove his interpretation. Oftentimes, seeing or hearing or reading about one thing will suddenly cause something to "click" in a person's mind and the person will come up with the solution to a completely unrelated problem. Ezekiel says he saw "a wheel within a wheel".  Whether he saw a physical wheel, a vision, or a hallucination, that does not change the fact that the vehicle he saw definitely was not round and Blumrich's design requires a round vehicle for aerodynamic reasons. And patenting a wheel can't explain how Ezekiel was able to foretell the future.

6) Where can I find out more about Josef Blumrich?

I don't know. I have extensive experience doing research on the Internet and  I have already found pretty much all there is on the Internet from records available to the public. Most Internet sites, even in other languages, simply repeat the little "About the Author" blurb on the back of the book although they may rephrase parts to make it sound new. I found a slightly more detailed biographical sketch in an old newsgroup message. Unlike anyone else working this field, I knew enough to search the U.S. Patent Office and other public records to find out his middle name and information on his wife.

Some words to would-be researchers:

1. Although Blumrich has gained some minor renown on the Internet, he never was a "celebrity" by any stretch of the imagination.  Spaceships was published almost 40 years ago, back when most records were still kept on paper or microfilm or microfiche. Most newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television interviews and government records from that time period were discarded long ago and will never be available on the Internet. He retired from NASA in 1974, so there are few government records after that.
      
2. According to Blumrich's UNESCO Impact article in 1974 Blumrich lived at 2721 Briarwood Drive SE in Hunstville, Alabama. In mid-2006 I checked Madison County's on-line real property records from 1956 through 1985 and found no records for Blumrich. The Historical Index Search option of the Probate Judge's records produces scanned images of hand-written record books, so they won't be updated. Although in Fall 2009 that approximate address showed up in Google Maps, the U.S. Postal Service ZIP-Code finder indicated mail was not deliverable at that address and the street address records of the Madison County Tax Assessor jumped directly from 2718 to 2802. Google Earth street view in September 2009 showed houses in that general area. Most likely the Blumriches rented the home and it has since been torn down. Deed and property records are also kept online in the Probate Judge's Office.  I did find records for Josef's son Michael and Michael's wife Ingeborg in 1993 where they paid off a mortgage obtained in 1965.
    
   For those not familiar with American street numbers, it is common to assign a block of 100 numbers to each street. Hence, if there are five homes on the "2500 block" of Smith Street, house numbers could be 2500, 2501 (across the street),  (no 2502 because 2500 takes up two lots), 2503, 2504, 2505, 2600.
    
3. In April 2010, Josef's youngest son Stephen did run across the website and emailed me. In November 2011 Christoph ran across the site and contacted me to correct some of the information. However, we all realize that the website is not about Josef overall, it is basically about whether his theory that Ezekiel saw a flying saucer can hold up under detailed scrutiny.
     
4. I did find the exact address of the Estes Park home but to protect the privacy of the new owners, it is not listed on this site.

7) Is anybody else doing research in this Ezekiel / flying saucer area?

Yes, but it's all in German and as far as I can tell it has not been translated into English. Their work all suffers from the same problems as Blumrich's work:

• They all take Blumrich's "flying saucer" shape as a proved fact although Ezekiel never describes what he saw as being round.

• Unlike me, none of them have checked Blumrich's sources, which show that even his own references basically don't support his claims.

• The other researchers have no background in Hebrew.

• They have no background in biblical studies.

• They don't do "word studies" to see how critical words or phrases are used in other texts from the same culture and time period.

• They ignore the rest of the Bible, which gives them a grossly distorted understanding of Ezekiel.

I emailed one of the primary researchers but unfortunately he knows hardly any English and I can't write German anywhere near well enough to carry on correspondence regarding technical subjects such as engineering or textual analysis of biblical text.

Another major error I note is that they don't compare the estimated size of the alleged spaceship—29 meters / 95.1 ft from rotor-tip to rotor-tip—with the recorded sizes of the places in which it allegedly landed, as I did. They don't look at questions like, "How could the spaceship land inside Ezekiel's house?"

I have not read any of his books. This FAQ entry is the only material about Sitchin on the site. His name is included in the keywords because he deals with Paleo-SETI and is in the same general group as Blumrich and von Däniken.

Although I have not read any of Sitchin's books I have read a little about his background and theories. Claims that Earth-type life could evolve and survive on a planet with a highly ellipitical orbit that takes it far beyond the orbit of Pluto are simply foolish. Even Mars is far too cold to support any kind of complex life. If a planet contained enough radioactive material to produce Earth-like temperatures in deep space from radioactive decay, the radiation would be enough to routinely break apart molecular bonds that are necessary for even the simplest forms of life to survive, such as viruses and bacteria.  Also see www.SitchinIsWrong.com and the Links to other Critiques there.

9) What does Jesus have to do with any of this?  Ezekiel is in the Old Testament and lived 500 years before Jesus!

A lot of people visualize the "God" of the Old Testament as a bright light or shimmering air or just a disembodied invisible voice from the sky. When the Bible talks about God's "hands" or "finger" or "wings" they think it is all just symbolic. In some cases, e.g., "wings", the language is just symbolic.

But in the Old Testament there is a being referred to as "the Angel of the LORD" that looked like a human male, with a physical body and met with a number of people such as Abraham, Sarah, Jacob/Israel (Genesis 32:24-30), Moses and the parents of Sampson. (Judges 13) This being ate lunch with Abraham and Sarah. (Genesis 18) People such as Abraham sometimes refer to this "Angel" by God's name, Jehovah.  (Actually, Yahweh, often translated "LORD" in English translations.)

Jesus claimed that he is the God of the Bible, and that he was the one who met with Abraham and with Moses. His contemporaries clearly understood his claim: John 10:33 ". . .  you, a mere man, claim to be God."

According to Christian theology, "the Angel of the LORD" was Jesus. Both the Hebrew word ma-lach and the Greek word angelos can be translated either "angel", i.e., "a supernatural created spirit-being" or "messenger". So, malach-Yahweh can be translated either "Angel (created being) of the LORD" or "Messenger of Jehovah". The beginning of the Gospel of John calls Jesus the Word of God.

So, according to Christian interpretations, in prophetic visions Ezekiel saw Jesus. The "Commander" who Ezekiel saw was God—and whenever God appeared in human form in the Bible, it was in the form of Jesus.

The theological terminology is a "preincarnate theophany". Theophany means "God manifesting in visible form." According to Christian theology, humans are spirits who live in physical bodies while on this planet. God is also a spirit. So God could go into a physical body and look like a human. That is called an incarnation, literally meaning "into flesh". A preincarnate theophany means a manifestation of God in visible form before Jesus took on a permanent physical body.

Blumrich says that only once do his verses equate the Commander with God. Therefore, he considers it an error. However, in the many verses Blumrich didn't use Ezekiel repeatedly says that the Commander is God.

10) Are crop circles some kind of alien activity?

Crop circle type of activity has been reported for centuries, mainly in northwestern Europe. (I believe mainly in Ireland.) See Vallee's Passport to Magonia.

Virtually all crop circles since 1978 have been made by humans, when two British men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, started making circles, and later on, fancier designs, to see if people would think they were created by UFO's. After a dozen years they came forth and demonstrated exactly how they did it and provided layout diagrams they had used. In fact, contests are now held and even beginners can quickly create complex artwork.

Why would crop artists not acknowledge their work? Usually they are trespassing on farmers' property and destroying crops. They could be sued and even possibly fined, imprisoned, and wind up with a criminal record. Also, in rural areas such as farming communities it is common that, "Everybody knows everyone", "Nothing much new ever happens around here", and "People around here have long memories."   Admitting you damaged  part of a neighbor's crop could  cause animosity between entire groups such as friends, and extended families for decades.

Additionally, many people doing crop "art" are jokesters like Bower and Chorley looking to "stir things up", and acknowledging their actions would defeat their aims.

However, there have been rare occurrences of circles with characteristics that appear to defy normal explanations.
  

11) What do you think of these alleged alien abduction stories?

I have my opinion on them, which—again—is not relevant. However, let me just say that if Blumrich is correct and Ezekiel actually saw a spacecraft, nevertheless there are substantial differences between the type of interaction activities described in the Book of Ezekiel and the activities "UFO aliens" reportedly engage in. See the references  cited in Common Conceptions of "Aliens" and the other works on "aliens" by Jacques Vallee.

They are the exact same book, the very last book of the New Testament. Protestant Bibles call it the Book of Revelation and Catholic Bibles call it the Apocalypse.

13) Can you put An Illustrated Chronology of the NASA Marshall Center and MSFC Programs 1960-1973 (22.1Mb) in a ZIP file so it will be smaller to download?

The PDF file is already maximally compressed.