NARRATOR: Pasadena, California.
June 17, 2018.
Thousands gather at the Pasadena Convention Center
for Aliencon, a three-day convention
to explore the mysteries of ancient civilization,
extraterrestrial existence, and the unexplained phenomena
of our universe.
I am about to introduce you to a man
that in 1968 published a book by the name
of "Chariots of the Gods.
The legend, Erich von Daniken.
[APPLAUSE]
NARRATOR: Erich von Daniken takes the stage
before an audience of 3,500 people, men and women who
are convinced that mankind's past and its future
is more extraordinary and more hopeful
than they had been led to believe by mainstream science.
I would like to say that over the course of history on planet
Earth, we've seen great men, Moses being one of those,
Abraham Lincoln being another.
I'd like to honor you in that same group of men.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you very much.
That's very kind of you.
It all started because of religious doubts.
That was the power in me to find out what is God.
By the way, I still am a deep believer in God.
So simply, I had doubts in my own religion.
In the meantime, I'm 83 years old.
The gods love me.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Since 1968, it's been 50 years.
How has the reception of the ancient astronaut
theory, in your opinion, changed over 50 years?
It was an immediate bestseller in Germany and in Switzerland.
Then it was sold to the United States.
It was a bestseller here.
And soon as it was a bestseller, I was, of course, attacked.
I was crushed down practically by every scientific community,
by every scientist, by newspapers.
They all found, this is nonsense what this young Swiss fellow
is writing.
This is garbage.
So I was attacked.
And I'm not the one who gives up.
So I started to fight, and fight, and fight.
So in total, I have written 41 titles, or roughly 76
million copies in 32 languages.
Not bad.
[APPLAUSE]
In the 50 years since "Chariots," what do you think
are some of the best pieces of evidence
that have come forward that you did not cover in "Chariots"?
Well, of course, all of these years, always new material
had come.
And we know so much more about the Great Pyramid.
We detected the rooms, shafts, corridors, things
inside which I never knew in 1966 when
I made "Chariots of the Gods."
Now that a sequel of "Chariots of the Gods"
is already on the market, there is, of course,
material in there which you have never seen
and you would not believe on this planet.
[APPLAUSE]