Ancient Astronaut Theory - Part I - Cargo cult: how religions appear
The cargo cult movements are those of a religious nature that developed between indigenous of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea mainly at the end of WW2 after they had come into contact with the "visitors who came from the sky with silver birds".
During WW2 these visitors were American and Japanese soldiers who created many temporary military bases in the Pacific.The indigenous of those islands not being able to understand the technological level of those visitors exchanged their technology for magic and men to the Gods.
These Gods offered them clothing and food, and the vast amount of materials, food, weapons, tents parachuted over those islands to supply the soldiers during the war provoked a drastic change in habits of the islanders; to remember also another Cargo cult occurred in Papua New Guinea in the early twentieth century called the Madness of Vailala where the natives burned their huts, leaving ruined crops and passing whole days on the beach waiting for the merchant of the Gods.
The first Cargo cult known was the Tuka Movement in Fiji in 1885, where a prophet, Navosavakandua, trained a paramilitary group prophesying a future world order reversal where the white man was subjugated to the natives.The Prophet and many of his followers were arrested and the movement disappeared but his followers continued to have faith.
At the end of the war the air bases were abandoned and the procurement of cargo ended.
If we compare the Cargo cults to the current religions we will find a sort of similarity for some aspects: airstrips were built, life-size replicas of airplanes then landing signals with torches to simulate the position lights or dams on the rivers to allow berthing of vessels in the hope that this would allow the gods to return.
The construction of wooden airplanes was perhaps not the only episode of "replication" of what had been actually seen, a series of gold jewelry dating from around 500-800 A.D. were discovered in South America.These findings are part of the pre-Inca culture Sinu and what they represent is not yet entirely clear, historians obviously try the obvious by saying that they are stylized birds even if these objects have all the features of modern airplanes and if those really are real animals is not clear to which bird, insect or fish they are relate.
The period in which the different cargo cult occurred, at least those officially regarded as such is still relatively recent as it comes from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, although similar cults took place, however, even before the WW2 upon contact of indigenous and European settlers.
What would happen if we project these events some thousands of centuries back in time?
In the Bible in Exodus we read about "Manna coming from heaven" that God sent down from heaven to the Israelites during their journey through the desert to the promised land after the liberation of slavery in Egypt.
Personally I believe that Bible and others contains real stories but if we consider true those events we must also consider the fact that centuries of transcriptions, translations, adaptations and interpretations have certainly altered the original story and the evidences so who tells us that the God of manna is not comparable to the Gods of the Cargo Cult?
In both cases there was an entity sending goods from the sky and in both cases the Gods left leaving behind them only the faith and hope for their return.
Alfonso Folle.
