Ancient Aliens: Does The Divine Number actually have an alien connection?

Ancient Aliens: Does The Divine Number actually have an alien connection?

At a certain point in the Ancient Aliens franchise, content diminishes. There are only so many feasible connections without significant stretches of the imagination. Well, “The Divine Number” is a mixed-bag, with just enough circumstantial points to raise eyebrows.

Having said that, believability in Ancient Aliens‘ theories is in the eye of the beholder.

The introduction

The general synopsis of “The Divine Number” is that sacred traditions, architecture, and history constantly involves the number twelve. One of the first believers in this theory is William James Sidis, a child prodigy who graduated from Harvard at 16 years old. Obsessed by the number twelve and the duodecimal numerical notation (i.e. counting with Base-12), Sidis wrote a book entitled “The Animate and the Inanimate” which predicted black holes and the existence of dark matter.

Some time later, Burkhard Heim (i.e. German Stephen Hawking) claimed a 12-dimensional world view instead of the commonplace three dimensions.

So the first argument for Ancient Aliens is two super smart guys were a fan of the number twelve. Cue Third World Skeptical Kid Meme.

Twelves everywhere

Clocks are divided into twelve segments. Same with the Hebrew calendar. Twelve Signs of the Zodiac and twelve Lunar cycles. Apparently, there are twelve chakras and cranial nerves in the human body. There are even twelve planetary grid vortices like the Bermuda Triangle, which makes the world a much scarier place.

Furthermore, there were twelve Arthurian knights, Olympians, Lost Tribes of Israel, Imams, and Apostles.

Geographically, there is Gobekli Tepe in Turkey with its ancient stone complex of megaliths dating back several thousand years, with twelve T-Shaped stones focused around two gateway-monoliths. The Stones of Stennes (3100 BC) and the Callanish Stones, both in Scotland, originally twelve each. The Twelve Apostles Stone Circle, where UFO sightings are common, also twelve. Pillars at Mt. Sinai. Galgalatokai Circle of Stones. Elijah’s altar on Mount Carmel. Twelve, twelve, twelve. Hell, an American mathematician named Jeffrey Weeks even suggests the universe is a dodecahedron.

Interestingly enough, Matthias replaced that bastard Judas as the twelfth apostle, and only then did the Apostles receive the Holy Spirit.

Ancient Aliens is laying it on thick, and my attention is piqued.

The alien connection

You may be asking, “Where’s the connection to aliens?” Back to the duodecimal system, and counting by twelves. The Sumerians counted in five increments of twelve – touch the three pads of the four fingers with the thumb – which, according to legend, was given to them by the Anunnaki. Any fan of Ancient Aliens now says, “Ah-ha,” because Anunnaki is how half the episodes link to aliens. It’s like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

The Anunnaki system of counting, however, is easier with six digits, like Goliath in the Bible. Like the petroglyphs at Chaco Canyon and Newspaper Rock. Or the Huaorani Tribe of Ecuador who has this 1/1000 recessive trait. So maybe the Sumerian 3+3+3+3 equals Anunnaki 6+6, and the extra digits are just extra-terrestrial genes we should all have? Ancient astronaut theorists say “Yes,” while displaying gross photos of hands and feet with extra digits.

As the judge of this case, I’ll allow it. Please go on Ancient Aliens. I’m listening.

President Truman?

Assembled by Truman in the 1940s, The Majestic-12 investigated UFO encounters. Why did Truman pick twelve? A signal to ETs? Or maybe Truman was just an addict begging for a simple-to-follow program? Perhaps he was prophesizing his fandom for LAPD procedural dramas in the early-70s? The team composition seems random and only slightly related.

This episode of Ancient Aliens finishes with some unrelated content about CERN discovering the God particle, the final two digits of the Mayan 2012 calendar, some Arecibo radio blasts, and musical notes.

Ultimately, it’s not much more than a remake of Jim Carrey movie 23. Patterns prove nothing. Color me unconvinced.