Aliens: A Modern Myth

“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we’re going to examine one of the most enduring ideas of modern culture: the belief in space aliens. For over a century, the public has been bombarded with stories of UFOs, crashes, alien pilots, and government cover-ups. But when we peel back the layers of this phenomenon, a very different picture emerges—one not of extraterrestrial visitors, but of human invention, misinterpretation, and manipulation. Let’s begin.”
Part 1: The Mars Craze – Fiction as ‘Fact’
In 1877, during the opposition of Mars, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed what he called canali—meaning ‘channels.’ This was mistranslated into English as ‘canals,’ a much more artificial-sounding term. American astronomer Percival Lowell took this mistranslation and ran with it. Despite the fact that the so-called canals changed over time—a dead giveaway of optical illusion—Lowell published book after book claiming Mars was home to a dying civilization. By 1908, his ideas had…







