By Jason Colavito

Back Cover Text

THE UNLIKELY STORY
OF A REMARKABLE IDEA
Could extraterrestrials have really come to Earth thousands of years ago? Did they bequeath humanity its first civilizations? Were there “ancient astronauts”? For nearly half a century, a flurry of books, movies, and television shows (with more cropping up each year) have said yes, over the objections of scientists, educators, and archaeologists.

In THE CULT OF ALIEN GODS, author Jason Colavito reveals for the first time that the theory that aliens visited Earth in the ancient past—and may even have genetically engineered humankind—began not as science fact but as science fiction in the work of master horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). This comprehensive survey examines Lovecraft’s body of work as well as his influence on maverick historians, occultists, pop culture, and a modern UFO cult trying to clone a human being on orders from the “aliens.”

From flying saucers to lost civilizations, THE CULT OF ALIEN GODS also explores the decline of reason and the dramatic challenges that rocked science over the past century. Lovecraft created the first ancient-astronaut story in 1926, and the saga of how his fictional aliens—his “sheer fun”—became a powerful threat to mainstream science rivals the ancient-astronaut theory itself for sheer outrageous improbability. ONLY, THIS STORY IS TRUE.

JASON COLAVITO is a freelance writer and editor who has written for Skeptic magazine, among other publications.

Contents

• Acknowlegments
• Prelude
  1. The Crossroads of Fact and Fiction
• Part One: Precursors of the Myth
  2. Science and Pseudoscience in Lovecraft’s Time
  3. Science Fiction and Horror before Lovecraft
• Part Two: Stories of Gods from Outer Space
  4. The Prophet of Providence
  5. The Spread of the Lovecraft Circle
  6. The UFO Craze in Fact and Fiction
• Part Three: From Fiction to Fact
  7. The French Connection
  8. Charioteer of the Gods
• Interlude: The View from 1976
  9. The Fork in the Road
• Part Four: From Sirius to Orion and Beyond
  10. The Sirius Mystery
  11. The Orion Mystery
  12. Dusting for Fingerprints
  13. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Part Five: Human Clones from the Twelfth Planet
  14. Ancestors from Nibiru
  15. Taking Off from Nibiru
  16. The UFO Cults and Human Cloning
• Conclusion
  17. A Modern Mythology for Troubled Times
• Appendix: A Continuum of Belief
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Index

Bibliographic Information

The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture. By Jason Colavito. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books; 2005; ISBN 1-59102-352-1 (paperback); 398 pages.

Purchasing This Book

This book may be purchased in paperback from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or directly from the publisher, Prometheus Books.