The Sirius Mystery

Short story, athropologists studying an African tribe were finally initiated into the tribe's esoteric secrets and so on by its priests. The tribal knowledge was similar to Egyptian knowledge that also seems mysterious having to do with the Sirius system. Sirius A is the brightest star in our sky since it is only about eight light years away. Some of the stars are associated with Isis and other gods as well as being the basis for Sirius cults of the past or religions and mythologies that have roots there, temples were lined up with the stars so that the starlight from Sirius would shed a beam down the center and so on and so forth. In the past astronomy, astrology and mythology were all merged together in what was taken to be unified knowledge. Here is some of the best evidence that proponents of the mystery have:

In Figure 8, I compare the Dogon drawings of the orbit of Sirius B around Sirius with the modern astronomical diagrams of the same (which have been confirmed as accurate at this scale by Lindenblad’s work); also there is a comparison of the same information, tribal and modern, as seen in a linear perspective, stretched through time. I do not need to claim any perfect scientific accuracy for the Dogon drawings. The similarity is so striking that the most untrained eye can immediately see that the general picture is identical, in each instance. [...] The fact is demonstrated, and it is that the Dogon have an accurate general knowledge of the most unobvious and subtle principles of the orbiting of Sirius B around Sirius A.

The Dogon also know the actual orbital period of this invisible star, which is fifty years. Referring to the sacred Sigui ceremony of the tribe, [the anthropologists] Dieterlen and Griaule tell us: ‘The period of the orbit is counted double, that is, one hundred years, because the Siguis are convened in pairs of “twins”, so as to insist on the principle of twinness’.

The Dogon also say that Sirius B rotates on its axis, demonstrating that they know a star can do such a thing. In reality, all stars really do rotate on their axes. How do the Dogon know such an extraordinary fact?

(The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence
of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago
By Robert Temple :66-68)

And there are some other things as well. It can be explained away, as pretty much anything can be. For instance, although you cannot see Sirius B with the naked eye (because of the light from Sirius A and the fact that it is a dim light) perhaps ancient priests crafted a telescope in order to see the stars that gave people a sense of themselves before the city lights blurred them out. Then with a minimal amount of knowledge these charlatans controlled their whole culture by developing myths about the stars and predictions based on them. Or something, there can always be another explanation and another story.

Yet it seems ironic that Darwinists who believe that Life can just "evolve" on a planet given a common ancestor in a mud puddle (and who even seem to want to believe in aliens while predicting them based on Darwinism) seem to reject ancient mysteries that might lend support to the notion. I think it has to do with the fact that Darwinists are almost all progressives who believe in Enlightenment myths, as well as that the ancients were somehow "less evolved" and just plain "superstitious" to a man. So anyone back behind those ol' Dark Ages cannot have known anything like scientists of Enlightenment know now, for oh how they know now....and did not know then! For if they knew then, then knowing now is not as valuable.

Also, I suspect that the self-appointed Policemen of Knowledge like science fiction as a form of fairy tales for geeks, as they tend to be geeks, but they know that the notion of aliens being treated seriously epistemically undermines the authority that they've built up. It would tend to get in the way of their everyday epistemic police work of: "That's like believing that the earth is flat. It's a good thing Galileo proved it wasn't!" or "A puddle of mud being the common ancestor is as certain as gravity but that, why that's just like astrology!" and so on.

Interesting to note that astronomy came from astrology and would probably never have come about without a lot of ancient astronomical/astrological knowledge being rediscovered, perhaps including Galileo getting esoteric knowledge from texts and beginning to think it over. Note also that celestial bodies probably do have an impact on us, as some empirical evidence indicates. It's not something that is studied often though. That is just like astrology too much and coming to the conclusion that old knowledge is valid would be "just like" undermining some propaganda that is necessary for the modern mind with respect to progress. But it is a rather obvious point that forces from celestial bodies may have an impact on organisms living on the earth and that such impact may be more subtle than sunburn or a final extinction event impact. The charlatans who are currently psychics, astrologers and so on are annoying to be sure, yet just think if empirical facts proved a pattern so that they could no longer claim that type of knowledge to be their own, i.e. esoteric. E.g., "Yes, I know that such and such is more likely to happen given the alignment of the planets. So what am I paying you for?"

According to the Policemen of Knowledge there are some issues that are taboo or kooky, and so kooks are left to rule there. It seems as ironic on astrology as it is for aliens though, because according to them all things were determined in the stars after a Big Bang as a matter of course, which is all that matters to them.

Oh well, I am meandering about on this topic. I'll finish with the Sirius Mystery tomorrow. The short story from the skeptics: One of the anthropologists was interested in astronomy and so it is said that he imprinted modern astronomy onto the Dogon's myths or somehow coached them along. There are various problems with that story, as the knowledge the anthropologist had at the time could probably not be so detailed unless he discovered it himself and then decided to give it to the Dogon, then let some other writer come along later to popularize it as a mystery. Only the stupid skeptics seem to deny that there is a mystery on this one.

To skip to the end, I do not know. But I'll write a little more on it anyway so maybe someone else can find out. Plus I think the epistemology of storytelling is interesting and it has many applications, even in science, science!