Could Nazca Lines Have Been Made By Astral Projection?
The famous Nazca geoglyphs in Peru have long been considered a puzzle. The mystery of their creation is debatable, although they were clearly constructed to be seen from the air. Their enduring enigma has been revived recently as an integral part of the newest Indiana Jones film.
In his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, Erich Von Daniken claimed that the geometrical lines and figures were left by the ancients as markings for a spaceport for extraterrestrials. While this is a fascinating idea with absolutely no evidence to back it up, there are many other theories about the lines which don’t rely on otherworldly origins. Most of the designs can be seen from nearby hills and mountains, although the people who made them would have had to account for the oblique viewpoint, since the designs are proportionally correct when seen from above, a viewpoint not readily available to their ancient designers.
Another theory advanced in the 1970s by Robert Woodmann was that the ancient Nazca artists had invented some sort of hot air balloons to direct construction from above. He fashioned a balloon out of cotton fabric and attached basket woven by native residents to send a couple of pilots a few hundred feet into the air over the drawings.
A compendium of Nazca theories can be found here. Although many speculate about what the lines mean, not many seem to be interested in the “how” of their creation.
Reviled fundamentalist skeptic Joe Nickell (famous for his explanation of the Kelly-Hopkinsville and Flatwoods entities as giant owls) conducted an experiment in 1982 and reproduced one of the most famous Nazca figures by using a simplified method of measurements from a central line laid out in a field in Tennessee. If he didn’t conveniently gloss over something important, the “condor” was a good reproduction using methods available to anyone with lengths of twine or other reasonable ways of measurement across large areas of land. What appear to be ancient holes, possibly where markers stood (including some with remnants of wooden posts) during construction are in fact located at many points along the drawings and straight lines on the Nazca plain.
But the problem remains: How did the ancient Nazcan people know how accurate they were after the fact for hundreds of the geoglyphs, some apparently not readily visible from the nearby hills?
I was not really surprised to find out that someone had already proposed that the Nazca lines were made by people who had mastered the techniques of out-of-body travel. In his 1988 book Lines To The Mountain Gods, archaeologist Evan Hadingham proposed that the Nazcans may have used psychedelic substances for shamanistic journeys over the area to check out their work (at least this is what non-scientific and new-age websites claim - I don’t have a copy of the book.) This seems like a far-fetched theory coming from someone who works as a senior science editor for the PBS NOVA series, but the basic idea has merit.
There is a significant amount of literature on the subject of so-called “astral projection” and hundreds of references to people who have seemingly left their physical bodies and traveled to distant locations to observe what is going on at the time. One good reference for this subject is the 1970 volume The Projection of the Astral Body by Sylvan Muldoon. Other, similar experiences are documented in the “remote viewing” litereature. These journeys out of the body, if viable as a reliable method, have nothing to do with mind-altering substances, and may be one undiscovered method used by ancient peoples to contruct huge artworks on the Earth which could only be properly seen from the domain of the gods.
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Jun 28 2008 
June 28th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’ve actually had one of these astral projection experiences. One winter I took the wrong road out of Kempton during a heavy show. I collided with a snow bank and was utterly stuck. I gave myself up for dead in the car, being buried by inches of snow still coming down with every passing minute. I felt as if I left my body and was looking down on the scene from the sky, right down to seeing this tractor coming to pull me out. And that’s what happened. SOme kindly local farmer dragged me out of the mess.
Such a thing has not happened to me before or since, but I’m not about to doubt the phenom.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:43 am
This makes some sense. If you’re skilled at lucid dreaming (see http://www.lucidity.com) then you could have a directed out-of-body dream, or flying dream. They also had the San Pedro cactus (mescaline). It’s too bad that so much attention is given to the lines. When I was there I thought that their textiles, ceramics, burial pits, and irrigation systems were more interesting.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:55 am
What about the possibility of a tribe of mothmen or spring-heeled jacks?
They would be able to “get high” long enough to guide the Nazca Plain artists.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Fascinating and I’ll add: While I attended the U of MN in 1997 I had the pleasure of moving into a house where this beautiful young Andean indigenous female lived. She took me to her town of Merida Venezuela. She visited various female healers in the villages while I tagged along with her son. One evening, in the beautiful mountains, we drank potato chica. That night, after the “Inca Revenge” took its toll on my intestines, I could not sleep because my heart chakra was so heated up with unrequited love for this indigenous Andean female. I relationship was Platonic. Anyway I had to sing to myself as the only means of dispersing the energy but then all of a sudden my mind switched into this weird vision that I could not stop at all. My whole life flashed before me like a movie only it didn’t happen chronologically — it happened psychologically. Events years apart were connected simultaneously because the latter had psychically resolved the tension of the former. Amazed I was forced to watch this NDE unfold at mind-boggling speed. The next day I just sat off on my own and was intensely serene the rest of the trip.
In my subsequent research I discovered a Science Citation Index study where mountain climbers were tested for melatonin levels. Turns out melatonin sky-rockets when you are high up in elevation, as would be the case in the Andes. And as been shown, melatonin turns into DMT — the dream vision molecule used for spirit travel.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
That’s a nice coincidence, I was just discussing this theory with a friend last week! It makes complete sense for the Nazca lines to be some kind of training ground or initiatory/guidance tool for shaman. No ancient flying machines needed, or aliens who require landing strips in the shape of a monkey.
Cheers for a great post Greg,
Rick
The Daily Grail
June 29th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Nonlocal consciousness? Hey, why not?
June 30th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
So the Nazva drawings of monkees and spiders are actually the pranks of the young kids studying to become shamans, kinda like their version of graffitis in the men’s bathrooms of today’s high-schools?
I could go for that
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Kenn,
Seems like experience often trumps knee-jerk skpeticism!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 pm
euphemistic,
Most people are interested in the star attraction, of course. I’d like to visit there some day and see the other artifacts that you mention.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
LLP,
Maybe, but would they fit into the indigenous cosmology? Maybe the “astronaut” geoglyph is a MOTHMAN!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Drew,
Then why isn’t everyone who goes up in the mountains tripping their brains out?
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Rick,
Thanks for the compliment and the link! The idea was just something that popped into my head the other day while I was looking at some petroglyphs from the American southwest.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Mac,
Of course, you see things immediately and distill the post to its essential message. Geez!