Host Richard Syrett welcomed journalist and author Jim Marrs, who discussed his recent essay, "Unholy Alliance: Ancient Astronauts and the New World Financial Order," published in Lost Secrets of the Gods. "The most ancient cultures in the world... they all tell the same story: gods came from the sky and taught them things," Marrs said, noting that the complicated process of crafting beer was handed down to the Sumerians from the Anunnaki. What has come down to us as mythology is really history, he added. Marrs suggested the concept of religion accompanied the arrival of these ancient astronauts who used human worship as a control mechanism. The strife seen in the Old Testament, with one kingdom pitted against another, is the result of various extraterrestrial power plays, he contended.

"We're being divided and conquered in this country today," Marrs continued, pointing out that as religion has faded through the ages humanity is now primarily controlled by money. He talked about the ancient astronauts' hybridization program and gold mining efforts. Banks were developed to deal with large sums of gold, he explained, tracing modern banking to the letters of credit issued by the Knights Templar. Marrs proposed that our reserved fractional banking and fiat currency were ultimately derived from the ancient astronauts and the influential families who throughout history have acted as their surrogates. Those elite at the very top "are in touch with non-human powers off-planet," he said.

Giant Spiders

In the first hour, zoologist and science writer Dr. Karl Shuker talked about giant spiders that could be more than just myth. The largest known spider is South America's Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) which takes the record with a specimen measuring 11.25 inches from leg to leg, he explained. However, much larger spiders may exist. "Gigantic spiders have been reported, literally, all over the world in many remote areas and a few not-so-remote areas," Shuker said. As examples he cited reports of gargantuan arachnids the size of small puppies in Papua New Guinea, and the 1939 account of two British explorers who claimed to have encountered a Congolese giant spider which they mistook for a monkey. According to Shuker, the J'ba Fofi, as it known by villagers, strings trip webs to trap small antelope for food.