The belief of extraterrestrial life is one of the most exotic, exciting and long endearing throughout human history. Mars in particular has always proven to be of particular interest. One of our nearest planetary neighbours, the red planet has inspired thousands of works ranging from the earliest science fiction, all the way to contemporary fringe theology. In the late 19th Century, interest in the planet saw a boom, as astronomers battled with one another over their beliefs of the existence of a great Martian civilization, creating a scientific debate that...
The belief of extraterrestrial life is one of the most exotic, exciting and long endearing throughout human history. Mars in particular has always proven to be of particular interest. One of our nearest planetary neighbours, the red planet has inspired thousands of works ranging from the earliest science fiction, all the way to contemporary fringe theology. In the late 19th Century, interest in the planet saw a boom, as astronomers battled with one another over their beliefs of the existence of a great Martian civilization, creating a scientific debate that crossed over into far more fringe elements. Spiritualism, with it’s equal boom, became far more interested in the interstellar than one might expect and one case in particular, of a young, Swiss medium named Catherine Elise muller, would charge out in front, presenting the world with not only surreal images of the hypercolour martian landscape, but with descriptions of an alien society and a working language to boot.
SOURCES
Flournoy, Theodore (1900) From India to the Planet Mars. Harper & Bros, London, UK
Keep, Christopher (2020) Life on Mars?: Hélène Smith, Clairvoyance, and Occult Media. Journal of Victorian Culture , Volume 25 (4) – Nov 16, 2020. Leeds Trinity University, Oxford University Press, UK.
Clerke, Agnes Mary (2011) A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, UK.
Greg, Percy (1880) Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record. Ballantyne Press, London, UK.
Crossley, Robert (2011) Imagining Mars: A Literary History. Wesleyan University Press, CT, USA.
Tipler, F.J. (1981) A Brief History of the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Concept. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 22, P. 133, 1981.
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