What's This All About?

Welcome to the website devoted to addressing the claims of the ancient astronaut hypothesis popularized in the writings of Zecharia Sitchin. Who's behind this site? My name is Mike Heiser. Who am I? The short answer is that I'm a scholar of biblical and ancient Near Eastern languages, cultures, and religions. Why do I bother with this stuff? Because I don't like ancient texts manipulated to promote false claims. If I were a lawyer I'd feel professionally obligated to tell you if someone was giving you bad legal advice. If I was a medical doctor, I'd owe you the truth if I knew the medicine you were taking was bogus or could kill you. If I was an accountant, I'd let you know if a neighbor's tax advice could put you in jail. I'm none of those things, but take the analogy to heart. I'm trying to provide the same service in my areas of expertise. I can tell you--and show you--that what Zecharia Sitchin has written about Nibiru, the Anunnaki, the book of Genesis, the Nephilim, and a host of other things has absolutely no basis in the real data of the ancient world. I don't doubt that Zecharia Sitchin is a nice guy; he's just wrong. Nothing personal.

A Little Background

SITCHINISWRONG.COM has been online since 2001. Shortly after I wrote my novel, The Facade (during what should have been my first year of writing my PhD dissertation), I was invited to be a guest on Coast to Coast AM. Former host Art Bell asked me if I would debate Zecharia Sitchin live on the show and I accepted. Sitchin has never returned the favor. I was quickly attacked, though, by other "researchers" who accused me of making piles of money off Sitchin's name. I answered by posting my income tax returns on the Internet. My accusers crawled back under their rocks and I went on to finish my dissertation in Hebrew and ancient Semitic languages (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004). I never really returned to normal life completely, though. I've been on a number of radio shows, made frequent re-appearances on Coast to Coast AM, and spoken at conferences that focus on this sort of thing. The people I meet and the hosts that interview me have proven to be bright, inquisitive, likeable, and sincere. I just try to get them to look at the data.