The Sirius Mystery is a book written by Robert K. G. Temple. It supports the pseudoscientific ancient astronauts hypothesis, which suggests that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and interacted with humans in ancient and prehistoric times. The book was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1976. The second edition, published in 1998, is titled The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago.

Overview

The book suggests that the Dogon people of Mali, in West Africa, may have a tradition of contact with intelligent beings from the Sirius star system. These beings are said to have taught humans important skills and influenced the development of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Sumerian cultures, including the stories of the Pharaohs and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The book’s ideas are mainly based on the work of researchers Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. Much of the book includes comparisons of languages and myths from the Dogon, Yoruba, Egyptian, and Sumerian cultures, with some mention of Greek and Arab traditions.

A key question in the book is how the Dogon came to know about Sirius B, a small, dim star that orbits Sirius A and cannot be seen without a telescope. Sirius B was first discovered in 1862, after being predicted in 1844. The author, Temple, considers other possibilities besides alien contact, such as an ancient, advanced civilization that influenced Egypt and Sumer. However, he believes the alien contact idea is more convincing.

Some people have questioned the accuracy of Griaule and Dieterlen’s research. Noah Brosch, in his book Sirius Matters, suggests that French astronomers might have shared knowledge with the Dogon during a 1893 solar eclipse expedition. During this trip, scientists spent five weeks in the area, which could have allowed for exchanges with local people. Others, like anthropologist Walter Van Beek, argue that the Dogon did not believe Sirius was a double star or that astronomy was central to their beliefs. However, critics of Van Beek, such as Geneviève Calame-Griaule and Luc de Heusch, say his conclusions ignored important details about Dogon traditions.

Reviews of claims

In 1978, astronomer Ian Ridpath wrote in an article for the Skeptical Inquirer that the Dogon people’s stories about Sirius and its companion stars contain unclear parts, contradictions, and clear mistakes, especially if taken as literal truth. Ridpath explained that while some details about Sirius in Dogon stories may match real facts, the Dogon’s original knowledge about the star does not match these facts. He concluded that any accurate information in the stories likely came from contact with Europeans. More recent research suggests that the person who first recorded these stories, Griaule, may have been the source of this contact.

In his 1979 book Broca's Brain, astronomer Carl Sagan discussed issues with the idea that the Dogon had knowledge from space. He pointed out that the Dogon do not seem to know about a planet beyond Saturn that has rings, which makes it more likely their knowledge came from Europeans, not from space.

In his 1982 book UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries, journalist and skeptic James Oberg gathered information about Dogon myths. He noted that the Dogon’s astronomical knowledge matches ideas from Europe in the late 1920s, suggesting they may have learned about Sirius B from European visitors before their stories were recorded in the 1930s. Oberg also said the Dogon were not isolated and that a member of the group may have learned about Sirius B while traveling and later shared this knowledge with others. He added that there is no old evidence showing the Dogon’s stories about Sirius’s hidden stars are very old. He also mentioned that symbols used to explain Sirius’s secrets are also used in other traditions, like ceremonies for growing up, and that the evidence for recent contact remains not fully proven.

Skeptic Jason Colavito includes The Sirius Mystery in a group of works that he believes are based on ideas from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

Unproven claims

One unconfirmed part of the Dogon people's reported knowledge about the Sirius system is their claim that they knew about another star in the system called Emme Ya, which they described as "larger than Sirius B but lighter and dimmer in brightness." A study published in 1995, which examined unusual changes in the orbit of Sirius B (suggesting the star might be influenced by another object), concluded that the possibility of a third star orbiting Sirius could not be completely ruled out. A "third star" seen in the 1920s was later confirmed to be an object in the background, a possibility first suggested by Holberg in 2007.

The study also found that while a three-star system for Sirius could not be fully ruled out, the chance of it existing was considered low.

Temple's book and the debates that followed its release made the Dogon tribe well-known among many New Age followers and supporters of ancient astronaut theories. Today, websites often mix information about the Dogon with myths, causing confusion about their beliefs. Temple later stated in a 1999 reprint of his book, The Sirius Mystery, that he does not support groups he calls "sinister cults" that formed because of his work, such as the Typhonian OTO.

In the second edition of his book, Temple also expressed frustration about what he described as "extreme and strong opposition from certain security agencies, especially American ones."