"I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is well written and very readable" David Pawson, teacher and writer

"I've been reading your book ... it is excellent - very inspired ... I am very excited about it" Julia Fisher, broadcaster and writer

"Steve Maltz has written with a breadth of understanding that is astonishing and in a style that is immensely readable. The book is ideal for honest seekers for truth." Chris Hill, teacher and broadcaster

"t's life as we know it - but perhaps not as we've thought about it. Cosmic accident or intelligent purpose? Why are we all here - and how have we survived against the odds? Steve Maltz has a brilliant way of presenting the facts and leaving us to argue with ourselves. Go on… paint yourself into a corner - and enjoy!" David Andrew, editor of PT magazine >

"He has a way of drawing the reader in without them necessarily realising where he is taking them, and then comes the knockout blow. He makes a good case using examples such as the delicate balance of relationship between the Sun, Moon and Earth . The book is littered with scientific facts, which will appeal to men and you could easily give this to someone without unnerving them. 'Have a read of this and tell me what you think' would be a good line. Not a bad evangelistic investment this" Clem Jackson, editor of Christian Marketplace magazine>

"Be prepared to have your mind blown apart, turned upside down, scrambled and then put back together by this challenging read. It's all about conspiracy theories, evolution and twists of the media - ultimately, it's about proving the theory of the world's greatest creator;God. Providing key theories and answers, Steve does a mind-bending job ... take the challenge and scramble your mind!" (Joy Magazine)

>"I have read your book and really enjoyed it. It was a real thought provoker and just about right for a general readership. Having worked as a science graduate for 25 years I would have loved more - it is all intriguing." (Derek White, Founder Christian Friends of Israel)

Steve Maltz has a rare gift of being able to communicate complex ideas in a way that leaves you thinking that you have read the work of a genius but can still follow his argument clearly. The Truth Is Out there is a slim volume but it is packed with wisdom that is ideal for anyone who wants to have rational and theologically sound answers to some of the clever contemporary questions. This title is something of a "tardis" in that you come away thinking that you have discovered far more than a book of this size should be able to give. At 93 pages there is not the space to have in-depth answers, but the reader gets a satisfying sense of being given a good overview of Biblical responses on many of the fallible contemporary urban myths and conspiracy legends of 21st century life. A brilliant read for an evangelist to engage with a sceptic or to give as a gift for "food for thought" (Tim Leffler, The GoodBookstall.org.uk)

I read the book at one sitting and my thoughts kept wandering off at the tangents Steve offered me. Not every book I have read has done this ... Steve wants us to stop and ponder aspects of life that we should have given much more attention to than we actually have. He wanders through science, history, anatomy and art to get us to look at the wonders before us and to ask the questions that we - in our sophistication - might think are reserved for young children ... This 'light' book got me reflecting and triggered again something of the wonder of God's creation. But I am a Christian and this book was not written for me - it was written for the unbeliever to get him to ask questions that he might never had asked before. But if I get awe-struck at the God of the universe than, perhaps, the God I present will be a God who is worthy of awe from open-mouthed unbelievers who never knew that such a God existed! Would I be happy to give this book to an unbeliever? Yes. Will it bring him to faith in Christ? I think not, because it is not designed for that. We live in a society where we cannot presume that the word "God" means the same to an unbeliever as it does to the Christian. We have to take one step back from such a presumption and get the unbeliever to first of all entertain the thought that there might actually be a personal God 'out there'. This book could well do that for some people and may the LORD be pleased to use it that way. (John MacLaughlan, Sword Magazine - Prophecy Today)

Look at the success of 'The Da Vinci code' in this decade, 'The Chariots of the Gods' in the 1960s, or 'The Late Great Planet Earth' in the 1970s. We love intrigues and mysteries, especially when there is a blurring between truth and fiction. If a major event occurs that contains just the slightest whiff of uncertainty or controversy, then watch as the conspiracy industry buds some new shoots. Some, such as the Kennedy assassination, 9-11 and the death of Princess Diana, have become mighty oaks. Others, long forgotten, have just withered and died, denied the oxygen of media attention.

Conspiracies are big news. The media industry loves them because we love them, though there's a touch of 'the chicken or egg' here - would we be bothered to see the death of Princess Diana as anything other than an accident statistic if it weren't for Al Fayed's insistence of a cover up and the gallons of newsprint spilled out in commentary and speculation? On the other hand there is something gloriously perverse in believing negative stories of the British Royal family. It is both empowering and intriguing and lifts us out of our mundane lives into the twilight world of spies and assassins. Does it matter if there's every possibility that there's not a scrap of truth in it? Why spoil a thumping good read!

Some conspiracy theories go deeper. Rather than being sparked off by a single event, they speak of shadowy organisations that have been pulling the strings of history from the year dot. These speculations have been with us ever since the birth of the 'gossip column' (about 2 days after the invention of the printing press) and have created an industry of cosmic tittle-tattle, with a legion of websites, millionaire authors and a worldwide network feeding the hungry masses.

If there is one central theme that occurs again and again it is this, who really controls the world? Many have been suggested as prime candidates. There are the secret societies of the Freemasons, the Rosicruceans, the Bildebergs, the Illuminati, the New World Order. There are the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. There are even the veiled lizards of David Icke, ex-BBC snooker commentator and now full-time 'messiah'. There are the Jews and the Catholics, favourite scapegoats for those who are neither. Welcome on board the Paranoia Express, standing room only!

Are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater if we dismiss them all as the fruits of overactive or disturbed minds? Can there be elements of truth in some of these theories, with the secret being how to find the right mix? After all, there are the usual suspects, such as the Royal Family, The Bush family and Henry Kissinger who crop up in a number of them. Is it just a case of finding a key that fits all of the locks? Or is there a deeper conspiracy, concerned not with the machinations of individuals with agendas, but with unseen powers and forces lurking just out of view.

Just as the scientists work towards finding 'The Theory of Everything' that would explain the currently unexplainable, conspiracy theorists must surely, deep down, hanker for the real truth at the heart of our complicated world. Is history just a random sequence of events, or are there secret manipulations? What makes us tick? How did the World as we see it come to be? Is it fair to expect answers, or is it folly not to be asking the questions in the first place?

In this short book we will be delving below the surface of our existence on this planet, glimpsing at the possibilities beyond the daily routines of just getting on with life. Of course you may be quite happy with your lot, but there's surely no harm having your brain cells tickled and your soul (or whatever it is that is you) challenged. By doing so we will be discovering that perhaps there is something going on out there, perhaps even a conspiracy of sorts.

Our conspiracy has tentacles in all spheres of human life, so where it leads we will follow. We will be taken into areas of science, history, human behaviour, popular culture and religion. It's a small book, so we will do little more than dip into each, just enough to tickle the palate. If a thirst has been awakened then recommendations are made for further reading, where you will be placed in the hands of experts, who will take you further.

Of course, the very word conspiracy implies dastardly deeds, selfish ambitions and world domination, so we must tread carefully. Just be true to yourself and be prepared to evaluate not just all that you read here, but also all that you have read before.

"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction" Mark Twain.

The press had called it E-day. It was a unique event, not seen before in Britain for over 70 years and it was going to happen over Cornwall on August 11th 1999 at around 11am. It was, of course, a total eclipse of the sun and I was ready for it, in the Lake District, around 600 miles north from ground zero, but still with a reasonable view. As it turned out, most of Cornwall was in cloud when it happened but we had a good view on Brant Fell, just outside Bowness by Lake Windermere. Smug in the thought that a 90% eclipse in clear sky over the Lakes was better than a 100% eclipse lost in the Cornish clouds I stood with my family, plastic dark glasses (courtesy of a tabloid newspaper) and pin-hole projection device made from a cereal box at the ready. It didn't disappoint. We got our cosmic performance, oo-ed and aah-ed for a few minutes, then followed the sated crowd back into town for lunch.

We tend to take such things for granted, an entertainment to slot alongside the CGI-laden movies and technical wizardry of sci-fi dramas on the TV. Yet this was no illusion brought about by the manipulation of photons by indulged technicians, this was real life, a mother nature production and free!

Yet, if we only realised it, a total eclipse is a totally unlikely event, not just because it hardly happens because of the necessary celestial alignments, but because it happens at all! Patrick Moore, that monacled eccentric (and probably the finest amateur astronomer of modern times) calls it "unquestionably the finest display in all Nature" but he also says that the fact that it happens at all is "pure chance".

A total eclipse of the sun only happens because, from our perspective peering at the skies, the sun and moon seem to be about the same size, so that when the moon passes exactly in front of the sun, it blots it out to our eyes, the ultimate sun block! That's what a total eclipse is, it's simple really. There's nothing magical about that if, indeed, the sun and moon are the same size. But they are not. The sun is around 400 times larger than the moon and the only reason they seem to be the same size is that the sun is around 400 times further away from us. If the moon was 5% smaller or larger or the sun was 5% smaller or larger then there could never be a total eclipse. Or if the moon or sun were 5% nearer or further. It's a fine balance here, a slight nudge either away would deprive us of this "finest display in all Nature".

So what? You may ask. After all, eclipses have had a bad press in earlier days. They have generally been seen as portents of doom. Not surprising really as you don't expect to see a dark star-lit sky in the middle of the day time unless something dastardly was about to happen. That was the thinking in earlier times, when the phenomenon was seen as the sun abandoning the earth, usually as a result of being gulped up by a dragon or demon. The ancient Chinese used to bang away on drums to frighten away the dragon. The Incas used to fire arrows at the sky. Of course they were successful, as the sun was rescued as the eclipse finished. They had no reason to believe otherwise.

Then the scientists came along to sweet-talk us out of our panic and tell us that it's not the work of angry gods or demons, but rather a trick of geometry. This inclines us to think that maybe we are better off without such natural phenomena, but something still nags at me.

"The finest display in all Nature"

Surely this is reason enough. Only if such things matter to you, otherwise we just shrug our shoulders, mutter "seen that, done that" and carve a fresh notch on our personal bedpost of life. It may not seem important to you but surely it's worth a brief consideration. To the scientific community total eclipses have a further importance. In fact a whole scientific discipline, star astrophysics, was birthed in the late 19th century simply out of the data that is provided by observing the sun's surface during a total eclipse. Also, data produced at the 1919 eclipse helped to verify Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. So it's not just touchy feely stuff here, we're also looking at the cold world of hard facts benefiting from this "amazing co-incidence" of factors working together to produce this phenomenon.

I've always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis, but live too far south ever to have seen it. Of course that's why they are called the 'Northern Lights'. Yet my brain tells me that it's just an atmospheric effect caused by the solar wind, an accident of optics just like the eclipse is an accident of geometry. But my heart tells me otherwise and convinces me that there are some things in life worth experiencing just for what they are, just as if they have been put in our world for that very purpose. Things that draw us out of our humdrum lives and fill us with wonder. And if such things as a total eclipse of the sun are so improbable that their very existence hangs on a thread statistically speaking, then we should appreciate them even more.

This book nudges us to consider such things as eclipses and the aurora borealis. To get to the heart of what is going on in the World, we must use all of our senses. We are not just brains on legs, there's more to us than that. Perhaps thinking deeper about this thing called the eclipse is a good place to start …

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter One: Starry, starry night >

Chapter Two: The end is nigh

Chapter Three: Life, just as we know it

Chapter Four: It's all in the design

Chapter Five: Our darkest hour

Chapter Six: The eye of the beholder

Chapter Seven: Ghosts in the machine

Chapter Eight: David Beckham and the little green men

Chapter Nine: Unexpected impossibilities

Chapter Ten: That still, small voice

And finally …