Immanuel Velikovsky: a re-evaluation

[Dreamwoven]

It has taken me many years to pluck up the courage to start this thread. I will begin by presenting the literature on Velikovsky. I did not like the original storm of protest that he faced after the publication of Worlds in Collision in 1950. So great were the protests that academics ganged up on Macmillan and boycotted all its publications. Because Macmillan had a large section on text books, the boycott was directed against its vulnerable text book section. Macmillan pulled out and his publications including all future ones were transferred to Doubleday. Today, his works are published by Paradigma Publishing, a part of Routledge, and re-published exactly as written in 1950.

Originally it was published by Macmillan, but after more recently all his work has been published by Doubleday. You can read about the scandal of this boycott in the Wikipedia item on Worlds in Collision (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_in_Collision).

Velikovsky drew on statements in the Old Testament which he re-interpreted as evidence of the geological upheavals mentioned in the Old Testaments (notably the Plagues of Egypt). He backed this up with reports in anthropology of how these were understood by primitive peoples around the world. In the next post I will list the works that I have read.

[Dreamwoven]

I have my own copies of the following:
Worlds in Collision (http://paradigma-publishing.com/books1.html) (see link in above post). This is really the most important work of his whole life from which all the others sprang, including Earth in Upheaval.

Earth in Upheaval (http://www.velikovsky.info/Earth_in_Upheaval). This was first published by Doubleday in 1955 and is Velikovsky's second book. It provides the physical evidence of geology as evidence of how Earth was convulsed by major catastrophes that can be traced in strata and the history of cataclysms.

This is a post from a series in what is called The Velikovsky Encyclopedia (http://www.velikovsky.info/). Wikipedia feels it necessary to deal with the criticisms of his work while at the same time reporting on them. I will henceforth use the Velikovsky Encyclopedia for all my links. The text below is from the Introduction to the Encyclopedia:

The Immanuel Velikovsky Encyclopedia is about the author, Immanuel Velikovsky, and the people and controversy that has resulted from his works. It does not set out to judge whether Velikovsky and his critics were right or wrong, but to document with sources, who said what, and why, and where, and when. There is no doubt that some scientists have labeled some of Velikovsky's work, pseudoscience or worse, but also others who have acknowledged that Velikovsky made predictions that have turned out to be correct.

The third book I have is Ages in Chaos: from the Exodus to King Akhnaton (http://paradigma-publishing.com/books1.html). I gave up my original intention to buy all of Velikovsky's publications. I am not a classical scholar, and feel unable to judge his work in this particular area. This relates to the way scholars of ancient history have mixed up the classical histories of the Middle East.

Next came the book by Alfred De Grazia The Velikovsky Affair: the full story of the Worlds in Collision controversy that shook the scientific world (http://www.velikovsky.info/The_Velikovsky_Affair).

Finally, I have The Glory and the Torment (http://paradigma-publishing.com/image/Cover_ABA_150dpi.jpg): the life of Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky by Ruth Sharon Velikovsky.

[Dreamwoven]

I've been side-tracked in my searching, coming up with a whole number of hits for the USSR, long after the first man on the moon. I didn't know that they had a well-developed programme of some 16 visits to Venus, the Venera series of probes, Venera 16 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_16) being the last in 1983.

I also remember my father taking me to Earls Court to see Yuri Gagarin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin), the first man in space. I was 9 years old at the time.

[Dreamwoven]

Worlds in Collision must be just about the most abused and misunderstood book that has been banned by a sustained campaign of co-ordinated actions. Velikovsky had also unfortunate timing in the publication of this book in 1950, at the height of the Cold War against the USSR. It was to get worse with the Space Race in which the USA was left behind. In 1958 President Eisenhower announced the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In 1961 President Kennedy announce that the USA would be first to put a man one the moon.

After the demise of the USSR, NASA went from strength to strength. It put space exploration on the map, and done so in a big way, effectively creating a revolution in thinking, as big as that done by Copernicus (http://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.html) (I am grateful to Danik for this observation).

Today, it is an accepted truth that the universe is a violent place, with the danger of major cataclysms overhanging. Cataclysms like the Tunguska Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event), in 1908 over 100 years ago has meant that attention has been turned to how we can prepare ourselves for dangers from outer space. Just two yer ago there was another incident, also in Russia, the Chelyabinsk Meteor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor).

A few days ago this report was published on my Astronomy thread:

NASA has now got an asteroid warning system, with 5 days notice of any major threat to Earth. Sounds good. See: http://www.universetoday.com/131737/...-days-warning/:

Everyone knows it was a large asteroid striking Earth that led to the demise of the dinosaurs. But how many near misses were there? Modern humans have been around for about 225,000 years, so we must have come close to death by asteroid more than once in our time. We would have had no clue.

Of course, it’s the actual strikes that are cause for concern, not near misses. Efforts to predict asteroid strikes, and to catalogue asteroids that come close to Earth, have reached new levels. NASA’s newest tool in the fight against asteroids is called Scout. Scout is designed to detect asteroids approaching Earth, and it just passed an important test. Scout was able to give us 5 days notice of an approaching asteroid.

How things have changed since the hysteria over Worlds in Collision...

[Dreamwoven]

This book is my favourite. It is Velikovsky's second book. In it Velikovsky also examines
the theories of the Gradualists, Darwin, Lyell, and others.

The Velikovsky Archive summarises Earth in Upheaval (http://www.velikovsky.info/Earth_in_Upheaval) as follows:
"... a book about the great tribulations to which the planet on which we travel was subjected in pre-historical and historical times. The pages of this book are transcripts of the testimony of mute witnesses, the rocks, in the court of celestial traffic. They testify by their own appearance and by the encased contents of dead bodies, fossilized skeletons. Myriads upon myriads of living creatures came to life on this ball of rock suspended in nothing and returned to dust. Many died a natural death, many were killed in wars between races and species, and many were entombed alive during great paroxysms of nature in which land and sea contested in destruction. Whole tribes of fish that had filled the oceans suddenly ceased to exist; of entire species and even genera of land animals not a single survivor was left. [..]"
"I had intended, after piecing together the history of these earlier global upheavals, to present geological and paleontological material to support the testimony of man. But the reception of Worlds in Collision by certain scientific groups persuaded me, before reviving the pageant of earlier catastrophes, to present at least some of the evidence of the rocks, which is as insistent as that carried down to our times by written records and by word of mouth.[..]"
"I present here some pages from the book of nature. I have excluded from them all references to ancient literature, traditions, and folklore; and this I have done with intent, so that careless critics cannot decry the entire work as "tales and legends." Stones and bones are the only witnesss."[1]

[Dreamwoven]

Charles Darwin on his 5-year surveying expedition on the Beagle found it hard to reconcile his observations with Gradualism. Velikovsky writes in Earth in Upheaval (citing on 9 January 1834 from Darwin's Journal as follows:

"It is impossible to reflect on the change state of the American continent without the deepest astonishment. Formerly it must have swarmed with great monsters. Now we find mere pigmies, compared with the antecedent, allied races. He proceeded thus: The greater number, if not all, of these extinct quadrupeds lived at a late period, and were the contemporaries of most of the existing sea-shells. Since they lived, no very great change in the form of the land can have taken place. What, then, has exterminated so many species and whole genera? The mind at first is irresistibly hurried into the belief of some great catastrophe; but thus to destroy animals, both large and small, in Southern Patagonia, in Brazil, on the Cordillera of Peru, in North America up to Behring's [Bering's] Straits, we must shake the entire framework of the globe.".

Out of Darwin's embarrassment grew the idea of the extinction of species as a prelude to natural selection" (Earth in Upheaval pp.42-43).

[Dreamwoven]

One of the developers of the Doctrine of Uniformity was Charles Lyell (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_12), whose ideas strongly influenced Darwin.

Velikovsky gives a quote on how Charles Lyell used Uniformitarianism to describe social change, accounting for the presence of hippopotamus bones in North England and in Wales. The website is still there at Berkeley: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_12

"The geologist...may freely speculate on the time when herds of hippopotami issued from North African rivers such as the Nile and swam northwards in summer along the coast of the Mediterranean, or even occasionally visited islands near the shore. Here and there they may have landed to graze of browse, tarrying a while, and afterwards continuing their course northwards. Others may have swum in a few summer days from rivers in the south of Spain or France to the Somme, Thames or Severn..., making a timely retreat to the south before the snow and ice set in." (Charles Lyell Antiquity of Man (1863) p.180).

Velikovsky then poked some gentle fun at Lyell and more generally at the Doctrine of Uniformity: He speculates on how hippopotami travelled north from Africa to England and Wales (see the Hippopotamus (pp. 39-41)

"Hippopotami not only travelled during the summer nights to England and Wales, but also climbed hills to die peacefully among other animals in the cave, and the ice, approaching softly, gently spread little pebbles over the travellers resting in peace, and the land with its hills and caverns in a slow lullaby movement sank below the level of the sea and gentle streams caressed the dead bodies and covered them with rosy sand." (Earth in Upheaval p.40).

[Dreamwoven]

Another person mentioned in Earth in Upheaval is in Chapter 4, entitled Ice. Louis Agassiz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Agassiz) devoted his life to the study of ice and of The Ice Age (as it used to be called). Earth in Upheaval has a section devoted to the Ice Age in the Tropics (pp. 50-51). This threw the entire view of The Ice Age into confusion. It turned out that these ice ages were much earlier than The Ice Age. Agassiz studied these ice ages, some of which were in the Permian period, in tropical Brazil, Africa and India,and that the ice moved north and south out from the place in which they were formed. What could have caused them? How did tropical zones become overlaid by thick ice, thousands of feet thick?

The question was never answered. Velikovsky had his own view, though he does not express it here.

[YesNo]

The idea of "gradualism" seems to have been countered by "punctuated equilibria" promoted by Eldredge and Gould, if I understand gradualism and punctuated equilibria correctly.

In a gradualist theory there are no species, only random changes to DNA (or some other mechanism) which provide the change needed for evolution.

In punctuated equilibria the DNA provide stability for different species which exist in their own right. The species respond to climate changes creating new species to meet the challenges.

Eldredge has a detailed history of evolutionary theory in "Eternal ephemera: adaptation and the origin of species from the nineteenth century through punctuated equilibria and beyond".

[Dreamwoven]

When I left this first remarkable book by Velikovsky I intended to just focus on Earth in Upheaval. But I have returned to Worlds in Collision. It was so long ago that I had read it that I was unclear about many aspects of Velikovsky's arguments. So I am re-reading Worlds in Collision and expect to be able to write about it in this thread soon. I also still have at least one or two posts to contribute to Earth in Upheaval, so will be returning to this shortly.

[Dreamwoven]

Earth in Upheaval begins with the sudden and violent fate of the mammoths.

In 1797 the body of a mammoth was unearthed in Northern Siberia. The flesh had the appearance of freshly frozen beef; it was edible and wolves and sledge dogs fed on it without harm (pp. 20-21).

So the animals were overcome by sudden and intense cold and remained so for a very long time. The remains of grass and other temperate vegetation were found half-chewed between the teeth and in the stomach, undigested.

Vast amounts of mammoth remains provided trade in mammoth ivory as far away as China. So the sudden and intense cold preserved much and transformed climate geography of a temperate region into the ice-covered desert of northern Siberia.

Velikovsky adds;
"What could have caused a sudden change in temperature of the region? Today the country does not provide food for large quadrupeds, the soil is barren and produces moss and fungi a few months in the year; at that time the animals fed on plants and not only mammoths pastured in Northern Siberia and on the islands of the Arctic Ocean. "On Kotelnoi Island neither trees nor shrugs nor bushes, exist...and yet the bones of elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes and horses are found in this icy wilderness in numbers which defy all calculation."

We know from previous posts that the answer is sudden climate change with drastic falls in temperature.

In the next post I will present Velikovsky's view on what happened to cause this.

[YesNo]

The sudden freezing needs explanation.

[Dreamwoven]

Another person mentioned in Earth in Upheaval is in Chapter 4, entitled Ice. Louis Agassiz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Agassiz) devoted his life to the study of ice and of The Ice Age (as it used to be called). Earth in Upheaval has a section devoted to the Ice Age in the Tropics (pp. 50-51). This threw the entire view of The Ice Age into confusion. It turned out that these ice ages were much earlier than The Ice Age. Agassiz studied these ice ages, some of which were in the Permian period, in tropical Brazil, Africa and India,and that the ice moved north and south out from the place in which they were formed. What could have caused them? How did tropical zones become overlaid by thick ice, thousands of feet thick?

The question was never answered. Velikovsky had his own view, though he does not express it here.

In 1965 Agassi went to equatorial Brazil, one of the hottest places in the world, where he found all the signs he ascribed to the action of ice. Now even those who agreed with him became distressed. An ice-cover in the tropics, on the very equator? There were drift accumulations, and scratched blocks, and erratic boulders, and fluted valleys, and the smooth surface of tillite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till#Tillite) (rock formed of assorted till), so there must have been ice to carry and polish, and the region must have gone through an ice period. What could have caused a tropical region to be covered by ice several thousand feet thick?"

Soon the same word came from equatorial Africa and Madagascar of similar glaciation there, and in India, with the ice moving north up the slopes of the Himalayas. Eventually the timing of the ice age was pushed back to the Permian period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian). This was the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event), possible caused by a nearby supernova, or by an asteroid impact some kilometres in diameter.

[Dreamwoven]

http://varchive.org/itb/ecintro.htm

This is what Velikovsky wrote about his second book Worlds in Collision.

INTRODUCTION

This volume carries the name In the Beginning—the words with which the book of Genesis starts. The name seems appropriate because it describes the cosmic events which are narrated in the first book of the Hebrew Bible; but also because in it I speak of events that preceded those described by me in Worlds in Collision—thus the name of the book conveys to the reader the notion that here is an earlier history of the world compared with the story of Worlds in Collision; although it is the second volume in that series, in some sense it is the first volume, being the earlier story.

When the manuscript of Worlds in Collision was first offered to the publisher (Macmillan Company, New York) it contained a brief story of the Deluge and of the cataclysm that terminated the Old Kingdom in Egypt. But after one of the publisher’s readers suggested that the book should concentrate on one event, we compromised in presenting in the published volume two series of cataclysms—those that took place in the fifteenth century before the present era and were caused by the near-approaches of Venus, and those that occurred in the eighth century before this era and were caused by the near-approaches of Mars. The unused material was left for elaboration in a separate work on “Saturn and the Flood” and “Jupiter of the Thunderbolt.” The reception of Worlds in Collision, however, made me understand that I had already offered more than was palatable. And so I did not hurry with what I consider to be the heritage of our common ancestors, an inheritance of which my contemporaries in the scientific circles preferred not to partake.

Researching and writing this book, I would sit at the feet of the sages of many ancient civilizations—one day of the Egyptian learned scribes, another of the Hebrew ancient rabbis, the next of the Hindus, Chinese, or the Pythagoreans. But then, rising to my feet, I would confer with present-day scientific knowledge. At times I came to understand what perplexed the ancients, and at other times I found answers to what perplexes the moderns. This shuttle back and forth was a daily occupation for a decade or more, and it became a way to understand the phenomena: to listen to those who lived close to the events of the past, even to witnesses, and to try to understand them in the light of the theoretical and experimental knowledge of the last few centuries, in this manner confronting witnesses and experts.

I realized very soon that the ancient sages lived in a frightened state of mind, justified by the events they or their close ancestors had witnessed. The ancients’ message was an anguished effort to communicate their awe engendered at seeing nature with its elements unchained. The moderns, however, denied their ancestors’ wisdom, even their integrity, because of an all-embracing fear of facing the past, even the historically documented experiences of our progenitors, as recent as four score generations ago.

I have deliberately described the catastrophes of the second and first millennia before this era before I describe the catastrophes of the previous ages. The reason is obvious: the history of catastrophes is extremely unsettling to the historians, evolutionists, geologists, astronomers, and physicists. Therefore it is preferable to start from the better known and then proceed to the less known. For the last catastrophe caused by the contact of Mars and the Earth I could establish the year, the month, and even the day; not so for the catastrophes in which Venus and the Earth participated, when only the approximate time in the space of a definite century could be established. Still, I found it advisable to narrate the story of the second millennium first: it was possible to write the story of the contacts with Venus with a fair amount of detail. But each cataclysm is not only more remote in time from us, it is also obscured by the catastrophes that followed. As we seek to penetrate ever deeper into the past, we can see the foregoing periods through the veil of the catastrophes; dimmer and dimmer is the light behind every veil, till our eye can distinguish no more behind the veil that hangs over the period when the Earth was Moonless, though already inhabited by human life. We do not know the beginning; we can only enter the theater at what may have been the third or fourth act.

[YesNo]

I suspect we are not aware of all the influences that help us pattern our lives. The planets may have more of an effect on the Earth than what could be explained through gravity.

[Danik 2016]

In 1965 Agassi went to equatorial Brazil, one of the hottest places in the world, where he found all the signs he ascribed to the action of ice. Now even those who agreed with him became distressed. An ice-cover in the tropics, on the very equator? There were drift accumulations, and scratched blocks, and erratic boulders, and fluted valleys, and the smooth surface of tillite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till#Tillite) (rock formed of assorted till), so there must have been ice to carry and polish, and the region must have gone through an ice period. What could have caused a tropical region to be covered by ice several thousand feet thick?"

Soon the same word came from equatorial Africa and Madagascar of similar glaciation there, and in India, with the ice moving north up the slopes of the Himalayas. Eventually the timing of the ice age was pushed back to the Permian period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian). This was the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event), possible caused by a nearby supernova, or by an asteroid impact some kilometres in diameter.
I didn´t read any of the books by Velikovsky but I am aquainted with this book about Agassiz travels in Brazil.

https://archive.org/details/journeyinbrazil00agasiala

Actually the book was mostly written by his wife Elisabeth with some footnotes and comments by Agassiz himself. It mentions the icing theory (or however it is called in English) but I don´t remember the chapter. I think it the chapter about Rio de Janeiro. It won´t be so difficult to find however as all the chapters of the book have a thematic summary at the beginning.

[Dreamwoven]

I doubt if anyone (apart from me) who has posted on this thread has read the Velikovsky books (especially Earth in Upheaval and Worlds in Collision).

[Dreamwoven]

Velikovsky put it like this: there are two ways that a cataclysmic meeting between Earth another planet or a huge asteroid can result in sudden changes in climate. Either by the displacement of the Poles (see Earth in Upheaval Ch. 8 (Poles Displaced, pp. 107-103), or by Axis Shifted, ibid Ch.9 pp. 124-144).

Both these ways result in dramatic and sudden climate changes, that cannot otherwise be explained. That is why Darwinists and other gradualists could not understand how we got equatorial areas showing the same sort of glacial features in Brazil and in Africa, and in India. The whole globe bears the signs of several episodes of glaciation, going back in time. Some of these are in tropical regions.

It was then that the the gradualists went silent...

Even if you don't buy or borrow Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upheaval is well worth reading.

[Dreamwoven]

Earth in Upheaval goes into many of the best-known regions of the world and citing numerous facts (including the Himalayas, a survey of active Volcanoes, and the Niagara Falls) concluded that many current phenomena, such as the Himalayas and volcanic activity are the result of upheavals in recent historical time involving Venus, Mars and Earth, as described in Worlds in Collision.

[YesNo]

I see the local library has two books by Velikovski: "People of the Sea" and "From the Exodus to King Aknaton". I try to get the second one tomorrow. However, I noticed you did give a link to the text of "Worlds in Collision".

[YesNo]

From an initial reading of the first few links in "Worlds in Collision", I like the ideas in the one called "Sabbath": http://varchive.org/itb/ecsab.htm In particular I liked this idea underlying why we rest on the Sabbath: "The Lord is actually implored to refrain from further reshaping the Earth."

[Dreamwoven]

There are two websites dedicated to the work of Velikovsky:

The Velikovsky Archive: http://varchive.org and
The Velikovsky Encyclopedia: http://www.velikovsky.info/Main_Page

Earth in Upheaval is much about Velikovsky's perspective in contrast to the Darwinist and other gradualist explanations. Worlds in Collision is about the planets Venus, Mars and Earth, and the major conflagrations between them. I will take a closer look at these below.

[YesNo]

I don't think the gradualist explanations work regardless of whether one accepts Velikovsky's ideas.

[Dreamwoven]

In the 1950s Darwinism and other gradualist perspectives were still the norm. That was 70 years ago. They are no longer the norm, and this was one of Velikovsky's great successes. Space research has understood that supernovas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova) destroy not just the sun but many of the planets and moons going round the sun. Other planets and moons, more distant from the sun are ejected from whatever solar system they are in to become exoplanets and exomoons.

[Dreamwoven]

Velikovsky was a real scientist, he knew a lot about astronomy and everything he wrote was so well annotated with references.

[YesNo]

In reading the chapter on Uranus, http://varchive.org/itb/uranus.htm, I was surprised to find out that Uranus could have been seen on a clear night by the early Babylonians.

[Dreamwoven]

YesNo, you still haven't read Velikovsky. He discusses Uranus in Worlds in Collision on pp.27f and on pp. 31ff

[YesNo]

Am I not reading the right link? I did read a few more pages yesterday about there being a time when the earth had no Moon and then when the Moon was measured larger than the Sun suggesting that it was captured. That Babylonians would have measured it larger than the Sun is surprising.

These are rather short chapters.

[Dreamwoven]

It is time to turn my attention to the supporters of Velikovsky, the most prominent being Alfred de Grazia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_de_Grazia), especially his book The Velikovsky Affair: the full story of Worlds in Collision controversy that shook the scientific world. Abacus, Sphere books Ltd (1966).

De Grazia died aged 95 in 2014, he had been a passionate defender of the rights of anyone to research what they wanted and to publish it. He rejected the attempts made in Academia to boycott Velikovsky's work by blacklisting the original publisher (Macmillan) through the collective boycotting of his work, thus hitting Macmillan where it hurt the most, in its textbook sales.

[YesNo]

I can imagine the controversy that surrounded Worlds in Collision based on what little I read of it so far. I wonder what the psychological motivations are for it existing at all. One would think in scientific contexts ideas should be tolerated. They don't need to be opposed.

[Dreamwoven]

In 1950 - nearly 70 years ago - everything was still Darwinistic and it was also the height of the Cold War.

[Dreamwoven]

Worlds in Collision seemed far out stuff, Venus and Mars in conflict...

[Dreamwoven]

This can be understood in terms of the now known fact that planets need to clear their orbits. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_the_neighbourhood

This was decided quite recently. See

"Clearing the neighbourhood around its orbit" is a criterion for a celestial body to be considered a planet in the Solar System. This was one of the three criteria adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in its 2006 definition of planet.[1] In 2015, a proposal was made to use the criterion in extending the definition to exoplanets.

[Dreamwoven]

Velikovsky made some interesting observations that fit with this above definition.

[Dreamwoven]

What I mean by that is when Venus became a planet (according to Velikovsky) it had to jostle to create its own orbit. Mars had its own orbit but Venus had to struggle with Mars for its own orbit. This is the main theme of Worlds in Collision. Mars first tried to jostle Earth out of its orbit but failed. Finally Mars succeeds in creating its own orbit beyond Venus.

[YesNo]

I can see how planets could push each other out of the way to make an orbit for themselves. The question would be how long ago did that happen. If humans were writing about that during the time it occurred it would have to occur over the last 5000 years or so. If it comes from collective human memory then that might extent a couple hundred thousand years.

[Dreamwoven]

That is no what limited Velikovsky. He used quotes from the historical written record.