I had encountered Graham Hancock in several scientific documentaries. He talked about ancient civilizations, but I didn’t get enough incentive to investigate his work. A credible Medium contributor recommended “Magicians of the Gods.” And this book sat on my e-reader for a year or so before I finally read it.
Mr. Hancock starts his 2015 treatise with J Harlan Bretz. Bretz was an American geologist. He spent some time looking at the unusual geological formations, called the “Scablands,” in eastern Washington state. He concluded that the Scablands could have only been caused by a horrendously massive flood, many times bigger than the floods we see today. In 1923, he wrote his first paper on this topic.
The geological profession pounced on his work. Such floods were obviously impossible! While Bretz continued promoting this idea, he had to be careful lest he lose all credibility as a professional geologist.
Mr. Hancock has two reasons for the Bretz story. First, it shows how the true geniuses are often disregarded by their peers. Bretz had many professional enemies. Mr. Hancock has many professional enemies. His concept of humanity having highly advanced civilizations prior to our hunter-gatherer eras is very much discounted in various scientific fields.
The second reason for the Scablands theory leads into Hancock’s hypothesis. About 9600 B.C., Earth experienced one or more collisions with comets or asteroids. Some of these collisions contacted the Laurentian Ice Sheet, which covered the northern part of North America. This collision cracked up the Sheet, moving Earth out of the Ice Age. A lot of water was released very quickly, creating the great flood of the Scablands. Earth warmed up. Sea levels rose. Great cities were covered with water. The people in these cities were of advanced civilizations. The survivors met with less advanced civilisations, and some knowledge was exchanged. Hancock used the Giza pyramid complex, Easter Island, and several other neolithic places to help explain anthropological and sociological aftermaths of the “Great Flood.”
Hancock’s ability to compile research from many places is compelling. Is his hypothesis likely? I will just say that the ideas in this book make more sense to me than the “Ancient Aliens” hypothesis, which has, in my opinion, grown into a big money grab than a scientific inquiry.
But why is there so much official resistance to Hancock’s ideas? Why can’t the academic world just say: “As we uncover more of our ancient past, Graham Hancock’s ideas could be proven right.”
A few times, Mr. Hancock asserts the academic professions are too often protecting the status quo of “acceptable knowledge.” Funding projects requires political approval. Careers can be stopped. Scientific inquiry is too often not that altruistic. The academics need to bow to prevailing ways.
While this book talks a little about finding the lost city of Atlantis, Mr. Hancock does not dwell on this topic. There would likely be quite a few cities like Atlantis that were covered with the rising sea levels.
Rather, this book concludes that the comets that broke up the Ice Age are coming again. The survivors of ancient civilizations left us messages of when, hoping we could put the pieces together.
I could put more research into Hancock’s idea. I could read more of his many works. I could read the critiques of his work. But I doubt my efforts into this matter will settle the dispute. More time and archeology will be the arbiter.
Comparing between Bretz, Hancock, and Volek
The story of Bretz to me was fundamental to this book. Without it, it would have easy for me to assume that Graham Hancock is only someone with interesting but unproven ideas.
In 1979, Bretz was awarded the Penrose Medal, the Geological Society of America’s highest award. He told his son: “All my enemies are dead, so I have no one to gloat over.”
Hancock might be proven right some day.
And so too may I
Western democracy needs to be replaced with a better system of governance. I have invented a replacement system.
At the present, the world seems to believe that western democracy is the highest form of governance humanity can ever create, even while this system is failing us and seems to be on collapse.
I am under no illusion that that I will be able to get the attention of the world’s political scientists about going beyond western democracy. Like the critics of Bretz and Hancock, they have no imagination beyond their known ways. My hope is that sensible people outside of academia and the political elite will conclude we can’t wait for the gatekeepers to approve.
Bretz’s work eventually led to a better understanding of the Ice Age.
Hancock’s work may lead to projects that can lead to proving or disproving his hypothesis. At the time of this review, archeologists are reporting of an ancient civilization in eastern Ecuador that predates previously known civilizations in South America.
The difference between me and Bretz/Hancock is that my TDG is still unknown. I have not reached the point of ridicule.
It would be nice to be ridiculed.
Published on Medium 2024
Spolu 1: Introduction (Another idea worthy of ridicule)
The Day American Democracy Died
