Immanuel Velikovsky photographed by Fima Noveck, ca.1974

Immanuel Velikovsky (June 10, 1895 (NS) – November 17, 1979) is best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950. Earlier, he played a role in the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Image File history File links Ivfn. ... Image File history File links Ivfn. ... is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For the calendar of religious holidays and periods, see liturgical year. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (‎, Arabic: ) is one of Israels oldest, largest, and most important institutes of higher learning and research. ... For other uses, see Psychiatrist (disambiguation). ... Psychoanalysis is the revelation of unconscious relations, in a systematic way through an associative process. ...

His books use comparative mythology and ancient literary sources (including the Bible) to argue that Earth has suffered catastrophic close-contacts with other planets (principally Venus and Mars) in ancient times. Velikovsky argued that electromagnetic effects play an important role in celestial mechanics. He also proposed a revised chronology for ancient Egypt, Greece, Israel and other cultures of the ancient Near East. The revised chronology aimed at explaining the so-called "dark age" of the eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1100-750 BCE) and reconciling biblical history with mainstream archeology and Egyptian chronology. Comparative mythology, related to comparative religion, is a field of study which is technically part of anthropology but more usually regarded as part of the subject of ancient history. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. ... The New Chronology of Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko is an attempt to rewrite world chronology, based on his conclusion that world chronology as we know it today is fundamentally flawed. ... Khafres Pyramid and the Great Sphinx of Giza, built about 2550 BC during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom,[1] are enduring symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was a civilization in Northeastern Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River... Inhabitants of the Near East, late nineteenth century. ... The Greek Dark Ages (ca. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

In general, Velikovsky's theories have been vigorously rejected or ignored by the academic community.^[1] Nonetheless, his books often sold well and gained an enthusiastic support in lay circles, often fueled by claims of unfair treatment for Velikovsky by orthodox academia.^[2][3][4][5] The controversy surrounding his work and its reception is often referred to as "the Velikovsky affair".^[6][7]

Velikovsky's life^[8]

Childhood and education

Immanuel Velikovsky was born in 1895 to a prosperous Jewish family, in Vitebsk, Russia (part of modern-day Belarus). The son of Shimon (Simon Yehiel) Velikovsky (1859-1937) and Beila Grodensky, he learned several languages as a child, was sent away to study at the Medvednikov Gymnasium in Moscow, where he performed well in Russian and mathematics. He graduated with a gold medal in 1913. Velikovsky then traveled in Europe and visited Palestine before briefly studying medicine at Montpellier in France and taking premedical courses at the University of Edinburgh. He returned to Russia before the outbreak of World War I, enrolled in the University of Moscow, and received a medical degree in 1921. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Location of Vitebsk, shown within the Vitebsk Voblast Coordinates: , Country Subdivision Founded 974 Government  - Mayor Population (2004)  - Total 342,381 Time zone EET (UTC+2)  - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3) Area code(s) +375-15 License plate 2 Website: [2]] Vitebsk, also known as Vitsyebsk (Belarusian: Ві́цебск, IPA: ; Yiddish: װיטעבסק; Polish: Witebsk... A gymnasium (pronounced with or, in Swedish, as opposed to ) is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English Grammar Schools and U.S. High Schools. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Flag The approximate borders of the British Mandate circa 1922. ... Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. ... The University of Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: ), founded in 1582,[4] is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Moscow State University campus M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Московский Государственный Университет име&#1085... Doctor of Medicine (M.D. or MD, from the Latin Medicinae Doctor meaning Teacher of Medicine,) is an academic degree for medical doctors. ...

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Upon taking his medical degree, Velikovsky left Russia for Berlin. There, with the financial support of his father, Velikovsky edited and published a pair of volumes of scientific papers, translated into Hebrew, titled Scripta Universitatis Atque Bibliothecae Hierosolymitanarum ("Writings of the Jerusalem University & Library"). He enlisted Albert Einstein to prepare the volume dealing with mathematics and physics. Once completed, this project was a cornerstone in the formation of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the fledgling university was able to donate copies of the Scripta to the libraries of other academic institutions, who would then send complimentary copies of their own publications, thus helping the Hebrew University to stock its library. This article is about the capital of Germany. ... Hebrew redirects here. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (‎, Arabic: ) is one of Israels oldest, largest, and most important institutes of higher learning and research. ...

In 1923, Velikovsky married Elisheva Kramer, a young violinist. A violinist is an instrumentalist who plays the violin. ...

Velikovsky's career as a psychiatrist

From 1924 to 1939 Velikovsky lived in what was then Palestine, practicing medicine (both general practice and psychiatry), and also psychoanalysis (he had studied under Sigmund Freud's pupil, Wilhelm Stekel in Vienna). During this time he had a dozen or so papers published in medical and psychoanalytic journals, including, in 1930, the first paper to suggest epilepsy is characterized by abnormal encephalograms,^[9] now part of the routine diagnostic procedure, and papers in Freud's Imago, including a precocious analysis of Freud's own dreams.^[10] Flag The approximate borders of the British Mandate circa 1922. ... A general practitioner (GP) or family physician (FP) is a physician who provides primary care. ... An MRI scan of a human brain and head. ... Today psychoanalysis comprises several interlocking theories concerning the functioning of the mind. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940) was a psychologist, one of Freuds earliest followers. ... For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). ... Girl wearing electrodes for electroencephalography Girl wearing electrodes for electroencephalography Portable recording device for electroencephalography Electroencephalography is the neurophysiologic measurement of the electrical activity of the brain by recording from electrodes placed on the scalp or, in special cases, subdurally or in the cerebral cortex. ...

Emigration to the USA and a career as an author

In 1939, with the prospect of war looming, Velikovsky travelled with his family to New York, intending to spend a sabbatical year researching for his book Oedipus & Akhnaton (which, inspired by Freud's Moses and Monotheism, explored the possibility that Pharaoh Akhenaton was the legendary Oedipus). Freud had argued that Akhenaton, the supposedly monotheistic Egyptian pharaoh, was the source of the religious principles that Moses taught to the people of Israel in the desert. Freud's claim (and that of others before him) was based in part on the resemblance of Psalm 104 in the Bible to an Egyptian hymn discovered on the wall of the Tomb of Akhenaton's general, Ay, in Akhetaton's city of Akhetaten. To disprove Freud's claim as well as to prove the Exodus as such, Velikovsky sought evidence for the Exodus in Egyptian documents. One such document was the Ipuwer Papyrus which reports events similar to several of the Biblical plagues. Since conventional Egyptology dated the Ipuwer Papyrus much earlier than either the Biblical date for the Exodus (ca. 1500-1450 BCE) or the Exodus date accepted by many of those who accepted the conventional chronology of Egypt (ca. 1250 BCE), Velikovsky had to revise or correct the conventional chronology. This article is about the state. ... A sabbatical year is a prolonged hiatus, typically one year, in the career of an otherwise successful individual taken in order to fulfill some dream, e. ... Moses and Monotheism is a book by Sigmund Freud. ... For other uses, see Pharaoh (disambiguation). ... Bust of Pharaoh Akhenaten. ... For other uses, see Oedipus (disambiguation). ...

Within weeks of his arrival in the United States, World War II began. Soon, taking a tangent from his original book project, Velikovsky began to develop the radical catastrophist cosmology and revised chronology theories for which he would become notorious (see below). For the remainder of the Second World War, now as a permanent resident of New York, he continued to research and write about his ideas, searching for a means to disseminate them to academia and the public. He privately published two small Scripta Academica pamphlets summarising his theories in 1945 (Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History and Cosmos Without Gravitation). His mailing a copy of the latter to astronomer Harlow Shapley in 1947 was to have particular repercussions. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. ... Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (cosmologia, κόσμος (cosmos) order + λογια (logia) discourse) is the study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanitys place in it. ... This article is about the state. ... Harlow Shapley in his earlier years. ...

Worlds in Collision book cover.

In 1950, after eight publishing houses rejected the Worlds in Collision manuscript^{[citation needed]}, it was finally published by Macmillan, who had a large presence in the academic textbook market. Even before its appearance, the book was enveloped by furious controversy, when Harper's Magazine published a highly positive feature on it, with what would today be called a creationist slant. This came to the attention of Shapley, who opposed the publication of the work, having been made familiar with Velikovsky's claims through the pamphlet Velikovsky had given him, Cosmos Without Gravitation. Shapley threatened to organize a textbook boycott of Macmillan for its publication of Worlds in Collision, and within two months the book was transferred to Doubleday. It was by then a best seller in the US. In 1952, Doubleday published the first installment in Velikovsky's revised chronology, Ages in Chaos, followed by the Earth in Upheaval (a geological volume) in 1955. In November 1952, Velikovsky moved from Manhattan to Princeton, New Jersey. Image File history File links Wic-cover. ... Image File history File links Wic-cover. ... Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately-held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ... Harpers redirects here. ... Creationism is generally the belief that the universe was created by a deity, or alternatively by one or more powerful and intelligent beings. ... Doubleday is one of the largest book publishing companies in the world. ... Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published in 1952, which put forward a major revision of the history of the Ancient Near East. ...

For most of the 1950s and early 1960s, Velikovsky was persona non grata on college and university campuses. After this, he began to receive more requests to speak. He lectured, frequently to record crowds, at universities across North America. In 1972, Velikovsky's public profile was raised still higher when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a one-hour television special featuring Velikovsky and his work, and this was followed by a thirty-minute documentary on the BBC in 1973. Look up Persona non grata in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... Radio-Canada redirects here. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ...

The remainder of the 1970s saw Velikovsky devoting a great deal of his time and energy to rebutting his critics in academia, and continuing to tour North America and also Europe, delivering lectures on his ideas. By now an elderly man, Velikovsky suffered from diabetes and intermittent depression, which according to his daughter may have been exacerbated by the academic establishment's continuing rejection of his work,^[11][12] and many wondered if the remaining promised volumes of his work (including a prequel to Worlds in Collision and the projected sequels to Ages in Chaos) would ever see publication. This article is about the disease that features high blood sugar. ... On the Threshold of Eternity. ... Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published in 1952, which put forward a major revision of the history of the Ancient Near East. ...

The last two years of his life finally saw publication of two volumes of the aforementioned Ages in Chaos series: Peoples of the Sea (1977) and Rameses II and his Time (1978). Velikovsky died, tended by his wife, at his Princeton home on November 17, 1979. 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ...

Posthumous administration of Velikovsky's literary estate

Legal wranglings appear to have dogged the release of remaining unpublished work. Velikovsky had appointed Professor Lynn E. Rose as his literary executor, with plans to issue several more volumes. However, his family managed to retain control of his literary estate. Under the supervision of Velikovsky's wife, two posthumous books appeared: the psychoanalytic work Mankind in Amnesia (1982) and also Stargazers and Gravediggers (1983), which chronicled the hostility of academia to Velikovsky's work up to 1955. A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. ... A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of the literary estate of an author who has died. ...

For many years Velikovsky's estate was controlled by his two daughters, Shulamit Velikovsky Kogan (b. 1925), and Ruth Ruhama Velikovsky Sharon (b. 1926),^[13] who generally resisted the publication of any further material. (Exceptions include the biography ABA - the Glory and the Torment: The Life of Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky, issued in 1995 and greeted with rather dubious reviews;^[14][15][16] and a Hebrew translation of another Ages in Chaos volume, The Dark Age of Greece, was published in Israel.) A volume of Velikovsky's discussions and correspondence with Albert Einstein appeared in Hebrew in Israel, translated and edited by his daughter Shulamit Velikovsky Kogan. In the late 1990s, a large portion of Velikovsky's unpublished book manuscripts, essays and correspondence became available at the Velikovsky Archive website. In 2005, Velikovsky's daughter Ruth Sharon presented his entire archive to Princeton University Library.

Velikovsky's ideas

Notwithstanding Velikovsky's dozen or so publications in medical and psychoanalytic journals in the 1920s and 1930s,^[17] the work for which he became well known was developed by him during the early 1940s, whilst living in New York. He summarised his core ideas in an affidavit in November 1942,^[18] and in two privately published Scripta Academica pamphlets entitled Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History (1945) and Cosmos without Gravitation (1946).^[19] This article is about the state. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Rather than have his ideas dismissed wholesale because of potential flaws in any one area, Velikovsky then chose to publish them as a series of book volumes, aimed at a lay audience, dealing separately with his proposals on ancient history, and with areas more relevant to the physical sciences. Velikovsky was a passionate Zionist,^[20][21] and this did steer the focus of his work, although its scope was considerably more far-reaching than this. The entire body of work could be said to stem from an attempt to solve the following problem: that to Velikovsky there appeared to be insufficient correlation in the written or archeological records between Biblical history and what was known of the history of the area, particularly Egypt.^[22] A bilingual poster in Romanian and Hungarian promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s. ...

Velikovsky searched for common mention of events within literary records, and in the Ipuwer Papyrus, he believed he had found a contemporary Egyptian account of the Israelite Exodus. Moreover, he interpreted both accounts as descriptions of a great natural catastrophe. Velikovsky attempted to investigate the physical cause of the Exodus event, and extrapolated backwards and forwards in history from this point, cross-comparing written and mythical records from cultures on every inhabited continent, using them to attempt synchronisms of the historical records, yielding what he believed to be further periodic natural catastrophes which can be global in scale. The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All[1] is an ancient Egyptian poem preserved in a single papyrus, Leiden Papyrus I 344, which is housed in the National Archeological Museum in Leiden, Netherlands. ...

He arrived at a body of radical inter-disciplinary ideas which might be summarized as:

• Planet Earth has suffered natural catastrophes on a global scale, both before and during mankind's recorded history.
• There is evidence for these catastrophes in the geological record (here Velikovsky was advocating Catastrophist ideas as opposed to the prevailing Uniformitarian notions) and archeological record. The extinction of many species had occurred catastrophically, not by gradual Darwinian means.
• The catastrophes which occurred within the memory of mankind are recorded in the myths, legends and written history of all ancient cultures and civilisations. Velikovsky pointed to alleged concordances in the accounts of many cultures, and proposed that they referred to the same real events. For instance, the memory of a flood is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, in the Greek legend of Deucalion and in the Manu legend of India. Velikovsky put forward the psychoanalytic idea of "Cultural Amnesia" as a mechanism whereby these literal records came to be regarded as mere myths and legends.
• The cause of these natural catastrophes were close encounters between the Earth and other bodies within the solar system - not least what were now the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mars, these bodies having moved upon different orbits within human memory.
• To explain the celestial mechanics necessary to permit these changes to the configuration of the solar system, Velikovsky thought that electromagnetic forces might somehow play a greater role to counteract gravity and orbital mechanics.
• Velikovsky argued that the conventional chronology of the Near East and classical world, based upon Egyptian Sothic dating and the king lists of Manetho, was wholly flawed. This was the reason for the apparent absence of correlation between the Biblical record and those of neighbouring cultures, and also the cause of the enigmatic "Dark Ages" in Greece and elsewhere. Velikovsky shifted several chronologies and dynasties from the Egyptian Old Kingdom to Ptolemaic times by centuries (a scheme he called the Revised Chronology), placing the Exodus contemporary with the fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. He proposed numerous other synchronisms stretching up to the time of Alexander the Great. He argued that these eliminate phantom "Dark Ages", and vindicate the biblical accounts of history and those recorded by Herodotus. For further details, see the Ages in Chaos article.

Some of Velikovsky's specific postulated catastrophes included: Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. ... Uniformitarianism has had two separate meanings, both more prevalent in 19th-century discourse: Within religious philosophy, Uniformitarianism (with a capital U) is the belief that the Universe has existed as it is now for an infinite time and will continue to exist for ever. ... Deucalion In Greek mythology, Deucalion, or Deukálion (new-wine sailor) was the name of at least two figures: a son of Prometheus, and a son of Minos. ... Manu may refer to: In geography: Manu, a town in Sokoto State, Nigeria Manu, province in the Madre de Dios region of Peru Manu National Park Manu River In acting: Manu, member of the cast of a controversial film released in 2000 called Baise-moi Manu Intiraymi, American television and... This article is about the Solar System. ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... This article or section should be merged with Celestial Mechanics Astrodynamics is the study and creation of orbits, especially those of artificial satellites. ... The Sothic cycle or Canicular period is a period of 1461 ancient Egyptian years (of 365 days each) or 1460 Julian years (averaging 365. ... Manetho, also known as Manethon of Sebennytos, was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolematic era, circa 3rd century BC. Manetho recorded Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt). ... The Greek Dark Ages (ca. ... This article is about the second book in the Torah. ... The Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, roughly between 2030 BC and 1640 BC. The period comprises two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and the 12th Dynasty... For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film). ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Hērodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ... Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published in 1952, which put forward a major revision of the history of the Ancient Near East. ...

• A tentative suggestion that Earth had once been a satellite of a "proto-Saturn" body, before its current solar orbit.
• That the Deluge (Noah's Flood) had been caused by proto-Saturn entering a nova state, and ejecting much of its mass into space.
• A suggestion that the planet Mercury was involved in the Tower of Babel catastrophe.
• Jupiter had been the culprit for the catastrophe which saw the destruction of the "Cities of the Plain" (Sodom and Gomorrah)
• Periodic close contacts with a cometary Venus (which had been ejected from Jupiter) had caused the Exodus events (c.1500 BCE) and Joshua's subsequent "sun standing still" incident.
• Periodic close contacts with Mars had caused havoc in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.

As noted above, Velikovsky had conceived the broad sweep of this material by the early 1940s. However, within his lifetime, whilst he continued to research. expand and lecture upon the details of his ideas, he released only selected portions of his work to the public in book form: This article is about the planet. ... This article is about great floods. ... Artists conception of a white dwarf star accreting hydrogen from a larger companion A nova (pl. ... [[Link titleBold text // ]] This article is about the planet. ... This article is about the Biblical story. ... For other uses, see Jupiter (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Sodom and Gomorrah (disambiguation). ... Comet Hale-Bopp Comet West For other uses, see Comet (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Venus (disambiguation). ... This article is about the second book in the Torah. ... Joshua, Jehoshuah or Yehoshua. ... Adjectives: Martian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ...

• Worlds in Collision (1950) discussed the literary and mythical records of the "Venus" and "Mars" catastrophes
• Portions of his Revised Chronology were published as Ages in Chaos (1952), Peoples of the Sea (1977) and Rameses II & His Time (1978) (The related monograph Oedipus and Akhenaten, 1960, posited the thesis that pharaoh Akhenaten was the prototype for the Greek mythic figure Oedipus.)
• Earth in Upheaval (1956) dealt with geological evidence for global natural catastrophes

Several key portions of the Revised Chronology remained unpublished (although the manuscripts are readily available in the Velikovsky Archive and thus the details of the entire scheme are known). Numerous other authors (such as Donovan Courville, Peter James and David Rohl) have since taken a cue from Velikovsky to develop their own proposed chronological revisions.^[23][24][25] Worlds in Collision book cover. ... For other uses, see Akhenaten (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Oedipus (disambiguation). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Peter James - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... David M. Rohl is a British Egyptologist and historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning the chronology of Ancient Egypt and Palestine. ...

Velikovsky's ideas on his earlier Saturn/Mercury/Jupiter events were never published, and the available archived manuscripts are much less developed.

Of all the strands of his work, Velikovsky published least on his ideas regarding the role of electromagnetism in astronomy. In fact he retreated from the propositions in his 1946 monograph Cosmos without Gravitation, a work he and his supporters preferred to ignore subsequently, and a probable catalyst for the aggressively antipathetic reaction of astronomers and physicists from its first presentation. However, other Velikovskian enthusiasts such as Ralph Juergens, Earl Milton, Wal Thornhill and James McCanney have embraced and developed these themes to propose a scenario where stars are lit not by internal nuclear fusion, but as the anode foci of galactic-scale electrical discharge currents. Such ideas have zero support in the conventional literature.

Criticism

"Velikovsky is neither crank nor charlatan — although to state my opinion and to quote one of my colleagues, he is at least gloriously wrong.... Velikovsky would rebuild the science of celestial mechanics to save the literal accuracy of ancient legends"

– Stephen Jay Gould, Velikovsky in Collision Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ...

Velikovsky's ideas have been almost entirely rejected by mainstream academia (often vociferously so) and his work is generally regarded as erroneous in all its detailed conclusions. Moreover, his unorthodox methodology (for example, using comparative mythology to derive scenarios in celestial mechanics) is viewed by scholars as an unacceptable way to arrive at conclusions. There has also been more limited criticism from his followers. For example, Peter James and his associates (Centuries of Darkness) believe it is necessary to lower the conventional Egyptian dates by about 300 years whereas Velikovsky himself would have lowered them by about 600 years, in general.

Criticism of Worlds in Collision

Velikovsky's bestselling and consequently most-criticized book is Worlds in Collision. Astronomer Harlow Shapley, along with others such as Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, were highly critical of Macmillan's decision to publish the work. The fundamental criticism against this book from the astronomy community was that its celestial mechanics were physically impossible, requiring planetary orbits which do not conform with the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of angular momentum. Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was an English-American astronomer who in 1925 was first to show that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen, contradicting accepted wisdom at the time. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... Look up conservation of energy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In physics, angular momentum intuitively measures how much the linear momentum is directed around a certain point called the origin; the moment of momentum. ...

Velikovsky tried to protect himself from criticism of his celestial mechanics by removing the original Appendix on the subject from Worlds in Collision, hoping that the merit of his ideas would be evaluated on the basis of his comparative mythology and use of literary sources alone. However this strategy did not protect him: the appendix was an expanded version of the Cosmos Without Gravitation monograph, which he had already distributed to Shapley and others in the late 1940s – and they had regarded the physics within it as egregious.

By 1974, the controversy surrounding Velikovsky's work had permeated US society to the point where the American Association for the Advancement of Science felt obliged to address the situation, as they had previously done in relation to UFOs, and devoted a scientific session to Velikovsky, featuring (among others) Velikovsky himself and Carl Sagan. Sagan gave a critique of Velikovsky's ideas (the book version of Sagan's critique is much longer than that presented in the talk, see below). His criticisms are available in an essay in the book Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Sagan's arguments were aimed at a popular audience and he did not bother to remain to debate Velikovsky in person, facts that were used by Velikovsky's followers to attempt to discredit his analysis^[26]. Sagan rebutted these charges, and further attacked Velikovsky's ideas in his PBS television series Cosmos, though not without reprimanding scientists who attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ... UFO redirects here. ... Insert non-formatted text here Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrobiologist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was the name of a thirteen part television series produced by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan which was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980. ...

It was not until the 1980s that a very detailed critique of Worlds in Collision was made in terms of its use of mythical and literary sources, when Bob Forrest published a highly critical examination of them (see below). Earlier in 1974, James Fitton published a brief critique of Velikovsky's interpretation of myth that was ignored by Velikovsky and his defenders whose indictment began: "In at least three important ways Velikovsky's use of mythology is unsound. The first of these is his proclivity to treat all myths as having independent value; the second is the tendency to treat only such material as is consistent with his thesis; and the third is his very unsystematic method."^[27] A short analysis of the position of arguments in the late 20th century is given by Dr Velikovsky's ex-associate, and Kronos editor, C. Leroy Ellenberger, in his A Lesson from Velikovsky. Kronos Journal Kronos: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis published articles on a wide range of subjects as diverse as ancient history, catastrophism and mythology. ... C. Leroy Ellenberger at Fernbank Museum, Atlanta, GA, Oct 2005. ...

More recently, the absence of supporting material in ice-core studies (such as the Greenland Dye-3 and Vostok cores) have removed any basis for the proposition of a global catastrophe of the proposed dimension within the later Holocene period. Ice Core sample taken from drill. ... Lake Vostok composite image (NASA) Vostok Station (Russian: ) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) research station located near the South Geomagnetic Pole, at the center of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. ... The Holocene epoch is a geological period, which began approximately 11,550 calendar years BP (about 9600 BC) and continues to the present. ...

Criticism of the Revised Chronology

Velikovsky's "Revised chronology" has been rejected by nearly all mainstream historians and Egyptologists. It was claimed that Velikovsky's usage of material for proof is often very selective. In 1965 the leading cuneiformist Abraham Sachs, in a forum at Brown University, discredited Velikovsky's use of Mesopotamian cuneiform sources. Velikovsky was never able to refute Sachs' attack.^[28] This is a list of historians. ... The Great Sphinx of Giza against Khafres Pyramid at the Giza pyramid complex. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. ... Cuneiform redirects here. ...

In 1978, following the much-postponed publication of further volumes in Velikovsky's Ages in Chaos series, the UK's Society for Interdisciplinary Studies organised a conference in Glasgow specifically to debate the revised chronology.^[29] The ultimate conclusion of this work, by names including Peter James, John Bimson, Geoffrey Gammonn, and David Rohl, was that the Revised Chronology was untenable.^[30] Specifically, Michael Jones contended that it was impossible to separate the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties by centuries as Velikovsky proposed, presenting evidence from genealogies of construction workers which spanned the three dynasties contiguously. However, inspired by Velikovky's original premise that the Manethian chronology of Egypt was flawed, James, Rohl and several other authors have gone on to publish their more conservative chronological revisions, which have also failed to find any acceptance in the mainstream academic community. Historian Emmett Sweeney has published works supporting the Revised Chronology, but these, too, have not found mainstream acceptance.^[31] For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... Peter James - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... David M. Rohl is a British Egyptologist and historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning the chronology of Ancient Egypt and Palestine. ...

"The Velikovsky Affair"

Such was the hostility directed against Velikovsky from some quarters (particularly the original campaign led by Harlow Shapley), that some commentators have made an analysis of the conflict itself. The most prominent of these was a study by American Behavioral Scientist magazine, eventually published in book form as The Velikovsky Affair.^[32] This framed the discussion in terms of how academic disciplines reacted to ideas from workers from outside their field, claiming that there was an academic aversion to permitting people to cross inter-disciplinary boundaries. More recently, James Gilbert, professor of history at University of Maryland, challenged this traditional version with a more nuanced account focused on the intellectual rivalry between Harlow Shapley and Horace Kallen, Velikovsky's ally.^[33] Earlier, Henry Bauer challenged the traditional view that the Velikovsky Affair illustrated the resistance of scientists to new ideas by pointing out "the nature and validity of Velikovsky's claims must be considered before one decides that the Affair can illuminate the reception of new ideas in science...."^[34] Interdisciplinary work is that which integrates concepts across different disciplines. ...

The scientific press generally denied Velikovsky a forum to rebut his critics. Velikovsky claimed that this made him a "suppressed genius", and he likened himself to Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake for preaching heliocentrism.^[35][36][37] Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (1548, Nola – February 17, 1600, Rome) was an Italian philosopher, priest, cosmologist, and occultist. ... Heliocentric Solar System Heliocentrism (lower panel) in comparison to the geocentric model (upper panel) In astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System. ...

The storm of controversy created by Velikovsky's publications may have helped revive the catastrophist movement in the second half of the 20th century; however it is also held by some working in the field that progress has actually been retarded by the negative aspects of the so-called Velikovsky Affair.^[38] Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. ...

Books by Velikovsky

Published by Doubleday: Doubleday is one of the largest book publishing companies in the world. ...

• Worlds in Collision (1950)
• Ages in Chaos (1952)
• Earth In Upheaval (1955)
• Oedipus and Akhnaton (1960)
• Peoples of the Sea (1977)
• Rameses II and His Times (1978)
• Mankind in Amnesia (1982)

Published by William Morrow: Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published in 1952, which put forward a major revision of the history of the Ancient Near East. ... Sir William Morrow DSO ED was a leading Australian surgeon and specilist in Gastroenterology he also served as president of the Royal Australian College of Physicians. ...

• Stargazers and Gravediggers (1983)

Notes

The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience is a collection of articles that discuss the Skeptics Societys scientific findings of investigations into popular pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. ... The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience is a collection of articles that discuss the Skeptics Societys scientific findings of investigations into popular pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. ...

References

• Abell, George O. (1981). Scientists and Velikovsky, in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books.

• Allan, D.S. and J.B. Delair (1995). When The Earth Nearly Died. Gateway Books, UK. published in USA as Cataclysm by Bear & Co, 1997. A précis is here.

• Bauer, Henry H. (1980). Passions and Purposes: A Perspective, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 28-31. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books.

• Bauer, Henry H. (1984, paperback ed. 1999). Beyond Velikovsky. The History of a Public Controversy. University of Illinois, Urbana.

• Bauer, Henry H. (1995). Velikovsky's place in the history of science: A lesson on the strengths and limitations of science. Skeptic 3 (4), 52-56. <http://www.henryhbauer.homestead.com/Skeptic1996.pdf>.

• Robert Todd Carroll (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-27242-6. Pages 396-401.

• Alfred de Grazia, Ralph E. Juergens, Stecchini L.C. (Eds.) (1978). The Velikovsky Affair - Scientism versus Science. 2ed., Metron Publications, Princeton, New Jersey. Also online.

• Forrest, Bob (1981). Velikovsky's Sources. In six volumes, with Notes and Index Volume. Privately published by the author, Manchester.

• Forrest, Robert (1983). Venus and Velikovsky: The Original Sources, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 8, #2, Winter 1983-84, 154-164.

• Forrest, Bob (1987). Guide to Velikovsky's Sources. Stonehenge Viewpoint, Santa Barbara.

• Frazier, Kendrick (1980). The Distortions Continue, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 32-38. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books.

• Gardner, Martin (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, chapter 3, Dover ISBN 0-486-20394-8

• Ginenthal, Charles (1990). Carl Sagan and Immanuel Velikovsky. Ivy Press, New York (ISBN 0-963-97590-0)

• Goldsmith, Donald, (Ed.) (1977) Scientists Confront Velikovsky. Norton. Proceedings of a symposium at the 1974 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

• Greenberg, Lewis M. (1986), Scientists Confront Scientists Who Confront Velikovsky (2nd printing ed.), ISBN 978-0917994067. This book is Kronos IV (2), 1978 with a different cover. (see also Scientists Confront Scientists Who Confront Velikovsky

• Marriott, David (2004) The Velikovsky Inheritance.

• Miller, Alice (1977). Index to the Works of Immanuel Velikovsky. Glassboro State College, Glassboro.

• Oberg, James (1980). Ideas in Collision, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 20-27. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books.

• Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia (1952). Worlds in Collision, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol 96, Oct. 15, 1952.

• Pearlman, Dale, (Ed.) (1996) Stephen J. Gould and Immanuel Velikovsky. Ivy Press Books, Forest Hills, N.Y.

• Pensée. 1972-1975. Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered. I - X. Student Academic Freedon Forum, Portland.

• Ransom, C.J. (1976) The Age of Velikovsky. Delta, New York.

• Philip Plait (2002). Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax", John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-40976-6. Chapter 18.

• Rohl, David (1996) A Test of Time. Arrow Books.

• Sagan, Carl, (1979) Broca's Brain. Random House. Reissued 1986 by Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-33689-5. reprinted as chapter 15 of Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural, edited by George O. Abell and Barry Singer, Scribners, 1981. Originally appeared in Scientists confront Velikovsky.

• Sweeney, Emmett (2006) Empire of Thebes or Ages in Chaos Revisited, Algora Publishing.

• Talbott, Stephen L. (1977) Velikovsky Reconsidered. Warner Books, New York.

George Ogden Abell (March 1, 1927 &#8211; October 7, 1983) was an astronomer at UCLA who is best known for his catalogue of clusters of galaxies. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz and publishes scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those of a secular humanist or scientific skepticism nature. ... Henry H. Bauer is editor of the fringe science publication Journal of Scientific Exploration. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz and publishes scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those of a secular humanist or scientific skepticism nature. ... Henry H. Bauer is editor of the fringe science publication Journal of Scientific Exploration. ... Henry H. Bauer is editor of the fringe science publication Journal of Scientific Exploration. ... Robert Todd Carroll (1945-), Ph. ... John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ... Alfred de Grazia, (born December 29, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois) is a philosopher, educator, poet, playwright, historian, and a reformer and innovator in politics and the sciences. ... Livio Catullo Stecchini was a historian of science, a teaching professor (Harvard PhD), a scholar of ancient weights and measures, (the science of metrology) and of the history of cartography in antiquity. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz and publishes scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those of a secular humanist or scientific skepticism nature. ... Martin Gardner (b. ... Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1957) was Martin Gardners second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining skepticism. ... Dover Publications is a book publisher founded in 1941. ... The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ... James Edward Oberg (b. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz and publishes scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those of a secular humanist or scientific skepticism nature. ... Worlds in Collision book cover. ... Information Editor(s) Stephen L. Talbott Advisor(s) David N. Talbott Founded 1972 Owner Student Academic Freedom Forum Circulation 10,000-20,000 Pensée: Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered (IVR) was a special series of ten issues of the magazine Pensée produced to encourage continuing critical analysis of all questions... Philip Plait, physicist and astronomer Philip Plait (a. ... John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ... Insert non-formatted text here Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrobiologist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. ... George Ogden Abell (March 1, 1927 &#8211; October 7, 1983) was an astronomer at UCLA who is best known for his catalogue of clusters of galaxies. ... Charles Scribners Sons is a publisher that was founded in 1846 at the Brick Church Chapel on New Yorks Park Row. ...

External links

Velikovsky works available online

• The Velikovsky Archive - an online collection of unpublished works, including audio recordings of lectures, and a video of the 1972 CBC documentary
• Immanuel Velikovsky Papers at Princeton University Library

Radio-Canada redirects here. ...

Organizations sympathetic to Velikovsky's work

• Aeon: The Journal of Myth and Science
• Kronia
• Kronos Press
• Society for Interdisciplinary Studies
• The Velikovskian, A Journal of Myth, History and Science

Kronos Journal Kronos: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis published articles on a wide range of subjects as diverse as ancient history, catastrophism and mythology. ... The SIS logo The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS) is a membership-based organization formed in 1974 in response to the growing interest in the works of modern catastrophists, notably the highly controversial Dr Immanuel Velikovsky.[1] Based in the United Kingdom, it publishes the journals, Chronology & Catastrophism Review, a...

Critiques of Velikovsky

• Jerry Pournelle's commentaries on Sagan's arguments at the AAAS meeting.
• Velikovsky in Collision - Stephen Jay Gould
• Ellenberger, Leroy (1995), "An Antidote to Velikovskian Delusions", Skeptic 3 (4), <http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/velidelu.html>. Retrieved on 2007-07-19 (Linked on-line copy has some additions by Ellenberger to the article as originally published.)
• A lesson from Velikovsky - Leroy Ellenberger
• Mewhinney, Sean (1986), "El-Arish Revisited", Kronos XI (2): 41–61, <http://www.pibburns.com/smelaris.htm>
• Abraham Sachs' address at Brown University 1965 on cuneiform sources