Thunderbolts of the Gods

I. CONVERGENCE
	The Lens of Human Perception
	When we gaze up at the stars, do we believe what we see, or see what we believe? Our beliefs and ...
	Today, most astronomers assure us that the solar system is both stable and predictable. But new v...
	• Space is empty and cannot conduct electricity;
	• Magnetic fields do not exist in space;
	• The tails of comets are pushed away from the Sun by the pressure of light;
	• Jupiter and Saturn have been cold and inactive since the early history of the solar system;
	• The planet Mars has been geologically dead for more than a billion years;
	• Venus is our "sister planet," with temperatures close to those of the Earth;
	• There are no other galaxies outside our own;
	• There is no evidence for planet-wide geological disturbances of the Earth in the past.
	Before new findings disproved these beliefs, they were so "obviously true" as to discourage chall...
	The actual situation in the sciences calls for openness to new possibilities. Our vision of the u...
	The new discoveries accent the unexpected—a sign that something is wrong at the level of first as...
	For centuries astronomers assumed that gravity is the only force that can give birth to stars and...
	The medium for this more “holistic” view of the universe is plasma, a highly conductive state of ...
	Today, nothing is more important to the future and credibility of science than liberation from th...
	Plasma Phenomena in Ancient Times
	The discovery of the “electric universe” does not just change the picture of the heavens. It also...
	But were it possible for us to stand alongside our early ancestors, to witness the events that pr...
	Yet to a modern-day witness the formations in the sky would also seem eerily familiar, as if reme...
	In these pages we contend that humans living today have seen the events before, through their uni...
	Unique Behavior of Plasma
	Although plasma behavior follows simple electromagnetic laws, the resulting complexity continues ...
	In the rarefied plasma of space, the subtle flow of electricity is not easily measured, but these...
	To see the connection between plasma experiments and plasma formations in space, it is essential ...
	The scalability of plasma events enables researchers, utilizing laboratory experiments and superc...
	Many of astronomy’s most fundamental mysteries now find their resolution in plasma behavior. Why ...
	It is worth noting also that plasma experiments, backed by computer simulations of plasma dischar...
	Planets, Comets, and Plasma Discharge
	The new revelations of plasma science enable us to see that planets are charged bodies moving thr...
	It is easier to see the electric force in action when a comet approaches the Sun on an elongated ...
	Our claim that comets are electrical in nature can be easily tested. Are comet nuclei "wet" or "d...
	Already, the comet question is being answered. As the spacecraft Deep Space 1 flew by the nucleus...
	Then, NASA's Stardust probe to comet Wild-2 (pronounced vilt 2) startled investigators with the b...
	Plasma Cosmology—The Leading Edge of Science
	Two early twentieth century pioneers whose work leads to a deeper understanding of plasma and ele...
	One of the most respected innovators was Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvén, honored as the father of “...
	Plasma Discharge Inscribed on Stone
	Today, more than a dozen qualified individuals, constituting an interdisciplinary nucleus, are wo...
INTRODUCTION
01.2PART I_Ch2.pdf
	The relatively sudden appearance of the rock art themes discussed in the previous chapter interru...
	Later, however, in close connection to the beginnings of civilization, we observe an explosion of...
	But now, there is reason to believe that rock art can illuminate a critical turn in human history...
	There is also a provable connection to the evolution of mythical archetypes. Archaic rock art dep...
	The Great Serpent Typhon
	Chaos and the Primeval Rebellion
	Marduk and the Resplendent Dragon
	The Myth of the Divine Thunderbolt
	In this investigation, converging paths of inquiry demand a reconsideration of popular beliefs in...
	The myths and symbols of antiquity will have a central place in this reconsideration. Though pres...
	The ancient “lightning gods,” such as the Greek Zeus or Apollo, move about as fierce and towering...
01.3PART I_Ch3.pdf
	CHAPTER THREE
	ELECTRICAL ENCOUNTERS IN SPACE
	Velikovsky’s Challenge: An Unstable Solar System
	No one investigating the themes of myth and catastrophe can afford to overlook the pioneering wor...
	Velikovsky saw in ancient literature a story of planetary disturbance, rich with images of cosmic...
	To most scientists the idea of a planet as a comet, or planets jostling with each other like "bil...
		It is not our purpose here to analyze the details of Velikovsky’s work. Our interest is in fundam...
		1. The present order of the planets is new. In geologically recent times the planetary system was...
		2. Erratic movements of the planets led to global catastrophe on the Earth.
		3. Through rigorous cross-cultural comparison of the ancient traditions, an investigator can reco...
	Velikovsky brought impressive scholarly credentials to his inquiry, and his approach was interdis...
	In support of his reconstruction Velikovsky found physical evidence from geology, paleontology, a...
	Some of these predictionµs were said to be impossible when you made them. All of them were predic...
	The authors of this book believe that Velikovsky was incorrect on many particulars, some of them ...
	This was written several years before the space age began. But now, as we argue in this and later...
		To question modern notions of solar system stability is to raise possibilities that presently hav...
		• Do the patterns present a unified picture of the ancient world?
		• Do the patterns challenge modern assumptions about solar system history?
		• Are the patterns predictable under a different view?
	When the Planets were Gods
	Certain beliefs that can only appear outrageous today pervaded the ancient cultures. One of these...
	The Egyptians celebrated the “First Time,” or “the age of the primeval gods,” marked by the unive...
	• Recollections of a prior “age of gods and wonders” occur the world over. Always this lost epoch...
	• Archaic mythical and astronomical traditions proclaimed that this former world disappeared in a...
	• Commonly accepted approaches to human history are unable to illuminate either collective memory.
	For anyone investigating the roots of ancient themes, these considerations can hardly be a small ...
		Vital clues appear in the early astronomical traditions. Ancient tribes and nations had reason to...
	Significantly, the fear of planets is most emphatic in the birthplace of astronomy, in Mesopotami...
	Sumerian astronomer priests invoked the goddess Inanna, the planet Venus, as the radiance or glor...
	Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the foreign lands. When like Ishkur you roar at the ear...
	For the Sumerians and Babylonians no celestial power was more consistently linked to earthquake, ...
	Archaic astronomical and magical texts of Mesopotamia are filled with such images. (Other example...
		It is known that early Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus,9 Democritus, and Anaxagoras preserv...
		Plato, in his Timaeus, speaks of world-altering catastrophe caused by the celestial bodies depart...
	For in truth the story that is told in your country as well as ours, how once upon a time Phaetho...
	Such traditions can illuminate the ancient notion, tracing to the birthplace of astronomy, that t...
		As summarized by Franz Boll, Carl Bezold and Wilhelm Gundel, the archaic tradition reflected in t...
		The Greek term for this planetary disturbance is synodeuein or synodos. “This requires an actual ...
		There is, however, an ambiguity in most of the classical references to world conflagration. The g...
	In truth, the archaic notion of planetary catastrophe belongs to the global substructure of astra...
	To establish our case, therefore, we must reach beyond the mythic archetypes of attacking dragons...
	Thunderbolts Launched by Planets
	With the birth of ancient astronomy, the stargazers named the owners of the divine thunderbolt. T...
		is the origin of the myth that thunderbolts are the javelins hurled by Jupiter. Consequently heav...
	Pliny also reports the claim by Etruscan wise men that there are nine gods who send thunderbolts,...
	Only two of these deities have been retained by the Romans, who attribute thunderbolts in the day...
	Similarly, Pliny's contemporary, the naturalist Seneca, distinguishes the “lesser bolts” of the l...
	Elsewhere, however, Seneca expresses his own cynicism when claims about planets and “conjunctions...
		Nevertheless, this prejudice in favor of later observation cannot be reconciled with the earlier ...
	The Thunderbolt and the Comet
	The evolution and transformation of mythic symbolism over time provides a host of clues about the...
	One of the most common errors in historical investigation is the tendency to confuse the symbol w...
	The cosmic “thunderbolt” is not a momentary flash of lightning followed by a burst of thunder. Ev...
	Consider, for example, the “absurd” fact that, mythically and symbolically the divine thunderbolt...
	In nature as we experience it today, a thunderbolt and a comet have virtually nothing in common. ...
	The archaic traditions say that a stream of fire was seen to erupt between planets in close appro...
		The more general notion is encapsulated in the statement of Democritus that comets are a coalesce...
		Democritus, however, has defended his view vigorously, maintaining that stars have been seen to a...
		Anaxagoras and Democritus say that comets are a conjunction of planets, when they appear to touch...
	Anaxagoras is said to have held “comets to be a conjunction of planets which emit flames.”27 Diog...
	A similar report is given by Leucippus: comets are due to the near approach to each other of two ...
	There is, in fact, a remarkable consistency to the archaic concept, which appears to trace to the...
	Seneca, in his review of archaic ideas about comets, reports that “Apollonius says that the Chald...
	Some of the ancient scholars favour this explanation: when one of the planets has come into conju...
	Could such traditions withstand the progressive movement of Greek philosophy toward skepticism? T...
	Despite the “refutations” by the respected naturalists of classical times, the planetary nature o...
	The reader may wonder whether this view of comets was limited to Europe and the Near East. An ans...
	Though Aristotle, Seneca and other naturalists contributed much to the rise of scientific methodo...
	Planetary Catastrophe
	More than fifty years ago, Immanuel Velikovsky claimed that the planet Venus, in the form of a co...
	In recent years, independent researchers have carefully investigated Velikovsky’s work, and this ...
	Fifty years ago astronomers considered it outrageous for anyone to suggest that a planet could ge...
		Proponents of the electric universe offer an entirely different explanation: a planet-sized body ...
		Electrical models of solar system genesis suggest an evolutionary history of the planets bearing ...
	How stable was the solar system in the past? In the pioneering work of Hannes Alfvén and his succ...
	Many questions concerning the stability of planetary motions in the past can only be resolved thr...
	To ask the question is to confront one of the great surprises of the space age—the ravaged surfac...
		A Doomsday Scenario
		A Question of Cosmic History
	Archetype and Symbol
	Ritual Celebrations