I've been reading Graham Hancock's 1996 book, Fingerprints of the Gods. I'm about halfway through.
The argument he apparently builds up over his entire body of work is that there was a highly advanced civilization 17 or 20 thousand years ago (I'm unclear on this so far) which knew quite a bit about math, science, astronomy, etc, and tracked the precession of the equinoxes because this phenomenon, in some way combined with the earths changing axial tilt and so on, would occasionally cause global catastrophes and possibly wipe everyone out. Obviously the ancients wanted to know about this, so they made really advanced calendars. There may also be something somewhere about the Sun's hypothetical binary companion, a brown dwarf or other similarly hard to spot star, which is tied up in all this astronomical shifting. I'm not sure if that's directly attributable to Hancock or just in this general field of whacky.
For instance (according to Hancock), about 12,500 years ago a buildup of ice at the poles caused the entire earth's crust to slip, moving greenland from about the north pole to its present position, and moving antarctica from a more northerly position to its current polar home. This led to the end of an ice age, melting of a lot of ice, raising the ocean levels by 400 feet, and drowning this advanced civilization (they must have forgotten to check their calendars to see that a cataclysm was due). For their own reasons, these people then went and gave the gift of civilization to ancient South Americans, Egyptians, Sumerians, and so on, resulting in legends about Viracocha, Quetzacoatl, Osiris, and other legendary law/civilization-giving gods or heroes.
Oh, and the age of Pisces is due to end any time now, and the Mayan calendar (as all Shadowrun fans know) says the current age will end on December 23rd, 2012. Earthlings, beware!
Most of his theories fall into the realm of pseudoscience; he takes some minor bit of evidence and runs with it in the direction he was already going anyway. He is actively anti-intellectual and anti-expert, saying the establishment is just trying to keep him down. He refuses to answer actual contradictory facts, criticisms, or counterpublications to his work.
From his website:
FotG employs a rhetorical trick that I'm sure has a name, but I'm not sure what. He employs many leading statements of the form: "Is it a coincidence that {A}, or (does it make more sense)/(is it more logical) that {B}", where {A} is a factual statement that very well could be a coincidence, and {B} is a conjecture that gets more and more wild as the book goes on. He hooks you toward the beginning with {A}s that could be coincedences, but probably aren't (like the similar myths of Viracocha and Quetzacoatl, which probably do share a mythic root), and gets you used to agreeing with him. And everybody wants to be logical or do the thing that makes more sense, right?
Like I mentioned, I'm halfway through, and by the end I'm expecting outright insanity, "Is it a coincidence that neither the Nile nor the Milky Way are straight lines, or is it more logical that we're descended from an advanced race of human-alien hybrids that built the pyramids using hoverlasers and invisible robotic servitors while they reclined on their sedan chairs and ATE CHOCOLATE!!!11."
In short, he's everything I dislike about modern pseudoscience. If I were reading this book in search of actual archaeology or history I would have returned it to the library right away, but since I knew going in that Hancock is something of a kook, I've been able to take a bemused view of the whole thing. I think the internet has jaded me to the whacky. Depending on how far off the deep end he goes by the end, I think I'll read some more of his books, because really, all of this stuff is roleplaying gold.
Imagine, a setting 20,000 years ago, when antarctica is out of the polar ice and is the home of an advanced civilization of people rendered super-heroic by their technology. They even have space flight, which they use to fly to mars and venus and battle the invaders from Nemesis, the sun's dark binary companion. I must run this game.
Has anybody read any of the rest of his books? I'm sure my library has them, and I may need to check them out, if only to keep them from falling into the hands of innocent schoolchildren seeking actual facts and stuff.
The argument he apparently builds up over his entire body of work is that there was a highly advanced civilization 17 or 20 thousand years ago (I'm unclear on this so far) which knew quite a bit about math, science, astronomy, etc, and tracked the precession of the equinoxes because this phenomenon, in some way combined with the earths changing axial tilt and so on, would occasionally cause global catastrophes and possibly wipe everyone out. Obviously the ancients wanted to know about this, so they made really advanced calendars. There may also be something somewhere about the Sun's hypothetical binary companion, a brown dwarf or other similarly hard to spot star, which is tied up in all this astronomical shifting. I'm not sure if that's directly attributable to Hancock or just in this general field of whacky.
For instance (according to Hancock), about 12,500 years ago a buildup of ice at the poles caused the entire earth's crust to slip, moving greenland from about the north pole to its present position, and moving antarctica from a more northerly position to its current polar home. This led to the end of an ice age, melting of a lot of ice, raising the ocean levels by 400 feet, and drowning this advanced civilization (they must have forgotten to check their calendars to see that a cataclysm was due). For their own reasons, these people then went and gave the gift of civilization to ancient South Americans, Egyptians, Sumerians, and so on, resulting in legends about Viracocha, Quetzacoatl, Osiris, and other legendary law/civilization-giving gods or heroes.
Oh, and the age of Pisces is due to end any time now, and the Mayan calendar (as all Shadowrun fans know) says the current age will end on December 23rd, 2012. Earthlings, beware!
Most of his theories fall into the realm of pseudoscience; he takes some minor bit of evidence and runs with it in the direction he was already going anyway. He is actively anti-intellectual and anti-expert, saying the establishment is just trying to keep him down. He refuses to answer actual contradictory facts, criticisms, or counterpublications to his work.
From his website:
Graham Hancock said:
FotG employs a rhetorical trick that I'm sure has a name, but I'm not sure what. He employs many leading statements of the form: "Is it a coincidence that {A}, or (does it make more sense)/(is it more logical) that {B}", where {A} is a factual statement that very well could be a coincidence, and {B} is a conjecture that gets more and more wild as the book goes on. He hooks you toward the beginning with {A}s that could be coincedences, but probably aren't (like the similar myths of Viracocha and Quetzacoatl, which probably do share a mythic root), and gets you used to agreeing with him. And everybody wants to be logical or do the thing that makes more sense, right?
Like I mentioned, I'm halfway through, and by the end I'm expecting outright insanity, "Is it a coincidence that neither the Nile nor the Milky Way are straight lines, or is it more logical that we're descended from an advanced race of human-alien hybrids that built the pyramids using hoverlasers and invisible robotic servitors while they reclined on their sedan chairs and ATE CHOCOLATE!!!11."
In short, he's everything I dislike about modern pseudoscience. If I were reading this book in search of actual archaeology or history I would have returned it to the library right away, but since I knew going in that Hancock is something of a kook, I've been able to take a bemused view of the whole thing. I think the internet has jaded me to the whacky. Depending on how far off the deep end he goes by the end, I think I'll read some more of his books, because really, all of this stuff is roleplaying gold.
Imagine, a setting 20,000 years ago, when antarctica is out of the polar ice and is the home of an advanced civilization of people rendered super-heroic by their technology. They even have space flight, which they use to fly to mars and venus and battle the invaders from Nemesis, the sun's dark binary companion. I must run this game.
Has anybody read any of the rest of his books? I'm sure my library has them, and I may need to check them out, if only to keep them from falling into the hands of innocent schoolchildren seeking actual facts and stuff.
