Immanuel Velikovsky (Иммануил Великовский) (Russia, 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. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[1] Earlier, he played a role in the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is A psychiatrist (also archaically called an alienist) is a Physician who specializes in Psychiatry and is certified in treating Mental disorders Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior

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. Comparative mythology is the comparison of Myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope 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. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca For other uses see Israel (disambiguation The Land of Israel ( Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל Eretz Yisrael) is B Syria - Belka Woman from Damascus Arab from Baghdadjpg|thumb|Inhabitants of the Near East late nineteenth century The revised chronology aimed at explaining the so-called "dark age" of the eastern Mediterranean (ca. The Dark Ages (ca 1150 BC–800 BC refers to Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean civilization in the 11th century 1100-750 BCE) and reconciling biblical history with mainstream archeology and Egyptian chronology. The creation of a reliable Chronology of Ancient Egypt is a task fraught with problems

In general, Velikovsky's theories have been vigorously rejected or ignored by the academic community. ^[2] Nonetheless, his books often sold well and gained an enthusiastic support in lay circles, often fuelled by claims of unfair treatment for Velikovsky by orthodox academia. ^[3][4][5][6] The controversy surrounding his work and its reception is often referred to as "the Velikovsky affair". ^[7][8]

Contents 1 Velikovsky's life[9] 1.1 Childhood and education 1.2 Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1.3 Velikovsky's career as a psychiatrist 1.4 Emigration to the USA and a career as an author 1.5 Posthumous administration of Velikovsky's literary estate 2 Velikovsky's ideas 3 Criticism 3.1 Criticism of Worlds in Collision 3.2 Criticism of the Revised Chronology 3.3 "The Velikovsky Affair" 4 Books by Velikovsky 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Velikovsky works available online 7.2 Organizations sympathetic to Velikovsky's work 7.3 Critiques of Velikovsky

Velikovsky's life^[9]

Childhood and education

Immanuel Velikovsky was born in 1895 to a prosperous Jewish family, in Vitebsk, Russia (part of modern-day Belarus). Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Vitebsk, also known as Vitsyebsk ( Belarusian: Ві́цебск 'vʲitsʲepsk Russian: Ви́тебск Vitebsk Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east 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. A gymnasium (pronounced with ɡ- in several languages is a type of school providing Secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and 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. The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement Montpellier ( Occitan Montpelhièr) is a City in the south of France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The University of Edinburgh (Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann founded in 1582 is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He returned to Russia before the outbreak of World War I, enrolled in the University of Moscow, and received a medical degree in 1921. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Doctor of Medicine ( MD or MD, from the Latin Medicinæ Doctor meaning "Teacher of Medicine" is a doctoral

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Upon taking his medical degree, Velikovsky left Russia for Berlin. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. 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. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical 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. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is

In 1923, Velikovsky married Elisheva Kramer, a young violinist. The following lists of violinists are available List of classical violinists, names of great violinist from baroque era till 20th century

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). The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement A general practitioner, or GP is a medical practitioner who provides Primary care and specializes in Family medicine. Psychiatry is a medical specialty which exists to study, prevent, and treat Mental disorders in Humans Psychiatric Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Wilhelm Stekel ( March 18, 1868 – June 25, 1940) was an Austrian physician and Psychologist, who became one of Sigmund Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. 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,^[10] now part of the routine diagnostic procedure, and papers in Freud's Imago, including a precocious analysis of Freud's own dreams. Epilepsy is a common chronic Neurological disorder that is characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. ^[11]

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). New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous A sabbatical (from the Latin sabbaticus, from the Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbathon, i Moses and Monotheism is a book by Sigmund Freud. It was first published in 1939. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods Akhenaten (often alt: Akhnaten, or rarely Ikhnaton) (In English ˌɑkəˡnɑtən or approximately "AHK-en-AHT-en" his royal name Amenhotep Oedipus (pronounced /ˈɛdəpəs/ in American English or /ˈiːdəpəs/ in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed" 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. The Ipuwer Papyrus is a single surviving Papyrus holding an Ancient Egyptian poem called The Admonitions of Ipuwer or The Dialogue of 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.

Within weeks of his arrival in the United States, World War II began. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including 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). Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope Cosmology (from Greek grc κοσμολογία - grc κόσμος kosmos, "universe" and grc -λογία -logia) is study 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. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous 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. Harlow Shapley ( November 2 1885 &ndash October 20 1972) was an American Astronomer.

In 1950, after eight publishing houses rejected the Worlds in Collision manuscript^[12], it was finally published by Macmillan, who had a large presence in the academic textbook market. Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately-held International Publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Even before its appearance, the book was enveloped by furious controversy, when Harper's Magazine published a highly positive feature on it, as did Reader's Digest, with what would today be called a creationist slant. Harper's Magazine (also Harper's) is a monthly general-interest Magazine of literature politics culture finance and the arts Reader's Digest is a monthly general-interest family Magazine co-founded in 1922 by Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace. "Creationism" can also refer to Creation myths in general or to a concept about the origin of the soul. 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. The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world 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. Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published by Doubleday in 1952, which put forward a major In November 1952, Velikovsky moved from Manhattan to Princeton, New Jersey.

For most of the 1950s and early 1960s, Velikovsky was persona non grata on college and university campuses. Persona non grata ( Latin, Plural: personae non gratae, also abbreviated PNG literally meaning "an unwelcome person" is a term used 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. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality

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,^[13][14] 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. Diabetes mellitus (ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz or /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtəs/ /məˈlaɪtəs/ or /ˈmɛlətəs/ often referred to simply as diabetes ( Ancient Greek: grc Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression, unipolar depression, unipolar disorder, clinical depression, or simply depression Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published by Doubleday in 1952, which put forward a major

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. Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar)

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.

For many years Velikovsky's estate was controlled by his two daughters, Shulamit Velikovsky Kogan (b. 1925), and Ruth Ruhama Velikovsky Sharon (b. 1926),^[15] 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;^[16][17][18] 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,^[19] the work for which he became well known was developed by him during the early 1940s, whilst living in New York. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous He summarised his core ideas in an affidavit in November 1942,^[20] and in two privately published Scripta Academica pamphlets entitled Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History (1945) and Cosmos without Gravitation (1946). 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. ^[21]

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,^[22][23] and this did steer the focus of his work, although its scope was considerably more far-reaching than this. History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the 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. ^[24]

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. The Ipuwer Papyrus is a single surviving Papyrus holding an Ancient Egyptian poem called The Admonitions of Ipuwer or The Dialogue of 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.

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. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope 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. In Greek mythology, Deucalion (Δευκαλίων was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. 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. The Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by Gravity.
• 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. Gravitation is a natural Phenomenon by which objects with Mass attract one another Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of Celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of Rockets and other Spacecraft
• 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. 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 (or Manethon) was an Egyptian Historian and Priest from Sebennytos ( Ancient Egyptian: Tjebnutjer) who 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. The Dark Ages (ca 1150 BC–800 BC refers to Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean civilization in the 11th century Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία 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. Exodus ( Greek: έξοδος eksodos = "departure" is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. 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 He proposed numerous other synchronisms stretching up to the time of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' He argued that these eliminate phantom "Dark Ages", and vindicate the biblical accounts of history and those recorded by Herodotus. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash For further details, see the Ages in Chaos article. Ages in Chaos is a book by the controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky, first published by Doubleday in 1952, which put forward a major

Some of Velikovsky's specific postulated catastrophes included:

• 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. The story of a Great Flood (also known as the Deluge) sent by a Deity or deities to destroy Civilization as an act of Divine retribution is a A nova (pl novae or novas) is a Cataclysmic nuclear explosion caused by the accretion of hydrogen onto the surface of a White
• A suggestion that the planet Mercury was involved in the Tower of Babel catastrophe. The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous
• 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. A comet is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and when close enough to the Sun exhibits a visible coma (atmosphere or a tail — The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University Exodus ( Greek: έξοδος eksodos = "departure" is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. 1500 BCE) and Joshua's subsequent "sun standing still" incident. Joshua, Jehoshuah, or Yehoshua ( 'יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Tiberian: jə
• 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:

• 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. Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. Akhenaten (often alt: Akhnaten, or rarely Ikhnaton) (In English ˌɑkəˡnɑtən or approximately "AHK-en-AHT-en" his royal name Amenhotep Oedipus (pronounced /ˈɛdəpəs/ in American English or /ˈiːdəpəs/ in British English; Greek: Oidípous meaning "swollen-footed" )
• 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. Donovan Amos Courville ( April 6, 1901, Michigan — August 1996 Fresno, California) (Ph Peter James may refer to Peter James (historian Peter James (writer (born 1948 Peter Francis James, African-American David M Rohl (born 12 September 1950) is a British Egyptologist and Historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning ^[25][26][27]

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 and Earl Milton 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 do not find 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

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. Stephen Jay Gould (September 10 1941 &ndash May 20 2002 was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science 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. Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. Astronomer Harlow Shapley, along with others such as Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, were highly critical of Macmillan's decision to publish the work. Harlow Shapley ( November 2 1885 &ndash October 20 1972) was an American Astronomer. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ( May 10 1900 &ndash December 7 1979) was an English - American Astronomer who in 1925 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. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. In Physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of Energy in an isolated system remains constant and cannot be created although it may In Physics, the angular momentum of a particle about an origin is a vector quantity equal to the mass of the particle multiplied by the Cross product of the position

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 absurd.

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. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (or AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between Scientists defends scientific freedom encourages Carl Edward Sagan ( November 9 1934 &ndash December 20 1996) was an American Astronomer, astrochemist, author 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. Broca's Brain Reflections on the Romance of Science is a 1979 book by astrophysicist Carl Sagan. 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^[28]. 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 Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the Cosmos A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan

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. "^[29] 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 A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis published articles on a wide range of subjects as diverse as Ancient history, Catastrophism and Mythology Charles Leroy Ellenberger (b1942 known as C Leroy is perhaps best known as a one-time advocate but now a prolific critic of controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky and

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. An ice core is a Core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods Vostok Station (Станция Восток is a Russian (formerly Soviet) Research station located near the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility The Holocene is a Geological epoch which began approximately 10000 years ago (about 8000 BC

Criticism of the Revised Chronology

Velikovsky's "Revised chronology" has been rejected by nearly all mainstream historians and Egyptologists. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology 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. Brown University is a highly esteemed private University located in Providence, Rhode Island and is a member of the Ivy League. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Velikovsky was never able to refute Sachs' attack. ^[30]

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. Glasgow (ˈglæzgoʊ is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom ^[31] 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. Peter James may refer to Peter James (historian Peter James (writer (born 1948 Peter Francis James, African-American David M Rohl (born 12 September 1950) is a British Egyptologist and Historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning ^[32] 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. ^[33]

"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. Harlow Shapley ( November 2 1885 &ndash October 20 1972) was an American Astronomer. The most prominent of these was a study by American Behavioral Scientist magazine, eventually published in book form as The Velikovsky Affair.^[34] 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. In Academia, Pedagogy, Physical sciences, Earth sciences, Human sciences and Social sciences 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. Harlow Shapley ( November 2 1885 &ndash October 20 1972) was an American Astronomer. Horace Meyer Kallen ( August 11, 1882 - February 16 1974) was a Jewish-American philosopher ^[35] 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. Henry H Bauer (born Austria 1931 is an emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies and emeritus dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute . . . "^[36]

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. Giordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600) was an Italian Philosopher best-known as an early proponent of Heliocentrism and In Astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System. ^[37][38][39]

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. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope ^[40]

Books by Velikovsky

Published by Doubleday:

• 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:

• Stargazers and Gravediggers (1983)

Notes

References

• Abell, George O. (1981). George Ogden Abell ( March 1, 1927 &ndash October 7 1983) was an Astronomer at UCLA. Scientists and Velikovsky, in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books. 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, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for

• 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). Henry H Bauer (born Austria 1931 is an emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies and emeritus dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute 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. 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, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for

• Bauer, Henry H. (1984, paperback ed. Henry H Bauer (born Austria 1931 is an emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies and emeritus dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute 1999). Beyond Velikovsky. The History of a Public Controversy. University of Illinois, Urbana.

• Bauer, Henry H. (1995). Henry H Bauer (born Austria 1931 is an emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies and emeritus dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute 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). Robert Todd Carroll (born 1945 PhD, is an American writer and academic The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-27242-6. John Wiley & Sons Inc, also referred to as Wiley, is a global Publishing company that markets its products to professionals and consumers students and instructors Pages 396-401.

• Alfred de Grazia, Ralph E. Alfred de Grazia, (born December 29, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois) is a Political scientist, author consultant and editor Juergens, Stecchini L.C. (Eds. Livio Catullo Stecchini ( 6 October 1913 &ndash September 1979 was a historian of science a scholar of ancient weights and measures (the science of Metrology ) (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). Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor Colorado is a science writer and editor The Distortions Continue, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 32-38. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books. 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, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for

• Gardner, Martin (1957). Martin Gardner (b October 21, 1914, Tulsa Oklahoma) is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in Recreational mathematics Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, chapter 3, Dover ISBN 0-486-20394-8

• Ginenthal, Charles (1990). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science was Martin Gardner 's second book and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining Scientific skepticism Dover Publications is an American book Publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife Blanche 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. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (or AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between Scientists defends scientific freedom encourages

• 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). James Edward Oberg (born 1944 (often known as Jim Oberg) is an American Space Journalist and Historian, regarded as an expert on Ideas in Collision, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 20-27. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books. 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, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for

• Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia (1952). Worlds in Collision, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol 96, Oct. Worlds in Collision is a book written by Immanuel Velikovsky and first published on April 3 1950 by Macmillan Publishers. 15, 1952.

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

• Pensée. Pensée Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered ("IVR" was a special series of ten issues of the magazine Pensée produced to "encourage continuing critical 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). Dr Philip Plait (aka The Bad Astronomer) is an Astronomer and Skeptic who runs the Website BadAstronomy Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax", John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-40976-6. John Wiley & Sons Inc, also referred to as Wiley, is a global Publishing company that markets its products to professionals and consumers students and instructors Chapter 18.

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

• Sagan, Carl, (1979) Broca's Brain. Carl Edward Sagan ( November 9 1934 &ndash December 20 1996) was an American Astronomer, astrochemist, author Broca's Brain Reflections on the Romance of Science is a 1979 book by astrophysicist Carl Sagan. 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. George Ogden Abell ( March 1, 1927 &ndash October 7 1983) was an Astronomer at UCLA. Charles Scribner's Sons is a publisher The firm published Scribner's Magazine for many years 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.

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

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

Critiques of Velikovsky

• Jerry Pournelle's commentaries on Sagan's arguments at the AAAS meeting. Kronos A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis published articles on a wide range of subjects as diverse as Ancient history, Catastrophism and Mythology 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
• 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 19 July 2007  (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

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