Friday, June 18, 2010

Ignoring the great minds of our past...

Science is a funny thing. Here we have on one hand, the learned academic experts, whose theories have been built on the foundations of the great thinkers of the past, and whose ideas have been sanitized and disinfected by the very institutions that create them. "Don't let you schooling interfere with your education." Samuel Clemons said, good advice that.

On the other hand we have a new breed of self trained, partially schooled or professionals from other fields- people who are not involved directly in academia, who are pushing research and breaking new ground simply because they are not restrained by institutional control and can go wherever the evidence leads them. It is inspiring and enlightening to say the least.

Before we speak of current research and theory, it is important to look back in time to 1950. A book was published that would rock the academic world, and that book is 'Worlds in Collision'. The book is a wealth of information, drawn on many ancient and modern sources. One might say that the book and the theories contained suffer from an over abundance of information. That being said, the book challenged many of the tenants considered sacred among scientists of the time, and to this very day! So it was, shall we say 'not well received.' I could not find it in any of three libraries I use, and one of those libraries is a major University!

The key word here is 'sacred'. Whenever someone challenges the sacred tenants of a religion, they are ostracized and demonized, if not killed. That is historical fact. So why should we expect any different behavior from professional scholars? They answer is that we should expect the same violent opposition to new ideas, because that is also a matter of historical record.

It is amazing that such a book could be trivialized, and marginalized as it was, so that today, 60 years later, most people do not even know the name Immanuel Velikovsky. He was born in Russia, studied at University of Edinburgh and received his medical degree from the Moscow University. He then practiced medicine and psychology and lived and studied in Palestine from 1924 to 1939. In 1939, he moved with his family to the US, and began work that would lead to the eventual publication of Worlds in Collision.

Whether a given scientific theory is good or bad depends largely upon the ability of the theory to make predictions that can be tested. In this regard, Velikovsky has been shown, time and time again to have put forth theories that have the ability to make accurate predictions.

Velikovsky predicted for example, that Jupiter would emit radio waves. At the time, other scientists shunned him, so much so that it was not until years later that a simple test was preformed by radio telescope, which confirmed the existence of such waves. If the scientists of his time had recognized the genius of Velikovsky, they would have jumped at the chance to preform ANY and ALL experiments he had asked for because such experiments would help prove or disprove the man's incredible work. Instead much effort was undertaken to discredit and IGNORE the man, for to actually debate him was to court one's own demise, as his theories were too exhaustively researched and backed with raw data.

All that the establishment could do, was to publish hit pieces in popular magazines w/o rebuttal. The Scientific community (in the form of academia) then applied pressure to the publisher of the book by threatening to suspend textbook sales if they did not cease to publish this book- "worlds in collision". The publisher let the book go, even though it was by this time a bestseller. The entire strange but compelling story of the attack on 'worlds in collision' can be found in the book 'gravediggers and stargazers' by Velikovsky.

Currently, Velikovsky's theories have been shown to be reliable and valid many years later. One such theory that has yet to be completely proven but is gaining evidence and credibility as the years go past. That is the theory of star, or planet "birthing", whereby a star is "born" out of another larger star, as a way to stabilize and reconfigure electrical instabilities. To his credit,Carl Sagan briefly presented the idea of planet birthing in his cosmos series, but I was not sure if he was giving Velikovsky props, or if he was trying to further discredit the man. Either way, Immanuel Velikovsky has not been properly recognized as one of the great minds of the 20th century, and because of this, science has lagged in progression and development. As it stands, mainstream science has not integrated the many profound ideas of this great man who should be mentioned with the likes of Darwin, Galileo, and Copernicus. So where is one to turn? The answer is to the proponents of electric universe theory: Thunderbolts.

The Electric Universe is an integrated approach to science in general, a fairly recent development in and of itself. The idea is simple, but then great ideas usually are. Ah, simplicity, that which can be referred to as Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is usually the best. Without going too deep into it, the electric universe accounts for all the "dark matter" that is being tossed around by astrophysicists like a theoretical hot potato. The EU theory also makes many connections with past historical accounts (myths) and our new found ability to understand the events through plasma (electrical) interaction on a cosmic scale.

By using an integrated approach to all the sciences, EU researchers are able to assess the big picture and use geology,archeology, astronomy, and other sciences to aid progress theories and research. The archetypes and images carved in stone around the world and related through myth are the key that enabled Wallace Thornhill and David Talbott to access all the research from varied fields of inquiry, and to go wherever the evidence has lead them. So simple, but so few are able to venture that untrodden path of the mind, where idea and knowledge cross paths with insight and wisdom.

To be clear, electric universe theory is not a be all, end all. It is an amazing side step into unification of theory and real world experimental science. It is a road that many scientists of the past have urged the establishment to follow. Halton Arp, Christian Birkeland, and Ralph Juergens to name a few. At this moment in time, there is a disconnect that exists, that separates us as human beings from the natural world. This segregation of 'thought through education' is a major part of the separation that has been imposed ultimately, by ourselves. So freeing ourselves from this prison is as simple as opening a door, and walking out; we only have to choose to do so. So many things in life are as such... when enough people are sick and tired of war, as they were in the past, they will wake up, act, and stop the war. When enough people realize that there are better ways to produce clean, abundant energy, it will become reality. When enough people, see through the lies pervasive at all levels of our society, the lies will be put to an end and things will change.

And when that happens, in the mind, people will say hey! Who was that guy that wrote that book back in the fifties that rocked the foundations of science?