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Although the V/A scenario is based primarily on interpretations of ancient myth, the author is a physicist by training, therefore no events have been interpreted without giving sound physical reasoning, backed up by physical evidence from a number of disciplines. There is ample evidence on the Earth and the other planets to corroborate our scenario. In Firmament we concentrate on the earthly evidence, while Chaos deals with the myriad of clues collected from the other planets.

Firmament provides evidence from Archaeology, Anthropology, Theology, Ancient History, Geology, Geophysics, Oceanography, Botany, Biology, Genetics. I am not expert in any of these disciplines, and so have only 'scratched the surface,' as far as the discovery of corroborating evidence. My unique perspective, provided by the catastrophic scenario revealed in ancient myth, provides an insight which is not available to these disciplines, which are based on the uniformitarian paradigm - the idea that all significant changes require millions or even billions of years. I believe that as the proposed catastrophism becomes known, specialists in each of these areas will be able to point out many additional facts that it explains. Of course there will be many, who will remain staunchly loyal to the currently accepted paradigm, in which they were schooled and have devoted their careers, going to their graves never knowing the truth. An example of a major paradigm shift took place in the latter part of the twentieth century in the field of geophysics, when the theory of plate tectonics finally became accepted after a period of heated debate. Unfortunately this did not rely on a catastrophic paradigm.

Chaos utilizes the invaluable body of data collected by manned and unmanned space missions as evidence for the catastrophic scenario. Unfortunately, the first generation of planetary scientists were converted Earth scientists. They carried the uniformitarian biases from the earth sciences into the interpretation of the terrestrial planets. The volumes of data collected by space probes is enormous and in most cases accurate. Because much of it does not fit into the current paradigm, it has been thrown out, ignored, explained away, or just misinterpreted. The high radiation readings below the lower cloud layer from the sensitive radiometer on the Pioneer Venus probe were thrown out because “signals in all channels increased unreasonably.” The spin orbit resonance between Venus and Earth has been ignored - declared a coincidence, as has the fact that the northern plains of Mars are six kilometers lower than the rest of the planet. The dropout of the carbon dioxide mass spectrometer signal from an altitude of 50 down to 31 kilometers has been explained away by a droplet of sulfuric acid clogging the input port - in spite of the fact that there were two ports, one five times larger than the other. In spite of a close pass of the NASA spacecraft Deep Space 1 to the short period comet Borrelly, clearly showing that it is a rock body the size of Mt. Everest, with a few vents jetting gases into space, it has been misinterpreted as being a large body of ice with just a thin crust that has been darkened by exposure to the solar wind. In almost all cases the data is correct, but the assumption of the uniformitarian paradigm, which is completely unjustified, has tainted every interpretation. Chaos devotes a chapter to each of The Planets, explaining first the currently accepted hypotheses, then giving the Velikovsky/Ackerman, or catastrophic interpretation.

Evidence of Proto-Venus Encounters

The Velikovsky/Ackerman scenario, derived from ancient myth, involved two periods. The first was very short, lasting some fifty years, but was the one in which most fauna on Earth were destroyed. These were the proto-Venus encounters. It passed close to the Earth on two occasions, the first when it was still an earth-sized ball of flame. It scorched Northern Africa and the Middle East, forming the Sahara desert, and left a path of destruction that can still be seen today in satellite images. These two encounters overturned the lithosphere of the Earth causing tidal waves to sweep across entire continents killing most animals and beings.

Archaeologists acknowledge the fact that the beginning of the Bronze Age was a watershed in the proto-history of the Earth. But in spite of Woolley's dating of the pits at Ur, the disappearance of millions of Ghassulian people in the Levant, the subsequent 300 years 'silent' period preceding the sudden arising of the great civilizations in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt, they have failed to recognize the profound nature and global dimensions of the events which occurred at that date. They also seem not to recognize that the corrected radiometric dates of these events coincide with the age of mankind given in the Bible.

A few clues to the nature of these events:

A unique type of pottery (Gray burnished ware) was made only at this date. This clay could have been carried from the sea bottoms onto the land by tidal waves which flowed over entire continents. These clay vessels may contain unique elemental or isotopic concentrations which came to earth from Venus during its two destructive encounters.

Geophysicists have great difficulty explaining the vast extent and rapid up-thrusting of the Tibetan-Himalayan Complex. Recent surveys have shown that the entire complex rests on a layer of still-molten rock. We maintain that the Venus encounters raised the complex to great heights. The Vedas say: ‘In those days the Earth was unstable, the mountains had wings.’

Photographs of the Earth from space indicate that the surface of the Earth was scorched along a path from northern Africa eastward toward southern China. Climatologists' mathematical models cannot simulate the sudden conversion of the Sahara from a steppe to a desert environment in the time indicated by the recovered bones of animals.

We consider some biblical passages as evidence of true events. For example:

Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word ... The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Isaiah 24:1-6
And the Earth became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Genesis 1:2

Evidence of Mars Encounters

The second part of the Vedic period involved the interactions of what I call priori-Mars with the Earth. These were not transient in nature, but involved the capture of the more diminutive planet in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth for fifteen years and then its release into a solar orbit for another fifteen. This process was repeated one hundred times over 3,000 years, and the associated events on both planets are detailed in Firmament.

The following lists some evidence, found primarily on Earth, of each of these two periods.

Observations of our own solar system provide precedents and clues to previous planetary interactions. The Pluto-Charon system provides a precedent for the geosyncronous revolution of two planet-sized bodies, while the rotation rate of Mars, its low density, lack of water and atmospheric gases, numerous unexplained surface features, and decreasing temperature with time are all clues to its recent interactions with the Earth.

Geologists have discovered a number of unexplained attributes of the Hudson Bay area of North America, which imply that a heavy burden of ice has only recently been removed. Also, it is clear that the North American glaciation was centered on Hudson Bay, not the north pole.

The fact that ancient cultures continuously struggled with calendar reform was not due to their lack of mathematical ability. Calendars with 360 days per year were used in many cultures in addition to ones with 365.25. This was because the geosynchronous co-revolution of priori-Mars and the Earth during the dance encounters, increased the length of the day.

Geological data indicates that Northern India was repeatedly flooded. Researchers cannot explain repeated flooding because they believe that the only possible processes at work were subsidence and deposition of sediments. These processes would take thousands of years but would not be cyclic in nature. H. G. Wells published an ancient map showing Northern India completely inundated while the Mediterranean is almost emptied.

Tibetans claim that great lakes existed in the mountain basins as recently as 2500 years ago but geologists say that it was at least as far back as the ice ages, some 12 to 14 thousand years ago.

Interestingly the five great Himalayan rivers all originate from the same area. There is evidence that the Himalayan rivers were all cut after the up-thrusting of the complex, counter to current geological doctrine on orogeny, which requires the Himalayas took millions of years to form.

There is considerable controversy concerning the location of fossils in the geologic section in the Himalayas. I maintain innumerable fossils are present from animal and vegetable life which fell to Earth with the water from priori-Mars.

An ancient Hindu astronomy book speaks of great 'falls' that killed many people when alignments of the Sun and Moon occurred. This evidence is highly specific and can be interpreted in no other way than to corroborate the dance encounters. This was the reason for the ancients great interest in solar and lunar eclipses.

Evidence of tidal flooding associated with the approach and withdrawal of priori-Mars from the dance encounters can be found in the tells, ziggurats and pyramids, which were built to act as ‘lifeboats,’ when the floods accompanying priori-Mars approach suddenly covered the land. Additional evidence comes from myriads of sea shells in the Sahara and the filling of the Faiyun depression. There are ancient Egyptian ships stranded in the desert hundreds of miles from the nearest water.

A number of ancient ships have been found with their cargoes intact on the bottom of the Mediterranean, implying that the sea just ‘emptied out’ very quickly leaving the boats high and dry hundred of miles from their intended ports. This emptying was due to the approach of priori Mars from the Sun side of the Earth where it could not be readily seen.

The Assyrians, who had no maritime capability, ruled over the island of Cyprus for a time during the Vedic period. This implies that they crossed to the island during one of the dance encounters when their was a land bridge to Cyprus.

The Mediterranean, Dead and Red Seas are the most saline in the world. Drilling reveals that repeated complete evaporation deposited multiple layers of salt on the sea bottoms, even in the deepest areas. Each layer was due to the evaporation of the residual water left when priori-mars drew the water out of the Med and Red Seas, toward northern India.

Why are almost no ancient cities located on the present coastline of the Mediterranean? Because the flooding wiped out the coastal cities first. The ancient people found this out from experience, and went to high places to avoid the floods.

Why did the Minoan culture change from an agricultural to a seafaring one? The Aegean Sea is quite shallow and was the last part of the Mediterranean to be flooded, probably at the time of the biblical ‘deluge’.

The details of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt corroborates the steps by which a dance encounter was broken off. The column of smoke and fire was the most prominent feature on priori-Mars, which at that time drifted westward as it escaped from orbit over the Himalayas. At the same time its tidal force brought back the waters that had been sequestered in northern India for the previous fifteen years, flooding the Red Sea and killing the Pharaoh and his army.

Biblical stories of the prophets Amos and Isaiah, and the destruction of the Assyrian army also occurred at times of the release of Mars. This was due to a ‘thunderbolt’ from priori-Mars struck the Assyrian army camp at night. These were caused by hot bodies falling from priori-Mars and creating an ionized path which shorted the ionospheric electrical charge directly to Earth. They were common in the Himalayas, where priori-Mars dwelled for fifteen years, but were rare in the middle east, except during the release of priori-Mars.

Contact: email to angiras@firmament-chaos.com


  © John Ackerman