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7 Letters

10 AlternativeNews

17 Jerry DeckerNuclear Dangers

19 Michael CremoOldest Human,or Not

23 Fighting toForgetIs Terrorism aSymptom ofPlanetary Amnesia?

24 Surveillance StateHow Much ofYour Freedom IsAt Stake?

42How Did theIce Ages End?A Conversationwith RandallCarlson

45 Ice-Age-EndScenariosGeologist RobertSchoch Weighs inon the Evidence

46Columbus &the BrothersPinzonAmerica’s OtherDiscoverers

48 Astrology

50 DVD

57 Puzzle

24

29 32

35

42

41

45

CONTENTSSeptember / October 2015

113

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4

4

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29 The Otherworldin Ancient PeruWere AncientInitiations the SameAround the World?

32 Gothic WondersWhy Does the AncientMagic Still Amaze Us?

35 Fairie Factors One Man’s ‘Fantasy’Another’s ‘Fact’ butWhat’s the Truth?

39 The Foundationof Reality

41 Hominidsand Humbug Trouble in theHouse of Darwin?

ANCIENTMYSTERIES

FUTURE SCIENCE

UNEXPLAINEDANOMALIES

PUBLISHER & EDITORJ. Douglas Kenyon

CONTRIBUTORSMichael Cremo

Jerry DeckerLarry FlaxmanMarie D. Jones

Julie LoarCynthia Logan

Susan Martinez, Ph.D.Patrick Marsolek

Marsha OaksKaren Ralls

Martin RugglesRobert Schoch, Ph.D.

Freddy SilvaSteven Sora

William B. StoeckerCarly Svamvour

COVER DESIGNRyan Hammer

GRAPHICSRandy HaraganDenis OuelletteRyan Hammer

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Subscribe or Order Books, DVDs and Much More!10 ATLANTIS RISING • Number 113

ALTERNATIVE NEWS

When Hesiod, the Greekpoet of the eighth century

BC, spoke of Theogony and itslabyrinths at the end of theworld, was he actually describingthe ruins of Chauvain de Huan-tar in the Andes of Peru? A re-tired professor of physics atFederal University in Rio deJaneiro, Argentina believes hewas. In his 2011 book Journey tothe Mythological Inferno, Dr.Enrico Mattievich claimed thatthere are surprising similaritiesbetween Hesiod’s descriptionsand key locales in ancient Peru.The dwelling place of the de-monic gorgons, for example,

The maps which Columbus used in his fa-mous voyage of discovery in 1492 have

been a constant source of debate. As Randand Rose Flem-Ath reported in Atlantis Ris-ing #78, “The Lost Map of ChristopherColumbus,” there is evidence that the ex-plorer had access to a world map predatingall widely available sources of the time, yetshowing details as yet unknown. It is believedby some scholars that the famous Piri Riismap was a portion of that lost map. PresidentDwight Eisenhower was persuaded by CharlesHapgood of its existence, and he took someunsuccessful steps to find it.

Now researchers at Yale University areusing multispectral imaging to examine an-

Mattievich said closely resemblesthe dank region around themouth of the Amazon River.

Some have argued that theGreek philosopher Plato’s de-scription of Atlantis could be ap-plied to the altiplano of Bolivia(see “Searching the Andes for At-lantis,” AR #28). In a another ex-ample, archaeologist GeorgeErikson has written that Americais the true location of Atlantis,and he points to, among otherthings, the potential ancient nav-igational usefulness of CostaRica’s mysterious stone balls (“At-lantis: the American Connec-tion,” AR #17). The late Peruvian

scholar Arthur Poznanskyclaimed that lake Titicaca and itssurroundings were artifacts of acivilization going back 30,000years. Some believe that the con-nections between America andthe old world most deserving ofour attention are the product ofuniversal spiritual practices. Else-where in this issue (page 24), re-searcher and author Freddy Silvapoints out that many of theiconic sacred sites of SouthAmerica are part of a global tra-dition of secret initiatory rituals.Indeed, unusual round towers,found all over the world, Silva re-ports, served such purposes, and

kkyyits

the Chullpas found near LakeTiticaca are prime examples.

The emergence of similarmotifs in many, otherwise uncon-nected, areas of the world, is also,some believe, strong evidence forthe existence of universal arche-types, which psychiatrist CarlJung believed to be at the root ofall human consciousness.

Winged goddess with a Gorgon'shead wearing a split skirt andholding a bird in each hand, typeof the Potnia Theron. Probablymade on Rhodes. From Kameiros,Rhodes.

Ancient Greeks in Peru?

other map to which it is believed Columbushad access. The world map drawn by Henri-cus Martellus in 1491 is now yielding a greatdeal of new insight into the general carto-graphic knowledge of the time. Previously toofaded for proper reading, the Martellus mapis now becoming legible and providing someinteresting tidbits, such as naming Asians thepeople of “Balor”, and stating that the “Pan-otly” people had ears so large they could beused as sleeping bags—nothing, however, likethe Piri Riis map which shows details ofAntarctica beneath the ice, unknown beforemodern investigation.

For more on the trials of Columbus, seeSteven Sora’s article on Page. 46.

he maps which Columbus used in his faff -mous voyage of discovery in 1492 have

other map to which it is believed Columbushad access. The world map drawn by Henri-

NEW LIGHT ON THE MAPS OF COLUMBUS

e root o.

olumbu.

Ruins at Chauvainde Huantar in thePeruvian Andes.

hhen HHesiiodd, tthhe GGreekkpoet of the eighth century

MMaattttiieevviicchh ssaaiidd cclloosseellyy rreesseemmbblleessthe dank region around the

sscchhoollaarr AArrtthhuurr PPoozznnclaimed that lake Titicaca and i

nnaannsskkand i

Ancient Greeks in Peru?

actual individualidentified in the Bibleas a son of Saul—pre-decessor and rival toDavid, the legendarywarrior king of an-cient Israel. Eventhough the large pot-tery jar can be datedto the tenth centuryBC, which matchesthe time of Saul, thisparticular Eshbaal,say archaeologistsYosef Garfinkel andSaar Ganor, was only

a landholder—but still, one wealthy enough,at least, to have his name inscribed on hisproperty. Researchers are, nevertheless, excitedbecause such markings are very rare. In fact,this is but the fourth such inscription everfound from the period.

In Israel’s valley of Elah, archaeologists haveuncovered a 3,000-year-old pottery jar with

an inscription matching the name of a knowncharacter from the Old Testament. Scholars,however, say they don’t think the “EshbaalBen Beda” named in the inscription was the

aidadDwctt

With Nobel Prize-winningbreakthroughs in cancer re-

search, rockets to Mars, and evenstartling discoveries in zero pointenergy (see A.R. #112, p. 10),modern India advances to theheights of economic power andcutting-edge scientific achieve-ment, and interest in the forgot-ten advancements of its ancientpast has also risen to new heights.A growing consensus recognizesthat previously unappreciatedtechnical knowledge in medicine,metallurgy, and mathematics canbe extracted from ancient texts,and, indeed, there are some whogo even further. Even the mostradical research, it seems, can finda hearing, if not tacit approval, from India’sgrowing scientific establishment.

In January, the prestigious Indian Sci-ence Congress listened to a paper by CaptainAnand Bodas, a veteran of India’s pilot train-ing academy, and Mumbai college professorAmeya Jadhav on “Ancient Indian AviationTechnology.” Citing sources in the SanskritVedic scriptures, Bodas argued that seven- tonine-thousand years ago, f lying machinescalled Vimanas were developed and used ex-tensively. “Aviation technology in ancientIndia is not a tale of mythology;” the abstractreads, “it is a total historical document givingtechnical details and specifications.” Whiledisparaged by some as “pseudo-science,” thepaper was, nevertheless, heard by an essen-tially tolerant audience.

In the meantime, despite many ir-refutable archaeological discoveries (i.e.,Turkey’s Gobekli Tepe, Indonesia’s Gunang

Number 113 • ATLANTIS RISING 11See Our Great 8-page Catalog Beginning on Page 74

Ancient Indian bas relief depicts devotees welcomingKrishna in a f lying machine

Padang, etc.), science in America and the westwill hear no talk of high ancient advance-ment. Instead, clinging stubbornly to an out-worn paradigm, it maintains a virtuallyreligious dogma that, prior to the end of thelast ice age, humans on Earth were no morethat primitive hunter gatherers. For greater in-sight into the world that existed before thegreat catastrophes which preceded our world’saccepted history, see, elsewhere in this issue,Cynthia Logan’s interview with researcherRandall Carlson on his case for an ice-age-ending cometary impact, and read geologistDr. Robert Schoch’s article on the great de-struction that may have been brought aboutby a forgotten Solar Outburst. All of this,many of us believe, signals the coming to anend of the great amnesia that, for millennia,has blocked all efforts to learn the truth ofwho we are and why we are here on thisplanet.

ith Nobel Prize-winningbreakthroughs in cancer re-

search, rockets to Mars, and evenstartling discoveries in zero point

MODERN INDIA REAWAKENS TO ITS ANCIENTACHIEVEMENTS

yo tBChe

parsayYoYY sSaar

tBtpsYS

Name of King Saul’s Son Foundon Ancient Hebrew Pottery

we are.

suchd.


LOST HISTORY

Continued on Page 59

• BY MARTIN RUGGLESY MARTIN RUGGLES

Is Terr

orism

a Sym

ptom

of Plan

etary

Amnesia?

In May the terrorist army calling itselfthe ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Lev-ant’, aka ‘ISIS’ captured the historic Syr-ian desert city of Palmyra and soon

began to trash its ancient ruins. The mostlyRoman-era ruins at Palmyra are classified as aUnited Nations World Heritage Site whichmust be protected by the civilized world. ‘Civ-ilized,’ alas, is not a term that can be appliedto Palmyra’s new bosses.

For the invaders, the sites and statues arenothing more than heathen temples andidols, deserving destruction. For the rest ofthe world, however, such ruins serve as a win-dow into the past—they are our very memory;lose them and we may never learn who we re-ally are.

The demolishing of ancient ruins has be-come a hallmark of the truly terrifying ISIScampaign to establish a new caliphate, likethat of centuries past, in the Middle East. Invideos distributed on the Internet, a horrifiedworld has now witnessed—in addition to thesavage murder of many innocents whose onlycrime was to be in the path of the maraud-ers—the systematic destruction of numerousmajor archaeological sites. Men with bulldoz-ers, sledgehammers, and drills have attackedsites. such as Aleppo, Khorsabad, Jonah’sTomb, Hatra, Nimrud, and Mosul, in the re-gion widely considered the ‘Cradle of Civi-

lization.’Some of the more valuable pieces, how-

ever, may yet survive, as ISIS—seeking to gen-erate cash f low for its operations—works tosell them on the international antiquitiesblack market. Some believe, in fact, the entirecampaign may be nothing more than a coverfor sophisticated looting on a grand scale.

The ThievesIn the videos that appeared in April, be-

fore the entire site was destroyed with explo-sives, militants could be seen attackingAssyria’s famous winged bulls and sawingapart f loral reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasir-pal II in Nimrud. According to Qais HusseinRashid, head of Iraq’s State Board for Antiq-uities and Heritage, that was all just the finalstep in a deeper game.

“The Islamic State started days before,”Rashid told the Associated Press, “destroyingthis site by digging in this area, mainly thepalace.” He had watched from his office nextto Iraq’s National Museum—itself a target oflooting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion thatousted Saddam Hussein. “We think that theyfirst started digging around these areas to getthe artifacts, then they started demolishingthem as a cover up.”

While there is no firm evidence of theamount of money being made by the Islamic

State group from looting antiquities, satellitephotos and anecdotal evidence confirm wide-spread plundering of archaeological sites inareas under ISIS control, the AP reported inMay.

Nimrud was also the site of one of thegreatest discoveries in Iraqi history, stunninggolden jewelry from a royal tomb found in1989, and Rashid is worried that more suchtombs lie beneath the site and have beenplundered. Income from looting throughoutthe area, some believe, could be in the mil-lions of dollars.

Experts speculate that the large piecesare destroyed with sledgehammers and drillsfor the benefit of the cameras, while the moreportable items like figurines, masks, and an-cient clay cuneiform tablets are smuggled todealers in Turkey. (http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/05/12/iraq-says-is-demolishes-ruins-to-cover-up-looting-opera-tions)

Rowan Moore, Architecture critic for theUK’s Observer magazine, says the ancientRoman site in Palmyra is “exceeded by veryfew others: those in Rome itself, Pompeii,possibly Petra in Jordan. Its temples, colon-nades and tombs, its theatre and streets areextensive, exquisite, distinctive, rich. The loss


The concept of personal privacy haschanged drastically in an era of ex-plosive technological advancementthat includes drones and satellites

that see through walls, cameras on every citystreet corner, cyber spies lurking behind yourcomputer screens, and cell phones that trackyour every move. Nothing you do is done inprivate, not even in your own homes. Inmany ways, even your thoughts, behaviorsand actions are being exposed to a variety ofpowerful sources that want nothing morethan to control some aspect of your life...ifnot every aspect.

Domestic surveillance after the terroristattacks of September 11, 2001 increased to apoint where anything was acceptable underthe guise of protecting the nation from futureterrorism. The Patriot Act initiated far-reach-ing measures that, at the time, made peoplefeel safer, even as their own civil liberties werebeing stripped away.

But the problem was, the vast majorityof the citizens being spied on had nothing todo with any terrorist organization. Fourteenyears later, the train is still speeding away fromthe station. Just recently in May of 2015, Boe-ing was awarded a patent for an autonomousdrone that can be recharged while in the air.While civil libertarians were screaming aboutthe loss of privacy rights, Boeing was assuringus that they can now “keep us safe/spy onus” 24/7, because up to this point, droneswere limited to the amount of airborne timeby their need to drop down and refuel.

Without that need, we can now look for-ward to drones powered by batteries that canbe recharged via a number of methods thatdon’t require them to land. While thesedrones might also provide some benefits,such as providing Wi-Fi services or productdelivery that makes all of our lives easier, nodoubt there will be more invasive purposesfor such technology. A June 8, 2015 articlefor Disclose.tv.com referred to this new un-manned aerial drone as something straightout of the Matrix movies (remember the Sen-tinels?), especially if these drones are armed.“Do we, as a society, really trust a swarm ofautonomous drones, potentially armed, whichin theory could almost never need leave thesky?” the article asks.

As early as 1998, we were reading newsstories of spy satellites orbiting the earth peer-ing into our homes and down into our streetsto the point of being able to see the licenseplates on our vehicles. Today, we can onlyimagine what is possible.

Spy satellites and drones alike have beenput to use by the Department of HomelandSecurity right on our home soil, althoughsome “in the know” admit that we still aren’tquite near the capabilities often portrayed inspy movies and television series. But we areclose. Normally satellites are not geosynchro-nous over any particular place for more thana few minutes, and they don’t take color pho-tos, or full motion imagery...or so we are told.Back in 2007, in an article for NPR titled“What Can Satellites Do for Domestic Spy-

ing,” then Director of GlobalSecurity.orgtalked about the limitations of satellites. Thefocus at that time was on repeated imagesthat would spark further DHS interest, al-legedly to allow DHS to pinpoint where tosend rescue people in a mass casualty event,like a terrorist act, and where to evacuatethem.

In 2008, “Slate” reporter William Saletanwrote in “Nowhere to Hide: Killer DronesThat Can See Through Walls” of the use ofunmanned drones in both Iraq andAfghanistan, able to track human targets via“STTW,” or “Sense Through The Wall,” tech-nology that utilizes radar to detect peoplewithin rooms, even through walls over a footof concrete thick. According to Saletan,DARPA (Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency) was using this technology, or at thevery least testing it, as far back as 2006. Herefers to a 2006 “Operational Needs State-ment” by the Joint Urban Operations Officecalling for the use of STTW on both mannedand unmanned vehicles. The Navy followedsuit with a call of their own. Using potentialsensors distributed on and around buildings,these drones could then provide intelligenceon what is inside a building, who is inside,and what they are doing.

This same technology was being devel-oped in the early 2000s by Boeing, and byDefence R&D Canada, as per a 2002 reportstating the desire for a “through-the-roof” sur-


SECRET GOVERNMENT

• BY MARIE D. JONES& LARRY FLAXMAN

How Much ofYour Freedom

Is at Stake?

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How Much ofYour Freedom

Is at Stake?


THE INVISIBLE WORLD


• BY PATRICK MARSOLEK

In the spring of 2014 John Hyatt, a lec-turer with Manchester MetropolitanUniversity, UK, published a series ofphotos of small winged creatures that

look like very small f lying people or fairies.Hyatt said he was taking photos through thetrees at sunset, trying to capture fast movinginsects. The photos weren’t doctored in anyway other than enlarging the size and the res-olution of the images. These “RossendaleFairies,” similar to the famous Cottingleyfairy photos taken in Yorkshire in 1917, haveexcited many believers and have been widelyridiculed as well by skeptics.

In an interview in International BusinessTimes, Hyatt said, “I am an artist. These arehonest photographs with no trickery. Fairiescertainly exist in art and within culture and,for those that believe and those that disbe-lieve, they act on many people’s decisions andways of life. Are they materially real? I havemerely placed some interesting evidence be-fore the public. Let the people decide. I neverclaimed to prove anything but simply to offergifts of great beauty and interest to the peopleof the world.”

Many have already decided one way orthe other. Hyatt said that since posting hisphotos people from around the world havethanked him on behalf of their children andthemselves. They’ve also sent photos andtheir own stories of encounters with fairies. If

you search for “fairy” or “elemental” online,you can find many sites showing images inwhich the faces and bodies of “spirits” are vis-ible in plants, water, trees, and other naturalforms. Of course, skeptics have had a fieldday, too, quickly pointing out that the photoscould simply be of midges or another smallf lying insect. Plus, there’s the fact that no onehas ever found any material evidence offairies. Yet, belief in fairies and other naturespirits is very high all across the world andhas been for a very long time.

The folklore of the Persians, Mongolians,Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and Egyptians allcontain accounts of such nature spirits. TheCeltic druids had tree spirits that inhabitedsacred groves and special trees. The Teutonictribes had their gnomes and dwarves. Thereare also many indigenous cultures with ani-mistic beliefs about the world who experiencespirits inhabiting all forms of nature. Withthe rise of Christianity worldwide, these kindsof beliefs were labeled “primitive” or “super-stitious.” Anyone who publicly held such be-liefs might have risked persecution for theirassociation with such “demonic” forces. For1500 years the belief in these kinds of crea-tures in the West continued, though was keptmore private. Natural healers, who were la-beled as witches, gypsies and alchemists, con-tinued to interact with them in their hiddenpractices.

In the sixteenth century, Paracelsus re-vived interest with his fairy book Liber deNymphis, sylphis, pygmaieis et salamandris et

de caeteris spiritibus where he describes “crea-tures that are outside the cognizance of thelight of nature.” In his book he cataloguedbeings belonging to the four elements:Gnomes, of the earth; Undines, of the water;Sylphs, of the air; and Salamanders, of thefire. These “divine objects,” though generallyinvisible, were believed to be beings betweencreatures and spirits, corporal and etherial.

Later in the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies, as the power of the church declinedand the study of science increased, there wasa resurgence of belief in fairies, spirits, andother mystical forces. At the turn of the twen-tieth century, the spiritualist movement andthe Theosophists were applying scientificmethodologies to the realms of spirit, subtleenergies, and consciousness. Sir ArthurConan Doyle, the author of the SherlockHolmes mysteries, was a spiritualist and wasdrawn into the mystery of the Cottingleyfairies. In his 1922 book, The Coming of theFairies, he said, “We see objects within thelimits which make up our color spectrum,with infinite vibrations, unused by us, on ei-ther side of them. If we could conceive a raceof beings which were constructed in materialwhich threw out shorter or longer vibrations,they would be invisible unless we could tuneourselves up or tone them down... there isnothing scientifically impossible, so far as Ican see, in some people seeing that which isinvisible to others.”

earch foff r “faff iry” or “elemental” online,can fiff nd many sites showing images inh the faff ces and bodies of “spirits” are vis-n plants, water, trees, and other naturals. Of course, skeptics have had a fiff eldoo, quickly pointing out that the photos

d simply be of midges or another smallg insect. Plus, there’s the faff ct that no oneever foff und any material evidence ofs. YeYY t, belief in faff iries and other natures is very high all across the world andeen foff r a very long time.The foff lklore of the Persians, Mongolians,ese, Japanese, Indians, and Egyptians all

de caeteris spiritibus where he describes “crea-tures that are outside the cognizance of thelight of nature.” In his book he cataloguedbeings belonging to the foff ur elements:Gnomes, of the earth; Undines, of the water;Sylphs, of the air; and Salamanders, of thefiff re. These “divine objects,” though generallyinvisible, were believed to be beings betweencreatures and spirits, corporal and etherial.

Later in the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies, as the power of the church declinedand the study of science increased, there wasa resurgence of belief in faff iries, spirits, andother mystical foff rces. At the turn of the twen-

FairieFactors

vs. materialism

Fact or Fantasy:What’s the Truth?

John Hyatt’s Photograph


ALTERNATIVESCIENCE


• BY SUSAN B. MARTINEZ, PH.D.

It may be a truism thatwhen we are committed tosomething, we tend to workeverything else around it.

This would hold for personal aswell as public strategy. We all doit—to some extent. And that isfine. Unless … unless there’ssomething amiss with the prem-ise itself. So let’s cut to the chase.Let’s look at the premise, takenfor granted by those who sub-scribe to the theory of Evolution,the premise that man “evolved”and that he did so in one partic-ular place. Called monogenism,this is the earmark of Darwinismpast and present; it holds: Thatthat place was Africa.

—That mankind is found onother continents only becausegroups of humans moved out ofAfrica to populate the world.

—That the most recent ofthose migrations (apart from theone to Oceania) was to the Amer-icas—otherwise virgin land untilsome 15 or 20 thousand yearsago.

—That these future Ameri-can Indians crossed the BeringStrait from Siberia.

These are the premises ofDarwinian monogenism. Every-thing must conform to it, followsuit. None of the world’s people,accordingly, are actually aborigi-nal to their home. Only Africans.Even the Australian aborigines,theory insists, came originallyfrom Africa, perhaps 60,000 yearsago. We’re all made-overAfricans—supposedly. Whichbrings us to the first little prob-lem:

Since our ultimate forefa-thers were Africans, we must—ifthe theory is to be upheld—haveacquired other racial traits—whether Mongoloid, Caucasoid,Australoid, etc.—by mutating intothose types; i.e., by changingthrough the alleged process ofnatural selection. But we have aproblem right here because, giventhe evolutionary timetable, therejust wasn’t enough time afterleaving Africa to do all thatevolving. Stripped of certain adhoc manipulations (like “punkeek”, see below), Darwinian evo-lution requires very large blocksof time, many millions of years.The 50,000- or 80,000- or even

100,000-year window for chang-ing, say from black to white,doesn’t even come close.

If early man evolved only inAfrica, what are the actual factsthat support this premise? Theout-of-Africa doctrine, thoughf loated for decades if not cen-turies, did not become an idéefixe until less than thirty yearsago. In fact, before then, therewas a vague consensus amongscholars that the first humanscame out of Asia, that Adam andEve were brought forth some-where in the dim East.

And yes, there are hominidremains in China (Hubei andGuangxi provinces) and otherparts of the Orient. Homo erectus,even australopithecine traits, havebeen recognized in fossil speci-mens as far afield as Micronesia(Palau Man) and Australia (KowSwamp Man). But those factsalong with that entire line of in-quiry went down the memoryhole once “African Eve” (“mito-chondrial Eve”) became de rigueurin the late 1980s.

Everything is made to fit thefavored theory, presented quite

Fossil Hominid Skull Display,Museum of Osteology,

Oklahoma City, OK

seriously as unassailable fact bytheorists who are not above call-ing their opponents “fruitcakes”or outright frauds. Of course,that’s where the research moneyis—the favored theory. That’swhere the promotion is—in bothsenses of the term. That’s wherethe books and journals and jobsand lecture tours and awards andTV shows and even fame and for-tune are.

But as a result, it has be-come hard to find informationon early hominids in non-Africanlocations. It is buried. But it isthere. Take America, for example.In his book, Forgotten Worlds(Inner Traditions, 2012, p. 162),my colleague Patrick Chouinardnotes “examples of people whoshouldn’t be in pre-ColumbianAmerica but seem to creep fromthe undergrowth to stun theworld … Belief in Asian migrationacross the Bering Strait hasreached almost biblical propor-tions. It is a story that mostarcheologists … are trained toprove beyond a shadow of adoubt. But why?”

The answer to that questionis—because the premise demandsit; monogenism cannot surviveunless it can be proven thateveryone (except Africans, ofcourse) migrated into their pres-ent lands.

But there is an alternative,called polygenism (in the last sev-eral decades it has also beenknown as the “multiregional” ap-proach). There is no ax to grindhere, no premise to prove; thedata simply suggests that man

Hominids&Humbug

sseriously as unassailable faff ct byttheorists who are not above call-

Hominids&Humbug

Trouble in the House of Darwin?


ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE

• BY CYNTHIA LOGAN

How’s this for an inconvenienttruth? Carbon dioxide accountsfor just .04 percent of atmos-pheric greenhouse gas. And

while methane has been introduced as amajor contributor (often with a good dealof smirking), the dominant greenhouse gasis, according to climate scholar RandallCarlson, water vapor. So why are we allcounting our carbons? The lay geologist be-lieves we have a climate bureaucracy whose‘Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory’employs tunnel vision when it comes to thebigger picture.. “Since the advent of the In-tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)… it has become typical to denigrateanyone who questions the consensus thatcarbon dioxide is the sole or even the dom-inant driver of climate change,” he writes.He believes global warming is driven by po-litical interests to control energy distribu-tion and consumption. He scoffs at theclaim that the climate debate is over; in hismind, it’s barely begun. “The so-called con-sensus is completely manufactured. It does-n’t exist. Solar physicists say the IPCCleaves out the Sun, so how realistic arethose models? Questionnaires sent out toobtain consensus were slanted.”

Seems radical, but before dissing ordismissing his viewpoint, a few facts are inorder. First, he does believe humans are af-fecting the climate, but would like our con-

tribution to be factored into a larger per-spective. Second, he thinks it’s critically im-portant to examine assumptions and claimsmade “by those who clearly stand to gainby the implementation of carbon remedia-tion measures.” He also believes we shouldconsider dissenting voices trying to remindus the climate has always changed, and thatsometimes those changes have been ex-treme and catastrophic. Third, for nearlyforty years Carlson has interviewed scien-tists from many disciplines, and has traveledto see and explore evidence for himself. Hedoesn’t watch much TV (unless it’s some-thing relevant to his research, usually onPBS) and reads constantly. In fact, he’s readtwo or three scientific articles almost everysingle day since the 1970s. Asked about his cre-dentials, he responds; “I have a commandof the facts and thousands of references atmy fingertips. I’m willing to sit down withanybody and discuss any of this.”

When he says ‘any of this,’ he meansmore than climatology. Randall Carlson isa curious person and has from an early agesought to assemble a vast cosmic puzzlewhose pieces include astronomy, history,geology and mathematics (all of which hehas studied formally), as well as architec-ture, archaeology, ancient civilizations, sa-cred geometry, numerology, literature,mythology—and catastrophism. And he’snot just an eclectic; the guy connects thedots. “There’s an overspecialization in sci-ence today,” says Carlson. “An oceanogra-

Gathering theEvidence

How Did the How Did the With a Bang, Not a Whimper, BelievesMaverick Researcher Randall Carlson

42 A R

de ceJohn Anthony West has complained that

Ph.D. candidates in Egyptology spend waytoo much time on subjects like Tu-tankhamun’s underwear, and far too little onsubjects of real significance, like the truemeaning of Egypt’s monuments. We end upknowing more and more about less and less,he has argued. The pattern is repeatedthroughout the entire scientific establish-ment, as researchers, in order to advancetheir careers, feel the need to specialize inever narrower areas of interest. The smartdoctoral candidates politely defer to expertsin other fields, and stick to their specialty.Nobody seems willing, or able, to addressthe big picture. The consequence: certain en-trenched mythologies are never challenged.One of the most persistent, is the notionthat there is NO real evidence that the iceages ended with great planetary catastrophes,as recently as 12,000 years ago. At least onescholar, however, begs to differ.

Randall Carlson, anindependent researcher inthe tradition of John An-thony West, Graham Han-cock, or even nineteenthcentury scholar IgnatiusDonnelly (Atlantis: TheAntediluvian World), hastaken up the challenge offinding out—big-picture-wise—what we actuallyknow and what we do not. Working dili-gently—albeit outside the academic system—for over a third of a century, Carlson hasapplied his formidable intellect and energiesto analyzing the vast array of peer reviewedscientific literature in many related fields. Inthe process, he has uncovered a mountainof startling research, which, though fully vet-ted, has been virtually ignored by an estab-lishment, seemingly more devoted topreserving paradigms and privilege, than thetruth.

To collect even more compelling evi-dence, Carlson has deployed a small armyof volunteers to pursue some large-scale fieldresearch, mostly in America’s Pacific North-west. Not surprisingly, he has become some-thing of an authority on the case for a severeplanetary cataclysm at the end of the last iceage, as well as such hot-button items asglobal warming. A familiar presence on theInternet, Carlson is consulted by many, in-cluding popular YouTube host Joe Rogan.Graham Hancock swears by Carlson’s re-search and devotes a major part of his forth-coming book The Magicians of the Gods toit.

Recently, Atlantis Rising Magazineasked longtime contributing writer CynthiaLogan to catch up with Randall Carlson andget his story for our readers. —ED

Randall Carlson

• BY CYNTHIA LOGAN tttttttrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiibbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbuuuttttiiiiiiiiiiioooonnnnnnn ttttooooooooo bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeee ffffffffffffaaaffffffff ccttttooooooorrrrrreeeeeeedddddddddddd iiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnttttttoooooooo aaa lllllllllllaargeeer ppeerr

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pher doesn’t have the correspondences ofastronomy, geology, and other disciplines;you’re an astronomer, but have you everlooked at geology? Don’t bring in ad ho-minin arguments—I’ve invested hugeamounts of time—this is what I do for recre-ation. I’m obsessively curious about thesethings.”

Carlson traces his interest in cata-strophism to the plastic View-Master he re-ceived for his fifth birthday. Essentially astereoscope utilizing circular reels withpaired images on color film, it shows scenesin 3D. “My favorite set of View-Master reelswas a series of 21 dinosaur scenes—after de-

picting an encounter and impending battlebetween a Triceratops and a TyrannosaurusRex, the narrative introduces the imageryof global Catastrophe, way ahead of itstime in the early 1950s.”

After high school, Carlson spent threemonths hitchhiking through Colorado,Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.“I came back with the impression that thereis a story in this landscape; it felt com-pelling,” he recalls. “Ancient history,mythology, and symbolism interested me aswell.” Carlson was also curious about the‘lost continent’ of Atlantis and read numer-ous books on the subject, including Ger-

man physicist Otto Muck’s Secret of Atlantis.“Muck’s theory was that Earth had beenhit by an asteroid that came in from theNorthwest, sinking the island of Atlantis inthe process,” he explains. “The meteorbroke up, and pieces were splayed acrossthe southeastern United States, creating theCarolina Bays—tens of thousands of shallowelliptical depressions along parallel axesfrom northwest to southeast.” Since ‘theBays are basically his backyard, Carlsonbegan to research them during the 1980s atFernbank Science Center, a resource estab-lished for the public.

Carlson had learned that in 1908 inTunguska, Siberia, a bolide (the term en-compasses ‘all species of cosmic creatures’:asteroids, meteorites, comets, etc.) had ex-ploded in the atmosphere with the force ofa large hydrogen bomb, leveling 830 squaremiles of old-growth forest. He thinks theevent “ranks up there in importance withthe moon landing, the World Wars, and theinvention of the atomic bomb.” The areawas so remote it wasn’t until 1927 that thefirst Russian scientists got to the site. Oncethey did, they found numerous, shallow el-liptical depressions similar to the CarolinaBays: Carlson surmises they were producedby shockwaves hitting the ground. He notesthat after the Apollo mission, there was amajor shift in the prevailing paradigm;“moon craters had been thought to be vol-canic. After Apollo we knew they’d beencreated by meteor strikes. Since Earth ismuch bigger than the moon, it would bemore vulnerable than the moon, so therewas nothing fantastical about thinking

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The edge of theGreenland icesheet,

Kangerlussuaq,Greenland (Photo

by L. Chang.)Ice Ages End?mmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaannnnnn ppppppppphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyysssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccciiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssttttttttt OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOttttttttttttttttttttttttttttooooooooo““““““““MMMMMMMMuuuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkk’’’’’ssssssss ttttttthhhhhhheeeeeeeeeoooooooorrrrrryyyyyyyyyy wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

MMMMMaaa

Ice Ages End?A 3000-ton erratic

basalt boulder ineastern Washington

State, born to thisspot by a massiveiceberg carried in

raging floodwatersfrom melting glacial

ice further north.

The Story ofEarth’s

TemperatureFlucuations

over theMillennia is

clearly told byGreenland’s Ice

Cores


ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE


• BY ROBERT M. SCHOCH, Ph.D.

The end of the last Ice Age, nearly12,000 years ago, was a pivotal pe-riod not only in the history of ourplanet but also for early cultures and

civilizations living during those tumultuoustimes. There were rapid climatic and environ-mental changes as well as catastrophic geo-logic changes. Massive ice sheets (on theorder of kilometers thick) quickly melted athigh latitudes in the northern hemisphere;pressure was released from the crust settingoff increased earthquake and volcanic activity.Tremendous amounts of moisture in the at-mosphere fell to the surface of Earth as tor-rential rains, causing widespread deluges andf looding. Huge quantities of fresh waterf lowed into the oceans, upsetting and chang-ing ocean circulation patterns, which in turnhad further effects on the climate as well asraising sea levels around the globe on theorder of a 120 meters or more, inundatinglow-lying coastal areas.

The exact dating of the end of the lastIce Age has been subject to increasing refine-ments over the last few decades. In recentyears, based on ice core data from Greenlandand other detailed evidence, the end of thelast Ice Age has been dated to “11700 calendaryr b2k (before AD 2000) . . . with a maximumcounting error of 99 yr” (M. Walker et al.2009, Jour. Quaternary Science ). Studying aGreenland ice core utilizing ultra-high-resolu-tion laser sampling techniques involving hun-dreds of samples per centimeter and year ofice time (measuring such markers as calcium,sodium, and iron concentrations), P.Mayewski, et al. (2014, Jour. Quaternary Science)have pinpointed the abrupt end of the lastIce Age to within a year. Inspecting their pub-lished data, it is evident that they have refinedinformation documenting the end of the lastIce Age at the level of months, weeks, andpossibly even days. The Ice Age ended quitesuddenly indeed!

The last Ice Age did not just “warm” andend. Rather, in the Northern Hemispherethere was a warming period toward the endof the last Ice Age followed by a cold spell(cold even relative to those glacial times),known as the Younger Dryas, before the finalwarming. The onset of this cooling event wasalso quite abrupt, although perhaps not quiteas abrupt as the dramatic warming that endedthe Younger Dryas (thus ending the last IceAge). Based on Greenland ice core data, thiscooling event is dated to approximately10,900 BC (J. Steffensen, et al. 2008, Science).The Younger Dryas cold spell lasted for 1,200years before Earth was suddenly snapped outof the last Ice Age circa 9700 BC. What arethe explanations for the beginning and endof the Younger Dryas? These are topics thathave baff led geologists for decades.

Perhaps one of the best known and mostcontroversial theories to explain the onset ofthe Younger Dryas is that a comet, meteor,

asteroid, or other extraterrestrial (ET) object(a bolide) either hit Earth or exploded in theatmosphere 12,900 years ago, thus inducingthe abrupt cooling event that marks the onsetof the Younger Dryas. Although there wereearlier theories along these lines, this ideagained widespread attention with the 2007publication of an article by R. Firestone, etal. that reputedly reported evidence for suchan impact event. These authors (Proc. NationalAcademy of Sciences) proposed, “that one ormore large, low-density ET objects explodedover northern North America, partially desta-bilizing the Laurentide Ice Sheet and trigger-ing YD [Younger Dryas] cooling. The shockwave, thermal pulse, and event-related envi-ronmental effects (e.g., extensive biomassburning and food limitations) contributed toend-Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions andadaptive shifts among PaleoAmericans inNorth America.”

The impact hypothesis has arousedheated controversy, with arguments and coun-terarguments f lying back and forth in the sci-entific literature as well as in the popularpress. Initially I found the arguments for suchan impact at the beginning of the YoungerDryas quite intriguing. However, as more re-searchers have studied the issue, much of thedata supporting the impact hypothesis has

been questioned. For instance, D. Kennett, etal. (2009, Proc. National Academy of Sciences)published an article apparently documentingthe presence of “shock-synthesized hexagonalnanodiamonds (lonsdaleite)” from the base ofthe Younger Dryas on Santa Rosa Island, Cal-ifornia. This, if true, would strongly supportthat an impact event occurred, as lonsdaleiteis known on Earth only from meteorites andimpact craters. However, as pointed out byM. Boslough, et al. (2012, Geophysical Mono-graph Series), it has since been determined thatthe supposed lonsdaleite is not lonsdaleitebut a misidentification of other material, andthe same holds true of other supposed re-ported occurrences of lonsdaleite in sedi-ments dating to approximately 12,900 yearsago. With the invalidation of the supposedlonsdaleite finds, one of the strongest lines ofevidence supporting the Younger Dryas im-pact hypothesis has evaporated. Furthermore,various studies have demonstrated that nan-odiamonds per se (as opposed to lonsdaleite)“do not provide unique evidence for aYounger Dryas impact” event (H. Tian, et al.2012, Proc. National Academy of Sciences).

Other evidence put forth to support theYounger Dryas impact hypothesis has not

Ice-Age-EndScenariosA Much-Cited GeologistWeighs In on the EvidenceA Muchc -CiC tett d Geologo ig st

Ice-Age-EndScenarios

Dr. Schoch

SolarOutburst

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