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Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky 1895 - 1979 |
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Immanuel Velikovsky was born 10 June 1895, in Vitebsk, Russia. He learned several languages as a chi1d, performed exceptionally well in Russian and mathematics at the Medvednikov Gymnasium after moving to Moscow, and graduated with a go1d meda1 in 1913. He then traveled to Europe, visiting Palestine, briefly studying medicine at Montpelier, France, and taking premedical courses at the University of Edinburgh.
Before the outbreak of World War I, Velikovsky returned to Russia and enrolled in the University of Moscow. There he received a medical degree in 1921. Then went to Berlin where he married Elisheva Kramer, a young violinist. He edited the journal, Scripta Universitatis, for which Albert Einstein prepared the mathematical-physical section.
From 1924 to 1939 Velikovsky lived in Palestine, practicing psychoanalysis. In 1930 he published the first paper to suggest epileptics are characterized by pathological encephalograms, now part of the routine diagnostic procedure. Some of his writings appeared in Freud's Imago.
After reading Freud's Moses and Monotheism, Velikovsky conceived the possibility that Pharaoh Akhnaton, the real hero of Freud's book, was the legendary Oedipus, (a thesis later argued in his book, Oedipus and Akhnaton.) In 1939 Velikovsky took a sabbatical year, traveling with his family to New York only a few weeks before World War II. For eight months he worked on Oedipus and Akhnaton in the libraries.
In Apri1, 1940, Velikovsky was first struck by the idea that a great natural catastrophe had taken place at the time of the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt- a time when plagues occurred, the Sea of Passage parted, Mt. Sinai erupted, and the pillar of cloud and fire moved in the sky. Velikovsky wondered: Does any Egyptian record of a similar catastrophe exist? He found the answer in an obscure papyrus stored in Leiden, Holland- the lamentations of an Egyptian sage, Ipuwer. The Ipuwer Papyrus, Velikovsky became convinced, parallels the Book of Exodus, describing the Eastern history, taking this catastrophe- which brought the downfall of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom- as a starting point from which to synchronize the histories of Egypt and Israel. He titled his work Ages in Chaos.
The cause of the catastrophe terminating the Middle Kingdom remained unexplained. One afternoon in October, 1940, Velikovsky noticed an important fact: the Book of Joshua describes a destructive shower of meteorites occurring before the sun "stood still," in the sky. Could this be a coincidence, or were the ancients recording a cosmic disturbance that must have shaken the entire Earth and might have been related to the upheavals approximately 50 years earlier during the Exodus? A survey of other sources around the world convinced Velikovsky that a global cataclysm had indeed overtaken the Earth, and that Venus played a decisive role in that cataclysm. For 10 years he researched and wrote Ages in Chaos and Worlds in Collision.He had by now taken up permanent residence in the United States.
In 1950 after more than a dozen publishing houses rejected the two manuscripts, MacMillan published "Worlds in Collision". Even before its appearance, the book was enveloped by furious controversy. MacMillan, intimidated by threats from academicians and scientists- the peop1e who write and buy its textbooks- transferred the book to Doubleday. "Worlds in Collision" was then the number one best se1ler in the nation. In 1952 Doubleday pub1ished the first volume of "Ages in Chaos", which details Velikovsky's historical reconstruction from ca. 1450 B.C. to 840 B.C. (A sequel, extending the reconstruction to 33 B.C. was originally due to appear shortly after the initial volume but was re-worked and enlarged to two volumes, "Ramses II and His Time" and "Peoples of the Sea") "Earth in Upheaval", presenting geological and palaeontological evidence to buttress "Worlds in Collision" (and also offering a new understanding of evolution that conflicts with Darwinian theory), came off the press in 1955; in 1960, "Oedipus and Akhnaton" was published. Velikovsky also prepared an unpublished vo1ume dealing with collective amnesia from a Freudian perspective that hypothesized the mechanism of repression applied on a collective, cultural scale.
For nearly a decade prior to the early Sixties, Velikovsky was persona non grata on college and university campuses. After dramatic scientific confirmations of his historical reconstructions by many of the early space probes sent to Venus, Mars and Jupiter, he began to receive more requests to speak than he could honor. He lectured, frequently to record crowds, at Brown University, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Oberlin, Carnegie Institute, Rice, and many other universities. In February, 1972, he addressed a large audience at Harvard, hosted by the Society of Harvard Engineers and Scientists; in March he lectured at the State University of New York (Buffalo), and spoke to an enthusiastic, overflowing crowd at McMaster University (Hami1ton, Ontario). He has been the Honors Convocation Speaker at Washington University (St. Louis) and St. Olaf Co11ege. In February, 1972, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a one-hour television special featuring Velikovsky and his work and this was followed by a 30 minute documentary on the BBC in 1973.
Velikovsky continued his research from his home in Princeton, guiding several dozens of researchers who followed in his footsteps assembling data and evidence supporting his theories.
Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky died in 1979 at the age of 84.
( biographical
sketch used with permission of C.R.Ransom
)
WORKS BY VELIKOVSKY
NOT including his innumerable publications in specialized journals
WORLDS IN COLLISION. [X] 1950. Pocket Books (Simon & Shuster), N.Y.: 400pp.
AGES IN CHAOS. [X] Volume 1. From the Exodus to King Akhnaton. 1952. Doubleday, N.Y. : 354pp.
EARTH IN UPHEAVAL. [X] 1955. Doubleday, N.Y. : 314pp.
EARTH IN UPHEAVAL. [X] 1955. Pocket Books (Simon & Shuster), N.Y. : 284pp.
PEOPLES OF THE SEA. [X] The Concluding Volume of The Ages in Chaos Series. 1977. Doubleday, N.Y. : 261pp.
RAMSES II AND HIS TIME. [X] A Volume in The Ages in Chaos Series. 1978. Doubleday, N.Y. : 270pp.
CULTURAL AMNESIA: THE SUBMERGENCE OF TERRIFYING EVENTS IN THE RACIAL MEMORY AND THEIR LATER EMERGENCE. [X] 1978. in: Recollections of a Fallen Sky: Velikovsky and Cultural Amnesia; Unileth, Alberta, Canada : 21-28.
STARGAZERS AND GRAVEDIGGERS. [X] Memoirs to Worlds in Collision. 1983. William Morrow, N.Y. : 346pp.
JOURNALS ABOUT VELIKOVSKY
KRONOS
Quarterly since 1975. I have Volumes 1 through IX Number 1 (October 1983) but am uncertain if it is still being published.
OTHER REFERENCES
Bauer, Henry H. 1984. Beyond Velikovsky. The History of a Public Controversy. University of Illinois, Urbana: 354pp.
de Grazia, Alfred, Ralph E. Juergens, Livio C. Stecchini (Editors). 1966. The Velikovsky Affair. University, New Hyde Park: 260pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1979. Immanuel Velikovsky. Die Theorie der kosmischen Katastrophen. Goldmann, München: 237pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1983. The Divine Succession. A Science of Gods Old and New. Metron, Princeton: 184pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1983. God's Fire. Moses and the Management of the Edodus. Metron, Princeton: 323pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1984. Cosmic Heretics. Metron, Princeton: 398pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1984. The Disastrous Love Affair of Moon and Mars. Celestial Sex, Earthly Destruction, and Dramatic Sublimination in Homer's Odyssey. Metron, Princeton: 266pp.
de Grazia, Alfred. 1984. The Burning of Troy and Other Works in Quantavolution and Scientific Catastrophism. Metron, Princeton: 301pp.
de Grazia, Alfred, Earl R. Milton. Solaria Binaria. Origins and History of the Solar Syatem. Metron, Princeton: 268pp.
Ferté, Thomas L. (editor). 1974. The Future of an Idea. Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision. CHIRON, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 1(1 & 2): 62pp.
Forest, Bob. 1981. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 1. privately published by the author, Manchester: (81)pp.
Forest, Bob. 1981. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 2. privately published by the author, Manchester: 81-(165).
Forest, Bob. 1982. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 3. privately published by the author, Manchester: 165-(251).
Forest, Bob. 1982. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 4. privately published by the author, Manchester: 249-(339).
Forest, Bob. 1982. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 5. privately published by the author, Manchester: 337-(422).
Forest, Bob. 1983. Velikovsky's Sources. Part 6. privately published by the author, Manchester: 421-(504).
Forest, Bob. 1983. Velikovsky's Sources. Notes & Index Volume. privately published by the author, Manchester: 503-(598).
Forest, Bob. 1983. The Cosmic Serpent: A Critique. privately published by the author, Manchester: 31pp.
Forest, Bob. 1984. Reply to Dwardu Cardona's piece in Kronos ix.2. privately published by the author, Manchester: 10pp.
Goldsmith, Donald (Editor). 1977. Scientists Confront Velikovsky. Cornell, Ithaca: 187pp.
Goldsmith, Donald (Editor). 1977. Scientists Confront Velikovsky. W.W.Norton, New York: 183pp.
Mage, Shane. 1978. Velikovsky and His Critics. Cornelius, Grand Haven: 27pp.
Miller, Alica. 1977. Index to the Works of Immanuel Velikovsky. Glassboro State College, Glassboro: 278pp.
PENSÉE. 1972-1975. Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered. I - X. Student Academic Freedon Forum, Portland: 506pp total.
Ransom, C.J. 1976. The Age of Velikovsky. Delta, New York: 274pp.
Stuart, Michael. 1979. Index to the Ten Issues of PENSÉE. Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered (1972 - 1975). Society For Interdisciplinary Studies, Manchester: 12pp.
Talbott, Stephen L. 1966-1976. Velikovsky Reconsidered. Warner, New York: 304pp.
Ziegler, Jerry L. 1977. Y H W H. Star, Morton: 161pp.
Dr.
Alfred deGrazia's web site
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