Velikowsky’s Theories

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 3

Velikowsky’ s Theories

Earth in Upheaval. By Immanuel Velikowsky. Victor Gollancz. 263 pp.

One of the most influential thinkers in the field of historical speculation in recent times was Charles Darwin. He maintained that change was the product of slow evolution. Opposed to this thinking were the Churchmen who believed that the living things which inhabit the earth were specially created and had not developed from lower forms. Since Darwin’s day a number of compromises have been worked out between these two extremes. As far as the earth was concerned there was little to argue about. It was generally agreed that the cooling and the shaping of the crust was a slow process and that it took place well before the coming of the green leaf and the living things which depended on it, whatever their origin. Now, to challenge the conception of a peaceful world moulded in a slow and uneventful process, come the theories of Velikowsky as expressed in his books “Ages in Chaos,” “Worlds in Collision” and “Earth in Upheaval.” His general theme is that there have been physical upheavals of a global character in historical times. The earth, he maintains, has shifted off its axis in times more recent than we generally believe. He maintains that the violent changes which have taken place took a major toll of life from time to time, and that there is a good deal of geological evidence to support this claim. The ice age, he suggests, was not a slow but a sudden change. In this way only can the remains of animlals embedded in the ice still with 'feed in their mouths be explained. The distribution of many fossil remains he suggests can only be explained by an enormous upheaval, so far are they from the places they are normally found. The collective human memory is well known to have many recollections of catastrophe, for example the end of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.

Any changes in the earth’s crust based on mechanical theory would be expected to be intermittent in time and localised in position. There would be long quiescent periods when stresses were accumulating, separated by short intervals when they are relieved by fracture. Trespassing seas, volcanic eruptions and submerged lands as well as denudation through horizontal movement could well be the result of such happenings. Such thinking lends weight to the theories of Velikowsky. If the theories, are to be accepted, even in part, the interesting thing is that the period of unchanging climate and relative freedom from catastrophe did not start as far back in history as was once believed. It* would date in fact not long before the birth of Christ. However, it is difficult to reconcile the disastrous catastrophies (words which seem to fascinate Mr Velikowsky) with the continuance of life on a rapidly changing planet. Despite such weaknesses there can be no question that Mr Velikowsky has established himself as an original and important thinker. This, his most recent book,, puts forward new evidence, mainly geological, which those who would believe otherwise will find hard to refute. He has made a significant contribution by giving a new slant to the understanding of world history.