mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY On June 10, 1895, Immanuel Velikovsky was born in Vitebsk, Russia. He learned several languages as a chi1d, performed exceptiona11y we11 in Russian and mathematics at the Medvednikov Gymnasium after moving to Moscow, and graduated with a go1d meda1 in 1913. He then travelled to Europe, visiting Palestine, briefly studying medicine at Montpelier, France, and taking premedical courses at the University of Edinburgh. Having returned to Russia before the outbreak of World War I, Ve1ikovsky enro11ed in the University of Moscow, and received a medica1 degree in 1921. Then he 1eft Russia for Berlin, where he married E1isheva Kramer, a young vio1inist. He edited the Scripta Universitatis, for which Albert Einstein prepared the mathematica1-physical section. From 1924 to 1939 Ve1ikovsky lived in Pa1estine, practicing psychoana1ysis- he had studied under Freud's pupi1, Wi1he1m Steke1 in Vienna- and editing Scripta Academica Hierosolymitana. In 1930 he pub1ished the first paper to suggest epileptics are characterized by patho1ogical encepha1ograms. Some of his writings appeared in Freud's Imago. After reading Moses and Monotheism, Ve1ikovsky conceived the possibi1ity that Pharaoh Akhnaton, the rea1 hero of Freud's book, was the 1egendary Oedipus, (a thesis 1ater argued in his book, Oedipus and Akhnaton.) In 1939 Ve1ikovsky took a sabbatica1 year, trave1ing with his fami1y to New York on1y a few weeks before World War II tore Europe apart. For eight months he worked on Oedipus and Akhnaton in the libraries. In Apri1, 1940, Ve1ikovsky was first struck by the idea that a great natura1 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 pi11ar of c1oud and fire moved in the sky. Ve1ikovsky wondered: Does any Egyptian record of a simi1ar catastrophe exist? He found the answer in an obscure papyrus stored in Leiden, Ho1land- the lamentations of an Egyptian sage, Ipuwer. The Ipuwer document, Ve1ikovsky became convinced, paralle1s the Book of Exodus, describing the same natura1 catastrophe, the same p1agues. As a resu1t he began to reconstruct ancient Middle Eastern history, taking this catastrophe- which brought the downfa11 of the Egyptian Midd1e Kingdom- as a starting point from which to synchronize the histories of Egypt and Israe1. He tit1ed his work Ages in Chaos. The cause of the catastrophe terminating the Midd1e Kingdom remained unexp1ained. One afternoon' in October, 1940, Ve1ikovsky noticed an important fact: the Book of Joshua describes a destructive shower of meteorites occurring before the sun "stood sti11,"in the sky. Cou1d 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 upheava1s approximately 50 years earlier during the Exodus? A survey of other sources around the wor1d convinced Ve1ikovsky that a g1obal catac1ysm had indeed overtaken the Earth, and that Venus played a decisive role in that catac1ysm. 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 19S0 after more than a dozen pub1ishing houses rejected the two manuscripts, Macmi1lan pub1ished Worlds in Collision. Even before its appearance, the book was enve1oped by furious controversy. Macmi11an, intimidated by threats from academicians and scientists- the peop1e who write and buy its textbooks- transferred the book to Doub1eday. Worlds in Collision was then the number one bestse11er in the nation. In 1952 Doub1eday pub1ished the first volume of Ages in Chaos, which detai1s Velikovsky,s historica1 reconstruction from ca. 1450 B.C. to 840 B.C. (A sequel, extending the reconstruction to 33n B.C. was origina11y due to appear shortly after the initial volume but has now been re-worked and enlarged to three or four volumes. One of these, Rameses II and His Time, is schedu1ed to appear 1ater this year, while Peoples of the Sea is due next spring.) Earth in Upheaval, presenting geo1ogica1 and pa1eonto1ogica1 evidence to buttress Worlds in Collision (and a1so offering a new understanding of evo1ution that conf1icts with Darwinian theory), came off the press in 1955; in 1960, Oedipus and Akhnaton was pub1ished. Ve1ikovsky is a1so preparing a vo1ume dealing with co11ective amnesia. For near1y a decade prior to the ear1y Sixties Velikovsky was persona non grata on co11ege and university campuses. Now, after dramatic scientific confirmations of his historica1 reconstructions, he receives more requests to speak than he can honor. He has 1ectured, frequent1y to record crowds, at Brown University, Ya1e, University of Pennsy1vania, Co1umbia, Dartsmouth, Duke, Ober1in, Carnegie In- stitute, Rice, and many other universities. In February he addressed a 1arge audience at Harvard, hosted by the Society of Harvard Engineers and Scientists; in March he 1ectured at the State University of New York (Buffa1o), and spoke to an enthusiastic, overf1owing crowd at McMaster University (Hami1ton, Ontario). He has been the Honors Convocation Speaker at Washington University (St. Louis) and St. O1af Co11ege. On the 22nd of February the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a one-hour te1evision specia1 featuring Ve1ikovsky and his work. Meanwhi1e, quiet1y continuing his research, Velikovsky resides with his wife in Princeton, New Jersey.