World Science Database Home Scientists Abstracts Books Events Journals Experiments Topics Index More Find Login Scientists Interests Profession Websites Notables Countries World Map Recent Memorials Memorial More Rens van der Sluijs View count: 62 van der Sluijs, Marinus (Easy Link: http://www.worldsci.org/people/Marinus_van_der_Sluijs) Linguist, Historian of Science and Religion Topics: Electric_Universe Interests: Electric Universe, Plasma Nationality: Dutch Related Websites: [LINK] mythopedia.info Books: 2007 The Mythology of the World Axis; Exploring the Role of Plasma in World Mythology 2007 The World Axis as an Atmospheric Phenomenon Abstracts Online: 2011 Towards a History of Plasma-Universe Theory 2007 Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High Current Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity Part II: Directionality and Source Event Attendence: 2011-07-06 18th Natural Philosophy Alliance Conference Conference will attend Biography Rens van der Sluijs, consulting scholar with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology _________________________________________________________________ Books by Marinus van der Sluijs [LINK] View count: 32 The Mythology of the World Axis; Exploring the Role of Plasma in World Mythology by Rens van der Sluijs Pages: 93 Publisher: Lulu Enterprises Year: 2007 ISBN: 978-0955665509 Buy it now Description Towards the end of the Stone Age, the sky was ablaze with awe-inspiring forms not seen today. Dominant among these was a towering, life-like pillar of light stretching from near the horizon to high up into space - the tree of life, the world mountain, the ladder to heaven. This message is heard in virtually every ancient society on earth, but while this 'world axis' is familiar enough to scholars, little sense could be made of the stories. The most conspicuous feature of the ancient cosmologies also remained the most elusive. From a modern scientific perspective, such traditional accounts no longer sound preposterous. Our growing knowledge of devastating events in recent earth history substantiates the possibility that prehistoric people witnessed a violent and prolonged display of high-energy auroras. This colourful book is an edited slideshow intended as an accessible 'appetiser' for a forthcoming monograph about traditions of the world axis. [LINK] View count: 36 The World Axis as an Atmospheric Phenomenon by Rens van der Sluijs Pages: 87 Publisher: Lulu Enterprises Year: 2007 ISBN: 978-0955665516 Buy it now Description Cultural anthropologists often use the term 'axis mundi' in a looser sense than the strict astronomical one. Yet the objects they identify as axis mundi in mythological and early cosmological sources do not correspond to the present state of the axis of the earth. The association of these objects with the axis of the earth does not appear to have been made explicitly and unambiguously before the 1st millennium BCE. By contrast, the mythological phenomenon loosely identified as the axis mundi dates back to the earliest stages of civilisation and is described by the most diverse cultures in remarkably similar terms. It can be explained by reference to a once visible entity in the sky, with a complex, evolving morphology and a possible link to the zenith or the pole. The prototype may have been the zodiacal light or, as recent insights in plasma physics indicate, an enhanced aurora formed in prehistoric times. _________________________________________________________________ Papers by Rens van der Sluijs Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High Current Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity Part II: Directionality and Source (2007) Anthony L. Peratt 551 Brighton Loop, Los Alamos, NM 87544, United States; alp@ieeetps.org, (505) 672-6410, www.plasma-universe.com John McGovern (Author) Alfred H. Qoyawayma (Author) Rens van der Sluijs Mathias G. Peratt (Author) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Volume 35, No. 4, pp. 778-807 Abstract: The discovery that objects from the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age carry patterns associated with high-current Z-pinches provides a possible insight into the origin and meaning of these ancient symbols produced by humans. Part I deals with the comparison of graphical and radiation data from high-current -pinches to petroglyphs, geoglyphs, and megaliths. Part I focused primarily, but not exclusively, on petroglyphs of some 84 different morphologies: pictures found in laboratory experiments and carved on rock. These corresponded to mankind's visual observations of ancient aurora as might be produced if the solar wind had increased (T. Gold) at times between one and two orders of magnitude, millennia ago. Part II focuses on the source of light and its temporal change from a current-increasing Z-pinch or dense-plasma-focus aurora. Orientation and field-of-view data are given as surveyed and contributed from 139 countries, from sites and fields containing several millions of these objects. This information allows a reconstruction of the auroral form presumably associated with extreme geomagnetic storms and shows, based on existent geophysical evidence, plasma flow inward at Earth's south polar axis. Towards a History of Plasma-Universe Theory (2011) Rens van der Sluijs [LINK] (6 pages) 2011, 18th Natural Philosophy Alliance Conference, College Park, MD, United States Abstract: It is demonstrated that plasma-universe theory boasts a respectable pedigree in the history of science. Ideas concerning a fourth or fundamental state of matter or a pivotal role for electromagnetic forces in the physics of the polar aurora, the sun, the zodiacal light, comets and indeed the entire universe circulated long before the possibility of in situ measurements in space arose. An attempt is made to explain why such notions became anathema to the mainstream of astrophysics long before the Space Age provided means to test their accuracy.