mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== IV:15 THOTH A Catastrophics Newsletter VOL IV, No 15 Oct 15, 2000 EDITOR: Amy Acheson PUBLISHER: Michael Armstrong LIST MANAGER: Brian Stewart CONTENTS OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND. . . . . . . . . . . . . by Mel Acheson ONE STORY TOLD ROUND THE WORLD. . . . . . . . . . by Dave Talbott HUMAN NATURE AND SATURNIAN RITUAL . . . . . . . . by Dave Talbott STARS: NUCLEAR VERSUS ELECTRIC . . . . . . . . . . . by Don Scott ELECTRIC UNIVERSE SNIPPETS: Part II . . . . . . .by Wal Thornhill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-----<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND by Mel Acheson During my first close encounter with Wal Thornhill, he electrified me with a picture of Zeus holding a thunderbolt. The bolt was football shaped with stringy things spiraling out of it. Wal explained that it was the shape a plasmoid took in a vacuum. "Gee-golly-cornpone!" I thought. "The ancient Greeks carved statues of something that hasn't been seen until modern man cranked up the current in a high-voltage lab." Now it's happened again. At the recent seminar in Portland, the work of Tony Peratt, author of "The Plasma Universe," (Springer- Verlag, 1992) was called to our attention. His work shows pictures of extremely powerful plasma discharges in his lab. They're called "Peratt instabilities." As the current is pumped up, the stringy things (NASA's technical jargon for Birkeland filaments, which they re-discovered awhile back in the tail of Venus) grow saw-toothed edges and make a tumultuous noise. (That last is the ancient Egyptian scribe Ipuwer's jargon: "Oh that the Earth would cease from noise and tumult be no more.") Then the sawteeth develop into strings of triangles, ladder shapes, and stacks of donuts. Several well-known mythologists in attendance jumped up shouting and pointing: "The dragon! The arrows! The ladder of heaven! The backbone of the sky!" Ev fired up his laptop and opened his collection of petroglyph files. There, carved into rock walls in unmistakable detail by ancient artists, were Peratt's instabilities. For three or four or ten thousand years, no human eye has seen them. Not until Tony Peratt put cathode to anode, as shown in his publications, has there been a referent in nature for the images borne by the rocks throughout millennia. The ancients saw all the instabilities. They heard them. The discharge lasts a billionth of a second in the lab. Plasma scientists, scaling up the spark to interplanetary dimensions, estimate it lasting for 8 to 16 years. Imagine attending a decade-long Jimi Hendrix concert with oversize amps. And when the discharge quenched and the "electrodes" went away, the descendants of the eyewitnesses wondered why great grandfather drew meaningless pictures and muttered about noise. Mel Acheson thoth at whidbey.com **************************************************************** ONE STORY TOLD ROUND THE WORLD By Dave Talbott Ancient peoples narrated and re-enacted the story in a thousand ways, but when the core is exposed, it comes down to this-- "Once the world was quite a different place. In the beginning, we were ruled by the central luminary of the sky--creator, primeval sun-god, and father of kings-- presiding over an age of natural abundance and cosmic harmony. This was the exemplary epoch, the Golden Age, a standard of justice and prosperity invoked by all later generations. "But the ancient order fell into confusion when the king of the world tumbled from his celebrated station. Then the hordes of chaos were set loose and all creation slipped into a cosmic night, the gods themselves battling furiously in the heavens. "And yet, from this descent into chaos a new and reconfigured world emerged, and the universal sovereign, rejuvenated and transformed, assumed his rightful place in heaven. A few notes: This is the most elementary statement I can construct with respect to the totality of world mythology. Obviously, it can not stand on its own, however. The reference to the sovereign power as creator, for example, introduces a vast field of myth and symbol. The first "snapshot" of the polar configuration and the related "sun" pictographs depict the condition of the unified power, the subject of the One Story, just prior to displacement of Mars and Venus. Differentiation has already begun. Mars and Venus have emerged visually from the embryonic cloud--the "golden seed" in which they were jointly enshrouded in the visual center of Saturn. Venus is discharging violently, putting Mars in shadow. Thus, in this phase, Mars appears as a darker innermost sphere, what the Egyptian language calls the "heart of the heart." What follows this phase is the displacement, departure, or "spitting out" of Mars and Venus as the first forms of the hero and goddess, who now become quasi-independent, highly active figures in the creation events. Though this activity grows complex, I have two animations in preparation which will illustrate the definitive motions: 1) the visual descent of Mars and (in vital connection to this descent) the appearance of a stream of luminous material stretching along the polar axis, 2) the displacement of Venus from its axial position in the center of Saturn, leading (via a more complex path) to the spiraling cometary form of Venus. It is from the spiraling form of Venus that the enclosure of the gods--the primeval "earth" of the creation legend--is constituted. The axial column arising with the descent of Mars is, of course, the world mountain on which the celestial land comes to rest. (According to the global tradition, the land of the gods takes form on the summit of the world mountain: the Egyptian Mount of Glory, Greek Olympos, Hebrew Zion, Hindu Meru, Chinese Kwenlun, and innumerable variants.) Hence, the components depicted in the "sun" pictographs have very direct roles to play in more specific chapters of the One Story. A sidebar: the One Story, as I've stated it, does not really conclude the age of the gods, since (obviously!) the rejuvenated sovereign is no longer present in our sky today. This is, however, the common framework commemorated in the creation stories and in ritual commemorations of creation and renewal associated with the New Year celebrations. The farther back you go to examine variations of the story, the closer you will get to the root idea. The final events in the age of the gods tend not to focus on the fading of the rejuvenated sovereign but rather on the departure of the hero and/or the goddess, these two figures having become the prime characters in the stories. The ascension of the hero or goddess by way of a terraced mountain or tower, a whirling cloud, ladder, or steps to the sky, their sailing off, and/or their translation into distant stars (planets) is the final chapter in the age of the gods. Also, of course, the collapse of great palaces (Samson removes the pillar, etc.), or the sinking of lost kingdoms into the abyss, or the disbursement of ancestral "tribes" are common ways in which the final dismemberment of the planetary configuration found expression in the myths. Dave Talbott **************************************************************** HUMAN NATURE AND SATURNIAN RITUAL by Dave Talbott These thoughts might be subtitled, "On Avoiding Reductionist Approaches to the Saturn Model." Reductionism is the practice of assimilating more to a single theoretical principle than that principle can accommodate or explain. Two classic examples of reductionist approaches are the hypotheses of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Each of these theorists is identified with a particular principle taken to the extreme and offered as a unified explanation of human motivation and behavior. It's difficult for me to imagine any critically-minded person not saying much the same thing about the Saturn model. Is the Saturn model reductionist? Actually, it's not, though most of the suspicions expressed are perfectly understandable in the early stages of communication. The model simply claims that there was an extraordinary myth-making epoch: the patterns of myth, symbol, and ritual originated in a unique phase of human history, one dominated by awe-inspiring planetary forms in the sky. I do not believe that critically minded folks, after assimilating the full range of evidence, would still suggest that the theory is reductionist. I base this observation on actual experience. Again and again, I've watched the suspicion disappear as people realized that the global patterns, the only field of evidence we are concerned with in the historical argument, REQUIRE the celestial forms. As a rule, it will be the new enthusiasts who run the risk of falling into the reductionist trap. I've often noticed, for example, a tendency for enthusiasts to suggest psychological interpretations which do appear to exceed the explanatory power of the model. I would make a critical distinction between "living in Saturn's shadow" and "being human." When individuals get in a fight, or nations drop bombs on each other, are they being Saturnian, or just being human? Generally, I would say that they're just being human, though one can often find echoes of Saturnian images, particularly where fierce religious concepts dominate. In more ancient times, however, warring nations were consistently Saturnian: through warfare, they sought to replicate on the battlefield the devastation formerly wrought by the gods themselves. And in no sense is it reductionist to observe this pervasive influence on human memory. Consider, for example, the words of Assurbanipal describing his military campaigns against neighboring Arabians: "Ishtar, who dwells in Arabia, who is clothed with fire and bears aloft a crown of awful splendour, rained fire over Arabia. The warrior Irra, engaging them in battle struck down my foes. Urta, the lance, the great warrior, son of Enlil, pierced my enemies to the life with his sharp arrow. Nusku, the exalted messenger of the gods, who makes my rule glorious, and who, at the command of Assur and Ninlil, the valorous lady, goes at my side, guarding my kingship, took his place before my armies and brought low my foes." Clearly, this is not just being human, but also living in Saturn's shadow. In essentially the same terms, the Egyptian king Seti described his devastation of neighboring tribes as the activity of the warring "majesty" of Amon (in the Saturn model the royal "majesty" means the discharge streamers of Venus--the effusive, terrifying "radiance" or "splendor" of the Great Star/Great Comet)--"I have caused them to see thy majesty as lord of radiance... I have caused them to see thy majesty like a circling star, which scatters its flame in fire... I have caused them to see thy majesty like a flame of fire, like the very being of Sekhmet, in her tempest." Etc. etc. In the most explicit terms, the king sought to repeat the tempest of the Venus goddess Sekhmet, the majesty, the eye of Re, which had vanquished the rebelling enemies of Re, the chaos fiends, when celestial confusion and darkness had overtaken the world. It seems quite clear to me that, while countless echoes of the Saturn myth surround us still, one can be human without necessarily being Saturnian. Often, when an individual is going through a transforming experience, he will experience a sense of imminent disaster. Generally, I don't see that experience today as a symbol of Saturn, though various Saturnian influences might be considered. If one looks for signs in the sky, or trembles at the approach of a planetary conjunction, THAT is Saturnian. The Saturn experience is not the cause of human anxiety, though it can still affect the forms of anxiety (and presumably the scale of anxiety under certain circumstances, such as the end of a millennium.) Belief in God is not Saturnian. But viewing God as a merciless, bearded man on a mountain top, periodically destroying the world IS Saturnian. And of course any tendency to cling to ancient myth as the word of God is by definition Saturnian, though people often cling to non-Saturnian ideas as the word of God as well. To feel guilty is not Saturnian per se. To want to blame others is not Saturnian either. That's just being human. To clutch at a crucifix, an Ankh, or praying wheel in response is being human AND Saturnian. Dave Talbott ***************************************************************** STARS: NUCLEAR VERSUS ELECTRIC by Don Scott The Electric Sun hypothesis is a logical extension of the Electric/Plasma Universe theory which came into being through the seminal work of Hannes Alfven, Kristian Birkeland, P. Carlqvist and others. The person who originated and codified these ideas is the late Ralph E. Juergens of Flagstaff, Arizona. .The ideas embodied by the Plasma Universe are now being developed further by researchers such as Wallace Thornhill, Anthony L. Peratt, Eric Lerner, and others. PROBLEMS WITH THE THERMONUCLEAR (FUSION) MODEL "The certainty that the Sun generates its prodigious outpourings of energy through thermonuclear reactions deep in its interior has been with us for about half a century." [Juergens 1979]. But, there are many reasons to doubt this presently accepted theory of how our Sun (and every other star) generates its radiant energy. In almost every article written for the popular press, the very first sentence usually contains some reference to the "fact" that the Sun is, at its core, a thermonuclear fusion reactor. The heat (energy) produced in this core then "rises to the Sun's surface by convection (a laminar fluid flow) and is there radiated out into space". The granulations we see on the photosphere are supposedly the tops of these convection columns. The fusion model was first proposed by a "great expert" who simply rejected the idea that the Sun could be getting its energy from outside - because he could not conceive of such a thing happening. Therefore, if the energy was coming from inside, and the Sun hasn't burned up in a few billion years, the source had to be nuclear energy. There are at least five major things wrong with this scenario. The first and most important is the "Missing Neutrino Problem". 1. Missing Neutrinos A thermonuclear reaction of the type assumed to be powering the Sun must emit a flood of neutrinos. These neutrinos have not been found after thirty years of searching for them. A series of grandly expensive experiments have failed to find the necessary neutrino flux. Wouldn't a normally intelligent scientist now stop and go back and ask if perhaps some other mechanism might be at the root of this energy production? Mainstream science has consciously turned a blind eye to the possibility of any other energy producing mechanism in the Sun. Instead, presently there is great activity trying to explain how the flood of neutrinos that "must be there" remains invisible. It is suggested that neutrinos must come in various "flavors", some of which are unobservable. A detailed description of the "Missing Neutrino Problem" is available at: http://home.thezone.net/~squires/text/SciSoc/NEUTRINO.html A Quote from Astronomy Magazine Jun 1999 "The results of Davis's experiment are now the stuff of science legend. While the cleaning solution proved successful at capturing solar neutrinos, the surprise was how few of them there were to catch - less than half the number predicted by [thermonuclear] solar models. The results have since been confirmed by other experiments, all of which use different means of detecting neutrinos. No matter how astrophysicists adjust their [thermonuclear] solar models, it has proven impossible to accommodate the experimental results within standard theory. ... With astrophysicists confident that their understanding of solar physics was on firm ground, suspicions turned toward the neutrino itself as the source of the problem." WHY were they confident they were on "firm ground" when all the experimental evidence strongly suggests just the opposite? Some solar neutrinos have been observed - but less than half the number required if the fusion reaction really is there in the Sun's core. If any fusion is taking place at all, it is most certainly not at the sun's center. The negative results from the neutrino experiments have resulted not in any re-examination of solar models, but rather, an intense theoretical discussion of new magical properties that solar neutrinos "must have" because we cannot see them. In the Electric Sun model there is no energy produced in the core - energy is produced at the surface and not by nuclear fusion, but by electric arc discharge. There is no "missing neutrino" problem in the Electric Sun model. 2. Convection of Energy Up from the Core The accepted view of how the sun transports its energy from its central core outward to its surface is the mechanism dubbed "non- stationary convection." The granules that are visible on the photosphere are, in the accepted view, the tops of laminar columns that penetrate down toward the core. Supposedly, heat (energy) is smoothly transported outward from the core in this "convection zone" via these tubes. There are several problems with this idea. The Reynolds Number "The Reynolds number is a dimensionless measure that combines several physical parameters and pinpoints conditions under which a moving fluid will behave this way or that way. The number is essentially a ratio between forces tending to accelerate a fluid medium and viscous forces that resist such acceleration. Under given conditions, motions in one fluid - liquid, gas, or plasma - will be unlike those in another fluid unless their respective Reynolds numbers are approximately the same." When the Reynolds number of any fluid exceeds a critical value, flow in that fluid due to convection or any other accelerating force will be turbulent and highly complex. "The actual Reynolds number of the photosphere, as calculated from observable characteristics of the plasma, turns out to be in excess of 10^11, which is to say, at least 100 billion times greater than the critical value! Clearly, then, any convective motion in the photosphere should be violently turbulent and highly disordered..." [Juergens 1979]. Again, to quote Juergens: "Many facile assertions to the contrary, it becomes increasingly obvious that photospheric granulation is explainable in terms of convection only if we disregard what we know about convection. Surely the cellular structure is not to be expected." In the Electric Sun model there is no transporting of energy from the core up to the surface - energy is produced at the surface. There is no need for magical "non-stationary convection." The "granules" are really anode tufts (electric arc discharges). 3. Temperature Minimum below the Corona Any typical source of radiant energy is expected to obey the inverse square law. That is to say, the farther we get away from it, the less energy we receive per unit area. A wood stove is hottest at its core, a bit less on its outside surface, and as we backup away from it, we feel continually less and less radiant energy on our body. This too is the way the Sun ought to act if it really is generating all its energy in its core and then liberating that energy at its surface. Instead, however, the Sun is coolest at its surface - only about 6000K! But then, as we back farther away from it, the temperature abruptly jumps to about 2 million K in the corona. http://www.users.qwest.net/~dascott/Sun.htm Figure 2. Temperature profile as a function of radial distance from the Sun's surface. Image Credit: Big Bear Solar Observatory The standard fusion model is completely incapable of explaining (let alone predicting) this behavior. . . . The Electric Sun model predicts the temperature minimum and shows why it occurs (see below). 4. Acceleration of the Solar "Wind" Ions The positive ions that are the main constituent of what mainstream astronomers euphemistically call the solar "wind" move faster and faster the farther away from the Sun they get. They accelerate! Nothing in the fusion model predicts nor explains this observed phenomenon. The orthodox "explanation" is that photons collide with the ions and accelerate them. Any student of physics who has heard of electric charge and electric fields, knows that the way to get electrically charged particles to accelerate is to apply an electric field to them. The acceleration of the positively charged solar "wind" particles is a purely electrical phenomenon. It is accurately predicted by the electric sun model. 5. Periodic Fluctuations in the Sun's Output and Size There is experimental evidence that the Sun vibrates in a way that throws doubt on both the assumed convection process for heat transportation and the thermonuclear reaction itself. There is a fluctuation with a 27 day 43 minute period observed in the stream of particles emanating from the sun. In the 1970's the Sun was observed to be oscillating in brightness with variable cycles lasting from a few minutes to nearly one hour. The sun actually expands and contracts in size (diameter) with a periodicity of 2 hours and 40 minutes. Russian investigators found a periodic rise and fall of the entire solar surface, the amplitude of which was 10 kilometers in height. Then another observer recorded a regular expansion and contraction of the Sun with a period of two hours and forty minutes. These pulsations are much more consistent with a homogeneous model of the Sun - like a balloon whose gases are of uniform density throughout its body. In Nature (Jan 15, 1976) two British theorists, J.Christensen-Dalsgaard and D.O. Gough emphasized the unlikelihood that any model can be devised for the Sun to accommodate both the observed radial oscillations and the thermonuclear theory. They are also consistent with a model wherein the Sun is an isodense sphere of gas that supports, on its outer surface, an electric arc discharge powered externally, electrically. THE ELECTRIC SUN HYPOTHESIS Juergens, Milton, Thornhill (and others) propose an electrical mechanism for the energy release of the Sun. The major properties of this Electric Sun model are as follows: Most of the space within our galaxy is occupied by plasma (rarefied ionized gas) containing electrons (negative charges) and ionized atoms (positive charges). Every point in the plasma has a measurable (electric) potential energy (or voltage). The Sun is at a more positive electrical potential (voltage) than is the space plasma surrounding it - probably in the order of 10 billion volts. The Sun is powered, not from within itself, but from outside, by the electric (Birkeland) currents that flow in our arm of our galaxy as they do in all galaxies. In the Plasma Universe model these currents create the galaxies and the stars within them. It is a small additional step to propose that these currents also power those stars. Galactic currents are of low current density, but, because the size of the Sun is large, the total current (Amperage) is high. The Sun's radiated power at any instant is due to the energy imparted by incoming cosmic electrons. As the Sun moves around the galactic center it may come into regions of higher or lower total current and so its output may vary (both periodically and over time). Positive ions leave the Sun and cosmic electrons enter the Sun. Both of these flows add to form a net positive current leaving the Sun. This constitutes a plasma discharge analogous in every way (except size) to those that have been observed in electrical laboratories for decades. The Sun's radiative lifetime will extend only until the solar charge (and therefore, its electrical potential [voltage]) equals that of its galactic surroundings. Incoming cosmic ray protons, which bombard the Earth and Sun from every direction, represent currents (solar "winds") from higher voltage stars which liberate positive ions with sufficient energy to overcome the Sun's repelling voltage and impinge on its surface. (Is this mechanism, by which the Sun is able to regain some + charge, significant in extending its ultimate lifetime? No one knows at this point.) Because of the Sun's positive charge (voltage), it acts as the anode in a plasma discharge. As such, it exhibits many of the phenomena observed in earthbound plasma laboratories, such as anode tufting. The granules observed on the surface of the photosphere are anode tufts. To be continued Don Scott ***************************************************************** ELECTRIC UNIVERSE SNIPPETS: Part II by Wal Thornhill [ed. note: this is a continuation (with slight overlap) of Wal's brief review of Electric Universe principles. See full text and photos at: http://www.holoscience.com/eu/eu.htm parts 6-10]. ELECTRIC STARS Plasma physicists argue that stars are formed by an electromagnetic "pinch" effect on widely dispersed gas and dust. The "pinch" is created by the magnetic force between parallel current filaments that are part of the huge electric currents flowing inside a galaxy. It is far more effective than gravity in concentrating matter and, unlike gravity, it can remove excess angular momentum that tends to prevent collapse. Stars will form like beads on a wire until gravity takes over. The late Ralph Juergens, an engineer from Flagstaff, Arizona, in the 1970's took the next mental leap to suggest that the electrical input doesn't stop there and that stars are not thermonuclear engines! This is obvious when the Sun is looked at from an electrical discharge perspective. The galactic currents that create the stars persist to power them. Stars behave as electrodes in a galactic glow discharge. Bright stars like our Sun are great concentrated balls of lightning! The matter inside stars becomes positively charged as electrons drift toward the surface. The resulting internal electrostatic forces prevent stars from collapsing gravitationally and occasionally cause them to "give birth" by electrical fissioning to form companion stars and gas giant planets. Sudden brightening, or a nova outburst marks such an event. That elucidates why stars commonly have partners and why most of the giant planets so far detected closely orbit their parent star. Stellar evolution theory and the age of stars is an elaborate fiction. The appearance of a star is determined largely by its electrical environment and can change suddenly. Plasma physicists and electrical engineers are best able to recognize plasma discharge phenomena. Stellar physics is in the wrong hands. PLANETS Earth-like planets and moons are similarly "born" by electrical expulsion of part of the positively charged cores of dwarf stars and gas giants. That explains the dichotomy between the dense rocky planets and moons and the gaseous giant planets. In the Electric Universe model, gravity itself is simply an electrostatic dipolar force. So planetary orbits are stabilized against gravitational chaos by exchange of electric charge through their plasma tails (Venus is still doing so strongly, judging by its "cometary" magnetotail, and it has the most circular orbit of any planet) and consequent modification of the gravity of each body. Planets will quickly assume orbits that ensure the least electrical interaction. Impacts between large bodies are avoided and capture rendered more probable by exchange of electric charge between them. Capture of our Moon becomes the only option, it cannot have been created from the Earth. Evidence of past planetary instabilities is written large on the surfaces of all solid bodies in the solar system. That evidence is in the form of electric arc cratering. ELECTRICAL CRATERING Electric discharges between closely approaching bodies takes the form of "thunderbolts of the gods", or distinctively shaped helical plasmoids. Such plasmoids were sculpted by many ancient cultures when depicting Jupiter hurling his thunderbolt. Jupiter's thunderbolt raises questions about the history of mankind and the Earth that have never before been asked. When it comes to dating planetary surfaces, plasmoids cause characteristic electrical arc scarring in the form of sinuous channels and neatly circular craters with steep walls and occasional central peaks. Such craters are universally misinterpreted as impact craters. The sinuous channels are wrongly classified as riverbeds or lava channels. Minutes or hours of electrical scarring can produce a surface like that of the Moon, which is later interpreted in ad hoc fashion to be billions of years old. Hemispheric differences in cratering are expected in this model. And for the sceptics, subdued electric arc machining of a planet-sized body continues to this day on Jupiter's innermost moon, Io. See the news items on this website for many successful predictions about the discoveries that would be made as close-up images of Io became available. Planetary geologists are not trained to recognize electric arc scarring otherwise they would have seen at a glance the characteristic cathodic surface erosion and cathode jets on Io. They are definitely not volcanos as we know them from geology textbooks. ELECTRICAL WEATHER Most people are unaware that we have no understanding of how lightning is created in clouds. The simplest answer is that lightning is not generated there at all. Clouds merely form a convenient path to Earth for electricity originating in space. Without clouds it is possible to have a "bolt from the blue". That is happening on Venus (although the sky certainly isn't blue). Weather systems are driven primarily by external electrical influences. Consequently the Sun has weather patterns. And the most distant planet, Neptune, has the most violent winds in the solar system though it receives very little energy from the Sun. Electric discharges from space cause Mars' huge dust devils and planet-wide dust storms. They are responsible for Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the "spokes" in Saturn's rings. It is why Venus has lightning in its smog-like clouds and its mountain-tops glow with St. Elmo's fire. It is why the Earth has lightning stretching into space in the form of "red sprites" and "blue jets", and why tethered satellites "blow a fuse". However, nobody is trained to consider electrical energy input to weather systems. The image [ed. note: see image at: http://www.holoscience.com/eu/synopsis/9.elecweather.html]on the right is NASA artist's view of lightning on Venus during the descent of one of the Pioneer probes. Venus has no [water] clouds yet it suffers intense lightning. This argues against the popular notion of what causes lightning. LIFE ITSELF It seems that when a dwarf star or gas giant planet "gives birth" to a rocky satellite, parent and child usually remain closely bound. Our solar system, with its widely spaced orbits and chaotic features, appears to be the result of a recent cosmic "traffic accident". This seemingly wild conjecture is supported by the global stories of prehistoric planetary encounters. So to use our situation as a measure of a normal planetary system will give wildly misleading ideas of how life begins and estimates of the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe. The most benign situation for life in an Electric Universe is inside the electrical cocoon of a brown dwarf star. Radiant energy is then evenly distributed over the entire surface of any planet orbiting within the chromosphere of such a star, regardless of axial rotation, tilt, or orbital eccentricity. The exceedingly thin atmosphere of such stars has the essential water and carbon compounds to mist down onto planetary surfaces. The reddish light is ideal for photosynthesis. Such a model provides one reason why the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project is unlikely to succeed. Any advanced civilization on such a planet will be unaware that the universe exists outside its own stellar environment, and radio communication through the glow discharge of the star is impossible! Our education systems are not suited to the broad interdisciplinary knowledge required in an Electric Universe. (c)Wal Thornhill 2000 See the home of The Electric Universe at http://www.holoscience.com ****************************************************************** PLEASE VISIT THE KRONIA COMMUNICATIONS WEBSITE: http://www.kronia.com Subscriptions to AEON, a journal of myth and science, now with regular features on the Saturn theory and electric universe, may be ordered from this page: http://www.kronia.com/html/sales.html Other suggested Web site URL's for more information about Catastrophics: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/ http://www.flash.net/~cjransom/ http://www.knowledge.co.uk/velikovskian/ http://www.bearfabrique.org http://www.grazian-archive.com/ http://www.holoscience.com http://www.users.uswest.net/~dascott/Cosmology.htm http://www.catastrophism.com/cdrom/index.htm http://www.science-frontiers.com Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered, 10 Pensée Journals may be ordered at the I-net address below: http://www.e-z.net/~mikamar/default.html A collection of used and out-of-print books on the subject of catastrophics is now available from Mikamar Publishing. E-mail the website directly, or write to THOTH to request a list of available titles. http://www.e-z.net/~mikamar/default.html ----------------------------------------------- The THOTH electronic newsletter is an outgrowth of scientific and scholarly discussions in the emerging field of astral catastrophics. Our focus is on a reconstruction of ancient astral myths and symbols in relation to a new theory of planetary history. Serious readers must allow some time for these radically different ideas to be fleshed out and for the relevant background to be developed. The general tenor of the ideas and information presented in THOTH is supported by the editor and publisher, but there will always be plenty of room for differences of interpretation. We welcome your comments and responses. thoth at Whidbey.com ---