From: Subject: MY CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL VIEWS IN SCIENCE Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:06:12 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1255" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/kronos/vol0302/005views.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 MY CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL VIEWS IN SCIENCE

MY CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL VIEWS IN SCIENCE

Immanuel Velikovsky

See also Note ⁽¹⁾=20

"Books written about the solar = system
before the=20 advent of the space age
could as well have been written = in
'=20 Latin or Greek, so dated do they appear
to a = contemporary=20 reader."

Zdenek Kopal - The Solar System
(Oxford = University=20 Press, 1973)

In my published books, notwithstanding often repeated allegations, no = physical law is ever abrogated or "temporarily suspended"; what I = offered in=20 them is primarily a reconstruction of events from the historical past. = Thus I=20 did not set out to confront the existing views with a theory or = hypothesis and=20 to develop it into a competing system. My work is first a = reconstruction, not a=20 theory; it is built upon studying the human testimony as preserved in = the=20 heritage of all ancient civilizations--all of them in texts bequeathed = beginning=20 with the time man learned to write, tell in various forms the very same=20 narrative that the trained eye of a psychoanalyst could not but = recognize as so=20 many variants of the same theme. In hymns, in prayers, in historical = texts, in=20 philosophical discourses, in records of astronomical observations, but = also in=20 legend and religious myth, the ancients desperately tried to convey to = their=20 descendants, ourselves included, the record of events that took place in = circumstances that left a strong imprint on the witnesses. There were = physical=20 upheavals on a global scale in historical times; the grandiosity of the = events=20 inspired awe. From the Far East to the Far West--the Japanese, Chinese = and Hindu=20 civilizations; the Iranian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, = Hitto-Chaldean,=20 Israelite and Egyptian records; the Etruscan, Attic and Roman theogonies = and=20 philosophies; Scandinavian and Icelandic epics; Mayan, Toltec and Olmec = art and=20 legends--all, with no exception, were dominated by the knowledge of = events and=20 circumstances that only the most brazen attitude of science could so = completely=20 disregard.

The scientific community starts its annals with Newton, paying some = homage to=20 Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, unaware that the great ones of the = sixteenth and=20 seventeenth centuries searched through classical authors of antiquity = for their=20 great discoveries. Did not Copernicus strike out the name of Aristarchus = of=20 Samos from the introduction to De Revolutionibus before he = signed=20 imprimatur on his work? Did not Tycho Brahe find the compromising theory = of the=20 Sun revolving around the Earth--but Mercury and Venus circling around = the=20 Sun--in Heracleides of Pontus, yet announce it as his own? Did not = Galileo read=20 of the equal velocity of heavy and light falling bodies in Lucretius; = did not=20 Newton read in Plutarch of the Moon removed from the Earth by fifty-six=20 terrestrial radii and impelled by gravitation to circle around the = Earth, the=20 basic postulate of Newton's Principia; and did not Halley read = in Pliny=20 about comets returning on their orbits? Then why does modern science = disregard=20 the persistent reports of events witnessed and recorded in many = languages in the=20 writings of the ancients and also transmitted from generation to = generation by=20 communities unable to write, by American Indians, by the people of = Lapland, the=20 Voguls of Siberia, the aborigines of tropical Africa, the Tahitians in = the South=20 Pacific?

Why is theomachy the central theme of all cosmogonical myths? Should = not a=20 thinking man pause and wonder why the ancients in both hemispheres = worshipped=20 planetary gods; why temples were erected to them, and some are still = standing;=20 why sacrifices, even human sacrifices, were brought to them? Why was = Saturn or=20 Cronos or Brahma the supreme deity to be replaced by Jupiter of the = Romans, Zeus=20 of the Greeks, Ormuzd of the Iranians, Marduk of the Babylonians, Shiva = of the=20 Hindus, Ammon of the Egyptians? Why did the planet Venus - Ishtar, = Athene,=20 Kukulcan of the Mayas or Quetzalcohuatl of the Toltecs--become the = feared deity,=20 as I saw it omnipresent in Yucatan, where I savored a few days this = February,=20 writing this paper? Why is this Morning Star shown in sculpture as a = feathered=20 serpent on the grandiose monuments of Uxmal and Chichen Itza, where = temples were=20 built, one upon the other, if not to commemorate the ages, the last of = which was=20 dominated by Huitzilopochtli, Ares of the Greeks, who protected the = people of=20 Troy, while Athene clashed with him protecting the Achaean host?

Why was Mars of the Romans chosen as the protector of Rome, the = greatest=20 empire after the Empire of Heaven (Livy), while Athene gave her name to = the=20 capital of Attica, as Tanis to Tunisia? Why were human sacrifices = brought in=20 this country by the Pawnee Indians only a few scores of years ago, every = fifty-two years connected with the Venus calendar? Why did the Ancient = Assyrians=20 mark on tens of thousands of clay tablets, free from any mythological = theme,=20 astronomical observations, but all data from before -687 are in = contradiction to=20 known values such as the duration of the daily rotation of the Earth, = the time=20 of the vernal equinox--that by the way was repeatedly transferred, as = was also=20 the beginning of the year--the ratio of the longest and shortest days of = the=20 year, the length of the month and of the year and the motion of the = planets? The=20 legends and myths clearly point to an astral origin of all ancient=20 religions.

The problem that occupied the minds of the Classicists, Mesoamerican=20 scholars, Orientalists, and students of social anthropology and = mythology, was=20 not solved in any one of these disciplines separately. Like the early = memory of=20 a single man, so the early memory of the human race belongs into the = domain of=20 the student of psychology. Only a philosophically and historically, but = also=20 analytically trained mind can see in the mythological subjects their = true=20 content--a mind that learned in long years of exercise to understand the = dreams=20 and phantasies of his fellow man.

Thus I entered a field that should be at the basis of the natural = sciences,=20 not only of the human soul and of racial memories, and soon I observed = that the=20 divisions in science are but artificial. I had to cross barriers. How = could I do=20 otherwise? Upon the realization that we are unaware of the most fateful = events=20 in human history, I had before me the task of explaining this well-known = phenomenon of repression, the realization of which could also become = crucial to=20 the survival of the victim of amnesia playing with thermonuclear = weapons. But=20 before that I had the task of confronting the humanistic heritage with = the=20 message of stones and bones--do geology and paleontology carry the same=20 testimony? I went again from shelf to shelf, once more around the Earth, = and the=20 record from the bottom of the sea and from the top of the mountains, = from the=20 deserts, jungles, tundras, lakes, rivers and waterfalls, told the same=20 story--documented in every latitude and in every longitude. This = evidence is=20 presented in Earth in Upheaval, which I kept free from = any bit=20 of testimony that can be classified as human heritage. The scenes of=20 devastation, mass extinction of many species in circumstances that are = by far in=20 excess of what can be considered as local catastrophe, the simultaneous = change=20 of climate all over the globe thirty-four and twenty-seven centuries = ago, the=20 drop of the level of the ocean and many other phenomena observed, could = not be=20 accounted for but by paroxysms in which the entire Earth was = involved.

A psychological situation provoked the change in the attitude of the=20 scholarly world with the beginning of the Victorian age. The founders of = the=20 sciences of geology--Buckland, Sidgwick, and Murchinson (who gave the=20 classification of formations used today); of vertebrate = paleontology--Cuvier;=20 and of ichthyology--Louis Agassiz--never doubted that what they observed = was the=20 result of repeated cataclysms in which the entire globe partook. = Actually,=20 Charles Darwin, observing the destruction of fauna in South America, was = convinced that nothing less than the shaking of the entire frame of the = Earth=20 could account for what he saw. But the introduction of the principle of=20 uniformitarianism by Charles Lyell, a lawyer who never had field = experience, and=20 the acceptance of it on faith by Charles Darwin, are a psychological = phenomenon=20 that I observed again and again. Exactly those who, like Darwin, = witnessed the=20 omnipresent shambles of an overwhelming fury of devastation on a = continental=20 scale, became the staunchest defenders of the principle of = uniformitarianism,=20 that became not just a law, but a principle that grew to a statute of = faith in=20 the natural sciences, as if the reasoning that what we do not observe in = our=20 time could not have happened in the past can in any measure claim to be=20 philosophically or scientifically true.

Obviously, a motive is at play that makes appear as scientific = principle what=20 is but wishful thinking. For over a century after Copernicus man did not = wish to=20 believe that he lives on an Earth that travels, and Francis Bacon and = William=20 Shakespeare were not persuaded by that firebrand, Giordano Bruno, of the = truth=20 of the Copernican doctrine. Even much less man wishes to face the fact = that he=20 travels on a rock in space on a path that proved to be accident-prone. = The=20 victory of Darwin's evolution by natural selection over a six-day = creation less=20 than six thousand years ago made it appear that evolution, the only = instrument=20 of which is competition, is the ultimate truth. But by = competition for=20 survival or for means of existence, never could such different forms as = man and=20 an insect with many legs evolve from the same unicellular form, not even = in the=20 six billion years that replaced the biblical six thousand. Mutations = were=20 necessary, and today we know that by cosmic and x-rays, by thermal and = chemical=20 means--conditions brought about in the catastrophes of the past -- = massive=20 mutations can be achieved.⁽²⁾

The pre-1950 astronomy followed the same pseudo-scientific statute of = faith,=20 elevated to a fundamental principle, and made believe that the Earth and = other=20 planets travel the same paths for the same six billion years, always = repeating=20 the same serene circling. Against this violation of the principle of = empiricism=20 in science stood my work. In it I rejected the postulate that the = ancients, the=20 Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Democritus and Plato included = (O.=20 Neugebauer in The Exact Sciences in Antiquity wonders why Plato = is=20 considered anywhere a philosopher of any rank), were childish in their = claims of=20 repeated world conflagrations, and that the ancients were almost = imbeciles in=20 their beliefs. The ancients, the canard goes, believed in the Earth = placed on=20 the back of a tortoise. Thus it is preferred to start science three = hundred=20 years ago, and my work was pronounced (by those who did not read it) as = an act=20 of destruction of the entire edifice of science erected by the giants of = science=20 since Copernicus.

I offered a series of claims that naturally followed from the = reconstruction.=20 In science they are usually called predictions, but I prefer to term = them=20 advance claims. Thus I claimed that Venus, due to its recent birth and = dramatic=20 though short history, must be very hot under the clouds, nearly = incandescent,=20 and gives off heat⁽³⁾--it=20 has not reached thermal balance; that it must have a very massive = atmosphere;=20 that the atmosphere consisted largely of hydrocarbons but that if oxygen = is=20 present petroleum fires must be burning--thus explaining also the = present=20 massive carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere; that sulfur and iron=20 (ferruginous pigment) must be present too; and that if the same = catalytic=20 process that took place on the Earth when it was enveloped by clouds of = Venus'=20 origin takes place in Venus' own clouds, they must consist mainly of = organic=20 material infused with sulfur and iron molecules. Further, I considered = that=20 Venus was disturbed in its rotation.

Venus was found over 750K. hot--many metals are incandescent at this=20 temperature--while the consensus of opinion among astronomers was 17C., = 3 above=20 the mean annual temperature on Earth. Venus was found rotating slowly = and=20 retrogradely. The atmosphere was found very massive, 95 terrestrial = pressures=20 near the ground surface, and not reckoning with this possibility, the = first=20 Venera probes were crushed. The content of the clouds is still unsolved, = but in=20 a paper in the Winter, 1973-74 issue of Pensée, a = journal dedicated to=20 the reconsideration of my views, I elucidated that the spectral features = in the=20 ultraviolet, near infrared, infrared and deep infrared can be accounted = for by=20 organic matter, and so can the volatility and the index of refraction. = Nitrogen=20 gas, expected by all specialists to comprise as much as 90% of the = atmosphere,=20 was not found. The enigma of the very rich content of carbon dioxide = below the=20 clouds is solved if the combustion of hydrocarbons took and still takes = place. I=20 expect that the Venus Mariner X probe of this month will bring us nearer = to=20 properly evaluating the content of Venus' clouds. But the preliminary = report=20 already says that "the manner in which that planet was born and matured = differed=20 basically from that of Earth." An editorial in the New York Times,=20 commenting on the bands and streaks first discovered by Mariner X, = spoke of=20 an "uncanny similarity" to the bands "in the atmosphere of Jupiter." It = added=20 that "it is a problem that poses a formidable challenge to = astronomers."

There are problems requiring study that were not discussed in = Worlds in=20 Collision because the origin of Venus belongs to the volumes = dealing with=20 the earlier catastrophes. How did Venus, in Latin, "the Newcomer," = escape from=20 Jupiter, four hundred times more massive?--and Lyttleton's work gives = some idea;=20 or how could Venus be so much heavier per unit of volume than = Jupiter?--either=20 it was expelled from inner parts of the giant planet, or gases like = hydrogen=20 entered into chemical compounds of higher molecular weight.⁽⁴⁾=20 In Worlds in Collision I suggested that electrical = discharges=20 in the atmosphere of ammonia and methane in which Jupiter is rich, would = produce=20 hydrocarbons of heavy molecular weight--an experiment successfully = performed ten=20 years later by A. T. Wilson. Further, I envisaged fusion of = elements--like=20 oxygen to sulphur--in interplanetary discharges.

Orbiter and Surveyor probes of the Moon were followed by Apollo = probes; and=20 on the historic night of July 21, 1969, when Man stepped on the Moon, I = made a=20 series of claims in an article written at the invitation of the New = York=20 Times, and spelled out earlier as well in memos to the Space = Science Board=20 of the National Academy of Sciences. Strong magnetic remanence, I = claimed, would=20 be discovered in lunar rocks and lavas, though the Moon itself hardly = possesses=20 any magnetic field whatsoever. A steep thermal gradient would be found = already a=20 few feet under the surface. Thermoluminescence would disclose that the = Moon was=20 heated considerably only thousands of years ago. Hydrocarbons, = preferably of=20 aromatic structure, would be found in small quantities, but carbides, = into which=20 hydrocarbons would transform when heated, in substantial quantities; = expressed=20 radioactivity would be detected in lunar soil and rocks; and several = more=20 claims. Already following Apollo XI and XII the score was complete. But = each of=20 the discoveries--steep thermal gradient, strong remanent magnetism, = recent=20 heating of the lunar surface, carbides and traces of aromatic = hydrocarbons, and=20 rich radioactivity of the rocks and dust--evoked exclamations of = surprise and at=20 best some far fetched, ad hoc hypotheses. Magnetic anomalies,=20 especially where interplanetary bolts fell, and huge enclaves of neon = and argon=20 40 in lunar rocks, were also claimed by me in advance of the findings.⁽⁵⁾

The Mars probes disclosed, as I had claimed in Worlds in = Collision,=20 a dead planet that went through enormous cataclysmic events, not unlike = the=20 Moon. The "canali" proved to be not the product of intelligent work, but = rifts=20 caused by twisting of strata. Like on the Moon, enormous craters = resulted from=20 bubbling, but some formations, especially surrounded with "rays," = resulted, in=20 my view, from interplanetary discharges.

When last December [1973] I was invited to address the scientists of = the=20 Langley Space Research Center that prepares the June 1976 Viking probes = to Mars,=20 I was told of the program and shown the module. I found that my 1945 = copyrighted=20 view, printed also in Worlds in Collision, of the = possible=20 abundant presence of argon and neon in the atmosphere of Mars, then a = very=20 far-fetched idea, is now incorporated in the program of the 1976 Viking=20 probes.⁽⁶⁾=20 Today, in one of the alternative atmosphere models (the other has = nitrogen=20 richly presented--the same alternative I discussed in Worlds in = Collision),=20 NASA anticipates as much as 33.3% argon in the atmosphere, but, in = my=20 opinion, too little--666 parts per million--neon. Actually, in 1969 I = saw my=20 assumption indirectly confirmed when, after I expressed my expectation = of rich=20 inclusions of argon and neon in lunar rocks, such enigmatic inclusions = were=20 found. I based my expectation on the realization that in the eighth = century=20 before the present era Mars and the Moon repeatedly came into = near-contacts.

I would speculate that the red color of Mars, due mainly to the = ferruginous=20 material acquired from Venus when the latter displaced it from its orbit = (in the=20 theomachy described in great detail in the Iliad), may partly = be due=20 also to an electrical effect in a neon-rich Martian atmosphere.

I recommended in my lecture and consultation at Langley Space = Research Center=20 several tests not found in their program as it stands now:

1. To study the electrical nature of the sandstorms, = occasionally=20 reaching the velocity of one hundred to two hundred miles per hour, in = the=20 rarefied atmosphere of the planet.

2. To search for strong remanent magnetism of rocks and = lavas, not=20 just to photograph soil particles attractable to a magnet. As just = explained,=20 iron particles will be found in abundance. In future probes anomalous = remanent=20 magnetism will be discovered near places where electrical bolts emerged = or=20 fell.

3. To search for expressed radioactivity of the rocks and = regolith,=20 especially near large circular formations that resulted from = interplanetary=20 discharges.

4. To investigate the thermal gradient, presumably rather = steep,=20 even if only at the depth of two or three feet.

5. To perform a thermoluminescence experiment on glass-like=20 particles in the Martian soil which will disclose a very recent heating = of the=20 Martian surface; if it were not for the expected radioactivity on Mars, = the=20 proper result would be twenty-seven centuries for the last heating.

The logic that led me to these conclusions and suggestions was the = same that=20 made me make similar advance claims concerning the Moon before the lunar = landings.

I understand that the program will be dominated by an effort to find = out=20 whether there is or there was life on Mars; organic materials will be = searched=20 for and I count with the possibility that traces of hydrocarbons may be = found in=20 the Martian soil, but almost all hydrocarbons must have turned into = carbide=20 rocks by heating; cultures of possible micro-organisms will be = investigated for=20 changes in color and for the production of gases.

In Worlds in Collision I compiled descriptions from many = sources of=20 a widely spread pestilence that accompanied Mars' close approaches; it = is not=20 excluded that Mars is richly populated by micro-organisms pathogenic to = man. I=20 suggested an inclusion of a microscope in the equipment of Viking and, = if=20 possible, of an electron microscope for the study of viruses. I do not = discount=20 the probability that the seasonal changes in the color of the Martian = surface=20 may be due to seasonal microbial or other low vegetative activity.

It is preferable to postpone the second Viking probe, now planned as=20 identical with the first and following it by one month, in order to = rework the=20 program and to include the instruments needed for the test I = enumerated.

When earlier, a year and a half ago, in August [1972], I was invited = to=20 lecture and consult at Ames Space Research Center (Division of = Exobiology), I=20 suggested also that microbial life able to catalyze can possibly be = found in=20 Venus' clouds, lower forms of insect life on Jupiter, and primitive = plant life=20 on Saturn, besides what I said now of Mars. So much for cosmology and = also the=20 evolution of life.

If I was completely at odds with the cosmogony that had the solar = system=20 without history since creation, I was also carrying my heresy into a = most sacred=20 field, the holy of holies of science--celestial mechanics. I had a = chapter on=20 the subject at the end of Worlds in Collision, but I = kept=20 those galleys from inclusion in the book and instead I included only one = or two=20 paragraphs--and the only italicized words in the book are found in = them--namely:=20 "The accepted celestial mechanics, notwithstanding the many calculations = that=20 have been carried out to many decimal places, or verified by celestial = motions,=20 stands only if the sun, the source of light, warmth, and other=20 radiation produced by fusion and fission of atoms, is as a = whole an=20 electrically neutral body, and also if the planets, in their usual = orbits,=20 are neutral bodies." I showed how the events I reconstructed could have = occurred=20 in the frame of the classical celestial mechanics, but coming from the = field of=20 studying the working of the brain--I was the first to claim that = electrical=20 disturbances lie at the basis of epileptic seizures--I was greatly = surprised to=20 find that astronomy, the queen of sciences, lives still in the = pre-Faraday age,=20 not even in the time of kerosene lamps, but of candles and oil. It was, = of=20 course, known since Gilbert that the Earth is a magnet, and G. E. Hale=20 discovered that solar spots are magnetic and that the Sun possesses a = general=20 magnetic field. But this did not keep Einstein, a few years later, from=20 accounting for the Mercurial precession by a new principle instead of = first=20 eliminating the effect of the newly discovered solar magnetic field on = Mercury's=20 movement.

I claimed the existence of a magnetosphere above the terrestrial=20 ionosphere--it was discovered by Van Allen in 1958; I claimed that this=20 magnetosphere reaches as far as the lunar orbit--it was discovered by = Ness in=20 1964; I claimed that the interplanetary space is magnetic and the field = centers=20 on the Sun and rotates with it⁽⁷⁾--it=20 was discovered in 1960 by simultaneous observation of Pioneer V and = Explorer X,=20 one travelling around the Sun and the other around the Earth; I claimed = that=20 Jupiter sends out radio noises,⁽⁸⁾=20 and actually offered in writing in June 1954 to Albert Einstein to stake = our=20 protracted debate as to whether, besides inertia and gravitation,=20 electromagnetic interactions participate in celestial mechanics: Does or = does=20 not Jupiter send out radio noises?--and Einstein wrote his note of = disbelief on=20 the margin of my letter. But on the 8th of April, 1955, nine days before = his=20 death, I brought to him the news that Jupiter noises were discovered by = chance;=20 those who detected them for long weeks disbelieved their find and the = Jovian=20 origin of the noises.

Lately I lecture frequently for physical and engineering societies = and=20 faculties, and I challenge those in the audience who believe that a = magnetic=20 body can move through a magnetic field without being affected by it to = lift=20 their hands. Can Jupiter with its immense magnetosphere move in the = magnetic=20 field centered on the Sun, if only of a few gammas, without being = affected by=20 it? Can the satellites of Jupiter plow through the magnetosphere of the = giant=20 planet without being affected by it? On no occasion I saw a hand = raised.

Only a few weeks ago, preliminary reports in Science on the = Pioneer=20 X December flyby recorded a series of unusual electromagnetic phenomena=20 involving Jupiter and its satellites. At about the same time we read of = radio=20 noises for the first time detected from a comet, as Kohoutek was = approaching its=20 perihelion. (Incidentally, contrary to the unanimous opinion expressed = by=20 astronomical authorities, with which I disagreed, Kohoutek did not = develop into=20 the greatest celestial spectacle of the century.) The role of = electromagnetic=20 interaction between a comet and the Sun was another subject of my = detailed=20 discussion, oral and written, with Einstein.

With the discovery of quasars, magnetic binaries, black holes and = colliding=20 galaxies sending out agonized radio signals, the electromagnetic nature = of the=20 universe is no more in question. Space is not empty either. I feel like = calling=20 René Descartes from the Land of Shades to present his appeal, = because as late as=20 1949, a year before the publication of Worlds in Collision, the = verdict=20 was, according to the philosopher Butterfield, that "The clean and = comparatively=20 empty Newtonian skies ultimately carried the day against a Cartesian = universe=20 packed with matter and agitated with whirlpools, for the existence of = which=20 scientific observation provided no evidence."

But ten years later we read: "Gone forever is any earthbound notion = of space=20 as a serene thoroughfare . . . . a fantastic amount of cosmic traffic = (hot=20 gaseous clouds, deadly rays, bands of electricity) rushes by at high = speed,=20 circles, crisscrosses, and collides."

How could I produce this score of correct prognostications? Professor = V.=20 Eshleman of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, obviously astounded, wrote on = September 11, 1970, to a news-writer--"I am completely mystified as to = how=20 Velikovsky reaches his conclusions. It is almost as though he does it = through=20 will power alone...." But could I, by will power alone, initiate = Jupiter's=20 noises?

There is no mystery. My advance claims are a "natural fallout from a = single=20 central idea," in the words of one student of the affair. Reading of my = work is=20 a prerequisite for understanding the way I reach my conclusions.

Yet not a few upheld the scientific method by absolving themselves = from=20 reading the book they discuss and occasionally suppress. These days one=20 planetarium astronomer authoritatively pronounced my score of correct=20 predictions as compatible with the law of averages and added that I = would have=20 been unfortunate if my score were any less. Seven years earlier the same = planetarium astronomer was the mastermind in the refusal of the Franklin = Institute in Philadelphia to permit the oldest astronomical association = of=20 America, the Rittenhouse Society, to convene at their traditional = meeting place=20 in the Institute when they invited me to address their members--a story = that had=20 many reverberations.

The behavior of the scientific community was and partly still is a=20 psychological phenomenon. The spectacle of the scientific establishment = going=20 through all the paces of self degradation has nothing with which to = compare in=20 the past, though every time a new leaf in science was turned over there = was a=20 minor storm, and it is not without precedent that most authoritative = voices in=20 science usually served to discourage the trail blazers--think of Lord = Kelvin,=20 unsurpassed authority of later Victorian days, who rejected Clerk = Maxwell's=20 electromagnetic theory, demeaned Guglielmo Marconi's radiotelegraphy, = and till=20 his death in 1907 proclaimed Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen for a = charlatan.

But it is without precedent that the entire scientific community = should be=20 aroused to very base actions of compelling, by organized boycott, the = publisher=20 of a book checked and rechecked before the printing to discontinue its=20 publication, to destroy the entire stock, and to punish the editor of=20 twenty-five years service by dismissal. This community offered a united = front of=20 academic and scientific societies, of faculties, of scientific and=20 semi-scientific press against a solitary figure whose only iniquity was = to=20 present views carefully arrived at in more than a decade of work, = supplied with=20 all references to enable the reader to check multitudinous sources, with = never a=20 jest or a harsh word against those with whom the non-conformist = disagreed, with=20 no new terms introduced, in lucid language, though foreign to me, never = given to=20 misunderstanding.

Now, after twenty-four years, and more than seventy-two printings in = the=20 English language alone, forty of which were in hard cover, my Worlds = in=20 Collision, as well as Earth in Upheaval, do not require = any=20 revisions, whereas all books on terrestrial and celestial sciences of = 1950 need=20 complete rewriting. The opposition and the indecent forms it took are a=20 psychological phenomenon and cannot be explained by a mere desire to = protect the=20 vested interests. The forms the suppression assumed are so multiple and=20 sometimes ingenious, but mostly crassly rough and often dishonest, that = only=20 having been trained in recognizing various forms of resistance with = which=20 analytical patients react when unwelcome truth is about to reveal = itself, could=20 I understand the unique spectacle which I observe now for a full = generation.

If a sociologist endeavors to divide the guilt between the = establishment and=20 the nonconformist, and claims neutrality, then he did not learn to = discern=20 objectivity from neutrality. And if a professor of astronomy puts = passages in my=20 book which are not there and then makes the class of tuition-paying = students=20 roar by attacking those passages, this roar may still sound in his ears = when=20 there will be no merriment in it. In these antics, an experienced = psychoanalyst=20 recognizes a state of anxiety. "We are shaking in our shoes--but with = laughter"=20 wrote an early critic, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin of Harvard. Actually the = astronomers of that university must have felt threatened by the book = and even an entire generation later, acting as if in peril, a Nobel = prize=20 winner wrote to a high school girl to close Worlds in Collision = and not=20 to open it again in her lifetime, only to admit three years later to the = editor=20 of Pensée that he never himself read the book. Those who = act almost=20 suicidally should keep their fingers on the pulse of time.

In the behavior of the scientific establishment the desperate = resistance that=20 bedevils human society found its expression. As members of the human = race, we=20 are afraid to face our past. But as Santayana wrote, those who do not = remember=20 the past are condemned to repeat it and--this time, I am afraid, in a = man-made=20 thermonuclear holocaust.

My work today is no longer heretical. Most of it is incorporated in = textbooks=20 and it does not matter whether credit is properly assigned. My work is = not=20 concluded--I only opened new vistas. The young and the imaginative work = in an=20 ever increasing stream. Numerous colleges and universities in this = country hold=20 courses or seminars on my work, include my books among the required = readings and=20 have theses on my ideas written for graduate degrees. Those who stopped = thinking=20 since graduating will claim authority, soon to find that they are left = without a=20 following. I may have even caused retardation in the development of = science by=20 making some opponents cling to their unacceptable views only because = such views=20 may contradict Velikovsky--like sticking to the completely unsupportable = hypothesis of greenhouse effect as the cause of Venus' heat, even in = violation=20 of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

This spring, besides this Symposium on my work, two more = international=20 symposia dedicated to the subject will take place without my having any = part in=20 initiating them. Those who prefer name calling to argument, wit to = deliberation,=20 or those who point a triumphant finger at some detail that they = misinterpret,=20 yet claim that my entire work ought to collapse, and boast of their own=20 exclusiveness as a caste of specialists--as if I claimed omniscience and = infallibility and as if I wrote a sacred book that falls due to some = possible=20 error--are not first in their art. I shall quote Giordano Bruno, and one = of the=20 organizers of this symposium, Professor Owen Gingerich, Harvard's = historian of=20 science, is well familiar with Bruno's description of how his = contemporaries=20 used to conduct a dispute:

"With a sneer, a smile, a certain discrete malice, that which they = have not=20 succeeded in proving by argument -- nor indeed can it be understood by=20 themselves--nevertheless by these tricks of courteous disdain they = pretend to=20 have proven, endeavouring not only to conceal their own patently obvious = ignorance but to cast it on to the back of their adversary. For they = dispute not=20 in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear = the more=20 learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons = should be=20 avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience."

After all, it really does not matter so much what Velikovsky's role = is in the=20 scientific revolution that goes now across all fields from astronomy = with=20 emphasis on charges, plasmas and fields, to zoology with its study of = violence=20 in man. But this symposium in the frame of the AAAS is, I hope, a = retarded=20 recognition that by name-calling instead of testing, by jest instead of = reading=20 and meditating, nothing is achieved. None of my critics can erase the=20 magnetosphere, nobody can stop the noises of Jupiter, nobody can cool = off Venus,=20 and nobody can change a single sentence in my books.

1.=20 . Editor's Note.- This paper was first delivered at the = symposium,=20 "Velikovsky's Challenge to Science," held in San Francisco, February 25, = 1974,=20 under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of = Science.=20 The text remains unchanged.
2. . See L. M. = Greenberg,=20 "Cataclysmic Evolution," KRONOS I:4 (April, 1976), pp. 98-110; F. B. = Jueneman,=20 "The Origami of Species," Ibid., pp. 110-113. - The = Ed.
3. . See R. E. Juergens, "Velikovsky and the Heat of = Venus,"=20 KRONOS, Ibid., pp. 86-92; "A Youthful Venus," KRONOS I: 3 = (Nov., 1975),=20 pp. 85-86. - The Ed.
4. . See Eric W. = Crew,=20 "Stability of Solid Cores in Gaseous Planets," KRONOS III: I (Aug., = 1977), pp.=20 18-26; R. E. Juergens, "The 'Bulk Chemistries' of Venus and Jupiter," = KRONOS=20 II:1 (Aug., 1976), pp. 11-15.--The Ed.
5. = . See C.=20 J. Ransom, "The Moon," KRONOS II: I (Aug, 1976), pp. 28-37.--The = Ed.=20
6. . See KRONOS I:3 (Nov., 1975), pp. = 88-90;=20 KRONOS II:1 (Aug., 1976), pp. 105-109.-- The Ed.
7. . See "The Sun's Magnetic Field," KRONOS II:3 (Feb., = 1977), pp.=20 78-80.--The Ed.
8. . See I. Velikovsky, = "On the=20 Advance Claim of Jupiter's Radionoises," KRONOS III: 1 (Aug., 1977), pp. = 27-30.=20 - The Ed.=20

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