Customer Reviews

The Electric Universe

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I've recently read several other books of interest, including Arp's Seeing Red, Lerner's The Big Bang Never Happened, Thornhill & Talbott's other work Thunderbolts of the Gods and Scott's The Electric Sky.

These are all rather excellent works of science by folks who know what they're talking about, and don't need to resort to "dark matter," "dark energy," "black holes," "neutron stars" or other fictitious entities to explain the workings of the universe.

Rather they go about it from an electrical / plasma (ionized matter with electrical properties) point of view. In this way, "surprising" features from the "standard model" point of view are demystified as simple electrical / plasma phenomena known from lab experiments and electrical theory dating as far back as Birkeland, Alfven, CER Bruce, Juergens and a host of others.

It's time that good science make its way back into physics and astronomy. It's also time that abstract maths be put in their place as a tool and NOT as a prime mover and shaker. Science should be based first on observation {!}. That's exactly what Thornhill and Talbott do in The Electric Universe. They *observe* the universe *as it is* and then apply known electrical and plasma processes to explain it.

The material is accessible to the layman. However, it may behoove readers to do additional reading to fill in any conceptual gaps. Keep an open mind, and your world view may be changed forever. Mine has been changed permanently since introduction to the material a year ago. The universe is finally beginning to make some physical sense that has been lacking in the sad world of "Big Bang" untested (often *untestable* {!}), unproven hypotheticals (dark matter, dark energy, neutron stars, black holes, WIMPs, MACHOs). It's time to end dogmatic adherence to a paradigm that has consistently failed in its predictions and embrace an electrical / plasma interpretation that can make specific testable /verifiable predictions.

If you enjoy this book, you'll probably enjoy the books listed above, as well.

This book is insightful and expansive. It is expansive in the terms of being able to lend the reader other good resources to discover for themselves the idea and arguments. It also allows the reader to indeed investigate on their own. The data that is given within the book on plasma and electricity are not unfounded. Just take a electromagnetic or electrical engineering class to find out if what they say is way off basis or not. And if classes are too expensive for you there are plenty of good textbooks on the subjects, of course not based in a cosmology setting. The comparisons between what is seen in everyday electrical work and in space is actually quite stunning and should not be ruled out because of its simplicity or because it might be associated with one of the author's interest in mythology/anthology.

The gentleman that argued the issue over the diagrams and pictures is missing the point of the book. This book is for laymen and a good author does not drown out lay-people with fancy mathematics such as Maxwell's equations, you introduce the concept to them via qualitative and visually appealing means. If you want something more engulfed in the heavier mathematics or physics try Anthony Peratt's book "The Physics of the Plasma Universe" or Don Scott's book "The Electric Sky". Both of those go far more into the physics of the concept without resorting to mythology. Thornhill and Talbott print their sources in the book just so you have the ability to double check their statements and conclusions.

Also, his issue with "home-made" charts is a bad argument as well. All the charts are credited. All charts that were created by Thornhill can easily be looked up by established institutes to gain more credible conformation, such as his capacitor diagram or his atmosphere electrical effects. If you disagree, feel free to counter check any of his diagrams.

Plus his comment on "home-spun" is another weak argument on attacking their status as non-traditional. It is an ad hominem, which is always a weak counterpoint. This book deals more in physics aspect than mythology unlike their first book "Thunderbolts of the Gods". It is a dual authorship, Talbott has more experience in mythology while Thornhill has the physics experience. To flatly declare there to be "no" science in this book is to at the very least to declare that there is no science behind electromagnetism. Argue the science and not ad hoc arguments.

He also makes a false claim of no expertise on the authors. In fact both of the authors have short bios within the book. It states all the information you need on both to declare them credential-less. It is obvious that reviewer did not truly read the book because his counterarguments are weak and based on a predisposition of "conspiracies", which the book does not state. And the argument of no proof or scientific papers is again telling of his lack of reading the book. All source materials are printed and makes for further investigation extremely easy.

The book does not state that the entire scientific world is wrong, Thornhill does utilize EM and fluid dynamics in his theory, which is within traditional science. Once again, it is a poor argument.

This could very well be considered a comment on that user's review, which it is. I hear the same weak points from many to argue what is easily available for home or professional investigation. When I actually hear constructive and intelligent criticism, it is refreshing.

If you are interested in the idea I would suggest a small library of books to compliment this book. I would also suggest studying up on EM, electronics, and plasma science to get a background that can help improve understand of the material. There is no conspiracy being feed by these authors and there is an uplifting sense of self-exploration that many authors don't offer.

This is a great read, explaining the largely overlooked importance of electricity in astronomy. Space is not a non-conductive vacuum, but highly-conductive tenuous plasma which generates its own magnetic and electric fields, the latter influencing charged particles up to 10^43 times more strongly than gravity.

In this view, the Universe is threaded with filamentary electric currents, from those in the Sun's flares, to the currents flowing through the Solar System (interplanetary current sheet), to the Birkeland currents that flow through the ionosphere, to the currents flowing between Jupiter and its moon, Io, and the currents that must flow out along the spiral arms of galaxies since that's what rotating plasmas must do!

The book is very easy to read, and recommended together with Don Scott's The Electric Sky, and the the authors' earlier book, Thunderbolts of the Gods + DVD

This is simply a phenomenal book on an alternative theory to account for all scientific observations made in cosmology from decades ago to present. I have also read The Electric Sky by Donald E. Scott and Thunderbolts of the Gods by David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill. I highly recommend all three of these wonderful books to anyone who has the slightest interest in astronomy.

These books lay out the theory that electricity runs or powers the universe. Electric currents are everywhere in the universe which consists of 99% plasma which is matter with electric charge. Of course, you can't have electricity without magnetism, so it is this force that shapes and defines our magnificent universe.

It was so refreshing to read these books because it was like a great veil being lifted from my eyes allowing me to truly understand what is happening in our cosmos for the first time with real understanding. It was suddenly so obvious. Common sense and logic coupled with direct scientific observation and evidence plus testability of the theory completely verifies and substantiates the claims made in these books.

If the rest of the scientific community can latch on to and accept the truth stated in these books, we will truly enter a new age of understanding and leave the current dark ages science has fallen into behind. Talbott, Thornhill and Scott are true pioneers and their work is highly valuable and important to furthering academic understanding.

Having studied astronomy and having followed the A to Z of it for decades, I must say that I have never encountered anything as original, sweeping, and compelling as the ideas presented in Thornhill and Talbott's "Electric Universe".

Mainstream astronomy offers a wealth of extravagant theories but with a paucity of observable evidence to back them up. "Electric Universe" points up these glaring absences and contradictions and presents a set of far more plausible plasma-oriented interpretations.

Thornhill and Talbott point to mainstream astronomy's naive assumption that space is electrically neutral everywhere. Plasma physics, as has been demonstrated in numerous laboratory experiments, offers a more viable explanatory model than the gravitation-based theories that have dominated 20th Century astronomy. The fact that the electric force is 39 orders of magnitudes stronger than the gravitational force is reason enough for it to be included, at least considered, as a significant influence in shaping the course of the universe. I am astonished that the electric force-based ideas as presented in this book are being systematically overlooked by mainstream astronomers, and even by popular trade magazines. You may well join me in asking, What has happened to science as an open dialogue and a selection of theories that best fits the evidence?

For decades astronomy has based most of its ideas on a single interpretation of the evidence: for example, the red shift being seen only as a distance marker; an abiding belief that the 3-degree background radiation represents an echo of the big bang; redoubtable propositions about dark matter and dark energy to support gravity-based explanations of galactic motion; and likewise that solar energy is produced at the center of the sun and transported to the surface by slow convection processes; and so forth. Is there room in this vast universe for alternative views? Thornhill and Talbott point to the disturbing evidence that cast doubt on these time-worn theories. For example, the statistical occurrence of quasars in the vicinity of nearby galactic clusters makes problematic the yardstick view of the red shift; the infamous solar neutrino deficiency should have long ago led to new modes of thought about solar energy production. The authors not only describe the many observed contradictions, they offer their own stunningly original theories based on an electrically active universe.

Rather than shunning their plasma-based theories, astronomers should welcome the appearance of a new set of plausible alternatives to their held-fast ideas. Science should be a dialogue of competing ideas. It should not be a religion with a single explanation of phenomena that is to be taken as orthodox fact. But that is what the science of astronomy has become, unfortunately. That's why I am so grateful for and so enthusiastic about this book, which I feel gives us an important glimpse into a new astronomy for the 21st Century. For its provocative challenges to standard astronomical thought and for offering a most engaging and plausible set of alternatives, "The Electric Universe" is simply indispensable.

I am not a scientist. I have been fascinated by astronomy and cosmology all my life. The more I read of quantum mechanical or mainstream astonomical explanations for the cosmos, the more complicated and brain twisting it has proceeded. Confusion and an all but impossible math and scientific explanation or better put, an attempt at an explanation have only made me feel totally unsatisfied. Then I found this book and my mind has changed and everything seems much more sensible.

It is one thing to see modern physicists try their hands at explaining the universe, almost all of which remains fastened to the paper, deeply buried under an imcomprehensible language of convoluted and super complex math and conceptual assumptions, it is quite another to be introduced to the refreshing and verifiable, laboratory based Plasma science....reducing to rubble almost every mainstream explanation of the cosmos. Beginning from the simple precept that stellar matter is plasma in manifestation, the authors go on to explain how comets, asteroids and meteors operate. The book explains why galaxies appear the way they do. Most controversially, they claim that they entire model for Black Holes is bogus and explainable in electrical terms. Their explanations for tornados on the sun, vortexs of electrical pathways put to bed any notion that the inner realms of the sun is a vast thermonuclear bomb factory. Also on the list of amazing claims, that stars that appear to be blowing up (take for example Eta Carina) are in fact in the early stages of becoming stars. There are so many explanations that turn accepted cosmological "facts" on their behinds, that you get a sense at how audacious it must have been to read of Galileo's claims.

They explain many mysterious facts about our own star in plasma terms that all have a verifiable basis in reproducible experimentation. They posit that much of mainstream cosmology has been following an increasingly dead-end mentality and has shut it's mind to learning about plasma in its many complicated states.

Since reading this book I no longer am interested in reading any more of the reports from Universe Today or Space dot com because they are full of the old thinking that I am convinced is wrong. Read this book and you will never, ever be able to look at the universe in the same way again.

This book and it contemporary The Electric Sky by Scott, will one day be read as paradigm changing works because they helped to totally destroy the mythology of the Big Bang and all its nonsensical offspring such as missing energy, missing matter, missing everything. There will come the day when people will look back on this period of time and wonder just how people could actually come to believe that 95% of the known universe was missing.
This book is written in a no nonsense style but is easy to read and without the need for a PhD in physics to understand it.

Discovering the Electric Universe theory has been very mind blowing to me- when you take the time to read the information presented here and in Donald Scott's "The Electric Sky", you can't help but see that it makes way more sense than the current standard model. I think it is only a matter of time before this becomes a more widely accepted perspective on the nature of our cosmos.

This monograph provides a compelling and succinct review of the current gravity-based model of the Universe and its significant problems. The book is written in a very approachable style for professionals and amateurs alike, capturing the essence of a very wide range of issues - which come across as being the tip of the iceberg.
The work demonstrates convincingly that current cosmological thinking is fatally flawed across the spectrum, and that there is a viable alternative: electricity and plasma.
Any one of the many issues raised in the monograph is sufficient in itself to require an overhaul of current theory. Given the investment currently underway in projects tied to current theory, and the tendency to inhibit alternative investigations, it's to be hoped that an overhaul is not too far away.
I highly recommend this book for anyone open to understanding more about the issues with the accepted understanding of the cosmos around us.

One is careful about announcing any allegiance to a new scientific movement. But this does seem to be different. In a few short books (I know there is years of work behind them) these people have explained many things about stars, the earth, super novas, galaxies that are simply not explained by the dominant "gravity-only" cosmology we all grew up with. I truly believe that in 20 years we will all look back and say "How could we have missed this?" The text books will all be re-written, and the old ones will be read as quaint musings of half-blind scientists.