Customer Reviews

The Great Year

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Did highly advanced civilizations exist on the earth long before conventional history wants us to believe? Civilizations that understood secrets in astronomy, mathematics and many other fields of scientific endeavor that have unfortunately been lost with the passing of time, now buried somewhere in the sands of antiquity.

Are the ancient tales of an antediluvian "Golden Age" populated by beings with miraculous God-like abilities really just nothing more than myth and legend? Or are they in reality the last remaining fragmentary accounts of what mankind once was and may become again in some future age?

Warning, this documentary will challenge everything you've been taught about history, astronomy, religion and the nature and destiny of mankind. Be ready to postulate such concepts as:

1) The discovery of a 24,000 year celestial cycle which determines the rise and fall of civilizations and man's ability to comprehend 'higher wisdom.'
2) A 'second sun' rotating in conjunction with our own.
3) Flying machines and intercontinental travel thousands of years before the pyramids were built.
4) A time when telepathy, levitation and other psychic powers were commonplace.

A very well produced documentary that will make you re-think your belief system. Nothing will ever be the same again. Highly recommended!

An engaging documentary that intertwines the phenomena known as precession through the Equinoxes and how, the rise and fall of civilizations may be linked to this on a grander scale. All indications point to the ancients being obsessed with the heavens and having been aware of this cyclical grand cycle. Their knowledge of the cosmos without our current stage of technological advancement defies our ability to explain their insight on such an expansive scale. Yet several ancient cultures utilizing advanced geometry and astronomy all had names for this vast cycle and the effect it played on mankind.

For years the academic community has told us these ancient writings amount to no more than fairly tales.
Now several institutions are examining the possibility that ancient civilizations were more advanced than previously thought... a theory that does not sit well with traditionalists in conservative academic circles.

Does history and civilization move in vast cycles? Was there really a Golden Age when people lived a more profound and exalted existence on a higher plane of enlightenment? An age where wisdom and spirituality won out over illusion and materialism? The "Great Year" delves into seldom charted territory with interviews from those who believe there is a physical celestial force that can cause humanity as a whole to either lapse into collective amnesia, or to advance us beyond our known metaphysical understanding and collective consciousness.

Along with angular momentum, precession through the polar stars, and annual precession rates, the film includes interviews with archaeologists, professors of history and astronomy, all describing various traits of the Great Year. The hypothesis presented in the documentary is a provocative alternative to the widely accepted luni-solar model as the cause of precession replaced with a new model of binary motion. Still, while a very worthwhile watch, this is not a "tell all" documentary, and whether by choice or omission you will need to do a little exploring on your own to discover what all the commotion is about.

I ordered this DVD after reading "Lost Star of Myth and Time" by Walter Cruttenden, which is a sequel to the book this DVD is based on. There was a brief description of the DVD in the back of this book. The movie makes sense even if you haven't read either book, but if you want to see most of the evidence for its ideas, get the books.
The graphics make it much easier to visualize what the books talked about, and the narrative, interviews, and shots of various ancient sites present the idea very well.
In case you don't know, the general idea is that precession of the equinoxes is not caused by a wobble of the Earth's pole, as is assumed by conventional science, but by the Sun being part of a binary star system, and thus following an eliptical path through space and taking the Solar System along with it. (So that it appears to be going backwards in relation to the "fixed" stars half of the time.) It's a logical idea that explains the observed phenomena. So why don't we see the other star in the binary system? Well, either it's too dark to see (for instance, a brown dwarf) or we do see it but its so far away currently that we dont yet recognize the relationship between our sun and the other star.
Much is made in the video, and the books, about the ancient traditions of golden ages having existed in the distant past and the idea in Hindu and other ancient traditions that civilization goes thru a series of ascending and descending eras that coincide with the "Great Year" during which the equinoxes precess thru all 12 constellations of the Zodiac. And that this is caused by some unknown effects of either the companion star or the area of space the Solar System passes thru on its orbit around the dual system's center of gravity. To my mind this is an entirely separate question. There may be something to it, but it is not a necessary part of the binary star theory.
If you are at all interested in archeoastronomy, ancient mysteries, or just astronomy, this DVD is worth getting and watching.

Went to a movie last night called "The Great Year," a new documentary about the prehistoric stoneworks that are found all over the world. Some open-minded researchers have finally realized all those ancient monuments are not just fancy graves, but an intricate system laid out across the planet to reflect the 'procession of the equinoxes,' a phenomenon science has never quite figured out. Current thought is that the earth's axis wobbles because of the moon's gravitational pull, thereby causing a different astrological sign to be prevalent during different epochs. (age of Pisces, Aquarius, etc.) That explanation, however, doesn't actually work out on computer models.

By finally putting all the pieces together, these archeologists now believe that the ancients were trying to tell us not to forget that we are part of a binary star system, and that our sun is on an elliptical trajectory that drags all the planets with it, creating the processional effect. This binary sun theory makes all kinds of cosmic equations suddenly fall into place, and also explains lots of celestial mechanics that have been eluding us And it appears that as we approach the midpoint in our sun's orbit around it's mate, all kind of things will begin to happen in our little neighborhood (time speeds up, gravitational force changes, comets veer off course, etc...). Great graphics made this whole concept very easy to grasp and it was amazing to see how quickly everything fell into place once you applied this model.

The movie, narrated by James Earl Jones (love that voice!) also showed how this 'great cycle' possibly relates to the rise and fall of civilizations, because of the mounting evidence that there is a direct connection between this procession and our state of spiritual development. The Great Year is laid out as a huge 2400 year cycle, and is consistent in Mayan astronomy, the Vedic scriptures, Chinese astrology and Egyptian hieroglyphs, just to name a few. They showed how many myths directly relate to this procession, from the bull worship cults (the end of Taurus) to the flood stories (the beginning of Pisces) that pop up in every culture.

The theory goes that we have a long Golden Age where we understand the whole cosmic scheme, then we begin a descent into darkness (Silver age) where we forget everything and fall into materialism and superstition (Bronze age). Then we slowly begin to figure out the bigger picture as we move back up into another Silver age. According to this system, we entered this final "silver age" during the renaissance and have been busy relearning our basic cosmic lessons ever since (like the fact that the world isn't flat and we aren't the center of the universe and that Columbus didn't discover America).

And just to make sure we don't have to figure it all out again from scratch, the last golden age, which ended 9,500 years ago, left us a permanent world wide calendar system just to explain this phenomenon (awfully thoughtful of them, don't you think?). Once we get the gist of how it works, we might be able to predict future events mathematically, like the Mayans.
SO, that's certainly food for thought, and puts a whole new light on the cyclic nature of mankind's evolution, dashing Darwin's linear theory in the process. It does mean that things just get better from here, and the last vestiges of our descent into darkness are destined to fall away as we approach our rendezvous with our other sun.

Of course, they haven't managed to find out which star that might be yet, but they're looking, at least. They've also discovered that lone solar systems are almost non-existent in our galaxy...almost every star has at least one mate...it's like a ballroom dance when they set the model in motion. Also goes back to what the Templars were trying to tell us, that everything is a duality, that monotheism is too limited as a cosmological concept. This non-linear aspect of development and our participation in the dance of the universe is blowing away the old paradigm of our lonely little solar system stuck out in the backwaters of the galaxy. It's pretty clear that we've got some serious re-thinking to do about our ideas of history, time and our place in the cosmic merry-go-round!

"The Great Year" is a well produced documentary that explores the possible link between ancient cosmogonic myths and modern astronomical observations, using great animations, a riveting narration and a beautiful underscore the whole family will enjoy. There are not very many non-fiction films on the market today that educate the average viewer about the significance of the hardly perceptible daily third movement of our own planet - the slow but gradual change of the orientation of Earth's axis in space. Not every astronomer and astrologer - whether a professional or an amateur - may agree with some of the experts in the film that this movement is caused by the motion of our sun around some unknown partner star. However, the film raises important questions about the mechanics of this celestial phenomenon and brings forth concise arguments that have merit. While the scientific aspect gives the film its heuristic character, it is the revealing message of the film that makes it so compelling. We gradually become aware again of an element in nature that offers mankind the possibility to overcome the negativity and the uncertainty of the world and age we live in. It will be quite fascinating to see if astronomers are able to detect this nameless companion star of our sun that supposedly influences human consciousness. But must science first confirm that we are connected to something far greater than our intellect and instruments are able to perceive?

"The Great Year" presents its theory progressively and rationally, and resonated with me from the beginning as scientific truth.

Competently resolving quite a few enigmas, this important message is unfortunately decades ahead of its time; but such is normal in the realm of scientific progress.

"The Great Year" deserves a large audience of openminded thinkers. In time these views will gain wide acceptance. I feel grateful that it came out in my lifetime.

The Great Year is an engaging film that provokes one to think about time and our being in a grand scale rather than from a myopic perspective. It is beautifully produced film that helps us rediscover a great cycle of time that spans thousands of years and its affect on human consciousness. The best hour I have every spent!

This documentary offers an elegant solution to observed phenomenon that had been clumsily "explained" by modern scientists who have been unwitting slaves to flawed axioms and theories. Embedded in the films celestial truth is the connection between the movement of the stars and our human history. The Great Year is for those who are unafraid of putting aside hubris and opening their minds to the possibility that the ages bring forth human advancement and decline in cycles! James Earl Jones magnificent voice rivets one attention to all the fascinating thoughts this pictures evokes.

You'll watch it over and over...

I finally understand the Yuga Cycle! I had read about it in many books, including "The Holy Science" by Swami Sri Yukteswar. Somehow, just reading about it wasn't enough.

The computer animation that accompanied the explanations really made it all come together in my mind. I can visualize what the Precession of the Equinox actually looks like.

I highly recommend this DVD for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the Yuga Cycle.

There have been a number of books published that try to explain why ancient civilizations show evidence of advanced technology and remarkable achievement. Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John Anthony West, David Hatcher Childress, Eric von Daniken and Zacharia Sitchin have come up with various theories from Alantis to Aliens to explain what most traditional scientists call these "anomalies" in the archaeological record. The Great Year adds another dimension to the discussion by pointing out that the number one myth of ancient cultures: "civilizations rise and fall with the precession of the equinox (Ages of Man) in a great year cycle", is not just a coincidental fabrication of multiple cultures but an actual phenomenon due to our Sun's binary motion around a companion star! They point out that the current theory of precession has significant flaws and that a better explanation is the ancient Sumerian and Mythraic answer: our Sun is gravitationally bound to a nearby star and this motion drives the planet through periodic Golden Ages and Dark Ages based on the 24,000 year cycle of precession.

It is a novel but ancient answer to the main question behind the alternative science movement: how much did the ancients really know? This film shows how the Vedic cycle of the Yugas, Mayan concept of "suns", and the Greek notion of Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden Ages (Plato's great year) is one and the same - a great clock, all based on the motion of the stars.

With narration by James Earl Jones, interviews with experts in history and astronomy, and some very cool animation, this is a compelling film. The Great Year is a great film.

The animations help understand some profound ideas, but I prefer Cruttenden's "Lost Star of Myth and Time." It's one of the best books that I have read recently. It's interesting to see the ideas from ancient India (and Greece, Egypt, Mayan cultures, etc., etc.) being resurrected. Unfortunatelyl, this brief DVD can't provide the supporting evidence that is found in the book. Nevertheless, this DVD is highly recommended for those who don't have the time to read the book.