To begin with, I give this book 4 stars and not 5 because it would be arrogant of me to offer the highest mark when i happen to have only surface knowledge on the majority of the issues this books deals with. Having said that, i find it comical if not outright hilarious that certain people give one star because that would imply they can actually take every argument this book offers apart! Now, for those that have actually read the Sirius Mystery thesis, we're talking about not one argument here, but dozens which this researcher uses to put together a central argument. This would mean that the people who are burying this book are ultra-masters of archaeology, mythology, astronomy and history. Well, guess what: they are not. Guess again: no such masters exist (R.Temple included) and all that is going on is that we're basically trying to battle our cluelessness of our origin and history and as we do we find out that the mysteries we need to explain are by no means easy tasks.
The Piri Reis maps? Water erosion on the Sphinx? Come again? Noone, certainly not mainstream science has offered adequate explanations (to put it mildly) about these mysteries and the same goes about the human origin. No need to mention the ever eluding missing link, is there?
Why do i give this book 4 stars myself then? I'll hold that explanation, if i may, for the end of this review.
For the "uniinitiated", Robert Temple trigers his research by starting from the FACT that a tribe called Dogon in Africa happens to have knowledge about the Sirius star system they are not supposed to have i.e that Sirius A is "hiding" in its orbit a Sirius B and possibly a Sirius C (recently confirmed much to the dismay of the fanatical opposition Temple was met with, very unsurprisingly), or that Sirius B is a "heavy star" i.e a very dense star.
Now, when this knowledge by the Dogon was revealed to the western world (through the work of 2 French anthropologists) many of the things claimed by the ancient tradition of the Dogon were not known by western astronomers. In fact, only years later it became evident for western "science" (the same science that used to think the earth was flat, and the same "science" that only 300 years ago disputed that theere is blood circulation in the human body-!!!!- among many other such "scientific" facts) that the Dogon beliefs were solid.
Before i go on, i would like to laugh out loud at the ultragullible folk who think the Dogon took this knowledge from western expeditioners as Carl Sagan ridiculously suggested. I mean, what's the scenario here people? Western expeditioners show up to the Dogon and the first thing they decide to brainwash them with is stories about the Sirius star system which they themselves did NOT have? I mean, are some of you that irrational? And how does it go on according to you then? That the Dogon lost no time in constructing a religion out of something so abstract i.e a star they could NOT see from stories some white people told them that they couldnt possibly prove???? Nice one, but i've heard better jokes, and frankly, this is hardly a laughing matter, it's actually bitter how some will cling to hardly proven theories about our origins no matter how sad their outtake is...
But on to the book and excuse me for the above parenthetical argument but i simply couldnt resist it.
What Temple is forced to do after he presents us with what the Dogon know, is to backtrack. He has to do this because there is indeed more than enough evidence that such bizzare references (as the Dogon's) are to be found in other ancient cultures as well, namely the Sumerians, Egyptians and the Greeks. His "hunch" proves to be very revealing as Temple searches through these ancient cultures because he does actually highlight not a few but a plethora of such references, symbolisms and -mostly- myths that contribute to his argument.
Did i say myths? Whoa. Touchy little subject those myths. Those who consider themselves serious studiers of all theories concerning our tortured origin must've discovered by now that mythology is nothing else than a brilliantly devised method the ancients used to preserve knowledge. Whoa again, because knowledge does include history and in the absence of books the ancients basically coded history into mythology. Is Temple the only one who has uncovered this mega-fact? Not even close.
The author then, needs to trouble us with a lengthy diatribe where he delves into ancient mythology and he focuses for that matter in the medditteranean basin. That's a seriously difficult part of the book to get through. You will be bombarded with dozens of ancient gods, dozens of ancient myth comparisons, massive amounts of etymology, and a fair share of speculations and conclusions. The reward if you stay with the book is tremendous.
Temple doesnt pull his conclusions out of thin air no matter how "outworldly" these conclusions might be to some. His work is spectacularly researched and supported, and yes, he actually pulls the evidence for the support he needs from mainstream science. His massive bibliography is there to see.
The issue remains whether , at the end, you are ready to entertain the notion that the origin of our civilisation is indeed extraterrestrial, or, to be more to the point here, whether Temple convinces with his arguments.
Allow me to say, that it will take a lot more than Temple's book to be convinced about that, if that is actually the truth. Let's not forget that he's not the first researcher that makes such claims or draws such conclusions.
In my opinion, and knowing that our "mainstream" science doesnt exactly have a history of excellence when it comes to its field record, i would suggest that each theory forwarded by any researcher, no matter how "wild" it might be, is given the appropriate attention.
Has Temple been disproven? Hardly. Actually, recent discoveries by our brilliant scientists have only confirmed parts of his theory.
I'm not saying that I, for one, am 100% convinced by what Temple suggests. I'm not unconvinced either, indeed I think that he does a stunning job of laying out his theory and his arguments, and to quote an Arab philosopher "i believe in very little but i disbelieve in even less".
That is the reason i give this book 4 stars. Based solely on the convcincingness factor of the author's way of argumentation which i found pretty damn strong.
This book, as other books of that "line" as well, can or should be used as pieces to a puzzle, a puzzle which we do not know what it looks like and where it will finally (if we ever solve it) take us. If the truth interests us, if it honestly does, then hysteric rants against any theories that threaten our sacred dogmas have no place in searching for any origin, ours, or the universe's...
"The Sirius mystery" is a difficult book, but a very compelling, a very impressive one at that. Until the theory contained in it is disproven hold the noise of the rants down. And read it...Read it actually through.
