4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning, entertaining, educational, . . . but not gospel!, November 14, 2007
This review is from: Watermark: The Disaster That Changed the World and Humanity 12,000 Years Ago (Paperback)
Having finished reading this book a few days ago, I felt that the author had cleared up many of the mysteries I had grown up with as a child. Questions such as: Why is the axis of Uranus tilted so? Was there an Atlantis? Who/what killed the mammoths? Was the story of Noah's Ark real? and Why is the flood myth almost universally found in all cultures and folklore?
Having a substantial education in science, I was quite skeptical of the author's claim that a chunk of supernova came careening its way through our solar system, wreaking havoc among the planets. It didn't seem likely that supernova ejecta would ever recondense into appreciable blobs until it had fully dissipated into the surrounding interstellar medium. However, looking at detailed photos of planetary nebulae (nova & supernova remnants) I've notices that the outer (leading) edges often coalesce into sizeable clumps, that may indicate fairly solid cores within them.
As for one editorial review claiming that no iron isotopes had been found for the time period indicated (~12,000 years ago), an article (http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/NSD-mammoth-extinction.html) prove the reviewer wrong. In fact, there is a growing body of evidence that a comet exploded over Canada about that long ago, killing the mammoths and the clovis culture (paleoamericans) inhabiting north America at that time. For more information, see the book "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes" by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith.
And while I still don't buy a number of the ideas put forth in the book - one body tipping Uranus, tilting Neptune, creating Saturn's rings, exploding the planet between Mars and Jupiter, and then producing Noah's Flood and a subsequent ice age - I do like the way the author ties together the many disparate deluge, destruction and creation myths from around the world into one more or less cohesive whole. And that he does with great humanity and optimism both for our past, and our future.
He refers to the people who lived before that time as being members of an enlightened Golden Age, who lived by the One Law (the Golden Rule) and who were rather saintly (kind, moral, just, and compassionate), compared to the selfish, mean-spirited, and often ruthless individuals who run the world today. This may be a fantasy, but the author takes care to detail the widespread reports of teachers and helpers, who appeared all over the world after the catastrophe, to help survivors regain their humanity and civilization.
I give this book four stars for the excellence of the writing and the scholarship in drawing together so many diverse tales and disciplines. I refuse the fifth star because the science is fairly dubious in a number of instances. For instance, I can only barely imagine a mechanism by which enormous lightening bolts might be heard on Earth, over half-a-billion miles of vacuous space! And the odds of one celestial body upsetting so many planets during one pass through the solar system is so unlikely as to be absurd.
However, I must give him credit for pointing out the problems of mammoths living in an icy climate. If each mammoth requires 500 pounds of grass per day, grass would have to be very plentiful to support even modest herds of such creatures, and supposedly there were millions alive at the time of the event.
As a side note, the book also ties in nicely with the revisionist world history movement, written about by such people as Graham Hancock, Zecharia Sitchin, Ian Lawton and others, who also believe that a major event disrupted human civilization around 9,500 BC. Along with the actual scientific findings that a comet may have been the triggering event which caused a global calamity, the view of our past is beginning to become much clearer, and in time we may have a comprehensive theory of our past, without the many anomolies which plague our understanding today.
Perhaps the most fascinating assertions in this book have to do with the consequences of the Events. We fear both god and nature, and see ourselves as separate from them. (They were, after all, responsible.) We stopped obeying the One Law / Golden Rule, and have instead focused on our selfish desires at the expense of others. And we are subject to abusive behaviors and terrible depression. These, the author argues, are the vestiges of our survival skills desparately needed in those dark and terrible days after our near destruction.
My hope, in reading this book, and recommending it to you, is that in knowing from whence we came, me may someday return to where we belong - in a new Golden Age of our own.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What if?! Page Turner!, December 29, 2007
This was a great book to wet the appetite of ancient What-ifs. The author does a great job in linking ancient mythology, geology, animal extinctions and astronomy into a very probable scenario.
In all this was a great page turner that feels like a well written historical account of cataclysm backed by evidence. It is not too packed with data to feel like a geology textbook. Also not being to dreamy like a UFO chaser. Why only 4 stars? I felt that the last few chapters were a little rushed and mostly speculation, but what else is there to go by? I would have liked a little more images, diagrams and something make it just a little more evident. Next I am reading "Cataclysm" by D.S. Allen and J.B. Delair for a little more scientific evidence of all those bone-caves that Vitale wrote about.
Thank you for your great chase through ancient history Joseph!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
debunkers smorgasbord, July 27, 2006
This review is from: Watermark: The Disaster That Changed the World and Humanity 12,000 Years Ago (Paperback)
Naturally science writers will hasten to debunk this book.
Anything that threatens the current world view held by the organized science industry... and I use the term 'industry' advisedly... threatens the rice bowl of all who support the current theories. And the thing to remember is that they are all theories. No matter how convinced and sincere they are. One will note that a super nova would still be visible. That is a theory. New jaw dropping discoveries are being made in the cosmos on an almost daily basis.
Personally, I like Vitales version/theory. His assumptions (insert joke here) seem to fit the facts better.
Is he right? Are the scientists right? They don't know, although they would have you think they do, and neither do we.
When everyone has slammed their books on the counter, and postured and posed and shouted their versions, and all the dust has settled, there are still mysteries.. caves full of bones, etc.. and Vitales theories fit better. In My Humble Opinion.
You go to your church, I'll go to mine.
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