In 1950, Immanuel Velikovsky authored a book, Worlds in Collision, in which he presented all the global scenarios created by a mighty disruption of our solar system created by an extraterrestrial body such as a huge asteroid or comet. Two other books followed concerning the same subject: Ages in Chaos (1952) and Earth in Upheaval (1955).

            Velikovsky assembled many legends, folktales, myths, traditions, epics, sacred books, classical literature, and historical texts by many peoples around the globe, and correlated them with astronomical inscriptions and charts, archeological evidence, and geologic and paleontology material. Many of these sources recorded global darkness, earthquakes, floods, and desolation. Not only did the Hebrew leave Egypt during the period of the Exodus, the Egyptians also left, as darkness and confusion reigned. In Peru, the sun did not appear for five days and “the sea fell upon the land.” In Iran, “a threefold day and threefold night concluded a world age.” Tribes of the Sudan refer to “a time when the night would not come to an end.” The Finnish people tell of a time when “hailstones of iron fell from the sky and the sun and the moon disappeared.” In China, “the great catastrophe brought a world age to a close. For ten days the sun did not set.” The Indians of the New World relate “the sun did not appear for five days.” People and animals tried to escape to mountain caves but the sea “breaking out of bounds following a terrifying shock began to rise on the Pacific coast but as the sea rose, the mountain also rose, like a ship on the waves.”

            There are over one hundred flood stories throughout the world other than the Mesopotamian Noah/Ziusudra/Utnapishtim versions, including Indian, Maya, Columbian, Incan, Algonkin, Crow, Hopi, Chinese, Polynesian, et cetera. D.S. Allan and J.B. Delair, in their 1997 book, Cataclysm, list 84 stories spread throughout Europe, Asia, The Americas, Australasia, Oceania, and Africa.

            I do not expect any of the above to occur in the next few years or on the December 21st date of 2012, but I do not rule out turbulent, physical times involving global warming – more severe storms and certainly extremes in all weather phenomena. 2012 marks the ending of an era and one human lifespan is an infinitesimally unrecognizable nothing – nothing in the measurement of cosmic time.

            KEEP LOOKING UP!