Immanuel Velikovsky, M.D. (
Born on
June 10, 1895 in
Vitebsk,
Russia –-
Died on
November 17, 1979 in
Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.) -- was an
American author and
proponent of highly
controversial theories of
cosmogony and
history.
Educated at the universities in
Edinburgh,
Kharkov, and finally
earning an
M.D. at the
University of Moscow in 1921, he
practiced
medicine in
Palestine and then studied
psychology in Zürich and Vienna. Immanuel Velikovsky made a
career for himself in the
practice of general
medicine,
psychiatry and
psychoanalysis.
After examining
legends of the
ancient Jews and other
eastern Mediterranean peoples, he
concluded that some
tales
described actual
occurrences and were not mere
myths or allegories.
Velikovsky's
books always used
comparative mythology and
ancient literary sources, including the
Bible. In his
first book,
Worlds in Collision,
written in 1950, he
argued that
Earth has
suffered
catastrophic close-contacts with other
planets, chiefly
Venus and
Mars, in ancient
times. Also in the book, Velikovsky argued that
electromagnetic effects play an
important role in
celestial mechanics, and in the determining of
world events, thus shaping
human history. In his 1952 book titled
Ages in Chaos, Velikovsky sought to
revise the
chronology and
history of the
pre-Christian Near East. Other books of Velikovsky's composing were
Earth in Upheaval, written in 1955,
adduced
geological and
paleontological evidence that
supported his
belief that
catastrophes have
overwhelmed the Earth
throughout Earth's
existence;
Oedipus and Akhnaton, written in 1960, linked
Egyptian history with
Greek mythology; and
Peoples of the Sea, written in 1977, identified Ramses III with Nectanebo,
pharaohs
otherwise dated 800
years apart in Egyptian chronology.
Velikovsky's theories have
generally been
rejected or
ignored by the
academic community.
Nonetheless, his books have sold well for more than fifty years. The
American Civil Liberties Union's claims of
unfair treatment by
institutional science have
inspired support for Velikovsky among
church laypeople. The
controversy surrounding his
ideas and its decidedly mixed, and sometimes
scathing,
reception is often
referred to as "the Velikovsky affair".