Graham Hancock

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Graham Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval). He also wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age and Quest for the Lost Civilisation.

His most recent book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was released in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic cave art in the light of David Lewis-Williams' neuropsychological model, exploring its relation to the development of the fully-modern human mind.[1].

Hancock's chief areas of interest are ancient mysteries, stone monuments or megaliths, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is the possible global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang. Although his books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-seven languages, his methods and conclusions have found little support among academics. Often criticised for being a pseudoarchaeologist, Hancock, who freely admits he has no formal training in archaeology, sees himself as providing a counterbalance to what he perceives as the "unquestioned" acceptance and support given to orthodox views by the education system, the media, and by society at large. [1] In 2009, Roland Emmerich released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012 citing Fingerprints of the Gods in the credits as inspiration for the film[2]. In a November 2009 interview with the London magazine Time Out Emmerich states: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods." [3]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Edinburgh, Hancock's formative years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology.

As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976-1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983. In 1996 he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man.[4]

[edit] Orion Correlation Theory

Main article: Orion Correlation Theory
Representation of the central tenet of the OCT - the outline of the Giza pyramids superimposed over a photograph of the stars in Orion's Belt. To achieve this concordance the pyramids have been rotated and scaled to suit. The validity of this match has been called into question by Hancock's critics, as noted in the text.

A recurring theme in several of Hancock's works has been an exposition on the "Orion Correlation Theory" (or OCT), first put forward by Belgian writer Robert Bauval and then further expounded in collaborative works with Hancock, as well as in their separate publications.

[edit] BBC Horizon controversy

BBC 2's Horizon TV series broadcast a programme, "Atlantis Reborn", on 4 November 1999 that challenged the ideas presented by Hancock. It detailed one of Hancock's claims that the arrangement of an ancient temple complex was designed to mirror astronomical features and demonstrated that the same thing could be done with perhaps equal justification using famous landmarks in New York. It also alleged that Hancock had selectively moved or ignored the locations of some of the temples to fit his own theories, and had ignored the texts on the temples themselves explaining why and when they had been built.[5]

Hancock claimed he was misrepresented by the programme, and he and Robert Bauval made complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission against the way Horizon had portrayed them and their work. Eight points were raised by Hancock, two by Bauval (one of which duplicated a complaint of Hancock's).[6] This included the complaint:

The programme had created the impression that he [Hancock] was an intellectual fraudster who had put forward half baked theories and ideas in bad faith, and that he was incompetent to defend his own arguments.[7]

The BSC dismissed all but one of the complaints. Overall, the BSC concluded that "the programme makers acted in good faith in their examination of the theories of Mr Hancock and Mr Bauval".[8] The complaint which was upheld was that "The programme unfairly omitted one of their arguments in rebuttal of a speaker who criticised the theory of a significant correlation between the Giza pyramids and the belt stars of the constellation Orion (the "correlation theory")", which the Commission did find to be unfair. Horizon subsequently offered to broadcast a revised transmission of the programme which takes into account the one point which was found in the writers' favour. This went to air under the name Horizon: Atlantis Reborn Again on 14 December 2000.[9]

[edit] Books

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Graham Hancock's website
  2. ^ "2012 (2009) - Credit List". chicagoscifi.com. http://chicagoscifi.com/movies/0011/presskit_pages/credits.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-25. 
  3. ^ Jenkins, David (2009-11-16). Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies. Time Out. http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/9039/roland-emmerichs-guide-to-disaster-movies.html. Retrieved 2009-11-25. 
  4. ^ Thomas, Dave (March 1996). "NBC's Origins Show". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. http://www.csicop.org/sb/9603/origins.html. Retrieved 2007-02-19. 
  5. ^ BBC (2000). "Atlantis Reborn Again [programme synopsis]". Science & Nature: Horizon. British Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisrebornagain.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 
  6. ^ BBC (2000). "Horizon: Atlantis Reborn and the Broadcasting Standards Commission". Science & Nature: Horizon. British Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisreborn_bsc.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 
  7. ^ Broadcasting Standards Commission (2000). "Synopsis of adjudication: Horizon: Atlantis Reborn (November 4th 1999)" (reproduced at BBC Online). Science & Nature: Horizon. British Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisreborn_bsc_synopsis.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 
  8. ^ Broadcasting Standards Commission (30 November 2000). "Fairness Complaints" (PDF online reproduction). The Bulletin (London: Broadcasting Standards Commission) 37: 1–3. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/bsc/pdfs/bulletin/bulletin37.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 
  9. ^ BBC (2000). "Atlantis Reborn Again [programme synopsis]". Science & Nature: Horizon. British Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisrebornagain.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 

[edit] External links


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