Graham Hancock
Encyclopedia
Graham Hancock is a British
writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations
, stone monuments or megalith
s, altered states of consciousness
, 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.
, Scotland
, 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.
, 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
). In 1996 he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man
. He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998) shown on Channel 4
. In Hancocks's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith, co-authored with Robert Bauval
, the two put forward "a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists." They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple
and the Twin Towers
, and between the Star of David
and The Pentagon
.
Hancock's most recent non-fiction book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was published 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.
His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, the first in a fantasy series, was published in the UK in April 2010 and in the US in October 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests and as he has noted, "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?"
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 has never claimed that he has formal training in archaeology
, or that he is an archeologist. He sees himself as a journalist who asks questions based upon observation and as someone who provides 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.
One of the many recurring themes 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.
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). This included the complaint that:
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". 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. That speaker was the astronomer Edwin Krupp. Krupp accused Bauval of fudging the maps of Orion and the Pyramids by placing them upside down in order to make the theory work. In interviews filmed in the later and modified Horizon documentary Atlantis Reborn Again shown on 14 December 2000, Hancock and Bauval provided detailed rebuttals to Krupp and argued that the ancient Egyptians had made the Pyramids correlate in the most obvious and intuitive manner with the three stars of Orion's Belt, that Orion could only be seen at the highest point in the sky by the Egyptians looking in a southward direction and a work of symbolic and religious art. A counter argument was provided on Atlantis Reborn Again to Bauval and Hancock's responses to Krupp's statements.
According to Graham Hancock, Krupp's criticism was rejected by two prominent British astronomers, Dr. Percy Seymour of Plymouth University and Dr. Archie Roy
, professor Emeritus at Glasgow University.
released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012
citing Fingerprints of the Gods
in the credits as an inspiration for the film, stating: "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."
Also in 2009, author Geoff Stray released his best-selling book "Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?" in which he sites Graham Hancock as one of his inspirations and as a guidepost to point others to do their own investigation into the wonder of ancient societies.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations
Lost lands
Lost lands can be continents, islands or other regions supposedly existing during prehistory, having since disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena or slowly rising sea levels since the end of the last Ice Age. Lost lands, where they existed, are supposed to have subsided into...
, stone monuments or megalith
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the Ancient...
s, altered states of consciousness
Altered state of consciousness
An altered state of consciousness , also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart: it describes induced...
, 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.
Biography
Born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Hancock's formative years were spent in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
.
As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. He was co-editor of New Internationalist
New Internationalist
New Internationalist is a magazine from New Internationalist Publications, a co-operative-run publisher based in Oxford, England. It has editorial and sales offices in Toronto, Canada; Adelaide, Australia; Christchurch, New Zealand; and New York, USA....
magazine from 1976–1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
from 1981-1983.
Works
His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the SealThe Sign and the Seal
The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant is a controversial book by British researcher Graham Hancock. It was published in 1992....
, Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization is a book first published in 1995 by Graham Hancock, in which he echoes nineteenth century writer Ignatius Donnelly, author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World , in contending that some previously enigmatic ancient but...
, 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
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
). In 1996 he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man was a television special that originally aired on NBC on February 25, 1996. Hosted by Charlton Heston, the program argued that mankind has lived on the Earth for tens of millions of years, and that mainstream scientists have suppressed the fossil evidence for this...
. He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998) shown on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. In Hancocks's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith, co-authored with Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
, the two put forward "a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists." They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
and the Twin Towers
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, and between the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
and The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
.
Hancock's most recent non-fiction book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was published in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
cave art
Cave painting
Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...
in the light of David Lewis-Williams
David Lewis-Williams
James David Lewis-Williams is a South African scholar. He is professor emeritus of cognitive archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg....
' neuropsychological
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
model, exploring its relation to the development of the fully modern human mind.
His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, the first in a fantasy series, was published in the UK in April 2010 and in the US in October 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests and as he has noted, "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?"
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
Pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology — also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology — refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the academic archaeological community, which typically also reject the accepted scientific and analytical methods of the...
, Hancock has never claimed that he has formal training in archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, or that he is an archeologist. He sees himself as a journalist who asks questions based upon observation and as someone who provides 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.
Orion Correlation Theory
Orion Correlation Theory
The Orion Correlation Theory is a hypothesis in pyramidology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the 3 largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and the three middle stars of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the...
" (or OCT) , first put forward by Belgian writer Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
and then further expounded in collaborative works with Hancock, as well as in their separate publications.
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 attempted to demonstrate 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 (see below).Hancock claimed he was misrepresented by the programme, and he and Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
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). This included the complaint that:
"The programme attempted to create 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."
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". 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. That speaker was the astronomer Edwin Krupp. Krupp accused Bauval of fudging the maps of Orion and the Pyramids by placing them upside down in order to make the theory work. In interviews filmed in the later and modified Horizon documentary Atlantis Reborn Again shown on 14 December 2000, Hancock and Bauval provided detailed rebuttals to Krupp and argued that the ancient Egyptians had made the Pyramids correlate in the most obvious and intuitive manner with the three stars of Orion's Belt, that Orion could only be seen at the highest point in the sky by the Egyptians looking in a southward direction and a work of symbolic and religious art. A counter argument was provided on Atlantis Reborn Again to Bauval and Hancock's responses to Krupp's statements.
According to Graham Hancock, Krupp's criticism was rejected by two prominent British astronomers, Dr. Percy Seymour of Plymouth University and Dr. Archie Roy
Archie Roy
- Career :Professor Archie Edminston Roy , was educated at Hillhead High School and the University of Glasgow. He is married to Frances with three sons; Dr. Archie W N Roy, Ian Roy and David Roy....
, professor Emeritus at Glasgow University.
Cultural references
In 2009, Roland EmmerichRoland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer.His films, most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English, have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, more than those of any other European director...
released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012
2012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures...
citing Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization is a book first published in 1995 by Graham Hancock, in which he echoes nineteenth century writer Ignatius Donnelly, author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World , in contending that some previously enigmatic ancient but...
in the credits as an inspiration for the film, stating: "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."
Also in 2009, author Geoff Stray released his best-selling book "Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?" in which he sites Graham Hancock as one of his inspirations and as a guidepost to point others to do their own investigation into the wonder of ancient societies.
Books
Published in the United Kingdom asExternal links
- The Official Graham Hancock Website
- Broadcasting Standards Commission – Synopsis of adjudication. Horizon: Atlantis Reborn (November 4, 1999)
- Horizon: Atlantis Reborn and the Broadcasting Standards Commission The BBC's response to the Horizon programme debate.
- Brass, M., nd, An analysis of the quality of Graham Hancock's "science", The Antiquity of Man Web Site.
- Brass, M., 2002, Tracing Graham Hancock's Shifting Cataclysm, Skeptical Inquirer. vol. 26, no. 4: 45-49.
- Carroll, R. T., 2009, Atlantis, The Skeptic’s Dictionary website.
- Fagan, N., nd, An Answer to Graham Hancock and Analysis of Hancock's Position Statement on C-14 Dating, Papers, In the Hall of Ma’at website.
- Tonkin, S., nd, Some Astronomical Errors of Graham Hancock, The Astronomical Unit website.
- Flemming, N., nd, Review of Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, Papers, In the Hall of Ma’at website.
- The Big Idea: Graham Hancock