Background Info. / History
1895, June 10, Immanuel Velikovsky was born in Vitebsk, Russia
1913> studied medicine at Montpelier, France,
1921 Velikovsky received a medical degree at the University of Moscow
1921 moved to Berlin, married, edited a journal called Scripta Universitatis atque Bibliothecae Hierosolymitarum, the mathematical-physical section was prepared by Albert Einstein. This journal played a big role in developing the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
1924-1939 "Velikovsky lived in Palestine, practicing psychoanalysis- he had studied under Freud's pupil, Wi1helm Stekel in Vienna" quoted from (Short Biography)
1950 published Words in Collision right away it was a NY Times non-fiction #1 international best seller for 7 weeks until the publisher (Macmillan) dropped the book due to opposition to it led by Harvard astronomer Dr. Shapley
-This book was about Velikovsky's claims that incidences in numerous independent cultures around the world were not due to terrestrial origin (i.e. comets and planets caused massive disasters)
1960s Velikovsky was considered as quack by most everyone
1970s Velikovsky got allot of attention and many of his ideas were reconsidered due to many predictions coming to pass. He was regularly invited to speak at many universities around the country.
1972 a 1 hr documentary was aired in Canada on his ideas, (link to watch it)
1979 he passed away.
present: a very small scientific field called catastrophisim is studied by a few of Velikovsky's followers. They try to combine anthropology, geology, psychology and other disciplines with physics to support their theories.
