Charles Hapgood

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Charles Hutchins Hapgood (born May 17, 1904 , † December 21, 1982 ) was an American historian who assumed the previous existence of a Upper Paleolithic civilization and its decline as a result of cataclysmic events.

Life

Charles H. Hapgood regarded the map of Piri Reis from 1513 as an essential indicator for the correctness of his thesis of repeated shifts of the earth's crust.

Charles H. Hapgood completed his studies of medieval and modern history at Harvard University in 1929 with a Masters degree. He had to break off work on his planned dissertation on the French Revolution during the Great Depression . He taught intermittently in Vermont and ran a community center in the Provincetown community .

During the Second World War , Hapgood worked for the Center of Information (later the Office of Strategic Services , forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency ) and for the Red Cross . He also served as a liaison officer between the White House and the Secretary of the War . After the war he taught at Keystone College (1945–1947), Springfield College (1947–1952), Keene State College (1956–1966) and New England College (1966–1967), where he lectured in world history and American history and history of science as well as in anthropology and economics .

In Massachusetts , one of his students approached him about the mythical-legendary continent Mu , which prompted him to undertake a course project on the subject of "Atlantis" and justified his continuing interest in putative, lost civilizations of prehistoric times and in catastrophism . In 1958, Hapgood published his book The Earth's Shifting Crust , in which he described his theory of the Earth's crust shift (also known as pole shift). In 1966 he published his follow-up work Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings , in which he explained his polar shift theory in more detail and spoke of an ancient seafaring people who are said to have lived in previously ice-free areas of Antarctica. He also showed great interest in the controversial collection of so-called Acámbaro figures from Mexico , some of whose authenticity he defended against the assumption of falsification, which is predominantly held in scientific circles. At an advanced age he also dealt with parapsychological and esoteric topics. He worked with the medium Elwood Babbitt from New England , with whose help he wanted to get in touch with deceased greats in world history.

He had married Tamsin Hughes in 1941, but the couple divorced in 1955. Hapgood died in 1982 at the age of 78 as a result of a traffic accident in which he was hit by a car and seriously injured.

Pole shift

As part of his research, Hapgood devoted himself primarily to his highly controversial theory of earth crust displacement and the consideration that 12,000 years ago a civilization in northern Antarctica was destroyed in the course of a chain of catastrophes caused by such a shift in the earth's crust be. This prehistoric seafaring culture is said to have had, among other things, enormous geographical knowledge that was transmitted by survivors of those catastrophes to people on different continents. According to Hapgood, this knowledge is still reflected in maps that were created much later, such as the map of Piri Reis (probably created in 1513). Hapgood was unable to assert itself in the scientific community with this set of ideas, which contradicts various scientific paradigms , but in principle does not conflict with the now generally recognized theory of plate tectonics by Alfred Wegener , which he criticized .

theory

In the opinion of Charles Hapgood, shifts in the geographic poles of the earth are caused by - on a geological scale - sudden massive shifts in the earth's crust on the asthenosphere below it . He regarded the glacial ice masses that cover the northern hemisphere during ice age periods as a trigger for such processes taking place within a few centuries . He received support from Albert Einstein , among others . B. wrote the foreword to Hapgood's book The Earth's Shifting Crust , as well as by the former professor of geological research at Harvard University, Kirtley F. Mather (1888–1978), at the time a prominent American geologist, who urged his colleagues that the " numerous unsolved problems to which Mr. Hapgood calls our attention " should be "made the subject of intense debate by scientists around the world ". In fact, changes in the inclination of the earth's axis ( precession , nutation ) can be detected, but not so sudden that a shift in the crust would occur. The reversal of the magnetic poles, which is proven by paleomagnetic measurements and occurs on average every 250,000 years, is not due to such changes . As far as is known, this pole reversal is not associated with catastrophic events, and close human ancestors (such as Homo erectus or the australopithecines ) survived several magnetic pole reversals . While catastrophic pole shift scenarios are thus largely disproved in the field of university research, they still attract some attention in Atlantis research of a border-scientific nature (see: Localization hypotheses for Atlantis , under: Antarctic Atlantis localizations ).

Use of the topic

Robert E. Howard already processed in his stories about Conan the Cimmerian the idea that a great cataclysm was around 17000 BC. And a weaker one around 16000 BC. Destroyed the ancient civilizations of Atlantis , Lemuria and those of the Picts . This led to the rise of his Hyborian age .

In connection with the hype about an end of the world assumed for the year 2012, the counting down of the Mayan calendar has been linked by numerous “doomsday prophets” such as Patrick Geryl and Gino Ratinckx with the alleged impending pole shift or a pole turn . Allegedly, the speculative planet Nibiru should also play a role in this context . According to a frequently mentioned date, this event was supposed to take place on December 21, 2012, which himself spoke in connection with the end of the Mayan cycle of 2013.

Cinematically , the topic of “pole shift” was taken up in the American TV disaster film Absolute Zero , first broadcast in 2006 (German title: Eiskalt wie die Hölle ), directed by Robert Lee and for which Sarah Watson wrote the screenplay (leading roles: Jeff Fahey and Erika Eleniak ). In this film, in which a pole shift about 10,000 years ago is already suggested, such an event also occurs in the present: Florida and all areas within 30 ° north and south of the previous equator under a massive ice and snow cover disappears. In the American-Canadian screen epic 2012 by Roland Emmerich , which had its world premiere on November 11, 2009, the pole shift motif is also adapted on film, whereby the secondary effects of a sudden shift in the earth's crust, such as earthquakes , volcanic eruptions and megatsunamis , are particularly dramatic . being represented.

Publications (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/saxon/SaxonServlet?style=http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/saxon/EAD/yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&source= http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/fedora/get/beinecke:hapgoodch/EAD
  2. ^ Hapgood, Charles Hutchins: Mystery in Acambaro: An Account of the Ceramic Collection of the Late Waldemar Juisrud in Acumbaro , GTU, Selbstverlag, Mexico, 1972
  3. ↑ a b http://www.skrause.org/writing/papers/hapgood_and_ecd.shtml
  4. ↑ See: Charles H. Hapgood, Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth Science , Pantheon Books, 1958, pp. 26–33 (Chapter: I: Past Theories of Polar Shift; 2. The Wegener Theory)
  5. ↑ Rand and Rose Flem-Ath, " Was Albert Einstein silly? - Plate Tectonics Versus Earth Crust Displacement ??? ( Memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ", on: FLEM-ATH - expect the unexpected, accessed on May 19, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.flem-ath.com
  6. ↑ Steve Krause, Hapgood's Theory of Earth Crust Displacement , December 6, 1996, accessed May 19, 2013.
  7. ↑ Rand and Rose Flem-Ath, op. Cit.
  8. ↑ The Hyborian Age in the Eridu Wiki
  9. ↑ Patrick Geryl and Gino Ratinckx, The Orion Prophecy, Kempton, Illinois 2001
  10. ↑ See for example: Rob (ertino) Solàrion, Nibiru: Slow-motion Doomsday Planet X, 1st Books Library, 2004
  11. ↑ Eiskalt wie die Hölle (TV 2006) , at: IMDb, accessed on May 19, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Hapgood, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hapgood, Charles Hutchins
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1904
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1982