So it is written .....

As I finished reading Graham Hancock's astounding book, Fingerprints of the Gods, I could almost believe that the worldwide cataclysm would commence that instant. 

It is rather astonishing that Hancock believes that the ruins of advanced human civilisation lie buried beneath the ice of Antarctica, when prior to reading this book I read H.P. Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness which also wrote of the remains of an ancient advanced civilisation in Antarctica. Both writers claim that at that time Antarctica once had a temperate climate (there is now plenty of evidence to support this idea such as leaves and trees found deep beneath the Antarctic ice) and that the freezing weather caused the downfall of the technologically advanced civilisation which thrived there. However, whereas Lovecraft has no explanation for why the climate changed, Hancock cites the idea of crustal displacement, the theory that every few millenia, the Earth's entire crust slides over the lithosphere. So, around 14,000 B.C., a continent which used to be in the southern temperate zone was shifted to the south polar region. Most people in this civilisation perished, but a few survived and passed on their learning to scattered people around the world such as the ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, the Aztecs, the Maya and the Inca.

Hancock has a wealth of evidence of cultures around the world with stories of ancient global cataclysms (just like the Christian and Babylonian Flood story) and the "civilisers" who came afterwards to educate the people reduced to barbarism as a result of the cataclysm. Indeed, there are several cultures who say such cataclysms have destroyed golden age civilisations several times in the past.

What could cause crustal displacement to occur? The Earth "wobbles" on its axis; it is not always constant. As the icecaps melt in the northern polar region and expand in the southern, the Earth's spin becomes increasingly erratic. This erratic spinning could cause the Earth's crust to slide over the lithosphere, the effects of which would be too catastrophic to even imagine.

The book ends with the author visiting Paul Sifki, a 96 year old Hopi elder of the Spider clan. The Hopi are Pueblo Indians distantly related to the Aztecs of Mexico. "Like the ancient Maya whose descendants all across the Yucutan are convinced that the end of the world is coming in the year 2000 y pico (and a little), the Hopi believe that we are walking in the last days. The first world was destroyed, as a punishment for human misdemeanours, by an all consuming fire that came from above and below. The second world ended when the terrestrial globe was toppled from its axis and everything was covered with ice. The third world ended in a universal flood. The present world is the fourth. Its fate will depend on whether or not its inhabitants behave in accordance with the Creator's plans."

Sorry to break it to you this way, but Elder Sifki is not too hopeful of mankind's chances. But I'm sure we're all in good hands with Rocket Man and Drumpf.

Sweet dreams, everyone.