dogon sirius debunked

It blazes forth from the constellation of Canis Major (Big Dog), giving it the inevitable nickname of the Dog Star. The stars in this group are too young only a few tens of millions of years for planets with life and civilization to have developed. The inspiration for this claim was a star map produced by Betty Hill while under hypnosis. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. Sagan has recounted numerous examples from Arizona and New Guinea -- and other scholars have noted similar instances -- of the rapid assimilation of new stories, songs and lore into the eclectic mythology of Stone Age peoples. "Legends of the Dogon: belief in a long-solved James, P., N. Thorpe, and I. J. Thorpe. He also gives public talks on astronomy and related fringe topics to international audiences. Such words would have more persuasion behind them (to me they're merely an emotional appeal to sympathy) if Temple had ever admitted anywhere in print that he had found (or had been shown) any errors in his book or articles or public statements -- but if he has done so, I haven't become aware of them. <> The Nine also claim to be extraterrestrial beings from the star Sirius. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. In 1965, Arthur Young gave Robert Temple a French article on the secret star lore of the Dogon, an article written by two French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. From the findings of Van Beek and the authors of Ancient Mysteries, it is clear that Griaule himself was responsible for the creation of a modern myth; one which, in retrospect, has created such an industry and near-religious belief that the scope and intensity of it can hardly be fathomed. A critical analysis has to investigate the accuracy of such claims, so as to judge the validity of the book's conclusions. And this is what Mr. Oberg has done." The book presents the hypothesis that the Dogon people of Mali, in West Africa, preserve a tradition of contact with intelligent extraterrestrial beings from the Sirius star system. Though Temples work was challenged, at its core lay the original anthropological study of the Dogon by Griaule and Dieterlen, who describe the secret knowledge of Sirius B and Sirius C in their own book The Pale Fox. But didn't Isaac Asimov check over the book for just such factual errors, as the publisher claims? If I were alone in picking on Temple's thesis, he might be able to argue a case for ad hominem persecution. The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). The basic thesis is this: the Dogon (who live in the African nation of Mali, near the border with Burkina Faso) allegedly have long possessed arcane astronomical knowledge that should have been impossible for them to discover without modern telescopes. In 1967, Temple began work on the thesis that became The Sirius Mystery. WebAlso there is the fact that they described the Nommo as fish people and you find all kinds of half man/half fish - serpent imagery all over the Mediterranean. Swift appears to have taken the idea of two close (although not necessarily small) moons of Mars from Voltaire's novel Micromegos in which an to be the best candidate evidence available today for man's past contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilization." Webplanet earth. In a response published in Fate magazine, he denied intending that: "I refer, entirely in passing, to the Greek word for siren and its similarity to the word for Sirius, drawing absolutely What about the fact that Sirius was recorded to be red in ancient records? This of course would destroy the modern influence explanation totally. If a European had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. Beware of mood swings. Nigel Appleby whose book Hall of the Gods was withdrawn from publication has admitted to being tremendously influenced by Temples Sirius Mystery. Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. Griaule did not attempt to explain how the Dogon could know "Robert Temple on three different occasions, by mail and phone, attempted to get support from me and I steadfastly refused," Asimov wrote. van Beek, Walter E. A. The Nine became part of the UFO and New Age mythology and many claim to be in contact with them. When Walter van Beek studied the Dogon, he The biggest challenge to Griaule, however, came from anthropologist Walter Van Beek. These same myths, Temple claims, identify a planet circling that star as the home of Nommo, an alien creature who founded the Dogon civilization. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. In 1952, Young was one of nine people present during the first contact with the Council, an event initiated by Andrija Puharich, the man who brought Israeli spoonbender Uri Geller to America. by Liam McDaid. As an example, Sagan believes that because the Dogon seem to have no knowledge of another planet beyond Saturn which has rings, their knowledge is therefore more likely to have come from European, and not extraterrestrial, sources.[11]. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. This is true, but Sirius has about 25 times the luminosity of the Sun. E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. 2000. Investigating Clearly the Dogons (in common with many other cultures) were fascinated by Sirius, probably because its position in the sky was crucial to successful agriculture (it's the only star they have a name for.) WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. "Lecture 1st Such is the case with the Dogon a West African people and their supposed advanced and inexplicable knowledge of the stars Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius A is the brightest star in our sky. WebRe: Dogon Sirius claim debunked - Graham Hancock Official Website Mysteries Taken from [ library.thinkquest.org] According to the Dogon priests, Sirius is orbited by a tiny secret star that they refer to as 'po', which traces an elliptical path around Sirius taking 50 years to Journalist and skeptic James Oberg collected claims concerning Dogon mythology in his 1982 book UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries. Such criteria suggest that these periodic festivals have been going on for at least 600 years and possibly much longer. Sagan, Carl. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. The Sirius mystery, though, remains of great interest to many researchers today. A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, It seems clear that the Dogon did indeed get their information from other cultures. (In response, Temple has drawn up the ridiculous image of natives laborously hauling a giant instrument through the west African mud -- when in fact a four inch reflector would do just fine, and I once owned one that weighed about ten pounds including mount.) stream It is important to look at the assumptions and implications of the claims made about the Dogon. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. A revised edition was published in 1998 with the new subtitle New scientific Is Sirius a Triple Star?, Adams, H. H. 1983. Ideas originally published in 1948, reprint (Oxford University Press 1997). Subscribe to eSkeptic: our free email newsletter and get great podcasts, videos, reviews and articles from Skeptic magazine, announcements, and more in your inbox once or twice a week. She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. But my own measurements, which But even after hundreds of pages of myths and interpretations Temple fails to make a connection between ancient Egypt and the modern Dogons; instead he "assumes" it. "At first glance," Sagan admitted, "the Sirius legend of the Dogon seems I have never completely understood Temple's complaint to "Astronomy" about my critiques: "I could not object to a review of a book which was fair, honest, or intelligent, no matter how critical or damning it might be of the opinions expressed in the book or the quality of work behind the book. Another claim: that in Egypt the oasis of Siwa and the ancient Nile City of Thebes are both equidistant from the shrine city of Behdet, in the delta -- and the same exact distance, too. Precise maps at the NASA space photo interpretation lab in Houston list "Behdet" as an ancient name for modern Damanhur, located today at 31.03 degN, 30.28 degE, i.e., more than a hundred kilometers away from where Temple locates his "Behdet" at 31.50 degN, 31.23 degE. of course, no evidence for this special eyesight, nor for other equally Temple claimed that the Dogon knew about two smaller stars that are closely related to Sirius Sirius B and Sirius C. The mystery was how they had obtained this knowledge, as these companion stars cannot be seen by the unaided eye. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. A review of the astronomical, cultural, and anthropological sides of this issue might be timely. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". Liam McDaid is Astronomy Coordinator and Professor of Astronomy at Sacramento City College. One unproven aspect of the reported Dogon knowledge of the Sirius system is the assertion that the Dogon knew of another star in the Sirius system, Emme Ya, or "larger than Sirius B but lighter and dim in magnitude." WebRe: Dogon Sirius claim debunked - Graham Hancock Official Website Mysteries Taken from [ library.thinkquest.org] According to the Dogon priests, Sirius is orbited by a tiny secret star that they refer to as 'po', which traces an elliptical path around Sirius taking 50 years to African thought. amphibious aliens or telescopic vision due to melanin. Figure 1. They point out that the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians used spherical lenses6 (even though they are a bad choice to use in telescopes try seeing an image through a glass bead). According to Thomas Bullard, van Beek speculates that Griaule There are innocent available explanations: typographical error or miscopied notes, for example. It was popularized in an episode from the In Search of television series narrated by Leonard Nimoy. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? This step was taken by others, particularly Temple, in the Sixties and Seventies. The Dogon people had been visited by European visitors many times, most notably when they hosted French astronomers looking to find a good vantage point to observe the solar eclipse of 1893. On top of that, there is another star, Sirius B, orbiting at an average distance of about 20 AU (1 AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun). They dont have telescopes or other Unfortunately he neglects to mention other bas-reliefs which show "fish-deer" and "fish-lions" and which consequently suggest that the fish motif was symbolic, not descriptive. Temple's book mentions the absorption of a Christ-figure into the traditional Dogon Pantheon, obviously a recent addition. Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. Damanhur is 521.0 km from Siwa and 625.9 km from Thebes, a deviation of 20%. Some astronomers speculate that the white dwarf Sirius B might have been a flaming red giant only 2000 years ago although current astrophysical theories decree that any such transformation in less than 100,000 years is impossible. companion" (Bullard). Paranormal, ed. The tribe has a periodic Sirius festival called the "Segui" ceremony; each celebration lasts several years (the last was in 1968-72.) The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. Moon is traveling through Cancer today. based his account on an interview with one person, Ambara, and an On this episode of MonsterTalk we chat with archeologist Dr. Ken Feder about giants, biblical archeology and one of the biggest hoaxes in American history. The assyrians called Sirius Kal-bu-sa mas (the Dog of the Sun) and in Chaldea, it was known as Kak-shisha (The Dog Star That Leads) Known History of the Dogon According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. "[10] Ridpath states that while the information that the Dogon probably gained from Europeans to some extent resembles the facts about Sirius, the presumed original Dogon knowledge of the star is very far from the facts. But it is apparent that Temple was not aware of Van Beeks devastating research. He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. The bad news is that the pseudoscience websites were in seventeen different languages. Press J to jump to the feed. When I set him a draft of a sharply critical review written for Astronomy magazine, he replied with a blistering counterattack in a letter to my editor: "A virulent attack against my honesty, integrity, and intelligence," he called my review. No such nebula is seen. However, doubts have been raised about the reliability of Griaule and Dieterlen's work on which The Sirius Mystery is based,[4][5] and alternative explanations have been proposed. Temple offered another line of reasoning. himself and his loose speculations on what he learned from Griaule, who for some unknown reason from a planet orbiting The only mystery is how anyone could take seriously either the notion of The Dogon Revisited Zeta Reticuli 2 (with about the same temperature and mass as the Sun) is another candidate. Through the carbon dating of old ritual masks researchers have established the antiquity of the Segui ceremonies. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. by Liam McDaid. The interval between ceremonies may be forty, fifty or sixty years. The expedition, led by Henri Deslandres, stayed in the field for five weeks, and it is reasonable that during this time many contacts with the locals took place, and that relatively modern astronomical knowledge was then transferred. 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