Magicians of the Gods

As with Fingerprints of the Gods and Supernatural, which are among my all-time favourite books, Graham Hancock has managed once again to arouse awe and wonder at the mysteries of our past.
Yet, I won't dwell on the reasons that make this such a great book since there are already so many reviews that do that quite thoroughly, and I advise the reader to take a look at them. Instead, I'd like to focus on an aspect that Graham doesn't seem to have taken into consideration—which hasn't prevented me from leaving five well-warned stars.

From the old myths and legends about these magicians—or sages—of the Gods mentioned throughout the book, it seems to be taken for granted that they were benign beings who brought civilization to mankind, save them from their primitive state, and taught them arts, sciences and agriculture. The catastrophes that occurred afterwards, especially the one Graham focuses on which occurred during the Younger Dryas, were only the punishment for having strayed from the right path.
Now, considering what has been going on in the world lately, with all these billionaire “philanthropists” and NGOs claiming to be saving us from climate change, diseases, poverty, etc, but whose real intentions have become rather suspicious—to say the least—my point is, Are we sure that these magicians of the Gods were nothing but a very ancient version of Bill Gates?
According to Graham, the magicians may have built their megaliths to warn us of a future impact, yet later on he admits that if another cataclysm occurred today the only people who could survive it would be the few tribes of hunter-gatherers remained, since they would know how to fend for themselves in the wild without the technologies of the “civilised” man.

I admit that the mystery behind the construction of the well-known huge megalithic structures is indeed quite fascinating, especially because it makes us wonder how their creators, who are supposed to have been little more than savages, could have built them.
But my point is, why bother in the first place if the only peoples who could make it through would be the pigmies and the like? Why do we always have to take for granted that the ability to build huge structures and know sciences is a sign of superiority, as opposed to living a humble life connected to mother nature, as “primitive” hunter-gatherers do? Isn't that actually even more technological?

It's also interesting to note that the prophet Enoch, as mentioned in Magicians, criticizes the Nephilims for teaching mankind evil arts, such as eye make-up. Graham belittles Enoch as a rather bigot shaman who didn't want to adapt to the more advanced way of the so-called “giants”, whom he thinks were simply more technologically advanced people rather than fantastic beings. But could Enoch have been right after all?

We also have another couple of significant episodes from the Bible—these ones not mentioned in Magicians—that makes me wonder whether the technology of agriculture was actually a good thing at all.
The first is in Genesis 3:19 where God basically curses mankind with agriculture after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit (He says to them, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread”).
The second is when God favours the offering of an animal from Abel rather than some plants from Cain. This might suggest that God preferred humans to be hunter-gatherers rather than farmers.

I'm not claiming that the magicians were bad, mind you. These are just random thoughts that popped into my mind while reading this book, and I don't have a clear opinion on all this myself. But perhaps we should consider this avenue as well.

I thought this book was pretty interesting, but probably included some giant leaps. However, it has me interested enough to want to visit the channeled scablands in Central Washington this summer.

On one hand, Hancock is an iconoclast that is anxious to move archeology forward and make bold claims that, if proven true, would uproot much of what we take for granted about the history of modern humans. He is tireless in his search for evidence to back up his theory of a massively disruptive comet hitting the Earth about twelve thousand years ago. Much of what he finds is very convincing. He's creative and methodical and draws from many experts to back him up.

On the other hand though, he has a parallel theory that a meteor will return and hit the Earth sometime around 2040. He bases this on a variety of markers left by cultures around the world. The way he describes the evidence and the event is intriguing, but ultimately not very scientific.

I think this should be two books, a serious scientific book with shows evidence for a meteor hitting the Earth twelve thousand years ago, the societies that may have existed before then, and their influence on the post-catastrophe world. The second book would be could be a more speculative description of the return of the meteor in the near future. This second book would probably be less convincing but still interesting in a Nicolas Cage sort of way.

Magicians of the Gods is definitely worth reading. You'll learn a lot about some interesting archeological sites. The writing is very engaging and there is probably a lot here that will eventually make its way into the mainstream.