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    An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

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Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, March 2021










Forgotten Civilization:
New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age
Revised and Expanded Edition
By Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., with Catherine Ulissey

Inner Traditions
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
March 2021, 560 pages, 6 x 9 Paperback, US $24.99
Includes 16-page color insert and 38 b&w illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-64411-292-2

Reviewed by Brent Raynes
This newly revised and expanded edition of Forgotten Civilization was originally published back in 2012. That first book was authored solely by Yale trained geologist and author Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., a tenured faculty member at Boston University. This new edition however includes his wife Catherine Ulissey as a co-author because of her contributions to his ongoing research since their marriage in 2010.
Schoch proposes, based on findings from several different scientific fields, that back around 9700 BCE what he described as an agitated Sun brought the last ice age to a sudden end. He believes that solar outbursts brought about powerful electrical/plasma discharges upon our planet, resulting in severe climate change that involved increased earthquakes, volcanic activity, massive floods, and high radiation levels.
Schoch writes how this brought about a Solar-Induced Dark Age (SIDA) that set humanity back thousands of years, and he warns that such a solar outburst could happen again and could have a devastating impact upon our modern civilization. He reveals evidence that our sun is far more unstable than we previously realized.

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Censoring God: The History of the Lost Books (and other Excluded Scriptures)
By Jim Willis

Visible Ink Press
43311 Joy Road #414
Canton, MI 48187-2075
April 2021, 336 pages, 6 x 9 Paperback, US $19.95
120 b&w Photos and Illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-57859-745-1

Reviewed by Brent Raynes
Author Jim Willis has become a familiar figure to this reviewer. His books keep coming across my desk. The first was back in 2017 and it was entitled Supernatural Gods: Spiritual Mysteries, Psychic Experiences, and Scientific Truths. Very well researched, he explored quantum physics, particle entanglement, black holes, psychic phenomena – the theoretical and experiential implications of other realities, other worlds. With a master’s degree in theology from Andover Newton Theological School, he has been an ordained minister for over four decades, while his background includes education where he’s taught college courses in comparative religion and cross-cultural studies, and as I’ve seen for myself [I even interviewed him for this magazine for the September 2017 edition] he refuses to be forced into any mainstream tradition or perspective. He pursues a path where he’s led by credible seeming facts and clearly strives to pursue scientific evidence and reasoning, always tempered with objectivity. Always thinking for himself.

Censoring God: The History of the Lost Books (and other Excluded Scriptures) clearly distinguishes this ordained minister from the writing style and message that the vast majority of Christian ministers would be conveying. He delves into the bigger and all too often neglected picture examining the questions revolving around the fact that more than fifty ancient books were not included in the biblical canon and the historical, political and social reasons that this would have occurred. He describes how the Bible can be viewed as a political document as much as a spiritual one. He explores the significance of the Book of Enoch, how it seemingly disappeared and then later resurfaced in Ethiopia.

Disturbingly Willis examines certain of the biblical tests could have been used to justify the destruction of the sacred writings of conquered indigenous cultures whose perspectives did not match that of the Bible’s version accepted by the Church establishment. “We don’t have to agree with their insight,” Willis preaches. “They might not speak to our time and place. But to destroy them in the name of our particular brand of religious tradition is blasphemy.” He described how in current times we continue to have examples of such suppression. “Even as I write these words, Buddhist shrines are being destroyed in Afghanistan and ancient Christian places of worship flooded in Turkey.”

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Ghosts of Atlantis:
How the Echoes of Lost Civilizations Influence Our Modern World
By J. Douglas Kenyon

Inner Traditions
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
April 2021, 456 pages, 6 x 9 Paperback, US $25.00
Includes 8-page color insert and 272 b&w illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-59143-391-0

Reviewed by Brent Raynes
J. Douglas Kenyon, former editor and publisher of Atlantis Rising magazine and the author and editor of several books, such as Forbidden History and Forbidden Science, sifts through the global evidence mixed with inexplicable clues that may suggest how once upon a time, long, long ago, there existed remarkable ancient civilizations that were destroyed by catastrophes. He explores the myths of Atlantis, Lemuria and other legends for their possible clues. He casts a wide net in his determined search for the forgotten truth of these ancient worlds and their inhabitants, from archaeological findings, referencing anomalous ancient maps and technology, to crystal science, and, alas, he even explores the possibilities of time travel and ET influences.

In fact, chapter 27, Ancient Astronaut Theory, describes how our own Dr. Greg Little has previously detailed here in Alternate Perceptions how Erich Von Daniken, who authored Chariots of the Gods in 1968, was not the origin of ancient alien theories and beliefs. No, no, it goes back much further. Greg wrote about Oahspe, a huge volume that resembles the Bible on the outside but on the pages within describes how “hundreds of millions” of extraterrestrials exist and how some have visited earth. It was produced by a John Ballou Newbrough, a New York dentist, who claimed he produced this volume via a form of spirit induced “automatic writing.” It was published back in 1882. However, as Greg additionally pointed out, there too was the famous 18th century Swedish polymath Emmanuel Swedenborg who back in 1758 produced a volume entitled Earths in the Universe, describing his own contact experiences with ETs that would physically appear to him. Hindu scriptures at least four thousand years old even describe flying ships with death rays. But, as Greg pointed out, as to whether they were extraterrestrial or from right here is unclear, but certainly the descriptions sound very advanced technologically.


Tuesday, November 12, 2024