Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky read voraciously. His interests spanned topics like mythology, ancient history and astronomy. Quite apart from his mythological reading, he noticed a peculiar, long-ignored anomaly in the world's oldest historical and astronomical records. Without fail, ancient man referred to the planet Venus in some way as a comet in the sky. Velikovsky paired this observation with his myth-based theory that Venus was ejected out of the planet Jupiter, which is almost certainly wrong. Shunned by the orthodoxy, Velikovsky nevertheless confounded them with several interesting predictions which, one by one, came true. It seems that while Velikovsky was wrong about Venus' origin, he had stumbled upon some legitimate evidence that Venus is the most gonzo planet in the solar system. Dr. Velikovsky strikes again!
Back in the 1950s, when all this happened, Venus was assumed to be a pleasant, placid little orb a lot like Earth, though maybe a little cloudy. It was confidently assumed that Venus' temperature was a mild-mannered room temperature. Velikovsky enraged those who knew better when he asserted that Venus was a fiery young planet. Once they quit snickering and got a chance to investigate the matter, the scientists were chagrined to find that Venus was geologically pristine, with almost no craters, and certainly no old ones. In addition, it turns out that the temperature on Venus is hot enough to melt lead. In fact, since then, Venus has been described as “a giant volcano”—sort of what you might expect from a brand new planet, huh? Dr. Velikovsky strikes again!
Velikovsky's reading indicated to him that Venus made a close pass by Earth before settling into its present orbit. Thus he predicted that Venus' rotation would be disturbed. Venus was soon discovered to have a messed-up rotation. That's right—Venus rotates backwards, which means it is upside-down. And, its orbital period is exactly five-eighths that of Earth, which means every four years, at its closest approach, Venus turns the same face to us. This is called a resonance lock, and is enormously supportive of Velikovsky's theory. It is almost certain that Venus and the Earth used to be closer together for this lock to form. Velikovsky didn't predict the resonance lock, but can you imagine the look on his face when it was announced? Dr. Velikovsky strikes again!
Velikovsky's heresy was twofold. Not only did he believe Venus was a planetary newcomer, but he insisted that gravity, on its own, was insufficient to explain the dynamics of the solar system and the universe: electromagnetism also played a fundamental role. In the '50s this was sheer poppycock, but of course now we know he was right about all of that.
Velikovsky predicted that Jupiter would be found to emit radio noise as a consequence of being an electromagnetic body. When this prediction came true, Arthur C. Clarke sent him a telegram. It read, “Dr. Velikovsky strikes again!”
It seems Velikovsky had Einstein's ear, and the two men would chat periodically about scientific matters. It is often noted that Einstein acted very generously toward the dozens of crackpots who continually sought him out to validate their pet theories, and the skeptics' community firmly lumps Velikovsky into this camp. Einstein himself was quite unreceptive of Velikovsky's planetary theorizing until the news about Jupiter's radio noise. This latest success so impressed the old Jedi that it caused him to begin rereading Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision. Eight days later, Einstein died with the book open on his desk.
What no one can figure out is how Velikovsky got so many predictions right from his crack-brained theories. The skeptics snort that even a broken clock is right twice a day. But the more obvious and interesting answer, of course, is that at least some of his theories aren't so crack-brained after all. There are actually two observations in astronomical literature (one from the 1500s and one from 1686) of Venus displaying a weird comet-like appearance. It is called the Maedler Phenomenon, and Velikovsky doesn't seem to have been aware of it. What is its origin? What process does it signify? And how did its rediscovery by Velikovsky in the records of ancient man lead to so many correct predictions? No reputable scientist dares to look into it, for Velikovsky's name is still the kiss of death.
Recommended Reading: Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky; Carl Sagan and Immanuel Velikovsky by Charles Ginenthal; Scientists Confront Scientists Who Confront Velikovsky ed. by Lewis M. Greenberg and Warner B. Sizemore.
(A version of this piece may be found in our book Gonzo Science: Anomalies, Heresies, and Conspiracies , along with an interview with arch-Velikovskian Charles Ginenthal.)