Filling in for Art Bell, George Noory welcomed comparative mythologist David Talbott and Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill for a discussion about the electrical nature of the universe and past cataclysms. The two were both inspired by the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky who proposed that the planet Venus was once a comet that caused havoc as it came through our solar system.

While Velikovsky believed that this event took place around 1500 BC, Talbott suggested that his chronology was off and the cataclysm occurred much earlier, during the first civilizations of humankind, and was documented in stone artifacts and mythology.

Thornhill outlined a scenario in which Mars was hit by a gigantic "thunderbolt" of electrical discharge when a large object came near it. Evidence for this includes an impact "scar" on the planet's surface that is over 300 miles wide, he said. Thornhill also argued that electricity is the strongest force in the universe, surpassing gravity and magnetism. Electricity connects one part of the universe to another and can offer a coherent way of understanding the cosmos, he added.

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Sunday March 11, 2007