Sean Mewhinney

Critics, No photo, People

Sean Mewhinney (December 30, 1944 – January 15, 2016)^[1]”In Memory of Mr. Sean Mewhinney December 30, 1944 – January 15, 2016“, Hollyburn Funeral Home, West Vancouver, retrieved 16 Feb 2017 is a Canadian freelance writer whose interests range from ancient astronomy, calendars, and chronology, to paleoclimatology. Since 1981, he has focused his scholarship and criticisms on the Velikovsky controversy.^[2]Aeon Volume V, Number 3 “Contributors

Ice cores

On ice cores, Mewhinney notes:^[3]Sean Mewhinney, “Ice Cores and Common Sense Part 1”, Catastrophism and Ancient History, XII:1

“Much useful information is also derived from analysis of the various impurities locked in the ice.”

“R.G.A. Dolby pointed out in 1977 what a marvelous opportunity the ice cores presented to test Velikovsky’s theory of massive recent global catastrophes. In response to a request from C. Leroy Ellenberger, Dolby submitted a paper to SIS Review. Only excerpts from that paper were published (II:2, December 1977, p. 31)”^[4]R.G.A. Dolby, “On the Possibility that Ice Cap Cores may form an Empirical Test of some of Velikovsky’s Ideas” (Letter), SIS Review, Vol II No 2 (Dec 1977) “Forum”.

“The prospect of being able to confirm the reality of Velikovsky’s claims of planetary catastrophe should be tremendously exciting to his supporters. Physical evidence of such catastrophes would bring the recognition and acceptance they seek from science. Velikovsky himself made numerous attempts to have scientific experiments performed to test his theories. But ice cores do not seem to have generated any interest in the Velikovskian literature for the next seven years.”

On Velikovsky’s Mars Catastrophe

Mewhinney writes:

“According to Immanuel Velikovsky, on at least three occasions in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Mars passed close enough to the Earth to disturb its motion, tilting its axis, generating tremendous earthquakes and storms, raining fire from the skies, and causing great loss of life. For many nights before and after each of these catastrophes, Mars must have been a spectacular sight in the sky. As he himself wrote, this “period is part of the well authenticated history of the lands of the eastern Mediterranean”.(1) That being the case, we should expect to find explicit references to these stupendous events by eyewitnesses in the records of their times. They recorded their wars, treaties, royal marriages, temple dedications, deeds of property, and the sale and purchase of sheep and goats. They could hardly have passed over these tremendous upheavals in silence. Too much has come down to us from this period to hide an event of this magnitude .”^[5]Sean Mewhinney, “Velikovsky, Mars, and the Eighth Century B. C. Part One”, Kronos Vol. XI No. 3 (Summer 1986)

Criticism

The publisher of The Velikovskian, Charles Ginenthal has devoted a whole issue of The Velikovskian, to criticizing Mewhinney’s work.^[6]Charles Ginenthal, “Sean Mewhinney’s Critique Based On Bombastic Subterfuge, Evasion And Denial”, The Velikovskian Vol 4 No 4 (1999) On the one hand, Ginenthal describes Mewhinney Internet paper “Minds in Ablation” as:

“.. of great enough importance, touching on certain fundamental questions related to Velikovskian research in a provocative way so that it should be put fully and uncensored on the record.”

And on his paper on ice cores, Ginenthal says;

“Sean Mewhinney, to his credit, has diligently researched and presented ice core evidence as a fundamental objection and contradiction to Velikovsky’s thesis”

On the other hand, Ginenthal’s lead article is titled:

“Sean Mewhinney’s Critique Based On Bombastic Subterfuge, Evasion And Denial”.

Selected bibliography

• “On the Year -687”, Kronos vol.6 No. 4 (Summer 1981)
• “El-Arish Revisited“, Kronos, vol.11 No.2 (Winter 1986) Online at www.pibburns.com
• “Velikovsky, Mars, and the Eighth Century B. C. Part One”, Kronos vol.11 No.3 (Summer 1986)
• “Velikovsky, Mars, and the Eighth Century B. C. Part Two”, Kronos vol.12 No.1 (Winter 1987)
• “Ice Cores and Common Sense Part I”, Catastrophism and Ancient History, vol.12 No. 1 (Jan 1990)
• “Ice Cores and Common Sense Part II”, Catastrophism and Ancient History, vol.12 No. 2 (Jul 1990)
• “Saturn and the Flood: The Ice-Core Evidence”, Aeon vol.5 No.2 (Apr 1998).

:First published as “Saturn and the Flood,” Appendix II to S. Mewhinney, “Ice Cores and Common Sense”” (private publication, 1989), and reprinted in Catastrophism and Ancient History XII:1 (January 1990), pp. 28-32. This slightly edited version is republished here because of its relevance to the Saturn theory which has been, and continues to be, discussed in the pages of this periodical.^[7]Sean Mewhinney, “Saturn and the Flood: The Ice-Core Evidence”, Aeon V:2 (Apr 1998)

• “Charting Imaginary Worlds: Pole Shifts, Ice Sheets, and Ancient Sea Kings”, Aeon vol.5 No.3 (Dec 1998)
• “Tree Rings“, 1996. Online at www.pibburns.com
• “The Uses of Pollen Analysis”, 1996. Online at www.pibburns.com
• “Minds in Ablation“, 1998. Online at www.pibburns.com

See also

• Charles Ginenthal, “Sean Mewhinney’s Critique Based On Bombastic Subterfuge, Evasion And Denial”, The Velikovskian vol. 4 No.4 (1999)
• “Imaginary Worlds: The Debate Heats Up”, Alasdair Beal, Charles Ginenthal & Sean Mewhinney, Aeon vol.5 No.3 (Dec 1998). Debating Mewhinney article “Charting Imaginary Worlds: Pole Shifts, Ice Sheets, and Ancient Sea Kings”, Aeon vol.5 No.3 (Dec 1998)
• “Imaginary Worlds: Still Hot”, Alasdair Beal”, Aeon V:6 (Aug 2000)