Graham Hancock

Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British author known for promoting pseudoscientific explanations of ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock argues that an advanced society with spiritual technology thrived during the last Ice Age until comet impacts triggered the Younger Dryas about 12,900 years ago. He maintains that survivors of the disaster shared their knowledge with hunter-gatherer communities in regions such as ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Mesoamerica, sparking the earliest known civilizations.

Born in Edinburgh, Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before joining British newspapers and magazines as a journalist. His first three books examined international development, including ''Lords of Poverty'' (1989), a well-received critique of corruption in the aid system. Beginning with ''The Sign and the Seal'' in 1992, he shifted to speculative accounts of human prehistory and ancient civilizations, publishing a dozen books that include ''Fingerprints of the Gods'' and ''Magicians of the Gods''.

Scholars describe Hancock's investigations of archaeological evidence, myths, and historical documents as mimicking investigative journalism while lacking accuracy, consistency, and impartiality. They label his work pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory because they see it as biased toward preconceived conclusions that ignore context, misrepresent sources, cherry pick, and omit counter-evidence. Anthropologist Jeb Card characterizes Hancock's writings as paranormal narratives and views his proposed Ice Age civilization as a modern mythic narrative focused on secret and spiritual knowledge, including alleged psychic abilities and communication with "powerful nonphysical beings" through psychedelic use. Hancock portrays himself as a culture hero challenging the "dogmatism" of academics, presenting his work as more valid than professional archaeology and as "a path to truly understanding reality and the spiritual elements denied by materialist science", even while citing science to support his ideas. He has not submitted his writings for scholarly peer review, and they have not been published in academic journals.

Hancock has written two fantasy novels and in 2013 delivered a controversial TEDx talk promoting the psychoactive drink ayahuasca. His ideas have inspired several films and the Netflix series ''Ancient Apocalypse'' (2022). He makes regular appearances on the podcast ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' to promote his claims. Provided by Wikipedia