Archaeology WARNING: They Secretly Found Antarctica 300 Years Before Us! - Graham Hancock
In a Nutshell
Graham Hancock argues a sophisticated seafaring civilization existed around 20,000 years ago and was destroyed by comet impacts during the Younger Dryas around 12,800 years ago, with survivors preserving advanced astronomical knowledge that later influenced Egypt, Sumer, and other early cultures. He points to ancient maps showing ice-age coastlines, the Great Pyramid's encoding of precessional mathematics at a 1:43,200 scale, and pre-agricultural sites like Göbekli Tepe as evidence mainstream archaeology ignores. Hancock warns modern civilization matches the mythological profile of this lost civilization and risks self-destruction through nuclear weapons or environmental collapse unless humanity develops greater consciousness and recognizes it is "all one."
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Graham Hancock opens by explaining this could be his final interview before heart surgery scheduled for the month, noting a journalist with personal animosity toward him has been attempting to publish a damaging story for over two years. He states he wanted to control his own narrative rather than allow that story to serve as the final word on his life and work.
Hancock argues most people believe civilization began approximately 6,000 years ago, but he presents evidence for a previous civilization existing around 20,000 years ago. He describes this as a golden age characterized by no violence or cruelty, where great healers and sages operated with extreme sophistication. According to Hancock, myths indicate this culture later shifted from its original purity and began imposing power on other societies globally. These same myths contain scientific information recording a gigantic cataclysm that all but wiped out the human race.
When asked what this means for contemporary life and the future, Hancock notes the recurring mythological theme that humanity brought cataclysm upon itself. He observes that modern civilization exhibits all the mythological markers of the next lost civilization and suggests we are likely to cause our own cataclysm unless we wake up.
Hancock describes his work as addressing a puzzle in the human past, proposing a major forgotten episode in human history. He refers to humanity as a species with amnesia, crediting Immanuel Velikovsky's book Mankind in Amnesia for the phrase. He finds mainstream archaeological explanations interesting but ultimately unsatisfactory in addressing specific problems he identifies in the historical record.
Hancock notes that decipherable written scripts exist only from the last 5,500 years at most. Before that period, archaeology relies solely on physical artifacts recovered from the ground. He argues that ancients left memories of their experiences through myths, traditions, and scriptures worldwide that record a gigantic cataclysm affecting humanity and nearly wiping out the species.
Hancock references the flood of Noah as one example among hundreds of similar flood stories from around the world. He notes archaeologists dismiss Plato's Atlantis narrative but argues Atlantis represents another memory of a global flood that destroyed a previous era of existence, leaving few survivors. The standard archaeological response claims these were local river floods that were exaggerated into global events.
Hancock states he is tired of this dismissal, arguing these myths represent the memory banks of our species—the only record available of the period before 6,000 years ago. He advocates examining these traditions for coordination with known scientific facts rather than scorning them as primitive superstition.
Hancock cites a 1960s academic study titled Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana, professor of the history of science at MIT, and Hertha von Dechend, professor of the history of science. These scholars identified numbers and imagery encoded in myths that relate exclusively to the precession of the equinoxes—an obscure astronomical phenomenon. Observing, recording, and predicting precession requires precise astronomical observations maintained over hundreds of years at minimum.
Hancock references ancient maps depicting the world as it appeared during the ice age, which archaeology dismisses as coincidence. He argues archaeology has failed to provide satisfying answers to fundamental historical questions.
Hancock explains the global cataclysm as a comet impact event. He emphasizes the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis represents mainstream science, though it faces severe academic criticism. The hypothesis proposes that approximately 20,000 years ago, a comet with a diameter of 100 to 200 kilometers entered orbit around the sun. This comet fragmented into thousands of pieces, with Comet Encke representing one approximately six-kilometer fragment.
Approximately 12,800 to 12,860 years ago, Earth encountered a storm of comet fragments. While no individual fragment matched the size of the object that caused the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, the fragments struck globally. Evidence has been found on the west coast of North America, in Belgium, and as far east as Syria. Most fragments exploded in the atmosphere rather than striking the ground, but air bursts from objects as small as 100 meters in diameter produce effects equivalent to substantial nuclear blasts.
The comet impact explains the Younger Dryas climate anomaly. At 12,800 years ago, Earth was emerging from the ice age with approximately 2,000 years of warming underway. Suddenly, the planet entered a massive deep freeze lasting about 1,200 years. This period coincides with the extinction of ice age megafauna including woolly mammoths, mastodons, and giant sloths standing 14 feet tall.
Hancock identifies a mysterious sea level rise occurring at the onset of the Younger Dryas, which contradicts expectations since cold phases should cause ice accumulation rather than melting. The comet impact theory explains this through heat and air bursts triggering ice sheet meltdown and a pulse of meltwater into oceans.
Hancock mentions an alternative theory proposing radical changes in solar activity as a contributing factor but finds the comet impact hypothesis more persuasive. He notes that regardless of the specific mechanism, nobody disputes that the Younger Dryas represented a global catastrophe with enormous effects.
Hancock explains he has been noticeably unwell since January or February with severe shortness of breath caused by a failed heart valve causing blood regurgitation. Without surgery, he estimates two to three years of remaining life, possibly five, but with severely compromised quality of life. He chose to conduct this interview before surgery despite the small risk of not surviving the procedure, specifically to preempt a journalist's planned negative story.
Hancock states he hopes people will recognize he is not the person portrayed by a small minority of archaeologists on social media. He rejects labels of being a grifter, hoaxer, or con man, emphasizing his 30-year commitment to this research and his sense of obligation and responsibility to pursue it.
Hancock clarifies that his position is not a belief system or cult but rather a puzzle regarding the past and the global concurrence of myths describing a cataclysmic event.
Hancock acknowledges the mainstream explanation attributes the Younger Dryas to glacial lakes in North America growing and overspilling ice dams, with water entering the Atlantic and disrupting the Gulf Stream. He does not dispute glacial lake involvement but argues those lakes filled at massive speed, indicating a more severe cataclysm than mainstream views acknowledge.
When Hancock began his research in the late 1980s and early 1990s, anatomically modern humans were believed to have existed for no more than 50,000 years. This has been revised with discoveries of 196,000-year-old remains from Ethiopia and 315,000-year-old remains from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. Anatomically modern humans have existed for at least 315,000 years.
Hancock questions why anatomically modern humans with equivalent brain size, skull capacity, and neurology waited more than 300,000 years to establish recognizable civilization. Evidence shows ancestors were aware of agriculture but largely chose not to practice it. City-based civilization, the type existing worldwide today, traces back only 6,000 years. He finds no satisfactory mainstream explanation for this delay.
Hancock specifies he does not propose an industrial civilization with cell phones or lunar travel. He suggests a different civilization that achieved peaks in navigation, ocean seafaring, and astronomy. Evidence includes ancient maps showing ice age geography and portalano maps demonstrating accurate relative longitudes.
Hancock references the Oronteus Finaeus map from 1531 showing Antarctica, which was not discovered by modern civilization until 1820. The map was based on older source maps, and the cartographer stated in his legend that he uncovered material previously hidden in darkness. Modern civilization did not solve the longitude problem until the mid-18th century with Harrison's chronometer around 1750-1760.
Hancock describes a black stripe visible in geological sections representing the Younger Dryas boundary layer dating to 12,800 years ago. This layer contains soot from wildfires, nanodiamonds, microspherules, platinum, and iridium—all signatures of cometary impact.
Hancock defines civilization fundamentally as the willing or unwilling organization of labor. He cites Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, dated to 11,600 years ago, as evidence. This site features large T-shaped megaliths weighing up to 20 tons with precise astronomical alignments. The site was deliberately buried by its builders and is now protected by a modern canopy.
At the time Gobekli Tepe was constructed, no agriculture existed in the region—its builders were hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists previously believed hunter-gatherers could not undertake such projects, assuming agriculture was required to generate food surpluses enabling specialist roles. Ground-penetrating radar indicates hundreds more pillars remain underground.
The ice age ended approximately 11,700 to 11,600 years ago, placing Gobekli Tepe's construction in the immediate warming period following the Younger Dryas. Within a thousand years of Gobekli Tepe's construction, agriculture became present throughout the region. Hancock notes dozens of similar sites exist across Anatolia in Turkey, representing a highly organized, sophisticated hunter-gatherer civilization.
Hancock argues that during the ice age, rational humans would avoid Northern Europe, northern North America, and Siberia due to frozen conditions. Optimal locations would be near the equator in regions including Mexico, India, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea—the best real estate during that period.
Hancock states there is no meaningful difference between humans from 300,000 years ago and those from 20,000 years ago beyond minor refinements in features attributable to natural selection. Jebel Irhoud humans are anatomically modern and not disputed as different from contemporary humans.
Around 11,600 years ago, people began building monuments that required large organized groups and advance planning. Structures like Göbekli Tepe could not be constructed without drawing out plans in advance. Most people believe civilization started around 6,000 years ago, but visible archaeological civilizations appear around 3,500 BC (approximately 5,500 years ago) in Sumer and Mesopotamia with the emergence of cities and writing. Similar developments occurred in Egypt roughly 200 years later, with new research pushing Egyptian civilization closer in time to Sumer.
High civilizations appeared around the same time window across multiple regions. The Caral-Supe civilization in Peru built pyramids 5,500 years ago. The Indus Valley civilization is roughly 5,000 years old. Caral, Aspero, Bandurria, and other Peruvian sites feature circular plazas in front of pyramids. These civilizations were not expected in Peru, where archaeologists typically focus on the much later Inca civilization at Machu Picchu (600 years ago).
The Caral-Supe pyramids used earthquake-proof technology with small stones placed in textile bags that allowed shifting during seismic activity. These structures were built by hunter-gatherer societies rather than agricultural civilizations, forcing archaeologists to reconsider their models. This reversal of the conventional model leaves room for a forgotten episode in human history.
Myths worldwide remember a golden age characterized by the absence of violence and cruelty, where great healers and sages worked. Powers such as telepathy and telekinesis, dismissed by modern science, were considered normal. This civilization emerged from shamanism and initially created something positive, but later deviated from its original purity by imposing power on others.
Ancient myths consistently state that humanity angered the gods through noise or irreverence, resulting in a flood intended to wipe the slate clean. The myths suggest humanity brought the cataclysm upon itself. Graham Hancock proposes that human beings should be considered among the forces of nature, acting as both a geological and psychic force filled with anger, hatred, suspicion, and mutual destruction.
Current civilization matches all mythological criteria for the next lost civilization. In 10,000 to 15,000 years, future archaeologists might dismiss evidence of global communication, moon landings, and ocean exploration as fantasy. Hancock suggests humanity might destroy itself through psychic dysfunction rather than external events like comets or solar activity. Nuclear weapons represent the capacity for mass species suicide.
Hancock criticizes the low consciousness level of world leaders who define everything in material terms. He argues that nationalism is an extension of tribalism that humanity needs to outgrow. He clarifies he is not advocating world government and identifies as an anarchist, meaning without government. He emphasizes that accidents of birth such as skin color should not define human relationships, and that humanity must move beyond the notion that people who look different deserve hatred or fear.
Humanity remains a childish species led by individuals with the mentality of deranged teenagers. Election outcomes favor the best communicators rather than the most qualified or ethical candidates, demonstrating how easily narratives can be manipulated.
The Sumerian flood myth predates and closely parallels the Noah story. The god Enki warns Atra-hasis to build a large boat, gather seeds of all things needed, and bring animals of every kind aboard. Hancock rejects the view that these myths are pure fiction and continues investigating their possible historical basis without claiming definitive proof of a lost civilization.
Anatomically modern humans reached Australia 60,000 years ago and Cyprus 14,000 years ago, requiring significant sea journeys on simple craft. Polynesian exploration across vast distances on outrigger canoes demonstrates that sophisticated navigation was possible without metal or engine-powered vessels.
Mainstream archaeology maintains that no advanced seafaring civilization existed before the historically recognized period. Maps showing Antarctica are dismissed as coincidences or theoretical constructs. Hancock argues that mavericks who challenge prevailing scientific consensus are necessary for societal progress, comparing science's current cultural position to that once held by religion.
The pyramid attributed to Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty has sides measuring roughly 750 feet with variations of only fractions of an inch. It weighs approximately 6 million tons and consists of more than 2 million stone blocks. The structure aligns to true north within three arc minutes (3/60ths of a degree), far more precise than compass north. The pyramid sits almost exactly on 30 degrees north latitude, one-third of the way between the equator and the North Pole.
The Great Pyramid incorporates Earth's dimensions at a scale of 1:43,200. Multiplying the pyramid's height by this factor yields Earth's polar radius. Multiplying the base perimeter by the same factor yields Earth's equatorial circumference. The number 43,200 belongs to a sequence of numbers that are multiples of 72 and appear throughout ancient mythology worldwide.
The scale factor 43,200 derives from the precession of the equinoxes, a phenomenon caused by Earth's axial wobble. The zodiacal constellations shift gradually, with each constellation lasting approximately 2,000 years. The full precessional cycle, known as the Great Year, lasts 25,920 years. The Great Pyramid's use of this specific number indicates knowledge of precession that was supposedly unknown until Hipparchus of Alexandria identified it around 2,000 years ago.
The incorporation of precessional mathematics into the pyramid's dimensions suggests the builders possessed knowledge inherited from an earlier period. Hancock proposes that organizations such as Egypt's Followers of Horus and Sumer's Abgalu (also called the Seven Sages) may represent long-lived groups that preserved and transmitted advanced knowledge across cataclysmic events, advising kings in the post-flood historical period.
Religions around the world have maintained traditions and priesthoods for thousands of years. The same could be true for preserving knowledge from the end of the ice age. One mechanism is to embed knowledge in wonderful stories that continue being told across generations. Another mechanism is to set up some kind of secret society operating behind the scenes to guide and steer society. Hancock is pursuing this avenue of investigation and will abandon it if he finds it unsatisfactory.
After the Fourth Dynasty, pyramid building collapses. The pyramid of Unas from the Fifth Dynasty in Saqqara has a stunningly beautiful interior with stars on the ceiling and incredible hieroglyphs, but the exterior is just a pile of dust that is hardly recognizable as a pyramid. This pattern continues through the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. Normally when human cultures create something they continue to work on it and it tends to get better and better, not worse and worse.
The pyramids at Giza were built to speak to human beings not just for a generation or a hundred years, but for thousands of years. They sit on the Giza plateau like an enormous question mark, calling toward them those who see them as something wonderful, magnificent, and mysterious.
The Great Pyramid is encoded with astronomical information that should not be there if the current model of the history of science is correct. This information was known much earlier and is encoded in the monument. There should not be a monument of this scale which incorporates information that was not supposed to be available to human beings for another 2,500 years.
If the information is the result of a deliberate decision, the scale chosen is part of a system found all over the ancient world. It is not a random number but a very specific number derived from a motion of the Earth itself from the precession of the Earth's axis.
The Great Pyramid is situated at a significant latitude, oriented to true north, and incorporates the measurements of the planet on a scale derived from the planet itself.
The current entrance to the Great Pyramid is through what is called the robber's tunnel or Mammoon's hole. In the 9th century, Khalifa Mammoon had a notion there would be an entrance in the northern face like other pyramids, but the Great Pyramid was completely covered with perfectly smooth limestone facing stones. When the facing stones came off later in an earthquake in 1301, the entrance became visible, but in the 9th century they did not know where the door was.
They broke in with sledgehammers and chisels. About 60 or 70 feet into the pyramid they heard something dropping in a hollow space. They headed toward that sound and entered the original corridor system. The subterranean chamber is 100 feet vertically beneath the base of the Great Pyramid, deep in the bedrock.
Ground penetrating radar has detected enormous structures under the second pyramid, the pyramid attributed to Khafre, Kufu's successor. The structures go hundreds of feet deep and involve spiral stairways. Archaeologists have dismissed this finding and refuse to investigate further, saying it is impossible.
Hancock suggests running the technology on known underground cities in Turkey like Kaymakli, where every room is already documented. If the technology accurately reproduces what is already known to exist there, then there can be confidence it is accurately reproducing what lies under the Giza pyramids.
The ancient Egyptians called Giza Rostau and saw it as an entrance to the underworld and the afterlife realm.
Being with large groups in the pyramid is difficult because the pyramid feels like a personality that withdraws when surrounded by crowds, making the place a dead space. When alone or with a very small group, sitting still in the low lighting and silence allows the monument to communicate.
Hancock feels validated by the Great Pyramid. Robert Bauval's Orion correlation theory recognizes that the three pyramids on the ground are laid out in the pattern of the belt stars of the constellation of Orion, making radical and important changes to understanding ancient Egypt.
If the first civilizations existed 20,000 plus years ago, it means humanity is not what it is all about. The whole human story is not inevitable and modern civilization is temporary like every other civilization. The Greeks called excessive pride hubris, which ultimately ends in nemesis.
Astrology ultimately says that humans are not isolated but are connected to the universe and affected by everything that happens in it. Hancock advocates keeping open to systems the ancients used which have been dismissed. He also advocates investigating telepathy and telekinesis, areas where mainstream scientists dismiss research as rubbish.
Humanity has a heritage of hundreds of thousands of years, possibly even older than 315,000 years. Modern science is a very young thing, perhaps 150 years old at most if traced back generously to the Greeks. It is like a pimple on the nose of hundreds of thousands of years of human experience.
Hancock has been involved with Marty Parssinen, an archaeologist from Finland, and Alceu Ranzi, a Brazilian geographer, conducting a dense LiDAR survey of Acre province in Brazil. LiDAR can see through the rainforest canopy and detect raised objects underneath, giving their shapes.
The Amazon was once thought to be an untouched wilderness. In the 1970s, at least a thousand structures were discovered. Current LiDAR work suggests there are thousands, possibly 3,000 to 6,000 structures, along with roadways that run for 100 kilometers or more. The Amazon once supported a population of millions with extraordinary clever management of rainforest soils through creation of man-made soil called terra preta, which is still used in Brazil today.
The geoglyphs are very precise rectangles, triangles, circles, and squares. When Hancock spoke with a local shaman on camera for his Netflix show, the shaman explained these places were made by their ancestors and are still important as places for shamanic gatherings to contact the world beyond.
All civilizations emerged from shamanism, the system of using altered states of consciousness to gain direct access to other levels of reality. Psychedelics are the most efficient way to enter the altered state. DMT, the active ingredient of ayahuasca, is very fast acting when vaped or smoked, producing a 10-minute journey to the other side of reality.
Ayahuasca is a clever technology. The brew contains DMT, which is not orally active because an enzyme in the gut destroys it. The ayahuasca vine contains a chemical that shuts that enzyme down, allowing the DMT to be absorbed orally and producing an experience that can last for hours and can be physically uncomfortable.
Imperial College is giving DMT by intravenous infusion using anesthesia technology to constantly top up the dose. Unlike other psychedelics, there is no tolerance with DMT.
With experienced use of ayahuasca, a very common report is a moral dimension where individuals are presented with their own life and the pain they may have caused to others. They suddenly see the agony their words caused from the other person's point of view. The experience cannot change the past but can prevent repeating negative actions in the future.
Hancock credits ayahuasca with helping him come to terms with his tendency toward swift anger. He has become gentler and softer, though he acknowledges it is a journey and not an overnight transformation. The main work with ayahuasca comes after the medicine, with how the experience is integrated into life.
Hancock was born in 1950 and landed in India in 1954. His father was a consultant surgeon who went as a missionary surgeon to the Christian Medical College in Vellore in south India. They lived in a tin hut. Hancock's mother lost three children aside from him. Her first child was born dead, then Hancock was born and lived, then the next two both died at the age of a year.
Hancock's father was eccentric and took him at age five to watch dissections of prisoners after hangings, which still occurred in India at that time. Hancock was presented with this as completely normal but now recognizes it as deeply traumatic. The gloom, misery, and despair that settled over the family during those years scarred him deeply.
Hancock experienced nightmares of loss, of suddenly being alone and completely isolated. He always felt like an outsider at school and everywhere he has been. He has concluded that he is here to be an outsider and to provide an alternative point of
Graham Hancock reflects on the real costs and benefits of being an outsider. He shares his childhood in India and how he didn't fit into the British school system, describing himself as a total failure at school who couldn't connect with any of it. His father had a good experience at boarding school and sent him to a boarding school in Durham in the north of England, which Hancock describes as the cruelest place with beatings going on. He was repeatedly beaten about the bare buttocks by a sadistic headmaster with a cane. Despite not fitting in with other kids at school, Hancock does not feel victimized for being an outsider. He feels it's a privilege and an opportunity to take a different view of things.
Hancock discusses words left unsaid with his parents. He'd like to tell his mother that he understands why she was obsessed with keeping him alive and making sure he did something with his life. He'd like to tell his father that while he was pretty crazy, he at least inspired Hancock to be eccentric. At age 75 (turning 76 in August), Hancock reflects on how getting older makes one realize how collapsed life actually is. He remembers being a teenager, a young man, and middle-aged, with the feeling that you're immortal and everything's going to go on forever with lots of time to do the things you want to do.
Hancock delivers a message that life is not long and there is not lots of time. If there are things you want to do with your life, start now and don't wait. Otherwise, you'll not have the opportunity. Life is a beautiful gift that the universe has given to us, and we are responsible for returning that gift by living a full life and contributing something worthwhile within the circumstances given to us. We need to learn to think for ourselves rather than being robots commanded what to do. Hancock emphasizes that it's a miracle that we are sitting here at all, the result of billions and billions of years of processes in the universe randomly bringing us together.
Hancock states he is not religious in the sense of belonging to any organized religion, but he pays close attention to the spiritual non-physical side of life. One thing he doesn't like about organized religion is that your relationship to the divine is mediated by some priest, rabbi, or mullah. For Hancock, what's important in spiritual inquiry is a direct relationship and direct experience rather than being taught something. This is why he found ayahuasca very valuable, as it enabled him to experience something absolutely impossible to experience in normal everyday life.
Hancock explains that we are so plugged into the physical world, dealing with the laws of physics and economics of our circumstances. If these become our total focus, we become shut off from everything else that may exist. Big psychedelics, when taken in the right circumstances with the right advice and sincere intention, can get you out of your own way and allow you to connect to a wider realm that you normally cannot connect to. He believes a wider realm exists, comparing it to how before the invention of the microscope, we had no idea bacteria existed. Psychedelics can be a technology for connecting with other levels of reality that daily life doesn't serve us to be connected with.
The conversation turns to DMT experiences. Hancock notes how similar people's experiences are on DMT. The host describes a friend's experience of being teleported into a 4K realm with creatures that were slightly animal and slightly human in anatomical structure, who were curious and inspecting him in a very colorful realm. Hancock finds it fascinating that inhaling a small chemical can completely take someone to another place, suggesting that our current perception of reality is as fragile as an inhale of a chemical. The difference between base reality and being with grasshopper people in 4K is literally an inhale.
Hancock states that when the realization comes that reality can shift with a chemical, it causes us to question the nature of reality itself. While psychedelic medicines are proving incredibly effective as therapeutic tools, there's another level to go: the inquiry into the nature of reality and what consciousness is. These medicines are very effective means to conduct that inquiry. Hancock applauds the work being done at Imperial College in London, with trials also planned at the University of California, San Diego, and in Costa Rica. People are reporting the same experiences without having compared notes yet.
Hancock argues that our preconceptions about the nature of reality should not limit our inquiry into the nature of reality. Currently, the default mode dismisses these experiences as rubbish. The preconception is that reality is material-based, that everything is reduced to matter, and even consciousness is reduced to the physical matter of the brain. We don't know this for sure. Consciousness is absolutely not understood. When people are injected with a small dose of DMT and go off into a completely other reality, that's at least as interesting as exploring other planets. Hancock believes we need to explore ourselves first before exporting our toxicity to other parts of the universe.
Hancock states we are not in shape as a species to start exploring the universe until we've overcome our toxicity and grown up. We need to know ourselves first. Psychedelics are one way to do that when used responsibly in a structured, careful, thoughtful way. He supports going to Mars and the moon but believes we should sort out things on this planet first. We should stop kidding ourselves that we can just escape this planet, make a complete hole of it, and go live somewhere else. We are capable of fixing everything. Human beings have enormous potential; we're just using a fraction of 1% of it at the moment.
When asked about leadership for human change, Hancock suggests we need to move past leaders. He acknowledges it's difficult to see how change happens one person at a time through word of mouth and experience. He notes that not everything in the ayahuasca garden is flowers—there is wrong behavior going on with people exploiting the medicine. Drug dealers are offering it irresponsibly to groups of a hundred or more, which Hancock calls really stupid. Ayahuasca is an intimate experience that needs to be done in a very small group. The medicines have downsides and problems, and they are extremely serious. Research and investigation should always precede any experience with psychedelics.
Hancock notes that psilocybin's effect on long-term depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are very important therapeutic breakthroughs that hopefully will open the door to further inquiries into the mystery of consciousness. Through ancient texts, Hancock has come to the judgment scene in ancient Egyptian funerary texts. The deceased enters a hall led by the goddess Maat, recognized by a feather in her headdress as the goddess of truth, justice, and cosmic harmony. At the end sits the god Osiris enthroned. There's a scale with the deceased's heart (representing the soul) in one pan and the feather of Maat in the other. You do not want your heart to outweigh the feather.
On the wall of the hall are 42 little figures called the 42 negative assessors. Each one asks a question such as "Did you steal? Did you kill?" The Ten Commandments are all in there and more. Ideally, you should answer no to all questions, but the ancient Egyptians understood how frail human beings are and that we make mistakes. The question is what we do when we make a mistake—learn from it or keep repeating it. Hancock reads into this that you were given an incredible opportunity to be born in a human body with a huge brain and enormous capacity. The question at that moment is what did you do with it—use it well or squander and waste it.
The host notes that Hancock's health situation has made him more introspective than he might have been 10 years ago. Hancock agrees he was still immortal 10 years ago. He states that every single human being on this planet could die in the next minute. Life is that fragile and sudden. What something like this does is focus the mind and make him wish to leave this life with as few regrets as possible, feeling he played a useful and positive role in the life of others and in some way a useful and positive role in the life of the species.
Hancock states he is very happy in a lot of ways. He is blessed to have lived the life he's lived, traveled the world, and had the adventures he has had. He is blessed with a beautiful and wonderful wife and companion, Samantha. They met when they were about 40 years old and haven't been apart more than 4 days in the entire 30 plus years since then. They do everything together. Samantha is a brilliant photographer, and they work together—she does the pictures while Hancock does the words. They have six children between them from three broken marriages, which could have been a disaster, but Samantha brought them all together into a group of loving, deeply committed siblings. They now have nine grandchildren, and Hancock credits all of it to Samantha.
Hancock reflects that through all the wonders of human history, romantic love is so central to our happiness. Love is what it's all about. Love is giving—giving yourself to somebody else and putting the other person first. Samantha does this with everybody, and others benefit enormously from that. Hancock believes if he hadn't met Samantha when he did and formed this joint life, he would have made nothing of his life. He needed a loving steering hand at that point.
Hancock is happy but notes things that make him unhappy. He doesn't understand why those bitterly opposed to his work want to present him as some kind of fraud or grifter, but he supposes it's an easy way to lazily dismiss somebody. Because he has considered the possibility of a lost civilization having an influence on other known historical civilizations, he has been accused of racism—taking away the authenticity of indigenous achievements. This has been thrown out without any receipts. With a multiethnic family, the racism abuse thrown at him constantly is extremely hurtful and painful. It's one of the few things he cannot forgive. It's unforgivable to use that lazy easy dismissal in a society where many people don't read anymore and will take it at face value.
Hancock feels blessed and lucky to have lived a fantastic privileged life, explored the world, and be surrounded by love. The host notes that what endures is the impact and the curiosity Hancock has provoked in people, allowing them to wander beyond the narrowness of our lives. A narrow life feels quite miserable where you can't be open-minded and explore. The host loves these conversations because even if not accepting everything as 100% true, the net benefit is expanding the mind to possibility. The host references graphs showing how beliefs and scientific understanding have changed even as recently as 2017, suggesting arrogance to assume we know it all today.
Hancock agrees things are constantly changing—every turn of the spade in an archaeological dig can change the whole story. This is not limited to archaeology but found in all fields where specialists tend to get locked into a particular reference frame and defend it territorially. It becomes like a war where they feel responsible to defend that territory against all comers and will use any dirty tricks needed. Hancock confirms he is happy but acknowledges that the racism assaults make him extremely unhappy.
The host raises the AI revolution, nuclear weapons, advanced intelligence, and humanoid robots on the horizon as a moment where "existential" feels appropriate. Hancock agrees our species is poised on the edge of an abyss. Our technology has outgrown our mentality, and we're not in good shape to deal with the challenges ahead. The chances of a nuclear exchange are just higher and higher with maniacal leaders. What we could learn from the past is that there's another way to live—that we don't have to do it this way.
Hancock is optimistic that human beings have made it through all these centuries despite terrible mistakes, citing the Second World War where 20 million Russians alone were killed. When he was born in 1950, the war was only 5 years away and hung over his generation. Today people aren't aware of the horror of global war in the way they were, which adds to the danger. Hancock believes a new approach to the nature of reality is really vital and we need to understand consciousness better. What he would wish for the human species is that we understand we are actually all one—incredibly diverse, full of creativity and differences, but all one. A mother in the middle of sub-Saharan Africa and a mother in New York City love their kids and hope for their kids in exactly the same way. As long as we're indoctrinated into divisive differences
As long as we're indoctrinated into this notion of divisive differences, differences between human beings are favored as part of human creativity as a species. However, divisive differences are what will kill humanity off. The message that comes down from the past is that a former civilization made a terrible mistake that resulted in a cataclysm that brought them down. Humanity needs to realize that can happen again, and that humans are most likely to be the cause of that cataclysm themselves.
There may be a danger of further comet impacts. The Younger Dryas comet fragments are called the Taurid meteor stream. Earth passes through it twice a year in June and in October-November. There are hundreds of deadly objects in the Taurid meteor stream, so it could happen. A much more likely way that civilization could be brought back almost to the stone age is nuclear war. Humans are going to do it to themselves unless they wake up and become more conscious of what it is to be a human being, of the privilege and the gift of being a human being, and how that privilege and gift belongs to every human being, not just to some.
Psychedelics can play a role in this awakening. Every world leader should have at least a dozen sessions of ayahuasca before they even apply for the job. This would give them the same feeling of oneness. Most of them wouldn't apply for the job at all, and those who did would probably do a much better job because they'd understand themselves better.
The most important thing is independent inquiry. People need to start thinking for themselves, and that's true of the past and everything else. Positive feedback from young people often comes in the form of thanks for being an example to question everything. Questioning the past can be a model for questioning everything.
Poor journalism is being used to smear names because questions are asked vigorously and reach a large audience. They won't smear your name if you don't reach a large audience because you're not worth their trouble. Having a bigger platform and more people watching and talking about you makes one clearer on principles and beliefs. It forces focus on who one is and what matters, where one is uncompromising in terms of conversations and how to conduct them. This gives a huge amount of clarity.
It is important that criticism doesn't make one bitter or resentful. It's easy to see how one can slip into bitterness and resentment when living with injustice or being mischaracterized. The confidence exists that the right thing is being done with one's life, doing no harm to anyone and putting ideas out there that are worth thinking about.
On the last day, what matters most is the love of family. Also important is the feeling that one did their best to carry out the task that fell upon them quite by accident. Being a current affairs journalist in the 1980s, there was no idea of going down the rabbit hole into the ancient world. It was a series of accidents that led to it, but having gone down it, there is very strong commitment to it.
Interviews are conducted by judging people as found. One example involved Brian Johnson, the longevity guy with radical beliefs about living forever. When asked what was thought of him before arrival, the response was having no idea because he hadn't been met yet. At the end of the interview, he expressed thanks because it was the first interview where the interviewer had no preconceptions, which meant he was relaxed and able to be himself.
The opinion is of someone really curious about humanity with an interesting idea that is really expansive for one's mind about what could have happened. The net benefit is expanding the mind in a way that makes one empathetic to other people and feel like we're not different. Having met today, there is a sense that we go back a long way, that consciously we're the same but in history and lineage we are one and the same. It also gives huge respect for other living things including ancestors. Instead of thinking of ancestors as monkeys that lived in trees, hearing these stories creates a huge sense of responsibility to leave the planet in a way that's good for future kids who will live 20,000 years from now and will look at our fossil records and wonder.
Those with a platform have a responsibility. We're living in a strange new world of communication inconceivable even at the beginning of the 1990s. This is where influence can be applied. If that influence is encouraging all that's good in the human race, then it's a wonderful thing. If it's encouraging all that's dark and negative and cruel and unkind and vicious in the human race, then it's not so good.
The question left for the next guest was whether there is a danger of sleepwalking into worshiping a machine god. The answer is that we're already worshiping a machine god. In the minds of many, science has already been elevated to occupy the space that was once occupied by religions. That is a belief in a machine fundamentally. Science should be seen as a tool, one amongst many tools that human beings have at their disposal. It should never be the only tool and it should never be worshipped.
The words "trust the science" should never be heard. The words should be "investigate the science." See whether it's right or not. See what else is available in the situation. Don't routinely, without thought, without question, trust the science. That's betraying science as well. One of the fundamental ethics of science is not to trust the science but to question and challenge the science.
There is danger of creating a kind of multi-dimensional machine which reaches into all aspects of human consciousness and controls us. Science worship must stop. Science must be put in its rightful place as an incredibly valuable tool which can do great things for human beings but which can also do terrible harm and damage.
When trust is placed in science, something stops being listened to. When putting trust in anything, there must be good reason to put trust in it. If trusting another human being with one's life, one really wants to know that person can be trusted. It's not enough to say they're a doctor so trust exists. More needs to be known about that doctor. Science is great and really useful, but we're not living up to the potential the universe gave us if we just go around trusting everything all the time. We're here to ask questions. That's what these enormous brains and incredible connectivity are for. Anybody who says don't ask questions is doing a great deal of harm.
The acronym DOA stands for Draio, but also stands for dreamers and open-minded people, with the A being about expanding awareness and the C being about feeling more connected. Hearing the story about the partner, the journey, and parents makes people spiritually connected in a way that's increasingly rare.
The book that put Graham Hancock on the map was Fingerprints of the Gods, where investigation began into the possibility of a lost civilization. Before that came The Sign and the Seal, which was about Ethiopia's claim to possess the lost Ark of the Covenant. As a reporter in the 1980s, a lot of time was spent in Ethiopia, coming across a tradition fundamental to all religious life in Ethiopia, which ended up putting him on the track of a lost civilization that led to Fingerprints of the Gods.
After Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis was written with Robert Bauval. Underworld involved seven years of scuba diving all around the world following up tips from local fishermen and local divers who had seen something interesting that looked man-made at a depth of 30 meters just offshore. They would take them there and large structures would be found. Underworld is about all those flooded continental shelves. 27 million square kilometers of continental shelf were flooded at the end of the ice age. That's Europe and China and a bit more combined. That was the best real estate on Earth 20,000 years ago and is all underwater today. There are signs that there was life there and civilizations there.
After Underworld, Supernatural was written, reissued in America under the title Visionary. This went deep into the shamanistic medicines, ayahuasca and psilocybin, and the whole notion that cave art in the painted caves is an art of visions. This is shamans who had entered deeply altered states of consciousness. They'd remembered what they'd seen, and when they came back to the everyday state of consciousness, they painted their visions in caves. This is the best explanation for cave art and why cave art is so similar all around the world and so similar to the visions of ayahuasca shamans to this day.
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