How old is Egypt’s Great Sphinx?

Controversial author Dr. Robert Schoch, Yale-trained geologist and professor of natural sciences at Boston University, is famous for re-dating its construction to 7000-5000 B.C. His well-researched conclusion, resting on the known physics of limestone weathering, enraged establishment Egyptologists who adamantly proclaim Pharaoh Khafre’s subjects carved the iconic human-beast around 2,500 B.C. Faced with physical evidence argumentsthat challenged their more circumstantial archeological  dig evidence, they countered that Neolithic man was neither socially nor technically advanced enough to carve such a stupendous monument. 

Accepting the challenge, Schoch responded by embarking on an intellectual quest to examine ancient civilizations and monuments world-wide, slowly collecting evidence over two decades of globe-trotting which suggests that the currently accepted history of Holocene man needs rethinking. Civilization wasn’t one smooth, linear climb up from grunting cave men to skinny latte drinkers; instead, natural catastrophes both terrestrial and celestial occasionally destroyed relatively advanced societies and forced humans to relearn arts and skills.  

The Parapsychology Revolution is the latest step in Shoch’s intellectual journey to the edge of established science, sparked when his co-author shared her copy of Lynn McTaggert’s parapsychology best-seller, The Field. Experienced in researching potential paradigm-busters and unafraid of controversy, Schoch decided to examine the scientific evidence for psi phenomena as well. 

 In this “concise anthology of paranormal and psychical research,” Schoch and Yonavjak present their take on the history, debates, achievements and shortcomings of a century-plus of research into ESP and psychokinesis (PK), the ability of the mind to affect matter. In an extended 57-page Introduction, they explain why people should take the paranormal seriously – because “there is solid evidence for at least some paranormal phenomena.” Then they serve up, with a side of somewhat dry, uneven commentary, excepts from fourteen seminal papers/articles which collectively tell the story of parapsychology’s frustratingly slow, two-steps forward, one-step-back march to academic respectability and grudging, partial acceptance by the scientific community.   

The anthology opens with historical writings by the SPR’s Edmund Gurney (on crisis apparitions), the ASPR’s William James (on the mediumship of Mrs. Piper), and ESP pioneer J.B. Rhine (on pioneering ESP tests at Duke in the 1930s). It closes with contemporary writings by William Roll (on poltergeists, electromagnetism and consciousness), Marcello Truzzi (on unfair practices of skeptics), and Navy Commander L.R. Bremseth who reviews the history of the U.S. government’s Stargate remote viewing program and calls its termination a “missed opportunity” to more fully explore what he concludes was an effective spying technique. Robert Jahn, Larry Dossey, Jessica Utts, Nobel Laureate Charles Richet and others also contribute to this academic smorgasbord. 

Schoch originally approached maverick claims for an “older Sphinx” with considerable skepticism, but ended up convinced by the evidence, skeptics be damned. To his credit, he does the same here. That doesn’t mean he believes noisy spirits of the dead are producing PK, or Atlanteans or aliens carved the Sphinx. His conclusions, as usual, are circumscribed and modest but eminently defendable and persuasive.