The Mystery of the Myths: 1. A Species with Amnesia Summary and Analysis

Tales of a great deluge causing global catastrophe are virtually universal over all lands. These myths are themselves a record of planetary disaster. The "Echoes of Our Dreams" in Chapter 24 recount stories of Gilgamesh in Sumer and Mesopotamia's Utnapishtim saved in a boat, Noah in the Ark, and Fourth Sun destruction by torrential rain and floods in Central America, Chibcas, and Chia in Colombia, and other tales from Ecuador, Brazil and Chile. Other stories are told by Inuit in Alaska, Luiseno in California and other indigenous peoples. More than 500 stories are told through the world about mankind's near annihilation by deluge and subsequent repopulation.

Chapter 25, "The Many Masks of the Apocalypse" describes a cataclysm in the Iranian experience of a devastating winter that covers the...