Graham Hancock: British author and former journalist who has spent 30+ years investigating the possibility of a forgotten advanced civilization predating recorded history. Best known for Fingerprints of the Gods and his Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse.
What this episode covers
Hancock argues that a sophisticated seafaring, astronomy-savvy civilization may have existed around 20,000 years ago and was largely destroyed by the Younger Dryas comet impact roughly 12,800 years ago. He points to ancient flood myths, precession-encoded numbers in mythology, anomalous old maps showing Antarctica, and the Great Pyramid's encoding of Earth's dimensions as evidence mainstream archaeology dismisses. The conversation moves from sites like Gobekli Tepe, the Amazon geoglyphs, and Giza into Hancock's personal life: a traumatic childhood in India, his heart condition, and his use of ayahuasca and DMT to explore consciousness. He closes with a warning that modern civilization 'ticks all the mythological boxes' for the next collapse, likely self-inflicted through nuclear war, unless humanity matures.
The guest's own work
Fingerprints of the Gods
Graham Hancock
“the book that put me on the map was Fingerprints of the Gods. And that's the book where I really investigate begin to investigate the possibility of a lost civilization.”— Graham Hancock
The Sign and the Seal
Graham Hancock
“Before that came the sign and the seal which was which was about Ethiopia's claim to possess the lost ark of the covenant.”— Graham Hancock
Keeper of Genesis
Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval
“there's a book that's not here which is keeper of genesis that I wrote with Robert Bval”— Graham Hancock
Underworld
Graham Hancock
“underworld. This was seven years of scuba diving that Sam and I did all around the world... underworld is about all those flooded continental shelves.”— Graham Hancock
Supernatural
Graham Hancock
“Then after underworld I wrote supernatural which is that one there which has been reissued in America under the title visionary.”— Graham Hancock
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Mankind in Amnesia
Immanuel Velikovsky
“I need to give credit to Emanuel Velikovski who wrote a book called mankind in Amnesia. I think we are a species with amnesia.”— Graham Hancock
Hamlet's Mill
Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend
“A very important academic study published in the 1960s a book called Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santilana, professor of the history of science”— Graham Hancock
Big reveals from this episode
- Opens by admitting he may not survive his upcoming heart surgery this month, making this potentially his last interview.
- Reveals a failed heart valve is causing blood to regurgitate; he can't climb three stairs without exhaustion.
- Says a hostile journalist has been trying to publish a story smearing him for over two years, prompting him to speak now.
- Cites the Oronteus Finaeus map (drawn 1531) showing Antarctica, which mainstream science says wasn't discovered until 1820.
- Claims the Great Pyramid encodes Earth's polar radius and equatorial circumference at a scale of 1:43,200.
- Discloses his mother lost three children besides him, and his surgeon father had him watch dissections of executed prisoners at age five.
- Describes being repeatedly caned on the bare buttocks by a sadistic boarding-school headmaster.
- Says he would require every world leader to take at least a dozen ayahuasca sessions before applying for the job.
Worth remembering
- The Younger Dryas comet broke into thousands of fragments around 12,800 years ago, hitting sites from North America to Belgium to Syria.
- Anatomically modern human remains date back 315,000 years (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco), yet city-based civilization only appears ~6,000 years ago.
- Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is ~11,600 years old, built by hunter-gatherers using T-shaped megaliths weighing up to 20 tons.
- The Great Pyramid is aligned to true north within 3/60ths of a single degree (3 arc-minutes).
- The precession of the equinoxes completes its cycle in about 25,920 years, the source of the number 43,200 (and 72).
- LiDAR surveys suggest the Amazon once held millions of people in city-sized communities linked by 100km+ roadways and man-made 'terra preta' soil.
- Ayahuasca works because the vine contains an MAO inhibitor that lets orally-ingested DMT be absorbed instead of destroyed in the gut.
- Imperial College researchers use IV DMT infusion (anesthesia-style) to keep subjects in a sustained peak state, exploiting DMT's lack of tolerance buildup.
- Hancock and his wife Samantha blended six children from three previous marriages into one close family.
- His career began accidentally as a 1980s current-affairs journalist before The Sign and the Seal led him to lost-civilization research.