flem-ath

Charles Hapgood first came to public attention in the mid-1950s with his theory of earth crust displacement, a radical geological idea which attracted the curiosity and support of Albert Einstein.

The Einstein-Hapgood correspondence is a forgotten page in the history of science. Rose and I obtained these letters (ten from Einstein to Hapgood) from Albert Einstein’s Archives. They show just how extensively Albert Einstein was involved in assisting Charles Hapgood in the development of the theory. This correspondence is detailed in The Atlantis Blueprint. Here is a brief summary:

In his second reply (24 November 1952) to Hapgood, Einstein wrote that the idea of earth crust displacement should not be ruled out “apriori” just because it didn’t fit with what we wanted to believe about the earth’s past. What was needed, Einstein claimed, was solid “geological and paleontological facts.”

For six months, Hapgood gathered geological evidence to support the idea of an earth crust displacement. On the 3rd of May 1953 he forwarded thirty-eight pages of this evidence to Einstein. Central to his argument was Hapgood’s evidence that Lesser Antarctica was ice-free at the same time that North America lay smothered in ice. Einstein responded (8 May 1953):

“I find your arguments very impressive and have the impression that your hypothesis is correct. One can hardly doubt that significant shifts of the crust have taken place repeatedly and within a short time.”
He urged Hapgood to follow up on evidence of “earth fractures”. A month later (11 June 1953) Hapgood sent Einstein forty-two pages of evidence on earth fractures and the evolution of the ice sheets.

Einstein wrote (17 December 1953) Hapgood urging him to address the “centrifugal momentum” problem. Hapgood responded with four pages on this problem and thirty-seven pages of “paleontological evidence” including the frozen mammoths of Arctic Siberia. Einstein was now convinced. On the 18th of May 1954, Einstein wrote a very favorable foreword for Hapgood’s book EARTH’S SHIFTING CRUST: A KEY TO SOME BASIC PROBLEMS OF EARTH SCIENCE (published in 1958 by Pantheon Books, New York). The Foreword begins:

“I frequently receive communications from people who wish to consult me concerning their unpublished ideas. It goes without saying that these ideas are very seldom possessed of scientific validity. The very first communication, however, that I received from Mr. Hapgood electrified me. His idea is original, of great simplicity, and – if it continues to prove itself of great importance to everything that is related to the history of the earth’s surface. … I think that this rather astonishing, even fascinating, idea deserves the serious attention of anyone who concerns himself with the theory of the earth’s development.”
Hapgood and Einstein continued to correspond and finally met in January of 1955.
Einstein’s last letter was dated the 9th of March 1955 just weeks before the great physicist died on the 18th of April 1955.

Einstein’s Archives are held in Jerusalem (with copies at Princeton) where they hold the record of an unique and unheralded collaboration on the theory of earth crust displacement.

We began corresponding with Hapgood in 1977.  Hapgood died in 1982.