Electric Universe

{{pseudoastronomy}}{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the German psychedelic trance project {{wpl|Electric Universe}} or the [[European Union]].}}{{cquote|In an interdisciplinary science like the Electric Universe, you could say we have no peers, so [[peer review]] is not available.|||Wallace Thornhill <ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-difference-between-science-and-pseudoscience/</ref>}}
'''Electric Universe''' (EU) is an umbrella term that covers various [[pseudoscience|pseudo-scientific]] [[Cosmology|cosmological]] ideas built around the claim that the formation and existence of various features of the [[Universe]] can be better explained by [[electricity]] and magnetism than by [[gravity]] alone. As a rule, EU is usually touted as an [[aether]]-based theory with numerous references to tall tales from [[mythology]].<ref>http://qhwiki.com/video:eu-nov-2014-wal-thornhill</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7EAlTcZFwY</ref> However, the exact details and claims are ambiguous, lack [[mathematical]] formalism, and often vary from one delusional [[crank]] to the next. 

==EU advocates==
EU advocates can be roughly split into two groups. The first are garden-variety [[Pseudoscience#Physics|physics cranks]] who are convinced that they have a legitimate, revolutionary scientific theory, and that the scientific establishment is either blindly ignoring them out of misplaced faith in their own theories, or deliberately suppressing them for [[Conspiracy theory|some greater, nefarious purpose]]. This group has somewhat cross-pollinated with Flat-Earthers who realize gravity is a problem with a flat earth model, but still want some stain of science on their stuff because "[[Didit fallacy#Goddidit|god did it]]" isn't good enough.

The second group is composed of various other [[woo]]-peddlers who use EU claims to prop up their main ideas (because mainstream [[physics]] would blow them apart). For these people, the EU hypothesis is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. The more common subsets of this group include some [[Young Earth creationism|Young Earth creationists]], who wish to discredit the mainstream cosmology and geology suggesting that Earth is billions of years old, and some of the loonier fringes of [[global warming]] [[denialism]] (such as [[Vault-Co]]), who are trying to find ''some'' process outside human control that they can attribute climate change to. The latter particularly like the hypotheses of [[Pierre-Marie Robitaille]].

==EU conferences==
Each year the Electric Universe holds their annual EU conference, where a seemingly endless parade of misguided fools take to the stage and discuss mythology, [[homeopathy]], dipole gravity, and other equally absurd nonsense. The only common thread is the notion that a conspiracy is afoot to suppress their oddball beliefs (because [[Cognitive dissonance|it somehow never occurs to them]] that their "brilliant ideas" are worthless [[WOMBAT]]s).<ref>http://www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/</ref> The conferences are open to the public, provided you cough up the $395 price of admission.<ref>https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/01/31/eu2015-home-page/</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5zyElJrAGI&list=PLpWsAr1Jo6PFstB8EKdcIo3tq4G8WeWKO</ref>

==Velikovsky==
{{main|Immanuel Velikovsky}}
Immanuel Velikovsky (1895–1979) was an enthusiastic early adopter of electric universe ideas, seeing in them a possible mechanism to explain his [[hypothesis]] of a violent rearranging of the [[Solar System]] as recently as a few thousand years ago, and that [[Earth]] had previously been a satellite of [[Saturn]]. Velikovsky’s influence still looms large and has become an integral part of the current EU [[dogma]]. EU figureheads Wallace Thornhill and [[David Talbott]] are staunch supporters of Velikovsky’s mythological-based fairy tales and often pay tribute to the enormous influence he has had on shaping their own far-fetched theories.<ref>http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/08aug/electricuniverse.html</ref>

==Claims==
*[[Einstein]]'s postulates are wrong.<ref name="Thornhill"/>
*[[General relativity]] (GR) is wrong.<ref>http://www.holoscience.com/wp/a-nobel-prize-for-the-dark-side/</ref>
*The Universe is not [[Expanding universe|expanding]].<ref>http://www.holoscience.com/wp/a-nobel-prize-for-the-dark-side/</ref>
*The electric force travels faster than the [[speed of light]] with near-infinite velocity.<ref name="Thornhill"/>
*Gravity has two poles like a bar magnet; dipole gravity.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkWiBxWieQU</ref>
*A plenum of [[neutrino]]s forms an all-pervasive aether.<ref name="Thornhill">http://www.holoscience.com/wp/electric-gravity-in-an-electric-universe/</ref>
*[[Planet]]s give birth to [[comet]]s.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iky2k8MtMno</ref>
*[[Star]]s do not shine because of internal nuclear fusion caused by gravitational collapse. Rather, they are anodes for galactic discharge currents.<ref>http://electric-cosmos.org/sun.htm</ref> 
*Impact craters on [[Venus]], [[Mars]] and the [[Moon]] are not caused by impacts, but by electrical discharges.<ref>http://www.electric-cosmos.org/planets.htm</ref> The same applies to the Valles Marineris (a massive canyon on Mars) and the [[Grand Canyon]] on Earth.<ref>http://www.holoscience.com/views/view_mars.htm</ref>
* The [[Sun]] is negatively charged, and the solar wind is positively charged &mdash; the two systems forming a giant capacitor (this is [[James McCanney]]'s particular erroneous belief.)<ref>http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/mccanney/solarwind.html</ref>
*EU proponents from the  Thunderbolts Project claim to have predicted the natures of [[Pluto]] and Comet 67P more accurately than [[NASA]] or ESA.<ref>https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/09/29/electrical-geology-of-pluto-and-comet-67p/</ref><ref>https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/08/30/predictions-for-comet-science-after-rosetta/</ref>

==Contradictory evidence==

Many of the claims made by EU proponents are unsubstantiated by any scientific observations.  

Decades of observations and even a direct landing by the {{wpl|Rosetta_(spacecraft)|Rosetta spacecraft}} have shown beyond any doubt that comets are not "electric."  Geochemical studies of cometary samples returned by the {{wpl|Stardust_(spacecraft)|Stardust Mission}} showed that samples of the comet {{wpl|Wild 2|Wild}} are consistent with the comet being composed primarily of primitive nebular condensates. 

[[Star]]s are generally accepted to produce energy through atomic fusion.  EU proponents have postulated that stars are powered by energy sources at the center of each galaxy, but no one has ever observed any evidence of an external source of stellar energy.  

Humans have now photographically documented the formation of impact craters on other bodies, proving that they are formed by the impacts of asteroidal bodies and not by "electrical discharge." As of the early 2000s, there is actual video footage of meteorite impacts.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU video footage]</ref>

Most EU proponents claim some kind of relation to the "plasma cosmology" of the [[Nobel Prize]] laureate Hannes Alfvén (see also [[Nobel disease]]). This model predicted that radio emissions would be produced in certain conditions, and they were not.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20150416003346/http://www.theplasmaverse.com/pdfs/the-electic-sky-book-by-donaldescott-review-discussion-against.pdf The Electric Sky, Short-Circuited (archived 2015-04-16)], page 2:"This loss of interest was very possibly the result of the all-sky microwave maps of COBE and later WMAP, which exhibited no evidence of radio emission from these galaxy-forming currents."</ref>

A oft-recurring idea in EU dogma is the insistence that all science should be done in a laboratory — this is done in an attempt to discredit most historic studies and observations of {{wpl|gravitational theory||.}}{{fact|joke}}

==SAFIRE Project==
The International Science Foundation (a front group of EU supporters who falsely claim to neither support nor oppose<ref>https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/11/01/montgomery-childs-safire-project-update-eu2015/ at 5:20 in the video.</ref> the Electric Universe hypothesis) says that they provided $2,200,000 USD to fund a laboratory experiment to test the EU claims regarding the nature of the Sun.<ref>http://isciencefoundation.org/safire/</ref> There is no independent analysis of their work and no publications about SAFIRE found on Google Scholar. The SAFIRE Project is housed in Mississauga, [[Ontario]], and is documented in videos <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K_GBBspZjs</ref> from the EU2016 conference. They say that their intent is to compare the results of this experiment to the results of NASA's Solar Probe Plus mission<ref>http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/</ref>, and thereby demonstrate whether the EU solar model has any grounding in reality.<ref>https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/11/01/montgomery-childs-safire-project-update-eu2015/</ref>

== Miscellaneous issues ==
Now for the other miscellaneous issues with it that aren't about its actual ability to make testable repeatable predictions and experiments:

* The hypothesis has never been supported by any reputable scientist of any kind.
* It has not appeared on any peer reviewed scientific journal (e.g [[Nature (journal)|Nature]]).<ref>P. C. W. Davies, [https://www.nature.com/articles/273268b0 Electric Universe]. Nature volume 273, pages 268–269 (1978).</ref>

The EU is mentioned on sites like holoscience.com<ref group=note>A site thunderbolts.info links to on its Related Sites tab.</ref> with things like "®" registered trademark symbols and the tab name for the thunderbolts.info site even mentions the T-Project with a trademark symbol. They also sell merchandise and things like DVD copies of the documentaries they've put up on their official [[Youtube]] channel. <ref group=note> [[Einstein]] didn't sell [[Relativity]] merch.</ref> 

Its proponents seem to be the standard [[conspiracy theorist]] crowd<ref group=note>The kind that are creationists, think the Earth is flat, that 9/11 was a conspiracy, that [[Tesla]] was [[Magic|some kind of tech wizard that could violate physics]] or any combination thereof.</ref> as shown by their comments on YT videos regarding the EU and their behavior on the EU forum.

==External links==
===Critics===
* [http://dealingwithcreationisminastronomy.blogspot.com/ Dealing with Creationism in Astronomy], Tom Bridgman's blog that deals with Electric Universe claims along with other things ([http://dealingwithcreationisminastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/Electric%20Universe posts labeled Electric Universe])
* [https://pseudoastro.wordpress.com/category/electric-universe/ Electric Universe] category at the [[Exposing PseudoAstronomy]] blog
* [http://neutrinodreaming.blogspot.com/2011/09/electric-universe-theory-debunked.html Electric Universe Theory debunked], a blog entry which discusses 5 major claims by EU
* [http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread665703/pg1 Electric Universe Theory, RIP: New Discovery of Why Sun's Corona is Hot], thread at [[Above Top Secret]]
* [http://www.tim-thompson.com/electric-sun.html On The Electric Sun Hypothesis], Tim Thompson -- physicist formerly employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
* [http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/velidelu.html An Antidote To Velikovskian Delusions], Leroy Ellenberger
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9q-v4lBGuw Debunking the Electric Universe], Professor Dave Explains

===Supporters===
* [http://www.holoscience.com/wp/ The Electric Universe], Wallace Thornhill's website
* [https://www.thunderbolts.info/forum3/phpBB3/ Thunderbolts Forum], probably the most popular EU advocate website, run by [[David Talbott]]
* [http://www.electric-cosmos.org/ Electric Cosmos] (by Donald E. Scott, Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering))
* [http://www.the-electric-universe.info/ The Electric Universe], László Körtvélyessy's website

==See also==
*[[David Talbott]]
*[[Stephen J. Crothers]]
*[[Pierre-Marie Robitaille]]
*[[Jeffrey Wolynski]]
*[[Ben Davidson]] <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwylwL9KnjU</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}
==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Pseudophysics]]
[[Category:Pseudoastronomy]]

Categories: Pseudophysics, Pseudoastronomy