We are pleased to announce the launch of The Ancient Wisdom Foundation, a not for profit 501(C)(3)* educational foundation designed to help finance research into the big questions of lost knowledge and ancient civilizations.

The Ancient Wisdom Foundation mission statement, a much abbreviated description of the projects we will initially seek to finance, will eventually include more in depth project proposals with associated budgets. Links will be developed.

The project list will be expanded to include a variety of other projects and the work of other researchers once initial AWF goals are met. If you have any further questions of any sort or would like more information on the projects listed, feel free to call 518-678-2160 or email John Anthony West.

Play your part in changing history, and the future while we're at it.

You can donate to our foundation with credit card, check or money order. All are fully tax deductible. To use your credit card click on the Paypal button below. Mail your check or money order made out to Ancient Wisdom Foundation and send it to: Ancient Wisdom Foundation, 675 Manorville Rd., Saugerties, NY 12477

Donations for $100 or more will receive the following gifts:

MISSION STATEMENT

The Ancient Wisdom Foundation is a not-for-profit initiative. Its purpose is to further research into the reality of a high and sophisticated civilization existing in remote antiquity (predating ancient Egypt, Sumer and India by millennia) and to communicate the results of that research through print and visual media to a mass audience.

"When ideas change, everything changes" -  John Anthony West.

BACKGROUND:

Plato's Timaeus, the Vedas of Ancient India and the hieroglyphic texts of Ancient Egypt all reference such a high civilization, and, indeed, claim that their own civilizations are the inheritors of that much earlier wisdom. Though dismissed as myth and legend by several centuries of modern scholars, the ancient wisdom hypothesis has gradually gained credence over the past few decades through the works and publications of a handful of independent scholars, scientists and researchers.

In the 1950's, magisterial works by philosopher/mathematician R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz (The Temple of Man, Sacred Science, etc.) and Hindu historian Stella Kramrish (The Hindu Temple) demonstrated the reality of advanced spiritual/scientific doctrines responsible for the prodigious art and architecture of ancient Egypt and India respectively. In the 1970's M.I.T. Historians of Science Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend (Hamlet's Mill) showed that an advanced astronomy pervades the mythology and legends not only of sophisticated societies such as Egypt, India, China and Mesoamerica, but also of those commonly considered 'primitive' and devoid of science or mathematics.

A new scholarly discipline was born.

Throughout the past three decades it has been furthered through a spate of seminal works. John Anthony West's Serpent in the Sky introduced Schwaller's 'Symbolist' interpretation of Egypt to a much broader audience and, developed, via geology, the theory that the Great Sphinx of Giza is a mighty remnant of that far older civilization. His Emmy Award winning NBC Special, Mystery of the Sphinx brought his and geologist Robert M. Schoch's scientific research to an audience of hundreds of millions. Robert Bauval (The Orion Mystery) put forward the idea that the three pyramids of the Giza Plateau represent the Belt stars of Orion, which was developed further in The Message of the Sphinx, co-written with Graham Hancock. At the very least, these works demonstrate the crucial role played by astronomy in ancient Egyptian thought. This work finds its parallel in Mesoamerica in William Sullivan's Secret of the Incas and John Major Jenkins' Mayan Cosmology. Other scholars have contributed studies validating and upgrading the greater antiquity and sophistication of other ancient civilizations as well.

THE CONTROVERSY

Like all paradigm challenging work, the research, books and videos supporting the ancient civilization/ancient wisdom theory have aroused opposition from orthodox scholars in the affected fields. Whether considered or otherwise, their objections have to be met, and a lively and ongoing controversy has been initiated. A result of that debate has been to attract both interest and support not only from an excited public but from a minority of scientists and scholars within the various relevant disciplines as well.

GOALS

Though research into all aspects of ancient wisdom is scholarly and scientific, the research facilities and funding that would normally come from established academic, scientific and governmental sources are not available to those challenging their very intellectual, philosophical and historical foundations.

Therefore, the objective of the Ancient Wisdom Initiative is to further work in the various areas already opened up, explore new areas, and facilitate communication of the ongoing controversy and of exciting and momentous results through print and media channels.

FIRST PROJECTS:

I. AWF Operating and Administration Budget. To include: remuneration for personnel, office space, equipment, etc.

lI Testing The Water Weathering Hypothesis. Geologist Robert M. Schoch of Boston University and ,John Anthony West are preparing a three-stage scientific project to submit the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. This will entail

1. Visits to Egypt by Schoch and West to re-examine the evidence so far discovered in the light of criticisms posed by a number of scientific opponents. These visits will also enable Schoch to study a considerable number of crucial new pieces of evidence that have been discovered subsequent to the theory's initial presentation at the 1991 Geological Society of America's Annual Convention. Findings will be described in a scientific monograph to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and an application for a second presentation to the GSA for its 2000 convention will be tendered.

2: A panel of independent geologists will be provided with the evidence and will travel to Egypt to investigate and report on their findings.

3. A proposal will be submitted to the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities to bring a team of scientists back with seismographs, ground-penetrating radar and other advanced technologies to look for still further evidence of the 'Lost civilization' of Egypt.

III: Magical Egypt - a Three Part Documentary TV Series. This quality series, intended for the cable and home TV audience, hosted and written by John Anthony West will present an in-depth tour of ancient Egypt from the 'Symbolist' point of view 

IV: Deciphering the Gosford Glyphs. In the Australian bush, two hours north of Sydney, carved into the high stone walls of a hidden, narrow passageway, there are what appear to be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Discovered fifty years ago by chance, by a hiker, they were summarily dismissed by Egyptologists and archeologists as forgeries or fakes.

On a recent trip to Sydney, John Anthony West went to look at these carvings and was not at all certain that they were or could be fakes. He made photos and drawings of the glyphs, available to Edmund Meltzer, a PhD Egyptologist, and well known expert on hieroglyphics. Without access to the actual site, on the basis of the information available, a preliminary study by Meltzer could not categorically confirm an ancient Egyptian origin for the glyphs. But he was able to decipher numerous genuine Egyptian phrases and sentences. For various reasons Meltzer feels it unlikely that the inscriptions are modern inventions.

Meanwhile, on the basis of the available photos, Robert Schoch noted that the glyphs are often covered with lichens and he suggested that the lichens could be carbon dated which in turn could help to confirm or refute an ancient date for the inscriptions. A colleague of Schoch's is the world's leading expert in the study of lichens.

Both Schoch and Meltzer feel strongly that the site merits further detailed study. Accordingly an AWF initiative is therefore in place to finance a one week trip to Australia to examine all aspects of the inscriptions in situ.

If it were proved that ancient Egyptians had actually visited Australia and had carved these inscriptions, it would be a dramatic scholarly discovery that would undermine the foundations of current archeological anti-diffusionist beliefs.