If you’re reading this, then it’s May 26, 2006 or later. According to Eric Julien, who describes himself as “former military air traffic controller, twin engine jet pilot and former instructor at astronaut Patrick Baudry’s Space Camp”, there was a tremendous tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday. As quoted from his website Save Lives in May:

“I have received information psychically, which is corroborated by scientific data, according to which on May 25, 2006 a giant tsunami will occur in the Atlantic Ocean, brought about by the impact of a comet fragment which will provoke the eruption of under-sea volcanoes. Waves up to 200 m high will reach coastlines located above and below the Tropic of Cancer. However, all of the countries bordering the Atlantic will be affected to greater or lesser destructive and deadly levels. This site is dedicated to life, to civic responsibility and to information. There is still time to save lives. Thanks for participating in the world-wide alert!”

This is pretty serious stuff.

And it’s complete bunk.

The comet Julien says is going to hit the Atlantic Ocean is Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, which has been in the news recently because astronomers are busy witnessing its breakup. It’s being pulled into dozens of fragments in a rather impressive display.

Now, this comet is admittedly coming closer to Earth than any comet has for more than twenty years, but it’s still going to be pretty far away. Its closest approach is going to be about six million miles away, or about twenty-five times farther away than the Moon is. There’s a zero chance that anything from this comet is going to hit us and cause any sort of devastation.

But Julien says it’s going to hit us. His proof? “Numerous prophecies, including those of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton and of the Bible Codes converge precisely towards this critical period of the end of May 2006″ and “a great number of persons have declared having experienced Atlantic tsunami dreams prior to his first press release.” Oh, and there’s going to be a FEMA tsunami exercise running from 23 to 25 May. One problem: that’s a Pacific coast exercise, so I don’t see how one could even think of using this as proof of an impending Atlantic tsunami.

And others say they have proof as well. His forums are a good place to find this proof, but unfortunately you currently need to be registered to read threads on there. Luckily I signed up for an account so I could see what sort of proof really exists. For example, one person who goes by the name of “Harbingers Kiss” says:

I am an earth sensitive. I predicted the Asian tsunami a couple of weeks before it happened. I also predicted an “earth birthing” event which would be a pretty big volcano. Again, I was right. The tectonic slide that caused the tsunami opened up a fissure in the earth releasing magma at a rate that will cause a landmass to form. I have been verified by a seismic monitoring developer as well. I hear the planet. I also get glimpses of the future. I temper them with quantum slide probability but they are overall at about 87% accuracy. My earth pains and earth tones are at about 98% accuracy.

I usually post at Unknown Country. They started a thread there about your predictions. I usually get a feeling one way or another about other sensitives/psychics predictions. I got no feelings from yours. Actually this is the first time that has happened. This does not mean I think your predictions are false..quite the contrary. To me it means a definite maybe.

“Blue Tempest” says this:

Now I realize that you can’t go driving away everytime you hear a prediction. But several things have led me to the conclusion that Mr. Julien believes what he is saying.

1.He has made this site.
2.He has made this forum.
3.He has set a date.
4.He is reasonably smart, realizing he will be discredited is proven to be false.This to a scientist would be disastrous.

Now, I realize that I’m part of the conspiracy, given I work at an astronomical observatory and all, but I’m not sure that this really qualifies as good proof that a comet is going to strike the Earth. Let’s disassemble their arguments.

First, Harbingers Kiss. Crackpot. Normal people don’t use phrases like “My earth pains and earth tones are at about 98% accuracy.” Case closed.

Second, Blue Tempest. These four things are not difficult at all to achieve. I made this website. I helped set up these forums. Picking a date isn’t all that hard. Watch: December 12, 2008. February 1, 2007. August 30, 2012. There’s three for you, and I hardly even tried. As for Julien being discredited should there be no cometary impact, I don’t think he’s worried. After all, this is a man who’s published two books about extraterrestrials and who’s done no publishable scientific work in his life. I can see how he’s worried about his reputation being tarnished. After all, it’ll be harder for him to sell his stupid predictions to stupid people who believe stupid things like this.

Julien is really pulling on people’s senses of fear, here. While it is best to be prepared than not, it is even better to be prepared to deal with eventualities that stand a passable chance of happening. Preparing yourself against earthquake if you live in Southern California is a good idea. Preparing yourself against hurricane if you live in Florida is a good idea. Preparing yourself against tsunami caused by cometary impact which was, in turn, caused by “extraterrestrial intervention”, that’s not a good idea.

Spreading these false prophecies is fear-mongering, plain and simple. Julien trumps up some kind of pseudo-scientific explanation that impresses the lay-person and causes them to believe that he knows what he’s talking about. Unfortunately his scientific “proof” is not scientific at all, and shows a lack of basic understanding about the scientific method. The reason why fragment S’s nearest approach changed is because more observations of it were made, allowing us to refine its orbit. With more information astronomers were able to figure out that it was going to miss us by a wide margin. There’s no great conspiracy here, simply science at work.

And that might be the saddest thing about this story. It’s not that people believe in this pseudo-science, it’s that people don’t have the grounding in basic scientific principles to realize what’s going on. Unfortunately, with people like Eric Julien spreading disinformation and fear, it’s harder for the proper information to get out to people. Sometimes the truth is boring, and comets missing the Earth don’t make headlines (although comets tearing themselves apart might make headlines in some places — this Subaru press release made the front page of our local paper). Cometary impacts do make headlines, even if they’re made-up ones like this.

(ps. if my tenses sound a little odd, it’s because I’m typing this up on May 22. I’m so confident that Eric Julien’s ideas a bunk that I’m just going to post this now to have it automatically show up on the 26th.)

Related Posts:

  • No Related Post