The Electric Universe

Before we can begin to understand the dynamic picture of the ancient heavens that our forebears struggled to communicate to us, which is reflected in the symbolism and metaphor of the scriptures, we must understand the true nature of our universe.

The standard interpretation of planetary history taught universally by modern science is of no assistance here. In fact, instead of illuminating our path to understanding, modern scientific theories have proven the stumbling blocks to understanding the primary messages handed down by our ancestors.

To find the answers we seek, we must turn, once again, to the paradigm rejected by modern science nearly 200 years ago, the one embraced by Joseph Smith: catastrophism.

Electricity was yet to be discovered in Joseph’s day, so he had no knowledge of its power or true function in nature. It was a mere novelty at that juncture. Benjamin Franklin had performed his famous kite and key experiment to demonstrate that lightning was actually electricity only a few years before Joseph’s birth.

Velikovsky was the first in modern times to suggest that “electromagnetism” played a role in ancient planetary encounters. He claimed that ancient accounts were replete with descriptions of phenomena that could only be defined as electromagnetic. Scholars and scientists scoffed, insisting on measuring Velikovsky’s assumptions with the old, gravitational model — the one that still dominates astrophysics to this day.

Planetary electric arc machining

As early as the mid-1970’s, an engineer named Ralph Juergens was the first to describe the effects of electricity in space on solid bodies. He was also the first to see the sun as an electromagnetic engine. While plasmas were not part of his concept, he was the first to recognize the effect of electricity on the evolution of stars and planets. He explained that the strange features found on other planets such as sinuous rilles, canals or canyons, pock marks and craters were formed by electrical activity rather than geological forces or impacts.

Juergens was the first to introduce the idea of scalability in electrical activity. That is, the effects of powerful lightning strikes on Earth served to explain the features seen on other planets and moons in our solar system. Interplanetary lightning impinging upon other bodies, which would be many orders of magnitude greater than any here on Earth, was capable of generating structures similar to those seen in terrestrial lightning strikes but much larger and dynamic in scale — several orders of magnitude greater.

Results of a lightning strike


For example, in this photograph, the bolt of lightning carved a 40-foot furrow across the infield of a baseball diamond. Note the central, sinuous path taken by the lightning in the bottom of the furrow and the scalloped edges of the trench, formed as the energy of the discharge excavated the ground to a depth of several inches and ejected the material away from its path.

Compare that electric scar to photos below of rills on the moon and Mars to see how remarkably similar they are. Indeed, the structure would seem to indicate that these are similar effects of the same phenomenon: interplanetary electrical discharge.



A comparison — whether detailed or casual — of the terrestrial features generated by lightning here on Earth and those found on other planets and moons offers particularly valuable insights on the morphology of such mysterious features. Juergens was the first to suggest that such rilles were patterns of electrical machining on bodies in space.

It was Juergens that maintained that interplanetary lightning could act, with variations due to local conditions, on worlds that are hot or cold, on worlds with high or low gravity, on worlds with or without an atmosphere and on worlds with or without water, lava, or other liquids.

Testing a hypothesis

We stand at the threshold of discovery. At this juncture in history we have a way to test the electric universe hypothesis. If the proponents of the electric universe model are correct, then evidence from space exploration and from laboratory experiments should provide proof of its validity.



By comparing the results of comparatively simple and easily reproducible laboratory experiments (left) with photographs returned to Earth by space probes (right), we see the remarkable similarity between electric arc-generated phenomenon here on Earth and nearly identical structures found on other rocky planets and moons.

The rille pattern traced by an electric spark across an insulating surface dusted with fine powder (left) is remarkably similar to lunar rills (right). Their primary features include the parallelism of the spark paths and the tendency for the tributaries to join the main channel at near right angles. Note also the scalloped edges and the deep secondary channel running along the center of the pattern. Compare these to the lightning strike photo above.

These electrical discharges can take one of three forms on the exterior of a planet or moon. Racing across the surface and parallel to it, an electric discharge machines up material, throwing it out to form a levee on either side as it excavates the trench, as seen in the rille photos. The other two forms, as we shall see momentarily, impinge on the surface at right angles, perpendicular to it. These, not impacts, form the familiar craters seen on our Moon and many other objects in space, including asteroids. Still more revealing, Electric Universe theorists believe that the tails of comets are simply the material machined away from the surface of an asteroid in just such an ongoing discharge.

The power of experimental electrical phenomena to explain the geologic structures seen elsewhere in the solar system is impressive. One is compelled to wonder why scientists are unable to see the similarities and therefore question the possibility that electricity plays the primary role in shaping the surface of the planets.

This photo amply demonstrates the sinuous nature of electrical discharges in the laboratory, matching the rille patterns seen on other planets and moons. Theorists assert that as such charges spread out across the surface of a planet, moon or asteroid, these spidery electrical arcs excavate the material, ejecting it out on either side of their path, leaving behind a scar that is a carbon copy of the arc itself. These winding tracks, left behind by the arc, are commonly called “Lichtenberg figures” and are considered “frozen lightning.”


Such sinuous shapes are also remarkably similar to the filamentary structure seen in tabletop conversation pieces called “plasma balls,” an innocuous form of electric discharge.

The similarities between the effects of lightning strikes, laboratory experiments and rilles seen on other planets and moons are conspicuous and undeniable.

But the similarities do not end there. Even the ubiquitous craters seen on rocky planets, moons and asteroids, which were once thought to be exclusively impact caused, can be better explained as the touchdown points for electric arcs and their machining effects.

Electric arc cratering in the laboratory.

Electric arc cratering on the Moon.

The wonder is that planetary scientists, cosmologists and astrophysicists, stuck in the centuries-old paradigm that excludes electromagnetic forces, continue to refer to these structures as volcanic or impact generated.

Though such evidence passes largely unacknowledged by orthodox science, even the man on the street can recognize its explanatory power.

Relating electric arc machining to the scriptures

This evidence casts a whole new light on scriptural accounts of catastrophic and supernatural phenomena.

First of all, students of the scriptures can begin to see that some accounts of unusual events in antiquity may have described the destructive power of electric arcs with their ability to machine the surface of a planet. Phenomena such as Moses’ burning bush, the “lightning and thunder” on Mt. Sinai, the “brimstone and fire” that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the “blast” that destroyed the Assyrian army in Isaiah’s day or “fire” that consumed the sacrifice of Elijah and the priests of Baal may have been just such plasma and electrical manifestations.

The language from Elijah’s sacrifice event is especially apt. “Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” (1 Kings18:38, italics added.) An interplanetary lightning discharge capable of excavating huge craters and channels by first pulverizing everything at the surface then blasting it away, lasting considerably longer and being many orders of magnitude greater than ordinary lightning in a thunderstorm, could easily be seen as fire that consumed wood, stone, dust and water.

Indeed, the terminology used by the prophets can be seen as much more descriptive of electrical phenomena than other mechanisms capable of such prodigious feats.

More geologic evidence

The nature of electricity is such that it can also cause a “blister” surface effect as well as the aforementioned etching or excavating.

Most lightning strikes are called electric anode arcs. That is, they are actually ground-to-cloud arcs, the cloud being the anode or receiver of the charge. Such anode arcs caused all the previously illustrated crater and rille formations where the violent and powerful upward flow of electrons serves to lift or levitate the surface material.

More rare are lightning strikes called electric cathode arcs. These are cloud-to-ground strikes. Rather than etch the surface, these cathode strikes cause bubbling or blistering of the surface.

As with the anode arc effects, a simple laboratory experiment suffices to demonstrate how an electric arc can create a very different configuration from craters or rilles. These can then be compared with photographs taken on other planets by sophisticated space probe cameras.

In the lab experiment seen here, an electric cathode arc, simulating a cloud-to-ground lightning strike, raises just such a blister.


These bell-shaped blisters are typically called “fulgurites” when formed by earthly lightning.

Profile view

Top view

When compared with pictures taken on other planets, the effects are strikingly similar.


In comparison, we see that Olympus Mons, the most prominent example of what may be an electric cathode arc, has all the characteristics of a lightning blister, including the imbedded crater at the summit of the blister — what planetary scientists typically characterize as a volcanic caldera.

Examination of the evidence strongly suggests that electricity plays a far more crucial role in the formation of planetary features than was previously thought. Yet, mainstream scientists continue to interpret these as strictly volcanic in nature.

What they saw

Of course, the sizeable nature of these formations on other planets suggests bolts of lightning much larger and of far greater duration than anything seen today.


Those would have been almost unrecognizable to us as lightning since they would be heaven-spanning phenomena with prolonged light and sound displays of epic proportions.

The only phenomenon familiar to us that has any resemblance at all to those ancient displays would our Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. For all their magnificence, however, such awe-inspiring, auroral displays are only a faint whisper of the towering celestial displays that our ancestors saw.

© Anthony E. Larson, 2005