Andrew
Collins
Occupation:
author, explorer, television personality
Author of: The Black Alchemist,
The Seventh Sword, From the Ashes of Angels, Gods of Eden, Gateway to Atlantis,
The Cygnus Mystery, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, The Cygnus Key: The
Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt
Website: www.andrewcollins.com
Andrew
Collins is a British writer and researcher specialising in books that ““challenge
the way we perceive the past.”[1] They feature such subjects as ancient astronomy,
archaeoastronomy and the origins of civilization. A central theme of Collins’s
books is that the Watchers and Nephilim of Enochian literature, as well as the
biblical “fallen” angels and Anunnaki of Mesopotamian mythology, are
memories of a human elite group that helped forge the foundations of civilization
in Anatolia and the Near East. He asserts that this same region, particularly
eastern Turkey, was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden and terrestrial Paradise.[2][3][4]
Collins additionally writes popular books that claim to be true accounts of supernatural
adventure that he and his friends embark upon under the label “psychic questing.”
It is a subject first outlined in his book The Black Alchemist.[5]
Contents
1
Career
2 Works
3 Giza Cave Controversy
4 Cygnus-Giza Correlation
5
Influence
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Career
Having
started his career as a shipping clerk in London, Collins joined the short-lived
magazine Strange Phenomena in 1979 as co-editor and writer.[7] When this
failed to get past its second issue, Collins joined the Southend Evening Echo
in 1981 as a page planner. In 1983 he helped launch The Leigh Times newspaper,
where he worked for five years as advertising manager and features editor.[8]
During this time he wrote and published various short books on local history and
folklore.[9][10][11] Another booklet, The Brentford Griffin (1985), touched
on fortean phenomena with his investigations into alleged sightings of a mythical
griffin seen over Brentford in Middlesex. All but one case was found to be hoaxes
perpetuated by Brentford novelist Robert Rankin.[12]
Works
Collins
claims that his books “challenge the way we perceive the past,”[1] even
though Collins has no formal education, his writing capabilities being self taught.
Prior to 1996 his most successful works concentrated on what he calls psychic
questing. This is the art of using proposed psychic information to investigate
unsolved mysteries and find hidden artefacts. Since 1996 his books, with one exception
[13], have investigated ancient and more modern mysteries, with recurring themes
including archaeology, astronomy, shamanism, ancient cosmologies, altered states
of consciousness, and the Cygnus constellation.
His books include From the Ashes of Angels, Gods of Eden, Gateway to Atlantis, The Cygnus Mystery, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods and Tutankhamen: The Exodus Conspiracy (co-authored with Chris Ogilvie Herald). He is a regular guest on and presenter for History Channel’s popular TV show Ancient Aliens.[14]
In
2014, Collins’s book Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods made the
claim that the 11,500-year-old Pre-Pottery Neolithic complex of Göbekli Tepe
in southeast Anatolia was built as a response to an alleged comet impact event.
He also claimed that those behind its construction were a “power elite”
consisting of Swiderian hunter-gatherer groups who arrived in Anatolia from the
Eastern European Plain of Ukraine and Russia during the Younger Dryas cold spell,
circa 10,800-9600 BCE.[4]
Collins
latest work, published in May 2018, is The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy,
Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt. It purports to show how the recently
discovered human group known as the Denisovans, whose fossil remains have been
found in the Denisova Cave of southern Siberia, achieved a high level of culture,
which was subsequently passed on to the earliest modern human societies of the
region. This meeting, he says, triggered the rise of advanced modern behaviour
including stone tool technologies, “cygnocentric,” i.e., swan-centred
beliefs and practices, along with the creation of musical instruments and an acute
knowledge of sound acoustics.[15]
Giza
Cave Controversy
In
his 2009 book Beneath the Pyramids[1], Collins relates his rediscovery
with Egyptological researcher Nigel Skinner-Simpson in March 2008 of a previously
unrecorded cave system just 800 meters from the Great Pyramid on Egypt’s
Giza plateau. In late 2009 the then secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme
Council of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, stated that Collins and his friends had
found nothing more than an existing tomb called NC2 (North cliff 2), commonly
referred to today as the “Tomb of the Birds.”[16] However, several months
later Hawass was seen on an episode of the History Channel’s TV reality show
“Chasing Mummies” entitled “Bats” investigating Collins’
cave saying that "I have never made any adventure like this at Giza before,"
the whole thing making it clear that prior to this time he did not even believe
in the cave system’s existence.[17]
Cygnus-Giza
Correlation
Collins's
The Cygnus Mystery, published in the UK in 2006,[18] examines the idea
that ancient societies around the world, from the Palaeolithic cave artists of
Lascaux in France to the Pyramid Builders of Egypt and builders of Göbekli
Tepe saw the constellation of Cygnus, the celestial swan, as an entrance to a
sky world seen as the land of the dead. He proposed that the three pyramids of
Giza were laid out to reflect the astronomical positions of the three “wing”
stars of Cygnus. This idea was met with considerable opposition from Robert Bauval
who in 1993 had proposed that the same three pyramids reflected the astronomical
positions of the three “belt” stars of Orion - an idea commonly known
as the “Orion Correlation theory.”[19] In response to Collins’
proposed Cygnus-Giza Correlation, Bauval published an online article pointing
out that the ancient Egyptians had no interest in the Cygnus constellation, and
so claiming that its stars reflected the positions of the three main pyramids
at Giza was meaningless.[20] Collins responded to these criticisms by showing
that Cygnus was indeed known to the ancient Egyptians, having been seen as the
womb of the sky goddess Nut.[21]
Influence
Collins’s
1988 book The Black Alchemist bore the strap-line “A dramatic true
story of magic, sorcery and supernatural drama in Britain today.”[22] Its
contents focused around tales of black magic and psychic adventure as he and a
psychic friend named only as “Bernard” attempted to thwart the supposed
occult activities of a dubious character dubbed the “Black Alchemist.”[8]
The book reads like a novel with some historical facts included. It was published
by Collins and sold 15,000 copies between 1988 and 1990 before the rights were
secured by Random House, who would publish their own edition in 1992.[23]. The
book’s main protagonist went on to become a super villain (without acknowledgement)
in the 50th anniversary issue of DC Comics’ The Green Arrow. Entitled
“The Black Alchemist” the issue, published in 1991, was written by actor
and writer Mark Ryan.[24] Earlier, Ryan himself had become embroiled in Collins’
alleged psychic questing exploits as is recorded in Collins’s 1991 book The
Seventh Sword.[25]
The
Black Alchemist appears again as the villain Pieter Van Eckhardt, a.k.a. the Black
Alchemist, in the sixth instalment of the Tomb Raider console game entitled “Tomb
Raider: The Angel of Darkness.”[26] Another character in the same instalment,
released in 2003, is Bernard the janitor of the Le Serpent Rouge club, who helps
Lara.[27] Bernard is the name of the main psychic informant in Collins’s
The Black Alchemist. Adding weight to the likelihood of the Tomb Raider’s
own Black Alchemist being based on that of Collins is the fact that Van Eckhardt
makes a pact with Nephilim in southeast Anatolia,[28] both of which, Nephilim
and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic world of Anatolia, also feature heavily in Collins’
books.
Collins’s
treatment on the origins of the Watchers and Nephilim of the land of Eden being
human angels was also a major inspiration for a trilogy of books by dark fantasy
writer Storm Constantine.[29][30][31][32].
Collins’s
books on the Watchers and Nephilim also led to him becoming friends with gothic
rocker Carl McCoy, lead singer of the band Fields of the Nephilim. The two collaborated
on projects of mutual interest. McCoy under the name Sheer Faith designed the
covers of two of Collins’s books, Twenty-first Century Grail[13] and
Beneath the Pyramids,[1] while Collins interviews McCoy for a contribution
to the Austin Osman Spare monograph published in 2006 entitled A.O.S.: A Celebration.[33]
Books
Collins,
Andrew, (1988). The Black Alchemist. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK: ABC Books.
ISBN 9780950802442. New edition in 2015 published by ABC Books. ISBN 978-0099165514.
Collins,
Andrew, (1991). The Seventh Sword. London: Century. ISBN 9780712646871.
Collins,
Andrew, (1992). The Circlemakers: A Revolutionary New Vision of the Crop Circle
Enigma. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK: ABC Books. ISBN 9780950802459. Republished
as The New Circlemakers (2009). Virginia Beach, VA: 4th Dimension Press. ISBN
9780876045497.
Collins, Andrew, (1993). The Second Coming. London: Century.
ISBN 9780712655989.
Collins, Andrew, (1995). Alien Energy: UFOs, Ritual
Landscapes & The Human Mind. Leigh-on-Sea, ABC Books. ISBN 950802484.
Republished 2003 by Eagle Wing Books, Memphis, TN. ISBN 9780940829374.
Collins,
Andrew, (1996). From the Ashes of Angels. London, Michael Joseph. ISBN
9780718141325. Republished 1998 by Bear & Co, Rochester, VM. ISBN 9781879181724.
Collins,
Andrew, (1998). Gods of Eden: Egypt's Lost Legacy and the Genesis of Civilisation.
London, Headline. ISBN 9780747275046. Republished 2002 by Bear & Co, Rochester,
VM. ISBN 9781879181762.
Collins, Andrew, (2000). Gateway to Atlantis. London:
Headline. ISBN 9780747222804. Republished as Atlantis in the Caribbean (2016).
Rochester, VM.: Bear & Co. ISBN 9781591432654.
Collins, Andrew, (2002).
Tutankhamun: The Exodus Conspiracy (co-authored with Chris Ogilvie Herald).
London: Virgin. ISBN 9781852279721.
Collins, Andrew, (2004). Twenty-first
Century Grail. London: Virgin. ISBN 9781852271398.
Collins, Andrew, (2006).
The Cygnus Mystery. London: Watkins. ISBN 9781842931936.
Collins, Andrew,
(2009). Beneath the Pyramids. Virginia Beach, VA: 4th Dimension Press.
ISBN 9780876045718.
Collins, Andrew, (2012). LightQuest: Your Guide to
Seeing and Interacting with UFOs, Mystery Lights and Plasma Intelligences.
Memphis, TN: Eagle Wing Books. ISBN 9780940829497.
Collins, Andrew, (2014).
Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods. Rochester, VM: Bear & Co. ISBN
9781591431428.
Collins, Andrew, (2018). The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy,
Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt. Rochester, VM: Bear & Co. ISBN
9781591432999.
Videos
in which Andrew Collins appears:
“The
Cygnus Mystery,” ATA-Productions, Memphis, TN. Licensed to UFO-TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhgNXbahNrA
“The
Lost Caves of Giza,” ATA-Productions, Memphis, TN. Licensed to UFO-TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTEVvkL-l3Q
“Lost
World of the Human Hybrids,” Megalithomania, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Pazv8baVI.
See
also
Graham Hancock
References
1.
Collins, Andrew. Beneath the Pyramids, Virginia Beach, VA: Fourth Dimension
Press, 2009.
2. Collins, Andrew. From the Ashes of Angels, London: Penguin,
1996.
3. Collins, Andrew, Gods of Eden, Headline, 1998.
4. Collins,
Andrew, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods. Rochester, VM: Bear &
Co., 2014.
5. Preface and Glossary, Collins, Andrew. The Black Alchemist.
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK: ABC Books, 1988 [reissued with new chapters in 2015]
6.
Author intro to Collins, Andrew, The Black Alchemist. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex,
UK: ABC Books, 1988.
7. Frontispiece, Strange Phenomena, 1:1, 1979.
8.
Collins, Andrew, The Black Alchemist, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK: ABC Books,
1988.
9. Collins, Andrew, The Running Well Mystery, Wickford, Essex,
UK: Earthquest Books, 1983.
10. Collins, Andrew, The London Walkabout,
Wickford, Essex, UK: Earthquest Books, 1984.
11. Collins, Andrew, The Knights
of Danbury, Wickford, Essex, UK: Earthquest Books, 1985.
12. Collins, Andrew,
The Brentford Griffin, Wickford, Essex: Earthquest Books, 1985.
13.
Collins, Andrew, Twenty-first Century Grail, London: Virgin Books, 2004.
14.
“Andrew Collins,” http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4672300/.
15.
Collins, Andrew, The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe and
the Birth of Egypt. Rochester, VM.:Bear & Co.
16. Collins, Andrew,
“Andrew Collins Responds to Dr Hawass's Dismissal of His Cave Discoveries
at Giza”, http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/news/hawass.htm.
16.
Collins, Andrew, “Where best with Giza’s cave underworld? Reviewing
the Exploration of Giza's Cave Complex in the Wake of Chasing Mummies Episode
‘Bats’,” http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/chasingmummies.htm.
17.
History Channel’s Chasing Mummies, Season 1, Episode 8, “Bats.”
First screened September 1, 2010.
18. Collins, Andrew, The Cygnus Mystery,
London: Watkins, 2006.
19. Bauval, Robert, and Adrian Gilbert, The Orion
Mystery: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids. London: Heinemann.
20.
Bauval, Robert, “The Circumpolar Constellations in Ancient Egypt,” http://robertbauval.co.uk/articles/articles/cciae.html.
21.
Collins, Andrew, “Cygnus vs Orion at Giza - A Response to Robert Bauval Queries
by Andrew Collins,” http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Bauval_Cygnus_Orion_Giza_020407.htm
22.
Cover of Collins’s 1988 book The Black Alchemist.
23. Preface to
revised edition of Collins, The Black Alchemist, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex: ABC
Books, 2014. See also Collins, Andrew, The Black Alchemist, London: Arrow
Books, 1992.
24. “The Black Alchemist,” Green Arrow 50th Anniversary
Edition, Annual 1991. See https://comicvine.gamespot.com/green-arrow-annual-4-the-black-alchemist/4000-51237/
25.
Collins, Andrew, The Seventh Sword, London: Century, 1991.
26. “Tomb
Raider: The Angel of Darkness (Tomb Raider 6),” console game, released 2003.
27. “Pieter van Eckhardt,” Wikiraider, https://www.wikiraider.com/index.php/Pieter_Van_Eckhardt
28.
“Bernard,” Wikiraider, https://www.wikiraider.com/index.php/Bernard.
29.
Forward, Constantine, Storm, Stalking Tender Prey, London: Penguin Creed,1995.
30.
Forward, Constantine, Storm, Scenting Hallowed Blood, London: Signet, 1996.
31.
Forward, Constantine, Storm, Stealing Sacred Fire, London: Penguin Creed,
1998.
32. “Grigori Trilogy,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Trilogy.
33.
Collins, Andrew, “Chaos for the Normal,” Staley, Michael, and Caroline
Wise (eds.), A.O.S.: A Celebration, London, IHO Books, 2006.
External
links
Andrew
Collins official website