Imagine being alive approximately 12,000 years ago, and looking up at the night sky. Everything looks familiar, as it has been for years. Suddenly, a star explodes in a burst of white-hot fire, and then a bright object appears in its place. In the days to come, that object gets closer and closer, bringing with it a host of terrifying and apocalyptic events as its profound magnetic pull threatens to tear earth apart at the seams. Mountains rise up from the sea, the earth breaks apart at its crust, and millions of humans, animals and plants are wiped off the face of the earth in a matter of days.

This very event did indeed occur, according to author Joseph Christy-Vitale, who documents historical record and mythological evidence in his thrilling and frightening book, Watermark: The Disaster That Changed the World and Humanity 12,000 Years Ago. Vitale, who has traveled the world in search of evidence of this great and catastrophic event, presents us with a very convincing and detailed chronology of what happened approximately 12,000 years ago that caused the massive destruction of life, and the literal reshaping of our planet (as well as other planets it passed on its way to Earth!).

Using plenty of authoritative source material and the dozens of myths and legends that speak of this great event, including the Old Testament of the Bible, Vitale takes us back to a peaceful time when humans and animals lived in harmony, until an object deep in space exploded and sent its debris hurtling towards our atmosphere. One of these objects, a literal piece from an exploded star, came very close indeed - so close, in fact, that it unleashed a horrendous physical influence on our planet’s tides, core and inner magma deposits that rendered life almost impossible. As humans and animals struggled to survive against the massive fires, and then the overwhelming floods, caused by this chunk of cosmic debris, which came to be called Phaeton (The Shining One in many a myth and legend), the continents broke away from their unified position and landmasses were either leveled or raised, causing utter chaos and devastation.

But once the apocalypse ended, humanity was never to be the same, and it is perhaps this chapter of the story of Phaeton’s influence on our planet that is the most chilling. Humans now had to live with a deep and profound sense of fear and separation from a natural world they no longer saw as friendly. This fear, Vitale states, has come down to us over thousands of years in the form of modern depressions, anxieties and lust for violence, war and aggression. Had our ancestors never seen the wrath of Phaeton, we may have evolved into a much kinder, healthier and more balanced species living in a more harmonious world.

Watermark is utterly fascinating, especially for those who still live by the theory that events surrounding the Ice Age caused the mass extinction of life 12,000 years ago, a theory Vitale enthusiastically pokes major holes in with his belief, backed up by fact and myth, that it was this cosmic “collision” that was responsible. His book challenges traditional scientists to rethink their concepts of this terrible time in Earth’s history, and open their minds to the growing body of evidence, both direct and indirect, that points to a cataclysmic catastrophe that came from beyond the stars.