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Balanos Georgios (1944–2020) was a Greek translator, author, publisher and researcher of the fields of science fiction, paranormal and magick. According to his official biography presented on his web site, he was born in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
on 12 April 1944 and attended various university schools without receiving any qualifications. His bio include work as teacher of English language, a photographer, a journalist, a translator and an author.


Science fiction-translation

Balanos has worked in the field of
science fiction and fantasy Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nat ...
for many years. Within the Greek novels publisher "Aurora", he translated a great amount of short and medium size novels. One of the most distinctive characteristics, due to which he justifiably became noted, of these his translations is his comments in prologues, where he gave clues about some elements of the unexplained and the paranormal. Balanos' translating activity had begun years before the "Aurora" period. As far back as the early and mid 1980s he had published on his own efforts (through his own "Selefais" publications) several collections of translated science fiction, heroic fantasy and fantasy literature. He was the first to translate into Greek a wide variety of works by renowned English-speaking science fiction and fantasy writers, such as
Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...
, Alfred Bester,
Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary cri ...
,
Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...
,
Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
, Philip Jose Farmer, Harry Harrison, William H. Hodgson,
Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...
,
Henry Kuttner Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915 – February 3, 1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Early life Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. Kuttner (1829–1903) and Amelia Bush (c. 1834–1911), the ...
,
Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert ...
, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen,
Clifford Simak Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Wr ...
,
Clark Ashton Smith Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Algernon Charles Swinburne ...
,
H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''
Colin Wilson, John Wyndham, Roger Zelazny, etc., the vast majority of whom were virtually unknown to the Greek public up to then.


Balanos's own works

George Balanos is positively a prominent figure in the paranormal research field in Greece. A one-time APRO's local representative, apart from being a most celebrated translator into Greek of many famous English-speaking science-fiction and fantasy writers, he has also written many books of his own, which are the outcome of a lifelong research into the paranormal and occult. The titles of the books written by him follow below: * "Flying Saucers – Intruders?" ("Iptamenoi Discoi – Eisvoleis?", 1973) * “Beings from Outer Space” (“Onta Apo To Diastima”, 1974) * “The Worlds of Fire” (“Oi Kosmoi Tis Fotias”, 1976) * “The Sands of Time” (“Oi Ammoi Tou Khronou”, 1977) * "In Search of Unknown Worlds ("Anazitontas Agnostous Kosmous", 1979) * “Dreamlands of the Earth” (“Oi Oneirotopoi Tis Ghis”, science fiction short story collection 1979) * "The Enigma of Penteli" ("To Enigma tis Pentelis, 1982) * "Pathways of the Stars" ("Ta Monopatia ton Astron, 1989, science fiction novel) * “Cosmic Biodynamics,” (“Kosmiki Bhiodhynamiki”, 1993) * "Other Oceans, Other Worlds" ("Alloi Okeanoi, Alloi Kosmoi, 1993) * "All the Colors of the Suns" ("Ola ta Krhomata ton Ilion, science fiction short story collection, 1994) * "Bright Thorns" ("Lambera Agathia", fantasy novel, 1995) * “Enigmas Against a Gray Background” (“Ainighmata Se Grizo Fonto”,1998) * “The Roads of Knowledge” (“Oi Dhromoi Tis Ghnosis”, 1998), * “The Shadow of Cthulhu” (“I Skia Tou Kthoulou”, 1993–98) * “Hecate’s Nights” (“Nyktes Tis Ekatis”, 1998, supernatural horror/magick novel) * “Something Crawling Like A Shadow” (“Kati Pou Erpei San Skia”, 2000) * "Reflections on Dark Waters" ("Antanaklaseis se Vathia Nera") * "In the Forests of the Twilight" ("Sta Dasi tou Lykofotos") * “Beyond the Penteli Enigma” (“Pera Apo To Enigma Tis Pentelis”, 2004)


Journalism

Balanos has worked as a journalist for the field of paranormal for various editions, most known "Strange" and "Anexighito" (Unexplained) magazines (and back in the 1970s writing in "Enigmata tou Symbandos" nigmas of the Universe) and "UFO – Iptamenoi Diskoi" (UFOs – Flying Saucersmagazines). He contributed articles on various fields of research of paranormal concerning cities, geometries, symbols, initiations, biographies of secret-famous magicians. Characteristics of his articles is the use of humour, often black, hidden personal vanity (indirectly presenting himself as a keeper of secret knowledge), and extensive scientific knowledge of various scientific fields.


Research fields

The research fields of Balanos are mostly noted in his books and are Magick techniques, psychology, history, paranormal phenomena. According to his books, his actions often attracted the interest of various governmental and non-governmental organisations (Translated title from Greek) ''Something that crawls like a shadow'', . There is an element of truth concerning that since earlier attempts to understand the alleged phenomena at the cave Ntaveli of
Penteli Penteli ( el, Πεντέλη) is a village and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit, Attica, Greece. It belongs to the Athens rural area. It takes its name from Mount Pentelicus. Municipality The municipality Penteli was formed at the ...
mountain in the area of
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
, found some resistance from the Greek authorities, and this led to some actions of prohibiting the entry to the cave. The result of the research of the cave lead to a book (Translated title from Greek) The Enigma of Penteli, 1982 (ISBN unknown).


Cosmic biodynamics

The outcome of Balanos’ research over the years was the cosmic biodynamics system, an original synthesis comprising many notions from a wide variety of fields, such as anthropology, philosophy, physics, mathematics, biology, and chemistry, the basic premises of which consist in the following: the surrounding universe is, in fact, a vastly intricate, multidimensional whole, wherein the phenomenon of existence is conceived as something radically different and wider than most of the various philosophical, religious, mystical, political, etc., systems assume it to be. Everything in this multidimensional cosmos stems from the Cosmic Network. The Cosmic Network is the ‘blueprint’, so to speak, of both the macrocosm and the microcosm. Every being that exists anywhere in the wide universe is an integral part of this network. We can get ourselves attuned to this cosmic network by bringing to surface and enhancing our latent unconscious potentialities, the so-called "other senses". Balanos uses the phrase "to see the world through Other Eyes" ("Alla Matia") when referring to this last process.


The Crawling Shadow

Balanos in one of his books has named a new type of danger, that is a multidimensional force called Shadow. Attributed to the Shadow are paranormal memory loss, violence, phenomena of massive hysteria, and events of extraordinary evil.


Opinions

Readers of his books suggest that elements of his stories, theories, and research have been drawn by other writers, and they give as an example that his current definition of the word ''Pattern'' (who has copyrighted the translated Greek equivalent), has the same meaning with the word occurring to the science fiction ''Amber Series'' by Roger Zelazny. It is true that Balanos may have borrowed various notions from a wide field of disciplines, such as anthropology, philosophy,
occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
ism,
quantum physics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
, higher mathematics, biology, etc., but he synthesized all of these elements into a new and original system. So far as the term ''Pattern'' and Balanos' copyrighted translation into Greek (i.e., "Morphodiataxis") are concerned, this has nothing to do with whatever science fiction writer R. Zelazny means by it. ''Morphodiataxis'' is a core term in Balanos' Cosmic Biodynamics system, and it denotes the real whole of any given situation or phenomenon, taking into consideration all those data that elude our common, untrained senses.


References


External links


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Balanos, Georgios 1944 births Living people Writers from Athens Greek publishers (people) Science fiction translators Greek translators Speculative fiction translators