Even though the Cro Magnons might have substantially contributed to our genepool it seems that, as a species or subspecies, they too actually became extinct at the catastrophic end of the Pleistocene. And we seem to be their decayed descendants, lesser in size and in brain, to believe both the paleoanthropological and the traditional evidence: the Cro Magnons, like the Neanderthals, were giants about 30% bigger and brainier than we modern humans are ourselves.
It is quite probable that the biblical reference to the fact that “there were giants on earth these days” actually referred to these giant human beings. The same probably holds in regards to the frequent references in the sacred traditions of many peoples – the Celts in particular – to the existence of “hobbits” such as gnomes and dwarfs in the region of Paradise, their primordial mythical homeland.
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2 We well realize that all really novel theories such as mine sound a bit odd and even ridiculous when they are first proposed. Such was the case of Heliocentrism – which actually landed its proponents in jail. And such was also the case with the Relativity Theory, which was rejected by all scientists until some 15 years later, when Einstein finally gained the overt support of Sir Arthur Eddington, the famous British mathematician and astronomer.
Again, this was also the case of Heinrich Schliemann and his “Troy”, which all archaeologists thought to be no more than sheer legend until he dug it out. Very much the same thing also happened with Alfred Wegener, the illustrious proponent of Continental Drift. And so with Louis Agassiz, when he originally proposed the reality of the Ice Ages. These examples could be multiplied almost ad infinitum, except for the risk of boring the dear reader.
We emphasize, once again, that our theory, in contrast to most, is strictly scientific and is founded on actual, empirically observed facts, rather than on speculation or on religion or tradition alone. In contrast, Theosophists basically derive their beliefs from Mme. Blavatsky, a Russian lady who moved to India in the 1860’s, where she later founded the Theosophical Society, which enjoyed a considerable following among the intellectuals of her time.
Mme. Blavatsky was an extremely intelligent person, and soon amassed immense knowledge of Hindu and other esoteric traditions, which she published in books such as The Secret Doctrine and the Veil of Isis. Her writings seem an undigested version of the esoteric doctrines of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions and occult doctrines, mingled with some pseudo-science which she obtained from the geological and paleoanthropological textbooks of the time, which would all prove wrong in the course of time.
Pole Shift is a sheer unscientific fallacy that holds no water. It is impossible on both physical and geological grounds. These ideas originated with Edgar Cayce, the famous medium, and were later popularized by Charles Hapgood, an amateur researcher. These unscientific doctrines survive to date in bestselling writers such as John White and Graham Hancock. Rather than scientists, these authors are professional journalists, whose specialty is precisely rendering palatable to the public what are usually pseudo-scientific lies and propaganda.
John White has – along with most such proponents of the theory of Pole Shift, Charles Hapgood himself included – publicly recanted from his former views on this possibility, which he now recognizes as an impossibly unscientific misconception. Graham Hancock has now de facto dropped his former unscientific proposal of an Antarctic Atlantis in favor of my own hypothesis of a Far Eastern Atlantis, as his more recent writings unequivocally testify.
Immanuel Velikovsky was another unusual character and romantic researcher. Originally a Russian Jew and an émigré to the US, Velikovsky’s wonderfully written books soon became the delight of all inquisitive persons who, in the 1950’s, were discontented with the inconsistencies and paradoxes of Academic Science. Among these, I myself should also be counted, as his books opened my eyes to the faults of theories such as the ones of Darwin’s Uniformitarian Geology and his infamous Theory of Evolution, likewise founded on precisely this false premise.
The problem with Velikovsky was taking the catastrophic events he proposed as the literal truth, actually occurring in biblical times. Moreover, as an orthodox Jew, Velikovsky also believed the dates and events of the Bible such as Creation – ridiculously recent by any valid geological standards – to be actual facts which should be implicitly believed by all.
But Velikovsky’s books – like the ones of Mme. Blavatsky and even of John White and Graham Hancock – are a very good read even today, so long as they are considered as what they really are: pleasant, well written Science Fiction based on ill-digested, untenable pseudo-Science.
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3 The two Atlantises referred by Plato and other mythographers actually correspond to the Mother and Son of the sacred traditions of most peoples on earth. In reality, the two divine figures – Mother and Son – really correspond to a succession, just as this type of myth implies. The Mother is actually the Great Mother of both Gods and Men, and corresponds to figures such as Isis, Hathor, Diana Multimammia, Durga, and so forth.
Lemuria proper, or Mu, never existed at all. The name of Lemuria derives from the one of the lemurs and was applied by the naturalists Haeckel and Sclater, etc., to designate the hypothetical landbridge across which the lemur (a primate) would have migrated from Africa to Indonesia or vice-versa. The name of Mu – which means “Mother” in Dravida – is often applied to Durga (Kali) in India. Kali is the Great Mother of which all traditions speak. And she actually impersons the older Atlantis, of which the “Son” was the virgin offspring.
Despite its inadequacy, we adopt the name of Lemurian Atlantis – or more simply, Lemuria – in order to designate the former Atlantis (the Mother) as distinct from the second one, the Son. As we said, the name and concept of Lemuria was misappropriated from Science by Mme. Blavatsky, who posited it as a mid-Pacific continent of vast extent where semi-spiritual beings first developed. However, despite its name, our Lemurian Atlantis (or Lemuria) should never be confused with the imaginary one of Blavatsky and other Theosophists.
Even at the risk of some repetition, in order to make it clearer to the dear reader, we recapitulate here the story of Atlantis from its inception, as we have been able to reconstitute if from a host of data both scientific and traditional. Man (Homo erectus) first migrated to Eden (Southeast Asia) soon after he appeared in Africa, at the start of the Pleistocene, some 2.7 Mya [Million years ago]. And Man apparently evolved in parallel both in Africa and in the Far East migrating back and forth as the Ice Ages came and went.
Conditions again became optimum in the Far East, and humans returned to it after the end of the Eemian Interglacial, some 115 kya [kiloyears ago], when sea level again went down, exposing Eden’s Great Plain. This civilization flourished and eventually developed agriculture and civilization there, turning the region into the Garden of Eden. However, the Toba volcano went off 75 kya, in what was one of the greatest cataclysms ever.
Man barely survived it, being globally reduced to a very small number, ranging in the few thousand individuals. When local conditions eased, a few millennia later, humans returned to Eden, and progress was resumed anew. The first Atlantis – which we here name Lemuria (or Lemurian Atlantis) – is traditionally deemed the “Great Mother”, whereas the second Atlantis is dubbed the “Son” in essentially all such traditions found the world over.
The Great Mother’s “virginity” refers to the fact that she engendered all other civilizations on earth, without being “fertilized” herself, just as was the case with all subsequent civilizations on earth. The Great Mother is also the Mother of Cereals commemorated in personages such as the ones of Ceres, Demeter, Persephone (Kore), Annapurna, Saning Sari, and so on. The role of the Mother Goddess is discussed in detail by Sir James G. Frazer in his seminal Golden Bough (London, 1922). ↑028
Sir Frazer of course failed to solve the deep enigma posed by the Great Mother and her Golden Bough itself. But our sol
ution of the riddle is rather obvious when all facts I adduce are considered. The name of Tamraparna (Sanskrit) or Tamaraparana (Dravida) actually means “golden bough” in those sacred tongues of India.
And the name of Ceres – like the one of cereals, actually derived from it – ultimately comes from the Dravida *sariči (or ariči) meaning “rice, cereal”. From this base also derive words such as the English rice, Greek oryza, Latin cerealis, the surname of Saning Sari (or *sarici = “rice”), etc.. The fact that the name of “cereals” derives from Indian languages proves the origination of cereal agriculture there, in South India or Indonesia, where Dravida was spoken.
The Far Eastern origin of cereals such as rice – and even of Agriculture itself – also seems now proven by the early dates associated with rice culture in that region of the world, which are the earliest known so far. Rice agriculture is now archaeologically attested to have originated there as far back as 15,000 years ago, and probably even much earlier. Moreover, wild rice cropping is there attested to date from at least 25,000 years ago.
These dates are far earlier than the corresponding ones of the Near East. And they both date from the Pleistocene Epoch, the times of Atlantis, according to Plato. The first Atlantis – the Mother – was the one which started soon after the last Interglacial, the Eemian Period, which lasted from about 130 to 115 kya [kiloyears ago]. And it lasted down to the Toba cataclysm of 75 kya.
When the Ice Age started and sea level dropped by as much as 130–150 meters – which is usual during these epochs – the vast continent we have personally discovered and mapped in the region of Indonesia over two decades ago became exposed and subaerial. Rains almost ceased and the other regions such as Europe, the Near East and Africa became desertic, either as the result of desiccation or of being frozen and covered by mile-thick glaciers.
The humans who survived the cataclysm were forced out of these unbearably dismal regions into the newly exposed continent, which was tropical, pleasantly warm and, hence, pluvious and fertile. Agriculture thrived there, and Civilization eventually developed.
The Americas were then unpopulated, and humanity did not thrive there, at least to any great extent. Eventually, the first Atlantis – the Great Mother – rose to an apogee which is hard to diagnose in detail, at least until some more archaeological field research is carried out in the region, which has been neglected so far by most anthropologists and antiquarians of all shades.
This great luciferine civilization flourished for about 40 millennia, until the global cataclysm triggered by Toba’s supervolcanic eruption wiped it off. The last glaciation – which also started more or less at this date – is now widely held to have resulted from this cause. In fact, humans were reduced to a scant few thousand people globally, and almost became altogether extinct, just as happened to several other animal and plant species.
The earth afterwards entered one of the direst Ice Ages ever, and full recovery of the site of Eden took several millennia. But it is easy to imagine the heights attained by this great civilization in that enormous span of time. No matter what, conditions eventually normalized in the region of Indonesia, and it again became paradisial. People returned, and progress was again resumed, this time for about 60 millennia or so, until the end of the Pleistocene.
This second Atlantis was eventually labeled the “Son of the Virgin”, who is often held to have gone berserk and to have “devoured her own children”. This is of course an allegory of the fact that the soil of the region of Sumatra – where the Toba Volcano is actually located – caved in into a giant caldera which literally swallowed the unfortunate people then living there. It is a feature of Indonesia that such tragedies occur again and again, “like some sort of recurring pestilence’, just as Plato himself affirmed.
A similar tragedy would again occur at the end of the Pleistocene, this time caused by the no less ferocious Krakatoa supervolcano. The recent cataclysm there – though of far smaller proportions – well attests the changing moods of the Great Mother. Small wonder then that the Hindus call her Kali (“Black One”), an allusion not to her skin color, but to her somber, unpredictable temperament. This name has also to do with the eras (Kali = “Time”, in Sanskrit, the sacred language of India), whose dire ends she and Shiva (Kala) periodically bring about.
The third “Atlantis” – this time a paler replica – would again occur in the Indus Valley region, the oldest and most impressive of the ancient civilizations so far known. Its demise occurred, above all, due to the desiccation of the whole region which took place at about 3,100 BC, due to the partial exhaustion of the great Himalayan glaciers which are in fact a meager relict of the Ice Age. This date corresponds to what the Hindus identify with the start of the Kali Yuga, which they place at 3,102 BC to the day and the hour.
These three “Atlantises” and their eras correspond to what the Hindus call the Trimurti (or Trinity). They also correspond to other triple features, for instance, Tripura, the “Triple City” destroyed by Shiva. As such, Tripura also evokes Shiva’s trident and his “tripartite arrow”, the one used in destroying Tripura. Above all, the three correspond to the three elapsed Eras of Mankind, with us presently living in the fourth, the Kali Yuga.
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4 Tektites are glass beads and concretions resulting from giant meteoritic (or cometary) falls or, perhaps, from gigantic volcanic explosions as well, as was possibly the case here. These giant collisions scatter tektites far and wide, as in the above case. The ones in question here are called Indochinites, in an allusion to the region where they abound the most. Indochina is the name of Indonesia during colonial times.
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The Indochinites have been dated at 750 kiloyears (one kiloyear = one thousand years). The explosion of Lake Toba took place 75 kyears ago. The even larger one of Lake Taupo in New Zealand took place at about 100 kyears ago or so. Mt. Yellowstone, now overdue for a new giant explosion according to experts, exploded some 600 kya or so ago. As is now becoming apparent to experts, volcanoes formerly thought to be extinct are now known to be merely dormant, and may wake up in time in colossal explosions fully able to destroy the whole world.
These supervolcanoes may trigger both the Ice Ages and their catastrophic terminations, just as we have long been arguing. These giant explosions, which mainly occurred in the region of Indonesia – volcanically and seismically the most active in the whole world – are large enough to trigger Ice Ages on or, conversely, their cataclysmic endings. However, whether one is indeed caused depends on other conditions, probably dictated by insolation (sunshine) and other such variables, astronomical or not, which modulate earth’s climate.
As we just commented, the region of Indonesia has literally hundreds of active or dormant volcanoes. But it has been very little researched so far, mainly due to its remoteness and present poverty. Further research of the Indonesian region will – now that its connection with the birthplace of Mankind has been pointed out – certainly confirm the reality of what we are claiming here.
Indonesia is part of the Pacific “Fire Belt”, and the extreme violence of its volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis has been recently attested by the colossal disasters which just happened there. Our predictions concerning the disaster-prone nature of the region of Indonesia have undergone an undesired confirmation with these recent disasters. We hope that they suffice to convince people of the reality of what we claim before it is too late.
Our research is strictly scientific and is based both on climatological and geological data, as well as on very detailed local traditions. Likewise, our views are the fruit of almost three decades of study of the myth of Atlantis-Eden from a strictly scientific, unbiased point-of-view. We have no axes to grind but the truth, and push no religious, scientific, philosophic or mercenary purposes, as most experts unfortunately do.
As the ancient Latins used to say, Amicus Plato, magis amica veritas (“Plato is a friend, but truth is an even closer friend”). It is our belief
that the sacred traditions of the ancients embody prehistoric events in a highly stylized, codified manner. The ancients loved to play on words to convey the truth, as our present text demonstrates. Hence, all we have to do is to attempt to learn to decode these ancient myths and odd rituals in order to recover the embedded reality. But this is a difficult art which has taken me many years of study to master.
We note that the recent investigation of the prehistoric behavior of the Krakatoa Volcano done by Ken Wohletz, a volcanologist working in Los Alamos Laboratory (linked here), has dramatically confirmed our predictions made about two decades ago. The Krakatoa is really a supervolcano that has repeatedly erupted in an explosive way many times in the past, and particularly during the Late Pleistocene and the start of the Holocene, when the Ice Age was ending in a catastrophic way, apparently due to a volcanic paroxysm of some sort. ↑029
As we already said, Wohletz was working in collaboration with David Keys, and hence tended to believe, along with him, that the giant Krakatoa eruption which caused the opening of Sunda Strait, as reported in the Pustaka Raja Purwa, occurred in the early Middle Ages (535 AD), decreeing the end of the Roman Empire. Now, this is a very recent, historical date, by any standards, and is hence hard to accept.
Moreover, the in situ research conducted by other volcanologists failed to confirm this recent date, in turn supporting the Late Pleistocenic and Early Holocenic eruptions which we just adduced. So, this recent date should be taken with a lot of caution, as it is unsupported by any direct or indirect volcanological evidence whatsoever, despite Keys’ insistent contention.
This subject of course requires further volcanological research. But the fact is that this very recent date postulated by both Ken Wohletz and David Keys is actually impossible, given the fact that the legend on the opening up of Sunda Strait told in the Pustaka Raja Purwa and other traditions is far earlier than the medieval date of 535 AD they have been claiming on rather slight indirect evidence that seems very tenuous to ourselves.
Atlantis the Lost Continent Finally Found Page 39