From Abracadabra to Zombies

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reader comments: Atlantis

28 Feb 1997
Here is the real story of Atlantis.

It is the name of a lost continent, taken from one of Plato’s myths. Inhabitants of Atlantis - called Atlanteans - created an extraordinary advanced civilization. Unfortunately, they were not able to transmit their knowledge to us. Maybe, they did not know how, or it maybe they were forbidden by cosmic civilizations which were in contact with them.

Atlantis disappeared either as a consequence of nuclear war or due to a collision with the Moon, which fortunately sprang back away from the Earth. A part of the survivors settled the city of Atlanta, which carries the name up to modern times. Skeptical geologists are not enthusiasts for the Atlantis idea, and they even stupidly argue for the fact that the whole oceanic bottom is covered by old sediments, and that nothing so large has sunk into the sea over the last several thousand years.

Personally I suggest that the surviving Atlanteans, as soon as they made sure of the irreversible sinking of their continent, spread old sediments anywhere they considered it was suitable.

Atlantis is also connected with the dawning of alchemy and the Hermetic sciences; esotericism has its roots there, as well.
Vojtech Mornstein Associate Professor of Biophysics Medical Faculty, Masaryk University Jostova 10, 662 43 Brno, Czech Republic

reply: Professor Mornstein tells me has a book coming out on this and other subjects. He claims it is satire, but I'm not sure!

28 Aug 1997
I am fifty, and have been studying Atlantis and related historical violations of the doctrine of uniform cultural evolution, on and off, for most of my life now. Just a few thoughts on Atlantis in particular:

Donnelly's contribution to the discussion is that he is one of the few authors on the subject to have actually published a decent translation of what Plato actually said, something that few modern writers have bothered to read.

First of all, since there are no other references to "Atlantis," per se, in what survives of classical Greek literature, it must be assumed that the word is a back formation from "Atlantes," the inhabitants of the Atlas mountain range in northwestern Africa. Robert Graves figured this much out.

The reference to "beyond the pillars of Herakles" is the ancient Greek way of describing what one found upon sailing past Gibraltar while hugging the coast of North Africa. I remind you that the Greek definition of "island" paralleled that of their "continent." To the Greeks, Europe was a continent. West Africa was an island, especially since it was cut off from the rest of what we now call "Africa" by a river that ran south from the Atlas mountains and then west to what is now the Western Sahara. This now dry river was explored by Byron Khun de Prorok in the 1920's.

The extensive water works described by Plato were, of course, controlled by a dam upriver from the plain. Whatever tectonic event led to the destruction, it caused the collapse of the dam and Plato's description of a "sea of mud."

reply: You don't think you are speculating a bit here?

Plato's chronology is a bit screwy. What we seem to be looking at is that two thousand year, or so, period from about 5000 to 3000 BC that preceded the rise of the great old world civilizations, when global temperatures were warmer than they are now, and northern Africa was rainy and fertile.

reply: His "chronology" is 'screwy' only if you assume he is trying to provide such.

As for whether there was any kind of "high technology" in this pre-classical civilization, I am not at present willing to speculate, except to suggest that if we lay this two thousand year period upon our own, current civilization, we are left with the following:

Starting from about 500 BC, the founding of the school of Pythagoras in southern Italy, and ignoring the period of the Dark Ages, a period of about 800 years, we are left with a technological level equivalent to that of our own civilization 300 hundred years from now.

reply: You must be using some New Math here. I don't follow your argument.

Even you must admit: That there is no archaeological evidence for the existence of this civilization is not surprising. It is buried under the Sahara Desert. And, since no one recognizes its existence, it will never be found, save by accident.

reply: Ah! Now I see. I can't see because it is all buried and can't be found. Thanks for the revelation.

Which is not to say that there is anything wrong with maintaining a skeptical attitude. Except that sometimes you tend to miss the whole point.
Steve Franklin

reply: I fear this must be one of those times. Maybe someday I can dig my way to the truth of the matter.

Atlantis