James Churchward

Mu was first used (invented) by Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1869 as the name for a mythical continent that supposedly existed in the Pacific Ocean according to an incorrect translation of the Codex Troano. This fiction was more fully developed by Augustus le Plongeon at the end of the 19th century and was later popularised in a 1931 book[233] by his friend ‘Colonel’ James Churchward (1851-1936) who presented it as a kind of Pacific precursor to Atlantis. He claimed that his work is based on inscriptions on the so-called Naacal tablets, which he was allegedly taught to translate by an Indian priest. Churchward is reputed to have devoted 50 years of his life searching for Mu.

Churchward was born in England but lived mainly in America. He wrote a book on fly-fishing in Maine and even more incongruously was granted a series of railroad related U.S. patents. Although he liked to be addressed as Colonel no record of his military service has been found. He never identified the monastery where his priestly mentor lived nor has any monastery ever claimed to possess such tablets. Churchward never produced any evidence whatsoever that the tablets existed. His books cannot be treated as credible as they offer nothing but the outpourings of an over fertile imagination. At the time of his death, in California, he had a number of additional books in preparation. Churchward’s grandson now has a website(a) devoted to his writings. It is not generally known that the father of modern Turkey, Kemel Ataturk, had Churchward’s book studied in the hope of confirming links between the Turkish people and ancient civilisations such as the Uighur (recently in the news), Maya and Aztec!

In 1969 the French hydrologist Louis-Claude Vincent (1906-1988) published two volumes on the origins of civilisation which he placed in Mu. This was probably the last major work based on the very questionable output of Churchward.

Later psychics have embellished the already colourful writing of Churchward and pushed the story from fiction to farce. Strictly speaking Mu should not to be confused with Lemuria, as the former is just an invention of Le Plongeon while the latter word was originally used as a geological term to describe a hypothetical submerged landmass in the Indian Ocean. Nevertheless, the two terms are now frequently used interchangeably.

(a) http://www.my.mu.com/index.html