Michael Le Flem
Le Flem, Michael
Michael Le Flem is an independent researcher and adjunct professor of history and philosophy. He is also the author of Visions of Atlantis published in December 2022.>>In February 2024, he was selected as Author of the Month on Graham Hancock’s website(b).<<
He begins by firmly placing the Atlantis story around 9600 BC, a date which you should know both archaeology and commonsense find totally unacceptable. But unfortunately, it gets worse when Le Flem proceeds to recruit Edgar Cayce as an authority on Atlantis, quoting liberally from his ‘readings’ and devoting over half the book to Cayce’s utterances on the subject, using seemingly endless quotations. Cayce’s name is mentioned 310 times, Plato’s 162 times, (actual quotes. Cayce 54 – Plato 13).
.Not content with that, he drags in the writings of Frederick Spencer Oliver, Rudolf Steiner and other theosophers to justify acceptance of Cayce’s ‘revelations’. I have pointed out elsewhere the unreliability of channelled information as well as question marks over the source of Cayce’s messages.
Le Flem frequently attacks Jason Colavito’s scepticism, which, at least, is usually based on more rational scientific grounds than Le Flem’s ideas. ‘Visions’ includes a few minor errors of fact. My final gripe is that the book lacks an index.
In January 2023, Le Flem had a chapter from ‘Visions’ published as an article on the Ancient Origins website(a) in which he puts forward the idea that the Azores might have been the location of Atlantis, although such a possibility was never suggested by Le Flem’s hero, Edgar Cayce. Before advocating such an idea Le Flem should explain how and why an Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic would contemplate an attack on Athens which is around 4,500 km away with the primitive log boats or rafts which is just about all that was available in 9600 BC!
Overall, this book is worthless for anyone hoping for a science-based resolution to the Atlantis mystery. However, occultists will probably love it.