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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
psychics
Channelling *
Channelling is a modern term for mediumship that claims to provide contact with the spirits of the departed. It has become fashionable now for channellers to claim communication with entities from Atlantis and or Lemuria/Mu! As a means of assisting in the quest for Atlantis, channelling, in the opinion of your compiler, is about as useful as a packet of sausages. Recent articles regarding psychics and police work have only strengthened my scepticism(a)(h). Simon Singh, a well-known author, recently penned an article on the subject(c)(d).
My principal objections to the use of so-called channelled information are listed in Joining the Dots [p.63].
(1) Channelling sources have frequently been shown to be fraudulent or demonstrate manifestations of schizophrenia.
(2) Channelled ‘information’ relating to Atlantis frequently contradicts accepted scientific knowledge.
(3) Channelled ‘information’ repeatedly conflicts with commonsense.
(4) Channelled ‘information’ is not acceptable in a court of law.
(5) Channelling sources often contradict each other.
(6) No published medium, psychic or psychotic, has ever offered a verifiable location, date, or identity for Atlantis.
We should also keep in mind that the name Atlantis was a Hellenised name concocted by Solon or Plato to identify the homeland of the Atlantean invaders, hundreds if not thousands of years after their island was submerged. So when it is claimed that messages have been received from Atlantis or past lives experienced there, how do the mediums know that Atlantis was the source of their ‘communication’, since Atlantis would have been known by a different name or names to its inhabitants and they could not have been aware of a name invented many centuries after their demise. Furthermore, how do we explain these ancient Atlanteans communicating in English or any other modern vernacular language?
Psychic Archaeology has been defined as “the process of using psychic abilities to locate objects of centuries past.” It gained wider public awareness in 1978 with the publication of two books, Psychic Archaeology [781] by Jeffrey Goodman and The Secret Vaults of Time [1881] by Stephan A. Schwartz. They both touch on the subject of Atlantis, but only in the context of the ‘revelations’ of Edgar Cayce. In the 21st century, Luciano Pederzoli published The Megalith Builders – Psychic archaeology and the Nuragic civilization(n). His book deals specifically with “the reconstruction of an entire life is presented – from birth to death – of an important individual who lived on the Italian island of Sardinia approximately 3,500 years ago, at the peak of what is known as the Nuragic civilization, which is now gradually attracting more attention from progressive scholars,”
A book-length paper by Luciano Pederzoli on the Researchgate.net website that purports to offer information about life in Sardinia during and before the Nuragic period(o). It is claimed that it was developed through the use of regression hypnosis. Pederzoli has published a number of papers about channelling and Out-of-Body Experiences(p). This is not for me.
When law courts allow channelled information to be admitted in evidence, I will be happy to reconsider my opinion. While speaking of courts, I should point out that the evidence of witnesses is preferred where there is corroboration, partly in recognition of the fragility of memory(f) and partly because of the risk of lying. How do you corroborate that the ‘spirit source’ of a medium is real? A recent study(g) of a high-profile medium Allison DuBois would do little to encourage channelling as a dependable tool.
Further psychic pscandals(l) have even led their representative organisations to call for greater controls(k).
A lengthy paper(j) by Eric Pement, soberly discusses the subject of channelling from a religious viewpoint.
David Pratt, in a paper on Pole Shift theories, has highlighted the conflicting information generated by psychics when exploring the subject(m), noting that “A number of psychics, with the help of their ‘spirit guides’, have offered dramatic and generally conflicting accounts of past and future pole shifts. All their ‘prophecies’ have so far failed to come true.”
In the meanwhile, it might be worth reading an article by Karla McKlaren, a former New Age leader, on her conversion to scepticism(e). Also consider a 2016 large-scale study(i) which concluded that “The results don’t prove that relatively poor analytical thinking skills cause people to become believers in psychic phenomena, but they are certainly consistent with the idea that a lack of these skills may leave people more prone to developing such beliefs.”
See Also: Critical Thinking
(a) Psychic Detectives Have a Perfect Record – Pacific Standard (archive.org) *
(c) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/16/psychic-sally-morgan-deluded-harmless
(f) The Certainty of Memory Has Its Day in Court – The New York Times (archive.org)
(i) Why do so many people believe in psychic powers? – Research Digest (archive.org)
(j) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3169/
(k) https://www.psychicnews.org.uk/articles/Psychic-News-TRUTH-campaign
(l) http://www.badpsychics.com/2016/06/gary-mannion-secretly-recorded-cheating.html
(m) https://www.davidpratt.info/pole2.htm
(o) (PDF) THE MEGALITH BUILDERS – Psychic archaeology and the Nuragic civilization (researchgate.net)
Asher, Maxine Klein
Maxine Klein Asher (1930-2015) was the author of two short books[084][085] related to Atlantis. Asher announced that on July 18th 1973 her divers had found a sunken city with streets and columns off the coast at Cadiz(a). This 
discovery she modestly described as ‘the greatest discovery in the history of the world’. Unfortunately, a student claimed that he had seen the press release two days before the alleged discovery. The Spanish authorities began an enquiry and Asher & Co headed for Ireland.
>Martin Ebon [286.90] relates how Asher planned to take along 200 students @ $1,995 and other interested parties @ $3,000 each. In the end, only 45 students took part, with a similar number of non-students. Asher also revealed that she used psychic vibrations to assist the expedition, claiming to be ‘very clairvoyant’ herself. However, in Spain, Asher clashed with both the civil authorities and academics and eventually had to flee the country.<
An interesting selection of pictures and newspaper clippings relating to this 1973 expedition to Cadiz was compiled by Corby James Waste and is available online(c). I found that the press comments were often misleading if not conflicting.
Nevertheless, after this 1973 expedition to Spain in search of Atlantis, she has been frequently interviewed and quoted extensively, but in spite of a claimed forty visits to Spain, she has really added little to the Atlantis debate.
The Ancient Mediterranean Research Association (AMRA) seems to have been founded simply to promote the modest Atlantis related output of Dr Asher. A few years ago its website had the following odd headline:
“UPDATED NEWS
Dr Maxine Asher has now legally claimed
her 1973 discovery of Atlantis in Cadiz, Spain.”
What is that supposed to mean? What discovery? Why wait over 30 years?
In recent years Asher has moved into more esoteric circles when she co-authored a book[086] with her old pal, the late Ann Miller. She claims to possess psychic powers that enabled her to write in this tome about psychic energies, among other exotic subjects. As Asher’s own AMRA website, now closed, curiously stated “Together the two writers are a fountain of information about psychic subjects, since both seek to give validity to a field with half-truths”. Like many others, I suspect that Dr Asher is an expert in the field of half-truths. For those that wish to believe otherwise, it should be noted that Asher has promised that her definitive book on Atlantis was due in 2002, 2004 and 2007!
Asher’s credibility cannot be completely divorced from her academic activities. The American World University(a), based in Iowa City, whose president is one Maxine Asher, was forced to move to Rapid City, South Dakota and then to its present location in Mississippi after allegations that it was providing sub-standard degrees to mainly gullible foreign students. This whole sorry tale was told on the web pages of the Daily Iowan and the Sun Herald and the details are related on numerous websites(b).
In 2007, Asher began promoting a six-week course on Atlantis. For $400 written material was sent each week, after which examinations were conducted on the Internet and a certificate granted not surprisingly, through the American World University International. Caveat emptor was definitely advised.
Andrews, Shirley *
Shirley Andrews from Massachusetts is the successful author of two books[057][058] on Atlantis but unfortunately she has completely devalued her work by 
using the output of what she refers to as ‘intuitively gifted psychics’ as research sources. This is a ploy used by those that are unable to produce anything new on the subject through conventional investigative methods. She also blindly follows the ‘ideas’ of the late Zechariah Sitchin and introduces extraterrestrial visitors and Edgar Cayce’s Atlantean use of crystals into the history of Atlantis.
Her output is a poor reworking of old material covered with a heavy layer of conjecture and mystic waffle. Andrews is probably one of the better-known writers who blend channelled ‘information’ with the limited historical data at our disposal. Not content with writing bosh about Atlantis she subsequently extended her output of poppycock to include Lemuria. A sample of this nonsense can be experienced on her website(a).
(a) Atlantis Insights (archive.org) *