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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 »
Theosophy
Le Plongeon, Alice Dixon
Alice Dixon Le Plongeon (1851-1910) was the wife of Augustus Le Plongeon and the daughter of Henry Dixon a pioneering British 
photographer. She was a keen photographer herself as well as an amateur archaeologist and author. The Le Plongeons were among the first to study the Maya sites of Chichen Itza and Uxmal. She wrote articles and lectured on the Maya culture and also had an interest in spiritualism and Theosophy. Although they worked together, the Le Plongeons developed slightly theories regarding the origins of the Maya. One of her eye-catching claims was that the Garden of Eden had been located in Central America(a).
(a) Alice Dixon Le Plongeon – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog). Clinch Valley News, August 3, 1888
Akashic Records
The Akashic Records in theosophy and anthroposophy, is defined by Wikipedia as “a compendium of all human events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future. They are believed by theosophists to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the etheric plane. There are anecdotal accounts but there is no scientific evidence for the existence of the Akashic records.”
Edgar Cayce claimed to have access to the Akashic Records(a).
(a) https://www.eomega.org/article/mystic-edgar-cayce-explains-the-akashic-records
Lawton, Ian *
Ian Lawton (1959- ) is an English researcher focused on ancient history and spiritual philosophy. He is probably best known as the co-author with Chris Ogilvie-Herald of Giza: The Truth [1690], which offers a sober forensic review of all the many and widely varied theories relating to the ancient structures on the Giza Plateau. In it, Lawton was highly critical of Robert Bauval‘s Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) both in the book (chapter 9)(d) and in open correspondence between them.
However, Lawton was at the receiving end of criticism from the late John Anthony West in 2000, when West published an article in Atlantis Rising magazine that ended with a scornful “The point is that the facile assurances given by Ogilvie-Herald/Lawton endorsing the orthodox view are illegitimate, their exclusion of contrary, genuinely informed opinion is typical of their selective bogus scholarship, and their long-winded acoustic levitation hypothesis is pure speculation and self-contradictory besides. We still don’t know how the pyramids were built/ Period. Full stop.”(e)
Two years later Ogilvie-Herald co-authored Tutankhamun [1898] with Andrew Collins.
Lawton has also been highly critical of the claims of the late Zechariah Sitchin(b) and his book Mesopotamia: The Truth [1751], he returns to the subject.
Lawton’s second book, Genesis Unveiled [1691], has been described as containing “remarkable new insights into the spirituality of the pre-flood human race”. Chapter 13 takes a somewhat generous view of Blavatsky and Theosophy(c).
He subsequently made changes(a) to the content and, in my opinion, opportunistically re-titled it as Atlantis: The Truth! In it Lawton has focused on prediluvian races, citing, with reservations, the work of Stephen Oppenheimer, Arysio dos Santos and Frank Joseph, which when added to Lawton’s research, he concludes that “it’s nevertheless interesting that all four of us have independently arrived at the same conclusion about the broad whereabouts of any forgotten race.” He argues that the location of such a race was in the general region of Sunda and Sahul Shelves.
(a) Atlantis: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(b) Mesopotamia: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(c) Atlantis: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(d) Giza the Truth | Ian Lawton | Chris Ogilvie-Herald (archive.org) *
(e) Atlantis Rising magazine #23 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
Theosophy
Theosophy is defined by Britannica as an “occult movement originating in the 19th century with roots that can be traced to ancient Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. The term theosophy, derived from the Greek theos (‘god’) and sophia (‘wisdom’), is generally understood to mean ‘divine wisdom’.”
The movement was co-founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge, but is probably best known through the writings of Blavatsky, who has been denounced as a fraudster and plagiarist.
Theosophy offers a range of odd beliefs regarding Atlantis(a) including the idea that it sank in portions in a series of earthquakes that began 800,000 years ago before the last island of Atlantis, Poseidonis, sank in 9564 BC.
Theosophy spawned a number of breakaway groups and has inspired quite a number on the lunatic fringe of Atlantis writers. Anthroposophy, a concoction of Rudolf Steiner, was one of these.
Evola, Julius
Julius Evola (1898-1974) was an Italian philosopher and although he was 
politically right-wing in his views, he did not formally join the National Fascist Party. However, when Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943, he moved to Germany where he worked as a researcher for the SS Ahnenerbe.
According to Evola in his Rivolta contro il mondo modern[1326], he claimed that the Atlanteans were Hyperboreans, Nordic supermen, who originated at the North Pole. It has been noted that many of his ideas regarding prehistory are closely related to Theosophy(b). This book has been translated into English[1327] and is available online.
According to Evola in his Revolt Against the Modern World (1934), he claimed the Atlanteans were Hyperboreans, Nordic supermen, who originated at the North Pole.
The New York Times of February 10th 2017(c) has, worryingly, identified racist Evola as a possible influence on the thinking of Stephen K. Bannon, one of Donald Trump’s top advisors.
There is a website dedicated to Evola’s work(a).
(a) Julius Evola – His Main Views In His Own Words (archive.org) *
(b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola
(c) Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists – The New York Times (archive.org)
Alfonso, Eduardo
Eduardo Alfonso (1896-1991) was a Spanish medical doctor and a strong advocate of vegetarianism. He was a member of the Spanish Theosophical Society and has written on a range of subjects including Atlantis with his La Atlantida y America[873].
Godwin, Joscelyn
Joscelyn Godwin (1945- ) was born in England and is currently professor of 
musicology at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Although he has written on his chosen subject he has also ventured into the realms of Theosophy, the Mystery Traditions and the esoteric generally. Included in his output is a life of Athanius Kircher[1130].*In 2009, this book was revamped as Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre Of The World, which has been described as “essentially a big-budget version of the previous book.” [1593]*
In his 1996 book Arktos[789] he traces the history of polar wandering theories together with the polar connection with some Nazi ideology. His latest offering, Atlantis and the Cycles of Time[746] is a very comprehensive history of occult view of the Atlantis mystery.
A brief biography of Godwin together with his impressive bibliography is available on the Colgate University website(a).
Scott-Elliot, William
William Scott–Elliot (18??-1930) was a merchant banker and part-time anthropologist. He was author of two works
relating to Atlantis[543][544], both of which are available on the Internet(a). However, his work is mainly a re-working of some of Donnelly’s material, combined with a dash of Theosophy and a splash of racism, all of which was allegedly generated by ‘astral clairvoyance’ and by reference to ‘the Akashic Records’!
In his 1896 book, The Story of Atlantis, Scott-Elliot was one of the first to suggest that Atlanteans has flying machines or ‘air-boats’. This inclusion by him was influenced by the efforts of John W. Keely and Hiram Maxim to develop flying machines at the end of the 19th century. This silly suggestions of flying Atlanteans was revived later by Edgar Cayce with the even dafter idea that these aerial machines were made from the skins of elephants.
One of Scott-Elliot’s more entertaining revelations is that the Lemurians were 20 feet in height and had “huge feet, the heels of which stuck out so far they could as easily walk backwards as forwards.” One hopes that his banking was better than his writing.
Joquel II, Arthur Louis *
Arthur Louis Joquel II (1919-1974) is listed as an author, anthropologist and historian. In 1959 he wrote an article about Atlantis that was published in three parts in Egerton Sykes’ Atlantis journal. He wrote nearly fifty science fiction short stories with which group, I suggest, his Atlantis offering should be classified. It is full of speculative nonsense and is quite definitely non-history with claims such as; Atlantis brought civilisation to the entire world, the swastika was an Atlantean symbol, the Trojan War was fought between two groups of refugees from the Gobi Sea etc, etc.
By all accounts Joquel was an eccentric individual, who was greatly influenced by Theosophy.(a)
(a) Arthur Louis Joquel II as a Fortean – From an Oblique Angle (archive.org) *
Ambesi, Alberto Cesare
Alberto Cesare Ambesi (1931- ) is a professor of art history and the author of numerous books, many with an esoteric content. Included in his output is one[049] focused on the destruction of Atlantis, which appears to contain a strong theosophical undertone.