Atlantis
DEAR JEANETTE: Is Atlantis fact or fiction? V.C., New Orleans, LA
DEAR V.C.: I believe that Atlantis existed but I have no way of ‘proving’ it. Probably the oldest mention of Atlantis in the literature available to us today is Plato’s description of its destruction in his Critia. Throughout the years since then, there have been individuals and groups who have given their attention to the subject.
If you are Christian or Jewish, talk of Atlantis may be one of the things from the psychic world which is disturbing to you. If so, a book by Ignatius Donnelly, a congressman from Minnesota, will be of interest to you. It was first published in 1882, then revised in 1949 by Gramercy Pub. Co., (N.Y.) It is entitled Atlantis: the Antediluvian World.
Donnelly compares Plato’s account of the destruction of Atlantis with the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark. There are many points of agreement including that the cause of the destruction was a population explosion with too many of the people being wicked or evil in their thoughts and deeds. In both instances, death came to the evil ones through drowning.
Also most other peoples in the world have legendary accounts of a great flood. With evidence from so many different peoples and places that can be equated with the Atlantis story and with historical evidence which experts cannot otherwise explain, it would seem that an open-minded person must at least consider the possibility of Atlantis.
How also do you explain the fact that the Egyptians started at the very top of their civilization and went steadily down hill? It is believed that Egypt was the first of the colonies established by the Atlanteans, but there were many others also. Several sites in North and South America, Spain, the British Isles, and various other places are producing evidences of civilizations which were far too old and advanced to fit into our former view of the history of man.
Two of the most favored locations for the fabled continent are the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda and Bimini.
The original continent of Atlantis was by all accounts quite large and the destruction covered a period of several thousand years. This permitted the colonization plans which preserved much of their knowledge for at least a while. And the original size would allow for the finding of widely separated areas.