CHAPTERS:
CHAPTERS:
PROLOGUE: THROUGH THE MISTS OF TIME
Describes Lemuria through the eyes of
a contemporary mystic and trance-channel. Sets the mood for the work that
follows.
1: GLIMPSES OF THE PAST
The author is introduced to Lemuria at
a New Age event and goes away puzzled and intrigued. A place unknown to
historians has been described in exquisite detail. Later, he learns of
19th century references in both mainstream geology and Occultism. Author
makes the decision to unravel the mystery of Lemuria, and to prove conclusively
that it really existed or expose it as a hoax.
2: MOTHER INDIA
Author travels to Adyar outside Madras,
home of the Theosophical Society founded by Madame H.P. Blavatsky. He explores
the place and the ideas of this remarkable woman, often cited as the grandmother
of the entire New Age movement. She likewise introduced Lemuria into the
occult world view with her bizarre evolutionary theory of root races and
sexual duality. Author learns about archaeological remnants in the Indian
Ocean and travels south to explore, but finds a dead end. Also discussed:
Aryans; Sanskrit and Dravidian; precipitation of matter; Hindu and Christian
texts; plate tectonics and geological theories.
3: LOST VALLEY, MISSING CULTURE
Author travels to the Indus Valley in
Pakistan, site of enigmatic pre-Aryan civililization possibly linked to
Lemuria. Along the way he reviews the essentials of human evolutionary
history according to science, as well as references to the lost continent
in world mythology and its puzzling appearance in channeled material. He
wanders the sun-blasted ruins of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro in search of
historical clues, but comes away discouraged. Also discussed: homo erectus;
archaeological dating; pockets of prehistoric races and dream cultures.
4: THE ROAD TO SUMATRA
Author travels to Indonesia to track down
cryptic references to a sunken continent there, destroyed by a horrific
volcanic eruption 75,000 years ago. He reviews evidence of other natural
catastrophes and extinctions, as well as the last Ice Age, which ushered
in the arrival of homo sapiens, modern man. The many puzzles of human origins
are woven into the story of Lemuria. Author travels to Australia to investigate
the aboriginal culture and its intriguing Dream World, which clearly parallels
New Age concepts about the nature of our universe. Also discussed: volcanoes;
Java Man; genetics vs. fossil evidence; prehistoric tribes of New Guinea
and Borneo; pioneer trance-channelers.
5: MIND OVER MUSCLE
Author travels to island of Pohnpe in
the South Pacific (Micronesia), site of puzzling stone ruins indicative
of a highly developed culture. Wild theories about mental construction
techniques are evaluated in light of modern Physics (Einstein, Unified
Field Theory, etc.). The illustrious James Churchward, author of several
influential Lemuria books, is introduced and his theories about the rise
and fall of Mu compared with accepted fact. Also discussed: Pacific area
geology; tsunamis and gas belts; pockets of Lemurian survivors; mysteries
of the Gobi Desert and Tibet.
6: PACIFIC HEARTLAND
Author travels to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa
and examines mysterious stone monoliths. He uncovers a vast mythology supporting
existence of a great land that disappeared long before the Polynesian people.
He learns more about their much-debated origins and curious links with
distant places. Later, he witnesses Fijian fire-walkers defy nature and
common sense.
Also discussed: Polynesian geology; New
Zealand's Maoris; Semites in the Pacific; Human Potential Movement; mind
over matter.
7: BIG ISLAND, BIG KAHUNA
Author travels to Hawaii and witnesses
the power of active volcanoes. He learns of ancient Hawaiian metaphysics
taught by shamans called kahuna. Visiting native temples and petroglyphs,
he explores Polynesian history. During a session of lomi lomi massage
he receives fleeting glimpses of past-life connections. On Maui author
visits the place cited as Mu's sumptuous capital by an obscure California
group. Meanwhile, he's frustrated by the lack of hard physical evidence.
Also discussed: the philosophy of huna; Hawaiian geology; Captain Cook
and white gods.
8: SEARCHING FOR CLUES
Author travels to Hawaiian islands of
Oahu and Kauai to search for more concrete proof of Lemuria's existence.
Spending time in Honolulu's famed Bishop Museum, he learns more about heiau
temples and uncovers an astounding map of the lost continent drawn by a
sea captain only a century ago. A native Hawaiian appears with antiquities
supposedly dating back to Mu and offers some compelling advice. On Kauai
author discusses huna and Lemurian goddesses with an expert and
finds the world's largest crystal at a Hindu colony devoted to Lemuria.
Also discussed: Menehune dwarfs; kahuna healing; Kevin Ryerson and flower
essences; outlying islands and their puzzling ruins; ocean seamounts and
coral formations.
9: THE WORLD BEYOND
As author takes a respite from travel,
his search continues on the Internet and at San Francisco Whole Life Expo,
where he ponders such things as the Collective Unconscious, Reincarnation,
and Karma. He learns more about trance-channeling and past-life regressions
of former Lemurians, as well as E.T. races that some claim were Mu's original
inhabitants. With nothing to lose, he decides to take the leap and try
a hypnotic regression himself. Also discussed: Jung and the Archetypes;
the theory of Relativity; a multidimensional universe.
10: PLAYING THE FOOL
With the assistance of a well-known Bay
Area clairvoyant and mystic, author undergoes a past-life regression. Urged
on by his guide's vivid description of Lemuria, he imagines himself in
the long-lost land. He attends another workshop on Lemuria and comes away
dazzled by details he's seen in mediation. Also discussed: trance-channeling;
Lazaris; dreaming and reality creation; teleportation.
11: ISLANDS IN THE SUN
Author travels to French Polynesia and
its enticing islands: the Marquesas, Raitea, and Moorea. Along the way
he sifts through the facts about polar magnetic reversals and other doomsday
scenarios, as well as Thor Heyerdahl and his trans-Pacific cultural theories.
Possible remnants from Lemuria are discussed, leading
to a discussion of quartz crystals and
subatomic particles. Also discussed: Malden Island ruins; Edgar Cayce;
Captain Cook and the great Southern Continent.
12: MOAI MADNESS
Next stop: Easter Island, a key component
of many Lemuria theories. Author explores the famous statues and other
evidence of an advanced culture in the "middle of nowhere." He learns of
a white race with elongated earlobes that came before Polynesians and erected
the stone monuments that have baffled historians. And of a written language
nearly identical to that of the Indus Valley culture half a world away.
Also discussed: mind power called mana; ice-free Antarctica; links with
pre-Inca Peru; Blavatsky, Churchward, and Cayce; the Rosicrucians.
13:
AT THE RIM OF THE WORLD
Disillusioned by the lack of proof, author
flies to South America to follow new leads. Here he examines mummies from
the Chilean desert older than the Egyptian pharoahs and challenges academic
dogmas about the origin of American Indians. He travels by bus to Bolivia's
desolate high plateau to see the puzzling ruins at Tiahuanaco, already
ancient when the Incas appeared. Also discussed: East Pacific Rise; legend
of Viracocha; UFOs in early America; mysteries of Lake Titicaca.
14: MAYAS AND OTHER MATTERS
Author heads for home with one more stop:
Mexico. Here he explores the magnificent ruins at Teotihuacan and discovers
that the Mayas were really latecomers in the story. Yet a collection of
their myths, the Popul Vuh, clearly points to an ancient world catastrophe.
Author tracks down many of Churchward's sources and begins to wonder if
the legend of Mu is the mother of all whoppers. Also discussed: trans-Pacific
contacts; Mesoamerican cultures; the mysterious god Quetzalcoatl;
archaeologist William Niven; Mexican shamans.
15: TRACKING DOWN LEMURIANS
Surfing the Internet, author turns up
more references to Mu and Lemuria buffs such as the Lemurian Fellowship
and Stelle Group, both forerunners of New Age thinking. Traveling to Southern
California, he examines the possibility that the region's Native Americans
had Lemurian roots, as many mystics contend. Suspicious of their reclusive
ways, he confronts the Lemurian Fellowship at their colony near San Diego
and comes away shaken. Also discussed: the Brotherhoods; Urantia
Book; Melchizedek; New World Order.
16: ON TO HOPI LAND
Author learns more about the fellowship
and related groups, who are planning a largescale migration to a re-emerging
Pacific continent. Yet he is wary of such fantasies and continues to root
out historical evidence. He travels to Arizona to view the Hopi Snake Dance
first hand, but is rebuffed. He becomes intrigued by links with the wisdom
of ancient India and wonders if both cultures derive from a common source.
Later, at the New Age mecca of Sedona, he meets some eccentric residents
and feels the unusual power of the place. Also discussed: Meteor Crater;
emergence of homo sapiens; Indian origins and the great Bering debate;
Hopi art; energy vortexes.
17: EAST AND WEST
Impressed by the antiquity of Hopi culture,
author discovers more parallels with Asia in subjects as diverse as snake
worship and underground cities. He explores an archive of rare Buddhist
manuscripts in Berkeley and considers the religion's arcane beliefs about
the illusory nature of the universe. Next he visits the Stanford Linear
Accelerator to better understand the weird world of Quantum Mechanics,
so close to what Eastern mystics say about the way things really are. Also
discussed: Agartha Network; Jung and mandalas; healing with light and quartz
crystals; morphogenic fields.
18: THE HOLOGRAPHIC CONTINENT
Author tries to fathom the theory and
technology behind holograms and how they might explain the nature of the
universe. And the possible existence of Lemuria in another dimension. The
philosophical dilemma of distinguishing physical reality from spiritual
is posed. From the Rosicrucians of San Jose, he learns that the wisdom
of medieval alchemists was a precursor to particle physics and New Age
theories. And that they were major players in the Lemuria craze of the
1930s, which helped turn Mt. Shasta into a thriving New Age colony. Also
discussed: ancient Egypt; the endrocine system; Jewish Cabalism; the Brotherhoods.
19: TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Author travels to Mt. Shasta in Northern
California, cited by Rosicrucian sources as a lost Lemurian colony. Here
he investigates Indian legends that provide eery confirmation of the tale
and uncovers a full-blown New Age circus largely built around the Lemuria
story. Countless sects such as "I AM" and its offshoots have gathered here,
joined by eccentrics claiming to be Lemurian chiefs and princesses living
inside the mountain. At a sweatlodge ceremony the author receives an important
insight about his research. Also discussed: Indian petroglyphs and folklore;
Lemurian sightings by eyewitnesses; Indian shamans; flower essences for
healing.
20: THE FINAL PIECES
Sensing that his quest is winding down,
the author travels to Santa Barbara. It is a place with strong Lemurian
connections, from readings by Edgar Cayce to a Seventies commune in the
hills. Earlier, its native Chumash Indians were named by the Rosicrucians
as probable survivors of the cataclysm. Author travels to Santa Rosa Island
offshore, where charred dwarf mammoth bones imply human settlement thousands
of years before accepted dates. He discusses the nature of geophysical
catastrophes and extinctions throughout history and dire predictions for
our own time. Yet a frank discussion with a geology professor shatters
the delusion of a new Pacific continent, as it does the place called Lemuria.
Shaken, the author prepares to give up. Also discussed: channeling; pole
shifts; Theosophical Society; sexual androgyny; evolutionary leaps; Pacific
colonies such as the Dominion of Melchizedek.
EPILOGUE: CRYSTAL CITIES
Leaving Santa Barbara with the knowledge
that the search is over, author encounters a remarkable stretch of coastline
harkening back to the grand and glorious Lemuria. Here he stops to reflect
on all he's learned during his quest. That despite his failure to conclusively
prove the existence of a lost Pacific continent, he has grown immeasurably
in the process. Then, during a final attempt to reach Lemuria, he has an
inspiring realization about the magical land he has been searching for.