Was Atlantis real? We'll probably never be able to prove such a rich and powerful land that suddenly went belly up in the Atlantic Ocean never existed. The story of Atlantis is usually referred to as a parable and as such is not intended to be taken literally, but there is nothing in the story that proves it's made up. Even serious geologists can't entirely debunk it. In 2005, according to About.com's Geology Guide, there was a conference to discuss possible locations for Atlantis. The story of Atlantis comes to us from Timaeus, a Socratic dialogue, written in about 360 B.C. by Plato. Are Atlantis and Lemuria simply mythology or were they real?

The mysterious civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis become reality as Shirley Andrews combines details from scholars, scientists and the respected psychic Edgar Cayce. Her sober portrayal of disturbing parallels between the spiritual decay of Atlantis and our modern world, and her reasonable explanations for the vivid dreams and past life memories recounted by numerous people about life on the lost lands enhance this fascinating discussion. Widespread myths and legends, the most ancient texts in the Far East, writings on stone in Central America, and esoteric sources (inner secret knowledge of the initiated) all describe a land of considerable size that was once above the surface in the Pacific Ocean. During its long history, this missing country has acquired a variety of names: sacred Tibetan texts remember it as "Ra-Mu"; inscriptions on the American continents refer to it as the "lost Motherland of Mu"; and Edgar Cayce, who had access to the Akashic Records, names it "Muri" or "Lemuria." "Lemuria" may have originated from the word lemures, which the Romans used to describe the spirits of their dead ancestors who walked by night.

"Lemuria" also stems from the nineteenth century, when scientists unexpectedly found small nocturnal animals called lemurs living on Madagascar and New Guinea. They believed the original home of these monkey-like mammals was 250 miles away in Africa, and there was no obvious explanation of how they had traveled so far. The missing land was named "Lemuria" in honor of the lemurs. Today the ancient sunken country in the Pacific Ocean is a place with two names; "Lemuria" and "Mu" are used interchangeably.

During the hundreds of centuries of its existence, the Motherland of Mu, like everywhere else on the fragile surface of our planet, changed in size and shape. Between 50,000 B.C. and10,000 B.C, when an immense amount of water from the oceans was incorporated in the snow and ice of the glaciers, sea levels were hundreds of feet lower. Islands everywhere were much bigger and ocean waters ceased to cover the fertile continental shelves. Scholar Egerton Sykes (see appendix II) believes that during this time various separate cultures lived on the large masses of land in the Pacific. They formed a kingdom that was linked by the sea, and communicated freely with each other in their sophisticated ships that held as many as 500 people. Reading the ocean currents and studying the constellations, these earliest navigators of the vast oceans skillfully took advantage of prevailing winds to travel wherever they wished to go.

Col. James Churchward first learned about Mu from records on sacred Naacal tablets in India. (The biography of Col. James Churchward in appendix II will help to confirm that Mu is not just a legend-it was a real place.) After many years of searching in Asia and Central America for further information about the lost country, Churchward believed that, until 10,000 B.C., the largest remaining island of the Motherland of Mu lay in the southeastern Pacific on a broad area of uplifted sea-floor. It extended southeast from Hawaii to Easter Island, with its center somewhat south of the equator. Narrow channels of ocean divided the land into three sections.

To the west, Lemuria's several thousand square miles included the Society, Cook, Austral, Tuamotu, and Marqueses islands, all of which are relatively close together, south of Hawaii and south of the equator. Discoveries of coal and a long history of floral growth on the island of Rapa, one of the Austral Islands, suggest that this portion of the Pacific Ocean was once above the surface. The western section of the large island of Lemuria gradually sank and, as ocean waters threatened their homes and temples, people moved to the higher, safer ground of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, New Guinea, and Australia.

Churchward determined that four major cataclysms, in 800,000 B.C. , 200,000 B.C., 80,000 B.C., and 10,000 B.C., were the culprits responsible for nature's tearing the beautiful land in the Pacific Ocean to pieces. Numerous volcanic islands and coral atolls, which endure where Lemuria once stood, confirm the instability of the region. The tiny animals that produce coral only survive in 150 feet or less of water. Since remains of coral are found at depths of 1,800 feet in the Pacific, it indicates that the land that is now 1,800 feet deep was once shallow water, close to the surface.

The instability of the ocean floor in the southeast Pacific constantly subjected the Lemurians to the problems of unexpected earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As an illustration of the instability, sailors traveling in that vicinity sometimes report islands that are not on maps but, before long, the greedy ocean devours them and they are never seen again. In 1836 the island of Tuanaki, south of the Cook Islands, suddenly disappeared with all but one of its inhabitants, who was luckily visiting a nearby island at the time of the surprising disaster.

Gently rolling hills and tumbling rivers that circled through the land characterized the countryside of early Lemuria. The vaporous steam rising from the abundant, bubbling hot springs gave a surreal, misty impression to the landscape. Gradually, the environment changed as sections of our planet's crust shifted and pushed against each other and forced mountains up from the depths of the Earth. Lemuria became a more hilly country. Some of the islands in the Pacific today are the rocky summits of its mountains.

The Ring of Fire, a chain of active volcanoes that surrounds a large section of the Pacific Ocean, demonstrates the presence of the frightening hot molten lava that was never far beneath the surface in Lemuria. A theory proposes that El Niño and La Niña, weather patterns that occur every four to twelve years, originate in this troubled area. When portions of the Earth's crust expand and contract, it increases or decreases the amount of volcanic activity in the Ring of Fire. As hot lava from deep inside the planet shoots out, it changes the temperature of the ocean water. When the water grows warmer, it produces El Niño. A decrease in ocean temperature induces La Niña.

The lush tropical vegetation of giant ferns and evergreens that covered most of Mu made it a country of unsurpassed beauty. Sacred lotus flowers, one of the first flowers to appear on our planet, glistened like jewels along the shores of its shallow lakes. Coconut palms lined the rivers and fringed the ocean beaches. Just as plant life flourished in the warm climate, so insects grew to an enormous size. Fossilized specimens from islands in the Pacific reveal that in the tropical climate of Mu, roaches were four to five inches long, and two-inch ants with large wings were capable of flying long distances.

Archaeologist Stacy-Judd reports that the natives of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) have said that they are living on the peak of a holy mountain of Mu. They believe Easter Island, which is formed from three extinct volcanoes, is the only portion of their motherland that the sea has not covered. Located 2,300 miles from the coast of Chile, the mysterious island has some of the most impressive structures in the Pacific. Enormous monuments to the dead in the form of huge burial platforms line its thirty-six miles of coastline. The carefully shaped stones of the four- or five-hundred-feet- long platforms weigh two to twenty tons apiece and were put together without mortar in polygonal fashion.

Gigantic statues of human figures without legs that once topped some of these platforms, and others that now lie on the ground, are a tribute to the skills of these long-ago sculptors. At one time, 624 of these huge statues faced the sea, and unfinished ones lay in the quarry of volcanic rock from which they were carved. It is impossible to explain how some of the stone sculptures, which are ten to forty feet tall and range from fifteen to thirty-five tons, were moved to their current locations on steep hillsides, high above the ocean. The local people say these statues walked up, gaining their strength from mental powers. Many of the figures are unfinished, which indicates that a severe cataclysm interrupted the builders of this tremendous undertaking.

Colossal platforms and statues of legless men are not the only mystery of Easter Island. In 1868, newly converted Easter Islanders sent to the bishop of Tahiti, as a token of respect, an ancient piece of wood with long strands of human hair wrapped around it. After removing the hair, the bishop discovered that the small board was covered with writing. An investigation revealed that at one time there were over 500 of these boards or tablets on Easter Island, but only twenty-one have survived, scattered worldwide in museums and private collections. No one has successfully translated Rongorongo, the tiny, strange writing on the tablets, although it so closely resembles script from the Indus Valley in India that it must have had a common origin. Evidence of a similar written script has survived in remote Oleai Island, many thousands of miles away from Ponape. There is a theory that to read Rongorongo, the writing on the tablets from Easter Island, one starts from the left-hand bottom corner, and proceeds from left to right. At the end of the line, you turn the tablet around before reading the next line. It's like reading a book in which you begin at the bottom of the page and every other line is printed back-to-front and upside-down.

Since tiny Easter Island is only seven by thirteen miles, it has never had the means of supporting a population of sufficient size to build the immense statues and their platforms. It is assumed that it was once a large religious center for the surrounding area and temporary residents participated in creating its remarkable stone constructions. When a Dutch navigator discovered Easter Island in 1722, it had a population of about five thousand people. Within 150 years, deadly smallpox and greedy, unscrupulous slavers reduced the number of its inhabitants to 111 destitute individuals.

Cyclopean ruins that survive on numerous other Pacific Islands suggest the skills of Lemurians and their descendants so long ago. On Ponape, in the Caroline archipelago 3,400 miles from Easter Island, remnants of the partially sunken city of Nan Madol cover eleven square miles. The megalithic remains of Nan Madol bear a striking resemblance to Plato's ...