There are not too many legends that have awed people for such a length of time as the legend of Atlantis. From the stories of the Greek Philosopher, Plato, to the series: Stargate Atlantis; the myth is widely represented in many ways among our society. Its location disputed, the theories ranging from super-civilizations with advanced technology to an island that existed 9000 years ago, and whose people invaded Greece, but failed; its part in explaining the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, to the theories of visitors from other worlds.

It is indeed a mystery, or myth, yet to be proven true, or false. Many people have their opinions on the legend; some dismiss it as crazy talk, while others-even those of notable, high stature-have taken it very seriously; and even went to great lengths to learn more about it. Despite the many opinions or claims, the truth is still not known to be exact-but it is still important to note the information gathered and shared, which helps bring people to the conclusion of where it is located-and whether it exists or not.

Plato’s Account of Atlantis

The first time the fabled continent of Atlantis is mentioned is 2400 years ago, by a well known Greek Philosopher named Plato. His description is the first, most common, and well known tale of the Lost Continent that is currently recorded in history.

The Legend originates from Plato’s two not-so-well-known works that he wrote 360 B.C. known as the Timaeus and the Critias; which are the only existing sources from the original legend in existence today. According to Plato, the story was not of his own invention but one passed down to him by a fellow philosopher named Critias (hence the name of the work). He also claims that Critias was not the original author either; he had learned the story from his grandfather, who had in turn learned it from his father, Dropides; who had supposedly learned it from the famous Greek philosopher and statesman solon; who acquired it from Egyptian priests while traveling the Nile river. According to the author, the generations from which it was passed down may even extend further-giving the Legend even more significance.

Plato wrote the story as a fictional dialogue between the great philosopher Socrates and two of his fellow intellectuals, concerning ancient knowledge and ideal societies. Socrates’ two fellow intellectuals, Timaeus and Critias, agree to tell him a tale that was “not of fiction but a true story”. They recounted a time 9,000 years earlier when the ancient Athenians fought a fierce, seafaring race known as the Atlanteans. They describe the Atlanteans’ home as a massive island located, in modern terms, off the coast of Portugal. They describe a wealthy and lush land that had a powerful economy and military, with twice-a-year crop harvest and many kinds of animals-including elephants. He also described the capital city; and its unusual features, such as the surrounding rings of metal-lined canals and massive stone walls wide enough to serve as horse racing tracks. The story, unfortunately, ends with the Atlanteans, who transitioned from simple, virtuous people into a greedy and power-abusive race; that in the end forced Zeus and the other gods to destroy them in a single day-the ocean swallowed the island; the people and their great civilization sank beneath the waves.

It was a lesson for those in the future who attempt to excel without giving the gods their due credit. This story by Plato is arguably fact or fiction by many scholars today, brought on mainly by the fact that Plato gives incredible detail on the Atlantean people and their civilization, and also because Plato himself claims it was true. Many argue: why the elaborate detail if the story was just a fable meant to entertain? It wouldn’t seem correct to assume that one of the most admired and ethical men of the ancient would be incorrect without gathering coherent evidence that his story was false. This is one of the primary reasons that the Legend of Atlantis is still alive today-the credibility of the man that told the tale.

Support

Since Plato’s time many people have shown interest in Atlantis, including those notable and revered throughout history. Records of people who support it extend for several centuries.
One such account was made by a Swedish scientist, Olof Rudbeck, who wrote a book called “Atlantica” in 1679. In the book he claims that Atlantis was actually in Sweden, and that geographically, Plato’s account of Atlantis matched up to suggest the existence of an ancient abandoned city in Sweden.

Another figure in history was a man by the name of Rudolph Steiner, an Occult Scientist-as he was called, and a clairvoyant (Psychic), who believed in the existence of Atlantis. He was known, and often called, a mystic and an occultist. Steiner was born in upper Austria in 1861, and even at an early age he claimed to “read souls” and often was said to have “harmony with nature”. He was also notable as a philosopher, having obtained his degree in philosophy in the late 1880’s, and he was also heavily involved with sciences-from zoology to geology. In the early 1900’s he traveled Europe frequently and lectured, expressing his ideas-said to be brought by his clairvoyance-on history, mythology, literature, science, medicine, education, and other fields. Although he described himself as a scientist, he was rarely mentioned as a significant contributor to science, and is not as well known to the scientific community. He described Atlantis and the Atlanteans with intricate detail, and referred to them as “our ancestors”, in his book, titled “Our Atlantean Ancestors”. I this work he describes their style of thinking, and how our style is focused on “concepts”, and how their style is more centered on “images”; which, Rudolph explained, allowed them to remember close or identical situations very vividly, and helped to determine their judgment. This meant, as Rudolph describes, they lacked the ability to think logically.

espite this, Rudolph explains that their civilization, and their style of living, was highly advanced-even more so than ours. He explained that Atlanteans had the ability to extract “life energy” from living things, and use it as a source for power that was used in similar means as the power we extract from fossil fuels. Rudolf mentions that the methods the Atlanteans used to employ natural resources, such as air and water, are impossible today because the conditions on earth are much different from then. He tells that the Atlanteans, and their ancestors, the Lemurians, as they are so called, lived in a region of the world that has disappeared; the main part of which lay south of contemporary Asia. Rudolph explains the Lemurians, Atlanteans, and Aryans-the Aryans of which dominate the world today-as separate races in history; there are also two more that existed before the ancient Lemurians, and two that will come after the present day Aryans; a total of seven. In his book, Rudolph primarily focuses on the transition of these races into present day mankind.
Another supporter of the existence of Atlantis is an American named Edgar Cayce (born in 1877, death in 1945) who also claimed to be a psychic, or the “sleeping prophet”, as many called him; due to his uncanny ability to put himself into a self-induced sleep state by lying down on the couch, closing his eyes, and folding his hands over his stomach. From this state he would respond to such questions as diverse as “What are the secrets of the universe?” to “How do I remove a wart?”

His responses came to be called readings, which many claim to have valuable insights that individuals find to be practical help for anything from how to set a well-balanced diet to maintaining and improving human relationships. Through such a reading Cayce was known to have predicted the U.S. stock market crash of 1929. Although Cayce primarily dealt with health issues and the treatment of illness, he has given readings on a large number of subjects, approximately 10,000 of them. Cayce, like Rudolph Steiner, also spoke of Atlantis; he made predictions, one of them said that some remnants of Atlantis would rise from 1968 to 1969 in the Caribbean Sea. The group of islands close of the Bahamas coastline that Cayce called “Poseidia” would contain ancient elements of Atlantis, which would have been a large island when the ocean levels were lower, circa 10,000 BC-during the last Ice Age. His reading also revealed that there would be three locations where ancient records pertaining to the arts and sciences of Atlantean civilization would be hidden before the destruction of the island continent.

In August of 2002 a British researcher named Andrew Collins renewed interest in the search for Atlantis, which had slowed a little since the seventies. Collins gave a stirring lecture at the Annual Egypt and Ancient Civilization’s Conference at Virginia Beach, Virginia. There Collins spoke of his book, Gateway to Atlantis, which proposes that the remaining parts of Atlantis are in and around Cuba. He talked of possible underwater ruins that were discovered off the coast of Cuba, and displayed photos of underwater structures near Andros, an island located between Cuba and the Bimini Islands. Many of the photo’s were shot aboveground by pilot J. Manson Valentine in the 1960’s, and with the lack of GPS and other technologies during that time, the exact location of the supposed ruins is unknown.
There are many other supporters that suggest Atlantis existed, including another modern day psychic Sylvia Brown, who appears on many talk shows including the Montel Williams Show-which she appears on every Wednesday; and the Oprah Winfry show. She is the author of many books as well, such as the popular title: Unexplained Mysteries. She is known-like Cayce, for general help with various issues, and spiritual help. Her readings and her books state that Atlantis exists and hints that many psychics, including herself, are descendants of the Atlanteans. She also claims that “Atlantis is to rise in 2023”, and that it is spread all over the Atlantic Ocean.

The issue of the legend of Atlantis has rarely extended into any influence beyond prophets’ readings, general argument of historians and archeologists, published works, and archeological research; but there is one case…

Hitler, the Third Reich, and Nazi Germany

A well known man, Adolf Hitler, was interested in the Aryan race, and thus Atlantis, long before he came into power. It is disputed that he was a member of the Thule Society, a society formed in 1919 by several men, one of them being Dietrich Eckhart-one of the founders of the Nazi Party. The name Thule originates from ancient Greece, meaning “Farthest Land”, which was originally given to the northernmost part of the world-Greenland and Iceland. The society shared the same ideas about the world as Hitler did, and is even said to be partly responsible for Hitler’s attitude about the world, thus one of the indirect causes of the Holocaust and World war II. Members of the Thule society believed in Atlantis and, most importantly-the Aryan race.

A conspiracy theory states that the Thule believed the Aryans traveled to Earth from a star system called Alderbaran, which is 64 light years away. They believed that Atlantis was their ancient home on earth-located somewhere between Greenland and Iceland, and Earth itself was the Aryan “Third Reich”. All Aryans were described as average human height, blond hair, blue eyes, and for women the tradition was for the hair not to be cut. They were said to have psychic potential and glowed a white aura. The Thule Society was also said to practice Satan worship and other rituals; began the first planning of the German invasion of the world. It is fact that the Thule and Nazis had among their goals to uncover the Aryan origins to a lost continent–Atlantis. Hitler primarily shared the Thule belief that the world is corrupted by impure religion and cultures, and that the rulers of earth should be the closest Aryan descendants-the white Germans.

Hitler was believed to have cut all ties to the party before he formed the Nazi Party and came into power, but nonetheless the Nazi Party and the Thule society were closely linked. During his Reich Hitler was said to have sent out expeditions to search for Atlantis and other remnants of advanced civilization and Aryan “culture”; such a discovery, would have supported Germany’s power and “prove’ that Germans really were the descendants of an ancient and powerful race.

As can be seen, the theory of Atlantis and the Aryan race is a widely disputed issue which had its influence in contributing to one of the most important events in world history: the Holocaust. It has also served as inspiration for many novelists, filmmakers, and even the general public. Articles about its possible existence have been listed in the New York Times and National Geographic magazines, and documentaries have appeared on the National Geographic channel discussing Plato’s accounts and its disputed location.

It has been the subject of extensive research by archeologists, both those that consider the possibility and want to prove its existence and even those that are out to prove it false and end the dispute. The location itself-not just the existence-is cause of much disagreement. In theory, possible locations range from the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean, Greece and other parts of Europe; Iceland, Antarctica, Ireland, Sweden, Africa, buried beneath the Atlantic Ocean; and even some suggest that it was a world-wide empire. Some also claim that the ancient continent resides in the somewhere within the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle, and that ancient technology still resides and is activated-causing the compass variations and various effects that lead to the disappearance of ships and planes, which the that area is known for. The dates range from 9,000 years to 20,000 years in the past. Most psychics support the theory of Atlantis and are known to offer their own ideas, but not all of them agree on its location. There are also many people who openly oppose the theory and dismiss it as a myth; and in fact the results of a Google.com search of the subject reveals just as many opposing results and supporting results.

The most common suggestion states that the theories arose as extensions of Plato’s account, and that Plato’s accounts may have been originally fiction. It is also suggested that Plato was mistaking Atlantis for the Americas, which the records show hadn’t been discovered yet. It is claimed that the modern-day views of Atlantis are misconceptions brought from the creative minds of fiction writers and story tellers, and that it was simply a civilization in Europe or in the Americas that “simply hasn’t been discovered yet.”
This now brings us to the conclusion: Atlantis: does it exist? Unfortunately, the above has already answered that question, and it is an indefinite answer. No: there is no reliable, physical proof that there was such a civilization…so it is immediately assumed that it doesn’t exist…Or Yes: it does exist, but there is not enough evidence to make the case convincing enough, or maybe some evidence has been overlooked.

Only time and long research will determine the exact answer, but it is the freedom of the public to assume either way. Nonetheless, it is best to have an open mind, so that we can accept the truth when it arrives; whether the news is the answer that changes history forever, or is a disappointment to the curiosity of our minds.