Atlantis — Myth or Reality?

A Question that Might Change Our Conception of History

Johan Lindstrom 

Background

            The story of Atlantis is generally regarded as a myth by the majority of archeologists and historians, and the same conception is found among many layman.

            A myth is basically a fairy tale, but with such a long tradition that it has become a part of the cultural development. This applies to Atlantis, which is mentioned by Plato and also by several other authors.

             Today I want to scrutinize the traces of a real foundation for Atlantis. Those traces must be physical objects, e. g. made of  stone and formed by man. Preferably they should be standing on the bottom of the sea, because that is the natural place for remnants from a sunken continent..

Are there any evidential objects?

             My first  question is thus: are there any visible physical objects — e. g. buildings — that might be remnants from Atlantis? (i. e., empirical evidence). The next question is:

             The myth also says that Atlantis sunk in the sea — in a vulcanic catastrophe.
But there were two Atlantis: The western continent started at the Canaries, and the eastern part, called Lemur, was near Japan.

              Thus I make a “search” with Google and the term “Underwater pyramids”. And lo!

             There came some hundred responses falling in, out of which I have picked out two as especially qualified — performed by a professor of oceanography — and interesting in content — contains photos of a pyramid, information about the building, and logical arguments about the controversy that this discovery caused.

  The Underwater pyramid near Okinawa

             Two of Japan's leading researchers on the sites are Kihachiro Aratake, who first discovered the Yonaguni site, and Prof. Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist with the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. Prof.  Kimura has spent several years studying all eight sites, especially Yonaguni, which was found in 1985.  

              Exceptionally clear sub-surface clarity, 
with 100 foot visibility a common fact allowed for thorough photographic documentation, both still photography and video. These images provided the basis of japan’s leading headlines for more than a year. Yet, not a word about the Okinawa discovery reached the US public, until the magazine, “Ancient American” broke the news last spring. Since that scoop, only the CNN network televised a report about Japan’s underwater city.

              These enigmatic, sunken stone structures off Okinawa, Japan, located 60 to 100 feet beneath the ocean surface, have the Japanese wondering if their homeland was once part of the lost continent of Lemuria.

              Stone terraces, right angled block and walls, and stone circles encompassing  hexagonal columns look intriguingly, if not conclusively, man made[1] . 

The Attitude among Researchers Towards New Facts

            Nothing about it has been mentioned in any of the nation’s other archaeology publications, not even in any of our daily newspapers. One would imagine that such a mind-boggling find would be the most exciting piece of news an archaeologist could possibly hope to learn. Even so, outside of the “Ancient American” and CNN’s single report, the pall of silence covering all the facts about Okinawa’s structures screens them from view more effectively then their location at the bottom of the sea. Why? How can this appalling neglect persist in the face of a discovery of such unparalleled magnitude? At the risk  of accusations of paranoia, one might conclude that a real conspiracy of managed information dominates America’s well-springs of public knowledge.                         (Frank Joseph  — Ancient American[2]  )

District Watchers are non-innovative

              Among physicists you can find researchers with a genuine interest in the phenomenon under study — atoms, particles, stars or galaxies — but in the mental and social sciences this kind of interest is often weak.  Such people are reacting with a psychological defense[3]  when they meet new facts and especially when those facts are part of a border-transcending[4]  theory that implies a change in the world-picture

The Purpose of the Pyramid?

               Just what the purpose of the crystal sphere was, and what role it once played in the enigmatic instrument Brown found inside the sunken Bahaman pyramid, remains a mystery, though of course there are some interesting possibilities. One idea proposed is that the sunken pyramid once attracted, accumulated and generated cosmic forces.

              All that we know for certain is that the crystal sphere Dr. Brown retrieved from this system is by itself testimony to a most sophisticated technology, for as experts at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington noted, the technology for cutting quartz stone to the perfection exhibited in the crystal sphere was not accomplished by our civilization until after 1900.

              According to the researcher quoted above the pyramid should be a research station [5] , among them alterantive forms of energy[6], e. g.  elektrogravitaty[7] and bioplasma[8] .  The pyramid might also have been a power station — at least it seems to contain such a one, as the top cone, made of crystals, is flashing up sometimes.  

Cultural Consequences

              If the reality of Atlantis  hypothesis can be shown to be true, this will have remarkable consequences:

             (A) for our conception of the history of mankind;

             (B) for our world-picture and image of man.

              According to the established perspective we are meeting the stone age, with fisherman and hunters, with simple tools, when we are going back 12 000 years in time.

              The reality of Atlantis means that there was a highly developed culture, with advanced science and technology — or rather two cultures, the western Atlantis near the Canaries, and Lemur, the eastern continent, which both sunk into the sea 12 000 years ago. Before that catastrophe, Atlantis would have existed for some thousands of years, because it would take some thousands  years to develop such a culture.

               This would mean a cultural revolution and paradigm shift for many sciences, from [9] and a negative interest of knowledge[10] in line with an extension of Habermas’ theory[11]

               Such a negative interest means that people don’t want to know , with the aim of protecting ones world picture against changes and modifications.

               A symptom of this is the switch in communication from arguing — the normal usage of words in science — to agitation — the common way of propagation of ideologies and political perspectives. A different reaction is total silence, which is mentioned by Frank Joseph in the above quotation.

Where was Atlantis situated?

               The following is an argument for the placement of Atlantis at the Atlantic Mountain Range, which is implied already  by its name, and gets support from some geophysical-historic facts.

                A supporting evidence for this place is the fact (?) that previously the Golf stream turned  in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and went back towards Alaska that was warmer during that time than today, whereas Scandinavia was colder. But 12 000 years ago this structure changed and the Golf stream took its present direction across the Atlantic Mountain Range towards Scandinavia, which then got warmer than before.

                A Swedish researcher and journalist, Dag Staalsjo[12]  made a program in Swedish TV 4 about this, about 6 years ago, and quite a few have exposed their interest in Atlantis – an ever intriguing distant collective memory.