Mysteries

Ghosts

Are Ghosts real?  It’s a question often asked and especially on the Internet. The question would be better if it asked: Do ghosts exist? (Reality can be a tricky subject and yes it is Quantum).To separate Ghosts from other unexplained phenomena, a starting point is to agree that a Ghost is the visible, audible or telepathic experience of something that was once alive and that is now dead.  So a ghost could naturally be a human being but could also be an animal or a plant.  In fact all of these have been reported at some time.
    
One pseudo scientific explanation for this is that all living creatures have a form of measurable electrical (spiritual) energy when they are alive that fades away after their death.  For lack of a better word let’s call this energy: “Life”.

Now just about all scientists agree with the Law of Conservation of Energy that states: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another or transferred from one body to another, but the total amount of energy remains constant (the same).  Given this as a concept, the question arises whether or not a “Life” (energy) continues after the body in which it existed has ceased to function? So the first explanation is that a ghost is the “Life” energy of a once living thing that does not fade away or move on as it is supposed to.  Death is not the opposite of life it is merely its absence – so where did the Life go?
 
If this is the explanation then it certainly does not explain why there are apparently ghostly carriages, cars, ships, planes and so on.  The definition of ghost then has to be: “The manifestation of anything that once existed but now does not.”

Is the latest definition realistic?  In theory it is possible that every single event that has occurred since the beginning of time has left an imprint of itself on the matrix that is the universe. This is a very new “big” idea that only now are scientists beginning to seriously explore.  The theory behind it is deceptively simple and draws its formulation from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in which he shows that time is not a constant.  Think of life like a film made up of thousands of “frames”.  Each frame is a moment in time permanently captured (and now real forever).  If they are flashed quickly, one after another, then the illusion of motion and reality is created. This is what a person experiences every time they watch a Film or DVD. But what if two films were experienced at the same time? The experience would be very much like that of experiencing a ghost and, as we now know, time is not a constant so in theory it could happen. In paranormal language this is often referred to as a “time-slip”

Three Great Questions!

Let’s look at these three incredible unanswered questions.  Firstly, not even the cleverest person alive or dead has effectively explained where the universe came from! They can now explain that once there was nothing and then after a significant explosion – “The Big Bang” it all started to materialize but they conveniently fail to answer what it was created from.  The second great unanswered question is: “How big is the Universe?”  And again there is no answer other than “infinitely big” or “never ending”.  In an infinitely large universe the possibilities are, by conclusion, infinite.  In short, anything really is possible. The third question is:  “Is there life (energy and consciousness) after death? The safe scientific answer is “no”.  However, ask scientists to prove this and they cannot.  The truth is that history is littered with scientific facts and beliefs that have turned out to be wrong more often that they were correct. Universities and other scientific institutions rarely hire people that do not conform to the current accepted beliefs. Science is more similar to a religion than many of its priests, sorry - scientists, would like you to believe.

Now that we’ve raised the subject of religion it’s important to consider that the majority of people are religious – even if somewhat vague about their beliefs.  At their most basic most religions are very similar.  There is a God.  This God created everything.  This God wants you to behave in a certain way that is “right”.  If you behave as you are told then when you die your soul (you) gets to carry on in a nice place. (sometimes there are even virgins.) If you don’t do and believe what you’re told then something unpleasant happens to you - quite often even before you die.  By the way we’re being cynical here but it does seem that mostly what these Gods want you to do is behave, keep clean, keep believing and hand over some of your money.  Oh, most importantly they want you not to change gods – which of course stops the money coming in. We apologize in advance for any offense that this abbreviation may have caused. Still here is the tricky thing, they could be right.  There is no proof that God does not exist and quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that God does.

Most religions believe (propose) that all living things have a soul – a form of energy and consciousness - that continues to exist in some form or another after death. Many paranormal experts propose that after death the soul usually moves on but sometimes fails to do so and remains linked to this world (reality).  The force of this presence can be weak and so merely create an awareness sensation in those that are sensitive to its presence or it can be strong to the point where the “ghost” can actually interact with the living.  This interaction can be protective, benign or even aggressive. They further propose that the anomaly created by this remaining soul can be so strong that it can project the appearance of objects with which it was strongly associated.  This is quite a good explanation for why the Headless Horseman still has his horse or why ghosts are often seen with their cloths still on.

The Evidence Against Ghosts:

• Scientists say they are just not possible. They can’t prove that they are not possible but say that every investigated Ghost has turned out to be explainable. We would just like to point out that it would take the collective manpower of every scientist alive (and more) to investigate every claim so clearly there is some exaggeration going on here.
• Some clearly faked photographs.  True, but people still can’t make up their minds whether the photographs of the Moon Landings were real or not. Hmm, makes you think!  Also, some faked photographs does not mean all photographs are faked.
• Hallucinations, peripheral vision and psychosomatic belief (the desire to see / believe).

The Evidence for Ghosts:

• Millions of sightings over thousands of years recorded by many very respectable people from Pliny the Younger (Athenodoros Cananites c. 74 BC – 7 AD) to members of the modern American Senate.  Still, quite often these sightings are explainable and subject to interpretation.
• If, as the major religions would have people believe, we have a soul then ghosts (the spirit) almost certainly exist.
• Photographs, videos and documented eye witness accounts.
• An infinite universe does equal anything is possible.
• Personal experience! This is perhaps the single most compelling reason for any individual to believe – their own experience.

The simple truth is that if anybody had clear irrefutable evidence one way or another then this would no longer be a mystery and wouldn’t be featured in this section of Aquiziam.com.  No one really knows whether ghosts exist or are merely figments of human kind’s imagination. 
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The Hanging Tree - Pulverbatch Village, Shropshire, UK Ghostly Orb and Mist - Worcestershire		Ghost Tower

Some Ghostly Information:

• Sightings of ghosts vary dramatically from country to country.  The United Kingdom is one of the highest.
•  The belief in ghosts can be traced back to prehistoric ancestor worship circa 4,000bc.
• Ancient Egyptians believed in ghosts.
• Wikipedia claims that 32% of Americans (who were surveyed) believe in ghosts – just about one in three. (Beware of statistics)
• Many researchers believe that ghosts are often mysteriously linked to places or objects that may in some way keep them anchored in this world.
• Allegedly, Anne Boleyn is probably the ghost with the most sightings. Executed at the Tower of London in 1536 for allegedly cheating on her husband Henry the Eighth, she has been sighted over 70,000 times in nearly 500 years.
• The Christian Bible has references in it to ghosts. (Verified)
• Children seem to be able to see or experience ghostly phenomenon more easily than adults.
• The original Headless Horseman is a fictional character that appears in a story called “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving.
• Animals, especially cats, are supposed to be sensitive to the presence of ghosts and are often observed to watch something that is clearly not there.
• Ghosts seem to be associated with extreme deaths such as murder, war and accidents.
• Digital cameras using their “flash mode” seem particularly able to photograph ghosts.
• Haunted houses are becoming a highly profitable tourist industry.
• 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island, New York is the address of the haunted house featured in the film the Amityville Horror and was really the scene of a horrific murder.
• There are many places that claim the title of most haunted house in Britain but Borley Rectory in Essex seems the most popular.
• According to many “paranormal researchers” most ghosts don’t know that they are dead.
• Orb Ghosts are probably just camera flash reflections on air particles such as water droplets, insects and pollen. (Still debated)
• Ectoplasm – or more simply a clear jelly-like substance is reputed to often appear on the ground after a ghostly encounter.  No DNA analysis of Ectoplasm is currently available.
• Poltergeist means “Noisy Ghost” or “Noisy Spirit”.
• Angel Hair is a substance similar to ectoplasm and appears as fine strands of mucous-like substance near sites of ghostly visitations.  Although well recorded and documented every attempt to preserve this substance for more than a few minutes’ results in it literally disappearing.

If you type “Ghost” into Google’s new variant search engine you will discover that there are more than 220 million results relating to this subject.  Clearly people are interested in this matter or perhaps more accurately, interested in presenting information about this topic.

The Ironbridge Experience

Ironbridge Gorge is a narrow wooded gash in the Shropshire hills (England) through which flows the Severn River.  Today it is a world heritage site listed as the home of the Industrial Revolution.  Named after the first cast iron bridge built in the World and completed in 1781, the town is now a beautiful tourist attraction – a far cry from the hell-hole of fire, furnaces and molten steel that it once was.  It is said that the average lifespan of an Ironbridge worker was just eight years before toxic fumes, contaminated water or overwork claimed his soul.

Situated in part of the Ironbridge Gorge is the Tar Tunnel.  It was originally constructed to make the transport of iron and coke to and from the furnaces of Blists Hill easier.  However, during its construction natural tar wells were discovered deep under the hills and its purpose changed.  It is now a little known tourist attraction.  During August 2008 it was visited by a member of the team and his family. It was here and later at the Jackfield Tile Works that a series of photographs were taken that contain some unusual aspects.

Shortly after the tar wells the tunnel is barred as it is considered unsafe beyond that point.  It is here that a series of photographs were taken that show an unusual sequence of events.  In the first image an orb appears very faintly against the roof of the tunnel.  In the second image a bright wraith appears and in the third image the orb has clearly moved past the camera.  By coincidence a face appears in the brickwork of tunnel.  What’s the explanation? Well, we don’t have one.  Each of the images below can be downloaded by clicking on them and still contains their digital signature to prove that they are original and unaltered by photo-editing software.

The mist is gone and the orb is moving to the left of the camera Almost Invisable Orb - Top and Centre	A sudden burst of ghostly mist - note the face in the bricks on the right 	

Later in the day the family visited the Jackfield tile works and again a ghostly image of a person dressed in typical 18th century style appears in one of the images.  (This is the main photograph at the top of this page.) We can’t say what these are and leave it up to you to make up your own mind.

What’s in a Name?

There are more than ten different words in the English (American) language for Ghosts.  This is a very large number of synonyms for something that doesn’t apparently exist.  There seems to be no definitive directory explaining the minor differences in these paranormal beings so we’ve done our best to compile one:

Ghost: The “soul” of a being or thing trapped in this reality
Spirit: The “soul” of a being or thing able to visit this reality
Phantom: A ghost that is felt rather than seen
Manifestation: A visible ghostly “thing” not clearly anything recognisable
Apparition: Similar to a manifestation but with at least a vaguely recognisable shape
Geist: Another word for Ghost or sometimes Spirit
Zeitgeist: A Spirit Guide
Wraith: A Ghost or Spirit seeking revenge or the faintest of ghosts – almost intangible
Orb: Spherical lights often captured on digital cameras and now disputed as real
Poltergeist: Literally “Noisy Ghosts” these are often dangerous or hostile
Astral Entities: Ghost-like beings experienced during a trance state
Dybbuk:  A malicious spirit that possesses the bodies of living people
Materialisations: The audible or visible presence of a summoned Ghost or Spirit
Ghouls: From the Arabic, these beings are malignant spirits often associated with Djinns.
Spook: Something of a joke ghost.

When it comes to ghosts – they’re the second biggest mystery and we believe that the debate is far from finished. Please be sceptical. The truth may be out there but so is an incredible amount of rubbish!

The Bermuda Triangle  

How the Bermuda Triangle Works:
You won't find it on any official map and you won't know when you cross the line, but according to some people, the Bermuda Triangle is a very real place where dozen of ships, planes and people have disappeared with no good explanation. Since a magazine first coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in 1964, the mystery has continued to attract attention. When you dig deeper into most cases, though, they're much less mysterious. Either they were never in the area to begin with, they were actually found, or there's a reasonable explanation for their disappearance.

                               

                                    The Bermuda Triangle covers roughly 500,000 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean.

Does this mean there's nothing to the claims of so many who have had odd experiences in the Bermuda Triangle? Not necessarily. Scientists have documented deviations from the norm in the area and have found some interesting formations on the seafloor within the Bermuda Triangle's boundaries. So, for those who like to believe in it, there is plenty fuel for the fire.
In this article, we'll look at the facts surrounding what we do know about the area as well as some of the most commonly-recited stories. We'll also explore the bizarre theories like aliens and space portals as well as the mundane explanations.
­Many think of the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, as an "imaginary" area. The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle and does not maintain an official file on it. However, within this imaginary area, many real vessels and the people aboard them have seemingly disappeared without explanation.
The Bermuda Triangle is located off the Southeastern coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean, with its apexes in the vicinities of Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It covers roughly 500,000 square miles.
The area may have been named after its Bermuda apex since Bermuda was once known as the "Isle of Devils." Treacherous reefs that have ensnared ships sailing too close to its shores surround Bermuda, and there are hundreds of shipwrecks in the waters that surround it.

                                                      

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery:

 Over the past 100 years, the Bermuda Triangle has seen what some say is a significant and inordinately high number of unexplained disappearances of planes, ships and people. Some reports say that as many as 100 ships and planes have been reported missing in the area and more than 1,000 lives have been lost. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, maintains that the area does not have an unusual number of incidents

In 1975, Mary Margaret Fuller, editor of "Fate" magazine, contacted Lloyd's of London for statistics on insurance payoffs for incidents occurring within the Bermuda Triangle's usually accepted boundaries. According to Lloyd's records, 428 vessels were reported missing throughout the world between 1955 and 1975, and th­ere was no greater incidence of events occurring in the Bermuda Triangle than anywhere else in the world.
Gian J. Quasar, author of "Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery" and curator of Bermuda-triangle.org, argues that this report "is completely false." Quasar reasons that because Lloyd's does not insure small crafts like yachts and often doesn't insure small charter boats or private aircraft, its records can't be the definitive source. He also states that the Coast Guard's records, which it publishes annually, do not include "missing vessels." He requested data on "overdue vessels" and received (after 12 years of asking) records of 300 missing/overdue vessels for the previous two years. Whether those vessels ultimately returned is unknown. His Web site has alist of these vessels.
The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) database indicates (according to Gian J. Quasar) that only a handful of aircraft have disappeared off the New England coast over the past 10 years, while over 30 have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle.

Is insurance higher in the Bermuda Triangle? According to Norman Hooke, who conducted marine casualty studies for Lloyd's Maritime Information Services, based in London, "The Bermuda Triangle does not exist." He instead says that disappearances in the Triangle are typically weather-related. So despite the theories of why ships and planes disappear in the area, insurance premiums are no higher than for any other area of the ocean.

The mystery of the Triangle probably took hold with the first well-publicized disappearance in 1945, when five Navy Avengers disappeared in the area. The cause of the disappearance was originally "pilot error," but family members of the pilot leading the mission couldn't accept that he had made such a mistake. Eventually they convinced the Navy to change it to "causes or reasons unknown."
The myth gained momentum after reporter E.V.W. Jones compiled a list of "mysterious disappearances" of ships and planes between the Florida coast and Bermuda. Two years later, George X. Sand wrote an article for "Fate" magazine, titled "Sea Mystery at our Back Door." The article was about a "series of strange marine disappearances, each leaving no trace whatever, that have taken place in the past few years" in a "watery triangle bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico."
As more incidents occurred, the reputation grew and past events were reanalyzed and added to the legend. In 1964, "Argosy Magazine" gave the triangle its name in an article titled "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" by Vincent Gaddis. Argosy magazine's tagline a "magazine of master fiction," but that did nothing to halt the spread of the myth. More articles, books, and movies have appeared, suggesting theories ranging from alien abductionsto a giant octopus.
Next, we'll look at some early well-known incidents that have been attributed to the area.

Well-known Disappearances:

Image courtesy New York Navy Yard/Navy Historical Center
The USS Cyclops anchored in the Hudson River on October 3, 1911.

Many Bermuda Triangle Web sites include long lists of missing ships and planes. But many of those were nowhere near the Triangle when they disappeared or they turned up later with rational explanations for their disappearances. For example, the Mary Celeste, found floating in 1872 with not a person on board and everything exactly as they had left it, is on nearly every list of losses blamed on the Bermuda Triangle. But in reality, it was many hundreds of miles from the Triangle at the time.
Here is a sampling of the some of the most notable incidents. As you'll see, some of these have reasonable explanations although they're still attributed to the strange and unknown powers of the Bermuda Triangle.


The U.S.S. Cyclops, 1918
During World War I, the U.S.S. Cyclops served along the eastern coast of the United States until January 9, 1918. At that time, she was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. The Cyclops was scheduled to sail to Brazil to refuel British ships in the south Atlantic. She set out from Rio de Janeiro on February 16, and, after a brief stop in Barbados from March 3 to 4, was never seen or heard from again. All 306 passengers and crew were gone without a trace.

Image courtesy U.S. Naval Historical Center
A U.S. Navy Grumman TBF Avenger

U.S. Navy Avengers Flight 19, 1945
The most famous Bermuda Triangle story is the mystery surrounding five missing Navy Avengers in 1945. The story of Flight 19 is usually summarized this way: a routine patrol set out on a sunny day with five highly experienced student pilots. Suddenly, the tower began receiving transmissions from the flight leader that they were lost, compasses were not working, and "everything looked wrong." They were never seen again, and extensive Navy investigations turned up no clues to explain the disappearance.
Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor led the mission, which included several planned course changes. They departed at 1:15 p.m. on December 5, 1945. At 3:00 p.m., Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was flying over Fort Lauderdale, Florida when he heard a signal that he thought was from a boat or plane in distress. He called Operations at the Naval Air Station to report what he had heard. Cox told Taylor to fly with the sun at his left wing and up the coast until he hit Miami. Taylor then said that they were over a small island with no other land in sight. If he was over the Keys as he had said, however, he should have seen several islands as well as the Florida peninsula.

With less than two hours' flying time until they ran out of fuel, Taylor described a large island to Operations. Assuming this was Andros Island, the largest in the Bahamas, Operations sent Taylor a heading that would take him to Fort Lauderdale. Apparently this heading was correct, because once Flight 19 assumed the new course, Taylor's voice began coming in stronger over the radio. Taylor, however, didn't believe this course was right and after a few minutes said that they "didn't go far enough east. Turn around again and go east. We should have a better chance of being picked up closer to shore." With this move, transmissions began to weaken as they flew out of radio range in the wrong direction. For unknown reasons, Taylor ignored the standard flying procedure of flying west if over water and east if over land.
Two PBM-5 Mariner seaplanes went out to search the area, but one exploded soon after takeoff. The other never located Flight 19.

Farfetched Theories:

The "Bimini Road," or the "Atlantis Stones," a rock formation off the coast of Bimini Island in the Bahamas.

Aliens and Atlantis
As an area with one of the highest incidences of UFO sightings, it's no wonder that alien abductions have been a popular explanation for disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. But abductions aren't the only theory; some also have theorized that the Bermuda Triangle area is a portal to other planets. But why this area?
Many believe that the Bermuda Triangle area is home to the lost city of Atlantis and remnants of its advanced technologies. Famous psychic Edgar Cayce said that Atlantis had many modern-day technologies, including a death ray weapon, which he claims ultimately destroyed the city. Some even say that the people who lived there were an alien race from the Pleiades star cluster.
Cayce had predicted that researchers would discover the western edge of Atlantis near the coast of Bimini, in the Bahamas, and they did find a "road" of stones there in 1968. The initial researchers and archeologists who studied the site, known as the "Bimini Road," immediately regarded it as naturally occurring. Recent investigations, however, have found evidence that appears to support the idea that the stones were shaped and placed there as a wall. The additional finding of a possible underwater city near Cuba adds fuel to the fire for those supporting the Atlantis idea.

Recent Cases: In this day of GPS navigation, it's hard to imagine a ship or plane could actually disappear. However, there have been some recent disappearances attributed to the Bermuda Triangle: DC-3 N407D, lost on September 21, 1978 Fighting Tiger 524, lost on February 22, 1978 Beechcraft N9027Q, lost on February 11, 1980 Ercoupe N3808H, lost on June 28, 1980 Beech Bonanza, lost on January 6, 1981 Piper Cherokee N3527E, lost on March 26, 1986 Grumman Cougar Jet, lost on October 31, 1991 Jamanic K motor vessel, lost en route from Cape Haitian to Miami on March 20, 1995 Genesis motor vessel, disappeared en route from Port of Spain, Trinidad to St. Vincent on April 21, 1999 Cessna 210, drops off radar from Freeport to Nassau on June 14, 1999

According to legend and speculation, the city of Atlantis relied on the power of special energy crystals that were extremely powerful. Cayce supported this idea, and the discovery of a great underwater pyramid and crystal by Dr. Ray Brown in 1970 reinforced it. Brown was scuba diving in the Bahamas when he claims to have found a large pyramid made of mirror-like stone. He entered the pyramid and saw a brassy metallic rod with a multi-faceted red gem hanging from the apex of the room. Directly below this rod was a stand with bronze hands holding a crystal sphere four inches in diameter. Brown removed the crystal and kept it secret until 1975, when he exhibited it at a psychic seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. He reported that when gazing into the crystal form, you can see three pyramidal images, one in front of the other with each decreasing in size. Some people have seen a fourth pyramid in front of the other three after entering into deep meditative states.
Brown believes that the fractured lines seen when looking at the crystal sphere from the side may be electrical in nature, similar to a form of microscopic circuitry. The speculation is that these energy crystals are in an altered state of some kind and send out rays of energy that either confuse navigational instruments or disintegrate vehicles all together.

Magnetic Abnormalities:

"The Fog: A Never Before Published Theory of the Bermuda Triangle Phenomenon," by Rob MacGregor and Bruce Gernon include reports of an "electronic fog" that both men experienced while flying in the Bermuda Triangle. On December 4, 1970, Gernon and his father were flying to Bimini in clear skies when they saw a strange cloud with almost perfectly round edges hovering over the Miami shore. As they flew over it, the cloud began spreading out, matching or exceeding their speed. At 11,500 feet, they thought that they had escaped the "cloud," only to discover that it had formed a tunnel. It appeared the only way they could escape the cloud was to go through the tunnel. Once inside, they saw lines on the walls that spun in a counterclockwise direction. Gernon's navigational instruments went haywire and the compass spun counterclockwise.
Gernon reported that he "realized that something very bizarre had happened. Instead of the clear blue sky that we expected at the end of the tunnel, everything appeared a dull, grayish white. Visibility appeared to be about two miles, but there was absolutely nothing to see - no ocean, no horizon, no sky, only a gray haze."
When Gernon contacted Miami Air Traffic Control to get radar identification, the controller said that there were no planes on radar between Miami, Bimini and Andros. After several minutes, Gernon heard the air traffic controller report that a plane had been spotted directly over Miami. Gernon didn't think he could possibly be over Miami Beach, because it usually took 75 minutes to get to Miami and only 47 minutes had passed. At this same time, the cloud tunnel began to peel away in what he described as ribbons of fog. The instruments began operating normally and Miami Beach was directly below them. This loss of time, confirmed by their watches and the plane's clock, made Gernon believe that the electronic fog had time travel qualities.

Bruce Gernon, Don Pelz and other pilots have described emerging from a strange cloud tunnel while flying over the Bermuda Triangle.

   Gernon experienced the fog one more time in flight with his wife. Many other pilots have had similar experiences in the area. Gernon believes that powerful electromagnetic storms from within the Earth break through the surface and come into the atmosphere where they soon disappear, leaving electronic fog. According to Gernon, a Swedish scientist has found that magnetism is weaker in the triangle than anywhere else on Earth, which may be why the fog happens more there than anywhere else.










THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS

The mystery of the lost city of Atlantis still captures the imagination of millions. Was it real or just myth. Here are the basic facts. If you are genuinely interested in the story of Atlantis then the only place to start is the source - the writings of Plato and the stories of Timaeus and Critias.  When you remove the gods, the parables and the sociological interpretation from the text you are left with the following key points.

Solon (638 BC–558 BC) was a famous Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and Lyric poet who allegedly heard the story of Atlantis from Egyptian priests that he was visiting that claimed that the Athenians had forgotten their true history because from time-to-time their civilization had been largely destroyed by catastrophes.

The Egyptian priests referred to the “Declamation of Heavenly Bodies”, meaning meteorites, which cause devastation on the planet.

The Egyptian priests understood that from time-to-time there were serious natural catastrophes that involved fire and water (from which they had been largely immune).  They attributed these to the actions of the Gods.

A war once took place between the Athenians and the Atlanteans The Athenians apparently came from Athens.

The Atlanteans apparently came from an island beyond the pillars of Hercules (Straights of Gibraltar)

The war took place 9,000 years before the time of writing which was approximately 2,500 years before today – so in effect 11,500 years ago.

Atlantis was allegedly an island greater in size than Libya and Asia combined.

Atlantis was eventually destroyed by an earthquake.

The Athenian Gods were at peace with each other.

The story had been forgotten by the Athenians because of a great deluge whereby only the illiterate people of the mountains had survived.

Solon inferred that the event took place before the time of Theseus.

At the time the Athenians ruled a land from the Isthmus (of Corinth) to the heights of the Cithaeron (a mountain range in what is today central Greece) and Parnes.  Oropus was the boundary on the right and the river Asopus the boundary on the left.

The Athenian land was fertile and able to support a great army.

Many floods had taken place during the 9,000 years prior to the recording of the story.

Many of the cliffs surrounding this (Athenian) land had been eroded and fallen into the sea.

Many of the woods that once existed have disappeared.

The land was less eroded and less rainfall was swept into the sea.

The climate was more temperate.

The Acropolis was larger and surrounded by soil and not the outcrop of rock it is now.

They had Gymnasia.

There were once more springs that disappeared after an earthquake.

The Athenians were healthy, beautiful people that were well prepared for war.

Poseidon was patron and God of Atlantis. (God of the sea and earthquakes)

Atlantis was an Island with a small mountain at its centre with fertile plains surrounding it.

The central mountain had rings of water surrounding it.

Water flowed from underground - some hot, some cold.

Crops flourished in the fertile soil.

Poseidon’s first child (born on Atlantis) was named Atlas and the ocean around the Island was named Atlantic.

From beyond the Pillars of Hercules the lost city of Atlantis controlled islands and lands as far as Egypt.

They had extensive trade with other countries.

Orichalcum (an unknown red coloured metal or alloy possible a mixture of copper and gold) was common on the Island.

The Island was well forested.

There were a great number of elephants on the Island.

The Island had chestnut trees.

The City / island existed long enough for many rulers / kings to develop it.

The lost city of Atlantis had a canal from the sea to an inner lagoon.

Three kinds of stone, one red, one black and one white were quarried on the Island of Atlantis.

They used brass to cover their dwellings and brass, tin and orichalcum to cover the outer walls of their cities.

Poseidon’s temple at the centre had a barbaric appearance and the roof (interior) was made of Ivory.

In the temple there was a statue of the god in a chariot.

The lost city of Atlantis made use of private and public baths and then saved the water for use on their fields.

The later docks had Triremes and many naval supplies.

The Island had cliffs on most sides but was otherwise a plateau with a small mountain at its centre and mountains to the North.

The North of the Island had high and beautiful mountains.

The plain featured a circular ditch (canyon) of such size (a 100 ft in depth) that it could not have been manmade.

The military had war chariots.

They benefited from winter rains.

Their shields were small.

The land was divided into ten kingdoms each with its own city.

No King was to ever make war on another Atlantean King.

This rule lasted for a great time but in the end the Kings became victim to mortal desires and sins.

That’s it.   These are the key points. The remainder of the story as recorded by Plato is lost. 

The only way to assess the validity of the story of Atlantis is through Literary Forensics.  This is a process that examines each key point and determines how well it stands up to historical record (proof) and scientific evidence.   Before you give up reading this section let us say that if the evidence was overwhelmingly against Atlantis, we wouldn’t have bothered compiling these pages.

The best place to begin is also the most startling and often overlooked.  Plato refers to the following text:

“Thereupon one of the (Egyptian) priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes.”  (Plato - 360 BC -Translated by Benjamin Jowett)

Whether the Egyptian priests referred to in the writings ever existed, Plato (Timaeus) clearly understands that the Earth, this small blue planet, is periodically subjected to intense natural disasters involving fire and water.  That he understood and recognised this fact is absolutely not in question and it shows an incredible appreciation of natural science that doesn’t become apparent again for almost 2,000 years.  He accepts, as do his companions, that catastrophic flooding is more common than most people alive today would like to admit.

He also refers to the fact that the climate has changed and refers often to deluges and floods powerful enough to destroy coastal cities as well as references to cliffs and buildings having been eroded into the sea. 

According to Graham Hancock, author of Underworld; (since the last ice age) “More than 15 million square miles of habitable land were submerged underwater, resulting in a radical change to the Earth’s shape and the conditions in which people could live.”

Another reference:

“To coordinate the explorations of his skin-diving friends, Gargallo has organized the Mediterranean Institute of Underwater Archaeology. In his apartment off Rome's Piazza, di Spagna, he has a map of Italy and Sicily with coloured pins indicating the site of 20 to 30 ruins known to his skin-divers. There is a big underwater city near Venice. Another, off Mondragone, north of Naples, runs along the bottom for nearly three miles.” (Time Magazine -1959)

Many experts believe we are actually living in an ice age and this pleasant enough climate we enjoy is just a warm interglacial period. Geological evidence has confirmed that the last Ice Age completely finished only 10,000 years ago.  So again, Plato is accurate in his statements.

So, let’s for the moment, assume that the description of Atlantis is both literal and accurate.    If so, then Atlantis existed 11,500 to 9,300 years ago towards the later period of the last ice age.  This is highly significant because sea levels would have been dramatically different than they are today.

According to geological studies, sea levels have risen 130 metres or 400ft in since the last Ice age.  Also, it rules out any northern locations for the city as they would certainly not had the temperate climate described by Plato. (However, places that are extremely hot today would have been just pleasantly warm.)

“Church and White (2006) found a sea-level rise from January 1870 to December 2004 of 195 mm, a 20th century rate of sea-level rise of 1.7 ±0.3 mm per yr and a significant acceleration of sea-level rise of 0.013 ± 0.006 mm per year per yr.”

However, for the past 6,000 years (a few centuries before the first known written records), the world's sea level has been gradually approaching the level we see today. (Wikipedia 2007)

If this is so, and there is no reason to doubt it, then a considerable amount of land that is now underwater would have been habitable.  Now we start to see some evidence that the context of Plato’s writings about Atlantis stand up to historical fact.

The Island

The Island of Atlantis, as described by Plato, is often perceived to be huge, the size of Asia and Libya (North Africa) combined.  Published satellite imaging of the underwater regions of the world clearly indicates that no such land mass ever existed. (Still, this is not a perfected science and as recently as 2004, new underwater mountain ranges were being discovered)  More relevant is the fact that any earthquake powerful enough to completely destroy all evidence of this Island, one at least the size of modern Australia, would have effectively ended 95% of all life on earth. (If not through the quake itself then through the ensuing volcanic activity.)

 So is this description of Atlantis wrong?  Well no – not actually.  The answer lies in the ancient Greeks appreciation of the size of the world and the way they thought about it.  Two factors need to be considered.  Firstly, the world was that which was occupied by people and thus not the vast empty landmasses in between such as the Sahara. (Robertson and Vincent - 2004) Secondly, the further away from Greece the landmass, the less certain they were of its exact size.  So in effect it is reasonable to conclude that Atlantis may not have been as big as it appears to be described.  This is not an error on the part of Plato – he was recording facts as he understood them.  The error is modern mans with his vastly superior understanding of the geography of this world.

What of the description of the Island Atlantis?  Several key points stand out.  The Island has a small central mountain (cone) surrounded by ripples or water filled depressions.  There are many fissures, not manmade, in the ground. There are lakes surrounding this cone.  Hot and cold springs are evident. The lands surrounding this central mountain are very fertile. There are cliffs at the edge of the sea.

This is a very clear, consistent and accurate description of a volcanic island.  The central cone could be an ancient (dormant) volcano.  Hot springs are definite indications of geothermal activity. Lands surrounding volcanoes are often very fertile - just look at the fields surrounding Naples and Mount Vesuvius.  Finally, volcanic islands, particularly those of the Atlantic often have steep cliffs where they meet the sea.

The critical aspect of this description of Atlantis is not just what it describes – rather it is the fact that the components are consistent with each other.  In other words, it sounds like the depiction of a real place rather than one conjured from the imagination.  More importantly, Plato did not have easy access to the Internet or the Encyclopedia Britannica to check his facts – he wrote them as he understood them.  This makes this description even more remarkable.

ATLANTIS

There have been many attempts to fit the facts of he story to reality. Here we accept the problems.

The Athenian Inconsistency

Here we run into trouble.  The archeological record for Athens, established by Carbon 14 dating, only begins in circa 3000bc.

“Athens began its history as a Neolithic hill-fort on top of the Acropolis ("high city"), some time in the third millennium BC. The Acropolis is a natural defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. The settlement was about 20 kilometres inland from the Saronic Gulf, in the centre of the Cephisian Plain, a fertile dale surrounded by rivers. To the east lies MountHymettus, to the north MountPentelicus.” (Wikipedia 2007)

Taking into account the significant gap in dates, the possibility of a serious war between the Atlanteans (9,000bc) and the Athenians (3000bc), as presented by Timaeus & Critias, is simply not possible. This poses a very serious problem.  If we accept the story of Atlantis as accurate (a land far away) but admit that Plato’s (Solons’s) description of an early Athenian civilization is wrong then we are clearly choosing to accept only that which fits-the-story.  This is not acceptable Literary Forensics.

Is there an explanation of this inaccuracy?  Well, there are two but neither is completely convincing.  In the first there is another civilisation that predates the Athenians that was as advanced as the Atlanteans and - through the confusion of recollection - the Greeks / Egyptian priests have amalgamated the two to become an earlier Athenian people or there was an actual advanced Athenian civilisation that is now at the bottom of the Mediterranean as Plato describes.  It’s interesting that he considered this problem in his writings and provided a solution.  If it is not historically accurate it does show remarkable psychological cunning and forethought.

For the moment let’s accept that there was an earlier Hellenic / Athenian civilization that was destroyed by floods and rising sea levels.  Could a civilisation disappear so completely?  Well, yes they could.  Herculaneum & Pompeii, (1748) Troy (1870+) and Akhenaten’s desert city, Armarna (1887) have all been rediscovered in fairly recent years. (The dates indicated in brackets are when they were rediscovered.) Of critical importance is that these have all been on land not under the sea.  It is only in the past sixty years that serious, and expensive, exploration of sunken ruins has commenced.

So, while admittedly it is unlikely that such an Athenian civilisation existed, it could have.  Plato may be on shaky ground but we still can’t prove him wrong.  He himself admits that this early and advanced Athenian civilisation was swept into the sea.

 Is this incredibly cunning or is he just recording the facts as he knew them – you decide? 

Just remember that only a few hundred (not thousands) of years ago you could have been put to death (or at least imprisoned) for saying that the world was round and not the centre of the universe.

Problematic Triremes and Advanced Technology

“The first definite reference to the use of triremes in naval combat dates to ca. 525 BC, when, according to Herodotus, the tyrant Polycrates of Samos was able to contribute 40 triremes to a Persian invasion of Egypt.” (Wikipedia 2007).

A trireme is an ancient wooden warship powered by three (tri) tiers of slaves using oars.  Plato, through Critias, refers to this type of ship being used in Atlantis.  It’s something of a problem that this type of ship exists so many thousands of years before it is historically first recorded.

From the account of Critias, it is obvious that Atlantis was a successful society for many generations of kings and princes but to have triremes so early suggests a very advanced or long-surviving civilisation – way beyond the Athenians.

However, contrary to much of the pure rubbish that has been written about Atlantis, there are very few references in the original texts to it being an unusually advanced civilisation as many modern authors, mystics and frankly weird individuals, would have you believe. 

At no point in either the dialogue of Timaeus or Critias does a reference exist that that the Atlanteans were remarkable for their technology.  Surely Plato wouldn’t have missed this important point?  In fact, only three references to advanced technology exist.  The first is to the Triremes, the second, by implication, is the Atlanteans ability to excavate large amounts of rock, and the third is to the mysterious metal – orichalcum. 

With regard to later claims of Atlantis being the source of all advanced technology – this is nonsense. In the original texts there are no references to atomic crystals, unusual longevity, aliens or flying machines of any type.  These references have all been alluded to in relatively recent times and have no source in the writings of Plato. 

We’d like to say a lot more about these sensationalist claims but what we’d accuse them of could be construed as libellous

So, using Literary Forensics, let’s examine the technology point-by-point.  Could the Atlanteans have had Triremes?

Yes they could although it is unlikely in their early period.  When exactly in their history did they have them?  Certainly some time towards their final days because Plato’s text clearly states that in the beginning the Atlanteans were unable to sail and triremes definitely had sails.

Could the Atlanteans have excavated large amounts of stone and rock?  The answer is yes.  The fact that the Pyramids of Egypt exist proves this.  It just takes lots-and-lots of people and a society that can afford to support them.

What was orichalcum?  Here we have an obvious answer.  It was probably a gold and copper alloy.  Why do we believe this?  Well, “ori” most likely refers to gold (aurum or aurium - Etruscan) and Chalcum is very similar to the Greek word “chalkos”or “chalkusm” meaning copper. At no point in the text of Critias are any magical properties asigned to this metal. All that is said is that it was reddish in colour, useful, coated the walls of the inner citidel and was valued almost as much as gold.

Now here is a remarkable occurrence.  In 2007, while we were researching this article,  a member of the Aquiziam team happened to be in Dubai (Dubayy) in the United Arab Emirates.  He wanted a bracelet made of copper to alleviate a wrist ache (too much time on the computer) but didn’t want the staining caused by verdigris (the green residue of oxidising copper).  He visited the Gold Souk in Old Deira and asked for a bracelet to be made of copper and gold. ($1,100)  The elderly arab metalsmith, (Mohammed Bin Ahmad – originally from Oman) who was at least 70 and who couldn’t speak very much english, nodded and said “Zane! Aurichillikem.” 

Well, Plato, so far so good.  We’ve looked at your story and a lot of it ties in with the historical record.  Where you’ve allude to aspects that seem unbelievable, and allowing for reasonable doubt, we’ve been unable to prove you wrong. 

But … if you’re telling the truth – where is the physical evidence of Atlantis?”

WHERE IS ATLANTIS?

"Beyond the Pillars of Hercules and within the Ocean of Atlas there lies Atlantis - rich in wisdom, power and wealth."

Even so, where is the conclusive evidence?  Well it may well be on the bottom of the sea between (and to the south) of the islands that may be all that remain of the northern mountains described by Plato.

One theory regardin Atlantis that has been put forward is that as recently as 10,000 years ago some of the Canary Islands, as we know them today, were actually linked together (or more likely surrounded) by an unstable  plateau or rim of volcanic rock (basalts) and soil that had built up over the 60,000 years of the previous ice age.  (Remember, sea levels were lower).

Atlantis, according to Plato (Critias & Timaeus) was beyond the the Pillars of Hercules or the Staights of Gibralter.  If we are to take the story literally then Atlantis is definitely not in the Mediterainain. (Sorry all you Santorini enthusiasts.) So, what do we know about Atlantis?

It was an island, probably smaller than Southern Italy.  It was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean but close enough for its ships to to pass the Staights of Gibalter and enter the Mediterainian. It’s civilisation originated towards the end of the last Ice Age.  Later, it had significant trade with other nations.  There were elephants (imported?) and chesnut trees. It was close enough to Africa to be able to dominate the lands of Libya.  Orichalcum could be mined on the island. It was probably volcanic. It was destroyed by an earthquake (vulcanism).

If we accept that Plato’s description is accurate and don’t tamper with the story of Atlantis to make it fit other possible locations then we need to look for a volcanic island (or the remains of one) in the Atlantic beyond the straights of Gibraltar but close enough to North Africa for it to have been able to control the coastal lands of Libya up to the borders of Egypt.

If we faithfully follow this description we do find an actual place.  We find the volcanic Canary Islands. Quite a great deal of Plato’s description matches this location.  They are volcanic, on the ancient but disputed trade route to the Americas, were once considerably more fertile than they are today, are still unstable and have unusual (if limited) ruins.  Pliny the Elder (AD23 - 79) reports the Canary Islands were uninhabited in the time of Hanno the Navigator (c. 600 BC), but nevertheless contained the ruins of buildings.

“He (Juba II) said that in this island there are traces of buildings; that while they all have an abundant supply of fruit and of birds of every kind, Canaria also abounds in palm-groves bearing dates and in conifers; that in addition to this there is a large supply of honey, and also papyrus grows in the rivers,” From the Translation of The Natural History of Pliny the Elder by H. Rackham, first published 1942, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.

Even so, where is the conclusive evidence?  Well it may well be on the bottom of the sea between (and to the south) of the islands that may be all that remain of the northern mountains described by Plato.

One theory regardin Atlantis that has been put forward is that as recently as 10,000 years ago some of the Canary Islands, as we know them today, were actually linked together (or more likely surrounded) by an unstable  plateau or rim of volcanic rock (basalts) and soil that had built up over the 60,000 years of the previous ice age.  (Remember, sea levels were lower).

Also, the geological record (above) clearly shows that from-time-to-time; fairly large parts of these islands have collapsed into the sea leaving significant debris surrounding them.

The theory suggests that as sea levels rose, the underlying rock of the rim plateau became saturated with water and increasingly unstable.  Finally, when a severe earthquake occurred, this landmass literally vibrated itself into a fluid state and sank away to be dispersed in the ocean currents.

If you want to see this happen then take some beach sand and place it a container as a flattened cone. Fill the container with water until at least two thirds of the original sand is saturated.  Now place a model building on top and then vibrate the container.  See what happens. 

Why does this theory about Atlantis have some credence?  The answer lies in Plato’s description of what remained after the collapse of Atlantis.  He refers to a huge layer of mud that blocked the passage of ships.

“One ‘slope anomaly’, the S1 (175 Ma) anomaly, has also been identified between the easternmost islands and the African continent. The continent-ocean boundary is characterized by the presence of a 10-km-thick layer of sediments.”  José Mangas Viñuela,
Departamento de Física-Geología, Edificio de Ciencias Básicas, Campus Universitario de Tafira, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that again we find a consistency between the evidence and Plato’s account.   To ensure objective study it should also be mentioned that the water between the islands is deep and so the concept of a single linked island is unlikely.  However, not even the scientists seem to agree on many geological aspects of these islands – particularly their formation and erosion.

Let’s be clear!  It is not our intention to persuade you that the Canary Islands are the location of Atlantis or that Atlantis ever truly existed as described by Plato.  What we have tried to do is demonstrate, through a process of Literary Forensics, that many of the key points of Plato’s account do stand up to a fair degree of scrutiny.The less-safe verdict is that Plato has provided a remarkably consistent account that actually provides a location precisely where he says it will be. He supplies very few details that can be proven wrong and does provide many references that are absolutely correct. Of particular importance is the sheet of mud that would have existed if the (possible) land mass linking or surrounding the Canary Islands had been vibrated away.