If you like my reviews of these books, maybe you would be interested in End Times and 2019.
Rand and Rose Flem-Ath wrote When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis
Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-Ath wrote The Atlantis Blueprint: Unlocking the Ancient Mysteries of a Long-Lost Civilization
John White wrote Pole Shift: Predictions and Prophecies of the Ultimate Disaster
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The Flem-Aths explain the theory that Antarctica was Atlantis, and that an earth-crust-displacement (pole shift) took Atlantis from a habitable latitude (similar to Britain) down into the icy Antarctic circle around 9,600 B.C. The pole shift idea has been described at length by writers like Charles Hapgood (see “Earth’s Shifting Crust” or “Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings”) and the Flem-Aths review his theories at length. They cite the Pleistocene mass extinction, the end of the last ice age, the rise of agriculture, the establishment of the ground plan for the pyramids in Egypt, rising sea levels, changes in ocean temperatures, and note that evidence generally times these events to about 9,600 B.C. They also cover Plato’s description of Atlantis, (which he also described as ending 9,000 years before his own time) as a great land mass beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the true Ocean, the Atlantic. We have to keep in mind that for the ancient Greeks, “Atlantic” simply meant anywhere in the real oceans outside the little Mediterranean Sea. The Greek concept of this word was not necessarily limited to what we call the Atlantic today, but included the Pacific and all other major Oceans as an undivided global ocean.
In the center of these world oceans lies Antarctica, which our culture did not officially discover until 1820. Yet ancient maps exist showing this continent. Not only do they prove our ancestors knew the continent existed, but the maps show accurate details of sub-glacial features – either the land was mapped before it was covered in ice, or an ancient civilization had the same technologies of radar and sonar we use today to see through the ice. Either way, civilization existed long ago, and we have only isolated scraps of information through myths and legends. The Flem-Aths also document these myths, and not just from major civilizations we know between Greece and India, but also the myths of many small tribes in the Americas. Stories of land moving, great floods, the sun deviating from its course, and an original homeland across the sea becoming uninhabitable are widespread.
As an author writing on similar subjects (pole shifts, ancient civilizations, world mythology, etc.) I found this book inspiring when I first read it over a decade ago, and still useful today, both for the Antarctic Atlantis theory and for the detailed snippets of Native American mythology. The Flem-Aths definitely helped influence my early thoughts on subjects that would eventually be part of my own book. Five Stars.
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The Atlantis Blueprint: The main ideas are that 1 – civilization existed as far back as 10-12,000 years ago; 2 – the dominant culture was Atlantis, with its homeland in what we now call Western Antarctica; 3 – there was a pole shift causing a significant shift in the latitude of many lands, including Antarctica, which moved south towards the Antarctic making the Atlantean homeland uninhabitable; 4 – that civilization made a grid of markers around the world to educate and warn a future civilization like ours; 5 – that grid is based on Giza, Egypt; 6 – analysis of known markers reveals the grid and allows us to find “new” monuments at key grid locations which had previously been undiscovered.
Early in the book the authors (Wilson, and Flem-Ath) cover pole shift theories and evidence which has been introduced earlier in books by Charles Hapgood (author of Earth’s Shifting Crust, Path of the Pole, and Maps of the Ancient Sea King) including a letter Hapgood sent Rand Flem-Ath shortly before he died (in 1982) claiming “I have evidence of a whole cycle of civilization in America and Antarctica suggesting advanced levels of science that may go back 100,000 years.” (p. 29) The authors speculate that the capital city of Atlantis may have been at 55 degrees south (now at 81:52 South, 111:18 West) where “strikingly circular features” exist in the sub-glacial topography. (p. 317) The authors appear to disagree on the cause of pole shifts, noting Hapgood’s thoughts on slow and gradual shifts based on ice sheet mass imbalances, versus Flem-Ath’s assumption that a comet impact loosens the crust from the mantle, versus Collin’s assumption that it “is tied to the dynamics of the inner core of the planet.” (p. 357)
The authors also note the “misalignment” of monuments around the world, for example several dozen in Mexico oriented over 15 degrees off from true north – which happen to be aligned with the former north pole which Hapgood deduced was in Hudson Bay at approximately 60 degrees North, 83 degrees West. The authors believe there is a grid of monuments at sacred sites indicating latitudes of 10, 15, 30, and 45 degrees.
In later chapters the authors get into theories which seem more of a stretch. They draw a Fibonacci spiral through the pyramids to reveal the alleged location of “Thoth’s Holy Chamber” which perhaps is supposed to be the Hall of Records Edgar Cayce mentioned, or at least the hidden chamber Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval speculate was placed under the rear paws of the Sphinx. They describe an interesting theory that the Masonic story of Hiram Abif and the wisdom lost when three masters were killed really is a story about the murder of Egyptian Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao II. There is a great deal of speculation regarding the Knights Templar, masonry, and the post-crucifixion survival of Christ. They also analyze large numbers from around the world, assuming that the ancients were interested in cycles of time stretching to millions of years. They briefly consider ancient systems of measurement and conclude (perhaps based on the work of John Michell in books like The New View Over Atlantis) that known civilizations had units derived from measurements of the earth which they inherited from someone earlier.
As an author on similar subjects myself (ancient civilizations, pole shifts) I took pages of notes while reading this book because there were many interesting quotes and suggestions. But this is because there are many distractions and tangents with pages devoted to largely irrelevant side issues. The logical flow of the book is missing. And so are answers to the questions I thought the authors might have a theory about. I thought the suggestion was made that Atlantean civilization knew a pole shift was coming and that they built markers on a grid, “The Atlantis Blueprint,” to warn future generations about pole shifts. Nowhere do the authors clearly explain how Atlanteans knew a pole shift was coming, or how we could know a pole shift is coming, or when, or where the new poles will be after it does. So what exactly was the point of the grid of markers? I feel disappointed, as bold claims were made. I think it is OK to write a book half devoted to gathering old ideas from others, so long as the second half unifies everything in a coherent theme and adds new ideas, facts, and conclusions. This book left me thinking it was rushed, and in need of an editor and a conclusion. Three Stars.
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Pole Shift: The table of contents clearly shows the organization of White’s thoughts on pole shifts. Obviously he thinks the crust of our planet has rapidly moved to a new location on many previous occasions, and points out evidence of fallen civilizations and frozen mammoths. He cites all the big names who have written on the subject previously, with chapters devoted to Charles Hapgood, Hugh A. Brown, Immanuel Velikovsky, and several lesser known names. There is an emphasis on opinions stating that the crust of the earth can change location extremely quickly – in a few days, or even a few hours.
Another section focuses on prognostications of the next pole shift, with quotes of Edgar Cayce, Nostradamus, Paul Solomon, and less well known psychics. A distinction is drawn between precognition and prophecy, then many prophecies of pole shifts are discussed, both from psychics and the mythology of various cultures. Later chapters cover scientific support for the idea that the rotational axis of the earth can change quickly, along with suggestions in preparation of such a pole shift in the near future.
Having previously read many books on these subjects, I was familiar with Hapgood, Brown, Velikovsky, Cayce, Nostradamus, and some of the other writers White cited already. But some of the lesser-known figures White quoted made interesting points I had not come across previously. Marshall Wheeler’s discussion of “means taken to forever perpetuate the knowledge, so that, when the dread event transpires, the mankind should not lapse again into prehistoric barbarism” was one of my favorite new quotes. Hannes Alfven’s magnetohydrodynamic theories, and the example of how the viscosity of a liquid can change with the electromagnetic field, were interesting to me…. especially the implications for how much less friction layers in the earth’s crust may need to overcome during a pole shift in which the magnetic field is also changing. And although I doubt the premise is accurate, I also liked the unique idea that the equatorial bulge could remain stationary while the crust moves over it, giving the appearance of a shock wave tearing up the surface under which it would appear to be moving quite rapidly.
As I am also an author, and have recently finished a book in which pole shifts figure quite prominently, I can say that I did find White’s “Pole Shift” to be a very useful collection of almost everything ever written on the subject. It should be even more interesting for readers who have not yet read many related books, as for such readers even more of the material will be new and fascinating.
As Greg Caton noted in his review of this book in 2006, White adds material in an epilogue a decade after the first printing and says he no longer feels there will be a pole shift near the turn of the millenium (around the year 2000.) As others pointed out, many chapters focused on some very questionable “crackpot” theories – and perhaps White realized that a good portion of his material was at best pseudo-scientific.
But in the epilogue White goes to absurd lengths to disprove reasonable assumptions, such as telling us that now he thinks the Berskovka mammoth could have died in summer conditions and been suddenly frozen at temperatures as low as negative 150 degrees “under known conditions… because sufficient meteorological conditions occasionally prevail.” What a load of dung! My first thought after reading some of his most ridiculous reversals of opinion was that perhaps someone threatened White and made him retract points he made earlier. But at the very end he clarifies that he wants to be spiritually uplifting and not cause fear and panic, so perhaps he changed his tune, at least in part, to avoid worrying people. With or without failed or questionable prophecies (like Cayce’s prediction that a pole shift would occur no later than 1998) and White’s bizarre abrupt-face, the overall premise that pole shifts have occurred and will occur again was and is still accurate. Four Stars.
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— contributed on August 22, 2014 by David Montaigne, author of End Times and 2019
http://endtimesand2019.webs.com/
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