Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00015)

David wrote, "I emailed Olcott@theosopical.org and questioned the
interpretation in the books I had read about Alantis and the other lost
continents being true
as the consensus of science is, it is myth."

Sure, HPB and Leadbeater might have been wrong. I still think they were
right. All the science isn't in yet. I saw some TV shows recently that
seem to confirm some of Leadbeater's statements.

One of them dealt with the study of mitochondrial DNA. Some of their
conclusions were

1) The total human gene pool consisted of only about 1000 individuals at
a date approximately 75-80,000 BC. "We almost went extinct" (The show's
statement, not mine) This corresponds very well with Leadbeater's Atlantean
"catastrophe of 75,025 BC".

2) Cro-Magnon man was traced to see where he had come from (by
mito-chondrial DNA). They concluded that he had come from Africa to central
Asia, finally arriving in Europe. This matches the trek Leadbeater gives in
"Man: Whence, How and Whither" Note that the Manu leaves behind a group in
northern Africa, proceding then to central Asia.

He says, "About a million years ago, he (the Manu) chose ... a few
people he hoped to shape for his race, and with whom he therefore kept a
connection. Four hundred thousand years later, he pikked out some more.
... Of these, numbers would be dropped out on the way, and the selection
would be thus narrowed down from time to time. .... The isolation of a
tribe ... in the mountains to the north of Ruta was the first decisive step
in the building of the race, and this took place about 100,000 bc.

"... in 79,797 bc, he called them off to the coast, that they might be
shipped off through the Sahara Sea, whence they travelled forwards on foot
by the south of Egypt to Arabia. ... the little nation, made up to 9000
men, women and children ...became a nation of several million in about 2000
years... From time to time emigrants left the main body, some settling in
the south of Palestine and ... south of Egypt ... Occasionally he himself
incarnated, and his descendants formed ... a somewhat improved type."

"It was only a few years before the catastrophe of 75,025 bc that ... he
selected about 700 of his own descendants ... reached the shores of the Gobi
Sea, but bearing in mind the message he had received, he did not remain in
the plain, but turned into the hills in the north ..."

Description of the catastrophe: "The City (of the Golden Gates) was
suddenly destroyed by the rushing in of the sea through huge fissures caused
by explosions of gas, but unlike the catastrophe in which Poseidonis sank
within 24 hours, these convulsions continued over a period of two years.
... The Himalayas were heaved up a little higher, the land to the south of
India was submerged with its population, Egypt was drowned and only the
pyramids were left standing ... land was thrown up, now Siberia ... central
Asia rose, and many torrents, caused by the unprecedented rainfall, cut deep
ravines through the soft earth.
"While these seismic changes were in progress, the Manu's ... people
were constantly terrified by the recurring earthquakes, and were almost
paralysed by the fear that the sun ... had gone out forever. The weather
was unspeakable. Terrible rains fell almost incessantly, masses of steam
and clouds of dust enveloped the earth and darkened teh air. Nothing would
grow properly, and they were exposed to severe privations ... only the
stronger survived; the weaker were killed off.
"At the end of five years, they had again become settled ... much virgin
soil had been thrown up, and they were able to cultivate the land."

This corresponds with modern theories about nuclear winter. It also
corresponds with another item on one of the TV shows. A herd of fossilized
rhinos was discovered in Nebraska, in a layer of volcanic ash. It was
determined that they had died about 70-80,000 bc, and the cause of death was
asphyxiation.

I also notice a parallel between this account and the Jewish scriptures.
Abraham as the father of a great people - the Manu as father of a great
people. Moses leading his people to the promised land, yet wandering in the
wilderness, and finally merely looking at the promised land from a high
mountain. Also the Israelites' position as a chosen people, and the command
not to intermarry with other peoples.

HPB, defending the Atlantis claim, said it would be discovered, and that
it ran from Greenland on south around the tip of Africa. This is a
description of the mid-Atlantic ridge, which does indeed follow this course.
It is a tectonic rift, and it is here that the Atlantic Ocean grows a few
inches wider every century.