Atlantis: Insights from a Lost Civilisation [Paperback]

If you have ever been captivated in any way by the myth of"the lost continent of Atlantis," here is your chance to satisfy your curiosity. Indeed, after reading this book, you will come to realize what most scholars of classical antiquity take as second nature: it is a very gray area between where ancient mythology ends and ancient history begins. Reading this book brings the "myth" of Atlantis ever so much closer to us out of the mythology of the far past up into the ancient history of the near past. It is the wonderful work and lifelong dedication of Shirley Andrews that has done this for us. This book is, truly, "a labor of love."

As some of you read this book, you may begin by thinking to yourself, "Well, this is going to be a fun read, but I seriously doubt that I am going to end up believing in the reality of any lost continent of Atlantis!" When you are through reading the book (and you WILL finish reading the whole thing!), you will find yourself wanting to not only read more about Atlantis, but wanting to go on any number of excursions to many of the places where Ms. Andrews herself has gone to personally do firsthand, primary research for this book.

I, myself, am tempted to take a trip to the Canary Islands to see for myself all of the evidence that the author has generously shared with us all. ... At one time in my life, I, too, merely thought of Atlantis as that great song by Donovan that used to make the hairs stand up all over my body every time I heard it come on the radio. After reading this book, the myth of Atlantis has become a reality for me. See if it does the same for you.

Shirley Andrews has taken material from many different sources & disciplines, and has woven together a most convincing story of an ancient civilisation that flourished somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, only to be wiped out by a series of natural catastrophes. But not everything was destroyed. Some people got away, and settled elsewhere. Memories fade... but some memories of the past are kept alive in the form of myths & legends, and other forms of story-telling.

Some of the evidence may appear to be a bit "far-fetched" (which some people may find difficult to accept)... but given the breadth of subject material quoted in the Chapter Notes & Bibliography, this is only to be expected. How much do you believe of what is written in ancient ("sacred") texts? Surely there must be some truth underlying most of the myths & legends collected from around the world... or are they just works of fiction (allegorical or otherwise)?

But amongst all of the myths & legends, and other stories from around the world, there is a significant amount of evidence (of a more scientific nature) that supports the existence of one (or more) such ancient civilisations. And what is more, the evidence seems to be growing, as technology improves.

We may never know the truth for sure, but we are getting there... albeit slowly.

I would certainly recommend that you read this book, and make up your own mind... after considering all of the evidence presented so far.

I am reasearching history for an author who wants to tie in real life history with plausable plots and in doing so I am looking into the various myths, legends, fairytails as well as sifting through historic records looking for a better understanding of our own history. Having said that I am myself very interested in ancient history, oratory history of old as well as more modern history and realised quickly that I also needed to look at things often described as pseudo history by the academic world. This has lead me on a huge search through recorded history and having looked into the origin of druids, Phoenecians, Egyptians and especially the neolithical information of old I came to a natural point where one has to look into Atlantis, Antillia and the "truth" behind Homers epic tale of the sunken land. This is when I bought this book, as my first timmid steps into a world of the myth that is Atlantis, outside of Homers own words.

I was utterly dishapointed with this book, even for me who at this point has sifted through both archeologcal accounts, historical documents, acclaimed papers as well as what is today considered to be pseudo history. There is a fine line between historical facts of old and and presumed knowledge. And what a psychic or two has been able to predict (which in all scinceretey was not a long stretch if one does some digging before the predicting) I find no real ties with accuracy or with accepted as well as pseudo history on most of the accounts in this book.
I have to commend the author for the research done when it comes to the native American Indian culture as well as the South American myths and legends, but this book is not, I repeat NOT something that proves or puts forward anything worth while in the sceeme of things Atlantis. Not everything worth knowing in the old ancient times can be linked to Atlantis, and I really struggled reading the whole thing due to the naivity of the writing as well as the conclusions made. It reads more as a wish from the author that everything links to Atlantis and I suspect that her love of the story of Atlantis has blinded her objectivity to the vast reasearch she's in all fairness put into this. Keep in mind that a lot of old history books such as Gildas Philo, Josephus, even the bible, tora or koran, and many more can be questionable because the are translations and interpretations of a language no longer in use (meaning not only the written language used, but also the way it was written), so one can really make one thing sound like several, which is almost allways the case. Loads of the books stated in the bibliography here are books which have been documented of being forgeries as well as questionable due to some indescrepancies with other more reliable sourses, this does however not mean that all the information is questionable but one needs to find more than one source to see the picture as a whole, and should you still feel like reading this book bare this in mind. IF you do read the book I strongly suggest fact checking every thing, which is what I've done here, and then make up your own mind.

This is not an objectively written or academically sound theory based for the most part on psychics renditions of a culture we know nothing for certain of yet, and of second hand information as well as some questionable historical sourses.

For anyone wanting some real information on Atlantis you can just as well look to a book published in 1926, which still today holds its grounds, AND would give you more of an informed opinion as well as grunds for further research and knowledge. For people who whishes to look into something more substantial on this subject I then reccommend you do not pick up this book, but obtain The History of Atlantis by Lewis Spence, as well as looking into the vast history of the Maya, Inka as well as Native American Indians, and compare it to the history of the ancient world of Europe such as the Neolithical people of Great Brittain and Scotland, Egypt, Carthage, Phoenicians of Tyre and Greek oratory traditions, and not to forget the aboriginal history of Australia which is very interesting indeed.

Hope that this is helpful and I wish you luck in obtaining more knowledge, it is truly a lot to take in out there, and somewhere the truth of Atlantis is to be found..!