James ChurchwardBesprekingen

If James Churchward was alive today he'd be working for the History channel. This is his theory for a lost continent in the pacific and how all the ancient peoples of the world are linked to this lost country.
One of his great excuses is that the symbolic name for Mu is represented by 3 of something... not 3 of something in particular just 3 of anything. So he goes around the world looking at ancient drawings and writing and whenever he sees 3 of something says 'see they were talking about Mu arn't i a genius!'.
Its like Ancient Aliens but too boring to laugh at.

This book straddles the line between non fiction & fiction, whilst it's based on actual facts, the conclusions and assertions made by the author verge into the territory of fiction. It's pseudoscience at its 1930s best, really.

It also includes offensive gems such as "The bushman of Northern Australia are probably the lowest type of humanity on earth, lower than the ordinary forest beasts.". All the while concocting an absurd theory that white civilisation came from an immense continent in the middle of the pacific ocean, that just vanished in a disaster leaving only the pacific islands behind. As for why there's no tangible evidence of such? People devolved he claimed, and only the dregs really survived to begin with.

As far as absurd early 20th century books go, you're on a winner with this if that's what you're after, but for actual factual information you'll be looking in the wrong place if you pick this up, it belongs in the fiction category more than it does non fiction.½

A bit of early anthropology, and misreading of Archaeology...and a reasonable living for a deluded man....And it is still to be had....

This was my second reading of the book, probably 50 years apart. As this was originally written in the 1930's you have to take some of his theories with a grain of salt. However, I think that the whole Alaskan Land Bridge that 'science' tries to shove down our throats is pure fantasy. The original Americans, Central, South, and North, came here many, many years ago - from the west and by sea.

This book purported to reveal the history of an ancient continent of MU which supposedly existed in e Pacific Ocean over 12,000 years ago and was the place where humans originated and where the first human civilization existed. (The author is strongly anti-evolution and maintains humans were originally civilized.) The story is allegedly based on fragmentary clay tablets from India and stone tablets later discovered in Mexico. Considered as history, this was obvious nonsense even when first written, and is even more discredited now, when, for example the genuine ancient Mayan inscriptions can be read.In fairness, a good many of the pictographs Churchward claims to decipher are probably genuine pictographs,but the idea that they are logograms of the ancient language of Mu or its descendants is not credible. However, his fantastic Mu history did contribute to the background of fantasies like Lin Carter's Thongor of Lemuria, so we should be grateful for that.

Dans ses deux premiers ouvrages, le colonel James Churchward révélait l'existence, à l'aube de l'humanité, d'une Atlantide du Pacifique, Mu, le continent perdu, la mère-patrie de l'humanité. Dans ce nouveau volume, l'auteur s'attache à prouver que toutes les religions ont une seule et même origine, les Ecrits sacrés de mu, à commencer par la religion osirienne, dont les préceptes se retrouvent dans les enseignements de Jésus. Ainsi, Osiris et Jésus ont puisé leur science dans le même ouvrage, surgi de la nuit des temps. Moïse condensa les 42 questions de la religion osirienne pour en faire les Dix Commandements.
Enfin le colonel Churchward fait toute la lumière sur les doctrines ésotériques de Mu et sur la science occulte de ses prêtres.½

Now I find I'm gonna have to adjust my thinking a bit: the contents of this volume are "taken from the sacred writings of the lost super-civilization of Mu". Curious: on one hand they failed to invent, let alone write down, history; but on the other they made "sacred writings," and those survived having been under water for thousands and thousands of years, and the ink they'd invented didn't wash away. Incredible!

Don't bother me right now (come back later), I'm praying I don't get zapped by cosmic forces . . .

It's not that I'm a skeptic, or anything, but I am beginning to wonder: "MU" was a "super-civilization more scientifically advanced than our own" -- and yet the folks there didn't think to invent history, and then write it down. And if they sank to the bottom of the ocean, as I suspect, then they also neglected to invent pontoons.

According to this installment of the unwritten history history of "MU," "MU" was the origin of "ancient and modern religions". Would a Colonel lie? I don't think so, even if you do.

We know this is true, ya see, because it happened at night, when it was dark, "before the dawn of history," before anyone was able (because it was dark), or even thought, to make an historical record of it. In addition, writing had yet to be invented, which wouldn't have been of much use because pencils didn't exist either. (Oh, yeah, I know -- you're gonna say that they had charcoal for their barbecues, so could have used that to write the history. No, they could not: it was dark, so they couldn't find the matches that had yet to be invented with which to light the charcoal. Besides, if they had written the history, it would no longer be "before the dawn of history," so wouldn't be true.)

Anyway, to keep it simple, we know this is true history because it happened before there was history, so that's how we know it's true history . . . (Yes, it is pronounced like "moo," but it isn't spelled that way, because the cow didn't happen to be one of their gods, because they barbecued and ate it.)

I read this book back in high school and I swallowed its premise hook, line, and sinker. I suppose it was around here that I first began getting some inkling that perhaps not everything that is printed is true!!! It was fun being so naive. I have not had the heart to re-examine the book. I daresay I would be abashed at the garbage I accepted so readily back then. More importantly, I need to remember what garbage is accepted now - by myself and by others.

1931 - 2nd printing. Page 134 bookmarked with Ives Washburn bookmark.

Includes "First Edition 1933 Sale $6.00 Glenwood Book Mart" receipt stuck inside cover with adhesive.

First Printing, Feb 1968