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THE ATLANTIS
SECRET
A Complete Decoding
of Plato's Lost Continent
 Alan
Alford’s theory of the Atlantis story is bold, innovative,
and radically different from anything ever proposed before. Far
from claiming that Plato’s story was historically true,
as other authors generally do, he argues that the story was ‘true’ in
the sense that it was a ‘true myth’ describing the
cataclysmic origins of the Universe (this kind of myth was held
to be ‘true’ by sages of the ancient world). The
reason Atlantis ended up in the deep, he suggests, is because
the original Atlantis fell out of the sky. The quest for Atlantis
thus becomes a cosmic and spiritual quest – for knowledge
of the Mystery of Existence and the meaning of life and death.
Alford’s
theory allows Atlantis to be in the Atlantic Ocean – just
where Plato says it was. It allows Atlantis to be sunk – just
like Plato says it was. And it allows Atlantis to be larger than
two continents – just like Plato says it was. All other
theories of Atlantis reject the legitimacy of one or more of
these fundamental
claims.
In addition,
Alford’s theory explains all of the
bizarre elements in the Atlantis story: the supernatural creation
of
the island; its abundance of the unknown metal oreichalkos;
the fact
of its enclosure by the ‘opposite continent’; the
strange disappearance of the Athenian heroes at the time of the
war against
Atlantis; the alleged discrepancy concerning the date of the
war; and the transformation of the sunken island into a sea of
mud. Alford’s
theory of the Atlantis story thus manages to accord with every
single word that Plato wrote – a genuine
and highly significant ‘first’ in the history of
Atlantology.
In
recognition of this achievement, ‘The
Atlantis Secret’ carries
a Foreword by Professor Christopher Gill – a renowned
authority on Plato and the Atlantis story – who praises
the lucidity of Alford’s argument and acclaims his
theory as ‘a
striking and suggestive new hypothesis’.
How
does Alford come up with such an innovative theory? The answer,
in short,
is context.
Firstly,
Alford takes into account the wider picture of Plato’s
story, such as the antediluvian time-frame, the war between
Atlantis and Ancient Athens, and the fact that Socrates requested
the story
to illustrate ‘the ideal state’ going to war
(the ideal state was a product of Plato’s Theory
of Forms).
Secondly,
Alford takes the time to understand Plato, the
author of the story, who, he concludes, was no historian
nor geographer,
but rather a true philosopher and mystic.
Thirdly,
Alford studies the myths which formed the core of ancient Greek
religion
during Plato’s day. He notes, for example,
that the West signified the underworld, that the Atlantic
Ocean signified the subterranean sea, that Atlas was the god
of a cataclysmic
battle, and that Poseidon – the god of Atlantis – was
called ‘the earth-shaker’.
And fourthly,
Alford places the Greek myths in the context of older
myths from the ancient Near East,
which were
borrowed and
adapted
by the Greeks according to the latest academic research.
Here, he finds some astonishing parallels to the
story of the war
between Atlantis and Ancient Athens.
By taking
this unprecedented approach to Plato’s story, Alford
not only comes up with his innovative theory of
Atlantis, but also offers solutions to many other equally intractable
problems
that
have perplexed classical scholars for the past
two centuries: the entire corpus of the Greek mysteries: the
myths
of Ouranos, Mount
Olympus, and the Olympian gods; the cosmogony of
Philolaos, with its focus on the two invisible orbs of the
Counter-Earth and the
Invisible Fire; the Pythagorean quest to know the
secret ‘eighth
orbit’ of the Universe; the scientific cosmogonies
of Thales, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles;
the mystical vision of
Parmenides involving ‘Night’ and ‘the
Fire of Heaven’; Plato’s Theory of
Forms and his account of creation by the Demiourgos;
the myths of the golden age, the fall
of man, and the creation of man from ‘stones/bones’,
serpent’s ‘teeth’, and the ‘semen’ of
Hephaestus; and, last but not least, the Orphic
and Pythagorean belief in the cosmic origins of
man’s
soul.
In summary, ‘The Atlantis Secret’ is
a truly ground-breaking book that not only provides
a complete decoding of Plato’s
Atlantis story, but also a unifying theory for
the Greek myths and mysteries in their entirety.
It is a ‘must read’ for
followers of the Atlantis mystery, an equally essential
read for academics and students with an interest
in the Greek myths and/or
the impact of cataclysms upon the psyche of ancient
man, and it adds an important spiritual dimension
to the cataclysm theory as
presented in Alan Alford’s previous book.
To see a
detailed synopsis of 'The Atlantis Secret', please click on
Book Contents.
To read the
Foreword to 'The Atlantis Secret', please click on Foreword.
To see readers'
comments on 'The Atlantis Secret', please click on Reviews
.
For information
on ordering, please click on Ordering Info
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