Lemuria

Lemuria (/lɪˈmjʊəriə/), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins.

[1] The hypothesis was proposed as an explanation for the presence of lemur fossils on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent but not in continental Africa or the Middle East.

Biologist Ernst Haeckel's suggestion in 1870 that Lemuria could be the ancestral home of humans caused the hypothesis to move beyond the scope of geology and zoogeography, ensuring its popularity outside of the framework of the scientific community.

Occultist and founder of theosophy Helena Blavatsky, during the latter part of the 19th century, placed Lemuria in the system of her mystical-religious doctrine, claiming that this continent was the homeland of the human ancestors, whom she called Lemurians.

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, also looking at the relationship between animals in India and Madagascar, had suggested a southern continent about two decades before Sclater, but did not give it a name.

Before the acceptance of continental drift, biologists frequently postulated the existence of submerged land masses to account for populations of land-based species now separated by barriers of water.

[9] Since the 1880s, the concept of Lemuria has had a prominent place in the mythology of Theosophy, anthroposophy and other occult beliefs, inspiring many novels, television shows, films, and music.

[10] A. L. McCann attributes Praed's use of the Lemuria trope to an "attempt to create a lineage for white settlers without having to confront the annihilation of Indigenous people".

[12] In 1894, Frederick Spencer Oliver published A Dweller on Two Planets, an occult book which claimed that survivors from Lemuria were living in a complex of tunnels beneath the mountain of Mount Shasta in northern California.

[13] In 1931, Harvey Spencer Lewis, who went by the pseudonym Wishar Spenle Cerve[14][15] wrote Lemuria: the Lost Continent of the Pacific, which popularized the idea that Shasta was a repository for Lemurians.

The belief in Telos has been proliferated by Ballard and his followers, as well as other religious groups like the Ascended Masters, the Great White Brotherhood, The Bridge to Freedom, The Summit Lighthouse, Church Universal and Triumphant, and Kryon.