Exploring the Mystery of Atlantis
-Gene D. Matlock, B.A., M.A.

Anyone who has spent part or all of his life living with European traditions will sooner or later hear about the sunken continent of Atlantis. The Greek philosopher Plato first described this mysterious, highly civilized and productive land in his discussions entitled Timeaus and Critias.

According to the story, this land lay far beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the island of Gibraltar), on the western end of the Atlantic Ocean. On a certain day, a tremendous earthquake caused it to sink under the sea.

This story has so excited and inspired Westerners that over the centuries, more than 25,000 books and countless articles have been written about it. In every year that I remember, we Westerners have been bombarded with different ideas about what Atlantis was and its true location.

Everyone seems to treat the word Atlantis like a dirty word, insisting on calling it by everything except its name and placing its true location in every part of the world except the western end of the Atlantic, as Plato declared. For example, some say that Atlantis was England; others say it lay at the North Pole.

The most popular account is that Atlantis was the island of Santorini. Others say it was Crete. Some Spanish authorities insist that Spain is Atlantis. One online writer insists that it is Indonesia. Others say that it was India, which is closer to the truth if we are willing to admit that America was Atala or Patala. One writer even claims that Atlantis was in Outer Space.

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Early in 2001, an author published a book in which he said that the legend of Atlantis had finally played itself out. During the same year, the movie Atlantis appeared in theaters all over the world. According to the movie, Atlantis lay under Iceland.

Since then, Atlantis has risen from the dead and is haunting the minds of Westerners more ardently than ever before, burying a red-faced, embarrassed, stammering author of a "dead Atlantis account" under a pile of books that no longer sell! The Atlantis myth is now more alive and vigorous than ever before.

For me, the legend of Atlantis never did die. As a young man, I went to live and study in Mexico. While there, I found out that the country we call Mexico was really at one time Tlan, Tollan, or Tullan, which meant, as in Sanskrit, "Upper or Surface World."

Another Nahuatl (Toltec) word called places or communities that were beside or under water, Atlan. Cities and places in Mexico with Atlan suffixes abound in Mexico. Even as a young man, I realized that this "Tollan" word derived from Sanskrit: A-Tala-anta (The Under World Settlement). Now, let's add a Deza: A-talan-deza (The Underworld Continent) Atlantis.

Several Hindus have told me that during their schooldays, their teachers demonstrated to them that the word Atala or Patala proves that the ancient Indians knew about America. These teachers would fold a world map, pushing a pin through India.

The pin emerged through the other side in America!
In the series of articles and discussions to come, I will prove that those teachers did, indeed, push their pins through "bullseye"!